[Freedombox-discuss] Libre Planet Followup

[Charles N Wyble]

On 3/20/2011 8:44 AM, James Vasile wrote:
> I made some headway in arranging for teleconference facilities for the
> FreedomBox Foundation.  IRC is great, but we're going to need some
> group voice calls at various points.  I've added to my todo list an
> item to make sure we can record calls so we have logs where
> appropriate.

Awesome. That's a useful thing to have.

>
>
> * First, OLPC did not test its interface with end users early enough. I
> talked to multiple people who thought this should have been done
> sooner.  FreedomBox should put the target end user into the design
> process early.

Very true. Finding those people might be hard, as they are probably 
trying to stay alive.


>
> * Third, OpenMoko folks spent a lot of time making a distribution--
> packaging and recompiling all those Debian packages for their
> platform.  It used a lot of resources and the repos were never
> complete.  FreedomBox should not be a Debian-based distribution so
> much as a a Debian-based project that relies on a lot of
> already-existing packages.
YES YES YES. Very true. apt-get install freedombox on a base debian 
install should be all that's needed.
This will make things super easy for folks wishing to own their data.

> Meshing is hard.  Nobody I met knows anybody who is nailing mesh
> networks.  I'm going to get all the mesh heads together soon for a
> real conversation to see if we can work towards a recommendation on
> the most promising avenue.

Um.... *waves*.  I guess I need to get out more. I've built a few mesh 
networks
over the past year. It's not that hard (it used to be quite difficult, 
but the underlying
bits have really matured).  Us mesh heads hang out at villagetelco.org 
and a few
other places (olsr.org, batman.org)  :)  We have an annual gathering 
already, http://battlemesh.org/

Join the  mailing list and say hi. Mesh is moving along, slowly and 
steadily.
Mesh is the underpinning of an open network. Open networks are the
underpinning of everything else.

I feel that mesh networks have reached the point of maturity, that they 
can stand
on their own. I feel they are readily and rapidly deployable (plug and 
play) due to
the work of villagetelco.org.

While I was working on mesh stuff, I also took an interest in data 
ownership. I like that
FreedomBox puts a brand/appliance around that concept. FB is to data 
ownership what VT
is to open networks.

Glad to see the mention of netsuku on this list. That's an important 
component of scaling
a network up. Mesh networks in production today will need to be joined 
up tomorrow. If we
want to maintain some sense of sovereignty, we need to build a scalable 
open network. How
this is to be done, remains to be seen.

Freedombox is one component (secure, reliable, easy to use, appliance 
nodes in the network)
VT + Serval project is a component (local area networking and 
telecommunication capabilities)

Can we take these components and turn them into a global network that 
respects the rights
of individuals, fights censorship, withstands efforts to shut it down 
(they can't kick in a billion doors)?

The next few quarters will tell us if it's possible.