DETROIT, MI - The Cass Corridor neighborhood of Detroit is becoming one big wireless communication access point, as part of the first phase of a new open source wireless networking technology being tested in the city.

The network and its technology, called Commotion, is

The OTI plans to publicly release the open-source wireless technology in early 2013, after sufficiently testing it in Detroit.

“The Detroit wireless network plays an essential role in OTI’s development of an open wireless solution that will put control of the Internet into the hands of its users," OTI Director Sascha Meinrath said in a release. "The partners OTI works with in Detroit are not only self-provisioning connectivity for local residents, they're proofing out technologies that support free, safe, ubiquitous communications around the globe."

Commotion creates decentralized wireless networks called “mesh networks,” by using a series of devices such as laptops and mobile phones.

“The prototype network can potentially distribute Internet access to local residents, but even without a connection to the global Internet, Commotion allows neighbors to communicate with each other,” OTI says in a release.

The Detroit project received a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and from the U.S. Department of State, which is keen on the technology being used for communication in countries where the internet could be blacked out amid political uprisings (think Arab Spring).

“We selected Detroit because of the combination of social and technological innovation here,” OTI Director of Field Operations Joshua Breitbart said in a release. “The city is not just a backdrop for this network. The residents are playing an active role as designers and engineers. We are building the workforce here, piloting innovative applications here, and learning from how entrepreneurs and activists make use of it here before we distribute this groundbreaking technology around the world.”