I feel compelled to raise awareness of the risk that with 94% of the Internet controlled by BigTech, we may be on the verge of completely losing the information war unless steps are taken to look at alternate platforms including private data center hosting.
Microsoft Azure isn't far behind as Microsoft corporate has already signified its willingness to censor doctors on LinkedIn sharing life-saving early treatment information.
I see no contingency planning such as scoping out the use of private data centers. As an infrastructure architect working in the DoD, I understand the need for risk mitigation, but can't seem to communicate the message.
There are several misconceptions about hosting on cloud versus on-premises.
1) You don't need to use a cloud provider to host web and data or to have high-speed fault tolerant Internet access.
2) Colocation centers at least at this point only care about network disruption and spam and do not normally monitor content - I know that my colocation doesn't.
3) Servers, memory, storage are all still cheap even with supply-chain issues - cheaper than paying for providers.
4) Servers can be hosted just as securely in a colocation as on a cloud provider, you can implement data-at-rest encryption so even if confiscated, they are secure, use multi-factor authentication to protect against intrusion, and employ the same advanced security mechanisms that cloud providers do.
5) Colocation costs are inexpensive and reliable. A level-3 center provides at least 99.99 guarantees with backup power and redundant high-speed Internet. I pay just $550.00 for power and space per month to host the equivalent processing power that would require at least $1,500 from Amazon or AWS - over 2 TB of RAM, 40 TB of ultra-high-speed NVME storage, and 128 virtualized cores on 4 physical severs. And that comes with 20 IPs and 1 Gbe up and down Internet with capability to expand at low cost.
6) Most services provided on the public Internet also have options for on-premises hosting. You don't need substack or even a cloud provider to have substack like capability, if that is the next one on the chopping block. WordPress, database platforms such as SQL Server, Windows hosting, Linux hosting can all be done on-premises. The majority of customers of cloud platforms don't leverage anything more than infrastructure-as-a-service and don't take advantage of software or platform as a service. Meaning, most can lift and shift back to their own data center if push came to shove without loss of capability.
I've been trying to put together an alt-tech initiative to address the issue as well as services to capture and index all of the relevant data from reputable sources that are now filtered out by most Internet search engines such as Google. This is an area up my wheelhouse as I have 2 master's degrees and a PhD in computer science and have held roles designing enterprise data, software, infrastructure, and cybersecurity architectures for both cloud and on-premises over the last 35 years. You can see my profile at https://linkedin.com/in/bobleith
I'd match up to 15K myself just to host a conference, but no takers. I'm a technology guru, not a marketing expert. I've no desire to profit from this, my colocation is exclusively for my own data science experimentation and for helping people looking into setting up testing platforms without any cost. I am happily employed in a well-paying job and no intent to leave at this point so do this all in my spare time. I am just interested in suggestions in how to get this ball rolling and start bringing together other people like me into a common forum on a part-time basis. If there are 10,000 IT professionals out there interested in donating part-time efforts toward solutions willing to do 5 hours per week on that, it is 50,000 manhours of effort per week. Surely something could be accomplished with that level of effort to start mitigating risks.
The fact that givesendgo.com has been down quite a bit ever since people started donating to it after Gofundme pulled the plug, plus what's happening on Spotify are just the beginning signs of how big the problem is going to become. Amazon is the elephant in the room. Conservative, Covid-19 anti-narrative, and Christian sites are all vulnerable among others. When they start censoring those who complain about censoring, you know things are bad. We are there now. Christian organizations are some of the biggest users of Amazon. Bezos would happily take down anything this administration asks him to. We are at far greater risk of a catastrophe that most people realize.
GETTR could be taken down tomorrow and all the "misinformation" authors about COVID-19 could be forced off Substack if this administration wanted to do it. Remember what happen to Parlor - Amazon took them down in a day and that was the end of them. A mitigation plan is needed. It's only going to get worse. Big Tech combined with the power of this administration could take down 94% of the sites not favorable to the narrative overnight if they wanted to.
All of the major social networking sites are using AWS Twitter, Netflix, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. - https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws - Plus Pfizer and Spotify. This is one giant incestuous party of corruption with the same interests to control the world and tell you how to think.
I forgot to mention it's not just Amazon and Microsoft as cloud providers, but also Google Cloud is in the mix. All of them bad with Microsoft the least bad so far. Unlike Amazon, Microsoft hasn't banned any customers off its Azure platform to my knowledge, but I'm not holding my breath. Interestingly Spotify is on AWS - one wonders if there is some collusion going on with them in terms of trying to eliminate Rogan.
I agree CoLo and owning the gear is the best but management always wants to what is cheapest from a CapEx perspective so no money up front for gear and floor space. They just don't care that the OpEx is 5 times more because that is someone else's budget.
Like I posted in over at "el gato's" blog check out the Qortal Project at qortal.org where it is a blockchain based protocol for chat, sites, coin and transactions. True peer to peer so it can't be taken down (similar to TOR), very low power (any old computer with 4-8 GB RAM will do) and includes smart contracts for transactions.
I'm glad to see you taking this on. Don't be discouraged if nobody's interested in what you have to offer. If you have a viable alternative ready when they actually need it, and a way for them to find it... that would be very valuable.
A conference is worthless unless there are viable matches to be made between those with money who need services and those with services to provide. You won't have 10K volunteers to to start with, either, and that's a blessing because organizing that kind of effort is a massive amount of work in itself. So, what specifically can you offer, and to whom?
I'd be happy to contribute part time. I also have gigabit fiber and my own servers at home. I have some ideas. I'm an engineer; I can do infrastructure and write scrapers and stuff. I've worked in the DoD space myself, mostly in research. I also have a full-time job, in the financial services sector now. I'm not going to pay $150 just to contact you directly. I'm also not going to use LinkedIn for that, which I consider to be a hostile platform. You can reach me via email, it's in my profile here.
Feb 7, 2022·edited Feb 7, 2022Liked by Bob Leithiser, Ph.D.
Bob, thanks for posting this and thinking about it. It’s been on my mind too and I’ve been churning away trying to come to a solution.
A coherent paper isn’t ready to publish yet, but I believe the solution lies in linking bittorrent file service, with bitcoin’s monetary network, in an interlocking financial incentive structure much like the stock market. We do this by paying a small amount per file download, with a fixed cut going to the author and a cut to the peer who served it to you. If you deem this file to be something others may want, you are then able to serve it to others, collecting a fee on behalf of the file author and sending it to them, including your ID to ensure he logs it against you. On a regular basis (hourly, daily…), the author sends you a dividend payment for your share of the contribution to the total distribution during the period, the expected size of which you independently know in advance from monitoring the torrent swarm; and if he has not sent you the expected amount, you might decide to cease your upload support for this file.
This system organically and without central authority hosts content that participants deem of value, and ensures it is always available to the curious so long as at least one individual somewhere on the internet continues to offer it - which in the case of “fringe content” they will do even when the market disagrees, if they truly believe it is important material that will be valued one day.
Forget other blockchains - they’re uncertain in their aims, unproven over time, centralised to various degrees, malleable in their principles. Bitcoin in its 13th year is already pretty much unkillable, and laser focused on being resilient and money. We only need it for those properties that it exists for, and do not force it to carry any of the content serving roles. This can all be done in a client software package.
The fact that givesendgo.com has been down quite a bit ever since people started donating to it after Gofundme pulled the plug, plus what's happening on Spotify are just the beginning signs of how big the problem is going to become. Amazon is the elephant in the room. Conservative, Covid-19 anti-narrative, and Christian sites are all vulnerable among others. When they start censoring those who complain about censoring, you know things are bad. We are there now. Christian organizations are some of the biggest users of Amazon. Bezos would happily take down anything this administration asks him to. We are at far greater risk of a catastrophe that most people realize.
Some initial goals:
- Web content development
- Web scraping and indexing to automate the archive of content of interest to the users
- Search engine development that can find what the user really wants to find without it being replaced by "fact checks" instead of the actual studies?
- Metadata
- Analytics
- Automated data collection and indexing
- Big data
- Easy user interfaces to search and index vast amounts of data
- Private cloud technologies that leverage multiple private data centers without reliance on public cloud providers
- Security and firewall technologies including multifactor to minimize hacking and promote privacy
- Emerging technologies such as Blockchain for non-repudiation
- Apps that provide search capability without censoring results
FYI, GETTR is on AWS as is Substack.
https://tv.gab.com/channel/realchuckgraham/view/is-gettr-making-a-mistake-using-61ddf2e453cc2b70d2e4adad
https://hypestat.com/info/theroyallist.substack.com#:~:text=theroyallist.substack.com%20receives%20about%201%2C010%2C635%20unique%20visitors%20per%20day%2C,technologies.%20theroyallist.substack.com%20links%20to%20network%20IP%20address%2013.249.134.51.
GETTR could be taken down tomorrow and all the "misinformation" authors about COVID-19 could be forced off Substack if this administration wanted to do it. Remember what happen to Parlor - Amazon took them down in a day and that was the end of them. A mitigation plan is needed. It's only going to get worse. Big Tech combined with the power of this administration could take down 94% of the sites not favorable to the narrative overnight if they wanted to.
All of the major social networking sites are using AWS Twitter, Netflix, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. - https://www.contino.io/insights/whos-using-aws - Plus Pfizer and Spotify. This is one giant incestuous party of corruption with the same interests to control the world and tell you how to think.
https://growingforward.net/2021/01/15/top-7-companies-that-use-amazon-web-services/#:~:text=Top%207%20Companies%20That%20Use%20Amazon%20Web%20Services,top%20in%20the%20streaming%20wars.%203.%20Capital%20 - Pfizer is on AWS - no surprise there. :)
I forgot to mention it's not just Amazon and Microsoft as cloud providers, but also Google Cloud is in the mix. All of them bad with Microsoft the least bad so far. Unlike Amazon, Microsoft hasn't banned any customers off its Azure platform to my knowledge, but I'm not holding my breath. Interestingly Spotify is on AWS - one wonders if there is some collusion going on with them in terms of trying to eliminate Rogan.
Telegram at least uses private servers - see https://hypestat.com/info/telegram.org as does GAB - https://hypestat.com/info/gab.com
I just bought alttech.cloud for 12 bucks on godaddy. Unfortunately alt.tech was taken and they want 5K per year for it.
Take it to Andrew Torba of gab. That's his thing. Tptb have been failing to take him out for years. He's expanding in every direction now.
I agree CoLo and owning the gear is the best but management always wants to what is cheapest from a CapEx perspective so no money up front for gear and floor space. They just don't care that the OpEx is 5 times more because that is someone else's budget.
Like I posted in over at "el gato's" blog check out the Qortal Project at qortal.org where it is a blockchain based protocol for chat, sites, coin and transactions. True peer to peer so it can't be taken down (similar to TOR), very low power (any old computer with 4-8 GB RAM will do) and includes smart contracts for transactions.
Good steps to take.
I'm glad to see you taking this on. Don't be discouraged if nobody's interested in what you have to offer. If you have a viable alternative ready when they actually need it, and a way for them to find it... that would be very valuable.
A conference is worthless unless there are viable matches to be made between those with money who need services and those with services to provide. You won't have 10K volunteers to to start with, either, and that's a blessing because organizing that kind of effort is a massive amount of work in itself. So, what specifically can you offer, and to whom?
I'd be happy to contribute part time. I also have gigabit fiber and my own servers at home. I have some ideas. I'm an engineer; I can do infrastructure and write scrapers and stuff. I've worked in the DoD space myself, mostly in research. I also have a full-time job, in the financial services sector now. I'm not going to pay $150 just to contact you directly. I'm also not going to use LinkedIn for that, which I consider to be a hostile platform. You can reach me via email, it's in my profile here.
Bob, thanks for posting this and thinking about it. It’s been on my mind too and I’ve been churning away trying to come to a solution.
A coherent paper isn’t ready to publish yet, but I believe the solution lies in linking bittorrent file service, with bitcoin’s monetary network, in an interlocking financial incentive structure much like the stock market. We do this by paying a small amount per file download, with a fixed cut going to the author and a cut to the peer who served it to you. If you deem this file to be something others may want, you are then able to serve it to others, collecting a fee on behalf of the file author and sending it to them, including your ID to ensure he logs it against you. On a regular basis (hourly, daily…), the author sends you a dividend payment for your share of the contribution to the total distribution during the period, the expected size of which you independently know in advance from monitoring the torrent swarm; and if he has not sent you the expected amount, you might decide to cease your upload support for this file.
This system organically and without central authority hosts content that participants deem of value, and ensures it is always available to the curious so long as at least one individual somewhere on the internet continues to offer it - which in the case of “fringe content” they will do even when the market disagrees, if they truly believe it is important material that will be valued one day.
Forget other blockchains - they’re uncertain in their aims, unproven over time, centralised to various degrees, malleable in their principles. Bitcoin in its 13th year is already pretty much unkillable, and laser focused on being resilient and money. We only need it for those properties that it exists for, and do not force it to carry any of the content serving roles. This can all be done in a client software package.
What if you used decentralized blockchain technology like Cardano to host information without being censored?