[HacktionLab] FYI: The Global Square
Charlie Harvey
charlie at newint.org
Fri Feb 17 13:28:20 UTC 2012
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Hi hacktionlab,
Might be of interest to some folk on this list; a p2p decentralized
social network for activists. If you can get round the buzzwords it
sounds quite cool.
Cheers,
==
TheGlobalSquare
A project to perpetuate the creative and cooperative spirit
of the occupations and transform them into lasting forms of
social organization.
call 4 coders
*TheGlobalSquare
<http://46.183.217.125/gs/wiki/wiki/index.php/Main_Page> aims to
be the first massive decentralized social network in the history
of the Internet. We are aware of the difficulties we must
overcome, but we believe the Internet Community has reached a
point where such an initiative is possible. It is possible because
we are more united; censorship and repression have created
stronger bonds between those who care about freedom and the free
flow of information. How can we achieve this goal? *
*Structure: Organizing humanity in a single collective*
The Global Square is to be an easy to use social and work platform
for individuals and groups. One of the main goals is that it
should have very low barriers of entry for inexperienced users,
making it as easy as possible for them to contribute work,
interact and use the various tools at their disposal. Another goal
is that the Global Square be expandable to allow global
coordinated and efficient work in every system. TheGlobalSquare
recognizes the principles <http://wlcentral.org/node/2445> of
personal privacy as a basic right of individuals and transparency
to all users as an obligation for public systems.
The Global Square is not exclusively for activists. While it will
assist activists with the correct tools and virtual meeting areas,
it will also be available to the global community. Although the
structure is designed for organization and coordination of
personal relationships, assemblies and action, the platform is
also conceived for independent work systems, movements struggling
for civil causes and more. As systems are added that encompass
more aspects of daily life and political topics of wide interest,
experts and users from all walks of life will be able to use the
Global Square to discuss, create and learn. A first example of
this is the News Commons, which will be a source of verified,
crowd sourced and peer reviewed news on all topics. Other early
basic systems to be created on the Global Square are the Global
Market for establishing new methods of exchange and the
Renaissance and Evolution Forums for testing principles for
governance and law. Future systems could include topics such as
communications, healing, food, arts, sports, sciences, trade,
housing, and energy.
This is an open community where everyone is welcome. It is
peer-to-peer, horizontal and non-hierarchical. This is a space
where coders, designers, itechs, artists, activists and
philosophers are invited to collaborate together. We believe it is
necessary to concentrate and focus our energy, so if you are
already in a group planning something similar or with the same
objectives please participate to enrich both projects.
*P2P based*
With the support of Delft University of Technology
<http://www.tudelft.nl/>, TheGlobalSquare will mainly be developed
based on the existing peer to peer technology provided by the
renowned file sharing software Tribler
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribler>. Tribler is a project
focused on decentralized social networks with years of expertise
in peer-to-peer communication. By using this particular existing
P2P technology it becomes virtually impossible to break or censor
our network. The content files are not centralized in any physical
server, so the network belongs to its users - a basic principle of
participatory democracy applied to the on-line space. It
encourages input from users from countries with censorship and
blocking; with an 'unblockable' space to share all kinds of
information and work collaboratively. It has been proven that WEB,
as we know it, each day is more closed and subject to arbitrary
and illegal blocking. A step beyond it is more than needed.
*Open system*
TheGlobalSquare will include authentication mechanisms, relational
schema and communication protocols. Authentication and
communications are up to whoever implements this specification to
build a system. That will allow a project to be /"TheGlobalSquare
compatible"/ while supporting semantic data, currently visualized
as RDF. The RDF vocabularies we develop to represent meaning and
relationship are the common thread that enable uniting a variety
of platforms. Any network is the sum of the technology supporting
it as well as the actual connections made between individuals and
groups within it. To succeed, we must be able to both leverage
whatever currently exists as well as develop anything needed to
build bridges between systems and people. There will be a blend of
network protocols, web services, data stores, P2P clients etc.
Tools for people across the planet to meet, share ideas and
develop proposals must enable coordinated, effective, global
action. TheGlobalSquare system will provide a unified way to
manage communications between people within a radically
heterogeneous vocabulary system.
*Approach *
Build something, get a real-world community to use it, and ask how
we can improve it. Instead of detailing the design out from zero,
we propose to build software and incrementally improve it. This
requires a designed-for-evolution type of modern software
engineering approach. Our goal is to have a functional prototype
by March 2012. The Global Square will be a featured project at the
Berlin Bienale from April 27, 2012 until July 1, 2012. To have
something working in March, we need to be modest. We will start
with a simple PC app. The first feature to create is an
operational skeleton for an attack resilient social network: Users
can add friends and send them messages in private. You can also
leave messages on the people's public walls. This first prototype
should already have robust security and use Elyptic Key Crypto to
secure all communication. Each user creates a public key upon
installation. All private messages are encrypted for that person
only. All friendships are initiated using spoofing-free mechanisms.
*Features after the March release*
Using the Agile method we will focus on one feature or module for
a few weeks, conduct tests, do a release and then focus on the
next feature. By releasing in a 6-8 week cycle we can focus on
coding and improvement. A goal is to have a smartphone app later
in the year plus a standalone app with a usable GUI. We will start
with the stand alone PC app, which later can be turned into an
.apk for mobiles. Once the basic prototype is up and running, we
can add features beyond social networking, for instance, Squares,
Task Groups or Events with communication systems. Once that is up
and running the focus could be on "distributed decision making and
voting" and the various Systems such as News Commons.
*The global square needs developers to turn ideas and dreams in
reality!*
For such an effort, we must count on the community of coders and
developers. We are going to use a Tribler kernel based on Python.
We urgently need the help of the community in order to implement
all the features planned for The Global Square. If you have
expertise in Python and P2P protocols you still have time and
opportunity to join our project, a project which will hopefully
change the dynamics of interaction among global society.
Various jobs require a combination of the following:
o /experience witH Free Software project basic operation/
o /Python programming/
o /network protocols, UDP message transfers/
o /cryptography, pub/priv key management/
o /SQLight, performance, transactions/
o /epidemic gossip protocols, for global dissemination of
crypted info/
o /self-organising network programming/
o /GUI in WxWindows/
o /Android developer, mixed .py build chain (for later smart
phone .apk)/
*To join:*
o Take a week to read the Global Square wiki
<http://46.183.217.125/gs/wiki/wiki/index.php/Main_Page> and
the other documents
<http://46.183.217.125/gs/wiki/wiki/index.php/AgileRoadmap> and
understand the existing code.
o Possibly work for a few weeks on prototyping
o Feb - March 2012 availability
o Join the mailinglist:
theglobalsquare at lists.takethesquare.net
<mailto:theglobalsquare at lists.takethesquare.net>
o Introduce yourself :-)
*General-contact: Pedro Noel info at theglobalsquare.org
<mailto:info at theglobalsquare.org> **Press Contact: Heather Marsh
(spokesperson) press at theglobalsquare.org
<mailto:press at theglobalsquare.org>**Developers Contact: Johan
Pouwelse and Ed Knutsion (development coordinators)
dev at theglobalsquare.org <mailto:dev at theglobalsquare.org>*
- --
Charlie Harvey
IT Manager
New Internationalist
t: +44 (0)1865 811402
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w: http://www.newint.org/
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brings to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for
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New Internationalist Publications Ltd. is incorporated in England
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New Internationalist, 55 Rectory Road, Oxford, OX4 1BW, UK
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