Copyright © 2011 ByStar

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Contents

List of Figures

Preface

Hello, Salaam.

My name is Mohsen BANAN.

I am a Software Engineer.

I offer you these thoughts as part of the Internet Engineering Profession’s responsibility to Society and Humanity.

I solicit your feedback and welcome your comments.

The title of this presentation is xxxx.

With your comments and feedback you can reach me at: contact or email me at feedback@mohsen.1.banan.byname.net.

About This Document

This document is web published as PLPC-180011 at: http://www.by-star.net/PLPC/180011.

It is available in PDF Article format at: http://www.by-star.net/PLPC/180011/articleEn.pdf

It is available in PDF Presentation format at: http://www.by-star.net/PLPC/180011/articleEn.pdf

This document is also available in Farsi/Persian.

French and Arabic translations are in the works.

Part I
Ills and Contours of the Cure

1 Problem: Dominance of Internet By Large Corporations

1.1 Deal Made: Free-of-Charge Service - Targeted Advertising

Free-of-Charge People Got:

Email (Personal Messages) Calendar, Address Book, ... Content Publication Facebook Webpage & “Friends”

American Corporations Got:

Semantic Analysis of Email Spying with consent Logs and Trail Analysis Behavior Cross References

1.2 Ramifications Of The Deal

• A New Currency Has Been Created: Personal Information, Privacy, Autonomy
• An Established Business Model that Translates Personal Information into Targeted Advertising
• The Debit Side of this New Currency is Humanity
• Americans got there with no discussion of long term social consequences. No discussion of Sociology, Social Psychology, Morality.
• Mr. Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook) Has Done More Harm To The Human Race Than Anybody Else His Age.
• And He Was Celebrated As “Person Of The Year” (Time Magazine).
• America is mostly an Economic Society.
• And now this American Disease is spreading through out the world.

1.3 Internet Application Services Today: Ill Directed

Internet Application Services Today: Ill Directed  

• The wrong model: proprietary, owned and controlled
  • Ownership oriented to the Service Provider
  • Non-transparent software
  • User information owned and controlled by the proprietary Service Provider
• Structurally incoherent
  • Ad hoc: no overarching engineering design
  • Driven by short-term business expedience and profit
  • Functionally uncoordinated

1.4 Causes For Concern

• Networks are societal resources and their usage model must not be left to free markets and business.
• The Internet is today controlled by large corporations, and critical civil liberties are being compromised.
• Current Copyright and Patent laws are in conflict with nature and are harming humanity.
• As first generation engineers we have a responsibility to safeguard the societal welfare.

The goal of this project is to:

2 Solution: Autonomous Libre Services

2.1 We Need To Be Very Multi-Dimensional and Inter-Disciplinary

We Need To Consider Ramifications Of:

2.2 General Contours Of The Cure

• The Full Scope of Internet Services: Star “*” in ByStar means everything
• Fully Libre: Complete rejection of so-called Western IPR
• Autonomous When Possible – Usually End-To-End
• Federated Based on Autonomous – Central only when required

2.3 A Model Inversion: From Industrial to Convivial

   

We Are Proposing:

2.4 Our Goal

• Full Spectrum Internet Services: Functionally Equivalent to What Exists hotmail, yahoo mail, google mail – Facebook, Linkedin – youtube, search
• Full Software Service Continuum – (Service, Desktop, Notebook, Handheld)
• Focused on User Autonomy and Privacy
• Purely Based on Libre Software
• A New Radical Model but Fully Evolutionary

This We call:

3 What Are ByStar Libre Services

3.1 Libre Services: A non-proprietary Model

Libre Services: A non-proprietary Model for delivery of Internet services  

3.2 From Free Software To Libre Services

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3.3 From Software Wars To Service Wars

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4 Challenges of the Libre Services Model

4.1 Model’s Track Record and Limitations

We have won the Free Software battle Proprietary Software Already Lost We Demonstrated Two Things:

1. Model: Free/Libre is Superior to Proprietary
2. Implementation: GNU/Linux is Superior to Windows (More Convivial)

But Now The Game Has Changed – Software has mostly become Service.

4.2 What Is ByStar

• By* is a coherent framework for enabling complex interactions among people, businesses and information.
  • Small and Medium Businesses: ForSMB.net Individuals:
  • ByName.net, ByAlias.net, ByMemory
  • Places and Events: ByWhere.net, ByEvent.net
  • Information: ByTopic.org
  • For Interactions: ByInteraction.net

4.3 Layering of Concepts and Results

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5 Roadmap

• Language, Definitions, Models and Concepts
• ByStar Federation of Autonomous Libre Services
• Joining ByStar, Obtaining ByStar Software and Using ByStar
• Engineering Design of ByStar
• ByStar Vertical Slices (Feature Families)
• Economic and Business Dimensions of ByStar
• Societal, Inter-Societal, Social and Legal Ramifications
• Collaborative and Guardianship Framework

Part II
Language, Definitions, Models and Concepts

6 Concepts and Definitions Summary

• Globish vs English
• Libre Vs Free
• Libre Services
• Autonomous Libre Services
• Federation of Autonomous Libre Services
• Nature of Poly-Existentials
• The Non-Proprietary, For-Profit Quadrant
• Tools For Conviviality
• Responsibilities of Professions and Health of Society
• Societal End-To-End Argument vs Rise of the Middle
• Rejection of Americanism, East vs West
• Halaal and Haraam

7 Some Vocabulary

7.1 Language: Globish, Not American or British English

• The Audience for these concepts is global (Chinese, Iranians, Brazilians, Europeans and also Americans)
• ByStar belongs to Humanity – Not Any Particular Society (In contrast to Facebook, Linkedin, Google, MSN, ...)
• This is in Globish – A limited sub-set of English that has already forked off from American/British English)
• Examples: Libre and Gratis (Not Free), Convivial, Halaal

7.2 Definition: Free / Libre

In English ”Free” is ambiguous:

1. Free can mean Libre: free as in freedom of action
2. Free can mean Gratis: free as in zero monetary cost

English/Globish needs the word ”Libre”.

In this document, we generally avoid the word free.

In compound usage (e.g., Free Software), When we say ”free” we will always mean Libre:

7.3 Nature Of Poly-Existentials

• So Called Western IPR is in conflict with Nature
• What Are Poly-Existentials:
• Multi-Possessabilty
• Ownership is a one-to-one relationship
• An Ownership Mistake With Ramifications Broader than Slavery
• Pointer to PLPC – Full title in box

8 Some Definitional Criteria

8.1 Libre Services: Definitional Criteria

1. The service must consist entirely of open-source & free software components
2. The service must be based entirely on patent-free protocols
3. The integration software must consist entirely of free software

Hence the entire service is reproducible and modifiable based on access to source code

8.2 Autonomous Libre Services

8.2.1 Autonomous Libre Services: Definitional Criteria

1. Service Transparency – Libre Services: Definitional Criteria
2. Service Portability – Libre Services: Definitional Criteria
3. Data Portability (from hosting/provider to hosting/provider)
4. Non-Retention of Data (by host/provider)
5. End-To-End Non-Restrictivity

8.2.2 Autonomous Libre Services: Degrees of Trust and Autonomy

• User Owned – Provider Managed
  • Libre Shared Hosting Subscriber SLA, AUP
  • Libre Shared Hosting Advertisment SLA, AUP
• User Owned – User Managed
  • Libre Center Co-location / Dedicated Hosting
  • Cloud Based Hosting
  • At User Premise – your own machine and dedicated IP Address

While All Is Supported, The Guarantee of “At User Premise” option should always be maintained.

8.2.3 ByStar Autonomous Libre Services

• Individual (Named, Living) – ByName.com - ByName.net
• Individual (Alias, Living) – ByAlias.com - ByAlias.net
• Individual (Minor) – ByFamily.com, ByFamily.net
• Individual (Named, Deceased) – ByMemory.com - ByMemory.net
• Individual (Information) – ByAuthor.net, ByAuthor.com

• Families – ByFamily.com, ByFamily.net

• Small/Medium Businesses – BySMB.net, ForSMB.net Domain is usually redirected to business’s domain

• Locations: ByWhere.net

All of These ByStar Autonomous Services are available as Shared Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Colocation and ByStar Appliances.

8.3 Federated Libre Services

8.3.1 Federated Libre Services: Definitional Criteria

1. Service Transparency – Libre Services: Definitional Criteria
2. Service Portability – Libre Services: Definitional Criteria
3. Public Data Designated By Autonomous Libre Service
4. Safeguards of Private Data and Non-Retention of Data on command
5. Logs confidentiality and transparency
6. Based on Facilitation of End-To-End Interactions

8.3.2 Types Of Federated Libre Services

• Content Republishers
  • Proprietary Examples: Youtube
  • ByStar Domains: ByTopic.org, ByContent.org
• Collaborative Content Production
  • Existing Examples: Wikipedia, sourceforge, Ancestry.com
  • ByStar Domains: BySource.org, ByBinary.org, ByAuthor, ByFamily.com (genealogy)
• Personal Interaction Facilitators
  • Proprietary Examples: Facebook, Likedin, eharmoney, Yahoo!Dating
  • ByStar Domains: ByInteractions
• Trade Facilitators
  • Proprietary Examples: Craigslist, ebay, Amazon
  • ByStar Domains: ByInteractions
• Search Engines
  • Proprietary Examples: Google, Bing
  • ByStar Domains:

9 Some Modeling Concepts

9.1 Operation in the For-Profit and Non-Proprietary Quadrant

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9.2 Software - Service Continuum – Where Proprietary Looses

9.2.1 Protocols Hour Glass – Note Convergence in the Middle

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9.2.2 ByStar Hour Glass – Importance of Convergence in the Middle

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9.2.3 Service, Desktop, Laptop, PDA Continuum Libre everywhere

• Consistent OS: Linux everywhere
• Consistent GUI: Gnome everywhere
• Consistent Applications: Emacs, ... everywhere

Deep, Broad and Consistent Integration through Free Software and Libre Services

9.3 Societal End-To-End Argument vs Rise of the Middle

• Interactions Amongst People/Businesses and Information Could Be:
  1. Direct – End-to-End
  2. Central – Middle-Controlled
• End-To-End vs Middle-Controlled Architectures have both Engineering and Societal Ramifications
• Today’s Industrial Internet Application Services are generally Central and Middle-Controlled.
• The Convivial ByStar Libre Services are generally End-To-End and Middle-Light.
• The End-To-End model is Autonomy and Privacy Friendly
• The Middle-Controlled model is Hostile to Autonomy and Privacy

9.4 The Engineering End-To-End Argument

• End-to-end Arguments in System Design http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endtoend/endtoend.pdf
• Rethinking the design of the Internet: The end to end arguments vs. the brave new world http://www.csd.uoc.gr/y558/papers/Rethinking_2001.pdf
• The Rise of the Middle and the Future of End-to-End. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3724.txt
• Tools for Conviviality - Ivan Illich https://clevercycles.com/tools_for_conviviality

9.4.1 Engineering End-To-End Summary

9.4.2 ByStar End-To-End Philosophy

• Make Services Autonomous Whenever Possible (peer-to-peer oriented)
• Invest and Focus on End-to-End communications facilities amongst Autonomous Libre Services
• When a Federated Service functions as an intermediary, limit its role to the bare essential of hooking the two ends. Thereafter, communications can be end-to-end.

10 Some Societal Concepts

10.1 Ivan Illich’s Concept of Convivial Tools

10.1.1 Convivial Software

• Unix/GNU Vs Microsoft Windows
  • Unified file model, pipe, small dedicated progs, ...
• Emacs vs Vi
  • buffers, major-modes, minor-modes, key-maps, frames, windows, regions,
• qmail vs sendmail
  • complete separation of queuing and spooling from submission, delivery and protocols.

Enable the tool user to be creative and expressive

10.2 East vs West – Rejection of Americanism

• Global Scope – Can’t be dominated/dictated by Western Values
• East vs West Fundamental Distinctions:
  • East: More Society Oriented
  • West: More Individual Oriented – More Economically Driven

10.3 Responsibilities of Professions and Health of Society

• What Does “Profession” Mean? It also includes Societal Responsibility.

10.4 Halaal and Haraam – Ethics of Software and Service

• Halaal means Moral/Ethical – Okay to do/consume
• Haraam means Immoral/Unethical/Harmful – Should Not Be Done/Consumed

Defining Halaal Software/Internet Service:

1. Is A Perpetual Transparent Modifiable Poly-Existential – Equivalent of “Free Software”
2. Its Use Has Been Endorsed By The Engineering Profession
3. Its Use Has Not Been Prohibited By Ethicists (Sources of Emulation)

10.4.1 Halaal and Convivial Software Quadrant

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Part III
By* Federation of Autonomous Libre Services

11 ByStart Entities

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11.1 ByStar Registered Domains

Organizational Domains

neda.com – freeprotocols.org – by-star.net

Autonomous Domains

ByName.net ByName.com – ByAlias.net ByAlias.com – ByMemory.com ByMemory.net ByFamily.com ByFamily.net ByWhere.net

Federated Domains

BySource.org ByBinary.org – ByContent.net – ByTopic.net

11.2 Libre Services Supporting Organizations

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12 Libre Services Engine

• Rudimentary Manifestations
  • LAMP
    • Linux - Apache - MySQL - Perl/PHP/Python
  • Savannah and Savane
  • Wikipedia and Mediawiki
  • Can we do better than that?
    • Expand it
    • Formalize it
    • Make it be cumulative

12.1 By* Features and Capabilities

• A named entity domain - Owned by the entity
  • A public website: My Internet
  • An expanded website for friends: My Extranet
  • A private portal: My Intranet
• By* Libre Self-Publication Facility
• By* Libre Texting
• Email, e-fax, etc.
• Blog, photo gallery, GeneWeb, etc.

13 ByStar Appliances – Service As Software

• BACS Autonomous Appliances – Guaranteed Autonomy
• BISP Appliances
• ByStar User Environments – Blee on Debian and Ubuntu
• Re-Branding of ByStar

14 Where We Are Today

14.1 ByStar Services Current Status

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14.2 ByStar Instance Examples

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Part IV
Joining ByStar, Obtaining ByStar and Using ByStar

15 Interface Model of ByStar User Env and ByStar Services

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16 ByStar Libre Emacs Environment (BLEE) Model

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17 Try It On Your Own

By* Service Environment:

1- Create Your ByName Account http://www.ByName.Com 2- Receive Your Passwd In Email 3- Use It With A Browser

By* User Environment:

1- Get A Laptop/Desktop/Netbook 2- Install Debian or Ubuntu On It 3- Obtain and Run bystarGenesis.sh 4- Use the Acct/Pass from (SE-2) 5- Marry your BUE with your Service 6- Fireup Blee and Enjoy

17.1 Getting LSIP Scripts

Part V
Engineering Design of ByStar

18 ByStar Design Principles

18.1 General Nature of Under, At and Above Distro Activities

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18.2 The ByStar Over Distro Development Model

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18.3 Design Big, Implement Gradually

18.4 Main Design Principles

• Purity of Debian GNU/Linux Platform
• Linux Account is Central for Everything
• Virtual Domains for everything are tied to accounts
• Main Criteria For Component Selection is Conviviality
• On top of Debian, LSIP - ByStar - BUE Layering is generally rigid

18.5 Major Software Components

• Debian GNU/Linux
• Base: djbdns, daemontools, ucspi, multilog, ...
• Mail: qmail, courier, spamassassin, ezmlm, ...
• Web: apache, zope, plone, ...
• Misc: postgres, mysql, Interchange, ...
• Glue: Libre Services Integration Platform (LSIP)

19 Software To Service Aggregation

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20 By* Naming principles What Is ByStar

21 Libre Service Integration Platform

• How do you efficiently manage/administer/support a cluster of 20 or more Linux boxes?
• Consistency of software and system
• Consistent Tools
• Naturally enforced discipline
• Host and Site Abstraction

21.1 LSIP Features

• Persistent Host Abstraction
• - Profile Definitions Site Description
• - Multi-Site
• Support Software Components Consistency Framework Names and Address Administration
• Consistent Host Updates / Verification Service Provisioning Service Management Host/Site Monitoring

21.2 Design and Implementation Notes

Design and Implementation Notes

• Mostly implemented in bash/ksh scripts
• Consistent Administration of Software Components enforced through seed modules.
• Large Systems Administration Library
• Software Component Adoption Framework (lca)

21.3 LSIP Documentation

Part VI
ByStar Vertical Slices (Feature Families)

22 ByStar Vertical Slices

• Functionality’s that span
  • ByStar User Environment
  • ByStar Autonomous Libre Services
  • ByStar Federated Libre Services

22.1 List of Vertical Slices

• Primary Vertical Slices
  • Email / Messaging (qmail) ByStar Vertical Slice
  • CMS / Plone ByStar Vertical Slice
  • Self Publication Vertical Slice
  • Integrated Public Key Infrastructure
• Auxiliary Vertical Slices
  • Music (Audio) Vertical Slice
  • Photo / Video Gallery
  • Genealogy
  • eFax/Scanning Document Management Service
  • VoIP

23 ByStar Email / Messaging Vertical Slice

• qmail based
• Single Domain, Multi-Address. Multi-Mailbox Model
• Gnus under Blee
• embedded MTA on User Environment
• Libre Texting, Push Email
• NOTYET, qmail figures come after this.

23.1 qmail ByStar Server Architecture

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23.2 qmail ByStar User Agent Architecture

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24 CMS / Plone Vertical Slice

• ploneProc.sh

25 Self Publication Vertical Slice

• More Info at: http://www.neda.com/PLPC/110506
• Adopted Components: TeX, XeTeX, tex4ht, Plone
• ByStar Modules: lcntProc.sh, Libraries
• In Blee: Menu Supported
• Supporting Autonomous Services: ByName, ByAlias, ByMemory
• Supporting Federated Services: ByContent, ByTopic

25.1 ByStar Content Publication Model

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25.2 ByStar Content Publication Workflow

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25.3 ByStar Content Publication Architecture

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26 Auxiliary Vertical Slices

• ByStar Music
• ByStar Photo/Video Gallery
• ByStar Genealogy
• ByStar Fax/Scanning (Document Management System)
• ByStar VoIP

26.1 ByStar Music Vertical Slice

• Adopted Components: mpd, mpc, mplayer, emms
• ByStar Modules:
• In Blee: Menu Supported
• Supporting Autonomous Services: ByName, ByAlias, ByMemory
• Supporting Federated Services: ByContent

26.2 ByStar Music Vertical Slice

• Adopted Components: mpd, mpc, mplayer, emms
• ByStar Modules:
• In Blee: Menu Supported
• Supporting Autonomous Services: ByName, ByAlias, ByMemory, BySMB

Part VII
Economic and Business Dimensions of ByStar

27 The Libre Services Revenue Model

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27.1 ByStar Supply Chain Model

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28 Marketing Strategy

• On The Side of User
• Jusitsu

28.1 Marketing Messages (West and East)

United States, West – Key Marketing Messages

1. Autonomous Services vs Corp Owned Services
2. Convivial Model vs Industrial Model
3. Engineering vs Business
4. Libre vs IPR Regime
5. Preservation of Freedom, Privacy and Autonomy

East, Rest of the World – Key Marketing Messages

1. Societal Autonomy, Assertion of Sovereignty
2. Rejection of American Hegemony – Through the Libre Alternative

28.2 Marketing Strategy: Broad Philosophical Hell Raising

Rejection of Western Copyright and Patent Law:

Nature of Poly-Existentials Abolishment of the so-called Western IPR Regime PLPC-xxx

Preservation of Privacy and Autonomy:

Direct attack against proprietary competitors.

Public Sector Challenges:

Solicit Governmental Support.

28.3 Elevator Story

• Proprietary and Closed
• Disregard for Privacy and Autonomy

28.4 Our Principal Sustainable Advantage

Software engineers are best suited to lead this

Part VIII
Societal, Inter-Societal, Social and Legal Ramifications

29 Identifying the Tear Points – (1) East, (2) Software-Service Continuum

1. East – Conviviality, Halaal and Libre are more Eastern. The West is too deeply committed to IPR and pure economic models and self.
2. Software-Service Continuum – Transparent Software and Transparent Service permits continuity of Service and Software. This is where the proprietary model looses.

29.1 Proprietary Market Insignificance is Libre Opportunity – Eg: Perso-Arabic Script

• See Perso-Arabic Document

29.2 LSIP Copyleft License

Part IX
Framework For Participation, Collaboration and Guardianship

30 Collaborative Development Framework

• Working Together ...

31 The Collaborative Model From Concept To Service Delivery

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31.1 Spread The Word

• I don’t Own By* Libre Service – You Don’t Own By* Libre Services
• We All Own By* Libre Services
• Use It As You Wish – Make It Be What You Want
• Stay Autonomous
• Spread The Word

31.2 Key Documents

• Neda Open Business:
• By* Libre Services Libre Services Manifesto PLPC-100105
• ByStar full picture PLPC-110004
• Unsolicited Proposal PLPC-110005
• By* Libre Texting

Colophon

This document was produced with Halaal Software and is published using Halaal Internet Services.

It uses LaTeX, beamer, ByStar, Blee, Emacs, ...

Colophon

• Totally Libre and Copyleft
• No proprietary software used in preparation, presentation and communication of this information
• Slides prepared with beamer-latex
• Presented using Ubuntu-Debian-GNU-Linux and Maemo on PDA
• Served as an Autonomous Libre Service using Debian, Apache, Plone, ...

Questions/Comments/Discussion

References