Funny that half the comments so far are people linking to their own projects in this space. Yep, me too. Try a demo: https://demo.sandstorm.io/demo And here's the code: https://github.com/sandstorm-io/sandstorm
Own your own data
31–40 of 45 posts
Re: Own your own data
#32I've spent the last 3 years in this space[1]. 2 of those were with a fellowship from the Shuttleworth Foundation[2]. I applaud all the efforts to free up and decentralize data. I believe it's the future but the way we're approaching it is making that a very distant future. My suggestions are simple. Data ownership will not be solved by technology. Focus and practice on framing the solution in a way that people connec…
> Data ownership will not be solved by technology.
Yes, it might sound disturbing to many, but I'm afraid this is an area which could possibly be push forward massively only by some major government regulation kicking in. In a data-driven economy we live in it would be naive to expect companies to be interested in giving up on user data.
Re: Own your own data
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "Data ownership will not be solved by technology" I would say 'data ownership will not be solved by technology alone '. I think it's completely wrong to think we can deal with any of the data ownership issues without understanding how the current technology got us here and what new technologies we need. However, I do agree that throwing some tech out there and expecting it to take off is not going to happen. There…
I agree with that. I think the technology is the easy part. If we knew there was demand for a specific solution then there are plenty of folks who can build it. In fact I think we have built the technology on numerous occasions (i.e. Diaspora, OpenPhoto/Trovebox, OwnCloud, etc.) --- finding the market, describing it in a way that connects with people and being at the right spot at the right time are the difficult par…
I disagree. The technology needs to be fundamentally different before we can have viable, distributed, alternatives.
We've had crypto for a while and yet nobody encrypts their email by default (or even shares keys). We've had the option to self-host for a long time but few people do. Why? IMHO it's because doing any of these things means you have to become a sysadmin to some degree. Very few people will put up with that for long.
There need to be tools which solve the fundamental (and common) problems of creating distributed systems/applications -- identity, connectivity/sync, deployment. With those tools, new and robust alternatives can be built with the end-user at the centre of their network. Without those new tools, we're simply using band-aids.
Re: Own your own data
#34Owning your own data sounds good. Unfortunately, once you share a piece of data, it's out there forever. What we all need is to have our own personal servers that validate tokens. Then we would just give out these one-time use tokens to people or institutions. Does the bank need a SSN? Well, here is an auto-generated token. Bank stores that, but to validate it, it calls your personal little server, which checks for u…
The US use of SSN seems strange to me, given that the UK equivalent ("NI", national insurance number) isn't nearly as commonly asked for. You need to give it to your employer and sometimes your bank and that's it. Healthcare has its own numbering system, but I've no idea what mine is and it's been years since I needed it for anything.
Re: Own your own data
#35This space is not easy to penetrate. VCs are not interested because there is no easy short term money in it. Large companies are not interested because they would like something with market traction (impressive prototype stage) to buy. Developers who are in this space know well that this requires way more money than you can raise from Kickstarter. It would be great if all of the people who posted on this page did a g…
Perhaps I don't have enough karma to message directly, but can't see a way to send messages inside HN. Can you provide a way to contact you?
Re: Own your own data
#36This, or something like this, is my best guess at dealing with the "loss" of privacy. THere are some exciting ideas coming out of (of all places) UK local government, looking at ways to tame the crazy number of proprietary apps that think they should own the database at the centre of their world - simply by forcing the data into the app then back again.
Can you provide a reference to, or a better description of the 'ideas coming out of UK local government' please?
Re: Own your own data
#37My proposal in this space is unique: decentralized AND built on an existing protocol, email! See: http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=76 You don't even need special software to set it up. Standard email autoresponder features make it work (see my demo).
I thought about using smartphones for this kind of thing. They are always online, like a web-server. Also, everyone can install an app.
A server which runs on a smartphone and holds all your data and only friends and services you like, get that data.
The biggest problem would be traffic, I guess, but it could probably be minimized with sending only deltas and p2p-meshs.
This system could use a web-api to integrate better into current landscape.
Re: Own your own data
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with that. I think the technology is the easy part. If we knew there was demand for a specific solution then there are plenty of folks who can build it. In fact I think we have built the technology on numerous occasions (i.e. Diaspora, OpenPhoto/Trovebox, OwnCloud, etc.) --- finding the market, describing it in a way that connects with people and being at the right spot at the right time are the difficult par…
I disagree. The technology needs to be fundamentally different before we can have viable, distributed, alternatives. We've had crypto for a while and yet nobody encrypts their email by default (or even shares keys). We've had the option to self-host for a long time but few people do. Why? IMHO it's because doing any of these things means you have to become a sysadmin to some degree. Very few people will put up with t…
> Why? IMHO it's because doing any of these things means you have to become a sysadmin to some degree
I long wished that the App Store model could/would be applied to server stuff.
Imagine the following scenario:
- Buy a Mac Mini (or whatever Airport Server or enhanced Time Capsule)
- get Mail Server.app/Calendar Server.app from the App Store
- have a couple dialogs which configure the sandboxed app with DNS details as provided by DNS provider (which configures a full-blown imap+smtp server, and the remote access) and possibly my email details as provided by my email provider (which configures a fetcher and a smarthost instead)
- physically authorize user devices to accounts via NFC or BT LE/iBeacon. No login/password shingamajig needed! account creation/mapping on the spot!
- download boatloads of personal services from blog to photo management to microblogging to instant messenging to Gitlab to Tor node to whatever innovation came by, some possibly communicating in a decentralized way, possibly without even a need for a DNS record (global zeroconf, DHT, alt DNS, onion routing).
If I can do it with a few debconf-set-selection on dovecot and postfix (plus a few API calls on Gandi to set MX, SPF and whatnot), there's no reason it can't be done automatically for everyone. Of course this is not meant to serve medium to big enterprises (for which the options that actually prevent complete automation exist), but individuals and SOHO really don't need much. People used to think setting up a PC and all its individual apps was a needlessly complicated and/or boring affair (and it was!), now we have built them trivial management. There's no reason our servers could not be treated the same, we just have to stop thinking about the 'old ways' and start with an open mind. I just want you to realise that we tech folks have been doing this for years already just like we did set up and fix computers for everyone for years and we don't have to any more (or way less) thanks to iOS, and Android but also Mac App Store, and soon Chrome Store and Windows Store.
It's a huge endeavor and opportunity to bring such a platform to market, at the right time, with the right pitch, but it has happened before, just on the client-side of things.
Re: Own your own data
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree. The technology needs to be fundamentally different before we can have viable, distributed, alternatives. We've had crypto for a while and yet nobody encrypts their email by default (or even shares keys). We've had the option to self-host for a long time but few people do. Why? IMHO it's because doing any of these things means you have to become a sysadmin to some degree. Very few people will put up with t…
> Why? IMHO it's because doing any of these things means you have to become a sysadmin to some degree I long wished that the App Store model could/would be applied to server stuff. Imagine the following scenario: - Buy a Mac Mini (or whatever Airport Server or enhanced Time Capsule) - get Mail Server.app/Calendar Server.app from the App Store - have a couple dialogs which configure the sandboxed app with DNS details…
From what I understand, a NAS box from Synology actually provides one of the closest experiences to that ideal. It comes with a Package Center[1], which is like an App Store for server applications, and like Android it can install from the standard source or from manually added repositories.
Then you get a panel to configure the new application, usually in a consumer-friendly way, like this iTunes Server[2].
[1] https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/tutorials/500
[2] https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/app_packages/iTunesServer...
Re: Own your own data
#40One thing that is missing from most homes is symmetrical internet access. As long as most people can download data significantly faster than upload them, data hosted in the cloud has advantages. Ideally eventually internet connections would become symmetric and fast enough for everyone to have their own low power server with a static ipv6 address at home, with which they can sync all their data. Of course this does not solve the problem that most sever software has complicated configuration and open source alternatives often lack the polish of commercial products. But as soon as there is a switch to ipv6 and symmetric internet access, I see little reason why a decentralized solution would not win.