510pen

In a nutshell, 510pen makes Internet access more available, and it helps to build community.

510pen is building a secondary layer of infrastructure for Internet access. It takes advantage of the Internet connections that many people already have, and adds a layer of redundancy on top. It's called a community wireless network, and it uses mesh network technology.

If you're a part of the "mesh" and your DSL connection goes offline, you won't lose Internet access - it'll just be slower until you fix your DSL line. If you're poor, only visiting, or just cheap, and you don't mind the restrictions placed on folks who don't contribute to the mesh, you can just hop on the mesh from your laptop and do your thing.

Getting a mesh network going makes some minimal level of interaction with your neighbors likely. Even if you join in at the outset without talking to your neighbors, they'll have reason to thank you when your participation in the mesh keeps them online the next time their Internet service provider has an outage.

See also our use case for a low-income renter, relevant to other types of participants too.

Two real-life examples:

An East Bay couple has been using mesh Wi-Fi to share their fast and reliable Internet connection with several of their neighbors. It helped them establish and maintain a great relationship with their upstairs neighbor, enabled them to recoup at least 1/3 of their Internet connection costs each month, and yet the neighbors' usage never caused the least inconvenience.

At the Local 123 cafe in Berkeley, mesh Wi-Fi equipment has proven to be much more reliable than the equipment the cafe got from AT&T. And as soon as one of their neighbors joins the mesh, Local 123 will still have Internet access the next time their DSL has an outage.

Interested in 510pen? Sign up as a beta tester!