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TAD Consortium July 2000 Information Update1

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CONTENTS

NEWS/TRENDS

--- Progress in achieving transparency of vocational qualifications
--- Government Adoption of Net Services is Slow
--- 6 Types of Online Shopper Identified
--- France To Create Internet University
--- Telestatistics in South Africa 1998

ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS

--- Launching the South African CommUnity email list & website
--- Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers and Parallel Events
--- The Vodacom LINK Centre Inaugural Conference

ONLINE RESOURCES

--- Literary Analysis Applied To Science
--- New Material Added To The Women'snet Web Site
--- Ancient Egypt -- The British Museum [Shockwave]
--- Developing A Distance Education Policy For 21st Century Learning
--- How To Eliminate The Ten Most Critical Internet Security Threats: The Experts' Consensus
--- Free Resource On Creating Successful Readers
--- Lascaux cave web site
--- Read all about it. How relevant are printed materials for farmers in Africa?
--- The Impacts of Tourism on Rural Livelihoods: Namibia's Experience
--- Technology Leapfrogging in Developing Countries – An Inevitable Luxury?
--- Questions and Answers About Patent Law

ARTICLES

--- Using Technology In The Classroom Wisely
--- PFIR Statement on Electronic Signatures and Documents

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NEWS/TRENDS

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Taken from TrainingZONE LearningWire #105

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Progress in achieving transparency of vocational qualifications

CEDEFOP and the European Training Village report on the role of the European Forum on transparency of vocational qualifications. The main objective of the forum is to make it easier to transfer vocational qualifications from one Member State to another.

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=18722&d=1

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Taken from Nua Internet Surveys: June 12th, 2000

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Andersen Consulting: Government Adoption of Net Services is Slow

The governments of the US, Australia, Canada and Singapore are leaders in providing government information online yet the sites rarely surpass 20 percent maturity, according to a new report by Andersen Consulting.

The rate of Internet uptake at government level worldwide has been slower than anticipated and even in countries where IT is the fastest growing sector, government embrace of online services has been lame.

The French government has by far the most comprehensive list of services published online, over one third are interactive while the US government, who aim to have 500 essential services online by October of this year have less than 50 percent online and only  8.3 percent of those are interactive.

The report found that privacy fears and a fundamental lack of Internet savvy on behalf of legislators is the main reason for the slow uptake.

http://www.ac.com

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Taken from Nua Internet Surveys: June 12th, 2000

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Harris Interactive: 6 Types of Online Shopper Identified

New survey findings underline the importance of online brand building as they show that 6 in 10 consumers directly input the URL of an ecommerce site when shopping for a particular product.

The results of the "ebates.com Dot-Shopper Survey", conducted by Harris Interactive, also show that banner advertisements attract the least sophisticated consumers. Furthermore, only 6 percent of shoppers are driven to online retailers by offline advertising in other media.

Harris Interactive has divided the online shopping population into 6 categories, according to their shopping motivations and current and future spending habits. Membership of these groups is not static but changes over time as individual consumers become more sophisticated in their online shopping habits.

About 5 percent of Internet shoppers are classed as "E-bivalent Newbies". They have only recently gained access to the Internet and they are the least interested in ecommerce. They tend to be older and spend little time online.

A further 17 percent of shoppers are "Time-Sensitive Materialists". They shop online for convenience and to save time.

Approximately 23 percent of shoppers are in the "Clicks & Mortar" category. These shoppers tend to female homemakers who research products online but buy offline as they are worried about privacy and security.

Young, single, early-adopting, high-earning males are most likely to fall into the "Hooked, Online & Single" category, which comprises 16 percent of online shoppers. This group shop, bank, invest, play games and download software the most often.

One in 5 shoppers are categorised as "Hunter-Gatherers". These shoppers are likely to be in their thirties, married with children, and frequent visitors to price comparison sites.

About the same number of shoppers are "Brand Loyalists". They usually visits sites of known and trusted merchants. They are the most satisfied with ecommerce and spend the most online.

http://www.ebates.com/PressBusinessRelease.jsp

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Taken from NETWORKING 4:10 (http://theNode.org/networking/)

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FRANCE TO CREATE INTERNET UNIVERSITY

France's Prime Minister has unveiled plans for the creation of an Internet university in Marseilles. Lionel Jospin announced 15 May that France would enter the online education market with a new institution offering graduate engineering degrees in information and communication technologies. The university will build on the resources of existing universities, research centres and businesses and will be a key component of France's efforts to remain competitive with the United States and Canada in Internet research and education. Details of the initiative are expected to be released this month. For more information, see

http://chronicle.com/free/2000/05/2000051702t.htm

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Telestatistics in South Africa 1998

Statistics from October Household Survey 1998,

Statistics South Africa. Released 18 May 2000.

The most recent reliable national statistics on household telephone usage come from Statistics SA from the Household Survey from 1998 (about 1.5 years ago)

Overall they show that then 42% of houses had a telephone, and 80% of households were within 30 minutes walk of a phone.  In non-urban areas 9% of households had a phone - 5% in black households and 84% in white. So the racial gap is still huge (especially in rural areas).

Remembering that these figures are from 1998, which is before the huge increase from pay-as-you-go cellphones, and much of Telkom's rural rollout, I believe a realistic estimate of Universal Access now (June 2000) would be around 90%.

Universal service: A telephone in the dwelling or a cellphone Universal access: Able to use a phone in dwelling or public facility

All these figures are based on households (not individuals).

Headline figures:

Universal Service 42.0%

Universal Access 66.0% (if defined within 15 minutes travel)

79.7% (if defined within 30 minutes travel)

87.4% (if defined within 60 minutes travel)

ALL South Africa

All African Coloured Asian White

Univ Service 42.0 18.4 60.0 81.4 82.2

Univ Access(15 min)66.0 56.0 91.6 93.8 92.9

Univ Access(30 min)79.7 74.0 95.9 93.8 93.9

Univ Access(60 min)87.4 84.6 97.1 93.8 93.9

URBAN

All African Coloured Asian White

Univ Service 64.2 32.4 69.1 81.7 82.1

Univ Access(15 min)85.3 79.8 93.4 94.1 92.7

Univ Access(30 min)93.7 93.0 96.5 95.0 93.8

Univ Access(60 min)95.6 96.1 96.5 95.0 93.8

NON-URBAN

All African Coloured Asian White

Univ Service 8.7 5.3 15.0 - 84.4

Univ Access(15 min)37.0 33.7 83.0 - 95.2

Univ Access(30 min)58.6 56.3 92.9 - 98.4

Univ Access(60 min)75.2 73.8 92.9 - 98.4

Prepared by Peter Benjamin, LINK Centre, Wits University

peter@sn.apc.org

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ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS

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Launching the South African CommUnity email list & website

This messages is to announce the launch of an email list and website to consider issues of Universal Access to Information and Communicatios Technology in South Africa.

South Africa has sufficient resources (human, technical, financial) to provide everyone in the country with access to these technologies, but this is not happening.  Where the technology is provided, it often is not much used.   However, there are other very good projects.

This list aims to exchange experience on practical projects, review what is and isn't working in the sector, and develop ideas on how Universal Access to ICTs can be provided in South Africa, and how that can have a positive impact on development.

A related website has been set up to provide information to practitioners (e.g. telecentre managers), for policy discussion and for researchers on Sangonet at http://www.sn.apc.org/community

This will be established as a public list on Monday 26 June. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ON THIS LIST, PLEASE EMAIL ME (peter@sn.apc.org) Please notify others who might like to be on this list to email me.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Benjamin

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Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers and Parallel Events

(International Symposium and Trade Fair)

The 14th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers will be held in Halifax in November of this year. This is a significant educational event being held for the first time in Canada in 36 years. It will bring together approximately 250 people from up to 50 countries for the Ministers’ Conference and another 500 people for the Parallel Event - an international symposium and a trade fair.

At the Ministers’ Conference, held on a triennial basis, Commonwealth Education Ministers will discuss the challenges which confront education in the new millennium. The theme, "Education in a Global Era: Challenges to Equity, Opportunities for Diversity," sets the background for the ministerial discussions.

The theme papers for the conference can be found on the conference website http://ccem.ednet.ns.ca

The Parallel Event complements the Ministers’ Conference. The international symposium brings together educational experts from the Commonwealth to address practical and technical aspects of the topics being discussed by the ministers. The trade fair places an emphasis on systems and approaches that offer solutions to many of the issues the ministers will be discussing. The trade fair provides an opportunity for countries to make contacts that promote sharing and transfer of solutions in the best tradition of the Commonwealth.

The Organising Committee of the 14CCEM parallel symposium and trade fair extends an invitation to you and your organisation to participate in this event. If you have questions or require brochures, please email your details to us at: smart-nd@iafrica.com or fax +27 (0)22 461 2315.

Check our website http://ccem.ednet.ns.ca for the latest information on the conference

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The Vodacom LINK Centre Inaugural Conference

ICT 2000 : INNOVATION, DELIVERY AND DEVELOPMENT

The new millenium provides us with a historical moment to reflect on the critical issues that face the telecommunications, broadcasting and IT sectors in South Africa and to propose how some of this challenges can be effectively met. The inaugural conference of the Centre aims to integrate the many perspectives, debates, and people from academia, government, sector organisations and industry the on topic of information and communication technologies (ICT) and their uses in innovation, delivery of infrastructure and services and the socio-economic development of the country.

--- What are the implications for government?

--- What resources are needed to implement the wealth of policy that has been formulated over the last five years?

--- How will we effect increased access to efficient services delivery?

--- What strategies need to be employed to shift the focus from policy to implementation and delivery?

--- What new policies will be needed with this dynamic and fast moving sector?

The conference will look at the issues of universal access, market liberalisation, convergence, strategic technologies, Internet and e-commerce, governance and human rights on-line, content, culture and local production, public, private, NGO partnerships and empowerment.

The conference will gather decision-makers throughout the broadcasting, telecommunication and IT sectors.Speakers include the Minister of Communications, Dr Ivy Matsepe Casaburri, Prof Bill Melody, author of Telecom Reform, World Bank telecom expert, Kerry McNamara, Dr Ben Petrazzini, ITU in Latin America, Gillian Marcelle, ICT and gender specialist, Marc Rotenberg, EPIC, Roberto Verzola Filippino Green Party and Malcolm Long, former head of Australian Special Broadcasting Services.

Who should attend?

--- Policy makers

--- Industry analysts

--- Lawyers

--- Engineers

--- Computer scientists

--- Journalists

--- Researchers

--- Students

--- Social scientists

The conference will take place at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, and at the Holiday Inn Sunnyside Park Hotel.

For more information or rgistration please go to http://link.wits.ac.za/

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ONLINE RESOURCES

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Taken from Network Nuggets

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LITERARY ANALYSIS APPLIED TO SCIENCE

One of the premiere Web sites for human biology topics is http://www.accessexcellence.org .  In fact, a quick search of our CLN Web site for "accessexcellence" turns up nine Theme Pages which link to various parts of this large, rich site. It is maintained by the National Health Museum in the U.S.

For today's nugget, we feature the site's modest but high-quality anthology of essays on science:  the "Classic Collection" at http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/ .

The well-crafted essays range from 1200 to 1900 words, have about a Grade 12 reading level, and are factually accurate as far as I can judge such things.  They are a resource of quality literature in a less used genre for your classroom.  Even students with a distaste for science will relate to (and be somewhat sobered by) the 1300-word essay "Handwashing".  Can your budding grammarians spot the classic Freudian slip 'sub-infected' in the 1700-word "Discovery, Chance and the Scientific Method"?  Do you agree that it is one?

How to use these essays in an English class?  Well, one teacher has her students analyze them from a literary standpoint: determine the author's viewpoint, purpose, state whether you agree, etc.  You can see her half page "Science Article Review" checklist at http://www.accessexcellence.com/atg/released/0068-PeggyWelch/.

Classic Collection is especially suitable for students in Technical and Professional Communications and Journalism courses, since it models the very kind of non-fiction writing to which such courses aspire. In addition, Classic Collection should provide a useful project for any Grade 10-12 unit on analysis of non-fiction forms.

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NEW MATERIAL ADDED TO THE WOMEN'SNET WEB SITE

Here is a list of the latest information added to the Women'sNet web site. The title of each item is provided, followed by its Internet address,   or url, in <diamond brackets>. To retrieve the document if you have   Internet access, copy the url, excluding the diamond brackets, and  paste it into the location bar of your browser. If you do NOT have  Internet access, you can retrieve the document by email (see  instructions below).

NEWS

Hands up for African women

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=62

Women's Issues Discussed At UN

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/news/show.cfm?news_id=469

Activists Demand Sex Equality

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/news/show.cfm?news_id=468

G77 struggles to gain lost ground

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=61

Battle of Beijing : Tug of war over the Platform for Action

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=51

Armed conflict has been turned into an industry

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=58

Uneasy bedfellows fight sexual rights

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=60

No global poverty eradication scheme is going to help

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=23

Women Weaving Spaces on the Internet

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/news/show.cfm?news_id=451

Flame blazes on to New York

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=6

Contentious issues flare in final countdown

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=17

Concerns of African Women lost in a war of words

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=11

Are African Concerns Adequately Reflected in the Outcomes Document?

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/news/show.cfm?news_id=452

Progress Marred by Crises: NGO Report

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=9

Women urged to follow the money

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=44

Tardy caucusing costs Africa dearly

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=38

Now or Never: Move HIV/AIDS To Top of Priority List

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=40

Communication is Vital for Women's Empowerment

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/news/show.cfm?news_id=456

NGOs and Government - Strange bedfellows?

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=43

Outcomes document: Governments fudge on implementation

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=42

Homphobia rears its head in final hours

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=39

Target practice: Africa lags behind

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=21

Opinion: Women must be ready to seize every opportunity

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=10

Will the older generation finally let go of power?

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/beijing5/news1/show.cfm?news1_id=46

NET GAINS: African Women Take Stock of Information and Communication Technologies

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/news/show.cfm?news_id=444

Veiled In Secrecy, UN

http://www2.womensnet.org.za/news/show.cfm?news_id=443

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From The Scout Report for Social Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.  http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

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Ancient Egypt -- The British Museum [Shockwave]

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html

Drawing on its superb collection of materials from archaeological excavations, the British Museum presents this extensive learning resource on Ancient Egypt. The site features texts, images, and interactive elements detailing Egyptian daily life, mythology, timekeeping, geography, architecture, governance, business, writing, and rituals of death. The material is clearly and simply written so that the site would be useful for primary school students, but it is informative and substantial enough to be of interest to college students and curious adults as well. Thoroughly hyperlinked and replete with images that can be enlarged for detailed perusal, the site goes beyond the typical teaser Websites so often posted by lesser museums.

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Taken from NETWORKING 4:10 (http://theNode.org/networking/)

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DEVELOPING A DISTANCE EDUCATION POLICY FOR 21ST CENTURY LEARNING

The American Council on Education's Division of Government and Policy Affairs has released "Developing a Distance Education Policy for 21st Century Learning." This ten-page report is not a blueprint for developing such a policy, but rather "a primer on the issues an institution will confront as it plans to integrate, implement, and harmonize distance education into its existing policies."

Not surprisingly, intellectual property tops the list. The report identifies the legal bases for copyright ownership  (e.g. existing policies, third-party contract requirements, and the employee-employer relationship) and describes current models of ownership. These are:

The report recognizes that the package of rights associated with ownership, such as the rights to reproduce, distribute, or make derivatives of the work, can be unbundled and negotiated, but it does not describe how this is done, nor what the trends are in rights distribution.

The flip side of copyright ownership -- copyright infringement -- is also covered. The report urges institutions to create and distribute "concise, comprehensive policies" outlining the kinds of materials that can and cannot be used in distance education courses to all faculty, staff and students. Adherence to such policies will facilitate agreements with third-party publishers and distributors, who usually require assurance that all content has been cleared and indemnification for any losses should a copyright dispute arise.

The report also touches briefly on faculty issues of compensation, workload and support and student issues of accessibility and security. It is a useful starting place for institutions who are revising or creating distance education policies, and is available free of charge at

http://www.acenet.edu/washington/distance_ed/2000/03march/distance_ed.html

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Taken from The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000.

http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

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How To Eliminate The Ten Most Critical Internet Security Threats: The Experts' Consensus -- SANS [MS Word]

http://www.sans.org/topten.htm

Issued on June 13 by SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Institute, a cooperative research and education organization of over 96,000 system administrators, security professionals, and network administrators, this important document lists the top ten security exploits used by hackers to gain access to online sites. Of particular interest to systems administrators, the site not only describes each of the problems, but also provides step-by-step instructions and pointers for correcting the flaws. Available in HTML, MS Word, and rich text, this list is a living document and will be updated as new methods are developed. User input is welcome.

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Taken from ASCD EDUCATION BULLETIN--JUNE 16, 2000

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FREE RESOURCE ON CREATING SUCCESSFUL READERS

The U.S. Department of Education just added a new resource to its Web site offering lots of simple suggestions for families to help young children learn to read, like creating a special place for a child's books, and finding rhymes in songs on the radio and TV. *Becoming a Successful Reader* also gives tips for taking charge of the TV and learning with computers, and it lists typical language accomplishments for children at different ages along with questions to ask if you think your child may be having problems.

*Becoming a Successful Reader* can be found at

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Reader/index.html

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Taken from Network Nuggets

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http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux/en/

consists of two parts: "Discover" is a virtual tour through the Lascaux cave, and "Learn" supplies the achaeological and artistic background. 

The reading level appears suitable for Junior High and up.   The illustrations are kept on the small side for realistic download times, but are well reproduced.  The use of the Web to create the "you are there" feeling is exemplary.

The only weak point I could find is the online quiz, which seems to test irrelevant low-level knowledge.  But for a resource to pass to older students for their own investigation and report on this World Heritage Site, the Web site is superb.

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Read all about it. How relevant are printed materials for farmers in Africa?

contributor(s): Isabel Carter - Tear Fund

2 June 2000

It is often assumed that many grassroots farmers are illiterate and that print is an ineffective means of communication. What little printed information is produced is usually aimed at resource-rich, commercial farmers. However, research by Tearfund into the sources, types and impact of agricultural information available for farmers in Ghana and Uganda, suggests that printed materials are in demand. The study also investigated the resource base and policies of groups producing printed information for farmers, highlighting the potential of locally-generated materials.

http://www.id21.org/static/4aic1.htm

To receive this piece by email, send a message to the following email address: 

getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk

Leave the SUBJECT field BLANK, and copy the following text into the BODY of the message:

GET http://www.ids.ac.uk/id21/static/4aic1.htm

Further information:

Isabel Carter

Email:  isabel.carter@tearfund.org

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Taken from ID21News Issue #40

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The Impacts of Tourism on Rural Livelihoods: Namibia's Experience

This Sustainable Livelihoods Working Paper from ODI assesses the wide range of impacts that tourism has on  the livelihoods of rural residents in parts of Namibia. Taking a livelihoods perspective helps identify the wide range of impacts - direct and indirect, positive and negative - that matter to local people.

http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/summwp128.html

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Anyone interested in a discussion of leapfrogging ICTs for LDCs will find an article "Technology Leapfrogging in Developing Countries – An Inevitable Luxury?" in the Electronic Journal on Informatio Systems in Developing Countries, at

<http://www.unimas.my/fit/roger/EJISDC/vol1/v1d5.pdf>

The authors of this article examine the opportunities and requirements for developing countries to "leapfrog" into more advance stages of technology use. They point out that "successful use of IT requires much more than mere installation and application of systematised knowledge. It also requires the application of implied knowledge regarding the organisation and management of the technology and its application to the contextual environment in which it is to be used. Often the requisite knowledge about technology is accumulated from experience with successive stages of technology, over time. They warn, "while leapfrogging may appear as an attractive option for the late adopters, it may not provide the intended results in all circumstances. The greatest danger is that the developing economies observe the benefits which later and succeeding generations of IT bring to the industrialised nations. Hurrying to acquire the same technology, developing countries rely on the blind belief that similar benefits will quickly accrue to themselves. Such opportunities may exist, but a reality check is appropriate in order to protect the investment of the scarce resources available for IT in most developing nations and to distinguish between the circumstances where leapfrogging may or may not be successful."

The authors provide a number of references to international organisations that are promoting leapfrogging in effective ways, as well as examples of efforts at leapfrogging. These include:

The authors also note that countries have alternatives to leapfrogging; but warn that countries that fail to update their technologies are likely to be excluded from the global economy, to the detriment of their people. Most importantly, countries must recognise that simply introducing technology will not contribute to development; rather the public must understand how to use the technologies available (be they radio, the Internet, or whatever) to help them achieve their own goals.

The authors also call for discussion about leapfrogging: lessons learned, success and failures, economic, political, and social impacts.

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Questions and Answers About Patent Law

http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/pto-2000-06-p1.html

Patents are important not only to high-tech players but also to many other companies that conduct business online. Therefore, the importance of understanding the role of patents and the patent application process cannot be over-emphasized. This article provides answers to the most basic and important questions about U.S. patent law.

Here's an excerpt:

"In order for an invention to be patentable it must be new as defined in the patent law, which provides that an invention cannot be patented if: '(a) the invention was known or used by others in this country, or patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country, before the invention thereof by the applicant for patent,' or '(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country more than one year prior to the application for patent in the United States...'"

"If the invention has been described in a printed publication anywhere in the world, or if it has been in public use or on sale in this country before the date that the applicant made his/her invention, a patent cannot be obtained. If the invention has been described in a printed publication anywhere, or has been in public use or on sale in this country more than one year before the date on which an application for patent is filed in this country, a patent cannot be obtained."

To read the full article, go to

http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/pto-2000-06-p1.html

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ARTICLES

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Taken from ASCD EDUCATION BULLETIN--JUNE 16, 2000

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USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM WISELY

Distance education is empowering students and their parents by providing more choices in specialized educational offerings, says Jason Ohler of the University of Alaska Southeast. Speaking at the Edpress Conference 2000 in Washington, D.C., on June 8, Ohler, director of the educational technology program at the university, said it is a myth that distance education will draw only students who live far away. It also can be a tool for improving a school's on-site offerings by focusing on gifted and talented or remedial students, or it can link to remote expert instructors. The three-day conference was sponsored by the Association of Educational Publishers in Glassboro, N.J.

Ohler discussed several aspects of the future of technology in the classroom. It has affected students by requiring them to speak the language of art. The visual presentation is an integral part of preparing documents for the Web. Students are learning how to design a Web page, use graphics and photo editing software, and present a graphical version of their interpretation of a topic. As students increasingly use computers for presentations and reports, art is becoming the "lingua franca of the World Wide Web," Ohler said. He is therefore asking educators to recognize art as the fourth R.

In terms of learning to use technology, aptitude is closely linked to attitude, Ohler said. Innovators see opportunities rather than problems, and they believe in the importance of technology.

But assessing the impact of technology is as important as learning how to use it, Ohler cautions. "We need motivated teachers and kids using tools effectively, creatively, and wisely to learn and explore about the past and prepare for the future." The best units of instruction use computers only 20 percent of the time, he said, to leverage what technology can offer. Ohler has written a book on technology called *Taming the Beast: Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle*, which explores ethical choices involved in using technology for education.

Another cautionary note focused on the dehumanizing nature of computer systems. "Technology does not have the ability to make judgment calls, yet we imbue it with a lot of decision-making power," Ohler said. In terms of fitting technology into existing budgets and educational plans, he notes, "you can't get something from technology without giving up something someplace else."

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PFIR Statement on Electronic Signatures and Documents

(http://www.pfir.org/statements/2000-06-17)

PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org

2000-06-17

Greetings.  Laws usually tend to lag far behind technology, often allowing problems--like spam e-mail for example--to fester until they're impossible to ignore.  Then we tend to see some action, with varying degrees of positive or negative results.  When it comes to electronic signatures and digital documents, Congress' preemptive attempt at creating an e-commerce utopia, bereft of adequate consumer protections, may instead have laid the foundation for a range of very serious new problems.

Both houses of the U.S. Congress have now passed the Millennium Digital Commerce Act.  They acted nearly unanimously, and President Clinton is expected to sign the legislation (perhaps by the time you read this).  The Act validates the use of "electronic" signatures and documents in place of the written signatures and paper records with which we are all familiar.

Such a change has immense, complex, and far-reaching ramifications.  A popular adage suggests that "the devil is in the details."  This is especially true in this case.  In their determination to jump onto the e-commerce bandwagon, Congress has found a convenient method to handle most of those pesky details--just ignore them completely!  As a result, we may have just seen the creation of a new array of risks for businesses and consumers alike, but a true bonanza for the lawyers who will handle the inevitable litigation to follow.

Just about *anything* that two parties care to call an "electronic" signature will be treated as valid.  Online documents will have the same force of law as paper contracts and records.  Remarkably though, the legislation makes no attempt to set any standards for how, or even if, such documents would need to be protected to prevent them from being easily modified by error or criminal design.  E-mail, the reception of which is difficult to verify without introducing privacy problems, and which can be accidentally or purposely misrouted, could replace most conventionally mailed notices and other similar materials.

The Act fails to set minimum security or other technical standards of any kind.  It doesn't even specify how it could be determined that someone had authorized the use of electronic signatures or digital contracts in the first place.  Nor is there even a requirement such as the *minimal* levels of communications security, e.g. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), that most people have come to expect from their "routine" Internet credit card transactions. The legislation even requires the U.S. Department of Commerce to become a promoter of this standard-less view of electronic transactions and records around the world.

On top of this, the Act appears to effectively prohibit individual states from establishing their own laws to specify meaningful technical standards in these areas.  And while you're not supposed to be forced to use these hi-tech paper replacements, how long will it be before you find yourself paying more, perhaps much more, if you choose not to do so?  The pattern is all too familiar--first there will be offers of discounts if you'll give up paper, but all too soon the fees for insisting on paper records and physical signatures will become so exorbitant that most of us will give in, whether we really want to or not.

Congress did include some exceptions in their legislation where paper will still be required, including eviction notices, wills, court orders, and some others.  Of course, by the time you receive, for example, an eviction notice, a tremendous amount of damage could have already been done.  The legislation does not establish any protections, like the existing $50 exposure limit in the U.S. on fraudulent credit card purchases, for these electronic transactions.  The Act allows you to dispute the authenticity of particular electronic signatures or digital documents, but this means you have to prove an electronic signature or document isn't yours or is not otherwise authentic.  Given the lack of even minimal a priori standards for such materials, this ensures that our courts will have plenty of such cases to handle in their anything but copious free time.

We can certainly be sure of one other thing though--no doubt there are already crooks rubbing their hands together in glee at the prospect of these newly-enabled e-frauds!

There are of course technical methods that can be employed to make such electronic transactions and digital documents safer and more secure, most of them involving various cryptographic techniques.  As a practical matter, one of the firms most likely to benefit from the use of such systems would seem to be VeriSign, Inc., which after their purchase of former competitor Thawte, has a virtual monopoly on the issuing of the widely-accepted digital certificates crucial to most existing such technologies.

Yet even the most advanced of these systems have major problems in some extremely critical areas.  How do you verify the actual consent and authority of a *person* relating to these new electronically-signed transactions, or know that the electronic signature wasn't stolen from a PC by some inside or outside entity?   Even knowing that the authorization comes from a particular computer isn't good enough.  As we've seen, most PC and many other systems are easily compromised.   Many passwords are trivially guessed or otherwise determined, even assuming that they haven't been left in an unencrypted disk file or stuck to a monitor on a Post-it note!

We know all too well that in the case of distributed denial of service and other attacks, viruses and trojans can embed software into systems to perform other insidious functions at some later time.  This same technique could be used to "take over" a PC to perform seemingly authorized electronic signature transactions.  Biometrics (fingerprints, iris scans) could provide better identification, but their implementation in a manner that cannot be easily subverted to cause additional problems, and that does not introduce serious privacy concerns, is a non-trivial task.

Nearly every day we see new reports of computer-related attacks on the Internet or other network environments.  Poorly-designed systems and misconfigured servers result in continuing episodes of Internet credit card fraud--now a major proportion of all fraudulent credit card activity—even when communications are protected by SSL.  We constantly learn of Web sites and databases which find themselves hacked and their contents altered, and those are just the ones that are discovered, and that we actually find out about!  Identity fraud is already a major and growing problem, even without the boost that this legislation is likely to provide to its perpetrators.

Each time these sorts of events are publicized, we hear politicians pontificating about how "something needs to be done"--usually a suggestion for harsher "after the fact" criminal penalties, not proactive technical actions or standards which could have helped to avoid the problems in the first place.  In the case of this new electronic commerce legislation, we've even heard various Congressmen express concern about its lack of establishing any standards for the electronic transactions and digital documents that it is widely validating.  Congress still plowed ahead anyway, and passed the legislation with enthusiastic gusto. 

While it would not have been appropriate for the Act to have mandated the use of particular products or technologies, it would have been completely appropriate, indeed expected, for it to specify minimum requirements for the authentication, protection, security, and related aspects of such electronic transactions and documents.  Though it might be assumed that reputable businesses would attempt to provide the best security that they could, without such requirements there is nothing to prevent them from not doing so, and this could be an invitation to poor decisions, flawed implementations, confusion, and errors that could have serious repercussions for both themselves and their customers.  When it comes to less-scrupulous "businesses" it could be a direct invitation to fraud.

The temptation for businesses and consumers alike to participate in this new but totally nebulous world of electronic transactions and virtual documents will be significant.  All manner of pie-in-the-sky cost reductions and wonderful benefits are being promised.  Unfortunately, it seems probable that the real costs are likely to be the problems that such systems, implemented in a standards and security vacuum of truly staggering proportions, could bring to us all.

--Lauren—

Lauren Weinstein

lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com

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Telematics for African Development Consortium

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Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
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* To view an archive of previous updates visit:

www.saide.org.za/tad/archive.htm

* For resources on distance education and

technology use in Southern Africa visit:

www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm

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