During 2002-3, around the time Freifunk was forming, a group of early open wifi hackers, activists and activists from London & Berlin came together to exchange knowledge and experience in building and establishing Community Wireless Networks. A document, the PicoPeering Agreement, was co-authored to state expectations and obligations in participating in a community network and to facilitate further wider connectivity.

Today, Freifunk and many other community networks around the world use the PicoPeering Agreement as a foundational document for their activities.

On Friday May 17 & Saturday May 18 many of the original activists along with other interested people met in Berlin once again, to reflect and celebrate the past, examine and question the document in the context of the present, and discuss future improvements and possibilities.

Mathias Jud & Adam Burns presented the sig0namectl project to a room full of community network experts, many of whom had over two decades of experience in community networking. This was a perfect opportunity to gain valuable project exposure and feedback. Adam announced the Freifunk beta release at beta.freifunk.net, and instantly there were questions. The first and most obvious was that there was nothing there yet when opened with a browser. Adam explained that the domain is primarily used with the sig0namectl tools, but followed up instantly realising that the WASM DNS-SD browser and local key wallet (the second planned demo client), was the perfect community landing page at that domain!

As usual, it is the simplest questions that can lead to the most inspirational outcomes.

For more information about the history, politics and culture of free networking we recommend the book Freie Netze by Armin Medosch