Charter Members
- Acorn Active Media Foundation
(http://www.acornactivemedia.com) is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to engage in software, website and technical development in support of the global justice movement.
- Austin Wireless City Project (http://www.austinwireless.net) is an initiative of Austin Wireless to improve the availability and quality of public free WiFi in Austin. Austin Wireless, Inc. is a Non-Profit Texas Corporation. Its mission is to: EDUCATE, ADVISE, ENABLE and ASSIST operators of public spaces in providing free wireless hotspots to ALL residents of Austin and surrounding areas.
- BGWireless
(http://www.bgwireless.net) is community network on territory of Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, BGWireless is a project of enthusiastic group of people. BGWireless is, and will be unprofitable. This is important to emphasize since the first thing people ask when hear about this network is "who gains profit", but the answer is "only equipment salesmen". People who spend a lot of time, money and energy in BGWireless project do not earn anything from it, except pleasure since their dreams are coming true. If they were charging their work as much as their spent time really costs it would hardly be profitable for anyone. Considering this, it is evident why BGWireless is enthusiastic project. Services which BGWireless offers are network games (popular counter strike, warcraft, starcraft, actually everything for which interest exists, chat, live audio and video conversations, file sharing etc). The idea of BGWireless is to build network infrastructure independent from any COMMUNICATION or INTERNET PROVIDER on Belgrade territory, having intention is to mostly use wireless equipment. Efforts of Serbia and Montenegro government do not improve situation of telecommunications here, so we decided to act in order to contribute to its development
- Chambana.net
(http://www.chambana.net) is a project of Acorn Active Media that seeks to provide low-cost web hosting services to non-profit organizations, progressive businesses, and individuals, both locally and internationally, by collectivizing the use of uplink bandwidth on a shared internet connection.
- CUWiN Foundation
(http://www.cuwin.net) is a world-renowned coalition of wireless developers and community volunteers committed to providing low-cost, do-it-yourself, community-controlled alternatives to contemporary broadband models. Our mission is to develop decentralized, community-owned networks that foster democratic cultures and local content. Through advocacy and through our commitment to open source technology, we support organic networks that grow to meet the needs of their community. To achieve that mission CUWiN maintains international and domestic partnerships with dozens of research institutions, not-for-profit organizations, community groups, businesses, universities, and government institutions. CUWiN also develops free open source, open architecture software for mesh wireless networking. CUWiNware is our flagship software. It utilizes wireless mesh protocols that we developed along with standard networking protocols and open source protocols from other projects. CUWiN builds and manages many wireless mesh networks, both in Illinois and around the globe.
- The Ethos Group
(http://www.ethoswireless.com) is a telecommunications consulting firm focused on the community benefits of wireless technology.
- FreeNetworks.org
(http://www.freenetworks.org) is a volunteer cooperative association dedicated to education, collaboration, and advocacy for the creation of FreeNetworks. You can show solidarity and support the cause by building a network that follows our peering guidelines, and identify it to your users as a FreeNetwork. A FreeNetwork is any computer network that allows free local transit, following the guidelines of our peering agreement. By "transit", we refer to information flowing through the network. While most of our members specialize in wireless networking, a FreeNetwork can be built using Ethernet, fiber optics, or any other kind of networking technology. A FreeNetwork is defined by what its users can do with it, rather than the particular technology it is built on. FreeNetworkers have been meeting since 2000 to organize, share information, and pool resources to find the best way to build community networks. Our members include community advocates, system administrators, RF engineers, writers, lawyers, programmers, business owners, and many others who want to help build FreeNetworks in their local communities.
- FreiFunk.net (http://www.freifunk.net)
is one of the front runners of the OLSR mesh networks. Covering Berlin, Weimar, Rostock, Hamburg and many other german cities, FreiFunk was the initial leader in city wide mesh networks. The Berlin mesh network has around 600 nodes. It utilizes the participants DSL uplinks (NAT) so no central infrastructure was needed for FreiFunk.
- FunkFeuer.at
(http://www.funkfeuer.at) is a non profit organization and free community driven network in the city of Vienna, Austria. From there the idea spread to Graz and other rural areas in Austria which have no DSL or broadband connectivity. FunkFeuer is using a pure mesh network structure and currently has the leading role in OLSR development. The mesh network serves around 360 nodes and covers the whole city of Vienna with one single uplink. FunkFeuer is sponsored by the city of Vienna and NIC.at. It is FunkFeuer.at is closely related to and cooperating with FreiFunk.net and has a very active development community regularly exchaning ideas with FreiFunk. The main idea of FunkFeuer is to be the net instead of simply "using the net". FunkFeuer.at pioneered some free VOIP services over meshed networks. FunkFeuer's members can enjoy free VOIP calls to fixed lines over pure meshed networks. "Funk" is the german name for "radio/wireless/spark".
- Funkfeuer Graz
(http://graz.funkfeuer.at) was founded in early 2006 and is growing rapidly. Funkfeuer Graz (Austria) is well integrated into local artistic and cultural scene. As of late 2007 the network consists of over 300 interconnected routers. Funkfeuer Graz has partnerships with the Technical University of Graz, the state museum of contemporary art and the Elevate Festival for contemporary music and political discourse. Funkfeuer Graz is actively engaged in hardware and software development and organizing international conferences; in September 2007, Funkfeuer Graz brought together developers of OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N and Netsukkuku to discuss future collaborations.
- HRFreeNet
(http://www.hrfreenet.hr)
- Île Sans Fil
(http://www.ilesansfil.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of a free communication infrastructure to strengthen local communities in the greater Montreal region. Île Sans Fil is both a technical development project and a grass roots community group, involving professionals and students from diverse fields. The vision of the group is to use new technology, in particular wireless technology, to empower individuals and to foster a sense of community. To allow this vision to one day become reality, Ile Sans Fil is currently focusing on two infrastructure projects. The first is the deployment of numerous free Internet hotspots in public spaces (cafes, parks, etc.). The second is the creation of a high speed rooftop to rooftop wireless network open to everyone in the metropolitan region. We believe that all the necessary infrastructure can be developed, financed and maintained by and for the community. This infrastructure allow us to disseminate local content (eg. arts, community news, local events). Future activities will involve the development of tools allowing citizens to create both temporary and permanent communities in public spaces.
- Less Networks
(http://www.lessnetworks.com) provides innovative sales and marketing WiFi solutions for public-facing businesses and organizations. Its flagship product, CustomerConnect Wireless Internet™, enables venues with free WiFi to transform anonymous wireless internet service into a revenue-driving communications channel that allows a venue’s customers to connect to the Internet and a venue to connect with its customers—even after they leave. It’s the solution that powers the renowned Austin Wireless City Project and propelled that organization to the forefront of public wireless initiatives. Its consumer product, Less Networks < Free WiFi™, sets the standard for high-quality, public free WiFi service. Available in 45 cities around the world, Less Networks hotspots connect mobile users to the Internet over 20,000 times each month. Founded in 2003, it’s headquartered in Austin, Texas.
- Meraka Institute & Wireless Africa Initiative
(http://wirelessafrica.meraka.org.za) supported by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa, the Wireless Africa group is researching ways and means to develop sustainable information and communications technology in developing countries. This will be achieved through community-owned decentralized mesh networks built on open source technology.
- Metrix Communication LLC
(http://metrix.net) is based in Seattle, WA. It's mission is to supply wireless network builders and developers with high quality products at affordable prices. It's approach is to use standards based, open source software and hardware. Metrix provides a hardware platform, an extensible software platform, consulting and support.
- NYCwireless (http://www.nycwireless.net)
is a non-profit organization that advocates and enables the growth of free, public wireless Internet access in New York City and surrounding areas. NYCwireless, founded in 2001, is an all-volunteer organization with seven (7) board members, five (5) special interest working groups and serves thousands of individuals throughout the New York City metro area. Over the past several years, NYCwireless has built free, public wireless networks in over ten New York City parks and open spaces through partnerships with local parks organizations such as the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation and business improvement districts such as the Alliance for Downtown New York. These include networks in Bryant Park, Union Square Park (in partnership with commercial wireless Internet provider TowerStream), Tompkins Square Park, Bowling Green Park, City Hall Park, and the South Street Seaport among others. In addition, the organization has created community engagement programs that take advantage of wireless networks in Manhattan, such as our annual wireless arts festival, Spectropolis (http://www.spectropolis.info). Following the success free, public wireless Internet access in New York City parks, NYCwireless has expanded its mission to including assisting underserved communities in getting affordable Internet access. For example, NYCwireless worked with Community Access, a non-profit housing organization, to train volunteers and building residents to build and maintain wireless networks in Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx. The networks will provide more than 50 residents per building with private, high-speed connections.
- Open-Mesh.com (http://www.open-mesh.com) develops open source mesh routing technologies for building your own wireless network. With online network management and an active user community, open-mesh empowers communities to free themselves from proprietary solutions and path dependencies.
- SeattleWireless
(http://seattlewireless.net/) is a community of individuals, businesses and non-profits that are attempting to create an outdoor rooftop mesh network throughout the City of Seattle to serve as an alternate local loop infrastructure for it's participants. It should be noted that the Seattle Wireless project is a grassroots project and not endorsed by the City of Seattle. Many of the principals and users are from a technology and telecommunications background and the website and materials produced by the project have been used as a technology resource worldwide. Seattle Wireless was founded in 2000 and is considered a pioneering project in the community wireless networking space.
- Wireless Lancaster
