This is a place to monitor technological developments, the P2P infrastructure, software issues, technology-enabled cooperation, etc.. Eventually, this section should exhibit the answer to the following question: what are the technical requirements for human emancipation? How to we design and implement an infrastructure that guarantees the participation of all?

Our related Standards section monitors open standards, interoperability, etc...

Above all, never forget: Technology Is Not a Force for Either Liberation or Oppression, as explained by Dale Carrico.

Projects we find worthty of support:

1. Open Source Mesh Networking projects monitored by Open Source Mesh
2. P2P and the Social Cloud. Rafael Pezzi: Part 1 and Part 2: programmatic statement on a truly open and non-proprietary internet infrastructure
3. Various strategies to achieve Free Fiber to the home
4. High Priority Free Software Projects: "The FSF high-priority projects list serves to foster the development of projects that are important for increasing the adoption and use of free software and free software operating systems."
5. Most congruent with our value system is the technical team at Organic Design in New Zealand.
6. If your Internet is filtered and you cannot access to given websites, you may find these tools at Sesawe useful.

Typology

This typology by David Weinberger [1] is actually quite useful in determining basic attitudes towards the internet and technology:

"1. Exceptionalist (E) vs. Ordinarist (O). Exceptionalists believe that the Internet is exceptional, extraordinary, and disruptive, the way, say, the printing press was. Ordinarists believe that the Internet is just another new medium, no more revolutionary than, say, CB radio.

2. Technodeterminist (T) vs. Contextualist (C). Technodeterminists believe that the Net by itself brings about transformations against which it is futile to struggle. Contextualists believe that technology by itself does nothing and changes nothing; other factos determine the effects of technology.

3. Optimist (H) vs. Pessimist (P). Optimists believe that the Net is, or brings about, good things. Pessimists believe otherwise. (Note: Since everyone believes their beliefs are true, everyone thinks they are a realist. When someone actively asserts s/he is a realist, s/he is actually asserting a form of counter-optimism, i.e., pessimism.) (Note: The “H” stands for Happiness or Hope."

Short Citations

All P2P really means is person-to-person: normal folk using web tools - without the annoyance of an institution or mega-corp getting in the way.

- James Cherkoff [2]

"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it"

- Weiser [3]

“Man is a Tool-using Animal. . . . Nowhere do you find him without Tools; without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all.”

- Thomas Carlyle)

One of the key elements of p2p is the end of the distinction between infrastructure and users. Under p2p the users BECOME the infrastructure.

- Paul Hartzog

Long Citations

A truly technological machine is an open one, and the ensemble of open machines presupposes man as permanent organiser, as living interpreter of machines both in themselves and in relation to other machines. Far from being overseer of a gang of slaves, man is the permanent organiser of a society of technical objects which need him as musicians need a conductor... So man's function is to become both coordinator and permanent inventor of the machines around him.

- Simondon, Du mode d'existence des objets techniques (1958) [4]

“I choose to see personal web‐server technology (Opera Unite, Firefox POW, etc) as a breakthrough technology, so people can put their own data into the cloud without paying Flickr or whomever. It is this sort of 'personal technology' I believe will characterize (what we now call) Web 3.0 (and not 3D, or semantic web, etc.). So my dilemma is that, while these technologies are pretty evident today, it is not clear that the people I suspect Pew counts as “the savviest innovators” are looking at them. So I pick “out of the blue” even though (I think) I can see them coming from a mile away.”

– Stephen Downes, National Research Council, Canada [5]

Key Resources

1. For the most fully distributed Peer to Peer Computer Networks at present, please check out Tribler ;Peerple ; Wipeer
2. Research into more fully distributed P2P systems for the future: Chord, CX Project, Farsite, Globe Project, Oceanstore, Pastry
3. Peer to Peer Virtual Worlds: VastPark, Solipsis, Vast; see also: Multiverse
4. Decentralized P2P software programs are monitored and indexed here; Flud maintains a list of Distributed Internet-based Backup Systemssuch as Tahoe
5. Complete list of P2P Filesharing programs with comparative notes. + A list of free and open source filesharing systems
6. Lucas Plan Requirements for Human Technology
7. Tech resources for nonprofits: Social Source Commons, on what softwares nonprofits use; Aspiration Tech - social software 'clearing house'; Tactical Tech - social information design and technology coaching; SF Nonprofit Technology Center - collab office n meeting space for nonprofits and social tech consultants
8. Find Open Source Alternatives to commercial software in the OSALT directory
9. Virtual Private Network sites are ideal to circumvent internet censorship: HotSpot Shield , AlwaysVPN (also for Linux) and Social VPN: Run the installer and they just work with one click every time you get to a blocked website.
10. Anonymizer Sites & Services: "there are two general types: networked and single-point. There is one known networked anonymizer called EFF Tor, highly recommended"
11. Free proxy lists
12. List of Distributed Search Engines; [6]
13. Government and Open Source Software + the 2007 Government Open Source Policies from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, listing the Open Source policies of hundreds of national, state/province/territory and local governments
14. Free Software PDF Readers
15. EPIC Online Guide to Practical Privacy , at http://epic.org/privacy/tools.html

Also:

1. The Organizer's Tool Crib is a participatory directory of online tools and resources for social change activists.
2. Directory of Open Source Alternatives to commercial software (also here.
3. Here is a provisional list of courses related to social technology, which are being updated through this link in Delicious
4. Top 100 Open Source Linux Applications
5. Free Public Proxy Servers Lists
6. Infrastructure for social movements at Rise Up
7. Free groupware: links to collaborative software which can be freely used, copied, studied, modified, and redistributed
8. CircleID is a good source to monitor internet infrastructure developments
9. Tactical Tech helps activist organizations with training, support and tools such as NGO in a Box
10. Open Source Living: guide to the best freely available open source software on the web
11. The Big List of Social Sites includes a directory of social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, and social aggregation sitges.
12. List of collaborative software and ofwiki software compiled by Mark Elliot
13. List of Wireless Community Networks Worldwide

Articles

1. The evolution towards the Giant Social Graph as the next stage of the Web and Web 3.0, bringing together, 1) The Semantic Web, 2) The Social Graph; 3) Social Network Sites; 4) Portable_Social_Networks
2. The Internet Hierarchy of Needs by Vortex DNA
3. From the Document Web, via the Data Web, to the Active Web by John Geldart.
4. The Evolution of the Web: illuminating 10-parter by Yhong Ding.
5. Web 3.0 and the future of the desktop: excellent overview by Nova Spivack.

Also:

1. Peer-to-Peer Networks as a Distribution and Publishing Model: the best introduction to the advantages of P2P Computing!
2. The Rise of the Stupid Network. David Isenberg's classic essay for locating intelligence in the periphery, not the core.
3. End-to-End Arguments in System Design: The best way to design a network is to allow the sender and receiver to decide what the data means, without asking the intervening network to interpret the data.
4. World of Ends: Doc Searls and David Weinberger summarize the key characteristics of the internet.
5. Telecommunication expert Gordon Cook asks: Is Bandwidth Infinite?
6. Overview of the Economic impact of free software
7. The Voice 2.0 Manifesto on the future of telecommunications. By Alec Saunders.

How-To

1. Top Ten methods to access banned websites + Everyone's guide to circumvent internet censorship
2. What's the difference between Internet TV and IP-TV?
3. Understanding Free Software, Open Source Software and Floss, thanks to this booklet
4. How to buy a pre-loaded Linux Computer
5. Tapping into the Matrix: Two-part series on harnessing the idle processing power of distributed machines, by Carlos Justiniano. Part 2
6. How Anonymizers Work
7. How To Communicate Securely in Repressive Environments. Patrick Meier: Core to effective strategic nonviolent action is the need to remain proactive and on the offensive; the rationale being that both the resistance movement and repressive regime have an equal amount of time allocated when the show-down begins. If the movement becomes idle at any point, this may give the regime the opportunity to regain the upper hand, or vice versa.

Getting Help:

1. Appropriate Software Foundation: facilities and tools to develop Free Software supports for civil society processes.
2. Risup Labs: free software for the public good
3. Organizers' Collaborative: a Boston-based organization established in 1999 to promote better use of technology by social change organizations throughout the US. The Organizers' Collaborative is dedicated to advancing social change through the effective use of technology. We are particularly committed to low-cost and no-cost tools created in the spirit of Open Source.

Podcasts on P2P Technology

1. Adam Greenfield on Ubiquitous Computing
2. Bruce Sterling on the Internet of Things
3. Conversation with Ward Cunningham

Webcasts on P2P Technology

Full list at: P2P Videos on Internet Technology

Wikipedia Articles

Collaborative Filtering, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_filtering

Collaborative software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_software

Computer-supported collaboration, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_collaboration

Computer-supported cooperative work, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_supported_cooperative_work

Debian Free Software Guidelines, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_Free_Software_Guidelines

Filesharing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesharing

GNU, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU

GNU General Public License, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License

Grid Computing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing

FLOSS, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOSS

FOSS, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOSS

Free Content, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content

Free software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

Open Source, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

Open Source Initiative, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Initiative

Open Source Definition, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Definition

Open Source software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software

Open Source Software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Software

Peer to Peer (technology), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_to_peer

Point to Point (technology), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-to-Point

Public Domain, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

Recommendation system, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recommendation_system

Reputation, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation

Social software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software

Wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

Wiki software, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_software