tweaks to the webpage to improve look and layout slight.

[monkeysphere.git] / website / why.mdwn

diff --git a/website/why.mdwn b/website/why.mdwn
index b9f41172627628b899e8c1d83a6ab68903b84461..336643988abae643b51c514f079194884fb67cc8 100644 (file)
--- a/website/why.mdwn
+++ b/website/why.mdwn
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ ever connected to?
 
 [Get started with the monkeysphere as a user!](/getting-started-user)
 
-## As an system administrator ##
+## As a system administrator ##
 
 As a system administrator, have you ever tried to re-key an SSH
 server?  How did you communicate the key change to your users?  How
@@ -135,3 +135,43 @@ than the current infrastructure allows, and is more meaningful to
 actual humans using these tools than some message like "Certified by
 GloboTrust".
 
+## Philosophy ##
+
+Humans (and
+[monkeys](http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi-17/mi-17.html))
+have the innate capacity to keep track of the identities of only a
+finite number of people. After our social sphere exceeds several dozen
+or several hundred (depending on the individual), our ability to
+remember and distinguish people begins to break down. In other words,
+at a certain point, we can't know for sure that the person we ran into
+in the produce aisle really is the same person who we met at the party
+last week.
+
+For most of us, this limitation has not posed much of a problem in our
+daily, off-line lives.  With the Internet, however, we have an ability
+to interact with vastly larger numbers of people than we had
+before. In addition, on the Internet we lose many of our tricks for
+remembering and identifying people (physical characteristics, sound of
+the voice, etc.).
+
+Fortunately, with online communications we have easy access to tools
+that can help us navigate these problems.
+[OpenPGP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openpgp) (a cryptographic
+protocol commonly used for sending signed and encrypted email
+messages) is one such tool. In its simplest form, it allows us to
+sign our communication in such a way that the recipient can verify the
+sender.
+
+OpenPGP goes beyond this simple use to implement a feature known as
+the [web of trust](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_of_trust). The web
+of trust allows people who have never met in person to communicate
+with a reasonable degree of certainty that they are who they say they
+are. It works like this: Person A trusts Person B. Person B verifies
+Person C's identity.  Then, Person A can verify Person C's identity
+because of their trust of Person B.
+
+The Monkeyshpere's broader goals are to extend the use of OpenPGP from
+email communications to other activities, such as:
+
+ * conclusively identifying the remote server in a remote login session
+ * granting access to servers to people we've never directly met