Desert Seeding Policy

Status:
Last Edited:	2009-08-13

Preamble

This policy is a subsidiary policy to the Assurance Policy as defined in point 6 of that policy. All definitions of that policy apply here as well.

The purpose of this policy is facilitate the extension of the CAcert we of trust into areas where no or few assurers are currently present. In order for such a process to take hold it is necessary that any such seeding results in enough new assurers in a location to issue 100 assurance points. At the same time it is necessary for the integrity of the web of trust that the four eyes principle currently employed and defined in the Assurance Policy remain in force.

For this reason this policy only applies to CAcert deserts. A desert is defined as an area of the world where getting assured using the regular assurance process would place an undue burden on a member or is impossible to accomplish. The Assurance Officer is required to judge whether a this condition is met.

Third Party Process

Principle

The principle of this process is to use someone within the desert area that is not related to CAcert, yet has knowledge of the local documents and customs to make the Assurance Statement. This pertains especially to point 5 of that statement and the verification of that data.

Process

Assurer requests permission for the process from the Assurance Officer
Assurer finds a local third party knowledgeable in local identity customs
The Assurer should then explain the Assurance Policy in detail to the member
Assurer assures the member using the regular Assurance Process, except that he may issue 50 points for this assurance.
The member must then pass the CATS test
Assurer writes a report on the assurance to the Assurance Officer including the name and position of the third party. The third party must sign this report signifying that they witnessed and supervised the process and that the member has passed the CATS test without undue assistance.
The Assurance Officer then issues up to 50 additional assurance points to the member based on the supervision of the assurance by the third party. In addition the Assurance Officer may then also assign up to 50 experience points based upon the more in depth presentation of the Assurance Policy.

Circular Process

Principle

The principle of this process is to establish a peripheral seed of the web of trust by establishing a new mini web of trust under the supervision of a CAcert Assurer.

Process

Assurer requests permission for the process from the Assurance Officer
At least 4 members meet with the Assurer and do:

Assurer presents and discusses the Assurance Policy with the members.
Assurer does an assurance for every member present
All members take the CATS test without assistance
All members do an assurance on every other member and the assurer

Assurer my issue up to 50 points per member as part of this process.
Assurer writes a report on the assurances and the meeting to the Assurance Officer. This report is counter signed by the present members.
The Assurance Officer, upon receiving the report, allows for the issuance of 20 Assurance Points by each of the members for the completed assurances and raises their experience points accordingly.

Supervision

All desert seeding processes described and defined in this policy are supervised by the Assurance Officer and require her approval. On a case by case basis.

Reporting

The Assurance Officer is required to report to the management committee of CAcert Inc. on a regular basis on all desert seeding assurances approved by her for review.

The report for each event must include as a minimum:

The process used (Third Party / Circular)
The date, time and location of the event
The names of all participants (and in case of a Third Party their credentials)
The level of experience of the Assurer in doing Assurances (number of Assurances done previously)
A detailed textual description of the entire event

In order for the Assurance Officer to write her report to the board, these data must be in the report written by the Assurer to her. Therefore this also specifies the minimum requirements of that report.