Community Wireless Networks

Having gotten a 2mb ADSL link and wireless router for wurk, I've been wondering if I could find a use for the bandwidth I'm not using during working hours.

http://map.wirelesslondon.info/node/35

This is partcularly interesting to me as years ago, I had a dream of figuring out a roll-my-own solution to internet access for rural societies. I believe there was an article in WIRED mag. about a solution that involved each community ( or maybe it was a schoolhouse in each community) having a server and workstations. Students would send their emails and page requests to the central server. Some bloke would go round and "collect" the data and then shoot it off into the ether from a connected node. Needless to say, I'm sure there was far more info in the article than my 4:20 addled brain can remember, but still.. an interesting take.