WireFreeMKE is an initiative to develop a community supported free-to-access wireless infrastructure for the city of Milwaukee. Milwaukee is a dynamic city, filled with creative individuals and the potential to offer a highly innovative culture for its residents and guests.
A broadly accessible technology infrastructure is a key component to enable and nuture the exciting possibilites that our community is ready to present. WireFreeMKE aims to develop this foundation, and challenge the city of Milwaukee to innovate on a scale to rival the coasts.
WireFreeMKE is a Mesh Network. Dozens of low-cost, commodity routers (called nodes) work intelligently together to share any available bandwidth over a large geographic area.
The two key components to the successful growth of this network are
- A large number of nodes activated over a large cross-section of the city of Milwaukee: The number of available nodes in the network corresponds directly to the number of people that can come online and share access to this infrastructure.
- A proportional amount of bandwidth available on the network: Just like pie, the more number of people that join the network, the smaller each person's share of infrastructure gets. The only way to deliver a productive online experience to all users is to persistently grow the amount of available bandwidth on the network; in other words, make the pie bigger!
WireFreeMKE is designed to be a community supported measure. So if you are interested in seeing this type of infrastructure available in your neighborhood, think of what you can do address these two concerns.
The WireFreeMKE nodes create an independent network completely segregated from the private networks that contribute to its bandwidth. Any client device (such as a laptop or iphone etc.) that logs on to the WireFreeMKE network will not have any greater access to your private network than any device already on the internet.
Users of the WireFreeMKE network should keep in mind that safeguarding their privacy online is largely an excercise in common-sense with a healthy dose of paranoia. The WireFreeMKE network will be no more or less safe to shop or bank on than any public wifi access point in a coffeeshop or restaurant.
The WireFreeMKE project was initiated by Shaheeb Roshan, a Milwaukee based technology professional, and is being championed by local entrepreneurs, thinkers and do-ers. WireFreeMKE is privileged to count the following individuals and groups among its supporters:
- Spreenkler (Steve Glynn)
- ActionsTalk (Ryan Graves and Blake Samic)
- Bucketworks (James Carlson, Jenn Turner, Patrick Schley et.al)