Draft Proposal Available

I just posted the first draft of a document describing OpenPacket.org.

openpacket_req_doc_draft_21jul06.pdf

Please take a look and provide comments and suggestions. Those of you who want to help might want to announce yourselves on the openpacket-devel list to facilitate collaboration.

I did not assign any timelines because I am not sure of the level of effort required to make this a reality. At the very least this document is a starting point.

Thank you!

OpenPacket.org Already Under Construction?

I received an email today from a long-time TaoSecurity Blog reader saying he had started assembling a site for OpenPacket.org. This is great news. I am going to work on a requirements doc this week and try to get it to this benefactor by week's end. I'll let him reveal his own name since I am not sure if he wants to publicize his involvement yet.

Please Post Functionality Requests to Mailing List

Wow, I am already getting offers of help from two people. Thank you!

Please post any ideas you have regarding desired functionality to the openpacket-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list.

Mailing Lists Created

I just created two mailing lists:

1. openpacket-users


2. openpacket-devel

Since there are no users yet, devel is the best place to discuss how to build OpenPacket.org.

Both are hosted by SourceForge and require joining prior to posting.

OpenPacket.org Update

It's been a very long time since I've said anything about OpenPacket.org at my TaoSecurity Blog. Although I am no closer to launching OpenPacket.org, I thought I would explain what's been happening. In short, I announced the project two months after starting my own company, TaoSecurity. Since then I have been exceedingly busy doing the business and technical work of running an independent consultancy, as well as being a real person in the non-security world.

I would still like to get OpenPacket.org going, but at the moment I have had no concrete offers of help with creating the site. Around the beginning of the project there was a possibility of corporate development and hosting support, but that fell through due to concerns over ownership. I became concerned the project would end up the intellectual property of a big company when the potential partner announced acquisition plans.

Several people have promised to contribute traces, but actually building a Web site with the necessary infrastructure and back end is still a problem I am being forced to solve. That would be ok if I had any experience in Web development, but I don't. Therefore, OpenPacket.org will not launch until I figure out how to build it. I have considered hiring a developer, but I am not sure if I could raise enough money to pay for the project. Ongoing maintenance might also be an issue.

If you have any thoughts on this matter, please feel free to post them below. Thank you.