With recent revelations of NSA spying on all communications they can get their hands on, it is all the more important for us to build technological solutions like federated social networks, encrypted email etc.
Diaspora is an an important solution to this critical problem facing all of us. But as it is a social network, along with technical part, we need to take it to the masses.
So if you are keen about protecting your privacy, join us in this campaign and lets together plan how far we can take it.
RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Diaspora/Mumbai-IN/1078062/
Also if any of you are interested in technical contributions like packaging diaspora for debian or developing features for diaspora (it is a ruby on rails application), let me know.
Btw, I will be in Mumbai from 9th to 24th Jan and I would like to visit as many campuses as possible to promote free software, free culture, privacy, internet freedom etc. If you have contacts with any schools or colleges, connect with me.
A little about me, I contribute to debian and maintains many ruby libraries needed for diaspora. You can see the current status of diaspora packaging at http://people.debian.org/~praveen/diasbar/
I used to be a Senior System Administrator with Red Hat in Pune. Now I'm just travelling around India promoting digital commons and meeting friends.
4 of my recent campaigns
1. Pirate Cycling https://poddery.com/tags/piratecycling 2. Kids on Computers free software lab setup at Assam https://poddery.com/tags/kocassam 3. Diaspora setup at Acharya Narendra Dev college in Delhi https://poddery.com/tags/andcdiasportal 4. Diaspora Yatra https://poddery.com/tags/diasporayatra http://yatra.diasporafoundation.org
Looking forward to meeting you all.
On 29 December 2013 20:41, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:
Diaspora is an an important solution to this critical problem facing all of us. But as it is a social network, along with technical part, we need to take it to the masses.
So if you are keen about protecting your privacy, join us in this campaign and lets together plan how far we can take it.
One question I have is, if one is keen about protecting one's privacy then the right course of action seems to me is to not participate in (online) social networking at all. So given that the other half of the critical problem (encrypted email) is a solved problem for probably two decades, I don't understand why Diaspora is an "important solution".
Binand
On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 9:04 AM, Binand Sethumadhavan binand@gmail.comwrote:
On 29 December 2013 20:41, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:
Diaspora is an an important solution to this critical problem facing all of us. But as it is a social network, along with technical part, we need to take it to the masses.
So if you are keen about protecting your privacy, join us in this campaign and lets together plan how far we can take it.
One question I have is, if one is keen about protecting one's privacy then the right course of action seems to me is to not participate in (online) social networking at all.
Isn't this similar to plugging out of the Internet only because of it's
negative aspects like spyware, trojans and viruses?
So given that the other half of the critical problem (encrypted email) is a solved problem for probably two decades, I don't understand why Diaspora is an "important solution".
Binand
On 30 December 2013 10:43, Ankit Javalkar ankitjavalkar@gmail.com wrote:
One question I have is, if one is keen about protecting one's privacy then the right course of action seems to me is to not participate in (online) social networking at all.
Isn't this similar to plugging out of the Internet only because of it's
negative aspects like spyware, trojans and viruses?
Is it? I think one can use, enjoy and appreciate all the best Internet has to offer without signing up for social networking. Neither Wikipedia, nor Youtube, nor Gutenberg, nor many of the newspaper, blogs, magazine sites require you to be a social networker. Some might need you to sign up for an account, but a throw-away mailinator email ID works on most that I have seen. Is social networking the only thing possible on Internet?
Also, viruses at least aren't a negative aspect of just the Internet - there have been several that spread via Sneakernet.
Binand
Binand,
In Malayalam there is a saying 'eliye pedichu illam chuduka', which means to burn your house to get rid of the mice. Your suggestion of not using the social media at all is like that, it would definitely work, but are you willing to let go of your house?
You are assuming there is no usefulness to the social media. Probably you are unaware of what is happening around you. It is a powerful and critical tool for political organizing. Even years long dictatorships have been thrown out in the middle east thanks to a huge role played by social media. In oue own country IAC and AAP success owes a large part of its success to social media.
The powerful goverments of the world has no doubt about its power to question their authorities. If you are following the news closely, you would know there is all out attack against private communications.
Diaspora is answer to keeping all the benefits of social media without compromising our privacy.
As for encryption, its use is not widespread. Do you use encryption?
2013/12/30, Binand Sethumadhavan binand@gmail.com:
On 29 December 2013 20:41, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:
Diaspora is an an important solution to this critical problem facing all of us. But as it is a social network, along with technical part, we need to take it to the masses.
So if you are keen about protecting your privacy, join us in this campaign and lets together plan how far we can take it.
One question I have is, if one is keen about protecting one's privacy then the right course of action seems to me is to not participate in (online) social networking at all. So given that the other half of the critical problem (encrypted email) is a solved problem for probably two decades, I don't understand why Diaspora is an "important solution".
Binand
On 30 December 2013 12:40, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:
social media [...] is a powerful and critical tool for political organizing
I wrote out a fairly detailed response, but I eventually realized that what I want to say sums up to this:
A message that goes, "I have this super-private social network for you, use it, find a political cause and organize yourselves" does not seem right to me. IMO, the approach needs to work the other way - build up outrage within the people and then channelize that outrage, using the right online and offline tools.
As for encryption, yes I do. My public key dates from '01, and I have had an email certificate (mostly for professional purposes) for at least 8 years now. Just that I don't find many of my emails worth encrypting. :-)
Binand
2013/12/30 Binand Sethumadhavan binand@gmail.com:
On 30 December 2013 12:40, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:
social media [...] is a powerful and critical tool for political organizing
I wrote out a fairly detailed response, but I eventually realized that what I want to say sums up to this:
A message that goes, "I have this super-private social network for you, use it, find a political cause and organize yourselves" does not seem right to me. IMO, the approach needs to work the other way - build up outrage within the people and then channelize that outrage, using the right online and offline tools.
Well, that has been the way people did things. Where you just depended on the available tools. The time has come where such critical tools can't be trusted with a few corporations only looking for profits.
Watch this talk by Eben https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BSLBvwyUEs
Text https://www.softwarefreedom.org/events/2011/fosdem/moglen-fosdem-keynote.htm...
"Software is what the 21st century is made of. What steel was to the economy of the 20th century, what steel was to the power of the 20th century, what steel was to the politics of the 20th century, software is now. It is the crucial building block, the component out of which everything else is made, and, when I speak of everything else, I mean of course freedom, as well as tyranny, as well as business as usual, as well as spying on everybody for free all the time.
In other words, the very composition of social life, the way it works or doesn’t work for us, the way it works or doesn’t work for those who own, the way it works or doesn’t work for those who oppress, all now depends on software."
You can either wish for the right tools to appear from nowhere or set out to build it yourself. This choice is with everyone.
As for encryption, yes I do. My public key dates from '01, and I have had an email certificate (mostly for professional purposes) for at least 8 years now. Just that I don't find many of my emails worth encrypting. :-)
But how many percentage of your emails are encrypted? If we take a poll in this user group, how many would even know how to encrypt their emails if they need to?
Binand
On 30 December 2013 16:33, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:
You can either wish for the right tools to appear from nowhere or set out to build it yourself. This choice is with everyone.
You are preaching to the choir. My point is that the original premise that software arises from the developer's need to scratch an itch is still valid. The plan should be to generate that itch, not popularize the scratch.
But how many percentage of your emails are encrypted? If we take a poll in this user group, how many would even know how to encrypt their emails if they need to?
:-) There are some correspondents with whom I exchange only encrypted emails. As for the group - let the group answer.
Binand
No, I don't subscribe to that camp. I have so many examples where software is written because they cared about ethical issues. Software written by people in the Free Software camp. GNOME, GTK, GNU TLS for example. There were already proprietary software or even free software for the job (open ssl is free software but gpl incompatible), so personal itch wasn't a factor. Same diaspora itself, Eben Moglen's speech 'Freedom in the cloud' inspired 4 students from New York university to start it.
What do you mean by converted? How many here actively use diaspora or gpg. Even if 50% of this group use it, I can say I'm preaching to the converted.
And even if that were true, my goal doesn't end at the conversion. I want to build better and new things and for that, what better audience than the already converted.
2013/12/30, Binand Sethumadhavan binand@gmail.com:
On 30 December 2013 16:33, Praveen A pravi.a@gmail.com wrote:
You can either wish for the right tools to appear from nowhere or set out to build it yourself. This choice is with everyone.
You are preaching to the choir. My point is that the original premise that software arises from the developer's need to scratch an itch is still valid. The plan should be to generate that itch, not popularize the scratch.
But how many percentage of your emails are encrypted? If we take a poll in this user group, how many would even know how to encrypt their emails if they need to?
:-) There are some correspondents with whom I exchange only encrypted emails. As for the group - let the group answer.
Binand
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Ankit Javalkar -
Binand Sethumadhavan -
Praveen A