Josh King
As the lead developer for the Commotion Wireless Project, Josh King draws on his years of experience performing technology work at non-profit organizations to develop and implement free and open source software to promote freedom of communication, community organizing, and social justice. Josh is the Lead Technologist at New America's Open Technology Institute, has co-organized the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks, and has his roots in the tech development and organizing around the Indymedia movement. He lives in Washington, DC.
Presenting
Workshop: Raising a Commotion: How to build a Community Wireless Network
For over 15 years, creative individuals have been banding together in different places around the world to use whatever technology they have available to build community wireless networks. These networks are organized in many different ways, use many different kinds of technology, and provide many kinds of services to their communities.
Commotion Wireless is a project to make it easier for non-technical users to build their own networks. In the first part of this workshop, you'll learn about the history of community wireless networks around the world, and then apply the Commotion toolkit in an activity to design a network for your neighborhood.
In the second part of the workshop, you'll have a hands-on opportunity to use the Commotion software to build a wireless mesh network using off-the-shelf devices. Participants will come away with an new understanding and new ideas for how to build a network for their neighborhood.
