different perspective on censorship
bridgedb and gettor are trying to solve a tchnical problem which is a good thing, no doubt but often technical solutions are not the key to changing a society. most of the time it is the way in which technology is brought into peoples lives.
i think it is important to look at how censorship works and how it is integrates with peoples lives: prevent people from spreading and finding specific information. One average way someone uses tor could be like this:
-i feel like the goverment is hiding something from me. -i should try to find a way to get around this. -i found tons of different tools to do that but what is the best? -i gonna use tor -but the goverment makes it difficult for me to get it. -i have to try to find a way to get it working. -after a while i finally got it working -i now have full access to the whole internet... -now where are the interesting things the goverment is hiding? -where should i start searching? -...hmm this thing is nice to have but without aquiring further knowlege its probably not of much use for the average user... -i probably should look into this some other day.
the problem here is that it requires initiative several times. except for porn people usually do not show this behavior. thats why facebook and tv are so popular. most humans are passive animals and let others decide the boundaries of ther lives. so there are 2 ways of reaching people: attatch to something within the boundaries or change the boundaries. the best way is to start with the first and continue with the second. with other words we should find a way to make tor a thing.
but starting a movement is hard and usually not going to work. it has to evolve naturally. societies have a gigantic amount of trial and error potential. if a creative environment is being provided a crowd can come up with amazing solutions. creativity works the best the way of expression is universal but some not too tight and not to loose boundaries exist in one or few dimensions.
so what bridgedb gettor and other related projects should do is to find tools that can provide such properities.
on idea i had for example was to make a website or a button in torbrowser that generates a qr code that a mirror for torbrowser, a set of bridges and an url inside. that way all is in one place. the information and the tool to access it. it can be share with friends on a smartphone, stickers could be made of it or shared in any channel that is difficult for censors to control
thats only on idea. there are probably way more different things.
Trac:
Username: elypter