Open-source projects grab dot-com dropouts

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-839705.html

By Robert Lemos 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 18, 2002, 3:50 PM PT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Open-source programmers gathered this past weekend to
share ideas and dreams about new methods for distributing encrypted
data across the Internet and plans for a peer-to-peer wireless
backbone.

Aside from a common love of computing, the crowd gathered in the dim
confines of a night club at the edge of Multimedia Gulch here shared
another trait: most of them are unemployed.

While most of the programmers here were caught up in the dot-com
frenzy not so long ago, the collapse of the market has left many
skilled programmers without work--and with a lot of free time to
spare.

"Right now you are in the worst time if you are trying to do what
programmers were doing three years ago," said Brad Templeton, chairman
of the digital-rights advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The down economy has breathed new life into open-source software
projects as unemployed software engineers pitch in. This weekend's
CodeCon conference focused mainly on peer-to-peer projects, or ways to
improve upon and expand Internet networks between groups of computer
users.

"Peer-to-peer is where the exciting stuff is right now," said
conference founder and organizer Bram Cohen, who said he too is
looking for a job. Cohen's own project, BitTorrent, focuses on how to
create large peer-to-peer networks that don't get bogged down in
network bandwidth bottlenecks.

Another peer-to-peer application, called Reptile, attempts to create a
quality barometer for Internet content. In its current incarnation,
the program gathers stories that a user is most interested in, based
on user recommendations and the "status," or reputation, of those who
have recommended the stories.

Fen Labalme, project leader for OpenPrivacy.org, believes that
eventually the Reptile application could be expanded to become a
security program of sorts, one that could alert software programs to
which data is trustworthy. If viable, such a system could become a
peer-to-peer competitor for Microsoft's Passport, a building block of
the software giant's .Net strategy.

"It's incredible to me how many intelligent people, who are working on
great projects, are unemployed," said Labalme. Labalme and his
business partner, programmer Kevin Burton, are both between jobs.

The conference's focus on the "independent" programmer, another
much-bandied euphemism for unemployed, helped to draw nearly 200
hackers.

"Most of the major conferences are prohibited in price to actual
programmers and technologists," said Len Sassaman, an independent
communications security consultant and a conference organizer. "We
didn't want business presentations, but actual code and demos."

While almost all of the programs are developed as open-source
projects, the conference is less about that, said Sassaman.

"Open source isn't as much of a central issue as a basis for a lot of
the work being done," he said.

Paul Baranowski, project leader for the peer-to-peer anonymous
browsing application, Peekabooty, likened the project phenomenon to
business man going back to school during hard times.

"All the security guys are starting a project," said Baranowski, who
is also newly "independent."

"They can hone their skills, network and be better off for future
jobs."




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