Mostly this is an old idea I've had since Arab Spring based off a far older thought based on how often family let cable, thus the internet, bill go unpaid because there were more pressing issues.
'The wider internet is nowhere near as permenent as most would like to believe. Find a way to mitigate this.'
Hoovering up content from youtube, stripping DRM out of ebooks, music, and the like is all well and good, but actually sorting that horde out is a whole other problem, and then there is the whole other issue of 'the web is not just you and a computer, no matter how fancy or fast. It is the interconnection of people out there arguing, agreeing, and all manner of other things. Unless that gap can be bridged all you have is a pile of Stuff that is yours alone.'
In the decade and change since Arab Spring we've had HTTPS gain, as near as I can tell, near universal traction. This is great in the sense that it adds a level of babyproofing. On the other, it makes what I want harder as browsers by default go 'wait what is this? Go no further. Put up big scary warning screen.' Which leaves the days of throwing a piratebox up and people just browsing what you put up as a bit of a relic.
On the other hand you have the rise and ubiquity of smart phones, apps, and the ability to spin a service off into a thing that isn't in the web browser. Meaning you can have your own IRC server, jellyfin (or enby, or whatever) server up for easy media browsing, lemmy instances (thank you Reddit dumbassery for allowing the open alternitives to get some spotlight,) or mastadon (thanks elmo.)
The trouble is I don't know how to make the portal so everyone has that list of what that server instance offers, and how to go about using those services (irc, or lemmy, or the like are useless if people can't get going.) Then there is how to get these island servers to talk to eachother and sync up. How lemmy and mastadon work are great for this I suppose, but I can gurentee that there are a lot of hurdles I'm not thinking of. In a way my mind works off of 'hey you know BBS's and Fido and the like? That, but now,' which I can pretty confidently say is only at best useful as a framework rather than a plan of action.
I don't want ot just throw out buzzwords like lora or mesh or the like and handwave the details. Much as that can be done in a story for the sake of moving on? I like the details for one, and for another, I kinda want to have something like this made for the sake of 'whe nthe internet inevetably implodes because corporate greed is infinite and it will be the death of the wider unified web.'
Just imagine each household having a server node. Each of those nodes is basically their peertube/lemmy/etc hub that has their profiling information, music, etc that they can access, or let others have a look at.
That node talks to community nodes. In this example, say it has to go through a few other people's node to get to the local hole in the wall diner/gas station/whatever. Those places that are able to put in the infrastructure for wider lanes of traffic to talk to a wider web or to other community hubs directly. Theoretically that would make these places a local ISP, I suppose, However the point is these places would allow the local community to stay connected to eachother regardless on if there is a path to the rest of the world or if all there is is just, 'Cat's diner Gass, General, and Data' with them having a rack server in the back that has a whole ton of data for communal consumption.
More to the point you could atake your personal node with you and it would slot into whatever the local network landscape looks like regardless on if it can hear any other nodes, can get to the net at large, or if it's just serving what it has to client devices.
I had this thought on nodes talking directly to eachother and sharing information like. My node finds Your node, handshakes, and swaps files from respective share lists. Like 'you' want music, video, and the like? Feel free to browse and download either by automated scripts or active client interaction. I want news? Well Hey howdie you've got news I don't have. Yoink. Amongst the issues I see is not just 'how to make sure people don't upload CP or other Bad Things to my node' but also 'How to make sure it doesn't fill with junk before I have a chance to do housekeeping.' Make Nodes too much hassle and most people won't want them.