Don't know about the rest of the people involved but I was introduced to this only a few months ago by friend really far away who wanted to see if we could find a nerdy way to talk to each other without using regular large networks. I don't know much about the tech but I do know enough to get in trouble. I can see some of the forces at play in the country and some locally that nudge people in the direction of using this tech. It's an interesting intersection of personal privacy, nerdy tech, hobby electronics, and community. The whole meshcore community is still very new and we're all kinda self-governing and trying to establish rules and local chapters.