e-c-o fundraised for 3 OLPC laptops to donate to Portland communities. This modest project has been made possible by the work of a.citizen and d.catalyst. Now, several citizens have expressed their interest in getting involved and helping to bring Eco-mUNITY to their neighbors, providing the infrastructure to bring the people of communities together, and to promote sustainability.
In order to recover the initial outlay of funds by a.citizen and d.catalyst, several of you have made donations to help support this leap of faith. We express our deepest and most heartfelt thanks for helping to make this dream a reality. e-c-o has donated the hardware necessary to implement the collaborative computer kiosks that Eco-mUNITY will install in Portland communities, Eco-mUNITY will connect neighbors to communities and visa versa. Please continue to support our efforts! Click the donate button on the left and contribute whatever you can.
What about the Personal Telco Project (PTP) or Metro-fi, you ask? Well, we intend to work with organizations like PTP who share our vision of putting the power of connectivity in the hands of the people. Many users are having access issues with top-down solutions such as Metro-fi like this article suggests. In fact, a.citizen lives directly across the street from a Metro-fi access node and has spent a frustrating 8 months with little to no internet access, even while sitting directly below the node.
By building a model from the grass-roots, many problems inherent in the top-down Metro-fi model are eliminated, and more control is put back in the hands of the community members. There is no single internet service provider (ISP), but the network is comprised of whatever ISPs the community members deem suitable. Connecting these nodes will be a mesh network. Ubiquitous free wireless is on the cusp of availability on a widespread level. As the recording industry is learning, adapting to that fact is the best strategy for competitive advantage.
If you have ideas or input, please email us, call us at (206) ECO-2688, or simply comment on this post. Thank you for participating.