Lantern: One Device, Free Data From Space Forever (Indiegogo Campaign)

A library in every pocket: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lantern-one-device-free-data-from-space-forever

Note that Open Source Ecology is backing the project. If you don't know about these guys, here's their mission statement:

An open source, libre economy is an efficient economy which increases innovation by open collaboration. To get there, OSE is currently developing a set of open source blueprints for the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) – a set of the 50 most important machines that it takes for modern life to exist – everything from a tractor, to an oven, to a circuit maker. In the process of creating the GVCS, OSE intends to develop a modular, scalable platform for documenting and developing open source, libre hardware – including blueprints for both physical artifacts and for related open enterprises.

I came across this on Facebook yesterday. I think it's totally awesome! I'm a long time proponent of free access to knowledge for all and I'm watching this with great interest. Looking forward to the DIY plans, too!

This looks really cool, thank you for sharing! I couldn't help myself, I contributed! It's worth checking out if you haven't already.

Looks awesome! Open source, free data once you have it, solar powered and very reasonably priced through there kickstarter. Look forward to receiving it.

Jennifer Wadsworth wrote:A library in every pocket: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lantern-one-device-free-data-from-space-forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaf3Sl2r3jE

It's their library in everyones pocket.

I see it as a positive way forward. Add some mesh net into the wifi codes, open up the subscription / publication platform and it will be perfect and not dependent on launching cubesats on the back of government sanctioned launch vehicles.

I do believe that it says people can vote on content.

That's a monster of a project! In my opinion before starting a funding project, there really should be a working concept outlined. Else it even feels more promising to contribute to buildtheenterprise.org who try to construct an open source spacecraft or new launch methods.

Note that the Outernet system is both offline, reactive (information like hazard forecast might not reach you in time due to low data transmission) and 1-way. You can't call for help and you can't download an permaculture ebook that you might suddenly need (because it's one-way => you only get the data that is sent to you - it'd be pretty cool if they'd know you are in trouble and need a survival book a priori, but unfortunately we never know beforehand when we are in trouble or in need of tsunami data or whatever).

Don't want to be the showstopper, but don't you think those funds put into planting food forrests in poor countries might help lessen our planet's sufferings more?
Consider how expensive it is to maintain such a system - and it's easy to manipulate like every system where content is controlled at some point/location.

As an alternative Amateur radio already exists, make the certification and then request the information you need from other amateur operators around the globe - or use the moon for data transmission, half the planet can see it at any time in infrared ...

I would like this project to succeed. Of course there are questions and concerns about onboarding, control, various vulnerabilities... but an independent means to get online would be a gamechanger.

The idea sounds great and the hardware looks awesome, but some details bother me.
On the one hand, it broadcasts a very selected set of information with a strongly centralized control - in essence technically assured censorship.
On the other hand, it is funded by the Media Development Investment Fund, that is itself funded by George Soros, a big meddler into other people's affairs. If Soros is in it, I suspect his neo-con pals want to use the project for propaganda purposes to promote their crony interests (read overthrow governments, as in Irak, Lybia, Syria, Ukraine or Venezuela, to name just the latest victims). I for one want to be no part of that.
Open systems for broader information access already exist. Meshnet is such a solution that allows direct P2P info sharing between locally connected devices as well as regular Internet connection sharing. Meshnet provides a hybrid framework that is designed to extend the controlled Internet we know today and slowly merge it into a truly free, P2P network.
The Spanish Meshnet implementation called Guifi.net is now providing coverage to a large part of the population in Spain and Portugal and is growing fast, with new implementations around the world every month.
I would love to see mini-satellites and balloons used to support an open Meshnet solution, rather than a system controlled by Google (Project Loon) , Facebook (Internet.org) or Soros (Outernet)...

Have a great day

- A week ago I, and probably most of the membership here at Permies ( I can't speak for them !) had never heard of most of these information streams !

We now have an active version of Outernets system,merely requiring a bigger dish, there is Pirate Box, there is Library box, often mentioned are other

communication forms which may or may not reach fruition, Meshnet, Guifi, a similar scheme by the Canadian government to give a satellite-linked

communications enfranchisement to more of its people! Also Google (Loon), and Facebook (internet.org) AND More!

37 seconds after the first hacker gets his hands on Pillar or Librarian there wilL be A Pirate Lantern this is truly a genie that cannot be stuffed back

in a bottle !

As with any technology,there will be a dust-up while various groups try to control this sudden branching of communication forms through-out the entire world,

That nasty word censorship has been used, and by definition it is the control of information, For the 1/3rd of the people on this planet who are living the right

places (with affordable/nearly affordable) internet connections the flow of information can not be stopped, information has become ubiquitous. It is time that the

other 2/3rds of the people born on this planet have a place to go to get the information they need to better allow them selves to feed themselves, and improve

their quality of life.

One of the Great Things that will come out of this is the spread of Instantaneous News world wide, When the news can no longer be controlled, it can not be

censored! My greatest expectations are more people able to get information and nearly instantaneous transmission of news to '' the 4-corners of the Globe'' !



It has been suggested that the moneys collected should better be spent on planting trees to Feed the Worlds Hungry, this is a great idea I Think, It is however

a ''From the Top down'' solution, requiring good roads and other infrastructure, and this requires a stable government!

With Information Technology and therefor information available in the most distant parts of the world feeding the worlds people becomes a 'from the bottom up'

solution, and possible.

Yes, this can be a very scary thing to even think about, and the ideas of the future beyond these steps is so close to utterly fantastic, that some will even dare dream

of a utopian future !

This is possible, it will happen, NOW? Hell, I don't know, I'm just here to say that personally I am not afraid of it, let it come ! !!! For the Future and the good of the

Planet ! Big AL

Frere, thanks for raising some criticism and concerns. I think it's a disservice to label Soros a neo-con but, be that as it may, the point is we need a diversity of means to acquire and disseminate information.

All of these alternative services (as listed by you and Allan) are variations on themes of freedom from surveillance and private exploration & growth from shared, collective knowledge.

I watched Citizenfour yesterday. If you don't think you're one of the 1.2million people already categorized within some level of the watch hierarchy, that's either a naivete worse than mine (which is deliberately pretty high) or an obtuse looking the other way. Privilege will protect us only so long.

I'm pretty sure everyone here has glimmerings about the stakes of successful permaculture movements around the world. Not only is this the only feasible path for saving the planet, its the greatest threat to the powers that be.

So, I'm all for Lantern and every other attempt to break out of the panopticon. Meshnet seems awesome - that's what protestors in Hong Kong were using, right? Connecting a series of smartphones to generate their own independent connection to the internet? I don't have any idea how surveillance-safe that is, but I do have the sense it requires more tech savvy than I've got.

Flat is only as strong as navigation is easy. Information flows are currently directed by advertising and expressed interests. Like to like, rare are the currents connecting at intersections where similarity momentarily exceeds difference. Until we have the social will to value the complex intersections more than the easy flows, no technological system can turn the accumulated momentum.

I hope at least some of that makes sense, and that this is an appropriate place for dialogue.

The minute I saw the World Bank logo I got suspicious of this project. World Bank may be called a bank, but their real currency is control. I've noticed them and the IMF funding lots of ecologically themed programs around the world and it makes me wonder what they're up to. Organizations like those don't just give millions of dollars away with nor expectation of ROI - return on investment. The narrator kept saying "join us" but never specified who "us" is. I'm not joining anybody's army to be used for some goal I don't know about or approve of. This whole thing smells like a trojan horse to me. There has to be an ulterior motive somewhere in this because money obsessed capitalists always look for a return on investment. I'm a late adopter for a reason, because nothing is what it's touted to be, especially in technology and especially on the US. This is Opposite Land - the Clean Air Act legalizes more gick in the air, the Healthy Waters Act allows for more water pollution, etc. Trust this project if you want, but I'm going to sit back and see what happens before I make any moves toward it. If this gizmo can receive information "from space" can it not also transmit information to space? I don't feel obliged to make the security state's job any easier, thank you very much.

A long time ago my father told me to never buy the first of anything, or the last, I broke that rule and now I'm driving a Saturn hybrid, I had good reasons at the time,

and it actually turned out well for me though at only 145,000 miles it is kinda to soon to tell!

This is all new territory and we must be diligent and stretch or modes a little to take in these new developments, and what it means, increased caution is a good thing!

However, one of the pillars of wisdom that supports and nurtures our community is everyone working to grow in a positive direction, and not to''Rage against the system''

or hate the haters.

Our goal is to think globally and act locally, we don't promote monsanto. I am not going to make room in my head as a place for them in my life, or allow them to

subtract from the time I spend doing good in this word ! This is also part of our wisdom which boils down to be nice !

Actually as built this system is a oneway communication / library Hub, any Future up-link still requires more power than 'Coulombs Law' now allows, the use of that much
power would quickly announce itself and the world wide web of Hackers would quickly spot the signal! As a certain President said "Trust, but verify!

For those who must worry about big brother think, about it. This is a new media, they only will be listening to the tip of the iceberg, the part they already Know and now the
number of people to be monitored is potentially tripled,. and the number of Wi-Fi devices they need to watch is doubled!

If this fails to take off it will be because of the N.S.A. and the other 'spook' agencies fear it ! Even then if the U.S. could shut it down most of the northern 1/3rd of America
could just get its signal from Canada ! Move north learn to speak Canadian Ah! , or learn to speak Spanglish and move south !

Looking to the future, if I lose any sleep over this it will be Christmas Eve Night !

Hay, just a thought think how much easier Santa's job will be when he starts carrying Lantern ! Big AL

I had to edit t5his because it turns out I murderlized the quote so badly, lets try -''making a better world through learning new things and not being mad at bad guys !''

Allen Lumley wrote: "However, one of the pillars of wisdom that supports and nurtures our community is everyone working to grow in a positive direction, and not to''Rage against the system'' or hate the haters."

I'm not an advocate of "raging against the system" either. What a waste of time. I advocate "Abandoning the System" because this has been the most successful tactic of people in the past. The abandoned cities in the deserts and jungles of our planet attest to this. People got fed up with oppressive hegemonies and walked away, back to the land. I think that embracing technology tied to "the system" is going the opposite direction of walking away from it. Especially when it's promoted with slick advertising and "too good to be true" marketing like "Free Data Forever!!" (...But wait, there's more!) Does it come with free Ginsu knives too, I wonder? LOL As Socrates said: "The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new." So why adopt something that is a part of "the old"? This supposedly new tech is built on and integrated with the techno-industrial base that undergirds all of Industrial Petroleum Civilization, so it's not really new or part of a new way of doing things. It's just the old stuff in a new box. It will require continued resource extraction to maintain into the future too, so "forever" is a foolish boast. The idea of sending information to 3rd world countries to teach them Permaculture and appropriate tech will still need boots on the ground to teach these ideas hands on and help to implement them. If people have to go, they can just take the info with them, making this tech superfluous. Why not finance a Permaculture education and demonstration site via indegogo instead of sending the funds to organizations known to be hostile to the ethics of Permaculture and HOPING (Remember how Hope and Change panned out) that they're benevolent when all evidence to the contrary is present?

"If this fails to take off it will be because of the N.S.A. and the other 'spook' agencies fear it ! Even then if the U.S. could shut it down most of the northern 1/3rd of America
could just get its signal from Canada ! Move north learn to speak Canadian Ah! , or learn to speak Spanglish and move south !"

The other side of this coin is that "if it Does take off, it could be because it's an NSA/Spook coordinated plan to begin with", seeing as how it's being financed by the World Bank-robbers and other related organizations whose track records are quite clear and freely available to anyone who cares to educate themselves about them. Let's not forget that the internet was developed by the military first and is now being used to spy on people by the same military and "intelligence" goons who put it together and offered it "for free" to the people. Nothing is free in this universe, there is cost in everything, whether it's money, time, energy, resources or any combination thereof. Hence, I doubt that an Outernet would be financed and maintained by private philanthropists who want to spend billions putting satellites in space just to give free things to all the good boys and girls without expectation of profit. I would highly recommend reading "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins for some background on the World Bank and IMF's policies and tactics.

As for shutting down the inter or outer-net and other electronic communications, the US just revealed that it has an entire fleet of shiny new airplanes that carry electromagnetic weapons for the purpose of taking out any type of electronic equipment, including the electronics in vehicles. They're doing "training exercises" over the US as we speak. ...for your safety and security, of course! It is also quite easy for the military to shoot down satellites with their armed satellites or surface launched missiles, rendering this system null and void in minutes. Solar flares can also disable satellites easily.That money, time and effort would then have been wasted and the dependency on the system that it created would leave people without recourse to a substitute. It's a lot harder to take out a food forest and earthworks! Let's work towards that kind of infrastructure and let the resource intensive and Techno-grandiose ideas that we can keep surfing the web and driving to Walmart forever slip back into the childish imaginations where they came from. This planet will not support that day dream, but it will support and contribute mightily to permaculture installations on the ground because those structures are partnered with nature, unlike a bunch of man made stuff floating in space. Relationships will also be built because people are interacting with other people instead of a screen. That sounds a lot more like Permaculture to me than some whiz-bang gizmo proffered by dubious sources with provably dubious intentions.

You make some interesting points.

Joe DiMeglio wrote:...it's not really new or part of a new way of doing things. It's just the old stuff in a new box.

There's nothing "new" about permaculture either!

Bill Mollison had no problem using "a cup or two of fossil fuel to make a dam that will last 2000 years. However, he said he could accomplish the same task using 5000 Indian woman (and had done so).

Joe DiMeglio wrote:The idea of sending information to 3rd world countries to teach them Permaculture and appropriate tech will still need boots on the ground to teach these ideas hands on and help to implement them. If people have to go, they can just take the info with them, making this tech superfluous.

I'm not sure, but I think the idea is to let 3rd world people learn for themselves instead of being taught it. Enabling their access to this info, which we take for granted.

Cj Verde wrote:You make some interesting points.

Joe DiMeglio wrote:...it's not really new or part of a new way of doing things. It's just the old stuff in a new box.

There's nothing "new" about permaculture either!

Bill Mollison had no problem using "a cup or two of fossil fuel to make a dam that will last 2000 years. However, he said he could accomplish the same task using 5000 Indian woman (and had done so).

True, there's nothing new about permaculture. My family were using it in the 70's on our farm when nobody in the states including us had heard the word. We found the techniques in old books on dryland farming, Native American gardening, Mother Earth News and from my granddad who was a farmer. What I meant is that it's not a new way of doing things for modern humans whereas Permaculture is new to us because it is so old, a forgotten body of knowledge like hunter gatherer skills. New in this context means something other than the status quo we currently suffer from and which is oriented away from the current paradigm of totalitarian agriculture and Dominator society. Thanks for helping me to clarify that point!

Bill Mollison also advocates spraying crude oil on sand dunes to stabilize them and this is because oil is a naturally occurring substance made of old plants and will break down over time like any other natural substance. That seems a far cry from a network of satellites and computers that require massive industrial inputs and extractive processes which damage the earth. I don't think this Lantern thingy is going to provide Earth care, people care or reinvestment of surplus like stabilizing dams or sand dunes will.

Joe DiMeglio wrote:The idea of sending information to 3rd world countries to teach them Permaculture and appropriate tech will still need boots on the ground to teach these ideas hands on and help to implement them. If people have to go, they can just take the info with them, making this tech superfluous.

I'm not sure, but I think the idea is to let 3rd world people learn for themselves instead of being taught it. Enabling their access to this info, which we take for granted.

I'm sure that that is the idea, CJ but could any of us teach ourselves permaculture then create and implement a design just by reading a book? I'm sure it could happen, but the odds of success and the numbers of people able to do this would be very low. Teachers not only teach the material, but answer the inevitable and innumerable questions that are raised and demonstrate the techniques through metaphors, similes and physical demonstrations as well as building people's excitement for the topic so they dig into it deeper. Then there is the issue of language barriers. A teacher who doesn't speak the student's native language would need to work with a translator ahead of the class to make sure they're translating things right and providing example that the students can understand. An E-book could not provide the same depth and culturally adapted language and examples. Many metaphors and analogues may not translate or be applicable to the local climate or culture and a well prepared teacher could overcome these deficits. So in my view, having a teacher on the ground would still be required for a real depth of understanding, even with the information present.

A further benefit is that an education center could and probably would be left behind, which would produce food, fiber, fuel and compost and act as a hub for more people to learn. Nothing proves a point like a working example! This is why Geoff Lawton is trying to start PC education and demonstration sites around the world as part of the PRI Master Plan. It is a great opportunity for PDC students to put their education to practice helping the earth and others and reinvesting the surplus of those efforts into the community - this covers all three ethics quite nicely!

My big issue with this is that nobody has investigated the people behind it before rushing to adopt it in a starry eyed frenzy of techno-joy. The worm on the hook looks like a "free lunch" to Mr Fish unless he carefully examines it for the hook coming out the other side. I trust the world bank about as far as I can throw 'em because I've seen what they've done to this planet and it's people and it couldn't be even remotely defined as Caring for them.

Joe DiMeglio wrote:
I'm sure that that is the idea, CJ but could any of us teach ourselves permaculture then create and implement a design just by reading a book? I'm sure it could happen, but the odds of success and the numbers of people able to do this would be very low. Teachers not only teach the material, but answer the inevitable and innumerable questions that are raised and demonstrate the techniques through metaphors, similes and physical demonstrations as well as building people's excitement for the topic so they dig into it deeper. Then there is the issue of language barriers. A teacher who doesn't speak the student's native language would need to work with a translator ahead of the class to make sure they're translating things right and providing example that the students can understand.

I'm not really sure why I'm optimistic because I'm generally quite the pessimist!

I supposed it's because each group of people only needs one Bill Mollison (or Sepp or Fukuoka or the guy planting trees in India or Africa...)

As for the language barrier - I saw this experiment fairly recently where someone installed a computer (with internet access maybe) in the slums (of India maybe) & they documented the way the kids of the slum learned how to use the computer & even taught themselves English. It was truly mind-blowing & that's what I think could be possibly with this device. Self directed teaching is infinitely greater than top-down learning.

I found it! The basic idea is at Minimally_invasive_education.

The experiment

On 26 January 1999, Professor Mitra's team carved a "hole in the wall" that separated the NIIT premises from the adjoining slum in Kalkaji, New Delhi. Through this hole, a freely accessible computer was put up for use. This computer proved to be popular among the slum children. With no prior experience, the children learned to use the computer on their own. This prompted Mitra to propose the following hypothesis:[3] The acquisition of basic computing skills by any set of children can be achieved through incidental learning provided the learners are given access to a suitable computing facility, with entertaining and motivating content and some minimal (human) guidance.
Results

Mitra has summarised the results of his experiment as follows. Given free and public access to computers and the Internet group of children can

Become computer literate on their own, that is, they can learn to use computers and the Internet for most of the tasks done by lay users.
Teach themselves enough English to use email, chat and search engines.
Learn to search the Internet for answers to questions in a few months time.
Improve their English pronunciation on their own.
Improve their mathematics and science scores in school.
Answer examination questions several years ahead of time.
Change their social interaction skills and value systems.
Form independent opinions and detect indoctrination.[4]

The 2007 TEDtalk: ("hole it the wall experiment" explanation start at about 7:30)

What is wrong with a USB stick? I have tried to read through even a Gbyte of info is probably more that most people can stuff in their brain. What would be more help is a good index of where things can be found. There are many things that are easy to search for... but I have often found these things are not what I am looking for. The things I am looking for are much harder to search for and I can only find them because I know what I am looking for in the first place. I have been watching the open HW movement and like what I have seen. However, I see technology as fragile. One "event" (and that one event could be a number of things) could remove the internet as we know it from existence.

One of the things that troubles me is information storage. There are things I have read from the internet that are no longer searchable/findable. Digital storage longevity is relatively short compared to books for example. I have hard drives 20 years old that still work, but most of my newer ones are failing in as little as 3 years. CD/DVD are 10 year or so mediums (writeable, not pressed). The info has to be backed up on new media within that time. Google and others are working hard on new technologies to keep info alive and reliable. There are newer file systems that constantly check the data they read and correct it. (yes bits do change on their own... more often in space BTW)

So back to the USB stick (or camera memory card). $10 each can take more info than anyone can sort through or read... and if done with mostly text and line drawings rather than "pictures" can hold more than one can imagine. easy to distribute. easy to "sneek in" if needed. Of course a USB plug is rated at only 700 or so insertions*, I am not sure what SD cards are. And in ten years time there may be no computers around that will have USB ports... how many computers have floppy drives, parallel port, serial ports? I can still read a book from the 1600s (if the owner will let me ).

The mesh idea seems to me a better way forward, where the ISP gets removed from the equation. I think there is rather a lot of information control on the internet in the "first world". I also think it is easier to get around information control when it is well known than when it "doesn't exist". An "open" search engine to replace the corporate ones we use now would be a nice venture, but not if it needed monetary backing. Rather something that resides on lots of home computers and is freely developed... I am not even sure if this would work, but it has a chance.

Outernet? I don't trust it, I think it is overly costly for the benefit. I think there are cheaper ways to do the same thing with better coverage. This means: feel free to support this project, I won't, but that should not stop someone else from doing so. I do work with technology all the time and use what is available even though I don't fully trust it.... I just bought a new bass guitar (it is so much better then my hacked old one) but in the long run an acoustic version probably makes more sense. My 19pound amp is amazing and I can cart my whole setup in one go. But power and all that makes it run is not certain in the future (is anything?) low tech made by hand is not something one can learn from stored info... it takes practice. This is not meant to be doom and gloom, I have quite a bright view of the future, even if society falls apart.

I do audio work, there are many tools for "looking" at the sound, but in the end it is the ears that matter. I have heard music by deaf people that is better produced than that of sighted people. The same thing applies here in the permaworld. Information is helpful, but one wrong bit inserted can make a lot of things not work. The permaperson has to be willing to test the ideas they grab, first in the mind to make sure what they are going to try makes sense, second by looking at nature to see if there is already a working example and then by testing the idea out in real life and keeping what works.

Secure date transmission ... those ssl pages we trust for banking and such.... another topic


* as a comparison, a phone jack/plug is rated for at least 40000 insertions.

Bump! This IndieGoGo Campaign is ending in three days!

Pillar- a prototype of the Lantern- is going to be coming out soon. They are looking for alpha testers right now. Signup through the link provided and answer the questionnaire they send you by email. For more information about Pillar, please check out this link.

And more good news! In the email that I received from them, they said this:

For those who bought Lantern on IndieGoGo, we remain on schedule for shipping in the third quarter of this year.

Woohoo!

News from Raspberry pi, note that as others get into this niche market R pi is getting squeezed and is trying to make themselves more attractive to
what they see as their core group of electronic hobbyists - Miss-judging this market was what led to the fall of Radio Shack

As new more powerful and gee-wizz things arrive in the market place yesterdays wonders are sold for pennies on the dollar by E-bay and Amazon to
mention a few !


https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/#outernet

For the good of the Craft ! Big AL