Editing Ends and Means (section)

====Nodal Computers====
Eben Moglen's vision of a low-power, headless home home server that ''just works'' has spread like a shockwave through the freedom-loving computing community. The ramifications of the idea are clear - it would allow ordinary users to own their data, secure their communications, and maintain their privacy.


There are number of large, outstanding challenges in the effort to create a home server that's easy to use. While the community has been more-or-less able to converge on elements of the server backend, little progress has been made in the way of a user interface, or in provisions for high fault-tolerance and reliability. If the FreedomBox project is successful, there is no telling the importance of the role that these boxes will come to play in their owner's lives. To achieve the goal of widespread adoption, it is of critical importance that the box be able to run continuously, without major interruption, for years on end. It will need to be securely and automatically backed up, so that a system failure doesn't represent the loss of one's entire social graph and media archive.


These problems are challenging, but by no means impossible. Like any product or project, the FreedomBox will take years to reach maturity. As the nodal platform crystalizes and the userbase grows, it is time to begin exploring what freedom-enabling systems could be constructed using the no-fuss, always-on home server as a building block. 


It is not enough to settle for communications that are encrypted, but peer-to-peer on the logical level only. The advent of the nodal computer represents an opportunity to change the nature of our communications in a more fundamental way. Yet, in order to do so, we will need a naming system that is decentralized, and mesh networking technology that makes configuring a node as easy as turning it on.