It's a beautiful day for Father's day. I've been having fun with the boys. I got out the Lilo and Stitch DVD to show them where, in the Jail scene, they show a sillouette of Dr. Jaques von Hamsterviel.
I had heard last summer that the villian of the upcoming Stitch movie was "featured" in the prison scene, but I hadn't sure which one it was until we saw a "Stitch, The Movie" children's book at Media Play last week. I'm a bit disappointed to think that the movie will have a villian. One of the things I liked best about the original movie was that there was no villian -- all of the characters are richly textured, have moments of weakness, but display aspects of heroism and greatness as well. The preview for "Stitch, The Movie" was also disappointing. the animation looks terrible -- no better than a cheap saturday-morning cartoon. Sigh...
It has been interesting listening to comments regarding the 
Community Wireless draft. Not surprisingly, the comments have largely revolved around the difficulty of managing the complexity of inter-relationships necessary for the project (as I have envisioned it) to work. One person suggested starting with smaller and more "grassroots" pieces. This is certainly what to do, if we can't convince the gate-keepers of the larger entities to join in. I still think it's worth trying to aim high initially. If we can get the big players to buy in, I think we can start off much farther ahead. Conceptually, I believe all the players involved have more to gain than to lose through participating, but I'm not sure that can be demonstrated without access to the raw economic data regarding the costs that colleges and university are paying for networking and wireless hardware. The real questions are "What do you save by preventing others from using your wireless network? What do you gain by not locking down your own network? What do you gain by increasing your access to other wireless networks?" I think the answers are "almost nothing, something, and a lot".
What do you save by preventing others from accessing your wireless network?
If you assume the costs of the infrastructure are primarily in terms of providing it in the first place (ie, building the physical infrastructure and purchasing connectivity), preventing other people from using the network only provides savings if the network is overtaxed. An underutilized system can support additional use at essentially no cost. If wireless connectivity is provided at only a very small number of points, the likelihood it will be overtaxed increases. As the size of the network increases, the likelihood of any particular part becoming overtaxed decreases -- with the exception of the primary network feed. If we make a few assumptions, we can make some predictions regarding the potential increase in traffic. Let's assume first that everyone in the community has some form of connectivity prior to the wireless access being available. Second, let's assume the size of the community doesn't change due to the wireless access. If we make these assumptions, if users simply accomplish the same tasks, but use the wireless network for part of their traffic (to displace their activities in time and space), increases in the wireless network traffic would be matched by decreases in the use of other network resources: the total network traffic would be unchanged. To the extent that total traffic increases, it represents people accomplishing additional work with the wireless network that would otherwise not have happened. The key, then, is getting all of the networking providers to join into the endeavour: among them the total networking will increase only marginally. The one other potential cost of allowing others to use the wireless network is dealing with abuse.
What do you gain by not locking down your own network?
A huge part of network management deals with security: managing users, usernames, and passwords, designing and maintaining systems that prevent services from being used by non-users, and dealing with the consequences when security breaches occur. On the one hand, there are legal requirements regarding access to confidential information that require managing user access to data. Since these will always need to be managed for other purposes, the costs cannot be totally recovered by building an open wireless network. Still, the costs of erecting barriers to network use cut both ways:in addition to the costs of building and operating the closed system, anytime you erect a system to prevent illegitimate users, you also prevent legitmate users sometimes, which represents an additional cost of maintaining a closed system.
What do you gain by increasing your access to other wireless networks?
Everyone who has a wireless device benefits when it can be used in more places. Increased access to information will increase efficiency and save time. You can solve problems immediately rather than having to wait until you get to a networked device. Knowing you can stay connected will also allow you to organize your time better. Finally, it will allow people to displace their work from their office and accomplish more work while out among other people, which increases the potential for collaboration.
As the heat of the afternoon faded in the evening, I put on my shoes and socks and took Plato for a walk through the neighborhood. At the old Baldwin house, the coaches' dogs barked at us, causing Plato's fur all along his back to stand up and bristle like a brush. He knew they couldn't get out, so it was barely more than a reflex. We stopped at Tregarthen to smell the roses. The rich odor of the beach roses almost overpowering the more delicate fragrance of the white roses. Wendy barked at us as we reached the end of the street, causing Plato to bristle again, but she was indoors and we walked past and out into the field.
The grass of the field is waist high now. What looks like a gentle sea of uniform rippling grass from a distance has unique character at each step close up. Ragged robbin, buttercups, asters, and mustards are all blooming amongst the grass. Plato runs through the grass, invisible except for the waving tops, then barrelling at you suddenly from the front or the side. We head out into the field and then veer off towards the woods where the blueberry patch lies.
Once this area may have been a little farm -- not far from here is an old tobacco barn and the field was clearly once an agricultural field. And there is a good-sized path of what were once cultivated blueberries. I believe the University owns the property now. The blueberries have gradually been engulfed by scrub and forest. One old woman in the neighborhood goes out and cuts the brush back and keeps the patch open.
The rain of two days ago, has left the field squishy, but the woods are a treacherous bog of muck. Although Plato made it all the way, I am turned back by the last, and largest, pool of mud. I made it close enough to see that the blueberries are not ready yet, though. Walking back through the grass, I was able to drag my feet through the grass and clean off enough of the muck to avoid being chastised when I got home. A good walk.