On 24 Feb 2001, at 1:53, Michael D. Carey wrote:
> I'm working on an email to web keyserver for freenet. Current
> web-based keyservers cannot provide assured safety and anonymity
> for the publisher.
A good idea, IMHO! Perhaps you should include a link to a FAQ on
remailer and mixmaster services, like this one:
http://www.eskimo.com/~turing/remailer/FAQ/
Of course, providing an anonymous gateway doesn't help you against
being shut down. Add to this CGI-based synchronization with other key
index servers (that have to be manually authorized on both ends)
within regular time intervals and you might be able to build a
decentralized, web-based, anonymous keyindex network. Flooding is, of
course, a problem. Can be prevented if synchronization is
sufficiently delayed for keyindex operators to prevent it from
spreading too far. (Make it easy to do so by providing a web
interface to "pending key submissions".) Since web servers usually
have 24h uptime, you don't have the sync problems you have in dynamic
networks.
If you have this done, allow users to attach ratings to keyindex
entries amazon-style, both with regard to availability & quality.
Then dead keys will simply be displayed at the end. Problem: Rating-
flooding. Workaround: Rating limit per IP. Solution: Accounts / E-
Mail Confirmation / Cookies. Disadvantage: Non-Anonymity.
Eventually, it will be a good idea to separate the indexing network
from the actual content, not only with regard to accountability but
also because the indexing network can be applied to many similar
networks: MojoNation, Publius etc. - a first good step in that
direction may be to provide an input mask that accomodates the
different kinds of URLs and separates them in the database. The
advantage you have in building this is that you deal with a)
broadband high-availability servers, b) low bandwidth requirements.
For this to work, it is also essential that installation can be done
on any server with CGI/Perl, without additional privileges or
modules. All database implementations should be done within the
script itself. Reason: The more servers you have, the better. There
could be topically specialized keyindex server rings, some of which
may even reside on freespace providers with CGI access.
If you want to develop this further, start it as a separate project,
with its own mailing list & home page. It's too big an issue to be
discussed within the bounds of Freenet development, IMHO.
Regards,
Erik
--
Scientific Reviewer, Freelancer, Humanist -- Berlin/Germany
Phone: +49-30-45491008 - Web: <http://www.humanist.de/erik>
The Origins of Peace and Violence: <http://www.violence.de>
"The right way to do things is not to try to persuade people you're
right but to challenge them to think it through for themselves."
(Noam Chomsky)
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