Video from OSHUG #33 — Radio #2
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The April 2014 Open Source Hardware User Group meeting featured a talk on a bold vision for a project that aims to increase understanding of personal networking, and on a toolkit that lets you build your own physical Internet radio.
The Networking Literacy Project
Martin Geddes is a network performance scientist and telecoms consultant, whose work sees him advising global telcos on strategy and the future of voice, messaging and distributed computing.
Martin started off by talking about his own introduction to computing via the BBC Micro, which was borne of the BBC's groundbreaking Computer Literacy Project. Before then going on to explain the challenges of a scientific understanding of how networks truly work, and how this is something that we have only just very recently got to grips with.
At this stage the Network Literacy Project is simply a vision, for something similar to the BBC's Computer Literacy Project, but that would tackle a present-day challenge: how to enable young people to get early hands-on experience with packet-based wireless communications, where there are finite resources, much demand and a great many factors that contribute to service outcomes.
Everyone has a radio in them, it turns out
Libby Miller is a producer and developer working in the BBC R&D Central Lab, and the focus of her talk was a research project called Radiodan, a “homebrew, flexible, open source, IP radio”.
Now at v2.0, Radiodan provides open source software that allows you to build an Internet radio with both web and physical interfaces of your own design. It uses Raspberry Pi as a platform and Music Player Daemon for playing IP radio streams.
Radiodan enables people to explore and rapidly prototype ideas for next generation radios. Examples that were given include a radio that, much to my horror, avoids the BBC Radio 4 programme, The Archers. However, you could equally create a radio that plays nothing but The Archers, turning itself on when a programme is just about to start, and off afterwards. Which, I am sure that most people will agree, is a far better idea!