[p2p-research] Fwd: FW: [ciresearchers] OpenBTS, a new kind of GSM network (+ Buying a Satellite for Open Access

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 3:16 AM
Subject: FW: [ciresearchers] OpenBTS, a new kind of GSM network (+ Buying a
Satellite for Open Access
To: ciresearchers at vancouvercommunity.net
Cc: Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>


Michel Bauwens: Recognizing the tangible aspects of the intellectual and
cultural internet freedoms: the buy a satellite project

http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/recognizing-the-tangible-aspects-of-the-intell
ectual-and-cultural-internet-freedoms/2010/12/31<http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/recognizing-the-tangible-aspects-of-the-intell%0Aectual-and-cultural-internet-freedoms/2010/12/31>



-----Original Message-----
From: ciresearchers-owner at vancouvercommunity.net
[mailto:ciresearchers-owner at vancouvercommunity.net] On Behalf Of
stephen.tracy at utoronto.ca
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 11:29 AM
To: ciresearchers at vancouvercommunity.net
Subject: [ciresearchers] OpenBTS, a new kind of GSM network


I thought this may be of interest to some of you. I don't know a great
deal about the project, but here are the basics. OpenBTS is an open
source foundation for developing a GSM based mobile network. The
development community has specifically pointed to its potential role
in marginalized or developing regions of the world, as implementation
costs are purportedly 1/10 of the cost of building a standard GSM
network. Interestingly enough, I came across the project on a post
that was demonstrating the potential threat such an open platform
could pose to mobile users (see http://gizmo.do/fbyG5C).

It's interesting to see the emergence and growth of open platforms for
the development of mobile network infrastructure, from open source SMS
gateway's like Kannel (http://www.kannel.org/) to this. Particularly
since many of the mobile pioneers who invested early in network
infrastructure have grown to enjoy monopolistic market dominance in
many nations (ie. Vodaphone in the UK, Bell/Rogers in Canada), making
it very difficult for start-ups to succeed (despite anti-trust laws).
I know that cost is not the most important factor here, and there are
a heap of other issues to consider (governance, law, security, etc).
But I think it's interesting to consider how such an open platform
could impact competition, development and innovation of mobile
networks, and access.

You can read more about OpenBTS here: http://openbts.sourceforge.net/

Best
Stephen Tracy


Quoting Bill McIver <Bill.McIver at nrc-cnrc.gc.ca>:

>
> All,
>
> I am looking for recent (i.e. 5 - 10 years) examples of
> publicly-funded ICT projects that have made significant societal
> impacts within non-commercial models.
>
> That is technologies whose use has not required licensing, fees, the
> direct involvement of commercial entities for its day-to-day
> operation, etc.
>
> Thanks,
>
> WJM
> --
>
> William McIver, Jr, PhD (Bill)
>
> People-Centred Technologies Group
>
> National Research Council Canada - Institute for Information
> Technology
>
> /Creating innovative human-centric solutions to real-world challenges
> for existing and future digital technology users./
>
> &
>
> Faculty of Computer Science, University of New Brunswick






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