[Mesh] Fwd: [FNF] april is the sweetest month

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Update from Isaac at the Free Network Foundation. Isaac spoke with Eben Moglen & Richard Stallman about the Network Commons License and Free Network Definition: - -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [FNF] april is the sweetest month Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2014 00:03:36 -0500 From: Isaac Wilder <isaac(a)freenetworkmovement.org> Reply-To: FNF General Discussion <discuss(a)lists.thefnf.org> To: discuss(a)lists.thefnf.org growing networks out of the bluesky rising... It's build season everybody!!! Apologies and apologies for the lack of updates. Much has happened. I believe that the last time I sent a proper update was week before last, before LibrePlanet. Let's start from there. We had what I think were hugely productive discussions are the NCL. Huge thanks to Mitar for doing lots of the leg work to bring people together, and for his persistent insight and passion. I been trying to let some of those ideas that we talked about percolate, and definitely the discussions are still ongoing. I guess the big one that I came away with was an approach to the 'peer-alike' problem. That is to say, we need some way to 'weaponize' network freedom in the way that the GPL weaponized software freedom. Of course, utility and network effects are very different between multiplexed telecoms systems and information goods. That is to say, we can't just say 'anything that touches a free network must be a free network' in the way that free software does. We need to peer with the big proprietary networks in order for our networks to be seen a useful in the interim. We were puzzling on this, throw around ideas that we could prioritize service for free peers, or not allow outside proprietary networks to connect to one another through free networks (need to avoid tragedy of commons) -- but there were/are major problems with all of these ideas. What we arrived at eventually was the idea that all traffic should be treated the same (QoE optimization notwithstanding), with one difference. Non-free peers that wish to use a free network for transit *may* be asked to pay for that transit. Free peers won't. This raises questions such as: where would transit revenues go? Who would manage them? etc..., but it does seem to have the makings of a good first approach to the peering section of the NCL base. Of course, radical networks could simply add a hard-line peer-alike clause. Beyond that, had wonderful conversations with both Eben Moglen and Richard Stallman, not to mention many many others. Mitar and I sat and talked with Eben for some time. We didn't get into the nitty gritties of the NCL, but we did talk about the broad stroke. He had very valuable feedback. For instance, it is probably better not to frame it as a license, as this implies some rights which must be waived. It's better, perhaps, to base it in contract law than in property law, as it has a better basis for international enforcement. What do folks think about going back to calling it the 'Free Network Compact'? Is it too American? Eben also had much to say about the politics and economics of the current situation, and was interested to hear a report from the front. He'd like for me to prepare some field notes for presentation to one of his classes in the fall. rms and I had dinner, and he gave me some notes on the Free Network Definition. Much as it pains me (because of how much care we put in to crafting the language), I think he was right in saying that the definition is unclear unless you already know what it's saying. This problem could probably be fixed by exploding out each item, as Matt suggested early on, or by fleshing out the meaning through paragraph/narrative form examples. I'm really not sure which would be better, but I know that we need to do one or both. Other than that, got to see some old friends, and bought an awesome 'RUN GCC' shirt (in the style of RUN DMC). Since I've been back, it's been all about building. We installed about 5 miles worth of new links (consisting of four separate links), finally bringing Juniper Gardens onto KCFN proper. The access mesh is loving the low latency. We got to use the newly available UNII-1 frequencies, and also got experience operating a hydraulic lift/bucket truck, which was a pretty cool experience. All in all the new links are working better than expected. That said, we really need to put in a proper router at Posada. I've asked Chris to build one from an older mini tower PC, and it should be ready to go shortly. Also, the UNI/CFG/FNF grant application to the Community Capital Fund went in on Monday. We should hear in the next month or so. Yesterday I spent all day in the colo, rebuilding and improving our secondary storage server. Moved root fs from raid 1 of thumb drives to raid one of ssd's, added a new 1TB mirror to the main storage pool, and expanded capacity of read/write caches. Met with Joe today, and came up with a plan for getting out of Oak Tower (his lease is up at end of August), we are going to build a tower on top of his new facility east of downtown. And last but not least, finished the mutha-fudging floors in my house last weeked (finished finishing, I should say). As of today, they are fully cured, and we can finally live in this house, instead of squatting in it like some crazies! :-) imw !DSPAM:533e3da0167748214931491!