All started with a few folks coding and hacking for a good cause as part of the Open Knowledge Lab in Bonn. For one of our projects (the Air-Quality-Box) we needed a reliable connectivity that would allow transmission of the data coming from sensors to the back-end servers.
Searching for a right solution we came across The Things Network initiative and its Kickstarter campaign, that we unfortunately missed by a few days. Initial chats during our meetings evolved into clear indication that the LoRa network proposed by TTN could be a great match for the project we were building. But the network as such had yet to be build... and we first had to find some allies to make it happen and to cover the whole city.
The next opportunity to check if we can find more enthusiasts to build an open network for Bonn and to share the concept with wider audience was the Bar Camp Bonn that took place towards the end of February. This was a first test and a direct verification if the TTN network can get any traction in the former capital of Germany.
As you can see on the pictures there was directly quite a good feedback and a few tech-minded guys gathered around to listen about IoT network to be build. It was an encouraging start and it was clear now: TTN Bonn was born!
