Re: "Hey Phil! Stop telling people *not* to use PGP!" (plus: "help me with my PGP problems!") (fwd)

["Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>]

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On Wed, 19 Jul 1995, Bryce Wilcox wrote:

[lots of really really good stuff deleted, because I really don't have 
anything good to add to it]

> I am fond of saying that we PGP enthusiasts have two choices ahead of us
> within a couple of years:  either 5,000 enthusiasts using PGP with
> MAXIMAL SECURITY at all times, or 5,000 enthusiasts with MAXIMAL
> SECURITY and 10,000,000 computer-illiterate e-mail users using PGP with
> push-button interfaces and multi-user remote systems.

I said it last week, and I'll say it again.  From a sociological
standpoint, it's those 10,000,000 computer-illiterate e-mail users that we
need to focus all of our efforts towards.  Those 5,000 literate people we 
really don't have to care about.

I will say, and this makes for interesting commentary, over the last week
or so, I've released those simple scripts for Pine (and today for Tin)
that integrate digital signing fairly seamlessly with those programs. 
I've received about 200 requests since Monday from people asking where to
find PGP, asking about similiar scripts for Windoze or Dos or Mac, or
thanking me for providing an easier way to do digital signatures.  And
that was a simple sh script!  Imagine if some people with REAL writing 
ability worked on some programs...

Pushing for wide use of digital signatures is one way to get PGP to be a 
"household" name for people writing on the net.  I now sign everything I 
post and mail.  It gets people's attention and interest.  Interest leads 
to use.

> The important thing, of course, is the easy-to-use, e-mail-integrated
> software (version 3.0, I hope?), but it would also help if Zimmermann's
> PGP Doc didn't tell those computer-illiterates to either "become enthusiasts
> or don't use it."

I think the politics of PGP is stagnated at about two years ago or so.  
The demographics are no longer accepting to long technical rants.  
Today's generation of net.user doesn't need 100% security 100% of the
time, what they need is "good" security when they want it, but in a way 
that they don't have to think much about.

Sorry if I'm ranting again abotu everything I said last week.  I'm in the
process of doing research on social evolution using the net as an example
of accelerated cultural change.  I'm kinda in a specific mindset right now
:-). 

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____        Robert A. Hayden      <=> Cthulhu Matata
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