[PLUG] Prav Messaging App project needs your support

Fri Apr 14 09:37:15 IST 2023

Hi Praveen,

Great news about multi-state cooperative.

I have a couple of questions. I could have sent you a direct message, but
similar questions might be relevant to others on the list.

Is money (a share price of 1000) the only criterion to become a member?
Have you explored Matrix (such as element.io over XMPP) at all?

Thanks
Yogesh

On Wed, Apr 5, 2023 at 6:39 PM Pirate Praveen via plug-mail <
plug-mail at plug.org.in> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> We specifically need your help to register a multi state cooperative
> society, which needs 50 members each from two states and we have 50+
> from Kerala and 26 from Maharashtra. If some of you joins and helps
> find some more members we can register this soon.
> Read more below
> Unpopular policies
> In January 2021, popular messaging app WhatsApp changed their privacy
> policy to combine all the data it gets with Facebook, giving users only
> two choices: accept the new privacy policy, or leave WhatsApp
> altogether.
>
> In a world where using WhatsApp has become a norm, that wasn’t really
> a choice.
>
> There were many users who did not like this new privacy policy. They
> tried to leave WhatsApp for other messaging apps, like Telegram and
> Signal. A sizable amount of users disagreed with the push by WhatsApp,
> but leaving a popular app like WhatsApp comes with its own
> costs—losing touch with contacts on WhatsApp. That meant, unless they
> were willing to be cut out from a lot of their contacts, people had to
> still leave one foot in the WhatsApp door.
>
> How different the situation is with phone numbers! If you had similar
> disagreements with a phone company A, you could have easily switch to
> any other phone company B and still be able to talk to other contacts
> by calls and SMS. Your contacts need not switch to company B to
> communicate with you. (In fact, the reason phone companies don’t make
> decisions like this is because they know customers will immediately
> leave them for a better provider. The ability for users to leave keeps
> phone companies under control).
>
> A solution: XMPP
> Imagine if all messaging apps were like phone and email, where users of
> any app can contact with users of other apps. In the above example,
> people would have a real choice to leave WhatsApp and just use any
> other service.
>
> This is exactly what we need.
>
> XMPP is a protocol that lets this happen. For the uninitiated, you can
> think of XMPP as a superpowered SMS, which works over the Internet and
> allows modern features like calls and image-sharing. It’s not a
> single company like WhatsApp but a standard that different companies
> can provide for.
>
> Messaging apps and services that that use XMPP can talk to each other.
> Examples of such apps are: Blabber, Snikket, Siskin, and more (think of
> these like Google SMS, Samsung SMS, Silence, and any other SMS app).
> Examples of XMPP service providers include disroot.org, poddery.com,
> monocles.de, and a whole bunch more (think of these as different
> service providers, like BSNL, Vi, or Airtel).
>
> To drive home the point: any user registered on any XMPP service can
> talk to other users of any other XMPP service. (disroot.org users and
> poddery.com users can send each other messages, just like BSNL users
> can exchange SMSes and calls with people on Airtel). This gives users
> choice of service providers: a single company does not control
> everything, and we won’t be forced to accept arbitrary terms by
> services like WhatsApp to be in touch with others.
>
> Ease of adoption
> Unfortunately, the current onboarding process on most XMPP services is
> not user friendly at all compared to WhatsApp. This issue, combined
> with the lack of awareness about XMPP services among common people, has
> made mass adoption difficult.
>
> Things don’t have to be this way, and Quicksy is a leading example of
> this. Like WhatsApp, Quicksy allows users to register in a few taps by
> entering their phone number and receiving an OTP. But because it’s an
> XMPP service, Quicksy users can talk to users on other XMPP services.
>
> We are developing the Prav app to complement Quicksy by providing a
> compatible app (Prav users can talk with Quicksy users) and offering
> more choice to users. People can easily sign up for Prav in the same
> way they do for Quicksy, but now they have more than one alternative to
> choose from. Before, the choice only existed for people willing to
> figure out the complex setup process on other XMPP providers; with Prav
> they now have another easy-to-set-up alternative.
>
> Respects users’ freedom
> Our app is ‘free software’, which means users get freedom to run,
> study, modify, share and share the modified versions. When we say
> ‘free’, we mean ‘freedom’ and not ‘free-of-cost’. To avoid
> ambiguity of the word ‘free’, we also call it swatantra software.
> Examples of free software are VLC Media Player, Firefox, Debian,
> Quicksy, Prav etc. You can learn more about Free Software and why it is
> important here 1.
>
> This means that the original source code behind a swatantra app is
> freely available for anyone to inspect; people can conduct independent
> security audits instead of having to trust a company’s word about
> what data they are or are not collecting. Such an auditing can also
> verify whether the app sends messages in end-to-end encrypted form or
> not.
>
> In contrast, WhatsApp does not provide source code for their app and we
> can never verify independently whether the app encrypts messages as
> they claim.
>
> Running as a cooperative
> Choice aside, Quicksy is run by a single person, which has its own
> drawbacks—most significantly, having a single point of failure if
> something goes wrong. We want to offer Prav as a cooperative, adding
> more resilience by managing the service as a group, having a democratic
> decision making structure.
>
> In India, cooperative societies can be registered under state
> cooperative laws or under central laws. Only people from the same state
> can become members if we register under any state cooperative laws. So,
> we prefer registering as a Multi State Cooperative Society to allow
> people from different states to join as members. Members elect the
> leadership team of a cooperative for a specific term and there will be
> regular elections to elect the leadership team giving members
> democratic control over the cooperative.
>
> Every member will have one vote irrespective of the number of shares
> they hold in the cooperative, making it impossible for big companies to
> aquire the cooperative and take control of decisions. Acquisition by
> big companies is an issue as it can compromise the service: as an
> example, WhatsApp was an independent company, but it was eventually
> bought up by Facebook, which compromised the service in may ways, such
> as by weakening its privacy policy over the years.
>
> Next steps
> For this project to be successful, we need more people to join as
> members of the Multi State Cooperative Society. By law, we need at
> least 50 members each from two Indian states before we can do the
> registration.
>
> At the moment, we have 50+ members from Kerala, 26 members from
> Maharashtra, and a few from various other states. Details are at
> https://prav.app/become-a-member 2.
>
> By registering as a member of the Prav Multi State Cooperative Society,
> you can help us with your experience, knowledge and the amount that you
> give for buying shares will help us in funding for the app and running
> the service. Plus, your membership will help us cover the legal
> requirements for becoming a cooperative society.
>
> In case, we fail to reach 50 members from a second state by June 15
> this year, we plan to register as a cooperative in Kerala. This is an
> intermediate measure: we will still work to meet the necessary
> requirements in other states, and once that’s done, we will register
> as a Multi State Cooperative Society as originally planned.
>
> How you can help
> If we don’t get enough members by June 15th 2023, we will have to go
> through a two-step process to get members. To prevent this, we’re
> trying to onboard members as soon as possible—and we need your help!
>
> You can register as a member and spread the word to your friends to
> register as well, by visiting https://prav.app/become-a-member/
>
> Read more
> https://azadmaidan.in/t/prav-app-reclaiming-choice-of-service-providers/83
>
>
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>

-- 
Thank You

Yogesh Powar
https://yogeshpowar.github.io/blog/
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