travis - nice to have you delurk! i just checked the tcwug web site and it looks like there have been some major changes and some additions. it looks quite nice. i know that i would like to see some format that allows for the dynamic addition of content in the form of a wiki and something with a good reference section. if users can't add content, it falls upon the shoulders of an individual or a small group of individuals to create and edit the content. this tends to stifle interaction. hopefully someone who handles the web site will be able to make it to the meeting this tuesday and we can have some discussion regarding this matter. i don't know what facilities are available to the current webmaster - but hopefully something along these lines would be appreciated. i'll put it on the topic list for tuesday's meeting. hopefully you'll be able to make it. when last we saw our hero (Thursday, May 02, 2002), Travis Anderson was madly tapping out: > Hello All! > > This is my first post, but I have been monitoring for a little while now... > > This past semester for my Political Science class we had to do a project > on some type of community project, volunteering, etc. Well, I decided that I > wanted to give mine a technological bent, and you guessed it... Community > Wireless Network. I had read about seattlewireless.net, nycwireless.net, > BAWUG, et. al. I thought that the Twin Cities, with its relatively upscale > citizenry, would be a prime candidate for something similar. Searching on > the subject locally, I only found the TCWUG. At the time it was only a > mailing list, and I saw the need for a more accesible front for any > potential Twin Cities network. So, I got to work on a website to meet the > need that I saw. It isn't much, but I had simply laid out the groundwork of > what I thought need to be addressed to start. Recently there have been > changes to the TCWUG website that are heading in the same direction, I > should have tried to contribute sooner! ;-) More on that below... > > <opinion> In order to really build out a community network, it must appeal > to ALL users in order to build the numbers of APs necessary to tighten the > grid. While those of us with knowledge of Linux know all about LUGs and thus > the newer, WUGs, the man on the street would just say, "Wah?" </opinion> > > I really don't want to step on any toes, you all can just give me a > collective shout of "shove off!", but a name like TCWireless might be > better. It is the name I used to base my site on, and if you guys took it > over, it would not only stroke my ego, but perhaps have wider appeal (and > recognition). Just my $0.02 > > Anyways, I am willing to contribute the little I've got so far, lots of > future work, as well as the tcwireless.org (or .net) domain. I know, its not > registered yet! But I'll get it and donate, if you people are interested. > > Here is the little bit I have done: http://www.neodreams.com/tcwireless/ > > Please Note: [There is a little grandstanding for my Prof. on the page. Such > as saying I have already started working with you all. I had planned to all > along, but I really just didn't have the time to interface before. > (Work/School/New Girlfriend, you get the idea!) Also Free Networks has never > heard of tcwireless.org (yet)! Whoops!] > > I envisioned a centrally (democratically) controlled main section of the > site, with Wiki stuff to fill out the user defined items such as AP > locations, etc. In even wilder dreams, I envisioned tcwireless.org as a coop > that only required helping out (APs anyone?) to join, while tcwireless.net > could be the business front for anyone, or business, to buy-in instead. > > Well, I just wanted to through this out there for you all to chew on, > since the topic of interest in an actual community wireless network came up. > This way it can be talked about at the meeting if necessary. By the way, I > don't even have any wireless equipment presently, so I am almost neutral! > ;-) > > Travis Anderson > travis at neodreams.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Twin Cities Wireless Users Group Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > http://www.tcwug.org > tcwug-list at tcwug.org > https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tcwug-list > -- steve ulrich sulrich at botwerks.org PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7 AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC