Welcome to the Lab

The Lab is place where the work actually gets done, on the OSDV's active projects. And not just coding, but planning, designing, documenting, and even demonstrations. You’ll find a brief summary below, and there's additional background in the FAQ, but main source of info on the Labs is in our developeer community Wiki, where on-going work is described, discussed, determined, and documented.

If you’re new or casually browsing, you can get a quick over of the projects here, and then head to the Wiki. If you’re a volunteer, then start at the Wiki to track activity, and to jump to the section on a project that interests you.

Developers: want to help develop the next generation of high assurance digital voting technology? Maybe you’re just happy to contribute some code to helping this site continue to keep the world informed of progress. Either way, please visit the OSDV Developer Community Wiki, and let us know your interests.

Feedback is welcome! We need your feedback on OSDV work, in the labs or out, what we're doing, or your opinion of how we're doing it -- especially our "T-Spec" approach to achieving high-assurance systems with open-source development. You have a voice! You can Contact Us here, or better, you can join us and post to our developer mailing list, or edit the OSDV Developer Community Wiki.

Overview

There are currently three projects active or in formation: SPRUCE, SHARP, and SCAN. Details of each are available in the Wiki project sections – including descriptions of the leadership or participation that we’re currently seeking.

The SPRUCE (“SPecification of Real Use Cases for Elections) project focuses on developing detailed use cases for how polling places work today, including all the processes, procedures, and the user experience. That’s important because brewing up code for an awesome system isn’t enough, by itself, for trustworthiness or real-world relevance. SPRUCE activities help ensure that:

• The full range of OSDV work -- architecture, design, and development of next generation trustworthy digital voting systems -- embraces the real-world polling-place workflows and voters’ needs.
• Demonstrations of OSDV technology are in synch with current real-world use of voting technology.
• Assesment and studies of OSDV technology are highly relevant and actionable and relevant for adoption and usage.

Learn more here.

The SHARP ("Sustainable High-Assurance Re-usable Platform") project focuses on design of a common, high-assurance OS and service platform for a variety of types of digital voting equipment. A major goal is to prove that it’s feasible to "factor out" the majority of issues about system integrity, software assurance, and most or all of the common areas where many current systems are opaque or difficult to assess. Learn more here.

The SCAN project focuses on development of a first demonstration of a simple, but essential digital voting device. Specifically, this is a type of device commonly used, fairly simple to specify, and for which some of its functionality is already implemented in open source software – that is: the digital tool for scanning and tabulating ballots. SCAN Lab demonstrations will show: (a) how trustworthy ballot scanners should work, and (b) also provide a feasibility pilot for assessing and certifying “high assurance” digital voting devices. Learn more here.