* Report: Free Networks – A Global Survey – User Built Infrastructure Held as a Commons. Gordon Cook. The Cook Report.

URL = http://blog.altermundi.net/media/uploads/nov-dec_2013_crpp.pdf

a detailed account of the current state of the free community networks movement [1]

Description

"Wi-fi networks built owned and operated by their users are taking shape around the world. Basic infrastructure is "free" and structurally separated from Content which most often is the provision of a gateway to the internet provided to users for a small fee. These networks are not free of cost. Nothing is. But they are very purposefully designed so that the basic operational infrastructure is owned by no single person and can never be broken up and sold to the highest bidder. The owner is the community that labored and collaborated to bring it into existence,

We look at how these networks are beginning to scale in France, in Argentina, in the USA and especially in Spain where gui-fi.net has achieved successful ongoing scale adding 50 new active nodes every week and serving an area of about 15,000 square miles with 3 full time employees, a five person Board and 35 volunteer technical coordinators - a structure held together by about 100 commercial installers who add new infrastructure to the network commons and sell access to content that rides over the commons." (http://www.cookreport.com/60-main/front/235-nov-dec-2013)





Executive Summary

see http://blog.altermundi.net/media/uploads/nov-dec_2013_crpp.pdf

Contents

Executive Summary p.6

The Importance of Self Determination for Lafayette, Louisiana p. 8

Introduction

“Do it Ourselves” Enables Free and Open Networks as a Commons Infrastructure under Local Control p. 11

“Do It Ourselves Networks“ as an Antidote to the Tyranny of the Corporate State? p. 13

Public or Private; Craft or Science; and Other Issues of Funding p. 16

A guifi.net Open House in Barcelona Saturday May 4 p. 21

Part One

Building guifi.net from the Ground Up in Castellón p. 25

Expanding guifi.net Outside of Catalonia

How a University Professor and His Colleague Have Grown 4,000 Nodes in Five Years p. 26

How to Avoid Proprietary Software p. 28

Castellón Versus Valencia p. 29

Network Serves its Users as Politically Neutral Infrastructure p. 34

What a Neutral Network Means p. 35

Is Guifinet to Be Run as a Democracy? P. 38

User Mail Lists p. 40

Notes on Installer’s Training Session p. 41

Three Kinds of Students p. 42

Trip to a Ridge Top to Explore Moving a Supernode p 45

Our “road crew” p. 50

Guifi.net in Vilafranca del Cid, Castellón p. 51

Part Two

How Guifi.net Runs at Scale

Gaudi’s Heirs Challenge Secular Power p. 55

Introduction to the LocalRet Problem p. 56

LocalRet was a Learning Experience p. 57

It Was Necessary to Change the Basic Law p. 65

Sacred and Secular: Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia A cathedral unlike any other in the world. P. 67

Sacred and Secular in the 21st Century Ramon’s Supernode p. 69

What’s going on here? The Business Model p. 71

The Ecology of Guifi.net p. 73

Understanding the Network as a Complex Business

The Strategic Process p. 77

A Way of Thinking p. 79

Canvas p. 82

The Operation and Governance of Guifinet

Reason for Having a Foundation Board & Qualifications for Members p. 89

Guifi Share Technical Collaboration Groups p. 94

The Document Library p. 96

The GLIR and the NOC p. 97

Installers p.100

Partners and Publicly Visible Accounting and Expenses p.104

Promoting Fiber Optics in Calidentes p.111

Part Three

AlterMundi in Argentina p.114

AlterMundi Interview – May 6th p.116

The Goal of a Society Based on the Freedom of Peer-to-Peer Collaboration p.117

Altermesh – an Objective to Build a “Geek Free” Free Network p.118

The Village of Quintana p.119

Our Captive Portal p.122

Community Radio p.125

Connecting to the Rest of the World p.126

Delta Libre p.127

Villages Seeded with the Educational Laptops p.129

Battlemesh p.129

Part Four

Isaac Wilder and the KC Freedom Network p.132

Free Network Foundation in Kansas City p.135

The Trap p.135

The Free Network Foundation p.136

Connecting for Good p.136

Mutual Musicians p.138

Black Economic Union p,138

Reconciliation Services p.138

March 2013 Clint Wynn Joins as Education Director p.139

Tech Dojo p.140

Mid Summer Connectivity Push p.141

The guifi.net Geeks Arrive p.142

Photo Essay

The Mind Awakens p.145

Engineering Studies for Lincoln Prep p.148

Going from Just an on Ramp to the Internet to an Individual

User Authenticated Community Network p.151

Weekly Partner’s Meetings p.152

An Interlude from Isaac p.154

Oakland Freenet p.154

Mesh Protocol Issues as Background to Libre Mesh p.156

Part Five

A Mutual Musicians Foundation

Renaissance for Kansas City

Anita Dixon's Vision for the Preservation of the

Cultural Heritage of Kansas City Jazz p.157

Editor’s Introduction p.158

A Cultural Renaissance for the Three Square

Miles in which Kansas City Jazz was Born p.159

“Don’t You Go to that Dad Gum Union Hall!” p.159

I Have Kept the Promise p.160

Straightening Out the Finances p.161

Why the Musicians Union Hall is so Special p.161

Our Photographic and Sound Recording Heritage as a Key to

Marketing and to Our Future p.163

Connectivity to the Internet p.165

We Are a Neighborhood Where the Internet Should Be a Utility p.166

Part Six - France

Federation of French Data Networks p.168

The Federation of French Data Networks (FFDN)

If You Do Not Want Minitel 2.0, You Must Oppose the Large Providers p.169

A human structure at the local level p.170

Network Commons License p.174

Laurent Geurby p.177

DIY Mail list p.177

A Call to My Readers p.179

Ecuador Commits Itself to Open Commons Based Knowledge Society p.181





Excerpt

From the introduction, by Gordon Cook:

"Citizen Participation in the Global Free Network Movement

Two different approaches to citizen participation in free networks. The one is in Catalonia where it grew into something called I2Cat and the other is in Oakland California were citizen participation is absolutely from the bottom up

This January February COOK Report explores I2Cat and its living labs which are designed to bring the possibility for innovation into the hands of the ordinary citizen in the way the more exclusive European research and education that words cannot do what makes the difference and similarly fascinating is that I2Cat claims to be able guide channel citizen participation whereas in Oakland the situation has at least it several decades of citizen involvement where things like complex workings here to flow much more naturally than in the constrained atmosphere of I2Cat in the Iberian Peninsula. In the case of i2Cat We work with Artur Serra who has been chartering for the past 20 years a unique road of Catalonian participation and innovation. We find it strange that such innovation is something that can even be subject to handling by higher authority as it were. It seems that it must be must much more spontaneous however it is quite possible that the differences in culture between Barcelona and Oakland California explain the seemingly irrevocable differences between the two approaches.

In any case what was quite fascinating was how the director of Artur Serra worked with us in our extremely detailed depiction of queasy net and it meant it that perhaps he had not understood quickly that briefing that was not just another carrier but was much more like a citizen led i2Cat like group. We can have an i2cat considerable control over broadband resources and if they would bury their differences and focus on their compatibility is very likely that they could combine infrastructure to the benefit of everyone in the area and indeed this is one at the end of November they promised to do this. They have had one meeting already pledging a joint membership and cooperation and have another scheduled for 15 January 2014.

In the case of the Oakland treatment the citizen participation in hacker spaces is so well entrenched that these are coming first and the Oakland's Freenet is being built in support of the already existing citizen innovative collaboration.



In any case what was quite fascinating was how the director of I2Cat Artur Serra worked with us in our extremely detailed depiction of queasy net and it meant it that perhaps he had not understood quickly that briefing that was not just another carrier but was much more like a citizen led Parliament IQ Like group. We can have an IQ Control consent to broadband resources and if they would bury their differences and focus on their compatibility is very likely that they could combine infrastructure to the benefit of everyone area and indeed this is one at the end of November they promised to do they have had one meeting already pledging a joint membership and cooperation and have another scheduled for 15 January 2014.





In the case of the Oakland treatment the citizen participation in hacker spaces is so well entrenched that these are coming first and the Oakland's network South is being built in support of the already existing citizen innovative collaboration." (http://www.cookreport.com/newsletter-sp-542240406/current-issues/282-cook-report-for-november-december-2013)







