From Net to Mesh

At the moment the biggest threat to freedom on the internet is that it is controlled by large entities, such as telephone companies, cable companies and governments. For example, during the uprising in Egypt, the Egyptian government was able to disable the internet in that country relatively easily. Also, more and more of the internet is controlled by fewer and fewer corporations. How can this trend be countered?

The answer is "blowing in the wind." In the current configuration of the internet, most end nodes, desktops, laptops, smartphones, etc., are connected to relatively few connecting nodes provided by telephone and cable companies called IPs (internet providers). Well some tech people have built what is known as "mesh" networks where the end user nodes are also connecting nodes. For a relatively small investment in hardware and software, anyone with a wireless device of some sort can hook into one of these mesh networks. At the present, these communities are relatively small. But, I see this as the wave of the future. Eventually the intermesh will replace the internet in the same way that the internet grew from a few nodes to millions.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Good question! It will be absolutely impossible to police the intermesh. File sharing, copyright infringement, sexual content and all sorts of cyber crime will absolutely explode. On the other hand, political dissent, leaks of secret information and freedom of expression cannot be curtailed. This may change everything in ways impossible to foresee, as the internet and home computing has.