syedkarim

Hellos! Thanks for your interest and questions.

Outernet is a broadcast data service. Think of it like over-the-air TV or FM radio, it just magically appears on a receiver--without any subscription. The only other globally accessible data service (that I'm aware of) is GSP, which transmits about 50 bits of information per second. We are currently delivering about 1GB of content per day.

For now, you'll need a satellite dish, a DVB-S tuner, and some kind of computing device (like a Raspberry Pi, or a dedicated receiver, which we sell). You can see our code and rPi instructions on Github:

https://github.com/Outernet-Project/orx-rpi

Or you can get a Lighthouse receiver here: https://outernet.is/lighthouse

Once the dish is pointed, and assuming the receiver is working, content is downloaded and stored to the device. The content is accessed by any kind of wifi-enabled device.

Since Outernet is a broadcast service, we have no idea how many people are accessing the service. I'm pretty sure it's not in the millions or even the tens of thousands, though; our prototype service started only a year ago and we've only recently begun normal transmissions. But even if we do grow to millions of users, we'll never really know, since there is no permanent connection to the end user.

Can you clarify your question regarding propagation?

Ha, that assumed that I actually completed the assignment...

I originally enrolled thinking I wanted to pursue a phd in the economic impact of information access. I realized after 18 months that I just wasn't cut out to be an academic. I should have figured that out sooner, as I barely graduated from college. I am literally one-assignment away from a master's, though at this point I doubt they would accept the late assignment.

Right now, we're making a lot of the decisions on what gets sent out--but we really have no desire to do this indefinitely. We're transitioning to a system that allows our community to determine what should be delivered; like a mashup of Reddit and YouTube. Our early version of this was limited to just making suggestions: https://whiteboard.outernet.is/en/

In the future, we'll allow more direct access to the uplink chain. We will offer a certain amount of our capacity to our online community and a certain amount dedicated to filling requests made by users in the field, who don't have full blown internet access (due to economic reasons), but can make requests over SMS or WhatsApp.

Thanks for being a backer--and for your patience. At your trying to point to Galaxy 19? What size is your dish?

I have no desire to do anything else in my life; building, improving, and refining Outernet is all I have an interest in (well, family and friends, too). If, for whatever reason, Outernet ceased to exist--and I was not able to build Outernet 2, then I would just live a tormented life as a farmer on the 13 acres that we have outside of Chicago.