ARLA/CLUSTER: O futuro do radioamadorismo: Quanto mais as coisas mudam, mais elas ficam iguais.

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Wireless Institute of Australia Director David Ford VK4MZ shares some
thoughts on the future of amateur radio

In WIA News he writes:
Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of radio waves in 1888, or in
those days Hertzian waves, and soon after, with the aid of his
assistants, Guglielmo Marconi began to conduct experiments in his
attic. At the time, Oliver Lodge had predicted that Radio waves would
only transmit up to 800 meters.

As people experimented with radio they gathered together to share
ideas, equipment, their successes, and their failures. They formed
ad-hoc groups that worked towards a common goal. Even Marconi, after
sharing ideas with fixed wire telecoms technicians, learned a trick.
That by grounding his shack he could extend the range of his
transmissions. In the process, he destroyed the common convention of a
limited 800-meter transmission range by transmitting over 3.2km.
Within a couple of years his experiments had taken the range out to
6km, then 16km and from there the hunt for DX was on. His first
message was either accidental, or profound, it was simply are you
ready?. With that message he changed the future of communications.

A few years later we see the first Amateur Radio experimenters coming
together and forming groups like the Wireless Institute of NSW and the
now Amateur Radio Victoria.

Fast forward some 75 years to the 1970s and we see a groundswell
around the personal computer. A similar story ensues, groups form and
collaborate to propel the technology forward. Ed Roberts and Forest
Mims bring to market a kit for a pc which can be built at home; the
Altair 8800. Inspired by the Home Brew Computer club Steve Wozniak
WA6BND and Steve Jobs begin collaborating and building the Apple 1.
At the same time, Paul Allen and Bill Gates build the Basic
interpreter for the Altair PC Kit, from there they build Microsoft.
Again, hobby groups form to share ideas, equipment and to experiment.
Humans have a natural percentage of the population who find pushing
the boundaries of technology exciting and sharing the experience
accelerates results and makes it more rewarding. They form groups that
prosper.

20 years later, in the 90s it was the explosive expansion of the
internet and a similar pattern forms. Hobbyists collaborate, form
ad-hoc groups and share experiences and goals.

The same thing occurred around mobile technologies and open source
software and there are countless more examples. It is a time-tested
trend.

When it comes to experimenting with technologies, likeminded people
working together towards a common goal always has, and always will
exist. It is an inevitable part of human nature and the progression of
civilisation. It's fun and exciting. It is the reason many of our WIA
affiliated clubs were setup in the first place.

Delloitte published a paper in 2013 summarising the impact of the
maker movement. It predicts that the maker movement will be a high
proportion of the future workforce and that the maker movement is more
influential in delivering market transforming innovation than
corporate lead initiatives. Today it is the maker groups, fablabs,
hackerspace, hack labs groups that take the lead.

Hackers in these communities are not always someone that manipulates
systems to perform nefarious and illegal activities, they are instead
someone who can manipulate systems to do something out of the ordinary
that they want them to do, typically with very positive outcomes. For
example, Topher White of Rainforest Connection uses recycled mobile
phones to monitor for illegal chainsaw activity across thousands of
acres of rainforest to effectively reduce deforestation.

Lets step inside one of these groups to understand how they form.

C-Base in Berlin is regarded as one of the oldest communities in
existence. It started from 17 people getting together to discuss
ideas, work on projects together and advance their collective skills
relating to computer software, hardware and data networks. They
started to meet virtually in chat rooms and bulletin boards and
eventually gathered enough following to secure their own premises in
Berlin. Here they hold events, workshops, training sessions, run
projects and competitions.
C-Space was the birth place of a political party that won 8.9% of the
vote in the 2011 Berlin state election granting them 15 seats in
parliament.

The groups form on their own, they are self-managed, they do not
comply or operate according to an overseeing body. They move from
meeting virtually, through email and in private residential premises,
to having their own space. As a grass-roots movement securing space is
a monumental step. In the USA there is the company TechShop that has
commercialised the movement by charging for access to space and
equipment to build DIY projects in a shared and supported environment.
The current price for membership is between $125 and $180 US dollars
per month. They have 10 locations across the USA and are expanding at
a high rate.

Marketing Amateur Radio to non-amateurs is like marketing features
instead of benefits. Features only work with prospects that already
understand them. Amateur Radio is the hobby, the feature, but the
benefit is working together on building and exploring exciting
technology.

At the most recent IARU meetings where they discussed growing the
hobby, the feedback from youth observers was that groups should be
supported to self-manage and self-organise. That they valued autonomy.
Also, activities that were competition driven were shown to resonate
most strongly with younger groups and cause them to gather around a
common cause.

The Rotary sponsored Rotaract group caters for 18-30-year olds and is
intentionally setup as being self-managed and self-governed. For
Rotaract, Rotary merely facilitates as an umbrella organisation.
Rotaract has almost 10,000 clubs, 300,000 members, and 180
participating countries.

So, is this the future? The WIA and affiliated clubs facilitating and
hosting self-governed groups and clubs to meet physically and
virtually. Facilitating the sharing of experiences, projects and
equipment in pursuit of common goals, pushing the boundaries of
technology. Using modern communication techniques to rally, build
communities, support interest in the hobby and explore new areas. Is
it the future? Perhaps.

Feel free to send feedback via email to VK4MZ<at>wia.org.au.

Fonte: WIA News
http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/wianews/display.php?file_id=wianews-2017-10-29