KEEP CALM AND HOST YOUR SERVERTJE
How can this workshop be helpful for others who want to investigate the possibilities of a self hosting server?
We think that besides the technical instructions, it is interesting to share some thinking.
And we do that by going through some experiences we had during the workshop.
Although we test different things during our three day workshop,
we decided not to expose the documentation we followed. One main reason is that probably is already outdated,
and also because there are many places where you can find information about how to setup a server or a selfhost service.
However what we would like to share here is our experience, the questions we had and what a server make us imagine, because we feel that the observations of the workshop, how we worked together, what we looked at could inspire other projects and help to specify how they can be accessible for people that are not technically skilled. On december 2021 we held the workshop "Keep calm and host yourself" at Autonomous design at KASK. It was a moment of reflection on the physicality and appearance of a server, a network and the internet with the intention as well to try out some small projects related to self hosting and local servers infrastructures.
MANUALS
First things first: Our first attempt setting up a local server was based on three different manuals: Varia, Bekka and Etherbox.
VARIA:
- -https://varia.zone/
- -vvvvvvaria digital-solidarity-networks (click here)
- - vvvvvvaria - episodeintro (click here)
VARIA (printed version):
- -NOOO2 / Varia: https://networksofonesown.varia.zone/
ETHERBOX (local co-writing):
- -networks of ones own - etherbox manual (click here)
Why did we
follow this manuals?
It was a starting point, different from going directly to surf the internet and tutorial videos. The manuals show an attempt to approach documentation on a different way. Althoug all of them reserve a space for the setup of a server and the technical documentation that comes along, it exist as well an intention to question the approach to it. For instance the Bekka manual put enfasis in the language they used to talk about technology. They raised questions about the safety of having a diy server, the acccesability to it and the collective work on mantainance.
MATERIAL
An overview of the materials can be a good starting point
TOPICS
These are some of the topics that we discussed in the group that are relevant to the question why you would want to set up your own server.
Keeping an archive safe.
Documentation that you can carry on.
A server that protects another server, servers for backups, disperse information over different spaces.
Control devices remotely.
WHAT DID WE DO?
well, many things :-) but we can give the example of something we tried to figure out, which is to make a hotspot. We could only work on the local network, and not connect to a server via the internet, because of school policies. A hotspot allows to wirelessly connect to a server, or in our case, a raspberry pi small 'servertje'.
