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<H1><font color="maroon">0800-LINUX: Creating a Free Linux-only ISP, Part II</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:carlos.betancourt@chello.be">Carlos Betancourt</a></H4>
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It has been a very exciting month. Since the
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<a HREF="../issue54/betancourt.html">
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previous</a> article about this project in June's issue of <EM>Linux
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Gazette</EM>, I have received over 40 replies, a virtual host to set up a web
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page and mailing list, and an Invitation to
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<a HREF="http://globallinux2000.com/eng/index.html">Global Linux 2000</a> in Seoul,
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Korea! Thanks to all of you who wrote and have helped out with resources, ideas and enthusiasm.
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I have learned a lot and have a more
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clear vision of the actions to take in order to achieve our goals. Also new dangers have arisen,
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or at least I have acknowledged, to the Linux community, so now I have a deep sense of urgency
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and total commitment to the project. New services ideas are on the works and some companies are
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starting to join.
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From the e-mail I have received to the friends and contacts I made in Global Linux 2000,
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I'm impressed to see how many people want this project to come true. THANK YOU!
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<H2>News and Report from Korea</H2>
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<UL>
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<LI>Pascal Bleser, from <a HREF="http://www.atos-group.com">ATOS</a>, has offered to host
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the project's home page at <a HREF="http://open-isp.linuxbe.org">http://open-isp.linuxbe.org</a>
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He has also set up a mailing list to host further discussion on creating a Linux-only ISP.
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To subscribe send a message to:
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<a HREF="mailto:sympa@lists.linuxbe.org?body=subscribe+open-isp">
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sympa@lists.linuxbe.org</a>
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with the message: <PRE>subscribe open-isp</PRE>
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The web page is the place to go for news related to the project, announcements, statistics about
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dial-up growth in different countries, and core documents of the project. We are setting up a
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web discussion forum, so you can leave your comments on the web site.
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</LI><BR><BR>
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<LI>
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Jakob Borg, from Denmark, voluntarily created and submitted the
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<STRONG>Open ISP Logo:</STRONG>
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<!--CENTER -->
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<IMG ALT="The Open ISP Project" SRC="misc/betancourt/logo2.jpg"
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WIDTH="354" HEIGHT="125" VSPACE="5"><BR CLEAR="all">
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<!-- CITE -->Original site: <A HREF="http://open-isp.linuxbe.org/gfx/logo2.jpg">
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http://open-isp.linuxbe.org/gfx/logo2.jpg</A><!-- /CITE -->
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</LI>
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<BR><BR>
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<LI>Carlos (me) got married on June 10th. Now I'm inside <i>The circle of the Ring</i>.<BR>
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Well, we didn't have time for honeymoon, as I flew to Korea the next day. Back from Seoul on
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June 17th, with a killing case of jet-lag, wedding party all day long on 18th and then honeymoon for one week
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in Barcelona, Spain, the next day. Very intense month. Believe me.
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</LI>
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<BR><BR>
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</UL><BR>
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I was invited by the <a HREF="http://www.linuxgreenhouse.org">LinuxGreenhouse</a> to join them at
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<a HREF="http://globallinux2000.com/eng/index.html">Global Linux 2000</a>, during June 14-17.
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There, I had the opportunity to meet people from the FSF, Linux start-ups, hardware manufacturers,
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Gnome Hackers, Gimp Artists, Korean Linux companies, well-known Linux distributors and integrators,
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as well as Free Software personalities, to name just a few. There was a lot of excitement and
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enthusiasm. I had meetings with several companies' representatives, presenting the project and
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answering all their questions about how to profit by supporting the project.
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For instance, it would be a great opportunity for Korean companies to expose their hardware solutions
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to public view in European an American markets. There are lots of small and medium hardware integrators/manufacturers
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who focus only on the Asian market, due to the high costs of setting up offices in Europe or North America, without
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mentioning the huge costs of publicity and public relations they have to pay to compete in such
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markets.<BR><BR>
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By supporting the Open ISP project with their hardware (it can also be another kind of contribution),
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they would receive free publicity with the success of the project, becoming one of our Sponsors.
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They are building all kinds of smart hardware solutions, with Linux of course, and investing in this project
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would provide them an opportunity to demonstrate in with our networking requirements how versatile
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their hardware is. Instead of dedicating their money on advertisements and offices overseas, they could invest
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it on the Open ISP, getting the market exposure they need to get new clients.
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And this is just a subset of the benefits they would get by sponsoring the project.
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<BR><BR>
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One of the most frequently asked questions, in general, was: how are we going to generate money
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to pay for the users' phone calls? There are several ways to achieve that goal, some of them
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already outlined in the <a HREF="http://open-isp.linuxbe.org/services.html">Services</a> section
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of the web site. In the early stages of the project I was only thinking of Belgium, the country
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where I live, to create the Open ISP. This is a small country, but with a <a HREF="http://open-isp.linuxbe.org/survey.html">
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large rate of growth of dial-up access</a>, and expensive phone bills for Internet users. However, after receiving mails
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from all around the world, I can see that not only there is a lot of interest in other countries
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to make this project happen, but I've also acknowledged new opportunities to make the project a success
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if it's done in different places. <BR><BR>
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In the case of the European Union, we can receive funding
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from the government itself. The EU has launched the <a HREF="http://www.ispo.cec.be/basics/i_europe.html">
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eEurope Initiative</a>, which "proposes ambitious targets to bring the benefits of
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the Information Society within reach of all Europeans." As you can read in the
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<a HREF="http://www.ispo.cec.be/basics/eeurope/i_europedraft.html">Draft Action Plan</a>, the
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Open ISP's project vision fits perfectly well within their goals. The EU, through the
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<a HREF="http://www.cordis.lu/ist/home.html">IST programme</a>, has a <a HREF="http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ist-budget.htm">
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budget</a> of 3.6 billion Euros to "Promote a user-friendly information society".
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<H2>New services Ideas</H2>
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One of the most exciting ideas developed during the Global Linux 2000 week was another new way
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to generate the necessary money to pay for the phone calls. Maybe some of you have already read
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about the <A HREF="http://www.netpliance.com/">i-opener</A> and/or the <A HREF="http://www.virginconnectme.com/">
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Virgin Webplayer</A>. <BR>
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For those of you who don't know about them, these are flat screen Internet
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appliances with built-in 56Kbps modems to let you surf the web and check your e-mail; no hardisk, no floppy.
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In the case of the i-opener, it costs 99$ and you have to use Netpliance's own ISP.
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You have to sign-up an agreement to use their service when you purchase it, so you
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can not use it with another ISP, and if you want to use it for another purpose you still
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have to pay for the monthly service. <BR>
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In the case of the Virgin Webplayer, the ISP is Prodigy, and you pay a yearly fee and agree to three years
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of service. If you are one of the first 10,000 persons to sign-up you get the first year for free,
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but in order to qualify you must match an undisclosed consumer profile which
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is uncovered through a series of personal questions that "coincidentally" include inquiries
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about your musical taste and travel habits. Other conditions: you have to use the appliance 10 hours per month,
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which implies that YOUR WILL HAVE TO EAT A LOT OF ADS. BTW, if you cancel at anytime before
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the 3-year period there is a hefty penalty.<BR><BR>
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The good news is that there's a Korean company willing to <FONT COLOR="FF0000">donate</FONT> the hardware for our own
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Internet Appliance. And the people at <A HREF="http://henzai.com/">Henzai</A> is working on an
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embedded version of Gnome with small footprint for embedded devices, and I already consulted one
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of Henzai's Officers about the possibility and requirements to use it in our IA.
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So, we can provide, for a low monthly fee, a Web device for people to incorporate to the Internet
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and Linux revolution! With the prohibitive prices of Internet access nowadays a lot of people is
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missing the Internet revolution. People unwilling to buy a computer, or with no money to do so,
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could benefit of having free Internet access and a new computer, in one shot. And Linux, our beloved
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Free Operating System, will be in the middle. Imagine all the implications of this.<BR><BR>
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The above-mentioned Internet Appliance companies are shooting themselves on the foot. They have a
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great idea, and they can have a profitable business model, but they will only reach a small fraction
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of the market. The privacy implications of their business model is going to send away potential
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clients. Also, the hacker community can't benefit from this hardware, as it is tied-up to their long-term
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agreements. When the i-opener was launched, lots of <A HREF="http://news.cnet.com/news//0-1006-200-1577223.html?tag=st.cn.sr.ne.1">
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hackers</A> could buy it without signing any service agreement, and <A HREF="http://www.linux-hacker.net/imod/imod.html">
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installed Linux</A> on these machines. As Netpliance was losing money on the hardware, they stopped
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selling it without the service agreement. This generated a long <A HREF="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-1659536.html?tag=st">history</A>
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of hate/love between the hacker community and them.
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After that, Netpliance rectified its position and embraced the hacker community, mainly motivated by
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Kalin R. Harvey's <A HREF="http://www.linuxpower.org/display.php?id=172">article</A> analyzing
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the situation. In the case of the Webplayer, hackers can not modify it, because they would be
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breaking the 10-hours-per-month-online condition.<BR><BR>
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Fortunately we are not a company, but a community service. We won't be losing money with hardware,
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and all the money we get from the service can be dedicated to pay for the phone calls. We can provide
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this Internet Appliance with a better set of hardware and software (e.g. integrated ethernet port), offering more flexibility to fit the user's needs,
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and if someone wants to buy it
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for further modification, we can sell it at the nominal price, giving the money back to our sponsor
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and keeping a small fraction for the project.<BR>
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We won't need to sell advertisements, so people won't be invaded, and user's personal information won't
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get in hands of third parties.<BR>
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This way, people is <u>really</u> going to join the Internet revolution, thanks to Linux and Free Software.
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Of course, if you happen to already have a computer you will receive the service 100% free of charges, if you
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use Linux on it. It's up to new users to decide.<BR>
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Families with no computers at home, or with a low budget now will have an option. Imagine all
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the new kids involving in the Linux community!
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With projects like <A HREF="http://www.ofset.org/">OFSET</A> and their <A HREF="http://drgenius.seul.org/">
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educational software</A> this machine could become a low-cost learning/homework machine.
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The background philosophy of Free Sofware will be unveiled to broader population.
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<H2>No Internet, No Linux: The Phantom Menace</H2>
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During this month I have discovered new dangers to our community. As the old slogan says:
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"The computer is the network". None denies the importance of using the Internet. It is a basic need
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nowadays. Like the telephone or public transportation. But who provides us with Internet Access?
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Mainly for-profit ISPs. I'm not against them, but lately the market is a little overpopulated of
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ISPs and in order to stay in business, they are developing very interesting, even clever, ways to
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be more attractive to new users and stay profitable. And prices are going down. It is a very good thing to happen.
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However, they are doing their business in detrimental of my community, our Linux community. They are
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not only ignoring us, they are cutting the options for new people to join Linux.<BR><BR>
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Governments are making efforts to estimulate competition by opening the communications market. They
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are doing so in order to bring prices down by market forces; then, more people can join the Internet.
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And it's working very well.
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Lots of ISPs are emerging, others are merging into big world-wide corporations, some are disappearing.
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All of their strategies are based on MS-Windows support. Of course, we are smart enough to still be able to
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connect to their services, there's no doubt on it. But what about the new computer users, those who
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still don't know about the existence of Linux and Free Software? If they want Internet access, all
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they get are Windows-only CD-ROMs to set up their accounts in a friendly easy way. Well, first they must be
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able to afford the phone bills generated by Internet access. <BR><BR>
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Most of them don't have an idea until
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the next month, when the evil and huge bill arrives. It-is-painful. I know a good deal of persons
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in this situation. But wait, don't forget that <u>all</u> those ISPs and CD-ROMs claim "Free Internet Access".
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It has become a trend not to charge for the ISP service, and a lot of companies are doing so, thus
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claiming "Free Internet Access".
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Instead of charging for their service, they get their revenue by forcing the user to see advertisements, or by generating
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phone calls: they get a piece of the cake from the monthly phone bill the customer pays. This happens in countries
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where local phone calls are not free, as is the case of most European and Latin-American countries.
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In the US, for instance, strategies vary, as local phone calls are free. That's why services like
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<A HREF="http://www.virginconnectme.com/">Virgin Webplayer</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.netpliance.com">i-opener</A>
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are only available in the US. And, surely, you don't pay the phone calls, but then you have to pay
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for the ISP service.<BR><BR>
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Advertisements-sponsored connections are more common everyday. What you have to do to get your "Free"
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Internet access, is to load a dialing application which displays ads while you surf. They have to
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request you, of course, personal data, in order to provide "personalized" ads. Even if you feel OK with
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the privacy implications of this and with the ads constantly displaying before you, what Operating
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System do you think you have to use? Yeah, MS-Windows. They don't provide a Linux version, so if you
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want to use their service, you need to use MS-Windows. You just don't have an option.<BR><BR>
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This is a big elephant in front of our noses, and we have to acknowledge it to see the great
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danger it poses to our movement. And to every one involved in it, including companies.
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Ads-sponsored ISPs are growing very fast. Dangerously fast.
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"Fortunately", people still have to pay for
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phone calls, so they must think it twice before using those services, or just choose another kind of "Free" ISP.
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However, as part of an aggressive move, they are providing now even<A HREF="http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/unmetered.shtml">
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FREE PHONE CALLS</A> service. It's happening now in the UK, while you read this article, and the
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number of them is growing. With regular ISPs, even though they have Windows-only CD-ROMs (BTW, distributed
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freely in large amounts in all kind of places: magazines, shops, mail, etc.), we can still use
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their service with Linux. But with no ads-client available for Linux, how do you think we are going
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to use those services? The ISP world is changing very fast, and the rules are changing as well.<BR><BR>
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<UL><LI>How many different ISPs have you used to the present?</LI></UL>
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<UL><LI>How many do you think you will have to switch to in the future?</LI></UL>
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<UL><LI>How is an Operating System going to attract new people if you can't connect to the Internet?</LI></UL>
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<UL><LI>How is the general public going to be aware of the Free Software movement and participate
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in it if they can't use Linux?</LI></UL>
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If we don't take an action now, very soon we will have our options virtually eliminated. We can still
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keep using Linux, but without Internet access. <BR><BR>
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[Of course, dial-up access is not the only way to connect to the 'Net, but until other technologies (as cable)
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are wide-spreaded, phone links are the more commonly used and universal medium to connect to the Internet from home.]
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<H2>Course of Action</H2>
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<UL>
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<LI>The first step to move forward creating the Open ISP, is to create a non-profit organization,
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to have a legal status, so that companies can start donating hardware, money and resources to
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the project.
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This is going to consume a lot of paperwork and brainwork. Please, join us with your experience,
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advises and ideas to reach this goal.
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Hilaire Fernandez will send me by snail-mail documents on
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how to set-up a non-profit organization in Belgium and the United States.
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Bertrand Guiheneuf, from France, knows a good deal of people in France with experience on the
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subject and suggested to put me in contact with them.<BR><BR>
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</LI>
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<LI>Design the hardware and telecommunications foundations of the Open ISP, in a standardized way
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compliant with ISO-9000 standards if possible, to guarantee:<BR>
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- Ease of replication around the world.<BR>
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- High Quality service.<BR>
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- Flexibility: utilization of all different kinds and brands of donated hardware.<BR><BR>
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In order to reach achieve it, we must create an Engineering Task Force, to discuss and develop
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the technical issues.<BR>
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</LI><BR>
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<LI>Enhance the web site, providing more statistics, and set up a user survey, in order to estimate
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the number of dial-up users, how much is people spending on communications costs, how many actual
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Linux users would be willing to switch to the new Open ISP, etc.<BR>
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Provide more information about different countries' market conditions and ISP offers available.
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A good starting point is the <A HREF="http://www.euroispa.org/">EuroISPA</A>
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(Internet Service Providers Association of Europe) and the
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<A HREF="http://www.com-broker.com/greatlin.htm#ISP Associations">Internet Associations and Organizations directory</A>.
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Please, don't hesitate on sending more pointers to relevant information.
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</LI>
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</UL>
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<H2>Final Thoughts</H2>
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The discussion has not ended here. New issues will arise while others are being resolved. There is a
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lot of food for thought. And it is time to take actions by ourselves. We can not leave the way
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we use our bandwidth on the hands of chance. We must sow the seeds for our future generation
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of our community, as well.<BR><BR>
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For Linux related companies, it's a great opportunity to invest in the growth of their consumer base.
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To reach more people, to penetrate new markets, and to guarantee the future existence and success of
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the community they make business within, will assure their own future presence on the market.<BR><BR>
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This is a subject concerning all of us in the Free Software world: individuals and companies. The
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freedom we concern about, should not only be achieved within our personal computers, but in the
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way we interconnect these computers together. Linux is an achievement of the communications era,
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a child of the Internet, and bandwidth is our oxygen supply.<BR>
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Let's just make sure that that supply keeps feeding us and the new souls to come.
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2000, Carlos Betancourt<BR>
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Published in Issue 55 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 2000</H5>
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