Author: atagar Date: 2011-03-27 19:54:10 +0000 (Sun, 27 Mar 2011) New Revision: 24471

Modified: website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml Log: Adding Orbot project ideas provided by Nathan.

Modified: website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml =================================================================== --- website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml 2011-03-27 19:16:30 UTC (rev 24470) +++ website/trunk/getinvolved/en/volunteer.wml 2011-03-27 19:54:10 UTC (rev 24471) @@ -402,7 +402,10 @@

<p> <b>Project Ideas:</b><br /> - <i><a href="#orbotDevelopment">More on Orbot &amp; Android OS-specific development</a></i> + <i><a href="#orbot-torbutton">TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</a></i><br /> + <i><a href="#orbot-userInterface">Build a better user interface for Orbot</a></i><br /> + <i><a href="#orbot-optimisation">Core Tor mobile optimisation</a></i><br /> + <i><a href="#orbot-orlibAndOutreach">Orbot integration library and community outreach</a></i> </p>

<a id="project-torbutton"></a> @@ -650,6 +653,53 @@ <p>For more information see <a href="https://tails.boum.org/todo/boot_menu/">https://tails.boum.org/todo/boot_menu/</a></p> </li>

+ <a id="orbot-torbutton"></a> + <li> + <b>TorButton for Mobile Firefox 4 or Custom Browser on Android</b> + <br> + Priority: <i>High</i> + <br> + Effort Level: <i>High</i> + <br> + Skill Level: <i>High</i> + <br> + Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake, Mike Perry</i> + <p>Initial work has been done on implementing a proxy-setting add-on for + Firefox on Android (see <a + href="https://github.com/guardianproject/ProxyMob%22%3EProxyMob</a>), but a + full port of TorButton needs to be done (dependent upon Firefox 4 port of + TorButton). The other approach is to implement a custom &quot;Tor + Browser&quot; based on Firefox or Webkit browser. See <a + href="http://code.google.com/p/torora/wiki/Android%22%3ETorora</a> for progress + on this so far.</p> + </li> + + <a id="orbot-userInterface"></a> + <li> + <b>Build a better user interface for Orbot</b> + <br> + Priority: <i>High</i> + <br> + Effort Level: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Skill Level: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake</i> + <p>Improved home screen to show confirmation of connection (via a TorCheck + API call), better statistics about data transferred (up/down), number of + circuits connected, quality of connection and so on. The &quot;Tether + Wifi&quot; Android application is a good model to follow in how it shows a + realtime count of bytes transferred as well as notifications when wifi + clients connect. In addition, better handling of Tor system and error + messages would also be very helpful, include use of standard Android + operating systems notifications. The addition of a wizard or tutorial + walkthrough for novice users to explain to them exactly what is and what is + not anonymized or protected would greatly improve the likelihood they will + use Orbot correctly. All of this should work on the range of screens and + device types now offered for Android, from 2&quot; phone to 10&quot; + Tablet.</p> + </li> + <a id="resistCensorship"></a> <li> <b>Improving Tor's ability to resist censorship</b> @@ -726,7 +776,7 @@ <br> Skill Level: <i>Medium</i> <br> - Likely Mentors: <i>Damian</i> + Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i> <p><a href="<page projects/arm>">Arm</a> is a Tor command line status monitor on *nix environments (Linux, Mac, and BSD). It functions much like top does, giving a CLI overlay of Tor's bandwidth usage, connections, @@ -802,60 +852,6 @@ changes in performance on machines in different roles automatically.</p> </li>

- <a id="orbotDevelopment"></a> - <li> - <b>More on Orbot &amp; Android OS-specific development</b> - <br> - Priority: <i>Medium</i> - <br> - Effort Level: <i>High</i> - <br> - Skill Level: <i>Medium to High</i> - <br> - Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan, Jake</i> - <p><b>Android Java UI work:</b> Improved home screen to show better - statistics about data transferred (up/down), number of circuits - connected, quality of connection and so on. The "Tether Wifi" - Android application is a good model to follow in how it shows - a realtime count of bytes transferred as well as notifications - when wifi clients connect. In addition, better display/handling - of Tor system/error messages would also be very helpful. Finally, - the addition of a wizard or tutorial walkthrough for novice - users to explain to them exactly what is and what is not anonymized - or protected would greatly improve the likelihood they will use - Orbot correctly.</p> - - <p><b>Android Java OS/Core app work:</b> Better system-wide - indication, either via the notification bar, "Toast" pop-up dialogs - or some other indicator, that an application's traffic is indeed - moving through Orbot/Tor. For instance, right now you need to - first go to a torcheck web service to ensure your browser is - routing via Tor. Orbot should be able to notify you that circuits - are being opened, used, etc. The aforementioned data transfer - tracker might provide this type of awareness as well.</p> - - <p><b>Android Java Library/Community Outreach work:</b> We need - to package a simple library for use with third-party application - to easily enable them to support "Torification" on non-rooted - devices (i.e. w/o transparent proxying). This library should - include a wrapper for the Apache HTTPClient library, a utility - class for detecting the state of Orbot connectivity, and other - relevant/useful things an Android app might need to anonymize - itself. This work would include the creation of the library, - documentation, and sample code. Outreach or effort to implement - the library within other open-source apps would follow.</p> - - <p><b>Android OS/C/Linux work:</b> The port of Tor to Android - is basically a straight cross-compile to Linux ARM. There has - been no work done in looking the optimization of Tor within a - mobile hardware environment, on the ARM processor or other - Android hardware, or on mobile networks. It should be noted, - that even without optimization, Tor is handling the mobile - network environment very well, automatically detecting change - in IP addresses, reconnecting circuits, etc. across switching - from 2G to 3G to Wifi, and so forth.</p> - </li> - <a id="simulateSlowConnections"></a> <li> <b>Simulator for slow Internet connections</b> @@ -1070,6 +1066,74 @@ design/Photoshop fu, since we might want/need some shiny new icons too.</p> </li>

+ <a id="orbot-optimisation"></a> + <li> + <b>Core Tor mobile optimisation</b> + <br> + Priority: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Effort Level: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Skill Level: <i>High</i> + <br> + Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8), Jake</i> + <p> + The existing port of Tor to Android is basically a straight + cross-compile to Linux ARM. There has been no work done in looking at + possible optimizations of Tor within a mobile hardware environment or on + mobile networks. In addition, a number of additional Android OS APIs are + available (such as wireless network status) that could be taken + advantage of. + </p> + + <p> + It should be noted, that even without optimisation, Tor is handling the + mobile network environment very well, automatically detecting change in + IP addresses, opening circuits, etc, as the device switches from no + coverage to 2G, 3G or Wifi constantly as it changes position. However, + this observation of &quot;very well&quot;, is just based on user + experience, and not any detailed study of what exactly is happening, and + what threats might exist because of this constantly changing network state. + </p> + + <p> + Finally, the build process needs to be moved to the Android NDK from the + custom GCC toolchain we are now using, and compatibility with Android + 2.3 and 3.x Honeycomb OS need to be verified. + </p> + + <p> + For more information see the <a + href="https://svn.torproject.org/svn/projects/android/trunk/Orbot/BUILD%22%3EOrbot + build documentation</a>. + </p> + </li> + + <a id="orbot-orlibAndOutreach"></a> + <li> + <b>Orbot integration library and community outreach</b> + <br> + Priority: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Effort Level: <i>Low</i> + <br> + Skill Level: <i>Medium</i> + <br> + Likely Mentors: <i>Nathan (n8fr8)</i> + <p> + We need additional work on <a + href="https://github.com/guardianproject/orlib%22%3EORLib</a>, our library for + use with third-party application to easily enable them to support + &quot;Torification&quot; on non-rooted devices (i.e. w/o transparent + proxying). This library includes a SOCKS client, a wrapper for the Apache + HTTPClient library, a utility class for detecting the state of Orbot + connectivity, and other relevant/useful things an Android app might need to + anonymize itself. This work would includes direct development of the + library, documentation, and sample code. Outreach or effort to implement + the library within other open-source apps is also needed. + </p> + </li> + <a id="vidaliaNetworkMap"></a> <li> <b>An Improved and More Usable Network Map in Vidalia</b> @@ -1120,7 +1184,7 @@ <br> Skill Level: <i>Medium</i> <br> - Likely Mentors: <i>Damian</i> + Likely Mentors: <i>Damian (atagar)</i> <p> Arm has several unique features, some of the most interesting being its connection listing (correlating netstat results against the Tor consensus)