Libre Texting: A Collaborative Initiative

And a Reference Implementation

AVAILABLE FORMATS

• PDF: -- 368K -- Provides the document in Portable Document Format.
• PS: -- 5.3M -- Provides the document in Postscript format for printing.
• HTML: -- 412K -- Displays the document as a web page.

AVAILABLE OTHER FORMS

• main.ttytex.pdf: -- -- .

SHORT DESCRIPTION

This project proposes Libre Texting: a new incarnation of the Mobile Email/Wireless Texting (henceforth ``Texting'') medium, based on the Free Software ideology. Today the Texting industry is dominated by the proprietary, walled garden model. Libre Texting aims to provide equivalent functionality to existing proprietary Texting solutions such as BlackBerry, but (a) based entirely on patent-free protocols and free software, (b) using any mobile Internet device, (c) wherever any type of wireless Internet connectivity is available. The proposed approach comprises five elements: (1) the inherent propagative power of the Free Software and end-to-end models, (2) an overlay network architecture, (3) a new set of messaging protocols, (4) a novel software architecture for Message Transfer Agent integration, and (5) a new software architecture for multiform device integration, based on Device-Resident End-MTA middleware. The proposed technology is highly synergistic with current industry dynamics, including: burgeoning recognition of the power of FOSS, ready availability of Linux-based mobile devices, and widespread Wi-Fi availability. Existing email protocols lack push-mode delivery, and bandwidth and power efficiency; the proposed new protocol profile corrects these shortcomings. The proposed research is to determine feasibility of all critical elements of this approach at large scale.