[Tfug] New guy - looking for local computer scientist who is "open source friendly"

[Bexley Hall]

Hi, Jim,

--- Jim March <1.jim.march at gmail.com> wrote:

> I am also involved in polical activism related to
> voting machines.  I'm a
> member of the board of directors of Black Box Voting
> (blackboxvoting.org)
> and am well known in election integrity circles.
> 
> I'm consulting on a public records lawsuit brewing
> here in Pima County in
> which the county elections office is trying to
> withhold elections data -
> primarily the main database files used in our
> Diebold installation.  They
> are literally citing the need for "security by
> obscurity" and we're going to
> need to break that down...possibly to the point of
> demanding access to the
> source code for, at minimum, the central tabulator
> project.  Which in turn
> was certified by a test lab that was just reported
> as having been
> de-credentialed by the Federal Election Assistance
> Commission for doing a
> ghastly job at, you guessed it, voting system
> certification.
> 
> Sigh.
> 
> Anyways.  Anybody who understands "security by
> transparancy", is good at
> explaining it AND has a comp. sci. degree, sing out.
>  We need to talk :).

I'm not sure I understand your need -- and how the
stated "requirements" fit in with that need.

You may want to research the debate over the CLIPPER
technology (security by obscurity -- though there
are claims that even if the details were public,
it would *still* be secure [then why the need for
obscurity?] ).

You may also want to watch _And Now for Something
Completely Different_ to put the obscurity issue
in some humorous context (consider the "three bushes"
scene).

--don


 
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