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[or-cvs] first draft cut of the gui stuff.
Update of /home2/or/cvsroot/website
In directory moria.mit.edu:/home2/arma/work/onion/cvs/website
Added Files:
gui-contest.html
Log Message:
first draft cut of the gui stuff.
both the content and the layout need to be cleaned up a lot.
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<title>Tor GUI Contest</title>
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<h2>Tor GUI Contest</h2>
<hr />
<p>DRAFT IN PROGRESS -- ALL OF THIS STUFF IS IN FLUX AND SHOULD BE
CONSIDERED WRONG.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Overview</h3>
<p>
Tor is a decentralized network of computers on the Internet that increases
privacy in Web browsing, instant messaging, and other applications. We
estimate there are some 20,000 Tor users currently, routing their traffic
through about 150 volunteer Tor servers on five continents. However, Tor's
current user interface approach --- running as a daemon in the background
--- does a poor job of communicating network status and security levels
to the user. The Tor project, affiliated with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, is running a UI contest to develop a vision of how Tor can
work in a user's everyday anonymous browsing experience. Some of the
challenges include how to make alerts and error conditions visible on
screen; how to let the user configure Tor to use certain paths or avoid
certain paths; how to learn about the current state of a Tor connection,
including which servers it uses; and how to find out whether (and which)
applications are using Tor safely.
</p>
<hr />
<h3>Goals</h3>
<p>Contestants will produce a work of Free software that will
provide a user interface to the Tor system by way of the <a
href="http://tor.eff.org/cvs/tor/doc/control-spec.txt";>Tor Controller
Protocol</a>.</p>
<p>We are looking for a vision of how Tor can work in a user's everyday
anonymous browsing experience.</p>
<p>Successful entries will:</p>
<ul>
<li>Allow the user to fully configure Tor without directly editing
configuration files.</li>
<li>Learn about the current state of their Tor connection (including
which servers they are connected to, and how many of them), and find
out whether and how any of their applications are using it.</li>
<li>Make alerts and error conditions visible on screen.</li>
<li>Run on at least one of Windows, Linux, and OS/X, on a
not-unusually-configured consumer-level machine.</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition, entries may a) Provide detailed information about which
applications, ports, or packets are (or are not!) passing through Tor,
including accounting for both Tor- and non-Tor traffic; and b) Provide
additional statistics about the Tor connection.</p>
<p>Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li>How much bandwidth am I using?</li>
<li>What servers do I know about on the network? Where are they? How
available are they?</li>
<li>Provide an interface for controlling Tor connections: "show me
the network from Africa by way of Asia". Think of the global satellite
map from the movie <i>Sneakers</i>.</li>
<li>Configure other running applications to use Tor (for example,
by modifying or working through the network stack, and/or by altering
application configurations).</li>
<li>Provide an elegant installer for both Tor and the application.</li>
<li>Provide meaningful defaults for a good Tor experience.</li>
<li>Implement Privoxy-like functionality -- that is, not just paying
attention to transport anonymity on the level of Tor, but also paying
attention to the anonymity of the http headers, cookies, etc.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Contest categories</h3>
<p>Three categories of interface will be awarded:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Most featureful interface</b> will be awarded to the application that
provides usable, clear access to the most aspects of the Tor system,
covering many or most of the goals above.</li>
<li><b>Best usability</b> will be awarded to the application
that provides the most unobtrusive Tor experience while still covering
all criteria (working, perhaps, on the "no news is good news" theory).</li>
<li><b>Most flexible</b> will be awarded to the best system that runs smoothly
on all three of Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X; extra points will be awarded
for additional systems.</li>
</ul>
<p>We may decide to award other awards as the entries deserve.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Judging criteria</h3>
<p>Awards will be granted on the basis of (in rough preference order):</p>
<ul>
<li>Usability (<a
href="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/ContestFAQ#DefineUsable";>what
does this mean?</a>)</li>
<li>Informativeness: can the user learn what they need to know?</li>
<li>Total user experience</li>
<li>Aesthetics</li>
<li>Responsiveness</li>
<li>Stability and robustness</li>
<li>Installation experience</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Testing criteria</h3>
<p>To check for basic acceptability, the contest will be judged
with several major tests. For example, the system designer should expect:</p>
<ul>
<li>A minimal test: does it work?</li>
<li>Several parameters, both obscure and obvious, will be configured. Is
it possible and easy to do so?</li>
<li>A network will be connected once the system is running. Can the
user tell that the network is now live?</li>
<li>The network will be disconnected or interrupted. Can the user tell
that the network has an error?</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Submissions</h3>
<p>Submissions should come as:</p>
<ul>
<li>Source code, with appropriate makefiles or documentation explaining
how to build it. Must be licensed under a free/open source license, as
defined by <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/";>OSI</a> or <a
href="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines";>DFSG</a>. See <a
href="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/ContestFAQ#DefineFree";>this
FAQ entry</a> for clarification.</li>
<li>Compiled binaries or bytecodes for at least one platform of choice.</li>
<li>A design document providing an overview of what major functions
to look for and what functions were implemented.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3>Judges</h3>
<p>Judging will be led by a panel of five prominent specialists in usability
and security (to be announced).</p>
<hr />
<h3>Prizes</h3>
<p>TBA, hopefully including a <a
href="http://slimdevices.com/";>Squeezebox</a> for top winners.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Timeline</h3>
<p>The contest will be announced on or around June 1, 2005. We expect
the contest deadline to be on or around January 15, 2006, with judging
complete by March 15, 2006.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Technical notes</h3>
<p>Shortly before the contest begins, Tor will release a canonical code
version. This is the version that will be used for judging the contest;
please ensure that you use this version. Bugfixes to this version will
be announced to the contest web site.</p>
<p>Tor will also release test rigs in both Java and Python that demonstrate
Tor's controller protocol. It is acceptable to build entrants using this
code as a skeleton.</p>
<p>The test rig will show all of the basic functionality that is necessary
for the minimal features of the contest.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Questions and clarifications</h3>
<p>We will have a public website and wiki up shortly for FAQ entries,
clarifications, etc.</p>
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