Hey all,
Haven't caught up entirely on this thread, but looking forward to
re-reading shortly.
I felt compelled to finish the updates to see what ya'll think of my
depiction of a simplified and abstract representation of the overall
pattern of network development / growth, this time paralleled with the
community development that propels the growth. (I may switch Right with
Left also btw)
See attached.
// Matt
On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Mitar <mitar(a)tnode.com> wrote:
Hi!
In the US, sharing one's bandwidth is
considered risky at best,
dangerous at worst. Getting DMCA'd because somebody ran a torrent
over your connection, getting raided because a neighbor downloaded
something illegal using your connection, getting your service cut off
because they found out you were sharing it... Additionally, there is
always some risk incurred in using a network that you don't know the
provenance of.
All these issues we addressed by using VPN tunnels from nodes to connect
all nodes first together into a common network, and then Internet access
is a network-wide service. Public IP of host's Internet connection is
not visible.
As I said, we made things easy. People do not have to know how to
protect their sharing of Internet, we designed that once and then can
just use it (they can of course also hack further on it, but this is not
a requirement for you to participate), so that they can then easily
share Internet.
I agree with you, if you leave things complicated, then people will want
to learn first technology to be able to protect themselves and
understand better the risks. But if you develop technology in a way that
the risks are low, then they do not feel anymore that is necessary and
they are still willing to participate.
Looking at it from a user's perspective,
hopping onto someone's AP can
be hazardous because you don't know if it's a boobytrap or not.
That's clients issue. Not hosts issue (the person who would host an open
AP). We should educate clients as well, they should not trust any
network anyway.
The question is how to make many hosts to participate. You are saying by
teaching them how technology works. I am saying by making technology so
easy and safe, that they do not have to learn that. (But are of course
very much encouraged to do it, if they want, but it should not be a
requirement.)
In our experience, people started using the black
box when they
understood that it was set up for them, and intended for them to use.
When it's less unknown it's often seen as safer, and more likely to
be used.
That's why you put a sticker on the black box which says "use me" and
you put SSID into the air which says "use me".
Most of the contact we've gotten was from
activists who were actively
setting up meshes for that purpose. Emergencies, unrest, disaster
preparation, things like that. Very few people for the second. About
as many people for the third as the second.
OK, emergencies, unrest, disaster preparation are definitely a very
different use cases than what we are trying to address primarily in
Slovenia. Probably you really want and need to understand technology
when you want to deploy it in such situations.
But for home use, for casual browsing, I would argue that this might not
be necessary (but of course welcoming and empowering).
Mitar
--
http://mitar.tnode.com/
https://twitter.com/mitar_m
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