Here's what I think the citizens of countries in this situation need to do:
- Coordinate activism without leaking information to authorities
- Get the word out to the rest of the world about what is happening
- Restore the ability to browse the rest of the Internet. Make
available the viewpoints from the rest of the world as an alternative
to government propaganda.
In order to facilitate these three aims, I propose the establishment of new or adaptation of existing Open Source projects:
- A DIY packet radio uplink kit.
- A one-click install for installing a Fidonet node on an older laptop
with a modem
- Inexpensive WiFi-based "Text messaging" handsets.
- Open Source software to convert netbooks and smartphones into encrypted
communication devices
- Weatherized WiFi communications cells which can be hidden, plugged in, and
abandoned (With some UPS capability to give immunity to power interruptions.)
- A low cost "pirate cell tower" which can be used to re-enable SMS comms
on conventional handsets when the government deactivates mobile service
In addition, I think it would be a good to found an international volunteer organization which designs and prototypes relevant hardware, with the aim of getting donations over the network through sites like Kickstarter and reddit and using the proceeds to rapidly construct and disseminate such hardware to affected citizens.
EDIT: Another hardware thing: A plan for acquiring 100's of cheap, outdated GSM handsets which can be reprogrammed to implement secure encrypted messaging over SMS.
EDIT: Yet another hardware thing: a drone suspended from a balloon, equipped with a long-duration battery, an altimeter, wireless, GPS, and aimable directional laser comms. Ideally, one would be able to give it the the altitude and GPS coordinates of another "laser link drone" and automatically aim the laser to establish line of sight laser comms to provide a long-distance network link.
The tower-devices will be broadcasting their presence and location, so hiding them isn't as important as making them expensive and time consuming to remove or highly mobile (on UAV's or back pockets) to run away from the government.
Who said anything about towers? Hiding them in attics and rooftops is precisely about making them expensive and time consuming to remove. Triangulating the precise location of such devices carries a certain cost to the authorities during a crisis. They will have limited equipment and manpower to conduct such searching as well as a need to provide security for the same.
So what if it takes them just two days for something to be removed? Those two days of comms for the activists have been highly valuable, and there should be many other units still operating and hopefully others in reserve to activate.
I think there is a place for mobile solutions, however. How about suspending equipment with enough power to operate for a week from weather balloons anchored by monofilament? Set up a sensor, such that an unauthorized drop in altitude will trigger releasing the anchor? This way, if the authorities are trying to reel the unit back in, it will at least have another 1/2 hour of transmitting time. I'd also add some switches to trigger erasure of the keys for the encrypted hard drive and overwriting memory in the even of unauthorized opening of the case.
> The tower-devices will be broadcasting their presence and location
To a certain extent, yes. You could use highly directional 802.11 antennas (yagi or shotgun) and disguise them. If they have minimal side lobe bleed, they may be indistinguishable from the normal AP background levels. You should be able to get 1-5 miles out of such a link. A few dozen such links could criss-cross a city such as Cairo.
With a coastal city like Tunis, there's the possibility of setting up comms with ships at anchor carrying hefty satellite equipment. Old fashioned satellite dishes could extend the range of such links to many dozens of miles.
I wonder about combining this idea with my idea of a balloon drone with equipment for aiming an antenna/laser link?
There was also a wireless networking technology developed at HP using the old Ethernet protocols, but instead of a wire, a patch of ceiling illuminated by infrared LED carried the signal instead. A network using such a technology and the side of a skyscraper could easily cover a large swath of a city and would be hard to detect.
Solar powered flight is not easy/cheap. The first through the night solar flight was only pulled off this previous summer by Solar Impulse (it was manned). It's a -big- plane (width wise anyways). Its wings are as wide as a jumbo-jet's. You're not going to save much weight making it a UAV either, since I suspect most of the load is actually batteries.
EDIT: Another hardware thing: A plan for acquiring 100's of cheap, outdated GSM handsets which can be reprogrammed to implement secure encrypted messaging over SMS.
EDIT: Yet another hardware thing: a drone suspended from a balloon, equipped with a long-duration battery, an altimeter, wireless, GPS, and aimable directional laser comms. Ideally, one would be able to give it the the altitude and GPS coordinates of another "laser link drone" and automatically aim the laser to establish line of sight laser comms to provide a long-distance network link.