ReadWriteWeb

Program or Be Programmed author Douglas Rushkoff proposes that we fork the Internet, and he's convening a summit on the subject. Contact will be held October 20, 2011 at the Angel Orensanz Center in New York City. From Rushkoff's description, it sounds like it will be conference/unconference hybrid: there will be scheduled speakers, but attendees will also be able to convene meetings at the event.

We've highlighted a few projects that aim to create a create government-less Internet before. This isn't a new idea for Rushkoff either. In this CNN piece he suggested the creation of a new Internet that would work a bit more like FidoNet.

Last week we told you about three projects to create a government-less Internet by taking advantage of wireless mesh networking. Wireless mesh networks are networks that don't require a centralized authority to create networks. These can provide an alternative way to communicate and share information during a crisis such as a natural disaster or civic unrest.

Many of you followed-up by telling us about several other interesting projects, such as P2P DNS to Tonkia. Most importantly, there are at least four other projects that should have been on our original list.

In Cory Doctorow's young adult novel Little Brother, the protagonist starts a wireless ad-hoc network, called X-Net, in response to a government crack-down on civil liberties. The characters use gaming systems with mesh networking equipment built-in to share files, exchange message and make plans.

The Internet blackout in Egypt, which we've been covering, touches on an issue we've raised occasionally here: the control of governments (and corporations) over the Internet (and by extension, the cloud). One possible solution, discussed by geeks for years, is the creation of wireless ad-hoc networks like the one in Little Brother to eliminate the need for centralized hardware and network connectivity. It's the sort of technology that's valuable not just for insuring both freedom of speech (not to mention freedom of commerce - Egypt's Internet blackout can't be good for business), but could be valuable in emergencies such as natural disasters as well.

Here are a few projects working to create such networks.

Update: Here are four more projects. These are all a lot further along than the projects mentioned here.

Have you heard of CCN? CCN is an open-source implementation of "content-centric networking" or more commonly "named data networking." It's a technology being actively developed by the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), formerly Xerox PARC, the birthplace of computing mainstays like the PC, Ethernet, laser printing and the graphical user interface.

So what's CCN? It's an alternative idea about how computer networking should work - and it could very well one day be the future of Internet communications, most importantly, mobile networks.

Presentation company Slideshare recently released its list of "5 Social Media Secrets for 2010". While these secrets certainly sound like great suggestions, we thought we'd connect them to some concrete tactics and resources that you can use to improve your social media strategy.

Aptly-named consumer trend blog TrendsSpotting just released its poll from more than 30 social media influencers. The market research presentation identifies six trends that will change social media in 2010. In accordance with Ustrategy co-founder Ravit Lichtenberg's predictions, the experts believe that 2010 will be the year that social media ROI is effectively measured. The question is, how do you measure a dollar value from Tweets and status updates?

Yesterday, Nielsen announced that they will make their new "Internet Meter" available by year's end to measure the online television viewing audience. Until now, this ever-increasing demographic has been left out of U.S. television ratings as Nielsen currently focuses only on live and time-shifted (i.e. DVR) TV viewings. Says the company, the Internet Meter software will be deployed by the end of 2009 to their "People Meter" households - the chosen few whose TV-viewing habits function as the representative sample for measuring a show's success. This new addition to the ratings game is bound to have a major impact on TV monetization efforts as both networks and advertisers will see, officially, how many viewers have tuned in to watch this "2nd screen."

When you don't have the cash to hand over to Starbucks for Wi-Fi, there are hundreds of other coffee stores that will offer the same for free. For example, Panera Bread cafes include free Wi-Fi and are increasingly becoming my spot for free Wi-Fi access. Unfortunately, there are times when we won't order a thing from places that provide free Wi-Fi or maybe we'll grab the cheapest thing on the menu. There's one coffe shop out there that's looking to guilt trip Wi-Fi freeloaders into buying something on the menu using Wi-Fi networks.