[Ssc-dev] InformaCam and our project

[Nathan of Guardian]

On 03/25/2013 01:04 PM, Daniel Hinderink wrote:
> sorry to pester you out of the blue, but Daniel B (in cc) and I have something we'd like to discuss with you.
No problem. You caught me in a bit of a transition from a global nomad
life to settling back in the US, so apologies for the delay.
> We have had the idea of building a software very similar to Informacam about two years ago. We had some more functions, especially regarding live (!) video, video quality splitting and a trans-lingually tagged publication, among other details. We have built three prototypes showing different parts of the software.
That is excellent to hear. As an open-source project, we are very open
to input and collaboration, and understand well that a great deal of
research and innovation has taken place already in this field. Our goal,
as with everything Guardian Project related, is to put ideas into
action, and deliver usable tools for people on the ground around the world.

>
>
> Since the GuardianProject came up with InformaCam, we were at the same time bummed and delighted. Bummed because you beat us timewise, delighted because we were more or less ready to give up finding the necessary funding.
Ha - well there is no real "beating" in this sense. We are trying to be
a catalyst really, and hope many projects begin to incorporate verified
media into their concepts. If we can provide code and tools to help make
this happen, even better. Yes, we are trying to ship a complete product
(i.e. InformaCam v1) that can be deployed by people, we don't expect it
to be the *only* product with verified media at its core.
>
> Now after some thinking we think we would like to share our ideas and insights from research and development with you to help the InformaCam project. May be we can even find a way to contribute code and funding from European NGO's in connection with you. Daniel's  company as well as mine have already developed software in publicly funded projects and also for NGO's, so we might be able to fit in your plans.
There are a few ways you can contribute. First, I have cc'd the
SecureSmartCam Dev List on this message. This is the core place where
work on InformaCam takes place. It also includes contributors from other
related projects, along with members of the Witness human rights team.

>
> Please let us know, if any of the people on the team are available for a meeting, online or IRL. We will certainly be at Re:publica13 in Berlin, perhaps somebody from your team will be there too?
I am not planning on being there, but an EU-based member of our team
may. Will let you know.

Otherwise, happy to find in a time in the coming weeks for a real-time
discussion, to see how and where you might be able to contribute to our
efforts.

+n