Egypt today closed down the country’s last working internet service–the ISP that provided technological services to aviation, banking and financial sectors in the country and the American University in Cairo–according to the Wall Street Journal’s Dispatches blog.
Egypt’s actions have inspired US technology bloggers to ponder what to do in the event the US government threw the hypothetical (or maybe not so hypothetical) kill switch.
PC World has an Internet hotwiring roundup–including links to FidoNet, Packet Radio and Pirate Box– in “How to Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts It Down.” One of the links takes you to the blog of NYC Resistor founder Bre Pettis who calls for Apps for the Appocalypse
With my prediction that the internet has would go down in 2011 coming true in Egypt and Obama looking to get it set up so he can shut down the internet in times of emergency, it makes you wonder what we’d do if some shit went down locally. First they shut down facebook and twitter and then they shut down the cell networks and it sounds like they are jamming ham radio freqs as well.
How would you contact the ones you love if the cell/internet networks went down? How would you get the news out to the greater worldwide community if there were things you were seeing that the world needed to see?
And over at Wired.com’s How-To Wiki they offer some ideas on “How to Communicate if Your Government Shuts Off Your Internet”
- 1 Preventative measures
- 2 Getting back online
- 3 Get satellite access
- 4 Packet Radio
- 5 Back to Basics
and since it’s a wiki, readers are invited to share some of their own.