[Freedombox-discuss] Why is this list so quiet?

[Andrew Schaaf]

Wow, we're on a roll right now! Thanks, Michiel de Jong!

I got Jonas's email while drafting the following and decided to send it as-is:

On Feb 16, 2011, at 1:14 PM, Bjarni Rúnar Einarsson wrote:

> I think you just hit the nail on the head with the word leadership. This project desperately needs someone to just take control and make something happen.

My crazy initial plan was to lone-wolf-sprint a technologically-opiniated, coherent, multi-app attempt and BDFL it. I wasn't arrogant enough to want it to be THE freedom box distro, but rather one of several coherent technology experiments which the main FB organizations could draw from as they see fit.

With compatible licenses (we're all permissive license enthusiasts, I hope?), there could be a nice non-zero-sum landscape of coherent-FB-tech-attempts-with-differing-opinions who draw from each others' components and code freely.

...but:
	My attempt wouldn't have become awesome for at least a few months
	This list and the FOS-SAAS movement are gaining momentum right now
	I'll be be working on these components with or without y'all, but much preferably with
	...so if the following components overlap with your own interests, great!
	...Saturday hack-a-thons, anyone?

A quick, rough attempt at a writeup:

Technologically-opiniated:
	
	Backend language/engine:
		
		Nothing but {NodeJS/Coffee, C modules when needed}
		
		If you're not a NodeJS/Coffee enthusiast yet
			Ry's 2009 JSConf slides
			Ry's 2010 JSConf slides
			Ry's Google Tech Talk
			CoffeeScript.org
			Note: NodeJS uses Google's V8 engine, which supports {x86, x64, ARM}
	
	Nicely packaged:
		...with an NPM package.json
		May require:
			Debian/Ubuntu packages (libraries/programs/data only -- nothing that automatically does stuff in the background!)
			NPM packages
		
		The main file will be ./app.coffee
		
		Its module.exports is set to a function ((app) -> ...add stuff to app...)
		...where app is an Express app
	
	Storage/servers/services:
		
		Apps will specify abstractly what sort of datastores ("buckets"?) they want, and connection objects will be given to them at runtime
			(with .get(k), .set(k, v), ...)
			(keys and values are arbitrary byte-strings)
		
		{TCP,UDP} servers:
			Apps will not create their own servers (TCP example, UDP example)
			...they'll just describe the servers they want and define their callbacks
		
		Details will be managed by the admin-app
			(e.g. assigning/managing prefixes, tracking bucket usage stats, ...)
			(e.g. ports, domains, SSL, ...)
		
		Some types of datastores:
			Something with {...everything that Redis 2.2 offers...}
			Something with {get,set,del}{,Range}
				(so you can read a range of items without HD seeks)
				e.g. Tokyo Tyrant, Cassandra, ...
				Note: check out http://keyjson.org
			Something with {get, set, del}
				e.g. S3
			Temporary directory on a local filesystem
				Use this as a last resort
				Specify a space quote
					...e.g. so the system could give use a RAM disk if possible 
		
		NoSQL only
			Redis + KV-stores-with-ranges "ought to be enough for anybody"
			(Redis Diskstore) and (Redis Cluster) will be here soon!
		
		Arbitrary stuff can go on under the hood without the apps caring
			Example:
				There could be thousands of buckets using the same Redis server
				...and each prefixes would be add/removed automatically
					The prefix would probably be a msgpack'd integer
	
	Client-side:
		Must talk to the server over a stable, documented, semver'd API
			(so frontend devs can do their own attempt from scratch in a weekend without worrying about the backend)
			(just the X and Y, not the Z: "/api/vX.Y/send-message.js")
		May be written in anything that compiles to optimized {HTML,CSS,Javascript}
			(I'll be using Jade, Sass, CoffeeScript)


Components, Apps:

	[ I'll put these in another email ]


> 
> Obviously it would be nice if that person worked openly and with the group, and it would be nice if that person had help and didn't have to do everything, but someone needs to lead the way. I think - hope - Eben actually recruited someone for this as part of creating the Foundation (perhaps not particularly democratic, but I for one will be glad). We'll find out in a few days, is my guess!
> 
> My tiny contribution to this, PageKite, is making good progress and I hope to have actual Debian packages built within a couple of months. The Wiki has more on it than it used to... there are lots of quiet little things happening. But while the system doesn't really have a leader and some sort of over-all architecture, we don't even know if these things will be used or not. 
> 
>  :-)
> 
> -- 
> Bjarni R. Einarsson
> The Beanstalks Project ehf.
> 
> Making personal web-pages fly: http://pagekite.net/
> _______________________________________________
> Freedombox-discuss mailing list
> Freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss

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