OpenNet

turn all electronic communications into a Stupid Network-based Internet (Always On Network)

• WireLess: Mesh Network, Open Spectrum. Open Cell Phone.
• wired Broad Band: DSL, Cable Modem, etc.
  • and Voice Call-s! Make everything VoIP, eliminate the TelCo.
• hmm, Smart Grid aspect?

Should be low-expense Infrastructure organization - Utility Company. This is Too Cheap To Meter.

• Aug'2010, in passing, Doc Searls suggests I believe that the world should treat its bit-commons — and the copper, fiber and radios that comprise its infrastructure — as a form of public utility that has ambient connectivity and ample capacity as its end state. I believe we need regulation toward that end that encourages competition, enterprise and initiative by anybody and everybody in a position to make it happen — including ordinary citizens and the municipal communities to which they belong. And I’d like to see that happen in my lifetime. Since I just turned 63, I’m not very optimistic about that.

Does it need to be government-run? Government-funded? Or paid by fees controlled by PUC?

• Municipal Wifi/Municipal Net

Bob Frankston's thinking on design

Don't think of telco services, think of Ambient Connectivity (assume you are connected but verify).

Don't route to machines based on IP addresses lookup up via DNS. (Machines are always moving.)

Instead, think of the endpoint being the application, and the user/application being in an application-specific database, and new algorithms to route from the edge like Skype does. We can treat the current Internet as just one virtual segment like Skype does. (NoMoreRouters)

Don't expect Qo S (Quality Of Service) for a high-bandwidth application (The sheer mechanism for managing this makes the network complex and brittle and the behavior perverse. It is far easier to provide abundant capacity than figuring out how to management the scarcity.). Design such applications to degrade gracefully under congestion, or fall back to a lower-bandwidth application (from Video to chunky video to Audio to Text Messaging, etc.).

Benefits?

Cheaper (how much?) "Broad Band" (BobF hates that term).

Cheaper (how much?) Mobile data/voice (stop worrying about having every mobile device you own creating a separate bill).

Ability for P2P communication between devices even when central systems fail (CellCo towers go out, etc.).

• see Open Cell Phone, Public Safety

Ability to run a Home Server/Personal Server that you can hit from outside.

More Generative - no barriers to the creation of new services.

Questions

How much cheaper will things be for me, for us?

What's on the other end (or what's the next node) of the wire coming into my house?

What if I want a big fat fiber instead of a wire coming to my house (so I can broadcast live movies of every room in my house)? Who do I call?

Will a flood still cause "my Internet" to go out? Who do I call?

When a device in my home communicates with a device on the other side of the US, who owns each piece of hardware that the data runs through? How do they get paid?

When a device in my home communicates with a device on the other side of the world.....?

Do existing data-transport protocols (SMTP, HTTP) have to be replaced, or can they work (well) as-is?

• perhaps some hybrid like Http Over Xmpp