THE CYPHERPUNKS' ELECTRONIC BOOK (CEB) C'punks write in sand - the cure sssss aaa nnn n nn n n ddd d sss aaa aaa nnn nn nnn n n ddd d sss aaa aaa nnn nnn nnnn dddd sss aaaaaaaaaaa nnn nnn nnn n n dddd sss aaa aaa nnn nnn nnn n dddd sss aaa aaa nnn nn nn nn ddd dddd d d sss aaa aaa nnn nnn nn dd dddd aaa aaa nnn nnnn ddd dddd dd THE CURE Ok, its not quite as bad as that but its bad! As we all know the Cypherpunks' list is not archived, indexed, or hard back bound. Information that cannot be found is useless. Tim May has recently volunteered to make a list of privacy software. Congratulations for that! That is certainly a step in the right direction. I don't wish to be overly critical of the Cypherpunks' list as it is surely the best electronic privacy list & better than any corresponding newsgroup on the Internet. I am merely pointing out a solution to its greatest deficiencies & how to greatly improve it. I have an idea (CEB) that would get us a very workable knowledge base fast. First, it is not that practical to archive the list. Its too big, no one wants to do it, too much of it is junk, & files that are valuable today are time dependent & become tomorrow's junk. The only good reasons for archiving the whole list are for history & entertainment. My idea for a good Cypherpunk knowledge base is a "Cypherpunks' Electronic Book" ("CEB") that would have named chapters that are indexed, refereed, & continuously updated. Contributors would have their items signed. These chapters would consist of: 1. List of privacy software & locations. 2. State of the Art. 3. Current significant problems. 4. Capabilities & Dreams (things we can do, things we want to be able to do). 5. Reputations of people by name, their products & achievements. 6. PGP's state of affairs. All chapters would be refereed & all chapters of large size would be indexed. There would be a collective index for the whole CEB. LIST OF PRIVACY SOFTWARE & LOCATIONS In the software listing, in addition to listing where software can be found, we could also have reviews by Cypherpunks so we could know each package's quality. STATE OF THE ART In the State of the Art chapter, we would list only the best software of its kind. It would of course include reviews of each piece & its fitness for its job. Each piece would be indexed by name, category, & author. CURRENT SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS In the Current significant problem's chapter, we would have a list of the particular current problems as well as general problems to solve & tactics for carrying out the Cypherpunks' mission. We could list who was working on these problems & how far they had gotten. We could also state a difficulty level to each problem. Many problems would be only partially solved or solved in a not entirely satisfactory way. For those hoping to make contributions to electronic privacy, this chapter would provide a list of targets. CAPABILITIES & DREAMS In the Capabilities & Dreams chapter, we would have a compilation of things that we are currently able to do as well as things that we hope to be able to do in the future. A good example is how far we are with anonymous digital money. Is anybody actually using it? Do we have useable money systems available but unused? Do we have users beating down our doors for a working digital money system not yet developed? Do we have anonymous digital barter & what is being bartered? REPUTATIONS OF PEOPLE BY NAME, THEIR PRODUCTS & ACHIEVEMENTS The reputations chapter is a much needed who's who of the electronic privacy world. We would know who had made heavy contributions to electronic privacy & who the proven capable are. Much needed recognition would be provided to the productive. This chapter would serve as a reputations grade lister for the more outstanding people. I would also suggest that their public keys, if any, be included. This chapter would provide some much needed justice. PGP'S STATE OF AFFAIRS PGP in its various versions is a topic that rates its own chapter in CEB. What versions are compatible? What versions are good? What versions are endorsed by Phil Zimmerman? For what versions do we have source code? What versions are legal & where? The PGP versions would require some thoughtful indexing. Then, there are the patches to PGP versions to make them compatible with other versions & for bug fixes & upgrades. THE CEB WOULD BE WRITTEN QUICKLY & WOULD GROW This Cypherpunks' Electronic Book could be written very quickly. It would be written in parallel with many Cypherpunks writing in different sections in different chapters. We would not have to start out big. The first edition could be a high quality booklet. New editions could be published weekly or even daily due to the fact that its medium is electronic. The booklet would have immediate value with its first edition as permanent continuously updated sources of electronic privacy knowledge are badly needed. I would suggest that Tim May could be one of the first writers with his software list. In order to get something published early, Tim could list only the best of the software in the first edition. It would be good if Tim could have a critique to go with each software piece. CEB - CURRENT, CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED, & REFEREED As far as I know, the Cypherpunks' Electronic Book would be the only current, continuously updated, refereed electronic privacy knowledge base on the Internet. As various Cypherpunk writers contributed to it it would grow in value. It would become THE electronic communications privacy knowledge base. MAJORDOMO IS THE TOOL We could use Majordomo as the book's distributor. With some small modifications, Majordomo could do a lot for us. I would suggest that Majordomo be modified so that it advertised CEB by name with each query. The CEB would be available from Majordomo as one of its files with the full instruction: get cypherpunks CEB . When the CEB became very large individual chapters could be offered. Each chapter would have its own index. There would be a collective index for the whole CEB. MAJORDOMO DISTRIBUTES AUTOMATICALLY Majordomo could also be programmed to send out a Majordomo file every week that explained how to use Majordomo & what it had to offer. This would keep newbies from asking a lot of questions. Our Majordomo would also develop a reputation as the distributor of the Internet's best knowledge base for crypt software locations, evaluations & electronic privacy concerns. Later, Majordomo could be programmed to automatically send out daily or weekly updated versions of the Cypherpunks' Electronic Book to related interest groups such as Sci.Crypt & Politics.Crypt. Note: From this point on in the text, I will use the term CEB to denote Cypherpunks' Electronic Book. CEB WOULD BE *THE* REFERENCE KNOWLEDGE BASE CEB would be THE reference for the statuses for all the Cypherpunks' concerns. Researchers would know immediately what the status was of their area of work. People who wanted to use electronic privacy products would know what the best products were, where to find them, & what their capabilities were. C'punks wanting to make a contribution to the tech- nology would find where the significant problems were & what needed to be done. People wanting to find out the reputation & products of a C'punk could do so quickly. The location of everything of current value to electronic privacy could quickly be found in CEB. CEB IS A BADLY NEEDED COUNTERPART TO THE CYPHERPUNKS' LIST CEB is a badly needed counterpart to the Cypherpunks' list. Our list is disorderly, huge, & things get lost in it. For instance, recent- ly, there was a post about PGS (pretty good PGP shell). It was stated that PGS was a very good product. But, if we are distracted by interest- ing threads & monthes pass, we might have a terrible time finding PGS. With a well indexed CEB, we would immediately find PGS. Another example is WNSTORM. This is a greatly needed piece of software. After some months pass, we may wonder "is WNSTORM any good?", "who wrote it?", "where can I find it?", "what was its name?", "has it solved the patter- ened lower order bits problem?", "has it been obsoleted by another steganography program?".With a good CEB, we could immediately know the answers to these questions. Another example is the Windows implemen- tation of PGP. I only found out about it because I made a post suggest- ing that a good Windows implementation of PGP could greatly popularize encryption. Julietta, then sent another post saying that that software had not been done well from a user friendly point of view. Is Julietta right? Is it user unfriendly or not? With a refereed CEB we would know. With a comprehensive CEB, I would have known of its existance. CEB WOULD BE "FINISHED" & PROFESSIONAL The CEB would constitute a "finished" product. It would look pro- fessional, refereeing would guarantee its quality, & it would have a feeling of completeness magnitudes beyond the list. It would also give experienced & skilled Cypherpunks their own medium without being swamp- ed out by the work of the less capable - a joy for the Elite & Elitists! CEB CAN START NOW All that it takes to start CEB is some cooperation from Eric Hughes in making some changes to Majordomo & in appointing referees. We've got the material to start typing immediately. CEB can start out as a high quality booklet. It will grow as C'punks add to it & we might very well wind up selling yearly editions of it to Loompanics & other quality pubs. Possibly, later, CEB could finance the Cypherpunks' mailing list. Many capable C'punks are tired of having their best work buried & would gladly contribute to CEB. Anybody got any ideas? Yours Truly, Gary Jeffers Cypherpunk PUSH EM BACK! PUSH EM BACK! WWWAAAYYY BBBAAACCCKK! BBBEEEAAATTTT STATE!