[OpenWireless Tech] Sooth the nervous? Or enable the brave?

[John Gilmore]

>                ... the real probability of something happening
> like that is remote, but the problem is that you don't have to
> convince me.  You have to convince all the other people out there.
> And just blowing them off or ignoring them isn't actually solving
> that problem.

I think we should focus first on solving the technical and user
interface issues faced by people who do want to share their
Internet access with the public, and who aren't scared to do so.

There are plenty of people in the world like that; they'll keep us
busy for the next year or more.

In doing something that scales, it's often best to do a great job
serving a small niche, and then gradually grow out of the niche to
serve larger and larger populations.  If a project starts off trying
to serve everyone equally well, the task is frequently daunting, and
the project often faces seemingly self-contradictory requirements that
make progress hard.

(This project can also negotiate with ISPs on terms, once we have
something that their users would like to deploy.  For example, perhaps
we can get some regional ISPs to change their terms to allow users to
offer a *free* open wireless connection, while still prohibiting
offering *commercial* public wireless connections.  Then if some
people start switching ISPs to get those terms, it'll be a good time
to talk with bigger ISPs about making similar changes to both be good
corporate citizens and to remain competitive.)

	John

PS: If a subset of this group wants to try to solve the Nervous Nellie
problem (by technical and/or legal and/or public relations work), I
hope they will continue working on that (elsewhere).  That effort
wouldn't derail this effort, and if ultimately successful, could
contribute a lot.