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Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

This is what Freedombox is for (also Diaspora). Freedombox is one of the few projects I make time to contribute to. I'm surprised it isn't one of the more popular projects among this community.

Anyway, here are some links and background if you aren't familiar with it. From http://freedomboxfoundation.org and http://freedomboxfoundation.org/learn

What is FreedomBox?

    Email and telecommunications that protects privacy and resists eavesdropping

    A publishing platform that resists oppression and censorship.

    An organizing tool for democratic activists in hostile regimes.

    An emergency communication network in times of crisis.

If you live near New York City, there will be a hack-fest February 18, 19, 20 (more information in first link above). I hope to see you there.

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You guys need a much simpler "what is freedombox". From the /learn text I only get the impression that it is "Tor in a dedicated box". Where is the social network?

I gave it my five-second rule, and browsed away feeling totally ignorant of what the platform was about (or even if it was a platform).

Thirding. The "what is freedombox" posted here tells me basically nothing. It sounds closer to marketing fluff than an actual description of what freedombox is and does.

Is it a social network? Twitter? Both? Something new? Why should I want to start using it, aside from claims of anonymity?

I'm surprised it isn't one of the more popular projects among this community.

You shouldn't be. My values align roughly with that of the freedombox creators/developers but I can easily see this will have poorer adoption than other well-intentioned technology like PGP or gNewSense.

If you want a project of this nature to see widespread use it will have to be fun, usable, and pretty.

I follow a few high profile tech news source, but I never heard of Freedombox.

One major worry I have about decentralized systems is crackers. It's hard enough to secure centralized systems using proprietary code behind firewalls managed by an army of experts. How can a decentralized system possibly avoid becoming a 0day distributed botnet?

> It's hard enough to secure centralized systems using proprietary code behind firewalls managed by an army of experts. How can a decentralized system possibly avoid becoming a 0day distributed botnet?

I do not understand your concern.

Centralized systems are easier to crack, not harder. Proprietary code may or may not be easier to crack, but I'd lean towards easier. Distributed systems do not require you to not have firewalls. Distributed systems do not require you to not have experts managing them. Nodes of a distributed system do not have to obey the commands of other nodes or have a central control mechanism.

How would a decentralized system ever become a 0day botnet?

The point of Freedombox is that everyone has his data in his own home. If average Joe wants to share this data with his friends, average Joe is going to run a server in his home. If the server code has a 0day exploit, average Joe server easily becomes a node in a botnet.

How do you address the problem of managing a fleet of 800 Million servers running in 800 Million homes? Who are the experts that manage this problem and who finances their work? Why would average Joe trust them with his data? What is the technical device through which they have admin access to 800 Million servers in 800 Million homes?

That may be the setup of that project, but it isn't the status of every decentralized system. A decentralized system could as easily be funded by individual users buying hosted space with professional admins.

I don't see the 0day exploit window of one additional application running on local users' boxes to be much cause for alarm. Somehow we muddled through decades of Windows boxes with everyone joining the Borg.

"... I follow a few high profile tech news source, but I never heard of Freedombox. ..."

That's why it's important to read HN.

Eben Moglen is one of the few lawyers I bother to listen too. It helps he has a CS background. Moglen did a talk at New York Technology Council & Internet Society, Friday, February 5, 2010 that outlined the idea behind the freedom box. I remember watching & listening to the recording just after the speech. It's worth the watch/listen to get the idea in full.

The idea in short, "Own your own logs". Third parties can't infer what they don't have. The talk is located here

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpHWnHxmnXg

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOEMv0S8AcA

or here for alternative AV formats ~ http://isoc-ny.org/?p=1338

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