Thimbl is a Manifesto for the Open Web written in code. The most significant challenge the open web will need to overcome is not technical, it is political. Welcome to thimbl, the free, open source, distributed micro-blogging platform. If you're tired of being locked in to one micro-blogging platform, or a single social network. Or you're weary of corporations hi-jacking your updates in the pursuit of money, then thimbl is for you.

1. THIMBL

2. THIMBL
is a
microblogging
tool

3. THIMBL
doesn't involve
birds

4. THIMBL
or whales

5. because

6. THIMBL
is
decentralized

7. THIMBL
data is stored
on the users'
own server

8. THIMBL
requires no
software!*
*...well, just a little bit!

9. THIMBL
connects to
the users'
server with...

10. SSH

11. & finger*
* what is a 1970s network protocol?

12. to access or
update their user
data

13. THIMBL
is based on
Mammatus
a distributed webserver that allows
fast and cheap scaling

14. MAMMATUS
is designed to create a highly available
cluster using simple
Virtual Private Servers, available for as
little as
$5

15. THIMBL
.net
does as much as it
can client-side,
to reduce load
HTML5, javascript engines, threading & workers all
make this possible. Thanks guys!

16. THIMBL
.net
can be run with just
finger and ssh
installed

17. THIMBL
could should be
CLONE
CLONE
D we don't care how, or why, just that it is

18. THIMBL
is a manifesto for
the open web,
written in <CODE/>

19. the major challenge for
the open web is political,
not technical - Dmytri Kleiner

20. CAPITALI$M
will not fund
free and open
platforms*

21. * because it needs to capture profits for investors

22. In order to capture profit,
capital financed platforms
need to control user
interaction and user data

23. Free, open systems must be built without capital
financing.

24. Thus, projects that intend to build free and open
platforms need to be extremely resource efficient

25. WHAT
THIS
MEANS...

26. SMALL
simple, systems. built by
small, agile teams in
their spare time
quickly!

27. DESIGN
systems that can be
deployed using common
internet services,
cheaply

28. BUILD
on existing, established,
distributed platforms
where possible
i.e. email, usenet, irc, finger and not reinventing the wheel

29. THIMBL
achieves this by building
upon finger, ssh, http and
dns

30. THIMBL
becomes a highly
available, open source,
distributed social network
with very little new code
see what we did there? ;)

31. THIMBL
reduces development
effort by leveraging
existing free software as
much as possible
Hi Twisted! Hello jQuery!

32. <intermission>phew</intermission>

33. THIMBL
is a performance
as much as a
platform

34. THIMBL
is a call to arms: focus on
simple systems, extend
established platforms
take note developers!

35. THIMBL
is OUR example
development has been
public using old and new
social networks

36. THIMBL
is promoting the
ideas behind what we're
doing as well as the
platform itself

37. the constraints of time
and resources are part of
our message

38. simple, early functionality
is part of our message

39. living in the cyberghettos
of free, open platforms is
part of our message

40. not keeping up with the
Joneses in well financed
web2.0 companies is part
of our message

41. THIMBL
will succeed with a
community. join us and
help make a free, open,
social network

42. THIMBL
is:
thimbl.net
telekommunisten.net
<socialNetwork>/thimbl
presentation by @mikepearce
need help setting up finger or ssh? get in touch!

43. THX!
http://flic.kr/p/7bzdhi - savannah williams
http://flic.kr/p/7AqaXk - the loushe
http://flic.kr/p/EoUx - bayat
http://flic.kr/p/K4QuW - CoreBurn
http://flic.kr/p/4tc7qy - Cayusa
http://flic.kr/p/Nitmw - Darwin Bell
http://flic.kr/p/NhQ4f - Swiv
http://www.flickr.
com/photos/25787132@N06/4541845512/ - Ian
Crowfeather thanks for the images!