A new free book delivers a complete HOWTO for assembling and maintaining wireless networks in rural towns in developing countries. "Wireless Networking in the Developing World" was co-written by some of the world's leading community wireless experts, including Rob Flickenger, who wrote O'Reilly's seminal Building Community Wireless Networks and Wireless Hacks, wire.less.dk's Tomas Krag, and numerous wireless hackers of great skill and repute. Many of the contributors have built and deployed networks in the developing world, and they have released the whole text under a very liberal Creative Commons license that encourages others to build on their work and profit from it.
In almost every village, town, or city in the developing world, there are
people who can build just about anything. With the right know-how, this can
include wireless networks that connect their community to the Internet. The
book addresses what Rob Flickenger, the book's editor and lead author, calls
a chicken-and-egg problem: "While much information about building wireless
networks can be found on-line, that presents a problem for people in areas
with little or no connectivity", said Flickenger from his workshop in
Seattle. The book covers topics from basic radio physics and network design
to equipment and troubleshooting. It is intended to be a comprehensive
resource for technologists in the developing world, providing the critical
information that they need to build networks. This includes specific
examples, diagrams and calculations, which are intended to help building
wireless networks without requiring access to the Internet.In the developing world, one book can often be a library, and to a techie
this book may well be a bible. Access to books is difficult where there are
few libraries or book stores, and there is often little money to pay for
them. "Our book will be released under a Creative Commons license, so
everybody can copy and distribute it free of charge. That doesn't mean it is
a 'cheap' book. I think it is a great book," stated Corinna 'Elektra'
Aichele, one of the books co-authors who was recently installing wireless
networks in Bangladesh.
(Thanks, Tomas!)
