Scientific American: Science Talk. FreedomBox Foundation. About. Don't log into the net - be the net!
FunkFeuer is a free, experimental network in Vienna, Graz, in parts of Weinviertel (NÖ) and Bad Ischl. It is build and maintained by computer enthusiasts. Mesh Networks Research Group. Internet Freedom Fighters Build a Shadow Web. Just after midnight on January 28, 2011, the government of Egypt, rocked by three straight days of massive antiregime protests organized in part through Facebook and other online social networks, did something unprecedented in the history of 21st-century telecommunications: it turned off the Internet.
Exactly how it did this remains unclear, but the evidence suggests that five well-placed phone calls—one to each of the country’s biggest Internet service providers (ISPs)—may have been all it took. At 12:12 a.m. Cairo time, network routing records show, the leading ISP, Telecom Egypt, began shutting down its customers’ connections to the rest of the Internet, and in the course of the next 13 minutes, four other providers followed suit. Digital Activists are Building an Uncensorable Network. Egypt's Internet shutdown during last year's Arab Spring played a significant inspirational role.
Image: Scientific American Magazine With a "shadow" network configured, activists would remain able to communicate, even after central hubs have gone dark. Here's the online version of the article: The Shadow Web And here are some supplemental links from the print edition: • FreedomBox Foundation • FunkFeuer • Mesh Networks Research Group.