I don't know if I've ever felt so inspired/amazed - and terrified at the same time
In an effort to find a bit of context, here's some information on when Facebook & co. brought Internet to India. And here's an article on Zuckerberg's announcement to the UN that brought this all about. Hell yeah, Internet via lasers on a drone is insane. I'm skeptical about the motives. Just ensuring more people have access to their media is what I'm reading - not to say "leave them in the dark"; rather, this is an odd way to go about it. Without their own infrastructure to build upon, how are they supposed to build up? This looks more to be a technological crutch in the long term, from my eyes.
You want context? I'll show you context. The data infrastructure of Africa is largely cell phones. Regardless of what they use their cells for, their carriers are terrestrial. Cell towers are erected and are subject to communications laws. They are subject to data caps. They are subject to obscenity and piracy laws. They are, in other words, the terrestrial half of the Internet. Enter Facebook. Set aside for a moment the fact that something like 60% of your cell phone data is auto-playing Facebook videos. Set aside for a moment the fact that they have their own political agenda. Set aside for a moment the fact that they're now tracking people who aren't even using Facebook. Facebook is already more than a third of all mobile advertising. And every indication is that Africa will never be more than mobile. Desktop internet is a dying breed out here in the land of AOL CDs... where "internet" began on flip phones and Lagos cafes it will never again be on anything larger than an iPad ever again. Assume Facebook were a company of pure lily-white altruism. Expect half the internet usage in Africa to be, well, Facebook. Assume Facebook just wants those eyeballs to experience its autoplay ads in the quality they were intended - should Zuck throw money behind a bunch of cell towers that are subject to the whims of tribal warfare and banana republics? Or should he launch a fleet of Uberplanes to beam the glory of the master race down upon the benighted and besodden brown underclass? Presume Mozambique declares Facebook to be in violation of fair trade and insists on equal access to domestic internet providers (or, fuck - domestic newspapers). Facebook can go "fuck you, I'm on a plane", retreat to Mozambique and hit 80% of the country. At 60,000 feet, it's 300 miles to the horizon... and aside from central Congo, there isn't anything Facebook can't hit from an adjacent country. Shit. just take a look at how much of Africa you can hit from international waters at that distance.Most people surveyed — a median of 80 percent across all seven sub-Saharan African countries — said they use their phones to send text messages. Only about half take pictures or video with their phones, while 30 percent use them to make or receive payments, 21 percent get political news, 19 percent use them to access social networks, 17 percent use them to get health information and 14 percent use them to look for jobs.
Shit. just take a look at how much of Africa you can hit from international waters at that distance.
Yeah but how much data can you push to/from a drone simultaneously? You need to push a lot of data up and then a lot of data back down. I think limits will get hit pretty quickly especially on the transmit side from the cellphone side.
Gotta love me some context. As always, thank you much. I, clearly, had no clue this is where sub-Saharan Africa stood in digital realm. If anything, the bypassing of landlines based from your sources looks to be more of a jumpstart into what our own future looks like as we begin to trash 'em. What I'm gathering from this bit, it looks more and more like Facebook's wet dream for a web 3.0 playground. Furthermore, seems to be a current playground for mobile transactions. (from the Pew report ref.) On the grounds of circumventing skirmishes over towers, I can't find anything on them. Perhaps, I'm not asking the right questions, though with the mineral disputes gone, I'd assume regional conflict would be mitigated as well as part of Zuck's grand plan? Pinging AshleyR, thought you might be interested in this granted your readings in IRC.Making or receiving payments on cell phones, also referred to as mobile money, is not as common as texting and taking pictures. But in Kenya, 61% of mobile owners use their device to transfer money. And many people in neighboring Uganda (42%) and Tanzania (39%) also participate in this activity on their cell phones. One of the reasons usage is so much higher in these countries is the prominence of mobile money services, such as M-PESA in Kenya and Tanzania and MTN Mobile Money in Uganda. Elsewhere in Africa, mobile banking is less common.
Ever hear of the Voice of America? That's how the CIA reminds North Korea that it isn't a worker's paradise, as it did for the Soviet Union, East Germany, North Vietnam etc. for decades. It's a information source that cannot be censored by any government - all they can do is ban radios and jam the fuck out of the signal. Now imagine that you don't need a radio, you only need a cell phone (which is not only hella easier to hide, but has a lot more justification for existence) and that instead of the CIA playing the Star Spangled Banner, you've got Facebook serving you fake ads telling you Kelly Ripa has died. Facebook imagines a world in which Somali pirates might be the closest thing you have to civil order, but you still have a friends list and can follow Funnyjunk. They can also do obnoxious shit like play "who run Bartertown" with entire nation states. If I'm Lesotho, for example, and I've got a limited budget, how easy do you think it's going to be apportioning money to provide cell coverage when Big Blue Father and his beneficent drones are already providing "internet" for free? And if I'm Lesotho, and my "free" internet is being provided by a publicly traded US company, what recourse do I have when Facebook says "we want monopoly ownership of your sky bandwidth or we'll go fly somewhere else?" Facebook is poised to be the data carrier for the developing world... for Facebook's benefit. Yay for spreading the global love but if you aren't terrified you aren't paying attention. We're in a position to give Facebook several dollars a day for business purposes and there is no aspect of Facebook that is benevolent in the slightest.
Where is the value in facebook in our current age of infrastructure? Anyone who has worked all day, every day, in a physical sense, for months without break, knows the value of REAL time. Newsflash! It may be different than the luxurious time-spenders of District One. NYC and the elite offices of the political class create their reality as much as the cyber-world does to the basement dwelling internet troll. Am I too terrified of the future to speculate this kind of tech is all being floated by a breaking system? Certainly facebook is not self-sustaining. When looking at the centers in which its shere of influence is focused on: It is merely a program of our current systems in place. Then again, the native Americans were better off when it was decided they would be better suited with Westernization practices than the alternative of being left to the dust of time. Or were they? Ps. I am aware of how ridiculous I sound. This move just seems so god damn Orwellian, especially seeing where, and what Zuck has his pockets in right now. It's the new spawn of Americanization of the developing world as few would see, but this time the value is not being mandated - it's being broadcasted by the hive.but if you aren't terrified you aren't paying attention
is this the basic value behind Zuckerberg's move? He seems as predictable as Bill Grates after he invented Michaelsoft.
Annnd there's the crutch. The VoA was touched on as one of many glossed over agencies to come out of America as it engaged in WWII in my last tango with U.S. History from 1877 to present. Can't tell whether I'm surprised or not that it's sputtering rather than evolving with such a goal. Heh, how devious. Given the scope of nearly the whole continent of Africa, well, shit. But, isn't this more of a moot point with Musk and Branson aiming for global web. In its own way Fb's best bet is the scope innate value for the services it provide? On a side note, this all has nothing to say of space junk/pollution, of course. Hm. I'm going to start following the space tag...