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Public Internet Workspaces: Concepts and Realization
Discussion about the future of public workspaces and technical tools to make them happen.
The problem
- there is a burn-out situation sometimes for volunteers, because they do the same work too long.
- we (ascii) feel that public internet should not be our primary target any more as internet is distributed pretty well.
- Promotion of open source software is not so easy and innovation is lacking.
ASCII was called a "internet workspace" from the beginning, now we are moving from a "internetcafe" to more a workspace.
- retain user data
- keep software-collection stable
- possibility to use high-level applications
- desktop publishing
- wireless hacking
- learning linux
- anonimity
- security of data (data retention)
- who gets an account?
getting more people involved means also that you get a bigger userbase of people who you can also invite to workshops etc
darkveggy:
- stress your own position by a portal as the homepage
- create social practices around computing: people come with their laptops allthough they have internet at home
Next to the theme days, regular workshops are organized.
How to implement this on a technical level
Technical problems to solve:
- data retention
- user profiles
- privacy and safety
- accounts
- logistics of it all
For data storage you will need a central server that is powerfull enough. This is also a challenge for the technical minded in the group. LDAP can be used to manage accounting. LDAP makes sure authentication is the same on any machine.
Network filesystem? NFS, Coda or Samba? Samba has a better authentication system. The central data storage should be encrypted.