An interview with IRCNow's Aaron Lin

The Users' Network

© Lead Image © Giordano Aita, 123RF.com

© Lead Image © Giordano Aita, 123RF.com

Article from Issue 249/2021
Author(s):

IRCNow empowers users and lets them break free from social media giants. Project leader Aaron Lin shares his vision.

IRCNow, a communication platform built on free and open source software and open standards, transforms Internet Relay Chat (IRC) into a user-controlled social network. IRCNow strives to give users as much control of the software stack as possible, with the goal of being vendor independent. With 13 active servers at the time of writing, IRCNow functions as a federation of self-governing servers.

Aaron Lin (Figure 1), who has directed IRCNow [1] since its creation in 2019, recruits and trains volunteers and teaches them how to run the network. In this interview, he provides the back story on IRCNow and reveals what the future holds for the network.

Figure 1: Aaron Lin has managed the IRCNow project since 2019.

[...]

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