North Bay Multimedia Association Web Developers SIG

Events - June Web Developers SIG

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WiFi Takes Flight in Marin

Who: Rob Flickenger, WiFi Expert
What: Creating a Local WiFi Network
When: Tuesday, June 25, 2002
Time: 6:30 PM, networking, 7:00-9:00 PM, program
Where: Marin Nexus, 650 Las Gallinas Avenue, San Rafael, CA (Directions)
Cost: Free to NBMA members; $10 for non-members; $5 for students with valid ID
RSVP: Advance reservations required at Acteva.
Info Contact: Lee Callister, Joe Zizzi.

Across the country - New York, Seattle, Houston, Hawaii, to name a few hot spots - grassroots organizations are forming to create ad hoc community networks that use WiFi (802.11 standards) wireless technology to connect homes, schools, and small businesses at DSL and T1 speeds. WiFi costs a fraction of what Pac Bell and AT&T charge for broadband connectivity. All you need to join the movement is a small antenna, an access point (a small box to connect you to the network), a computer with a wireless antenna and some friendly neighbors.

Here in the Bay Area, networks have sprouted up in Berkeley, Palo Alto, and Sonoma. Lee Callister, co-founder of the NBMA, would like to start one in Marin. (Lee, like many here in the county, is frustrated by his inability to get broadband where he lives.) If you're interested in becoming a part of WiFi connectivity, or simply want to understand what it’s all about, come to the next NBMA Web Developers SIG meeting on June 25 at Marin Nexus in San Rafael.

Rob Flickenger, author of Building Wireless Community Networks (O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., November 2001) and a leader in creating the system in Sonoma County, will explain how it works and what it takes to bring a network into a community.

Lee Callister, who has taken the initiative in organizing the affair, will conduct the meeting and be the lead for the Marin WiFi project. He would like to use this forum to form the core of a group to create Marin’s own system. Come learn how to get involved in making WiFi happen locally and learn, too, what a difference it can make - for you personally, for the Marin community, and for all through the enrichment of communication on the Internet.

To find out more about this movement in the meantime, check the Web sites for the Bay Area Wireless Users Group, the Sonoma group, or read “The Island of the Wireless Guerillas,” a great article about a group in Hawaii. Read more about Flickenger’s.

Marin Nexus
650 Las Gallinas Avenue
San Rafael, CA

Exit at Frietas Parkway
If you are coming from the south, go across the freeway overpass (west) and turn LEFT at first traffic light (Northgate Drive).
If you are coming from the north, go STRAIGHT at exit traffic light (onto Northgate Drive).
You are now on a one-block-long street (Northgate Drive).
Turn LEFT at the end onto Las Gallinas.
Marin Nexus is to your left. (To your right is Northgate parking and Macy’s.)
Turn LEFT into Nexus’ driveway and park in the lot at the BACK of the building. Or use additional parking, if available, across the street in the Northgate lot.