Guifi.net - English Wiki

From Guifi.net - English Wiki

Contents 1 For a release of software and services that support Social Web 1.1 Web interface 1.2 The social nature of software 2 Problems with using proprietary software on Web 2.0 3 GPL, Affero GPL & Free Web 4 Objectives 5 Call for contributions 6 Development branches 7 External links

For a release of software and services that support Social Web

Much has been said since 2004 when O'Reilly presented an article about novelties arising at that time in the world of the Internet related to the constant exchange of content based on social relations. What is known as the social Web or the much more commercial name of Web 2.0 began to be used to refer to all the services which mainly used the Web as the main interface and were based on participatory and/or dynamic Web sites.

The title of O'Reilly’s article pointed in a commercial direction: What Is Web 2.0. Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, and presented Web 2.0 to refer to a second generation of the Web based on communities of users and special range of services, such as social networks, blogs, wikis and folksonomies. According to O'Reilly, Web 2.0 fosters collaboration and the agile exchange of information among the people who use it.

In contrast, voices against the new denomination argued that it was simply a commercial strategy to publicize certain companies and not an in-depth study of the reality of the Internet and that no qualitative leap had been taken in Web space.

What is certain is that change was gradual and around 2004 most services were based on what is now called a Web 1.0 structure: that is, infrequently updated, static web pages that did not allow interaction with users.

Whether a reality or the result of O’Reilly’s article and lectures and the millions of people who coined the term (an Internet search of “Web 2.0” gets millions of hits), it is certain that in the so-called first world we use information and communication technologies to carry out our social relations. Call it Web 2.0, call it the Social Web, call it whatever you want. Nowadays, we read information on the web written by users like us and we can collaborate, correct or subscribe to them. The fixed text and images of Web 1.0 have been expanded to include audio and video, Web sites that are updated without having to be reloaded, maps in motion… and it serves as a cultural and artistic platform for millions of photographers, video artists, musicians and artists of all kinds worldwide who find that Web 2.0 offers them a platform for making themselves known, where they can interact with what was formerly known as “the public” and has now become constant feedback.

The gateway to social communication on the Internet was opened by electronic mail in 1971. It was followed by chats and forums, first of all, and then a huge number of instant messaging and IP telephone communications services. With the advent of the so-called Web 2.0 came blogs, video on demand, wikis, and radio stations. Some of these services are free (as in freedom), such as the extremely popular Wikipedia and Menéame, as well as others that are not as popular. However, many popular services are based on proprietary software (see Web 2.0 table).

The title of O'Reilly’s article actually refers to the next software generation; it was not solely about Internet services over the Web. Therefore, it is clear that the business model is based on offering a direct service on the software, not the software itself, or even a software license. The software exists and serves as the basis of Web 2.0. O'Reilly’s article is also about the eminently social nature of services related to software. We will discuss each point separately.

Web interface

Initially, social communication handled by cybernetic networks was multi-protocol in nature; that is, one could access it in multiple ways. For example, electronic mail has a variety of communication protocols (SMTP, POP, IMAP), with communication via the Web (Web mail) only one of these options, developed some time later.

At present, the fact that the majority of these services offer their sole communication interface via the Web has the advantage of making them accessible from any computer with a Web client, but the underlying drawback is that the user has no control over the software that is executed on a remote machine from which the user receives only the processed html, losing not only the source code of the programme with which the user is interacting but also access to the binary code.

The social nature of software

Projects like Wikipedia have proved that the best way to build knowledge is when it is carried out collectively. Projects such as delicious or delirious show that the World Wide Web can be categorized, provided someone is willing to do.

This Web classification and indexing model is called the folksonomies model, which requires constant participation from its users. In what some voices are calling Web 3.0, this will no longer be the case, as the model to be adopted is based on folksonomies. It is what is called the Semantic Web. That is, until an automated classification becomes feasible technologically, the community of users will have to carry out that task, without being paid for it. Some have started to say that this is abusive.

Problems with using proprietary software on Web 2.0

The problem is that a large percentage of social web services are built on proprietary software, where users must grant rights to the contents produced to use the service, and are excluded from participation in the organization that manages the service. Users must use proprietary protocols and formats owned by the organization that manages the service and depend on a proprietary network. Consequently, large corporations maintain control of a large quantity of personal information as well as the social relations and links established on the web.

• Censorship on Flickr
• Reappropriation of copyright by MySpace
• Political censorship on YouTube
• Google reads your e-mail for advertising purposes
• Worms attack users of Facebook and Myspace

GPL, Affero GPL & Free Web

La Licencia Pública General de Affero (en inglés Affero General Public License, conocida también como GNU AGPL, Affero GPL, AGPL o, popularmente, como Licencia Affero o simplemente la Affero) es una licencia libre con copyleft basada en la GPL tanto en la versión 2 (GNU GPLv2) como en la versión 3. Es incompatible con la versión 2, lo cual hace que dos piezas de software licenciadas una con GPLv2 y Affero GPL no puedan ser unidas en una sola.

La AGPL fue diseñada para cerrar la evasión de los proveedores de servicios de aplicación a la licencia GPL ordinaria, que no obliga la distribución del código fuente cuando el software licenciado con GPL sea usado para dar un servicio, típicamente aplicaciones web. Así añade una cláusula nueva (sección 2(d)): la obligación de distribuir el software si éste se ejecuta para ofrecer servicios a través de una red de ordenadores.

La Free Software Foundation recomienda que el uso de la GNU AGPL v3 sea considerado para cualquier software que usualmente corra sobre una red. La Open Source Initiative aprobó la GNU AGPLv3 como una licencia libre en marzo del 2008.

Este mecanismo no asegura que la Web sea libre, puesto que sólo se encarga del software que provee la interfaz y no el de los servidores ni establece que se pueda acceder libremente a la gestión organizativa del sitio web ni que utilice protocolos abiertos y formatos abiertos, ni que el contenido sea libre, pero asegura que se puede hacer una instalación idéntica sobre otras máquinas del software que se está corriendo sobre la web social que estamos utilizando.

Objectives

The objectives of this project follow two routes:

• to contribute in the projects of free social software or to create them if they doesn't exist yet

And, in a second temporary place:

• to create a domestic platform of free hardware where these services are working of decentralized and common form

Call for contributions

This is a call to hackers, freedom activists, free software, culture and knowledge comunity and their organizations for release of tools for creation and social interaction in software and hardware.

Development branches

• Service of Videos in Web (Alternative to YouTube)
• Service of Pictures in Web (Alternative to Flickr)
• Service of Search Engine (Alternative to Google Search)
• Service of Maps in Web (Alternative to Google Maps)
• Service of email in Web (Alternative to GMail)
• Service of activation of blogs (Alternative to Blogger)
• Service of social Bookmarks (Alternative to Del.icio.us)

External links