Libre Culture

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What is libre culture?

Libre culture is all about empowering people. While the general philosophy stems greatly from the free software movement, libre culture is much broader and encompasses other aspects of culture such as music, movies, food, technology, etc.

Some beliefs include but aren't limited to:

Check out this link for more.

Rules

I've looked into the ways other forums handle rules, and I've distilled their policies down into two simple ideas.

Libre culture is a very very broad topic, and while it's perfectly okay for a conversation to stray, I do ask that we keep things generally on topic.

Related Communities

Helpful Resources

Community icon is from Wikimedia Commons and is public domain.

founded 5 years ago
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Any app or site?

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Hello,

I started using gemini almost a year ago when I had recently learned about it. after some time using it I got busy with my life and forget that this awersome protocol exists.

today I was hanging out in IRC and found #gemini . It made me check it out after this much time and it surprised me that gemini is still active. however when I searched for stuff using gemini search engine I found a ton of dead links on the first page. it was disappointing. bbs.geminispace.org is still alive and the last post was 7hours ago. there is also a youtuber name zaney who attempted to port entire gentoo wiki to gemtext, but it seems like he lost interest in doing so.

what are some cool gemini capsule which are still active and you use it?

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Any websites, comics, news or anything.

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I aim to create a high-quality index of CC (Creative Commons) sites to make it easier for enthusiasts to access and use daily. My goal is to enhance content accessibility. I also plan to develop an Arabic version for Arabic resources and eventually expand to make it multilingual .

Here is my website link: https://crtv.pages.dev/

Please criticize and offer more resources as much as you can.

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I am working on creating a website that list the services/sites that serve their content(news,articles, photos, videos,music, webcomics,..etc) under creative commons licenses.

I ask from anyone who read this post to comment with whatever resources they know about that are licensed under creative commons.

Thanks to everyone who contributes to this.

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Edit: It was said at least 2 times, and I can't remember if it's the same person

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Rick Beato making clear what is happening on the music scene just as Cory Doctorow or Adam Conover talk about the Internet

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Someone should make a variant of Khan Academy with the same content (which is under Creative Commons) but no non-libre software, call it 4khan, and list the "4 essential khans" (you khan run the program as you wish for any purpose, etc.) on the homepage

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Happy 2024! The Eco-Libre project published our 2023 Annual Report for last year.

Eco-Libre 2023 Annual Report

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre hardware for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source hardware and software that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights.

  • Eco-Libre's mission statement

We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.

Executive Summary

  • Eco-Libre was founded June 24, 2023
  • Begun searching for land in Ecuador
  • Four projects created on GitHub
  • Currently 2 active contributors
  • 2024 priority is finding land and R&D on Life-Line

Michael Altfield registered the domain-name eco-libre.org on June 24th, 2023, a few weeks after arriving to Ecuador.

Over the next 6 months, Eco-Libre committed research and designs to our GitHub org for four projects (licensed CC BY-SA) which address some of the essential requirements for a new community's basic human needs: clean water, shelter, electricity, and ecological processing of waste. By releasing these designs under a libre license, it allows for other communities to build their own infrastructure with minimal effort, and it encourages collaboration on standardized design concepts.

As Eco-Libre's projects mature, we will build experimental prototypes in our own community. To that end, Michael is currently traveling around Ecuador by bicycle in-search of land to found Eco-Libre's first physical site.

In December, Eco-Libre was joined by Jack Nugent, who has since committed contributions to the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

The priority focus for Michael in 2024 is to determine the best region in Ecuador to buy land where Eco-Libre can physically iterate on projects.

The priority focus for Jack in 2024 is to finish the research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

Projects

Eco-Libre was founded this year (in 2023). In our first 6 months, we've begun work on four libre hardware projects. All of them are currently in the early research stages.

Eco-Libre Launch-Nest

The Eco-Libre Launch-Nest was our first project. The concept is to build a small-footprint, high-occupancy structure for sustainable living of 30-people.

CAD screenshot of a 6-story masonry structure with a large array of solar panels and three large parabolic solar dishes on the roof
Eco-Libre Launch-Nest 2023.09

The rooftop has sufficient space for 72 solar panels (2 meter x 1 meter) and 3 parabolic solar concentrators (16 square meter).

The structure is six-stories above-ground, which is the recommended maximum height of a confined masonry structure in an earthquake zone. It also has a basement.

The building is designed with external, enclosed, firewalled staircases on either end. These are symmetrical and designed such that the building design can be rotated around a center courtyard to have four Eco-Libre Launch-Nest structures that share the same stairwells.

Currently only basic, incomplete architectural design-work has been done in CAD. Before a structural analysis can be assessed (eg to determine the location of columns), further work needs to be done on finishing the placement of windows, doors, and dividing walls.

Eco-Libre Life-Line

The Eco-Libre Life-Line project is a series of components making up an infrastructure to deliver a clean water pipeline to a community. This includes:

Photo of a small weir funneling watter into a 200L barrel with an expanded metal grate covering its opening
Eco-Libre Life-Line 2023.12
  1. Collection of raw surface water (eg from a stream)
  2. Removal of large organic debris & sediments
  3. Removal of small particles
  4. Removal of harmful bacteria & parasites
  5. Clean water storage

Michael started the Life-Line project after visiting a number of communities who had constant issues with their water systems breaking or failing to provide clean water. The goal is to design a low-cost, self-cleaning pipeline of systems that require minimal human intervention (max routine maintenance twice per year).

This year we have half-finished the "intake" component in CAD, which consists of building a weir in a stream that funnels turbulent water onto a downward-sloped HDPE barrel with a fine-mesh screen atop it. This design exploits the energy in falling turbulent water to clean the intake screen, and it prevents the intake from being clogged by organic debris during heavy rainfall.

Special thanks to Jack Nugent, who joined Eco-Libre in 2023 and has contributed to research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

The goal in 2024 is to finish the "intake" component in CAD and also to design the "settling tank", "pre-filter", and "sand filter" components in CAD.

Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth

How do you sustainably begin to build a community on land without electricity and without any structures?

The Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth is a simple storage shed with >1 kW of PV solar panels on the roof. This is the first structure to be built when jumpstarting a new off-grid community. It provides the power, storage, and outdoor workshop space needed to build-out the community.

Photo of a small structure with 4 solar panels on its roof
Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth 2023.06

This year we've made a simple footprint for the Genesis-Booth in CAD that's 4 meters x 2 meters -- just large enough to fit 4 solar panels (2 meters x 1 meter each). Further work is needed in CAD, but this year we also delved into making a framework for our documentation.

The Eco-Libre documentation is written in reST, generated by Sphinx, and (currently) hosted by GitHub. This is an exceptionally flexible continuous documentation solution that allows for versioned documentation matching versioned releases, works well with git, can be exported to many different flexible formats, and can be extended with custom directives written in python.

The highest priority for the Genesis-Booth is to finish this documentation as a template for other projects. Ideally this should be designed in such a way that information about Eco-Libre in general is seamlessly added to all project's documentations in a reusable way.

Eco-LIbre Treasure Tower

The Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower project is a 7 meter x 6 meter structure for storing and processing a community's waste, most importantly their food & fecal compost.

Photo of a tall 6-story structure with a wrap-around ramp and several doors on each floor
Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower 2023.07

This structure is 6-stories high and barrier-free, with a wrap-around ramp. All but the top-floor have three doors:

  1. Access door for maintenance
  2. Deposit Closet
  3. Deposit Closet

Each deposit closet contains facilities for the collection of human urine and feces and is slightly staggered in elevation so the user's deposits fall by gravity into their designated collection areas for processing.

Separately from compost, this structure also serves as a storage area for recyclable waste materials, such as metal.

This year a first-draft design of the structure has been designed in CAD, but it's very premature.

Next, a second design prototype (where the two deposit closet entrances are on the same side) should be drafted in CAD and compared to the existing design.

Contribute to Eco-Libre

If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre hardware, please contact us to get involved :)

Join Us
eco-libre.org/join

Cheers,
The Eco-Libre Team
https://www.eco-libre.org/

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Hi all,

I want to try to learn Spanish on my own, right now I barely know anything. Asking in the libre culture community because I know a common answer is duolingo but I don't want to install an app store other than f-droid.

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yay we are all terrorists
direct Odysee link

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Found this on Reddit a while back.

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People view the fediverse as the final solution to the structural problem of the internet. I dont think so.

I am an technoanarkist from a human perspective. I believe in the human web and the community web, where nodes represents people and communities.

The ideology of the fediverse is that if an instance can federate, its good. Its equally flawed as saying the adoption of open software will lead to digital freedom. This is one of the reasons Stallman couldnt mobilize for digital freedom. They didnt have a human understandable vision.

We need to think further than just the technical aspects if we want people power in cyberspace.

I believe we have to stop to look to those in power and instead look to our communities. What do they want? What does people want? What does organizers and communities want? We should develop the web with people and communities demands in mind.

The web should be a tool to strengthen communities and empower people.

The web has the potential to destroy the world and be its savior. It depends on the structure.

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I know SA means the same license applies to remixed works. But what does that really mean? Can someone give me an example?

A fictional example is fine.

Answer:

Suppose you took a photo and publish it under CC BY license. If someone uses it on an article and references your photo properly, the article can have any license because it's not an adaptation/remix of your photo, the article just has your photo inside. If you publish the photo under CC BY-SA license, the same applies (in this case, the reference to your pohoto in the article will be slightly different).

Now suppose that you publish your photo under CC BY license and someone makes and adaptation/remix of it. For example the new work is your photo cropped and with some filters applied. The author of the adaptation can add the NonCommertial clause to the derivative work. He/she can license its new work with CC BY-NC license or with CC BY-NC-SA, stopping any commertial use of the adaptation and if he/she wants getting paid for any commerdial use.

But if you publish your photo under CC BY-SA license, this is not possible. The adaptation of your photo must use the same license. The remix, the derivative work, must be CC BY-SA too! To make any other use, the adaptor needs your permission.

Did I explain myself?

You have more info in the Creative Commons FAQ: