[TriLUG] In a LUG a long time ago

[William Sutton]

I know TriLUG has often run shoestring hardware, but it's done a pretty 
decent job for me of providing free email and web hosting :-)

William Sutton

On Mon, 3 Nov 2014, Igor Partola wrote:

> In a LUG, a long time ago, but somehow still in the future, email and
> "cloud" services were provided to its members for free.
>
> So I have been on what feels like a never ending quest to move my email off
> GMail for various privacy and vendor lock-in concerns. The requirements are
> that it should provide plenty of space (at least 5 GB's) as I am unwilling
> to change my pattern of archiving various conversations for later, be
> extremely reliable, and have great spam protection.
>
> Looking at the options, there are basically three:
>
> 1. GMail alternatives, such as Zoho, FastMail, etc. All of these have the
> same drawbacks as GMail: for profit SaaS provider who can easily be forced
> by the government to let it spy on the provider's users.
>
> 2. Host your own. This option is great, but I don't trust myself to keep it
> up 100% of the time, and I need it to be extremely reliable. Not getting a
> midnight page from a broken application is not acceptable. Not getting an
> invoice for renewing an SSL certificate for a client's web application is
> not acceptable.
>
> Moreover, I'd have to host it on rented equipment such as Linode, etc. and
> worry about backups myself, which sucks. I know enough to do it, but email
> is so critical to me that I don't trust my amateur skills.
>
> 3. Various non-profits providing email. I have an account on pilot, and I
> am also an SDF member where I get a small mailbox. This options is the most
> interesting to me.
>
> Now, picture a LUG which, such as TriLUG, which offers an email, document
> storage (think ownCloud), and related services, with reliable dedicated
> hardware, backups, and high security, all from people you have met, and
> with privacy, security, and stability as the highest priority. This would
> of course take lots of someone's time, and money, so it wouldn't be truly
> free, but I for one, would be willing to contribute financially for a
> worthy cause like this.
>
> This could also be a benefit to community: an opportunity for all those
> comp sci majors at Duke, UNC, and NC State to volunteer and learn quite a
> bit about how to run a real service provider, how to run a secure system,
> etc.
>
> To me, other than the technical and not so technical discussions, this is
> the role of a LUG in the 21st century. Now, if we were to raise some money
> for decent hardware, would the steering committee and the members be
> willing to use it to set up a service like this?
>
> Igor
> -- 
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