Related work

In different parts of the world wireless communities are developing. In the USA there are a number of leading initiatives [nyc,Seattlewireless,FreeNetworks], but also in Europe and Australia communities have been formed. The main difference between the Wireless Leiden network and a number of other wireless communities is that Wireless Leiden definitely not has a hobby-network kind of style and set-up. Due to the professionals affiliated with the Wireless Leiden Foundation and the partnerships with major (local) groups of potential users, hardware vendors, the university and content providers it is far beyond the concept of a number of people sharing their DSL connection using wireless technologies. The other main difference is that due to the acceptance by the community and therefore the possibility to set up nodes on a large number of non-individually owned buildings, all connections between the network nodes can be wireless. No wired connection is needed. Here the European (or Dutch) mentality of cooperation to achieve the best result may be an advantage.

Last but not least, as the infrastructure is based on open standards and Open Source software, it is freeing us from vendor lock-ins and is achieving the broadest possible range of applications while providing sustainability of the complete system.