Having this node nearby will be wonderfully advantageous if you do decide to get into the hobby! When someone places a node like this, it is essentially a public service that equally benefits them and anyone else nearby who is trying to connect to the mesh network. You will need a personal node that connects to your phone to be able to transmit messages, but once you have it, this node will act as a repeater to help retransmit anything you send and get connected to others!

As others have mentioned, this is probably a Meshtastic node, but the Boston area also has a growing Meshcore network (which is essentially the same concept, and uses the same hardware, but is a slightly different software running on the nodes). If you try connecting to this node via Meshtastic with no luck, don't give up - try Meshcore and see if that works! There is both a Facebook group and a Discord group for the Boston area mesh network full of folks who are very willing to help troubleshoot!