Very Cute!

I just ran across Open Garden and their offerings. Simply what they appear to do is as follows:

1. Each mobile device has three wireless access modes; a carrier, a wifi, and a bluetooth.

2. The carrier interface is one to one with the carriers base station. The carrier then connects to the Internet backbone.

3. However the wifi and bluetooth can connect to any other wifi or blutooth. Thus unlike the carrier mode one can create ad hoc mesh networks of combined wifi or bluetooth. These are off the Net networks, they are ad hoc and come and go as users come and go.

4. The range of bluetooth is short but wifi may be hundreds of meters. Thus if we have a town of say 10,000 users and 10 sq km, then we have more than adequate density if everyone has the software on their mobile devices.

5. If a critical number load the software and keep devices on then one has a local mesh network that is NOT an Internet connection. It is a Meraki network without a carrier.

This is being used in Iraq by many who want to avoid being intercepted. The BBC reports:

About 40,000 users downloaded Firechat last week, compared with 6,600 over the previous few months, the company says. The internet has been blocked in some Iraqi provinces, as authorities seek to prevent militants from communicating. Access to social media sites has also been severely restricted. Firechat allows users to take part in group chats with between two and 10,000 people, without the need for an internet connection. Using a technology known as "mesh networking", messages can be sent to people within the immediate vicinity, as long as they too have the app installed. However, discussions are not private, and can be seen by anyone in the area. The software is available for both Android and iOS devices, and has a range of roughly 70m (230ft). However, if enough people use the app, messages can travel over far greater distances, hopping between intermediary devices in a chain-like effect.

This is an interesting turn and potentially has substantial disintermediation applications! The applications is worth following.