On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 11:31 AM, Mike Perry
<mikeperry@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yes. The larger threat is that funders can stear funding in a general
direction. Say, by prioritizing performance over censorship
resistence, or censorship resistence over anonymity research.
So far however, it appears that everyone involved is on the same page,
and believes that performance, usability, censorship resistence, and
general anonymity research are *all* important to our goal.
<snip>
The larger threat that I see is the Tor Project is absolutely ... dare I say it? ... PATHETIC AT MARKETING ITSELF.
Something has been bugging me the last couple days about the bigger picture of the funding issue that came to light with the cryptome posting a couple days ago. It became clearer to me today as I was driving through my neighbourhood (yes, I am a Canadian) - only $500,000 in funding for all of 2008 for the Tor Project?!Â
Good grief, my neighbourhood homeless shelter gets 5 times that much funding each year. And there are likely 15 shelters in my city that get that much or more - per year. And this is in just 1 city in 1 country!
Sorry, Roger and Andrew, but as talented as you are, I think you have to make it a priority to get some professional fundraisers on board. Anonymity, privacy, free speech, and stuff are absolutely more important than a few thousand homeless people in my home town. Somebody is not getting the message out, and all of the volunteers who believe in these bread and butter moral and ethical issues deserve more.
Think bigger, please! Who is holding the project back from not thinking bigger? Why isn't the UN sending you $50M a year? Big enterprises need your software. All law enforcement needs your software. All governments need your software. All journalists, all bankers, accountants, lawyers, researchers - everyone who needs to have at least some of their communications off the record.Â
This is the way to solve the US-centric perception, the fear of big government - get everyone to be funding your work. And keep it all open source so no one needs to be fearful of anyone else controlling it. Get 100,000 servers and relays and bridges out there - why aren't Google and Amazon and Microsoft and IBM and others throwing serious weight behind you?
That's the challenge that I see is vital for right now.