I want to start off with a very large thank you! Actually, I am not sure the words “thank you” can capture the right sentiment. To date, we have had more than 35 people donate to raise more than $10,500. In addition, we have over 295 volunteers signed up and ready to roll.
So many of you have been writing and tweeting to ask what we are doing. I think it would be beneficial to take some time to update you all on what we have accomplished and where we are going next.
New Members at the ILF
Our team has grown, so here’s a brief synopsis: we have an intern who is working with us. Her name is Megan Barnes, and she is a communication student at University of Maryland. She came as a volunteer to help us with research, writing, and managing our social media.
She has been integral in the many changes you have seen recently. As you know, the ILF has been providing top quality information through our blog and on our Facebook page; the goal is to keep people aware of the dangers of child abuse. And a large portion of that is thanks to Megan.
You also may have also noticed that Aisha Tyler has been retweeting our posts recently. Thanks to an introduction by Neil Fallon, a great friend of Aisha, we received her support in promotion. We can’t thank Neil and Aisha enough for this.
VDI Environment
Our VDI, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, is complete. Thanks to the hard work of Ryan MacDougall and the generous programming of Sam Gale, we have a fully functional system that:
- Auto connects to Tor
- Logs all activity
- Tracks activity for the researcher
- Blurs all images
- Keeps our researchers secure
After a very productive meeting with Amazon, we are excited to announce we will host this program on their service. Thanks to their work with TechSoup, we are saving a great deal of money on hosting. Plus, we will get quite a few people working on this soon.
Law Enforcement Cooperation
We’ve been tirelessly working on partnerships with most major law enforcement agencies in the United States, and we have solid connections in many foreign countries. Not to mention, we work with with local agencies, and more sign up to work with us each day.
What is left?
Now, we want to start a few new projects. As much as we would like to get all 295 of you working right away, unfortunately we are unable to do so at this time. However, we have something very special to expedite the process of putting your skills to work.
On Feb. 2, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. EST we are hosting a live webinar to update everyone of our current progress and what need need to continue. After the webinar, we will ask our volunteers to tell us who has the skills to be our beta testers for the VDI system and our process. From there we will chose 5–10 of you to start new tasks and see where we can go from there.
Topics covered in the webinar:
- Our mission and goals
- The work we do
- Mental health of our researchers
- Ongoing projects
- Our rules of engagement
Again, I personally cannot thank you all enough. To sign up for the 2/2 #@2pm webinar please go to this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4IFUl3A-QG2rx6-rYfn9Wg
Talk to you all soon!
Till then, stay safe.
