Save the bits! Act now!

It's about the time to announce publicly one of the most important world wide initiatives - "SAVE THE BITS!" Foundation.

If you are not familiar with the concept, the BIT is the smallest entity of computers and Internet data ecosystem, wikipedia is a good place to read about it.

There are many species of bits out there, probably over-exceeding the animal and plant species on the earth. The bits are growing in colonies, by grouping themselves they become live entities, for example being able to move, execute tasks, perform math operations faster than humans - one can clearly hear or even see different kinds of such colonies.

The first focus of our foundation is to take care of real time communication bits, especially those related to rich communication services (RCS - e.g., VoIP or Internet-based telephony, instant messaging, tweeting, a.s.o.). It's not about an endangered category of bit species in terms of high risk of extinction, but about the maltreatment they have to suffer.

IP based real time communication involves migrations of a lot of bits from one device to another one. This process can be very stressful for the tiny, the little cuties bits.

Just think about what kind of abusive, degrading and mercy-less situations the bits have to tolerate, such as:

• did you know that each bit is electrocuted? And not only once, but by each device it is passing through, like computers, routers, switches, servers, iphones, ipads, etc. During RCS sessions each bit can get thousand of electricity shocks. Imagine that for you and think how you would tolerate that. Stop using RCS, save the bits from paintful treatments!
• you are in Miami on the beach and start calling your friend in Alaska? Have you thought about thermal shocks? You are sending bits from a very hot temperature to freezing in miliseconds. Did you wear them with proper clothes? Do you like to be parachuted naked in Alaska during Christmas?
• how many times you've got a call before waking up? Did you brush your teeth before answering? Your mouth flow slaps the bits straight in the face. Eating and drinking crap, smoking & co flood the bits with terrible smell
• have you heard anyone yelling at the phone? Dirty words, swearing! It's the feeble bits that have to endure all of that
• do you know that many RCS bits are dying at premature age? Many devices destroy them in short after receiving. Fortunately governments started to act and require long term protection for them, forcing communication companies to keep RCS bits on high quality comfort storage systems (like 5 stars hotels for people), where state agencies (and 'good-will' hackers) can keep an eye on them whenever they wish

It is not honorable for our civilization to allow such maltreatment and humiliations to any of exiting beings on out planet, the colonies of bits, especially the ones in RCS are alive, they move, you can hear them, you can see them -- they are all your voice and video session.

Even it was an initiative that acted pretty discreet so far, we've got lot of support. Recently large mobile operators publicly announced new policies to protect the innocent RCS bits on their infrastructure (e.g., operators from Sweden, Spain, Germany, just to name very few),  by completely blocking usage of VoIP or overcharging for it. In several locations, where this unacceptable situation was truly understood, using bits for VoIP and RCS has been made a crime by legislation, like facing up to 15 years in prison for infringement. Even many vendors take our side by deploying ALG guardians in their home-routers to stop VoIP from working.

Moreover, each human must be aware and join the movement. Don't tolerate abuses again the bits! Use analog telephony and operator's voice plans, by that bits are happy, operators are happy, you are going to be [poor, but] happy! Yeah, everyone happy!

It is not an easy fight, we could call it war, a tough one, but there is visible progress. The foundation urges all mobile and fixed operators to act and start protecting RCS bits, NOW! Block VoIP, block RCS!

To join the foundation or donate for the cause, contact the author of this blog! Remember, each bit matters!

And don't forget to spread the word to the world! Leave a comment and tell us how you protect the bits! Tell us what torturres against bits you witnessed so far!

Facebook fan page, website and other online resources will be launched soon!


Full disclaimer - I do work in RCS business, one of my main activities being the development of an open source SIP server application (Kamailio), used to provide rich communication services. In more than 10 years of activity in this sector, I came to deep understanding of this abusing issue against innocent bits, fighting from inside and offering delicate care to the bits passing through Kamailio, for example:

• all received bits are stored in clean buffers
• we have our own friendly manager to care of the bits in memory storage
• we don't allow unaccredited persons to send us bits, authenticating and carefully checking each packet we receive
• we don't send the bits to untrusted party, in this way being sure the bits are well cared at destination
• we add extra protection layer (based on strong TLS security) whenever we have to send the signaling bits through unknown paths