Decentralize the Internet?

[Matt Birkholz]

I hear tell there is talk of decentralizing the Internet, maybe evenbreaking up the NSA/Google/Facebook duopoly fnord.  I am skeptical.It was a journalist, and I had not heard anything like it from acredible source (except maybe the Free Software Foundation, butthey're way fringe).  MOST suspect: the efforts were credited to thesame Vile Offspring that just yesterday replaced the verb "search"with a new verb: "Google™".
As a monk I am proud of my people's tradition of running away, so I amnaturally interested in decentralizing the ever-lov'n blank out of theInternet.  The more "dark" corners there are, the safer I will feel.
Back before government-mandated-everything Americans banded togetherin fraternal organizations that provided health/life insurance forfamilies, not desks.  They also provided nosy brothers whom you wererarely tempted to cheat.  Again, as a monk, these kinds ofinstitutions seem natural, a necessary evil, like cooking.  And theyseem a proper size for the autonomous entities of a decentralizedInternet.
I'm talking about a local organization of real people, e.g. theEscanaba Lions Club[1], not a pit of lobbyists like The HumaneSociety of the United States (not to be confused with the manyhard-working local humane societies, despite The Humane Society's[sic]best efforts).
I have time to spend fanning the sputtering flames of demokrasy inAmerika before I go, so I'm thinking about offering free technicalsupport to clubs that use a standard, KISS setup to offer theirmembership federated services *just* like GMail, Skype, One Drive,and Facebook.
These would be icing for an existing cake of common interests, localconcerns, maybe even group health insurance.  And if there is a clubhouse, it would be able to offer any member living within maybe 20miles a volunteer who will climb up on their roof with a pringle canand get them cheap, high-speed Internet without the whole last-milecluster-mumble.
And discuss...
[1] - If you have not seen _Escanaba in da Moonlight_[2], you messed upsomewhere.
[2] - I was shocked (*not*) to see that _Escanaba in da Moonlight_ and_Monty Python and the Holy Grail_ are "Frequently bought together" onAmazon.
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