Key signing parties

[David Shaw]

On Mon, Apr 23, 2007 at 04:38:32PM +0200, Bruno Costacurta wrote:
> On Friday 20 April 2007 15:42:20 David Shaw wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 20, 2007 at 02:25:48PM +0200, Bruno Costacurta wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > are there some mailing list / blog / ..others.. where are mentioned key
> > > signing parties ?
> > >
> > > I expected to find something at
> > > http://www.gnupg.org/
> > > but it seems this site does not contain any info about such parties.
> >
> > Go to http://www.biglumber.com
> >
> > It's the perfect site for setting up and finding key signing
> > gatherings as well as individual signature exchanges.

> Thanks David.
> Indeed good website to find people in nearest area.
> 
> However can their Key Exchange Service be considered as 'acceptable' as it 
> allows key signing without physical meeting with respective ID approval ? 
> Or should this service simply be avoided ?

Their key exchange service is a tool, and like most tools it can be
used properly or improperly.  You must use the tool in a way that
meets the requirements of both yourself and the person you are
exchanging signatures with.

One thing that their service does nicely is help prevent the case
where A signs B's key, and B promises to but doesn't sign A's key.  It
won't release the keys until everyone does what they promised to do.

David