I'm having a meeting with Arcspace tomorrow about the possibility of locating a server or two there to host decentralised services for people who want them in Manchester.
I don't know whether this will be possible (Arcspace may not be suitable), what the costs would be, or how much demand there is, but some people have asked me about where to get email / IM / Diaspora hosting from and in the Freedombox model having a local server connected to its users via a network of trust could be interesting. Basically I'm trying to find ways to start spreading the Freedombox concept *now*, and not waiting until we have a perfect Grandad-friendly UI.
If anyone wants to come along, or has ideas or concerns that they'd like me to raise (or just think about) let me know ASAP.
Meeting is at Kim By The Sea at 16.00 tomorrow (Tue 18th Oct).
Thanks,
Sam.
On Monday 17 October 2011 16:18:00 Sam Tuke wrote:
I'm having a meeting with Arcspace tomorrow about the possibility of locating a server or two there to host decentralised services for people who want them in Manchester.
I had this meeting today (Vicky was ill yesterday). I suggest that we make this primary subject of our next Fellowship meeting (on the 27th).
Here is the outcome of the meeting:
- Arcspace is very happy to house the Freedombox(es) - Arcspace do not want payment for using their facilities (power, Internet etc.) unless the project starts to make a profit, in which case they would like a percentage as they are struggling to pay the rent - Arcspace currently has a free of charge 80mbit internet connection which the fbox(es) would be using - Arcspace will be getting a 100mbit (guaranteed) fibre optic connection soon, but there may be charges, in which case we may not be able to use it - Sheridan, sysadmin at Arcspace, believes that their existing connection is reliable enough for email hosting - Service outages occur "more than once per year, less than once per month, never for more than 1/2 an hour" - Arcspace is/will be involved with a project installing GNU/Linux machines in the homes of the elderly in Manchester, and this could provide a very good opportunity for 'marketing' the Freedombox services and getting new users - We can set up the Freedombox at Arcspace and start hosting whenever we like - Vicky Sinclair (manager at Arcspace) has contacts with expertise on potential liability issues of hosting these services for the public
So, we need to make some decisions about:
- what services we would provide - what we would charge for them - how many users would be interested in using these services, and how we would reach them - where the money will come from to buy the first Freedombox - how we will restrict / monitor bandwidth use to keep the project viable - how we will monitor general service availability to keep users notified of any downtime - other issues that I haven't thought of...
Feel free to start discussion here on the list :)
Sam.