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Roger Dingledine first draft cut of the gui...

Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago

1) <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
2) "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
3) 
4) <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
5) <head>
6)   <title>Tor GUI Contest</title>
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11) </head>
12) 
13) <body>
14) 
15) <!-- TITLE BAR & NAVIGATION -->
16) 
17) <table class="banner" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
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37) 
38) <div class="center">
39) 
40) <div class="main-column">
41) 
42) <h2>Tor GUI Contest</h2>
43) <hr />
44) <p>DRAFT IN PROGRESS -- ALL OF THIS STUFF IS IN FLUX AND SHOULD BE
45) CONSIDERED WRONG.</p>
46) <hr />
47) <h3>Overview</h3>
48) 
49) <p>
50) Tor is a decentralized network of computers on the Internet that increases
51) privacy in Web browsing, instant messaging, and other applications. We
52) estimate there are some 20,000 Tor users currently, routing their traffic
53) through about 150 volunteer Tor servers on five continents. However, Tor's
54) current user interface approach --- running as a daemon in the background
55) --- does a poor job of communicating network status and security levels
Roger Dingledine if they deserve a link, the...

Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago

56) to the user. The Tor project, affiliated with the
57) <a href="http://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>, is
Thomas Sjögren EFF deserves a link

Thomas Sjögren authored 19 years ago

58) running a UI contest to develop a vision of how Tor can
Roger Dingledine first draft cut of the gui...

Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago

59) work in a user's everyday anonymous browsing experience. Some of the
60) challenges include how to make alerts and error conditions visible on
61) screen; how to let the user configure Tor to use certain paths or avoid
62) certain paths; how to learn about the current state of a Tor connection,
63) including which servers it uses; and how to find out whether (and which)
64) applications are using Tor safely.
65) </p>
66) 
67) <hr />
68) <h3>Goals</h3>
69) 
70) <p>Contestants will produce a work of Free software that will
71) provide a user interface to the Tor system by way of the <a
72) href="http://tor.eff.org/cvs/tor/doc/control-spec.txt">Tor Controller
73) Protocol</a>.</p>
74) 
75) <p>We are looking for a vision of how Tor can work in a user's everyday
76) anonymous browsing experience.</p>
77) 
78) <p>Successful entries will:</p>
79) <ul>
80) <li>Allow the user to fully configure Tor without directly editing
81) configuration files.</li>
82) <li>Learn about the current state of their Tor connection (including
83) which servers they are connected to, and how many of them), and find
84) out whether and how any of their applications are using it.</li>
85) <li>Make alerts and error conditions visible on screen.</li>
86) <li>Run on at least one of Windows, Linux, and OS/X, on a
87) not-unusually-configured consumer-level machine.</li>
88) </ul>
89) 
90) <p>In addition, entries may a) Provide detailed information about which
91) applications, ports, or packets are (or are not!) passing through Tor,
92) including accounting for both Tor- and non-Tor traffic; and b) Provide
93) additional statistics about the Tor connection.</p>
94) 
95) <p>Examples include:</p>
96) <ul>
97) <li>How much bandwidth am I using?</li>
98) <li>What servers do I know about on the network? Where are they? How
99) available are they?</li>
100) <li>Provide an interface for controlling Tor connections: "show me
101) the network from Africa by way of Asia". Think of the global satellite
102) map from the movie <i>Sneakers</i>.</li>
103) <li>Configure other running applications to use Tor (for example,
104) by modifying or working through the network stack, and/or by altering
105) application configurations).</li>
106) <li>Provide an elegant installer for both Tor and the application.</li>
107) <li>Provide meaningful defaults for a good Tor experience.</li>
108) <li>Implement Privoxy-like functionality -- that is, not just paying
109) attention to transport anonymity on the level of Tor, but also paying
110) attention to the anonymity of the http headers, cookies, etc.</li>
111) </ul>
112) 
113) <hr />
114) <h3>Contest categories</h3>
115) 
116) <p>Three categories of interface will be awarded:</p>
117) <ul>
118) <li><b>Best usability</b> will be awarded to the application
119) that provides the most unobtrusive Tor experience while still covering
120) all criteria (working, perhaps, on the "no news is good news" theory).</li>
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121) <li><b>Most featureful interface</b> will be awarded to the application that
122) provides usable, clear access to the most aspects of the Tor system,
123) covering many or most of the goals above.</li>
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Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago

124) <li><b>Most flexible</b> will be awarded to the best system that runs smoothly
125) on all three of Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X; extra points will be awarded
126) for additional systems.</li>
127) </ul>
128) 
129) <p>We may decide to award other awards as the entries deserve.</p>
130) 
131) <hr />
132) <h3>Judging criteria</h3>
133) 
134) <p>Awards will be granted on the basis of (in rough preference order):</p>
135) 
136) <ul>
137) <li>Usability (<a
138) href="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/ContestFAQ#DefineUsable">what
139) does this mean?</a>)</li>
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Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago

140) <li>Informativeness: can the user learn what they need to know, both in terms
141) of using the network and also in terms of security decisions?</li>
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Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago

142) <li>Total user experience</li>
143) <li>Aesthetics</li>
144) <li>Responsiveness</li>
145) <li>Stability and robustness</li>
Roger Dingledine tweaks suggested by adam sh...

Roger Dingledine authored 19 years ago

146) <li>Internationalization (multiple language support)</li>