You know what would be awesome? If they'd open-source the technology behind these balloons - so that we could build and launch our own! My relatives live in a

You know what would be awesome? If they'd open-source the technology behind these balloons - so that we could build and launch our own! My relatives live in a tiny village on the south coast of India and whenever I visit them I have to use the extremely slow 2G network. I tether my Android phone and basically setup a little WLAN hotspot there. The next bigger city with fast internet connectivity and 3G coverage is almost an hour bus drive away. Every student in the village now possesses a laptop with WLAN capabilities. They got them for free - basically as a bribe so that the villagers stop protesting against the construction of a nuclear power plant the government is building nearby: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koodankulam_Nuclear_Power_Plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koodankulam_Nuclear_Power_Plant But that's another issue. I would love to build a wireless mesh network using cheap routers with an open-source firmware like OpenWRT for these kids. Internet connectivity could be achieved by using a single uplink antenna to Project Loon. Speaking for myself, I had the privilege - unlike most of my family - to grow up in Europe and believe me, having access to the Internet completely changed my life. I’ve had access to free resources, taught myself how to program and I am now making a living out of it. I want anyone on this planet to have full, free, uncensored and fast access to the Internet. Thank you Google for doing such a project! I really hope it will work as planned and I wish you all the best on this journey.