[cap-talk] Correlating Bitfrost with Threats

[Stiegler, Marc D]

> You have a number of concerns about features of Bitfrost that 
> make students insecure against their teachers and their governments.
> 
> The customers of Bitfrost are governments.  The customer is 
> always right.  When it is sold to individuals, then it should 
> be secure against governments.

I used to work for a company that had what I believe to have been a
better attitude toward this: "the customer may not always be right, but
the customer is always The Customer". You always take him seriously, but
you try to give him, not merely what he claims he wants, but something
that makes sense.

Well, the concept of "customer" is a little complicated here. The
government is paying the bill. The student is in some sense the owner (a
very weak sense given Bitfrost). Of course, there are governments and
there are governments. Some governments attempt to ensure their citizens
have rights. Some governments are thugs. Governments that attempt to
protect the rights of the people can be distinguished easily, they will
applaud an alternate architecture that eliminates central points of
failure, and protects the citizens from future governments that may not
be as virtuous as the current ones. 

OLPC has the power to decide, should we empower thugs. I confess, I made
my choice over 20 years ago, when I worked for a company that wanted to
put me to work on a project to build a national ID card system for the
dictator of Egypt. I declined. Indeed, I declined rather, uh,
ferociously, sending a memo to the CEO vigorously explaining why it was
unacceptable for that company, with the code of business conduct that it
held for itself, to engage in such activity.

Having said all that, please note, I also pointed out other problems
with the tyranny-friendly features, notably that, from a strictly
software architectural standpoint, the centralized systems produce
central points of failure. I also offered alternatives that met the
stated goals as well or better. If the governments don't really want
anti-theft, but really really demand a national ID system, let us force
them to state so clearly. Just so we understand who we're are talking
to, and what evil we are bringing into the world. Let there be no
pretending.

--marcs