A personal journey with free networks:

"I think what I liked about the consume project were two things: the idea that people should do something on their own, something that was fairly large and complex, outside corporate and state structures and therefore completely against the odds. Knowing that there is almost no chance that the project will succeed made it just more interesting. I am stressing this point, because I think it is something social and political, independent of which kind of technology you use."

(notes from a talk by Armin Medosch)