Consume

Consume = London-based project related to the Free Networks Movement

URL = http://consume.net/

See also: Wireless Commons

Description

"In essence, the Consume concept involves using self-administered open wireless networks to leapfrog the services offered by conventional telecommunications companies (Consume 2000). The last mile, the cable connecting the nearest exchange with the homes of the users, becomes the first mile, the self-administered zone of a network managed by the users themselves. This is made possible by the existence of open standards, licence-free bandwidth and WLAN technology based on 802.11 standards." (http://theoriebild.ung.at/view/Main/FreeWavelength)

Details

The Consume Manifesto

"The manifesto that appeared online under the name Consume described a model for a free wireless network cloud that would be created through the cooperation of individual participants with a large degree of financial and legal independence (Consume 2000). This concept was based on the idea of the Internet as a "network of networks", a structure created by linking up many separate networks. In principle, each node in this network has the same status, as a "peer" among other "peers". The connections between these nodes are always two-way connections with the same capacity. The Consume concept uses this egalitarian principle that is inherent in the Internet's architecture but which has been masked by its commercialization, turning users into (self-)providers. The network grows not as a result of centrally controlled planning and capital investments, but as a result of the accumulated actions of many individuals." (http://theoriebild.ung.at/view/Main/FreeWavelength)

The Manifesto is available at http://dek.spc.org/julian/consume/consume.html

Status Report 2005

"The demands described in the Consume Manifesto have never been properly implemented, at least not in London, and not in the sense of an extensive mesh network. Nonetheless, the concept did take off and has undergone further development in all manner of different directions. Technical development and testing have been carried out in the field of dynamic routing protocols and free hardware-software solutions. These approaches show how alternative objectives can provide the inspiration for technical innovation. But the Free Networks have also brought forth a kind of social protocol, the Pico-Peering Agreement. This process fed further debate concerning self-regulation and openness in social systems. Experience with wireless networks also gave grounds to hope that ad-hoc networks could also be operated with mobile devices such as mobile phones. Transferring this idea to the social field, one can imagine a society in ad-hoc mode (Medosch 2004). The Free Network idea has also made an impact on neighbouring fields, such as work on open mapping or bottom-up cartography (University of Openess 2005). The convergence of socio-politically motivated groups, artistic intentions, and DIY media provide valuable impulses for alternative usage and an alternative understanding of technology. The focus here, then, is on technologies as techno-social artefacts whose development is not top-down, but driven by grassroots democratic processes. Economies based on gifts and barter dissolve logics that have been in force for centuries: in the hands of alternative groups, they become disruptive technologies that bear within them the seed of a paradigm shift in how we understand the interplay of technology and society." (http://theoriebild.ung.at/view/Main/FreeWavelength)

More Information

Detailed 2004 case study by Armin Medosch at http://theoriebild.ung.at/view/Main/FreeWavelength

Free2Air is a related project for London's East End.