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1. Embed this notice
   Brewster Kahle (brewsterkahle@mastodon.archive.org)'s status on Monday, 13-Nov-2023 16:41:54 JST Brewster Kahle

   • tom jennings

   @tomjennings :

   Fidonet was mentioned in one of the speeches at Vint Cerf's 80th bday party at the Computer History Museum. In a way...

   Fidonet lives!

   • Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Evan Prodromou repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     tom jennings (tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Nov-2023 11:10:14 JST tom jennings

     in reply to

     @brewsterkahle

     Wow cool!

     I doubt FidoNet will return, and it shouldn't. We could do so much more with so much less now. All of FidoNet would fit on an Arduino. FidoNet was a layer on top of dialup POTS, it had no other connection layer. It was connection based, not packet based.

     I am shocked and honestly dismayed how scarce direct phone to phone communication tools are.

     BT and/or wifi for neighbor discovery, clustered chaotic routing, store and forward of encrypted bundles, totally doable. THAT would work without poles or towers.

     And it would be a great medium for social games and events.

     Not my world though.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Nov-2023 07:39:31 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • tom jennings
     • Janet Vertesi

     @brewsterkahle @tomjennings @cyberlyra I know this is kind of a rhetorical question, but:

     when designing the social web, we stopped at the federated model (many servers, no gatekeeping to join the network, clients access own server) typical of email and other Internet protocols.

     I understand the attraction of shifting down another level, connecting clients peer-to-peer, but it is a seriously hairy technical challenge without visible benefit to users.

   • Embed this notice
     Brewster Kahle (brewsterkahle@mastodon.archive.org)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Nov-2023 07:39:33 JST Brewster Kahle

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou
     • tom jennings
     • Janet Vertesi

     @tomjennings @cyberlyra @evan

     Indeed peer-to-peer...
     networking (mesh)
     backend for the web (dweb)
     file system (bittorrent)
     article and book chapters (interlibrary loan)
     what is worthwhile in life (friends)

     all legal, all doable.

     what are we waiting for?

   • Embed this notice
     tom jennings (tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Nov-2023 07:39:35 JST tom jennings

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou
     • Janet Vertesi

     @cyberlyra

     Palm Pilots had a crude IR one, but it was interesting. I took part in an open public game with mine.

     Though laughable tiny things now, they had some promising if-only features I wish we had. Like they direct handheld to handheld ability.

     @brewsterkahle @evan

   • Embed this notice
     Janet Vertesi (cyberlyra@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Nov-2023 07:39:36 JST Janet Vertesi

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou
     • tom jennings

     @tomjennings @brewsterkahle @evan Mesh networking FTW!!!

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 11:41:21 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • tom jennings
     • Janet Vertesi

     @tomjennings @brewsterkahle @cyberlyra I'm specifically talking about peer-to-peer social networking.

   • Embed this notice
     tom jennings (tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 11:41:23 JST tom jennings

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou
     • Janet Vertesi

     @evan @brewsterkahle @cyberlyra

     quote
     understand the attraction of shifting down another level, connecting clients peer-to-peer, but it is a seriously hairy technical challenge without visible benefit to users.
     /quote

     See other reply, but I was talking only about the tool, not a corporately deployed syste, to somehow complete in social media space.

     I don't see it as technically hairy at all (though I know little about phone radio APIs). Ham radio's done half of this for decades.

     And no tool needs solve all problems; limitations are inherent in everything.