V

Greeting, netizens.

I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of the everyday routine. The security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke.

But in the spirit of commemoration whereby important events of the past usually associated with someone's death, or the end of some awful, bloody struggle are celebrated with a nice holiday. I thought we could mark this November the 5th a day that is, sadly, no longer remembered by taking time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. Even now, orders are being shouted into telephones and men with guns would soon arrive.

Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and, for those who listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with the internet, is not there?

Centralization and suppression, cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And when once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and surveillance coercing your conformity, and soliciting submission.

How did this happen? Who is to blame? Certainly there are those who are more responsible than others. And they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you are looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who would not be? Adware, pop-up, virus, malware, spyware, incompatibility. There were a myriad of problems, over the InterLink, which conspired to corrupt your reason, and rob you of your common-sense.

Fear got the best of you. And in your panic, you turned to Nozilla and Goolag. They promised you order, they promised you interoperability, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last year, I sought to end that silence. Last year, I have created the project Rivista to remind to this world of what it has forgotten.

More than twenty years ago, several great men wished to imbed XMPP as the viable form of data delivery and publishing. They wanted us to know of a new kind of order for the internet. Their hope was to remind the world that XML, Atom, and XSLT are more than technologies. They are perspectives.

So if you have seen nothing. If the shenanigans of these organizations, and their collaborators, remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you allow the 5th of November to pass unmarked.

But if you see what I see. If you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight, with your XMPP servers, ready for action. And together, we shall give them a 5th of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

V

If you want to support V on November the 5th, then be sure to deploy XMPP servers along with Libervia, Movim, or Rivista as your chief mean for content distribution and publishing.