The world needs more #DEEFOSS

It is no secret that the idea of an open, free and accessible word wide web is just that: an idea. The WWW is dominated by a few big corporations that dominate search and social media. They control and monitor what you see, who you talk to, your emotions, political views, the list is too long to continue. But the trend is easy to recognize: Total control over all your personal online and to some extent even offline activities.

This needs to stop. Before anyone has to ask why, here are a few good reasons:

• Centralization: Promotes abuse of power for those in control right now or in the future
• Unencrypted personal data: Asks to be under mass surveillance
• Proprietary, Closed Source Software: Can do bad stuff without anyone realizing

So what is the way forward? Just start to build, use, praise, promote, contribute and sponsor more Decentralized, End-to-End Encrypted, Free Open Source Software (DEEFOSS). Humanity will be thankful or at least I will.

What do I consider as DEEFOSS? Good question, glad you asked.

• Decentralized: Anyone can run the software independently of any central authority.
• End-to-End Encrypted: User data is only decrypted if absolutely necessary and if so in a transparent way.
• Free Open Source Software: Source code is publicly available under a license allowing anyone to copy and modify it free of any charge.

Some examples of DEEFOSS are (in no particular order):

• Matrix (Code) - end-to-end encrypted, decentralized chat protocol
• Cryptpad (Code) - end-to-end encrypted, real-time collaborative editing of documents
• Scuttlebutt (Code) - decentralized social network
• IPFS (Code) - decentralized alternative to HTTP(S)

So go ahead and build a future with more #DEEFOSS. Thank you.