​AREDN Project Announces Strategic Changes

AREDN forms a non-profit corporation to ensure continuity

The project saw the need for more formal governance and as a result, took the strategic step of organizing as a non-profit corporation.  This will help protect the user-community investments in mesh networking by setting up the framework for long-term resource management, research, and development. 

Our mission is still focused on providing the Amateur Radio Community with software, education, and support to enable them to aid public safety, emergency response and disaster relief agencies with high-speed multimedia data networks.

Continuing to rely on the financial support of a few individuals is not a sustainable means of supporting the project. Without more widespread support, the community’s growing investment in network equipment and relationships with served agencies is at risk. We expect to obtain contributions primarily from the ham community. We plan to use these funds to cover operating expenses such as web site hosting, setup a test and validation lab, obtain associated test equipment, and address the costs of promoting the project through various marketing channels. We plan to consider grants to fund worthy implementations of AREDN infrastructure as our resources may allow.

​AREDN code repositories on GitHub

All AREDN source code has been moved to GitHub at https://github.com/aredn/aredn_ar71xx.  GitHub also includes an issue tracking feature to capture enhancement requests and defects.
GitHub is one of the largest open source code repository services with over 40 million users.  
 
Anyone with basic knowledge of Linux and Git can now contribute changes and compile AREDN images through an automated build process.  If you have a background in application or firmware development, the hurdle to contribute is now substantially lower.

The move to GitHub helps the project stay aligned with the current version of OpenWRT. This is the basis for AREDN firmware and is supported by over one thousand developers worldwide.  These developers release a steady stream of advancements and fixes.  Contributors may now focus on those features that make the AREDN product unique and pertinent to the ham community.

The move to GitHub is already helping our project. We are pleased to have three new developers already contributing.  One of them, Andrew, KK4ZUZ, bought a TP-Link CPE210 v2.0 device and discovered that AREDN did not support it.  He rolled up his sleeves, collaborated, started coding, and submitted pull requests to GitHub.   Thanks to Andrew, we now have support for the CPE210 and CPE510 v2.0 devices.
Are you interested in contributing?  Then become familiar with the GitHub workflow and submit your pull requests.  Regular code contributors may take part in periodic developer conference calls.
 
AREDN corporation

Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network, Inc. is a New Jersey non-profit corporation supporting the AREDN open-source software development project.
The project writes and promotes the development of firmware for repurposing Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) devices for use by licensed radio amateurs.  These repurposed devices - referred to as “AREDN Nodes” - are deployable by radio amateurs to automatically interoperate and form a high-speed data network. This network is highly useful to emergency responders and disaster relief agencies during times of local and regional disasters.