Communications of the ACM articles from January 2001

Communications of the ACM archives from January 2001

Editorial Pointers.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)(Editorial)
January 1, 2001... 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...

CODE-BREAKING SOFTWARE OFFICIALLY ILLEGAL.(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... 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...

CLOGGING SKY CHANNELS.(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... All radio channels critical for U.S. air traffic control are expected to be used to the maximum extent consistent with safety by 2005, threatening prospects for meeting demand for air travel, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Moreover,...

INFO-TECH GIANT JAPAN.(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... A bill aimed at achieving the goal of overtaking the U.S. as a high-speed IT giant by 2005 was approved by the Japanese government, Reuters reports. A blue-ribbon panel urged the government to take steps--including laying a high-speed...

GLOBAL DOT-CONS.(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Consumer protection police from nine countries contributed to "Operation Top 10 Dot Cons," a consumer protection coalition that spans the globe and targets online scams, according to the director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of...

SALMON SENSORING.(Technology Information)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Fake fish that contain sensors and other electronics to measure stress as they flow (they don't swim) through the many hydroelectric dams of the Columbia and Snake Rivers on their way to the Pacific Ocean have been developed by the Pacific...

TOP 10 FASTEST GROWING, HIGH-TECH METRO AREAS IN THE U.S.(News Briefs)
January 1, 2001... The fastest-growing high-tech areas are those where economic output in high tech exceeds the national average. Metro Area Large high-tech employers 1. Albuquerque, NM Intel, Honeywell Defense ...

BOOTS MADE FOR WALKING.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... A device embedded in the heel of a boot that harnesses a person's walking power to charge small batteries has been tested by Electric Shoe Co., Leicester, Britain, reports Business Week. With each step, the charger, co-developed by Electric...

An Embarrassing, Yet Rewarding, Ending to a Previous Column.(Industry Trend or Event)(Column)
January 1, 2001... After a second consulting visit to a software company, what seemed so obvious the first time suddenly seemed less so. "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get"--old folk saying This is an embarrassing column to write. It's a sequel to...

The Laws of Software Process.(Industry Trend or Event)
January 1, 2001... Getting from here to there: Putting a boundary around process. "Just look at this," Chris said, dropping a heavy three-ring binder onto the desk. It made a resounding thud. "This is our new software development process." "Looks kinda...

Fixing a Flawed Domain Name System.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)(Column)
January 1, 2001... Replacing an inequitable system with one that will better serve the world. The way we use the domain name system today is fundamentally flawed. As a result, ICANN's primary mission is broken beyond redemption, and arguments about the...

DEMOCRACY IN AN IT-FRAMED SOCIETY.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... 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 Alta Vista search for "electronic democracy" yielded well over 5,000 pages. Much...

A STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE OF ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY.(Government Activity)
January 1, 2001... Implementing a true e-democracy requires a careful and comprehensive plan for citizens to learn how to use it. There is a well-acknowledged precept that democracy requires an informed citizenry. Information creates trust and is the...

TOWARD THE EUROPEAN INFORMATION SOCIETY.(Government Activity)
January 1, 2001... Fitting democracy into the techno-economic mold of the European Union is easier said than done. The European Information Society project was set in motion in the early 1990s. It was a move by the European Union (EU) that was inspired by...

IS ONLINE DEMOCRACY IN THE EU FOR PROFESSIONALS ONLY?(Government Activity)
January 1, 2001... An essential part of democracy is the debate. In a thin democracy (see Astrom'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...

RATING THE IMPACT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES ON DEMOCRACY.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
January 1, 2001... Information and communication technologies are transforming democracies worldwide. In fact, we are only beginning to tap their true potential. Whether one thinks that more democracy is really better rests as much on values as it does on...

ICTS, BUREAUCRACIES, AND THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... 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...

SHOULD DEMOCRACY ONLINE BE QUICK, STRONG, OR THIN?(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... 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...

COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS AND THE NEXT CULTURE OF DEMOCRACY.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... 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? There are many disturbing signs that democracy, the process of government "by the...

NOT-FOR-PROFITS IN THE DEMOCRATIC POLITY.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... Some of the best examples of using technologies to strengthen the democratic role can be found in the efforts of voluntary campaign organizations. Two orthodoxies have constricted debates about contemporary democracy to an unhealthy...

WEBBING GOVERNANCE: GLOBAL TRENDS ACROSS NATIONAL-LEVEL PUBLIC AGENCIES.(Government Activity)
January 1, 2001... 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. It goes without saying that the Internet and the Web have the potential to...

INTERNET VOTING FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... A way to ensure free and fair elections or an electronic invitation for ballot fraud and unequal representation? People have voted by mail for years to elect officers of corporations and other organizations. More recently, they have begun...

THE CASE FOR INTERNET VOTING.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
January 1, 2001... The March 2000 Arizona Democratic Party's presidential preference primary illustrates the promise of accessibility, inclusiveness, and accountability in online elections. PRO How the Internet might alter U.S. democratic institutions,...

GAUGING THE RISKS OF INTERNET ELECTIONS.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
January 1, 2001... 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. CON The idea of voting via the...

A PERSONAL DIGITAL STORE.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... Finding a place to efficiently store all of one's digital materials. CyberAll(1) is a project to encode, store, and allow easy retrieval of all of a person's information for personal and professional use. The archive includes books, CDs,...

INCREASING the OBSERVABILITY of INTERNET BEHAVIOR.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... Improvements are needed in network infrastructure and protocols for continued growth of the Internet. Historically, the Internet has been difficult to monitor and manage due to its heterogeneity, geographic size, and distributed...

WEB CHANNELS IN E-COMMERCE.(Industry Trend or Event)
January 1, 2001... Maximizing the channel potential increases the business value of a firm's Web site. The Web is fast emerging as a major player in the relationships between producers and consumers. These relationships can be described in terms of channels,...

Are Handheld Viruses a Significant Threat?(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... 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...

System Integrity Revisited.(Technology Information)
January 1, 2001... 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....