[Berlin-wireless] building mesh network for refugees communities

[Neels Hofmeyr]

On Sat, Jan 16, 2016 at 12:16:39PM +0000, Achuo David wrote:
> good day
> 
> 
>       we are volunteer workers of refugees emanicpation ,we kindly need the training course about the mesh network so refugees can manage the mesh network and build other network for refugees home in berlin brandenburg
> best regardsAchuo David

Hi,

a friend and I have setup, say, three-and-a-half Freifunk installations in
Berlin Kreuzberg, including refugee homes. I have always wanted to get the
inhabitants themselves involved in maintaining / expanding the
installations that we have put in place, but so far I hardly know 10
arabic words, and the language barrier is prohibitive, or rather, I don't
have the time to make contact and break through, to find out who is
interested in internet technology and would like to learn and become
Freifunk experts. I see the current massive new arrivals of motivated
people in Germany as an excellent chance to further the presence of free
and open Wifi in my city, country, world.

It sounds like you have the people/connections to make it happen, while I
have or can relay the technical knowledge that you want to master.

However, I don't really like to talk and talk, and talk about talking
later. The more hands-on, the better. So let me ask...

Where can we meet?
- Berlin Kreuzberg
- ...?

When?
- Next Friday
- Some Weekend in February
- ...?

What kind of assistance do you have in mind?
- Do you need to setup one Freifunk router?
- One entire building?
- Do you want to become a teacher for mesh networks?

What have you seen/read/understood?
- Just the general idea
- The Freifunk instructions / wiki
- The router config

What can you provide?
- "It's just me"
- Some well-meaning volunteers.
- A network of excellent people that know how to engage others and source
  funding.

Do you know specific people or a specific place where you want to start
out?

How comfortable are your contacts with internet / wireless technology?
- Total beginner / "iphone addict slash Web Developer"
- Intermediate / "Software dev, you have seen an IP address once or twice"
- Sysadmin / "You can explain IPv4, IPv6, DNS, DHCP and VPN and could
  configure traditional cable and wifi networks on your own"
- Maniac / "I eat complexity for breakfast"

What languages do you understand, and can you translate to/from:
- Arabic,
- ...
- Turkish,
- English
- German?

To answer my own questions, I'm in Kreuzberg, am a well-meaning volunteer
with a day-job and Arabic-speaking neighbors, have no external funding
besides some donated hardware and IMHO am slowly approaching the "Maniac"
level, with English, German and Afrikaans fluency. I will probably have
time on weekends, and few weekday evenings if it's really necessary. I
would appreciate to meet one or more great persons where we can help out
each other to spread the knowledge. (Me = knowledge, you = spread, sort of
like that)

Note, there is some talk about workshops, but I'm not involved there yet.
I could probably host one, but it sounds like not hands-on enough for me,
so I'd rather be the guy to 1:1 help whoever is hosting workshops ;)

Maybe try to read
  http://berlin.freifunk.net/participate/overview/
  http://berlin.freifunk.net/participate/howto/
  https://wiki.freifunk.net/FAQ_Technik
and keep in touch!

~Neels