About Us
From SentryOutpost
Contents |
[edit] Our Purpose
"Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go."
Frontiers are inherently dangerous places. Sentries, patrols, watchtowers, garrisons, and outposts become our response to the dangers lurking beyond our safer interiors and along the roads of culture and commerce. The networked age is no different than the age of those ancient watchtowers, as the network now brings those dangerous frontiers into the very shelters of our homes.
The Outpost is not an organization in the traditional sense: there are no leaders or management structures, no mission statements or shareholders. Instead, the Outpost is a humanistic protocol: a practice and process by which information is exchanged about sensitive topics between people serving as problem solving nodes. By adopting the strategies and structures of the wild lands instead of the domesticated pastures we help to immunize our efforts from traditional weaknesses.
Because of the variety of people who participate in the Sentries, we embrace a spirit of "share what you will, but learn from anything you can." The agreement we make with each other is that this learning will be used to advance the causes of civilization.
[edit] Our History
[edit] February 2000 - April 2007
In February 2000, in the wake of the massive coordinations necessary to cope with millennium bug (Y2K), Sentry Outpost was founded as a collaborative think tank for security professionals and theorists studying virii, malware, spam, phishing, information theory and other threats to share intelligence and strategy, to contemplate emerging cyberthreats together so that we could anticipate them rather than just react to them.
It was a virtual 'golden age' in which The Outpost served as an Academy in which digital scholars and philosophers were free to explore the very nature of the network in order to better imagine the threats that may be laying in wait beyond the horizon.
Over time, this utopia began to fade -- discussions turned into debates, debates into arguments, arguments into resentment, and resentment into something much worse; silence and secrecy.
It was at this time (late in 2006) that disaster struck. An enemy unseen took advantage of the discord among the Sentries, and landed a crushing blow. The server crashed, taking Sentry Outpost and everything contained therein, with it.
When the smoke cleared the Sentries were decimated. Of the thousands of members, only a handful remained with the spirit and will to continue their work. The Outpost was rebuilt…
[edit] April 2007 - Present
In early 2007, a strange occurrence took place that may have changed the course of the sentries forever. A large and unexpected influx of new members, claiming to have been lead to the site by a psychic, one B.A. Saint Feline, began to appear, with stories of cryptic messages and mysterious packages.
The events that followed are among the bleakest and most desperate yet encountered by The Outpost, and are the focus of an ongoing investigation by the Sentries.
Please feel free to come by the forums and introduce yourself. We’re always looking for fresh ideas, opinions, and people as we continue the work started here at The Outpost.
[edit] Our Founders
The Outpost was created by individuals with like-minds who wanted there to be a place where free-thinkers could come together and work as one to foresee and prepare for the many challenges that come with the digital age. Foremost among these men and women were the following individuals, some of whom ultimately sacrificed all for the cause of the Sentries:
[edit] Active
- Arthur Lydney (Y2Kveteran)
- Howard Phillips (HPhack)
[edit] Inactive
- Kevin Cosby (GetMeOut)
- Jennifer Pike (EconJen)
- Alan Camacho (PoliticalTexan)
- Bryce Droher (TheMagician)
- Marie Kim (Mkaos)
"He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man."