Gwen Shaffer, a doctoral candidate, adjunct professor and researcher in communications at Temple University, recently recieved a National Science Foundation grant to complete her dissertation on the potential for high-speed, hyperlocal, robust ad hoc “mesh networks” to bridge the so-called “digital divide.”
Shaffer says that when someone opens up a network to the neighbors, “it creates a sense of community” that corporate internet access simply cannot provide. The technology is simple; Shaffer has seen how it works in Berlin and Barcelona, as well as bucolic Denmark. This is technology that bears watching.
Paul Statt Communications 