I've spent time on mesh networks for disaster recovery efforts, I consider myself fairly technical when it comes to wireless networks, and it's a damn hard problem to solve. Even with some great gear, things drop off the network all the time, electricity fluctuations cause issues, mobile devices forget what signal they are connected to.. but I applaud this effort at Reddit because it brings the idea into consciousness - the fact is that we need better kinds of Meraki/Ubiquti-type hardware and maybe some of these people will sit down and solve some of the hard problems (reading more of this thread shows that yes, there are problem solvers involved, I wish everyone the most success).
I'd also like to point out one thing: in the time I've spent thinking about how to get the mainstream to care enough to consider dropping their telco lines I've arrived at the conclusion that the core issue for that final push will be apps. We need true, decentralised apps (maybe like what Diaspora was intending to achieve, for example). Don't think you can build the infrastructure and people will come. You need the apps and a reason to get traction from non-technical people who couldn't care less if the government was reading their kitten emails.
I'd also like to point out one thing: in the time I've spent thinking about how to get the mainstream to care enough to consider dropping their telco lines I've arrived at the conclusion that the core issue for that final push will be apps. We need true, decentralised apps (maybe like what Diaspora was intending to achieve, for example). Don't think you can build the infrastructure and people will come. You need the apps and a reason to get traction from non-technical people who couldn't care less if the government was reading their kitten emails.