The All American Intranet:
A WLAN For the People, By the People, About the People
ABSTRACT
This paper will attempt to proscribe and independent WLAN with governmental authentication, in an effort to provide a particular accountability to the internet, and foster an environment where the populace could easily vote, and peruse records of their pundits merits and demerits, and review upcoming legislation and the support and opposition for each cause that affects their daily lives.
Atop this governmental foundation, services could be shared, allowing a free trade environment, where services and goods could be marketed, taxed, and monitored, allowing the populace free and fair local trade, without the risk of being swindled by a repeat offender, and allowing the government to reap the substantial reward of being the middleman, bringing the product directly to the people and eliminating unnecessary expenditure.
The Internet has momentum. Technology is an almost impalpable force with the potential of creating empires, and demolishing reputations. Though many have tried, every attempt to control or predict the trends of technology has failed spectacularly. Those that surf the crest of the World Wide Wave are there only because they adapted to the spirit of cyberspace, without trying to control the ether of the net.
Still, there are many flaws with the current internet, and something must be done concerning the anonymity and lack of security surrounding cyberspace. As for making a more secure Wireless Standard, or even bolstering the strength of our current protocols, while a good idea in theory, but in practice, any attempt to change the current standards, etiquette, or ethos of the internet, has been met with intimidating hostility, be it by internet users in protest of the proposed CISPA in 2012, or the 2011 Anonymous attacks, in defiance of the Egyptian Blackouts.
The only remaining option would be to create a new net, recreated with a governmental hierarchy, and authorized locally, could have positive results. By taking the best features of the international web, and making them available to an American Intranet, we could created a secure network environment. Naturally, the current international internet would remain unchanged, and accessible through commercial means by way of your existing Internet Service Provider, but a government monitored Intranet could provide particular accountability for the public, and for public figures and officials.
The medium I suggest for this Internet Overhaul is the White Space Spectrum. The White Space Spectrum is a gap in television programming for buffering, found around the 500-800 MHz range, and already approved by the FCC for use of transporting internet. Using a State Issued Network interface device, that could theoretically plug into any computer, smart tv, telephone, or tablet, a user could log on using a state issued ID or Drivers license. If further security is required, many State Issued Ids now have RFID chips, and the hypothetical government issued White Space Receiver (Modem) could even have a scanner to further verify a users Identity. Through these methods, a valid US Citizen could access the American Intranet.
As this access is through government funded towers, it would be free to use, and useful for administrative functions, like official records, documents, and even potentially medical records. As the services are locally broadcast, regional political information could also be instantly accessible, further informing the public of upcoming local proceedings and bringing Democracy to the Population in general through a grassroots movement.
Every participant would be tracked and triply verified via RFID scans, known location, and of course with traditional authentication by user name and password. With this level of security, it isn’t unreasonable to allow a user to access other user’s public record profiles, providing accountability for public figures, or even allowing parents to research a baby sitter and see if she has a prior criminal record.
The sites and security should be open source, and credit should be awarded via the aforementioned Public Record profiles, providing accolades to public servants and good Samaritans that provide any form of community service, including updating or upgrading the code for the public systems. This would ensure an up to date website, and provide incentive for white hat hackers to point out any flaws in the security system, allowing known exploits to be corrected instantaneously, while simultaneously providing a records system, logging notes as to who has edited the code.
If the American Intranet worked in the intended fashion, it could conceivably be utilized as a public voting system, allowing citizens to see an official profile of their preferred candidate and the prior voting record.
Taking it a step further, any corporation could market applications, sites, or channels to provide subscribers with goods and services, music or movies, or any other wares currently for market on the internet, but with local government as the middleman, it would do wonders in preventing price gauging or monopolies, and eliminate unnecessary expenditure, connecting the consumer directly to the creator. By utilizing an independent intranet, on a completely different standard, we can achieve a particular level of security. It should never replace the current internet, but this as an alternative posited because the security flaws in the current Wireless Model are absolute, and without rock solid verification, we will never have true security on a WLAN.