The CommonSpace Network

The CommonSpace network is a peer-to-peer 'overlay' that runs on top of the Internet.  It provides a peer-to-peer fabric upon which additional applications may be built.  The CommonSpace Network and it's applications are currently under development.

The Network will initially support these applications, all in a serverless peer-to-peer fashion:

• IM
• Multi-party Chat
• Email
• HTML Content
• DHT storage for File Backup, Publication, Sharing
• 'Available-Everywhere' storage
• Private and Public discovery/directory mechanisms
• Security tool (for managing your social network and for rating content)

An SDK will also be available (from within the Network) for building additional applications.

There are a lot of peer-to-peer networks on the Internet, but the Commonspace Network is designed to be truly de-centralized in every respect.  The network has some other truly unique features, including it's social-networking-based trust model which weeds out bad actors and bad content without relying on any centralized authority; and the complete absence of 'distinguished' nodes - there are no servers or 'super' nodes.  No user or machine has special roles or rights.

The system is so decentralized and social-networking based, that you will ultimately only be able to obtain a copy of the client from someone you know who already has it.  Until we reach a certain critical mass though, we will offer client downloads here.   Ultimately the source to the overlay layer itself will be available within the overlay.

Philosophy

Democracy relies on the ability to speak your mind and to hear others speak without fear of retribution.  Democracy relies on the free exchange of information and education and the right to privacy in that exchange.  The CommonSpace Network aims to be a software tool for the furtherance of democracy and liberty. 

In order for you to trust that the network is properly insuring your privacy and liberty, the mechanisms of the network must be completely visible to anyone who wishes to inspect them. This means that all of the overlay software source code needs to be open-source.  Whether individual overlay applications (or applications you receive through the overlay) should be open source is left to the authors of those applications and to the social networks that will be rating those applications and ultimately determining their success.

To ensure that the ownership of the network technology is as distributed and decentralized as the network itself, the source code for the overlay is open-source and extensions and improvements are encouraged.  Mechanisms are designed in to allow the social network to weed out malicious or detrimental changes.

With all of these individual rights comes certain individual responsibilities to respect others and their work, but neither the Network or its authors are responsible for policing or even interpreting your observance of those responsibilities.