[HacktionLab] FLOSS4P2P: distributed FLOSS for communities (London, March)

Sun Feb 22 20:51:20 UTC 2015

*FLOSS4P2P: Call for Participation*

A 2-day London workshop in March, gathering *FLOSS projects* that are
building software for *peer production and organization*, with a focus
on *distributed* platforms. *Scholarships*to attend are offered to
grassroots communities.

** Context **

We know that the Internet was originally decentralized, with protocols
and services built by hackers. However, with the arrival of the
celebrated Web 2.0, centralization andcorporations proprietary
platformsseem to have taken over. Moreover, this centralized structure
is used by governments to increase surveillance (following Snowden’s
revelations), to blackout internet whenever it is needed (e.g. Egypt,
Syria, or San Francisco’s BART) or to choke annoying activist
organizations (such as Wikileaks).

On the other hand, in the last few years we have seen the emergence of
Internet-enabled collaborative communities building shared libre/open
resources. Commons-based Peer to Peer Production(CBPP) is rapidly
growing: not just for software and encyclopedias, but also for
information (OpenStreetMap, Wikihow), hardware (FabLabs, Open Source
Ecology), accommodation (Couchsurfing) and currency (Bitcoin, Altcoins).

In the last few years, it has become clear to many that it is not enough
to develop free/libre/open source (FLOSS) alternatives, but we also need
to re-decentralize the Internet. Many initiatives are being undertaken
under this premise (e.g. Ethereum, Diaspora, OwnCloud, MediaGoblin,
Sandstorm). These new software tools may also be useful to boost CBPP
communities further. In this workshop, we will gather those working
around the decentralized FLOSS that could help CBPP/P2P communities.
Hackers, academics, activists and interested stakeholders are welcome.

**When**

March 16-17th 2015

**Where**

Fab Lab London

http://fablablondon.org <http://fablablondon.org/> 

**Call for Proposals**

We welcome proposals for:

  *

    Lightning talks(2m-5m): summarise your idea & receive feedback

  *

    Show & Tell presentations(20m): explain your project/tech/research

  *

    Tutorialson software tools (1h)

Please email: lu.yang at surrey.ac.uk <mailto:lu.yang at surrey.ac.uk> with
your idea/proposals.

The workshop will have both presentationsand unconference-style
participatory dynamics for finding points of collaboration and
extraction of conclusions.

** Topics **

  *

    Focus on FLOSS software with some of the following features:

      o

        Social: communication

          +

            e.g. social-networking, microblogging, reworked email

      o

        Social: collaboration

          +

            e.g. wikis, pads, wave, shared file hosting, multimedia
            repositories

      o

        Alternative to proprietary choices

      o

        Federated / Distributed / Interoperable

      o

        Open Standards

      o

        Secure / Encrypted

      o

        Encouraging Peer Production communities

      o

        Encouraging the construction/maintenance of Commons

  *

    Potential cases for discussion:

      o

        Diaspora (federated social network)

      o

        Wave (federated real-time collaboration)

      o

        Lorea (federated social network)

      o

        DarkWallet (distributed wallet & social network)

      o

        Ethereum (P2P infrastructure)

      o

        MaidSafe (P2P infrastructure)

      o

        Sandstorm.io (facilitates federated sw)

      o

        Mailpile (encripted email)

      o

        MediaGoblin (federated multimedia repository)

      o

        OwnCloud (file hosting)

      o

        … (your case)

**Scholarships**

There are a few scholarships for potential participants who wish to
attend the event. The scholarship will cover participant’s travel and
subsistence cost, up to €400. If you are interested in applying for the
scholarship, please email: lu.yang at surrey.ac.uk
<mailto:lu.yang at surrey.ac.uk> before 28 February 2015, with a paragraph
stating why you think your FLOSS is relevant, plus a short bio. Priority
will be given to those with low resources, innovative FLOSS within the
topics of the call, and being a grassroot community.

** More **