Profile: Tor
Authors
Rationale
There are so many subjects you could choose to profile, so why did you choose this one? What drew you into wanting to know more about the organization? How did you/your group decide on and agree?
Tor is a project that has significant impact on the world today. With users being uncertain of the privacy of their online activities, Tor is a tool that we think will be looked to increasingly for protection.
Organizational Details
Is the subject of your profile a corporate entity?
Yes.
What type?
The Tor Project, Inc is a Massachusetts-based 501(c)(3) research-education non-profit organization.
When was it founded?
December, 2006.
By whom?
Rober Dingledine and Nick Mathewson.
Original founder(s) still active?
Yes.
Publicly Traded? Since when? Initial Stock Price? Current stock price?
The organization is not publicly traded.
Has the company made any acquisitions? If yes, which companies, and what were their core products?
No acquisitions.
Has the company made any investments in other companies? If yes, which ones.
No investments.
Number of Employees?
The Tor website lists 64 individuals as "core people". It is unclear which of these are employees or volunteers.
Where is HQ?
The Tor Project, Inc
7 Temple Street, Suite A
Cambridge, MA 02139-2403 USA
Does it have any other offices or locations?
No.
Website?
Wikipedia?
There are two articles, one for the software and one for the organization.
Does your organization file any annual reports? Please include links to any relevant documents (i.e. 990, Annual Report, Year in Review, etc...)
Financial reports are available here.
Communications
Social media for Tor
Does your subject participate in social media? If yes, please list a URL for each account, and reach within that community.
Communications channels for Tor
What communication channels does your subject use to reach their public? Briefly describe and include a URL for each.
Tor has four channels on OFTC -- the following descriptions are taken directly from the Tor Project website:
- #tor - User and relay operation discussions. Having trouble running Tor or a question for other Tor users? Then this is the spot for you.
- #tor-dev - Channel for people who want to do development. Discussions about Tor-related coding, protocols, and project ideas are all welcome.
- #tor-project - Organization discussions unrelated to software development. A great place to discuss Tor community events, outreach, translation, or website improvements.
- #nottor - This is where Tor people hang out to talk about stuff that is not related to Tor.
Tor also has three mailing lists:
- tor-talk@lists.torproject.org is for discussion on the theory, development, and use of onion routing.
- tor-dev@lists.torproject.org is for Tor research and development.
- bad-relays@lists.torproject.org is for reporting relays that are either improperly configured or malicious.
Tor Conference Participation
Does your subject organize or articipate in any conferences? If so, list them here, and provide links to any relevant sessions, keynotes, or content.
They very infrequently participate in a conference or two. You can stay up to date here.
Community Architecture
Your subject likely runs or contributes to one or more Open Source products or projects. Choose one (or more) of these and answer the following questions (provide links is applicable).
The project's IRC Channel
See Communication channels for Tor.
Source Code repository
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git
Mail list archive
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo
Documentation
https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en
Other communication channels
https://www.torproject.org/about/contact.html.en
Project Website and/or Blog
https://www.torproject.org
Describe the software project, its purpose and goals.
The Tor network is a group of volunteer-operated servers that allows people to improve their privacy and security on the Internet.
Give brief history of the project. When was the Initial Commit? The latest commit?
The initial commit was on September 20th, 2002. The latest commit (as of 17:36 EST on May 14, 2015) was at 11:09 EST on May 14, 2015, approximately six hours prior to this check.
Who approves patches? How many people?
The project lead will approve patches for each project.
Who has commit access, or has had patches accepted? How many total?
135 people have contributed and ~15 have commit access.
Has there been any turnover in the Core Team? (i.e. has the top 20% of contributors stayed the same over time? If not, how has it changed?)
The core team has, to this date, never changed.
Does the project have a BDFL, or Lead Developer? (BDFL == Benevolent Dictator for Life)
The BDFL is Nick Mathewson.
Are the front and back end developers the same people? What is the proportion of each?
Based on a quick look through the core people page, it appears that different people work on different parts of the project. It is difficult, however, to get a sense of what the proportions are, as a lot of developers work on several different projects within Tor.
What have been some of the major bugs/problems/issues that have arisen during development? Who is responsible for quality control and bug repair?
Presumably, the project leads are responsible for quality control and bug repair within their individual projects. A list of major problems that Tor has dealt with is available on the Wikipedia page.
How is the project's participation trending and why?
Participation has been consistently trending upwards, probably because of the increased concern in security due to recent events in the US.
In your opinion, does the project pass "The Raptor Test?" (i.e. Would the project survive if the BDFL, or most active contributor were eaten by a Velociraptor?) Why or why not?
No: 50.3% of commits to the repo are by a single developer -- if that developer left, the project may continue through community support, but there will definitely be significant shocks.
In your opinion, would the project survive if the core team, or most active 20% of contributors, were hit by a bus? Why or why not?
Similarly to the Raptor Test, the project has the potential to be continued by those with a community interest, but 80.3% of commits were made by the top two contributers.
Does the project have an official "on-boarding" process in place? (new contributor guides, quickstarts, communication leads who focus specifically on newbies, etc...)
Helpful utilities for new developers can be found in this repo.
Does the project have Documentation available? Is it extensive? Does it include code examples?
https://www.torproject.org/docs/documentation.html.en
If you were going to contribute to this project, but ran into trouble or hit blockers, who would you contact, and how?
We would visit the team on IRC or get help through the mailing lists.
Based on these answers, how would you describe the decision making structure/process of this group? Is it hierarchical, consensus building, ruled by a small group, barely contained chaos, or ruled by a single or pair of individuals?
Based on the commit data and core people page, we would conclude that it is a combination of heirarchical and ruled by a pair of individuals.
Is this the kind of structure you would enjoy working in? Why, or why not?
Speaking for myself, I would be alright working in this sort of community, as there would be someone above me to consult with on issues, and someone to catch any fatal mistakes I happen to make.
Technology/Product
Section adapted from EFF Worksheet
Who invented, created, or sponsored the technology?
Dr. Paul Syverson was the inventor of onion routing, while Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and Paul Syverson were the original three developers of Tor. Contributors in the United States government contribute approximately 80% of Tor's funding.
What is the technology designed to do? How is it used?
Tor is designed to make it difficult to trace Internet activity back to the user by routing packets through several relays that have only limited knowledge of where the packet came from and where the packet is headed.
Who would benefit from using this technology?
Anyone who desires to keep their Internet usage private would benefit from Tor.
What kinds of companies or organizations (stakeholders) might have been concerned about the development of this technology? Why?
Any governmental institution that might want to have access to or control the Internet usage of their constituents would likely be concerned. Interestingly, those same actors might also be interested in the project -- the reason that the United States Department of Defense funds the project, for example, is because they want access to an 'anonymization' service that is not only used by governmental agencies, but also by regular citizens.
Does/Did an aspect of copyright law play a role in controversies about the technology? How?
While users could in theory use Tor or similar services to anonymize their traffic while engaging in copyright infringement, most controversies have been related to drugs and other illict activity.
Business and Revenue Model
How was this organization funded originally?
The project was originally created by DARPA -- when the code was open-sourced in 2004, the EFF funded some of the original developers to continue development.
How does this organization make revenue?
This organization makes revenue primarily through research grant-like agreements with governmental organizations in the US, as well as donations from other organizations and individuals.
Which specific Open Source Revenue Models are utilized?
This organization does not fit all that cleanly into the revenue models discussed -- it is essentially contracted to work on the open source project by a government.
What investments/acquisitions has the organization made?
The organization has made no investments or acquisitions, to our knowledge.