* Andy Warner <andyw at pobox.com> [020508 15:47]:
> 	1. A metro-wide network, capable of
> 	   moving bits independant of existing
> 	   wired networks.

Very interested.  Want to assist in organization and specifics.

> 	2. Coordinated hot-spot deployment.
> 
> 	   The goal is to provide wireless Internet
> 	   access throughout the Twin Cities. Upstream
> 	   connection from the hot-spot to the Internet

Going to look at Spuntik and what they are doing at the moment.  Might
be neat to fork what they are doing into something we can just give to
people on a cd to boot into a machine with a Intersil chipset card.

Downside: my prism 2.5 PCI card was DOA.  General Nanosystems is out of
replacements and refunded me fully.  I can't easily test the software
yet.

It might be cool to get something like Spuntik working on a soekris
(www.soekris.com) embedded machine with an intersil card.  The net4251
could be very interesting for edge networks under #1 and could be a good
starting point for hotspots that cant have a pc sitting there.  Its a
spendy item, however ($237 for the board)  They also have a minipci
socket and 2 ethernet.  But they do power over ethernet too. :)  The
case actually has holes for N jacks too. neat.

> I'll kick things off by saying that I would like to
> play in sandbox #2 to begin with.

I think #2 is cool, but #1 is 'easier' in some cases to do because of
the non-need to actually share internet bandwidth.  However, the
techincal diffucultities are pretty hard.  Would be interesting if we
could get enough hotspots going to be within a 10min drive of anywhere
in the metro.  I worry that dispersion wont be even enough, however.
But, if we get to a certain point, #1 would be cool to do then.

Anyhow, must get back to work.

-- 
Scott Dier <dieman at ringworld.org> http://www.ringworld.org/