After reading through this, if you like the concept, we'll help you get started in your own community. Of course, our direct involvement is fee-based, but as we explain below, we are dedicated to being an open source collaborative venture. We are primarily interested in working with other small-scale communities containing a small business retail district in close proximity to a surrounding residential neighborhood.
The greater the socioeconomic diversity of the residential neighborhood, the more we are interested because of the underrepresented populations groups in the STEM fields that reside in many of them. We theorize that a Geeks FSO campus can be a self-sustaining enterprise for conducting STEM educational outreach. Much as people throughout history have learned whatever new technology has come along to better the economic foundation of their lives, given the opportunity they will learn how to produce apps and content for the internet. It pays well.
Small rural communities even if relatively homogeneous should work if they are of a scale that can obtain "critical mass" and be self-supporting. (Note: Having been raised on a small dairy farm in a rural community in Northern Minnesota, we know the need for local job opportunities for young people. -HL)
Just remember, we are a small venture just getting started, so we can't help everyone at the same time or immediately. But we will get back to you.
Contact us at: info@geeksfso.com
Let's connect some dots ...
First dot: there is an ongoing demand among people who are not earning a good living for the opportunity to do so.
Over time, lacking that opportunity, the pent-up demand builds and then ignites in a burst of energy when the appropriate opportunity presents itself. Look at immigration patterns throughout our history, especially the gold rushes of the 1800's here and from the southern states to the factories of the north for WWII and the automobile production following, or simply the huge numbers that would show up to apply for a limited number of jobs today.
The conclusion? Provide people with a fair opportunity to earn a good living when they are now living in poverty and they will show up to take advantage of it. And of course not all of them will. That goes without saying. Showing up is the first test of motivation.
Second dot: Producing apps or content for the internet are currently the best ways to jump start earning a good living in today's economic world, and most likely will be for the foreseeable future. Check out the story of "How homeless man Leo Grand learned to code and launched an app in 109 days." It is the discovery of the New World; the gold mine of the gold rush; the steel mills, shipyards and airplane factories of WWII; the "Big Three" of the golden age of American automobiles ... apps and content production are the wealth creating "factories" of today.
The conclusion? The communities that create CANs ("campus" area networks) in support of the production of apps and content will provide their residents with an opportunity based on motivation, ability, and their work ethic to earn a good living and generate wealth for the community as new inventions have done throughout our history of market economies: "Build a better mousetrap."
Third dot: Take a community with a retail business district surrounded by a diverse residential neighborhood with mixed socioeconomic groups and a not enough good paying jobs. Put in a high speed, high bandwidth linked "campus" -- Campus Area Network or CAN -- like what Google is doing in Kansas City, MO; Austin, TX; and Provo, UT -- to support the collaborative production of apps and content with technical, financial, marketing, accounting, and legal resources and -- just like with Google -- the geeks will come out of the surrounding area and go to work.
What is more, by using Free Space Optics it doesn't cost what it is costing Google to test the idea. But it does take vision, the ability to connect the dots, and the willingness to take a risk ... in this case a very small risk. We're talking $10,000 to $15,000 for the testbed. And all the equipment is moveable, in other words, it won't be poured in concrete.
And we theorize that the opportunity to work with a high speed, high bandwidth communications link will set us apart from other incubators and attract the best and the brightest talent from the target populations who are defined by (1.)being underrepresented in the STEM fields; and (2.) disadvantaged relative to customary access to modern educational resources.
And we theorize that the opportunity to work with a high speed, high bandwidth communications link will set us apart from other incubators and attract the best and the brightest talent from the target populations who are defined by (1.)being underrepresented in the STEM fields; and (2.) disadvantaged relative to customary access to modern educational resources.
The outcomes are threefold:
- Production of apps and content as revenue generators bringing wealth into the community.
- Data analytics for the business district section of the Geeks FSO campus bringing state of the art global marketing to the small retail businesses of the district as well as other database functions allowing the voluntary synergistic sharing of information both internally and globally.
- STEM educational outreach to the residential sections of the community.
Geeks FSO is the "organizing" name of the startup venture connecting these dots and being formed at the Valley Settlement House complex in West Orange, New Jersey, to set up a "proof of concept" testbed using Free Space Optics.
Dr. Barnet Schmidt, PhD SM IEEE, managing partner in Kaplan/Schmidt Associates, LLC, West Orange, NJ, consulting communications engineers, is the project engineer for developing the Proof of Concept testbed. He prepared the presentation for the Proof of Concept testbed found at: (See http://geeksfso.blogspot.com/2013/12/introducing-geeks-fso-proof-of-concept.html)
Hilding Lindquist, system design consultant, developed the concept in over a year-long consultation with community members, and currently coordinates the planning with Jackie Fox, Executive Driector, Valley Seettlement House, to bring the Geeks FSO campus testbed on line as a "proof of concept" demonstration .
Following Lindquist's lead, this will be an open source collaborative effort. This is what that means:
From wikipedia.com: In production and development, open source as a development model promotes a) universal access via free license to a product's design or blueprint, and b) universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone.[1] Before the phrase open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of terms for the concept; open source gained hold with the rise of the Internet, and the attendant need for massive retooling of the computing source code.[2] Opening the source code enabled a self-enhancing diversity of production models, communication paths, and interactive communities.[3] The open-source software movement arose to clarify the environment that the new copyright, licensing, domain, and consumer issues created.[citation needed]
Generally, open source refers to a computer program in which the source code is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design. Open-source code is typically created as a collaborative effort in which programmers improve upon the code and share the changes within the community. Open source sprouted in the technological community as a response to proprietary software owned by corporations.
The open-source model includes the concept of concurrent yet different agendas and differing approaches in production, in contrast with more centralized models of development such as those typically used in commercial software companies.[4][page needed] A main principle and practice of open-source software development is peer production by bartering and collaboration, with the end-product, source-material, "blueprints", and documentation available at no cost to the public. This model is also used for the development of open-source-appropriate technologies,[5] solar photovoltaic technology [6] and open-source drug discovery.[7][8]
