Oddbean new post about login | logout I keep watching videos about Meshtastic, and it seems great this is getting developed rather quick. However, personally I have no point in getting one (yet). As I have no one near me who has it. It's still very niche and almost nonexistent in Israel. #meshtastic #radio
Network effects certainly matter. But How do you know there’s no one around you without a radio to listen for them? Though say you do know, Maybe others are also waiting to get one because no one else has one. Perhaps you starting will help encourage others to join the movement?
https://meshmap.net/ shows people who publicly share their locations. You can see that Israel only has 3, and it could possibly be only in the dozens of people, by my guesses, who probably have it here. I'm also in a disadvantaged spot for a line-of-sight in my area so I'd have to be lucky to get anyone connecting to me.
Huh, I didn’t know about Meshmap. Thanks. I wonder what percent of people share their location there (impossible to know probably but just something I wonder) I understand the LOS concern.
Are you sure no one near you has one? And with as cheap as they are to get into, someone needs to be the first.
It's a guess, but I can guess that most likely not. Even two-way radios by themselves are rare nowadays. There isn't much of a 'culture' of those sorts in here. Everyone are focusing on all the new and shiny stuff, not tinkering with decades old tech.
But meshtastic is new and shiny… off-grid texting that doesn’t require a license (at least here in the US)… yeah it’s not a real impressive thing if you compare it to cellular data services, but the fact that it isn’t controlled and people are doing some cool stuff with it from setting up weather stations, using it for security, sending sats, and making digital bulletin boards with it is pretty shiny in my opinion.