One of the great things about open software source is that it is not simply highlight a wealth of benefits to businesses. Instead, by making low-cost, widely available to everyone, software quality it also has the potential to change lives around the world.
Most of us is familiar with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) effort to develop the hardware computer low-cost in the hands of the poorest in the world, but a project animated by the same spirit is less well known is intended to do something similar with Internet access.
The objective is to develop low-cost software, open source Wi-Fi, and Wednesday Geeks without borders - an initiative of the foundation of the Manna energy not-profit - announced the final development of such a solution.
"Millions of people more.
Facilitated by a grant from the tides Foundation, the open80211s of new technology (o11s) will the development and deployment of Wi - Fi networks of mesh on a large scale for about half of the cost of a traditional network, said Geeks without borders. Designed to use existing equipment to reduce costs and maximize the availability, it was expected to be particularly important in areas where the old models in broadband are considered as currently to be economically viable.
Built primarily by the Cozybit, the technology is managed by the Geeks without borders and Solutions-Net and sponsored by Google, Global connect, Nortel, OLPC and the manna Energy Foundation.
"By lowering the cost of the metropolitan and scale village Wi - Fi networks, millions more people will be able to take advantage of the economic and social benefits of significantly lower cost of Internet access," explains Michael Potter, one of the founders of the initiative of Geeks without borders.
The video below explains the project more in detail.
Two methods of authentication
Technologically speaking, nodes and antennas will work together on those new mesh networks to extend connectivity and the Internet for a wide area. Networks are self-healing, so that if a tour stops, the software self-assesses and re-routes automatically to maintain the network to full availability.
For security, at the same time, the new Wi - Fi software uses known stronger authentication methodology the existence of mesh networks, the group said. More specifically, simultaneous addition of authentication is equal to (SAE) to protect against offline dictionary attacks, it implements also authenticated Mesh Peering Exchange (AMPE), which allows authenticated multinode encrypt traffic between them.
The combination of open source code and high-level security is designed to ensure that the new networks based on o11s are safer and still significantly cheaper to deploy.
The next step for the project is to complete the implementation open current source of upcoming mesh IEEE standard 802 11 s, which should be ratified in the fourth quarter of this year. In the meantime, the latest version of the software is available for developers on the o11s site.
A world of new possibilities
So that means for us in the business world who already have the chance to have access to the Internet? In short, he will tell a very different world on the Internet, populated not only by the "haves", but more and more by those who were once the "poor".
It is a very good thing, not only for all those on Board finally - that will suddenly be found with a new wealth of opportunities - but also for us in the business world, according to figures significantly enhanced markets and potential customers.
It will require a new sensitivity on our part, certainly, that we must achieve more that many consumers see our ads online, say, can not live in the suburban subdivisions, but rather in village huts.
But the opportunities will be there, not only for advertising and communication, but for new types of products and services as well. It would be a good time to start thinking about what your company will make this fresh new world of possibilities.