[Ssc-dev] Press

[Nathan of Guardian]

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Hi Kira,

Thanks for your interest in reporting on our work for TechCocktail.
I've answered your questions below.

On 01/16/2012 08:23 AM, Kira M. Newman wrote:
> * Why did you decide to develop ObscuraCam?

WITNESS has been working for many years to distribute digital video
recording equipment, along with training and support, to communities
who need these tools to document human rights abuses, war crimes and
social justice issues. In recent years, dedicated cameras have begun
being replaced by smartphones and other mobile media devices. Now, the
camera is no longer hardware, it is just another app, of sorts. This
brings a whole new layer of opportunity in creating smart camera
applications, that can be designed around the unique needs and
constraints of capturing images and video for purposes of advocacy of
a cause, protection of a person, or documentation of a crime.

> * What is most challenging about building it?

The goal is to seamlessly add a new step of workflow into the very
common practice of taking a picture or recording video on a
smartphone, and then posting that to a social network or online
sharing site. With that mindset then, the biggest challenge is
usability and flow. How can make pixelizing a face, or removing a
sensitive portion of a video, be something that a user can learn to do
while standing on a street, or in the midst of a large protest? Beyond
obscuring, we are looking to add features for capturing more
information, including assuring that everyone in a video has consented
to be part of it, for example.

If these features are too complex or confusing, they will not be used,
so we must both tackle the technical challenges, while making sure
they are presented in a way that typical users will "get". This is why
we began with the simple ObscuraCam app, which aims just to focus on
one feature, only for still photos, and then we can build from there.

> * Where does the funding come from?

WITNESS is a well established human rights NGO that has been around
for twenty years. They receive funding from a variety of foundations,
corporations and private donors, including Google. They use their
funding to support not only training and technology to support direct
video documentation efforts in places around the world, but also to
support research and development of new tools, such as ObscuraCam.
WITNESS has been funding the Guardian Project, a leader in open-source
mobile tool development, to work on this project for the last year.

> * Can you give me some examples of actual ways people have used it?
> 
With our current app, most of the uses have been casual so far. We
have seen pictures of kids, dogs, people at parties, conferences,
dinners and more. There is a wide range of early experimentation
online with understanding how and when you might choose to obscure
photos. Beyond that, we have had private testing with global news
organizations and activist groups, who have serious concerns about
protecting the identity of people they document in sensitive areas.
Ultimately, anyone who wants to post a photo or video online, that
includes the face of someone who might be put at risk and has not
given consent, can use our app to ensure that person's privacy and
safety is protected.

> * What are some of your future plans?

We are actively working on releasing our video version of ObscuraCam,
which will bring advanced video obscuring capabilities to smartphones
and tablets. Simultaneously, we are building InformaCam, which works
in a nearly opposite manner than ObscuraCam, attempting to store,
capture and protect as much data in and around a piece of media. We
imagine a day where video captured on a smart camera device can be
used in a war crimes trial as highly trustworthy and reliable evidence.


Best,
 Nathan aka n8fr8
 Guardian Project Founder



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