filmaster.com

I’m a big fan of Free Culture and free open source web services too, licensed under the AGPL. The example I use most is probably Identi.ca, because I’m a noisy git and I like talking to people. I also wrote about the creation of Libre.fm a little while back, and I think we could really use more of these truly “free” web services. So when I heard about a new AGPL social network for film fans, I was very happy. The site is called Filmaster and I was lucky enough to have a chat with Borys Musielak (the site’s creator) about how it all came to fruition. Borys is also involved with the popular website Polish Linux, which you may have heard about. Read the rest of this entry »

Libre.fm

Recently I wrote an article about the creation of a new web service called Libre.fm, I’d like to fill you in on some of the developments since then. I was fortunate enough to get some input at the time from Matt Lee, instigator of the project. Libre.fm is a free network service aimed at replacing Last.fm initially but also going beyond that to develop unique features of it’s own. The service is still in alpha at the moment but it’s developing really quickly. I’ve been impressed by it’s progress and the developer mailing list is packed with action every day. There seems to be a real appetite for an AGPL web service of this kind. In the short time since I first wrote about it the Libre.fm project has picked names for it’s components. The server back end will be called GNUkebox and the client is to be dubbed Nixtape (sorry for the terrible pun). Slightly odd names perhaps but I particularly like Nixtape. According to the Libre.fm development road map as of May 4th (Star Wars day) the service has 4000 users and 3 million plays have already been submitted. That’s pretty staggering for something that only began a few weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Libre.fm

If you’re anything like me and you’re dangerously obsessed with music (I really am); then chances are you’ve already tried the music-based social networking service Last.fm at some time. Like a lot of web services it doesn’t give much away about how it works internally. This is fair enough and it’s their right to do that as a company of course but it goes against the principals of Free Culture and Free Software. Now there are plans afoot to create a completely free (as in freedom) alternative called Libre.fm. I’ve been on Last.fm for a couple of years now and the main benefit for me is keeping track of the music I listen to whilst also advertising my fabulous *ahem* taste and sharing with friends. It keeps track of the music you play through a back-end system called Audioscrobbler which records song names, artists, albums etc and shows them on your profile page.

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