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

[bill at horne.net (Bill Horne)]

David Kramer wrote:
> Bill Horne wrote:
>   
>> 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.
>>     
>
> I am VERY in favor of anything that streamlines the process.  To be
> honest, the keysigning meetings are the only BLU meetings I've skipped
> by choice.  It always seems so dreadfully slow.  Too much like Contra
> dancing.
>   

Well, I didn't get the job, so I'll work on this issue some more. ;-)

Seriously, folks, we should do it the way shown at 
http://people.debian.org/~anibal/ksp-dc6/ksp-dc6.html.

    "Half of the "n" participants, numbered from 1 to n/2 will line up,
    ordered by number. The other half, from (n/2)+1 to n will line up so
    that person n/2 will face person (n/2)+1,
    (n/2)-1 will face person (n/2)+2, and so on. After every pair of
    people facing each other have checked their IDs, the first segment
    of the line will shift to the left one position.
    And so on, until each person has seen the rest of the people. "

In other words, instead of a single line that folds back on itself, we 
should have two lines where the participants in each line simply move 
one person to the left after each confirmation. Those on the ends need 
only turn around and keep moving to their left: in effect, you get 
something that looks like a rubber band when viewed from above, and it 
just keeps "turning" as if it were a tank tread laying on its side, 
until everybody is done.

The Debian site also suggests that participants wear numbered ID badges, 
to mark their place in the list of keys and speed up the matches. I 
think this is also a good idea, but rather than asking people to make 
them at the meeting, I suggest someone who knows where to get them 
volunteer to provide numbered badges and necklace strings. Of course, 
the keylist will need to have the numbers added, and each participant 
will need to ensure he/she is wearing the number which matches their key.

As I mentioned before, I'll be available to certify ID's in the Thawte 
system for those who want X.509 compatibility. I'll need two forms of 
government ID, and a copy of each for me to keep.

FWIW. HTH. YMMV.

Bill
P.S. If we run too much over tomorrow night, I suggest we use the "hash" 
method next year.







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