Bristol Wireless Wiki - Mission Statement

Who are Bristol Wireless?

The mission of Bristol Wireless is to:

support and foster the development of a high speed, free access, wireless computer network
make computers available to members of the local community at zero or very low cost which can access or extend that computer network,
support the creation of community focused content and services using that network.
make a material contribution to reducing the digital divide in Bristol by the provision of training and education in the use and extension of the network, and in the use of content creation facilities.
advocate and promote Free and Open Source Software.

Introduction

In January of 2002 a group of underemployed IT professionals loosely based in Easton Bristol proposed the idea of a wireless Community Local Area Network. They had identified that rapidly emerging wireless technologies meant that even the most deprived communities would be able to match cheap wireless solutions with the maturing Open Source software movement and the mounting warehouses of redundant computers being set aside by industries obsessed with upgrading.

They wanted to create large wide area "intranets" owned and managed by the participants. This would enable communities to bypass the large corporations that generally manage access to the Internet and its opportunities. Communities could even band together to purchase large amounts of bandwidth co-operatively to give their network users wider internet access. In June of 2002 it was made a reality.

Our Community

Bristol Wireless has grown to encompass many different elements of our local community. Our online mailing list has over 119 members, many of whom are very active within other community organisations; the church community, local music and radio activists, academia, regeneration bodies, organisations supporting and representing different ethnic and cultural groups, local football teams, community health workers, Neighbourhood Watch members and many individuals inspired by the possibilities of what we are doing.

We communicate through a variety of means, the mailing list being our main organisational tool. We have a IRC (Internet Relay Chat) for anyone to follow and contribute to the debates. Our website is very active and statistics we keep show it is very well visited. We have 2 Wikis which we use for on line collaborative document production (we produced this for instance). We have a telephone line for people to contact our volunteer staffed office, we have a comprehensive mailing list of local community contacts who we keep informed by post.

We have put on a number of events to publicise our activities that have been very well attended including a give-away day where we redistributed refurbished computers to local community members, and regular wireless surgeries where we try to meet people and help them get involved in the project.

The Physical network

We have built a physical network made up of a number of nodes broadcasting from various places in the Bristol area and accessible in one form or another by many households in and around the city. To do these we have been helped by a large volunteer group of computing experts, riggers (to get on the roofs), people with radio/wireless expertise and various car owners and caterers donating their time and energy.

Why our own network?

If you want broadband access to the Internet from scratch you need a machine that can cost anything from £150 to £500, a connection fee of up to £40 and then £15 to £25 a month to feed the monster.

We believe that internet technologies should be available to as many people as possible and at as little cost as possible. Using our donated servers, people can communicate and work together within our communities without having to spend great amounts of money.

We can source computers for those that don't have one, we can offer free training for those that don't know how to use one, we can run mail-servers so everybody can mail each other, we can run streaming servers to deliver content to everyone who wants it, be it the local Easton Cowboys Football Team in a semi-final, on line training materials, internet radio stations run from within the community network for the network, videos, music from local bands, gigs at local pubs and a whole host of content that we haven't even thought of yet, all at broadband speeds, and all for free.

Currently at this early stage we can also provide access to the wider internet through the donated uplink. We hope to be able to continue this and will have to develop ways of funding a co-operative operation to purchase bandwidth from a friendly provider.

We feel as more and more government, education and health services are moving on line, it is essential that those who have not yet been able to access this technology are given a chance to participate. Being able to use digital network technologies is in our opinion becoming as important as literacy in some respects.

Our project offers a way for the local community to acquire skills that they can use in the maintaining of their own network and that they can use as a platform to sell the communities skills to a wider area. By encouraging the use of open source computer software we hope to add to sense of community spirit through use of on-line games, news, diary projects, documentation of events and provide international links. This is especially pertinent in an area where there is a large multi-cultural population.

We have set up a group for people particularly concerned with developing ways of utilising the network for the benefit of its users, once it begins to reach a critical mass. We are having new ideas all the time, from mail-servers to live church services, from music to shopping. We can see how it can provide tools for local businesses and organisations, we think it can be active in combating social exclusion. We are already working with Neighbourhood Renewal bodies and want to be able to reach every part of the community to enhance the social fabric.

What next?

We have distributed over 500 refurbished PCs or more locally to date. The network coverage is fairly good, we have started free training courses using Linux at the Community Centre with the incentive of a reasonable priced computer at the end of it! But there is a lot more to do.

We want to be able to offer a modicum of technical support to new users of refurbished machines running OS software
We want to be able to refurbish large numbers of machines and need storage space for them.
We want to make more and better use of the voluntary effort donated by so many local people.
We want to able to offer opportunities to people to learn new skills such as send young people on radio courses and offer them an immediate outlet to practice those skills.
We want to have a roving Outreach worker helping people with issues relating to the network , older people, people for whom English is not a first language.
We want to continue to offer free training and expand it.
We want to continue to develop projects that are of benefit to the Open Source community.

To do all of the above we are seeking to involve people with more of the skills we lack, eventually creating employment financed either through funding (education, regeneration, health etc.) or by developing revenue streams, for which reason we have recently formally registered as a community co-operative.

We aim to do all the above by

enabling open and free access to a reliable broad band wireless local computer network across the Bristol area and potentially beyond.
facilitating free access to basic internet services such as email, news groups, and the world wide web to anyone connecting to this network.
ensuring a steady supply of network ready computers at low cost to households and local organisations who would otherwise not consider owning one, thus also breathing new life into hardware considered by companies to be obsolete.
by providing the ability to deliver community oriented services over this network. Possible examples include discussion forums, personal web space, streaming video of local events, art and media projects, local "radio" and more.
To enable informal and formal education and training to local residents, both in the use of computers, software, and the Bristol Wireless network, and in the technical architecture of the network itself, helping to build community involvement and sustainability for the project.

In working towards these aims, Bristol Wireless intends

To involve the largest possible cross section of the community in the project.
To collaborate with other local groups and organisations, particularly those with complementary goals.
To act as advocates of, and a demonstration of the potential for, using low cost, standard, and even "obsolete" technology as a tool for community empowerment and the reduction of the digital divide.

And a little graphic to show how we see it all hanging together