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We talk about the history of the Internet and how focus on the right technologies can bring Digital Freedom.


  • What is digital freedom?
    • Comes down to owning your data
    • Mobility and choice
  • This evening’s focus is network-based protocols and services.
    • Other important topics for the future:
      • File formats
      • Software freedom
      • Lock-in/Ecosystems
  • Technology in our lives
    • What are Products/Services?
      • Software products
      • Software services
      • Many modern products are sold as services
      • Either type can be designed to lock you in. Service lock-in is worse.
    • What are Protocols?
      • A method for computers to talk to one-another
      • Used as the underlying technology for all the network software we use
  • History of protocols
    • Dumb endpoints (phones) gave way to a dumb network.
    • the early Internet was shared systems - every endpoint was a server
    • Early protocols: telnet, talk, echo, finger
    • Fairly early protocols: NNTP, SMTP
    • Middle-aged protocols: HTTP, IRC
    • Newer protocols: XMPP, BitTorrent, WebRTC
  • Freedom-bringing through protocols today
    • TCP/IP
    • Ethernet
    • Wifi
    • The web (HTTP)
    • e-mail
    • podcasting (RSS)
    • jabber/xmpp
    • Calendaring file formats
  • The rise of products
    • Products and services vs protocols
    • Products are, of course, an old idea
    • Product are limited to the company
    • Many major companies prefer a “walled garden” of some kind - Can’t send a hangouts message to iMessage
    • Modern products limit freedom (gmail, facebook messenger, etc)
  • Growth of mobile -> Growth of cloud
    • What is the cloud
      • Generally marketed as high-tech, cutting edge and available everywhere
      • Actually, an old idea
      • *-aaS
      • Financial arrangement
      • Someone else’s computer
      • Critical to the current mobile world
    • Mobile and the cloud
      • Multi-device
      • Semi-offline devices
      • Battery life
      • Multi-device sync
      • Network funny business (long-lived connections and middle boxes)
    • Why is this such and important part of the story? You have to deal with these problems.
  • What are the downsides of protocol-based services?
    • Company financial interest
    • Difficulty gaining consensus
    • Frozen-in-time
  • What protocols am I interested in?
    • Off-beat protocols and the up-and-comers
      • Security-focused
        • TOR
        • I2P
        • Distributed VPNs (ZeroTier)
      • Peer-to-peer
        • BitTorrent
        • FastTrack
        • IPFS
        • DAT
        • Jami (formerly Ring.cx)
  • How do we move forward?
    • Build protocols for the world today
    • Try to prefer interpolatable service
    • Local-first services (Martin Kleppmann, Adam Wiggins, Peter van Hardenberg, and Mark McGranaghan. Local-first software: you own your data, in spite of the cloud. 2019 ACM SIGPLAN)
    • Let’s go peer-to-peer
      • What the Internet was designed for
      • Early networks
      • New designs for it are out there
      • Built-in challenges
        • Bootstrapping
        • NAT and middle-boxes
        • Offline delivery

        • Power management

          References & Further Reading

  • Local First Software
  • Protocols
  • TCP
  • HTTP
  • XMPP
  • Walled Gardens
  • Tor
  • Vint Cerf

Intro music provided by Purple Planet

Follow along at https://brighterevening.com