meeting notes: May 13th board meeting at Trinity Bellwoods & Squirly's
Attending: Dory, Hanna, Jason, Hilary, Michele, Andrew, Gabe
CSI-ENP funding
Hanna went to a workshop about it in Scarborough
TEF isn't for us (it emphasizes employment of at-risk and extremely low income individuals, as well as mentoring), but the CSI-ENP program might be.
they reinforced the importance of good planning
maybe we should bring on a consultant to help us write up a proper business & financial plan prior to applying
we're unclear on whether the expectation would be that we start a new “wing” that's a social enterprise, or if our current activities would qualify
ACTION: Hilary will pursue it: do we need to incorporate prior to applying? do our current activities qualify? Hilary will also coordinate the compilation of documentation for our meetings with potential consultants
ACTION: Hanna will look into getting some free consulting, from U of T or otherwise (I think?) *deadline for applying for 6month project assistantce from UTCA VCGA is JULY 15th. *need point person to liaise with volunteer team.
ACTION: as a group, we will follow up in August, since the application isn't due 'til November
ACTION: Jason will look for a volunteer bookkeeper (Gabe will continue doing it half-assed in the meantime)
AllianceCSP meeting in Montreal
Gabe and Jason attended, and gave a synopsis of the alliance and the meeting
Gabe will keep in touch with the alliance
pitch kit
Hanna and Dory are working on it
the plan is to create a pitch kit for venues who show interest, and a postcard or flyer to distribute widely (in time for the venue sprint)
ACTION: Michele is looking into printing quotes for both
mesh
Gabe and Jason did a test a few days ago on Queen Street
the results were good – we have a lot of stuff to figure out, but the Meraki boxes are robust
Hanna: “how do we pitch it?”
Jason: a mesh deployment would be a good way to get press
[Gabe after the fact: we have a lot yet to figure out logistically about mesh deployment, and it may be too soon (and confusing) to try to include a mesh pitch in the venue sprint. It depends on how much time people are able to spend on prototyping in the next couple of weeks.]
Linksys sponsorship
Jason has found that $1800 is available from them in cash or in routers
Linksys would like to get two press mentions out of it, so we'll need to do some communications work as well
we'd need to include a link to Canada Computers on our portal pages (and website?), and also to Linksys
we'd also need to give them a list of locations, and a copy of the press release we send out
the money is available only until the mid/end of July
ACTION: ???
Teksavvy sponsorship:
Parkdale BIA:
Jason spoke to John Colautti(?), interim (director?)
John didn't understand what the benefit to his members would be
Jason's offer was 30 nodes to cover the neighbourhood, plus 5 gateway nodes (the ones that plug into the DSL lines) for $5,000-$7,000
John asked to see a demo network – we don't have one; that was the point of talking to them!
he asked for maps; of where the nodes would go, and what the coverage would be
he suggested talking to TABIA
we need to work on our messaging for BIAs; making the value proposition more clear
stuff like: attracting shoppers, attracting people with money
also, testimonials from our current venues about what the value is to them in providing wifi
also: a better website and portal
ACTION: ???
mesh: Kensington Market
this may be a good place to deploy a mesh pilot
Cory Doctorow connection
perhaps we should speak to Yvonne from Streets Are For People; they may have good connections in the Market, since there's no BIA there
ACTION: ???
OMDC
Jason spoke to Kim Gibson; asked her if our portals might qualify for funding
she said yes, and that we should talk to Telefilm because we may also qualify for funding from them
OMDC only funds for-profit corporations; Telefilm's project funding programs too
the next OMDC IDM (interactive digital media fund) deadline isn't 'til the fall
ACTION: ???
sponsorship: Yahoo
mesh: freenet
they've offered to loan us some of their open-mesh boxes, but they want to send an emissary to watch what we're doing and learn from us
it might just be easier to get our own
sponsorship: general
mesh strategy
Andrew suggested that rather than doing one big pilot, that we could do 5 small mesh pilots in different neighbourhoods
possibilities: Parkdale, Queen West, Trinity Bellwoods, Bloorcourt, Bloor West Village, the Annex, Church Street, the Danforth
Andrew: “if we do this sponsored mesh, how do we explain it to our existing venues?”
ACTION: ???
content vs. access
we had a discussion about whether or not it makes sense for Wireless Toronto to do content, or whether the group should focus on access and “outsource” the content part to another group – this strategy may work well with the CSI-ENP project, if they require that we reorganize ourselves somewhat
Gabe and Jason felt strongly that content is a critical component of what the group does, and that we should think hard before going that route
[Gabe and Jason at some point got into an argument about time, resources and expectations. After the fact, I (Gabe) feel that it was mostly about that the people involved in Wireless Toronto right now aren't (able to) contribute the time required to adequately follow-up and implement many of the initiatives that Jason is working on, and that consequently Gabe feels that the responsibility is, by default, landing on his shoulders.]
volunteer recruitment
this appears to be a priority – if we want to get more done, we need more hands on deck
ACTION: Michele agreed to work on volunteer outreach (I think?)
We didn't have time to define or assign all of the action items.
There are also a few potential items which we didn't have time to discuss:
an opportunity to partner with the MEIC
WaterfronToronto's wifi plans
Pride festival mesh opportunity
paypal and donations
a discussion of the Wireless Toronto draft plan which Gabe wrote
hearing from Hilary about potential opportunities to partner with OCAD's “Changing Places” project