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36c3 preroll music
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Herald: Our next speaker: Basically, he
eats up script kiddies for breakfast, I've heard.
-
He drives the open source train and
his currency is uptime. Please welcome
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with a very warm applause Julian Oliver
and his "Server Infrastructure for the
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Global Rebellion" talk.
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Julian: So, yep. Great. Very pleased to be
here. Amazing environment, indeed, as
-
usual with the CCC. First of all, I'm not
at all a spokesperson for extinction
-
rebellion. I do not speak for this
movement called extinction rebellion.
-
Whatever I say here tonight is entirely my
own opinion. And so not to be taken as any
-
overarching description of the movement
more generally. What you're looking at
-
here, of course, might simply be
associated with this thing called
-
extinction rebellion. But it is not. It
is, in fact, the extinction symbol. And
-
this is the part where in the first half
of my talk, I depress you. But then we'll
-
go for a nice, big sort of warm finish.
The extinction symbol was, in fact,
-
created in 2011 by a UK artist called ESP.
And this entirely relates to, not
-
extinction rebellion, being long before
extinction rebellion, but the fact that we
-
have entered the sixth mass extinction on
this planet that we are on. And this has
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became practically scientific consensus in
2015, where it has been fairly surely
-
asserted and since reasserted that we have
in fact entered the largest extinction
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event on this planet in 65 million years.
Global populations of fish, birds, mammals
-
down by about 60 % in 42 years and
according to the WWF a few years ago. The
-
UN puts it at about 150 species lost per
day. Now, that's a little bit more than
-
the father of biodiversity, E.O. Wilson,
that says it's around about 27,000 a year.
-
In other words, one species lost every 19
minutes. But what does that really mean?
-
Well, when we're talking about background
extinction rates, we're looking at the at
-
the background extinction rate for the
last 65 million years has been about one
-
to five species a year. So not 150 a day,
but 1 to 5 a year. This is fairly
-
conclusive of the fact that we have
entered the sixth extinction on this
-
planet. I'm here in Germany, for instance.
Just a couple of years ago, there was this
-
Dutch-German study done that now reflects
pretty much the state of the entire
-
European continent of the 3/4 of all
flying insect biomass dropping in about 25
-
years. So three quarters less flying
insects in 25 years and supposedly
-
dropping it around about 2.5 a year. Now
we need insects much more than they need
-
us. They are the glue layer of our food
system. But within the planetary boundary
-
and biological sense, they are absolutely
intrinsic. They also keep much of our
-
water very fresh. As one biologist put it,
we humans will never see the the end of
-
the insects. We need them that much. Now,
climate change has become very much
-
ascribed to this loss of species. But in
fact, it's not climate change that is
-
responsible for species decline per say.
The WWF Living Planet Index attributes
-
about seven per cent of species declines
to warming. In fact, the real reason why
-
we are losing so many species so quickly
is because we're changing their habitats.
-
We're just removing them entirely, and
certainly urbanization is a part of that
-
and land change as a result of warming,
but primarily it's because we've replaced
-
habitats with with farmland. This is, for
instance, in the Amazon basin carving into
-
the Amazon right there just to lay down
some soy livestock, feed crops. And
-
there's another another another view
there. Now, most of that soy, all of that
-
soy is really exported for livestock feed,
mostly to Europe and to China. But getting
-
onto the warming thing, which is obviously
a massive existential threat we do all
-
face. We can safely say now that the Paris
accord has entirely failed. The warming
-
projections presently we're looking at
about 2.8 to 3.2 by the end of the
-
century, not including self reinforcing
feedbacks. In other words, things like
-
permafrost melts, just releasing tons of
methane into the air or the wildfires that
-
we've been seeing in Australia and over in
California that are just sending gigatons
-
of carbon into the air. So this is still
to be seen as relatively optimistic.
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If we're looking at current policies and
where they will lead us, that's a lot more
-
than 1.5. I think, first of all, it's
important to point out that this is
-
actually really happening. And even if
it's unimaginable and completely
-
unacceptable that it is happening, we
still need to remember that science does
-
not need human imagination for evidence.
It needs instrumentation and lots and lots
-
of hard work and decades of study. And it
confirms that, yes, indeed, it is really
-
happening. Technology will not save us.
This is also increasingly scientific
-
consensus. Most recently, looking at the
idea that we can just simply scrub carbon
-
out of the air, we can, you know, we can
suck it out of the air and these negative
-
emission technology. That's if you like.
They're not even gigatons capable. And 29
-
European science academies concluded that
we can absolutely not rely on any Ts or
-
negative emissions technologies to pull
enough carbon out of the air at anywhere
-
near the rate that we need it in order to
save us. What I mean by save us? Well,
-
when I was born, it was around about
330 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere
-
and we're now looking at about
412 of the latest reading. This is the
-
Keeling Curve. Now 450 ppm is seen as
something of a threshold that probably
-
gets us more or less near 2 degrees of
warming from post-industrial levels with a
-
70 % probability if we keep it under 2
degrees, in other words, 450 ppm. Sorry.
-
If we keep it under 450 ppm, then we will
almost certainly manage to avoid that that
-
2 degrees threshold for the 70 %
probability. Just looking at ocean rise
-
alone. This is Miami at two degrees, which
is arguably just around the corner. This
-
is Shanghai. I don't know if you've been
to Shanghai. Where will all those people
-
go, you might ask yourself. Bangkok is
already underwater at this point. Two
-
degrees represent something else
relatively significant, however, as
-
evidenced in this fantastic paper, well,
fantastic if you read this sort of stuff
-
and don't want to drink yourself under the
table. But trajectories of the Earths
-
system and the Anthropocene suggests very
strongly that it's highly likely,
-
extremely probable that if we cross the 2
degrees centigrade warming threshold, we
-
will be on autopilot to 2.5, 3 degrees,
3.5 and 4 degrees. And that's simply an
-
unstoppable course. No amount of carbon
scrubbing can possibly compete with the
-
self reinforcing feedbacks after that
point. We're on a course to a very
-
different planet. Just to give you a sense
of what 4 degrees, for instance, would
-
mean, should we ever get there, which it
looks like we will before the end of the
-
century if we continue business as usual.
The temperature rise from the Ice Age, the
-
end of the Ice Age back 10,000 years ago
to 1850 was 4 degrees of warming. Now,
-
that's 10,000 years of time for organisms,
including us, to evolve and adapt to that
-
warming. We're looking at the same amount
of warming in just 150 years. There's no
-
time to adapt. This picture I've tweeted a
bit, I suppose, but maybe too much. But
-
this was done for the New Scientist and
the visualization of what the earth would
-
look like, what the world would look like
at 4 degrees. Now, Middle and Southern
-
Europe are obviously entirely gone. North
America, Africa, South America and Asia -
-
they've all gone. I mean, where would
those people go? Obviously, they'll head
-
North. The states will move from a geo
strategic perspective, would obviously
-
move to Canada, China and to Russia.
There's been a lot of talk about as to
-
what that would mean for human populations
and human population numbers and of course
-
you read some wild stuff, how can we
possibly know? But this chap who's had his
-
name on 120 papers or something like this.
He's one of the most highly regarded
-
atmospheric scientists in the world, cited
over a thousand times across academic
-
journals in the domain of atmospheric
science, believes it's just a few thousand
-
people. The carrying capacity of the earth
is just a few thousand people seeking
-
refuge in the Arctic or Antarctica. And of
course, all the way to 4 degrees, we have
-
war, we have resource depletion driving
conflicts, we have mass migration and very
-
unfortunately it is fairly safe to
conclude that children alive today will,
-
even those still again, relatively
unimaginable, but based on the best
-
available information, very probably face
mass migration, war and hunger. Should we
-
not turn things around? This is just
simply the way it is. This is where we are
-
going. But surely governments would never
let that happen. You hear that a lot. But
-
the thing is, they have let that happen
and they are continuing to let that
-
happen. Appropriate response is probably
this. This UK pop artist, experimental pop
-
stuff, said this, write this down on a
napkin one day. I really like it. "Hope
-
without honesty is denial" because people
reach for hope at these times. But I also
-
really like Kate Malveaux, climate
scientist. She said that we don't need
-
hope, we need courage. Courage is the
resolve to do well without the assurance
-
of a happy ending. This is more what we
need to be going. Thanks of course, giving
-
us a bit of a hand here with this. From
this moment the spear ends and techniques
-
begin. And truth is, there's no hope
without action. This is really where we
-
stand and this is not just my opinion. It
happens to be an opinion very widely
-
spread. In fact, the world scientists in
their " A second warning to humanity",
-
very recently wrote that same thing. They
said that with a groundswell of organized
-
grassroots efforts, dogged opposition can
be overcome and political leaders
-
compelled to do the right thing. Now that
is 15,364 scientists from 184 countries.
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It's the most scientific document in all
history. They are urging us in the
-
absolute and, you know, ineptitude and
lack of engagement from governments to
-
actually rise up and force governments to
act. That's what they're telling us to do.
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And you can look at this as a bit like,
you know, imagine you have a disease, a
-
very rare disease and that the world's
experts, you know, that those those
-
scientists, 15,364 scientists, contains
most of the world's Nobel laureates,
-
planetary boundary scientists, food system
scientists, geologists, biologists. They
-
say that, you know, so from the
perspective of expert opinion, it doesn't
-
get much better. You can imagine that you
have a disease that very few people have,
-
and the world's expert says to you:
"Listen, it's really grim. You are looking
-
at a at a particularly bleak end, an ugly
end, unless, of course, you stop now doing
-
these things". You can also think that our
space habitat has a variety of subsystems,
-
it is a freshwater subsystem that looks at
water purification and filtration, a
-
thermal regulation subsystem. You could
look at food pods. They are being attacked
-
on our space habitat. If you don't like
the word environmental or earth, you think
-
it's a bit too kind of patchouli dose to a
hippie. Then think of it this way, because
-
that is what's happening. What they're
telling us is that it's time to rebel.
-
It's time to force governments to act
because they are not acting. No more
-
business as usual. What we need is massive
swarming, nonviolent, uncontainable civil
-
disobedience en masse. Civil disobedience,
unlike protests were you just get out on
-
the street on a little key area with a
police permit for the protest, holding
-
little signs, oi oi oi. Civil disobedience
actually works. It has
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provably worked. South Africa versus
apartheid. India versus the British Roche.
-
U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The Velvet
Revolution. It's the way to go. Extinction
-
rebellion is very much a manifestation of
that energy at the idea of actually
-
channeling civil disobedience to the ends
of driving change is very much what it's
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about. It's the kernel of the movement. It
started in October 31st, where a bunch of
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British activists marched onto Parliament
Square and declared a rebellion against
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the British government for its lack of
action on the climate and the ecological
-
emergency. And then soon afterwards, 6000
or so descended upon London and
-
effectively shut down the city center by
occupying five bridges. Extinction
-
rebellion is a leaderless... That's very
important. I mean, is that the press of
-
always reaches for a figurehead, but it is
very much a leaderless. That's not steered
-
by the UK , Decentralized International,
apolitical network using nonviolent direct
-
action and civil disobedience to persuade
governments to act justly on the climate
-
ecological emergency. I'm just going to
show a couple of videos right now to just
-
give you a sense of the kind of what civil
disobedience in this case actually
-
comprises. I'll show you a video from
France particularly focused on
-
overconsumption. We're talking about
resource depletion here in the CCC this
-
year, which I think is great. And this was
a protest at Block Friday instead of Black
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Friday, which is, of course, a mass
consumers event. Here we go.
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music plays
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They occupied a shopping mall for seven
-
hours and a whole bunch of stores across
the country, Apple Store, etc., just
-
fantastic stuff. And you might think
'where's this going?'. Well. And is that
-
really the only approach, you know, occupy
malls and shops, et cetera, et cetera?
-
I'll show you another video for a very
different strategy. This is extension
-
rebellion, New York City occupying Times
Square. And I think this is definitely...
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Oh, what is the video called? That's
right... Player.
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music plays, drums beating
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Sorry, It's a but cut off, isn't it?
-
Again? Or wait, whatever.
-
People in the video shouting repeadeatly:
-
This is an emergency! This is an
emergency!
-
music plats, drums beating
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This is an emergency! This is an
emergency!
-
Person in video: Good Morning, New York
City! This is Extinction Rebellion
-
enforcing an international
rebellion...continues unintelligible
-
shouting and drums beating
-
[Subtitles appear in video, therefore left out here]
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Julian: Well, anyway, you get the idea.
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applause
-
So something's wrong with my copy of my
with my render buffer there, I can see that.
-
I don't know, anyway. Three demands.
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Typically, some branches have more. There
are many branches now. 600 plus branches
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all over the world. Some have four demands
for us, as in the US. Some of these state
-
branches have added a fourth demand for
climate ecological justice for those most
-
affected by changes within planetary
boundaries. Sorry, changes above and
-
beyond planetary boundaries. But in
general, there's this kernel of sort of
-
three demands. Tell the truth. Government
must tell the truth by declaring a climate
-
and ecological emergency. Working with
other institutions to communicate the
-
urgency for change. Act now. Government.
Government must act now to halt
-
biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions to net zero by 2025. 2025,
-
you say. Understand? You might think that
is a little bit short, but it's good to
-
have goals beyond politics. Government
must create and be and be led by the
-
decisions of a citizen assembly on climate
ecological justice. And it is working
-
significantly. In fact, if you go to this
climate mobilizationorg map and you will
-
see that states, municipalities and cities
all over the world, tons of them have in
-
fact declared a climate ecological
emergency. What they do after that point
-
is, of course, the next step. But I can't
find a single one of these that is dated
-
to before April this year. So in just one
year, that is a significant political
-
transformation.
applause
-
Yep, yes. And it's certainly not just
extinction rebellion. It's Fridays for
-
future have been just upping the game.
They're massively, so, respect! At the COP
-
25, which was obviously like a massive
failure in itself, extinction rebellion
-
was listed as the most influential
organization above the World Bank,
-
Greenpeace, et cetera, et cetera. So it's
a relatively short kind of rise of a voice
-
for this particular movement.
Now, infrastructure for
-
rebellion. Unfortunately, the movement got
off to a reasonably bad start in the UK in
-
that respect. They went from the
perspective of...
-
What's that? That's a bit odd.
referring to the red blink glitch
-
They went from the perspective that we are
an above ground movement. We work in
-
the open. It's not really good for civil disobedience
to have that as your mandate or a priority.
-
And there in the UK, things are, of
course, a little bit different. It's
-
something of a playground there for civil
disobedience. The police are generally
-
quite nice. In fact, one of the chief of
police in the UK said 'Well, they're
-
actually quite nice people, these
activists'. This is not something that
-
exports very well. It doesn't even export
over the border. I'll talk about them in a
-
moment. But they really settled on base
camp over in the US. They just went
-
straight to base camp. Google for sharing
like things like contact lists. They
-
didn't have anyone with technical, shall
we say, know how or operational security
-
intuition or interest to look at it any
other way. So they just reach for what's
-
at hand. The Action Network, too, hosted
over in the United States Base camp, I
-
mean, the extinction rebellion explicitly
breaks base camps terms of service. You
-
may not use the service or any illegal
purpose. Well, civil disobedience is
-
breaking the law. That's what it is.
Action Network, which is widely used by,
-
unfortunately, activist movements all over
the world, humans rights spaces as well...
-
They they really use it a lot. They have
just crazy stuff. You understand and agree
-
that we may disclose your information if
required to do so by law or court order a
-
legal process some point, including to
respond to any government or regulatory
-
request. I mean, this is nuts. Action
Network hosted over in the US under a
-
Trump surveillance apparatus, that massive
apparatus that Obama expanded hugely and
-
just gave to Trump. And I mean, this is an
unsafe environment for hosting, you know,
-
contact lists.On the 3rd of of November
last year, my partner said they really
-
should be an extinction rebellion in
France. And and I immediately thought,
-
well, they will need a server. There in
France, you do not want your activists on
-
Action Network. I mean, you don't want
them using Google because, I mean, in
-
France, this is the situation. Here's
France. This is, in fact, Paris and Sally
-
Bridge in the center of Paris with just
cops cruising past and just tear gas and
-
even taking the sunglasses off and just
and just spraying them right in the face.
-
This is Youth for Climate protesting
outside an Amazon logistics center. Very
-
recently, in fact. Youth for climate, just
with with a guy wearing the French stripes
-
in the background overseeing it. He says,
'Yep, you can do it. The state says it's
-
OK', and just sprays them. You know, this
is France. It's a different environment.
-
So I just really got them up and running
with something really fast. Iceland was
-
chosen because Icelanders is very well
known for its strict data protection laws.
-
It's well outside of obviously the EU and
of course, the five eye states. And I went
-
the FlokiNET, geothermal direct from
source, more direct from grid source.
-
Discourse for the forum rather than base
camp, for instance. Nextcloud for all the
-
vital stuff replacing Google Drive, etc.
hardened opened VPN and a data partition
-
on AES-XTS on 512, Jitsi-Meet for calls
bit and just a very simple MTA. In fact,
-
it's not really an empty, it's just a just
email, XM. XM form. Meanwhile, the
-
international movement as branches were
popping up all over the world, were
-
descending on slack. Now slack is
particularly problematic for a variety of
-
reasons. But what's there's a reason why
they were jumping on slack. They wanted a
-
place to share their extinction rebellion,
broader global needs. I mean, this is just
-
a few thousand people at that stage. Some
people were members of multiple teams. And
-
importantly, they chose Slack because
Slack does it for something that group
-
chat does not. Many teams, each with
channels, public and private, and this is
-
just the, it is hard to call it, an
innovation, but slack itself, is chosen
-
for that team based structuring
configuration over group chat for a very
-
good reason. It is a direct messaging back
end. Many national branches means many
-
teams. Some people belong to more than one
team. But the problem with Slack is that
-
Slack is a racist infrastructure. It
actually has its discriminatory
-
infrastructure. Slack voluntarily chose to
follow Trump's digital trade embargo,
-
blocking like Crimea, Cuba and Iran.
Several other countries just because they
-
thought maybe I'd know Trump would buy
them a Rolex, I'm not sure. But it's it's
-
nuts that they did that. And then they
even defended it, apologizing a little
-
bit. Sort of not apologizing later. Google
Docs. Branches were jumping to Google Docs
-
to store contact lists. Here's your
regional coordinator, your national
-
coordinator, your actions and logistics
teams - terrible stuff! So much so that in
-
the UK at least a seasoned organization
and protecting activists and ensuring that
-
they have legal rights or at least legal
protections when they need them in the UK
-
decided to pull out of support of
extinction rebellion on the basis that
-
XR UK was storing personal data
inadequately and that they were very sure
-
that in fact the police would have access
to that information. Thus, when openness
-
is enforced, we have a regime of openness
doing things out in the open. It excludes.
-
What about those that might work and
governments or government offices or
-
corporations or just those that are a bit
nervous about getting involved in a civil
-
disobedience movement? They're not sure
they want to actually take that big step.
-
Those are not going to feel very
comfortable at all doing it in the open.
-
A community owned hub and operated
hub for Extinction Rebellion was absolutely
-
needed. And so I set out just building
-
criterion for this had to be community
owned and operated, platform wise, free
-
and open source software outside of the
Five Eye and EU member states. It needed
-
to walk its talk and enjoy energy direct
from source. No CO2 credits, a'la Google
-
and Amazon. Debian simply because I've
been using Debian since the year 2000 only
-
and and I just love it. weeps If I start
crying, you know why? It's not because the
-
planet is dying, it's because I just love
Debian so much. But it needs to be
-
affordable and very well rooted. So,
'mission coherent infrastructure' was what
-
is really often what I mean by that. Few
people are aware that the global data
-
center industry consumes or at least
pushes out, I should say, as much carbon
-
into the atmosphere as the entire airline
industry. This is the same amount as the
-
UK. The United Kingdom itself actually
burns a year. It's a lot. And for
-
organise.earth, which was the domain name
that was chosen...Exactly 366 days ago, in
-
fact, it was born. I settled on mattermost
and I'll explain why in a moment. And I
-
and I settled on datacenterlight in the
Swiss Alps. Datacenterlight, direct from
-
source hydro alpine catchment hydro... It
was a beautiful Irony there, actually sort
-
of like a bleak poetry that as warming
melts the snow on the Alps, it flows down
-
into these large catchment bays, which
then drive lovely big generators that
-
power the data center. So I just I can't
get past that. It's extremely well rooted.
-
Their VMs are wonderfully fast. I settled
on mattermost for these reasons: We had to
-
get thousands of people off Slack fast. So
the U.S. similarity was mission critical.
-
There are export path from slack directly
into mattermost. It has that team check
-
configuration that people in an activist
communities really like now. They've
-
adopted that wholesale. It's reasonably
unified. UI/UX across the endpoint
-
platforms, whether you're on iOS or
Android or desktop. Team invite links.
-
Teams can actually control invitations to
the teams by sending them a link and they
-
can recycle that link or at least flush it
and generate a new one when they need to,
-
to control flow. This basic team admin
controls. Extremely low entry barrier. The
-
server was entirely funded by one fresh,
ahm French - I was going to say Swiss.
-
Then I said French. So I said fresh. - One
French rebel. scales linearly as regards
-
system overheads. It's just extremely
performant. In fact, when we got to about
-
20.000 people on organise.earth, the
server population, matteremost itself was
-
running at about 30 percent of one core.
"Mattermost for chat. Anything sensitive?
-
Use Signal or Wire." And that's the rule
now on organise.earth, which has become
-
very much the global hub for the movement,
with four hundred and seventy-five teams,
-
mostly national or local branches. It's a
really large Mattermost deployment. Why
-
not Riot and Matrix/Synapse? Well, in
December 2018, when I was looking at it,
-
it was a little bit immature. The UI UX
was a bit geeky, but there were also real
-
problems with with scalability. I just
seem to see that it wasn't something I
-
could really know that hundred thousand
people, for instance, down the road could
-
actually all use on my particular site
home server deployment. The device
-
verification was really freaking people
out. I mean, some of the the great
-
majority of the rebels, in fact, that we
are hosting are in fact the kind that
-
would look for a Google link to log in.
There's no markdown. That might seem a
-
little bit arbitrary, but it's become
relatively critical - especially for the
-
code / development side of things and
formatting, making lists. Markdown is
-
important. It doesn't have that link-based
invitation management either. But there's
-
also this metadata leakage concern -
something that the Matrix team are really
-
looking at. And they've said so. They've
said that the metadata leakage, they want
-
to fix that. They want a more unified
experience across the app layer, too, with
-
Riot. So I'm looking forward to following
that in the future. Zero knowledge: I
-
would love to go that way. But given the
fact that that we already have use Signal or
-
Wire for anything sensitive and use
Mattermost for anything else and use your
-
individual branch servers, which I talk
about in a moment, for anything truly
-
internal to your branch, we've achieved
basically the same thing because Riot -
-
just like with a Nimmo - is not
entirely encrypted by default. It's
-
something that one must actually set up.
So we're effectively in the same place.
-
Organized.earth has now grown to host a
large number of platforms which I have
-
deployed there. We have, of course,
Mattermost. We have NextCloud to us. Only
-
office is used for collaborative editing
that has some missives I talk about in the
-
moment. Etherpad-Lite is used really
heavily. LimeSurvey replaces Google Forms.
-
Jitsi-Meet doesn't really replace Zoom.
But this is something that we're working
-
on very much. Rainloop with Docevot and
PostFix for the for the mailing. And then
-
we have GitLab. GitLab has been a massive
success. We have a few hundred coders now
-
working flat-out in the GitLab that we
have deployed. And it is very interesting
-
that many of them say that would they
would not be able to do what they're doing
-
on GitHub. Given that GitHub is tied to
their work, GitHub is tied to the to their
-
real life a little bit too much. And they
are genuinely worried about a boss or
-
corporation or company surveilling them
when they are maybe, for instance, engaged
-
in a project that is technically illegal
or quasi-legal. Discourse is used, I
-
guess, less heavily on the main
organized.earth server than it is on some
-
of the branch deployments. The French
server, for instance, now has 70,300
-
members in its Discourse. Yes, 70,300. What
a win. Yeah. It's just like a marketplace
-
of chatter. Signal and Wire replacing
WhatsApp and Skype. Mastodon node was
-
created, which has become quite popular
with branches. And we have PeerTube
-
replacing YouTube. And importantly, we're
working very hard to ensure that we have a
-
gender balance as much as possible within
the open space of all these platforms. On
-
the backend, of course, Debian
sobbing. AES XTS for the data
-
partition. Failed2ban and UFW for the
firewalling. (aside) Those of you that are
-
taking photos of this are feds. I
see you taking photos. Take photos.
-
laughs Snort for the intrusion
detection. Prometheus and hardened
-
OpenVPN. I'm really into Duplicity for
backups and Pecona for hot MySQL backups.
-
It's a real problem when you're trying to
backup huge databases that are 14-15 GB or
-
more: You can't take them down long enough
to do a dump with, say, MySQL or something
-
like this. Percona provides a really
interesting solution for hot backups. I
-
had to work on optimizations with an IDB
heavily in order to get the kind of
-
performance that was squeezing out of
Mattermmost in its interaction with MySQL
-
on the server. Nginx we now support two
protocols: v4 and v6. The v6 addition was
-
certainly very, very bumpy and I wish it
wasn't so bumpy, but it was. I thought I
-
knew or understood physics better than I
actually did the day of deployment.
-
PostFix and Dovecot. And then we have
LetsEncrypt. Platform challenges: Jitsi-
-
Meat does not replace Zoom. Zoom is just
simply more performant. I think about 1.7
-
Mbits/s is the lower-level, minimum
bandwidth required for a user in order to
-
have a quality call but Jitsi-Meet is
higher. And so we do get people on 3G,
-
they just drop out and we sometimes have
40 or 50 people on the call and Jitsi-Meet
-
is not cutting it, unfortunately. Only
office unless you want to pay 6,000 a
-
year, which of course we won't. You're
looking at only 20 simultaneous editors at
-
the same time. This also needs to, needs to
change. Thankfully, NextCloud's text app
-
seems to offer us a sweet spot there, as
far as simultaneous editing. In the
-
meantime, EtherPad-Light is being used
really heavily. There's a lack of epic
-
controls in MatterMmost, which is
precisely why we are forking it. We are
-
forking Mattermost, which is a massive
job, such that team admins can have all of
-
those hundreds of teams can individually
manage their memberships. That having to rely
-
on me to drop into the into the CLI and
use the Mattermost tooling to do things
-
like following the GDPR, deleting all of
the posts of a particular member. And we
-
have SSO expectations for a mostly non-
tech membership. People are so used to the
-
idea, especially the very that the younger
and the older end of the demographic both
-
expect one unified log-in for all
platforms. And this is just a real hassle
-
and very difficult to manage. But with
Mattermost, it acts as a OAuth2 provider
-
that does offer us some interesting
possibilities there. The XR Server
-
Platform has since evolved to this. It has
MailTrain as the mailing list manager and
-
this is working real well. I'm at
MailTrain V2 with a sweet docker compose
-
deployment. I thoroughly recommend giving
that a go to replace your mailchimp
-
whatever needs. We also have a 'Rebels
Manager' as the CRM. So this effectively
-
replaces Action Network and it leverages
MailTrain. There's a very talented
-
developers in Brussels and Belgium that
have put together the Rebels Manager,
-
which will be deploying across the entire
movement. And yeah, it's working out real
-
nice as far as the deployments. The branch
service deployed in the spirit of
-
decentralization. I have deployed these
and there are many, many more to come. And
-
these are entirely independent from
organized.earth, from the main hub. They
-
are self run self-administered. Admins are
trained over ten to twenty five hours and
-
then the keys are flipped and then they
just sail off on their own. 2020 plans:
-
the Mattermost-fork I mentioned, but
importantly, the Wire-Mattermost
-
integration. What I'd really like to see
and what we're talking about with the
-
Rebel codes is, I guess as we call
ourselves, is to have a Wire Add-On or
-
Plugin for Mattermost such that you can
just simply click on a bunch of different
-
people that you'd like to engage in a into
anend-to-end encrypted voice call or chat.
-
We're excited about that. Enhance team
admin controls: Team administrators should
-
be able to do a lot of the work that that
I shouldn't be doing. A Federation feature
-
which effectively replaces Mattermosts
enterprise offering, which is about three
-
dollars a month or something per seat.
It's a crazy amount of money. I mean, in
-
our populations that would be completely
impossible to afford that sort of The
-
Enterprise Enterprise edition anyway. So
we are actually sort of forced to fork
-
Mattermost, which I'm sure is really gonna
piss them off, but we are going to do it.
-
We've already started. Jitsi-Meet-rework:
We want to build an OAuth-wall for Jitsi-
-
Meet so that we can protect our instances.
Simultaneous session recording, not using
-
Jabari or with the chromium browser on a
server, which I can't believe is the
-
solution that they have chosen. I will
never, ever install a browser on a server.
-
It's just it's just illegal. And it's just
it's just wrong. Bandwith optimizations,
-
we need a lot of work done there. Rebels
Manager replaces Action Network. And then
-
we want to have a member facing services
dashboard with that OAuth2-flow and
-
particularly and very importantly,
colocation deployments. Working out of VMs
-
is all very well but you do have key theft
from RAM as a as a plausible possibility
-
in many instances, so to speak. And so
what we would like to aim for is being
-
able to drop off dedicated boxes with the
RAM, epoxied into the slot and good to go,
-
nice on lockdown. Yes. Swiss VPN for the
entire movement, this is something that I
-
should have done within it within a few
weeks. And I also want to obsolete myself
-
so I can dedicate myself to other
movements while maintaining at least a
-
tech advisory role within Extinction
Rebellion. But it is time for techies to
-
rebel. There is no hope without action.
But there is no action without
-
infrastructure, at least not at the scale
that we need it today. We need massive
-
deployments, distributions. People need
places to work and to organize and to do
-
so safely. SysOps, DevOps, Codes, front
and back. All can dedicate an hour, a week
-
or a couple of hours a day to a cause
which is probably best described as the
-
single biggest challenge that we as a as a
species actually face. Live in your time
-
and dedicate an hour or two a week or a
day, if you if you can, to this. Maybe not
-
Extinction Rebellion, but for Fridays For
Future, Sunrise Movement, future movements
-
to come. If you are interested in getting
involved in Extinction Rebellion and
-
joining the the the very large tech team,
then visit rebellion.global, find your
-
local branch, get invited to Mattermost
and then see you there. Another end of the
-
world is possible. Thanks a lot, guys.
-
applause
-
Herald: Thank you very much, Julian Oliver
- Extinction Rebellion.
-
applause
Herald: If you have questions, you know
-
the procedure. There are microphones from
one to number six. And as far as I know,
-
we already have questions from the
Internet. So signal angel, question number
-
one please.
Signal Angel: Hello, someone from the IRC
-
wants to know, how do you enter the
encryption passwords for your data
-
partitions during automated reboots in the
data center?
-
Julian: This is completely impossible to
do for an encrypted root file system,
-
obviously, one needs to, in fact, look at
data partitions that are encrypted. But
-
the root file system not unfortunately on
many the deployments that are not Colo and
-
those that do not have the flexibility of
presence at the point of entering that
-
password. So from that from that basis, we
we go with a an encrypted AES 512 Bit
-
encrypted data partition and one comes in
over the VPN, tunnels in through SSH and
-
then decrypt and mounts. I realize this is
not exactly ideal, but it is all we can do
-
in the VM space.
Herald: And the next question from
-
microphone number two.
Microphone 2: Hello, first of all thank
-
you so much for all this work you've put
into creating this platform for the
-
movement. My question is, what measures
have you taken to protect yourself against
-
the case where, for example, your home is
raided by police and they try to somehow
-
get into the servers through other means
than just impounding them.
-
Julian: I'm being socially engineered
aren't I? n public? No, no, I'm I'm
-
particularly cautious about that stuff.
And all of us, all the sysadmins of which
-
there are now about 30 across the
different branch deployments, we have
-
very, very strict procedures for this sort
of thing, including redundancy across
-
backups, leaving home check, powering off
the laptops. In fact, just like I
-
installed the entire movement's
infrastructure community on infrastructure
-
on a thinkpad X230 that I bought for one
hundred and forty five euros on the German
-
eBay. And. And I've encouraged all of the
SysAdmins to buy the same, precisely
-
because you have this lovely battery lock
on the back. You can just flip it and and
-
pull out the battery. You know, if you're
ever facing police or a stop and search.
-
And of course, some countries like, you
know, maybe India or Brazil, this becomes
-
really critical. But there is just a
routine. I'm leaving home, I'm powering
-
off my laptop. Just which screen-locker
we're using, KeePass, you know, phones
-
encrypted. The files, The, um, the file
system. And we just have to do our very,
-
very best. There is no such thing as
perfect sort of forward security in this
-
space. But all we can do is employ best
practice operational security and also
-
most importantly, treat sysadmins as high
risk first stage targets, and they are
-
increasingly so from this perspective.
Sysadmins are forbidden to go to actions.
-
They can not be arrested because there's
always the possibility of coercion. And we
-
actually have a whole kind of script with
sysadmins when they entering into the fold
-
to to explain to them, you are aware of
the risks, you know, and you need to lean
-
on your branch to explain to you the
the legalities of the of your
-
operating environment. What are your
rights? Can you be coerced to to cough up
-
a password, you know, to to give the
master key to your to your to KeePass, for
-
instance, like this. You need to know
those rights. You need to know your
-
rights. And if you can't deal with the
heat and you don't want to go that
-
distance, then step down from being
sysadmin and give it to someone else who
-
is willing to go that distance. There are
so many factors. And again, we can't
-
generalize across the entire geo cultural,
political jurisdictional space that
-
Extinction Rebellion works at because it's
just so various. Yeah.
-
Herald: Thank you. And the Internet has
another question.
-
Signal Angel: How do you keep your
community of, as you explain mostly non-
-
technical people on your geeky and
decentralised solution as it grows?
-
Julian: No problem really keeping them. I
mean, It's maybe when one of the founders
-
says something like completely
controversial or absurd. This is being
-
recorded, isn't it? Then then yeah, we
have we have lost some number,
-
understandably, but still the served
population just grows day in and day out.
-
And I am expecting in 2020, at this
current rate, we are looking at a at
-
around 400, 400 to 500 new members a day,
on the Mattermost at least. And with
-
branch server deployments, it'll be three
or four month until we've filled all the
-
national branch requirements. There is no
problem for that. Mattermost is seemingly
-
reasonably enjoyed, not so geeky in that
sense. Discourse is also very widely used
-
within the, I mean Twitter uses Discourse
internally, but also publicly. We see many
-
large corporations and organizations and
NGOs using Discourse as a forum solution,
-
as a discussion forum solution. So it's
actually familiar to a lot of a lot of
-
people anyway. The geeky ness, I would say
is probably when we start talking about
-
the need for a VPN. That's when a lot of
people just switch off. So there's a lot
-
of cultural work, techno cultural work, if
you like, that needs to be done there in
-
order to secure the movement further.
Herald: Thank you. Microphone number five,
-
please.
Microphone 5: Hi there. Um, so you talked
-
all about your communication
infrastructure. Can you share anything
-
about your financial infrastructure?
Julian: That's also very varied, too. I
-
mean, branches have their own funding
coming in, but then there are others that
-
that will receive funding from. Previously
it was the UK was managing a lot of that
-
funding. That's entirely switching now to
the international support team, which is a
-
multinational group, if you like,
organization within Extinction Rebellion
-
that does handle all the finances and
donors would come to the movement wanting
-
to give money. And then that's distributed
throughout the movement as needed to meet
-
the ends of branches. It's still just a
year in and it's still quite varied. I
-
mean, XR Germany, for instance, actually
donated to the global movement recently.
-
So it came back that way. It's I think
it's it's always going to be relatively ad
-
hoc, especially also given the fact that
some financial institutions, state craft
-
are very much on the tail of. I just spoke
too much didn't I. But method no. Yep. You
-
need to be very careful about about where
bank accounts are as regards the tax
-
state. And so I think it's it's gonna be a
changing environment for quite some time.
-
I didn't actually know much about the
finances side of things to answer that
-
wholely, but yeah. Thanks.
Herald: Thank you. Microphone number
-
three, please.
Microphone 3: Hi. A lot of people find it
-
very hard to go from this content to
dissent and more people tend to get
-
involved, involved if we lower the barrier
of entry. So, you know, it sounds great
-
when you say like a couple, couple a few
hundred new people a day globally. I
-
suspect it would be more the low the more
you lower the barrier of entry if you have
-
some sort of a gateway drug. So what are
you thinking about making some kind of
-
system, some some kind of easy invite,
sort of a one click, get an invite to
-
Mattermost thing that would make it
easier.
-
Julian: Well that already exists. The
organise.earth is really only the global
-
hub where branches will, for instance,
interrelate, collaborate and interoperate,
-
if you like. But the branch server
deployments themselves, they will handle
-
their own onboarding, if you like, but
there is certainly some streamlining to be
-
done there. One of the things that comes
up a lot is password complexity. We have a
-
very strict password complexity policy and
that really frustrates people that would
-
like to name, would like to give the
password the name of the dog, and the
-
year, maybe, at best. But you know, we
really need to work on on finding a sweet
-
spot. We don't want to also have people
going into arrest, forgetting to power off
-
their phone after following the encryption
operational security guiding that we have.
-
And then their phone is, you know, face
swiped into or something like this or
-
they're just tricked into swipe-unlocking
the phone as happened in the UK and then
-
they're going to find their way into the
platforms with best guess passwords. I
-
mean, who knows? We need to find a common
middle ground, but also educate as to why
-
it's important that we use these platforms
and in these ways and have passwords of
-
these strengths, etc.. It's an ongoing
process.
-
Herald: I see the Interwebs has a
question.
-
Signal angel: Someone in the IRC wants to
know, why did you think it was necessary
-
to set up new infrastructure instead of
using other radical tech infrastructures
-
like Riseup for example?
Julian: Well, Riseup had, yeah, has its
-
own problems. We really wanted to go have
community-run infrastructure such that we
-
can legally be responsible for that
infrastructure, that we can say that it is
-
here for us and that if there is any,
there's any attacks on that
-
infrastructure, we are in a much better
legal position to be able to represent
-
ourselves from our operational
circumstance and jurisdictional
-
circumstance. It was also very important
that it's in Switzerland. Importantly, in
-
Switzerland, for Swiss data centers, you
need to break the law in Switzerland
-
before there can even be a request for,
say, a server seizure. And that needs to
-
go through the highest courts. This makes
Switzerland a very, very nice place to
-
actually deploy server infrastructure for
a civil disobedience movement. Riseup
-
simply doesn't meet it in that capacity.
Herald: Thank you. Microphone number one,
-
please.
Microphone 1: So my question was partially
-
responded already about the financial
infrastructure you have. I know some
-
associations, but like, you know, they
could afford a hundred bucks per year or
-
something like that, because that's so low
and, you know, doing brilliant work. But
-
so it seems to me that you deployed tens
of servers just for the V1. So what are
-
your initial cost? Could you lighten up
that so that I can act back home? How do
-
you get the money initially?
Julian: I installed almost all of that
-
infrastructure without receiving a single
cent from extinction rebellion. And in
-
fact, I receive very, very little money
from extinction rebellion now. And it was
-
only after burning through all of my
savings from November to August, I burned
-
through all of my savings and ran myself
financially into the ground, ended it
-
entirely on a gratis basis. And only then
after that, I have a very small amount of
-
living expenses paid, which is really
tiny, but just enough to cover my costs.
-
And I can make a lot of money deploying
servers if I wish to for dreary NGOs etc.
-
etc., but I have dedicated myself to do
this on the grounds that it needs to be
-
done and it needed to be done. Yeah. So it
was actually free for the movement.
-
Applause
Herald: Thank you for that.
-
Julian: Pleasure.
Herald: Microphone number two, please.
-
Microphone 2: Right. You already mentioned
that these server partitions are encrypted
-
at the data center. So do you have any
other OPSEC mechanism in place? For
-
example, if these data center's raided?
Julian: The data center can't actually, at
-
least without it being a breach of
constitutional law in Switzerland, be
-
raided. But there, are there are some
measures put in place for a switch-off in
-
the event. But I can't talk about that
without putting other people on the hot
-
seat. Yeah, but it is it is all sorted.
Yeah.
-
Herald: laughing Thank you. The Internet has
another question.
-
Signal angel: Someone on the IRC wants to
know, do you share the recipes for your
-
DevOps deployments? And specifically were,
Signal and Wire difficult to set up?
-
Julian: Well, Signal is not so difficult
to set up, but maybe it is easily confused
-
with the fact I mentioned the Wire server
deployment. I'm in talks with Wire at the
-
moment. Does that make Wire about a server
deployment for the movement such that we
-
can actually run our own entirely and
again, write apps for that for that server
-
for use in the movement. But I think Wire
and Signal, as far as an end user install,
-
it is extremely easy in getting them up
and running. I think Signal has problems
-
obviously with the phone number discovery
aspect. I mean, SIM cards, I don't know,
-
they're license plate numbers these days.
I'm really quite a fan of Wire's non-
-
dependance on that. But as far as the
blueprints are concerned, I really do hope
-
to write, as part of my self-obsolescence
plan is to write a full documentation for
-
the server installs, for the for the post
install ordering and such that I can be
-
handed over to someone else to do the
deployments for me. And I think I have
-
actually found that person. That person
happens to be German and very, very sharp.
-
So, I look forward to the possibility of
publishing that at that point. But for
-
now, it's just a case of me doing the
deployment, and then I sit down with
-
sysadmins for 10 to 25 hours and walk them
through what that server is and how they
-
can sail that ship. It's how it's done at
the moment.
-
Herald: Thank you. I think this is a call
for participation, right?
-
Julian: It is indeed.
Herald: Microphone number two, please.
-
Microphone 2: Is the Mattermost fork
public available?
-
Julian: It will be, absolutely. I mean,
it's just started. It's something that we
-
just kicked off. So hopefully, by about
midyear, I think we might have something
-
that you could put into staging, maybe not
production ready, but we'll see. Yeah, I
-
think it's gonna be great. And it's gonna
be great for the community as a whole. I
-
mean, outside of extinction rebellion, but
just those that would like an alternative
-
to Slack that doesn't have dumbed down
team admin controls and has maybe
-
federation, if you really want to grow
something really, really big. The sweet
-
spot is a folk Mattermost. I'm convinced.
Herald: Thank you. Microphone number
-
three, please.
Microphone 3: Why no digital civil
-
disobedience?
Julian: Ah, yes, I can't talk about that,
-
but I'm very, very enthusiastic about it
and have been engaged in that a little bit
-
here and there in the past. But yeah,
electronic civil disobedience is, is very
-
close to my heart. And there's lots of it
happening in the movement and it will be
-
in 2020, but I can't talk about that
obviously, at all. Yeah. Would love to,
-
but I can't.
Herald: So sad. Microphone number two,
-
please.
Microphone 2: You're running a lot of
-
services with huge attack surface. What is
the worst that could happen should your
-
infrastructure get compromised?
Julian: With, services with what, sorry?
-
Microphone 2: What is the worst that could
happen if your infrastructure is
-
compromised?
Julian: Um, well, the branch servers are
-
entirely decentralized from the, from the
organise.earth hub. Um, I would like to
-
think that it's highly unlikely that
organise.earth is compromised, but if it
-
were to be compromised and I was not able
to instigate a power-off event in process
-
or prior, then unfortunately it would be,
there'll be access to large email, um,
-
registration information, largely, and our
DB is database encrypted at the database
-
layer, but unfortunately if one has root,
if one can privacy escalate to root, then
-
you would have access, potentially, to a
decryption of the database. But there's
-
little we can really do about that. Um, if
we find in 2020, let's say there is
-
encrypted by default. In other words, zero
knowledge with OMEMO or with Riot
-
abstracted over Matrix and Synapse, well,
hopefully Dendrite, written in Go. And it
-
is really performant and it can run six
figure populations, it can support six
-
figure populations, then we'll absolutely
switch to that and I will drive that
-
change and that time. But in the meantime,
just use Mattermost for general team chat.
-
Everything else goes over Signal or Wire.
That's how the movement runs right now.
-
Yeah.
Herald: Thank you. Unfortunately, we run
-
out of time. Julian, would you be able to
answer questions in the, uh, after talk?
-
Julian: Yes, of course. Yes, absolutely.
Herald: So the offer, if you have
-
questions, come together, come to him and
ask you questions. Julian Oliver, thank
-
you very much.
Julian: Thanks, guys.
-
Applause
-
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