I'll start: The Oakland mesh group just finished a successful crowdfunding campaign to bootstrap the first 100 nodes, consisting of low-cost routers and antennas to make point-to-point wifi connections across the East Bay.

Mesh networks are awesome because they don't depend on the existing centralized Internet Service Providers to function. Though they can be connected to the Internet as we know it now, a mesh provides a decentralized means of communication with our local community. We view mesh networks as a means of reconnecting to our neighbors, supporting local businesses, and enabling grassroots community collaboration. In the event of disaster or government censorship, an active mesh network is a resilient mode of communication and sharing of information. Learn more.