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News :: UCIMC |
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Major Grant Awarded to Community Tech Project |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sascha Meinrath
Email: sascha (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified!)
Phone: (217)278-3933 |
17 Feb 2004
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LOCAL COMMUNITY WIRELESS NETWORK PROJECT RECEIVES MAJOR GRANT FUNDING FROM THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE TO BUILD THE WORLD'S MOST ADVANCED COMMUNITY WIRELESS NETWORK.
The Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CWN) has been awarded a significant grant from the Open Society Institute, funded by the Soros Foundation, to develop wireless technology to be used around the globe, with a focus on developing nations. Urbana-Champaign will become the testing ground for this technology. |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT
Contact Name: Sascha Meinrath
Company Name: Community Wireless Network
E-mail: sascha (at) ucimc.org
Phone: (217)278-3933
Website: http://www.cuwireless.net
LOCAL COMMUNITY WIRELESS NETWORK PROJECT RECEIVES MAJOR GRANT FUNDING FROM THE OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE TO BUILD THE WORLD'S MOST ADVANCED COMMUNITY WIRELESS NETWORK.
The Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CWN) has been awarded a significant grant from the Open Society Institute, funded by the Soros Foundation, to develop wireless technology to be used around the globe, with a focus on developing nations. Urbana-Champaign will become the testing ground for this technology.
The grant amount and details will be released at a press conference scheduled for Wednesday morning at 9am at the Community Wireless Network's offices:
115 West Main Street
Second Floor
Urbana, IL
The Community Wireless Network is building a high-speed communications network that promises to support publishing and city-wide Internet radio broadcast by citizens, a community-owned local telephone service, and bandwidth sharing. The network uses off-the-shelf wireless hardware to spread a "web" of network connectivity across town. The CWN uses open-source software and open-architecture hardware created by the CWN development team. Using essentially the same "WiFi" equipment you may use in your home or office, the CWN puts equipment on rooftops to connect users with their neighbors to form a high-speed community network.
The three-part mission of CWN is:
1) to connect every local citizen to the Internet at low cost;
2) develop open-source hardware and software for use by wireless projects around the globe; and,
3) build and support community-owned, not-for-profit broadband networks in cities and towns throughout the world.
Since its inception, the CWN has grown to become a leading source of information, software, and hardware for building community wireless networks. Over the past three years, CWN research and development has yielded two proof-of-concept CWN prototypes in Urbana. The current Open Society Institute grant will allow the CWN development team to refine this software and build a large-scale Community Wireless Network testbed that can be used by the Champaign-Urbana community to bring affordable broadband connectivity to all.
The Community Wireless Network is a program of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center Foundation (IMC), a federally-recognized non-profit organization. The project has supported itself through donations, foundational grants, and institutional support. The Community Wireless Network is composed of a consortium of researchers, programmers, community activists, non-profit organizations, for-profit businesses, and educational institutions. OJC Technologies is the development home for the Community Wireless Network and has generously agreed to donate office space for the project. The Acorn Active Media Foundation provides infrastructure support for CWN. |
This work is in the public domain |
