The post Co-mapping our transition towards abundance for all appeared first on P2P Foundation.

IniciativaComunales.org (the site is in Spanish)

Iniciativa Comunales is a group working to bring the commons in Spain back under local control, where users steward and protect it. Here is their declaration of intent:

The Valdeavellano de Tera Declaration on the Recognition and defense of the Commons and ICCAs in Spain 

The post Iniciativa Comunales – a Spanish initiative to secure the Commons appeared first on P2P Foundation.

The initiative goes against the EU dictum that imports must be accepted and local producers may not be favoured over the “free commerce” of large multinational companies.

The EU will probably challenge the law but the author argues that such a challenge would be ineffective. On the other hand, this would be a perfect opportunity to challenge the EU’s agricultural and trade policies. Local food production is at a disadvantage. It is next to impossible for local producers to compete with international imports.

Also read the comments that argue whether EU intervention in the case would be effective, or whether the law (and possible EU counter moves) should be used to highlight the destructive nature of EU rules and international trade agreements.

You can find the article on: https://transitionnetwork.org/…

The post Will EU move to block Romania’s 51% local food shift? appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Quoting from the article…

While paying for services to correspond with others over long distances might make sense, modern technology gives us better and more affordable options for communicating with those close to us. If you have wireless networking equipment in your home that is capable of communicating with your neighbor’s equipment, why not just communicate directly with them?

PittMesh is a new community-owned wireless network that runs OpenWrt, a widely supported, well documented, open source firmware for embedded systems like WiFi routers. PittMesh routers are owned by individuals and configured in a way that make them work together to build a larger, decentralized network. The project was started by a wireless networking non-profit called Meta Mesh and has been developed by a world-wide coalition of programmers for well over a decade.

The PittMesh network uses a simple network routing protocol called Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR). This protocol automatically senses other OLSR-enabled routers wirelessly and publishes routes to non-adjacent subnets on the network, which allows the routers themselves to act as the infrastructure needed to connect neighbors to one another. It also delivers Internet access from bandwidth donors.

PittMesh currently has 29 nodes hoisted.
There are 10 nodes planned for deployment.
There are 5 point-to-point links active.
Live connectivity data coming soon…

Find more about it in the full article here.

The post PittMesh – local network appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Solid is a framework in which other applications can be run to create an open p2p social space. Open source software within this framework may, in the future, provide all those services that centralised social media (think Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, many others) provide today. Such services are: identity, authentication and login, authorization and permission lists, contact management, messaging and notifications, feed aggregation and subscription, comments and discussions, and more.

While we have, with Solid, a framework for a distributed p2p social network, we do not have the applications yet that are going to use that framework. Quite some programming work remains to be done.

Calling on programmers: Please look into the Solid framework and adapt/adopt as possible

Discussion

From a discussion on the P2P Facebook page, we can glimpse some more insight. Melvin Carvalho posted this:

“Try not to think of Solid as separate from the web. All web clients and servers already run 90% of the solid protocol. These are just the features invented by Tim Beners-Lee from the very start of the web, to make it P2P (this is all laid out in his book, weaving the web, which is a sort of manifesto, that unfortunately does not gain the attention it deserves). But if I can summarize.

1. The core of Solid is actually the web, web 1.0, web 2.0, web 3.0. Any system on the web is either already compatible with Solid or could be made compatible much in the same way that linux uses drivers to connect to things. So the starting point of solid is everything we have today. But the Web is an ambitious project, it wants to change humanity for the better, via a giant network effect. The first phase of the roll out was just documents (web pages) because that was needed. I’ll list the next phases.

2. The web should be both documents and data. Documents are a delivery mechanism for data. 15 Years of web standards have matured to allow another layer of data to emerge in the web which is useful in itself, aka Linked Data. The state of linked data is that it is very widely adopted with perhaps more than 50% of the web using it already (but normally in a rather boring way). Solid builds on this data layer in order to bring much more interesting functionality. You dont have to use this feature, but if you do, the scope of use cases you can cover with the web increases by an order of magnitude.

3. The first folder in any web server is called public_html. The web was never intended to stop there. The last 25 years has been a lot of work on private data and also shared data. Solid adds a simple access control mechanism powered by linked data to enable you to share what you want with who you want. And protect your privacy. This is a feature that can be used with Solid but you dont need to. You can just keep everything public and the web will work as-is.

4. Browsers are a problem on the web. The idea of browsing says “you can look but you cant touch”. The web was designed to be interactive. The first browser was also an editor. This is the concept of the “read / write” web. But since Mosiac is the father of all browsers today, the writing functionality was taking out. Marc Andressen said it was too hard. But Tim knew it could be done, because his original web browser did it. So how is it possible? Well essentially you have a save file option using HTTP POST, and the ideas of folders. This is standardized in what’s called the LInked Data Platform and is a W3C REC. It builds on linked data and just lets you save your files and data to any server that has this turned on. Its a small change to any existing web server to allow this, and the hope as a w3c REC is that people will start adding it to sever configs. Of course, ability to write also comes with the need for access control, so that is why when taking write functionality you probably want to take permissions.

5. Finally as a popularly requested feature solid provides realtime updates to subscribing to resources. It doesnt need to go in the solid spec, nor does anyone need to implement it, but you can build nice realtime apps with tight feedback loops with this feature.

So in summary, anything you can do on the web today is already solid. Solid the spec just offers more festures, more decentralization and more P2P (as the web was designed to be). App developers dont need to do anything different to what they do today using HTML, HTTP and AJAX. But if you are a fan of decentralization you can start propagating that pattern to clients and servers all through the web, and we’ll see the web transformed from the solid / centralized system it is today, to to a hybrid where both decentralization and centralization offer choices for a large user base.”

Here’s the whole discussion on the P2P Facebook page …

and some

Links

Linked data by Tim Berners-Lee

Re-decentralizing the web (the Solid project page on GitHub)

Weaving the Web by Tim Berners-Lee

on Scribd

on Amazon

Photo by KamiPhuc

The post Project Solid – can the web be re-decentralised? appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Networking locally through WiFi is the objective.

Their approach to the problem is rather unique. They have developed software that virally creates a local network, providing mesh-network connectivity to the local cloud.

“A download of the software qaul.net on wireless-enabled computers, tablets and mobile phones is sufficient in order to participate. The structure of the network and the exchange are managed directly by the tool qaul.net: the software is passed from device to device via a WLAN like a virus. Computers within range can be connected through qaul.net and thereby make the connection to the mesh network. Anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled device can expand or consolidate an existing network, or create their own.

The open source project ‘Freifunk’ / ‘Funkfeuer’ and the aid program ‘One Laptop per Child’ use a mesh network. qaul.net takes these developments further by combining the server and router software with the applications on the devices themselves. Event the access to the network is no longer tied to a central entity, so the network can spread as quickly and easily as a virus.”

Participation in the Network

qaul.net is different because it does not distinguish the difference between a parent network, the infrastructure, and the individual use of the function. In the qaul.net, every device is part of the network, while it is at the same time working as a functional input and reception tool. The application software is directly coupled with the server and router software. Instead of functioning with only certain brands or systems, qaul.net establishes ONE network between ALL kind of wireless devices.

Open Source

The software will be released under the GPL (Gnu Public License). This “viral” open-source software license guarantees permanent, free availability of the software and its further developments and improvements. A community of developers shall be built for the purpose of maintaining, modifying, and enhancing the software.

The term qaul is Arabic and means opinion, say, talk or word. Qaul is pronounced like the English word ‘call’. Using the arabic word is a hat tip to the uprisings in the Middle East.

I recommend reading the whole qaul.net project description here… 

Should you get impatient for technical details, you can skip ahead to “The Dream of a Free Network” 

The post Qaul net beta – Automatic viral mesh networking between wifi enabled devices appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Gratipay 2.0

The post Gratipay, Liberapay – Open source tipping apps struggle appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Rebel Geeks – The Citizens’ Network

This film investigates how Bolivian senator Nelida Sifuentes has led the campaign to restructure the way in which Bolivia and Latin America communicate, and restore power to ordinary citizens.

They want to train up generations of Bolivians who can write code and develop software. They are trying to establish a “sovereign cloud”, independent of international corporate and governmental control, that will protect the country’s data and speed up access and connectivity. Although they both use and support mobile internet platforms, they know that erecting more masts won’t solve the basic problem of structural integrity. They want full technological sovereignty and we are catching them as they build the architecture from the bottom up.

The article summarises the video, but it’s right there to watch…

Rebel Geeks – The Citizens’ Network

The post Rebel Geeks – The Citizens’ Network appeared first on P2P Foundation.

There are several initiatives working on that, MAZI is one of them and it just got European funding for this important work …

What does MAZI stand for?
MAZI means “together” in Greek and the goal of MAZI is to provide technology and knowledge in order to

• empower those who are in physical proximity, to shape their hybrid urban space, together, according to the specificities of the respective local environment
• generate location-based collective awareness as a basis for fostering social cohesion, conviviality, participation in decision-making processes, self-organization, knowledge sharing, and sustainable living
• facilitate interdisciplinary interactions around the design of hybrid space and the role of ICTs in society.

What is new about MAZI?
MAZI wishes to invest in an alternative technology, what we call Do-It-Yourself networking, a combination of wireless technology, low-cost hardware, and free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) applications, for building local networks, mostly known today as community wireless networks. By making this technology better understood, easily deployed, and configured based on a rich set of customization options and interdisciplinary knowledge, compiled as a toolkit, MAZI will empower citizens to build their own local networks for facilitating hybrid, virtual and physical, interactions, in ways that are respectful to their rights to privacy, freedom of expression and self-determination.

How does the MAZI initiative plan to achieve its objectives?
MAZI will take into account different perspectives namely technological, scientific, political and social, and build a toolkit, which will include:

• Installation scripts and hardware options for covering a target area with a DIY network
• FLOSS web applications adapted to address the needs of location-based exchanges and interactions and to be easily customized according to the context
• Ideas and blueprints of the design of physical artefacts that could complement the deployed network
• A rich set of guidelines for the customization of the functionality offered by the different toolkit offerings.

To see the MAZI web site: http://mazizone.eu

Other relevant links on developments around local networking (courtesy Michel Bauwens)…

The London School of Economics – Media Policy Blog on Alternative Internet(s)

Institut des Sciences de la Communication at the Sorbonne in Paris –

The alternative Internet(s) – state of the art and the possible future

The P2P Foundation’s Wiki on Do-It-Yourself Networking

Do-it-yourself Networking Net

The post MAZI Initiative to provide know-how for local networking appeared first on P2P Foundation.

If we want to promote bottom-up grassroots type activities, it should be easy to raise money to fund a project, an action, a pre business activity, without having to first form a legal entity and open a bank account. That is too much red tape for most small starting activities…

A New Form of Association for the Internet Generation?—?part 1

So far, the Internet has been very good at helping people do things together. But once it involves money, there is no good solution. Creating a new legal entity is too much overhead, too early. What if we could create a virtual entity that can collect money as easily as creating a Facebook Group?

A New Form of Association for the Internet Generation?—?part 2

How can we do things together that require money without having to worry about the complexity of creating and maintaining legal entities?

The post We Need A New Form of Association for the Internet Generation appeared first on P2P Foundation.