TEDxAdelaide - Paul Gardner-Stephen - Open-Source Telecommunications Infrastructure

Do you remember Napster? We're still seeing the impact of the original peer-to-peer file (read: music) sharing program today. According to Paul Gardner-Stephen, the power of music labels has diminished dramatically as a result of these kinds of activities. In fact, has been re-distributed to the people.

"The democratisation of online music is one example where the internet has eroded the monopoly power of music labels returning some portion of that power to the general public, without bankrupting those enterprises."

- Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen

Paul has explored what is essentially a Napster equivalent that will compete with the mobile telecommunication giants. He believes that the advent of powerful, programmable, portable digital devices (e.g. smartphones) are a key factor in this eventual democratisation of mobile telecommunications.

Paul has been engaged with communications technology since at school. He worked as a network administrator at Flinders University while pursuing bachelor and doctoral degrees in computer science and computer systems engineering, before creating the world's first fully functional shoe phone. He is the founder of the Serval Project, a Shuttleworth Telecomunications Fellow and Rural, Remote & Humanitarian Telecommunications Research Fellow at Flinders University.

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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• TEDxADL
• TEDx
• TEDxAdelaide
• Adelaide
• Australia
• English
• ideas the edge
• Paul Gardner-Stephen

[nanpanman1]

I installed serval for android on both my rooted N1 and rooted Galaxy Mini but unfortunately they would not connect in a mesh so I was unable to test it. Love the idea though. Wonder what the range is... (e.g. is it using the GSM radio or the WiFi radio for the mesh?)

[dylanwinn3]

@dylanwinn3 Can't edit comments on youtube, but yes, he is: servalproject (org) /about/how-it-works

[dylanwinn3]

Does anyone know what software he is talking about? Serval?

[crazystuffproduction]

audio level on the recording is poor and im partly deaf and cannot hear it

[dicksondoggie]

Great presentation! Inspired storytelling. The audio level on the recording is a bit low.

[brenojac]

Fantastic... great speech. The audience was also incredible! Very focused and calm... I've got a great impression from the australian people :). Cheers!