Ejovi Nuwere

Martin and I have been talking over the past few weeks about the concept of doing business, while doing good. One of the ideas we came up with is going into Harlem and wiring the entire community using FON technology. We would be bringing free internet to all of Harlem. Then we could expand the idea and go into other “digital divide” communities and do the same, if it worked. That’s the goal, eliminate the digital divide. With FON we think it could be done for less them $50K a neighborhood.

One complaint from Foneros in America has been, if I become a Linus and share my internet for free in exchange for having access to other hotspots that fine, but if someone pays to use my hotspot, what do I get from it? Well, one idea is you earn points that could either be donated to a charity or to the “Harlem Project.” If 50 points is enough for a free router upgrade, then you should have the option of giving that router to a family in a more disadvantaged community. This is doing business while doing good, this is social entrepeneurship and I’m loving it!

Last week I was in Boston on a SecurityLab engagement and I met with some of the Top 20. I also met with most of FON’s board of advisors.

These last three months SecurityLab has been really growing. I’m sort of amazed actually. I also realized last week how much I love computer security. It’s one of the few things I could do for the rest of my life and never be tired of it. That’s a rare thing. I have been talking with various people these days about taking management positions in the company and hope to make some announcements over the coming weeks. I have also been in discussions with VC’s and Angel investors. I will remain as Chairman and would direct the companies strategy but most of the daily project management, finance, and sales activities will be managed by other people. I think bringing people in who are smarter then me on those areas may help us grow into something bigger. It should also free me to invent, create and explore new ideas.

At Securitylab we recently posted an advisory in Multitech’s VoIP products. We notified Multitech and it was fixed some time ago, but we just got around to releasing the advisory. Also this week O’Reilly wrote up a piece on VoIP that has a quote from me, I’m of course talking about security. You can read it on the Emerging Telephony website.

I will also be at the ETel conference in San Francisco from the 24th until the 26th of January. The 27th is my birthday!

I had the pleasure of spending time with Martin V. recently while he negotiated and presented FON to a couple of major players on the west coast. For me it was a true learning experience. Its one thing to read about a entrepeneurs accomplishments or to even listen to them brag about it on TV (Trump?) but its a very different story to see it in person. The one thing I took away from watching Martin was his honesty. He answered questions honestly, he showed his cards willingly without being prompted and I think the people we dealt with saw that he wasn’t hiding anything. I for the most part I just listened.

Now dealing with the board of advisors for FON I am trying to encourage the same type of honesty. How I’m I doing this? Well, just by listening. Not to say they aren’t honest, but people generally stop being frank when they feel their thoughts aren’t welcome or appreciated. The biggest issue so far has been those who want to keep their Wi-Fi hotspots wide open while being members of FON. I actually thought they were perhaps a small group and not representative of open Wi-Fi hotspots in general but the more I listen, the more I realize this group of people is larger then I imagined. So FON has to do something to make them happy.

Listening is important but hard for me to do, I generally prefer to talk more then I listen. But listening has paid off for me recently. I might try to make a habit of it.

Of all the things I’ve done this year, the most exciting has to have been building the North American Board of Advisors for FON. We have an awesome group of people all of whom joined because they believe in FON and its possibilities. We are supposed to be officially launching the end of January but FON has taken on a mind of its own. I’ve been meeting with wireless groups and trying to convince them of the importance of FON and 10 minutes into it they are telling ME why FON is important!

I’ve been involved in a fair number of startups but never something that has moved so fast, been to widely embraced and considered as controversial as FON. We offer our board of advisors stock in the company but none of them joined because of that, take a look at the current board, none of these people need money and they all have very little time to dedicate to projects. Like me, they only get involved in projects they feel passionate about. These are the people you want on your team.

Andrew Rasiej - Anyone who has read my blog for some time knows about Andrew and his campaign for Public Advocate. He truly believes in the need for WiFi as a way to empower citizens to do more then connect to the internet and read email.

Ethan Zuckerman - Co-founder of Tripod, Geekcorps and a fellow at Harvard’s Berkmen Center and co-creator of Global Voices. I first came in contact with Ethan because I was interested in figuring out how to use technology to help poor communities, one of his passions and the reason why he founded Geekcorps. I think Ethan more then anyone understands the potential for a grassroots WiFi network to change the way people communicate.

Rebecca MacKinnon - I secretly idolize Rebecca for her accomplishments. She was one of CNN’s youngest Bureau Chiefs (China, fluent in Chinese), named one of the few Global Leaders of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. She left CNN and became a fellow at Harvard’s Berkmen Center and founded Global Voices with Ethan Zuckerman. She has a perspective and insight into international relationships and bridge building that just can’t be bought.

Dan Gillmor - Dan is one of the countries most prominent technology writers. He wrote for the Detroit Free Press and Kansas City Times before going to the San Jose Mercury News in 1994 where he covered the boom and eventual bust of the Internet economy. Because of his many years of experience covering technology and ability to simplify complex problems he has a unique ability to cut through all our technical non-sense. Often times his emails are less then 3 or 4 sentences but leave you thinking “geez, why didn’t I see that?”

David Weinberger is a technologist in its truest form. Probably best known as co-author of the Cluetrain Manifesto. His focus has been how the Internet is changing human relationships, communication, and society. A philosopher by training he really has a grasp of the “big picture.” He was an advisor to Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign along with Andrew Rasiej and advises a number of companies and TV networks on technology.

Joi Ito Joi is one of Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs turned venture capitalist. He doesn’t live in the USA now but spent his teen and college years here. Most of his business is with American companies. One of the first investors in Technorati and Six Apart. Among the many companies he brought to Japan the one most recognizable to Americans would be InfoSeek

Wendy Seltzer is visiting assistant professor at Brooklyn Law School teaching Internet Law and Information Privacy. I met Wendy at Martin Varsavsky Safe Democracy forum…two years ago? Most major battles for privacy or digital rights on the Internet have Wendy’s name attached. This was especially the case during her time as an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Surrounded by this group I sometimes feel like I’m in heaven. Caeser is on one side and Socrates on the other. Times like these you just want to get the people in a room and listen to them talk.