There is a movement just starting up – it is not very well developed yet – that has as its vision the establishment of an independent layer of connectivity between end users, by means of directly networking (mesh network) Wifi or similar wireless connections. The connectivity layer is owned by users, who form a cooperative which takes care of the technical details such as choice of equipment and installation, and which acts as a representative of its members towards internet access providers, negotiating one or more high bandwidth internet connections which are then made available to all the members of the cooperative network.
Progetto Ragnatela facebook page:
The Connective homepage:
This is just a sampling, and there may be numerous such initiatives. A few of them are linked in my description of Progetto Ragnatela.
This was written to explain how local connectivity could be a useful element in developing the concept of a desirable digital commons infrastructure as developed by the Free Culture Forum (http://fcforum.net/) on their wiki here:
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