Improved internet connectivity has been key to many things, including the growth of the open source movement.
It's amazing in a way that many people who are now old enough to be active participants in the open source community had the opportunity to grow in a world where fast, reliable internet has always been present. For many of us, erm, slightly older folks, this was not always the case. I'm one of the people who laughs out loud when I watch those videos of teens reacting to '90s Internet. After all, this was my first experience with connecting to the outside world with a computer.
Without that connection, slow as it felt, I never would have had the opportunity to discover Linux, or open source, or any of the many wondering pieces of our connected global culture that are only possible because of shared experience. And yet, I have to remind myself regularly, there are many people without this basic level of access, both across the globe and around the block. I'm excited by open source projects seeking to put a dent in this problem of global information access through mesh networking, distributed server projects like FreedomBox, and other projects working to bridge the digital divide.
Each of you has a story of your first internet connection, and what it meant to you. What is that story?
When was your first connection? How did you connect? And what did it mean for your life once you did?
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