SwellRT: Awakening Decentralized Collaboration
The Web 2.0 model, which has become mainstream in current online software platforms, has enabled user-driven participation and collaboration. However, it has also facilitated the emergence of central hubs of information which collect massive amounts of user data, with its multiple negative impacts such as privacy issues, monopolies, surveillance or single legislation. These issues have triggered the emergence of a new wave of decentralized technologies, in both P2P systems (e.g. blockchain, ipfs) and federated systems (e.g. Matrix). And yet, building decentralized software is hard. Development frameworks are built thinking in centralized apps, moreover when thinking of collaborative apps. SwellRT (http://swellrt.org) is a development framework for building decentralized real-time collaborative apps, easily and avoiding extra code to the developer. SwellRT provides a server side (storage, sharing, identity, federation) and an API to build apps in JavaScript, Java or Android. You may think of Google Drive Real-Time API or Firebase but decentralized & open source. ------- Lecture given at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society May 25, 2016 Harvard University
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SwellRT: Awakening Decentralized Collaboration
- 1. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 610961 SwellRT: Awakening Decentralized Collaboration Samer Hassan, Pablo Ojanguren @samerP2P
- 2. Centralization ● For-profit ● Surveillance ● Monopoly ● Centralised Control ● Top-down ● US-centric ● Proprietary Software ● Single Ownership
- 3. Decentralization ● Privacy ● Anonymity ● Decentralised Control ● Bottom-up ● Diversity
- 6. Collaboration App Types Project Management Communication Text / File based Collaboration Blend RT Collaboration
- 8. The collaboration we want... Real-Time Collaboration Federated Infrastructure Free/Open Source Flexible, Extensible… API
- 9. History
- 10. SwellRT History
- 11. SwellRT History ✓ Real-time collaboration ✓ Federated ✘ Free/Libre Open Source ✘ API ✓ Real-time collaboration ✓ Federated ✓ Free/Libre Open Source ✘ API ✓ Real-time collaboration ✘ Federated ✘ Free/Libre Open Source ✓ API ✓ Real-time collaboration ✓ Federated ✓ Free/Libre Open Source ✓ API
- 12. Collaboration Technologies Centralized Cloud Decentralized Monolithic app / service Low Level API / Library TogetherJS WebRTC, YJS More value for developers ShareJS DerbyJS SwellRT
- 13. What is SwellRT?
- 14. SwellRT Development Framework for Decentralized Real-Time Collaborative Apps
- 15. Federated Database for Collaborative Objects
- 16. Objects Have a global ID on Internet myserver.net/s+zpk87MzATiA
- 18. { "wave_id":"local.net/s+zpk87MzATiA", "participants":[ "foo@local.net", "@local.net", "peter@local.net", "john@local.net", "nathan@local.net", "tamy@local.net" ], "root":{ "id":"local.net/s+zpk87MzATiA", "Pad":{ "Annotations":"", "xml":"<body acl="" ap="default" p="root.pad"> <line/>Hu hu hu<line/><line/>Di dii<line/><line/>Trolorolo<line/><line/>Dipistrofia</body>", "author":"foo@local.net", "contributors":[ "foo@local.net", "john@local.net", "peter@local.net", "nathan@local.net", "tamy@local.net" ], "lastmodtime":1455131731414 }, "promoter":"foo@local.net", "title":"SwellRT X", "contributors":[ "foo@local.net", "john@local.net",
- 20. Participants have a global ID on Internet pablojan@swellrt.org
- 21. Database / Framework SwellRT API App (Frontend) SwellRT (Backend)
- 22. Database Framework ● Persistence ● Search engine ● Real-time access control (concurrency control) ● Email integration ● Notifications ● Identity provider ● Multi Platform Reactive API ● Pre-built Components ● Backend Management Tools
- 25. More features... ● JavaScript, Java, Android clients ● Rich Text Editor with Widgets ● Provided as Docker Image ● Mobile Notifications
- 26. Benefits for Developers Hiding complexity, avoiding extra code for - Data storage - Data sharing, communications, sync... - User identity management - Federation - New UX patterns like Reactive UI
- 27. Technologies Quadrant Centralized Cloud Decentralized Monolithic app / service Low Level API / Library TogetherJS WebRTC, YJS End-user products / services Hard adoption Platform More value for developers
- 28. Useful to build... ...a new Slack ...a new GDrive ...a new Trello
- 29. An example? Web App: http://teem.works Android App: http://tiny.cc/teemapp
- 31. Thank you This presentation is a composition of text and images. The text is released as Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. The images are mostly copyrighted and used under Fair Use. The image logos belong to their corresponding brands/ projects/ institutions. Sources: P2Pvalue, GRASIA UCM, Wikipedia, Microsoft and unknown others @samerP2P