BirdMachine
I've seen SO much griping about how Terrible and Ridiculous the idea of 'replacing' the internet with diy wired and wireless mesh networks and I.... I feel like something is getting lost in translation?
The goal isn't to replicate the powerhouse networks of the internet on a shoestring budget using cooperation and dreams. Its not going to be as fast. Its not going to be reliable. It isn't gonna Replace Anything.
And maybe that's ok?
BirdMachine
its scrounging for a shiv when a fancy sword's more fun. But its something. The internet as we know it is already VASTLY different from years ago. People did make things work when Message Boards were not even All Interconnected and you had to know a person and then use your terminal to actually access their personal machine. And the idea of having a local neighborhood network as well as a connection to a global network isn't far fetched.
BirdMachine
I'm not saying to give up the fight. But small scale solutions can still help small communities. Flashy isn't necessary. It might not be as smooth or sleak or powerful. But if nothing else, these technological fallbacks are far from worthless.
Russ Sharek
It reminds me of the idea if musical instruments during the early 1900s.
A national steel guitar was fifteen dollars in the Sears catalog. That equates to about 1500 now, and was beyond even the fanciful dreams of the poor.
The result was blues abd roots musicians everywhere making their own instruments. Diddley bows, cigar box guitars and the like.
All born out of necessity, because in the end the music and it's making were more important than their means.
Human connection is the point of all of this. In the event of that conversation being stifled, we find another way.
Perhaps not better or worse, simply different.
Jonkman Microblog is a social network, courtesy of SOBAC Microcomputer Services. It runs on GNU social, version 1.2.0-beta5, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All Jonkman Microblog content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.