blog « Hackers For Charity

A long day. I went to the gym despite the rain. Yes, there’s a decent gym in Jinja. It’s owned by a friend that’s a good businessman. The gym a big deal because I quit for the longest time and I’ve paid for it in so many ways. I’ve had less energy and I’ve been getting sick a lot. So the gym has been one of those must-do things three days a week. I hated it when I started, but I’ve spent lots of years in the gym and when I’m back to it, it feels really good, very familiar. But thanks to David Litchfield, I’m completely sore. His workout is ridiculous. Thanks, Dave.

Odd occurrence of the day: A couple MiGs were making flyovers all day. This is a really strange thing because we’re not used to planes. When any plane goes over it’s usually a little puddle jumper and people stop what they’re doing and watch it pass. We don’t have chem trails in the sky and the sound is quite out of the ordinary. And fighter jets are unheard of. We had seen these guys in the North and heard they’re owned by Uganda but flown by Brits(?) but I’m not sure. Either way, odd.

After breakfast I stopped some of our leather journals (http://www.hackersforcharity.org/leather) up to the Source Cafe, one of the mainstays on Main Street and arguably the biggest tourist destination. So far we’ve only sold our leather crafts from The Keep, and business has been slow. I talked to my friend Bobby, one of the key guys at the Source and he suggested I bring the stuff in. So I grabbed some stuff and shlepped up there (around the corner) and ran into Bobby there. We talked for a long time. This is normal here. You set out to do one thing, and something else pops up. Relationships are important here, so it’s a bad idea to blow someone off if you run into them. But I never mind talking to Bobby. He’s a modern Renaissance Man. The guys knows more than Google. Seriously. If I need to know about oddball plants or bees or technology or crabbing or African history, or a good recipe for homemade Feta (yes, he’s done it and it’s DISGUSTING!) I ask Bobby. We had a great chat about lots of things then talked about the Volunteer Network, our latest project. As always, he had great insight.

After checking in on the leather team at the workshop, I dug in for the next eight hours working with our amazing app developer Vito on the Volunteer Network.

Some of you may remember us talking about it at various conferences. It started as a talk at Defcon where we launched “Infosec Without Borders” as a way to connect Infosec professionals with charities that had need for free or low-cost security work. Then, we launched the Volunteer Network v1.0 at DerbyCon with an expanded scope: it wasn’t just for security anymore but rather for anyone with tech skils (or gear) and spare cycles that wanted to lend a helping hand. We put it up at http://volunteer.hackersforcharity.org and hundreds of people signed up. (Don’t sign up on that site yet. It’s getting upgraded).

The problem was, that after signing up, there wasn’t much to do. The app needed some work. So we’ve been working for countless hours on getting the app right, and Vito, Sam, Glenn and I have literally put in hundreds of hours to get this thing right and it’s been my full time job working with Vito this past week.

I penned a letter to a trusted group of friends explaining how the thing will work, and I’ll paste it here. It’s a good overview of the system and where we are with it.

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Since my first trip to Uganda, I’ve wanted to share that feeling I had when I used my skills to help someone in need. I dreamed of hackers coming to Africa and building trippy things, and of course that leaves out the majority of the community, most of whom would rather not risk getting eaten by a grue. Still, I find there are lots of people asking for things to do.. people with good hearts and some spare cycles.

Eventually I had an idea for a simple app that would connect volunteers, charities and (equipment) donors. I’m calling that the “Volunteer Network”.

<plug>I’m working with an AWESOME web coder in Croatia, a young man named Vito. If you need some talent, please let me know.</plug>

The concept is simple and it’s nearly finished. It centers on a Google map that shows volunteers and charities (charities can also see donors) and this allows you to easily see what’s around you. You can register as one of the three entities. If you volunteer as a charity, you fill out a lot including basic information, proof of non profit status and a select from a list of needs (“I need a web site” or “I need graphic design” or “I need an app assessment” or “I need hardware repair”,  etc).

Similarly, volunteers answer some questions and select from a list of skills (like “pen testing” or “graphic design”, etc).

After verification by a human charities get access to the system. From inside the system, the map is searchable and more interactive and both sides can poke around to (likely) find some things in their local area. Another approach is to go to the dashboard which presents them with various simple things including a list of volunteers within 100 miles (configurable) whose skills match their needs. (At some point we may allow a more global/specific search mechanism to find help/work that is non-geographical).

A logged in volunteer is presented with a similar list of charities whose needs match their skills. At this point, either side can click on the profile to see more information about the other, and then do one of three things: send a message, ask for (or offer) help, or report the user/charity. Messages are straight forward and stay within the system.

“Help” can be accepted, denied or reported. If it is accepted, a work “journal” is created. The journal is done in a handwriting font, and allows the charity and volunteer to “chat” back and forth as the work progresses. Each entry is timestamped, uneditable and is signed by the author. Once the work finishes, the journal can be closed with a final review statement that can be made by either side, at which point the journal is archived and can be reviewed by either party but not edited.

This is as far as we’ve gotten. Now the sticky parts that require some thought.

1) “Groups”: Especially in my area, I want to be the “core” volunteer agency. I would like charities to find me and ask for help, and once I accept it, I will task a “volunteer” (HFC employee) to do the work. So my volunteers are on the system, but set to not show on the map, and set to inactive (these are configurable options). That means they don’t show (duh) and can’t be tasked except by me. So I was thinking that instead of groups, we would make the work journals shared so that once I share it, the charity, my employee and I can all read and write to it. In this way, the hand off is mostly transparent but the work continues through the journal which like other things in the system can reach out via SMS / social networks when there’s something new. (Anyone know of a reliable free SMS gateway?)

2) Rewards / “Reputation”: I want to reward volunteers. I know that most people who do this will have purely altruistic motives, but still it doesn’t hurt to have other motivators. Anyone have any ideas? I also like the idea of “reputation scores” for work well done, but can’t get my brain wrapped around how that will look in the app or in real life. Does a score translate into something IRL? Do their map icons get shinier and blingtastical? Are reputations floated as a number near the marker if that’s even possible with gmaps? I’m just at a loss here. Perhaps companies donated shwag or jobs or gear or something for top volunteers once a month? Wide open for discussion here.

3) Community integration: Although I feel like I’m losing my perspective / perceived relevance quickly these days, I still feel in my heart like this is a good and needed thing.. that there are people out there that still want to do good stuff and that it’s about damn time to change the hacker image even slightly by doing positive stuff. But this isn’t possible without the rest of the community backing it up. But what does that look like? This isn’t about giving HFC money (which YOU ALL have made happen time and time again), but rather about the community making it fun and cool and perhaps providing the kick in the pants some people might need. Any ideas here? Conferences are a big one, but other than thinking about swarming a con area ahead of con with good work then providing at-conference prizes, incentives (which isn’t creative, likely or plausible) I’m just drawing a blank.

4) System enhancements: Are there things that I haven’t mentioned that should be integrated into this system that I haven’t thought of? We have a task manager which is super-simple (Name, due date, rating, status) but not much else.

For those that have read this part, I commend you. I hadn’t really intended this to be such a long email, but those that know me know I can’t help it sometimes.

I’m looking forward to some dialog around this. I’ve been alone in the closet far too long with this. No, not that closet.”

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Back when I started this blog, I used it as a way of communicating my experiences as I worked in Uganda. When we first moved here our bandwidth was so pathetic that I wrote in a journal, took a photo of the page and posted it here. The things I wrote were both personal and HFC related. I wrote about life as we adjusted to a new culture. People read those journals and left comments. There was interest in what we were doing. Then, our bandwidth improved and I got onto Facebook and twitter. Whenever I posted to this blog, my Facebook page and twitter feed would automagically get updated with a link to the blog.

And as our one-year trip to Uganda turned into three and then four, life became more mundane. We were more used to the culture and I stopped blogging because I thought, “Who cares, anyway?” Basically I got lazy. But I also felt like I was whining a lot, so I turned to a place where that seemed more natural: Facebook.

Facebook became my primary outlet and I abandoned this blog. I started caring about odd things like how many friends I had, how many likes my posts got and how many messages I got. I found myself pulled into the trap of caring too much about how many people liked me. And I got frustrated.

The fact is, this wasn’t ever about getting people to like me. I’m doing what I do because I can’t NOT do it. Every time I stray too far from what I’ve been called to do, whether it’s personally, spiritually, mentally or physically, my life goes off the rails in some (often dramatic) way.

So it’s back to basics. I’m blogging here because I found that Facebook took me too far from my purpose. I wanted to talk about HFC stuff and what’s going on. I wanted to get input about projects and hear what people have to say about what we’re doing. It’s not Facebook’s fault that I couldn’t find that there because Facebook isn’t about that. This blog, although it’s clunky and a bit too one-way for my liking is the one small place in the universe where I can talk about what’s going on with HFC (and what’s going on in Uganda) without worrying about what my readers might think. Because if you’ve come here to read this, you already have an interest.

So my goal is to post every day and talk about what’s going on with HFC in general, the work in Uganda and the rather HUGE and time consuming project we’ve been working on over the past few months.

See you soon back on the blog.

Johnny

I’m really excited about the upcoming ISSA Kentuckiana pen testing course!

“Jeremy Druin will demonstrate how to set up a web pen-testing lab on a Windows laptop using Virtual Box, XAMPP and Mutillidae. Additionally Jeremy will show how to set up a “pen test lab in a box” using Samurai Linux and Mutillidae. Updates and links will be tweeted to @webpwnized.”

These folks have always been big supporters of our work, and this course is no exception. We’re already seeing donations from attendees and the class isn’t until May! Check out their web page and attend the course if you’re in the area! Thanks guys!

I received a great email from Keith and Lisa Coggin the other day and I thought I would share it with you. Loyal readers will remember that we set up this classroom in Gulu, one of the most war-torn areas in East Africa popularized by Joseph Koni and his army of abducted children soldiers.

We had set up classrooms before in Kenya and Uganda, and the result wasn’t always that great. In most cases the machines were neglected and the classrooms deteriorated sometimes to the point that we had to remove all the equipment. So needless to say I had some fears about how this equipment would end up. After all, they were living in a very remote area.

But the photos they sent set my mind at ease. I could see that the machines We’re in excellent shape. They were all clean, the room was swept and it looked almost as if we had just installed everything.

Students seemed interested and attentive, and the teacher had their attention. If this doesn’t seem like a big deal, rest assured that it is. We haven’t had the best track record with these classrooms which is why we moved to the model of running a community training center where we could maintain the machines ourselves.

I had a feeling this time would be different. Keith and Lisa initially reported that the computer teacher, Emily was extremely excited to have the machines at her disposal, more than that she was anxious to get more training for herself. So they signed her up for classes at our training center and sure enough she showed up. Not only did Emily show up, she exceeded our expectations and took more than the basic requirements. Now she’s anxious to come back to Jinja to take more advanced training during the term break.

Needless to say, I’m excited about this progress and can’t wait to see how things continue to unfold.

Thanks for making this classroom possible and enjoy the photos!

I spent the past seven days being sick. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a sickness that changed your perspective, but this one changed mine. It came out of nowhere with total body weakness and a 104+ fever. I thought it was malaria but couldn’t get to the clinic so I popped some Artequin and went to bed.

Jen called a missionary doctor friend when I started hallucinating. She checked me out (so I’m told) and her initial thought was that I had a bacterial infection. I only remember bits and pieces of that night, but I know it was miserable. It turned out I didn’t have malaria (still not sure what it was) so the treatment was antibiotics, water and rest. The days that followed were miserable between the headaches, neck aches, fevers, stomach problems and body aches. As I was laying in bed on the third day, I realized something pretty profound, at least for me. Ready for it?

I realized I was miserable. I know. Deep, right?

There I was with every comfort. I had a laptop, and all the movies I cared to watch. I was in a comfortable bed with lots of blankets and pillows. I had a nice fan to cool me off and wet washcloths I could put on my face. I had all the medications I could need. I had a clean, comfortable, private bathroom with nice cold water and a toilet that I could sit on comfortably instead of squatting as is the norm here. I had clean, cold drinking water and even some Mio and AP thanks to some good friends. I had access to massive quantities of chicken soup. I had people to care for me.

But despite all this, I still felt really really bad. Despite all the comforts, I felt like death and I was miserable.

That’s when I started realizing stuff. When I get sick, or something bad happens, there’s really only two options. I can turn in, or I can look out. (Or some combination of the two). When I turned in, I was miserable. After all, I felt miserable. Everything hurt and I was sicker than I had ever been in my adult life. But, when I tried to get outside my little bubble, I realized that I had a lot to be thankful for. At first, I ignored the neck ache long enough to realize I appreciated the movies I had to keep me occupied. One tiny step. Then, I realized that if it weren’t for the meds and the water and the food, I’d be even worse off. Then I realized that without people caring for me, I would have likely croaked. Then, I realized that there were people likely within a stone’s throw that would be eternally grateful for even one thing from my list of comforts. And just like that, with one little step, I was outside the bubble, looking out, my mind reeling with ideas about ways I could help people that were in desperate need, with no comfort and no hope.

All this happened in my brain while I lay in bed.

As I regained my strength, my daily routine started beckoning. There were things to do. We had our first team staying with us downstairs (the bed and breakfast). I could hear hammering from the workshop and realized that the leather program likely needed some attention. The Computer Training Center likely needed attention.

And then, like a whisper came a spirit of regret and guilt. What about the people in need, sick in bed? What about those profound revelations? Was is supposed to change course again? Was i supposed to reinvent myself yet again, not as penance or as a way to run away (which I’ve done more than once) but shift gears into something wholly different?

The answer came slowly.

As I descended the stairs, I found the team preparing for the day. I talked to them about the work they had planned. They were bringing medical supplies, treatment and comfort to children through local baby homes. One of the members, an Army-trained nurse cared for an HIV+ baby that was deathly sick. He hydrated the baby, brought his fever down and fed him. The next morning the baby had made drastic improvements.

I wandered out to the leather workshop and found two members of the team toiling away. The village teams had sent in paper that they had stained. The leather project was working. People had jobs, income, skills, a way forward.

I wandered back to the house to check on the day’s work. A single MacBook waited for repair. It belonged to a young lady that had completely sold out to move to Uganda to Serve Children. Her laptop was the link to her supporters and donors. Her hard drive had crashed, but thanks to one of our volunteers donation of a hard drive, I was able to get her back up and running.

And just like that, I understood. When we first left for Uganda, we had no clue what we were supposed to do here. Over time, though we listened and we learned. We found a niche in computer support, then computer training, then through community service and support through the restaurant and BnB. Through lots of missteps, heartaches, disappointments and trials we landed in this spot which is clearly defined as “support”.

The work that’s in front of me is important, and for a long time I guess I started to doubt that. I wanted to be center stage.. again. But I’ve spent a lot of time there, and right now I’m supposed to be backstage. I need to work harder and smarter at this role, but I’m sure this is exactly where I’m supposed to be.

It’s just curious that I had to be thrown off the stage to realize it.

This week we began our leather training program. We have about 15 people coming for the training, all personally selected by Calvary Chapel based on the individual’s need and situation.

It’s taken over a year for us to get this training program rolling. After meeting the Williams family from northern Uganda, I fell back “in love” with leather, a holdover from my D&D/RenFest days and from my time in Morocco watching some of the finest leather crafters in the world. Although the local tannery(!) supplied leather, I was amazed that no local craftsman had taken the initiative to make anything decent out of leather. After talking the the HFC board we decided to invest in some leather crafting tools with the goal of learning to create items to sell at cons and to start a program to teach those in need a skill that could help them out and set them on a course for a better future.

Of course that meant I had to learn a bit about leather crafting. After months of watching videos online (at pathetic painfully slow Internet speeds) and reading lots of web pages and books (thanks to Tandy for all that!) I had finally figured a few things out. Then Jen took an interest and her creativity and artistic talent blew the lid off this thing until suddenly, we knew enough to teach others.

So with all that history out of the way, I’ve caught you up to this week and our training.

We are teaching various levels if skill this week to find out who has what strengths. Our goal is to provide jobs to anyone in the program facing dire need, regardless of skill, creativity or natural ability. In short, there’s something for everyone.

One of the the biggest products we’ll produce are journals, which are made with leather covers and have a feel of something old, that’s traveled the world. Theses require tearing, folding, punching and dying paper. This can be quite time-consuming, especially the dying and sun drying which even in the Ugandan sun can take two hours per batch, but this job in particular pays well and doesn’t require much strength or ability other than patience.. Especially when the wind kicks up and the pages turn into tiny kites. Our paper teams will work from their homes and we will supply them with all the tools they need. This allows them to work at their own pace and on their own schedule and lets them work other jobs if needed an also attend to their families.

Jen came in to teach a sketching and stylus course which definitely takes some artistic ability. As the group began their sketching it became obvious that only a select few would be able to assist with the more artistic pieces such as journal covers and bracelets.

I also taught saddle stitching, which is much harder than it looks. As we sat in the grass and the ladies followed along, i found that, again, only a small majority of the ladies had the hand strength to work with even the thinnest leather. However, as I helped refine their grip, I saw a lot of improvement and eventually everyone from the youngest to the oldest made near perfect stitching runs. Some were advanced enough that they made perfect runs at record pace. Our advanced students were starting to emerge.

As the ladies stitched, I took the men aside and we started working with metal for bracelets and dog tags. I chose the men because metal work takes lots of hand strength and the men were more interested anyway. After some time cutting and filing, the men proved that they had great skill and we found another job that could be done from home.

As the students advanced through various training exercises, we learned that we will likely have an advanced team that works out of our workshop (converted garage) where they will have access to more instruction and a wider variety of tools. These select few have raw ability and we’re excited to see how they will grow.

Our training continues until Friday when we begin testing and will make final selections for various teams.

The leather products you see in our etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/hackersforcharity2) are still made by Jen and I since they are rather advanced but in the weeks toxins we will release products made in collaboration with our new students.

Thanks for supporting us and for making a real difference in the lives of our students. Without your donation and support we never would have been able to pull this off.

I want to take a moment to wish everyone a happy New Year and to say, “Thanks”. Together, we’ve had a great year. We’ve trained hundreds of students in our training center, rebuilt a village, started a leatherworking program, assisted dozens of organizations with technical challenges and launched a site that will expand our volunteer network internationally. For the first time since our journey began, my family and I are living completely off of donations from the hacker community which allows us to better focus on HFC. I’m thankful to each and every one of our donors and volunteers. Together, we’re making a difference and I’m looking forward to another great year.

Jen and I have been working on some leather projects. The badges are hand carved and measure 2″ x 3″. They are velcro-backed, for backpacks, BDU’s, hats, etc. The bracelets are in a couple varieties with snaps (exact fit) or leather tie (for more flexibility). The journal shown is mine, lined with goatskin, hand carved leather. Jen’s journal photos coming soon. So what do you guys think? Do you like or dislike any of these? Any other ideas?

We (finally) were able to unlock two iPhones for Renee and company over at Serving His Children (http://www.servinghischildren.org). They are doing some really (really) amazing work, so when they came to me with locked iPhones, I was excited to help them out. Unfortunately, they turned out to be really painful and difficult unlocks, but finally they fell. (Thanks, Sam). Renee and her staff will be using the phones not only as phones but to blog, take photos, and more. We look forward to seeing how these phones will help their ministry.

Hey guys! Hack3rcon is approaching! Let’s help sell them out. They’ve been really big supporters and have put in a ton of work. It’s shaping up to be a great con! http://www.hack3rcon.org