What news? Plenty. We're in the process of forming a corporation (!) to manage the network, handle billing, and so forth. It's difficult at times to follow what's going on at the meetings for this: the language is different, but the form and requirements of a corporation are quite different here—not that I really understood much about them back in the States. I hope that we will be able to transform the corporation into a non-profit soon, but for now this appears to be the fastest solution.
There are nine sites, including Magdalena, that I want to get connected by Jan 15. This will be a challenge, on top of building out infrastructure and other support resources, organizing the legal structure, working on finding more hands and money for the project, and taking care of my self. The next month or so will be a ride.
We have the office at Finca Magdalena hooked up to the Internet. Pending some work on its system, we will soon have a terminal for guests to use as well. We're anxious to get this up, because the income it generates will help us cover initial costs of the project.
Power has been a big problem here. The commercial power grid is very unstable, and threatens to damage expensive equipment. It's been a huge battle to get the hydroelectric system working, for many reasons. So we're just hoping nothing gets damaged permanently before we get ourselves off the grid.
If things went according to plan, David went to the port town today to pick up $3200 (iirc) worth of solar panels and batteries, to be installed at repeater sites near Altagracia and on the south side of the island. That leaves us with very little money in the project fund, but I think we have pretty much everything we need now.
I'd post some pictures, but I really need to get some sand out of my camera, and more than that I need to go to bed. Thanks for reading!
There are nine sites, including Magdalena, that I want to get connected by Jan 15. This will be a challenge, on top of building out infrastructure and other support resources, organizing the legal structure, working on finding more hands and money for the project, and taking care of my self. The next month or so will be a ride.
We have the office at Finca Magdalena hooked up to the Internet. Pending some work on its system, we will soon have a terminal for guests to use as well. We're anxious to get this up, because the income it generates will help us cover initial costs of the project.
Power has been a big problem here. The commercial power grid is very unstable, and threatens to damage expensive equipment. It's been a huge battle to get the hydroelectric system working, for many reasons. So we're just hoping nothing gets damaged permanently before we get ourselves off the grid.
If things went according to plan, David went to the port town today to pick up $3200 (iirc) worth of solar panels and batteries, to be installed at repeater sites near Altagracia and on the south side of the island. That leaves us with very little money in the project fund, but I think we have pretty much everything we need now.
I'd post some pictures, but I really need to get some sand out of my camera, and more than that I need to go to bed. Thanks for reading!
posted by Peter Abrahamsen at 12/14/2004 09:41:00 PM
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