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diff --git a/doc/history.md b/doc/history.md index 5d60f2c0f..b626d376e 100644 --- a/doc/history.md +++ b/doc/history.md @@ -5,9 +5,9 @@ RedMatrix is a collaborative effort by the RedMatrix community and based on work ##Mike Macgirvin -- Biography -Mike Macgirvin is an American software engineer now living in Australia. He spent his early adult years designing and repairing semiconductor fabrication equipment for a number of companies as a self-described "machine wizard". In 1985 he became a research engineer at Stanford University and soon became a Unix systems administrator writing communication software and utilities and becoming an expert in emerging internet technologies such as the now ubiquitous "World Wide Web". He authored an email "client" called "ML" which pioneered some advanced concepts in encryption, the ability to filter message streams into different "views", and multi-protocol support. In 1996 he went to Netscape Communications to become tech lead on their Messaging Server and integrate this with Collabra (groupware) into a comprehensive communications server package. He stayed on after Netscape was acquired by America Online and was tech manager of the Groups@AOL project until 2001. +Mike Macgirvin is an American software engineer now living in Australia. He spent his early adult years designing and repairing semiconductor fabrication equipment for a number of companies as a self-described "machine wizard". In 1985 he became a research engineer at Stanford University for the Gravity Probe-B space mission and soon became a Unix systems administrator writing communication software and utilities; and becoming an expert in emerging internet technologies such as the now ubiquitous "World Wide Web". He authored an email "client" called "ML" which pioneered some advanced concepts in encryption, the ability to filter message streams into different "views", and multi-protocol support; and was an active proponent of and participant in the open source software *movement*. In 1996 he went to Netscape Communications to become tech lead on their Messaging Server and integrate this with Collabra (groupware) into a comprehensive communications server package. He stayed on after Netscape was acquired by America Online and was tech manager of the Groups@AOL project until 2001. -During a layoff round, Mike was let go from America Online in August 2001 and purchased a music store in Mountain View, California later to be known as "Sonica Music Company". Sonica folded in late 2006. He returned to working on software full-time and was employed briefly at Symantec before moving to Australia in early 2007. He is currently employed as a Computer Systems Officer at the University of Wollongong. +During a layoff round, Mike was let go from America Online in August 2001 and purchased a music store in Mountain View, California later to be known as "Sonica Music Company". Opening a retail store for non-essential goods at the beginning of a prolonged economic downturn was in retrospect probably not the wisest career move. Sonica eventually folded; in late 2006. Mike returned to working on software and systems support full-time and was employed briefly at Symantec before moving to Australia in early 2007. He currently lives on a farm "out in the middle of nowhere" and is employed as a Computer Systems Officer at the University of Wollongong. ##RedMatrix - The Early Years @@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ Mike had been working on this project for some time and there were a number of t ##RedMatrix -In July 2012, Mike left the Friendica project and began "full-time" (he was and is still employed doing other work) development of "zot" and a new base project called "red". Red is Spanish for "network". It wasn't really a "social network" and especially not a "federated social network". It was just Red (technically "la red"), or "the network". Work began by removing all the "federation" components and going back to basics - communication and remote authentication. It was a major re-write and took roughly six months before even basic communication was re-established. It was also no longer compatible with Friendica - which had been given to the "Friendica community" and by this time (December 2012) was developing separately on its own track. +In July 2012, Mike left the Friendica project and began development of "zot" and a new base project called "red" in his somewhat elusive *spare time*. Red is Spanish for "network". It wasn't really a "social network" and especially not a "federated social network". It was just Red (technically "la red"), or "the network". Work began by removing all the "federation" components and going back to basics - communication and remote authentication. It was a major re-write and took roughly six months before even basic communication was re-established. It was also no longer compatible with Friendica - which had been given to the "Friendica community" and by this time (December 2012) was developing separately on its own track. It became clear during this time that the single most compelling feature of the project wasn't the social network at all, but the authentication layer and decentralised access control mechanisms. Combined with zot's location independence it created a new model for software which had never existed previously - decentralised identity-aware web publishing and single sign-on to any compatible provider across the web. These weren't *evolutionary*, they were **revolutionary**. One of the biggest flaws of the modern web is the reliance on different passwords for every service you use, or reliance on a single provider if you were to tie them to - say your Facebook login. Facebook can remove your account at any time. Gone. If you rely on their authentication for all your websites, your entire online identity - now gone. This is also what was missing from Friendica - a compelling software feature which could stand on its own, without requiring a social network and especially without requiring a federated social network with all the mentioned external dependencies. |