Are there any plans yet developed to allow Forum Members to upload their files to Othernet for transmission on the system? This concept was available several years ago. I’m thinking small PDF files less than 900 kBytes in size.
I can see myself, for example, sending my Othernet User Guides to become available to all users receiving content on SES-2 in North America and Astra 3B in Europe.
Is this something other Forum Members might be interested in doing. Ken
I would like to see a forum digest of some sort included too for Othernet news updates and troubleshooting when off grid. Maybe require a certain reputation metric vs the forum before permitting attachments or other than posts to be posted to the daily/weekly uploads bin as part of a forum digest to go up and then down on the beams.
What would rules be if offered, all tar.gz, 7zip, exe zips? Encrypted or Steganographed files permitted? Of course if this is permitted I would like to also see a web/forum portal message spool similar to the APRS feed. A few receiver stations around the world like websdr.org could be partnered with to allow a HF Morse code or maybe PSK-31 messaging gateway nets if othernet were included in the message.
As I have posted before I would love everyone interested in using an othernet messaging app to have a public crypto key posted or kept at othernet or a partner to enable IM’ing that particular user who’s dreamcatcher automatically decrypts anything signed with the public key delivering their decrypted personal messages with a private key to a popup, only properly signed messages would arrive and others would stay unencrypted, ignored, and auto-deleted.
In line with the humanitarian reasons that we are backing and working on this project for, it would be of great service to many remote areas, and even some inside the USA, to be able to provide useful information without needing encryption or decryption of any kind (it is hard enough to get a .pdf through the mechanisms). If we could source articles from, for example, the RACHEL project, such as a series on the current health concerns, or the short but very informative Hesperian Health Guides, which are available at no cost nor copyright problems, and if we can get the terminals in the hands of people who will use them, it would perform a great service throughout the world. We are not in the spy or intelligence business, let’s leave that to the various agencies who can afford equipment and air time on other media. Let us be the group who sticks with the original challenge to get news and truthful information into the hands of the less fortunate peoples of the world. There are many projects we could support that are helpful, so let’s move forward with the goals of Othernet in mind. Being able to put out an article in this uncensored international media would be a wonderful privilege!
@maxboysdad, I think you missed my meaning.
I am as interested in being able to publish files as you seem to be.
Now if we do allow users a portal to upload files for transmission there will need to be a decision if encrypted, obfuscated, or hidden messages which are embedded in permitted files will also be permitted or forbidden. From the extra work on Othernet’s side perspective there are also decisions beyond simply making rules on whether there will need to be a scan for hidden or encrypted content in the permitted filetypes. Since we are still in an alpha/beta test phase I think such an experiment is warranted with our small user base but there is every reason to prepare or at least consider now before scaling how to handle files direct from users and where security might be tightened.
Despite personally feeling a great desire to have the full utility of an upload to Othernet portal as an option for forum users with sufficient forum ‘karma points’ or other criteria a first test might be to not provide a upload portal but rather for security reasons allow nominating the direct download links from partner/friendly sites who have already vetted content much of which is already released under a libre license freely permitting redistribution.
While I agree that there needs to be vigilance toward the use of encryption or steganography, I think plain text articles of limited size, without unnecessary complication (zip, encryption, etc.) would be the practical usage. There are plenty of ways to get encoded messaging around the world without involving the othernet project. Morse, Packet radio and PSK belong in the realm of amateur radio as it exists today, for sure, however, there are also some under-utilized amateur radio satellites that are available, designed and equipped for those purposes. I am not sure what would qualify as “karma points”, but if we are relying on Othernet’s forums to keep track of this, bear in mind that some of us would never get to send, because that system loses count of its own messaging (look up my badges).
For Othernet to attract more non-Government Organization (NGO) funding sources from NGOs such as the Media Development Investment Fund https://www.mdif.org (mentioned in the Wikipedia article as one of Othernet’s initial kick off funders before the IndieGogo campaign), there is a need to show the NGOs Othernet’s relevance to their efforts in undeserved parts of the world lacking information sources.
Satellite downlinks costing around $20k per month are needed in sub-Sahara Africa where many NGOs operate. We can start fueling the Othernet “bucket” with our ideas that will be available to these NGOs showing relevant content.
I think Skylark can be used as written to accommodate this by putting our inputs in the Files Manager area.
I don’t know if new Directories can be created by just doing a data uplink. But later as the idea matures, Skylark can be revised to add unique icons - -
As an example, this public domain COVID-19 Fact Sheet from Hesperian Health Guides can be downloaded as a 229 kByte PDF file which I compressed to 92 kByte.
https://hesperian.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/en_misc/en_coronavirus.pdf
I believe that’s the challenge ahead for us. Ken
Yes, yes, yes!
I want Othernet and this type of tech to proliferate as I love both the means of transmission and the content possibilities.
To do that it is up to all of us to nominate cool content worthy of funding to people who don’t really care how the content arrives just that it is cheap and the content is useful enough to justify the receiver hardware and monthly uplink and transponder space.
It is so sad to me that we have these super useful and easy to access satellites up in geostationary orbit slots beaming down music videos and soap operas when we could be sending something useful and not-TV to huge numbers of people. It is also sad how cheap the receivers are(not bad) but they can really only do TV/radio and not data, maybe we can solder to some IC pins as I suspect they use a commodity chip which includes data pins.