Can't recall if i posted this already, but I had this idea/insight from making Table Mesh.
The point of table mesh is that it works without internet. Its a somewhat stupid feature, because internet access is not really an issue anywhere anymore, be it via 4g/5g or wifi. The same goes for a lot of other mesh based sollutions. Bitchat targets this (critical) niche of an 'emergency' and/or adversarial context.
BUT! What if.....
Smartphones and children is this big issue and nobody has a really good awnser. I am not proposing some be-all-end-all, but it might offer a decent middle-way that inherrently takes care of a bunch of problems.
What if, we give our kids smartphones WITHOUT internet access? A smartphone without internet is absolutely useless, its a boring piece of shit. But now, mesh based sollutions suddenly become super usefull. The proximity requirement in this context becomes a feature, not a drawback.
Whatever it is they can do with their smartphones, they can only do when they are already near eachother. Mesh based applications now have a 'market'/environment to thrife in, and can actually be used on a day to day basis, enccouraging more and different type of sollutions/apps.
We no longer develop mesh stuff in case of emergency, we develop them because we conciously cut out internet for good reason in the specific context of children.
I assume people can sort of imagine what problems internet as such introduces, but to give two examples:
Anyone can potentially reach your child from all over the globe at all times, whereas when proximity is required to even establish contact, time and space are now barriers.
Intenternet can supply a practically infinite amount of 'content', so the 'feed' never ends, it never runs out of stuff to give you.
If you would be so kind, test out table mesh, or consider donating to our foundation so i can buy 6 smartphones and a tablet in order to create a testing environment to explore this 'internetless smartphone but proximity/meshbased' paradigm more thoroughly.
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weboftrustfoundation.com
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Table Mesh — Zapstore
Table Mesh lets a group of friends play a board game together at a real table, each on their own phone. The phones find each other over Bluetooth (...
