add the August trip reports collected from all over

i2p2www/blog/2019/08/30/defcon.rst

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+==============================================
+{% trans -%}Def Con Trip Report- zzz{%- endtrans %}
+==============================================
+
+.. meta::
+   :author: zzz
+   :date: 2019-08-30
+   :category: release
+   :excerpt: {% trans %}Def Con Trip Report- zzz{% endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}Def Con Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+==============================================
+
+{% trans -%}
+idk and I attended DEFCON 27 and presented two workshops on I2P for application
+developers, with support from mhatta and Alex. I gave the workshop at Monero
+Village and idk gave the one at Crypto/Privacy Village. Here, I will summarize
+the Monero Village workshop, and a Tor talk by Roger Dingledine. idk will post a
+trip report covering his workshop.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+We had about 8 attendees for the Monero Village workshop, entitled "I2P for
+Cryptocurrency Developers". We planned to discuss the particular networking
+needs for each application and work through the various i2ptunnel and SAM
+options available. However, all attendees were relatively unfamiliar with I2P,
+so we pivoted and gave an overview of I2P. As none of the attendees had a laptop
+with them, we helped several of them install I2P on their Android phone and
+walked through some of the features of the app. For all users, the app appeared
+to reseed and build tunnels fairly quickly.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+One common question after installing the app was "what do I do now?". The app
+doesn't have a 'hidden services of interest' section or first-run wizard like
+our desktop application does, and most of the default addressbook entries are
+long-dead. There's improvements we could make to the first-run experience.
+Also, some of the more interesting parts of the app are hidden behind an
+advanced setting; we should review those items and consider un-hiding some of
+them.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+It's always useful to go to Tor talks, not so much to find out what they're
+doing, but to hear how they explain things to people, and what terminology they
+are using. Roger's talk "The Tor Censorship Arms Race" was in a large room
+attended by about two thousand people. He gave a very brief overview of Tor
+with only three or four slides. He says they now have "two to eight million
+users a day". Most of the talk was a review of national blocking attempts over
+the years, starting with Thailand and Iran in '06-'07 through Tunisia, china,
+and Ethiopia in 2011. He called Tor bridges a "crappy arms race". He showed a
+new form to be showed to new users, with a checkbox "Tor is censored in my
+country".
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+Their new pluggable transport "snowflake" uses a combination of domain
+fronting, webrtc, javascript, brokers and proxies to reach a Tor bridge. Roger
+only had one slide on it, and I wasn't familiar with it, so we should do more
+research on what it's all about. He briefly mentioned some things they may be
+working on next, including "salmon" distribution of bridges, FTE/Marionette,
+decoy routing, and "cupcake" which is an extension of snowflake. While I don't
+have any further information about them, they may be good buzzwords to keep an
+eye out for on their mailing lists.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+Much of Tor's censorship woes is due to Tor's popularity, but their TLS
+handshake is a particular issue and it's been the focus of much of the "arms
+race" over the years. In some ways we're in better shape, as we've taken
+several features of their current-best obfs4 pluggable transport and build them
+into NTCP2. However, we do have issues with our website and reseeds being
+blocked, as Sadie and Phong will be presenting at USENIX FOCI this week.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+Notes for next time: I do recommend DEFCON, as long as we find a village to
+call our home. It's an enormous conference and the limited general hangout
+spaces are massively overcrowded. Both Monero Village and Crypto/Privacy
+Village were fantastic hosts and we had several hours at each spot to meet with
+people. We should find more opportunities to work with both organizations.
+There were also ZCash people at the Monero Village and we should work with them
+also. Any future workshop should be targeted at a more general audience. We do
+need a standard "Intro to I2P" slide deck; it would have been helpful at the
+workshops. Don't expect attendees to have laptops with them, focus on Android
+for any hands-on exercises. There's several improvements to be made in our
+Android app. Drink lots of water in Vegas... and stay away from the slot
+machines.
+{%- endtrans %}

i2p2www/blog/2019/08/30/defcon2.rst

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+==============================================
+{% trans -%}Def Con Trip Report- idk{%- endtrans %}
+==============================================
+
+.. meta::
+   :author: idk
+   :date: 2019-08-30
+   :category: release
+   :excerpt: {% trans %}Def Con Trip Report- idk{% endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}Def Con Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+==============================================
+
+{% trans -%}
+I went to Def Con 27 last weekend to give a workshop on I2P application
+development, and to meet zzz, mhatta, and Alex in person.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+My workshop went well, we even had a few application developers attend! In
+particular I had a pretty lengthy conversation with a person named Mary about
+how I2P could be used to eliminate centralization and enhance privacy in
+a "Magic Wormhole" type of application. While I wasn't totally familiar with
+Magic Wormhole at the time, I think most of my advice was usable. I think Mary
+had some very interesting and workable ideas about sharing information in more
+human-centric ways that could be interesting in I2P applications, and am looking
+forward to experimenting with some of those.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+The materials I made for the application development workshop are available on
+Github! https://github.com/eyedeekay/defcon Please consider it a living document,
+your input is desired! As it is licensed permissively, you are free to fork it
+and make it your own as well. Share your examples, your hacks, or correct my
+comma use, complain about my document preparation style, or just print off your
+own copy in booklet form!
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+I also talked to a guy who gives advice to the government about the differences
+between I2P and Tor, why I2P is more P2P-friendly, and some scenarios in which
+peers in a P2P application might want to have enhanced privacy from each-other,
+and why I2P is perhaps uniquely suited to accomplish that.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+In general, both the application development workshops went well, even though
+they didn't go entirely according to plan in that only a small proportion of the
+audience were application developers. The impression I got was that many people
+are very interested in I2P, but also many people are confused by how interacting
+with I2P works. By re-focusing on their questions and by teaming off with zzz,
+mhatta, and Alex we were fairly successful at dealing with our audience, which
+was more varied in terms of occupation, interest, and I2P knowledge than
+expected.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+Besides that, I also talked to Alex about my experimental contextual-identity
+driven I2P proxy plugin for Firefox and eventually, Brave Browser. Got to talk
+a little about bundling, but not too much, as it was a very busy convention. I'm
+looking forward to following up with him on that soon.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+mhatta and I almost won a lobster from a claw machine, but it was a real
+fighter and got away at the last second. Really thought I had it for a moment
+though. :)
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+To add to zzz's notes for next time, aside from being more general I believe our
+workshops would not have been as able to adapt to the needs of the audience
+without the support of mhatta and Alex. Having people who can help particpants
+individually or in small groups was immensely helpful, many, many thanks to both
+of them for helping us out.
+{%- endtrans %}

i2p2www/blog/2019/08/30/foci.rst

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+==================================================
+{% trans -%}USENIX FOCI Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+==================================================
+
+.. meta::
+   :author: sadie
+   :date: 2019-08-30
+   :category: release
+   :excerpt: {% trans %}USENIX FOCI Trip Report{% endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}USENIX FOCI Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+==================================================
+
+{% trans -%}
+Over the past year I have had the good fortune to participate in the research
+Nguyen Phong Hoang from Stony Brook University has been doing regarding I2P
+censorship. The infrastructure used for this research provided numerous and
+geographically diverse vantage points, and also the ability to conduct in-depth
+measurements across all levels of the network stack. I2P services which were
+measured for availability included official homepage, mirror site, reseed
+servers and active relays.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+The presentation on Tuesday went very well, and Phong was very busy afterwards
+answering questions about his work. I was busy too answering questions about
+I2P and what it does. The new stickers featuring the updated logo by Ura Design
+got rave reviews! It was a very positive experience and I will be looking
+forward to continuing to work with Phong and monitoring I2P censorship. I would
+encourage anyone who has encountered blocking, or has had success using I2P to
+communicate in restricted environments to reach out if you can. I2P is
+currently working on new solutions to circumvent internet blocking. Having met
+people this year who have given me first hand accounts of the effects of
+censorship and the need to stay connected, makes the need for I2P to be more
+resilient where it needs to be and for the team to be creating guides for using
+I2P in these situations.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+I will be putting together better resources for researchers interested in I2P,
+as well.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+I also had the good fortune to spend time with Mhatta, who is an I2P
+contributor, and to make connections for future funding. A huge thank you to
+the community builders I met in Tunis who I met again and who are offering so
+much support to the project. This has been an exciting year so far, and I2P has
+so much work to do. Please consider donating your time or funding the project
+as it needs to scale quickly to new challenges.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+If you have an opportunity to, you can read the full report Measuring I2P
+Censorship at a Global Scale here
+https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci19/presentation/hoang
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+Another great workshop in the measurements workshop was On the Importance of
+Encrypted-SNI (ESNI) to Censorship Circumvention
+https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci19/presentation/chai
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+There are so many great workshops that I attended - anyone who would like too
+can access the program and related materials here:
+https://www.usenix.org/conference/foci19/workshop-program
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+I will be attending Our Networks in Toronto next month https://ournetworks.ca/
+- and so should you! The program can be viewed here
+https://ournetworks.ca/program/
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+
+
+Sadie

i2p2www/blog/2019/08/30/freedom.rst

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+================================================================
+{% trans -%}Internet Freedom Festival Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+================================================================
+
+.. meta::
+   :author: sadie
+   :date: 2019-08-30
+   :category: release
+   :excerpt: {% trans %}Internet Freedom Festival Trip Report{% endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}Internet Freedom Festival Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+================================================================
+
+{% trans -%}
+This was my first time attending IFF, and what a great experience for I2P this
+was! I met with human rights defenders, people who work on censorship metrics,
+and of course UX and security professionals.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+My goal was to connect with people to further support I2P’s UX overhaul,
+keeping in mind security and UX considerations for frontline workers. As it was
+pointed out to me, people see I2P as a very important and powerful resource to
+circumvent censorship and support safe communication, however the interface
+suffers from some usability concerns. People were happy with our initial steps
+to make first time users have a better experience, such as our set up wizard
+and bandwidth detection tool. I also received positive reviews on our changes
+to the website and /home icons. It was very encouraging to hear directly from
+the community that small changes we have made are in the right direction.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+Things like having configuration happen out of the box and not having to put
+people in the position where they need to rely on reading so much documentation
+or chasing documentation were discussed. Also, improved documentation for
+setting up outproxies and and site mirroring were requested and suggested.
+Please see Mikal’s very good instructions on setting up an I2P outproxy that
+came out of the suggestions this week —
+https://0xcc.re/howto-setup-an-i2p-outproxy/. Another suggestion was to make
+bug reporting easier.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+To this point, I truly hope that the project will secure resources to continue
+the improvements to its usability that it requires to meet the growing demand
+for I2P services. It is humbling to to be working with such talented people and
+to be able to work together with our community during a time when people all
+over the globe need all of the privacy protecting resources we as people who
+develop, design and educate can offer.
+{%- endtrans %}

i2p2www/blog/2019/08/30/rights.rst

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+================================================
+{% trans -%}RightsCon Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+================================================
+
+.. meta::
+   :author: sadie
+   :date: 2019-08-30
+   :category: release
+   :excerpt: {% trans %}RightsCon Trip Report{% endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}RightsCon Trip Report{%- endtrans %}
+================================================
+
+{% trans -%}
+The messages from activists in Syria during the Access No\_! session on the
+first day were deeply moving and really drove home why I work in digital
+rights. We listened to the experiences of activists who are unable to travel
+due to lack of status, documentation and active conflict. For these people
+“the internet is the only passport (they) carry.” Human rights defenders
+spoke of the importance of  digital training to keep people protected when they
+are communicating with family inside of the country, as well as with family and
+friends who have left. They had created digital clinics to show people how to
+use services securely, for instance, how to use features like Signal’s
+disappearing messages so that those messages could not be used against them
+when devices are searched at security check points. Continuing to pursue
+education was also very important, the internet being relied on to access
+resources.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+The following days we met with people who had both questions about I2P and
+suggestions for potential use cases. We also discussed overhauling the project
+documentation for threat models, improving guides for users with little
+technical background, and ensuring that these guides are easily translatable. I
+made a note that I should go through the proposals and connect then to human
+use cases and solutions. This will be part of the projects’ continued effort
+to improve its user guides and onboarding.
+{%- endtrans %}
+
+{% trans -%}
+The opportunity to meet face to face with people who are using I2P and have
+successfully used it to circumvent internet blockages was inspiring. As the
+project has began working on its own browser and is examining outproxy
+packaging, it needs as much feedback and testing as possible to create secure
+and frictionless experiences for people. Also, the I2P network needs more
+hosted content and mirrored sites in order to expand resources for its users.
+{%- endtrans %}