from the parallel-world-where-drones-are-constructive dept.
n1 writes:
Mark Zuckerberg took to his blog yesterday to announce the next phase of his Internet.org initiative, to deliver Internet to the majority of the world which currently has no connectivity.
Today, we're sharing some details of the work Facebook's Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone.
We've made good progress so far. Over the past year, our work in the Philippines and Paraguay alone has doubled the number of people using mobile data with the operators we've partnered with, helping 3 million new people access the Internet.
He goes on to describe the team working on this project, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and the UK aerospace company Ascenta. Which casts doubt over previous speculation that Facebook is planning to acquire Titan Aerospace.
Related Stories
Facebook has announced the Internet.org Platform, "an open program for developers to easily create services that integrate with Internet.org." The partnership is designed to deliver affordable Internet access to the developing world. However the initiative has been criticized for violating net neutrality:
Facebook says it will allow more websites and other online services to join its "free mobile data" Internet.org scheme.
The announcement follows a backlash against the initiative. Opponents suggest it compromises the principles of net neutrality, because it favours access to some sites and apps over others.
But Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg said it was "not sustainable to offer the whole internet for free". "It costs tens of billions of dollars every year to run the internet, and no operator could afford this if everything were free," he said in an online video posted to Internet.org's website.
Also discussed at TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, and Quartz.
Previously:
Internet Access in Developing World With Drones
Facebook's Internet.org - "Internet-For-Everyone" - Launches in Zambia
India Debates Net Neutrality
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @11:02PM
Doesn't Fuckerberg understand that these people need life sustaining essentials and not Shitbook?
(Score: 2) by marcello_dl on Friday March 28 2014, @11:36PM
Yes, but they also need to be spied upon, and their ideas disguised as the ridiculous "public opinion" concept, need be affected by the new media propaganda, therefore: internet.
I hope that the project succeeds for visible light spectrum transceivers so hobbyists can start building their own mesh network with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget about the mesh and the blackjack.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Saturday March 29 2014, @03:23AM
This part of the project is called "an alternative revenue stream".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hybristic on Friday March 28 2014, @11:53PM
There are already plenty of people providing this type of stuff. Charity Water [charitywater.org] is among many that aim to provide things like water and other essentials. But what is much harder to get done is building an internet infrastructure. Its very costly to go dig up and install fiber, especially when the urban sprawl is so vast. Google Loon was supposed to be helping with this in a similar manner as described in TFS, but I haven't looked into that project in a while to see if its already started.
Theres also the idea that the Internet provides access to education that most of those countries will never have access to any other way. While most of the world takes the Internet for granted, its a service that is pivotal to our daily lives. How can we expect these emerging countries to bridge that gap, especially when they lack education? I think its a very good idea to get more countries connected. I would not have anywhere near the scope of knowledge that I have now without the internet, and it is kind of sad to think about that fact others do not have this tool readily at their disposal.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday March 29 2014, @12:42AM
Why do I keep getting the idea of solar powered dirigible "cell towers"? These things can be towed into place, tethered, and will maintain altitude without expenditure of fuel. A dirigible has a pretty large area exposed to insolation, and we are developing lots of quite thin and light photovoltaics. We are now getting to where we can build some decent lithium cells to store energy overnight.
My guess is these could be made quite inexpensively, deployed, and in the event some are lost during storms, inflate and release some more.
My take on this is if we are going to build out land-based infrastructure, from what I see, water pumping stations and sewage treatment systems need priority.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 29 2014, @12:14AM
sustaining essentials
What if they could use that connection to the larger world to LEARN how to do things FOR THEMSELVES at a LOCAL level instead of relying on imperialist nations and their monetary institutions and soul-sucking corporations?
What if they could learn not only how to make composting toilets but collect the resulting biogas [sswm.info] and use that for cooking.
What if they could learn how to grow healthy food and avoid poison peddlers like Monsanto? [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [rinf.com]
More sustainable farming. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [truth-out.org]
What if they could learn how to turn salt water and desert into sustainable agriculture? [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [dankalia.com]
You need to expand your USA-centric thinking, Junior.
-- gewg_
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 29 2014, @12:57AM
Forgot to mention that I think the drone idea is kinda goofy.
It seems like a more realistic method would be a combination of sneakernet (e.g. a fresh release of a distro and/or updates/additions [google.com] i.e. really common stuff, passed hand-to-hand), which will conserve precious bandwidth, together with mesh networks (GREAT ARTICLE). [motherjones.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Tork on Saturday March 29 2014, @03:24AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by everdred on Saturday March 29 2014, @05:28PM
> Or did the 'We-hate-everything-Facebook' nonsense make its way over here from Slashdot also?
I think the answer is pretty clear.
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Friday March 28 2014, @11:40PM
Lets tell the third world how much better the first world is. It's a place where we watch fat men eat 5 kilo burgers and wonder who Brittany Spears is screwing. They will love us, thank us, and want to be like us, willing to throw all their wealth and income for the disposable crap we buy. This sounds like a good idea. And we can data log that too so we can market the wonderful first world to them too.
*gets data back from third world country profile tracking
This makes no sense... guns, ammunition, do-it-your-self IDE guides, nail bombs the easy way, the 12 step hijacking guide. What happened? I don't get it. There must be a glitch.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1) by bugamn on Saturday March 29 2014, @02:58PM
Well, I guess Eclipse is too heavy to run on their computers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 28 2014, @11:41PM
It's funny how Zuck is all about helping the developing world, as he tries to regress his own country back to developing-world wages.
How, you ask? Did you think that Zuck is extremely pro-immigration and all about teaching kids computer science because he's just a Swell Guy™ with a Big Heart? Or is is because those 2 endeavors will flood the job market with exactly the skillsets his company (and others like it) need so that supply rises while demand stays more or less constant, driving STEM wages down to those of bus drivers and appliance technicians?
(Score: 2) by snick on Saturday March 29 2014, @12:17AM
What? no sharks?