[guardian-dev] otrfileconverter/keysync branding session

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

I just remembered some more key parts of our discussion, and something that I
think is a developing idea among a lot of people working to make usable
crypto.  The traditional way of talking about crypto is talking about people's
keys and whether they are verified or not.  This is a low level detail that is
not important to how the vast majority of users understand privacy in computers.

Keys and verification are far too abstract to be useful. Talking about
identity and trust seems more a lot more relevant, i.e. knowing that the
message came from the person you think it did, and trusting that it was
private.  It is most direct to talk about establishing a trusted connection to
another person, but that's not something that crypto can ever promise because
there is still the analog gap between the person and the device.

We proposed talking about trusting the device, not the person, since that is
what is actually doable, and it is pretty close to how people experience
digital communications.  There is the laptop, the mobile phone, the net cafe,
the friend's computer, computer at work, etc. etc.

So with all this in mind, the focus of our work should be to figure out how to
automate as much as possible then figure out how best communicate the
essential parts that cannot be automated.

.hc

On 07/19/2013 03:16 PM, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
> 
> Nathan, Mark and I met today, talked for about two hours.  We mostly talked
> about the ideas of identity, trust and verification.  We mostly focused on
> core PSST goals of crypto identity portability, which is the foundation to
> provide private communications and verifiable media.  For naming, we all
> agreed that it should be some thing that should be a verb.  So you "do" it
> with Gibberbot/ChatSecure, or in the future, Adium will be able to "do" it
> too.  We talked a lot about the name 'troost' and also some about words
> related to weaving, fabric, and cloth.
> 
> the images from the whiteboard are here, including all of the names that we
> came up with:
> https://github.com/guardianproject/GuardianProjectPublic/tree/master/Brainstorm%20Sessions/PSST%20Identity%20and%20Trust%202013-07-19
> 
> .hc
> 
> On 07/18/2013 05:33 PM, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>
>> hey all,
>>
>> Since Mark, Nathan, and I will be in the same room tomorrow, we're going to
>> kick this off for an hour session tomorrow, Friday, at noon Eastern time.  We
>> can set up a hangout for any remote people that want to join.
>>
>> .hc
>>
>> On 07/16/2013 12:04 AM, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On 07/15/2013 11:58 AM, Nathan of Guardian wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans at guardianproject.info> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Now that we have a fully working OTR key sync system, I think its time
>>>>> we
>>>>> figured out how this app should be represented to users.  I originally
>>>>> chose
>>>>> the name otrfileconverter just to have a working title.  Nathan
>>>>> proposed keysync.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm proposing we have a branding session where we figure out a name for
>>>>> the
>>>>> app, how to describe it and teach it, and how best to shape the app to
>>>>> fit
>>>>> into well established user patterns.  We could either do it at
>>>>> SATELLITE if
>>>>> Nathan and Abel overlap, otherwise we can do it on the internet.
>>>>
>>>> I think we should broaden the discussion to the larger feature concept of key/identity 
>>>> sharing and syncing between devices as well. For example, if we use NFC to sync public
>>>> keyrings between devices, that feature or activity should also have a name.
>>>
>>> I think it makes sense to talk about that as the long term goal of this work,
>>> but I fear that it could turn into a big distraction, taking us away from
>>> discussing how best to represent what we currently have working.  Identity
>>> syncing is a big problem, and we only have one small part of it working.  So I
>>> think we should focus on best describing the features we have now and can
>>> deliver in the next few months.  We can talk about the long term goal of full
>>> crypto identity sync as long as it directly informs what we have now.
>>>
>>> So in terms of concrete things that we can do in this session:
>>>
>>> 1) discuss the OTR key sync bootstrapping experience and figure out how to
>>> represent it in the desktop app
>>>
>>> 2) discuss naming and language to describe how to use it
>>>
>>> 3) figure out direction for logos, graphics, branding etc.
>>>
>>> .hc
>>>
>>>
>>
> 

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