Lorea

"Lorea aims to become a network of federated networks, “a garden of shared knowledge.”"

Doesn't seem to exist anymore?

Lorea - P2P Foundation

The basic aim of Lorea, n-1, and RedDry is to create free, federated, self-managed social networks. Social networks for the people who work on them.

Lorea aims to become a network of federated networks, “a garden of shared knowledge.” It wants to continue the free software philosophy in the area of services on Web 2.0, which has been dominated by proprietary software and platforms that trade in our personal data. Lorea is developed with w3c standards.

The logic of federation, which has always allowed services like e-mail to work for all users regardless of proprietary issues, falls apart in social network services. Artificial networks have been created in an attempt to secure user loyalty in specific contexts, restricting users’ freedom to relate across networks. Federated, free networks created by the commons break free of that logic.

The paradox of privacy: we want to control our privacy levels, but we sign terms of use without knowing how they affect us. At Lorea, the data flows that we generate belong to all of us. On the other hand, we work with encryption that offers users secure access, Administrators cannot access the information generated by the flow of relationships on the networks. “Digital suicide” is always available so that users can immediately delete their details. These free, federated networks do not engage in data mining, and do not monitor users.

n-1 has grown from 3,000 users to more than 35,000 users.

Its architecture is designed to generate groups that share tools and to work collaboratively (rather than to accumulate friends). The focus is not on creating autonomy but on technological sovereignty, as in fair trade networks. A varied technological ecosystem that generates sustainability.

The cooperativa integral catalana or the colonia de Calafou run using these networks, analogically and digitally promoting social economy models.

We are not a company and we do not have a business plan. We want to promote the “Do-It-Together” philosophy, although we would obviously like to attain economic sustainability for the people who work on Lorea and we try to secure resources so that more people can devote more time to it, in order to speed up development.

– ||||| OUTCOMES ||||| - Free Culture Forum 2011