What is the protonet?

Von Ali Jelveh. Veröffentlicht 23. August 2010.

I really hope you’ve read the title as it was intended to be read:

Obviously this conversation goes further than that, but we’ll leave those two alone (for now) and I’ll tell you a little more about what the protonet is. In our last blogpost I talked about the phase change moment – from idea to action – this time we’ll fast forward and see what the protonet is supposed to be – and what it is now. Let’s recap the fundamental ideas of protonet:

• we want citizens to have an infrastructure they own themselves
• we want citizens to be the ones responsible for it, to maintain and to cultivate it
• we believe in responsibility, and we believe that only with taking responsibility freedom is possible
• we believe that building such an infrastructure needs to be as simple as pushing a button
• and most important of all: we believe that, for it to work, it needs to be awesomely fun to do it

Our last point bears repeating: if our vision of a people owned infrastructure has any chance of becoming a reality (and it will), it needs to be fun. It needs to be easy, and it needs to be instantly gratifying, even – especially – if this new network consists of just your node. Now that we got the fundamentals, let’s do a deep dive:

protonet, a vision of a different (web) future

To us, the protonet is not just an idea, it is our absolute belief that a different future is possible – for the web, and communications in general – and that this is a future worth creating for. It is a future in which we own our data, and not just the data, but the infrastructure too. A future in which we’re not bound by an endless amount of recurring fees (whether paid in money units or by matters of handing over our privacy – completely or piece by piece). A future full of the awesome stuff we now see popping up all over the net, only slightly different. Instead of having to rent a dropbox, you’ll own your copy. Instead of renting your googlemail account (by allowing google to read your mails and provide you with custom ads), you’ll own your own email account and you’ll be able to read your mails with your very own copy of a gorgeous webmail client. Instead of having to use facebook to connect to your friends from near or far you’ll be the owner of your social graph and decide – and own – the client that allows you to browse and interact with it. We’re not here to invent all of those things, but we’ll do whatever is needed so you can ‘feel’ it, and be instantly gratified.

protonet, the holistic approach

We see protonet as a holistic approach to communication and exchange. We recognize the right to communicate as a fundamental human right and as such we believe that it should not be left to politics and governments to ensure. We believe that each and every single one of us holds the potential to be the guardian of such a right, to be the creator and owner of a piece of infrastructure, and that in joining these pieces we can create a more powerful, more diverse, more secure and ultimately free internet. An infrastructure truly owned and operated by we, the people.

protonet, relearning ownership

We have no illusions, such an undertaking is profoundly complex and pinned with challenges, and seen in it’s totality, practically impossible. But that’s what makes it so fun. And isn’t our worlds history filled with impossibilities that have been, by passion and perseverance, pulled, dragged into reality? What can be more challenging (and rewarding) than for us – who have been taught to be the perfect consumers – to relearn ownership and responsibility, to understand creativity as our heritage and join hands in creating something maybe no population has ever created before in this magnitude: our own communications network?

stay tuned (subscribe to this blog or our twitter account) and see us show off our hardware and software in our coming blogposts

ps. for those already using a protonet node, you’re right, we’ve reversed the messaging order for blogpost readability 😉