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

[Todd]

That is true to a point. While it is easier to serve a niche,  you have to make sure the roadmap ad foundation are designed for large scale if that is your end goal, meaning you cannot build a niche arch that needs a complete re-design to switch to a larger base. There must be an upgrade path or its a separate project. 

Another thing that seems to be brought up a lot is negotiations with isps. I am not sure what environment most of you operate in, but in Chicago and as far as I am aware, most metro markets, there are few if any isp's.  

Meaning 90% of users belong to 2-3 international isps.
DSL is dominated by att and Verizon,  cable by Comcast and clear 4g account for 99% of user isps.

Any negotiation requires both sides to want something. Somehow considering these isps specifically BLOCK most of the things this project aims to do, I am not sure how anyone is going to even start negotiating anything.

The point I am trying to make here is, no plan we make should at any point rely on the charity of large ISPs.

Peering is something tier 1 service providers do with each other. Never users. Clear doesn't peer with Verizon. They pay for bandwidth. Because they are competing for the same market. They are both tier 2. Do not confuse peering with service. Most small isps are tier 3 at best.

John Gilmore <gnu at toad.com> wrote:

>>                ... 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.
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