Please feel free to add your text, to write about your experiences on the Links under the topics, and to comment this "howto"
Introduction
Why an Open Internet Access Place?
Finding a Place
- integrate an already-existing social centre
- squat your own
How To Find The Hardware?
- experiences...
Which Software Should Be Used?
General view:
- In an Open Access there should be used just Open Source/ Free Software not only because of ideological issues but also because of sustainability.
- It is recomended to use a GNU/Linux distribution, preferably a distribution not made by an company because you can remain one day without the distribution that you've learned how to use at its best just because a business plan has failed or because of the flows on the stock markets. So, it is better to use some community developed GNU/Linux distributions like Debian, Slackware or Gentoo (however, there are some discussions about Gentoo).
- Debian GNU/Linux is probably the best choice for an indipendent Open Access place because of its social contract, the way it is developed, for the great ammount of documentation for newbies that you can find online, etc... And after the problems that newbies have at the beginning it becomes the easiest ditribution to use. (You can find here more reasons to use Debian) There is also a No Profit/NGO subproject of Debian called Debian-NP.
Experiences:
- experiences with different install cds
- the debian-np project mentioned on the main page was tested in deployment by me (decoy) at the office of one ngo i work for. i found it to be very easy to install and reliable. it has the usual drawback of all debian installations that it is using a rather old kernel (2.4.27) and comes with gnome by default (which some people may not see as a drawback at all). the great advantage of debian-np is, that it uses the standard debian download mirrors and package trees, so you can just upgrade it without much hassle.
- another nice and easy-to-install debian-based distribution is ubuntu. this distribution uses rather cutting-edge software which they package in periodic releases. the kernel they use is up-to-date and the installation is simple and comprehensive. experiences with ubuntu are generally very positive, but i have not installed it yet.
- experiences with different install cds
IntegratedWorkspaceServerSystem (A proposal)
Where To Get Connectivity From?
- experiences...
How To Inform People About Your Initiative?
- experiences...
How To Finance Your Activities?
- courses with a voluntary contribution
- merchandising: Tshirts, stikers,
- voluntary monthly payment
- distribution of free software, free music, free Text, etc.
- donations