[Ssc-dev] Fwd: Re: InformaCam

[Nathan of Guardian]

Just wanted to share Harlo's xclnt response to the reporters questions

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: InformaCam
Date: 	Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:36:40 -0500
From: 	Harlo Holmes <harlo.holmes at gmail.com>
To: 	Sam Gregory <sam at witness.org>
CC: 	nathan <nathan at freitas.net>, Bryan Nunez <bryan at witness.org>



Hey everyone.  My responses are inline.  I left some space for Bryan and
Nathan to chime in with more stuff...

Thanks,
Harlo

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 11:13 AM, Sam Gregory <sam at witness.org
<mailto:sam at witness.org>> wrote:

    Can one of you take a first pass at this and send to me? Luke writes
    the RFL blog 'Tangled Web'.
    Thanks,
    Sam

    ---------- Forwarded message ----------
    From: *Luke Allnutt* <AllnuttL at rferl.org <mailto:AllnuttL at rferl.org>>
    Date: Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 11:10 AM
    Subject: InformaCam
    To: sam at witness.org <mailto:sam at witness.org>



    Hi Sam,

    Hope you are well. I'm writing a blog item on ObsuraCam and
    InformaCam. I have a few non-techie questions, which I'm taking the
    liberty of sending. Would you, or anyone else be able to answer
    them? Or I could follow up for a chat on Thursday if you would have
    time? If you're in New York, I'm six hours ahead of you.

    Any help would be hugely appreciated. Project sounds very
    interesting indeed.

    Best Wishes,

    Luke

    **********************

    Why two separate tools? Wouldn't it be easier for the user to build
    just one app?


Although I like to think of InformaCam as a plug-in for ObscuraCam
rather than an entirely different app, the audience for InformaCam is a
lot smaller and more specific, so it makes sense at this time to create
a separate build that addresses the particular needs of this audience.
 In the future, it may be possible for regular ObscuraCam users to
upgrade their app to include Infoma's capabilities.  We definitely will
revisit this issue after InformaCam finishes its beta testing.



    What platforms are the apps built for?


These apps are built for the Android platform.  There are several
reasons why this is the only platform supported at this time; most
importantly, the ways in which different app ecosystems value software
licenses.  For instance, the licenses governing some of the libraries we
use in our apps conflict with Apple iTunes' terms of service.  This
means that while the app itself might be in full compliance with Apple's
development guidelines, just distributing it would cause conflict.



    What will you do in terms of security testing?


Nathan... want to weigh in here?


    Will the Beta be available for open testing?


Yes it will.  Feedback from our beta testers will prove invaluable.



    The app sounds incredibly useful, but won't it be hard to popularize
    its usage? What can you do to piggyback it on major platforms like
    Flickr and YouTube to ensure widespread take-up? Otherwise it might
    just a cool app that no one knows about/downloads.


We hope that, even if the app doesn't ride a massive wave of popularity,
it strikes a certain chord about privacy by design in mobile camera
apps.  We would really love it if the filters we envisioned with
ObscuraCam were picked up and incorporated into other camera apps, no
matter the platform.  We'd love it even more if "pixelate" and "redact"
were standard, out-of-the-box options on every camera.  The same goes
for InformaCam: we're striving to build the foundations for the first
metadata standards in digital media, and we'd want content aggregators,
social networks, and the like to take stake in this venture.  Widespread
adoption of a standard is far more important than the popularity of this
one app.




    Do you have any good anecdotal examples of how exactly the apps
    could be used?


Bryan, take it away!






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