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authorJameson Graef Rollins <jrollins@phys.columbia.edu>2008-09-02 20:24:30 -0700
committerJameson Graef Rollins <jrollins@phys.columbia.edu>2008-09-02 20:24:30 -0700
commitd6c52a691b1245978ca0fea53af50ed8dd0200de (patch)
tree0a24e29308b3b6627e15fff00ed92e632ae3658f /website/why.mdwn
parent78f843279c93b2683c17d15b834107c9f79b3050 (diff)
tweaks to the webpage to improve look and layout slight.
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@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ ever connected to?
[Get started with the monkeysphere as a user!](/getting-started-user)
-## As an system administrator ##
+## As a system administrator ##
As a system administrator, have you ever tried to re-key an SSH
server? How did you communicate the key change to your users? How
@@ -135,3 +135,43 @@ than the current infrastructure allows, and is more meaningful to
actual humans using these tools than some message like "Certified by
GloboTrust".
+## Philosophy ##
+
+Humans (and
+[monkeys](http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi-17/mi-17.html))
+have the innate capacity to keep track of the identities of only a
+finite number of people. After our social sphere exceeds several dozen
+or several hundred (depending on the individual), our ability to
+remember and distinguish people begins to break down. In other words,
+at a certain point, we can't know for sure that the person we ran into
+in the produce aisle really is the same person who we met at the party
+last week.
+
+For most of us, this limitation has not posed much of a problem in our
+daily, off-line lives. With the Internet, however, we have an ability
+to interact with vastly larger numbers of people than we had
+before. In addition, on the Internet we lose many of our tricks for
+remembering and identifying people (physical characteristics, sound of
+the voice, etc.).
+
+Fortunately, with online communications we have easy access to tools
+that can help us navigate these problems.
+[OpenPGP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openpgp) (a cryptographic
+protocol commonly used for sending signed and encrypted email
+messages) is one such tool. In its simplest form, it allows us to
+sign our communication in such a way that the recipient can verify the
+sender.
+
+OpenPGP goes beyond this simple use to implement a feature known as
+the [web of trust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust). The web
+of trust allows people who have never met in person to communicate
+with a reasonable degree of certainty that they are who they say they
+are. It works like this: Person A trusts Person B. Person B verifies
+Person C's identity. Then, Person A can verify Person C's identity
+because of their trust of Person B.
+
+The Monkeyshpere's broader goals are to extend the use of OpenPGP from
+email communications to other activities, such as:
+
+ * conclusively identifying the remote server in a remote login session
+ * granting access to servers to people we've never directly met