[liberationtech] Fwd: Presenting the new Lorea distribution: Foxglove

Thu Nov 8 01:38:32 PST 2012

Dear all

as a close person to the developer team, I send some information regarding
lorea background. 

First of all, apologies cause we are not English native, you might
find therefore some pieces of our texts pretentious or bad written. 
On the other side, we are fluent in spanish, catalan, euskera, portuguese, french... 
I guess it should be good to remember that there are many interesting initiatives out
there who are out of the "english-centric" reach.

Lorea was launched in 2009 during the spanish hackmeeting and took off
during the spanish movement of 15th of may (after the arab spring and
before the occupy movement).

Lorea is totally based in volunteer work (the fairies) and most of the
networks are self-managed, therefore many persons have gone through
the project and have let their ideas, thoughts, aspirations regarding
it. The small text displayed in the website was written years ago,
sorry if it sounds pretentious but for us it is a good memory and
removing it would be like removing our colleague contribution.

We have a monthly virtual assembly (https://n-1.cc/pages/view/1048569)
where we agree by concensus on the next steps, and we try basically to
stick to the issue of developing free social networks for the civil
society + raising awareness + training people to use those... we are
not just persons behind a computer dreaming in code, we are part of
the social movements around here and we work hard in creating
awareness so that people use free tools in general.

We do not have a marketing strategy or a business model, we are
looking for sustainability and creating useful alternatives outside of
capitalism. Part of the team is based in an ecoindustrial
postcapitalist colony (www.calafou.org) collectivized one year ago, we
combine rebuilding this giant place with developing technological
sovereignty initiatives and this is more or less what our lives are
about right now...  Our other logo is "the master's tool will never
dismantle the master's house", I guess this should sound more
comprehensible. :-) (uh oh this is a Spanish expression that we
translated also in english, hope it is correct)

For more information I copy some links to documentation explaining Lorea:

english short presentation : https://n-1.cc/file/view/1488201/digital-backyards-lorea-presentation

Text from February 2011:
https://n-1.cc/blog/view/76157/%E2%80%9Creclaim-the-networks-technological-sovereignty-for-social-networks%E2%80%9D

https://n-1.cc/file/view/1410064/hacia-una-web-social-libre-y-federada-el-caso-de-lorea
(spanish)... soon an article in English for the unlike us critical reader will be
also published

We have been presenting in many events our projects such as unlike us, digital backyards, free culture forum, berlin biennale, campus milenio party... recieved an honorary mention from ars electronica. All events, documentation and videos  are listed here:
https://n-1.cc/blog/group/7826/all
https://n-1.cc/file/group/7826/all
https://n-1.cc/videolist/group/7826/all

Ciao
alex

On 11/08/2012 12:04 AM, ttscanada wrote:
> Lorea came out of the M15 movement, to fill a need for communication
> during the first demonstrations in Spain in May 2011 and to link
> assembleas around the world. It was a patched together solution that
> went within days to tens of thousands of users (perhaps higher,
> numbers would require a look up I don't have time for, sorry,
> hopefully someone who works on it can give you an accurate
> background). It has been used extensively in Spain and other parts of
> Europe and elsewhere for networking, by the Indignados, Take the
> Square, some Occupy, etc. For those who are not aware, the
> organization of the squares in Spain has been an inspiration around
> the world and their methods and tools are widely copied.
>
> The number of users and the limitations of the technology are why most
> of us are aware of it; it is a need to be filled. The lorea developers
> are a team of volunteers who have done amazing work in assessing needs
> and coming up with the solutions they are able, given the limitations
> of time, expertise, etc. Some of us have been working on more
> ambitious solutions for the future, the Global Square with Tribler to
> create a p2p (currently android and PC) livestreaming and
> microblogging network that meets the needs of this population,
> Secushare working with GnuNet, and lorea themselves have implemented
> many new solutions which as Ale mentioned are helping a lot.
>
> I can only think maybe they are more known in Spanish speaking
> countries ...
>
> (I am having trouble changing my display name on this list, for
> transparency this is Heather Marsh, @GeorgieBC)
>
> All the best,
>
> Heather
>
>
> On 12-11-07 2:45 PM, Eva Galperin wrote:
>> "Anyone familiar with who needs liberation and what technology they
>> require, is of course aware of lorea."
>>
>> This statement is baffling and demonstrably untrue. This is certainly
>> the first I've ever heard of Lorea and I have not, to my knowledge, met
>> a single person who uses it.
>>
>> When I go to read the website in order to get some idea of what this
>> tool/service might be and I read things like "...our nurtured army of
>> fairies will work hard on the experiments, assess the views of
>> inhabitants and will conjure spells that are necessary to make our
>> flowers grow increasingly connected and beautiful," I do not get any
>> clearer idea of what Lorea is, what it does, or who uses it.
>>
>> If this list is missing out on some important new
>> security/privacy/social media tool that is being widely used for
>> organizing, that sounds like something people here might want to know
>> about.
>>
>>
>> ************************************************
>> Eva Galperin
>> International Freedom of Expression Coordinator
>> Electronic Frontier Foundation
>> eva at eff.org
>> (415) 436-9333 ex. 111
>> ************************************************
>>
>> On 11/7/12 2:25 PM, ttscanada wrote:
>>> Anyone familiar with who needs liberation and what technology they
>>> require, is of course aware of lorea, and that includes everyone I know
>>> on this list. The new release looks great guys, thanks for all your
>>> effort. :-)
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> Heather
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12-11-07 11:46 AM, ale fernandez wrote:
>>>> Hi
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, 7 Nov 2012 12:13:04 -0500
>>>> Nadim Kobeissi <nadim at nadim.cc> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Either I'm a total idiot or this is the most pretentious website
>>>>> on the
>>>>> Internet
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> There may be more options than the two you see at the moment.. :)
>>>>
>>>> I'm certainly using it like mad since it came out, both bug finding as
>>>> well as actually filling in assemblies - I'm in an assembly run
>>>> cooperative and using lorea is really important as a shared place to
>>>> work, and I think in general it complements the in-person aspect of
>>>> assemblies really well.
>>>>
>>>> All our groups get to share info and now with the new version we can
>>>> do a lot more sharing and organising of tasks and assembly outcomes..
>>>> Having the assembly module also gives us the ability to organise our
>>>> thoughts into objectives proposals and decisions, and make sure things
>>>> get picked up and hopefully resolved...
>>>>
>>>> And if it's the language that got you, maybe it could do with a catchy
>>>> jingle like "the facebook for people to actually do stuff with".
>>>>
>>>> The "nodal representation" isn't about the people using the network,
>>>> but the various physical nodes where people might get internet or
>>>> access to a mesh network, which then has a social networking service
>>>> (or whatever other services) being served from it so you can access it
>>>> even if the internet goes down but the mesh network stays up.
>>>>
>>>> But please go to n-1.cc and check it out!
>>>>
>>>> Ale
>>>>
>>>>> NK
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 12:06 PM, Alex Comninos
>>>>> <alex.comninos at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Lolwut?
>>>>>> On Nov 6, 2012 6:32 PM, "Anne Roth" <annalist at riseup.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>    News about Lorea https://lorea.org/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ("Lorea is a project to create secure social cybernetic systems, in
>>>>>>> which a network of humans will become simultaneously represented
>>>>>>> on a
>>>>>>> virtual shared world.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Its aim is to create a distributed and federated nodal
>>>>>>> organization of
>>>>>>> entities with no geophysical territory, interlacing their multiple
>>>>>>> relationships through binary codes and languages.")
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -------- Original-Nachricht --------
>>>>>>> Betreff: Presenting the new Lorea distribution: Foxglove
>>>>>>> Datum:  Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:12:17 +0100
>>>>>>> Von:    spideralex <spideralex at riseup.net>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *The new distribution of Lorea is called Foxglove: Social
>>>>>>> networks of
>>>>>>> the people and for the people!*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> As part of the ACT! 2012 <https://lorea.org/assets/act2012>, Lorea
>>>>>>> social networks have migrated to a new version called Foxglove
>>>>>>> based on
>>>>>>> the version 1.8 of Elgg free software <http://elgg.org/>. This new
>>>>>>> distribution has several improvements regarding the design,
>>>>>>> usability
>>>>>>> and stability of the networks and offer also new tools (the full
>>>>>>> list
>>>>>>> can be viewed here
>>>>>>> <https://n-1.cc/pages/view/1505323/lorea-new-distribution-foxglove>).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Among them there is a new module that allows you to design
>>>>>>> assemblies
>>>>>>> agendas collectively, keeping minutes and highlighting decisions
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> previous consensus. It also enables decision making either by
>>>>>>> majority
>>>>>>> or by consensus, with the option of blocking decisions and
>>>>>>> modifying
>>>>>>> proposals for decision. This wide variety of options is intended to
>>>>>>> suit
>>>>>>> the various decision making processes of groups engaged with
>>>>>>> assamblearism, thus preventing the software of imposing its
>>>>>>> criteria
>>>>>>> above collective practices. Other new options are customizing the
>>>>>>> working environment, search box for groups contents, new images
>>>>>>> galleries, improvements of the Etherpads (collaborative writing in
>>>>>>> real
>>>>>>> time) and the integration between fora and mailing lists
>>>>>>> (persons not
>>>>>>> registered inside the networks will be now able to subscribe to
>>>>>>> groups
>>>>>>> mailing list).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> During the course of this November, Lorea's fairies will work into
>>>>>>> refining the migration and complementing the documentation such
>>>>>>> as the
>>>>>>> manuals in order to help people become familiar with the new
>>>>>>> version. It
>>>>>>> should also be kept in mind that Lorea are self-organized networks
>>>>>>> where
>>>>>>> all its inhabitants can engage with their development and
>>>>>>> gardening.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lorea calls for collaboration in this joint project, first by being
>>>>>>> patient with the potential errors that might occur occasionally
>>>>>>> during
>>>>>>> the migration process, secondly, by testing the tool, reporting
>>>>>>> shortcomings and making suggestions to keep improving (bugs can be
>>>>>>> reported here <https://n-1.cc/pg/groups/929536/testers-elgg-18/>)
>>>>>>> and in
>>>>>>> third place by making diffusion of this new version (either by
>>>>>>> publishing this news and/or giving talks and workshops).
>>>>>>> Donations are
>>>>>>> also logically welcomed <https://n-1.cc/pages/view/14888/>.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> *About Lorea*
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lorea means "flower" in Euskera and uses the metaphor of seeds to
>>>>>>> refer
>>>>>>> to each ones of its networks' planted in an experimental field
>>>>>>> federated
>>>>>>> ".
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The project stems from an informal group of people concerned about
>>>>>>> security and privacy on the social web, providing from the field of
>>>>>>> free
>>>>>>> software and technological activism. It was launched during the
>>>>>>> 2009
>>>>>>> Hackmeeting
>>>>>>> <http://sindominio.net/hackmeeting/index.php?title=Portada>,
>>>>>>> the annual gathering of hackers in the Spanish State. There two
>>>>>>> social
>>>>>>> networks Digital Free Art and N-1 <https://n-1.cc/> converged and
>>>>>>> decided to join forces to develop further social free, secure,
>>>>>>> federated
>>>>>>> and self-managed social networks.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ACT! 2012 is an action derivatived from the Barcelona Consensus
>>>>>>> performed by an active citizenship, GLOBAL, simultaneously and
>>>>>>> with an
>>>>>>> effective PARTICULAR result looking for social, political, economic
>>>>>>> palpable transformation. For this purpose different organizations /
>>>>>>> networks / groups have supported as ACT! 2012 Lorea and another
>>>>>>> movement
>>>>>>> (Ekta Parishad). The Nova-organization Social Innovation (driving
>>>>>>> Consensus Barcelona) has awarded 4,000 Euros each organization to
>>>>>>> carry
>>>>>>> out its actions. Thanks to the support you
>>>>>>> gave us the Lorea community have used this incentive to free
>>>>>>> programmers
>>>>>>> who developed the project. Also with ACT!, During days 27 to 2
>>>>>>> September, we held a Hacktahon Lorea to outline the development of
>>>>>>> assemblies, modules, feedback and suggestions and work together on
>>>>>>> migration.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> N-1.cc, Cooperativa.ecoxarxes.cat and Enekenbat.cc are already
>>>>>>> migrated,
>>>>>>> rest will follow soon
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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