Hi Thomas, No to 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. and the international network of networks'. Nation-states are the problem and www.grb.net is the solution. Let's discuss the Global Resource Bank network now. Thank you, John alternative. Thanks John
----- Original Message -----From: Thomas Lord <[email protected]>To: [email protected]: Tue, 10 Mar 2015 19:14:00 -0000 (UTC)Subject: Re: [libreplanet-discuss] combating the "IoT" Thank you, Michael, for raising the question: How can the software freedom movement combatthreats posed by the "Internet of Things"? I agree with you that what is emerging is ubiquitoussurveillance, controlled by unhackable proprietarysoftware systems. Will software that is not-onlyunfree but is in fact actively hostile to users becomeunavoidable even in the intimacy of our homes? I have some half-baked ideas about this. Perhaps otherscan add to the list, better develop these ideas, orcritique them. In no particular order: 1. The Internet of Things is a Class Issue (for now) In the early stage, with exceptions here and there,the "Internet of Things" product lines are for comparativelyrich people. Most folks will not soon be buyingmulti-hundred dollar thermostats, "smart" refrigerators,or babysitting their kids via a not-so-smart-phone appcontrolled by a third party. It is good to explain to rich buyers the trouble theyare asking for, if and when they want to listen, but there isno point arguing with them. Some people understand theissues full well and are eager to give up their freedomas fast as they can spend money to accomplish it. The movement can do more by concentrating on making freesoftware principles useful in real day to day life forthe large and mostly propertyless majority of people. The hard question is what kinds of projects can bringthe day to day exercise of software freedom to a "mass"-scalegroup of people whose most unifying trait is that they don'twant to spend a lot of money; and whose second-most unifyingtrait is that they probably aren't going to pay much attentionto even the best crafted polemics about software freedom?(I mean they'll "get it" just fine -- it's just that they won'tspend a lot of time reading software freedom blog posts beforedeciding to buy a new TV or not-so-smart phone.) 2. I think phones and TVs and music player systems arevery popular types of product it might be worth concentratingon. Just a hunch. 3. In those products, software freedom can intersect withother issues that effect people. For example, a lot of people spend quite a lot of moneybuying cable TV service or satellite TV service. A closer-to-libre system like Kodi (formerly XBMC) runningon very cheap hardware, combined with even a low-end DSLconnection.... .... well, it is not a drop in replacement for expensivecable or other TV service. It's primitive and the range ofgratis programming available is quirkier and different. Yetthe freedom-loving solution is much cheaper and can be formany people a fine alternative. The problem (I see) is that there is no easy-to-use,non-flaky version of the free software TV-alternative.Nothing you could casually offer to sell to regular peoplefor less than $100. It's all currently flaky and weirdenough that people really need to be at least minimally"hackers" to use such systems. 4. Michael had the example of a toaster. Won't theInternet of Things take over EVEN TOASTERS and if so,how can the movement ever hope to keep up?!? Well, here is some inspiration about what it takesto become a toaster manufacturer these days: http://www.burntimpressions.com/ That "kind of thing" -- figuring out how to take advantageof modern manufacturing systems at a small scale --is a way for the free software movement to become verypragmatically involved with people who do more than justcode. A way to expand immediate relevance. A way to"confront" consumer market places with freedom. 5. Yadda yadda yadda ;-) Thanks,-t On 2015-03-10 08:25, Cardoza, Michael wrote:> One of the biggest subjects in recent years has been the "IoT Internet> of Things". Where basically they would like every device in your home> to have a computer and be networked to the internet in some way. There> are already news reports that these devices have cameras and> microphones and are basically recording all the time. As the mass of> these devices increases I foresee a point where you cannot buy any> product that doesn't have some kind of computer and operating system> in it that will be networked. What does the Free Software community> think we can do about this? how are we to buy anything in the future> even a toaster without giving up our computing freedoms and come under> surveillance? I would think it would be extremely difficult for us to> keep pace and develop free replacements for all these devices. It> seems as though the proprietary software companies have a plan to bury> us in a volume of proprietary devices. Just not sure what our way> forward will be on these issues.> > Thanks,> > Mike> --> > support computing freedom and join the FSF: http://www.fsf.org/ [1]> > Links:> ------> [1] http://www.fsf.org/
