GNU.FREE

GNU project - FREE project - Savannah @ GNU Free Software Foundation

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Project Status
Introduction to GNU.FREE
Downloading GNU.FREE
GNU.FREE documentation
Contacts, mailing lists and links.

Project Status

On the 25th October 2002 The FREE e-democracy Project (who supported and organised GNU.FREE's development) formally stopped production and support of the GNU.FREE Internet voting system.

Why stop?
Here's what the project's founder and co-ordinator had to say:

25-10-2002 FREE project policy change...
From my experience of designing and developing GNU.FREE over the past three years it has become clear that creating an Internet Voting system sufficiently secure, reliable and anonymous is extremely difficult, if not impossible. As Bruce Schneier points out "a secure Internet voting system is theoretically possible, but it would be the first secure networked application ever created in the history of computers."

I've spent much of my limited time and energy trying to persuade people (and the UK government in particular) that a Free Software voting system is the only realistic way a trustworthy voting system could be created. But they are culturally set in their ways and always need to deal with companies, no matter how fragile their security actually is. Governments don't even have the skills to assess the reliability of the people let alone the technologies these companies sell.

However the more I have coded, researched, discussed and read the more I've realised that rather than encourage, in a way, the use of electronic voting techniques (even if I only advocate the use of Free Software) I'm much better off focussing on the dangers all such technologies present to processes such as voting. The US have a bold voice on this issue in Rebecca Mercuri. The UK has no voice on these issues and certainly the world as a whole needs more educated (if I may say so) voices on the use of technology in democratic processes.

Thus I have halted development of GNU.FREE but it remains online and I still support the concept of Free Software in e-government. If organisations want to use GNU.FREE I'm happy to advise on the issues but I'll be focussing elsewhere because, as Mr.Schneier points out, "building a secure Internet-based voting system is a very hard problem, harder than all the other computer security problems we've attempted and failed at. I believe that the risks to democacy are too great to attempt it." And this guy eats crypto for breakfast.

If you want to discuss these issues or would like me to attend a seminar or talk then please get in touch by emailing jeep@free-project.org. I will be publishing some articles on the issues I raise in the near future.

These sentiments were expanded in several articles for LinuxUser magazine including "Furthur down the road... why voting shouldn't be electronic.".

On hearing about the project's decision Richard Stallman wrote: "I support your decision to stop, and I think that your history in the project should give you a powerful platform for opposing the use of risky online voting."

Where now?

The software and its source remains available with its copyright still held by the Free Software Foundation. It can be downloaded from the links below and anyone is free to use the code or pick up the project as long as they conform to the terms of the GNU General Public License.

You might want to use the software in union, association or student elections. You are free to do so. However we'd advocate very strongly against the use of software in voting procedures, there are huge problems with auditing, authenticating and verifying electronic votes which have implications for trust, legitimacy and privacy. Please don't accept the cajoling words from technologists with vested interests, especially those gleaming with the delight of their own creations. Software is very complicated and nobody truly understands how any large piece of software interacts with itself and other software. Pen and paper work, they are auditable and easy for voters to understand. Please, please, please focus your energies elsewhere than technologising the voting process. There are so many other places where technology really could help. This isn't one of them.

We've left the links and information below for those wanting to use the software - we don't want to sabotage it. For the latest findings, articles and appearances please check the free-project.org site.

Introduction to GNU.FREE

GNU.FREE (Free Referenda & Elections Electronically) is a suite of Java-based software programmes for providing heavy duty election services via the Internet. Offering massive scalability, strong security & privacy as well as proper logging.

It is database and platform independent. It has an automated configuration tool and complete documentation to help administrators run successful ballots on any TCP/IP network.

Design work first started in April 1999 and the project has progressed to provide a mature solution under the General Public License which can be used from small school elections all the way to national ballots.

We feel very strongly that the only internet voting software should be Free Software. We want you to feel that way too so read the arguments for it in Jason's article Why electronic voting software should be Free Software

NOTE: This is not software for polls on websites, please look elsewhere for such facilities.

Downloading GNU.FREE

The primary download is always from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/free/ [GNU mirrors].

A download page (and a list of mirrors) is always available from http://www.free-project.org/download/.

A permanent mirror of the latest tarball is hosted on SourceForge.

GNU.FREE documentation

A complete copy of the documentation is included with every download. Furthermore it can be accessed in HTML format from free-project.org. This includes full JavaDoc documentation for code contributors benefit.

We are also working towards creating a full, printable, TEXINFO manual. If you would like to help then please get in touch.... jeep@free-project.org

Contacts, mailing lists and links.

GNU.FREE is an official GNU package produced by the FREE e-democracy project. It is endorsed as one of two official electronic voting projects of FreeDevelopers.net.

If you have problems, questions etc your first port of call should be our SourceForge Tools where bugs, patches, tasks etc are handled extremely well. NB We are migrating to GNU's Savannah so keep an eye out for the switch from Sourceforge.

Jason Kitcat < jeep@free-project.org > is co-ordinator for GNU.FREE and should be contacted if problems can't be resolved. He also holds the patch pumpkin so code contributions etc should be pointed his way too.

There are currently two GNU.FREE mailing lists [click to go to subscription pages] :-
Free-dev for nitty gritty developer discussion.
Free-announce for low volume new release anouncements

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