The service partner I am working with is CAP(Community Access Project), a community that in goal of delivering free Internet accesses (called Wireless Neighborhood Network, or WNN) to Torontonians who can't afford one. So my job there is to help them to set up those free internets, to fill the gap between the ones who can afford the internet, and the ones who can't, so ideally, everyone can take advantage of the internet, to make their life better. And I will discuss more on what I had done specifically with this later on.
The person in charge of me and my peers at CAP, that is our boss, is Daryl. He is such a passionate guy, who also seems to know everything about setting up a wireless internet. He is so knowledgeable that he sometimes even knows things that he assigned us to find out, as he spoke several times to us, "Of course I know blah blah blah, I just want you to find out."
On the first week, which I and my peers meet with Daryl, he introduces the CAP business model to us. During his speaking, I figure out that I am in a task that is 90% commerce, not computer science. I can't catch up with much of his speech, which I can only decode a few things such as: 1. The cost of WNN is covered by several sponsors, which in turn, on the web page of WNN, the logos of sponsors will be posted, as an advertisement, to benefit them for donating the money. 2.Bell and Rogers are unhappy with WNN, because it is taking customers away from them, but Daryl argued back saying that WNN is a slow network (since it is free), people who use it will desire for more speed for internet video/music, so they eventually might want to pay (Bell or Rogers) for more speed, so WNN is actually attracting potentially bill-paying internet users. 3.The infrastructures of WNN is based on buying Bell internet service, and redistributing it to more people by installing additional wireless access points (WAPs) like meraki in the service area. 4. We will be focusing on constructing WNN in high density areas, such as areas with high floor buildings.
At the end of our first meeting, Daryl assigns our group a first homework, to write a business plan of WNN, which is suppose to be due in a week, and our group screwed this thing up totally.
There are many things just aren't right, which had led this to happen.
First of all, none of the students in our group even know what a business plan is. We are programmers, not commerce students. Second, each of our students has a lot of course works to do, so no one has sufficient time to do research on how to write it, and then have it done professionally within a week.
Personally, when I was trying to do this job, I got really confused. First I thought I was about to write something which directs how this business will be run. Then after I look up online, I find out that I shall write something up to convince other people that this business is a good idea. Then I got further confused, since Daryl already has a business plan in hand and shared with our group online, and he seems to want us to write another one. That plan is pretty much pro and completed, and I cannot insert anything more than that, based on how little time I was in touch with CAP to know their business. So before dead line I tried hard to squeeze something out of my head, some description about marketing process, and it turns out, when I tried to write it down, I can't even go more than 100 words with it. And none of peers of my group had put up anything written for the business plan. So our business plan is not formally written at all(However, later on, on our 3rd meeting, I did express one of my marketing description orally to Daryl, that is to distribute flyers about WNN to potential users, and print sponsor ads on the sheet to collet fees covering the cost). Then our meeting with Daryl is delayed for half week to have something done. However we still cannot come up with a formally written business plan, but we managed to collect some data for the business, mostly on how will it cost to implement WNN. the work is divided by each people contributing a few data sources that they find, and I contributed a source about setting up a cheap wireless network in different hardwares and comparison of their costs. During our collaboration of data collecting, we used google docs, to have a group of 4 peers piecing together a collection of data sources into one document, so the work is divided and collaboration is done voluntarily and effectively.
During our second meeting, Daryl assigned a goal, to estimate the cost to install a wireless network within one specific building, that is 200 Wellesley. But this estimation will take several steps. And the first step is to collect some datas. And this time Daryl divides the work effectively. He assigned different specific task to each person this time. The task I was assigned to do is to research on different wireless access point(WAP) products, compare their differences, from price to features, and draw conclusions on which one could be the best choice to employ. And this is due in a week, which a week later we will meet again and carry onto next tasks.
The products I decided to compare are products from belkin, cisco, and meraki. This is actually my first time to get in touch with wireless hotspots. When I decided to do research on them, I found a lot of data specifications listed, including some terms which I haven't even heard of. To compare them effectively, I narrowed down the area of comparison, drawing my attention only to price, range coverage and warranty. Later on, which I shall discuss in the 3rd meeting, I excluded a crucial attribute in my comparison by not considering the user capacity. Basically, in my conclusion, I concluded that for small coverage areas, a model of belkin is ideal for our business, and while another model from cisco is ideal for larger area coverages. I presented my work to the group by putting up my comparison analysis on google doc and shared it with the group, so they can see what I did, which some other peers of our group has done the same to communicate their works. This time, I have the given work done well within the one week deadline, and redistributed it successfully to the rest of the group.
A week later, comes our third meeting. We meet at the usual office first then take off to 200 Wellesley, to see the actual building which we will estimate how much does it cost to implement our network there. We entered the building at 11 am. It is a building that has 711 residential apartments (about 725 previously), and about 30 floors(so roughly 25 apartments per floor). Vicky Rennie, who is leading our tour, is an old lady in wheel chair, estimates that there are about 400 apartments in the building which could have access to the internet. This means the other 300 more do not, which is a gap that we shall fill by planning to install a free networks there. First, we visited several floors, to see the floor's internal structure. The walk way within each floor is like a z shape with vertical angles, which probably requires us to install a hot spot at each of the 3 segments, or at least 2, one each at the parallel segments. Also we see the Bell room of the building, which has a lot of cables and lines and a bunch of awesome devices that I can't recognize. After touring the floor. We end up at the lobby. There are floor maps near the lobby. We then begin to look at the map and think about how the wireless system should be installed. I stepped up, first saying that we should use WAPs with large coverage areas rather than small, so we can cover multiple floors at a time, instead of just one floor. Also I tried to explain a setup, which allows each 2 meraki WAPs to cover up to 5 floors at a time(current floor + 2 floor up + 2 floor down), in order to save money. When I proudly explains my setup to Daryl, he first lays back to the wall and enjoys his cup of coffee, then he turned to me and says, "You know, for the WAPs I have seen before, they just allow only like 8 users at a time. " Basically, from that point on, I realized that I have missed an important thing about WAPs, that I should have checked their user capacities, and take it into a serious account. Also, if WAP user capacities are generally very low, as being told, then it is a limiting factor compare to range when comes to installing WAPs in a highly dense building. So WAP user capacity, alone with its price, should be considered as the most important factor, rather than focusing on range. Later on, I ask Daryl, what if I consider that not everyone will be using our service, for what ever the reason is. Then Daryl tells me that I have to consider that everyone will be using it. Near the end of this meeting, Daryl further explained that when we try to apply for funding, we should always figure out the highest number (cost) we can go, and apply for that number. Because it is easier to have the funding go down rather than up. So this ends our third meeting, which is how far I have gotten for now, and the fourth meeting will be about going into the building again and actually testing signals.
Before coming to this service learning, I thought digital divide is mostly about consumers for what ever the reason is(poor, age thing), not to claim access to technologies. But after my enrollment in the service learning, I feel that there is a equally strong role for producers to push technologies to the face of consumers, to provide higher quality and broader access of technologies like internet for cheaper prices. And the local communities around people also have a role, to educate them about the benefits of the technologies like internet, and promote activities to encourage people using it, as well as to provide supports (like providing spaces for service infrastructure installation etc.) for producers to distribute their technology services, and communities can even charge the producers on that, to collect funds to improve themselves.
