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

Wed Feb 16 20:48:37 UTC 2011

Hi Michiel,

On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 02:43:35PM +0100, Michiel de Jong wrote:
>Please forgive my ignorance if this is a stupid question:

Ignorance is a bliss, and stupid questions can be quite powerful! 
Therefore I won't forgive, and instead encourage you to not be shy :-)

>This mailing list seems quiet, doesn't it? Is that because the real 
>discussion takes place on IRC maybe? Given how important FreedomBox is 
>and will be, I'm very curious what the current plan for it is. I have 
>seen press mentions that do suggest that there is some very focused 
>activity going on:
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/nyregion/16about.html?_r=1
>http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/
>
>So that makes me hopeful that some group of people is active on this, 
>yet they're just doing it somewhere else than on this mailing list. :)

Freedombox is multiple things...

    * concept, framed by Eben Moglen
      He clearly try hard to inpire most possible of us to work on most 
      possible related areas to realize this concept.  And apparently he 
      now made a concrete move in forming that "freedomfoundation.org".

    * idea, captured by us "followers of Ebens preaching"
      As such it is alive and kicking inside the head of (I assume) each
      and every one of us, and we all want it to materialize not too far 
      from the individual ideas we have evolved in our heads.

    * physical box, plug hardware and Free(dom-enabling) software
      Some claim to provide it already, some (including me) claim to be 
      working on "incarnations" of it, some claim strong(er) leadership 
      and a canonical definition of what it should/must/can be is
      required to even start working on creating it.

    * buzzword, used by commercial entities
      Apparently helps boost sales of various (often but not always 
      small form-factor and low-power) hardware devices.

So when you ask if something is going on, then my best answer is "most 
certainly, allover!"

But if you more narrowly mean if us subscribed to this list have moved 
to some other platform and just forgot informing on this list or on the 
wiki, then no.  I am not always online at IRC but little happened there 
when I was (not to say it is dead - you are most welcome to drop by 
there too! - just that you won't loose track of progress by not being 
online there).

If something happens in secret then it is succesful as such: I don't 
know about it. :-)

More is happening among us than reflected on this list, though.  For my 
own part, I am lousy at being noisy about my own activities - so thank 
you for asking this "stupid question", provoking me to try summarize 
(others too silent like me: please consider post summaries here too!).

So here a brief summary of what I have been doing lately, somewhat 
related to FreedomBox:

    * Packaged Bitcoin, with help especially from Micah:
      http://packages.qa.debian.org/b/bitcoin.html
    * Joined Debian JavaScript Maintainers and helped especially Jérémy 
      improve the packaging of libv8, Node and related libraries (only 
      libv8 has emerged there yet - Node itself and 16 Node/JavaScript 
      libraries still pending):
      http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-javascript-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org
    * Work-In-Progress packaging Diaspora x²:
      http://bugs.debian.org/608409
    * Work-In-Progress packaging channel-server:
      http://ftp-master.debian.org/new/channel-server_0.0.1%2B2git.84338b-1.html
    * Work-In-Progress teaming up with Bjarni Rúnar to package PageKite: 
      https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-pagekite/
    * Work-in-Progress refining what Debian Pure Blends means technically 
      and why I believe it crucial for long-term reliable freedomboxen:
      http://todo.fixme/I/really/should/be/blogging/about/this
    * Work-in-Progress refining ways to concretely do system mashups in 
      ways best reusable for later streamlining as a Debian Pure Blend:
      http://todo.fixme/I/really/should/be/blogging/about/this/too

None of above are officially included in the recent "Squeeze" release of 
Debian, but backports are available as it emerges, using this APT line:

     deb http://debian.jones.dk/ squeeze freedombox

NB! I do not consider above as "Freedombox work", only _related_ to it. 
To me (and not shared with all here on the list!) Freedombox is about 
"shrinkwrapping what we have packaged already".  Important, however, is 
that something exist which is sensible to shrinkwrap.

I strongly recommend to use this list for coordination more than 
development: avoid discussing here the details of related work, but 
instead engage with other more capable teams, and share here progress on 
it.

Next week me and Siri, my girlfriend, attend the Emdebian sprint in 
Cambridge, UK, where we will work on user experience aspects of 
Freedombox, challenging some of the "hardware geeks" to help put into 
plain language what Freedombox can do for the average World citizen.

>In particular, I will soon have some free time to contribute to 
>FreedomBox. I'm an experienced programmer, but I don't know how to 
>create Debian packages. Is there any sense in us laymen creating 
>experimental live CD's? Or are there people already working on the 
>Debian Pure Blend for freedombox?

I find it sensible to work on multiple fronts...

* Yes, no doubt there is someone somewhere in need of your particular 
skills as a programmer: Please try elaborate on that, so peers here can 
help pair you with others.

* Yes, do try compose a Debian system containing sensible (yo you) tools 
installed and configured to work well together and as autonomous as 
possible - live-builder is a fine framework for doing this, even if the 
end result most likely won't be a "live-CD", because it is rich and 
helps think in the context of _generating_ based purely on Debian, 
rather than e.g. hacking on top of some existing snapshot image.

You are not alone in asking for guidance like this.

Some of us are spoiled in the sense that we can work autonomous on areas 
we believe is beneficial in various ways for the progress of Freedombox.

Some believe we need leadership and more clear and uniform goals.  I 
disagree - it sure helps if/when we can condense some concrete tasks 
that are easy to do for someone willing to "help out" but having no 
clues to work without guidance.  But in my opinion we can get far by 
simply asking (as you do now!) here on the list, and those of us with 
more clue try provide them.

Read the archive - I've tried in the past give clues to others as well.

It might very well be that my clues are of no use.  Then say so!  
Perhaps your criticism can help me improve.  Or failing that I can 
simply stop wasting more time on this (I am a slow writer - this very 
email has taken me approx. 4 hours to write!).

Thanks for reading this far,

   - 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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