Lantern: One Device, Free Data From Space Forever

[matseng]

Sat phones like the ones using the Iridium network...

...are probably not listening to cubesats but something with serious output concentrated on a specific footprint.

Right, just as the Lantern - no cubesats, just proper commercial satellites.

[Sigmoid]

I think it's kind of unfair to rip Outernet like this. Yes, it's naive, no, it's not particularly practical, but it's not a typical scam - and I definitely do see a point for its existence. One-way satellite broadcast pretty much created the idea of an "open world", and defeated most Stalinist dictatorships.

In our current post-broadcast age, with Internet, content is increasingly controlled based on moral, political and legal grounds, and this control is vastly different across country borders. (Moral control in the US may mean censoring child pornography, while in a theocracy, it might mean censoring scientific facts, sociological studies or works of art deemed blasphemous.) With traditional, analog satellite broadcast, there was political motivation to share. Now there is a motivation to exclude - geographical IP filters abound, and are proliferating at a scary level. Even if a country doesn't have a Great Firewall, many sites will do their own due diligence in censoring content based on the whims of several prudish governments and oppressive dictatorships.

So while yes, it's more of an art project than a practical solution, it's a worthwhile one. Kind of like Esperanto. I love Esperanto, even though the "fina venko" is obviously nothing but a pipe dream.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outernet

BTW...

those kids also don't have 'puters' so what are they going to do with the internet ....
all we will see is more 419 scams.

dear sir ia m theattorney for the recently deceased mrs kawibibibi who left 100.000000 , one hunderd million east zimbabwean ringgit in a bank account ... you know the drill

Your view of Africa is kind of racist. By the way, most of Africa has GSM coverage - and thus, slow as it is, Internet access. It's a little known fact that GSM phones are THE MOST prevalent tool humans use, with the number of actively used cell phones on Earth outnumbering human beings 1.5-2 to 1. Even in villages where it's the only piece of modern technology, there will usually be a cell phone.

[miguelvp]

I think it's like Voice of America was/is, but without the source fact checking

But being independent from any given government, it might make their information more credible.