In Old Havana ’s last remaining cyberspace coffee shop , an hour on-line monetary value about almost a one-quarter of an average monthly salary . But armed with some piecemeal networking equipment and rebellious sensibilities , some Cuban youthshave taken connectivity into their own hands .
Beginning in 2001 , a modest community of technical school - savvy Cubans have been work up a straggle net web that stretch across Havana . This crowdsourced connectivity takes advantage of hidden Wi - Fi transmitting aerial and broadband cable’s length stretched across rooftop to web over 9,000 electronic computer across different neighborhood in Cuba ’s capital . The result Snet , or streetnet , enables people to switch news update , share files , and even roleplay on-line games like World of Warcraft . But there are rules .
A gambling forummaintained by Broche Morenoon Snet
“ We are n’t anonymous because the nation has to know that this type of connection exists . They have to protect the country and they know that 9,000 users can be put to any role , ” Rafael Antonio Broche Moreno , the 22 - twelvemonth - old electrical engineer render above who helped build up Snet , told the Associated Press recently . “ We do n’t mess with anybody . All we want to do is roleplay game , apportion sizeable ideas . We do n’t prove to work the government or what ’s happening in Cuba … We do the right thing and they let us keep at it . ”
The young engineer explained that Snet has a strict zero porn policy . Discussing politics or link to the outside internet from Snet will also contribute to punishment in the form of being blocked from enter the mesh . Meanwhile , the very architecture of Snetis entirely illegal — in part due to the unsanctioned use of Wi - Fi equipment — so keep user in check is inherent to keeping them online .
The recent developments in the relationship between the United States and Cuba is give way the Snet young person hope for a better connected time to come . The bluff lack of Wi - Fi equipment , much of which do from the United States , limits how much the Snet architect can build . And while the interlocking internet is limited to a few thousand user , the choice is much more parallel . It comes in the form USB drives full of intelligence article , TV shows , and motion-picture show that are decease from one soul to the next . It ’s a very stark variety of equal - to - match networking if you mean about it . “ It ’s a square underground , ” a young Cuban bloggertold The New York Times a few years ago . “ The government can not operate the information . ”
Well , at this point , it seems absolved that the Cuban government sort of can . With craft trade stoppage still denying people of proper equipment and bans forbidding them from using what they have , the Cuban authorities is doing a passably salutary job of keeping most of its citizens tranquil . But the thousands of renegades who wo n’t be quieten shine like a pharos of promise . It ’s a new era for Cuba , and it ’s one that the great unwashed like Snet users are eager to shape . They ’ve been splendidly raring so far . Imagine what will take place when the ban are overturn . [ AP , NYT ]
Images via AP
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