ok - i'm surfacing for air here and i'm wondering what folks are
realistically interested in doing. specifically how we plan on
attacking some of the problems that we have confronting us and what
are people up for tackling?

i see that spencer has been quite keen on making some forward movement
here and i'd like to support this and hopefully other would like to as
well.  matthew has done some excellent work with the maps.tcwug.org
setup and people have been adding nodes to this which is quite
encouraging.

given my schedule it's problematic for me to be out in the field
testing APs and setting things up but i'd be more than happy to
provide some focused energy on development, documentation, design and
administravia, items which don't necessarily require considerable
quantities of coordinated time. ;-)

as i see it we have a number of tasks facing us if we're interested in
either the hotspot or overlay mode of operation. i'll detail these
below and i'd like to suggest that interested parties start bonding
on the elements that interest them and perhaps give a bit of an update
on their respective activities at the meeting.  thoughts?  i'm sure
that i've missed elements but breaking these out into bite sized
pieces seems like a good place to start.


 - evangelism - if we're going to make this work in any fashion we
 need to get the word out to folks.  perhaps we want to brainstorm
 ideas for getting more people involved.  more people means more APs
 and more opportunities for creating links

 - common authentication infrastructure - karl has offered a server to
 handle some of the elements associated with creating a common
 authentication infrastructure.  i suggest interested parties start
 hammering out designs for this element

 - turnkey solutions - there's been a bit of chatter on #tcwug
 regarding cheap APs.  pehaps we should write some documentation
 regarding the sane setup and configuration of some of these platforms
 to assist newbies.  additionally, we might want to come up with some
 reference configurations which address the concerns of abuse.
 
 - administrative elements - bob mentioned that much of the work that
 was done investigating the tclug non-profit status would be
 applicable to tcwug.  business minded folks might be able to provide
 some real insights here and steer us in a good direction.  in looking
 at the efforts of other wireless groups around the country there look
 to be some interesting twists on the options available to folks. 

   - some of this work would likely entail managing fundraising
   efforts to facilitate the growth of the network if that's what
   people are intersted in ...

 - site surveys and installation - it might be good to get a team
 together to investigate the options for linking different nodes
 together and/or coming up with hub sites which several users can
 reach if they can't reach each other.  i'm thinking of folks scouting
 out tall buildings here ...


these are some of the items that i think we might benefit ourselves in
dividing up and tackling as people have resources, time and
inclination.  thoughts?


-- 
steve ulrich                       sulrich at botwerks.org
PGP: 8D0B 0EE9 E700 A6CF ABA7  AE5F 4FD4 07C9 133B FAFC