Avoiding the carriers entirely for exchanging data will be a big hit. The only issue is, can this be done?
On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 9:23 PM, nick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Apr 22, 11:55 am, j <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Nice idea. Maybe it's just me but the music of the video is a bit > > creepy. :) > > Yes, it's from a very political track by the group A Silver Mt. > Zion :-) > > > What if I am an oppressive government's agent using Fluid Nexus to get > > access to activist messages? Is that possible? > > You raise a good and very common objection. The simple response is > this: all technologies can be re-appropriated by governments or other > groups for their own purposes. Witness groups using e-mail and > websites to spread hate messages and various nefarious calls to > action. So this is not something that can necessarily be built into > the technology in the first place to prevent this type of use. We can > always create pre-determined groups that have limited membership, with > the consequent decrease in efficacy of the network. > > (Note that this is not an argument for the neutrality of technology, > but rather an acceptance that no matter what I, as the technology > developer does with the technology, it can always be re-appropriated > and re-purposed by others in ways I cannot predict. It's to > acknowledge my lack of agency and control once I release something > into the world.) > > So a more direct response would be this: yes, indeed, governments > could use this technology in the same way. In a sense, though, all > activist use of technology is an implicit cat-and-mouse game. As > deficiencies are found within the current structure of the technology, > developers can change it to better deal with current threats. And in > a way what I'm doing here is related to two assumptions that could > both be true in different parts of the world: 1) it will take time for > a technology like this to catch on and for the government to find out > about it; and 2) the government already has this technology and by > developing it we are simply leveling the playing field. > > What I am more worried about is the broadcast of cell phone > information even if the towers are "turned off". Because while a > government might turn off mobile towers for the purpose of making > calls, they could still use these towers for the purposes of > triangulating position. This is a much more difficult issue to > tackle. Tracking people and their location based on Bluetooth > broadcasting is also possible and is an inevitable consequence of the > technology. Whether this is a problem in practice remains to be seen, > and is something that can only be considered with a keen questioning > of the risks and benefits of use. > > nick > > > > > Good luck. > > > > On Apr 21, 6:45 am, zero <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > maybe as a sub-group of dataportability ? > > > *just my two cents* > > > > > On Apr 21, 2:30 pm, "Muthu Ramadoss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > Thanks for the details. Checked out your website, looks great. > > > > > > Mobile Social Networking is an exciting space to be on currently, > and am > > > > sure lot of folks working on it right now. > > > > > > May be we can start a group, and start collaborating on the ideas, > > > > technologies etc., related to the mobile social networking space. > > > > > > Any thoughts? > > > > > > On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 5:10 PM, whitemice <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > > > >>Which platform is snowball server running?<< > > > > > The original plan was to implement it in PHP, but because Android > > > > > supports a lot of the Apache specification I found that if I used > a > > > > > Java host I could reuse a lot of the client code on the server > (the > > > > > benefits of peer-to-peer and all that). > > > > > > > Currently it is running as a JSP web service on a virtual Apache > > > > > Tomcat server with a MySQL backend. Although each Cell-id-node- > > > > > instance is atomic, so I can scale it up and make it distributed > if > > > > > necessary. The idea being that I can just add computing resources > to > > > > > it as needed. > > > > > > > >>Do you broadcast more than the location from the server? << > > > > > The server turns each Cell tower into a Snowball node. This means > it > > > > > doesn't actually broadcast location information (not yet anyway), > but > > > > > instead allows Snowball Ads to be stored as if on the cell tower. > > > > > > > Say you write a multiplayer game, which is running on 10 handsets > in > > > > > your area. Snowball will detect and rank these handsets by > closest > > > > > first, but will not be able to tell you exactly where they are. > > > > > > > Detecting actual location is better handled by the application > using > > > > > GPS etc (i.e. with user approval), and is not suitable for all > > > > > applications, e.g. dating. > > > > > > > >>What kind of end user applications are possible using snowball? > Do you > > > > > have any specific kind of end user applications that might be the > killer app > > > > > for snowball?<< > > > > > Different people will find different applications useful at > different > > > > > times. I have listed the vague categories and use cases that can > be > > > > > easily implemented on top of Snowball here: > > > > >http://blog.zedray.com/snowball/why-is-this-useful/ > > > > > (Location-based< > http://blog.zedray.com/snowball/why-is-this-useful/%28Location-based>services, > Social networking, Gaming, News and > > > > > information, Logistics) > > > > > > > But everyone I talk to about this tends to come up with new stuff > by > > > > > themselves. > > > > > > > >>Got confused by FluidNexus and Snowball. They have similar > goals, but > > > > > they are 2 completely different projects. Guess FluidNexus had the > emergency > > > > > use case and Snowball has the ice cream example. Cool, finally got > clarified > > > > > myself<< > > > > > Excellent > > > > > I can't wait to see this "mobeegal" LBS search engine that you've > been > > > > > working on. > > > > > > > Regards > > > > > Mark > > > > > > -- > > > > take care, > > > > Muthu Ramadoss. > > > > > >http://mobeegal.in > > > > find stuff closer. > > > -- take care, Muthu Ramadoss. http://mobeegal.in find stuff closer. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Challenge" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-challenge?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
