Future of the Open PGP Summits

During the first OpenPGP Summit we had a small group prepapring some decisions about how we continue. The result was presented and discussed in plenary. We finally agreed on the following (we didn’t all agree on all issues, but this was the outcome as a group):

General Path

  • As a group of people focussing on the technical issues and details of email encryption and Open PGP, we want to keep the momentum and the high signal-to-noise-ratio to continue to meet and work together. As a consequence we will be
    • a loosely coupled group with high transparency, but continue to be moderated or have a subscribe model when we meet and discuss.
  • Thus:
    • We don’t hide what we do
    • We collect knowledge
    • We follow the Chatham House Rule:
      • write about topics & agenda
      • but no statements attributed to individuals or organizations
    • But we don’t establish an organization akting or making statements as a group
  • In particular, we make public:
    • all participating projects/tools
    • all participants by name (unless somebodey opts out)
  • We can report in press statements such as:
    • a loosely coupled group met in Meeting/Dreiech mentioning all projects to bring OpenPGP forward (work on current issues & discuss possible solutions)

Wiki

  • We establish a Wiki with limited/restricted access (subscriber model). This decision was slighlty controversal. We voted on a model with restricted acces using the ModernPGP wiki versus using the GnuPG wiki with unrestricted access. Here the result (using a 5 way vote):
    • 15 Strongly in favor of a restricted wiki at ModernPGP
    • 3 Weakly in favor of a restricted wiki at ModernPGP
    • 4 Neutral
    • 2 Weakly in favor of an open wiki at GnuPG
    • 1 Strongly in favor of an open wiki at GnuPG
  • At first, we want to publish the material from the first summit
    • Agenda and attendees (nobody opted out)
    • Slides of presentations by the projects
    • Working Group topics and their outcomes
    • Pictures (nobody opted out)

Next Meeting

  • The next meeting shall be at a weekend in autumn 2015 in Berlin, Munich or Zurich (depending on available hosts and a Doodle request)
  • Again attendance will be limited to 2 people per project
    • Note that not being open for everybody interested also simply has the reason that even with this model we are between 30 and 40 people so that it’s hard to find appropriate locations
    • Again, fincancial support for travel and accomocation is possible ob request if people need support due to their personal situation
  • We want to have a slightly different agenda, because we don’t start from scratch again:
    • Very short intro (epsecially of new people/projects)
    • Open space based working groups again
      • Organize that people can ask/propose topics in ahead
        • Allows to doodle for interest/priorities
        • Also to get an idea about rooms needed
        • Provides chance for suggested readings and other preparation in ahead
    • Better prepared key signing (e.g. print fingerprint paper with you?)
  • In general the meeting shall be organized again by Nico
  • A couple of additional attendees were proposed. Nico shall take care that only technical experts and no marketing guys make it

We also have the idea in mind that some people might report about this group or the progress/results of this group at the 32C3.