Soliciting Fame

This morning I noticed that Open-Mesh introduced a new logo.

I certainly hope it’s a stop-gap before a better logo because this one looks like someone spent five minutes learning Photoshop while making it.

To Mike and anyone involved with Open-Mesh, I suggest you check out Worth1000. It’s an awesome site where you can get a really quality logo for only a couple hundred dollars.

BarCampEdmonton1 is in 9.5 hours. I’ve stayed up later than usual quickly putting together a splash page for the WiFi network I’m setting up. This will let me track all the traffic it receives over the course of the day.

I reflashed and updated 5 of my Open-Mesh routers this evening. I’m hoping that’s enough but I have at least 10 I can break out if I have to.

I’m hoping to do a session at BCE1 on mesh networks and the current state of technology surrounding them. I seriously haven’t planned anything yet so I’m going to gather my thoughts a bit before I hit the hay.

As part of my mesh network interests I’ve started up WirelessEdmonton.ca. This will serve as the main website and splash page for my free wifi initiative.

I am starting with Whyte Avenue, where my Internet Cafe is located. I have 20 Open-Mesh routers that need deploying. I will be going to different businesses along the avenue where I feel the network needs a boost and asking them if they will help out.

If a business hosts a repeater they will get a mention on the website. If they host a gateway they will get a specific ad on the front page indicating they are helping out.

In order to generate money I’ve put a simple 160×600 skyscraper ad on the right hand side of the splash page. For $75 a month an advertiser will get equal rotation on the front page. These are just rough numbers to start. As traffic and advertisers grow I’ll make adjustments. Right now the most important thing is to get people to carry my routers.

My buddy Mack was visiting with me the other day and we were doing some crazy brain storming into the future of a free network like this. We both think it has amazing potential and I can’t wait to see this thing explode.

I posted earlier about buying a Meraki Pro Wireless Repeater. So far it’s been doing pretty well sitting in the window. This last week I’ve had over 100 people access it and most of them were not in my cafe. I’d say that’s pretty good for the first router.

Because it’s doing well I decided to order 20 of the Open-Mesh routers. At that number I get them for $39.99 each. The plan is to cover my street in wireless and then go and sell ads to the businesses that operate in the area.

The reason I’m switching to Open-Mesh from Meraki is pretty clear cut. First the price of a Meraki router is like three times more than an Open-Mesh one. The gain isn’t that much smaller and I can easily stick a bigger antenna on them.

Open-Mesh also comes pre-flashed with RO.B.IN which is an open source mesh network. Meraki has proprietary, locked down, restricted software that doesn’t let me properly implement a good splash page, which is essentially my goal.

At a municipal WiFi focus group a month ago I learned about the proposal of having an Edmonton WiFi portal of sorts that shows you information about the area you are in. I think some sort of Wiki would be perfect for this and I’m going to look into it for my project.

My friend, Mack, suggested that I demo the mesh network stuff at the next DemoCampEdmonton. While it would be interesting to show, it’s not my technology, I’m just doing an implementation.

I’m reading up on Joomla! It’s a seriously kick-ass open-source application. I’m a bit miffed that I haven’t taken a closer look at it until now.

The reason I’m reading up on Joomla is because I accepted the IT Director’s position for the Alberta School of Business Students Association (BSA). It’s not a “real” IT Director’s position where I implement new grandiose technologies and run a huge department or anything. This is basically a service position for the students where I help maintain their website, publish updates, work with the Students Union to do our BSA elections, and help students get personalized business cards if they want. The great thing is I can do this while I’m in Germany.

Rob, one of my best friends and my employer for the summer, and I are going to try and rework his old site Equine Edmonton, I’m going to suggest we use Joomla! to streamline any problems we’ll run into.

Does anyone see a problem with doing contract web design and then implementing prefabbed infrastructure like WordPress of Joomla!?