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by kris_lander
5012 days ago
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Whilst the article mentions how countries like China restrict access to communication networks we should be under no illusions that nearly all major communication networks are ultimately still under the control of central government wherever you live. For the pendulum to permanently swing in favour of "freedom and democracy" we need a genuinely open network. Without an open network open devices, operating systems, software, etc could easily be neutered, if albeit in a rather draconian fashion by hitting the "off" switch. This can seem unlikely in any "free" nation, however this was almost a reality last year during the London riots. As those in power openly lamented the use of Blackberry's BBM network by the rioters (and various other communication networks) it was clear that the government came very close to ordering the service shutdown and I have no doubt it would have been had things deteriorated any further. Perhaps the great next swing might be those attempting to create decentralized mesh networks? One can hope. |
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Open hardware and open software are completely useless if the networks are not open. The open internet as we know it would never have happened unless it had been provided by thousands of tiny ISPs. The most worrying pendulum swing of all is the consolidation of all traffic into a few giants like Comcast per country.
Mesh networking is the next frontier for openness.