[isf-wifidog] Fwd: implementing [BuddySpace] for wifi networks

[Michael Lenczner]

a response I got back from BuddySpace - http://buddyspace.sourceforge.net/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: M.Eisenstadt <M.Eisenstadt at open.ac.uk>
Date: May 22, 2005 1:00 PM
Subject: RE: implementing [BuddySpace] for wifi networks
To: Michael Lenczner <mlenczner at gmail.com>, "j.komzak" <j.komzak at open.ac.uk>
Cc: "m.b.gaved" <m.b.gaved at open.ac.uk>


Hi, Michael... thanks for the email, 'heads up', info, etc...

WifiDog sounds fantastic... it seems to me that because BuddySpace is
open source and well-suited to both geolocation services and
communities (the admin web interface makes it easy for groups to sign
up 'en masse' with one self-appointed administrator looking after
membership and map updates), that it would be a great thing for you
guys to experiment with...   moreover, Jiri  has been investigating
dynamic map updates in order to track IM contacts 'on the move'...
though this capability isn't formally rolled out yet.

It would be pretty easy to have a 'lighter' web-centric client (well,
a Java applet anyway), though without all the current BuddySpace
features.  It seems to me that the key things in your case are ways to
manage transient group identity and location (not unlike what
Dodgeball tries to do via simple SMS phone technology)... a kind of
hybrid of Plazes, Dodgeball, and BuddySpace!

Jabber has a great advantage of being able to scale up through a
federation of servers, with simple userID at server IM addressing, not
unlike good ol POP3 email, which makes it a very interesting model.

I think this would be great to experiment with - can you say any more
about what the typical 'user experience' would look like... either via
a storyboard, some screen grabs, or even just a few more random
top-of-the-head text descriptions?

I'm also CCing Mark Gaved, one of the guys in the lab here very
involved in community networking projects.

Keen to hear more...

all the best...

-Marc

*Prof M Eisenstadt, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, UK
* http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/marc/



-----Original Message-----
From:   Michael Lenczner [mailto:mlenczner at gmail.com]
Sent:   Sat 21/05/2005 19:48
To:     m.eisenstadt at open.ac.uk; j.komzak at open.ac.uk
Cc:
Subject:        implementing for wifi networks
Hello,

Congrats on the great project.  I've known about it for a while now,
but we're now at the place where I wanted to find out more.

I'm involved with a wifi community group in Montreal.  We wrote our
own opensource project called wifidog.  It sits on a linksys wrt54g
router at each of our hotspots.  It's client - server.  The client
controls the firewall and it requires authentification at the hotspot,
and the central server authenticates, manages the hotspots, and
delivers custom content to hotspot "splash" pages based on geography
and community interests.  We will be adding in user profiles in the
next week or so so that people can find out about others that are
using the same hotspot (currently the users that are logged in show up
on the left-hand side of the splash page but there is no information
attached to the user besides their username, password, and a validated
email address).

We have 40 hotspots and 5300 users.  We're growing at a rate of 1
hotspot every two weeks and 25 users a day.

Also the wifidog project is getting taken up by other wireless groups
(toronto, london england, nyc).

All to say that we will eventually get jabber working with wifidog -
but for the moment none of the doneveloppers currently associated with
the project have any jabber experience.  What I'm wdering is if
BuddySpace would be the appropriate project to use.

Do you have any thoughts on how this could work across a network of
hotspots?  Again, the router is running linux but doesn't have much
space left on it.  We can use the portal page to tell users to
download certain clients so that's not an issue.

I could actually see it working 2 ways.  When people log in to a
certain hotspot they would be automatically included into a
location-based chatroom availble through a webclient.  If they
downloaded a client, like buddyspace they could have access to richer
functionality.

sorry for the imprecise email.  My head's not working too well this morning ;)

michael lenczner

http://www.ilesansfil.org/wiki/WiFiDog
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