But increasingly, social media is proving its importance on the local level. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy last year, a Facebook page became an aggregator of critical news for the storms survivors. And countless pieces have been written lauding the role of Twitter in the Arab Spring movement. In both situations however, social media is unreliable because it requires a network to prop it up. Storms can take down cell towers and totalitarian regimes will censor access. If it works as planned, Tin Can could remove these obstacles. For technical support and advice early on, Katakowski worked with Serval, a humanitarian group that seeks to bring telecommunications to impoverished and remote parts of the world. Hes also gotten inquiries from humanitarian workers in Syria, where the government has been known to curtail communications among rebels by shuttering Internet access. But its not just in these dire circumstances. Katakowski sees first-world users being able to take advantage of Tin Can at concerts, sporting events, festivals, and other places where wifi and cellular access may be limited. Though its presently set to debut on the Google Play store, and later Windows, Katakowski strongly suspects that Apple will refuse to allow the app for iOS devices. Katakowski concedes there are some valid security concerns with Tin Can: A device-to-device based network could rapidly spread malware and viruses as easily as it can spread messages. He notes, however, that the messages themselves dont contain any data linking back to a particular phone. Thus the messages become untraceable. Though he acknowledges the risk, Katakowski believes Tin Can will be able to manage them and that the potential payoffs outweigh the concerns. Hes hoping users will feel the same way. We call it this ridiculous idea, Katakowski said. But its something that I couldnt stop thinking about. And now here we are. Photo by George Farmer/Flickr
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 05:39:23 +0000
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