Greetings all,
What to do about lack of support? Good question. I would like to contribute the following thoughts:
1) We have 3 sites with a good starting footprint. How many end-point users do we have? How many of those users are beyond the core donors and/or implementation or design team? The basic question here is – who is getting the benefit? (or is capable of getting the benefit)
2) What do we have for marketing, implementation, and end-user support for new users? If I’m an “average” end user, there’s a few things I’m looking for before I shell out some cash on a one-time or recurring basis – especially in the present economy:
a. Who are the target users?
b. Do I even know about it, or how DO I find out about HamWAN?
c. Am I in the coverage area? Can someone do a site survey before I dive in and buy equipment? What will my speeds be at my location, etc, etc?
d. Is it required that I pay? Maybe it should be a small minimum - $5 or $10 / month, depending on data used. This gets into a whole host of other issues, but is a question.
e. How resilient is the network? Many of us know an answer from the design standpoint, but the end-user’s answer needs to be in terms of actual experience – i.e. – in the winter of 2013 my cable went out 4 times, but my HamWAN connection only once – during that record 4’ snowfall!
3) One of the targeted uses of the network was EMCOMM. What EMCOMM related locations have we targeted to get onboard? Where are the potential served agencies located, and how many are in our current footprint? Success stories breed more interest.
Ok – enough questions for the moment. Now for my own 2 cents worth.
1) Financial support: Not having additional financial support at this point doesn’t surprise me a single bit. Ham projects are notorious for being over-promised and under-delivered. I do NOT believe that is the case with HamWAN, but that IS the mindset you are operating against. The core is now up and running. Support comes from answering the “what can you do for ME” question to the end-user. Those with enough drive and interest in the project will not need to be convinced. All others will.
2) End-users (individual): We need to get more of our core online and well versed in the system. From those early users we need a few in each county or metro area that are willing to do site surveys and interact with other potential end users to get them onboard. We need to focus on our marketing, getting the message out (with success stories), and more end-user demonstrations – not just the equipment, but from an application standpoint.
3) End-users (EMCOMM): We need some served agencies online. We need advocates outside of the ham world. Hospitals, Red Cross, Emergency Management offices, Salvation Army, maybe even a mobile station. If we have 3-4 hospitals, Red Cross chapters, or similar served agencies successfully hooked up, we have a working demonstration platform to work from. Even then, basic connectivity isn’t. We need hams in these locations to demonstrate on an applications basis what can be done “when all else fails” over HamWAN. If we can convince 30-50 different served agencies to shell out the cost of a single cell phone each month to support a dedicated Internet connection that is disaster-resilient, then you have up to $2500/month coming in to support the infrastructure. Demonstrate email, web access, and maybe even some specialized goodies targeted at them – use D-RATs for a tactical “chat” interface between locations – who knows? Maybe interface with other digital gateways or extend over other RF links (D-Star?).
4) End-users (Repeater owners): Keep after these folks. Many repeaters aren’t online because of lack of availability. Others already have it and could potentially save $$$. At the same time it helps increase the system footprint and redundancy. We need a person or two to get a list of the repeaters and start compiling names and how to get in touch with them. If a repeater owner is currently paying $50/month to have their system on the ‘net and we can save them half – it helps them AND us.
I have to admit that I can’t get online – and probably won’t for some time due to my location. All the same, I’m still contributing to the cause because I believe in it and it’s very worthwhile. It’s amazing what you guys have accomplished over the summer – you should be extremely proud of yourselves. At the same time, we need to realize that long-term success is not going to come in 3, 6, 12, or even 24 months. It will be a grind that will sometimes make us want to throw in the towel, but it CAN and SHOULD be done. We all know how important and vital it can be – we simply need to shift to the next phase of getting people onboard and USING it. Winter is a GREAT time to develop some end-user success stories. Cable and power WILL go out.
If we had a network map that showed current network status including a few hospitals, Emergency Management offices, Red Cross chapter, and a dozen willing end-users that stayed online when 100,000 customers were out of power around Puget Sound this winter, that would make a HUGE impact to even the typical “tightwads” in the ham community <g>.
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Cheers,
Rob
From: PSDR [mailto:psdr-bounces@hamwan.org] On Behalf Of Bart Kus
Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2013 10:22 AM
To: psdr@hamwan.org
Subject: [HamWAN PSDR] Facts about ham fundraising
Hello,
We've now deployed 3 cell sites in the Puget Sound which cover a ton of area with microwave network service. A 4th one is being built, albeit more slowly than normal. Anyone in the region can try to use the network free of charge for digital comms and internet access.
I've also done a couple talks recently in which I've asked for support so we may continue what we're doing and make it better over the upcoming year. So with the spirit of keeping my feelings out of it as much as I can, here are some basic fundraising facts:
1) APRS Summer Gathering conference. About 60 people in attendance. Conference + subjects focused on digital amateur networking. Total donations raised in the week of Sept 7th-14th? $0
2) ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference. About 150 people in attendance. Conference clearly focused on digital amateur communications due to its very title. Total donations raised as a result of the conference? $20 That's 13 cents per attendee. Only 1 guy donated $20 (thanks, guy!).
98% of our support to date has been from a handful of dedicated donors. These people cannot support the whole project. We have about $3500 of debt, which now that it's October, has ceased to be interest-free. The interest rate is NOT friendly now, either.
How can this lack of support from the ham community be corrected?
--Bart