Hello All, Over the last few years Consume.Net and others have been talking about independent network infrastructures - in other words, artists, activists and other independently-minded people building communications networks that don't rely on commercial service providers.
While it's totally feasible to create free wifi hotspots, and you can extend them to perhaps 500m range, this falls short of genuine, free communication - the heavy lifting still gets done by the cable providers. The problem is long range links. I don't propose to set out the arguments about why independent communications infrastructures are interesting here, but just look at the way that the Egyptian Government has just "switched off the internet" or the way that WikiLeaks' commercial hosts dropped them like a hot potato under who-knows-what pressure, and you start to see one point. Either way around, the long-range link problem has been persistent - sure, you can send slow digital signals (about 1200 baud) over shortwave for hundreds of kilometers - apart from the fact that it's illegal, easy to detect, and feasible to block. So what can the aspiring independent communicator do? Ronja - point-to-point communications using high-intensity LEDs and telescopes, is quite nice - these can have a range of a kilometer or more. If you use infrared LEDs nobody notices you're communication, either. Then one of our Access Spacers who's a radio ham saw this recent experiment using light-arrays to transmit analog communications a cool 87 kilometers. Now that's more like it! With a half-dozen relay points we could start building a trans-regional network. Check it out! http://krystynahaywood.co.uk/sarc/2011/01/711/ Best Regards, James ===== _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
