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	<title>free layers</title>
	<link>http://freelayers.org</link>
	<description>all layers have to be free</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
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		<itunes:summary>all layers have to be free</itunes:summary>
		<itunes:author></itunes:author>
		<itunes:category text="Society &amp; Culture"/>
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			<itunes:name></itunes:name>
			<itunes:email>mb@mariobehling.de</itunes:email>
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		<itunes:block>No</itunes:block>
		<itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
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			<title>free layers</title>
			<link>http://freelayers.org</link>
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			<height>144</height>
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		<item>
		<title>Interview with André and Benjamin from the FFII at the 24c3</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2008/interview-with-jan-and-benjamin-from-the-ffii-at-the-24c3/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2008/interview-with-jan-and-benjamin-from-the-ffii-at-the-24c3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:51:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free software]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free infrastructure]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free economy]]></category>
<category>24c3</category><category>berlin</category><category>chaos communication congress</category><category>ffii</category><category>free information infrastructure</category><category>microsoft</category><category>no patents</category><category>noooxml</category><category>video</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2008/interview-with-jan-and-benjamin-from-the-ffii-at-the-24c3/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jan and me had the chance to talk to Andr and Benjamin Henrion from the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) at the 24c3 Chaos Communication Congress. Besides some general talk about the activities of the FFII in Brussels we get a few insights into the current campaign against the Microsoft standard ooxml.
 
Direct [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Jan and me had the chance to talk to Andr and Benjamin Henrion from the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) at the 24c3 Chaos Communication Congress. Besides some general talk about the activities of the FFII in Brussels we get a few insights into the current campaign against the Microsoft standard ooxml.
 
Direct Link http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8339984839794083810
24c3, berlin, chaos communication congress, ffii, free information infrastructure, microsoft, no patents, noooxml, video]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://freelayers.org/2008/interview-with-jan-and-benjamin-from-the-ffii-at-the-24c3/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Serchilo: Meta Search Engine with Wiki Commands</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2008/serchilo-meta-search-engine-with-wiki-commands/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2008/serchilo-meta-search-engine-with-wiki-commands/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:28:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free software]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free search]]></category>
<category>24c3</category><category>berlin</category><category>chaos communication congress</category><category>georg jähnig</category><category>lightning talk</category><category>search engine</category><category>serchilo</category><category>serchilo.net</category><category>suma</category><category>torrent</category><category>wiki</category><category>wiki search</category><category>wikipedia</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2008/serchilo-meta-search-engine-with-wiki-commands/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
I followed a lightning talk of Georg Jhnig on serchilo.net at the 24c3 Chaos Communication Congress. The video is available now in the torrent network. I uploaded it to Google Video (please post alternatives as comments). Last year I already published an interview with Georg in German. He put quite a lot of work in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[
I followed a lightning talk of Georg Jhnig on serchilo.net at the 24c3 Chaos Communication Congress. The video is available now in the torrent network. I uploaded it to Google Video (please post alternatives as comments). Last year I already published an interview with Georg in German. He put quite a lot of work in improving the website and making it more international since then. Hope his ideas takes off even more in the upcoming year. Would be great to have him at the SuMa-eV congress this year as well.

  

Videolink: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5416119002471085549


Link: www.serchilo.net
Blog: serchilo.wordpress.com
Serchilo Firefox-Plugin: serchilo.net/wiki/index.php/Serchilo:Firefox
Georg Jhnig: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Jorges


24c3, berlin, chaos communication congress, georg jhnig, lightning talk, search engine, serchilo, serchilo.net, suma, torrent, wiki, wiki search, wikipedia]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://freelayers.org/2008/serchilo-meta-search-engine-with-wiki-commands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>mahalo – new entry in the search engine market. an alternative?</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/mahalo-%e2%80%93-new-entry-in-the-search-engine-market-an-alternative/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/mahalo-%e2%80%93-new-entry-in-the-search-engine-market-an-alternative/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Jul 2007 08:08:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free software]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free infrastructure]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free culture]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free search]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free society]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free economy]]></category>
<category>free community</category><category>free networks</category><category>free search engines</category><category>jason calacanis</category><category>jason mccabe calacanis</category><category>jimmy wales</category><category>mahalo</category><category>search engines</category><category>wiki</category><category>wikia</category><category>wikia search</category><category>wikipedia</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/mahalo-%e2%80%93-new-entry-in-the-search-engine-market-an-alternative/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Jason McCabe Calacanis is the founder of Mahalo.com. With Mahalo he tries to establish a new search engine based on user submitted search result pages. In order to motivate people to write search result pages Mahalo pays part time guides 10 to 15 USD. Part time guides who submit a search page result that is [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Jason McCabe Calacanis is the founder of Mahalo.com. With Mahalo he tries to establish a new search engine based on user submitted search result pages. In order to motivate people to write search result pages Mahalo pays part time guides 10 to 15 USD. Part time guides who submit a search page result that is accepted by full time guides also get credited as the original writer of pages.
How do you become a guide? At first you have to register and fill out an application form. They want to know your personal details like phone, address etc. as well as your blog, user names of sites like Wikipedia, delicious, Flickr, Youtube and so on. Then they ask about the why you want to write search results, what kind of search results and what else you have to say. Finally you have to choose about the payment of your work. Currently US citizens can chose to receive 10-15 USD per accepted search result page themselves or donate it to the Wikimedia Foundation (it is planned to add other organizations later), non-US citizens can only choose to donate it.
Are they good or bad? It seems like Mahalo wants to belong to the good guys. So they have 250.000 USD in donations set aside for the Wikimedia Foundation this year. This is impressive, but it has to be seen if part time guides also choose to donate to Wikipedia.
Mahalo Greenhouse:   Oh yeah, if we accept your search result we will pay you $10 to $15 per search result (the range is based on how many search results youve completed: more here). Now, if youre a disciple of Yochi and you absolutely will not work on a web-based project for money, weve got an amazing proposition for you: make the web better by writing spam-free search results and well donate your fees to the Wikimedia Foundation. So, you can make the world better 2x: first by making clean, spam-free search results and second by helping keep the Wikipedia running (those server bills aint cheap!). Weve earmarked up to $250,000 in donations to the Wikipedia this year. http://blog.mahalo.com/?p=15
Even if some will choose to donate their work to the Wikimedia Foundation it is clear that Mahalo in the first place is not about building a community. It is about making money (or possibly for some guides to earn an income?) even if they try to appeal to different users, as well those with intrinsic motivations: you can make the world better 2x. Investors like Sequoia Capital&#8217;s Michael Moritz, who invested in Yahoo and Google when they were still start ups, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who became a billionaire after selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo, AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis, who also owns the National Hockey League&#8217;s Washington Capitals, Elon Musk, co-founder of online payment service PayPal, NewsCorp, CBS Corporation and Hubert Burda Media " they want to gain a profit in the end.
So what is the calculation of Jason Calacanis with Mahalo?
As for funding, if the Google AdSense units currently on the site don&#8217;t cover costs, Calacanis says investors  have given him enough money to run the company for at least five years. (http://searchengineland.com/070530-180000.php)
If Mahalo pays up to 15 Dollars per submitted search page it means an ad that costs on average 7 Cents per click should be clicked about 214 times in order to recapture the cost of a search page of a part time guide. However, you also have to add the server costs, cost of the full time guide checking and so on. Still though, over time it seems possible for popular search pages to recapture the cost, but what about not so popular search terms and search terms that do not exist? Jim Lanzone, CEO of ask.com said &#8220;On any given day, 60 percent of the search requests we get, we have never seen before.&#8221; (sfgate.com&#8230;) How will Calacanis solve this problem remains to be seen.
What else do I have from submitting search page results apart from gaining money? In contrast to Technorati and Digg I do not get anything out of it except limited exposure " my name on a search page. With Technorati I get exposure for my blog (a link!) and receive useful data, for example who is linking to me and how many blogs link to me, what are top tags and so on. With Digg I can save my bookmarks and access them from anywhere and so on.
The strategy of Mahalo to index only the best sites as well is unclear.
The FAQ says: We will link to&#8230; sites that are considered authorities in their field (i.e. Edmunds for autos, Engadget for consumer electronics, and the New York Times for news). (http://mahalo.com/Mahalo_FAQ)
Who decides who is an authority? Which are the best sites? How is the decision made? What happens in case of different opinions? Free communities like the Wikipedia community developed (and develop) ways to solve problems and create transparent decision making processes. How about transparency at Mahalo?
Next: The question what is the user really looking for? ..This is a problem for all search engines: ambiguous searches. If I look for instance for the search result Paris Hilton. Do I look for the person or the place? Google tries to understand what users want by collecting more and more user specific information and personalizing search results according to this data. (I wrote about the privacy problem of hyper collecting user data of a commercial search engine company before. It is quasi automatically an invitation to collect more and more user data and utilize it commercially as much as possible.) There is no perfect solution to ambiguous searches. Mahalo also does not address the problem of ambiguous searches. So neither Mahalos results will be more relevant than those of other search engines, even if they are written by humans rather than by a computer algorithm.
Is Mahalo more transparent than others? Not as far as I can see. Mahalo increases transparency by showing top searches in real time at the right sidebar. Google Zeitgeist does not do that in real time. Technorati and others though do it also in real time. Therefore I do not see more transparency as other search engines offer it.
What about the search pages? I am not an expert in evaluating search engine results and it is probably still too early to do that anyways as Mahalo only started in June. Lets see.
Is Mahalo for me? It is for me if it is free! To tackle the problem of search engine monopolization, I believe we need an approach to search that is free, open source, sustainable and provides good search results.  On the website there is no information about what software Mahalo is using. When I asked Jason Calacanis - suprise! Mahalo is based on free software: MediaWiki, Squid, Nutch, LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). How about the search result pages itself though? They are copyright to Mahalo and therefore are not free. we feel since we&#8217;re paying for the results we should own them. On the Wikia Search project mailing list Jason explains further to Jimmy Wales:
Now, this is not written in stone. In the future we might move to a Creative Commons model for the results&#8211;perhaps non-commercial so someone doesn&#8217;t just life the entire Mahalo index and dilute our ability to pay the contributors. That&#8217;s my main concern: figuring out a way to keep paying folks who want to get paid for their contributions. So, I like CC Noncommerical and I like paying people. (Jason on the search-l-wikia mailing list on 4 July 2007)
Mahalo might in future use a license that is not as free as many in the free software/content/infrastructure etc. community would like it, but Jason Calacanis is obviously trying to develop a sustainable business model based on free layers. Additionally he has expressed strong interest in helping to build open source search software together with the Wikia Search project of Jimmy Wales:
Mahalo.com hopes to a) use Wikia&#8217;s open source search software and b) wants to help build it. We *share* the mission to open up search. Jason on the search-l-wikia mailing list on 3 July 2007.
Mahalo is an interesting approach to search, which revives the idea of the Yahoo Directory, the DMOZ and other directory listings. It is based on free software, but not (yet) on free knowledge. I cannot copy the database, but I can duplicate the software that is powering the site. Mahalo is set up as a commercial enterprise. Users have the choice to work for them - to submit human written search result pages and get paid or to donate what they earn to the Wikimedia Foundation.
If Mahalo can become an alternative search engine with noticeable market share remains to be seen. If it is successful, I believe there is a high chance that it will be bought by Google, Yahoo or another company. It is probably what the investors are hoping for. If Mahalo would also use free licenses for its search page results, it would endanger this prospectus. Mahalo is trying to find a compromise between the use and the application of freedom in every layer (free software and free content) and its commercial interests. For anyone who wants free search it is a good start, but to create a really free search engine, result pages have to be free as well. Under current economic conditions this would not be interesting for a commercial enterprise. However, I believe only a completely free search based on completely free layers will provide a sustainable basis and motivation for people to form a free international community (like the Wikipedia community) that works continuously on a human powered search. But &#8230; a free community cannot be bought!
free community, free networks, free search engines, jason calacanis, jason mccabe calacanis, jimmy wales, mahalo, search engines, wiki, wikia, wikia search, wikipedia]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://freelayers.org/2007/mahalo-%e2%80%93-new-entry-in-the-search-engine-market-an-alternative/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>selling advertising space - priority task of search engine companies?</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/selling-advertising-space-priority-task-of-search-engine-companies/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/selling-advertising-space-priority-task-of-search-engine-companies/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:03:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free search]]></category>
<category>data protection</category><category>free algorithms</category><category>Google</category><category>maximizing profits</category><category>personal data</category><category>personalized search</category><category>search engines</category><category>Yahoo</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/selling-advertising-space-priority-task-of-search-engine-companies/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[According to Theo Rhle of the University Hamburg (Germany) the commercial exploitation of advertising space has become the main task of search engine companies. In Think of it first as an advertising system: Personalisierte Online-Suche als Datenlieferant des Marketings (pdf) he analyses the elicitation of user data of search engines with a focus on personalized [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[According to Theo Rhle of the University Hamburg (Germany) the commercial exploitation of advertising space has become the main task of search engine companies. In Think of it first as an advertising system: Personalisierte Online-Suche als Datenlieferant des Marketings (pdf) he analyses the elicitation of user data of search engines with a focus on personalized search.
Personalized online search as offered by Google and Yahoo can indeed help to improve search results and increase their relevance for the individual user.  But what makes these services interesting to search engine companies is the protocoling and interpretation of user behavior and the profiling of its users. Thus collected user data can be used for commercial interests, possibly without time limits.
As listed companies search engine firms are depending on investors and financial markets. Therefore it is indeed their strong interest to maximize profits. Google is a (close-to) monopoly in the search engine market. Investors need companies that grow steadily. It is hard for a company like Google to grow in the search engine market, which it controls in big parts. However Google can grow &#8220;in depth&#8221;, meaning it can grow by collecting more information and utilizing it commercially.
Also Theo Rhle comes to the conclusion, that user data and information that was firstly ascertained to improve search engine results will be, because of the &#8220;commercial pressure to be exploited&#8221;, utilized. This information is indeed the capital of search engine companies.
The question hence: Do I, as a user, want to participate in this process of capitalization of my personal data? And: What alternatives would there be?
In regards to the findings of Theo Rhle search engines based on Free Software and Free Algorithms become a vital interest of every Internet user, who wants to protect his/her private data and continue using modern Internet services. Only Free search engines based on Free layers can avoid monopolistic structures, where one commercial party (nearly) controls the flow of information, public as well as private.
data protection, free algorithms, Google, maximizing profits, personal data, personalized search, search engines, Yahoo]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://freelayers.org/2007/selling-advertising-space-priority-task-of-search-engine-companies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Open Business - Spreadshirt and Jamendo</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/open-business-spreadshirt-and-jamendo/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/open-business-spreadshirt-and-jamendo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:21:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free culture]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free music]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free economy]]></category>
<category>andreas milles</category><category>berlin</category><category>creative commons</category><category>fair biz</category><category>internet</category><category>jamendo</category><category>read write society</category><category>spreadshirt</category><category>webmonday</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/open-business-spreadshirt-and-jamendo/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some time ago Andreas Milles of Spreadshirt had a presentation at the Berlin Webmonday about his companies Open Logo Contest. They had developed a community that worked on the development of their new logo. In the end they actually took the logo design of a free designer, who they only knew through his contributions on [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Some time ago Andreas Milles of Spreadshirt had a presentation at the Berlin Webmonday about his companies Open Logo Contest. They had developed a community that worked on the development of their new logo. In the end they actually took the logo design of a free designer, who they only knew through his contributions on the website. They also granted the people most involved in the process some money and presents. Andreas saw this as a new way to do business and even went so far as to call it Open Marketing.
Another example of how concepts of free software development and business models can be transferred to other sectors shows the music site jamendo.com
jamendo is a new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music. On jamendo, the artists distribute their music under Creative Commons licenses. In a nutshell, they allow you to download, remix and share their music freely. It&#8217;s a &#8220;Some rights reserved&#8221; agreement, perfectly suited for the new century.
So, check it out! They have some great music. Half of their advertising revenue goes to the artists and you also have the chance to donate to your favorite artists. I call that Fair Biz!
andreas milles, berlin, creative commons, fair biz, internet, jamendo, read write society, spreadshirt, webmonday]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://freelayers.org/2007/open-business-spreadshirt-and-jamendo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What are free layers?</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/what-are-free-layers/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/what-are-free-layers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 May 2007 18:23:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/what-are-free-layers/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some questions should be answered that could help to understand what free layers actually are.
1. What is the common idea behind free culture, free content, free software, free hardware, free infrastructures and a free economy?
2. What are working examples of free layered projects and why do they work and others did not?
3. Who are the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Some questions should be answered that could help to understand what free layers actually are.
1. What is the common idea behind free culture, free content, free software, free hardware, free infrastructures and a free economy?
2. What are working examples of free layered projects and why do they work and others did not?
3. Who are the people engaged in communities building free layers?
a) What do the people in these communities identify as the basis for their project? Political changes, technological changes, cultural changes?
b) What do people engaged in projects have in common, what not? - ideas, organizational structures, background.
c) What is the motivation of people to take part in these projects?
d) What are the difficulties of people engaged in projects and how do they solve problems?
e) What communication technologies do they use primarily?
f) What common cultural particularities can be identified?
g) Where do the people involved meet, work and communicate?
4. What difficulties a systems of free layers face in regards to international treaties, patents and copyright laws and censorship?
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://freelayers.org/2007/what-are-free-layers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>communities engaged in free layered projects – examples for a free society</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/communities-engaged-in-free-layered-projects-%e2%80%93-examples-for-a-free-society/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/communities-engaged-in-free-layered-projects-%e2%80%93-examples-for-a-free-society/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:35:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free society]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/communities-engaged-in-free-layered-projects-%e2%80%93-examples-for-a-free-society/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Countless working examples of people creating free layers show the huge potential of free and open systems. However interior and exterior difficulties and problems in communities that are engaged in projects like in the free software world cannot always be overcome.
Successful as well as failed ideas and projects can teach invaluable lessons. To learn about [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Countless working examples of people creating free layers show the huge potential of free and open systems. However interior and exterior difficulties and problems in communities that are engaged in projects like in the free software world cannot always be overcome.
Successful as well as failed ideas and projects can teach invaluable lessons. To learn about the way people work together, their common ideas, differences and their culture as well as about the opposition to these ideas does not only teach us a lot about the successful organization of free layered projects, it could indeed teach us some basic lessons how a free society could work.
My thesis is: Only free layers and its culture of free exchange and collaboration can guarantee a truly free society.
To know what difficulties lie ahead in the creation of a free society, or rather free societies, and what strategies and solutions are available, we should look for answers in the communities engaged in free layered projects that are already successful today as well as to projects that encountered problems, splitted up or even stopped working completely.
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://freelayers.org/2007/communities-engaged-in-free-layered-projects-%e2%80%93-examples-for-a-free-society/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>free society = read-write society: a culture of openness and free collaboration – begin of a new history</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/free-society-read-write-society-a-culture-of-openness-and-free-collaboration-%e2%80%93-begin-of-new-history/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/free-society-read-write-society-a-culture-of-openness-and-free-collaboration-%e2%80%93-begin-of-new-history/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Apr 2007 03:23:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free infrastructure]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free culture]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free society]]></category>
<category>1989</category><category>freedom of information</category><category>fukuyama</category><category>history</category><category>internet</category><category>lawrence lessig</category><category>power</category><category>read write society</category><category>wiki</category><category>wikipedia</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/free-society-read-write-society-a-culture-of-openness-and-free-collaboration-%e2%80%93-begin-of-new-history/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What made and makes the development of free software, free content and free infrastructures " alternatives to centralized systems of knowledge distribution and development possible? What made and makes the system of the many in contrast to the system of the few and powerful possible?
The Internet is an important factor, but indeed it is much [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[What made and makes the development of free software, free content and free infrastructures " alternatives to centralized systems of knowledge distribution and development possible? What made and makes the system of the many in contrast to the system of the few and powerful possible?
The Internet is an important factor, but indeed it is much more the culture of openness and free collaboration that constitutes the basis for free layers. It is a cultural change that took off in the aftermath of the peaceful revolutions in the world and the fall of the Berlin wall 1989. A short time when people took politics in their own hands and when the end of history was proclaimed by Francis Fukuyama. Many criticized him and regarded this statement as invalid proven by the aftermaths. Looking at what happened at a level far apart from daily superficial politics " how people started to create free layers " I find it rather valid, if it is slightly rephrased to the end of old history.
In the times before 1989 few people were able to take part in the production of content and culture. Afterwards more and more people simply safeguarded their rights and started collaborating on the most different topics. This is not only a change of how people behave but indeed this changes the way reality is perceived. The production of content and free publication is a lively way to write our own history.
The peoples history is completely opposite to the way history was made, or often we could even use the word fabricated, before. It includes all its facets and different opinions of people involved and enables a look closer to the actual happenings of a time than any historian could possibly allow us to see. The many different views and descriptions are presented directly and indirectly. The observations, ideas and intentions of producers can be directly observed in the actual content they produce, like in the articles of Wikipedia, or in the way software programs function, like Linux. Indirect conclusions about the world we live in can be drawn through the transparency and openness of the productions processes in free layers, e.g.  the version history in Wikipedia or the documentation, the open sources and versions in the free software production.
The openness of free layers allows everyone to be a historian. In the old days to be a historian was a profession limited to a few. Until today historians were the historians of the powerful, the ones that provided them with the opportunities to work or simpler said with food and shelter. They wrote down what the future world would know of a time. Isnt it therefore mostly the history of the winners that we quote today?
It changes in the aftermath of the freedom movements in 1989 and the growth of the free Internet (as in freedom, Stallman). This is the begin of a new history, where people write their own history in blogs, forums, mailing lists and wikis " the (his)stories of the many not the few.
In the Read-Write Society (Lawrence Lessig) people create their own content, own software, own infrastructures, own hardware. And thus they create their own realities, their own truths, their own society. More and more label their productions as free " free software, free wireless networks, free music, free videos, free texts and whole free encyclopedias. Free licenses allow people to copy and redistribute their work and the works of others freely to and by anyone and sometimes even to change and to sell it " the start of completely free layers.
Nevertheless looking at the real number of people actually participating in creating these free layers " publishing content or producing free software, it is still a small number of people. However many more already profit from this information and knowledge gathering. Wikipedia is one of the top sites on the Internet. Imagine what else can be achieved through this culture of freedom.
1989, freedom of information, fukuyama, history, internet, lawrence lessig, power, read write society, wiki, wikipedia]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>freedom of exchange: past - internet / future - community networks</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/freedom-of-exchange-past-internet-future-community-networks/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/freedom-of-exchange-past-internet-future-community-networks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Apr 2007 05:41:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free infrastructure]]></category>
<category>censoring</category><category>community networks</category><category>copyright</category><category>free networks</category><category>free wireless</category><category>freedom of expression</category><category>freedom of information</category><category>freifunk</category><category>internet</category><category>public spaces</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/freedom-of-exchange-past-internet-future-community-networks/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It is often stated that the Internet is the basis of the free exchange of software and content " all kinds of information and knowledge. Yes, the Internet especially in the 1990s could be regarded as a free infrastructure that enabled free exchange. This is changing rapidly throughout the world, as we see political censoring [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[It is often stated that the Internet is the basis of the free exchange of software and content " all kinds of information and knowledge. Yes, the Internet especially in the 1990s could be regarded as a free infrastructure that enabled free exchange. This is changing rapidly throughout the world, as we see political censoring of information in countries like China, Singapore or Iran or privately enforced censoring with the help of copyright and patent laws in the Western World.
The less free the Internet becomes the more attractive free community networks, like the freifunk networks, will appear to the masses. Their aim is to create truly free networks, which are comparable to public spaces like a street where everyone can freely walk and communicate with others. As in a city with its free public spaces, we have a public space in the cyberspace. Public spaces guarantee our basic rights like freedom of speech, freedom of information and freedom of the press. However, also crimes happen in public spaces. There is no solution that will prevent crimes to a hundred percent without also reducing our freedoms, neither in the virtual world nor in the real world.
Still, neither people involved in free infrastructure projects like freifunk regard their networks as a space free of the rule of law. The completely decentralized structures of these networks, however, (and for good reason) make it impossible to control the traffic centrally. These days many lawmakers want to change that. They see the solution to reducing crime and fighting terrorism in requiring IPSs to control and protocol the traffic of all its users (sometimes millions). This would mean that in future also free community networks would have to control their traffic. A task that is impossible because of the decentralized structures of these networks.
In fact the protocoling the traffic of all internet and network users in the world is rather questionable. Firstly concerning the duties of network operators, who should not and are in no position to take over police duties, secondly it is questionable in regards to the misuse that is possible with these huge amounts of data, that compromises of information like who communicates with whom, when, how long and possibly even what. Free decentralized networks propose a solution to overly willingly politicians who want to establish a police state in order to prevent crime. The example of free networks shows a way to keep policy duties of the state and duties of network operators separated.
censoring, community networks, copyright, free networks, free wireless, freedom of expression, freedom of information, freifunk, internet, public spaces]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>a world where everything is free</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/a-world-where-everything-is-free/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/a-world-where-everything-is-free/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:58:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mario Behling</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free software]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free hardware]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free infrastructure]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free culture]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free music]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free media]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free science]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free content]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[free search]]></category>
<category>free operating systems</category><category>free search engine</category><category>free software community</category><category>p2p search</category><category>richard stallman</category><category>wiki</category><category>wikipedia</category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freelayers.org/2007/04/20/a-world-where-everything-is-free/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Imagine a world, where everything is free. Impossible? Right now people all over the world are working on this idea. They want to create a world where you can instantly have access to free content like free music, videos or texts, free software like free operating systems, programs, computer games and even powerful search engines, [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Imagine a world, where everything is free. Impossible? Right now people all over the world are working on this idea. They want to create a world where you can instantly have access to free content like free music, videos or texts, free software like free operating systems, programs, computer games and even powerful search engines, free hardware like plans for computer chips and free infrastructure like local wireless mesh networks.
1983 Richard Stallman launched the GNU Project, 1996 Linus Torvalds started Linux, 1997 started Slashdot, 1999 Indymedia was started, in 2000 the first freifunk enthusiasts started experimenting in London and Berlin, in January 2001 Wikipedia went online, in July 2001 the P2P-Network BitTorrent was set up, the development of the free search engine Nutch began 2002 and the P2P search engine Yacy was first tested 2004. These are examples of projects of people who started to create free and open structures " of people who create free layers for everyone to use.
How is this possible? Why do people do this? How can they afford to work like that?
The ideas behind setting up free layers are ground shaping. They include a complete cultural and civilizational change of how we behave, work, communicate and live together. The idea behind is a new social contract where you give freely and receive freely. These people simply have fun by doing what they are doing and additionally their motivation is to do good like for example to educate and help others.
The surprise is that this system is working as a real economic system " a sharing economy, where everyone wins. What you get is always more than what you give. This is especially true in the free software community, where a person puts his work into a software program and in exchange gets back the work of sometimes hundreds of programmers, who worked on other parts of the software. This example was famously made by Rishab Ayer Ghosh: You give one hour and you get back the work of hundreds or thousands of hours of programmers around the world. It is a point where you always get back more than you give " a real win-win-situation.
Of course this example cannot be transferred exactly to the world of things. When you have one apple and you share it with someone, you will only have half an apple. However in a world where technology is the driving force of the economy, the knowledge of how to produce something becomes often much more valuable than the availability of natural resources which can be delivered easily anywhere in todays world.
And in fact what we can observe is that besides the production of free software (e.g. Linux) and free content (e.g. Wikipedia) people begin to exchange knowledge of how to actually make and manipulate things like computer chips or wireless routers as well " driven by the ideas of free sharing and its personal profits or because they simply want to gain experience, get feedback or to have fun.
free operating systems, free search engine, free software community, p2p search, richard stallman, wiki, wikipedia]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Hello world!</title>
		<link>http://freelayers.org/2007/hello-world/</link>
		<comments>http://freelayers.org/2007/hello-world/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Apr 2007 03:49:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[free layers general]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">643669303</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome to my free layers blog!
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			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Welcome to my free layers blog!
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