BattleMeshV5 Warmup
When the news about the BattleMeshV5 spread in Greece many wireless Greek communities inside and outside of Athens felt excited by the idea of having that many wireless enthusiasts in the country. They felt the participants also should have the possibility of visiting at least one of the many installed wireless mesh network found in the rural areas of Greece. Therefore, the idea of a BattleMeshV5 warmup in form of a guided tour through Sarantaporo was devised (managed and organized by the Sarantaporo wireless community).
Contents
About Sarantaporo
Sarantaporo is a small mountain village, situated at an altitude of 840m, opposite Olympus mountain, in the prefecture of Larisa, in the central of Greece. It’s permanent population is about 900 inhabitants and their main activities are agriculture, farming and surfing the web!
Special historical reference
2012, the year that Battle of Mesh visits Sarantaporo, coincides with the 100th anniversary of Battle of Sarantaporo, an important historical moment of the recent greek history.
When
23rd - 25th of March 2012
Why warming up at Sarantaporo ?
Getting ready for the real “Battle” is more than obligatory! And which better terrain for preparation other than Sarantaporo village, with currently 9 wifi mesh networks in the area! Playing with over than 80 routers and interfering with lots of end users, while having fun, experiencing traditional food and enjoying country life in a beautiful landscape opposite of the ancient Greek gods mountain Olympus, is the perfect combination for keeping “fit” for the main event in Athens. Get the energy and the right mood to give and get the best of you after such a warm-up!
What may happen there
No one may say for sure, however there is the potentiality for:
- Small workshop presenting the implementation of the local mesh networks from Sarantaporo.gr technical team, questions about further development and optimization, suggestions from the experts, feedback from local users experience and experts communicating mesh and open source basic technology evolution and their benefits in any possible way.
- Open space activities during the day, in case of nice weather: visiting village sights, walking on mountain routes, BBQs, greek-way coffee relaxation.
- Dinner at local tavernas in the evening and party at local cafes and bars till late at night.
- Extra special events organized by the local cultural communities.
Status update
What happened there
Greece National TV (channel 3) interviewed people from Sarantaporo and WBMv5 attendees (starts at 44:00).
Accommodation
Free accommodation will be offered, upon registration priority, for the event participants, who will be hosted in local village houses by the event organizers and locals.
Since the event ends before the WBMv5 starts there is an "accommodation gap" for Sunday 25th of March. Add yourself to the "gap list" while filling out the registration form if you are looking for a place to sleep during that night. A solution will be found.
Transportation
For better serving the organization of the event we are planning to make a bus reservation that will transport all the event participants from Athens to Sarantaporo and back, according to the following schedule (~5 hrs trip):
- from Athens Airport to Sarantaporo on Friday 23 Mar 2012 evening (departure approx. 5-6pm).
- from Sarantaporo to Athens (NTUA) on Sunday 25 Mar 2012 evening (departure approx. 5-6pm).
Sarantaporo GPS Coordinates: 40ο 04' 05,90"Β, 22ο 03' 06,42" Ε
Meeting point
There will be two meeting points to be picked up by the bus going to Sarantaporo. One at the airport and the other one in Athens. Please read this announcement to get detailed information about the meeting points.
Registration
Please register yourself using our registration form to help us getting a rough estimation of how many people will attend this event.
BattleMeshV5 participants list
Fee
The event itself is free of charge. The Sarantaporo community will even organize a free accommodation for everyone attending. Only the transportation costs have to be covered. Each participant is asked to wire 40 EUR (plus international wiring costs - see below) into the specified account before the 28th of February. [update] Since there where some people who wanted to book for the event but could not make the registration or transfer in time, we managed to extend the registration period for a week, until 11/03/2012 00:00UTC. [/update] to confirm his/her participation. Due to resource planing (bus/accommodation/etc) we can't accept confirmations arriving after the aforementioned deadline has passed.
Account details
Recipient: Panagiotis Christeas IBAN: GR7701401570157002101152049 BIC: CRBAGRAA Bank address: Alpha Bank AE, 40 Stadiou Str, 102 52 ATHENS Subject: $your_full_name, WBMv5 Warmup
Note: Your bank will charge you when wiring money to a foreign country. To get the cost down you can bundle your transfer with other people. Please contact us if you do, so that we know who is part of your group. Also add 3 EUR to whatever sum you are transferring. The account holder in Greece will be charged that amount by his bank for every transaction he receives. If you bundle your transfers you only need to add the 3 EUR once.
Confirmation
After you instructed your bank to wire the money, please get in touch with the Greek organizers to ensure that your money arrives where it should arrive.
Sarantaporo.gr WiFi Mesh Networks - Info & Statistics
Active mesh networks: 9 in different villages
Planned mesh networks to be installed in the near future: 5
Villages currently in the project of Sarantaporo.gr Wifi Mesh Networks: 14
Hardware: OM1P Open-mesh routers with the latest stable firmware r2695, Ubiquity Nano Station links for the backbone network
Dashboard: Cloudtrax
Existing mesh networks today:
Sarantaporo: http://www.sarantaporo.gr/node/98
Farmaki: http://www.sarantaporo.gr/node/211
Tsapournia: http://www.sarantaporo.gr/node/168
Kalivia: http://www.sarantaporo.gr/node/143
Kokkinogi: http://www.sarantaporo.gr/node/161
About Sarantaporo.gr Core Team
We are a group of people hailing from Sarantaporo, who live in different cities, countries and continents, sharing a common love for our village. The need to communicate with each other, to be aware of the local news, to be creative and active, prompted us to create Sarantaporo.gr website.
The next step in our trip was to implement and operate free wifi open-mesh networks in Sarantaporo and other 14 neighboring villages, while planning to further optimize them, extend and enrich them with online services (eg VoIP, Weather Station, Online streaming services etc). Suggestions and help from the WBM community on these ambitions are more than welcome.
Links
Contact
Organization: AboutUs
IRC: irc.freenode.net #battlemesh (webchat)
Mailing-list: http://ml.ninux.org/mailman/listinfo/battlemesh