Archive for September 2014

MaidSafe: Creating an Internet without servers

Posted on September 25, 2014 by

Internet without servers

Someone’s out there making the Web safe for all of us. And, serverless too! UK-based startup MaidSafe is being developed as a “distributed platform”, likely to be ready by the end of 2014. When it does, the Internet can become server independent, to be replaced by a private & secure network that no 3rd party will be able to intercept, copy, steal or sell.

MaidSafe will serve as a P2P applications network that will make use of the computing & storage resources of the network’s own users. SAFE stands for Secure Access For Everyone network, while MAID is for Massive Array Of Internet Disks. That explains the concept in a techno-nutshell, but this is not just a new-flanged bit torrent type P2P network for distributed file sharing, either.

MaidSafe has far grander plans – it hopes that it can do away with the entire server-centric Internet itself. So what will the server be replaced with? Well, the team behind MaidSafe explains, the idea is to replace it with hard disks on individual computers.

At any given time, the MaidSafe P2P network will maintain at least four copies of every chunk of data. This ensures that if a user shuts down the computer or gets disconnected, the chunks of data held at that time by the user’s disk won’t be lost.

Basically, for the layman, what these chaps are doing is re-configuring the present architecture of the Web in such a way that the new system will safeguard every surfer’s privacy, among other benefits.

They’ve been testing the network itself without any applications riding on it, but the applications are the key to the network’s success. Consider this – you’d be able to host your applications on the Safe network without any hosting provider – no need to sign up with AWS or Rackspace or any other provider & pay for it every month &/or for usage of cloud-based resources.

Another key aspect that enhances MaidSafe’s chances of gaining a large user base is that they are incentivizing the usage of a user’s disk space. Just as Bitcoin mining creates new Bitcoins, allowing the Safe network to use your disk space will earn you Safecoin.

This cryptocurrency will also enable developers to monetize their apps on the network.

The client applications used to access the network will be using self-encrypting data (see video) & self-authentication. Clients will be able to access every service available today on the Internet, & many others that are not possible on the centralized system used by the Internet.

The Troon, Scotland-based MaidSafe.net Limited was founded in Feb 2006 by David Irvine, & Project SAFE was co-founded by Irvine & Nick Lambert. Irvine is MaidSafe’s CEO & Lambert the COO. Maidsafe has raised $6 million through equity crowdfunding (as in sale of Safecoins). While the guys were at work on the project since 2006, it was earlier this year that MaidSafe came out stealth.

So, are Google, Apple & Yahoo listening?

Image Credit: MaidSafe

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New social network Ello: anti-ads, anti-real name…..now also an anti-Facebook preserve?

Posted on September 25, 2014 by

A few months ago, What’s New On The Net had briefly mentioned talked of the proposed launch of a social network. It’s still at a “closed” stage but Ello, the new social network is being talked about as a “perfect counterfoil” to the world number one Facebook (well, at least in the media).

You cannot simply register to join this new social network, you have to be invited. Which you can ask for by sending them an email.Or know an Ello member who can then be requested to add your name.

Here’s the Ello manifesto which gives you a glimpse of this new social network’s ethos:

Your social network is owned by advertisers. Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.

We believe there is a better way. We believe in audacity. We believe in beauty, simplicity and transparency. We believe that the people who make things and the people who use them should be in partnership.

We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce and manipulate — but a place to connect, create and celebrate life.

You are not a product.

new social networkActually, Ello was created by a band of artists & designers as a private social network, but over time, got so popular that its designers built a public version. The stress of this new social network, besides privacy, is also on having an ad-free network created by a small group of artists and designers.

Ello’s take on ads:

Collecting and selling your personal data, reading your posts to your friends, and mapping your social connections for profit is both creepy and unethical. Under the guise of offering a “free” service, users pay a high price in intrusive advertising and lack of privacy.

We also think ads are tacky, that they insult our intelligence and that we’re better without them.

Ello is free to use. It says it will occasionally offer special features to users. If they like ’em, users can “support Ello by paying a very small amount of money to add that feature to your Ello account.” (ah, ha, the revenue part)

The new social network is the work of designer, creator Paul Budnitz.

…& according to this report in The Daily Dot, Ello has attracted the attention of the LGBTQ community, who are quite cheesed off by FB’s real name policy.

You may also want to read: Pay $9000 to become members of this new social networking Site called Netropolitan

 

Image Credit: Ello

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Comments Off on New social network Ello: anti-ads, anti-real name…..now also an anti-Facebook preserve? Posted in Internet Startups, New Internet Startups, Social Media News
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