OSDV Labs
From OSDVwiki
The Lab is the place that the work gets done on OSDV projects -- not just coding, but also planning, design, documentation, and demonstration of our technology projects. Here you can read about the 3 projects that are currently under formation.
Comments and feedback are very welcome -- whether you’re just exploring OSDV, or an OSDV contributor looking for the latest in the bigger picture of OSDV activities.
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[edit] Projects
Each project has a set of shared resources that people use to share info and collaborate to develop OSDV work product. OSDV projects are like software development projects within a typical open collaborative organization, but with two differences. First, what’s being developed is not limited to software and hardware. Projects focuses equally on developing new architectures, designing usage processes, drafting specifications, and compiling draft proposed standards to present to the government and the public. Second, and partly because of that breadth, we provide a range of tools and workspaces -- a kind of specialized social network -- for formative discussions, requests for comment, a comment/review process, scheduling and tracking, and the like.
As projects conclude, new projects will cascade forward, building on preceding work and leading to results that can be publicly demonstrated. OSDV will provide the infrastructure to support demonstrations and eventually “test beds” for fully functional devices and systems. The general publicly facing web site will continue to keep the public informed of progress.
Right now, we have 3 projects in the formative stages (with more to follow). Those projects -- called SHARP, SPRUCE, and SCAN -- are summarized below.
[edit] Parallel Projects
Speed and parallel work are key concepts for these projects. OSDV work is intended to be fast paced, employing agile development uniquely combined with the methodical approaches of high assurance technology development. Speed is necessary because while no one expects instant results, the need for breakthrough trusted systems is high. Parallel progress is equally important, with rapid prototyping going in parallel with related work on system specs, use cases, other parts of the open, parallel, high assurance development process that we call T-Spec. Results in each area of work need to be quickly reflected the other area.
As a result, you may get a feeling for a mix of Little Shop of Horrors and Field of Dreams, because we will rapidly build in part to discover what can be achieved, while simultaneously methodically defining and implementing architectures that can verifiably be trusted. Doing both is a key part of OSDV's approach: ''build it and they will come'' is indeed part of OSDV's mission to show the world that voting technology can in fact be ''built for trust, and built to earn it.''
[edit] The SHARP Project: Summary
SHARP stands for "Sustainable High-Assurance Re-usable Platform." The goal of the project is to build a common platform for a variety of election system devices. The platform is primary focus for creating trustworthy systems that are high assurance and high integrity. To pursue those goals, SHARP will demonstrate how to use the Open Toaster Architecture for integrity and assurance.
The SHARP Project wiki includes more information about the current efforts in specification and architecture efforts, and in prototyping via the IOTA Challenge.
[edit] The SPRUCE Project
The SPRUCE (SPecification of Real-World Use Cases for Elections project has an initial focus on developing detailed use cases for how polling places work today, including all the processes, procedures, and the user experience. These early efforts are important to help ensure that:
- The full range of OSDV work -- architecture, design, and development of next generation trustworthy digital voting systems -- embraces the real-world polling-place workflows and voters’ needs;
- Demonstrations of OSDV technology are in synch with current real-world use of voting technology;
- Assesment and studies of OSDV technology are highly relevant and actionable and relevant for adoption and usage.
Very significantly included in documentation efforts is the identification of existing use case descriptions, or similar documentation, that has already been produced by people working in the R&D community (especially the ACCURATE Project), the government community (including the Election Assistance Commission and NIST), the volunteer community (e.g., the League of Women Voters), and personal accounts of poll-workers and other election workers who happen to chronicle their experience in published mediums such as blogs. We encourage everyone who has volunteered at a polling station, or otherwise helped to conduct an election, to share their experiences.
We’ll admit that this initial work isn’t very geeky or enthralling, and we don't expect OSDV developer community folks to fan out across the country to document voting processes. But the are two main reasons why is why it’s necessary and why some people have a passion for it.
First, at OSDV we believe foremost in having an impact by producing work product that fits into the way that U.S. elections are conducted now, rather than assuming that we can effect changes in polling practices simply by producing really cool technology. As a result, we have to be specific in identifying exactly where and how our work could positively impact existing polling practices. Therefore, we have to collect, extend, or create a body of documentation that explains exactly what those practices are.
Second, in order to build any high-assurance software or system, you have to have a specific and true story about how it is used and what it does. Brewing up the code for a wonderful system, by itself, isn’t sufficient. Therefore, we have to develop technology with reference to those true stories.
Both of these factors a crucial to the overarching goal: while we do want to set the standard for next generation voting technology in a digital democracy, we also need to assure a compatibility and migration path for the ways and means of current polling.
But the work of the SPRUCE project doesn’t stop there! SPRUCE will incorporate the important categorization work of the EAC Volunteer Voting Systems Guidelines (http://tinyurl.com/3yq58u).
But the work in SPRUCE certainly doesn’t stop there! More information is available in the SPRUCE Project wiki, notably including the work to leverage the system categorization work of NIST’s VVWG and OSDV reference implementations to prove that high assurance technology can fit into and improve the veracity of existing elections operations.
[edit] The SCAN Project
The SCAN project focuses on development of a first demonstration of a simple, but essential digital voting device, using the SHARP platform and the Open Toaster Architecture. Specifically, this is a type of device commonly used, fairly simple to specify, and for which some of its functionality is already implemented in open source software – that is: the digital tool for scanning and tabulating ballots. SCAN project demonstrations will address:
- How trustworthy ballot scanners should work; and
- A feasibility pilot for assessing and certifying “high assurance” digital voting devices.
SCAN is the first project for the development of a demonstratable piece of electronic election equipment. (SCAN is not an acronym, by the way, although for no real reason it does start with the same letter as SHARP and SPRUCE.) The SCAN prototype will be based on efforts in SHARP, but SCAN efforts can fork off early for parallel rapid development of SHARP platform and SCAN software adapted to SHARP APIs.
The goals for SCAN are not simply to build an open-source ballot-scanner and demonstrate it, but also to prove that such a system can be built as a high-assurance system – built for trust, and built to earn it. Therefore, some of the important work in SCAN will be applicable to other types of voting equipment, especially increased understanding of answers to questions about system assessment. That’s why part of the SCAN demonstration includes a pilot assessment activity that might demonstrate answers to questions like: "Assuming we started with a high assurance platform that was already assessed and vetted, plus some software that runs on the platform, how would we build a system in such a way that it would be feasible to show that the system didn’t include modifications to the platform?" That's just the beginning of looking at how others can leverage OSDV work to manufacture trustworthy products.
The SCAN Project wiki includes more information.
[edit] For More Information
Each projects wiki section has more information on all the project activities, and is intended to be a full, public, and transparent source of information about all OSDV activities. In addition, working documents and drafts for review are available in the OSDV Document Repository.
