On Wed, 2013-07-24 at 14:19 -0700, Brian Kantor spaketh:
Yes, I'd like to see more people working on networking over the air using amateur radio.
Otherwise we're just another branch of the Internet and there's nothing new or exciting about that.
I totally agree, and to add to this thought;
I have yet to see any thread in here in which validates convincing fellow hams into getting on the amprnet via RF whether it be 2m or 5Ghz! Everyone agrees, "you can spend a hundred here or a couple hundred there... for high speed RF..." Now think about this (and I'm only being realistic not trying to be a killjoy) but; How on earth are you going to sell this concept of high speed networking at an additional cost that's more severly government regulated than what they're paying NOW for commercial internet per month? Note: end users will *never* tally a yearly cost in their figures, they will compare a $39.95 figure (even if it's only per month) vs $100.00 for something that allows them to do less on the network they're linked to.
As further food for thought, why do we have an internet mail list for packet when there's an alleged packet mail system (fbb/bpqbbs/etc) that we can use - and allegedly use RADIO for? Is this our group's subconscious admitting to ourselves packet doesn't work? Is it proof by action we really prefer to be an underground ISP?
Where are the new L7 apps? I saw some suggestions before about them, then they were kicked aside as being too government regulated and dropped... which brings the question of what's all this robust dynamic routing/networking going to serve? How do you sell it to the end user who is going to see a lower cost for commercial internet and less regulation (aka: more L7) than for any RF?
Here in the NorthEast US, we couldn't convince hams to install 9600 baud when 2400 baud dialup into a local BBS was the thing and residential internet accounts were basically unheard of... how would that change today? A higher bandwidth then didn't fly, what seriously has changed now (except the providers have increased their speeds at cheaper costs)?
I'm not looking for flames, I'm looking for opinions here... Thanks for reading this. </SoapBox>