this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025

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How can we build a new user-owned and -maintained internet? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by sighofannoyance to c/asklemmy

70 comments fedilink hide all child comments

How can a group of volunteers build at least the tech for a replacement for the internet?

I was hoping that each individual user could run and maintain a piece of the infrastructure in a decentralized grassroots way.

How can users build a community owned and maintained replacement for the internet?

I hope that we can have our own servers and mesh/line/tower infrastructure and like wikipedia/internet-archive type organization and user donations based funding.

How could this be realized?

Can this be done with a custom made router that has a stronger wifi that can mesh with other's of it's kind? like a city wide mesh? or what are ways to do this?

Edit: this is not meant as a second dark web but more like geocities or the old internet with usermade websites

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[–] dejected_warp_core 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Mesh networking is a good way to get a functional enclave going. NYC is going hard on this right now. It's built to be a on-ramp for the internet, but also hosts its own services.

The hard part is that suburbia (where I assume most lemmings are) is more or less built to make any kind of community, let alone a radio network, really hard to pull off. Urban areas have an outsized advantage due to population density and that most folks live multiple stories above ground; everyone is already in a tower. It's not impossible in a flatter environment, just harder.

Long-distance links... well, I don't have an answer. In theory people could pool their resources and get a few satellites up to do this. I suggest satellites since it's way easier than the other models, although maybe fiber links are cheaper to lease these days? Either way, keeping that model going (maintenance, support, etc) would require cash-flow. Outside of something like Patreon, this would just reinvent the existing ISP model and should be approached with caution.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

just reinvent the existing ISP model and should be approached with caution.

Not the same. A non-profit ISP has different motivations and goals than a commercial ISP.