Using a DIY network, activists and researchers can broadcast the interviews they conduct with their visitors. Andreas Unteidig , CC BY-SA
Access to the internet is an indispensable tool for participation in the world, and it’s been recognized as a “human right” by the UN. It is, however, a human right that is not guaranteed to 60 percent of the population of Earth.
To make up for this, big companies like Facebook or Google present themselves not just as service providers; however, they also act as internet service providers. Facebook is one example. It provides Internet access for free in the most disadvantaged regions of India or, at the very most, access to a tiny portion of the Internet that is considered “basic” (including access to Facebook, obviously).
In the same way, Facebook has the ambition to ” connect the world” as well as for it to ” understand intelligence and make intelligent machines” as well as in the future, to ” cure all diseases in our children’s lifetime“.
The platform is creating an fresh map of all people around the globe as well as exploring ways to manipulate the feelings of people by the filtering of newsfeeds.
In the direction of an organic internet
In my earlier article I discussed communities networks that offer alternatives to large-scale projects like Facebook’s free basics that provide internet access to refugees and communities that aren’t accessible to conventional internet providers.
The diy networks can be described to be “organic”: they are built through local community groups. They reflect local customs, and the information used in them can be created and consumed at the same spot.
The “Can you hear me?” artwork installation in Berlin. Christophe Wachter & Mathias Jud
DIY networks also can connect people in person, rather than staying on the internet all day long.
Artists, activists and others have been playing with different kinds of networks, including LibraryBox which is an online book-sharing network as well as The ” Can you hear me?” installation of temporary antennas that point to the US Embassy in Berlin and broadcasting messages anonymously from pedestrians in the vicinity.
We must also consider the main reasons these networks should be marketed as infrastructures to host local services constructed and used for local community members.
The wooden structure within the garden functions as a neighborhood academy. Marco Clausen
The Prinzessinnengarten in Berlin is an excellent illustration of a location in which DIY networks are created to function “outside the internet”.
Active members of The neighborhood academy set up a space within the garden, which is designed to apply the concepts that are based on organic, collaborative farming into the world of networking.
The Neighbourhood Academy is a self-organised open platform for sharing information of culture, activism and knowledge. Its founders, Marco Clausen, Elizabeth Calderon Luning, Asa Sonjasdotter, and the Foundation Anstiftung, came up with the concept of a Wi-Fi network local to the area available only in the garden.
They worked together with Design Research Lab to develop an “organic internet”, a local network that is connected to a physical building, Die Laube (The Arbor) where workshops, seminars, and assemblies.
The Laube is located inside the Prinzessinnengarten is also used to allow free speech in the cities. Marco Clausen
The creators sought a method to document and share all the data exchanged during gatherings of activists as well as architects, artists and researchers from diverse disciplines and regions of the globe that attended the academy. Local DIY networks allow the creations to be accessible to anyone who is physically present in the garden, and the digital space is an integral element of the garden’s identity.
For UdK’s designers from UdK and UdK, who participated with the initiative, this trial offers an opportunity to design hybrid spaces and transform these to toolkits that enable technology to be used by other people.
Alternatives to social networks worldwide
DIY networking encourages physical closeness and inclusivity. The ability to play and be playful is a crucial aspect of the network. It is always present, suspended from the branches of a tree.
They also require local residents to oversee the network, establish trust, and collectively decide on the functionality and usage. A DIY network could be removed periodically.
The project is built on the fundamentals of replicating, not growing. other people can reproduce the same concept at a different location, with the same equipment (a Raspberry Pi wireless router, wireless router, external hard disk, battery) and utilizing auto-hosted programs to access local services. There is no need to invest in larger servers. are required when more users join the project, and there are no standard rules for the design.
