Freifunk supports this year’s “Wireless Battle of the Mesh – Building Community Networks for Fun and Non-Profit”.

The event aims to bring together people from across the globe who are interested in community networks, including wireless mesh network technologies, fiber infrastructure, Do-It-Yourself Internet Access Providers, and more generally how to create and maintain a thriving community of people involved in building their own networks.

We envision 7 days full of expert presentations, practical workshops, late-night hacking sessions, and fruitful discussions: whether you are a mesh networking enthusiast, community networking activist, protocol developer, or have an interest in networking in general, come and join the event!

Thanks to generous sponsors, the Battlemesh is free of charge and open for all, and every year the local organization team strives to keep participation costs low by negotiating deals for accommodation and food.

This year, the event will take place from Monday 8th to Sunday 14th of July, 2019 in Saint-Denis (Paris), France. The event is locally organized. Check out continuously updated information about the event at https://www.battlemesh.org/BattleMeshV12

Freifunk endorses and supports “Wireless Battle of the Mesh – Building Community Networks for Fun and Non-Profit” not only for the efforts made by its community to advance the field of wireless mesh networking and foster the development of grass-roots community networks, but for their contribution to digital freedom rights movement, empowerment of peoples tech/net/media competency and a free and open civil society.

Freifunk will support the event by:

• bringing members of the community to the event
• sponsoring and collecting donations via betterplace

The Wireless Battle of the Mesh v11 (#WBMv11) and the Wireless Community Weekend 2018 (#FFWCW18) will be meshed up and co-located in Berlin from May 07 to May 13, 2018. Since it is the 15th anniversary of the WCW, friends and fellows from across the globe celebrate together wireless mesh network technologies and ideas of community networking.

You can expect to meet with tech experts in mesh technologies, policy discussions, talks, hands on workshops, late night hacking sessions, measurement campaigns and an ongoing barbeque at the riverside. If you are a mesh networking enthusiast, community activist, or simply have an interest in wifi or dynamic routing protocols, you can’t miss this event!

So check out our continuously updated information about the event at https://www.wireless-meshup.org

Location

We are meeting at the c-base space station, 3 minutes from public transport S+U Jannowitzbrücke in the heart of Berlin.

There you will find the main hall with the bar for presentations, discussions and hacking, a seminar room for up to 15 for workshops, two spaces for a smaller groups in the basement and upper floor and not at least the fully equipped riverside with powersockets, light close to the grill station. For the weekend we booked another room for presentations at European Theater Institute right next door to the seminar room.

You will find yourself at Berlin’s most famous hackspace, where you can use repair and assembling shops as well as meeting with Berlin’s net activists and hacker scene. freifunk.net is available, since the roof top node is part of the BerlinBackBone.

Taking part and Registration

It helps the organizers, if you add yourself early to the wiki page under https://www.wireless-meshup.org/ and provide your meal prefernces and t-shirt size, in case you want one. Start preparing your presentation, lightening talk, workshop, idea, announcement or open space you want to run. The event is *free of charge*, but contributions are very welcome, so please have a look at the supporters page as well, thanks in advance.

Accommodation Offering

For those of you who are looking for a convenient accommodation option: we have made block reservation for 50 beds in a nice hostel 15 min walking distance or one station by public transport. The packages include 7 nights in a three or four-bed room incl. breakfast – for 33,00 EUR p.P/Night incl. Breakfast
Valid for:

• 07.05.2018 – 13.05.2018
• 50 Beds are reserved until 23.03.2018
• 25 Beds are reserved until 05.04.2018
• Payment at checkin – using cash or creditcard

IMPORTANT: Booking with this special price is only possible by mail ap@meininger-hotels.com or phone +493031879767
Stating that you want to stay at “EastSideGallery” mention the Keyword: MESH
Booked Rooms will be held until 6pm on arrival day – please let them know when you arrive later.

Catering and Social Events

There will be catering at dinner time and free coffee the whole time. Beverages can be bought at the bar, closeby kiosk or brought with you.

Some jaunts and social events are in planning, but will be announced later.

Spread the Word

Please help us spreading the word by forwarding this to all lists and people that might be interested. Blogging about it is also very appreciated, and if you do so, please add a ping-back to the wiki page: https://www.wireless-meshup.org

We will also start the endorsements process within some weeks. If your community/organization would like to help and support us, please check supporters page.

Organizers Team Contact

The local core team consists of Monic, Andi, Cven and others from freifunk and c-base community.
The mentors team consists of Claudio, Filipe and Paul.

Over the next months there will be a lot of opportunities to meet wireless communities and Freifunker from Germany and all over the world. Don’t miss the chance to build networks outside of your own community.

OpenTechSummit – Information desk and workshops

14.5.2015 in Berlin

The day before our annual Wireless Community Weekend starts, the OpenTechSummit will take place for the first time in Berlin, Germany at the “Kalkscheune” venue close to Friedrichstraße station. Topics range from open hardware to design, graphics, software, networks, knowledge and digital policies. There will be DIY workshops for kids and techies. Freifunk will present itself with an information desk and provides workshops e.g. on upgrading Wifi routers. After the evening there will be an “OpenTech-Himmelfahrt” lounge. You can find information on the schedule and how the get tickets on the OpenTechSummit website.

WCW – Meet German Freifunk communities and international guest to chat, hack, chill and BBQ

15.5.-17.5.2015 in Berlin

Like every year german speaking communities will meet with international guests at c-base in Berlin. The „official programme“ starts at May 15th and lasts until May 17th. In fact, the final version of the agenda will be created by attendents on-site. If you add your idea or wishes to our wiki upfront, we can take care of your talk or workshop. Hack sessions are taking place the whole time.

This year we focus on topics like crypto, IPv6 and new services, but also like always latest firmware, new installation setups and last not least legal and political update plus public relations. We’ll also build an advisory council to settle on disputes and write down a Memorandum of Understanding on freifunk. Following the tradition we’ll have barbecue in the evening hours at Spree beach and we don’t charge entry fee. For more information and taking part, please look at http://wcw.freifunk.net.

Add your ideas and proposals for workshops, talks or projects to our wiki. If you have limitations on time, please make a note to your proposal. Our timetable will be compiled on runtime.
Please add yourself to the list of participants, too. If you need accomodation, or if you can offer a couch, add it to the accomodation page.

We’re excited to meet you in Berlin!

BattlemeshV8 – International meetup of Wireless Communities

3.8.-9.8.2015 in Maribor/Slowenien

The “Wireless Battle of the Mesh” is an event that aims to bring together people from across the globe to test the performance of different routing protocols for ad-hoc networks, like Babel, B.A.T.M.A.N., BMX, OLSR, and 802.11s.

Many developers and community networkers will join the event to hack, test, discuss, explain and learn.

The battlemesh is free of charge and open for all, every year we strive to keep participation costs low by negotiating deals for accommodation and food. This year the event will take place from 3rd to 9th August 2015 in Maribor, Slovenia and will be hosted by Wlan Slovenia.

If you are interested in dynamic routing protocols or wireless community networks you can’t miss this event! You want to talk about topics in this context? Propose your workshop or talk until May, 1st. Here’s the official announcement.

ChaosCamp – Freifunk Hacker Village

13.8.-16.8.2015 at Ziegeleipark Mildenberg

The Chaos Communication Camp in Mildenberg is an open-air hacker camp and party that takes place every four years, organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). Thousands of hackers, technology freaks, artists and utopians get together in a field for five days in the Brandenburg high summer – to communicate, learn, hack on things and party together. You can find Freifunk communities at the Freifunk Hacker Village. Visit us there, bring your tent.

Place of the event will be Ziegeleipark Mildenberg. Hackers will meet there from August 13th to 17th. Prices for tickets aren’t fixed for now, but a pre-sale is announced. Save the date for a summer vacation with like-minded people, including working hand rail trollies and locomotives!

Google uses open source software for many of its services. Google thanks the Open Source community and support students with a $ 5,500 funded project called “The Google Summer of Code”, which this year, ran from May to August. More than 1,100 students from around the world participated.

In 2014, Freifunk participated in the Google Summer of Code, again. Freifunk is like an umbrella organization for several initiatives from around the world: guifi.net, ninux.org, wlan slovenija and libremesh. We were given 9 “slots“ this year, for projects awarded to students in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Slovenia. The projects include the Freifunk API, network protocols and software for community management. Details about each project can be found on the Freifunk Blog.

Freifunk meets Linus Torvalds

The conclusion of this year’s Google Summer of Code was the Mentors Summit. Each organization was allowed to appoint two mentors. To celebrate the 10th Annual, participants from earlier years were invited and the Summit was extended by one day. More than 600 participants from around the world met in San Jose, California from Oct. 23. to Oct 26.2014, to discuss and showcase their projects, make new contacts and to celebrate the 10th Google Summer of Code. Surprise guest was Linus Torvalds. We had the opportunity to talk to him and tell him of Freifunk. Impressions and pictures of the Mentors Summit can be found on Flickr.

We would like to apply again as an organization in 2015. The application itself takes place in February 2015, but we can already gather ideas for projects in the wiki. If you have any contacts with universities or colleges, talk with faculty staff, students, and university professors to get support for projects in the summer term 2015.

Starting Friday May 30 till Sunday June 1, 2014 freifunk.net, c-base and the German wireless network community invites you to the “Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend” at the c-base space station in Berlin. Meet interesting people involved in Wireless Community Networks in other cities and countries.

This year’s main topics will be IPv6, encryption and community services and of course recurring topics like firmware development, new installations, legislation and PR. At the end of the day we’ll have a nice barbecue at the Spree river. All information can be found at our wiki.

Feel free to propose your own topics at the topic’s page on our wiki. The timetable will be created just in time.

If you need accomodation take a look at the accomodation page.

We’re looking forward to meet you in Berlin!