FLOSS2P4P - A 2-day London workshop in March, gathering FLOSS projects that are building software for peer production and organization, with a focus on distributed platforms. Scholarships to attend are offered to grassroots communities.
Context
We know that the Internet was originally decentralized, with protocols and services built by hackers. However, with the arrival of the celebrated Web 2.0, centralization and corporations proprietary platforms seem to have taken over. Moreover, this centralized structure is used by governments to increase #surveillance (following Snowden’s revelations), to blackout internet whenever it is needed (e.g. Egypt, Syria, or San Francisco’s BART) or to choke annoying activist organizations (such as #Wikileaks).
On the other hand, in the last few years we have seen the emergence of Internet-enabled collaborative communities building shared libre/ open resources. #Commons-based Peer to Peer Production (CBPP) is rapidly growing: not just for software and encyclopedias, but also for
information (#OpenStreetMap, Wikihow), hardware (#FabLabs, Open Source Ecology), accommodation (Couchsurfing) and currency (#Bitcoin, #Altcoins).
In the last few years, it has become clear to many that it is not enough to develop free/#libre/open source (FLOSS) alternatives, but we also need to #re-decentralize the #Internet. Many initiatives are being undertaken under this premise (e.g. Ethereum, Diaspora, OwnCloud, MediaGoblin, Sandstorm). These new software tools may also be useful to boost CBPP communities further. In this workshop, we will gather those working around the decentralized FLOSS that could help CBPP/P2P communities. Hackers, academics, activists and interested stakeholders are welcome.
*When*
March 16-17th 2015
*Where*
Fab Lab London
*Call for Proposals*
We welcome proposals for:
Lightning talks (2m-5m): summarise your idea & receive feedback
Show & Tell presentations (20m): explain your project/tech/
research
Tutorials on software tools (1h)
Please email: lu.yang@surrey.ac.uk with your idea/proposals.
The workshop will have both presentations and unconference-style
participatory dynamics for finding points of collaboration and
extraction of conclusions.
Topics
Focus on FLOSS software with some of the following features:
Social: communication
e.g. social-networking, microblogging, reworked email
Social: collaboration
e.g. wikis, pads, wave, shared file hosting, multimedia
repositories
Alternative to proprietary choices
Federated / Distributed / Interoperable
Open Standards
Secure / Encrypted
Encouraging Peer Production communities
Encouraging the construction/maintenance of Commons
Potential cases for discussion:
Diaspora (federated social network)
Wave (federated real-time collaboration)
Lorea (federated social network)
DarkWallet (distributed wallet & social network)
Ethereum (P2P infrastructure)
MaidSafe (P2P infrastructure)
Sandstorm.io (facilitates federated sw)
Mailpile (encripted email)
MediaGoblin (federated multimedia repository)
OwnCloud (file hosting)
… (your case)
Scholarships
There are a few scholarships for potential participants who wish to
attend the event. The scholarship will cover participant’s travel and
subsistence cost, up to €400. If you are interested in applying for
the scholarship, please email: lu.yang@surrey.ac.uk before 28
February 2015, with a paragraph stating why you think your FLOSS is
relevant, plus a short bio. Priority will be given to those with low
resources, innovative FLOSS within the topics of the call, and being
a grassroot community.
More
More info will be posted online in:
▻http://p2pvalue.eu/2nd-floss4p2p-workshop
Email queries to: lu.yang@surrey.ac.uk
#cccp