Navigation improvements AND Internet Decentralisation   (Read 19585 times)

Suggestion

I have found it a bit like travelling through a maze to work out how to post something.

I am grateful to be here

While finding my way, I wondered why the most simple thing such as 'post an idea' wasn't a little tiny cloud next to the big 'open thource' cloud in the top left.

Decentralising the web

Have u ever thought about taking p2p to the next level where it doesn't just work for file sharing and across your internet line, but that it uses whatever networking receiving devices you have and turns them into portable network hosts / dns servers / content providers  and general web users all in one?

One night I had this thought of how the internet one day could tone down a bit... or that a new type of internet would be born. One that helps the local community more than it does helps you connect to whole world wide web at large.

I came to thinking about this when I was living in isolation in Northern Rivers NSW during the disastrous floods of 2007/08 in the region. Power lines were out. Phones were dropping out. My internet was obviously down. Things could have been worse... my neighbors who were on slightly lower ground were ontop of their roofs waiting for evacuation. I was on a hill.

With a disconnected internet, I pondered. I was also alone. I wanted to be connected to the world but the infrastructure in place was too rigid to adapt to a severely changing environment.

I thought "wouldn't it be cool, if my wireless network card could just tap into the neighbors house... and the neighbors house could just tap into the next wireless connection ... and eventually a wireless stream into the web could be made".  Going beyond the copper wires. Internet sharing...nothing revolutionary here, I know... but its more than that... its going from sharing your connection to the web, to being a bandwidth provider and connector into the web.

I am an idealist.

Then I went further into thinking about this. I wanted to be a realist. How could this be practical. What does the internet look like to a community of vegetable growers? Could you foresee that potentially the internet may decentralise... and that instead of hosting your blog on dreamhost in america, your blog is hosted on your laptop. And that potentially, you are more likely to find new relevant content not via remote search engines, but via the proximity of web connected providers of this network in your close physical vicinity?

For example, to the core grass roots internet user, its about accessing information you need. The farmer over the hill maybe needs to update his local community on how many pumpkins he has and how much he wants for it. That's about it. I think more and more communities will begin to adopt their own independant internet that exists free of the controlled IP paradigm. I think that has time progresses and the world becomes dense enough we will all probably have enough wireless cards to just run our own p2p internet that can achieve everything we use the internet for now, but with 0 wires and no more rollout costs other than your own internet device.

Perhaps as I drive through your subburb you see (should my settings be public) my blog and latest thoughts I've been having. Potentially sitting in a cafe you could quickly get to know some things about somebody they are open to having you know. Orientation. Addictions. Likes. etc.

It seems scary... but what is scary here but the truth? I have wondered if the internet we have where we can access everything at all times is an unrealistic and potentially quite impractical model. I'm not saying down with the web or anything like that. From the costs saved from more people shifting to a p2p airwave kind of traffic there could be money invested into radio signal boosters around the place. If you do need to tap into the outer world of the WWW then maybe the meter starts and the charging begins.

What I am suggesting here is that potentially, to many people in the world the only internet they need is for their local hub of actual real world people. In times of need, its more important to be able to let your neighbours know that you need a boat of food more than you need to tap into youtube. Our current internet doesn't really encourage this kind of usage, although it can be done, to actually find your local hub generally requires an internet pathway of going to other places around the world first. Thats cool. Its a vital system. However when that goes down, when your computer doesn't naturally seek out the information on your local block / terrain, what good is it? Its like having a map to explore jupiter.


What do YOU think?


Thanks for your time,

Bobby