Low-power Broadcasting - Smart Radio

Smart Radio

J. H. Snider and Lawrence Lessig say that low power "smart" radio is inherently superior to standard broadcast radio.

"Technologists are increasingly discussing a related kind of gain called 'cooperation gain.' ... think about a party. If I need to tell you that it's time to leave, I could choose to shout that message across the room. Shouting, however, is rude. So instead, imagine I choose to whisper my message to the person standing next to me, and he whispered it to the next person, and she to the next person, and so on. This series of whispers could get my message across the room without forcing me to shout." — "Wireless Spectrum: Defining the 'Commons'" by Lawrence Lessig 2003 (mirror)

"if nodes repeat each other's traffic. If I want to talk to someone across the room, I don't have to shout. I can just whisper it to someone near me, who can pass it on, and so on. ... as we add more transmitters, the total capacity goes up slightly, but we still have to face the fact that each transmitter's capacity goes down (just slower). Even better, we all end up using less energy (since we don't have to transmit as far), saving battery life." — Open Spectrum: A Global Pervasive Network by Aaron Swartz

"Every time a broadcaster receives a license, the amount of available spectrum goes down. ... New technology, however, increases bandwidth with the number of users." — "Why Open Spectrum Matters: The End of the Broadcast Nation" by David Weinberger

"If we lose ... open spectrum, we're also going to lose the open Internet" — "The war against open spectrum" by Dana Blankenhorn 2007