I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet

Many of the conversations I have with people about the internet relate to the difference between "real life" and "online". It's a conversation we all tend to have about the perceived negative effects a web connection has on our lives. My friends with kids are quick to point out the dangers of addiction or privacy that seem to be associated with the internet, for example, and people who didn't spend their youth online often suggest the internet explains features of younger people that they dislike.

How we get online is important, but what we do when we are is also part of this story, so I was drawn to this mini documentary The Verge posted about one of their journalist's experience being offline for a year. I won't weigh in with my own conclusions on this one, I'll just post it and urge you to read about his time offline, it is an interesting study on this larger struggle.

Micro-Trenching

I've written before about the physical enormity of telecommunication infrastructure and the many ways wires are stretched from one area to another, but unlike telephone wires fiber isn't directly associated with one method of delivery over another. You'll find it hung up on poles, sunk beneath the sea, and buried underground. The last is particularly annoying for those laying the fiber, though, being that there's so much ground to move out of the way. Expensive deep trenches for miles and miles all for a tiny wire-- or so I imagined.

Thankfully micro-trenching is the new cost effective method for circumvents those difficulties. A giant saw cuts only the tiny necessary crack to string fiber through followed by a sealer that barely highlights the change-- simple and cool!

Honest Cable Company

I just stumbled across this and thought it was amazing, enjoy.

The Personal Telco Project

In Portland, OR Amanda and I were lucky enough to spend time with Russell Senior, President of the Personal Telco project which works to create an open wifi network for the city. At a weekly meeting we met many of the volunteers who shared with us a great deal of information about networks and computing in general. Our thanks goes out to them for helping us better understand one of the many ways people are working to make the internet accessible to as many people as possible.

If you're in Portland, check out this map to locate their wifi hotspots!