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from the now-thats-social-networking dept.
Over at PandoDaily, Nanthaniel Mott writes, Are Peer-to-Peer Mesh Networks the Future of Internet Freedom?
"Open Garden has raised $10.8 million to create the next Internet. And as crazy as that sounds, thanks to the success of its FireChat peer-to-peer messaging service, it might just work.
Instead of sending messages through an Internet connection or cellphone network, FireChat uses the Bluetooth and WiFi radios on every smartphone to create its own “mesh network,” which can then transfer data between the networks’ members without requiring any external infrastructure.
That second Internet, or Internet Two or whatever it will be called, is likely to become increasingly popular in the coming years. Countries around the world have started to restrict Internet freedoms, whether it’s through laws requiring companies to keep data on domestic servers or via the imprisonment of people who use the Internet to share information the government doesn’t want them to share."
Are peer-to-peer mesh networks the future of internet freedom?
(Score: 1) by lizardloop on Saturday December 20 2014, @11:05AM
For me the biggest problem of mesh nets is the lack of content. Assuming I did go to the hassle of organising a mesh net in my city the things I want to do with the internet are
1) Login to my servers that sit in big data centres and administer them.
2) Browse popular news websites.
3) Send emails.
4) Occasional online gaming.
1 and 2 are pretty much out. Conceivably someone could set up a local news website but I doubt you'd get anything of the quality of the current big sites. 3 and 4 could work for an amount of what I do but you'd have to have some good coordination on which games to play.
Essentially the most useful part of the internet (fast cheap communication with almost anywhere in the world) gets taken away by mesh networks.
Don't get me wrong, the idea appeals very strongly, but I just can't see the point in doing it unless it matches up to what we currently have.