Post AS49vFJZbH4Ho8UjFQ by aral@mastodon.ar.al
(DIR) More posts by aral@mastodon.ar.al
(DIR) Post #AS49vFJZbH4Ho8UjFQ by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T10:39:11Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
I’ll probably run out of air before folks get this but, hey, one more time for those in the back:If you’re creating “alternatives to #BigTech” that scale vertically, you’re doing it wrong. You’ll never beat Big Tech at vertical scale. They invented the game. They’ll destroy you at it every time. And say you somehow do manage it… congratulations, you’ve just become *checks notes* Big Tech. *golf claps*So what do you do?You limit vertical scale and #design for horizontal scale.#SmallTech
(DIR) Post #AS49vHMpy6rqAq2Mc4 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T10:42:25Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
What does it mean to design for horizontal scale?It means limiting the growth of individual instances of a service (e.g., number of accounts, etc.) and investing in ensuring that as many different people and organisations can run their own and that they can all talk to one another and interoperate.It means keeping the power relationships between instances as level as possible.Take it to its logical conclusion and you get the #SmallWeb: instances of one.https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/#SmallTech
(DIR) Post #AS4DwKOUbHxnfQZDRQ by KarlHeinzHasliP@climatejustice.social
2023-01-27T10:57:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral Instances of a municipality seem appropriate. Instances of one require grandmas, disabled folx and kids to host their own, so in oder to not exclude them... Municipal services should include instance hosting.
(DIR) Post #AS4DwKziMtjnWrywSW by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T11:21:44Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@KarlHeinzHasliP Municipal services could actually host instances of one. In fact, that’s exactly what we prototyped with the City of Ghent a few years ago :) My tech wasn’t ready then and damn conservatives got into power and gutted our budget but it‘s getting there now.(Instances of one do not have to require technical knowledge to set up or maintain. In fact, that’s basically the problem I’ve dedicated my life to solving at this point, I guess. That’s what Kitten & Domain aim to solve.)
(DIR) Post #AS4E9CfQdjfVT2d0d6 by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T11:17:55Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@alex Further to that, we must stay vigilant to ensure new legislation meant to rein in #BigTech does not end up stimying #SmallTech.
(DIR) Post #AS4KtMu3Vy90G8rlrM by ainmosni@berlin.social
2023-01-27T11:09:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@KarlHeinzHasliP @aral I've actually been thinking about an anarchist model for tech, based on small communities and mutual aid, considering writing a blog post about it soonish.
(DIR) Post #AS4KtNVzEwUA9mc3yy by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T11:22:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ainmosni Please do, I look forward to reading it. #SmallTech is basically anarchist tech.@KarlHeinzHasliP
(DIR) Post #AS4KtO2xGMrBo22OMy by ainmosni@berlin.social
2023-01-27T11:28:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral @KarlHeinzHasliP It is, but from what I've seen, your focus is on individuals, while I want to do a more small community focus.Not that I dislike your work, far from it. :)
(DIR) Post #AS4KtOazDq4xVZxZPk by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T12:17:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ainmosni What makes up small communities? Individuals. How do you model a small community in which individuals retain their sovereignty without modelling individuals with sovereignty first? The reason I start at modelling the individual is because I don’t know how else to design a digital and networked system in which people exist as as people (in other words, with mathematically-inalienable rights that protect the integrity of their personhood).@KarlHeinzHasliP
(DIR) Post #AS4KtP2HaLugsEjMxc by ainmosni@berlin.social
2023-01-27T12:26:12Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral @KarlHeinzHasliP Yeah I know what you mean, but I'm coming from a bit of a different angle. Not everyone can do all the tech stuff, just like not everyone can do any skilled profession. So, instead of every user trying to self host their tech stuff, the more technically inclined can do the tech stuff for their community, while other members take care of other needs. This is how you create small self sufficient communities where people take care of each other via mutual aid.
(DIR) Post #AS4KtPWll0IeOmziTo by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T12:30:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ainmosni But what if it didn’t take technical knowledge to setup or maintain your own place?I see what you’re proposing as (likely very valuable) stopgaps. But stopgaps that are dependent on the benevolence of their own small gods. The small gods might be kinder than the big gods (or not) but they‘re gods nevertheless. If we’re to look beyond stopgaps, I feel we need to design systems without gods. No matter their girth or character.@KarlHeinzHasliP
(DIR) Post #AS4KtQ7zWc4eGEPRUu by teknomunk@apogee.polaris-1.work
2023-01-27T12:54:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
We will be there when setting up a self-hosted server is nearly as easy as signing up for a BigTech service. I would envision it being something like this: previously have purchased a compatible home server, unboxed it and connected it to your LAN and power, go to project page for blog/fediverse/wiki/store front/etc. software you want, click "Sign Up", it redirects to your local server and starts sets up the software locally, asks a few questions (username, etc) and within a few minutes you have it running.
(DIR) Post #AS4KtQi9MAzu4NKJrE by ainmosni@berlin.social
2023-01-27T12:29:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral @KarlHeinzHasliP Hell, if we really want to get audacious, we can even start building our own community-local networks, and then link those with other communities, in some kind of interconnected net of sorts. :)
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek4OEZWXhfV7nQO by heapwolf@fosstodon.org
2023-01-27T12:18:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral The number of people who have the money, time, and expertise to run servers prohibits this from ever reaching critical mass. Check out what’s happening recently in P2P, we just shipped https://sockets.sh, that’s step one. This month we’re open sourcing the P2P libraries that make it possible for users to communicate without servers, even if people are offline. No servers == no landlords.
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek4uUdaLZHYDYhs by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T12:25:19Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@heapwolf All of those can be solved in various ways. Currently, with pre-alpha code and zero investment, you can set up a small web site that is maintenance free in under a minute with zero technical knowledge for less than €10/month. All of those numbers can be improved in the future with investment from the commons but anything beyond that is premature optimisation at the moment.Regarding sockets (congrats on shipping, btw): how do you handle offline messages if not without always on nodes?
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek5KN5N2yZoKE2i by heapwolf@fosstodon.org
2023-01-27T12:41:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral servers are and always will be landlord-tenant oriented, this is antithetical to a free and open internet. I don’t object to commercial ventures but the fundamental stack must be absolutely free and open. No black boxes. No gate keeping. No rent extraction.We designed a packet relay algorithm that was originally intended for partition tolerance, however its design also makes it suitable for *significant* partitions (hundreds of hours at the moment)
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek5m1QZAHxZGJ8q by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T13:01:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@heapwolf Ah, so nodes also act as relays for the system at large (assuming by storing and forwarding end to end encrypted content-addresses packets? So more nodes = more reliable offline support?
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek6IHUcy9ZcM4QK by heapwolf@fosstodon.org
2023-01-27T13:11:56Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral correct, it’s highly nuanced but we have a huge FAQ on the way that includes a lot of maths and models. Even as a (relatively) small network it works nicely already. My whole team can be offline and we still send chats and files reliably. E2E FTW 🙌
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek6pbUjclExwgMa by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T13:19:08Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@heapwolf Best of luck with it :)(What I’m working on takes a much simpler approach. But they’re definitely compatible. And I’d love to see efforts like yours succeed.)🙌
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek7FpvCbkYKDdFg by aral@mastodon.ar.al
2023-01-27T13:24:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@heapwolf Right, actually, sorry, no, scratch that. I thought you were building a community-run thing and I didn’t see any blockchain or venture capital stuff listed on your web site but this changes everything:https://finance.yahoo.com/news/socket-supply-co-announces-3-130000714.htmlHad I realised this was a VC-funded “web3” startup, I wouldn’t have wasted my breath.We’re not working on the same thing at all.I’m actually quite upset with myself for having let my guard down.
(DIR) Post #AS5Ek7jc8UQY2g9PfM by post@qoto.org
2023-01-27T23:20:18Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@aral @heapwolf I’m actually quite upset with myself for having let my guard down.Not entirely your fault: this place has changed a lot since the recent diaspora from Twitter.