Here at Princeton's CITP, we have a healthy interest in issues of open government and government transparency. With the release last week of the Open Government Directive by the Obama Administration, our normally gloomy winter may prove to be considerably brighter.
In addition to creating crazy-cool tools like Recap and FedThread, we’ve also been thinking deeply about the nature of open and transparent government, how system designers and architects can better create transparent systems and how to achieve sustainability in open government. Related to these questions are those of the law.gov effort—providing open access to primary legal materials—and how to best facilitate the tinkerers who work on projects of open government.
These are deep issues, so we thought it best to organize a workshop and gather people from a variety of perspectives to dig in.
If you’re interested, come to our workshop next month! While we didn’t consciously plan it this way, the last day of this workshop corresponds to the first 45-day deadline under the OGD.
Open Government: Defining, Designing, and Sustaining Transparency
Despite increasing interest in issues of open government and governmental transparency, the values of “openness” and “transparency” have been undertheorized. This workshop will bring together academics, government, advocates and tinkerers to examine a few critical issues in open and transparent government. How can we better conceptualize openness and transparency for government? Are there specific design and architectural needs and requirements placed upon systems by openness and transparency? How can openness and transparency best be sustained? How should we change the provision and access of primary legal materials? Finally, how do we best coordinate the supply of open government projects with the demand from tinkerers?
Anil Dash, Director of the AAAS’ new Expert Labs, will deliver the keynote. The list of speakers is impressive and practically guaranteed to catalyze deep thinking.
The workshop is free and open to the public, although we ask that you RSVP to citp@princeton.edu so that we be sure to have a name tag and lunch for you.
Today, UC Berkeley Professors Philip Stark, Jasjeet Sekhon and Henry Brady, along with me, sent the California Secretary of State a brief comment about her effort to provide precinct-level elections data for all 58 California counties.
We applaud the project and are very excited about the prospects of precinct-level data from each county in near real time. In the comment, we point out how the data isn't nearly as usable as it could be and how the focus right now should be on making sure that counties can get the data out of their back-end systems and then the SoS (with help, if she wants it!) can worry about transforming the data into something more usable.
Today we sent a letter to the Election Assistance Commission signed by a number of the investigators involved in the California Secretary of State's Top-to-Bottom Review of voting systems.
The letter points out that the EAC, and a lab that performs certification testing of voting systems, disregarded technical information about voting system security from state-level evaluations of a particular voting system. This specific instance raises broader questions about the EAC's treatment of such information under its testing and certification program.
The signatories include:
Matt Bishop, CA TTBR Principal Investigator, Department of Computer Science; University of California, Davis
David Wagner, CA TTBR Principal Investigator, Computer Science Division; University of California, Berkeley
Matt Blaze, Computer & Information Science; University of Pennsylvania
J. Alex Halderman, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; University of Michigan
Candice Hoke, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law; Cleveland State University
Richard Kemmerer, Department of Computer Science; University of California, Santa Barbara
Deirdre Mulligan, School of Information; University of California, Berkeley
Elliot Proebstel, Department of Computer Science; University of California, Davis
Eric Rescorla, Principal, RTFM, Inc.
Hovav Shacham, Department of Computer Science and Engineering; University of California, San Diego
Giovanni Vigna, Department of Computer Science; University of California, Santa Barbara
Dan Wallach, Department of Computer Science; Rice University
Today, a friend wanted to use my laptop at a meeting. I thought, cool, good thing Mac OS X has a "guest account" mechanism where a friend can log into a guest account and when they log out, it will be completely cleaned from my system.
However, when I clicked "Allow guests to log into this computer", something went wrong and the Mac "spinning beach ball" spun indefinitely. Damn.
It turns out that something in the backend expects a guest account to already exist in some form. Because it's not there, something critical crashes ("user account migration somehow confuses the 'guest user' machinery, which totally trashes securityd which dies of sudden death and from then on nothing works on the computer."via izidor).
Solving this problem is straight-forward but a bit of a pain in the ass.
First, print this out or bookmark this page so you can come back to it.
Force-quite system preferences and then you'll have to hold down the power key on your computer until it shuts down (feel free to try a restart, it won't work... it gets stuck in some sort of loop).
Restart.
Log in as an administrator.
Your system guest account must be disabled (it already is if you have the described symptoms above).
In the Accounts pane of System Preferences, Create new standard account with name guest and short name guest. Important: the short name must be guest---Mac OS will suggest the short name guest1, but you must edit that into guest.
Enable the system guest account in System Preferences (check the "Allow guests to log into this computer" switch). It will work now that guest name is taken. This action will create user account with short name guest1 with all the properties of guest (clean-up after logout etc.).
Completely delete standard user guest, which you created in step 6 (check "delete home folder" to get rid of it all).
Disable the system guest account (uncheck the switch).
Right-click on system guest account icon and choose "Advanced" or whatever (there is only one menu item anyway) and change short name from guest1 to guest.
Enable system guest account.
Log into the guest account.
Log off as guest and log in with an admin account.
Disable guest account in System Preferences.
Go back to System Preferences, open the advanced settings of Guest Account and now you can safely rename the path of the home dir from /Users/Guest1 to /Users/Guest.
Now re-enable guest account.
The next time, you log in as guest, a new guest dir will be created with the correct name Guest.
I think I've told the world... but, if you don't know, here it is again: Chelle and I are getting married in a few weeks via a civil ceremony at the NYC Marriage Bureau. Michelle's parents, Pat and Dave, will be there and we're all pretty damn excited... yes, despite the fact that we've been together for 10.5 years.
Anyway, I wanted to comment a bit on the NYC Marriage Bureau's wait time estimates. They're not ideal. When we got there we were issued a sweet ass ticket:
It has a timestamp (1:36pm) and our number, 143, is apparently the old pager code for "I love you" (thanks jo!).
Then the waiting began. When we first got there, the advertised wait time was 39 minutes. During that time, the wait time went down to as little as 15 minutes!
All in all, our number was called at 2:44pm, for a total wait time of 68 minutes. What the hell happened? I don't know. I think what happened is that the wait time is calculated as an instantaneous difference between the timestamps of the most recent two numbers to appear on the screen, and then the three values for the A, B, and C number pools are averaged. Why would I think that? Well, when started A113 was up on the screen and there were periods where the A numbers would pop up very quickly. During this time the wait time would go from, say, 53 minutes down to 15 minutes very quickly. Also, there were times where the B and C numbers didn't change at all and they stopped calling A numbers... and the aggregate wait time value would fall again.
Whatever they're doing, it would be more accurate to take the ticket from the customer, calculate the difference between the current time and the timestamp on their ticket, and use that quantity... rather than when the numbers show up on the screen.
We'll be waiting for probably 2 hours in our finest to get married here in a few weeks, so I'll just add 20% to the wait time and use that as a low bar!
Warning: This is a rap music blog post! It also contains frank discussion of sex, drugs and rap, hopefully from a somewhat academic perspective, so it's NSFW. If you come here for other stuff, usually, you might want to skip this post.
What is Jerkin'? I'm not exactly sure, and I hope by blogging a bit about it, I can get some input for the record from people involved in the scene. Here's what I know now, in abbreviated form. Probably the most mainstream Jerkin' song is the New Boyz' "You're a Jerk"; check their video out here. Clearly, Jerkin' is a style of music, a series of dance steps and some seriously flashy attire including bright colors, skinny jeans and skating and shit.
Anyway, on to the subject of this post: one thing that's fascinated me is the prevalence of female MCs in Jerkin'. There are a lot of them and these girls can spit furious. They easily hold their own, and then some, against the dudes. I react with enthusiasm to this just as I did with the Riot Grrrl genre (whether guys were invited to that party or not!); there's nothing like women blowing up a sausage fest scene, like hip-hop.
For the rest of this post, I'm going to throw up some samples of particularly good female Jerkin' tunes, verses and such. All of the full songs can be had over at Digital Dripped.
(Incidentally, I get the same visceral "Holy Shit!" reaction with Digital Dripped that many of us had with the original Napster. It seems just too good to be true. And it's encouraging to see tweets from Mikey where he says most of the contacts he gets from record labels are about putting tracks up and not taking them down. Anyway, on to the MCs...)
(I use a flash audio player below... so it might not show up on iPhone or Linux.)
Each of these MCs are smokin' hot. They spit over the fattest beats... definitely turn your speakers up! They do lyrical gymnastics of the highest quality. Be warned: Jerkin' lyrics talk quite frankly about sex... so, deal.
New Era -- Do It Now
This is a remarkable track by New Era. The beat is luscious; the hook is addictively clever and danceable and the verses are top-notch. The subject is pretty novel: she's talking about how much head she gets. She even goes as far as to shout out a list of guys that have done the deed for her. This is flipping the sexual energy around from typical hip-hop; Jerkin' itself can be highly sexual, but this is a woman boasting about her conquests. Superb.
"I get more mouth than a red letter"
New Era -- Dumb Bitch
It's hard for me to tell (living in Jersey and all, and being old and shit) but this appears to be a diss response track to a diss of New Era for boasting about liking to give head in the last track (or some other track). She makes the case that she's not ashamed of her oral sex skills and does so in a scathing manner.
"Cuz, um, if you ain't suckin' dick,
he got a side bitch
And, I can bet money on that one
me and my hubby get it poppin' like a cap gun"
Lala ft. Giddy -- Nymphomaniac
This track is almost too dirty to write about! It's a fast-paced romp using a lot of electric sounds and deep tonal bass. LaLa kills the first verse and Giddy ends it will an equally accomplished lyrical flourish. This is a simple but impressive and sonically large track.
"I'm a nymphomaniac, looking for a brainiac
to teach me a lesson, yup, simple as that.
I'm a nymphomaniac, looking for a brainiac
to show me how to work it, then run it back."
Yummy S Dot -- Get Buck (Remix)
Girls can be aggressive too, yo. This song is about not stepping down at the club when another girl is straight tripping out. Yummy S Dot is not adverse to throwing down... and her verses on this track emphasize her toughness over a heavy bass and electronic synth background.
"Bitch back that, before that ass gets slapped
'cause you hear 'pop! pop!' when the burner 'clap claps'!
Ho, I'm serious, you are delirious
If you think your man ain't know me, are you furious?"
Mz. E Baby -- So Fresh (ft. C-Coop)
This songs is purely copacetic... Mz. E Baby is a lyricist unparalleled in Jerkin', and Jay Star and New Era are about as close to her skills as it comes. This is a heavy hitting, musically minimal and lyrically insane track. E Baby shreds and shreds and just when you think she's killed it enough, the beat drops out and she's coming back 10 times harder.
"What I do, it gotta be right
When I do it, it gotta be tight
More icy than Gucci Mane
???
So Fresh, So Clean
From my head to my toes, I'm covered with bling
I'm hot, you not
now everybody run with me."
Fe Raw -- Fill It Up Snip
Then there's Fe Raw, another remarkable jerkin' female. Very laid-back flow that isn't the best in the verses but bad ass hooks. She has a bunch of other great tracks including "Boy, You Nasty" which is really a fun track.
"'Cuz I'm a bad bitch, badder than you'll ever fuck with
(juice?) in my cup, got me really fucked up
married to the mob, so I'm like, so what
(meet?) in the flow, fill it up"
Jayy Starr -- Raw Bitch
Jayy Star, like New Era and Mz. E Baby is one of my favorites. She is in the stratosphere in terms of lyrical quality. She claims she is a "raw bitch": She raps about how bad ass she is at rapping, how much money she makes and all the guys she can get. And she does this with one superb verse after another.
"Lil' daddy in my ear tryin' to holla
but I only speak money, an he ain't talkin' dollars"
"I swear I'm the realist
Starr spits sick more ill than the illest
dope like crack dealahs,
I'm not the best, what you talking 'bout, Wilis?"
"Stacks on deck, jewels on my neck
(bury?) incorrect, I get respect
cook them checks, goons on deck,
I'm so sex, jerkin', yes
I'm a raw bitch, raw bitch"
Asia Lynn -- Tip Toe
Finally, Asia Lynn throws down this track... and it sounds like the first verse is actually someone else rapping, but I can't figure out who. This is a minimal track and highlights Asia's lyrical style. She is obviously having a good time... in the club, smoking blunts, shaking her ass, making the other girls jealous.
"Tip Toe, when I step in the club
I'm a bad bitch, so these niggas show me love
These bitches steady hating, they some pigeons, I'm a dove
When they see Asia Lynn, it's alright, they know what's up"
Say you’re eager to be voting, on some candidates you’re doting,
While you’re waiting in the polling place this thought might give you pause...
Who was it who configgered, and maybe subtly jiggered
The machines that say who’s president and who will write our laws?
I hope they all mean kindly, but we needn’t trust them blindly,
Or cross our fingers hoping all that stuff will work just fine.
We won’t rely on vapor, we’ll let voters vote on paper,
Then some post-election audits can confirm the bottom line.
Friends, raise your joyful plaudits to post-election audits
Where we count some votes by hand to check the work of the machines.
It might sound esoteric, or tiresomely numeric
But democracy’s at stake, so let’s make sure those counts are clean.
Well, perhaps you run elections and you use the best protections
But some pesky voting activists, they will not be appeased...
If they seem unduly pensive, don’t get angry or defensive,
Some post-election audits will help put their minds at ease!
Brilliant experts work with vigor to implement due rigor
So results can be confirmed before the winners are announced
That negative exponential, it sure does have potential
And PPEBWR, it would too, if it could only be pronounced.
Let’s offer up our plaudits to post-election audits
It’s just plain common sense to check the count, to measure twice,
It strikes me as moronic to place faith in electronics
Y’know everything goes better when you use ten-sided dice.
Be you populist or wonky, be you elephant or donkey,
Green, Reform or independent, it matters not to me...
Let’s make vote verification America’s trendy destination
’Coz it’s democratic bedrock, and on that we can agree.
Yes, let’s sing ecstatic plaudits to our post-election audits
Where we count some votes by hand to see the facts in open sight
There’s no need to sit and wonder if the outcome was a blunder
When a post-election audit can ensure we get it right.
Day 2 of EVT/WOTE 2009 was on the highly mathematical side. The cryptographic papers and auditing papers were presented on Day 2. We started off with a superb tutorial by Ben Adida entitled "Voting Cryptography for Non-Cryptographers". Ben started from very basic concepts and then proceeded through various primitives ending up with my personal favorite, zero knowledge.
Frankly, I'm too tired to summarize more of the event. Suffice it to say that I'm very proud of our speakers and am thankful things went smoothly. It was such a rich event, on so many levels. I'm humbled to be a part of this community.
We had a wonderful first day at EVT/WOTE 2009, yesterday. More than 80 of the best thinkers in voting technology are here mixing it up in Montreal. We have computer scientists, usability experts, legal experts, advocates and voting system vendors all in attendance.
This work involved the first binding use of the Helios open-audit voting system where more than 5,000 ballots were cast. This is a very important step on the path to using types of cryptographic voting systems in real elections. Congratulations to the authors!
I've been taking pictures and have posted them at Flickr. Audio from the talks should be available at some point via USENIX.
Here are some short notes with pictures from the event:
Our keynote was delivered by Lawrence Norden, Senior Counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice and NYU's Voting Technology Project. In my opinion, no one has done more to forward voting technology policy than Larry. Larry contextualized the varied work being presented at the workshop and then talked in depth about how research can help to move policy.
The Honorable Rush Holt (NJ) gave our first invited talk. He talked about the role of science in policy and emphasized how important it is for science to be actively involved with Congress.
The first EVT/WOTE Rump Session was chaired by the incomparable Eric Rescorla... and it was a smashing success. We had over 14 informal presentations of preliminary work, work to be presented in other venues (like ACM CCS), work no one intended to start but that was done anyway and a number of very humorous presentations. The highlight to me, which some missed by leaving early, was Mark Lindeman's debut as a singer/songwriter with his folk song "Plaudits for Post-Election Audits". Video, released with permission from Mark is here: http://www.vimeo.com/6048375
Via Mikey of 
Then there's 
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