| Infrastructure Type | Descriptiona |
Control point for access to or useb For example, identify the owner, regulator, manager, etc. as appropriate |
Open Source, Open Access, or Public Resource/Utilityc | Proprietaryc | How heavily used?d | Reliabilityd | Satisfaction for Userd | Ethical concerns (known or possible) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Land infrastructure For example, properties ceded, unceded, public, private, etc. Include only principal land infrastructures. |
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Yes | Yes | 10 | 5 | 4 | As Philadelphia Parks and Recreation states, “our modern systems of growing food and owning property are built on: the stolen land of Indigenous people; the enslavement of African people; the genocide of both Native and Black communities and cultures. These violent acts continue to impact Black and Indigenous communities today. We must understand and name these realities. We must acknowledge how they influence who has power over land and food in Philadelphia.” | |
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Materials infrastructure For example, notable common or rare extracted or other materials used in research, production, and communication. Break down by notable materials used in devices or tools if appropriate. |
PCW uses a wide array of hardware tools, networking and computing devices, and related accessories. For PCW’s network gear, most of our equipment is produced by Ubiquiti. We also use networking gear made by Mikrotik, TP Link, and others. PCW’s hardware list is available on our documentation page: https://docs.phillycommunitywireless.org/en/latest/installations/hardware/ | Any hardware (routers, cables) or equipment (mounting poles) we install in an antenna host’s home or place of business becomes property of the building owner, and we consider it a donation. | Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 9 | 9 |
As far as we know, none of the hardware we use contains conflict minerals, but it is difficult to audit each device for all of the rare earth metals they contain. We try to acquire and deploy re-used tools wherever possible. Complex “technical goods” such as networking equipment require industrial production with complex manufacturing/fabrication equipment. Additionally, many of the networking devices are manufactured abroad in China and Vietnam and must follow a long international supply chain before our use. Although we use networking gear from several manufacturers, we primarily rely on equipment from Unifi; in many cases, we have to purchase more equipment from Unifi instead of being able to make more use of secondhand equipment from other manufacturers. We buy a lot of materials from different vendors, and there’s not a lot of standardization in how those materials are shipped. One vendor shipped materials with wasteful styrofoam packaging peanuts, which led us to buy from a different vendor. |
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Energy infrastructure For example, principal energy sources and infrastructure used in research, production, and communication |
PECO, the major electric utility in Philadelphia, is the electricity supplier for NSNP, which houses our HQ. Prices have increased in last decade. Some of our mesh nodes are fully solar-powered. The energy used to power the vast majority of our devices comes from the properties whose costs for electricity are covered by the property owners, including residents and community organizations. Though our devices are continuously powered, we use very little electricity. We estimate roughly 25 to 50 dollars a year for the electrical costs at any building hosting antennas and WiFi devices. |
PECO’s franchise utility service area is 2,100 square miles. Its parent company is Exelon, based in Chicago. | Yes | Yes | 7 | 10 | 9 | Over 60 percent of the energy generated for PECO customers come from coal and natural gas, which contributes to climate change. Only 7 percent comes from solar, wind, or hydropower. PECO customers need to opt in to a third party, CleanChoiceEnergy, in order to purchase grid power and renewable energy certificates. | |
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Transportation infrastructure For example, private or public transportation needed for daily or research trips |
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Yes | Not Applicable | 10 | 3 | 1 | Philadelphia’s streets are incredibly dangerous, with car accidents and pedestrian deaths skyrocketing during the period of PCW’s founding and growth. | |
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Architectural infrastructure For example, buildings, labs, rooms |
|
Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 10 | 10 | |||
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Civic, community, national, or regional infrastructure For example, provided by cities, communities, governments, etc. |
|
Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 10 | 10 | |||
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Institutional infrastructure For example, equipment, services, and “overhead” or “indirect cost recovery” items for grants to universities |
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Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 10 | 10 | |||
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Labor infrastructure For example, type and amount of labor from collaborators, staff, research assistants; include any attributes that seem important, such as unrecognized, unpaid, low-paid, outsourced, or other attributes of labor |
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Antenna hosts, whether individuals or staff from community organizations, who grant access for installation and maintenance work. | Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 10 | 10 | ||
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Research-content infrastructure For example, physical libraries and archives, online research materials, shadow libraries, etc. |
|
Not Applicable | Yes | 5 | 10 | 10 | |||
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Tools infrastructure For example, principal analog tools and digital tools, scripts, or protocols used for research, writing, communication, production (excluding high-performance computing, for which see below) |
Analog tools
Computers
Operating System
Principal software tools
Project management tools
Image and graphics editing/creation tools
PCW’s sofware list is available on our documentation page: https://docs.phillycommunitywireless.org/en/latest/organization/tools/. |
PCW’s Lead Technician maintains an inventory and check-out list for PCW’s tools. | Yes | Yes | 10 | 10 | 10 | ||
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Networked Platforms infrastructure For example, major networked or cloud platforms used for research, storage, analysis, sharing, communication, publication—Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS, etc. (excluding high-performance computing, for which see below) |
|
Not Applicable | Yes | 10 | 10 | 10 |
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| Other infrastructure | Not Applicable | Not Applicable |
This infrastructure manifest was completed by Allan Gomez, Devren Washington, Alex Wermer-Colan, and Grant Wythoff and reports on Chapter 8, “Alternative Infrastructures for Digital Equity: Community-Based Internet Access.”