musings rather than official notes.

The small things

On the first day of a workshop, it is always the small things that matter.

High level guys may snear at this – well, stay high level, but this is where it’s really at

We think we have gotten pretty good at this -

knowing our checklists and how to get what where.

But … what we forgot this time:

• paper stickers
• generation shift in computer peripherals: we ordered mice n keyboards, they did come – but they are all PS/2 and even DIN, no USB. modern devices only have USB. Bike back to the market we must …

Practice what you preach

This workshop is a lot about reducing power consumption, low power computing, autonomous computing -

yet we see 10 heavy desktop PCs arriving for participants.

It’s nobody’s fault – but next time, let us get 10 fit-PCs or nettops instead, best everything on 12 volts.

Wireless workshop wired

Also, next time let us make sure the participants’ PC s have wireless cards.

OpenWRT on WRT54GL nuisance

We built a network using 5 brand new WRT54GLs, running some 2008 version of kamikaze – and encountered strange problems. a kismet scan shows that all 5 boxes report the same MAC address (on both wireless and wired interfaces). Hhmm. not good.

Reflashing with newer OpenWRT Kamikaze removes the prob.

(to be continued)

add:

Language

Network workshops sans Linux …

• WirelessU
• NSRC
• ISOC
• NepalWireless

brings together about 30 participants from a.o. the Nepal Wireless villages, the Nepal NREN, ISOC Nepal, supporters and activists.

The first 5 days will be classroom/lab training, followed by deployments in 2-3 villages.

The workshop aims at

• preparing the next phases of the Nepal Wireless network extension
• empowering villagers to run and maintian their own networks
• establishing a series of upcoming training events, by training future trainers and assembling a training hardware kit.

The workshop agenda (changes possible) is at

https://ws.edu.isoc.org/trac/wirelessu/wiki/PokharaWorkshopCurriculum

see for example the work at

• the 16 guidelines
• center for wisdom and compassion
• the potential project

do i live up to them today? no.

do i have time to write them down, really? no.

all in all, the perfect moment to write them down. maybe they are useful.

taking the opposite view

whenever you find that you hold a certain view very strongly,
test its negation or absolute opposite,
and ask yourself whether you could support that view too.
very often you will find that you will.

the most irritating person reminds you of … yourself

when you find that a certain quality or feature of another person deeply irritates you strongly,
look for the same quality in yourself.
you are very likely to find it.

for example, when the greed or ambition of another person puts you off,
most likely this corresponds to an unsatisfied need or tendency within yourself.

or example, show-offs always get me worked up,
as they remind me of my own tendency to appear as what i am not,
to satisfy more than i can.

the most irritating person is your mirror.

seeing that makes is a lot easier to forgive and cooperate.

we desire soooo what has already been given to us

so there is something you really desire and want to own.
the fact that you see it means
it has already been given to you.

for example,
when you cycle by a flowershop and the wonderful scent makes you want to buy a bunch -
you have already enjoyed the wonderful scent of flowers.
there is no need to buy.

you look onto that beautiful house across the street and you want to be the owner.
however, if you lived in that house, you would not be able to view and admire it like you do right now.

sometimes it is better to live in the ugly block across the street – with a view.

and to bike on with the scent of flowers in your mind.

embrace the result – no matter how it comes to be

when you want something to happen, and just before you yourself can make it happen -
it happens without your contribution (or so you think) -

be happy!

you wanted it to happen, it has happened.

without you knowing, you have created the situation for it to happen. even if invisibly so.

if your wish has been sincere, it is perfect.
if it does not feel perfect, examine the wish you had in the first place.

engage fully – then let go

when you are working to make something happen, go for it with all your energy.

at the moment results begin to show – let it go, no matter if the outcome is 100% identical to what you wanted.

sometimes things come to work in an unexpected way, and maybe better than if they worked according to plan.

here is the difficult one

mastering the stretch between these two:

• understanding that at work we are acting in a role, and being able to separate role from full human being

(this we are often taught in standard management training …)

but at the same time

• bringing everything to the path – engaging fully, with all we are, all our shadows and ghosts and past mistakes

both are important.

constructing realities

so she or he has said something irritating to me the other day.
i say i will sleep on it, think about it.

and then i “think about it” -
with no additional information from outside whatsoever,
the negative picture begins to form.

and i answer angry the next morning.

when we say “i will think about it”, we mean
“i will construct a reality within myself and then i will repsond to what i have built”.

we are constructors. it is our choice what we build.

autonomous mobile network hub,
powered by renewable energy.

The current version was inspired by the nice folks at reboot
who asked us to build an instance for this year’s reboot ‘action’ theme [2].

An earlier version (copenhagen connected cycle, 2003) [3] put networking equipment and solar power supply
on board a heavy bike taxi,
which has an engine and 2 support batteries to connect to.

The reboot re:bike consists of a

• Nihola (c) family bike [4]
• 50 watts monochrystalline solar panel
• 35 Ah gel battery
• 10 Amps charge controller
• Linksys NSLU2 [5], running Debian Lenny (ARM processor), booting off USB stick – as router and host for 3G dongle
• Huawei E160 USB dongle [6] for 3G network
• Ubiqiti Bullet2 for wireless redistribution and routing [7]
• a bike basket made from scrap cabling
• a camera mount made by the reprap [8]

This current setup is designed to run about 10-20 Watts of consumer load,
for 20-30 hours without recharge.

While a simple 3G-to-wireless network hub can be run on much lower power, it is essential for the system to have some comuting and storage power, e.g. for video processing, local content and collab workspaces.

Future versions will feature

• bike dynamo power
• flexible solar panels integrated with the bikes rain protection hood
• lower total power consumption, through improvement of on-board devices and software

Regardless of instance, re:bikes are built according to a few principles:

* autonomous renewable energy supplies – “Dont build anything you can not power autonomously” – “Use less power”
* free and open source software -
* open hardware designs
* to the extent possible, rebikes are built from “obtainium” – recycled materials, things you find

The wider concept of the re:bike is not limited to bicycles:

Wearable computing and networking systems are within its scope,
and a version currently in its design phase is in fact a light weight backpack kit.

Motivations and applications

In privileged environments like Copenhagen City, there s certainly no lack of networks.
In fact, collaborative reduction of networks would be a lot more needed than additional signal.
Stable grid electricity is not a problem either -
however we would like to be independent of static power grids and strictly adhere to a zero carbon footprint priciple.

So in the privileged urban context, our main interest is that in a fully mobile network node that may be used for events, interventions, urban actions, and also as an educational vehicle.

Typical applications include

* general internet access
* GPS data, streamed to the openstreetmap project [9]
* video capture

The core motivation for this development however stems from the requirements of
user owned networks in less privileged (often rural or remote) environments,
as often found in so called developing countries.
Here, solar energy (and other renewable sources) are often the only option, making reduction of power uptake even more crucial:
1 Watt of consumer load typically means

$ 50 – 150 spent on solar panels and batteries.

Both scenarios – privileged or underprivileged – share a common vision:

networks -
open – sustainable – user controlled -
running on solar/wind/hydro/human power.

In order to get closer to this vision,
the re:bike will be further developed, touring various hacking events, workshops and confererences.

It can be booked for events, based on a donation model – sometimes referred to as “Berlin payment” -
you give what you feel is appropriate,
and all incoming contributions in money, goods or work will be invested in future versions of re:bike projects.

See here [10] for a list of people who have contributed so far.

URLs

[1] http://rebike.dk

[2] http://reboot.dk

[3] http://wire.less.dk

[4] http://nihola.info/da/nihola+cykler/cigar+family/

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSLU2

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei_E160

[7] http://ubnt.com/products/bullet.php

[8] http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

[9] http://www.openstreetmap.org/

[10] http://write.less.dk/?p=149

at the time, people used the term “wardriving” for this mapping of networks. we always preferred “peace-cycling”.

We presented both the rebike work and and overview of international user driven  network inititatives, with focus on african projects.

We hope to involve those interested in future hacking work.

rebike_talk_malmoe, 11 july 2009

topics: action, (user owned) networks, new technology & new business models in africa.

(PDF, 3.2 MB)

reboot11_-_action_in_africa_-_compressed

the re:bike - solar panel, bullet & basket, cams, ..

it now provides

• an internet uplink via 3G
• a local wifi cloud via a Ubiquiti Bullet

all run fully autonomous from solar power (55 W panel, 35 Ah battery, for now)

next steps:

• all kinds of apps over usb – video, gps to openstreetmap, power stats
• a version with flexible solar panels … wrap it in light

we will make all technical info and a gallery available here, soon – for now we will ride the bike to the reboot afterparty.

thanks to everybody who was part of this (and to those we have forgotten, pls add your comments or write to us at wire_at_less_dk):

• catherine miller (reinvented – the wonderful basket)
• luisa carbonelli (the wonderful basket)
• morgan roderick
• olle jonsson
• peter madsen mygdal
• reboot at large
• siert wijnia (reprap)
• thomas madsen mygdal
• tilmannn singer
• torben oleander

we are tomas antvorskov krag and sebastian buettrich, wire.less.dk .

next plans and how to get involved:

check out the project wiki and/or send us a mail: wire atandsoforthyouknow  less dot dk

here is Vilhelm’s first ride on the bike:

the powering is finished and working nicely.

batteries filled with daylight power.

work on bike

a waterproof basket is being made out of scrap metal.

we have issues with the 3G router though – it ceased to function and needs to be replaced.

we d be grateful for helping hands and brains.