Re: [GNU/consensus] A GNU Consensus for the GNU Year!

[Christian Grothoff]

Dear Hellekin,

While, as I'm sure you know, I'm happy about this initiative in general
and like to see it succeed, I'm not quite happy with some details in the
manifesto.

In particular, you write:

>>>
Anonymity

With interoperating free software social networking systems, no user
will be compelled to provide any particular kind of information, whether
it be her name, her age, or what country she lives in. It will be up to
those she communicates with to judge what information she chooses to
provide or withhold.
<<<

This is not _quite_ what I believe to be commonly understood by
'anonymity' by most users or the research community.  What I think you
mean is more like a 'right to use pseudonyms'.  The possibility to post
content anonymously is a separate issue (and somewhat incompatible with
mapping social relationships).  Furthermore, the idea of making your
online identities unlinkable to real-world identities (which does relate
more to 'anonymity') is again a bit different (and much harder to
achieve, as having access to things like language, time and social
relationships can enable some adversaries to link pseudonyms to
real-world identities).

Given this, _strong_ pseudonymity (as in, user's pseudonyms being
fundamentally unlinkable to real-world identities) or _strong_ anonymity
are things we may strive for (at least for some applications), but
should not claim as major features (at this point) or fundamental
properties of GNU consensus.  Thus, I'd urge you to change the section
title to something more like "Right to Pseudonymity".


My second nitpick is that it remains unclear to me how _exactly_ you
expect people (or projects) to contribute in the GNU consensus-context.
 Is it supposed to be "just" a discussion platform? Or is it about
advocacy? Is there going to be code written under the "GNU consensus"
label?  If so, what will that code do?


Finally, a little note: there is in GNUnet an API which is called the
"consensus" API (for set reconciliation).  That API --- while possibly a
useful building block for social network applications --- should not be
confused with the "GNU Consensus" protocol.  I wonder if we need to
rename it to avoid a possible confusion...


Happy hacking!

Christian


On 12/31/2012 08:38 AM, hellekin (GNU Consensus) wrote:
> We're pleased to announce the launch of our activities on this new
> year's eve.
> 
> Toward a GNU Consensus on Free Software for Social Networking[1]
> 
> Dear fellow hackers,
> 
> after almost a year working in the shadows, we're pleased to announce
> the launch of the GNU/consensus project[2]. You're invited to join the
> mailing list[3], and to register your Free Software project as a
> stakeholder[4].
> 
> Happy GNU year!
> 
> ==
> hk
> 
> [1] https://gnu.org/consensus/manifesto
> [2] https://gnu.org/consensus
> [3] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/consensus
> [4] https://gnu.org/consensus/stakeholders

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