Thoughts on the Small Internet

First, let me say that both the Small and Large Internets [0] rely
on the infrastructure, methodologies and software created decades
ago that were a result of open collaboration between highly skilled
and creative people. The effort was funded largely by public tax
dollars and created for the public good. One only has to look at the
lack of security in the original, core Internet protocols (DNS, BGP,
SMTP) to see that the people working on them could not conceive of
their creations being used for nefarious purposes.

What most people now rely on and call 'The Internet' and what spring
coined the Large Internet [0] is mostly the World-Wide Web, now
controlled completely by a few large multi-nationals and mutated
into a form that perfectly enables all the worst impulses of modern
capitalism, fascism and authoritarianism (neo-liberalism if you
prefer). Snowden's lesson was that none of us were paranoid enough.

So I see the Small Internet as a return to those original ideals of
open community and trust, tempered by reality in a world where we
have to secure our servers inasmuch as they are tethered, even in
small ways, to the Large Internet that is attacked and surveilled
continuously. The Republic's logs are filled daily with brute-force
attacks, as are, I'm sure, the Zaibatsu's and every other server
with public-facing network services.

The discussion around the Small Internet has highlighted the
measured and in-depth conversation that it encourages [1].  I
heartily agree.  It does assume use of gopher, but in my opinion
there is no reason the Small Internet cannot be a collection of
protocols in deliberately stripped-down form.  A good example is
tilde.team's default use of the Bash Blog static site generator and
HTTPS for it's user's websites. Again, Snowden comes to mind and I
see no reason to allow my ISP or whoever is almost certainly
listening in (even passively) to view my Small Internet browsing or
communication habits. In authoritarian regimes like the US, Russia
or China, you might think twice before discussing, reading or
posting something considered 'subversive' over an insecure channel.
The EFF calls this a 'chilling effect' [2].

So I see the Small Internet as more inclusive and open to whatever
minimalistic protocols the pubnix owners prefer, all with the goal
of encouraging free and open debate.  As spring says, we do need to
create this ourselves. I think we're well on our way.

[0] gopher://republic.circumlunar.space/0/~spring/phlog/2019-01-16__The_Small_Internet.txt
[1] gopher://republic.circumlunar.space/0/~katolaz/phlog/20190219_fomo.txt
[2] https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-files-22-firsthand-accounts-how-nsa-surveillance-chilled-right-association

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