[liberationtech] cryptoparty handbook

[adam]

hi

Interesting discussion about the handbook.

Its great to see so much energy around this book. I read through all the
posts here and actually this conversation lead me to Liberation Tech
which I didn't know of before so happy to find it.

I agree with prior comments that if there are any issues with the
accuracy or approach of the book as Seth (whose opinion is obviously one
to take note of and articulated specific points) and Jake (who also is
deeply respected in this area) have stated then the appropriate response
is to improve the book. Seth contributed to 2 earlier versions of much
of this content through "How to bypass Internet Censorship" Book Sprints
in New York and Berlin (available in 7 languages) and is well versed in
how that book was made and the intention to keep it open and improve it.
The same is true of this book.

Doing this now is going to be a little more difficult than it was 24
hours ago since now there are 4 'raw sources' for the book where
improvements can be made. There is one partly copied version in the
cryptoparty wiki, one version in the original Booktype installation, one
full copy in www.booki.cc (also booktype and covered with https) and now
a copy in github.

While on one level this is good (and quite amazing to see) I can also
see lots of split efforts which I think is not optimum. It would be good
if there was one spot. Additionally I think that the energy of this list
to fork to github is really a mistake - github is not usable by people
you may wish to attract to the book. Since the book is aimed at the
cryptoparty crowd, which is largely newbies, you need (in addition to
crypto experts) non-crypto experts improving the book. You need general
writers and illustrators and proof readers etc to put in their
contribution and make this book better - more readable and
understandable for them. They will not use github to make contributions.
This also includes translators of course.

So, I would recommend using the www.booki.cc installation since the book
was forked there by one of the people that started the book (and I
believe that group wishes to put their energy there) and it is a free
software (AGPL) platform, it uses https, and it is owned and managed by
me and not a commercial company that makes proprietary software as
github is.

I have no intention in looking at or distributing IPs, I dont even keep
stats on the site. There are no advertisements on the site so no hassle
or security leakage there either. Also I have made lengthy efforts in
the past to protect peoples identities regarding this exact content (and
other content). I am not saying that its perfect - I am not a security
expert and would welcome any support making the www.booki.cc site more
secure - however I feel that www.booki.cc is possibly a *lot* better
than github for all of the above reasons.

That URL is :
https://www.booki.cc/cryptoparty-handbook/_info/

The additional advantage of using this repository is that the content
can then easily be ported to FLOSS Manuals where the books "How to
Bypass Internet Censorship" and "Basic Internet Security" are both
housed. I mention this because the platform is federated so it is easy
to grab updates from www.booki.cc and update those two books on FLOSS
Manuals using built in 'federated' import tools. Additionally there will
be more sprints on this subject matter facilitated by FLOSS Manuals
using the same platform so the cryptoparty handbook can also easily
benefit from these additions etc.

Lastly, this platform outputs to ebooks and book formatted PDF
immediately so its no hassle to get whatever formats you want (including
odt etc). The book formatted PDF produced for the lulu and hosted on the
site is an output of the new (100% open source) beta renderer for this
platform and it looks pretty good (for those interested we are also
about to implement JS version of the Knuth and Plass line breaking
algorithm into the output engine (while I'm sure thats not going to make
TeX geeks 100% happy it does do a pretty neat job - see
http://www.bramstein.com/projects/typeset/).

Anyways, congrats to the cryptoparty handbook contributors, they have
done a great job and it is great to see so much enthusiasm to discuss
and (hopefully also) improve the book. Its a community asset and I hope
that it continues to be improved in efforts than can feed into each other.


adam











-- 

--
Adam Hyde
Founder, FLOSS Manuals
Project Manager, Booki
Book Sprint Facilitator
mobile :+ 49 177 4935122
identi.ca : @eset
booki.flossmanuals.net : @adam

http://www.flossmanuals.net
http://www.booki.cc
http://www.booksprints.net