<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle22
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style></head><body lang=EN-GB link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Dear Karl,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Thanks for your very interesting mail dated 6<sup>th</sup> April and the follow-on reply from Chris Ballinger regarding OpenWatch. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>We are not IT developer nor programmer. We are a UN accredited NGO. We however interested in your conversation and in the liberationtech in regard to the technological potential in collecting data. </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Through more inclusive data collection at the local level, we hope a robust feedback loop could be established so that local actions by the local authority can respond more effectively to the local needs. This is also important to monitor the local commitment in </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (</span><a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/</a>) <span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>For instance, such APP has been very helpful in the fight against coronavirus. An APP that shows the availability of face masks around the island of Taiwan has made it easier for people to purchase the masks by going to the right location where stock exists, and less queuing, more flexibility and stop hoarding. </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>I therefore write to see whether there are other cell-phone based APPs available that we could look into and contact.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Many thanks in advance,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'>Lichia Saner-Yiu<br>CSEND, Geneva<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D;mso-fareast-language:EN-US'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> LT [<a href="mailto:lt-bounces@lists.liberationtech.org">mailto:lt-bounces@lists.liberationtech.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Chris Ballinger<br><b>Sent:</b> 06 April 2020 19:15<br><b>To:</b> Karl <<a href="mailto:gmkarl@gmail.com">gmkarl@gmail.com</a>><br><b>Cc:</b> LT <<a href="mailto:lt@lists.liberationtech.org">lt@lists.liberationtech.org</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [liberationtech] Fwd: OpenWatch History<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>I know the history! I was one of the co-founders of OpenWatch.<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Our main struggle was funding. After a small amount of initial funding by a private investor, we went through a startup accelerator program in San Francisco. It was very difficult to reconcile our original mission with the VC funding model. We realized we built some live broadcasting technology that was way ahead of its time, and pivoted the company to <a href="https://kickflip.io/">Kickflip</a> - which provided live broadcasting SDKs with a SaaS backend. Our hope was that Kickflip would provide us the revenue to go back and revitalize OpenWatch, but it never took off either. Eventually we all burned out and had to move on to other things.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>It's been interesting watching other companies in this space appear like <a href="https://citizen.com/">Citizen</a>. Their current product looks very similar to what we were building for OpenWatch towards the end of the project, but they were able to raise 60MM to execute their vision.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>By the way, if it wasn't obvious, the <a href="http://openwatch.net">openwatch.net</a> domain lapsed and is now owned by a squatter. Here's an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131221111943/https:/openwatch.net/">archive.org snapshot</a> of the original site if you're interested.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Feel free to reach out to me if you have any other questions about the project!<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Mon, Apr 6, 2020 at 5:40 AM Karl <<a href="mailto:gmkarl@gmail.com">gmkarl@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-top:5.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>---------- Forwarded message ---------<br>From: <strong>Karl</strong> <<a href="mailto:gmkarl@gmail.com" target="_blank">gmkarl@gmail.com</a>><br>Date: Mon, Apr 6, 2020, 5:39 AM<br>Subject: OpenWatch History<br>To: <<a href="mailto:cryptoparty_masspirates.org@lists.masspirates.org" target="_blank">cryptoparty_masspirates.org@lists.masspirates.org</a>>, liberationtech <<a href="mailto:liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu" target="_blank">liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu</a>>, cypherpunks <<a href="mailto:cypherpunks@lists.cpunks.org" target="_blank">cypherpunks@lists.cpunks.org</a>><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Has anybody heard of the cell phone app OpenWatch?<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>It used to run at <a href="https://www.openwatch.net/" target="_blank">https://www.openwatch.net/</a> and let anybody upload video recordings live and secretly from their mobile phone, and publicized them. Page archives show it came out of Boston and San Francisco.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Since it was focused on monitoring of authorities, it makes sense it would have struggled as this could spread power in ways that are harder for authorities to control, making their various tasks more difficult, and possibly pitting the urgent engine of control of crime against the project.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>I don't see any evidence of OpenWatch having planned to discontinue, or notifying the public they were. There is nobody on their irc channel, and their twitter account has been deleted. Their github has an open improvement branch that is unmerged, and no following developer activity since.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Nowadays there are services like <a href="https://siasky.net/" target="_blank">https://siasky.net/</a> and <a href="https://bico.media/" target="_blank">https://bico.media/</a> and some others, that can connect with reliable decentralized storage backed by the strength of a blockchain. As blockchains rise it is becoming easier to support apps like OpenWatch in ways that won't disappear very readily. bico.media may go down some day, but the data uploaded is still stored permanently on the blockchain behind it, and the app that stores that data could be stored on that blockchain as well.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>I was wondering if anybody knew the story of what happened to OpenWatch, or if anybody was interested in resurrecting OpenWatch's work with a little motion towards migrating onto a blockchain. <a href="https://github.com/OpenWatch/OpenWatch-Android" target="_blank">https://github.com/OpenWatch/OpenWatch-Android</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Maybe planning for disruption a little could make project development ideas that last longer. Like clear instructions for newcomers to rebuild after developers disperse.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal>-- <br>Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable from any major commercial search engine. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: <a href="https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt" target="_blank">https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/lt</a>. Unsubscribe, change to digest mode, or change password by emailing <a href="mailto:lt-owner@lists.liberationtech.org" target="_blank">lt-owner@lists.liberationtech.org</a>.<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></div></div></body></html>