[kw-pm] CAcert talk, May 19th

[Daniel Allen]

A reminder about our meeting on Thursday the 19th of May, for anyone
interested in SSL certificates based on webs-of-trust!

Please note location change to MC 5158 (a larger room). See below for all
the details.

*ABOUT CACERT*

tl;dr version: *Free two-year renewable SSL server certificates!*

CAcert <http://www.cacert.org/> is an alternative to the commercial
certificate authorities (CAs), allowing users to create free SSL
certificates signed by a trusted CA.

We plan to have an Assurance event at our May kw.pm meeting, Thursday the
19th of May. Come out, learn about CAcert, and we expect that we'll have
enough "assurers" present to get you started (able to make certificates; and
build the web of trust by assuring others).

*To Participate at the Meeting*

To receive assurance points at the meeting, please visit
CAcert.org<http://www.cacert.org/>and make yourself an account, tied
to an email address you will use to
receive assurances at the meeting. Also please bring two forms of government
issued photo ID; such as provincial health card, passport, driver's licence,
etc. (Your ID will just be reviewed, not recorded).

Optionally, bring a laptop and you can follow along to install the CAcert
root certificates in your browsers, and log into CAcert.org to review your
status along the way to being an assurer.

Put your name on the PizzaList
<http://kw.pm.org/wiki/index.cgi?PizzaList>for free pizza (sponsored
by an anonymous rotating donor).

*The Local Network of Trust*

>From the CAcert Assurance
Handbook<http://wiki.cacert.org/AssuranceHandbook2#Some_more_information_on_CAcert>:


   - CAcert separates assurance (confirmation of identity) from the issuing
   of the certificates. Thereby the identity only has to be confirmed once to
   make as many certificates as needed and whenever wanted.
   - CAcert is a "non-profit" community of volunteers. It is independent
   from commercial CAs.
   - Some CAs issue free certs, and some use a Web of Trust, but they tend
   to only issue low-level client certificates, but no server certificates or
   strongly verified certs. These free certs are intended to drive you to their
   CA so they can sell you higher value products. There is nothing wrong with
   that (your supermarket does the same thing) but it might not be appropriate
   to your needs.

 It's important to get a good network of trust built up. The more people you
have who have assured your identity the better.

The Kitchener/Waterloo area has only a few registered assurers. At this
meeting, we can at least double the number of assurers, putting us roughly
on par with Toronto's count of assurers!... And thereby growing the global
web-of-trust.

*Location*

This meeting will be held in MC 5158, in the Math Building. Here's a
map<http://kw.pm.org/maps/finding-math-building.png>.
If you're driving, the recommended parking is in Lot N, $3 pay-and-display.
>From Lot N, it's a short walk along the Ring Road to DC then a right onto
the service road to MC. (There is construction blocking some paths on
campus, marked as hard-hats on the map above).

Hope to see you on Thursday the 19th!
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