Imagine what would the world be like today if you didn't
have access to files (music, picture, movies, etc...) Would you wait until days
when it gets to you by a man travelling cross country ? Or given today will you
carry all your favorite media along in a removable device (like CD's) wherever
you go. Well, certainly not.
We today are blessed by the technological
innovation that has changed our life's by leaps and bounds. Today we find almost everything available online no matter
where we are. Technology has made it possible for us to achieve all this. With
more and more data moving to cloud services we are no longer in control of our
data. As the concept of decentralized web is gaining traction: more and more
people are thinking of ways to change.
This cause for this is obvious: the number of security flaws
and privacy disasters that were made public has spiked recently. In April 2011,
Dropbox changed its security terms of service to include that Dropbox has full
access to user data. Similarly, Facebook also changed its privacy terms and
conditions year on year, and from being a private communication platform to the one that
shares users information with advertisers and business partners thereby
limiting the user control to data.
Decentralized Applications:
The most popular amongst this is Diaspora. This project was started by 4 young programmers from NYC Courant Institute in 2010,
and raised a record $200,000 from Kickstarter. It is touted as the "Facebook-killer"
which allows users to have control of their data-security. This can be achieved
by each user having their own Diaspora node. This essentially means allowing
the users to have their Facebook server at home or ( anywhere else they prefer ). The Diaspora nodes
are able to interact with each other to form one distributed social network.
Furthermore, instead of users having to log into one single server, they can
choose one of the many servers administered by different entities. This way
they can decide whom to trust with their data and no entity has full access to
it. (source)
Similarly, there are many other applications that have been developed recently, one such is buddycloud.
The way this works is somewhat similar to Diaspora, but is working with W3C,
Mozilla Firefox and XSF to build a foundation so that soon all products have a
new social layer on top. This can be understood by a simple diagram,
This way each user can select which websites to share data with. Isn't that cool, you get to choose with whom to share your data.
Decentralized Storage.
With the issues in security over storing data in public servers who have access to all the clients data, ownCloud is being developed as a
replacement to Dropbox. It allows users to make their own cloud and access their
files from all the devices.
Likewise, the Locker project allows the user to set-up their own hosted server. This is achieved by
installing their software on the client's server and providing features similar
to what Dropbox does.
It is exciting to see that so many
people feel that things have to change and come up with ideas and projects to make
it happen. I'm sure we will see many exciting things in the future which would
change the way we access and store our personal data over the public internet.
Hey Akshay,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting blog post as I learned a lot about Diaspora, a service that I had no idea existed beforehand. It seems like its capabilities have many uses for someone who values their privacy, and wants to take control of their own data. I feel your enthusiasm for the changing climate of the internet, as it starts to embrace the idea of file sharing rather than rejecting it outright. One suggestion I would have is to make sure your sentences flow together better, as it would really streamline your ideas and make it easier for the reader to understand. Other then that, you are doing a great job. Good content.
Well, Ashkon, who doesn't want privacy today...With innocent people being target of various cyber attacks..everybody want their piece of information to be limited to just a few people. Given the infrastructure used today, sharing private data over public infrastructure seems stupid...
DeleteThis change was imminent in the near future, and I am glad that there are people who understand the need for it..Not to mention but the sharing of data in the network is awaiting a huge revolutionary change is what I feel...
Anyways thanks for visiting my blog and will keep your suggestion in mind.
Hi Akshay,
ReplyDeleteBefore reading your post, I have a different point of view about file sharing with Dropbox. Now, you make me think a little bit about security problem that I may encounter when using that service. I do believe that only fools would public their private data, and I do believe all net users have the right to choose what and where to public their data. And base on list of services provided on your post, I would choose a proper sharing service for some of my data that I don't want to public it globally.
Thanks for visiting my post Thong. If you say only fools public their private data then don't forget that we all are fools then. Everybody uses gmail today and gmail uses us today for advertisements and their revenue. If you know about the latest NSA project called PRISM...so by keeping your private data on public network is like staying in a fools paradise...
Delete