[Nettime-bold] DIY Wireless In The East End

[Leonard Latiff <leonard@metamute.com>]

DIY Wireless In The East End

An East End project kicked off on the 16 February that will see the 
East End from the city (EC2, Broadgate) to E14 connected by a 
wireless network. One would think this was an ambitious project 
organised by the government or the goodwill of corporations but what 
is particularly exciting is that it falls under the umbrella of a 
project called YouAreHere. The brainchild of Simon Worthington and 
the Ceci n'est pas un magazine paper, YouAreHere is an artists and 
creative industries led project which sets out to inform and network 
the East End creative industries community through trade and debate. 
Funded and supported by various bodies in the area including the 
Princes Trust, the Bridge Project, CIDA, and the London Arts Board it 
had its BETA testing on Saturday 16 February 2002 which saw 
connections created between Mayor Street and Kingsland Road in 
Hackney which proved the theory in practice.

Practical workshops concerning how to set up an aerial and the 
software required will be based at Limehouse, the old town hall, 
which is a venue supported by the Princes Trust and the Bridge 
Project Trust to create a place for young volunteers to engage in 
training and community development programmes. Other organisations 
that run events at Limehouse are Stitches In Time and Twenteenth 
Century. A room at the top of the building has been donated by the 
Bridges Project Trust to be used as a computer facility which 
YouAreHere will be making use of to train members of the community.

They can use this for collaborative working between companies to 
either share documents or ideas, individuals can publish and 
distribute their own work, do live broadcasts, advertise events, and 
list local groups. All of this on theback of a sense of community, 
rather than the billions that telecom companies have recently spent 
on licenses.

Because of both the structure of the web tool and the way community 
workshops are being set up the whole project relies on the 
participation of users. The workshops will be made up of two main 
types, firstly practical technology orientated sessions such as 
aerial building and secondly 'result-orientated' round table 
discussions groups for example to make plans for encouraging minority 
participation.

The idea for the community wireless network was started by James 
Stevens of Consume.net who, since June 2001, has been researching the 
technology and its implementation as YouAreHere with Metamute. 
YouAreHere is one of many initiatives being developed by Metamute to 
create sustainable cultural communities 
(http://metamute.com/mfiles/mcontent/metamutemap.pdf).

The first public workshop for the project will be held on 28 Feb-1 
Mar 11am-7pm, at Limehouse Town Hall 646 Commercial Road, London, E14 
7HA. There will be a press view 1 Mar 1-3pm and a party 1 Mar 8pm. 
Please let us know if you require any further information regarding 
the events or the technology and whether you would like to attend.

Related websites:
http://dek.spc.org
http://consume.net
http://metamute.com
http://www.bridgeproject.co.uk

Should you need any further information please feel free to contact 
me or Simon Worthington.

Pictures can be found at the following web address:
http://youarehere.metamute.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/WirelessWorkshop01

Leonard Latiff
Press and Marketing
leonard@metamute.com
020 737 76949
http://youarehere.metamute.com

Editors notes
Linked into this infrastructure is the vision to will enable the 
community to interact in an online environment, without the overheads 
created by corporate solutions, and enable them to take part and 
engage with each other concerning local issues via a broadband 
network. A web tool called a Twiki is already in place at the 
YouAreHere website which allows users to exchange dialogue not only 
about issues effecting them but about their needs and the possibility 
of collaborating on fulfilling through the exchange of skills and 
equipment. Unique about the twiki system is that it can be accessed 
via any web browser and allows users not only to change the content 
of the site but also the structure and the way it functions. They can 
build links to other pages both internally in the site or to external 
websites users think might be useful. Unlike other web tools there is 
an automated linking structure which automatically highlights 
commonly used terms allowing users to follow the various strains of a 
single discussions.

Attachment: DIY_Wireless_In_The_EastEnd.rtf
Description: RTF file

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