[Community] OpenPhoenux and Open Hardware - some thoughts...

[kardan]

Hi,

I think it's time to prepare ourselves for "the unthinkable" as it has
previously been expressed. Several protest movement worldwide had to
deal with or are preparing for an internet shutdown by the main telcos.

http://www.movements.org/how-to/entry/how-to-prepare-for-an-internet-connection-cut-off

Offering a device for that niche "reliable, dynamic, fail safe, 
secure and private communication while world breaks apart" offers the
spirit of true freedom. I doubt that any current product fulfills that
need (just thinking of power usage), but some more revisions and they
will be able to connect by whatever protocol available (also thinking
of low frequencies receivable by ordinary radios).

Do the math: How many activists, techies, off-the-grid adventurers or
security fanatics out there could have interest in the next 15 years.
Probably 10 to 100 million.

As soon as "we" are ready to offer the first 100 devices "just now" for
some activist groups under the condition, they give comprehensive
feedback, I believe that example will be all marketing the movement
needs to become a burner.

I wonder if we manage to setup a development fund for that in the
sense, that payments are not directly bound to particular devices, but
to keep up with the chain of trust: you get one device in the hope you
will enable others to have one later. For example by (micro)payments
over a long period of time.

Just some illusions .. :)
kardan


On Thu, 23 Jan 2014 23:07:40 +0100
wonderphone at posteo.de wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I believe the Neo900 project has already created some of the spirit 
> that the community was looking for in this old email chain, but I
> would like to take this up again to see whether we can boost it even
> more.
> 
> This is the new product category in my opinion:
>      We are the first to do Smartphone right!
> 
> With what has been done by the community we have - if we are not
> doing it already - the opportunity to build the perfect phone with
> reasonable extra effort.
> 
> GTA04 and Neo900 are or have the potential to be:
>       (Also taking up some of the responses to the email of Nikolaus 
> below)
> 
> secure (as in privacy)
> fairly produced (manufactured with handsome German wages)
> environmentally friendly (CO2, waste)
> healthy (we can probably get more information on materials used)
> reliable
> trustworthy (community controlled)
> 
> 
> Many people are longing for such a phone.
> 
> What we already do with the Neo900 is perfectly right: We create a 
> ready-to-use tool for users that are not technically interested and
> also offer the perfect toy for the technically interested people.
> (Sorry for writing always 'we' in my first post - I hope you don't
> feel it's offensive)
> 
> The natural supplement of such a phone is a privacy-respecting und 
> community-lead ecosystem that is different from the existing
> ecosystems where you are spied like nothing else. From my point of
> view this is currently the killer application for which the internet
> avantgarde is waiting. We can try to connect to the respective
> communities and projects like: fdroid, diaspora* (or even better
> social networks), pump.io , leap.se, a functional web proxy, a secure
> email provider, and some secure VoIP and whatsapp alternatives and
> integrate it in the standard software installation of the phone. Of
> course, with the still necessary warnings to empower normal users to
> make an informed choice.
> 
> What do you think. Do these aspects sound interesting?
> 
> BR
> Oliver
> 
> 
> 
> Am 11.10.2013 um 12:12 schrieb Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller:
> 
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >>Am 11.10.2013 um 11:27 schrieb Christoph Pulster:
> >
> 
> ...
> 
> >>
> >> Despite the economical mislead, former Openmoko CEO Sean was able
> >> to create a magic new product category and a community spirit
> >> around it.
> >
> > Well, it started at 2006 where smartphones were only niche 
> > developments
> > and before Apple even did announce the iPhone 1 or Google announce
> > Android 1.0.
> >
> > So that was a great time to invent a new product category by "doing 
> > the unthinkable":
> > * make a smartphone for the community
> > * running Linux
> > * being open
> >
> > And because we all love to see the unthinkable, we all followed 
> > Openmoko.
> >
> > Nowadays the situation is reversed. Companies like Apple and Samsung
> > dominate the technology development and are the first to offer new 
> > technologies,
> > like bent display glass these days. I.e. they know about companies 
> > developing
> > these technologies before we even start to think about it.
> >
> > I.e. they have learned how to be the first to define new product 
> > categories.
> > Part of their mechanism is to be and stay closed. It has become a 
> > competitive
> > advantage to be partially open only.
> >
> > And we, the open community, are degraded to be visitors of such 
> > developments.
> >
> > This makes it difficult to keep and build spirit around a magic new 
> > product
> > category.
> >
> > Unless we find a new one.
> >
> > One that none of the currently big companies has thought of.
> >
> > Ideas?
> >
> > Nikolaus
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