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Free and Open Cloud Services

April 6, 2009 in statements by andrew | 2 comments

In the news recently is the Open Cloud Manifesto.  It is light on content; and not much of a manifesto at all.  I believe this is a fine start, but perhaps more marketing than an actual working group.  The name “Open Cloud Manifesto” follows the trend of prepending Open in front of everything. We have Open source.  Open computing. Open standards. And now, Open Clouds. I encourage this trend.  However, it needs to go one step further.  The Open Cloud statement needs to take the next step and include Free network services. The Franklin Street Statement (FSS) by the Autonomo.us working group lists the characteristics of an optimal free network service.

The FSS lists some key ideas for Service Providers:

  • Choosing Free Software for their service
  • Release customizations to their software under a Free Software license.
  • Allow the Users to control their own data

These can be easily incorporated by the group behind the Open Cloud Manifesto.

We are not talking about free as in zero cost.  Free Networks, much like Free Software, can charge money for their efforts; including support, development, desired customizations, etc.  However, the software is Free as defined by the Free Software Foundation. You as a user of a Free Network Service have the ability to download the software and setup the same service on your own.  The majority of users will not do this, for the simple fact they are opportunistically lazy.
I will happily use, and pay, for your service so long as I have the same control over my data as if I ran it myself; on my own hardware, or I suppose, my own “cloud”.

By empowering the users with control over their own data, allowing them to clone your service using the same software as the provider, and using Free Software; you offer a Free Network Service.  As a User/Customer, this is your data, entrusted to a third party in many cases, you should demand nothing less.

Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network Services

July 14, 2008 in statements by Benjamin Mako Hill | 89 comments

The current generation of network services or Software as a Service can provide advantages over traditional, locally installed software in ease of deployment, collaboration, and data aggregation. Many users have begun to rely on such services in preference to software provisioned by themselves or their organizations. This move toward centralization has powerful effects on software freedom and user autonomy.

On March 16, 2008, a workgroup convened at the Free Software Foundation to discuss issues of freedom for users given the rise of network services. We considered a number of issues, among them what impacts these services have on user freedom, and how implementers of network services can help or harm users. We believe this will be an ongoing conversation, potentially spanning many years. Our hope is that free software and open source communities will embrace and adopt these values when thinking about user freedom and network services. We hope to work with organizations including the FSF to provide moral and technical leadership on this issue.

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