Advocates of Wi-Fi in Cities Learn Art of Politics

Check out this recent article from the New York Times.

The Meeting

Our first big community meeting in a year happened yesterday morning. Many folks from around the island showed up to hear us give a "state of the network" report, and discuss the mid-term goals and needs for the project. They asked good questions, made good comments, and generally showed a lot of enthusiasm and interest in the advancement of the network.

Those goals are:

1. Straighten out our financial situation, and make sure it stays that way. Ideally, this would be the responsibility of some trustworthy person, who also has some responsibility for strategic development of the project-as-business.


2. Train a number (3+) of technically-adept folks who are geographically dispersed about the island to do new installations, maintenance, and support. This implies setting up at least one school and Sí a La Vida, which will be done as part of the training.


3. Expanding the network, making the service more reliable, and adding clients to reduce the financial burden of (and severe dependence on) our present commercial clients. A new tower, successfully installed in Sinacapa with a wireless link to the mainland, should bring us a long way in this direction.

Several of these items require, or don't make sense without, more money than we currently have, being Very Little. Also, we can't expand the network or add new clients without more antennas. The last ones we sent down were confiscated by customs, and there don't seem to be any for sale in country.

Now, we have found potential solutions to both of those problems. We're going to try to bring the antennas in through the CDC coop. And I have a very little time to get a proposal together for Cooperación Britanica, which may be very interested in a network that puts them in better contact with the many small organizations they work with.

We are on the brink of the next major phase of the project, when things will pick up dramatically. The next 6-10 months are absolutely critical. It's an exciting time!

Phone, Post

I've got a phone: +0 505 654 0645. I don't have access while at home, mind. You can SMS me at this webpage. If anyone finds an email->sms gateway for Enitel, please please let me know.

Also, El Nuevo Diario wrote an article about the project and forgot to tell me about it. Linked above. They got all their information from the project proposal, and didn't bother to interview either David or me. But hey, 30 seconds of fame, etc. I found the same article under three different dates. I don't know if they published it three times, or if their web site is broken.

Excitement lies on the horizon—hold on, boys.

Ometepe in January

David Adler has been here for a few weeks to babysit his very successful coffee roaster project. Finca Magdalena is now roasting their own, high-grade coffee in an approx. $1000 barbeque-based roaster, rather than over an open fire. The result is far less labor and smoke inhalation, a much better roast, and a far superior cup of coffee.

You can read about his experiences, and those of his comrades, on their blog.

Arrived

I guess I've neglected this blog of late.

I arrived safely on Ometepe last night, having run into Kim, Ela (sp), and Emily while waiting for the ferry. Everything is just a little different, myself included.

Most significantly, people seem more enthusiastic about the project. They're doing less nodding and taking more action to provide for something that's important to them. I'm not just talking about the hotels; the mayors of both Altagracia and Moyogalpa have gone out of their ways to show their interest in the project. Partly for this reason, and partly because I don't broke any more, I'm more optimistic about the project this time around. I don't have a lot of time--about two months, a break, and about two more months--but I hope that will help keep me on track.

We're (the project fund) mostly broke, by the way. I brought a couple more routers down, but I think we're out or nearly out of antennas. David and I will look for a source in Managua on Monday. There is supposedly some money we can make a bid for, though, so I'm hopeful that we'll be able to set up a tower on Sinacapa, near San José del Sur, sometime this year. The mayors should be able to help us find the money.

The goals for this stay are:
- Train someone here on the island
- Get the business squared away (a reliable manager, a business model that's acceptable to the users)
- Start the ball rolling towards the future (Sinacapa, money, etc)
- Get the schools set up (finally)
- Install a few more clients

What order these happen in, and which of them happen at all, depends a lot on a meeting we've planned with various folks for (I believe) the 18th. We'll keep you better informed in the future, and let you know how the meeting goes.

Peter

[x-posted to the freenet list]