This is a specialization of our general Technology section, focusing more explicitly on the 'true internet' or distributed P2P infrastructures.

This documentation project is related to the ContactCon conference to be held on October 20, 2010 in NYC.

Main overview page, i.e. the Autonomous Internet Road Map is maintained by Robert Steele.

Introductory Resources:

• On the overall perspective of the P2P Foundation: What Digital Commoners Need To Do, a meditation on the strategic phases in the construction of a peer to peer world And please help us improve our definition of what a true P2P Infrastructure should be: Defining True P2P Infrastructures
• Mark Pesce: Four Design Principles for True P2P Networks
• Gordon Cook on the Fragility of the Current Internet
• Programmatic Statement for the creation of a world-wide user-controlled network based on a distributed architecture, by Raffael Kéménczy
• Discussion via Google Group: Building a Distributed Decentralized Internet

Some curated content from the discussions can be found here:

P2P Infrastructure - Discussions

P2P Infrastructure - Questions and Answers

Citations

Smari McCarthy:

"Freedom requires infrastructure.

A man who has no tools to acquire his necessities of life is a slave to his necessities. Given those tools, he becomes a slave to the labour required to fruitfully use them. Only by transcending each difficulty as it comes, in a process not dissimilar to metasystem transitions, can the individual achieve freedom.

Similarly, if at any point the individual becomes removed from the infrastructure that allows him any of the previous metasystem transitions, then he becomes a slave to those who control that infrastructure." (FCF Discussion, February 2011)

Mayo Fuster:

"Imagine "change" not as a chain of steps (one after another, as the chain of production), but think of change as an an eco-system of spheres where there is not starting point but spheres that interact and depend one to the other. As production goes from a chain of production to the eco-systemic forms of online creation communities or peer production, the same happen to the change of the system. I think we have to be open to the idea of starting the change from the diverse spheres and see how they affect to each other, instead of trying to draft first a starting line. Furthermore, the tools have ambivalences, they open possibilities of freedom at a time that they open possibilities of control and exploitation. Dealing with that ambivalence is very difficult (there is not right fix solutions one for all situations; which it is a pity, because it would be easier just to believe fervently in a solution and stick to it centuries after centuries); but I think it would be a mistake to loose the opportunities of entering in to the eco-system of change though finding a way in the ambivalence. We need to learn to put the ambivalence in the side of the principles we defend, more than searching situations in which there is not." (FCF Discussion, February 2011)

Introduction

Projects we find worthty of support:

1. We Rebuild is a cluster of net activists who have joined forces to collaborate on issues concerning access to a free internet without intrusive surveillance [1]
2. Open Source Mesh Networking projects monitored by Open Source Mesh
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."

Projects to decentralize/distribute the internet:

1. Appleseed [2] - distributed social network
2. Bitcoin, a decentralized internet currency.
3. Diaspora will hopefully be a social networking community where users can run their own federated “pods”, thus owning their personal data and directly controlling what is shared with who.
4. The Dot-P2P Project, an alternative DNS hierarchy that resists censorship.
5. The Freedom Box initiated by Eben Moglen and the Freedom Box Foundation: independent plug-in server
6. Freenet: "the first decentralized scalable P2P network, and the first to apply a P2P approach to Internet anonymity. Freenet is probably the highest-profile decentralized anonymous p2p network. Freenet is also the only anonymous P2P system that can operate as a "Darknet"."
7. GNUnet is a framework for secure peer-to-peer networking that does not use any centralized or otherwise trusted services
8. GNU Social [3]
9. LittleShoot is a new web-based p2p file sharing site founded by one of the creators of LimeWire that could live up to its pedigree
10. Lorea [4] - distributed social networks, already running on 10 networks
11. One Social Web [5] - distributed social network using xmpp
12. One Swarm [6]- F2F (friend2friend) P2P sharing; a new peer-to-peer tool that provides users with explicit control over their privacy by letting them determine how data is shared
13. Open BTS: working on a new kind of cellular network that can be installed and operated at about 1/10 the cost of current technologies, but that will still be compatible with most of the handsets that are already in the market.
14. Open Media Vault [7]
15. Open-Mesh [8], Open Mesh is different from other efforts to build local networks in that their direction is not the connection between different nodes separated by larger distance but the extension of existing internet coverage inside buildings, and between adjacent structures.
16. OpenMesh Project, different from above
17. Open Moko, A project to create a 'free' or open source Open Mobile Telephony platform.
18. Open PGP encryption is based on self-issued certificates which gain authority as a result of a web of trust expressed via user- maintained keyrings rather than a hierarchical certificate authority system that can be centrally compromised.
19. Open Storage Pod, [9] open hardware project, small cubes to store terabytes
20. Open WRT [10]- GNU/Linux based free firmware for gateways and routers.
21. Osiris, serverless portal system
22. Own Cloud, data storage project from the wider KDE community
23. PageKite [11]: a very pragmatic attempt to enable more p2p-like behavior on the WWW by making it really easy for people to run publicly visible HTTP (or HTTPS) servers from personal and/or mobile devices.
24. Pirate Box [12] is a self-contained mobile collaboration and file sharing device. Simply turn it on to transform any space into a free and open file sharing network.
25. Plexus [13]: "Plexus is a protocol for the social web, ‘plumbing’ that allows all social web components to communicate: from each, according to their ability, to each, according to their need"
26. Retro Share [14] - secure communications with friends
27. Seeks Project [15] - "social websearch"
28. Sovereign Computing Group [16] - similar project to Freedom Box, with a very interesting Manifesto.
29. Sparkle Share, [17] open source 'dropbox' replacement
30. Status.Net is a microblogging system that allows users to run their own Twitter-like site and federate selected streams with other systems.
31. The Tahoe Least-Authority File System, a highly fault-tolerant, secure internet filesystem.
32. Tonido, same capability as the Freedom Box?
33. The Tor Project, an anonymizing overlay network.
34. Unhosted: "Unhosted is a project for strengthening free software against hosted software. With our protocol, a website is only source code. Dynamic data is encrypted and decentralised, to per-user storage nodes. This benefits free software, as well as scalability, robustness, and online privacy."
35. YaCy is a search engine where many nodes share information to build a distributed index.

Technologies by Layer

The OSI Model

"The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a product of the Open Systems Interconnection effort at the International Organization for Standardization. It is a way of sub-dividing a communications system into smaller parts called layers. A layer is a collection of similar functions that provide services to the layer above it and receives services from the layer below it. On each layer, an instance provides services to the instances at the layer above and requests service from the layer below."

"Some orthogonal aspects, such as management and security, involve every layer." ^[1]

Application Layer

The question is: how will existing and future p2p software run and work on the distributed internet? Some of it may work with little or no change. Some may need to have an interface to work with multiple internet(s).

Software for Distributed Use of Software Resources

1. eBrainPool enables software and computing as a shared resource.

Software for Distributing Use of Hardware Resources

• Gearman http://gearman.org/ "Gearman provides a generic application framework to farm out work to other machines or processes that are better suited to do the work. It allows you to do work in parallel, to load balance processing, and to call functions between languages. It can be used in a variety of applications, from high-availability web sites to the transport of database replication events. In other words, it is the nervous system for how distributed processing communicates."
• MogileFS http://www.danga.com/mogilefs/ "MogileFS is our open source distributed filesystem." Runs mostly on Linux at this time.
• Memcached http://memcached.org/ "Free & open source, high-performance, distributed memory object caching system, generic in nature, but intended for use in speeding up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load. Memcached is an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) from results of database calls, API calls, or page rendering."

Software for distributed archiving of scientific and other data

• iRODS https://www.irods.org/index.php/IRODS:Data_Grids,_Digital_Libraries,_Persistent_Archives,_and_Real-time_Data_Systems "the Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System, is a data grid software system developed by the Data Intensive Cyber Environments research group (developers of the SRB, the Storage Resource Broker), and collaborators. The iRODS system is based on expertise gained through a decade of applying the SRB technology in support of Data Grids, Digital Libraries, Persistent Archives, and Real-time Data Systems. iRODS management policies (sets of assertions these communities make about their digital collections) are characterized in iRODS Rules and state information. At the iRODS core, a Rule Engine interprets the Rules to decide how the system is to respond to various requests and conditions. iRODS is open source under a BSD license."

DNS

• The Dot-P2P Project, an alternative DNS hierarchy that resists censorship.

1. PageKite [18]: a very pragmatic attempt to enable more p2p-like behavior on the WWW by making it really easy for people to run publicly visible HTTP (or HTTPS) servers from personal and/or mobile devices.

Presentation Layer

Session Layer

Transport Layer

• Project CCNx, replacing named hosts with named content as the primary abstraction; the aim is to replace TCP/IP as protocol to make the internet less carrier-dependent

[19]. See Content-Centric Networking

Network Layer

Data Link Layer

Physical Layer

Cross-Layer Functions

Distributed Technologies by Sector

Anonimity and Censorship Circumvention

1. FreeGate
2. Freenet: "the first decentralized scalable P2P network, and the first to apply a P2P approach to Internet anonymity. Freenet is probably the highest-profile decentralized anonymous p2p network. Freenet is also the only anonymous P2P system that can operate as a "Darknet"."
3. Tonika is an administration-free platform for large-scale open-membership (social) networks with robust security, anonymity, resilience and performance guarantees.
4. Tor: Anonymizer Sites & Services: "there are two general types: networked and single-point. There is one known networked anonymizer called EFF Tor, highly recommended"
5. UltraSurf

P2P Currencies

1. Bitcoin, a decentralized internet currency.

P2P Filesharing and Storage

1. LittleShoot is a new web-based p2p file sharing site founded by one of the creators of LimeWire that could live up to its pedigree
2. Open Storage Pod, [20] open hardware project, small cubes to store terabytes
3. Own Cloud, data storage project from the wider KDE community
4. The Tahoe Least-Authority File System, a highly fault-tolerant, secure internet filesystem.
5. Unhosted: "Unhosted is a project for strengthening free software against hosted software. With our protocol, a website is only source code. Dynamic data is encrypted and decentralised, to per-user storage nodes. This benefits free software, as well as scalability, robustness, and online privacy."

P2P Hardware

1. The Freedom Box initiated by Eben Moglen and the Freedom Box Foundation: independent plug-in server
2. Sovereign Computing Group [21] - similar project to Freedom Box, with a very interesting Manifesto.
3. The Mesh Potato, an Open Source, Open Hardware Wifi mesh access point with built-in ATA, part of the Village Telco
4. Tonido is a peer-to-peer personal web platform that helps users to access, share, sync important files, favorite photos, music and media with friends and family without relying on third party public online services. As FreedomBox, TonidoPlug is based on debian derivative Ubuntu OS and powered by Tonido platform. It can do all the things that are promised by FreedomBox already - P2P Backup, P2P messaging, P2P Collaboration, File & Music sharing and much more.

P2P Network Computing

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. Decentralized P2P software programs are monitored and indexed here; Flud maintains a list of Distributed Internet-based Backup Systemssuch as Tahoe

P2P Power Grid

1. SolarNetOne [22] :providing public and private Internet access and related services to areas that do not have the benefit of a reliable power or communications grid.

P2P Social Networks

1. Appleseed [23] - distributed social network
2. Diaspora will hopefully be a social networking community where users can run their own federated “pods”, thus owning their personal data and directly controlling what is shared with who.
3. GNUnet is a framework for secure peer-to-peer networking that does not use any centralized or otherwise trusted services
4. GNU Social [24]
5. Lorea [25] - distributed social networks, already running on 10 networks
6. One Social Web [26] - distributed social network using xmpp
7. One Swarm [27]- F2F (friend2friend) P2P sharing; a new peer-to-peer tool that provides users with explicit control over their privacy by letting them determine how data is shared
8. Plexus [28]: "Plexus is a protocol for the social web, ‘plumbing’ that allows all social web components to communicate: from each, according to their ability, to each, according to their need"
9. W3C Federated Social Web Incubator Group [29] : "to provide a set of community-driven specifications and a test-case suite for a federated social web."
10. List of projects interested in incorporating technologies related to Federated Social Web

P2P Searching

1. List of Distributed Search Engines; [30]
2. Seeks Project [31] - "social websearch"
3. YaCy is a search engine where many nodes share information to build a distributed index.

P2P Virtual Worlds

1. Open Cobalt is an open-source platform for building and sharing virtual worlds, like an open-source Second Life. It is designed to run without a centralized server.
2. Peer to Peer Virtual Worlds: VastPark, Solipsis, Vast; see also: Multiverse

P2P Wireless Meshworks and Telephony

1. Aidphone Flybox - box with inmarsat terminal, wifi access point, and GSM basestation to provide internet & mobile phone service to indy journalistsin crisis situations
2. Mesh Potato: a new device for providing low-cost telephony and Internet in areas where alternative access either doesn’t exist or is too expensive.
3. Open BSC: [32] OpenBSC is a GSM network in a box software, implementing the minimal necessary parts to build a small, self-contained GSM network.
4. Open BTS: OpenBTS is an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface ("Um") to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk® software PBX to connect calls. The combination of the ubiquitous GSM air interface with VoIP backhaul could form the basis of a new type of cellular network that could be deployed and operated at substantially lower cost than existing technologies in greenfields in the developing world.
5. Open-Mesh [33], Open Mesh is different from other efforts to build local networks in that their direction is not the connection between different nodes separated by larger distance but the extension of existing internet coverage inside buildings, and between adjacent structures.
6. OpenMesh Project: global project born after the Egyptian blackout
7. Pirate Box [34] is a self-contained mobile collaboration and file sharing device. Simply turn it on to transform any space into a free and open file sharing network.
8. Ronja [35] - wireless networking device with range of 1.4km & communication speed of 10Mbps full duplex
9. ROBIN [36] - open source mesh firmware that can technically run on any device that support Open WRT. ROBIN networks can be managed centrally through the use of dashboards like Surreal (http://surrealwifi.com) and Robin-Dash. forums here: http://robin.forumup.it/
10. Serval [37] ; the only working mesh solution that uses off the shelf phones and off the shelf unlicensed spectrum and existing phone numbers, and can work with absolutely no infrastructure.

Local projects:

1. FLO Farm, Pennsylvania [38]
2. Grinnell, Iowa - [39]; the Free Network Movement is building a mesh network for the community
3. WasabiNet, working to provide low-cost Mesh Wifi to the Benton Park West neighborhood in St. Louis, MO!

Miscellaneous

Please help us create entries for the following:

1. http://protonet.info/

Resources

Key Articles

General Infrastructure

1. Peer-to-Peer Systems. By Rodrigo Rodrigues, Peter Druschel. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 53 No. 10, Pages 72-82 [40]: overview of one decade of deployment
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. P2P and the Social Cloud. Rafael Pezzi: Part 1 and Part 2: programmatic statement on a truly open and non-proprietary internet infrastructure

How-to:

1. Key tools for internet-enabled revolutions

Broadband

1. Telecommunication expert Gordon Cook asks: Is Bandwidth Infinite?
2. Various strategies to achieve Free Fiber to the home

Free Software Infrastructure

1. Understanding Free Software, Open Source Software and Floss, thanks to this booklet

P2P Network Computing

1. Peer-to-Peer Networks as a Distribution and Publishing Model: the best introduction to the advantages of P2P Computing!

Secure Communications

1. FLOSS Manual for Circumvention Tools‎ ; Bypassing Internet Censorship. [41]
2. Guide to Mobile Security for Citizen Journalists‎; [42]
3. EPIC Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools‎ [43]
4. Anonymous Blogging with WordPress and Tor‎ [44]
5. Security in a Box‎
6. Quick Guide to Secure Communication‎ [45]
7. Everyone's Guide to Bypassing Internet Censorship‎

Wireless Meshworks

1. How To Set Up An Open Mesh Network in Your Neighborhood. By Paul Davis.
2. Wireless Networks as Techno-social Models. By Armin Medosch.
3. Wireless Networking for the Developing World- a free book about designing, implementing, and maintaining low-cost wireless networks.

Key Books

• Internet Architecture and Innovation. Barbara van Schewick. MIT Press, 2010

Key Directories

1. Complete list of P2P Filesharing programs with comparative notes. + A list of free and open source filesharing systems
2. High Priority Free Software Projects: "The FSF high-priority projects list serves to foster the development of projects
3. Find Open Source Alternatives to commercial software in the OSALT directory
4. Top 100 Open Source Linux Applications
5. Open Source Living: guide to the best freely available open source software on the web
6. List of Wireless Community Networks Worldwide
7. Open Source Mesh Networking projects monitored by Open Source Mesh

To be refactored into this page

• http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=554 The idea is to write a how-to on building mesh networks. The n00bs must understand it. Mesh networks are usefull, as they cannot be censored nor shut down.

Later on that How-to can become part of Anonymous' uber-secret handbook regarding safety. Version 0.2.0, a downloadable .pdf, can be found there http://goo.gl/SuY0f .

References