(From www.ZeroDivide.org)

“The Booker T. Washington Community Service Center has successfully set up a low-cost and easy to maintain wireless network for the residents of the Westside Court Housing project in San Francisco. The community is one of the first to use Meraki technology to enhance wireless signals, ensuring connectivity in every housing unit at Westside Court and allaying uncertainties over coverage in apartment buildings. The WiFi project has empowered residents to take control of their own network and create content relevant to the housing community. http://westsidewifi.org/

“The WiFi project has accomplished the following goals:

• Building a sense of community for residents
• Creating a low cost easy to maintain wireless network
• Providing training to close to 40 residents
• Installing computers into families’ homes
• Training teens from Westside Court to support their neighbors

“The biggest success has been providing residents a place to connect with each other and an aftershool place for the children. Westside Court is located in a unique neighborhood for a housing project. It is a few blocks away from two very wealthy neighborhoods, Presidio Terrace and Pacific Heights. Residents felt somewhat isolated and the project has eliminated a small part of that isolation. Students are using the facilities to complete their homework and print their reports. One teenager spends part of her time in the center listening to podcast to teach herself Tagalog. The lab is an after school destination for 10 to 15 children, as well as 6 to 10 young adults, from Westside.

“Booker T. Washington’s partnership with Meraki to provide an affordable and easy to use technology for its community is an integral part of its success. Using Meraki’s tools enabled them to provide free Internet access to an entire square block.

“A training program for residents contributes to affordable upkeep of the network. Close to 40 participants, primarily young adults, have been trained in the various aspects of network setup and maintenance, including monitoring usage, troubleshooting issues in neighbors’ homes, and installation of antennas and nodes to the network.  Youth Leaders, who assist with technical issues, are also assisting with English and math assignments. A volunteer from SalesForce is currently working with Youth Leaders to teach them about databases using SalesForce’s platform. Residents will also find their newfound skills to be potentially valuable in other settings as wireless networks expand outside of Westside Court.”

Westside Court residents were invited to participate in a training course at Booker T. Washington Service Center. After completing the training program, they became eligible to purchase low-cost computers, subsidized by a grant from Community Technology Foundation. In January 2007, SF Connect (www.SFConnect.org) volunteers spent a day installing a computer lab in one of the vacant apartments, demonstrating useful online resources and recruiting people to participate in the training program. A DCYF (www.dcyf.org) grant is paying for the DSL access to the wireless system.

This project is another great example of how a partnership between community-based organizations, residents, volunteers and local businesses can create a sustainable system.