[liberationtech] StoryMaker - opinions

[Bill Best]

Hi

I understand that some people on this list are involved with StoryMaker
which is an open source app that enables existing and aspiring journalists
to produce and publish news using their Android phone as safely and
securely as possible:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.guardianproject.mrapp

The app is open source (+1) and the developers behind it include Free Press
Unlimited <https://www.freepressunlimited.org/>, The Guardian
Project<https://guardianproject.info/>and Small
World News <http://smallworldnews.tv/> so its provenance is indeed sound.

The StoryMaker literature mentions a number of times that the app is to be
used for "safely reporting and sharing stories" and I wonder how this has
been substantiated - with particular regard to the fact that it is expected
that this app will facilitate free journalism in the (hopefully) emerging
democracies of the Middle East:

https://www.freepressunlimited.org/en/article/safely-reporting-and-sharing-stories-new-app

It would be interesting/useful to know how StoryMaker can offer to protect
a user's safety or, as no absolute guarantees can ever be made, up to what
degree of security can be expected from this app. So far, I have found a
short reference to users "are able to send data from their smartphone
through the Tor network making it difficult to trace".

StoryMaker looks an excellent app and we are looking at its use by citizen
journalists.

Many thanks and best regards

Bill
-- 
Community Media Association
http://www.commedia.org.uk/
http://twitter.com/community_media

Canstream Internet Radio & Video
http://www.canstream.co.uk/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/attachments/20130724/baf97a5a/attachment.html>