Stumbling towards a prototype

[HarryStottle]

This is more by way of an update because looking at my website or blog, one might get the impression I've given up, lost interest or gone away on extended leave. In fact I've been working on the project in more hands on practical ways beginning with getting the contract to write the security admin software for the perimeter security at Glastonbury this year. That went very well, now you ask and I'll blog about it in due course.

More interestingly it introduced me to another angle of the problem which is the nitty gritty problem of enrolment with Trusted 3rd Parties. How do we bootstrap Trust into the system? I think I've come up with an interesting answer to that problem and that is what I'm working on right now. It is taking up nearly all my creative juices. Hence no recent posts.

In the occasional respites I allow myself every day, I am however, still Stumbling around the web and commenting as I go. (A couple of sentences here and there doesn't take much effort - and I find it therapeutic, sometimes inspirational) I have just noticed that, having done that for the past couple of years, I've now Stumbled (and commented) over 200 sites which either illustrate the need for Trusted Surveillance or, in some cases, actually constitute a primitive form of Trusted Surveillance already.

To give a most recent example of the latter, the NY City Police have citizens to start giving them pictures captured by their digital cameras and mobile phones, if they contain evidence which may help the police prevent or solve crimes. Of course, they haven't thought it through. They'll learn about the need for timestamping, hashing and audit trails when a Jury throws the evidence out because someone demonstrates how easy it is to 'shop a photograph of the Judge taking a bribe from the local Mafia chief. Oh that one wasn't 'shopped? Colour me shocked and stunned.

In any case, some of the comments are almost coherent, so if you want to check out some of the other 200 odd stories and comments which I think help to make the case, all you need to do is ...