Internet from undersea cables and stratospheric balloons

*Sorry for no pages—I have the Kindle edition

Google's Project Loon stratospheric internet balloon. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534986/project-loon/

I’ve been hearing a bit about Google and Facebook’s latest innovations for expanding internet connectivity—targeting rural and impoverished areas—because the Philippines has been one of their testing grounds. I thought it would be opportune to make some connections here to Nicole Starosielski’s The Undersea Network. Facebook and Google are looking away from the sea and instead into the possibility of making internet connectivity through the air. Starosielski reminds us that although we may imagine communication as unrooted or wireless, there is still a very physical element to transmitting messages across enormous bodies of water and landmasses, and this means coming into contact with physical challenges as well. While undersea cables come into contact with hazards from tectonic shifts, turbulence, general wear and human activity, internet balloons have the challenge of maintaining location by navigating wind systems, and resisting puncture from particles.  Balloons are much more vulnerable to the elements, but are much less expensive than drones.

• ·         “Facebook’s internet drone team is collaborating with Google’s stratospheric balloons” - https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542161/facebooks-internet-drone-team-is-collaborating-with-googles-stratospheric-balloons/
• ·         “Project Loon” - https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534986/project-loon/
• ·         “Meet Facebook’s stratospheric internet drone” - https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539756/meet-facebooks-stratospheric-internet-drone/

Looking through these news pieces from “MIT Technology Review”, I can see Starosielski’s concept of “connection narratives” useful to apply. Starosielski defines connection narratives as narratives that: “focus on the design and technological development of an undersea cable” (Chapter 2). Connection narratives that Starosielski reviews are mostly publicity materials about the Atlantic telegraph cable from the 1950s and 1960s. She makes the argument that these narratives tells us more about “aspirations of certain forms of transnationality” than they do about the cable infrastructure operations (Chapter 2).

You can see narratives of “aspirations to certain forms of transnationality” come through in media about Facebook and Google projects. At a presentation with both Google and Facebook teams, Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of MIT’s Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child initiative said: “I think connectivity will become a human right.” (Simonite 2015a) Negroponte aspires to the idea that every human will have the right to connect to other humans via communication technology.

Internet.org (https://info.internet.org/en/) is another of Facebook’s initiatives to increase internet accessibility. This includes several projects, including free access to internet basics (“free basics”) such as email and Facebook (surprise!) An aspired to transnationality comes through here as well. The main goal of internet.org is: “Connecting the World”. At the site’s main page, you enter a minimalistic page design, “Connecting the World” on one side, and on the other side an image someone who might be an internet.org user. You navigate the site simply by scrolling down, and you make your way through 3 sections: “Connecting the world means the whole world not some of us,” “Connecting the world takes inventing new ways of doing things,” and “Connecting the world is already making a difference.” The images all depict non-Western or non-American scenes with non-White people that seem to suggest celebrating the world’s diverse cultures by bringing them in contact via the internet. Other images suggest enabling social movements/revolution/progress and probably democracy via communication technology.

References

Simonite, T. (2015a). Facebook’s Internet Drone Team Is Collaborating with Google’s Stratospheric Balloons Project. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/542161/facebooks-internet-drone-team-is-collaborating-with-googles-stratospheric-balloons/

Simonite, T. (2015b, July 30). Meet Facebook’s Stratospheric Internet Drone. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/539756/meet-facebooks-stratospheric-internet-drone/

Simonite, T. (n.d.). Project Loon. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534986/project-loon/