One-Day Intensive
Solarpunk Automation
10.10.26 | 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM PDT 4 hours in one focused day
Build community-owned infrastructure that keeps working when the grid, cloud, and corporations fail.
with Liz Howard
Overview
Solarpunk isn't a mood board, it's hands-on, hopeful resilience. This build day teaches you to stand up real, community-owned infrastructure that keeps working when the grid, the cloud, and the corporations don't. You'll turn an old phone into a proper Linux server with postmarketOS, put up a Meshtastic mesh that talks device-to-device over LoRa radio (no SIM, no ISP, no tower to shut off), and host a local info hub, offline maps, emergency dispatch, skill-sharing, and mutual-aid boards that work with the internet down. Build a solar-powered field node sized to run on sun and a battery, and leave with a resilience blueprint that scales from a garden to a neighborhood to a commune. Appropriate tech you own, in service of people and planet.
What You'll Master
- Automate a community info hub that works with the internet down
- Stand up a Meshtastic mesh, device-to-device, no ISP, no tower
- Build a solar-powered node that runs on sun, not the grid
- Wire up offline maps, emergency dispatch, and mutual-aid boards
- Leave with a resilience blueprint from garden to neighborhood to commune
Who this is for & what you'll need
Guided coding
You'll run commands and edit files. No prior experience needed.
Physical parts
This class uses hardware you'll bring or build.
What to bring
Optional hardware (~$25-100+): Meshtastic radio / ESP32 + LoRa, small solar panel (2-20W), LiPo battery + charge controller, IP65 enclosure; or flash an old phone with postmarketOS. Loaners/observing welcome.
Where This Class Leads
What you leave able to do
- classify your channels by what removes them
- generalise a node build into your communitys system
- parameterise a service so it is reachable by name
- measure what a community loses when a channel goes down
- verify a community system survives a cut you did not choose
- design a community information system that survives losing the internet
- reconcile community ownership with somebody having to maintain it
How you show it. Infrastructure still running after the person who built it stopped, a written maintenance agreement, and one handover that actually happened.
Join Us
One-Day Intensive
- Your seat in the class
- Lifetime access to materials
- Minimum price, doesn't fund a scholarship seat
The minimum is $100, it keeps out spam. Need to pay less? Apply for a scholarship, no one is turned away for lack of funds.
Secure payment via Stripe
No sponsored scholarship seats are open in this class yet. Not enrolling, but want to put someone through this class?
Instructor
Want to schedule this class for your team?
Contact us: liz@themultiverse.school