Baobáxia - Modspil

Baobáxia
The Galaxy of
Baobab Trees
By Carsten Agger / agger@modspil.dk
http://www.modspil.dk
Quilombos – then and now
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Quilombos – free societies created by runaway slaves
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Important and constant part of Black struggle for freedom
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African culture was conserved in quilombos
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~5000 original quilombos still exist, conserve much
ancestral African culture
Quilombos are a strong symbol of Afro-Brazilian
independence and resistence (Zumbi, Palmares etc.),
also today
Watch the film Quilombo (1984)!
Serious aspect to this struggle
Police violence, poverty, crime and repression is a very serious problem especially
for black and indigenous people.
Rede Mocambos
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Network of ~200 quilombo societies (mapa.mocambos.net)
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United by satellite link and strong expertise in free software
Mocambos – the route of the Baobabs
Baobáxia – rota dos baobá
http://media.mocambos.net/hackit0x11/baobaxia.ogg
Baobáxia – the Baobab as model
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Each network (repository) is the tree
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Like Mocambos
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The nodes in the network are
mucuas – fruits of the baobab
tree
Users are the mocambolas, reaping the benefit
of each mucua
Mucua and baobab – a new model
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Server? “The white man got himself a new slave”
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Mucuas are digital land, where the culture may grow
A paradigm for the people
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The digitally restored ancestral Afro-Brazilian culture – for the
communities, by the communities
"Vamos fazer um mundo mais do nosso jeito!”
Baobáxia – the vision
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Will tie together ~200 communities in the Rede
Mocambos
Will work without Internet!
Communities have computer labs with
GNU/Linux, most with satellite link - mucuas
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Mucuas with broadband can sync faster
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Physical transport to mucuas with no internet
Architecture
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Front end – Ajax and JavaScript & static HTML
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API – created in Django with REST framework
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Back end – git and git-annex
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Mocambolas see the front end
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Each mucua is a Django instance
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All data are synced to the repository, which
is the network containing all mucuas.
Git-annex?
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For storing binary files
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Only metadata in git
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Binary files in the annex
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Which does not have to be present –
but may be synced
Result:
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Metadata for media arrive when sync'ing “normal” git – may be
requested by users
Binary files may be carried by hand –
arrive by bike or canoe
Demo time!
Status
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System is now in use, real bugs being reported by real
users
First fully functional release soon!
After that, a major refactoring to create a solid
foundation for the next version
You can help too! Go to
https://github.com/RedeMocambos/baobaxia , clone the
code and fix one of the issues
Alternative uses – remote European eco-villages,
Greenland?
Questions?