A new U.S. president was named last night. The pronouncement came 36 nights after the election took place and what occurred between then and now will be dissected for decades to come. Countless words—in every language—have been written on this unprecedented race for the U.S. presidency, and you can bet this is just a warm-up […]
January 2001 - Vol. 44 No. 1
Features
The U.S. Copyright Office endorsed a new federal law, a provision of the 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act, that makes it illegal to break the technological safeguards for books, movies, and music distributed in digital form. The ruling was a defeat for several constituencies—including universities, libraries, and computer programmers—that had argued the law should preserve […]
Practical Programmer: An Embarrassing, Yet Rewarding, Ending to a Previous Column
After a second consulting visit to a software company, what seemed so obvious the first time suddenly seemed less so.
The Business of Software: the Laws of Software Process
Getting from here to there: Putting a boundary around process.
Viewpoint: Fixing a Flawed Domain Name System
Replacing an inequitable system with one that will better serve the world.
Democracy in an It-Framed Society: Introduction
Interest in the use of computers for improving a democracy widely considered decayed seems to be increasing with the growing use of the Internet. Indeed, a recent AltaVista search for "electronic democracy" yielded well over 5,000 pages. Much of this material discusses projects trying to make an impact on democratic practices. Electronic democracy, sometimes teledemocracy […]
A Strategic Perspective of Electronic Democracy
Implementing a true e-democracy requires a careful and comprehensive plan for citizens to learn how to use it.
Toward the European Information Society
Fitting democracy into the techno-economic mold of the European Union is easier said than done.
Is Online Democracy in the EU For Professionals Only?
An essential part of democracy is the debate. In a thin democracy (see Åström's article in this section), the elected representatives do the debating. This is not only for ideological reasons, but also for practical reasons. It was relatively easy to gather citizens at agoras in ancient Athens and create dialogue, but harder to do so with millions of citizens over a large territory.
Rating the Impact of New Technologies on Democracy
Information and communication technologies are transforming democracies worldwide. In fact, we are only beginning to tap their true potential.
Icts, Bureaucracies, and the Future of Democracy
Democracy theory is in need of a new foundation. The existing paradigm is that people’s representation—by parliamentarians, members of Congress, or local councillors—is a democratic arrangement that is, at best, second best. The perceived weaknesses of existing democratic arrangements are that members of the representative assemblies reflect partisan interests under the guise of the general […]
Should Democracy Online Be Quick, Strong, or Thin?
The concept of democracy is essential to the debate on electronic democracy. While it may seem quite straightforward, there is in fact a number of varying definitions of democracy. Though the semantic meaning of the word—government by the people—is undisputed, there are great diversities in interpretations of who should be regarded as the people and […]
Computer Professionals and the Next Culture of Democracy
The computing community is responsible for building the tools that have worked to change the face of democracy. But can we do more as responsible citizens?
Not-For-Profits in the Democratic Polity
Some of the best examples of using technologies to strengthen the democractic role can be found in the efforts of voluntary campaign organizations.
Webbing Governance: Global Trends Across National-Level Public Agencies
The Cyberspace Policy Research Group tracks the diffusion and use of the Web in governments around the world and their survey serves up some fascinating findings.
Internet Voting For Public Officials: Introduction
A way to ensure free and fair elections or an electronic invitation for ballot fraud and unequal representation?
The March 2000 Arizona Democratic Party's presidential preference primary illustrates the promise of accessibility, inclusiveness, and accountability in online elections.
Gauging the Risks of Internet Elections
Removed from independent public scrutiny, hidden inside a possibly insecure infrastructure, Internet voting may offer a cloak for vote theft, voter coercion, and lost public confidence in the outcome.
Finding a place to efficiently store all of one's digital materials.
Increasing the Observability of Internet Behavior
Improvements are needed in network infrastructure and protocols for continued growth of the Internet.
Maximizing the channel potential increases the business value of a firm's Web site.
Are Handheld Viruses a Significant Threat?
Since its introduction in 1997, the Palm line of handheld computers has become a popular product choice, with many millions of units sold worldwide. A large number of third-party applications exist, from personal organizer programs to spreadsheet applications, email, and Web browser clients. Many of these programs are low-cost shareware, available for downloading from individual […]
Inside Risks: System Integrity Revisited
Consider a computer product specification with data input, tabulation, reporting, and audit capabilities. The read error must not exceed one in a million, although the input device is allowed to reject any data it considers to be marginal. Although the system is intended for use in secure applications, only functional (black box) acceptance testing has […]
