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The ByStar Halaal/Libre Digital Ecosystem

A Moral Alterantive To The Proprietary American Digital Ecosystem

Document Number:	PLPC-180016   [ .bib ]
Version:	0.1
Dated:	March 01, 2012
Group:	general
Primary URL:	http://www.by-star.net/PLPC/180016
Federated Publications:	ByTopic -- ByContent
AccessPage Revision:	This AccessPage was produced on July 09, 2012 at 0:27 PDT (-0700)
Author(s):	ByStar
See Also:	Defining Halaal Software And Defining Halaal Internet Application Services     تعريف نر٠افزار حلال و تعريف خد٠ات اينترنتى حلال     Introducing Globish into Globish     The Nature of Poly-Existentials: Basis for Abolishment of The Western So-Called Intellectual Property Rights Regime

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SHORT DESCRIPTION

ByStar Halaal Digital Ecosystem

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FULL INLINE DOCUMENT

Copyright © 2011 ByStar

Permission is granted to make and distribute complete (not partial)
verbatim copies of this document provided that the copyright notice
and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Contents

List of Figures

1 Introduction

The current direction that Internet services are headed is putting humanity in danger. We are putting in place a model and process that can redirect Internet services and safeguard humanity.

Cause for concern: Domination of the Internet by proprietary American interests

Today the Internet Services industry is a proprietary construct, almost entirely owned and controlled by proprietary American commercial interests. Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, YouTube, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, and virtually every other major Internet service – these are all for-profit proprietary Ameriacn corporations, with no responsibility to the public welfare. This represents a significant hazard to the broader welfare of society. Under the existing proprietary American Internet model, critical societal freedoms are being seriously compromised by narrow commercial self-interests.

Today, the world is largely unaware of this. The public is completely oblivious to the perils of the proprietary Internet model, and happily entrusts its personal data, its privacy, its freedoms and its civil liberties to proprietary business interests. And the people whose responsibility it is to safeguard the public interest – government, and the engineering profession – are asleep at the wheel.

The broad label that we use for Internet services and software as it exists and is practiced today, is: “The Proprietary American Digital Ecosystem”. Our use of the term “Digital Ecosystem” is very broad and includes inter-related software, systems, services, business, philosophical, moral, societal and legal pratices that shape it and are shaped by it. We include the term American in this label not just because it is dominated by America, but because it is rooted in American values and American rules. The American purely economic model and widespread practices which are based on Western IPR regime has led to dominance of Internet by large American corporation and governance of the Internet through corpocracy. These corrupt values and models are now being exported and forced on the rest of the world in the name of Internet.

The Proprietary American Digital Ecosystem comprises of a number of competing Proprietary Digital Enclaves. The propritary Microsoft digital envlave is one such example. The Microsoft enclave has had its roots in the propritary software business and is now trying to bring in proprietary services. The propritary Google digital envlave is an other example. The Google enclave has had its roots in the proprietary search business and is now trying to integrate with more software and services. Apple, Facebook and Amazon are examples of other American Digital Enclaves. What they all have in common is that they are all competing locked environment driven by Patent and Copyright laws. None of these enclaves were designed ab-initio to be digital environments for humanity. All of these enclaves exist solely to generate profit for their owners.

This model of being governed by competing proprietary enclaves is normal and even desired by most Americans. The American medical system is similarly structured and so is the American food system ¹. From the outside, many view Americans as purely economic creatures that exist in an industrial context and fully believe in supremacy of money. While the proprietary American digital ecosystem my be fine for Americans, it is not for the rest of the world. Bits are without border and this disease that can harm humanity has been spreading.

The existing proprietary regime is the wrong manner-of-existence for software and the wrong model for provision of Internet services. Wrong in that it allows control of the service by the provider, and exploitation of the user’s data, in a way that is detrimental and unknown to the user. The solution to this is an entirely different model for Internet services, where service ownership is placed squarely in the public domain.

Cure: The By* Halaal/Libre Digital Ecosystem

We have spent the past several years of our lives towards creating a healthy alternative to the existing Proprietary American Digital Ecosystem. We have analysed the problem, we have formulated a solution, and now we are acting upon that solution. We call our solution: The By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem.

Briefly, By* Federation of Autonomous Libre Services are Internet Application Services that are internally transparent and focus on preservation of user’s privacy and autonomy. By* stands against Facebook/Google/Yahoo/MSN/iCloud the same way that Linux stands against Microsoft Windows.

Central to our approach is a focus on morality and societal considerations. This leads to our full rejection of the Western so-called Intellectual Property Rights regime.

For our solution to be viable, it needs to have proper considerations for all relevant dimesnions (Moral, Societal, National, Engineering, Economic, etc.). We have addressed these and we are presenting pointers to relevant information below. Collectively, these create a complete picture.

2 The Western FOSS Movement

Free and open-source software (F/OSS, FOSS) or free/libre/open-source software (FLOSS) is software that is both free and open source. It is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, copy, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code. In the context of free and open-source software, free refers to the freedom to copy and re-use the software, rather than to the price of the software.

The Western FOSS Movement has produced the GNU/Linux operating system and has demonstarted the viability of free software as a development model for creating large-scale, complex, relevant software systems. GNU/Linux is a fully viable free software alternative to the proprietary Microsoft Windows operating system, against which it continues to make steady inroads. Mozilla/Firefox is a fully viable alternative to the proprietary Microsoft Internet Explorer, and is also experiencing steadily increasing usage. And apart from such well-known and high-profile projects, behind the scenes the free software movement has become a flourishing creative environment, generating a constant stream of new and better software packages, duplicating and surpassing the capabilities of an ever-increasing portion of proprietary software territory.

However, in the arena of user environments proprietary software fully dominates usage.

And in the arena of internet services, the basic principles of the FOSS movement have been bastardized, where transparent software is used to provide opaque internet services.

FOSS is rooted in Western values of liberty and individuality. Free software focuses on the philosophical freedoms it gives to users, whereas open source software focuses on the perceived strengths of its peer-to-peer development model.

3 Contours Of The By* Halaal/Libre Digital Ecosystem

The By* Halaal/Libre Digital Ecosystem builds on some of the ideologies and results of the FOSS movement. But takes a fundamentally different approach. In particular,

• Unlike the Western FOSS which is centered around liberty and individual’s rights the definitions of Halaal Software and Halaal Internet Services focus on morality and welfare of society.
• We extend the FOSS principles from software to Internet services.
• Unlike the FOSS model, the Halaal model fully recognizes the authority and responsibilities of the Engineering profession.
• Unlike FOSS which only attempts to use Western Copyright law to produce copyleft, the Halaal model views Western Copyright law as a mistake and advocates rejection of Western Copyright law; particularly in the East.
• Unlike FOSS which is just a movement, we are also a complete Digital Ecosystem.

Below we provide a general contour for what we are taking from the existing models and what we have added.

3.1 By* Engineer’s Social Contract With Humanity

By* model recognizes the guardianship role of the software engineering profession.

This guardianship role can be expressed in the form of a set of commitments to society and certain expectations from society.

Commitements to society include:

• Respect Autonomy and Privacy
• Halaal Software and Services. No Software or service should ever be supplied to the public unless the source code for the entire software/service is available to Engineers.
• Put End-To-End Ahead of Business
• Put Conviviality Principle Ahead of Business

Expectations from society include:

• Users should avoid proprietary software
• Conform to Usage Policies
• Assist in moving By* forward.

3.2 By* Poly-Existentials Governance Policy

We reject the entirety of Western IPR regime. This is based on “Nature of Poly-Existentials”.

We always abide by the laws of the sovereign that has jurisdiction. We never break the law.

When operating under the laws of a sovereign where Western IPR regime is in effect, we subject our software to the most stringent libre copyleft license that can apply to that software. If the software is to be used as a component of an Internet service it will be subjected to the equivalent of GPL Afero License. If the software could possibly be subjected to embedding in a product, we subject it to GPL V3.

Our goal is that all software used in any form should be available to engineers in source code format. Western IPR domains our licenses moves towards that.

We always advocate that laws should be changed such that:

• All Western Copyright notices are invalid.
• All Western Patent claims are invalid.

That instead of Western Copyright regime, there should be in place laws that require all software and all internet services offered to the public must have their entire primary source code available to Engineers.

3.3 Software Platform: Debian GNU/Linux

The By* Halaal/Libre Digital Ecosystem is based on the Debian GNU/Linux.

Debian is driven by engineers.

Debian is a universal operating system, running on all By* servers, desktops, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, netpads, handsets and embedded systems.

Debian is multilingual and international. Locale and language customizations and enhancemets all go back to Debian base and the base keeps feeding back.

The Debian Social Contract is harmonious with By* Engineer’s Social Contract With Humanity.

4 The By* Halaal/Libre Digital Ecosystem: Overview of the Full Picture

Figure 1 shows how the moral, legal, societal, engineering, economical and business dimensions of the ByStar Halaal Digital Ecosystem are layered.

Each of the layers shown in Figure 1 represents either a conceptual definition (blue), or an actual software/service implementation (orange). Each layer builds on those beneath.

We will walk through thes layers from bottom to top.

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4.1 Introducing Halaal And Haraam into Globish

We emphasize that our model is based on morality, ethics, philosophy, the health of society and sanctity of individual’s autonomy. This is all very unlike the model of proprietary American digital ecosystem which is purely based on economics – and full of externalities.

We formally introduce the extremely potent word: “Halaal”. That we have done with: “Introducing Halaal and Haraam into Globish – Based on Moral Philosophy of Abstract Halaal” [6] – available on-line at: http://www.bycontent.net/PLPC/120039 . We use the word Halaal carefully and consistently to emphasize that our work is anchored in morality.

4.2 The Nature of Poly-Existentials: Basis for Abolishment of IPR

Central to our approach is full rejection of the Western so-called Intellectual Property Rights regime.

That we have done with: “The Nature of Poly-Existentials: Basis for Abolishment of the Western So-Called Intellectual Property Rights Regime” [9] – available on-line at:
http://www.bycontent.net/PLPC/120033 . In that paper we analyze and discredit the Intellectual Property Rights regime based on the inherent nature of what it seeks to control and restrict. All digital constructs are inherently Poly-Existentials.

4.3 Defining Halaal Software and Defining Halaal Internet Services

Next we focus on the correct manner-of-existence of software and the correct manner-of-existence of Internet Application Services. That we have done with: “Defining Halaal Software and Defining Halaal Internet Services” [5] – available on-line at:
http://www.bycontent.net/PLPC/120041 . As engineers, our legitimacy for addressing this topic is our responsibility to the engineering profession and the engineering profession’s responsibility to society. Our definitions for Halaal manner-of-existence of software and Internet service are concrete and precise.

4.4 Concept Of Libre Services

We have formulated a radically new, non-proprietary model for delivery of Internet services. We call this the Libre Services model. In the document titled, “Libre Services: A non-proprietary model for delivery of Internet services” [8] – available on-line at:
http://www.bycontent.net/PLPC/100101 . Libre Services are an extension of the principles of free software into the Internet services domain. They are Internet services that can be freely copied and reused by anyone. Any company or organization can reproduce and host any Libre Service, either for its own use, or for commercial or non-commercial delivery to others. The Libre Services model exists in relation to the proprietary Internet services model of AOL, MSN, Yahoo and Google, in an analogous way to how GNU/Linux exists in relation to Microsoft Windows.

4.5 ByStar Federation of Autonomous Libre Services

The Halaal/Libre model is not just theory. We have built a set of real, working, demonstrable Libre Services. We call these the By* Federation of Autonomous Libre Services. By* (pronounced “by-star”) is a unified services model, unifying and making consistent a large number of services that currently exist in functional isolation. It is a coherent, integrated family of services, providing the user with a comprehensive, all-encompassing Internet experience. By* services focus on preservation of user’s privacy and autonomy.

The By* Federation presently includes ByName, ByAlias, ByMemory and BySMB/ForSMB. In the works and coming soon are additional services for individuals (ByFamily, ByNumber), services for personal and business interaction (ByWhere, ByEvent, ByTopic, ByInteraction, ByLookup, ByHookup), and software distribution services (BySource, ByBinary).

The By* services are based on 100% free software and patent-free protocols, and are thus completely transparent and reproducible by anyone. They are a communal public resource, not owned by anyone, freely available for use by society at large. Their widespread deployment and usage is in the direct interests of the general public welfare.

For more information see the document titled, “By* Federation of Autonomous Libre Services: The Concept” [2]. – available on-line at: http://www.bycontent.net/PLPC/180015 .

The ByStar Federation is vast in scope. Its basic structures are in place and many services are built or are partially built. The Libre Services collaborative framework allows for ByStar to grow dynamically. ByStar Halaal Internet Services are becoming comparable in capability to the most high-profile Haraam Internet Services presently available, such as Google or Facebook.

4.6 Blee: A ByStar User Environment

The User Environment that can initially be used with ByStar Libre Services is called: “Blee”. An overview of this User Environment is provided in: [1] – available on-line at:
http://www.bycontent.net/PLPC/180011 . Blee is a layer above emacs that integrates GNU/Linux capabilities into emacs and provides for integration with ByStar Services.

4.7 ByStar Open Business Plan

The economic and business consequences of Halaal software and services are a fundamental shift of business operations from the for-profit, proprietary quadrant into for-profit, non-proprietary quadrant. See the document titled “The For-Profit and Non-Proprietary Quadrant” [7] for details.

The notion of a non-proprietary construct, residing and operating within the for-profit sector, is new and different. Historically, the for-profit sector has been closely associated with proprietary ownership of assets. Hence the Internet Services industry as we see it today. Also historically, management of non-proprietary or public assets has been primarily associated with the non-profit sector. Hence the current orientation of the Free Software Movement, operating largely within the non-profit sector.

The Halaal/Libre Services deployment model breaks both these traditions. It represents a radical shift of the Internet Services industry from the for-profit, proprietary quadrant, to the for-profit, non-proprietary quadrant. In this space the entire software for an Internet service remains a communal public resource in the trust of the engineering profession, while service deployment is driven forward by the full force of for-profit commercial motivations.

The Halaal manner of existence of software creates a powerful generative development model for Halaal Internet Services. This generative model is absent from Haraam Internet Services. Thus Halaal Internet Services have a major advantage and can compete directly with Haraam Internet Services in terms of development.

The basic recurring revenue models for Halaal Internet Service providers are essentially the same as for Haraam Internet Service providers. Thus in terms of revenue generation, Halaal and Haraam services are on an equal footing.

As part of our responsibility to create a viable implementation construct we have fully analyzed the business dimension, and we have formulated the business model in the form of an Open Business Plan, titled:

The Executive Summary of Neda Communication, Inc’s Open Business Plan [3], and the full business plan, are available at:
http://www.neda.com/StrategicVision/BusinessPlan.

Note the designations for this layering on the left vs. on the right. The left side designations are labeled “The Human Model” and include moral (philosophical, ethical), societal and also identify the role of engineering profession. The right side designations are labeled “The Venture Capitalists’ Model” and are very different from the “The Human Model”. Morality and societal concerns of the human model are re-labeled as “Sales and Marketting”. This is to make it clear that when dealing with Venture Capitalists, it is not morality and societal concerns that are our topic of discussion with them. The Venture Capitalists merely need to recognize that human beings can in fact be concerned with moral considerations such as “privacy” and “autonomy” and that such distinctions can be used for sales and marketting purposes. And that our unconventional strategy of abandoning their sacred Copyrights and Patents model gives us a tremendous competitive advantage.

4.8 The ByStar Halaal Digital Ecosystem

The deep integration between Halaal Software and Halaal Internet Services creates a Halaal Software-Service continuum, which is far superior in capability to any Haraam Software/Service combination. The totality of these we call: “The ByStar Halaal Digital Ecosystem” an overview of which is provided in [4] – available on-line at: .

5 Tear Points

We have analyzed the forces in nature that work against the existing proprietary American digital ecosystem – and which are in harmoney with the ByStar Halaal Digital Ecosystem – and have identify 4 “tear points”. Our execution is focused on these tear points.

Some of these tear points are more applicable to Eastern Societies and some are more applicable to Western Societies.

5.1 Mostly Western: Individual Privacy, Individual Liberty and Individual Autonomy

Problem:

• The American Digital Ecosystem puts the Individual against the Corporation
• They have made a deal. Corporation provide gratis service, Consumer provides information about herself
• Privacy is a currency in the American Digital Ecosystem.
• American Digital Ecosystem is based around the Corporation sitting in the center and monitoring and milking the Individual’s privacy. Consider Facebook. And of course the individual has full liberty to consent to all of this, which she does not understand.

Solution:

• By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem is based on Autonomous Libre Services.
• Preserving Individual’s Autonomy is fundamental to By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem
• By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem is designed to be End-To-End and Centrally controlled.
• Internet Engineernig Profession protects the indiviual and society. Because the profession understands what is at stake and what can be done.

5.2 Eastern: Societal Autonomy

Today if you want to write in Farsi or in Arabic, your main choice is Microsoft’s Haraam Windows environment. And in the business driven (not societal or engineering driven) western model, Perso-Arabic users are always second class citizens because they represent an insignificant market to the likes of American Microsoft and American Google. In other words computing and communication capabilities of Perso-Arabic societies is determined by Americans.

A focus on providing a Libre environment for Perso-Arabic processing is critical in that it provides for societal autonomy.

Our goal is to create a complete and rich environment for Persian and Arabic in the Halaal and Convivial quadrant.

Problem:

• Internally Opaque Microsoft Windows Is Unfit For Usage In Iranian Nuclear Power Generators. Microsoft Windows is World’s Largest Virus.
• When you don’t know what you are fed, your health is in the control of the feeder.

Solution:

• By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem is fully internally transparent and has no owner.

5.3 Eastern: Full Rejection Of Western IPR

Problem:

• IPR is an instrument of Western Neo-Colonialism Against East.
• Western IPR is morally wrong.

Solution:

• By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem Thrives When IPR is rejected and Halaal Software in enforced.

5.4 Worldly: Inherently Collaborative vs Inhernetly Competitive

Worldly: Inherently Collaborative vs Inhernetly Competitive   

Problem:

• Winner takes all dynamics
• Fragmentations, Competeing Islands, little room for combination of best
• Difficulty of deep integration

Solution:

• Ease of Deep Integration
• Open Software and Open Service
• Open Keiretsu

6 Our Responsibilites and Your Participation

The above picture is vast. Many consider it unbelievable and fantasy. Thus far, the entire By* formulation and development has been done by a very small team. Much of our work and much of our writings is in its early stages of evolution.

By* can only be significant if its usage is widespread and if By* collaborative development involves many. We have created many forums to facilitate collaboration. And now we ask you, to assist us in making the By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem widespread.

6.1 Assistance: Your analysis and critique

As a first step, we ask you to review what we have written and give us your critique. If you think our work has merit, we also ask you to help us in spreading the word. Please feel welcome to further distribute this document where appropriate.

You can send us your comments, criticisms and corrections through the following
URL: http://mohsen.1.banan.byname.net/contact or by email through feedback@ our base domain which is mohsen.1.banan.byname.net.

Beyond this important intellectual contribution, we also invite you to participate in this action as appropriate for your own professional domain.

6.2 Engineers, Researchers, Academics

The engineering and technology dimension of By* Halaal Digital Ecosystem is open and very collaborative. Various collaboration frameworks are in place. See “Libre Services” for details.

6.3 Public Policy Makers, Governments, Grant Givers

The entire By* design revolves around principles of planet wide scalability, very distributed systems, autonomous control and end-to-end interactions. As such, By* has the potential for becoming a basis for national Internet services.

6.4 Philosophers, Ethicists, Sociologists

Consideration of what constitutes Halaal software based on capabilities and usage is primarily the domain of ethicists.

Our focus has been: software manner of existence. What makes for Halaal or Haraam software manner of existence directly affects and involves the software engineering profession.

Our definitions of Halaal manner of existence should certainly be subject to review by ethicists. Similarly, we want ethicists and philosophers to scrutinize the logic that we present in: “The Nature Of Poly-existentials”. Our full rejection of Western IPR is based on logic, philosophy and ethics. Western so-called IPR regime is economically centered. It is full of externalities. Help us correct this mistake.

6.5 Investors, Businessmen

The open business plan itself describes further forms of participation, appropriate to the various intended audiences for the plan. A good starting point is: http://www.neda.com/StrategicVision/BusinessPlan

Also, if appropriate please forward the following link to the corporate development department within your organization. http://www.neda.com/StrategicVision/Participating/Investment/StartHere/

6.6 Reporters, Media

If you think what we are doing has merit, help us in spreading the word.

Clearly, we can not save humanity just on our own.

References