Lol. I love how private citizen Berenson is doing his best to get this off the ground while our actual government agencies are spending billions to misinform and gaslight us.
I believe you ought to start a tech advisory committee for this, to gather/discuss technologies and approaches. I've seen suggestions to use git, Mastodon, and the blockchain. These are inappropriate for storage of large binary files (think .pdf .docx or video). Generally speaking: you need a large internet-available file repository, crypto-hashes on them to detect tampering, index all of that with Apache Solr, then a frontend such as Drupal with the Solr plugin.
The idea to use torrent to create backups is great, though torrent can also be poisoned. The torrent dev community may have solutions for that (I'm not part of that). You *can* back up to AWS S3 or Glacier or such, without worry about taking you offline like what happened to Parler, given that you already want to have multiple geo-distributed copies.
I'm happy to advise on this project, both technically and administratively. I have 20+ years at an open source foundation, so am familiar with organizational needs for such. My tech experience is around the internet, scaling, the infrastructure to support that, etc. Happy to help out!
Legit response. This guy knows what he's talking about.
@ Alex -- you've got several strong tech guys who can assist you here. Including me. Throwing my hat in the ring. Promise i'm not some drifter. I'll donate my time.
LOL ... yeah. It's simply that somewhere other than Alex's substack is best for working through choices. This is not a suitable format for discussion. He needs a few subject matter experts to debate and advise. And I would agree with your implicit statement: small. Five people or less.
A quick note on infrastructure: using a bloclchain thay specializes in cloud storage is the way to go here. It's actually far less expensive than setting up and maintaining the infrastructure by yourself and no, searches cost absolutely nothing. Only the storing of the data incurs a cost. It's pretty much like using AWS only probably more expensive but it cannot be deleted. This is how you store in an immutable database. The tech is there, it just needs to be discovered.
I work as a cryptocurrency and blockchain analyst at a financial firm. I can offer some initial guidance if need be.
I agree with this 100%. If you go with your own servers, you risk censorship from ISPs, DNS providers, services like Cloudflare or Google, and even nation-states. IPFS (Inter Planetary File System) was built to solve these issues. It should be pretty easy to stand up a website using Fleek. https://fleek.co/hosting/ But, the big drawback might be indexing and searchability. There are projects that were/are working on this, and possibly good solutions, such as Lens.
In my work, we primarily use servers based out of Germany. I don't know if data centers over there eject companies for ideological purposes (anybody here have links/pointers to German ISPs and data centers shutting down hosting?) ... Those servers are relatively inexpensive and come with a very high traffic tier (nearly $0/month; in the US, I've paid for similar traffic at $2500/month).
Blockchain is good for metadata, rather than content. Cryptographic signatures effectively solve the same problem, without needing the additional concepts behind "blockchain". The file content still has to go *somewhere*, which is not the blockchain.
I remain baffled at your attitude towards Epik and Gab. They have taken incredible beatings while standing up for free speech. It's easy enough to block the antisemites on Gab if that's what you're squeamish about. I've said it before and now again - if you want to make Jack Dorsey poop his pants get on Gab. I'll contribute to the archice whatever you do, but as someone else here suggested pick up the phone and ask Torba if he can help. The technical task is huge for this archive and will devour your valuable time. Something else said before - you're wasting time and money suing Twitter.
If he's not going to associate with Epik, he's not going to associate with GAB. He's still too locked in to "legitimate" channels. Even after all of this.
Alex, you've raised a lot of valid and difficult issues to deal with. Here's one you might have missed. Many folks today will use a Smart Phone and ONLY a Smart Phone for access. I and some others will avoid Smart Phones like the plague they're becoming (already are?).
Access must be available across a multitude of platforms.
I've used computers fairly extensively since 1967 but this is far beyond my ken. As I've said before, my retired pockets aren't bottomless, but I WANT to help contribute to this and/or any lawsuit you put together against the folks trying to silence you.
@alex You might want to check out what Larry Sanger is doing on https://encyclosphere.org/. He's one of the co-founders of Wikipedia, and unhappy with the unidirectional hard turn they have taken is trying to come up with a more democratic alternative
Alex, I hope you also include maps and timelines going all the way back to 2003 when Fauci and Company first tried to patent the coronavirus. I would imagine it’s gonna take a small team of dedicated folks like yourself to pull this together. Will this be an ongoing project since the fourth branch of our government keeps moving the goalposts?
You should pursue "3) Blockchain/distributed infrastructure" as the preferred option to meet your goals.
You are super smart Alex, but just not experienced yet with immutable and auditable distributed applications. If Glenn Greenwald can figure it out, who is also super smart, then you can too.
Your non-profit would just need to build a small development team initially that could kick-off a well managed open source project that will survive in the long term.
The nut you need to crack is just an organizational problem and not a technical problem. You need to find a strong technical leader with established credentials that you would resource to build this small development team. You would need to be intimately involved with this technical leader to make sure they are implementing your vision.
One thing you may want to do - check with others who have dealt with this issue. One idea is talk to the Parler folks about what they did to them. They hit them with just about everything, nad it would be good to have an idea of their menu of options. The second person I would look to talk to is Sundance of the Conservative Treehouse (https://theconservativetreehouse.com/). He was booted off of wordpress, and he worked out a new arrangement. As background, he is an excellent researcher, and was one of the leading folks following Russiagate. His blog is volumous and packed with really important and objectively true information. Despite the obstables, he transferred all of the postings, and preserving all the links to all of his posts to a secure server. I know he loves you and I would put money that he would be more than willing to talk with you about the best way to move forward on this really important project. THis is what we need, this is what the country needs - to be centered on sanity and truth. God bless and we are with you -
EDIT - the "they" and associated "their" am talking about is what Catherine Austin Fitts calls "Mr. Global" - her term for the shadowy, secret but purposeful force that is doing things like destroying honest reporting that interferes with their agenda. It is not referring to the folks at Parler. Sorry - should have edited before I sent...
Lol. I love how private citizen Berenson is doing his best to get this off the ground while our actual government agencies are spending billions to misinform and gaslight us.
Let me know where I can donate.
This is the ultimate expression of being a free & fearless American.
I believe you ought to start a tech advisory committee for this, to gather/discuss technologies and approaches. I've seen suggestions to use git, Mastodon, and the blockchain. These are inappropriate for storage of large binary files (think .pdf .docx or video). Generally speaking: you need a large internet-available file repository, crypto-hashes on them to detect tampering, index all of that with Apache Solr, then a frontend such as Drupal with the Solr plugin.
The idea to use torrent to create backups is great, though torrent can also be poisoned. The torrent dev community may have solutions for that (I'm not part of that). You *can* back up to AWS S3 or Glacier or such, without worry about taking you offline like what happened to Parler, given that you already want to have multiple geo-distributed copies.
I'm happy to advise on this project, both technically and administratively. I have 20+ years at an open source foundation, so am familiar with organizational needs for such. My tech experience is around the internet, scaling, the infrastructure to support that, etc. Happy to help out!
Legit response. This guy knows what he's talking about.
@ Alex -- you've got several strong tech guys who can assist you here. Including me. Throwing my hat in the ring. Promise i'm not some drifter. I'll donate my time.
i hope Alex has an assistant that has a way of getting in touch with you and some others on this thread. Maybe you should email Alex with your info...
Mr Curious said he will be sending Alex an email. Let's hope it gets through his filters and flood of email...
You lost me at "committee." :-)
LOL ... yeah. It's simply that somewhere other than Alex's substack is best for working through choices. This is not a suitable format for discussion. He needs a few subject matter experts to debate and advise. And I would agree with your implicit statement: small. Five people or less.
How are the Wikileaks databases housed & structured?
A quick note on infrastructure: using a bloclchain thay specializes in cloud storage is the way to go here. It's actually far less expensive than setting up and maintaining the infrastructure by yourself and no, searches cost absolutely nothing. Only the storing of the data incurs a cost. It's pretty much like using AWS only probably more expensive but it cannot be deleted. This is how you store in an immutable database. The tech is there, it just needs to be discovered.
I work as a cryptocurrency and blockchain analyst at a financial firm. I can offer some initial guidance if need be.
I agree with this 100%. If you go with your own servers, you risk censorship from ISPs, DNS providers, services like Cloudflare or Google, and even nation-states. IPFS (Inter Planetary File System) was built to solve these issues. It should be pretty easy to stand up a website using Fleek. https://fleek.co/hosting/ But, the big drawback might be indexing and searchability. There are projects that were/are working on this, and possibly good solutions, such as Lens.
https://medium.com/@rtradetech/run-your-own-ipfs-search-engine-with-lens-c262fd9e5cc But, I have no experience with the search/indexing side. If that issue can be surmounted, IPFS is definitely the best way to go.
In my work, we primarily use servers based out of Germany. I don't know if data centers over there eject companies for ideological purposes (anybody here have links/pointers to German ISPs and data centers shutting down hosting?) ... Those servers are relatively inexpensive and come with a very high traffic tier (nearly $0/month; in the US, I've paid for similar traffic at $2500/month).
Blockchain is good for metadata, rather than content. Cryptographic signatures effectively solve the same problem, without needing the additional concepts behind "blockchain". The file content still has to go *somewhere*, which is not the blockchain.
Yes, concur. blockchain is not ideal for the content Alex is likely going to store.
Please check up on IPFS. That is exactly what it's for: Hosting content. https://docs.ipfs.io/concepts/what-is-ipfs/
I remain baffled at your attitude towards Epik and Gab. They have taken incredible beatings while standing up for free speech. It's easy enough to block the antisemites on Gab if that's what you're squeamish about. I've said it before and now again - if you want to make Jack Dorsey poop his pants get on Gab. I'll contribute to the archice whatever you do, but as someone else here suggested pick up the phone and ask Torba if he can help. The technical task is huge for this archive and will devour your valuable time. Something else said before - you're wasting time and money suing Twitter.
Ask GAB Andrew Torba for help
If he's not going to associate with Epik, he's not going to associate with GAB. He's still too locked in to "legitimate" channels. Even after all of this.
Permanent, "like a university". LOL.
Hillsdale College in Michigan accepts no government $, and might be a good ally in this.
Alex, you've raised a lot of valid and difficult issues to deal with. Here's one you might have missed. Many folks today will use a Smart Phone and ONLY a Smart Phone for access. I and some others will avoid Smart Phones like the plague they're becoming (already are?).
Access must be available across a multitude of platforms.
I've used computers fairly extensively since 1967 but this is far beyond my ken. As I've said before, my retired pockets aren't bottomless, but I WANT to help contribute to this and/or any lawsuit you put together against the folks trying to silence you.
@alex You might want to check out what Larry Sanger is doing on https://encyclosphere.org/. He's one of the co-founders of Wikipedia, and unhappy with the unidirectional hard turn they have taken is trying to come up with a more democratic alternative
Alex, I hope you also include maps and timelines going all the way back to 2003 when Fauci and Company first tried to patent the coronavirus. I would imagine it’s gonna take a small team of dedicated folks like yourself to pull this together. Will this be an ongoing project since the fourth branch of our government keeps moving the goalposts?
You should pursue "3) Blockchain/distributed infrastructure" as the preferred option to meet your goals.
You are super smart Alex, but just not experienced yet with immutable and auditable distributed applications. If Glenn Greenwald can figure it out, who is also super smart, then you can too.
Your non-profit would just need to build a small development team initially that could kick-off a well managed open source project that will survive in the long term.
The nut you need to crack is just an organizational problem and not a technical problem. You need to find a strong technical leader with established credentials that you would resource to build this small development team. You would need to be intimately involved with this technical leader to make sure they are implementing your vision.
Block Chain - yes. Checkout Polkadot as a base. Great potential and scalable. Fast transaction processing platform in development NOW.
This fellow has done something similar to what you are attempting, Alex. Nojabforme.info: over 430 links to CDC, WHO, FDA documents.
Well, one name I will suggest NOT using is: "HAL" !
The Rochive
One thing you may want to do - check with others who have dealt with this issue. One idea is talk to the Parler folks about what they did to them. They hit them with just about everything, nad it would be good to have an idea of their menu of options. The second person I would look to talk to is Sundance of the Conservative Treehouse (https://theconservativetreehouse.com/). He was booted off of wordpress, and he worked out a new arrangement. As background, he is an excellent researcher, and was one of the leading folks following Russiagate. His blog is volumous and packed with really important and objectively true information. Despite the obstables, he transferred all of the postings, and preserving all the links to all of his posts to a secure server. I know he loves you and I would put money that he would be more than willing to talk with you about the best way to move forward on this really important project. THis is what we need, this is what the country needs - to be centered on sanity and truth. God bless and we are with you -
EDIT - the "they" and associated "their" am talking about is what Catherine Austin Fitts calls "Mr. Global" - her term for the shadowy, secret but purposeful force that is doing things like destroying honest reporting that interferes with their agenda. It is not referring to the folks at Parler. Sorry - should have edited before I sent...