[liberationtech] List of Online Risk/Security Resources (was Re: Resignation)

Tue Sep 14 18:25:41 PDT 2010

Katrin,

I love the idea of aggregating these resources using a published google spreadsheet. The list looks pretty complete to me, but is missing FlossManuals' Circumvention Tools book, which is also available in Farsi, Russian, Arabic, Chinese ... and newly added, Spanish:

http://en.flossmanuals.net/CircumventionTools

Translations available from:

http://en.flossmanuals.net/

In other news, get ready, I'm preparing my argument that "circumvention systems" (with the exception of VPNs and Wikileaks) are all over-hyped. Hmm, and come to think of it, Wikileaks is probably over-hyped too. I figure it will help bring some unity to the list as I'm sure just about everyone disagrees. And if I end up being wrong, at least I stand to learn something in the process.

High fives,

david

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Sasaki | oso at el-oso.net
Consultant, Civic Information in Latin America
http://informacioncivica.info
gtalk: osopecoso | skype: elosopecoso
http://el-oso.net/blog
t: (+52.1) 55.3352.2712
--------------------------------------------------

On Sep 14, 2010, at 7:49 PM, Ronald Deibert wrote:

> Hi Katrin (and hello others, I'm new to the list)
> 
> On our "Everyone's Guide" you are correct that it is in need of some updating.  However, I do not think we'll be doing it any time soon as those of us who wrote it are not focused in this area to the same degree as we were back then (and the grant that funded the project has run its course). 
> 
> We gave it over to Sesawe to draw from as they saw fit in their guide (which you will notice they did here and there).  Others are free to do same.
> 
> On the "pro" side, I should note that the guide is available in Burmese and Russian in addition to English.  We were working on French, Urdu, Spanish, Farsi and Arabic translations but the funds/personnel evaporated/moved on and they're incomplete.  We hope to be able to complete those one day soon...
> 
>  We're going to shut down the Civisec site that has hosted the project and move the guides over to the main Citizen Lab site as an archive.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Cheers
> Ron
>  
> 
> 
> 
> On 14-Sep-10, at 6:14 PM, Katrin Verclas wrote:
> 
>> Thanks, Joshua - really great to hear that there is a question mark :)   Totally agree on bullshit detection - good call. 
>> 
>> To shit the convo slightly and add/contribute something useful and ask your advice, see below. 
>> 
>> Here is a list of guides and resources we compiled on online "security"/risk, many from respected sources: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AnlHznBQjUbudGl5azZaQzMyWXVBcEN4QVdsb2tta2c&hl=en&authkey=CIjHsagM
>> 
>> What are we missing? Other pros/cons to note?  Anyone vetted these from a tech perspective?  (we have not - just compiled them as a quick exercise).
>> 
>> Katrin 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sep 14, 2010, at 1:17 PM, Joshua Cohen wrote:
>> 
>>> I am one of the directors of the Program on Liberation Technologies, and (now just speaking for myself) wanted to say a word on this (partly echoing themes from Katrin, Daniel, Jake, Evgeny, Jim Youll, and Jane Fountain, among others):
>>> 
>>> 1. For me, a basic purpose of the Program is to host conversations exactly like the one we have just been having about Haystack. That means that I understand the purpose of the Program as if the name had a question mark: 
>>> 
>>> For me, the name is: Liberation Technologies? 
>>> 
>>> In short, we have a question, not an answer. [Thus share the Katrin/Evgeny concern about myths and rhetoric.]
>>> 
>>> 2. I think bullshit detection — aka the discipline of evidence and argument, aka reason — in discussions about IT solutions to important social/political problems has been VERY low (comparable to the minimal levels of bullshit detection in discussions about development assistance, before the Poverty Action Lab). It has been low because lots of people are not in the habit of asking the basic questions: 
>>> 
>>> (a) how do I know? and (even more importantly)
>>> 
>>> (b) how would I know if I was wrong? 
>>> 
>>> Moreover, people who do ask those questions are often treated (as Jim says) as hurdles to getting things done in a world filled with incredibly urgent problems in which everything needs to have been done yesterday: treated as hurdles, or as irritating skeptics, or as annoyingly impractical academics, not as key players in making things work.
>>> 
>>> 3. Of course, when people ask hard questions, you end up with lots of uncertainty. And if you can't act with clear purpose while openly acknowledging the uncertainty, you should find something else to do, because you are almost certain to do serious damage. 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Josh Cohen
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sep 14, 2010, at 8:46 AM, Katrin Verclas wrote:
>>>> A lot hinges on the myths and rhetoric around so-called ''liberation tech" and the collective (and in many ways uniquely American) techno-fix mythology.  It's more about us than people and their hopes and fears in Iran, more about American values and assumptions, and a lot more about the blinders of the players involved, including as Jillian York put it to me, desperate tech journalists on the prowl.
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Katrin Verclas
>> MobileActive.org
>> katrin at mobileactive.org
>> 
>> skype/twitter: katrinskaya
>> (347) 281-7191
>> 
>> A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact
>> http://mobileactive.org
>> 
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> 
> Ronald J. Deibert
> Director, The Citizen Lab
> Munk School of Global Affairs
> University of Toronto
> r.deibert at utoronto.ca
> http://deibert.citizenlab.org/
> twitter.com/citizenlab
> 
> 
> 
> 
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