BattlemeshV12 events

This is an automatically-generated page with all events and their description.

See BattleMeshV12#Talk_Schedule_and_Workshops for the actual schedule.

Contents

  1. BattlemeshV12 events
    1. Community meeting
      1. Discussion about testbed setup
      2. Wireless Battle of the Mesh Community Meeting
    2. Meetup
      1. Open Communication Meetup
    3. Panel
      1. Women* in Mesh networks
      2. Models for affordable and universal networks: public infrastructure and community networks
      3. Building a community around networking
    4. Social event
      1. Welcome dinner
      2. Departure from 6b for group 1
      3. Departure from 6b for group 2
      4. Group visit of « Computer Grrrls » expo
      5. TBD
    5. Talk
      1. BattleMeshV12 opening session
      2. Communication struggles during Colombian guerrilla
      3. After the deployment, the real mes(s)h begins
      4. Task-Force Amazon: building communication infrastructures with indigenous groups
      5. Community-first: Experiences from deploying local-first WiFi networks in urban locations
      6. elRepo.io - culture sharing suitable for community networks
      7. Testbed progress report
      8. Against the co-optation of the CN narrative. Lessons learned from the netCommons project
      9. Incentivised Mesh Networking with Blockchains
      10. Community cellular telephony
      11. Evolution of the Babel Routing Protocol
      12. LibreRouter, the router of community networks
      13. 10 years after: greek non-community
      14. Lightning talks (not recorded)
      15. TBD
      16. Custom pseudofirmware with OpenWrt imagebuilder
      17. Overview of Community Networks in France
      18. Public network infrastructure in France
      19. YunoHost and the Internet Cube (Brique Internet)
      20. The creation of a new routing Protocol for mobile first meshing
      21. TSUT: The Still Unnamed Tool for mesh network planning
      22. Meshenger
      23. Challenges of rural community network in a crisis environment
      24. Building a Non-Profit Organization that Mirrors the Mesh
      25. BattleMeshV12 closing session
    6. Workshop
      1. Women* in Mesh networks
      2. Fiber splicing workshop
      3. Fiber splicing workshop

Community meeting

Discussion about testbed setup

Date: 2019-07-09, 16:00-18:00

Location: 6b main room

We will discuss what testbeds will be setup during the event.

Wireless Battle of the Mesh Community Meeting

Date: 2019-07-12, 17:30-19:00

Location: 6b main room

We will discuss the state of the Wireless Battle of the Mesh community and event, and in particular its future: change the form or scope of the event? Merge with other events?

Everybody is welcome to attend this open discussion!

Meetup

Open Communication Meetup

Speaker(s): Mathias Jud (Open Communication)

Date: 2019-07-13, 17:00-19:00

Location: 6b main room

We will discuss, experiment and document existing MANET protocols (all developers of routing protocols are most warmly welcomed).

The Open Communication Meetup aims to openly document decentralized and Internet independent communication enablers. In this meetup, MANET protocols will be at the center. The documented protocols overviews will be made publicly available on the web page open-communication.net with the aim to make the MANET protocols, knowledge and experiences centrally and freely available.

Panel

Women* in Mesh networks

Subtitle: The reality of community networks in rural Latin America

Speaker(s): Isa (activist in Latin America and Europe), Other participants TBD

Date: 2019-07-09, 11:15-12:30

Location: 6b conference room

I want to open a panel discussion to share experiences of women* in mesh networks. I hope to hear some experiences from the community in Europe and hope that there will be some women who are active in Latin America in order to share experiences. I also want to invite men* participating in the discussion in order to reflect on the possibilities for women* to participate in mesh networks.

Models for affordable and universal networks: public infrastructure and community networks

Speaker(s): Julien Delmouly (Infranum), Adrien Nader (Fédération FDN), Panos (netCommons)

Date: 2019-07-12, 14:30-16:00

Location: 6b conference room

This panel will focus on a central question: how to build and maintain networks that are open and accessible to everybody, in terms of geographical reach, cost and diversity of ISPs?

Two axes will be discussed: public network infrastructure and community networks, with a particular focus on France. The following questions will be addressed:

- how does the French model of public FTTH networks (« Plan France Très Haut Débit ») work? In theory, in practice?

- how important is it to adapt to each local territory, to work with local actors?

- are there other models that allow to build country-wide networks that are open and accessible?

- can public networks and local community network be complementary? Can they work together?

Building a community around networking

Speaker(s): Adama KA (SenChix / AFCHIX), Jillian Murphy (NYC Mesh)

Date: 2019-07-13, 15:15-17:00

Location: 6b conference room

The panel will explore ways to organize a durable community structure in very different Community Networks. Common challenges include how to sustain a dynamic and inclusive community in which everybody learns and contributes, and in particular how to involve non-technical people, women or young people with a low level of education that could feel excluded from such communities. Examples will include WELM@ in Senegal (a gender approach to connect unconnected communities using the community network model) and NYC Mesh in New York.

For instance, recurrent tasks in community networks are installation, maintenance and management. How to identify the potential technical volonteers from the community who will be further trained and assigned to train others and manage the technical establishments and maintenance of the community network?

Social event

Welcome dinner

Date: 2019-07-08, 18:30-23:00

Location: 6b (inside, or outside by the canal)

We will have a nice African veggie-friendly buffet!

Departure from 6b for group 1

Speaker(s): Expo website

Date: 2019-07-11, 17:00

Departure from 6b for group 2

Speaker(s): Expo website

Date: 2019-07-11, 17:30

Group visit of « Computer Grrrls » expo

Subtitle: History, Gender, Technology

Speaker(s): Expo website

Date: 2019-07-11, 18:00-20:30

Location: Gaîté Lyrique

We will go to the location in two groups of 25 persons: one will leave from the 6b around 17h (to start the visit at 18h), the other group will leave around 17h30 (to start the visit at 18h30).

The visit is expected to last around two hours.

After the visit, we anticipate self-organized social activities (food, drinks) in this nice quartier of Paris!

TBD

Date: 2019-07-12, 19:00-23:00

Talk

BattleMeshV12 opening session

Speaker(s): Local team

Date: 2019-07-09, 10:15-10:30

Location: 6b conference room

Communication struggles during Colombian guerrilla

Speaker(s): Debora Leal (Co-Nectar, Brazil)

Date: 2019-07-09, 10:30-11:00

Location: 6b conference room

I would like to share a research about the communication struggles of one of the Colombian guerrillas, FARC-EP, with the Colombian army. I documented how radio-based communication became a crucial, but ambiguous infrastructure of war at FARC units. The sudden introduction of localization technologies by the Colombian army in 2000 presented a lethal threat to the guerrilla group. The data I collected during interviews in Colombia reports a severe learning process to diminish this new risk, relying on a combination of informed beliefs and significant technical understanding. This became an academic paper, that I am happy to share with Mesh community, especially because the Peace Agreement is on fragile ground amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.

After the deployment, the real mes(s)h begins

Speaker(s): Elaine Teles (Co-Nectar, Brazil)

Date: 2019-07-09, 14:00-14:30

Location: 6b conference room

Task-Force Amazon: building communication infrastructures with indigenous groups

Speaker(s): 9s (Coolab)

Date: 2019-07-10, 10:30-11:00

Location: 6b conference room

This talk is dedicated to present our current approach to indigenous groups, which are mobilized in resisting to the invasion of their territories in the Amazon. Strategically, we decided to begin this project with indigenous groups of west Amazon, Acre, Brazil: the Ashaninka and the Huni Kui people. Our aim is to collaborate to building a communication belt to monitor and communicate between these two territories, which are located on the border of Brazil and Peru. We propose to create an app that would make every device in the network a node in a mesh of data by using cryptographic keys to sign every message. As part of tech development, a combination of solar and water energy will also be studied, implemented and documented to further publication: in many of our target communities there's no electricity Available. Combining different technological solutions, we understand that voice, photo and video can have a better circulation inside indigenous territories using mesh networks, radio stations and, eventually, be uploaded to the Internet to make it internationally visible. We're a group of anthropologists and tech developers with extensive experience in fieldwork and would like to invite more researchers and activists to join us in this front.

Community-first: Experiences from deploying local-first WiFi networks in urban locations

Speaker(s): Panos (Nethood)

Date: 2019-07-10, 11:00-11:30

Location: 6b conference room

This talk will summarize the experiences and lessons learned from the deployment of the MAZI toolkit, in short a user-friendly generalization of the PirateBox, in different urban locations in Berlin, Zurich, London, Athens, and more, and will argue that local-first WiFi networks need to be conceived as parts of a wider social community to be successful. A short article is available, as well as a more detailed argument.

elRepo.io - culture sharing suitable for community networks

Speaker(s): G10h4ck (Altermundi.net, ninux.org, guifi.net)

Date: 2019-07-10, 11:30-12:30

Location: 6b conference room

We are developing a decentralized repository of culture, that allows the publishing and sharing of content in an organized way, suitable for audio, video, text and other formats. It will allow communities to share culture in a lasting way, prioritizing local exchange (don't need global Internet connection) without losing the ability to reach a global audience. In the talk I'll present the current status of elRepo.io development, where we are heading, how to use it as user, how to use it as developer (JSON API) and how to contribute to the development.

Testbed progress report

Speaker(s): Testbed team

Date: 2019-07-10, 14:00-14:15

Location: 6b conference room

Against the co-optation of the CN narrative. Lessons learned from the netCommons project

Speaker(s): Panos (Nethood)

Date: 2019-07-10, 14:15-15:15

Location: 6b conference room

This talk will analyse the threats of co-optation of the CN narrative using as a main example recent blockchain-based solutions and making the analogy with AirBnB, which co-opted the "sharing economy" narrative built through initiatives like couch surfing. Recent debates around the definition of a Community Network which took place in the context of the netCommons project and ISOC's CNSIG will be put in context. Hopefully an open discussion could help to build a consensus of the battlemesh community on these important issues for the future of CNs. A related blog entry is available here.

Incentivised Mesh Networking with Blockchains

Speaker(s): Caleb James DeLisle / cjd (cjdns)

Date: 2019-07-10, 15:15-15:45

Location: 6b conference room

Cryptography gives us the ability to have law without police. For example when I send you an encrypted message, we don't need law enforcement to prevent the letter carrier from looking in it.

Blockchains extend that power by giving us the ability to have business interactions without accountants. For example when you have bitcoin in your wallet, you don't need an auditor to check that it's really there.

But for something so secure, you may wonder why blockchain has been the domain of so many scams. I claim this is not a flaw in the technology but rather the fault of malfeasants who misrepresented what was actually being promised, and as the technology matures, I think blockchain will become far less corrupt than more traditional forms of business.

7 years ago I set out to create a turn-key solution for anyone who wanted to build a mesh network, and by the numbers I have failed. I created an interesting piece of software which makes secure networks with minimal setup, and there are about 1000 nodes in the public network, but its deployment in actual wireless meshes has been slim to none.

People building real world meshes need technology that works perfectly, or has the flexibility to let them go in and manually fix it when it doesn't. Right now we have the latter but the former is still a dream. But the dream of solving mesh network problems once is still not dead.

I will present a project which I am now working on to make an open blockchain called Mantle. Mantle fundamentally consists of 3 things: A means to tokenize and trade bandwidth, a bandwidth-hard proof of work to create demand that will drive investment in network infrastructure, and an elected network steward which will receive 20% of newly mined Mantle for the purpose of investing in the network.

Open protocols, network neutrality and free speech have taken us so far in so little time. But today it seems more and more that every political group considers something or other to be censorship-worthy. The internet is a great gift which the previous generation gave to us, the least we can do is to encrypt and decentralize it.

Community cellular telephony

Speaker(s): Javi (tic-ac.org, Mexico)

Date: 2019-07-10, 16:15-16:45

Location: 6b conference room

The experience of indigenous and rural communities in Mexico with their own media, the fight for the common good

Evolution of the Babel Routing Protocol

Speaker(s): Juliusz Chroboczek (Babel)

Date: 2019-07-10, 16:45-17:15

Location: 6b conference room

The Babel Routing protocol was originally designed for unstable networks, and therefore works fairly well in mesh networks. Since it was designed, Babel has evolved to cover new use cases, such as overlay networks and unadministered home networks. It is currently in the final stages of standardisation by the IETF.

In this talk, I will describe the Babel routing protocol, and those of its features that make it work well in unstable and mesh networks. I will then describe some recent extensions and changes to the protocol, and the new applications that they make possible.

LibreRouter, the router of community networks

Speaker(s): SAn, G10h4ck (Altermundi.net)

Date: 2019-07-10, 17:15-18:15

Location: 6b conference room

LibreRouter is an open hardware router designed and built to satisfy the needs of community networks, focusing on the ones of the Global South.

Some years ago Altermundi.net confident of the successful experience with LibreMesh, together with other interested participants, motivated to overcome the limitations imposed by FCC and by commercial hardware vendors, started this adventure to conquer a piece more of autonomy and to foster community networks growth.

Did we spent four years soldering LEDs? Does it smell like chicken? But most importantly did we achieved it?

Join us in the journey of the project, lessons learned, where we are and future.

10 years after: greek non-community

Speaker(s): Reinhard (i4freegr)

Date: 2019-07-11, 14:00-15:00

Location: 6b conference room

Lightning talks (not recorded)

Speaker(s): Various

Date: 2019-07-11, 15:00-17:00

Location: 6b conference room

TBD

Speaker(s): Paul Fuxjaeger (Funkfeuer)

Date: 2019-07-12, 10:30-11:15

Location: 6b conference room

Custom pseudofirmware with OpenWrt imagebuilder

Speaker(s): Pedro (Guifi.net)

Date: 2019-07-12, 11:15-11:30

Location: 6b conference room

Overview of Community Networks in France

Speaker(s): Baptiste Jonglez (Rézine, FFDN)

Date: 2019-07-12, 11:30-12:15

Location: 6b conference room

This talk will give an overview of community networks in France, focusing in particular on their history, organization, and political values. It is centered on the Fédération FDN, but will present it within a wider context (historical rural networks, Free Software organisations such as April or Framasoft, the digital rights advocacy La Quadrature du Net, etc)

Public network infrastructure in France

Speaker(s): Ariel Turpin (Avicca, délégué général)

Date: 2019-07-12, 14:00-14:30

Location: 6b conference room

YunoHost and the Internet Cube (Brique Internet)

Speaker(s): Keoma (Franciliens.net)

Date: 2019-07-12, 16:30-17:30

Location: 6b conference room

While the GAFAM are selling citizens data all over the place, self-hosting is gaining momentum. If you ever felt the pain of installing your own mail server, or if you want to propose a ready-to-use alternative to you friends, colleges and family without a hassle, use YunoHost ! Yunohost is a turn-key solution for self-hosting, and we packaged it into a tiny computer that you can use at home or bring with you anywhere. We call this personal self-hosting solution, the InternetCube.

The creation of a new routing Protocol for mobile first meshing

Speaker(s): Mathias Jud (qaul.net)

Date: 2019-07-13, 10:30-11:00

Location: 6b conference room

qaul.net is a zero config, multi platform, secure, anonymous Internet independent wifi communication application. It directly interconnects end user devices and allows communication between them. It synchronizes and forwards messages and allows communicating via voice chat, text messages and file sharing.

In 2013, qaul.net antennas on the roof of 6b interconnected the neighborhood with an informal settlement on the other side of the canal.

qaul.net is undergoing a complete rewrite. A new network agnostic routing protocol is being created to form Internet independent mobile mesh networks, communicate locally and delay tolerant.

The talk will present and discuss the concepts of qaul.net, with a new approach to enable mesh communication in heterogeneous mobile networks with a focus on mobile phones as crucial network nodes.

TSUT: The Still Unnamed Tool for mesh network planning

Speaker(s): Leonardo Maccari, Gabriele (Ninux Firenze, University of Trento, University of Venice)

Date: 2019-07-13, 11:00-12:00

Location: 6b conference room

At the university of Trento, we are developing a tool (still without a name) that tells you if there is line-of-sight between two buildings and an estimation of how much bandwidth you can achieve, based on the datasheets from real devices. It uses open data from LIDAR traces to have real building altitudes and tries to suggest what is the best option when you add a new node and you can choose between several potential neighbors. It is Open Source, it is still a work in progress, but we are glad to share it and gather feedback from the community.

Meshenger

Subtitle: Local telephone app with IPv6 and WebRTC

Speaker(s): Moritz Warning (Freifunk)

Date: 2019-07-13, 14:00-14:30

Location: 6b conference room

Challenges of rural community network in a crisis environment

Speaker(s): Theresa Tafida (Fantsuam Fondation, Nigeria), TBC

Date: 2019-07-13, 14:30-15:00

Location: 6b conference room

Fantsuam Foundation established its Community Wireless Network in May, 2006. 

As a rural CN, internet access is always a challenge and this is why we are currently focused on promoting access to the TVWS. At the moment our internet service is provided by private service providers through prepaid cards and use of modems. We are subscribed to three internet providers due to the fluctuating quality of service of all of them.

The cycles of sectarian violence in our host communities has rendered thousands homeless and even more have become marginalized, vulnerable and impoverished. The war situation has also led to deaths of thousands of young men, leaving behind older persons and young traumatized females. Making communications accessible and affordable to these populations provides a lifeline for them, for contacts with distant relatives and for receiving remittances. It also promotes their rehabilitation and reconciliation.

Rebuilding community networks for these communities requires starting from the scratch. The lack of significant disposable income means that seed funding is required for purchase of the needed equipment while the community provides its non-cash contribution for the establishment of the CN. It is important to promote women in the establishment and management of the CN as a deliberate effort at gender equity and promoting sustainability of this community resource

Building a Non-Profit Organization that Mirrors the Mesh

Speaker(s): Jillian Murphy (NYC Mesh)

Date: 2019-07-13, 14:30-15:00

Location: 6b conference room

Over the last year, NYC Mesh has been taking steps to establish itself was an independent non-profit, a necessary step to handle sustain the growing organization. A mesh network finds strength in its decentralized nature because there is no single point of failure and we want our organization to embody that, too. However, during this project, we have learned the ways in which our laws and cultural attitudes favor hierarchical organizational models over those that are decentralized. We'll discuss this and the steps we are taking to create a truly decentralized organization that is equitable and resilient.

BattleMeshV12 closing session

Speaker(s): Local team

Date: 2019-07-13, 18:00-18:30

Location: 6b conference room

Conclusion of the week: what was nice, what worked, what didnt work so well, what we will remember

Workshop

Women* in Mesh networks

Subtitle: The reality of community networks in rural Latin America

Speaker(s): Isa (activist in Latin America and Europe)

Date: 2019-07-09, 15:00-17:00

Location: 6b main room

The workshop will continue the discussion initiated in the panel, but in a more private space, for people that are willing to dig deeper in the topic of women*s participation in mesh networks.

Fiber splicing workshop

Speaker(s): Spyou (SCANI, France)

Date: 2019-07-11, 11:00-12:30

Location: 6b main room

Come and learn how to splice optical fibers, with a real splicing machine!

Fiber splicing workshop

Speaker(s): Spyou (SCANI, France)

Date: 2019-07-11, 14:00-18:00

Location: 6b main room

Come and learn how to splice optical fibers, with a real splicing machine!

BattleMeshV12/Events (last edited 2019-07-10 16:15:18 by BaptisteJonglez)