Could you explain: why is it called consume.net?

Well, at the heart of this notion is a sort of understanding that we need to be able to communicate and put together, build a relationship with our neighbours in terms of an exchange of data that we wish to happen. So if this is to grow, as it already is doing, and is starting in different areas at the same time as these areas coagulate and form a mass, there will inevitably be an edge to this and it is the edge at which the consumption will be occurring. Anybody at the edge will be negotiating with a neighbour, whether it's a local school or an ISP or somebody who'd visiting the area wanting a connection for a short period of time, to extend the network so that becomes more and more possible. And Consumethenet is a sort of growth, a fungus, a data smog.

Where are these networks growing at the moment? Are there any particular geographic locations?

There are definite geographic locations. Obviously there's a London massive which has certainly helped things along. But already there are eight nodes in Reading. Reading is a town which isn't that big, and I think if those people really got together and they happened to be reasonably equally spaced, they could pretty much do the whole town in a preliminary sort of coverage.
That's a very low scale compared to what this project has a potential for, so it's very possible within months in your local town you're going to find somebody.
You live in Cardiff and I know for a fact that there are four or five people already with quite a strong intention to put up their own antennas and make a go of it quite quickly. I think you need to tend to the node section of the site and see what's cooking, because there's loads and loads of activity.
And everyone needs encouragement. I need encouragement, and it's good to see that people are joining even with a preliminary interest in participation, because that gives everybody the impetus to actually go ahead and communicate the idea to someone else the next day.
Wherever you go. Without being too evangelical about it, it is an exciting prospect. And it's not everything.
There's simply an issue of 'how do we put this to use?' How do we put any network to use? I think that the history of any kind of public information system is that it does end up getting populated with real data that is involving and important to people on a daily basis. Obviously the telephone is a massive example of that.

Or the Minitel in France.

You'd have to go back a few decades previously and examine how the Post Office, and those old media centres exist on a national scale. And sadly in some sort of decline because they've kind of lost the identity.
Maybe there's a potential for exploration back into what is traditionally a public resource.