Peer2Politics

= LibreMap is a scalable, global and decentralized router database and map visualization for community networks, such as guifi, Altermundi, FunkFeuer, ninux, freifunk, Commotion…

“It is a basic how to manual for young faculty and I am not exaggerating on the cost savings – for example to outfit an undergrad optics lab the costs drop from $15,000 to about $500 for equipment of equal performance. Research grade equipment cost savings are even more substantial. As a scientist and a libre advocate I really want to see this idea spread as it will create a positive feedback loop.” – Joshua Pearce.

 

This is about a recent meeting of the leaders of several organizations that govern the global connectivity infrastructure, which the Internet has certainly become. They met in Montevideo, Uruguay and took stock of the situation. Their unanimous view was that the independence of the Internet from countries and corporations is of great importance. The major points that emerged as needing attention are described on this page:

Since real support for privacy, control and data ownership should be present in everything we do online, last January I also pointed out that alternatives to corporate social networks already exist and only need proper packaging.

“Effective use of the Internet holds the potential to benefit everyone. Currently, however, its benefits are distributed unequally — some people gain power, wealth and influence from using the Internet while others struggle for basic access. Our vision is a technical, interactive and information rich Internet platform on which people in their communities and elsewhere – the poor and marginalized in Developing and Developed countries, women and youth, indigenous peoples, older persons, those with disabilities–are able to develop and exercise their civic intelligence and to work together equitably and effectively to address our multiple individual and collective challenges.

The first line of Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper reads as follows: “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”  The goal is achieved quite simply by removing three frictions to the exchange of value among people.  

Packed into a small conference room, this rag-tag band of software developers has an outsized digital pedigree, and they have a mission to match. They hope to jailbreak the internet. They call it the Indie Web movement, an effort to create a web that’s not so dependent on tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, and, yes, Google — a web that belongs not to one individual or one company, but to everyone. “I don’t trust myself,” says Fitzpatrick. “And I don’t trust companies.” The movement grew out of an egalitarian online project launched by Fitzpatrick, before he made the move to Google. And over the past few years, it has roped in about 100 other coders from around the world. On any given day, you’ll find about 30 or 40 of them on an IRC chat channel, and each summer, they come together in the flesh for this two-day mini-conference, known as IndieWebCamp.