🎉 Libre Solutions Network Turns 2

Celebrating two years speaking out for freedom in the digital age.

It’s been two years since I posted my first post on this platform. This was my attempt to find my footing, and participate in the discussion about opposing top-down tyranny. While the more overt measures may have temporarily receded, it’s clear that technocratic control of society is still something we’re headed for without a lot of concerted effort.

I hope that with your continued feedback, encouragement, and support I can continue to work as a guerilla IT technician for the public. My goal is to build a resource to help anyone appreciate the full scope of threats to their digital autonomy, and find proactive steps people can take to mitigate them. I also want to start discussions on how we as individuals can shape our technological future in a better direction, avoiding the traps that have been laid for us.

Who am I?

I’m

Gabriel

your friendly techie. I used to work in IT for a Canadian medical non-profit before being ejected from the workforce in November 2021. I’ve had high hopes on using technology for good, and a basic understanding of medical ethics. I chose to take that as a sign that I should try to find the best way to use the skills and knowledge to help others understand The Tools of the Technocracy.

I believe the Free and Open Web is one of the vital resources balancing power against tyrants big and small. I believe it is critical that people proactively create, understand, and share valuable information in our world-wide hypermedia network known as the Internet. I’m interested in how people can take proactive steps to not just fight censorship, but democratize the information landscape.

I’m a huge fan of exploring the art of the possible. I like to try out new things and see how things can work. As a massive fan of Free Software, I’ve had the pleasure of being able to see how things can be very different than they are now. I remain optimistic that even relatively simple techniques can have a profound impact.

Download all my convoy photos from archive.org

Unfortunately, I do have some restraints holding me back. I’ve got reduced vision from a stroke I suffered a few years prior to the Covid Crisis, and I’d also put on a huge amount of weight before, and especially during it. I am working to better manage my time and habits, but it is quite a struggle. I mention this because these are factors that have directly influenced my choice to go about things the way I have.

What is the “Libre Solutions Network”?

The Libre Solutions Network is an idea that grew into a passion multimedia project. The idea was to explain how digital systems are weaponized against people’s minds, and offer proactive steps that people can take to mitigate them. The more people who free their own minds from top-down information control systems, the more they can unplug those around them.

We are stronger together when we defend each other.

I don’t expect to be able to fully cover the entire problem alone. Instead my current goal for the project is to show how things can be done. Instead of merely researching and testing the art of the possible, I want to demonstrate it. This is why articles are mirrored to the website (substack meta mostly stays here though), and I run a PeerTube instance.

I work to keep costs reasonable. Beyond the hardware I started with, purely technical costs are fairly affordable. I currently spend more money on information (books, subscriptions, etc) than on my hosting for example. An informed observer would very quickly be able to replicate my setup and use it for all kinds of purposes, but I’d like to eventually document how anyone could replicate the same kind of multimedia project.

Many excellent technological projects are just like this one, passion projects. One of the things I would like to do is spotlight examples that may be overlooked otherwise. Essentially, I want to do the work of helping get attention on important ideas and projects that are naturally unable to pay for it.

In addition to all of the above, I consider pro-liberty advocacy in both cyberspace and real-life to be an essential part of this project. While I work to support Free Software, and decentralizing the information landscape, I always want it to be grounded in understanding who and what I’m fighting for.

Why does this matter?

Governments around the world are doubling down on their efforts to control people’s digital lives. We’ve seen an escalation in new kinds of censorship, and outright attacks on people’s digital autonomy. While the tyranny of lockdowns and mandates appear to be fading into the background, I am motivated to still fight against the forces of surveillance, censorship, and technocratic control.

Mindwar, fraud, and tearing at the social fabric has real and tragic consequences. I have seen too much to not believe that the mass isolation, ignorance, and tensions are mostly a deliberate inflammation of real pain. The pattern of deceit, destruction, dispossession, and worse is all to clear to see.

What do I want?

When I started this project, my goal was simply to get the word out, and find ways to gradually increase my productivity. When I published my first post, amid panic and despair, the sum total of what I could accomplish was a few paragraphs far more infrequently than I would have assumed. It very much felt like I was starting with no gas in the tank.

Over time, this really has worked. I am thankfully able to continue working on this project while also managing other responsibilities and paying work. I have definitely improved my throughput enough that I’m confident I can start improving my health without completely losing everything. It’s always been a struggle, but at the time of writing I went for a swim the first time in years, so I’m optimistic.

By supporting this project you are helping build me into a truly independent fighter for digital autonomy. It’s quite rewarding and hope take on more challenges and find creative ways to have a meaningful impact.

How?

I have more ambitious projects in mind, but they will require participation of others. I’m a bit worried that I may on this step too quickly, but I’m hoping to take it on without too much trouble. Any support, encouragement, or feedback goes a long way to help me push forward into this new territory.

While I’m very proud of Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace, it’s not as accessible as I would hope for. It has many critical elements I need to more completely cover and teach.

Looking Forward

I’ve learned a great deal in the last two years. There’s been quite a bit of experimentation that has helped me get a better idea of what’s work focusing on, and what else I need to learn and research deeper. Despite writing so much publicly, I feel I need to get back into writing privately to properly organize ideas. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished in the last two years and I am excited to see what the future will bring.

I am humbled by the support I’ve been given so far, and I’m hoping to continue to make it worthwhile. If you’ll bear with me, I’m hoping that this work receives enough interest to support it long-term. I crave the opportunity to take on these technological challenges. I’ve got many ideas rummaging around and I really want to do them justice. I also have exciting projects planned for 2024 that I think can become game-changers. After I get a fair bit more out of the way, I’m planning to republish much of my work as a book. With more details added, I think it would be well-suited as a textbook on guerilla information technology. In addition to this, the goal is to launch a beehive to help Canadians reverse legislative damage to their digital freedoms.

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The Friends Made Along the Way

I don’t think there could have been a better way to celebrate two years of this project than to share my collaboration with

Visceral Adventure

based on

Spartacus

’ words.

War and Democide

There are many phenomenal voices here that I am very grateful to have gotten to know, and befriend. The support and encouragement I’ve gotten from others on this platform, and from readers like you has really helped me keep at it.

Conversation with Rounding the Earth 🌎

I think one of the things that sets substack apart from other platforms is that it has a lot of helpful features that enable people to work on things together, helping create works that are greater than the sum of their contributions. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with others, and I’m looking forward to more in the future!

Out-thinking the Culture Wars with Gary Sharpe

Digital Autonomy Discussions

TNT Radio Interviews

Testimonials

Your kind words are very important to me.
It means a lot when people take time to give praise and encouragement.
One of my major takeaways is that I do need to work to make the work more accessible. I think the advocacy side comes across well, but I’ve been told repeatedly that I don’t always make it clear where to start. I am grateful for any extra patience or effort required on your part as a reader and supporter.

Join the discussion

One of the major reasons I’d decided to participate in the discussion is that I firmly believe that the only way to reform what we want to keep is to embrace bottom-up feedback and cooperation. I certainly don’t want to take up the mantle of speaking for others, especially not a great number of people.

Please get in touch if you’re interested in having a talk about digital autonomy and where it may intersect with your passions. I’m very interested in having long-form discussions where people can express their desires for a better future.

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Infrastructure upgrades

Over the last year the website at libresolutions.network has come a long way.

• I’ve launched hidden services for it, on Tor & I2P meaning that the website itself is resilient from domain seizure and ISP-level de-platforming.

• I’ve gradually improved the look and style of it. Design is definitely not my forte!

• The RSS feed includes media, for audio & video compatibility for podcast apps.

I need to do some grunt work and make some improvements that were on the back-burner. Once these are complete, the plan is to make a push of a couple of guides to show how easy it would be for someone to self-publish from scratch, while maintaining control of their content.

The PeerTube instance has been reasonably successful. I’m hoping to redouble my efforts to create more video content in the next year.

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Must-reads

If there’s three main ideas I’d like to leave someone with from the last year, it would be these. There is a temptation for many to merely discuss things at a surface level. With these pieces, I try to truly break new ground and get to the root of these issues.

Media