db+Field+Sites




 * 1) **Freedom Square North Central Troy-** There is a vacant lot on the Northeast corner of 6th avenue and 101st street. Vacant lots are a common sight in Troy, and are particularly prevalent in North Central. Rows of brownstones, churches, and apartment buildings are interrupted by open, usually grassy, spaces. The lots are like missing teeth: a void resulting from some sort of trauma or long-standing neglect. This particular lot used to hold a church that lost its congregation in the 70s and was demolished by the city after extensive structural damage following a series of harsh winters. What remains of the church is underground: bricks and a few pipes found during soil testing last September. Above ground the lot has an odd assortment of material artifacts, many of which have been deposited and installed by the various organizations on the block. There are a few parking spaces on the west side, guarded by a sign that reads “Parking for Sanctuary for Independent Media ONLY! Violators will be towed.” There is a short chain-link fence on the south side that separates a few sparse trees and the grassy lot from the sidewalk and 101st street. The east end has a bus stop without a bench or shelter, and trash usually piles up near the corner, despite the best efforts of Pastor Willie and the Sanctuarians. Pastor Willie has installed a large home-made charcoal grille made from an old oil barrel. Shortly after a snowfall, dog and human footprints form a diagonal path that cuts from the southwest to the northeast side. If you search for the lot on Google maps it comes up as a park, labeled “Freedom Square.”
 * 2) [[image:http://ubnt-me.com/image/cache/data/ISP%20Solutions/Ubiquiti%20Pico2-500x500.JPG width="164" height="224" align="right"]]** A mesh WiFi network emerging out of the Sanctuary for Independent Media- ** Two WiFi antennae, about the size of the first Motorola cell phones, were purchased in October of 2012. One sits in a broom closet-turned-network cabinet, just off of the kitchen in the sanctuary’s basement. The little white box, with a small constellation of glowing green lights, sits lost in the dark unable to receive pings from its own local area network. It continues to broadcast its SSID at 5 and 2.4 ghz, hoping that someone, someday, can properly configure its gateway settings. Its sibling hangs precariously on the north side of the sanctuary, just below the fascia board. Sporadically lost and always cold, this router has seen the vast Internet before, but has since lost its way again. Both routers, in time, will find new homes, both digital and physical. They will sit atop the roofs of the Sanctuary and the Missing Link Church, broadcasting a yet-to-be-decided SSID.
 * 3) **Sontreso Government Hospital: Kumasi, Ghana-** The historic seat of the Ashanti Kingdom, Kumasi is a bustling metropolis with large markets, tall cell phone towers, and well-worn roads. The hospital near the Sofaline roundabout and Prempeh College has a relatively large STI clinic that sees dozens of patients everyday. The staff work diligently to provide much needed medication, advice, and education. They also work to collect data on infection rates and safe sex practices. They sell condoms at a fraction of the cost of local pharamcies, thanks to generous government subsidies, but a trip to the hospital isn’t always convenient. Thus, many of their patients go to pharmacies in local markets to pick up condoms, but many report intimidating and outwardly hostile reactions by pharmacists and fellow patrons. The staff of the hospital, in collaboration with RPI engineers and social scientists are now working to install vending machines on the outside of the hospital and in local “chop bars” and gas stations. The machines, once installed will hopefully provide a less intimidating condom purchasing experience.