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-#include "head.wmi" TITLE="GUI Contest"

-

-<div class="main-column">

-

-<h2>Tor GUI Contest</h2>

-<hr />

-<p>DRAFT IN PROGRESS</p>

-<hr />

-<a id="Overview"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Overview">Overview</a></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 50,000 Tor users currently, routing their traffic

-through about 250 volunteer Tor servers on five continents. However, Tor's

-current user interface approach --- running as a service in the background

---- does a poor job of communicating network status and security levels

-to the user.

-</p>

-

-<p>

-The Tor project, affiliated with the

-<a href="http://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>, 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 or avoid certain routes

-or nodes; 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 />

-<a id="Goals"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Goals">Goals</a></h3>

-

-<p>Contestants will produce a work of <a

-href="http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source Software</a>

-that will

-provide a user interface to the Tor system by way of the <a

-href="<cvssandbox>control/doc/howto.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>Entries will:</p>

-<ul>

-<li>Allow the user to fully configure Tor rather than manually searching

-for and opening text files.</li>

-<li>Let users learn about the current state of their Tor connection

-(including which servers they are connected to, and how many connections

-they have), and find out whether any of their applications are using

-it.</li>

-<li>Make alerts and error conditions visible to the user.</li>

-<li>Run on at least one of Windows, Linux, and OS&nbsp;X, on a

-not-unusually-configured consumer-level machine.</li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>In addition, they may:</p>

-<ul>

-<li>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.</li>

-<li>Provide

-additional statistics about the Tor connection.</li>

-<li>Give users more control over how their Tor behaves at certain times

-of day or in other contexts (like operating as a server).</li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>Some examples of useful features include:</p>

-<ul>

-<li>How much bandwidth is Tor using? How does this compare

-to the overall network traffic to/from the computer?</li>

-<li>Is there network traffic from ports or applications that the user

-intended to be anonymized?</li>

-<li>What Tor servers does the user know about on the network? Where are

-they? How available are they?</li>

-<li>An interface for displaying or controlling Tor paths:

-"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 Tor, your GUI submission, and

-other supporting applications.</li>

-<li>Make your GUI manage the Tor process and other supporting applications

-<li>Provide meaningful defaults for a good Tor experience.</li>

-<li>Provide application-level anonymity -- 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>

-<li>Let the user specify different Tor config option sets depending on

-time of day (e.g. daytime vs. nighttime).</li>

-<li>Provide useful controller functions for Tor servers too --

-for example, walk the user through recommended bandwidth configurations

-and exit policies.</li>

-<li>Have a "minimized view" of your GUI for common use, and then a more

-detailed view or set of windows when the user wants more detail.</li>

-<li>Provide a button or some automatically updating interface to let

-the user learn whether Tor is working currently, perhaps by accessing an

-external what's-my-IP site and seeing if it thinks you're a Tor server;

-and give useful messages and recommendations if it doesn't seem to

-be working.</li>

-<li>Provide a way to automatically configure local firewalls (ipchains,

-Windows firewalls, etc) to let Tor traffic out (and in, for Tor

-servers). As a bonus, configure it to prevent non-Tor traffic from

-leaving (and notify when it tries).</li>

-</ul>

-

-<hr />

-<a id="Categories"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Categories">Contest Categories</a></h3>

-

-<p>

-The design contest will proceed in two phases: first sketches and then

-working code. You are invited to submit to either phase, or both phases.

-For each phase, our panel of judges will recognize the

-best submissions. All qualifying entries will receive an EFF Tor T-shirt

-(subject to availability). The best sketches and working implementations

-will be published on the Tor website.

-</p>

-

-<p><b>Sketches:</b>

-the goal of this phase is to produce a mock-up of a functioning interface.

-This should include design documents describing how the interface should

-function. If you want, it should also include graphical elements that

-can be used by programmers.

-</p>

-

-<p>

-A qualifying sketch will present an informal specification for a

-design. That is, it will present with some degree of thoroughness all

-of the major interfaces that we might expect to encounter, all of the

-major functionality for the interface, and a reasonable story about

-how it would be integrated into currently-existing tools (if, indeed,

-it would be). One example, with more detail than we would require, is

-<a href="http://ui.netbeans.org/docs/ui/junits/promo_f.html">the NetBeans

-UI for JUnit</a>. Note that it walks through multiple interfaces,

-highlighting the features and functions of the various buttons.

-</p>

-

-<ul>

-<li><b>Most featureful interface</b> will be awarded to the graphic design

-that would provide usable, clear access to the most aspects of the Tor

-system, covering many or most of the categories on the "useful features"

-list.</li>

-<li><b>Most usable experience</b> will be awarded to the graphic

-design that would provide the most unobtrusive Tor experience while still

-covering all criteria (working, perhaps, on the "no news is good news"

-theory).</li>

-<li><b>Clearest implementation guidance</b> will be awarded to the

-graphic design that provides the cleanest package of graphic elements

-and design documentation to aid would-be implementers.</li>

-</ul>

-

-<p><b>Code:</b> the goal of this phase is to produce a working

-implementation. You may use any of the sketches, graphics, or ideas from

-the first phase (with appropriate credit to

-their authors), or you can make your own. See the <a

-href="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/ContestSamples">Contest

-Samples</a> wiki page for some other images you can reuse.

-</p>

-

-<p>

-An acceptable entry will be a package of free software that builds and

-runs. It can be a stand-alone application, or it can act as an extension

-or plugin to other broadly-available free software. The entry will

-demonstrate the points in the Goals section: that is, it will be able

-to control, display, and maintain awareness as discussed above.

-</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 categories on the "additional" list.</li>

-<li><b>Most usable experience</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 OS X; extra points will be

-awarded for additional systems.</li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>We reserve the right to award other awards as the entries deserve.</p>

-

-<hr />

-<a id="Submit"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Submit">How to Submit</a></h3>

-

-<p>Submissions for phase one (sketches) should come as:</p>

-<ul>

-<li>Images in an html page. The images must be able to be viewed on an

-ordinary browser (e.g. Firefox). You can submit proprietary formats too,

-but if you do then you need to also export them to something we can

-all read.</li>

-<li>A design document (txt, html, pdf, or ps) as described in the

-<a href="#Categories">Contest Categories</a> section above.</li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>Submissions for phase two (code) 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>. 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 (txt, html, pdf, or ps) providing an overview of

-what major functions to look for and what functions were implemented.</li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>To submit your entry, make a web page with

-all your materials on it, then add a line to <a

-href="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/ContestEntries">The

-GUI Contest Entries Wiki</a>. (If you don't have a web page of

-your own to put your entry on, find a friend who does, or mail

-<a href="mailto:tor-gui@freehaven.net">tor-gui@freehaven.net</a> and we'll

-put it up on a temporary page.</p>

-

-<p>If you put it up on your own site, you can continue to update and

-modify it. Remember that submitting early means you can get feedback

-from Tor users and make it into a better submission!</p>

-

-<hr />

-<a id="Criteria"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Criteria">Criteria</a></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, both in terms

-of using the network and also in terms of security decisions?</li>

-<li>Total user experience</li>

-<li>Aesthetics</li>

-<li>Responsiveness</li>

-<li>Stability and robustness</li>

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

-<li>Installation experience</li>

-</ul>

-

-<hr />

-<a id="Judges"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Judges">Judges</a></h3>

-

-<p>Judging will be led by a panel of N prominent specialists in usability

-and security (to be announced).</p>

-

-<hr />

-<a id="Timeline"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Timeline">Timeline</a></h3>

-

-<ul>

-<li>Phase 1 deadline (sketches): October 31.</li>

-<li>Phase 1 judging: November 31.</li>

-<li>Phase 2 deadline (code): January 31, 2006.</li>

-</ul>

-

-<p>Winners will be announced on the webpage and also at the SOUPS 2006

-conference. (Here's a suggestion on one approach to <a

-href="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/ContestFAQ#AcademicResearch">academic

-usability research on Tor</a>.)</p>

-

-<hr />

-<a id="Clarifications"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Clarifications">Questions and Clarifications</a></h3>

-

-<p>Check back

-<a href="<page gui-contest>#Clarifications">here</a>

-periodically, and look at the <a

-href="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/ContestFAQ">Contest

-FAQ wiki</a>, for FAQ entries, clarifications, etc.</p>

-

-<!--

-<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 />

-<a id="Technical"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Technical">Technical Notes</a></h3>

-

-<p>Shortly before phase two begins, the Tor developers will release

-a canonical version of Tor. This is the version that will be used for

-judging the contest; please ensure that you use this version. Bugfixes

-to this version of Tor will be announced to the contest web site.</p>

-

-<p>The Tor developers will also release test rigs (libraries) in both Java

-and Python that demonstrate Tor's controller protocol. Code submissions

-may be able to save a lot of time by using this code as a skeleton. You

-can check out the <a href="<cvssandbox>control/">development

-versions of these libraries</a> now.

-</p>

-

-<hr />

-<a id="Legal"></a>

-<h3><a class="anchor" href="#Legal">Legal Notes</a></h3>

-

-<p>By submitting your entry to be considered in the Tor GUI contest, you

-hereby:</p>

-

-<ul>

-<li>(A) represent and warrant that (1) the entry was created by you and

-that you own all rights to the entry or have the authorized rights to

-submit such entry and grant the licenses below; and (2) that the

-entry does not infringe on any third party copyright or other

-intellectual property rights; AND</li>

-<li>(B) EITHER (1) grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive,

-perpetual license to reproduce, edit, perform, display, publish, make

-derivative works, and otherwise use the entry as we see fit,

-including without limitation, incorporating (in whole or in part)

-into the Tor software, and to sublicense such rights; OR, (2)

-provide the entry pursuant to a license that complies with the

-<a href="http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php">Open

-Source Definition</a>, such as the 3-clause BSD, MIT, or

-GPL licenses, or (where applicable) provide the entry licensed under

-the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/">Creative

-Commons Attribution</a> license. If you provide the entry pursuant to

-such a license, you must include the applicable information in your

-submission.</li>

-</ul>

-

-  </div><!-- #main -->

-

-#include <foot.wmi>