Using IRC for Electronic Meetings?
paenguin asks: "Our Linux User Group sometimes needs to hold Exec meetings, electronically. We have used IRC in the past, but it leaves us with a problem: there is no easy or built-in way to prove who is who. Do Slashdot readers know of a way to provide non-repudiation over IRC, or of another open source method of holding group electronic meetings where we can verify that everyone is who they say they are?" Wouldn't a private IRC server, with a combination of suitable IRC services (ala NickServ and ChanServe) and fairly restrictive policies, be one solution to this problem? How would you set up such a system? For those willing to brave the setup hassles, might some form of secure IRC also be an option?
mmmm, frosty pist!
fourth post!
First, generate a random number between 1 and 1000000.
To this number, add your salary.
Take that sum and pass it to the next person (alphabetically) in the chat room. Have them add their salary to that sum as well.
Keep passing and adding until it comes back to you. At that point, give the sum to your company's finance department along with a list of personnel allegedly in attendance. Also provide them with the random number obtained in the first step.
The finance department can check the sum and provide reasonable assurance that the attendees are either who they say they are, or at least that everybody knows what everybody else is getting paid.