The internet mesh Community Connected in Kingston upon Thames is one way of addressing the black holes that exist in the cyber space of built-up high density urban contexts. It is also a way of creating real world contact points in the anonymous world of a sprawling housing estate with 3000 people.
The mesh hardware relies on Locustworld’s trusted all weather omnidirectional mesh boxes, installed just high up below tv aerials to provide a wireless cloud across the estate. These create an initial backbone for what is an evolving project. Weekly Support group meetings Wireless Wednesday provide help to the uninitiated whilst the pc plus scheme provides free refurbished pcs with ubuntu operating systems for participants without a pc at home.

At present the mesh has some 600 registered users and relies on just 3 uplinks to the internet: normal business broadband connections with ‘low contention’ ratios. That works out at less than 50p a month to get connected. For most users the service is great, but for some users its not - it all depends on where their apartment is. Buying a better antennae for your pc for less than £30 solves the problem usually. Coordinator Maher Ugaily explained the trial and error method through which the mesh continues to evolve with ongoing incremental improvements pointing out locations where the project plans to install directional antennae to plug the gaps.

Community Connected, Cambridge Road, Kinston upon Thames.

As the images of mud cakes or clay biscuits as food in Haiti hit the media, David Moberg uncovers the sordid relationship between speculation in the futures market and the food crisis, arguing for the concept of food sovereignty which is ‘not just a redistribution of wealth but a new model of agriculture and a new model of consumption.’
Moberg states ‘agriculture and food markets aren’t like markets for clothes or automobiles. Food is a daily essential, which consumes as much as two-thirds of the income of the poorest half of the world….
Many of those poor people are also peasants who rely on food production for their livelihoods. Farming depends on the whims of nature and slowly adjusted, seasonal plans. Agriculturalists don’t merely turn out a product for the market; they play a major role in environmental conservation or degradation and the definition of people’s cultures.’
Food sovereignty advocates propose that people - local communities and nations - should have the right to make decisions about their own food regimes, including how much and what to import and export:
In These Times David Moberg

Similarly, the Institute of Science In Society (ISIS) Press Release 15/07/08 by Martin Khor highlights the need for food security policies amidst the conflict between IMF /WTO policies and the needs of developing countries drawing on new instruments such as SP (Special Products) and SSM (Special Safeguard Mechanism) to be set into WTO policy to protect food resources.

The sprawling prefabricated 60s Modernist housing estate that is Broadwater Farm in Tottenham, London N17 is still remembered for the violent riots that took place here in 1985. 23 years on, it sees the start of a new food coop. Anne Gray provides insight into the challenges and resources that go into starting the coop:using a network of local allotment holders’ produce as an imaginative form of business startup. A classic example of using community assets to try and change the way we source our basic needs.
Anne also explains how the substitution of vegetables can enable us to recreate our favourite recipes using in-season produce. The coop also plans to sell baby plants that people can look after till they grow bigger, then eat ……. like herbs, tomatoes, lettuce and, homemade stuff like jam, bottled fruit, pickles.

Broadwater Farm Community Centre
1 Adams Road, London N17 6HE

The Coop has emerged through outreach work at Broadwater Farm by Anne Gray and Martin Burrows, Back2Earth. Outreach Questionaires:
Broadwater_Farm_outreach-questionaire
Broadwater_Farm_outreach-homecooking_for_coop

from siftung-interkultur:
Gardens as everyday culture – an international comparison
International conference May 22nd–24th 2008

New gardens of everyday life and use are becoming widespread in cities around
Germany and other European countries. Whereas experts still concentrate
on traditional types of gardens, changed kinds are emerging, especially joint
projects such as “International Gardens” by and for migrants, “selfharvesting-
gardens” or vegetable patches in public parks. Phenomena like
these are identified as forward-looking elements in urban development which
require closer examination. The conference “Gardens as everyday culture” is
seen as a step in that direction.
What are the ideas and expectations behind these initiatives? What is the
role of such gardens in the context of urban development and public open
space supply? And above all: what do they mean to the gardeners themselves
and their everyday life? These are some of the questions the conference will
touch in an international comparison. Projects from different parts of the world
will show experiences gained so far as well as obstacles and future prospects.
The conference is perceived as information exchange platform between science
and garden practice.
www.stiftung-interkultur.de

The benefits of keeping it aside to feed the plants:
‘the problem with urine is that it is the main source of some of the chemical nutrients that have to be removed in sewage treatment plants if they are not to wreck ecosystems downstream. Despite making up only 1 per cent of the volume of waste water, urine contributes about 80 per cent of the nitrogen and 45 per cent of all the phosphate. Peeing into the pan immediately dilutes these chemicals with vast quantities of water, making the removal process unnecessarily inefficient.’
from the New Scientist on urine-separation toilet or NoMix toilets