Apache BennuAn attempt to make the Apache Software

Foundation even more social and free

1Saturday, July 16, 11

The Issue

Soon after Google+ has been announced I figured that it was rushing through the various Apache Software Foundation (ASF) channels like a tsunami and everybody started to offer Google+ invitations some with the intend to have Apache-related hangouts on Google+ instead of having them on the already existing and free ASF-blessed communication channels. Below you'll find my personal opinion about Google+ and why it should NOT be used for Apache-related stuff such as community building which hangouts certainly are.

2Saturday, July 16, 11

The Issue (continued)As a remark, I'd like to add that there are people like me who simply refuse to get a Google+ account cause it's the N-th social network I would have to maintain (those who know me really well know how thoroughly I tend to maintain my internet presence) and cause I don't want to give Google a 3rd chance to finally be successful with an attempt to get a share in the social network market. Additionally Google+ is another hog who accumulates your data, analyzes it and redistributes it and thus makes you depend on Google+ instead of heaving freedom over what really happens with your data. To get the idea behind that argument please refer to one of Eben Moglen's [0] speeches on this very subject [1].

3Saturday, July 16, 11

The SolutionInstead the ASF should provide it's own implementation of Eben Moglen's vision he had with the FreedomBox [2], ready-made to support the apache "blessed" communication channels and there should be a financial aid program for those not having free or easy access to the internet and especially to such hardware devices similar to the ApacheCon travel assistance program [3] that would allow people to get a hold of such a hardware device. If an Apache committer requests such a device (or alternatively a software image to be provisioned to such a device) it maybe could even be personalized with an Apache UID to get her started working as an Apache community member more easily.

4Saturday, July 16, 11

The Solution (continued)Additionally to be ready-made to support the official ASF communication channels the Apache FreedomBox could provide added value such as a distributed self-hosted social network, an IP phone capability and a mash-routing [6] capability in support of those ASF peeps living in locations where it is difficult to get a reliable internet conection (or where the government in charge has a certain tendency to shut down the internet out of a sudden to control and maintain civil order as they call it). Finally the Apache FreedomBox would unobtrusively augment the centrally deployed ASF infrastructure with the services it provides (e.g. it could provide a one- or even two way Subversion [7] to Git [8] bridge).

5Saturday, July 16, 11

We make a difference!

Look we really could live without dinosaurs such as Google and the like if we all stand up and try to make a difference and I think I proofed that with my idea - i.e. the proof is that we are *NOT* like lemmings who need to follow each hype instead we certainly do have the power as a community that stands together to make the world a better place to live in. What you might as well have noted is the fact that the aforementioned described idea is providing a self-contained ready-made solution and not another piece of software that without being configured and so on behaves like a digital brick on your hard drive.

6Saturday, July 16, 11

The Vision

The Apache FreedomBox or Apache Bennu as I would like to call it from now on would not only give everybody at the ASF the possibility to maintain her digital identity it would in fact give everybody at the ASF a completely new identity based on freedom rather than based on being dependent on somebody else's infrastructure.

7Saturday, July 16, 11

Resources[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eben_Moglen

[1] http://www.internetevolution.com/video.asp?section_id=1361&doc_id=207273

[2] http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox

[3] http://www.apache.org/travel/

[4] http://youtu.be/QOEMv0S8AcA - An Eben Moglen speech supposed to be the original inspiration for creating Diaspora

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(software)

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)

8Saturday, July 16, 11