Community networks is an emerging model in which communities of citizens build and own open shared networks. But currently, cloud computing infrastructures, common in today's Internet, hardy exist in community networks. We present in this paper our approach for bringing clouds into community networks. The main element of our strategy for achieving cloud uptake is the deployment of the Guifi-Community-Distribution (GCODIS) on all cloud nodes, a distribution containing common services and applications. We argue in the paper the reasons why this approach is appropriate for the scenario of community networks, where the user acceptance needs to be gained. We show the steps and the on-going process with which we actually implement our approach in the Guifi community network. With these key elements in place, we conclude that we are closer to the vision that the users of community networks ultimately will not need to consume cloud applications from the Internet, but find them within the community network. An interesting open issue is to what extend our approach can be applied to the more generic volunteer computing scenario.

Peer Reviewed