FireChat was never going to be resilient enough because it was installed on Apple and Google controlled devices.
This kind of system needs a dedicated or at least 'open' device with adequate hardware to support wireless mesh networks.
I would love to see something like this, because we (even, or rather, especially; Western countries) currently have no decentralized fallback for emergency communication. If the electric grid and cellphone network go... most people don't even have AM radios at this point.
If the electric grid and cellphone go, what would be the problem with devices being Apple- and Google-controlled?
It seems like you're talking about two related but ultimately distinct concerns, i.e. reliance against infrastructure failures and reliance against organizational failures.
Yeah, you're mostly right. I mean, these centralized entities could still sign and release instructions over the mesh network propagation (unlikely though).
Having an overall culture/goal of decentralization, can inform decisions on multiple levels/concerns (infra, energy, org). Basically, if I'm trying to be resilient to infra problems, it won't be that much effort in changing the design to also be resilient from centralized control.
It's a beginner-friendly introduction to Low Latency Programming, which involves a lot of performance optimization. Could be a good way to start your learning on the subject.
I combined my CSV-To-Map site with ChatGPT to generate an index of potentially interesting maps. Kinda cool to explore various data in the context of geography.
I specifically avoid the more general subreddits like r/programming and r/technology because they overlap too much with HN and I don't want to see the same submissions in another place.
My own project (https://plantogether.city) hopes to help make cities better from an urban planning perspective by enabling two things:
1. Giving people a voice. People don't feel a sense of belonging because they a single individual amongst thousands/millions. Being able to discuss things directly on a map with other citizens is empowering.
2. Serving as a spatial knowledge base. Allows users to collaboratively catalog the best, worst, most interesting etc. parts and elements. For example all items tagged with cycling in Waterloo (https://plantogether.city/tag/cycling?area_id=3).
Having more organized information and discussions could go a long way in improving decision making.
I had an idea for a similar project last year. I thought it could perform a few functions:
1. Help compile a list of local issues
2. Empower people to help fix those issues (recognizing the different people can help out in different ways on the same issue)
3. Allow groups to highlight their contributions (e.g. local Libertarian party or Lions club or whoever can highlight X number of closed issues in 2020)
This direct action platform would certainly be susceptible to trolling and abuse but it also would directly provide the answers to the OP's question.
(One other hope would be that, if this caught on, maybe political campaigns could redirect some of their ad spend to helping fix these issues as that would allow them to say, "We did this".)
'Remote Work Cities': A Proposal To Fight Rising Housing Costs
https://davidgorski.substack.com/p/remote-work-cities-a-prop...