I have several projects that are ongoing. I tend to think of them as geeky, although they are not all strictly technical endeavors.
For nearly 10 years, I have been at the forefront of the Community Wireless Networking revolution, which from its humble grassroots beginnings, has turned into a worldwide phenomenon.
For the most part, I have focused on the technical aspects of CWNs, and have spent much of my time on the Infrastructure building process rather than the applications and benefits that can be realized through locally owned and run networks.
I have realized that for Community Wireless Networks to truly become viable, that they need some killer applications, and one of those applications is the consumption and production of local content. I have been slowly shifting my focus towards the generation of that content, but it
Seattlewireless is a project I started back in 2000, It’s goal is to create a citywide wireless network that is free of recurrent cost. It’s a simple concept really. People get involved by building or buying a wifi compatible box that can talk some mesh networking protocols, toss it on their roof or window, and build a network with other people around them. Since there’s no telephone company involved, there’s nobody to pay, and because each user owns their own gear, the cost of the network is spread out, so it’s near free.
FreeNetworks.org is a volunteer cooperative association dedicated to education, collaboration, and advocacy for the creation of FreeNetworks. I helped start this back in 2001, and through it, helped others start community wireless networking projects all over the world.
mattw.fn_blog()
I started maintaining a blog for my SeattleWireless related stuff back in 2003, It isn’t all technical nitty gritty, but more just geek stuff that I think is interesting, places I’ve been and people that I’ve met in my ‘wireless travels’.
January 2008, I started up a neighborhood blog called 8 BLOCK WALK. It’s focus is on the walk between my home and work, and is a random experiment in hyper-local blogging. Because I have such a short commute, actual news rarely happens, so it’s mostly just my commentary on the mundane.
A little while after I started up 8 BLOCK WALK, I got involved with the folks over at Capitol Hill Seattle Blog as a writer/contributor, and occasionally I follow through with my duties. If something falls outside of my commute, but still lands on the hill, it ends up on CHSblog.