Online Fundraising Event
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wifi4crea: A Point-To-Point Wireless for Cocobolo Panama
This Wiki page is dedicated to the EwB, Chapter Sun project called "wifi4crea" with CREA Panama. 
Project Description
The goal of this project is to provide faster and cheaper Internet access for the CREA center located in Cocobolo Nature Reserve in Panama. CREA (Conservation through Research Education and Action) is a non-profit organization whose main mission is to protect and restore rainforests in Central America. Its current Internet access is via satellite, unreliable connection due to the weather and very expensive. As a research location they have a great need of Internet access especially in the next months when a new project based on SunSPOTs will be deployed in Cocobolo.
Due to the terrain to cover, a point-to-point wireless connection is the only alternative solution to satellite. Two of these connections have been installed at a Sun's campus for other volunteer projects and therefore we can definitely use the know-how in this project. The two points to connect are the center in Cocobolo (PointA) and a location in Panama City where Internet access exists (PointB). Since there is a mountain between PointA and PointB, there is not a line of sight from PointA to PointB and therefore a repeater is needed in the mountain. Lets call it PointR. We expect only one repeater will be required otherwise the signal gets deteriorated significantly if more repeaters are required. The distance between the center in Cocobolo and Panana City is about 30 miles.
Our contacts in CREA are Michael Roy (director) and Alexis T (member of the board).
Impacts
Positive impacts include greater access to information and guidance on matters pertaining to people's welfare.
CREA seeks to specifically use access to the Internet to provide training and give open access to local people for information retrieval on aspects of: farming; environmental sustainability; health; and specific community challenges. In addition we intend to build an Internet platform from which to broadcast information about the local culture, about products the communities may be selling and about the problems they face in order to build a peer level support network. We believe that CREA's ability to supervise, train and open these communities to the world will have many, even unpredicted, positive outcomes.
Beneficiaries
The direct beneficiaries of the project are the three local communities nearest to the Cocobolo Nature Reserve and Field School. The villages of La Zahina, Mamoni Arriba and El Valle are located in the corregimiento of Mamoni, in the northern section of the district of Chepo, in the province of Panama.
The region was colonized in the early 1960s by poor campesinos (people of mixed Spanish and Indigenous race). At the time of their arrival, these campesino founders encountered an impressively wild and undisturbed environment, Through slash and burn, forest has been cleared for subsistence agriculture and cattle ranching. Income is also sometimes generated through manual work as day labour, for an amount of $6/day, however this work is sporadic at best. There is no accurate information about average income although it is,unlikely to be above the threshold for poverty ($2/day/person).
Social relationships between the members of the communities can be said to be normal and typical for small and remote communities, with internal dynamics and a general tendency towards individualism, a result of mediocre living conditions and low levels of education.
Information for EwB,Chapter Sun people
For those working in this project, more information can be found in the teams page.
News
Fundraising campaign at GlobalGiving, Nov 1st - Nov 21st. 2008
We are raising money for our hardware acquisition phase and the installation trip at GlobalGiving. The goal is to raise US$3000 from at least 75 unique donors. Click here to visit our project at GlobalGiving challenge.
Below are the links to EwB-Sun blogs and posting about this initiative!. Thanks for making the call and effort!
- Marla's blog entry
- Marco's blog entry
- Dan's message in wall of Friends of Sun Microsystems Foundation Facebook's group
- Gilda's blog entry
- Julie's (Community Sun) blog entry
If you are a Sun employee, check here to access the matching gifts program.
Exploration Trip on Sept 2008
Marco from EwB-Sun went to Cocobolo in an exploration trip to gather relevant information for this project. Together with SunPOTs people, he spent the week of Aug 30 - Sept 6 in Panama-Cocobolo and the results are summarized in Marco's presentation on Sept 19, 2008.
Teams
A. Radio Mobile Team
Leader: Prof. Zennaro from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and one of the authors of the free book Wireless Networking in the Developing World.
Task: Perform the line of sight analysis using the software RadioMobile for the GPS coordinates below:
1. CREA center in Cocobolo: 9°17'16.50"N, 79°12'15.41"W
2. Hill across
- First proposal (rough approximation): 9 14 06.58 N, 79 16 45.79 W
- Another 3 points provided on June 5
- N 9.2636, W 79.22768 (best option)
- N 9.24760; W79.21705
- N9.25199; W79.21880
- 4 more points along the ridge including RadioMobile data (July 1st) Unable to render embedded object: File (4Points.png!** B1 = 9 15 49.10N 79 13 39.64W !B1ToCocobolo.png!** B2 = 9 15 52.75N 79 14 10.60W !B2ToCocobolo.png!** B3 = 9 15 54 .10N 79 15 13.37W !B3ToCocobolo.png!** B4 = 9 15 54.60N 79 15 38.30W !B4ToCocobolo.png) not found.
3. Possible locations in Panama City
- Middle of town: 9°00'04.33"N, 79°30'43.24"W
- East of town with some large buildings (closer to Cocobolo): 9°00'44.95"N, 79°28'41.19"W
- CREA office (small building and probably not usable): 9°00'10.28"N, 79°35'03.66"W
4. Pictures showing the terrain provided by CREA.
- Approx. line of sight to ridge to view Panama 
- Line of sight from ridge line just misses Panama City but one can see Tocumen Airport. 
- View from Cerro Azul (yellow circle with red border) 
B. CREA Team
Leader: Michael Roy
Tasks:
- Determine if a 2.4Ghz/100mWatts wireless connection is free and legal in Panama
- Find Internet access in Panama City in an appropriate geographic location
- Assist the Towers team with the selection of the exact place for the towers and help them to get in contact with local people for the actual labor work of constructing and installing the towers.
- Depending on the repeater/infrastructure, secure infrastructure by any mechanism appropriate to the terrain.
- Explore opportunities of fund raising with organizations in Panamá
C. Hardware Acquisition Team
Leader: Arshan P.
Tasks: This team will determine the actual hardware to buy based on the specifications given by the RadioMobile software and give an estimated value of the purchase.
Resources: Online sites below were recommended by Arshan.
- http://www.radiolabs.com/products/antennas/2.4gig/2.4grid.php
- http://www.ccrane.com/antennas/wifi-antennas/index.aspx 
D. Solar Panels Team
Leader: Bruce B.
Tasks: Power on the solar panels in the final destination. They might have power on Cocobolo and Panama City enough power so we might need to concentrate only on the tower on hill.
Resources:
- White paper of a Solar Wifi project done in Niue, a very small island in the Pacific Ocean.
E. Towers Team
Leader: Mahesh Kumar.
Tasks: Once the actual hardware is determined, this team will be in charge designing the towers that will hold the equipment. Different designs might be selected depending on the location. This team will have to confirm with the CREA team about possible locations in the Cocobolo center and the place selected in the city.
Resources:
TIER team info:
- TIER, research group at the University of California at Berkeley, investigating the design and deployment of new technologies for emerging regions.
- TIER mailing list, mailing list mailid: TIER@tier.cs.berkeley.edu - TIER team mailing list.
Considerations from Tower building perspective:
- General consideration
- Any regulations on the height of towers?
- Any license requirement to erect tall towers?
- During site selection, here are few things that we should keep in mind,
- Type of soil: undisturbed soil - should have less of loose ground.
- Are there any underground infrastructure that might get damaged?
- Can tools, machineries, cranes reach the location ?
- Any big tree roots that can hinder digging for tower foundation?
Information required for tower design:
- Height of the tower
- Load: Weight of the equipments
- Average wind speeds
- Foot print available (i.e the floor area available to build the tower foundation)
- Are cranes/machineries available in and around the area?
F. Fund Rising Team
Leader: Sudesha G.
Tasks: Raise money to cover at least the expenses below.
- Hardware
- Towers on-site
- Traveling expenses.
Proposed Steps
- Get approval from EwB, chapter Sun (approved on April 7th, 2008)
- Determine if a 2.4Ghz/100mWatts wireless connection is free and legal in Panama. A negative answer will be show stopper for this project. Task Owner: CREA.
- By using RadioMobile (http://www.cplus.org/rmw/english1.html), evaluate whether or not there is a line of sight between PointA and PointR and between PointR and PointB. This software also allows us to determine the minimum hardware requirements to make the signal work well enough to carry the Internet connection. Task Owner: EwB Sun
- Find Internet access in Panama City in an appropriate geographic location. This location will become PointB. It was suggested to look for high buildings so the antenna could be installed in the roof. Task Owner: CREA
- Determine repeater to install. Once allocated, investigate how they can be powered by solar panels. Also propose associated infrastructure where to install the repeater. Task Owner: EwB Sun
- Depending on the repeater/infrastructure, secure infrastructure by any mechanism appropriate to the terrain. Task Owner: CREA
- Get funding to acquire hardware. Task Owner: CREA
- Once the money is allocated, acquire hardware. Task Owner: EwB Sun
- Put antennas in Cocobolo (PointA) and Panama City (PointB). Task Owner: CREA and EwB Sun
- Install repeater and the associated infrastructure. Task Owner: CREA and EwB Sun
- Install a Linksys WRT54GL receiver at PointA. Task Owner: EwB Sun or CREA?
Others Resources and Links
Here are few links related to this project.
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