Brooklyn Students Successfully Deploy Open Source Wi-Fi Network

Every year I attend San Diego Comic Con and every year one of the biggest complaints among attendees is about connectivity. Particularly for those of us writing about the event, sitting in a room full of computer whizzes yet being unable to connect to the Wi-Fi to write an update is mind boggling. We may be getting some help from an unlikely place, an open source software project and a group of students in Brooklyn who are learning about mesh networking.

Mesh networking is a great answer for any location that can’t take advantage of traditional wired networking. Historic buildings, low-income neighborhoods and temporary facilities all face logistic or cost challenges installing cable so networking over Wi-Fi is a simple answer. But you still need software to connect the system and for some locations even that cost is a show stopper. Now, the Open Technology Institute has announced the release of a new version of free, open course wireless networking software called Commotion.

Commotion is still in beta, but has already been successfully set up by students of the OTI’s Digital Stewards training program in Brooklyn. The team practiced by partnering with students in the Detroit Steward Program to install a mesh network for users attending the Allied Media Conference in Detroit. The New York students then planned and implemented a network in the tough, low income neighborhood of Red Hook, where computers are scarce...