Started by dylan ·
Hi,
I'm a developer with about 5 years of experience and life experiences that have led me to believe humanity is in dire need a project like this.
I have free time, runway, am studying math, have worked as a developer using PHP & Javascript.
I've been following this project for at least a year or so, mostly just lurking. I haven't yet set up a node, but I have a Pi5, a PC, and a fiber network connection.
I wanted to introduce myself and ask how I can best be of service?
Thank you,
Dylan
Hi Dylan! Welcome aboard :)
Others may chime in with other suggestions, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is lowering the barrier of entry. It's a big reason why I started Columba, after having perhaps some similar experiences and drawing the same conclusion, that the world needs free and private networking in a way that Reticulum delivers beautifully.
If you are looking to exercise your development experience, and also want to set up your Pi as a transport node, one thing that someone requested of me a while ago that I never got around to was making something along the lines of a setup script or custom armbian or similar image that has reticulum pre-configured and ready to go.
Or, you could pick your favorite and least served application protocol on top of Reticulum and make a client for it on the platform of your choice, or contribute PRs or patches to your favorite clients.
Lastly, I think Reticulum would benefit from more educational content. The manual is a wealth of knowledge, but everyone absorbs information differently, and for some people a video or interactive website are better vehicles for gaining understanding than reading documentation.
Whatever you decide, it's great that you're here and thinking about how to contribute!
Torlando wrote:
Hi Dylan! Welcome aboard :)
Others may chime in with other suggestions, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is lowering the barrier of entry. It's a big reason why I started Columba, after having perhaps some similar experiences and drawing the same conclusion, that the world needs free and private networking in a way that Reticulum delivers beautifully.
If you are looking to exercise your development experience, and also want to set up your Pi as a transport node, one thing that someone requested of me a while ago that I never got around to was making something along the lines of a setup script or custom armbian or similar image that has reticulum pre-configured and ready to go.
Or, you could pick your favorite and least served application protocol on top of Reticulum and make a client for it on the platform of your choice, or contribute PRs or patches to your favorite clients.
Lastly, I think Reticulum would benefit from more educational content. The manual is a wealth of knowledge, but everyone absorbs information differently, and for some people a video or interactive website are better vehicles for gaining understanding than reading documentation.
Whatever you decide, it's great that you're here and thinking about how to contribute!
Hi Torlando! Thanks for the feedback!
I was thinking something along these lines, making educational content with the goal of helping me learn and also helping others ramp up. The idea of a setup script is really interesting. I'll start looking into it right away! I have a math final this Thursday but after that my time should open up considerably over the summer! All the best!
If anyone else has any other ideas or resources to share, please do!
Thanks for offering your time! +1 to what Torlando said.
As a newcomer to Reticulum, you're in a great position to identify pain points and contribute ways to make things easier for others.
You're also welcome to contribute to the community wiki if you like:
https://reticulum.miraheze.org/
It's intended to complement the manual by summarizing and explaining complex topics in fewer words (and more illustrations ideally). It's also a home for anything else that's helpful and related to Reticulum. I think there's a need for step-by-step guides for beginners, for example.
Just wanted to chime in with support fof the Armbian idea. Im just digging into Armbian for my Rock Chip devices and that seems like a project that could pay dividends pretty early on. Im not sure but there seems to be a lot of security features you get with the RK stuff you dont get with the Pi.
I think every newcomer struggles with the question 'which Lora radio settings should I choose to be as compatible as possible with peers?'.
I suggest to do research and write a wiki article about that (for people who don't know anything about radio). Which would be the best default radio setting for which region and why? How many (legal) Lora radio regions are out there in the world?
I'm really grateful for the responses so far. The need for beginner step-by-step information, illustrations, and general newcomer guidance really resonates. I think one of the main frictions is just how flexible and customize-able this project is. It's not really meant to be a plug-and-play solution, more of a project that needs to be dug into, digested, understood, deployed, tinkered with etc. This results in many different types of users that need deeper guidance for not just one set of instructions, but exponentially branching paths.
My read right now:
(assumption 1) Reticulum could use more transport nodes, and (assumption 2) there are likely people out there with spare computers, pis, and multivariate overlapping motivations that all align with wanting to support a project like this. While I (and I'm sure many of us) are very intrigued by the notion of interoperability across many interface types, I'm thinking (assumption 3) 'most people' will just have a basic TCP internet connection and some old hardware.
From this set of assumptions, I'm thinking perhaps a brief explainer, a step-by-step guide, and perhaps a script of a narrower scope could be possible:
"Building the Uncentralizable Internet, Part 1: Your First Node" (kind of thing)
From this, introduce some concepts with links to dive deeper if desired, then just guide them to install a 64bit linux os on their spare machine, provide a basic script that installs i2p (most users wont have a static ip) and rns and sets up their services, with an i2pinterface and some default reticulum transport node configs. The point being to get them up and running and more transport nodes active on the network. Then introducing more branching guides from there?
Please tell me if I'm off-base here. I'm wanting holes shot in any incorrect assumptions I may be making. I'm concerned that likely the reason this hasn't already happened is because a bunch of shoddily-configured transport nodes popping up could be more harm than good?
I'll stop rambling for now, feedback welcome <3
I think I'd push back on the assumption that Reticulum needs more transport nodes. Keeping this message short as a test from Columba ;)
People need more transport nodes in their homes though :)
I kind of like the picture that the Zen of Reticulum ends with:
The future of this technology is a construction project.
It looks like a single node on a windowsill, listening to the static. It looks like a message sent to a neighbor, bypassing the noise of the commercial web. It looks like a community mesh that grows, link by link, hop by hop, carried by hands that care more about connection than profit.
That single node would be a transport node. It holds the potential to grow into a mesh network far beyond your home. Even if no one else connects to it, you and your family and friends can access the global ret with your own devices. I think that could be a good project to promote.
going to second joakim on setting up a home node (something i need to do myself) and give a firm vague at Torlando and say "don't fking vibe code it or or mark will yell at you(and would be right to do so)".
True, having a joke transport node that your other personal devices connect to is great. It just doesn't necessarily need to be publicly exposed as a global entry point
home* not joke, thank you fat thumbs
dylan wrote:
Hi,
I'm a developer with about 5 years of experience and life experiences that have led me to believe humanity is in dire need a project like this.
I have free time, runway, am studying math, have worked as a developer using PHP & Javascript.
I've been following this project for at least a year or so, mostly just lurking. I haven't yet set up a node, but I have a Pi5, a PC, and a fiber network connection.
I wanted to introduce myself and ask how I can best be of service?
Thank you,
Dylan
Well looking at this thread, I happen share the same thoughts,enthusiasm and ideals for wanting to making educational content for reticulum. I also happen to have some video editing experience (I'm not great at it but I can do it) and I like the technical software and programming end of things plus LoRa end. Perhaps we can do something together, you can message me either on matrix (welo@welololol:matrix.org) or reticulum if you are into that (<ba136f3592fc2c3e425ce7995260586b>), worst case we just end up as good buds.
Definitely share the same sentiment! This is an important endeavor for humanity. I also agree that lowering the barrier to entry is still the biggest thing.
Right now I think that's actually two-fold: other developers also have a barrier to entry (recall your experiences so far), as well as a broad general public audience even more so.
More educational content in other forms was mentioned in here as well and I 100000000% agree.
Exciting times! Have you decided on what next step you want to take yet?
Appreciating all the feedback on this thread! <3
Back from a trip and been heads down in reticulum-related research and working on a lil' somethin' somethin'. I'll follow up when ready - not feeling overly social lately.. focusing!
