Freedom Box Project

Inspired by Eben Moglen's vision of a small, cheap and simple computer that serves freedom in the home, we are building a Debian-based platform for distributed applications.

There are a number of projects working to realize a future of distributed services; we aim to bring them all together in a convenient package.

Freedom Box is about gathering the software on inexpensive hardware to give people their freedom back through aggregation and transition of cloud services to friend to friend services.

Freedom Box is about:

• privacy
• control
• ease of use
• dehierarchicalization

1. Resources

• Alioth project: https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/

2. Vision Statement

We live in a world where our use of the network is mediated by organizations that often do not have our best interests at heart. By building software that does not rely on a central service, we can regain control and privacy. By keeping our data in our homes, we gain useful legal protections over it.

In order to bring about the new network order, it is paramount that it is easy to convert to it. The hardware it runs on must be cheap. The software it runs on must be easy to install and admimistrate by anybody. It must be easy to transition from existing services.

We are working to build these systems; it is merely a small matter of programming.

• enable people to reclaim their privacy and control of their data
• return to the peer to peer nature of the net (vs. tendency towards hierarchical organization)
• making a consumer product
• easy to use for everyone (pre-installed, easily configured, easily restored)
• inexpensive (dirt cheap)
• use at home (NOTE: legal significance of 4th amendment context)
• smooth transition from cloud services (e.g. social networks)
• secure routing
• generic and configurable
• extensible
• want hardware makers to be enthusiastic about the project

3. Links

• Eben's NYU Freedom in the cloud talk:

  • Video with high download bandwith: http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1338

  • Video: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/08/audio-and-video-eben-moglens-talk-freedom-cloud-no/

  • Text highlights: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/10/highlights-eben-moglens-freedom-cloud-talk/

  • Related interview: http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Interview-Eben-Moglen-Freedom-vs-the-Cloud-Log-955421.html

• Eben's ?LibrePlanet talk: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/lp2010-moglen-state-of-free-sw

• Eben's Debconf10 Silver lining in the cloud talk

4. Example projects

• ReadyNAS

• Asterisk (appliances, live CD's)

• Aegir (Drupal-based control panel)

• Free Telephony project

• Seeks Project

• GNU social

• diaspora

• ?SmoothWall, IP Cop

• OpenWRT

• OpenMediaVault

• SPACE service platform for distributable services, with (KDE) desktop integration and (Eucalyptus) cloud backend

• ownCloud, data storage project from the wider KDE community

5. Done

• FreedomBox wiki

• DebConf BoF Friday 9:30am 414 Schapiro

  • gobby notes: dc10-freedombox.txt

  • http://doodle.com/8kwnst8phia4h4a5

• Alioth project (https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/)

• IRC channel created on OFTC #freedombox irc://irc.oftc.net/#freedombox

6. ToDo

• Vision stmt
• What we need
• What we have
• How to contribute
• Who else is doing similar stuff
• Add links/references

7. Areas

• project management tool
• installer
• UI
• config
• telephony
• mail
• hardware support

8. Issues

• How is each box discovered and identified?
  • Need some way of finding your mates Most ISPs provide dynamic IPs. Would need to reply on external dynamic DNS service. (everyone ele's Freedom boxes?)
• Upstream bandwidth
  • Very limited with typcial ADSL connections. How much of a problem is that if people keep downling photos from it whilst you try to use the net?
• Mail
  • If the box does mail then spam is a problem. Running spamassassin dramitically increases resource requirements on box Collective spam processing is effective because it is easy to identify mass-mailing. Would need to do this in distributed manner (razor-style?)
• Identity management
  • Important to be able to identify yourself on various services so you know email and facebook and whatever IDs are all you, and should refer back to this FB for authentication. How do we do it? Is it needed in order to realise that an email addy is freedom-able and so signing/encryption can be used? Multiple identities needed e.g for two sites (e.g. home+college) or ID for FB and ID for mobile phone?
• Two boxes in one building (son brings FB home from college)

9. Target Hardware

• ?SheevaPlug/GuruPlug

  • Latter has WiFi and can act as an access point; both have heat problems.

• OpenRD

  • Same hardware platform as the ?SheevaPlug, more flexible and more expensive

• NSLU2
  • Discontinued?

• Fonera 2.0n

  • Slow and very limited memory (64MB)