2025/05 Project Status and Updates

May 2025 has passed, and amidst all the ongoing events, we would like to share the progress of the project over the past month with you!

Anonymous Network Workshop (Preparation)

The "Anonymous Network Workshop" event, scheduled to take place at COSCUP in August 2025, had its first online planning meeting on May 18. You can refer to the meeting notes here. We appreciate the participation of many partners who have signed up for this event. The next meeting is scheduled for June 8, 2025, at 21:00 UTC+8, and is expected to cover topics such as training schedules, event preparation, and more.

The materials are currently being translated. We are adapting the Tor/Tails materials by simply translating them into Chinese without altering the original structure to make them suitable for a Chinese-speaking audience. There has been a robust response for training assistants, but we still need some volunteer partners for event assistance, such as promoting the event, managing the registration page, and planning the activities on the day of the event, among others. If you are still interested, feel free to sign up!

Staff Registration

• The event is planned to be divided into two groups: the Activity Group and the Teaching Assistant Group. There is no restriction on joining only one group; participation depends on the time you can commit.

Open Source and Anonymous Network Roundtable

The proposed itinerary for the two event days.

This year at COSCUP, we have secured two days for our event, providing ample time for activities. We aim to include roundtable discussions to bring topics like the open source community, anonymous networks, and local community building to the forefront of the conference. We have roughly planned three major categories and six topics and are looking for suitable facilitators to help drive the discussions on these issues on the day. If you or someone you know would be a suitable candidate, please let us know. We would sincerely invite them to join the discussion. You can refer to the planning details on this page for more information on the discussions.

• Intersection of Open-Source Technology and Anonymous Tools
  • "The Open-Source Foundation and Local Participation Possibilities of Tor/Tails/OONI"
  • "From User to Contributor: How Taiwan Can Establish Community Nodes and Feedback Models for Tor/OONI"
• Social Connection between Open-Source Spirit and Internet Freedom
  • "Free Software and Digital Rights: Why Is Open Source Key to Anonymous Tools?"
  • "How to Localize an Open-Source Anonymous Toolkit?"
• Local Community and Collaborative Practices
  • "Promoting a Decentralized, Open-Source Collaborative Anonymous Network Initiative"
  • "Potential for Regional Open-Source Collaboration: Connecting with Other Anonymous Network Communities in Asia"

We are also conducting a poll on the discussion topics. If you have time, please help us by completing the survey!

COSCUP Open Source Topics

• Since COSCUP primarily focuses on open source code and the open-source spirit, we aim to align our topic selections as closely as possible with the attributes of the conference.

Self-Skills Evaluation Form

We have completed a skills assessment form for Tor, Tails, and OONI, which allows participants to self-assess their familiarity with "anonymous networks." The assessment is divided into Basic L1 to L3 and Advanced L1 to L2. Currently, the basic sections include reference answers, but it is recommended to first explore the questions at each level independently. For parts you cannot find or are unsure about, you can refer to the suggestions we've provided.

Helpers in the workshop will be trained to reach Basic L3 level before the event, aiming to ensure they have the ability to answer questions or guide participants through activities during the event.

The Advanced section focuses more on hands-on activities, which we plan to complete by Q3 2025. Stay tuned!

Establishing an Anonymous Network Community?

Initially, we were curious about how many people in Taiwan are interested in the topic of "anonymous networks." After hosting the first online meeting, we discovered that many are either quite concerned about it or are already researching this topic regularly. The establishment of a community seems to resemble a call of, "Hey, we're talking about and doing the same things here!" which simply brought everyone together.

We are making efforts to set up or use anonymous services (Etherpad, Formbricks, Jitsi), and are attempting to create corresponding onion services (Project Documentation, Etherpad, Formbricks), consciously assisting partners in maintaining a degree of anonymity while participating in our events (we are still searching for a suitable calendar service, and evaluating whether to use Stalwart for email hosting).

Currently, after successfully holding the "Anonymous Network Workshop" in August, we hope to start considering what form a "community" can take and what services it can offer in Taiwan, the Asia-Pacific region, or the Indo-Pacific region, as well as how to participate in international affairs. We welcome everyone to provide us with feedback, even if it's in the form of requests XD.

With about two months left to prepare for the workshop event, this will be our busy period. Please continue to support us with the progress reported above. Thank you!

Domain Name Description

• anoni.net and anoninetru5tflukgfaehun7q6khowgmymcff3gtk5oyesqazhmfxtyd.onion will be the domains used for establishing community tools in the future. Domains ending in .onion can only be accessed through the Tor browser.