Yoda: Kids Build Their Own Internet

Architecture, SmartPlanet, Spectrum

Bandwidth: How First Nations Kids Built Their Own Internet Infrastructure

Three years ago, the people living in the Ochiichagwe'Babigo'Ining Ojibway Nation in Ontario would crowd in each other's homes and outside the band office to access what little internet the community had. There was dial-up, there was expensive cellular data, and there was some service from an internet provider in a neighboring town; when the network went down, it would sometimes take weeks for a technician to come and fix the issue.

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Jean Lievens: European Open Science Cloud

Access, Architecture, Cloud, Data, Design, Economics/True Cost, Innovation, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy, Politics, Resilience, Science, Security, Software, Sources (Info/Intel), Spectrum
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Towards the European Open Science Cloud

CERN has recently published a paper which outlines the establishment of the European Open Science Cloud that will enable digital science by introducing IT as a Service to the public research sector in Europe.

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Michel Bauwens: Analog TV Frequencies = Free Super-WiFi

Access, Spectrum
Michel Bauwens
Michel Bauwens

Old analogue TV frequencies should turned into free ‘super WiFi’, scientists say

Old television frequencies are sold off by governments due to the change over from analogue to digital broadcasting, often to whoever is prepared to pay the most for them. They should instead be used to create a new range of free Wi-Fi, say scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. Transmitting WiFi over old TV frequencies would cover a far wider area than traditional WiFi because they use much lower frequencies. Current WiFi is transmitted over local area networks (WLAN) at about 2GHz and therefore has a limited range. Read full article.

Sepp Hasslberger: Rebuilding the Internet as a Commons — Local Mesh First

Access, Autonomous Internet, BTS (Base Transciever Station), Cloud, Design, Hardware, Innovation, P2P / Panarchy, Software, Spectrum
Sepp Hasslberger
Sepp Hasslberger

The internet needs to be re-built from the bottom up. Network locally first and only then connect to the world “out there”.  A local wireless network might be coming to your neighbourhood soon. 

The Rise of the Network Commons, Chapter 1 (draft)

Armin Medosch

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Jean Lievens: Stacco Troncoso Shares Helene Finidori on FLOK Society and the Commons

Access, Crowd-Sourcing, Culture, Design, Economics/True Cost, Education, Governance, Innovation, Knowledge, P2P / Panarchy, Politics, Resilience, Spectrum, Transparency
Jean Lievens
Jean Lievens

Helene Finidori on FLOK Society and the Commons

Here’s an excellent summary, written by our good friend Helene Finidori from the Commons Abundance Network, on FLOK Society’s historical significance for the Commons and P2P movements. The article was originally published in STIR magazine and Helene has kindly given us permission to republish it here.


This column was published in STIR’s spring issue and is available to buy here

With the Free Libre Open Knowledge (FLOK) Society project, peer-to-peer commons-based economics have a good chance of being institutionalised in Ecuador, or in other words, of entering at a nation-state level through the front door. This would be a world first.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

Ecuador may not be particularly advanced as far as urban P2P dynamics are concerned, but its indigenous and rural communities have a long history of sharing knowledge. And since the election of a progressive government in 2007, the country is politically ahead in its determination to continue developing an economy based on the creativity of its citizens and on the sustainable leverage of its internal resources.

The focus here is to transition away from cognitive capitalism where value is commonly extracted via technology transfers through intellectual property rights mostly held by large foreign companies, generating dependencies on the global north and increasing the internal social divide. The goal is to shift towards a ‘social knowledge economy’ where knowledge is freely accessible, produced and shared through co-operative and open processes, and where the resulting knowledge commons can be built upon to accelerate innovation and the distribution of wealth.

Continue reading “Jean Lievens: Stacco Troncoso Shares Helene Finidori on FLOK Society and the Commons”

Gordon Cook: Policy Paper on Connectivity

Access, Advanced Cyber/IO, Architecture, Design, Economics/True Cost, Governance, Innovation, P2P / Panarchy, Politics, Resilience, Spectrum, Transparency
Gordon Cook
Gordon Cook

Policy Paper on Connectivity

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction
3 Technical Background
3.1 Peering and Transit – How thousands of Networks become the Global Internet
4. Special Issues in Connectivity
4.1 Access for Scientists
4.2 Access for Rural Areas
4.3 Access for Citizens via a Civil Society Stakeholder Body
5.The Ecuadorian Political, Economic, and Infrastructural Framework
5.1 Existing Infrastructure and Policy Goals for Unbundling, Structural Separation and Sale of IRUs
5.2 Celec EP (Corporación Eléctrica del Ecuador – Celec EP)
5.3 Telconet
5.4 CNT
5,5 CEDIA – The Ecuadoran University Network necessary for global connectivity to Collaborative Science
5.6 Formulation of a Vision for “Higher Education”
6. Alternative Models
6.1 Case Study 1: Brazil, Netherlands
6.2 Case Study 2: guifi.net
7. Policies to Assist the National Broadband Plan and Strategies for Expanding Internet Use
7. 1 Policy Goals of the Broadband Plan and the Three Basic Strategies
8. Ecuadoran Policy Recommendations
8.1 A single overriding basic principle
8.2 Policy for Bringing guifinet to Ecuador
9. Bibliography
10. Why I Withdraw this Paper [Extract Only]

Full Paper with All Notes and Active Links DOC (24 Pages): Cook on Connectivity

Full Text NOT Footnotes NOT Links Below the Fold

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Berto Jongman: Chinese Lightbulb Wi-Fi

Cloud, Innovation, Spectrum
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Chinese scientists discover light bulbs can produce Wi-Fi

China is having a light-bulb moment. Scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics have discovered that a microchip embedded one-watt LED bulb is capable of emitting Wi-Fi, with enough signal strength to provide internet for four computers.

The discovery, aptly named “Li-Fi,” relies on the use of special LED light bulb that operate with light as the carrier instead of traditional radio frequencies.

Click on Image to Enlarge
Click on Image to Enlarge

Data rates as fast as 150 megabits per second were achieved with the new Li-Fi connection, making it faster, cheaper and more energy efficient than traditional Wi-Fi signals.

Li-Fi apparently only uses five percent of the energy required to power Wi-Fi-emitting devices, which rely on energy cooling systems to supply Internet to cell towers and Wi-Fi stations.

Though the discovery has huge potential in the way we use Internet connection, Li-Fi is still in a crude testing stage, since it doesn't work if the light bulb is turned off or if light bulbs are blocked. That doesn't seem like such a huge burden, though: it just means you'll have to leave your lights on if you want to surf the Web. No more online shopping binges in the dark!

Li-Fi demonstrations will take place on November 5 in Shanghai at the International Industry Fair, where 10 kits will be tested out. A bright future seems to be in store for Li-Fi usage, which could range from using car headlights or focused light to transmit data, among many other potential applications.