[liberationtech] StoryMaker - opinions

[Bill Best]

Many thanks Brian and Nathan for your detailed replies.

I look forward to using StoryMaker and I'll keep up with news about the app.

Good luck with the rest of the project and all the best for now

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

Canstream Internet Radio & Video
http://www.canstream.co.uk/

On 25 July 2013 07:10, Brian Conley <brianc at smallworldnews.tv> wrote:

> Hi Bill!
>
> Thanks for your interest, comments below.
>
> <snip>
>
> >
> > 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, The Guardian Project and Small World News so its
> provenance is indeed sound.
>
> Thanks Bill! We all know its a huge challenge but we are trying hard to
> achieve it. Nathan has already done a fantastic job explaining the
> technical details, so I only have a few additional comments, but I'm happy
> to speak with you directly, or any other member of the list who would like
> to know more.
>
> Firstly we can say that our partners reach approached the problem from a
> slightly different direction. We at Small World News come from a background
> working primarily in conflict areas and wanted to find a way to increase
> the safety of citizen journalists while also improving the impact their
> content can make by increasing their professionalism and capacity to tell
> stories.
>
> I hope Niels from Free Press Unlimited will chime in, but I can say
> without their focus on increasing the potential for mobile learning to
> improve the skills of journalists, the learning and curriculum side of the
> app would not be what it is.
>
> >
> > 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
>
> As Nathan mentioned he has been deeply involved in planning the security
> functionality, workflow, threat model, etc.
>
> Additionally, the system for delivering lessons utilizes SSL certificate
> pinning to counter MITM attacks and limit the necessity for activists and
> journalism trainees to carry hard copies and insecure manuals. Eventually
> this content should exist entirely in an encrypted container.
>
> > 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".
>
> As Nathan has mentioned, there are a number of elements already
> functioning as part of StoryMaker and by next month we will have a new
> release that integrates obscuracam functionality and hopefully records
> content directly in an encrypted fashion.
>
> We are also pursuing funding to develop the potential for users to publish
> to additional platforms over tor via their public API, and including an
> option for uploading via tor to a private server.
>
> >
> > StoryMaker looks an excellent app and we are looking at its use by
> citizen journalists.
>
> I hope you like it! So far its being treated and implemented in Iraq,
> Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Zimbabwe. We are pursuing some
> additional opportunities as well, and clearly need to start blogging more
> regularly about the projects progress.
>
> Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have other questions or know
> individuals who might like further information or support deploying
> StoryMaker in their projects.
>
> Thanks do much for the interest!!
>
> Brian
>
> >
> > 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/
>
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