Spine-tingling
Iâm going to have to share that if thatâs ok.
And go read the book!
Thanks!
goTenna Mesh (and other cool tech) in a Wall Street Journal about our post-net neutrality world:
Since itâs behind a paywall, Iâll share the goTenna bits here (which includes a quote from Mesh Community member @linenoise!):
Daniela PerÂdomo is conÂcerned about the power of U.S. teleÂcom giÂants that stand to gain from the reÂpeal of ânet neuÂtralÂityâ rules. Her comÂpany ofÂfers a way around them: A $90 anÂtenna that lets users send mesÂsages withÂout celÂluÂlar serÂvice or Wi-Fi.
Ms. PerÂdomo is among the enÂtreÂpreÂneurs whose viÂsion for an alÂterÂnaÂtive route to inÂterÂnet acÂcess is findÂing takÂers in SilÂiÂcon ValÂley, where tech types were ratÂtled by a reÂcent govÂernÂment deÂciÂsion to overÂturn rules that reÂquired big inÂterÂnet providers to treat all trafÂfic equally.
âSoÂciÂety reÂquires conÂnecÂtivÂity to funcÂtion and to adÂvance but we are leavÂing telecomÂmuÂniÂcaÂtions in the hands of a few large corÂpoÂraÂtions,â Ms. PerÂdomo said. âThe lack of a choice is a probÂlem.â
(âŚ)
A mesh netÂwork may be anÂother alÂterÂnaÂtive to traÂdiÂtional inÂterÂnet acÂcess. InÂstead of acÂcessÂing the inÂterÂnet through one provider, users of a mesh netÂwork pull bits of inÂforÂmaÂtion from many difÂferÂent nodesâsuch as phones, lapÂtops and anÂtenÂnasâaround them, and ofÂten serve as a node themÂselves.
That is the idea beÂhind Ms. PerÂdoÂmoâs comÂpany goTenna Inc., which makes a strap-on anÂtenna the size of a smartÂphone that can conÂnect with sisÂter deÂvices sevÂeral miles away usÂing a raÂdio sigÂnal. The deÂvices sync to phones for a conÂnecÂtion strong enough to send enÂcrypted texts and GPS coÂorÂdiÂnates beÂtween deÂvices.
As more anÂtenÂnas are added to the netÂwork, the mesÂsages can be sent over disÂtances surÂpassÂing 4 miles. Rather than Wi-Fi or celÂluÂlar sigÂnal, goTenna reÂlies on pubÂlicly availÂable raÂdio freÂquenÂcies.
Ms. PerÂdomo, a New Yorker who dreamed up goTenna when HurÂriÂcane Sandy renÂdered the cityâs cellÂphone serÂvice unÂreÂliÂable in 2012, said her broader goal is to build a free, âbotÂtom upâ comÂmuÂniÂca-tion netÂwork acÂcesÂsiÂble to all and more reÂliÂable than the âtop downâ netÂworks conÂtrolled by a few large comÂpaÂnies.
Matt Filip, a 33-year-old field enÂgiÂneer in DownÂers Grove, Ill., bought a goTenna earÂlier this year and has since used it to comÂmuÂniÂcate with friends on huntÂing trips in reÂmote loÂcaÂtions. He said he likes the idea of comÂmandÂing an alÂterÂnaÂtive netÂwork to wireÂless carÂriÂers and plans to set it up at home to supÂport other goTenna users.
I think itâs very telling â and a sign of the times â that Mark Zuckerbergâs personal challenge for 2018 is to think harder about decentralization. I am personally very interested in hearing what incumbents, like Facebook, are going to add to the conversation, and of course, how theyâre going to act.
Below is the most relevant part of his post; highlights my own:
:
I too am very eager to hear what the big incumbents will have to say to the growing wave of popular enthusiasm for decentralization. Itâs also telling to hear what they donât say. For instance:
âWith the rise of big tech companies⌠many people now believe that technology only centralizes power rather than decentralizes it.â
There is one big tech company in particular that comes to mind when I read this, a company that is especially responsible for creating the social climate in which so many people have âlost faithâ in techâs ability to decentralize power? Itâs on the tip of my tongue, and Zuckerbergâs too, it seems.
This is a short post, but there is, as they say, a lot going on here. If you went through this post and noted down every time he opts to go general rather than specific, I think you would have a pretty good list of questions to think about as the decentralization train picks up steam. A few that leapt out at me:
âThere are important counter-trends to this⌠that take power from centralized systems and put it back into peopleâs hands.â
What kind of power are we talking about? What are the âcentralized systemsâ that have it now? How will technology take it away from them and deliver it to the people? Who are âpeopleâ in question?
âBut they come with the risk of being harder to control.â
Harder for whom to control? What does it mean to control a counter-trend? How is control different from power?
âIâm interested to go deeper and study the positive and negative aspects of these technologies, and how best to use them in our services?â
What does he mean by positive? What does he mean by negative? Who is he talking about when he says âour servicesâ? Facebook? The people? The people doing the control?
Zuckerberg leaves all of these questions hanging. Which is fine, itâs just a short post after all, no one expects or even needs a treatise.
But it does point to one of the things that I think is most exciting about decentralization: we donât have to wonder how Mark Zuckerberg would answer these questions. We have to answer them ourselves.
Interesting article about the forums that Uber and Lyft drivers are making as community resources, and how that shifts the dynamics of the platform economy.
âOnline forums arenât just helping drivers like Cole navigate the challenges of their work, and helping those of us who use and study these platforms grasp those challenges too. They show how as employment relationships grow more remote and distributed across the network, workers can adapt, using technology to forge their own workplace culture.â
I definitely have feelings about this, but Iâm curious what you guys think?
A firsthand account of the device âtwo yahoos from the middle of Ohioâ presented to the DoD - it remotely stops drones in mid-air!
Gotenna mesh should be the âextended bluetooth standardâ for burst data communication independent of the internet. It would be very pratical to have a mesh point in every Tesla powerwall as standard equipment.
Justin
This is a pretty long blog post, but I would be extremely interested to hear what people on this thread have to say about it: http://blog.dshr.org/2018/01/it-isnt-about-technology.html
This dovetails really nicely with the last article I linked here, in the sense that it highlights the economic and political systems in place that determine internet access in the US.
In the post above, Rosenthal described what he called the âslow AIâ of fiduciary logic that compels big tech companies to make decisions in the way that they do. The article below shows how that same âslow AIâ - which is really just a very clever euphemism for âprioritizing profitsâ - leads incumbent ISPs to underperform in a few revealing ways. Interesting read.
âRunning an open access network (where multiple ISPs can come in and compete) usually dramatically ramps up this competition. In fact, a 2009 FCC-sponsored Harvard study found that open access networks routinely result in lower prices and better service. The more competition, the better the service, faster the speeds, and lower the rates.â
COOOOLâŚ
Who knew that you could put existentialism on the blockchain?
Another example of how decentralization inspires innovation for enterprises is actual blockchain work in the area of identity. Authentication answers the question âAm I who I say I am?,â while identity answers the deeper question â âWho am I?â
The entire 106 acre stand of Aspens in Utah is all a single tree. Every tree is genetically identical, connected by a sprawling underground root structure. Itâs a decentralized tree! Some scientists believe it is the largest (by mass) organism on earth.
A natural mesh network!!
Over the weekend some friends told me that Uganda had used Blockchain in a national election!
Well, it turns out my friends know more about Blockchain than they do about African geography & politics. Sierra Leone was actually the country that used Blockchain to tally votes in their presidential election, in partnership with the Swiss company Agora.
According to this article, that makes them the first nation in history to implement Blockchain in a national election: https://cointelegraph.com/news/sierra-leone-uses-blockchain-to-track-election-results-swiss-company-provides-expertise
Somebody sent this to me this morning and I thought âSweet!â
Itâs a wiki for collaborative research about arts, media, and humanities, but their angle on these topics seems to skew a little bit towards the obscure, the DIY, and the retro-technical. Scrolling through the homepage is like walking into a really well-curated used bookstore. Cool stuff!
Another similar website that I like a lot is https://www.are.na/ 
A few months ago there was a conversation on here about decentralized art. Today I came across this article (from Kamal Sinclair of the Sundance New Frontiers Lab) that provides a taxonomy of emerging media.
Itâs really comprehensive, and definitely worth checking out for anyone who is interested thinking about how decentralization can appear in art and storytelling.
UPDATE: The National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone denies that this election was the first to use blockchain. "
âWas Agora simply attempting a PR stunt in support of its upcoming token sale. Thatâs unclear. What is clear is the disappointment in Sierra Leone regarding their efforts.â