46 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
46 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: '**Grow Your Own Network**'
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---
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**We envision a world where communities build, maintain, and own their
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own share of the global computer network. Free networks, when properly
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engineered, offer their users both a greater say in the governance of
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their network, and more privacy in their communications. Being your own
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service provider is the only way to make sure that your service provider
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treats you right. We call this the principle of digital
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self-determination, and have designed, prototyped and test deployed a
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suite of network appliances that will facilitate the realization of this
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principle.**\
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\
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The free software community has developed a wide variety of software
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components to address various network related challenges. Americans For
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A Better Network, working with members of the community, is looking to
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take those components and deliver a turnkey, self-administered
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networking solution that will allow for cascading self-governance on
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local, regional and global scales.\
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\
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Paired with a cooperative network management suite and integrated
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cryptosystem, our tools will allow for the rapid, simple construction of
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cooperative autonomous systems, with end-to-end encryption enabled by
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default.\
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\
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The entire suite is designed to be deployed using the principle of
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emergence --- meaning that it can be organized in a way that is
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bottom-up, top-down or middle-out. We call the network appliances
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FreedomNode, FreedomTower, and FreedomLink. The management suite is
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called AutoNOC, and the transparent cryptosystem is AutoTunnel.\
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\
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In addition to radically increasing network resilience, reducing the
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price of connectivity, and making networks more responsive to the needs
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of their participants, free network architectures will allow for
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groundbreaking localized applications of network technology. The uses of
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this technology are myriad, and the need is ubiquitous -- anywhere in
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the world, the capacity for self-reliance and self-determination would
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be enhanced by the emergence of a free network. Inverting the power
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structure of our networks is bound to take a while, and we are still in
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the very beginning, but no idea holds greater liberating potential than
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this: computer networks should be funded, built, and maintained by those
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that use them.
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