[Freedombox-discuss] What's the plan?

[Jonas Smedegaard]

On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 06:13:29PM +0100, Mathieu Jourdan wrote:
>This is my first message to this list,

Welcome, Mathieu!

Thanks for your personal intro!


>1 - social
>Can't we just package status.net to replace identity.ca ?

I disagree with the "just" in above sentence: We do ourselves a 
disservice (to put it mildly) if not acknowledging the popularity of 
existing resources.

But apart from that: Sure!  It is even in [progress] already - and I am 
sure those working on it would appreciate help if you happen to be into 
Debian packaging.

[progress]: http://bugs.debian.org/491723


>To replace Facebook, do we really need something more than a blog and a 
>basic permission system which restricts access to only certain groups 
>of contacts ?

I agree that e.g. the open AtomPub protocol - which not only covers the 
public consumable channels as is so commonly used today, but authoring 
and management of blog entries, and (RESTful!) access protection of all 
or some of it.  AtomPub should play very nice with my pet area of RDF 
and WebID ;-)

We "just" need it packaged, however.

>I haven't read anything about sharing files, even big ones (music, 
>videos...), but we already do have p2p packages !

That list of 5 points was made to have something more concrete to 
discuss, not as an attempt to be comprehensive, I believe.

I suggest to try look at - and update! - the wiki pages regarding 
specific tools covering (relatively) specific Freedom-enabling 
technologies.


>2 - backup
>Backup should also be possible to a local external hdd, but it should be
>really simple.

Sure - but I believe this wasn't the aim of that point.  I believe the 
aim was something like ways to network replicate personal data without 
revealing (too much) of its content to those serving such peer "backup".

It is quite relevant to be able to replicate data locally too.  Maybe.


>3 - network neutrality
>Very important point but I think it's lower level (kernel) than what
>FreedomBox is (some glue between the most relevant packages).

FreedomBox is a system consisting of both low-level and higher-level 
stuff.  Without the low-level stufff it wouldn't exist.  Ok that you 
don't care about those parts but would you mind others being devoted to 
tune, optimize and Freedom-enable those parts as well, now that they are 
there anyway? :-)


>4 - anonymous publication
>Tor provides anonymity, but where do you publish then ? On a centralized
>plat-form ?

Using that secure blogging tool you volunteered above to write ;-)

Using those e-mails you either send outside the FreedomBox or inside it 
if you insist on bogging down that cute little box with a spamfilter.



>6 - encrypted mail
>An imap server somewhere else !? Discourage the use of e-mail !? What if I
>need to send plain mails, for example to apply for a job ? I have to
>continue providing my logs to Google ? What do I'll have to do with the
>freedombox if I can't use it for non-pgp traffic, or if it doesn't protect
>my mails from companies and governements ?

You do it exactly the same way as you deal with reaching friends that 
are only on Facebook: By either continuing to do some tasks independent 
from FreedomBox, or give up on reaching that part of your old World.

You don't get that job if you apply with a PGP encrypted message, or if 
sending from a small domain treated gy their smtp server as "might be 
spammers, better throw it away just to be on the safe side".


>Also, I was wondering how good do ARM processors support encryption (with
>mails and with filesystems), and streaming hd video files ?

If you are wondering how to tackle some details, I suggest asking e.g. 
the Emdebian folks - they are devoted to such things!

If you are questioning the relevancy of ARM-based devices due to lack of 
power for heavy duty tasks, I would instead flip it around and challenge 
the relevancy for the FreedomBox project of covering such duties.

I see it as a goal to cover most things sensible, with "most" being 
flexible to got things out sooner and "sensible" including sticking to 
the hardware devices which is a key choice of this particular project.

After all, working via the Debian platform makes most of our efforts not 
in vain even

After all, if it turns out that e.g. the silly color of SheevaPlugs 
makes them impossible for 7-eleven to sell: All our efforts have been 
via the Universal Operating System - Debian - so other parallel projects 
may much easier take off.  Just as 8+ years of Skolelinux in Norway 
helped e.g. the differently aimed Skolelinux-RLP project become a 
success in its lifespan of only 3 years.


  - Jonas

-- 
  * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
  * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

  [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
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