Remove unrelated pages for laboration

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 406 deletions

diff --git a/ideology/fscons-2010.mdwn b/ideology/fscons-2010.mdwn
deleted file mode 100644
index 5224ec7..0000000
--- a/ideology/fscons-2010.mdwn
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,406 +0,0 @@
-Syndicated E-mail Service Against Software as a Service
-=======================================================
-
-Denna sida innehåller dels allmänna anteckningar om Friposts bidrag
-till FSCONS 2010 genom Gustav Eek och Stefan Kangas, och dels
-innehåller en slutgiltig artikeltext. Rekommendationen är att direkt
-läsa artikeltexten.
-
-This page contains general notes that has to do with the preparation
-to Fripost's contribution to FSCONS 2010 through Gustav Eek and Stefan
-Kangas. It also contains a final article text. The recommendation is
-to directly read the article text.
-
-[[!toc levels=2]]
-
-Anteckningar om föreningens bidrag till konferensen FSCONS 2010
-===============================================================
-
-  * *Authors* - Gustav Eek and Stefan Kangas
-  * *Contact email* - skangas@skangas.se
-  * *Preferred timeslot* - 30 min
-  * *Proposal title* - Olika förslag...
-    * "[Syndicated](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syndicate) E-mail
-      Service Against Software as a Service"
-    * "Serve our self the server service"
-    * "Servicing our own software as a service"
-    * "Defeating SaaS by socializing email services"
-    * "Collaborative email servers against SaaS"
-
-
-Proposal summary
-----------------
-
-It is becoming increasingly common for persons and organizations to
-hire external services for e-mail handling, and even for the use of
-spreadsheets and word processing. This phenomenon, known as *Software
-as a Service* (SaaS), implies restrictions in the users freedom that
-is not only tangential.
-
-In our ambition to counteract this tendency, we would like to present
-a project of constructing an independent and autonomous e-mail hosting
-service, run by a syndicate, *The Free E-mail Association*, for the
-associations members. The syndicate is driven by a simple framework
-that guarantees that it is
-
- * of independent means,
- * democratically structured, 
- * built on trust between its members, and
- * ready to be far-reaching with regards to avoiding traffic logging and
-   to protect the members privacy.
-
-The service that we are hoping to create is a full featured e-mail
-solution with high reliability and accessibility.
-
-This project exemplifies that the creation of a freedom preserving
-network service is possible, and it is also an example of what that
-can look like.
-
-The obvious question to raise is whether this service actually is not
-just another SaaS? Obviously, all individual members can not at all
-times reach absolute freedom and computational control. However, these
-limitations must be weighed against that investments in a more
-reliable technical infrastructure are possible only through
-collaboration. Also, we believe that the association's democratic
-structure and numerical and geographical boundaries are enough to
-mitigate the limitations; the limited user participation is still
-sufficient for the service to bee regarded as free.
-
-We hope that this project can raise curiosity enough to tantalise
-users away from private suppliers of e-mail and other services, to
-either join our association or even better start more similar
-projects.
-
-
-Other information
------------------
-
-It is preferred from our point of view that the talk is scheduled in
-an early stage of the conference. This since the hope is to raise
-questions for further discussion during the conference.
-
-
-Antagen till konferensen
-========================
-
-Den 24 juli blev föredraget "Syndicated E-mail Service Against
-Software as a Service" antagen till temat "Infrastructure" på FSCONS
-2010. Jeremiah Foster är koordinator för temat som har beskrivningen
-
-> Wikipedia defines infrastructure as "the basic physical and
-> organizational structures needed for the operation of a society."
-> The theme focuses on the infrastructure needs for tomorrows future
-> society, as well as the basic need for privacy and secure
-> communication, together with monitoring, both as a threat and as a
-> tool to manage our ever increasing networks.
-
-Det är ett antal saker som vi från Jonas Öberg blivit ombedda att
-utföra och återkomma till Jonas och Jeremiah angående.
-
- 1. Granska den föreslagna sammanfattningen av föredraget och revidera
-    det med det övergripande temat i åtanke och om något tillkommit i
-    föredraget.
- 2. Om vi har några begränsningar vad gäller schemaläggningen. 
- 3. Frågan om när vi kommer till Göteborg och om vi ska vara med på de
-    sociala tillställningarna.
-
-Frågan är också om konferensen vill ha någon längre artikel för
-föredraget. I så fall vore det bra att sätta igång med det nu,
-snart. En idé skulle vara att översätta principförklaringen om den kan
-skrivas på ett tillräckligt vetenskapligt sätt.
-
-
-Second article for the conference
-=================================
-
-This is the second proposal, which is longer and more adjusted to the
-infrastructure theme description. The proposal follows declaration of
-principals.
-
-
-Introduction
-------------
-
-User freedom is the most important property of tomorrows
-infrastructure. This property is necessary to safeguard the relative
-freedom of speech provided by the Internet against increasingly
-aggressive attacks by preying commercial and opportune state
-interests.
-
-In this abstract of a talk on FSCONS 2010 we first try to define
-freedom in computer work. Then the problem of increased centralization
-of the Internet is discussed and a number of ongoing threats to this
-freedom are identified. We then present the *Free Email Association*,
-what built up infrastructure we have, and our principles. Finally we
-try to sketch what we think the future paths might look like.
-
-
-Background
-----------
-
-The centralisation of influence and rectification of decision-making
-is not unique for the Internet. This is written in a wider context of
-general social criticism of economic and cultural globalisation and
-the current forms of the globalisation of information flows. Many
-decisions are made in multi-lateral arenas where the democratic
-control is limited.[^1] A decreasing number of transnational operators,
-not only controls the means of production and the production of goods,
-but also have great influence in markets demands.
-
-The Internet is, or will soon be, the most important communication
-medium in the majority of the industrialized world. The story of its
-development from its conception as a highly distributed network
-through the establishment of the free and open web, towards the
-increasingly privatized web we see today is indeed saddening for those
-who takes user freedom seriously. A few strong parties control major
-segments of important infrastructure that millions of users depend on
-every day. Those who control the technology and its infrastructure
-also have power over its users.
-
-[^1]: Good, recent examples are the European Unions IPRED directive or
-      the ACTA agreement.
-
-
-Computing, computer labour, and power over the infrastructure
--------------------------------------------------------------
-
-The *Free Software Foundation* suggest definition of *free software*
-consisting of four requirements: the "freedom to run, copy,
-distribute, study, change and improve the software". (Free Software
-Foundation "The Free Software Definition") As a complement to those we
-define the more general *freedom with regard to own computer labour*
-[^2] as requiring that
-
- 1. the work is performed exclusively with free software,
- 2. the work is performed with computer hardware that entirely is at
-    one's possession and control,
- 3. the information worked with is information that one possess, and
- 4. the result from the computer work also is at one's possession and
-    control.
-
-We here use "information" to denote data and documents that are the
-object to computer work. In this context *computer labour* is all use
-of computers, and *own computer labour* is computer work performed for
-one's own part.[^3]
-
-[^2]: Stallman (Stallman 2010) uses *your own computing* to denote what
-      we call *one's own computer labour*. We use the latter because of
-      its broader associations.
-[^3]: Stallman (Stallman 2010) points out that work performed as
-      employee in some company or in a cooperation project as Wikipedia
-      is not one's own computer work, but a part of that company's or
-      project's work.  In that case it is not one's own freedom that is
-      threatened, but the company's or project's.
-
-
-Internet and its servers
-------------------------
-
-The *Internet* seen as an infrastructure scheme was constructed as a
-distributed *peer-to-peer* non-hierarchical network of independent and
-self-determined parts.[^4] Despite this immanent property, the Internet
-today, seen from a regular user's point of view, is structured in a
-hierarchical manner around a decreasing number of server clouds, which
-are continuously growing in size and power. Historically the meaning
-of *servers* was to gather and publish information provided from its
-clients. However, in many applications today, publishing is not
-performed as a separate process, and the clients are no longer always
-independent. For example social networking sites, like Facebook, often
-require their users to perform their work directly on the company's
-servers. (Moglen 2010)
-
-[^4]: Technically the parts of a network are *nodes*, which in the case
-      of Internet are servers, switches, and personal computers, and
-      *edges*, which are interconnecting wires.
-
-
-Software as a service
----------------------
-
-A concept introduced in the spirit of centralisation is *Software as a
-Service* (SaaS). Shortly SaaS is that users are invited to perform
-their computer work on or through a network server on Internet or a
-local network. The main purpose of SaaS is to separate *possession*
-and *ownership* of software from its *usage*. This software is said to
-be *licenced on demand*. (Turner 2003)
-
-In this text *Software as a Service* is used in a more narrow sense in
-accordance with Stallman (Stallman 2010), to mean one's own computer
-work on hardware that the user do not control. Popular Internet
-services that are examples of SaaS are Google Docs and Facebook, but
-the concept is widely used. Computer work performed with this software
-is non-free in a double sense; using SaaS also leads to *vendor
-lock-in*. However, the complex of lock-in problems reach far outside
-SaaS.
-
-
-The infrastructure of email
----------------------------
-
-The email infrastructure is not an exception from the tendency towards
-centralisation and rectification of Internet's services and usage. We
-now see even large institutions being lured in by the economic
-benefits offered by these large scale solutions.
-
-Email communication through the Internet involves several computers
-and servers, among those a *mail user agent*, a computer program
-controlled by the sending person; several *mail transfer agents*,
-Internet servers responsible for getting the mail though using the
-SMTP protocol; *domain name system servers*, servers keeping track of
-the addresses to all those servers; and finally another *mail user
-agent*, used by the receiving person to read the emails. It is also
-common to make use of extra inbox handling services like *IMAP access*
-or *webmail*, which usually involve separate servers.
-
-What about email and freedom? We here need to distinguish what part of
-emailing that is one's own computer labour. Editing email definitely
-is, along with all sort of contact management. The transfer process,
-however, is not. Whether the email arrives is of course of great
-concern to the sender, but there is generally no human activity
-(directly) involved and thus no actual work performed. In principle
-the same holds also for the process of receiving email. However, most
-popular email services are not content with that. Stallman writes,
-
-> Some sites whose main service is publication and communication extend
-> it with *contact management*: keeping track of people you have
-> relationships with. Sending mail to those people for you is not SaaS,
-> but keeping track of your dealings with them, if substantial, is SaaS.
-> (Stallman 2010)
-
-And using SaaS is not free computer labour. Furthermore, whether hiring
-a company for handling one's email imply usage of SaaS or non-free
-computer labour might not be the only matter of importance.
-
-
-Privacy and survelliance
-------------------------
-
-With large clientele comes a lot of power. Google is currently not the
-largest email service provider; both Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo
-Mail has more customers. (Brownlow 2010) We nonetheless believe it is
-important to single Google out as a company, because of how
-effectively they utilize privacy invading schemes that are integrated
-between their services. Together with Google's e-mail service one also
-get services that probably was not asked for: advertisement, semantic
-analyses of email contents, and spying. (Moglen 2010) The data
-resulting from Google's analysis and espionage is later used
-indirectly in marketing campaigns with Googles customers or sold
-directly to third party. Google is profiting on their email users with
-the means of the users private information provided by themselves.
-
-Google link that data to individuals' surf activities using Google's
-search engine, Google accounts and cookies. Additionally, many
-websites utilize Google's JavaScript APIs, web site statistics or
-reCAPTCHA service, which indirectly exposes individuals to Google's
-supervision.
-
-
-Organisation for a change
--------------------------
-
-Technology has never been neutral. Behind technology changes and
-innovations today lies commercial interests and social factors. On the
-one hand, the ownership structure of technology companies and their
-endeavour for profit ensures that usage of their services for work and
-communication will never be free. On the other hand, only a fraction
-of the everyday Internet users have knowledge and resources enough to
-create free alternatives on his or hers own hand. The question is also
-what we can reasonably expect from an average user in terms of
-engagement in their privacy and freedom.
-
-Our idea is to form an association and together take back a small but
-important part of our Internet life, namely the email communication
-infrastructure. We gather around several servers that receives and
-stores the members' email. The purpose of the association is to render
-it possible for individuals to bring their computer usage under their
-own control. And to show that user freedom is possible, even if only
-through active, prolonged and collective struggle.
-
-In more detail, we start with five or six servers spread out in Sweden
-and Europe connected through the Internet: at the very least two mail
-exchange and one IMAP server, separate backup and log servers, and
-hopefully a webmail server. In the beginning we will not have an SMTP
-send mail service, and we will hire the DNS service from third
-party. Though we will have tight economic boundaries, our focus on
-reliability and stability forces us to try hard to maintain a
-sufficiently high level of redundancy.
-
-The email service provided through the Free Email Association is free
-as in free speech, not as in free beer. This because of the democratic
-structure and of non-profit and commonly owned organisations like the
-Free Email Association. The free email association promises to
-
- 1. work hard to receive email for the sake of its members in a reliable manner
- 2. protect its member's integrity, that is to never
-    * read or analyse its members emails, either manually or
-      automatically, (possibly with exception for voluntary spam
-      filter services and alike)
-    * gather statistics about or analyse member's traffic through the association's servers, and
-    * under no circumstances hand out information about members, their
-      emailing and other activities, or any other information to third
-      party, and
- 3. provide for transparency regarding administration, economy and the
- decision-making process.
-
-Transparency and continuous information about the work of the board is
-of cause extra important, and the democratic regime requires constant
-attention. A declaration of principles serve as a founding document
-for the association, but still a high level of trust is laid on the
-elected officers.
-
-
-On the long term
-----------------
-
-We recommend and encourage everyone to perform their computer labour
-with free software at machines that are in their own possession. But
-many solutions on Internet servers, like Google Docs and Facebook, are
-quite usable and practical and adopted to a modern way to meet and
-work computer-aided. The Free Software Community has a great challenge
-in the creation of free and distributed alternatives, where free means
-that their usage imply only free computing.
-
-Despite this, we must not deceive ourselves into thinking that the
-final and greatest challenge is about building physical infrastructure
-or programming advanced distributed social networking solutions. The
-real challenge is to get people engaged in the issue of the Internet's
-power structures and in their own freedom and privacy.
-
-No one in their right mind would put their blind trust in a government
-that was dabbling in surveillance on a scale anywhere near what Google
-is doing. But when it comes to Google, their marketing strategy has
-been so successful that many people need no additional guarantees that
-Google will behave - people are willing to take Google's word
-for it.
-
-The reasons behind the described changeover of the Internet are
-structural. The structural tendency, as described, is that already
-powerful operators get even more power when computer labour is
-generally becoming less free. Structural problems need structural
-change, but projects like the Free Email Association serve as an
-alternative to structural change for those who are eager to establish
-free alternatives. In the long-term, however, we realize that a larger
-social change on a structural level is necessary. The best we can hope
-for is to give a small contribution to bringing about that change.
-
-References
-----------
-
- 1. Turner, M. et.al. (2003). "Turning Software into a Service", Computer
-    vol. 36, IEEE Computer Society 2003.
- 2. Stallman, R. M (2010). "Who does that server realy serve?",
-    Boston review, only web version
-    [[https://bostonreview.net/BR35.2/stallman.php]]. Revised version på
-    [[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html]]. Fetched
-    2010-08-30.
- 3. Moglen E. (2010). "Freedom in the Cloud", talk given to the New
-    York chapter of ISOC February 2nd 2010. Video available at
-    [[http://new.law.columbia.edu/isoc/eben_moglen_freedom_in_the_cloud.ogv]],
-    and transcription at
-    [[https://www.softwarefreedom.org/events/2010/isoc-ny/FreedomInTheCloud-transcript.html]]. Checked
-    2010-09-10.
- 4. Free Software Foundation. "The Free Software Definition",
-    [[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html]]. Fetched 2010-08-30.
- 5. Brownlow M. (2010). "Email and webmail statistics",
-    [[http://www.email-marketing-reports.com/metrics/email-statistics.htm]]. Updated
-    May 2010. First published April 2008. Fetched 2010-09-21.