So, I had this crazy idea when I was thinking about sneakernets, USB dead drops, and PirateBoxes and how they are used to circumvent the physical infrastructure of the Internet, bypassing any Internet censorship and surveillance.

For those of you who don't know, USB dead drops are just flash drives mounted onto a wall, allowing anyone to plug into it and share files to it. This makes it possible to anonymously share files in a local area without relying on the Internet infrastructure or any network infrastructure. You don't have to worry about any middlement or packet-sniffers reading your data or shutting off your connection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_dead_drop

The problem with these are that they are easily damaged and plugging them into a laptop is kind of awkward unless you have a USB extension cord. If you have them outside, they are exposed to the elements and risk corrosion.

I've had this idea for a while now and it's basically the reverse of this. Instead of having a flash drive mounted to a wall, you have a kiosk where people can bring their own flash drives (SD cards could probably work too) and they can plug them into the kiosk where they can upload and download files. That way, you are not relying on a flimsy flash drive mounted to a wall or a tree.

I or someone else could write some software for this and anyone can make their own USB File Exchange Kiosk (I guess that's what I will call it) using any spare PC, laptop, or Raspberry Pi and put them in local restaurants, coffee shops, clubs, community centers, college campuses, etc.

Does anyone else think this is a good idea? Feel free to steal this idea for yourself. I think it could be a great way to share files in case the physical Internet infrastructure goes to shit.

@xianc78@gameliberty.club
IRL FTP server!
I considered something similar using a captive portal and a wireless access point.

Can NFC tags scale to large files?