The Completely Distributed Web

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The web has unified the entire world into a single medium of communication, standardizing both how we distribute and present information. This dropped the cost of publishing to almost nothing, an innovation that took a sledgehammer to the top-down economic, political, and cultural control over distribution of information. As a result of liquifying information and making it more egalitarian and accessible, the web has become the engine of the information society, improving our access to information in previously unimaginable ways.

But the web's early promise of being open, independent and free is starting to break down as governments scramble to control and censor it, and corporations compete to centralize and monopolize it. Between NSA dragnets, Chinese firewalls, Google super-datacenters, net neutrality extortion, Facebook's work on a private "Free Basics" Internet, and an increasingly hysterical political culture, is it too early to put the free, open web on the endangered species list?

In response to concerns about the future of online expression, hacktivists are fighting back, writing the code to build what could become the next version of the web. For lack of a better name, I'm calling it the Completely Distributed Web: a mix of existing technologies (IPv6, Tor) with some really big new ideas (Hyperboria, Namecoin, IPFS) that combine to create a new version of the web that's permanently resistant to centralization, censorship and control.

It sounds like cyberpunk fiction, but it's real, and people have already started using it. I will introduce you to the technology, show the innovations that made it possible, and our plans to turn Neocities into the first-ever distributed web host. I'll wrap up with a live demonstration of the distributed web that you'll be able to try using your own laptop.

Kyle Drake is a Portland-based tech entrepreneur and the founder of Neocities, a project to restore the lost individual creativity of the web. Kyle focuses his work on sustainable startups and bleeding-edge emerging technologies.

Details

• Doors will open at 5:30 for a 30-minute networking happy half-hour! The food, beer and drinks are provided by Bellagios and New Relic.

• The presentation will begin right at 6p.

• NOTE: after the event, everyone is invited to continue networking at a special happy hour opportunity, one story up at Portland City Grill.

› Stay tuned for the latest developments and updates on this and upcoming events by joining our Meetup group, New Relic FutureTalks PDX (link above), and following us on Twitter @newrelic. Check out our blog for event recaps and videos.

› FutureTalk is brought to you by New Relic in collaboration with TAO