[Offtopic] The Australian Computer Society

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

The Australian Computer Society <www.acs.org.au> is worthwhile joining:

For eg: > At 10:45 AM 16/03/2007, Tom Worthington writes:

The ACS Canberra Branch Conference 2007 was held on Thursday.

This was an exceptional conference. We had a Ministerial announcement, an 
insight to secure Customs systems, police on e-crime and details of how a 
high tech executive runs a family online. 

Some highlights below (version with hypertext links at
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/03/report-on-acs-canberra-branch.html>):

TECHNOLOGISTS IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, MR PHILIP ARGY FACS ACS PRESIDENT

Phil Argy said that simple word was needed to describe what ICT people 
do. His suggestion was "technologist" with a selectable adjectives in 
front of it, such as "software".

He then went on to talk about regulation of the ICT profession. He used 
the example of programing a robot for safety and argued this is an 
application where professionalism is clearly needed. He suggested that 
Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" influenced the movie "2001 a Space 
Odyssey" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_%28film%29> 
with the HAL 9000 computer <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_9000>. 

They are explicitly quoted in the later film "I Robot" 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%2C_Robot_%28film%29>, which is loosely 
based on Asimov's  stories <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Robot>. Roger 
Clarke wrote a two part paper on the application of the laws to computing 
<http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/SOS/Asimov.html>.

Phil when on to use an analogy with the push for environmental 
sensitivity in business, arguing employing a professional will show your 
business is supporting ethical business. Environmental issues in ICT 
turned out to be a theme which several speakers raised during the 
conference. Perhaps the ACS should be supporting environmental concerns 
in the ICT business. Computers and telecommunications (and the air 
conditioning for them) use a significant amount of energy in business. 
Routers, broadband modems, and computer in the home are also consuming 
more electricity. We might even earn some carbon credits from energy 
reduction moves.  

Phil's quick definition of ethics was: "doing the right thing even when 
no one looking". He used the example of including a secret code in 
software to stop it if the customer does not pay.

His third argument for professionalism was that ICT professionals are 
needed to support Australian exports. He argued that in three to five 
years time India and China will need to import ICT expertise and 
Australians were welcome.  He gave the example of China getting10M new 
mobile phones a month (I saw this first hand on a visit to Beijing 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/2003/bws/>). This of course assumes that the 
Chinese economy does not collapse later this year, as predicted by George 
Friedman 
<http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2007/1849915.htm>.  

* THE FUTURE OF ONLINE CITIZEN-GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENT IN AUSTRALIA, THE 
HON GARY NAIRN MP, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR EDEN-MONARO AND SPECIAL MINISTER OF 
STATE

The Minister <http://www.smos.gov.au/> mentioned his former career as a 
professional surveyor and made parallels with the ICT profession He said 
how that profession had regulation for 100 years, with reciprocal 
licensing across all Australian states and NZ.

The Minister has responsibility for AGIMO <http://www.agimo.gov.au/>. He 
said he has had a battle with other minsters to get their departments to 
use the central government web site run by AGIMO for their advertising 
campaigns. AGIMO mentioned this initiative at a Web Standards Group 
meeting some months ago. Instead of each agency using a different  web 
address in advertising campaigns, the one standard address is used, with 
the campaign acronym on the end 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/egovernment/#servicepoint>.

The Minister said the Australian Government Entry Point 
<http://www.australia.gov.au/about-this-site> has 400,000 people a month 
visiting (which sounds low to me).

The Minister gave the FunnelBack search engine a plug (spinoff from 
CSIRO) <http://funnelback.com/index.html>. He mentioned a geo-spatial 
test on the web site <http://test.australia.gov.au/maps.htm>. I gave the 
service a quick try and it seems to work okay. It gives you a map of 
government services:

"We would appreciate your comments regarding the usefulness or accuracy 
of the map content; map features you would like to see; how easy it is to 
use the maps; or any other aspect of the Service Locator Trial. You can 
complete the Service Locator Trial Survey to provide your feedback."

The Minister said that geo-spatial data sets need to be coordinated to 
help with environment issues, particularly water conservation. This issue 
came up in Dr Markus Buchhorn's talk later in the day at the ANU 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/03/sustainability-of-research-data-
in.html>. He should chat with the Minister on how to use the technology 
for water conservation in the Eden-Monaro. 

The Minister mentioned the "single signon" for online government services 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/egovernment/#servicepoint>. This 
was demonstrated at a WSG meeting some time ago. It would be useful and 
raises some significant technical and security issues, but far fewer than 
the Access Card <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/03/access-card-forum-12-
march-canberra.html>.

The Minister mentioned the shortage of ICT people in the public service 
and the 75 apprentices in nine agencies. This is a good scheme, provided 
the apprentices do actually go on to get education and are not lured into 
just full time work due to the skills shortage 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/egovernment/skills.shtml>.

At the end of his talk the Minister surprised the audience by announcing 
eight principles for ICT-enabled citizen engagement. There was no media 
release or document with the announcement, but I gleaned some details 
from the AGIMO web site: 

<www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/03/government-principles-for-ict-enabled.html>

There was then a question time:

Pat Barrett, Senior Fellow at the ANU and former Australian auditor-
general, asked about retention of the apprentices in the public sector, 
and what would stop them getting jobs in companies after they were 
trained. The Minister replied this was being considering it, but skilled 
staff would benefit Australia, even if they were lost to the public 
sector.

I then asked: "Minister, there is a limited trial of  electronic voting 
planned for the next election <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2006/12/e-
voting-for-australian-elections.html>. So I set the ethics of this as an 
assignment for my computer students at the ANU 
<http://cs.anu.edu.au/students/comp2410/assignments/a1/assignment1.pdf>.
In the process I noticed that the Australian Electoral Commission does 
not appear to have made much progress setting up for the trial. Are you 
confident they are giving the project sufficient priority?"

The Minister replied there were to be two trials: one for Defence 
personnel, working via a Defence secure network and one for disabled 
people at 30 booths around Australia. He emphasized these are no Internet 
voting trails. He said it better be ready as he is the responsible 
minister. The AEC is aiming to be ready by 4 August, which is the 
earliest plausible election date.

Someone then asked about the public's confidence in the security of 
single signon. He replied that education was needed, as the security of 
the online systems was in many cases much higher than current paper based 
systems and much better than commercial ones.

The minister did a very credible job, showing a grasp of the topics and 
willingness to answer some tricky questions and answer them well.

* A NEW ERA FOR CUSTOMS IT, MR MURRAY HARRISON, CHIEF INFORMATION 
OFFICER, AUSTRALIAN CUSTOMS SERVICE

Murray Harrison started his talk by demonstrating the security of his 
password protected Windows Visa Laptop and flash drive. He showed how the 
new customs system will allow secure access for officers around 
Australia. I was a little skeptical of the demonstration and would not 
put that level of faith in this technology.  He gave as a example using 
the system in a QANTAS airport lounge. I laughed at this point and he 
asked why, so I asked him if staff were going to be trained in keeping 
their information secure, given a senior military officer suffered 
embarrassment after leaving sensitive information in an airport lounge. 
He said this was being done in conjunction with system introduction. 
Perhaps Customs need to make a bulk purchase of lanyards to secure their 
electronic security tags <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/03/real-uses-
for-flash-drive-lanyards.html>. 

Murray talked about what Customs were planning to do with ICT in the 
future, but did not go into detail. This contrasts with his presentation 
to the 2004 conference, when he discussed the "Implementing the Customs 
Cargo Management Reengineering System" in detail 
<http://www.acs.org.au/act/conference/harrison.htm>. That project now 
seems to be largey over the criticism it suffered 
<http://www.acs.org.au/news/211005a.htm>

* SHERYLE MOON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AUSTRALIAN INFORMATION INDUSTRY 
ASSOCIATION THE 5TH UTILITY, MS SHERYLE MOON MACS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE 
OFFICER, AIIA

Sheryle talked about AIIA initiatives with industry and government, 
including those to address the skills shortage. She mentioned the CSIRO 
water saving shower which "hollows out the water" 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/03/bubble-shower-saves-water.html>. She 
also she mentioned energy use by computers as an environmental issue and 
NICTA's work on water management technology.

Sheryle mentioned the high rate of use of communications in modern 
families, with spouses e-mailing, phoning and SMSing to remind their 
forgetful partners of tasks. I have arranged for Sheryle to talk at ANU 
next week <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/02/ict-industry-in-australia-
canberra-21.html>. A team of students is programming a GPS smart phone, 
so perhaps they target it at family applications:

"... the built in phone would refuse to take any calls while your car was 
in motion. The automated voice response system would say on your 
behalf "Yes dear, I am on his way to pick up the kids, ETA is 2 minutes. 
I have parking slot 3 reserved in the school queuing system. Press 1 if 
you want me to get some milk on the way home, press 2 for bread ...". 

From: <http://mailman.anu.edu.au/pipermail/link/2006-June/067002.html>

* THE FUTURE TRENDS AND CHALLENGES OF HIGH TECH CRIME INVESTIGATIONS, 
FEDERAL AGENT NIGEL PHAIR, TEAM LEADER AUSTRALIAN HITECH CRIME CENTRE

Nigel gave the most entertaining talk of the morning, with diagrams 
generated by the intelligence analysis software used by crime 
investigators to track online attacks <http://www.ahtcc.gov.au/>.

About then the battery started to go in my laptop and I decided to sit 
back and enjoy the event.

Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                http://www.tomw.net.au/
Visiting Fellow, ANU      Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml  
--

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia