According to an article in ITWire

A team from Rutgers University is trying to create the next generation version of the Internet, dubbed MondoNet, based on a global mesh of wireless access points that would be resistant to surveillance and state censorship and control.

The head of the project, Aram Sinnreich, is an assistant professor at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information. He talks about why we need a different internet and how MondoNet is likely to work to change things, at a TEDx talk at USC recently. Here is a link to the video.

Introducing MondoNet: The censor-proof, unsurveillable network

There is a draft paper – Weaving a New ‘Net: A Mesh-Based Solution for Democratising Networked Communications – which is soon to be published, that explains the concept of MondoNet.

The ten ‘social specifications’ given for the proposed new net are:

10 Social Specifications for a Democratized Network

1. Decentralized
2. Universally Accessible
3. Censor-Proof
4. Surveillance-Proof
5. Secure
6. Scalable
7. Permanent
8. Fast (Enough)
9. Independent
10. Evolvable

Given today’s technological and social landscape, we believe the most promising approach is the development of a mobile, ad hoc wireless mesh network (sometimes abbreviated MANET; Rheingold, 2002). In a MANET, users connect directly to one another via WiFi or a similar wireless networking protocol, and each device becomes client, server, and router at once, sharing bandwidth and information with other devices, and enabling users to relay third-party information on behalf of their indirectly connected peers. Such a network requires no centralized infrastructure or access service provider; to join the mesh, one simply logs on within range of another peer, and to exit the network, one simply logs off. Ideally, the number and density of peers should be great enough that the network persists despite the continuing entrance and exit of individual nodes.