I met Martin Varsavsky last March at the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism, Business Plan, and Security last March in Madrid, where he’d invited me to join an Internet working group. He impressed me with his energy, vision and genuine belief that people working together could improve the world.

Late last year, Martin, a serial entrepreneur, invited me to join the U.S. advisory board for his new company. FON, boiled down, is a way to share Wi-Fi connections securely in a collaborative system that could turn into a global network of inexpensive (or, depending on how one participates) entirely free hotspots.

Today, on his blog, Martin announced fairly amazing news for a company so young:

FON can now count Google , Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors and backers. They’ve joined us to help advance the FON movement, leading a group that has put 18 million Euros into FON and also committed to give us a strategic boost that should help us make this great idea into a great platform for everyone who wants a faster, cheaper and more secure wireless Internet. Read the rest of this entry »