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Hello All,<br>
<br>
My name is Isaac Wilder, and I've been lurking on the list for
some<br>
time now. Looking at this thread, I thought it might finally be
time<br>
to introduce myself, and to tell you what I've been working on,
with<br>
some others, over the past months. I hope I'm not off topic, but I<br>
didn't want to go any longer without piping up.<br>
<br>
I'm part of a fledgling organization called the Free Network<br>
Foundation - our aim is to promote the creation of communications<br>
infrastructure which is owned and operated collectively. We call
this<br>
network the Mesh Interface for Network Devices, or MIND, and we<br>
envision it as a ubiquitous, resilient, and fault-tolerant<br>
communications network which functions even in the absence of
other<br>
infrastructure.<br>
<br>
Obviously, this aim is closely aligned with those of the FBF,<br>
specifically with the second of Bdale's two objectives. That's why
I<br>
thought it might be appropriate to respond to this thread. I
certainly<br>
have no intention to duplicate efforts, but I think that there is
room<br>
for an FSF, an FBF, and an FNF. If you'd like to know more about
the<br>
FNF and its mission, feel free to check out<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freenetworkfoundation.org">www.freenetworkfoundation.org</a>, or read on.<br>
<br>
Inlines follow.<br>
<br>
On 06/08/2011 01:17 PM, Bdale Garbee wrote:<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">> Catching up on recent list
traffic, it's clear to me that we're<br>
> suffering from the fact that "freedombox" means so many
different things<br>
> to different people. As a member of the foundation's board
and chair of<br>
> the technical advisory committee, I've spent a lot of time
thinking<br>
> about what it is that we're actually trying to do, and
pondering how to<br>
> get from where we are to a useful reference implementation.
To that<br>
> end, I think it's time to articulate a roadmap, starting
with a<br>
> statement of objectives for the core that consolidates our
shared values<br>
> and vision, and provides a framework for turning our
is/is-not thinking<br>
> in to a manifest of software components to be included in a
system<br>
> image. </span><br>
Just to be clear, are we talking about a Debian Pure Blend? This
makes<br>
sense to me, but I haven't seen it come up in conversation yet,
and it<br>
could be useful to clear up.<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">><br>
> As my own thinking has evolved, I now believe we are
pursuing two<br>
> related but different top-level objectives. One derives
from Eben's<br>
> early articulation of motivation that many of us responded
to a year or<br>
> more ago, the other is driven largely by our collective
reaction to<br>
> recent global circumstances. </span><br>
Excellent. This gives a clear direction forward. It looks to me
like<br>
the technology stack needed for these tasks is nearly complete,
though<br>
a fair degree of engineering work remains with regards to the
second<br>
goal. The great struggle, as far as I'm concerned, will be getting<br>
people to adopt the FreedomBox and to help build out the M.I.N.D.<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">><br>
> We want to provide a way for people to share with others
narrowly or<br>
> broadly a set of thoughts and media objects hosted on
infrastructure<br>
> they own themselves and thus have ultimate control over, as
an<br>
> attractive alternative to such sharing via popular existing
services <br>
> that provide little control.</span><br>
I've been hacking on diaspora, and it has brought to light some<br>
obvious 'don't's.<br>
Don't try to stuff everything through http, port 80, and the web.
We<br>
should be building internet apps, not web apps. This much is
probably<br>
clear to many, but it's valuable to reiterate.<br>
Don't try to make another closed system. Whatever solution we
achieve,<br>
will be achieved through federation.<br>
Don't try to take Facebook head on. Innovate and outmaneuver.
Unicast,<br>
Multicast, and Broadcast sharing are a must, but are not enough.<br>
Offering the same services as Facebook, with smaller network
effects<br>
and better privacy is not a winning strategy.<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">><br>
> We want to provide a way for people to communicate with
each other<br>
> privately, minimizing their dependence on service
providers, and<br>
> hopefully providing some resiliency in the face of service
outages.</span><br>
This is where I am focused, primarily. The FreedomBox should<br>
incorporate the batman-adv routing protocol. All of the services<br>
mentioned above should be designed, ultimately, for use in a
manner<br>
which is opportunistically peer-to-peer. That is, if a route
exists<br>
between two nodes that avoids the use of a carrier, that route
ought<br>
to be taken. If packets must be sent via exisiting infrastructure,<br>
then they should be sent through an encrypted tunnel. Still, it is<br>
essential that we maximize the likelihood of there exisiting a
free route.<br>
<br>
I'm not sure where else in the thread this conversation came up,
but I<br>
think someone from Project Byzantium mentioned problems with<br>
reinventing DNS. (Love your work, by the way). Here's our take:
The<br>
FNF is in the middle of the application process for IPv6 address
space<br>
from ARIN. Hopefully, we'll end up with something like 2^80
addresses<br>
- - an unbelievably large amount. We intend to use this space to
support<br>
the emergence of a free network - one made of FreedomBoxes.<br>
<br>
So, perhaps we can leave the DNS system as it is, and implement
direct<br>
addressing on the boxes. That way, we avoid Network Address<br>
Translation, and all of the issues that come along with it. We
could<br>
create an Autonomous System which is peered with the rest of the<br>
Internet at various points around the globe - call them
FreedomLinks.<br>
- From these peering points, access would be distributed via a few<br>
levels of community-owned and operated network. Mesh routing<br>
algorithms don't scale, so in order for the M.I.N.D. to be global,<br>
we're going to need a fractal topology. No attachment to the
names,<br>
but perhaps it would be something like FreedomLink (regional) to<br>
FreedomTower(Neighborhood) to FreedomBox(household).<br>
<br>
Now, I know that someone is going to tell me that I'm no longer<br>
talking about the FreedomBox, and that much is clear, but I do
think<br>
that we need to think about how the FreedomBox can play its role
in<br>
the emergence of a truly free network. I guess the point of all
this<br>
is just to say that mesh routing capabilities are an essential<br>
component of the FreedomBox. I've been messing with mesh for a
while,<br>
and I would say that batman-adv is the clear choice.<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">><br>
> I'd love feedback on whether that resonates well with
others on the<br>
> list. Do the things you care about fit in, or is there
another major<br>
> objective that I'm missing? </span><br>
I think you hit the big ones. There is a lot of work to be done in<br>
this problem space. I've just dropped out of school to start the
Free<br>
Network Foundation, and I can't wait to meet and work with you
all. In<br>
addition to my role at the FNF, I'm looking at starting a
for-profit<br>
hardware enterprise called Nodal Industries. We would build plug<br>
computers for use specifically as FreedomBoxes, and ship them<br>
preconfigured. We would also build FreedomLinks and FreedomTowers.
I'm<br>
looking for collaborators, so if you think that this sounds like a<br>
good idea, if you'd like to collaborate, or if you'd just like to<br>
talk, please let me know, on-list or off.<br>
<br>
Obviously, priority number one is the FreedomBox. Everything else<br>
hinges on that. That's why I'm so glad to see the conversation<br>
starting to move in the direction of a 0.1.<br>
<br>
Thanks for your time.<br>
<br>
<br>
take care,<br>
Isaac Wilder<br>
<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">><br>
><br>
> _______________________________________________<br>
> Freedombox-discuss mailing list<br>
> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Freedombox-discuss@lists.alioth.debian.org">Freedombox-discuss@lists.alioth.debian.org</a><br>
>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss</a></span><br>
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