[57north-discuss] New Semantic MediaWiki for 57North

[Tony Travis]

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On 08/01/15 14:12, Robert McWilliam wrote:
> [...] More people in a position to control it is better than one
> person but still a long way off what I see as the right model of
> ownership for space infrastructure: the space should own it (or
> rent it in the case of services).

Hi, Robert.

I agree with you about that: I fear a 'gate-keeper' mentality emerging
in the space, and I don't like it. I joined to learn from other people
about new things and help people with the few things I do know about.
However, my heart sinks to my boots as I read these emails about who
controls what and how to stop the NSA/GCHQ/name-your-evil-agency crap.

What happened to our 'mission' to democratise information technology?

It seems to have been overwhelmed by a self-appointed rebel alliance
intent on defending us from ourselves. I'm fed up with it all and I'll
probably end up being dismembered because I'm not a fundamentalist...

> This is pretty much the same discussion we had when Calum offered
> the rack we've currently got. Consensus then was that we wanted
> infrastructure to be owned by the space to protect against it
> being taken away again. I think the website is a more critical part
> of our infrastructure than the rack and the chances of it
> disappearing are much higher as it has to be paid for on an ongoing
> basis.

It seemed like a good idea for the space to have a physical computing
infrastructure and, although the computers I originally donated didn't
work (and the ones from Petrotech were crap). I did buy more than £500
of replacement PSU's and motherboards to fix them. I've given these to
Tom to build a cluster because the consensus seems to be that we don't
need or want any physical infrastructure unless someone else pays the
electricity bill. I think it's a pity and an opportunity lost because
just repairing computers is something of interest to many people.

> What is the objection to hosting it on garioch?

Where is "garioch" and how do we lesser mortals access it?

  Tony.

- --
Dr. A.J.Travis, University of Aberdeen, Institute of Biological and
Environmental Sciences, Cruickshank Building, St. Machar Drive, Aberdeen
AB24 3UU, Scotland, UK. tel +44(0)1224 272700, fax +44 (0)1224 272 396
http://www.abdn.ac.uk, mailto:tony.travis at abdn.ac.uk, skype:ajtravis
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