<div>I would be happier if the stated goal was to create a system that simply focused on functionality, and didn't make claims about its security. Its the false expectation of security that is harmful.</div><div><br></div>
<div>--S<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 5:44 AM, Eleanor Saitta <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ella@dymaxion.org">ella@dymaxion.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">On 2012.01.10 00.52, Joshua Marker wrote:<br>
> A a friend-of-a-friend contacted me about a project she calls<br>
> 'dovetail'. It's a peer-to-peer message transfer system designed to<br>
> route messages without reliance on cell phone networks/etc - eg, when<br>
> cities or governments shut them down to prevent protesters<br>
> communicating. It uses adhoc wifi and bluetooth to flip messages<br>
> around.<br>
><br>
> Good idea, I was surprised it didn't exist. They're raising money<br>
> with a kickstarter to get it done - they're serious people, I think<br>
> UN/etc NGO level stuff, but the idea of needing that much money to<br>
> write this seemed absurd to me. It sounded like something Hackupy<br>
> would do in a few evenings. I told her so. She's interested in<br>
> talking to someone at NB/Hackupy/anyone about it. Anyone interested?<br>
<br>
</div>Actually, getting something like this right is *very* hard, because of<br>
hardware and OS limitations. There are also a lot of serious security<br>
implications with systems like this; Meredith Patterson, Travis<br>
Goodspeed, and I took another similar system called Fluid Nexus apart<br>
last fall, and it was really ugly. People without a security background<br>
building tools like this *will* get people killed. The Briar project<br>
(<a href="http://briar.sourceforge.net" target="_blank">http://briar.sourceforge.net</a>) is an attempt to build a system like this<br>
done correctly, with the right attention to issues around security,<br>
scalability, etc.<br>
<br>
I'm planning on reaching out to the Dovetail folks shortly to see if<br>
they're interested in working with Briar, because I think that<br>
duplication of effort here is a poor use of community resources at best.<br>
I think their estimate of $30k to get a system running across multiple<br>
OS platforms in a production ready state is very low, unless all of the<br>
developers are working for free, and that if they're going to do it<br>
right, it's going to take much longer than they think.<br>
<br>
E.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Ideas are my favorite toys.<br>
<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Shannon Lee<br>(503) 539-3700<br><br>"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."<br>
</div>