
Consul – Open Government and E-Participation Web Software - anthelios
https://github.com/consul/consul
======
SEJeff
Hashicorp has a registered trademark on software named Consul[1] and started
working on it in late 2013[2].

This is not a good name for software if it is already trademarked and was
started before this project (by ~2 years).

[1]
[http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4804:z7n...](http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4804:z7nwph.3.15)

[2]
[https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/commit/0a7996bc4f504894d...](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/commit/0a7996bc4f504894dbd09bac349a2d9999ec9dd6)

~~~
stusmall
It looks like they are pretty aware of it too. There are a few issues in their
tracker meant for hashicorp's consul and they directed them over to the right
github project.

~~~
SEJeff
Mitchell and Armon are good people and I'd expect them to act in good faith as
this isn't competition, but it is still bad form for someone to do this. In
some cases it can result in the original trademark holder losing their
trademark.

The entire system sucks.

~~~
stusmall
Oh, I'm not at all saying they are acting in bad faith! I was just elaborating
the information you brought up, that's all.

------
samcday
Aside from the project itself (which I admittedly did not look at particularly
closely), I can't help but wonder why authors choose a name that is already
clearly in use [1]. Obviously picking a name is hard. Picking a name that is
unique across the whole Interwebz is significantly harder. However, picking a
name that is already in use in the tech sector just strikes me as strange.

What I would have loved though is if they named the project "etcd" or "Serf",
since those projects deal with finding consensus of rather a different kind
... :)

[1]: [https://www.consul.io/](https://www.consul.io/)

EDIT: well, this project had its first commit back in July '15\. Hashicorp's
Consul changelog goes back to April '14\. So I suppose at the time this
project was conceived it's not unreasonable to consider that few people knew
of Hashicorp's Consul.

~~~
SEJeff
2013 was when Hashicorp's Consul was started:
[https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/commit/0a7996bc4f504894d...](https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/commit/0a7996bc4f504894dbd09bac349a2d9999ec9dd6)

------
fxn
This project is wonderful. Dozens of cities over the world are opening their
doors to its citizens thanks to it. In Madrid, inhabitants have a direct vote
on how to spend _millions_ of the city budget.

I wish the future of our society goes in this direction.

------
stuff4ben
As a newcomer to online governments, I wonder how things like trust are
handled? For instance, how does the government trust that I am a citizen and
how do I prove that trust? How do I know I can trust the installation of this
software and that its free from tampering or hacking? Universal ID is
something that is needed.

~~~
GenghisSean
I'm not sure about the identification of users and universal ID issue, but I
can speak to the installation pieces.

The license the project uses (AGPLv3) requires any server running a modified
version of the software must include the source code. While it may not be
possible to verify the source code running on someone else's server, you have
the freedom to run the program on a server that you control. This ensures the
version you are interacting with is not tampered with. Because the source code
(and any modified code you can access on a network) are available, you or
others can audit the code for security vulnerabilities.

This isn't a perfect solution because not everyone knows how to set up a
server, but it definitely reduces the potential for abuse.

------
thusjustin
[http://consulproject.org](http://consulproject.org) for the curious.

------
im_dario
This is very interesting project. I follow its development since inception.

It is related with Decidim (Catalan for "we decide"). For those curious about,
check it here: [https://decidim.org/](https://decidim.org/)

------
danesparza
How does this software prevent ballot stuffing / SPAM / malicious actors?

~~~
TkTech
It depends on the government entity using the software. Madrid validates
identities using your census data. Estonia would use their national ID cards
and card reader.

------
pabloacastillo
I used this recently, it needs better documentation. Still, cool project.

