Danny Haidar

The social purpose of Debian is important: it provides a free and open software ecosystem which respects user freedom. Debian's ecosystem is so rich, reliable, and privacy-respecting that it is often used as the building material of other distributions. How can we promote this vision of technology in society more broadly? As individuals, we insist on integrating software freedom into our lives by using Debian. Many of us even try to offer software freedom to our friends and family. But what if we want to advocate for software freedom for our entire society or government? Changing laws, policies, and social norms is not easy, but it is an essential component of any social movement. Join this session to learn how Debian’s social purpose can be complemented by advocacy in law, policy, and society. You will hear from the CTO of India’s premiere digital liberties organization, SFLC.IN, which has worked on India’s IT policy at the national level, and a representative of the Software Freedom Law Center and the FreedomBox Foundation. This session welcomes people with any level of experience fighting for change. If you come to this session with lots of experience, then we hope that you’ll share it with others. Come to this session if you want to learn about the general ways in which you can advocate for software freedom in your society. Though we won’t give you concrete advice about what you should do next, we hope to give you a clear idea about your options.

From chats apps to cloud storage, the dominant cloud-based services are designed to be walled gardens: they prohibit inter-operation with other platforms, they control the flow of your data, and they use network effects to lock you in. Big tech companies have used this “walled garden” business model to concentrate market control, leaving consumers with fewer and fewer real options. In the United States, antitrust law hasn’t yet succeeded in stopping the concentration of power. But users want a new way to compute in the cloud: one that is free, open, trustworthy, and empowering. What should you do while the law catches up with technology? Free yourself from big tech using grassroots technology. Enter FreedomBox. FreedomBox is Debian’s home server system: it is a Debian pure blend designed to make it easy for anyone to host their own server on inexpensive, pocket-sized computer hardware. FreedomBox is designed around the principle that the exploitation of user data and attention should be technologically impossible. Its simple user interface empowers individuals to host their own Internet services without technical expertise, like an encrypted chat server that can replace Whatsapp, a VoIP server, a personal website, file sharing, a metasearch engine, and much more. In April 2019, sales of the first-ever commercial FreedomBox product were launched. The product, dubbed a “Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server Kit,” is being sold by Olimex, a company which specializes in Open Source Hardware. In this talk, you will learn about big tech’s concentration of market control, how it effects users who rely on cloud services, and why antitrust law hasn’t succeeded in protecting consumers against this threat. Next, you will learn why Debian’s world-class software ecosystem should provide the alternative to big tech. Last, you will learn how FreedomBox uses Debian to empower people to leave big tech platforms. This session is targeted at a general audience who is interested in big tech and the cloud. No prior technical knowledge is required.

Our technological prowess can defend democracy or destroy it. In 2016, the world got an indication of the direction in which we are headed. But it’s not too late to change course. The change starts with the Web’s infrastructure. In this session, Danny explains how the modern Web threatens democracy, why we must decentralize the Web using technology like FreedomBox, and what you can do today. In 2010, the FreedomBox project was launched. After nine years, it has arrived to help you save the day. But FreedomBox itself won’t save the day. You will. How? Join this session to learn.

This meetup welcomes all members of the FreedomBox community and anyone who wants to learn more! FreedomBox is a private server system that empowers regular people to host their own internet services, like a VPN, a personal website, file sharing, encrypted messengers, a VoIP server, a metasearch engine, and much more. It is designed to be secure, flexible, and simple. FreedomBox builds freedom into the internet by putting you in control of your activity and data on the net.

The FreedomBox software ecosystem is actively developed by a global community of contributors. Though we always welcome new contributors, many of our developers have been working on FreedomBox for years. Their expertise and steady contributions have grown FreedomBox into a flourishing software ecosystem. The community releases new versions of FreedomBox approximately once every two weeks, which usually include patches, new features, and UI updates. At freedombox.org, the latest version of the FreedomBox software is available for download for free. You can also find a video explaining how to set up a FreedomBox on the FreedomBox website, and you can learn more about the non-profit behind the project by going to freedomboxfoundation.org.

The rise of cloud computing in the 2010’s accelerated a process that had been going on since the dot-com boom: the centralization of the internet. In February 2010, Eben Moglen predicted the wide-scale data-mining brought about by the centralization of our network infrastructure and launched the FreedomBox project. In the eight years since, FreedomBox has become a device that can decentralize the web one box at a time. Join this session to learn about FreedomBox’s approach to decentralization and the importance of three elements of its design: hardware neutrality, software freedom, and user interface.

In this 15-minute session, I will lecture for the full 15 minutes. I will discuss the FreedomBox project, the role of hardware neutrality in the FreedomBox project, and the role of user interface in the FreedomBox project.

FreedomBox is an immensely flexible and secure private server system that builds freedom into the internet by empowering regular people to host their own internet services, like encrypted messengers, a VoIP server, websites, VPN, a metasearch engine, and much more. To that end, it couples a free software system with always-on, inexpensive, and power-efficient hardware about the size of a pocket dictionary. The hardware is a single-board computer that costs about 60 USD and offers the computing power of a smart phone in a case about the size of a deck of cards. The software is a 100% free and open source system available for download at no cost preloaded with many useful apps and tools designed to protect your freedom, privacy, and user rights. These private servers are designed to create and protect freedom on the internet using a bundle of software packed inside one small, inexpensive box: a FreedomBox.