03/14/95 RMIUG Meeting Minutes - Phil Zimmerman speaks on PGP

This meeting was the one year anniversary of RMIUG! Congrats to the exec committee for keeping it together for this long and congrats to you all for coming to the meetings (even in the snow :-)

At the March meeting, for the second time in RMIUG's history, we had a major overflow turnout, and were forced to cut off attendance at the fire code limit of 122. many people showed up between 6:15 and 6:45, and had no problem getting seeats; however, RMIUG's executive committee apologizes to those who came later and did not get in, some of whom drove in from outlying communities such as Lafayette and South Denver. The comm has been working on securing a new meeting space since the January meeting overflow, and we hope to announce significant progress on this issue soon. Until arrangements are in place for a good room that will be available on a regular basis and has sufficient capacity for our meetings, we will meet at NCAR and continue to encourage people to show up early.

Seems that the jobs list may be having some problems... bear with us. To check on the status of you subscription, send email to majordomo@rmiug.org with "subscribe rmiug-jobs" in the message body. This will either subscribe you or tell you that you are already subscribed. If you want *off* the list send "unsubscribe rmiug-jobs" in the body of your message. [FYI: We believe only a very few people have been impacted]

Most of the folks at this meeting were from Boulder though we had a handful from Denver and other areas.

Thank you Chuck D'Ambra for being our new ncar sponsor! We really appreciate it!

New Internet service providers

Indra's net is up and running! For info on rates and services, contact them at info@indra.com or call 546.9151.

Tesser is up as well. Call Dwight Reifsnyder as 442.9033 or email info@tesser.com

Denver Free-net is looking to expand its access for the Metro Denver area. they are seeking information on alternative and additional non-campus dial-up/modem access to its system, currently housed at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Information and questions can be addressed to Drew Mirque, Project Administrator at drew@freenet.hsc.colorado.edu

Katie Walter is looking for a job. She just graduated from University of Denver with a cs degree. She is looking primarily in the Boulder/Golden area. You can call her at 642.3502. Good luck Katie :)

Tshirt update: We collected $20 from 40 people for tshirts. This adds up to $800. we can order 50 shirts for $750. We would like to donate the extra $$ to Phil Zimmermann's defense fund. If anyone has objections to this, please mail kaleigh@colorado.edu and we can work out your refund.

Phil Zimmermann will next speak (publically) Wednesday the 12th of April at 7:30, in the Glenn Miller Ballroom. The subject will be The Role of Cryptography in Modern Democracy.

Email for the speakers:

Phil Zimmermann: prz@indra.com
Phil Dubois: dubois@csn.net

Our feature presentation

The feature presentation was by Phil Zimmermann who spoke to us about Public Key Cryptology, and his laywer Phil Dubois who spoke about lots of things including Zimmermann's ongoing battle with the government.

Zimmermann wrote an encryption package called PGP, Pretty Good Privacy, in 1991. It was an old idea turned into something new and delicious to the internet community. PGP software allows you to easily encrypt messages so that only you, or only some other particular individual, can read the message. It also provides a digital 'signature' so that you can prove you're the sender of a message.

Time goes on and this popular software gets around. It was located on many ftp sites around the country and available around the world. People in lotsa different countries had access to it. Our government calls this exporting a weapon to the enemy. Zimmermann is currently under investigation and could be indicted. If convicted, he faces 9-10 years in prison.

Zimmermann explained the development of public key cryptology and how it has been affecting peoples lives. He talked about our privacy and the government's desire to hold the key to our private communications.

Dubois talked about some court cases that have come up concerning 1st amendment rights and privacy and other exports of software and fielded questions from the audience.

Both Phils were very well spoken and open with technical information and personal feelings on these issues.

The ftp site to get PGP (United States only please :)
net-dist.mit.edu in the /pub/PGP directory or http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html

If you would like to make a donation to Phil Zimmermann's defense fund, mail checks to:

Philip L. Dubois, PC
2305 Broadway
Boulder CO 80304-4132

Please put Phil Zimmermann's name in the check memo.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 11th at NCAR and will feature a presentation by Jim Ginsburg of Jones Interactive, a subsidiary of Jones Intercable. His talk will be on the use of cable television facilities for metro area networks, and their Internet access trials via cable.

Suggestions/comments/feedback are always welcome - please email these to rmiug-comm@rmiug.org.

IMPORTANT!! - PLEASE NOTE: This meeting may fill up! We will issue tickets to people that show up on a first come, first serve basis. When we have reached the legal fire code capacity of 122 people, no further people can be admitted. Please show up early if you would like to be guaranteed a seat.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

RMIUG wishes to thank Internet One of Boulder for sponsoring the refreshments, NCAR for the use of their meeting room, and XOR Network Engineering for electronic "stuff."

Contact Information:

RMIUG "Executive" Committee: rmiug-comm@rmiug.org
RMIUG Librarians (Joe Betts & Bo the Bohemian): rmiug-books@rmiug.org
RMIUG has email lists for its members. Send an email to rmiug@rmiug.org for more info