Boston Linux Meeting Wednesday, September 20, 2006 Keysigning - please sign up

[bill at horne.net (Bill Horne)]

Jerry Feldman wrote:
> When: September 20, 2006 7:00PM (6:30 for Q&A)
> Topic: PGP/GnuPG Keysigning Party 
> 	please register your key in advance to participate! 
> Moderator: V. Alex Brennen
>  Location:  MIT Building E51 Room 335 (Note new room)
>
>   
[snip]

Since the keysigning party has sometimes run late, and made it difficult 
to get food during the after-meeting get-together, I'm in a mood to work 
on the efficiency of the process. It occurs to me that in prior years, 
the activity that consumed the biggest chunk of time has been the 
identity verifications. I've been thinking of ways to make the identity 
verification process go more quickly, and I have some suggestions.

In the past, the BLU has used the method described at 
http://www.keysigning.org/methods/sassaman-efficient as the "Sassaman 
Efficient Method":

    *4.* Once all participants have stated whether their fingerprint is
    correct, everyone forms a long line in the same order as their keys
    appear in the list.
    The head of the line then folds back on itself and the participants
    moving back along the line inspect the ID of each participant
    standing still. The ID
    requirement is generally 2 forms of government-issued photo ID, but
    individual participants may enforce their own requirements as
    appropriate.
    A second tick is placed next to the list entry for which sufficient
    ID has been sighted.

This means that the participants line up in key-list order (assuming 16 
participants), like so:

     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16

... and then the line folds back on itself -

     1
     2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16

     2  1
     3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16

     3  2  1
     4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16

... etc.

However, this means that participant #16  has nothing to do until 
participant #1 reaches her/him, and that participant #1 is idle for a 
proportional amount of time after he/she has finished with participant 
#16. Of course, the delays are less for lower numbers, but there's a lot 
of time wasted.

Here's my idea:

Have the participants form two lines:

     1    2   3   4   5   6   7   8 
     9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16

... and then one line wraps around while the other stands still, like so:

     8   1    2   3   4   5   6   7
     9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16


     7    8   1    2   3   4   5   6
     9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16


     6    7   8   1    2   3   4   5
     9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16

... until participant #1 is finished with participant #16.

Of course, this process has to be repeated, since each half must now 
verify the other members in their line:

     1  2  3  4
     5  6  7  8

     4  1  2  3
     5  6  7  8


and

     9 10 11 12
   13 14 15 16

   12   9 10 11
   13 14 15 16


etc.

The third stage is, of course, eight lines with four participants in a 
square:

     1  2          5  6          9 10           13  14
     3  4          7  8        11 12           15  16

     2  1          6 5         10   9           14  13
     3  4          7  8        11 12           15  16

... after which, the remaining pairs need only id each other.

I have modestly named this method the "Horne Musical Chairs Modification 
to the Sassaman Efficient Method" of identity verification.

I presume this will become the new standard, and I will be available to 
sign autographs at the meeting.

Bill Horne, who is waiting to hear if he got the job.









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