Aaron Baer – Connect the Dots

Silly MetroFi

They must be proud of themselves making public statements like this:

http://wiki.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MetroFi

http://wiki.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MetroFi/Portland

It appears that the Meyer Memorial Trust has created a channel on YouTube with some documentary videos of local organizations it has worked with in the recent past. The grant which we recieved from them was used to create the wireless network in the Mississippi Neighborhood.

[youtube I3BRQ_NmCdo Meyer Memorial Trust Personal Telco Film]

You can see this and other organizations that MMT has worked with on their MMT YouTube.

Well I must say that I’m pleasantly surprised by the current results of my Open Letter. In 2 days it has generated over 80 posts to the mailing list. Some of which have gone away from my original intent but there are also many that come back to what I was talking about. There have been some great ideas flushed out in relation to the day to day of individual activities and ways to use the network. I’ve seen posts from people that I don’t recognize by name, and I even received an email from someone in Berlin, Germany.

I can also say that I’m current still disappointed, but not surprised, at the results that related directly to my post. There are no ideas or goals at the elected leadership level pertaining to how to make the organization anything other than what it was 5 years ago. There really are no ideas on how to grow the organization to give even those original ideas a chance to do anything than what they’re accomplishing now. Which is nothing fantastic in the overall capacity of an organization like The Personal Telco Project. I’m not trying to diminish the accomplishments that PTP has made. You don’t find an group like this in very many places in the world that have done as much as PTP has with as little as they’ve been given. The group is VERY organic. It has made a good impact on the access Portland has to information. The volunteers have been consistently extremely smart and resourceful. I commend every one of us that have contributed.

If PTP expects to be taken seriously in the future and have available to itself the capacity to grow past pluging in Access Points, configuring email servers, and posting links to webcomics on irc there should be some expectation that the elected officials would show some guidance and goals to accomplish that. If not.. then hey.. I’ve come up with some pretty good links in the past and I’m sure I’ll find something else to paste in the channel again because that is definitely part of the fun.

I’m Posting this here as I feel that it’s important to document. Will it generate discussion or action inside The Personal Telco Project or will it go unanswered? Historically it will go unanswered. We shall see. Feel free to comment here as well.

Reference conversation from the General mailing list. Original Post

On 1/23/07, Tom Higgins <tomhiggins@gmail.com> wrote:

As Caleb points out M$fi’s success becomes a chance for the PTP to
show in a real world setting just why CWNs are relevant even if a
consumer based ad sponsored net is in place.

We’d better tighten up our boot straps and figure out where we go from here because I don’t see anything within our organization currently that makes us relevant. We haven’t done anything new in years and there have been NO new ideas, goals or guidance from our elected officials since the last election. Admittedly, I don’t have any ground breaking statements of my own now that would change that. I’ve mostly stepped to the edge since my son was born this year. However, I’m starting to become overwhelmed with disappointment enough to force myself into thinking constructively about PTP again.

As fact, there are many people still doing awesome things maintaining what we’ve accomplished in the past. And who continue to be active and enthusiastic about what we do and what we can do, Caleb, Russel, Jason…insert your name here if it applies… and I’m sure there are those lurkers out there that still feel strongly about PTP and do what they do everyday to make PTP what it has been.

But lets step on the reality button for a second. Saying that we’re a better service than MetroFi and that we can provide a better network than them that’s hard to swallow for me right now. For one thing we’re not a wisp, we’re not even and ISP (G*d forbid). We’re still a group of rag tag hackers that have great big brains, a notion for doing something wonderful for the community and can build networks out of thin air. Which is freaking super cool. It had once made us the forefront of the Wireless Community world wide and we’ve become a great resource for Portland and the people that live here.

But as a Non-Profit, as an organization where are we now? The same place we were 3 years ago. Sure, paper work is probably done a little more effectively now. But have we grown? Do we have more resources? Are we a better Non-Profit Corporation? I’m going out on a limb here and I’m going to say in the past year and a half the answer is No. (I think that was a pretty short limb).

OK. so this isn’t a coup d’état, or an I told you so, or an answer (maybe we can get there). I don’t hate anyone, I’m not angry at anyone (though I might have some anger out of disappointment). I do think there are people doing great work to “maintain” Personal Telco Project. Think of this as more of an attempted kick in the pants.

I don’t think the organization as a whole has anything to brag about right now.

What are we going to do next now that the Mississippi Grant is almost over? Anything in the works? Don, do you have any guidance for the corporation as we move forward? Or are we just going to keep wanking on and on about everybody else while saying how super cool we are?

It’s hard to do something ground breaking. It’s hard to keep coming up with ideas. And it’s REALLY hard to get people to think your ideas are cool and to use them or join your cause. But you at least have to make the effort if you want to be able to say you are still part of the ground breaking Community Wireless Networking world or even to say that you are a worth while asset to your own local community.

It is now the time when we fade off into the sunset unless the group gets guidance and creates a new set of obtainable goals. I’m sure that some people have thought about it before. I don’t doubt that people have been thinking it for a long time.. It’s now time for me to say it.

A-

So I’ve started reformating some images for my cell phone because the default backgrounds are lame and photos taken with the camera don’t scale nicely when used. These are all scaled 176×220 specifically for the Motorolla e815 which is what I have but the razor might have a similar screen ratio. Generally I’ll tweak the skins to try and make as much of the image viewable and hide the 4 navigation icons so that there is a glorious amount of viewable space available.

Also, Verizon has crippled the OBEX bluetooth file transfer options on the e815 so the best way I’ve found to transfer these images to my phone is to email them to a friend that has a phone that can transfer files via bluetooth and have them SMS them to me. Then I can choose to save the file to my phone and use it as a background. The other way would be to move them to a transflash card and use that storage for them. I don’t have a transflash card yet for my phone so I’m stuck with the SMS model.

I’ll try and stash more background images here as I “make” them.

I blame Jason.. I also blame a new cell phone.. But I’ve been flickr’d.. Watch Here for the results..

I’m south of San Francisco for training this week. So things might get exciting!

So, of course, I don’t have any more pictures up yet of our trip to Kauai. Honestly, I’ll admit that when I said I was going to have them up last weekend I knew I was on crack. But I’ll get them up there sometime… I know I will.

So, although work has been extremely slow this past week, overall, it’s been pretty busy life wise. Eden is currently in San Francisco helping Marisa move up here. She flew down yesterday morning and they’re driving back today. Current status is that they’re getting a very late start. So unless they stop somewhere over night on their way up I really don’t expect to see them until after midnight at the earliest. Work wise, I was able to study some Python tutorials, get registered for a conference in the Atlanta area, Château Élan Winery and Resort, for mid-September, and I am excited about the possibility of working on a couple other projects here at the office.

On Tuesday we had dinner with my Uncle Dan, Aunt Carol and their friend and house mate Barbra. They were in the area from Ohio and we were able to meet at Nicholas’s from a delicious dinner, we went on a short walk along the water front and then we drove through the downtown area and I gave my “Downtown Portland in 20 minutes” Driving tour. It was great to see them and a very fun adventure.

On Wednesday I lost. The Personal Telco Project’s elections for president were held on Wednesday. I was a candidate however, after it was all said and done Don Park won the election and is now el Presidente. Congrats Don. I’m sure that it will be an amazing experience for you and that the next two years will be challenging and successful. And thanks to everyone that put their vote to me.. and everyone else for making Personal Telco such a fantastic organization. This leaves me still the Treasurer of the organization and one of three officers of the corporation. And it leaves everyone with a new start and a lot of work to do!

Other than that life keeps on.. I really really want to get on my bike, something I might even have a chance to do tonight after work if I make it happen. I think my sleep levels are alright so I should have enough energy this afternoon. And I’ve been in the habit of riding Saturday mornings like clock work when I’m in town. But tomorrow we’ll have to unload the U-Haul and move Marisa in so I might not be able to ride until the afternoon.. That could mean some serious heat. We’ll see how it goes.

Oh.. I almost forgot.. Get this weeks Willamette Week. Eden’s photography was used for a book review of a local Portland writer.. Go Eden!!!!

David Pool over at News 4 Neighbors has this article interviewing Don Park and Myself for this years presidential election of the Personal Telco Project Board of Directors. Thanks David.

It looks like CBS News has picked up the story that ran in the CSM yesterday… Awesome.

PORTLAND, ORE. – On the surface, it looks like an ordinary weeknight gathering of aimless guys. A dozen men on a back porch chew thick slices of delivered pizza between rat-a-tat banter. One wears a bandanna. Another sports a John Deere T-shirt. Several have counterculture beards.

Personal Telco has an article in the Christian Science Monitor. Wicked.. and a couple of cool quotes from yours truely.. Nice job everyone involved. And thanks Elizabeth.