[Battlemesh] RFC: A mesh project proposal

[Albert Rafetseder]

If data on the tech/operational side of things is on your wishlist as 
well, check the work by the wonderful people at Freifunk & Gluon who 
collect "census" data big time:

Sources: https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/census-exporter
(I don't link to the live Grafana to spare them a DDoS ;-)

Inside the repo, communities.json has the per-community data source 
URLs, and I'm pretty sure they have something documented about GDPR and 
privacy issues of this type of data collection somewhere.

Maybe it's time to start a pad for collecting resources already?

Am 09.11.2023 21:04, schrieb Albert Rafetseder via Battlemesh:
> Hi Rory,
> 
> Re: your (2), I'd need to ask the elders for details -- or maybe they
> are still on this list anyway :-) --, but I remember the EU-funded
> CONFINE project put considerable effort into modeling (and also
> measuring and documenting) networks. Here's what a quick web search
> found me:
> 
> Project overview: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/288535/
> Papers and datasets: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/288535/results
> 
> The CommonNodeDB code base is still floating around as well, e.g.:
> https://github.com/FunkFeuer/common-node-db
> 
> Re: your (1), IMHO it's fine to keep messages coming through this list.
> 
> Cheers,
>   Albert.
> 
> Am 09.11.2023 20:44, schrieb Mitar via Battlemesh:
>> Hi!
>> 
>> There is:
>> 
>> https://interop.wlan-si.net/
>> 
>> It is still operational and feel free to continue to use it.
>> 
>> 
>> Mitar
>> 
>>> Dear Battlemesh friends,
>>> 
>>> I write to solicit feedback about a project I am starting which will 
>>> gather together a repository of mesh projects, activities, and people 
>>> into an open access database. I'm conceiving of this as two 
>>> subprojects.
>>> 
>>> – Subproject 1: A database in some form, operated in a 
>>> "crowd-sourced" mode in which everyone is welcome to submit entries 
>>> for themselves or others, and I (working with a research assistant) 
>>> will moderate to ensure some consistent quality of information in 
>>> accordance with guidelines that I'd like to establish with feedback 
>>> from this community. I can commit to hosting this, but I would be 
>>> open to moving hosting to community-supported infrastructure if such 
>>> a thing were possible. I will maintain the database in an open access 
>>> mode online for anyone to use for any project.
>>> 
>>> – As an example of one such usage, I am also working on Subproject 2: 
>>> a data visualization that I am developing for release in concert with 
>>> a book on mesh that I hope to have published within the next 2-3 
>>> years. The data visualization would draw selectively from the 
>>> database to present certain entries in relation to concepts from my 
>>> book. This would be a personal project, not subject to oversight from 
>>> the community, although I would certainly warmly welcome any feedback 
>>> and comments. I would invite (and even to a degree support) other 
>>> folks working on similar such projects that would draw from the 
>>> database.
>>> 
>>> So far we are just collecting everything in a spreadsheet, and trying 
>>> to think about what kind of taxonomy / data model would be most 
>>> appropriate for representing all of these examples. We're collecting 
>>> everything from community network projects, to protocols and other 
>>> software, as well as hardware projects, and even individual people.
>>> 
>>> I present this here with 3 questions at the moment:
>>> 
>>> (1) Is this an appropriate forum for me to communicate with you all 
>>> about this? I'm not sure how active this mailing list is anymore and 
>>> whether there may be many more folks in the community now who are not 
>>> on this list. As I mentioned, I write to solicit feedback about any 
>>> of the above, and at some point would even like to host a workshop or 
>>> discussion where others might offer comments about things like: 
>>> procedures, data models, appropriate technologies for hosting, data & 
>>> privacy, or any other concerns. I saw that there was some mention of 
>>> this at WBMv15 (https://pad.cas.cat/WBMv15 – thanks, Paul!). Perhaps 
>>> we could host such a conversation at a future Battlemesh, though I 
>>> plan to complete much work on this before then.
>>> 
>>> (2) Is anyone aware of prior work that partly or fully achieves 
>>> similar goals?
>>> 
>>> (3) Would anyone like to be involved either by contributing 
>>> information & entries, or in some other capacity? As I've described, 
>>> for me this is a mix of a community and a personal project, but I do 
>>> hope that the community component can genuinely be so: a product of 
>>> collective endeavor from Battlemesh folks, and mesh network 
>>> enthusiasts more widely.
>>> 
>>> Thank you kindly for reading and I look forward to any comments!
>>> 
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Rory
>>> 
>>> --
>>> *RORY SOLOMON, PhD* (he / him)
>>> *ASSISTANT PROFESSOR*
>>> *DIRECTOR OF CODE AS A LIBERAL ART*
>>> EUGENE LANG COLLEGE
>>> DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE & MEDIA
>>> 79 5th AVENUE, ROOM 532, NEW YORK, NY 10011
>>> solomonr at newschool.edu <mailto:solomonr at newschool.edu> | 646.229.2497 
>>> | @rorys <http://twitter.com/rorys>
>>> The New School