Volunteer!
Maintaining and growing NYC Mesh wouldn’t be possible without a dedicated community of volunteers! We welcome people with diverse skill sets and from all backgrounds to help out, contribute and lead. We are open to new ideas and initiatives, especially if you are ready, willing and able to make them happen. We like people who are self-motivated and autonomous but who also like to collaborate and work with others.
If you’re interested in volunteering with NYC Mesh there’s a few ways to get involved:
Join us for our regular weekly Open Mesh Night. This is hosted at our Mesh Room in the basement of BlueStockings Bookstore in the Lower East Side, every Tuesday night at 7:30pm. Open Mesh Night is a great time to meet the community and learn about projects that other members are working on.
There’s a weekly thread in #meetings on Slack where you can confirm Open Mesh Night is happening as scheduled. (We sometimes skip holidays or dates when few people are available)
Come talk to us about volunteering opportunities at one of our monthly Meetups. We’re super friendly!
You can also join us on Slack, our community message board. We use slack to coordinate almost all mesh activities, so joining the Slack is often the first step to getting involved. There are a number of channels on slack where updates are posted about ongoing projects. You can simply join in on the conversation to get involved!
See further down this page for a number of suggested slack channels for new volunteers.
Here are just some of projects you could get involved with as a NYC Mesh volunteer and suggested Slack channels to join (Many of our volunteers take on multiple roles and responsibilities and these roles are loosely defined. Most mesh volunteers don’t have a specific “Job Description”, we just work on whatever projects we happen to be interested in.)
Mesh Installer #install Installers help connect new NYC Mesh members to the network (and help them reconnect when they have service issues). This involves installing and configuring routers and networking equipment on rooftops and in members’ apartments and carrying out configuration.
New installers follow along with experienced install leaders to learn the process, then once they’ve gained some experience they can start leading installs themselves!
Install coordinator/planner: Install coordinators and planners work primarily with our support ticket system to respond to Join Form requests that new members submit. They evaluate the panorama photos that members submit, determine if the new member can connect to the mesh and then pass the install to the Mesh Installers to complete the install. They also work to answer email support tickets and other questions and enquiries.
Maintenance Team #maintenance-team: The maintenance team works to build and maintain the larger hubs and buildings throughout the mesh. We plan install days when a large number (5-12) of volunteers will work together to get a new hub or building online in an afternoon or two. Upcoming maintenance team projects are scheduled in #maintenance-tasks and maintenance team is used to coordinate and plan these dates.
Joining maintenance team is a great way to get involved with larger buildings, as we always need more help on these big projects!
Network administrator #monitoring: Network administrators deal with deeper level network configuration and plan overall mesh routing and infrastructure. They are often involved with planning, deploying and maintaining new Supernodes, along with helping with configuration for larger hubs.
NYC Mesh uses a variety of Mikrotik, Cisco, Ubiquiti, and Brocade routers and switches. We use OSPF for routing inside the mesh and BGP on the edge. Previous experience with network administration and these products is helpful, though you can also learn as you go!
**Hardware Planner #hardware #hardware is where we discuss new hardware we’d like to deploy and try to find solutions to problems we encounter in the field. Join this channel if you’d like to offer suggestions about new hardware we should try.
Website / Wiki Writers and Developers #website and #wiki Help us improve our website and documentation by working to keep it up to date and by suggesting edits and building new pages.
The NYC Mesh website (what you’re reading right now!) is written in markdown and hosted with Hugo. We use Github to collaboratively develop the website - both are easy to learn.
The NYC Mesh Wiki is our central repository of configuration instructions, guides, lists and general knowledge documentation. The Wiki is hosted with Bookstack and allows anyone to easily edit it without any coding experience. You just need to make an account and you can edit the pages with a simple web interface.
Neighborhood organizer #neighborhoods Coordinate an install for people in your building or for your neighbors or a community organization or a local business. We prioritize installs that serve multiple members from one hub location.
Community outreach leader #outreach Encourage people in your community to join NYC Mesh by distributing pamphlets and organizing informational events. Do you speak multiple languages? Help us reach out to people who don’t speak English and provide translation assistance. We aim to be a service for all New Yorkers.
Outreach leaders also work to foster collaboration with other community organizations we are in partnerships with. Both finding new organizations to work with and managing our existing relationships.
Grant writer and sponsorship coordinator #funding We need help identifying grants, writing applications and reaching out to sponsors.
Graphic Designer #design We have a number of volunteers in #design who create new flyers, posters, letters and other materials for our outreach teams to use. If you are interested in designing posters, t-shirts, stickers or anything else, this is the place to be! We especially need people who speak French, Spanish, Mandarin or other languages to help make our materials accessible to non english speakers.
Donate Space or Equipment #general NYC Mesh accepts donations of working and reasonably modern networking equipment and antennas. We decide what to accept on a case by case basis. It’s best to reach out in #general with what you have and we can let you know if we can use it.
We also welcome donations of space where we can host meetups and events. We are looking to host events in diverse neighborhoods around the city that are further away from our regular Lower East Side meetups. If you have a space to offer or an event we should attend, please let us know!
Donate Money Donations are tax deductible and go towards expanding our network!