Bristol Wireless News

It’s early afternoon on an overcast Bristol day and there’s a satellite dish set up in the car park of St Werburgh’s Community Centre. Inside the Bristol Wireless room, Mike Harris of psand.net is giving a packed room a brief introduction to communications using satellites (otherwise known as ‘birds’).

We cover the basics of satellite communications – geostationary orbits, low, medium and high earth orbits, footprints, dish size needed in relation to footprint, the effect of the earth’s curvature and how communications to and from the machines attached to the modem, dish (the combination of dish and modem are known as a SIT – Satellite Internet Terminal) and the internet are handled.

After a short tea break, we’re all outside ready for ‘birdspotting’ – trying to find Eurobird 3, a mere 35,000 km away above the equator at 33.0 degrees east (time to take a compass bearing) – and aligning the dish with it for the best signal strength.

With a box of tricks hooked up to the dish receiver, by swinging the dish left and right and cranking it up and down, we first found the Astra satellite (which has the most powerful signal and carries popular TV channels, such as MTV) as a reference, before tracking down Eurobird 3. Mike explained this was a very useful and time-saving technique. Once we’d found Eurobird, it was time to contact the satellite on the laptop via telnet and tweak the alignment (with BW network engineer Lloyd wielding the spanner…) to achieve the best possible connection.

This done, a web browser could be launched and all normal internet services accessed, albeit with the signals travelling 70,000 plus kilometres.

This setup is used whenever the Bristol Wireless LTSP suite goes on manoeuvres to sites with no ordinary wired network access, such as our recent summer outings.

All told, it was a very informative and enjoyable workshop. Thanks Mike!

With the assistance of e-democracy.org and US online communities expert Tim Erickson, a new neighbourhood forum for the Knowle West area of Bristol became active as of 11th October 2006.

This is a site where Knowle West residents can share information about the area and discuss matters of local interest. Anyone wishing to take part will need to register before posting to the forums.

To see what it’s all about visit http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/kw-forum

On Monday 13th November, Voscur and Connecting Bristol will be hosting a free workshop called “Making The Best Use of Free ICT Support” at Watershed for organisations interested in using voluntary IT support and for businesses and IT professionals who are interested in volunteering. Led by Dr Simon Davey of ICT and organisational development consultancy Alpha Omega Limited, the event will explore the issues and opportunities involved in volunteering professional IT skills to charities and community organisations. Full details are available on the Connecting Bristol events page.

An event flyer is available from Voscur’s website.

According to ‘ICT, Social Capital and Voluntary Action’, published recently by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), ignoring the internet is no longer an option for voluntary and community organisations.

It warns that organisations failing to embrace information and communications technology (ICT) risk having their work overshadowed by those who do use this new source of ’social capital’, i.e. the reserve of goodwill generated when people interact. Although local ICT initiatives are taking place, the smaller online communities they create need ongoing technical and funding support to ensure survival.

The booklet was produced to accompany the second in a series of special seminars entitled ‘Engaging Citizens’, jointly organised by the ESRC and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). It summarises views from two experts in the field – Jayne Cravens, a leading researcher of online volunteering, and Dr Ben Anderson of the Institute for Socio-Technical Innovation and Research at the University of Essex.

Karl Wilding, Head of Research at NCVO, said: “There is a lot of interest today in encouraging community involvement and an important factor is the impact of ICT.

“Some people feel that online activity fails to build strong ties between people, yet it offers additional means of communication which are strengthening existing social networks and enabling new connections to be made.”

In the booklet, Jayne Cravens, who is also former director of the UN’s Online Volunteering Service, says that, rather than the exception, it has become the norm for voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) to undertake online activities.

Online communities and online volunteering provide excellent avenues for them to connect with current and potential donors, volunteers, clients and the general public.

She also argues that people do not substitute online volunteering nor online communities for traditional volunteering and community.

Jayne Cravens said: “Internet-based forms of service and sharing are usually extensions of off-line activities and groups. And most online volunteers are not geographically remote from the organisations they support; they are around the corner rather than around the world.”

Ben Anderson discusses how local ICT initiatives already support the development of social capital in communities. Nevertheless, he points out that some researchers still question whether social capital already needs to be in place for it to grow. “There is concern that ICT initiatives may lead to those communities already rich in social capital benefiting most. It is still an open question as to how to benefit less well-connected communities,” he said.

Ben Anderson also suggests that grassroots initiatives may be more sustainable “not least because they draw heavily on local social capital, but more crucially because they tend to be much more attuned to what the local people need and want from the services.”

However, he stresses that whilst generally highly motivated, the core support structure of local groups is prone to burn out and needs ongoing support through committed long term (5-10 years) low-level funding.

He continues: “Smaller communities will not have the technical expertise, nor the funds, to support community networks. Low bridging capital is a problem and there is a need to help develop links between individuals and communities to resolve ICT problems when resources are stretched.”

To read the ‘ICT, Social Capital and Voluntary Action’ booklet (pdf format), please follow this link.

On 9th October Montreal’s Ile Sans Fil, student radio station CHOQ.FM and and student-run CUTV are launching new service that promises to change the way Montrealers interact with local artists. Dubbed HAL (Hub des Artistes Locaux – in English: Local Artists’ Hub), the technology will distribute artistic content throughout Montreal cafés, restaurants and parks via Ile Sans Fil’s wireless network.

An international first, HAL encourages Montrealers to discover local artists and media producers via wireless jukeboxes capable of streaming high-resolution video and audio. In particular, it allows for rich media dissemination of unique content relevant to individual hotspots.

Using HAL at an ISF hotspot is as easy as starting iTunes (available for Windows and Mac) and clicking on the HAL logo. There are currently 12 HALs at ISF hotspots, with another 13 promised for December.

The project is partially supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts, along with the collaboration of the Terminus1525 online art studio.

The HAL project furthers Ile Sans Fil’s mandate of empowering Montreal communities through the creation and deployment of community-centric technology. It is ISF’s third large-scale project involving the development and deployment of new media platforms to take advantage of new technologies. ISF, CHOQ.fm and CUTV are excited to be working together to bring this “bottom-up” cultural and technological project encouraging local participation in culture to Montreal.

As with ISF’s other projects, all technology and knowledge developed will be shared in an open-source manner to encourage adoption by other communities.

Ile Sans Fil is a volunteer-run organisation developing, deploying and maintaining community-oriented wireless technology. With a free wireless network of 105 hotspots and 24,000 users, ISF is a world leader in the field of community wireless networking.

For a final outing to the great outdoors before the winter sets in, the mobile Bristol Wireless LTSP suite paid a visit to Truthfest, which took place from 29th September to 1st October 2006 at Radford Mill Farm in Timsbury. Being held for the first time ever, Truthfest is an event which mixes radical debate and discussion with some fine musical entertainment.

Despite less than perfect weather, the crew and kit survived and performed well. Bristol Wireless volunteer (and local gourmet) Martian also took a few snaps and posted them on Flickr.

Our thanks are again due to psand.net who once more kindly provided the satellite link.