Editing Wireless community network (section)

===Early community projects===
[[Image:NodeGUR-2006-03-26.png|thumb|right|220px|The Melbourne Wireless Network in [[Rowville, Victoria|Rowville]].]]
By 2003, a number of wireless community projects had established themselves in urban areas across [[North America]], [[Europe]] and [[Australia]]. In June 2000, Melbourne Wireless Inc. was established in [[Melbourne]] [[Australia]] as a not-for-profit project to establish a metropolitan area wireless network using off-the-shelf [[802.11]] wireless equipment. By 2003, it had 1,200 hotspots.<ref name="Rob Flickenger 2003 126">{{cite book |author = Rob Flickenger |date= 2003 |title= Building Wireless Community Networks |publisher= O'Reilly Media |isbn= 9780596005023 | page = 126}}</ref> In 2000 [[Seattle Wireless]] was founded with the stated aim of providing free WiFi access and share the cost of Internet connectivity in [[Seattle]], USA. By April 2011, it had 80 free [[wireless access points]] all over Seattle and was steadily growing.<ref>{{cite book |author = Paolo Santi |date=2012  |title= Mobility Models for Next Generation Wireless Networks: Ad Hoc, Vehicular and Mesh Networks |publisher= John Wiley & Sons |isbn= 9781118344903 | page = 109}}</ref>

In August 2000, Consume was founded in [[London]] [[England]] as "collaborative strategy for the self provisioning of a broadband telecommunications infrastructure". Founded by [[Ben Laurie]] and others, Consume aimed to build a wireless infrastructure as alternative to the monopoly-held wired [[metropolitan area network]].<ref name="Rob Flickenger 2003 126"/> Besides providing Wi-Fi access in [[East London]], Consume installed a large antenna on the roof of the former [[Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich#Town Halls|Greenwich Town Hall]] and documented the states of wireless connections in London. Consume created political pressure on [[municipal authorities]], by staging public events, exhibitions, encouraging consumers to set up wireless equipment and setting up temporary Wi-Fi hotspots at events in East London. While Consume generated sustained media attention, it did not establish a lasting wireless community network.<ref>{{cite book |author = Adrian Mackenzie |date= 2010 |title= Wirelessness: Radical Empiricism in Network Cultures |url = https://archive.org/details/wirelessnessradi00mack_048 |url-access = limited |publisher= MIT Press |isbn= 9780262014649 | page = [https://archive.org/details/wirelessnessradi00mack_048/page/n120 117]}}</ref>

The [[Wireless Leiden]] hobbyist project was established in September 2001 and constituted as non-profit foundation in 2003 with more than 300 active users. The Wireless Leiden foundation aimed to facilitate the cooperation of local government, businesses and residents to provide wireless networking in [[Leiden]] [[Netherlands]]. The first wireless community network in Spain was [[RedLibre]], founded in September 2001 in [[Madrid]]. By 2002 RedLibre coordinated the efforts of 15 local wireless groups and maintained free RedLibre Wi-Fi hotspots in five cities. RedLibre has been credited for facilitating the widespread availability of WLAN in the urban areas of Spain.<ref>{{cite book |author = Rob Flickenger |date= 2003 |title= Building Wireless Community Networks |publisher= O'Reilly Media |isbn= 9780596005023 | page = 127}}</ref>

In Italy, [[Ninux|Ninux.org]] was founded by students and hackers in 2001 to create a [[grassroots]] wireless network in [[Rome]], similar to Seattle Wireless. A turning point for Ninux was the lowering of prices in 2008 for consumer wireless equipment, such as antennas and routers. Ninux volunteers installed an increasing number of antennas on the roofs of Rome. The network served as example for other urban community wireless networks in Italy. By 2016, similar wireless networks had been installed in Florence, Bolongna, Pisa and Cosenza. While they share common technical and organizational frameworks, the working groups supporting these urban wireless community networks are driven by the different needs of the city in which they operate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://peerproduction.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/the-case-of-ninux.org-draft.pdf|title=Hackivism, Infrastructures and LegalFrameworks in Community Networks: the Italian Case of Ninux.org|author1=Leonardo Maccari |author2=Paolo Magaudda |author3=Stefano Crabu |author4=Federica Giovanella |page=7|date=2016}}</ref>

[[File:Patras Wireless Network 5.jpg|thumb|200px|A Patras Wireless Network (PWN) [[WLAN access point|access point]], the first city-wide wireless community network in Greece.]]
Houston Wireless was founded in summer 2001 as the Houston Wireless Users Group. The telecommunications providers were slow to roll out third-generation wireless ([[3G]]), so Houston Wireless was established to promote high-speed wireless access across [[Houston]] and its suburbs. Houston Wireless experimented with [[network protocols]] such as [[IPsec]], [[mobile IP]] and [[IPv6]], as well as wireless technologies, including [[802.11a]], [[802.11g]] and [[ultra-wideband]] (UWB). By 2003, it had 30 WLAN hotspots, 100 people on their [[mailing list]]s and their monthly meetings were attended by about 25 people.<ref>{{cite book |author = Rob Flickenger |date= 2003 |title= Building Wireless Community Networks |publisher= O'Reilly Media |isbn= 9780596005023 | page = 125}}</ref>

NYCwirelsss was established in [[New York City]] in May 2001 to provide public hotspots and promote the use of consumer owned unlicensed low-cost wireless networking equipment. In order to get more public Wi-Fi hotspots installed, NYCwirelsss contracted with the for-profit company Cloud Networks, which was staffed by some of the founding members of the NYCwireless community project. In the aftermath of the [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001 NYCwirelsss helped to provide emergency communication by quickly assembling and deploying free Wi-Fi hotspots in areas of New York City that had no other telecommunications. In summer 2002, the [[Bryant Park]] wireless network became the flagship project of NYCwireless, with about 50 users every day. By 2003 NYCwireless had more than 100 active hotspots throughout New York City.<ref>{{cite book |author = Rob Flickenger |date= 2003 |title= Building Wireless Community Networks |publisher= O'Reilly Media |isbn= 9780596005023 | page = 124}}</ref>