The FreeNetworks Conference 2003 has been postponed
If you are interested in building or learning about Community Wireless Networks (CWN), this is the event that you must be at. FreeNetworkers from all over the world will be meeting in Las Vegas to discuss the technical, political, and social details and progress of the CWN movement.
go to http://con.freenetworks.org/ for details and registration
Slashdotter commentary about the summit is available at Slashdot.com "FreeNetworks Conference"
Summits have their purpose. For example, some CWNs might want only qualified members and not the general public to be able to use their wireless network. An example of a viewpoint you will see at the Summit is shown below:
I think you have the summit and the conference confused. Summits are hosted by freenetwork groups to encourage communication between the groups. The conference is a general call for people who are interested in finding out what is going on in the freenetworks world from the people who are actually building them. The comments below are typical slashdot. Negative and ill-informed. --MattWestervelt
One of the issues not often discussed by the cheerleaders for community wireless networks is how to make them viable. I founded the first wireless community network, in 1994, and we're still going strong; however, our policies are very different than that of the Johnny-come-latelies. In particular, we require accountability (to avoid drive-by spamming, which could in turn cause our upstream link to be cut off) and have dues (bandwidth and equipment are not free, and we want to be a going concern). We're thus a "cheapnet," not a "freenet." But our model works, and the members appreciate the fact that we'll be there tomorrow. I don't get the sense, from the Web site, that many of the people who are doing these projects are thinking about many of the issues we've faced.... --posted comment at Slashdot.com
I think Brett should show up to the conference and find out what we're thinking rather than just insult us on slashdot --MattWestervelt
An example of someone who uses wireless for his own needs and wants features that are typically available on commercial DSL/Cable vendors is:
...That is all fine - but what is really needed is a little more commercially minded community network.... I mean I am really into wireless but I swear - the people involved at the core of the movement have zero vision. --Ph1ux
Zero vision? There's plenty of vision. Community-oriented vision. It is important to remember that if a CWN becomes a commercial venture to provide users with internet everywhere, it is no longer really a public community network but a private one. It is important to remember the vision and purpose of a CWN. It seems that some users have a self-centered vision where "C" doesn't mean community, but instead "commercial grade services for me" and that is just so wrong. They should go to Boingo or TMobile/Starbucks if they keep thinking that a CWN is commercial internet access. --StartideRising
...there are many people who want to host nodes, and who would do it for free but there's no reference implementation that does ad-hoc routing, and no off-the-shelf device. -respectfully, Todd http://ledgerism.net
