What exactly is a mesh network?
A mesh network allows nearby XO laptops to talk to one another directly (wirelessly) without the need for a traditional Internet Service Provider. This feature makes very rural deployments (say, Nigeria) practical; there isn’t much need for dedicated network hardware. The laptops do the heavy lifting, rather than the traditional hierarchical network of hubs/switches/routers. Try the mesh demo here, to see how a mesh can connect to the Internet.
