[liberationtech] Decentralization

[Alberto Cammozzo]

Thank you Lluís,

as you say, "likely-private communications": you can't trust proprietary
software, but even free software can't be trusted if it's run behind
closed doors.

I run all my servers, I sign my certificates, use only free software and
encryption.
All my DNS traffic runs through VPN to avoid ISPs DPI tampering.
I use alternative search engines and tracking protection plungins in my
browsers, installed Cyanogen Mod on my phone (no G apps), shut down
Gmail and Dropbox accounts and moved some servers in EU after Snowden
revelations.
Shut down Linkedin account after MS acquisition as well.
No Facebook, no WhatsApp.

So far so good, but what is it all for? ~75% of my email correspondents
use Gmail ...
You cant decentralize alone...
We need to fix this quickly or the information revolution will be lost
and archived as an annex of the industrial revolution.

Bests,

Alberto

fonts.googleapis.com is the center-node of my networking graph.

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Alberto Cammozzo
http://tagmenot.info
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On 07/02/2017 10:56, Lluís Batlle i Rossell wrote:
> Thank you for this writing and the link to the blogpost. I feel quite
> identified.
>
> I also host my email and, moreover, I'm lazy to set up the ssl for all
> that. That's enough headache, and I also have to use a third-party MTA to
> be trusted, etc. And all the colleagues use email.
>
> But this means that I often face this situation: what is more important:
> to run free software, or to have likely-private (but I can't check)
> communications with my colleagues?
>
> I choose the free software, when I am faced with that question. And I get
> into that question quite often.
>
> On Mon, Feb 06, 2017 at 12:35:38PM +0100, Alberto Cammozzo wrote:
>> As Moxie Marlinspike put it: "cannibalizing a federated
>> application-layer protocol into a centralized service is almost a sure
>> recipe for a successful consumer product today."
>> Successful, but short-sighted. No federated or even interoperable
>> infrastructure will likely emerge from here.
>>
>> If e-mail system was to be built today, we would have one for Facebook,
>> one for Google, one for Apple...
>> All of them proprietary and probably non-interoperable: you would need
>> at least four accounts to talk to everybody.
>>
>> Our current Web-centered communication ecosystem is similar to the
>> balkanized pre-Internet: Bitnet, SNA, DECNET, Fidonet, OSI X.400, uucp...
>> IBM, Digital and others were then profitably competing over a
>> communication infrastructure and had no interest in cooperating to build
>> a federated one.
>> This impasse ended with government-funded TCP/IP: it was suitable,
>> simple, free, open. It won quickly (but ICT users were literate then).
>> What was the return on investment? On the immediate, zero.
>> On the long period? Huge. ROI was systemic.
>>
>> We are in a similar market failure condition: "centralized" dominant
>> companies won't drop profitable business, and "decentralized" startups
>> wont get zero-ROI funding.
>> Business can go an for a while in this ecosystem (where most users don't
>> care of the architecture).
>> It makes rather sense that governments, or non-profits or crowdfunded
>> initiatives sponsor systemic infrastructures upon which business can
>> evolve and competition thrive (as it makes sense that governments break
>> monopolies, too).
>> The EU should be a good candidate, only if it was rational about
>> competition.
>>
>> Bests,
>> Alberto
>>
>> [1] <https://whispersystems.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Alberto Cammozzo
>> http://tagmenot.info
>> @dontTag
>>
>>
>>
>> On 05/02/2017 21:17, Yosem Companys wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> One of the problems may decentralized startups are confronting in
>>> Silicon Valley is that venture capitalists are telling them that they
>>> need to be centralized because there is no business model in
>>> decentralization. 
>>>
>>> For an example, think Diaspora: The original vision of Diaspora was a
>>> social network where each person could have his or her own node in the
>>> network and connect to others to share data similar to how Napster
>>> connected people to download music. But the data would live in your
>>> machine, not Facebook's.
>>>
>>> Can anyone think of decentralized business models that are profitable
>>> so folks on this list who are struggling with pitching
>>> decentralization as a business model can succeed?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Yosem
>>>
>>>
>>
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