3.3 KiB
Digital freedom
#&summary A discussion about digital freedom in general. #&
#&+classes=warning This is a work in progress (more so than my other articles). #&
Concepts
(Currently mostly about social networking.)
I like to follow this rule: When I create something substantial which I want to share, I host it myself. But why? Because I don't want to depend on something which I cannot control or strongly influence.
A decentralized social network must be widespread for people to be able to share private data with a select few, i.e. the select few must be used to using the decentralized network.
The difficulty of leaving a service is determined by the complexity of the social features of the service.
I only host my own works somewhere else than on my own host if I feel that I have a social obligation to do so, or if it's a link that points out of the service. I don't mind if what Facebook ends up being is the new digg.
The more difficult it is to leave a service, the more I feel I have a social obligation to host my works on the service. However, the more difficult it is to leave a service, the more I also feel that I have a moral obligation to not host my works on the service.
I don't wish to host substantial works, even public ones, on e.g. Facebook. Not because Facebook gets to know them (I have made sure I don't mind them being public), but because I use a service which I don't like, and that may fuel the use in general, especially for my friends. As such, it doesn't matter what I publish on the service, it will no matter what (in varying degrees) accelerate the use of the service, which I do not want to happen.
In general, it's a balance. I try not to make others depend on Facebook because of me; I do that by not uploading large photo galleries to Facebook. However, photo galleries on Facebook have quite complex features.
Hardware freedom links (different views)
- https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/criteria
- https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html
- https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/android-and-users-freedom.html
- http://projects.goldelico.com/p/gta04-main/page/FirmwareInjector/?rev=322
- http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/blog/2007/08/the_four_freedoms_applied_to_h.html
- http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/19/intel-drm-a-crippled.html
- http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/pipermail/discussion/2010-January/001635.html
- http://www.ofb.biz/safari/article/353.html
- http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2006/12/8428.ars
- http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20100614#feature
- http://libreplanet.org/wiki/When_should_firmware_be_free
- http://www.datamation.com/osrc/article.php/3787736/Proprietary-Firmware-and-the-Pursuit-of-a-Free-Kernel.htm
- https://lwn.net/Articles/352555/
- https://lwn.net/Articles/460654/
- http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner/2011-October/000375.html
- http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner/2011-September/000325.html
I think hardware design freedom is as important as software freedom because of the same reasons I think free software is important. The fact that modifying hardware is much more difficult than modifying software is irrelevant as the ability to do so it still useful, and as gaining the knowledge behind a design is also still useful.