[Foundation-l] new site notice now ready

[Anthony]

On 12/28/06, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 28/12/06, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> > On 12/28/06, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On 12/28/06, Anthony <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>
> > > > You shouldn't buy another 300 servers in the first place.
>
> > > What a great idea.
> > > When will you have your implementation of "distributed mediawiki" completed?
>
> > It's already completed.  I just need you to transfer over the domain names.
>
> whuh??? Project page?
>
Sorry, that was sarcasm :).  Seriously though, I understand a
distributed mediawiki wouldn't occur overnight, but that's no excuse
to just throw up your hands and say "oh well, let's just put up ads
and make millions".

> Your post actually started me thinking on this. A Freenet (for
> encryption and to avoid a [[:en:trusted client]] problem) or
> BitTorrent (for convenient distribution with a program lots of people
> have) method of distributing Wikipedia. A peer-to-peer network with
> WMF as the only body supplying content files. The downsides that
> spring to mind are (a) doesn't work through any old web browser (this
> is a big one) (b) trusted client problem (how to ensure rogue clients
> don't redistribute corrupted content in our name).
>
I was thinking something a la freenet without the anonymity (which is
what slows it down), and with digital signatures to ensure content
doesn't get corrupted.  Wikimedia servers would still have to do a
tiny bit of work, basically sign stuff and boostrap the peer lists.

It could be built, and for a lot less than 1.5 million.

Anthony