We're Giving Away a FREE Above.Phone! (UPDATED)

Derrick Broze announces the winner of the Above.Phone raffle giveaway!

Above.Phone
https://abovephone.com/

Learn more about the Above.Phone:
https://takebackourtech.org/above-phone-tech-demo/

2021: Where Everything Changed For The Better
➡️ Official Community | Telegram Channel |Telegram Chat Odysee | Hive | Minds ⬅️

Hello my dear people! Its the last day of the year, a year in which each day seemed shorter than the last, each injustice greater than before, and the call to action echoing louder with each day.

Although the danger is present and growing, I have found solace in the new structures we have been building, and I wanted to take a moment to record all the momentous occasions I experienced with y'all.

- Organizing The Greater Reset, holding two groundbreaking events with over 60 speakers and a 100K viewers each in January and May - learning an absolute ton along the way

- Working non-stop for the first half of the year on the prototype for above.market, which was showcased at TGRII in May.

- Founding #TakeBackOurTech, calling out abusive software companies and spreading the ideas of community computing at the D3 Conference in April.

- Launching the Take Back Our Tech website and educational initiative, releasing free 18 technical guides and 10 videos.

- Watching the biggest hits of #TBOT spread over the internet:
👉 How You Can Stop The Cyber-Pandemic and Your Computer From Spying On You
👉 How Our Phones Are Tracked By Big Tech, Telecom, and Government
👉 XMPP, A Comeback Story: A 20 Year Old Messaging Protocol For Robust, Private and Decentralized Communications

- Helping countless people move to Linux and watching them start to enjoy it!

- Reaching spot #3 on Hacker News with our article on XMPP, getting over 20K views and being mentioned in XMPP's November newsletter

- Launching my first real company - Above Agency back in April alongside the most talented people I know, creating meaningful technology, brand, and stories together - that are still being written.

- Launching the above.phone - going from concept to almost 200 customers in less than half a year and watching people from all walks of life utilize cutting edge technology and mobile privacy.

- Taking a 12 city roadtrip around the Eastern United States on the Activation Tour, and speaking at every stop along with my friends! More importantly meeting amazing people every night and coming to the realization that we are not alone - not one bit!

- Being interviewed by some amazing people:
🎥 #TBOT with Derrick Broze
🎥 Ryan Cristian of The Last American Vagabond
🎥 Declare Your Independence With Earnest Hancock
🎥 Jason Bermas

I am thankful to be a part of your journey, and especially thankful for the amazing people that have astounded me with their knowledge and creativity. Although this year has not been much for taking breaks, that's to be expected if we are going to save the world - which I know we are.

—
I want to hear from you - what made this year great? What did you experience and how did it help you grow?

ACTIVATION HUBS ARE OFFICIALLY LIVE 🌅

23 DAYS LEFT TILL THE GREATER RESET - ARE YOU PLANNING YOUR LOCAL HUBS?

SHARE WITH YOUR COMMUNITY

Hey everyone - Ramiro here. We've just finished the Activation Hubs feature on the site. Now you can register your local hub or you can find local hubs near you!

Check out this video announcement for more information, and let us know how your Hub is coming along. ❤️

Main Page: https://thegreaterreset.org/hubs
Find Hubs: https://thegreaterreset.org/find-a-hub/
Promote Your Hubs Locally With Media: https://thegreaterreset.org/media/

What Is a Freedom Cell?

Find out in under 2 minutes with this short explainer video. Share with your friends and invite them to join the movement at: https://www.freedomcells.org

Any of you peeps want to attend/help with the #TBOT workshop in Morelia?

Anyone in our network work with crypto-currency ATMs, or know someone that does?

I am looking to launch a few ATMs in parts of the world that need it!

Why disroot.org shutdown their Matrix server:
@takebackourtech | https://takebackourtech.org

Earlier in 2021, I started seeing red flags surrounding the recently popularized Matrix protocol, thanks to a series of papers done by LibreMonde. Although I shared the research, many Matrix users saw it as an unfounded attack. This lead me to find and champion alternatives like XMPP.

Now disroot, an organization who ran a Matrix server for quite some time has shut down their Matrix instance due to privacy concerns.

— translated from Spanish

the reasons we decided to close our matrix instance were two:

1. the amount of enormous information that data from the users that we were forced to store (initiation and closing of session, interactions, publications and addresses exposed of users in public rooms, etc.) indefinitely and with the aggravation that the information also remains in the participating servers. and also the growing number of bots that polished mapping the network.

2. the ridiculously large amount of resources it required and increased with its use. about closing the instance, less than 100 users were costing us 5 gb of ram (not counting the branch that consumed the database) and 170 gb of space on the users information disk.

summarizing, it seemed to us that the amount of data accumulated was dangerously large and the resources dismedied for what is basically a text chat software.

We never thought that these problems were deliberately planned, but inherent in the matrix structure. And for us, they became unacceptable above all in relation to the commitment we have to the care of the information of the users.

There are six documents confirming that it was the best decision. It is advisable to read them completely and you can find them here:

https://gitlab.com/libremonde-org/papers/research/privacy-matrix.org

in a part of them can be read:
"after a new research and analysis based on our first document, and despite the changes that have occurred since, we believe that new vector ltd and the Matrix.org foundation cic, which represent matrix.org and vector.im:

- they don't meet the gdpr of the eu
- do not follow the guidelines, best practices and explicit requirements described in the ico guide on gdpr for those who have daily responsibilities.
- fail to defend the fundamental principles of gdpr: legality, equity and transparency.
- are not able to process gdpr data requests correctly and in a timely manner.
- discriminate against non-tecnicxs in gdpr-related issues.
- they are trying to retain data and responses from individuals who are ennoscriptd to them, removing such data from their system before completing so requests for gdpr, being a lay crime of data protection for 2018.
- they are using misleading communications, capturing policies and terms of services hard to understand to limit the scope of data requests only to home server services, while providing several other independents.

This document includes disclosure of a personal data violation by Matrix.org.
if you currently have a matrix account on any server, not only in matrix.org, we strongly recommend that you consider whether you need to file a complaint with the English authority of rgpd, regarding the processing of Matrix.org of your data so far. "

In particular, it seems to me that after several years things have not improved too much in the most important aspects: the care and protection of the data of the users.

New Hampshire's Proposes Bill to Uphold Software Freedom

https://libreboot.org/news/usa-libre.html

In 3 days, New Hampshire will vote on requiring state run website to use Free Software:

- Specifically bans state-run websites from serving non-free javanoscript to clients
- Creates a commission to provide oversight, watching the use of Free Software by state agencies
- Bans state agencies from using proprietary software - maybe this could include schools, in the future!
- If a person is tried in a criminal case, they have the right to audit the source code of any proprietary software that collects evidence against them
- Encourages data portability (able to transfer data from one program to another)
- Bans certain non-compete clauses and NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) pertaining to Free Software projects
- Bans state/local law enforcement from assisting with the enforcement of copyright claims against Free Software projects
- Bans state agencies from purchasing non-free software if free software exists, for a given task

HOW TO HELP: TESTIFY IN SUPPORT OF THE BILL

The reading of the bill is happening on 11 January 2022. This is when you should go to New Hampshire.

Location of hearing: Legislative Office Building in Concord, New Hampshire:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Legislative_Office_Building

The organizer of the proposed bill, Eric Gallager, has left instructions on Twitter. The following is a nitter link, which lets you view the relevant Twitter thread without running non-free Javanoscript in your browser:
https://nitter.domain.glass/cooljeanius/status/1479663133207764992

#TBOT LIVE WORKSHOP AT THE GREATER RESET IN MORELIA: FREE YOUR LAPTOP, PHONE & SOFTWARE WITH RAMIRO ROMANI
—
Jan 28th, 2022 - 12 PM CST in Morelia, Mexico

RSVP HERE: https://thegreaterreset.org/workshops/tbot/

Its time for a digital purification. Join Ramiro Romani of Take Back Our Tech in a hands-on workshop where we cleanse abusive technologies from our lives in favor of friendly alternatives. This workshop is held for free, and we will provide materials to be used in the workshop such as USB drives. You will have the opportunity to purchase the USB drives, notebooks, degoogled above.phone's and #TBOT t-shirts/stickers.

In this workshop you will have the opportunity to:

- Choose, explore, and install a friendly operating system on your laptop
- Learn how to use your new machine
- Get setup with the best software
- Setup privacy tools
- Demo & buy a degoogled above.phone

Please come prepared with:
- The laptop you would like to get setup.
- Your data backed up on an external drive or organized
- Something to take notes on
- Payment methods for merchandise (cash/crypto/card accepted)

THIS WORKSHOP IS FREE, BUT YOU MUST RSVP!

Hello everyone!

We are looking for a voice actor to narrate a short trailer for our upcoming animation: #TBOT: Reprogram Your Destiny. This trailer will be showcased at TGR III in a matter of weeks (running late as usual)

Do you have a nice voice and microphone?

Give us a sample of your voice in a Telegram voice message. Read the following:

'The year is 20XX. On the planet of the robots, there is one network - and no more'

Before submitting, please do the following:
- Join the @takebackourtech channel
- Reply to this post there with your voice message

We will review everyone's beautiful voices and make the pick this upcoming week, the person who is selected will get a nice tip in crypto.

Thanks for all your help!

~ Our connection is sacred

We Heard Your Voices! - #TBOT Passes 3,000 Subscribers
@takebackourtech | https://takebackourtech.org

Dear #TBOT Family,

I'd like to thank each person who submitted their #TBOT voice clips to us. It was really fun to hear all of your unique styles and takes on the line - we can tell how creative our community is!

We are now looking through the clips and we will be reaching out to individuals who fit for roles in the animation, I will DM you directly.

—
On another happy note we have passed 3,000 subscribers to our channel! Please also join us in our chat if you want to have friendly discussions about improving your technology.

Join our chat: https://news.1rj.ru/str/takebackourtech_chat

RSVP for the Live #TBOT Workshop @ The Greater Reset in Morelia, Mexico!

Friends,

The official schedule for The Greater Reset 3: Integration has been posted! Please note all times are in US Central.

Also, note that Wed, Thurs, Friday and Sunday are from 3 pm - 8 pm! Saturday will be earlier from 10 am - 3 pm!

https://thegreaterreset.org/official-schedule/

#TBOT: The Steady Rise of XMPP Communities ✊
— @takebackourtech | https://takebackourtech.org

I am proud to announce two new XMPP servers belonging to freedom minded communities. You should be able to join their XMPP servers by joining a public group/channel through your client.

The first is our friends at @NoGoolag, a group dedicated to discussion of mobile ROMs, technology, and news! You can join their XMPP group here:

general@xmpp.nogoolag.com

You can register for free on any XMPP client, register a username @nogoolag.com

The second is a private XMPP server belonging to the Freedom EXchange private community, (https://news.1rj.ru/str/FRXnews) which is developing an alternate DNS system along with other software services.

@sigcomm.fc | frx@sigcomm.fc

You can find the information for accessing the FRX private network on the public site:

http://www.freedomexchange.ca/

Please join these servers and say hello! You will learn something new, I promise.

OH AND of course - join #TBOT's official community XMPP group at tbot@group.chat.above.im
—
Do you not know what XMPP is? Its a mature, truly decentralized protocol for messaging, and anyone can run their own server. It offers end-to-end encrypted chats, voice calls, and video calls. It can also do encrypted groups, and public groups.

I hope you know this is the first of many communities that will be migrating to XMPP, and you can start yours too anytime you want to.

If you don't know what XMPP is, checkout our article on #TBOT: https://takebackourtech.org/xmpp-comeback

Hello all, just wanted to share a great video on KDE Neon for those using it, the video covers most of the same stuff Ramiro covers in his video and much more. I just bought a used desktop with 16gb ram and 1tb hard drive for $150 and put KDE Neon on it and this video was not only valuable in setting it up and making it look very sweet, but also taught me more efficient ways to use it. Thank you Ramiro for all your great videos and articles, I was not even aware there was another choice before I heard you speak about Linux and I was getting more and more frustrated with Microsoft all the time.

The Freedom Cell Networks presents The Greater Reset 3: Integration

In June 2020, the World Economic Forum launched their initiative "The Great Reset": an attempt to centralize and manage the direction of the planet and its resources.

The people of the world immediately exposed and took action against this power grab.

In January 2021, The Freedom Cell Network launched The Greater Reset Activation, a solutions focused event offering an alternative to The Great Reset.

Now, we are returning with The Greater Reset 3: Integration, a 5 day hybrid event where revolutionary speakers and organizations focus on integrating the solutions to real-world problems.

The Greater Reset 3 will focus on activating 5 themes:

January 26 - Liberate Your Mind, Body, and Soul
January 27 - Agorism & Paralllel Networks
January 28 - Permaculture & Food Independence
January 29 - Take Back Our Tech
January 30 - Building Free & Conscious Communities

Join us from January 26th to the 30th, 2022.