Freenet is starting to look invigorated which is good. There seems to be a slow crackdown on freedom of speech such as against blogging in Iran and the army / police preventing reporters from taking picture of Katrina's aftermath. Thus I am sure people would agree the need for a Freenet has been growing over time.
A few things I'd recommend and they come from looking at I2P's project (might as well borrow good ideas when they present themselves): *More support / communication for developers of applications for Freenet. As jrandom said about I2P/IP/TCP: "I2P by itself is pretty useless, but in the way IP by itself is pretty useless - who cares whether you can send packets on the internet if you don't have good applications to send them with? " Freenet is ok, but as much support as is possible should be given to people interesting in making applications that work with Freenet. You'll have to talk to the developers of these applications to see what their needs are, many are coming back so it can be a good time to ask them. *Applications more easily found or included with Freenet. I2P appears, and correct me if I am wrong, to be including software bundled with it such as their anonymous blogging software (Syndie) and other useful software (anonymous data storage, organizers, mail etc. etc.). If the goal is helping people communicate anonymously then you don't scatter relevant applications all over the place and make them hunt for them. *Support for 0.5, don't but all the eggs on one basket. I expect 0.5 to be around for a few more years, it would be good if 0.5 wasn't abandoned (which no on said it was) but it would be good to confirm that 0.5 will be supported. Once people see that 0.7 is good, if it is good, then they will move there but shouldn't be forced (antiforbidden fruit syndrome, you force someone to do something (even if they would have normally like it) they will predisposed to reject it.) *Communication (Meetings, forums, request board, road map). A forum would be good where people could discuss instead of just a mailing list (I2P has one if you want to look at their setup, looks like Slyck's). Since Freenet is on sourceforge, and their system isn't that bad, their forums can be used. As well SF's request system seems to work well and using a request system would hopefully reframe the communication from "Freenet lacks this, it sucks, why doesn't this work" to more productive "I would like to request this, can the developers of Freenet add this, does anyone want to work on adding this feature with me" with a sourceforge request board. A bug board (SF also has it) would be good too. Very good work, SM On 9/14/05, Ian Clarke <ian at locut.us> wrote: > > It has been quite some time since I last sent a status update to the > mailing lists. > > This is an exciting time for the project, we are essentially > rewriting Freenet from the ground up, embracing that which has > worked, and throwing out that which hasn't. Furthermore, we are > fundamentally improving Freenet's security, functionality, and > usability. > > Version 0.7 of Freenet aims to create a scalable "darknet", where > users only connect directly to other users they know and trust. The > purpose of this change is to protect users who may be placed at risk > simply by using the software, irrespective of what they are using it > for. > > In this new approach, only people you choose to connect to will know > that you are running the software. Previous attempts at "dark" P2P > networks, such as WASTE, have been limited to relatively small > disconnected networks, allowing you to exchange information with a > few of your friends, not beyond that. > > The core innovation in Freenet 0.7 will be to allow a globally > scalable darknet, capable of supporting millions of users, nobody has > ever achieved anything like this before. This is made possible by the > observation that human relationships tend to form small-world > networks, a property that can be exploited to find short paths > between any two people. The work is based on a talk given at DEFCON > 13 in July by Oskar Sandberg and myself [1]. > > Other modifications include switching from TCP to UDP, which allows > UDP hole punching along with faster transmission of messages between > peers in the network. This will greatly simplify the task of getting > a Freenet node up and running, our goal is that you run the software, > and it "just works", with no mucking around with firewalls or > complicated configuration files. > > We have learned much over the past few years. One of those things is > that it is difficult to simultaneously do experimental research, > while at the same time deploying a working usable piece of software. > As a result, 0.7 will in may ways be a simplification of Freenet, > sticking more closely to that which we know works, and for which > there is a strong mathematical basis, and leaving the more "far out" > ideas to the academic community. > > Having said that, from the user's perspective 0.7 will have > significant new functionality. While previously Freenet only > supported the insertion and retrieval of information, Freenet 0.7 > will support new modes of usage including the real-time broadcast of > messages. Applications of this range from real-time anonymous chat > (perhaps through the IRC protocol) to RSS-feeds. > > The work on all of this is well underway, with experimental code > already being tested by a small group of volunteers (you can often > find them in the #freenet-alphatest channel on > irc.freenode.net<http://irc.freenode.net>). > We > anticipate the public release of Freenet 0.7 before Christmas this year. > > Using donations through this website, the project has been able to > employ one developer full-time, Matthew Toseland. Matthew has since > become the backbone of the Freenet development effort. > > The project requires $2,300 per month to pay Matthew's modest salary, > but at the time of writing our funds are seriously depleted, our > current Paypal balance is only $372.42. For that reason, I am > appealing to supporters of the project to, once again, dig deep and, > if you can, make a contribution to the ongoing development of the > project in the form of a Paypal donation, subscription, or an E-Gold > donation if you would rather not go through Paypal. > > You can make a donation through the donations page on our website at: > > http://freenetproject.org/index.php?page=donations > > If, for whatever reason, you would like to make a donation through other > means, please contact me directly at ian at locut.us. > > Many thanks, > > Ian Clarke, > Coordinator, The Freenet Project. > > Links: > > [1] http://freenetproject.org/papers/vegas1_dc.pdf > > _______________________________________________ > Devl mailing list > Devl at freenetproject.org > http://dodo.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devl > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://emu.freenetproject.org/pipermail/tech/attachments/20050914/f9796814/attachment.html>
