510pen: Wireless for the People in Your Neighborhood

Today I begun beta testing 510pen, a community wireless network that allows anyone to share their Internet connection to create an open wireless network for, as they said on Sesame Street, "the people in your neighborhood." 510pen is partnering with Media Alliance and Cernio Technology Cooperative in order to create a non-profit member-benefit cooperative to manage the wireless network.

So far it has been great. I just cracked open my new wireless mesh gateway, the Model OM1P from Open Source Mesh Solutions, all I had to do to get setup was plug it in as a replacement for my old wireless router. Then I could get online using the SSID "open-mesh," go to 510pen.com and register. About five minutes after registering my wireless gateway updated itself and my new customized 510pen wireless mesh node was online. I also have a private wireless network I can use that isn't available to the public. I will be keeping a log of my connection and uptime, hopefully it helps the network.