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Outernet - Information from Outer Space

posted by Cactus on Wednesday February 26 2014, @03:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-panic-and-always-know-where-your-towel-is dept.

AnonTechie writes

Media Development Investment Fund, a New York based non-profit, is looking to offer a world-wide data stream free of charge.
Dubbed the 'Outernet', the network will broadcast a one-way data stream to the entire world via a network of mini satellites. The idea is to bridge the digital divide, offering some of the most important (and basic) information on the internet to people regardless of location.

Outernet has posted intention to deliver staples such as: local and international news, OpenStreetMap, Wikipedia, Ubuntu, various educational courseware, and emergency communications systems for use when cell systems fail.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday February 26 2014, @11:29AM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday February 26 2014, @11:29AM (#7333)

    After Hurricane Sandy I went to a couple hackathons last year that focused on flashing routers with open firmware to build ad-hoc mesh networks. Their focus was on temporary infrastructure in the wake of disasters. The implications for me were wider. If a repressive government shuts down wired networks, ad-hoc mesh networks can spring up to take their place. As we discussed the ad-hoc networks at the hackathons, though, we were talking about a few hops before reaching a back-haul. Anything beyond that seems like it would experience crippling latency. An open-source satellite network seems like it would be more effective, were it two-way, of course. Does anyone more knowledgeable about networks have links or know of projects working to build systems like this outside the control of governments or corporations?

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 26 2014, @04:10PM

    by VLM (445) on Wednesday February 26 2014, @04:10PM (#7524)

    Talking about "providing internet access just like a cablemodem" or more generically transferring information using computers but probably not the UI you wanted? Soccer mom is going to freak out if you give her a BBS account on a FIDONET node or a UUCP usenet node, when what she really wanted to do was "like" her friends cat videos on facebook.

    There's nothing inherently "internet" about a wireless access point. Plug it into a machine with a DHCP server and a web browser and it'll be happy. Humorously a lot of end users and media consumption devices assume any open wifi signal "must" be connected to the internet. Not so!