Jacob Strauss

Device transparency: a new model for mobile storage

This paper proposes a new storage model, device transparency, in which users view and manage their entire data collection from any of their devices, even from disconnected storage-limited devices holding only a subset of the entire collection.

An offline foundation for online accountable pseudonyms

Online anonymity often appears to undermine accountability, offering little incentive for civil behavior, but accountability failures usually result not from anonymity itself but from the disposability of virtual identities. A user banned for misbehavior---e.g., spamming from a free E-mail account or stuffing an online ballot box---can simply open other accounts or connect from other IP addresses. Instead of curtailing freedom of expression by giving up anonymity, online services and communities should support accountable pseudonyms: virtual personas that can provide both anonymity and accountability. We propose Pseudonym parties, a scheme for creating accountable pseudonyms, which combine inperson social occasions (parties) with technical infrastructure (a pseudonymous sign-on service) to enforce the rule that one real person gets one virtual persona on any participating online service. Pseudonym parties enable the user to adopt different personas in different online spaces without revealing the connection between them, while ensuring that each user has only one accountable pseudonym in each space. Pseudonym parties can be started incrementally in a fully decentralized fashion, can run on volunteer labor with minimal funds, and may even be fun.

UIA: a user information architecture for personal devices

We are heading for a device information disaster. Many people already store information on dozens of devices, but are unable to organize and find their scattered information effectively. A given picture might be on a digital camera, a home PC, a laptop, an iPod Photo, or a cell phone. Even knowing a files location is often not enough, because the relevant device may be on the far side of a firewall or not currently plugged into a PCs USB port. Sharing pictures, documents, or multimedia with family, friends, and colleagues today requires one to upload the information from a portable device to a personal computer and then E-mail it, or copy files via a physical medium such as a USB key.