There are a few projects very similar to Diaspora.. like Higgins, foaf+ssl and The Mine! Project.. with one difference: PR. Maybe that’s the missing element.

We’ll have to see if being open (and being the brother of the black sheep) is a good enough reason to make people move away from (let’s face it) their beloved Facebook.

I think social networks not only have to become more open, but also grow up. There must be something better than attention driven business models and something more useful than activity streams.

I’ll not go into the exact reasons for the stall – lets rather focus on the good aspects:

1) The OAN was actually over large parts of Pretoria (Tshwane Electrical department gave us access to their fiber). We used a combination of Wifi high sites and of course the mesh network you previously mentioned.
2) As you indicated it was open access – and worked really well.
3) There was a sound business case – but required cost effective backhaul connectivity – it was here that we hope for REAL input from municipal networks

In my view we may see some interesting developments in the near future as far as suburban networks are concerned – deploy wireless or PON only within a specific suburb – it can be cost effectively deployed but some clarity still needs to be gained on things like facilities leasing on telkom poles etc. This may not result in a OAN – but rather in focussed providers in smaller areas.

Regardt

You are right, the N900 is very very close to this list. There is a opensource project working at getting the usb host part working, but only for devices that need very little power from USB, like I assume a keyboard might work.

On the other hand I am dissapointed that OVI Maps are still at version 1.0 instead of 3.0 on my N82 where OVI Maps are 100 times better.

Other than I can’t really complain, except that I am sometimes jealous of the cool apps that are out there for android phones…*grin*

That would be quite a feat since it’s all roof mounted and trunked through the ceiling but they sure have nibbled and peed on at just about anything else available :)

The one thing about Dachsies that’s simply undeniable is the spirit and character ;)

Ch0mpz0r sk1LLz

Let’s take Level3 as an entirely different example. They are huge they have commercial principles. They have many customers which are mostly ISP’s or companies with their own AS’s and netblocks

Are they an exchange (regardless of geographic connectivity) ?

I guess the answer is that they are a “carrier”.

My feeling is that Africa.INX’s focus is an attempt to be an African “carrier”. Not focusing on /32′s but focusing on AS’es and /16′s

Level3 doesn’t offer an “exchange” in the traditional sense, but they do colocate in hotels such as Telehouse, and Telehouse is technically a commercial Layer2 exchange.

Terraco in Cape Town is going to be hosting Telehouse Africa, and Telehouse will be providing international Layer2 to the other telehouse points, e.g. UK.

Now Telehouse is going to become an international telco as well an exchange point!

Like I said, convergence has blurred the lines, and organisations need to pick their focus and stick with it, regardless of whether they are labelled a carrier, exchange, or ISP.

Labels have become largely irrelevant. Service is what drives success.

Just as one can have multiple types of ISP’s with varying focus one can have multiple kinds of Internet Exchanges, with different fundamental business models.

Commercial Internet Exchanges, ala Telehouse or Africa.INX

Semi-commercial Internet exchanges, ala DE-CIX and JINX (created by ISP organisations).

“Communist” Internet Exchanges, instigated by governments.

Which do you prefer ? ;)