In a rare example of the precautionary principle, the Mayor of Borgofranco d’Ivrea in Piedmont, Italy has ordered two schools to use ethernet instead of wireless. While there may still be some doubt about the extent of damage to children’s health by microwaves there can be no doubt at all about the lack of logic in…
A community in a remote mountainous area of Greece has created its own access to the internet via a wireless mesh network. As well as serving the local people, free wi-fi is available for visitors. This is a truly autonomous network. When something goes wrong, people work together to fix it. It’s helping to bring together…
The community of Doe Bay, Orcas Island, off the Washington coast, have set up their own internet service, with antennas in trees. Using a directional microwave link to the mainland (10 miles), and a lot of shorter links and relays, the network now supplies around 50 residents with 30-40 Mb synchronous connections. “This has been a total grassroots…