Conmergence

So I sez to Obama, I sez

<ed.note>Senator Barack Obama is apparently courting tech voters so I dropped by the site to leave my suggestions:

Ethics: fedgov, states and NPOs should adopt a universal chart of accounts and extensible business reporting language to web report expenditures in real time.

Economic Security: 70% of persons with disabilities are unemployed. Many lack accessible transportation to the workplace. Too much time|money|oil is wasted by the general workforce commuting to the work place. Telework should be promoted as the default work life arrangement by both governments and employers and should be seen as a matter of national economic security.</ed.note>

NASCIO "Building on the Past, Managing the Present and Stepping into the Future" Presentations

here.

Kiwiki News

Netmocracy in action.

Advancing Virtual Organizing: Potentials and Realities from Scientific Grid to Citizen-Service Communities - June 20, 2007

The purpose of the workshop is to envision greater possibilities for distributed citizen service communities, in light of grid-based, research and design communities. How can emerging public service communities learn "build to share" principles from distributed research communities already benefiting from cyberinfrastructures they have built? What are the implications for accelerating Service Oriented Architecture in public service communities?

By discovering how different fields of business, science and healthcare are using grid computing, participants will share in lessons learned and best practices to provide a common foundation for establishing next steps in planning projects that leverage all the advances associated with grid communities.

"...Grids are the integrated platforms for all network-distributed applications or services whether they are computationally or transactionally intensive." Paul Strong, Grid Today, Sept.11, 2006

In addition, the workshop includes a focus on the U.S. HealthGrid. Current priorities as seen through the National Institutes of Health Roadmap for example call for advancing collaboration in biomedical research and using biomedical data and information to improve the quality and outcomes of health care delivery.

The President's goal to make an electronic health record available for most Americans by 2014 and the development of the Nationwide Health Information Network under the leadership of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, present a timely opportunity to share and collaborate advanced HealthGrid projects, systems, data and knowledge. Through collaboration, open solutions and innovation, the grid community can contribute to advancing quality, electronic health records, population and bio-surveillance and personal health records to achieve higher levels of performance and interoperability.

Emily Metzgar's State blog survey

<ed.note>Props to Hobbs for the pointer. Metzgar's link here.</ed.note>

Government taps the power of us: Officials turn to blogs and wikis to share information and achieve goals

May 21, 2007 by Richard W. Walker, fcw.com

First, he joined the blogosphere, creating a Web site that encouraged constituents to comment on issues, no matter which side they were on. And then last year, he started an issues-based wiki, a Web site where everyone can read, edit and post views. The site, www.politicopia.com, became a virtual town hall for a discussion about vouchers.

Earlier this year, the Utah House and Senate approved the measure on vouchers, and the governor signed the bill into law.

“Politicopia helped move the debate on vouchers,” Urquhart said in a speech at the recent Government CIO Summit, sponsored by 1105 Government Information Group. The summit’s theme was “Government by Wiki: New Tools for Collaboration, Information-Sharing and Decisionmaking.”

...

For example, at the General Services Administration, the Office of Citizen Services and Communications’ Intergovernmental Solutions Division has created an open, collaborative work environment. It includes a wiki to enhance interaction among its stakeholders at various levels of government. The collaborative site doesn’t eliminate stovepipes and silos in government, but it helps turn them into wind chimes that talk to one another across agencies, said Susan Turnbull, the office’s senior program adviser.

“Our mission is to improve the communications, trust and information sharing at all levels of government,” Turnbull said. But “we’re not in a position to change the dynamics, borders and missions at any of these agencies.”

Instead, she said, “a large part of [our activity] has to do with spending constructive time with one another in a way that we can understand each other.” Indeed, she added, one of the office’s performance metrics is the quality of the discussion.

The ALICE Project

The ALICE (America Latina Interconectada Con Europa) project was set up in 2003 to develop an IP research network infrastructure within the Latin American region and towards Europe. It addresses the infrastructure objectives of the European Commission’s @LIS programme, which aims to promote the Information Society and fight the digital divide throughout Latin America.

Owing to its success, the ALICE project has been extended until March 2007 from its original end date of May 2006.

Dana on Open Politics

here.

<ed.note>Wasn't the Constitution open source? Where are those guys on this issue?</ed.note>

But I Don't Even Own A Lobby... [ Update ]

I wonder if I'll be required to buy one?

<ed.note>Alan Kotok pointed me to Kevin Drum's take.</ed.note>

"Free" As In "Free Press"

WASHINGTON - On January 12-14, 2007, several thousand activists, media makers, educators, journalists, policymakers and concerned citizens from across the country will gather in Memphis for the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform. "Whatever issue you care about, real progress will be impossible without first fixing the media," said Robert W. McChesney, president and co-founder of Free Press, the national nonpartisan group hosting the conference. "Millions of people from all walks of life have joined the rapidly growing movement for better media. The National Conference for Media Reform is a unique opportunity for us to come together, share ideas and strategies, and make the media a viable political issue in America."

Among those already scheduled to speak at the Memphis Cook Convention Center are legendary broadcast journalist Bill Moyers; Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; political commentator and author Arianna Huffington of HuffingtonPost.com; Academy Award-winning actress and activist Jane Fonda; Benjamin Hooks, former FCC Commissioner and executive director of the NAACP; FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein; Ben Bagdikian, author of The Media Monopoly; David Brock of Media Matters for America; DJ and hip-hop activist Davey D; television host Phil Donahue; Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women; New York Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez; Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!; producer and director Robert Greenwald; Van Jones of ColorofChange.org; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation; civil rights leader Rev. Tim MacDonald; radio host Laura Flanders; and Free Press co-founders John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney.

The National Conference for Media Reform will include nearly 100 interactive panels and hands-on workshops about media ownership, media literacy, independent media, civil rights and media, the future of the Internet and grassroots media activism. The weekend will also feature new films, musical performances and book signings with best-selling authors.

"We're at a crucial historical moment," said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press. "In recent years, we've witnessed an unprecedented explosion of interest in media issues, incredible grassroots activism, and a technological revolution that has introduced independent voices to a vast audience. This event is about making sure that the public has a say in the monumental political and policy decisions that will shape our media for generations to come."

Press credentials for the National Conference for Media Reform are available to members of the media who will be covering the event. Send requests to credentials (at) freepress.net or fax to (202) 265-1489.

There will also be a limited number of spaces available for radio programs that wish to broadcast live from the Memphis Cook Convention Center. Broadcasters interested in joining "Radio Row" should contact the Free Press staff at credentials (at) freepress.net

More information about the National Conference for Media Reform is available at http://www.freepress.net/conference

Sprint network to use Intel's WiMax

By John Markoff and Ken Belson, The New York Times

Intel has also made progress in South Korea, which is using a version of WiMax called WiBro, and in developing countries like Brazil and Pakistan.

...More broadly, Intel has long wanted to create a global wireless network that mirrors today's land-based Internet, in which dozens of competitors build equipment designed to support a single open standard.

Sprint says it expects to reach a third of the U.S. population with its new network by the end of 2008.

Sprint's WiMax gambit could put pressure on Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless, and on equipment makers, to move toward more open standards and what the industry refers to as "network neutrality," a network design in which all types of data traffic are treated equally by the network operators.

The Semantics of Security [ was Open Letter to Harold Ford { Update }]

<ed.note>The Tennessee Mule Day listing in the National Asset Database teaches us it is time for you to ask your politcian if they are "right on xml." Bob Glusko follows up his Needed: Terrorist Target Markup Language post with this. There are all kinds of subject matter experts doing good interoperability and semantic work out there; it's time for the citizenry to step up to the plate and demand professionalism from their politicians. The technology (Web services and DOJ's Global Justice eXtensible Markup Language) behind the recently completed National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR) is both time and cost-effective, establishing "a link between existing state and territory public sex offender registries. The link allows data from different hardware and software systems to be recognized and shown through the national search site" shows it can be done when the public demands it. The Homeland Security and Justice departments National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) beta is another. Meanwhile, this is the status quo.</ed.note>

Angry Customers Use Web to Shame Firms

July 5, 2006 By Kim Hart, Washington Post

Blogs, Videos Are Tools of Retribution

Disgruntled customers used to have little recourse against poor service and broken promises.

But as angry clients increasingly turn to the Internet to settle scores, companies, independent retailers and everyday wrongdoers are learning that consumers can have the last word -- and often the last laugh. The Web has turned into a place where shame and humiliation are sometimes the strongest weapons in fighting scams and unfairness.

AdvocacyDev III, Oakland, July 31 to August 2

If you’re passionate and/or curious about developing open source software for online organizing and online advocacy, Aspiration invites you to join us for AdvocacyDev III.

The third annual convening of developers, organizers, and activists working with open source tools for online activism will take place in Oakland, California from July 31 to August 2. If you’re interested in creating better tools for online activists and organizers, please join us for knowledge sharing and brainstorming!

In addition, Electric Embers will host their second annual Most Excellent AdvocacyDev Veggie-Friendly BBQ Shindig on Monday night the 31st.

For latest complete details, see http://www.aspirationtech.org/events/advocacydev3

Sessions will include…

• Show and tell on all the latest open source eAdvocacy platforms and tools, including the latest from CivicSpace/CiviCRM, Radical Designs Activist Mobilization Platform (AMP), GoodStorm, and others.
• ScoutSeven’s DotOrganize project, and the findings of their research on needs and gaps in nonprofit eAdvocacy and database capabilities.
• MobileVoter will share the latest in Cell phone/SMS organizing techniques, and join in discussion on how to better integrate SMS support into open source eAdvocacy tools.
• PICnet will demo their brand-new
  NonprofitSoapbox platform, which integrates other open source tools and platforms.
• Emerging technologies: Discussion of the role of VOIP and the Asterisk platform, and How-To’s on podcasting and activist blogging.
• Prototyping new advocacy tools: Using Ruby on Rails to do rapid web development.
• Building and configuring CivicSpace/CiviCRM sites
• In-depth Drupal development session: Module development and theming
• Business Development: How to pay the bills and work on advocacy development projects)
• eAdvocacy Capacity Building: What trainings, documentation and knowledge sharing is necessary to grow the pool of practitioners in the eAdvocacy space. What is needed to better empower local organizers with local causes to use these tools?
• Open standards and open API’s (Application Programmer Interfaces) for eAdvocacy: what’s needed to allow better data sharing, pooling of legislative and other public data, and enable feature interoperability between platforms? What eAdvocacy “mashups” are useful and possible?
• Email Deliverability: While features and functionality of open source advocacy platforms continue to grow, deliverability of associated email blasts continues to decrease as service providers raise spam barriers and network neutrality is threatened.
• Usability: how can online activist tools be made friendlier and more accessible for organizers and activists?
• Trainings and skillshares on various platforms, tactics, and techniques.

The event will take place at East Bay Community Foundation Conference Center in Downtown Oakland.

To Register, please go to

https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/Aspiration/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=1602&t=advocacydevII.dwt

If the above link doesn't work, try

http://tinyurl.com/mmf4z

AdvocacyDev III is organized by Aspiration, http://www.aspirationtech.org

For more information, contact advocacydev@aspirationtech.org

Allen Gunn
Executive Director, Aspiration
+1.415.216.7252
http://www.aspirationtech.org

Aspiration: "Better Tools for a Better World"

e-Participation, Social Inclusion, Democratic Engagement: The Next Big e-Agenda has Arrived

http://www.edemocracysymposium.org

Citizen Centric e-Government: The UN is talking about it. The EU and Council of Europe are talking about it. Governments around the world are grappling with it.

But what is it – simply allowing citizens to conduct their business with government online? Or, using the power of IT to radically reengineer the relationship between citizens and government?

What’s really happening – merely hosting a few online consultations to talk to the usual suspects? Or, deploying technology in new and innovative ways to ensure that even the hardest to reach groups are included?

What’s really coming next – a few isolated initiatives? Or, a new global policy agenda that will radically redefine the way we have all come to think about ‘eGovernment.’

This summer, senior government officials from central and local government, NGO’s from around the world and leading eGovernment experts will come together to discuss the evolving relationship between eGovernment and eParticipation and to critically re-examine the way in which ‘readiness’ in these areas is defined and measured globally.

To ensure genuine international input from every level of government and all key sectors, participants will have the opportunity to attend the Symposium in either Budapest or Baltimore.

The Budapest Symposium will set the stage for discussion and debate around the critical challenges stakeholders face as they struggle to deliver the full potential of e-Government.

The Baltimore Symposium will be a 1 day event on the 3 August, which will take the findings of Budapest and explore them at greater depth in the country that has pioneered the art of online campaigning but now faces the challenge of translating e-advocacy tools into more inclusive governing.

Help shape the debate by participating in these highly timely and dynamic events. Topics will break outside the conventional conference agenda to critically re-examine the impact of technology on citizen-centric government as we know it. Plenary panels and small group sessions will highlight key democracy activities from all levels of government and society.

If you are interested in exploring new approaches to governance and citizen participation in the new information age then this conference is for you.

Unity 08

We’re a movement to take our country back from polarizing politics. In 2008, we’ll select and elect a Unity Ticket to the White House— one Democrat, one Republican, in whatever order, or independents committed to a Unity team. We want you to join us - and you don't have to leave your party to do it.

Law upheld: Voters need photo ID

By Richard D. Walton, richard.walton@indystar.com, Indystar.com

Federal judge says plaintiffs failed to demonstrate hardship

If you're planning to vote in the May 2 primary, you'll have to show a state or federally issued photo ID.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker upheld Indiana's stringent voter-identification law. Barker said plaintiffs, including the Indiana Democratic Party, failed to back up their contention that the ID law is unduly burdensome and would keep many people from casting ballots.

Barker wrote in her 126-page opinion that the opponents' arguments would require "the invalidation" not only of the photo ID statute, "but of significant portions of Indiana's election code which have previously passed Constitutional muster."
A number of states require photo identification for voters, but Indiana's law is considered among the most stringent because it offers few exceptions to the requirement.

The Democratic Party and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, a co-plaintiff, had argued that the law -- passed by the Republican-led legislature in 2005 to prevent voter fraud -- would particularly affect the elderly, minorities and people with disabilities.

They would bear the cost of obtaining the documentation needed to get state-issued ID cards, plaintiffs said, arguing that having to spend money to vote was the modern-day equivalent of the "poll tax" -- the Jim Crow-era method of keeping black people from voting.

But Barker wrote: "Despite apocalyptic assertions of wholesale voter disenfranchisement, plaintiffs have produced not a single piece of evidence of any identifiable registered voter who would be prevented from voting" because of the statute.
The judge had particular scorn for a report prepared by an expert hired by the Democrats that said 989,000 registered voters in Indiana do not possess a BMV-issued driver's license or photo ID.
Barker said she did not consider the report in her determination because she viewed the analysis and conclusions as "utterly incredible and unreliable."

Cable, telecom, Internet skirmishers march on Nashville venues

March 29, 2006 By Milt Capps, NashvillePost.com (subscription)

Legislative Plaza was today the scene of a ritual that provided fresh illustration of the point made by Alexis DeTocqueville in Democracy in America, the journal that forever marked Americans as prone to political alliances. Said the author in 1835, while Americans routinely mobilize interest-groups that "agitate society," in the end the messiness strengthens the state.

Given the agitation now underway in Nashville, one can only hope that De Tocqueville's words went straight from his lips, to God's ears. Case-in-point: Today was the annual "Cable Day" at the Capitol and Legislative Plaza for members of the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association, under the leadership of President and Executive Director Stacey Burks Briggs.

Briggs and nearly 60 TCTA members, saying they represent 1.3 million cable subscribers, were vying for legislators' attention on a half-dozen broadband-related bills...

TN Broadband Stimulus Program

Kevin Bittorie, Director of Programs & Communications, Nashville Technology Council Program Announcements

Broadband access is increasingly becoming a key question businesses are asking when looking at relocating to Middle Tennessee.  The Tennessee Department of Economic Development has developed a brief survey to support the Tennessee Broadband Stimulus Program.

There is a Residential Survey to be completed by everyone and a separate Business Survey to be completed by the appropriate executives.  The link to the business survey is also included on the last page of the residential survey.

Eric Cromwell and his staff are trying to reach as many people across the state as possible with this survey - the more feedback we receive the more beneficial and effective our efforts will be - so we thank you for and value your input.  Please make sure to distribute this message to the appropriate people in your communities.

Federal Telework Picking Up Speed

Public-CIO.com

<ed.note>Please study these graphics ( courtesy "Attitude, Not Cost, Barrier to Disabled Workers" by Catherine Komp, newstandardnews.net ) as you read about the federal telework status quo.</ed.note>

On Monday, CDW Government, Inc. announced the findings of its second annual CDW-G Federal Telework Survey. The report reveals new momentum in federal telework, with 41 percent of responding federal employees indicating that they currently telework - up from 19 percent at the same time last year. Validating the jump in participation, 43 percent of surveyed federal teleworkers indicate that they have started teleworking in the last year.

The 2006 CDW-G Federal Telework Report is based upon online, telephone and in-person interviews with 542 federal employees and an online survey of 235 federal IT professionals.

The report also reveals that federal IT professionals have significantly expanded technical support for telework initiatives over the past year. Thirty-two percent of surveyed federal IT professionals indicate that their agency has started or expanded a telework program in the last year. Twenty-eight percent of the same respondents believe that their agency provides IT support to 100 percent of eligible teleworkers -- up from just 5 percent of respondents in 2005.

Information Security Remains the Largest Roadblock

For federal IT professionals, information security remains the single most significant roadblock for broader telework adoption in 2006, as it was in 2005. Fifty-three percent of federal IT professionals feel that information security is the primary challenge associated with telework. Federal IT professionals' distant second and third concerns about enabling telework are service and support (26 percent) and collaboration (16 percent). That said, just 6 percent of federal IT professionals believe that federal telework requirements hamper compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Thirty-nine percent believe that telework poses no conflict with FISMA compliance.

"More than half of federal IT professionals still are unclear about how telework programs will impact FISMA compliance," Peterson said. "This is clearly an opportunity for industry, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Management and Budget to step in and tear down a major roadblock for telework growth."

F2C: Freedom to Connect April 3 & 4

Hi There,

I am writing to invite you to F2C: Freedom to Connect, the Internet Freedom conference, to be held April 3 & 4 in Washington DC.  I hope you'll come. It's really important.

Open communication is one of the Internet's basic principles.  It is a right that should be as assured as First Amendment rights like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.  Today, though, regulatory forces are working to squeeze Internet innovation and broadband competition out of existence.

A major rewrite of communications law is underway in Washington. The most recent draft bill would require that even the smallest Internet service provider register with the U.S. Government.  Meanwhile the Federal Communications Commission has issued orders requiring all VOIP providers to meet emergency dialing and law enforcement requirements that only the biggest, least innovative carriers can hope to meet.

Some of the most important voices in the Internet Freedom debate will speak at F2C: Freedom to Connect, including:
     * Reed Hundt (Conference Keynote)
     * Rep. Rick Boucher D-VA
     * Chris Sacca, Google's BizDev point man plus
     * Gary Arlen, Editor/Commentator, Arlen Communications Inc.
     * Jonathan Askin, General Counsel, pulver.com
     * Jim Baller, Senior Principal, Baller Herbst Law Group
     * Drew Clark, Senior Writer, National Journal
     * Mark Cooper, Research Director, Consumer Federation of America
     * Cynthia De Lorenzi, CEO, Patriot.net
     * Ed Felten, Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs, Princeton University
     * Dewayne Hendricks, CEO, Dandin Group
     * Dave Hughes, Distinguished West Point Graduate
     * David Isenberg, Principal, Isen.com
     * Jeff Jarvis, Creative Director, Advance.net
     * Jim Kohlenberger, Executive Director, The VON Coalition
     * Bruce Kushnick, Chairman, Teletruth
     * Blair Levin, Managing Director, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated
     * Om Malik, Editor, GIGAOM.com
     * Rick Ringel, Dir. of Engineering, Media Applications Grp., Inter-Tel
     * Doc Searls, Senior Editor, Linux Journal
     * Ron Sege, CEO, Tropos
     * Gigi Sohn, President, Public Knowledge
     * Esme Vos, Founder, Muniwireless.com
     * David Weinberger, Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
     * Frannie Wellings, spokes person, Free Press
     * Tim Wu, Professor, Coumbia Law School

The writing is on the wall, and the time to act is now!  On April 3rd and 4th, F2C: Freedom to Connect will bring concerned Internet innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, and visionaries to Washington to enter into dialog with the advocates and policy makers shaping Internet law and policy.  If you want your voice to be heard in our country's corridors of power, F2C: Freedom to Connect is a good place to start.  It is as simple as that.

F2C: Freedom to Connect will take place at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.  For complete event information, click over to <http://www.pulver.com/f2c/>, and make your plans now to attend by registering online at <https://secure.pulver.com/f2c/ register.html>.

If we simply wait and hope that our leaders will act to preserve the future of the Internet we will only be disappointed, because it isn't going to happen.  The issues are too important to ignore.  The future of the Internet -- indeed, freedom of communication -- is at stake.  Join me for F2C: Freedom to Connect, and take a stand!

Regards,
David Isenberg

Deana Claiborne: "Thoughts about Voter Verifiable Paper Ballot Receipts"

Deana Claiborne, Executive Director of UCP, and President of the State of Tennessee League of Women Voters

Many people have asked my personal opinion about the issue of Voter Verifiable Paper Ballot Receipts. I tend to think processes through in detail, as if they are already in force, and try to foresee specific situations that might arise in implementation ( sort of a Murphy's law approach to strategic planning ). I see a number of unaddressed potential issues with the concept of voter verified paper ballot receipts, mainly because I have been a part of so many things that looked good at the onset, but presented practical problems in implementation. I am eager to hear how proponents plan to address these issues. As with any concept yet to be proved through implementation, the devil is in the details!

The new Nashville Convention Center, Techubator and Tenngrid [ An Open Letter to Mayor Bill Purcell's Music City Center committee - updated ]

The convention center should house a tech incubator which all the area colleges and the state schools as well as area businesses collaborate in. It ought to emphasis distributed grid computing so that rural teleworkers could be employed from home offices over VPNs. And, of course, the state needs to cooperate by lighting fiber (or what have you) to every state locality.

According to a recent press release the new Georgia Center for the Study of Systems Biology hosted by BellSouth's world-class facilities in Midtown Atlanta and funded by $8.5 million in grants from the State of Georgia, the Georgia Research Alliance and the National Institutes of Health, merges Dr. Skolnick's biomedical research expertise with IBM's high-performance computing capabilities to create a brand new supercomputer. The new supercomputing cluster running Linux will be among the fastest in the world, and one of the most powerful among research universities in the Southeastern United States.

These kinds of public-private partnerships projects are the things all the economists say America (and the states individually) need to be preeminent in the new economy. We have Dell and we’ll host the Redhat Summit this spring. We have Ken Russell’s nascent Communityharbor initiative. We have BellSouth, Comcast, even some line of sight wireless. The Technology Council has already invited Paul T. Morris Esq., Executive Director, Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) to the 2nd Annual Nashville, Tennessee NTC Technology Innovation Conference on March 15th. “Recognizing the importance of advanced telecommunications for each community, citizens of fourteen 14 Utah cities engaged in deploying and operating a 100 percent fiber optic network to every business and household within the consortium's footprint.”

This kind of endeavor produces rural telemedicine and disabilities employment advantages: In a report prepared for the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC), Robert E. Litan*, vice president for research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation and also is a senior fellow in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution, identifies up to $927 billion in cost savings and output benefits from ‘business as usual’ broadband deployment and an additional $532 billion-$847 billion in economic benefits from accelerated broadband deployment.

Litan notes: “Three types of benefits from broadband deployment and use are addressed: lower medical costs; lower costs of institutionalized living; and additional output generated by more seniors and individuals with disabilities in the labor force. Considered together, these three benefits are estimated to accumulate to at least $927 billion in 2005 dollars … This amount is equivalent to half of what the United States currently spends annually for medical care for all its citizens ($1.8 trillion) … Policies designed to accelerate the use of broadband for these populations, however, could significantly add to the benefits, by cumulative amounts ranging from $532 billion to $847 billion (depending on the wages earned by the additional working seniors).”

In the US nearly 70 % of individuals with disabilities are unemployed and in Tennessee, under current state services, unless they have mental retardation, there are essentially no support services offered to this population. If a Techubator were to encourage management to think outside of the cube and utilize people with disabilities as remote employees using assistive technology-enhanced home offices, broadband and vpns, Cybera and the Technology Access Center and other NPOs could assist in managing projects such as distributed medical digitization and indexing or government historical document digitization projects. The number 1 reason given by persons with disabilities is the lack of accessible transportation to the workplace, especially in rural areas. Working from home offices with assistive technologies "virtually" eliminates this barrier. The number 2 reason is the cost of including the population in healthcare insurance pools. But by adopting telemedicine and remote disease management techniques these cost could be brought low as possible. Plus a supercomputing cluster could be aimed at coming up with treatments for those very conditions.  Not only would this bring business folks to Nashville on a one time basis but encourage firms globally to make Nashville part of their homesourcing/outsourcing toolkits.

Then there’s the “folding@home” potential of the Tenngrid’s unused cycles for the biotech park. And NHIN and medical banking tie ins. Possibly more Internet 2 tie ins. And distance education enablement for rural schools. It would also provide a platform for a realistic alternative to the meth lab economy.

Members Approve Election Markup Language (EML) as OASIS Standard

OASIS, the international standards consortium, today announced that its members have approved the Election Markup Language (EML) version 1.0 as an OASIS Standard, a status that signifies the highest level of ratification. Developed through an open process by the OASIS Election and Voter Services Technical Committee, EML enables the secure interchange of information between electronic voting systems, software, and services.

"EML provides a high-level overview of the processes within an electronic voting system and XML schemas for the various data interchange points between the e-voting processes," explained John Borras, out-going chair of the OASIS Election and Voter Services Committee. "It describes the data requirements of the flows between electronic voting processes and addresses security issues relating to the exchange of data."

Services addressed by EML include new voter registration, membership and dues collection, change of address tracking, redistribution of electoral boundaries, requests for absentee/expatriate ballots, election timetabling, polling place management, election notification and administration, ballot delivery and vote counting, and election results reporting and analysis.

"The increase in the use of electronic voting techniques around the world has resulted in an explosion of products and suppliers addressing this market," said Siobhan Donaghy of OPT2VOTE Ltd, secretary for the OASIS Election and Voter Services Committee. "EML provides the needed assurance that all these products can work to the same standard."

EML has been developed following work over several years by key representatives from IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and other suppliers in collaboration with international government agencies across many countries. These organizations came together to develop a robust and reliable standard that would provide a secure approach and sustain voter confidence in voting practices.

"EML is designed to benefit public officials who oversee voting in local or national elections and referendums, as well as those who conduct private elections within corporations or other organizations. Suppliers of electronic voting systems profit from EML by reducing their development costs," noted Patrick Gannon, president and CEO of OASIS. "Of course ultimately, it's the voters who stand to gain the most from this standard. The added reliability that comes from using common data elements in a consistent manner provides more security and reduces costs in the election process, which is a bottom-line benefit that has the potential to touch us all."

The OASIS Election and Voter Services Committee remains open to new participation. Those interested in implementing EML are encouraged to exchange information via the public eml-dev mailing list (http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/). As with all Consortium projects, archives of the OASIS Election and Voter Services Committee's work are accessible to both members and non-members, and OASIS hosts an open mail list for public comment on the standard.

Creative Clusters and the Urban Economy

Tak Utsumi provides a link to John Eger's latest as well as to his previous (Teletopia, Yet Another New World Communications Order, and Globalization: A New Urgency for Building Digital Communities)

People's Guide to the Telecommunications Act of 2006

Alliance for Community Media, Community Media Review - Summer 2005

We, THE PEOPLE, must work TOGETHER to write U.S. Media and Communications laws that serve the public interest as we move into our digital future.

The Telecommunications Act of 2006 must:

• Recognize public access to media & communications as a fundamental human right and the foundation of our democracy.
• Affirm the airwaves and public-rights-of-way as shared public resource to be used expressly for the "public convenience and necessity"
• Enforce the public interest principals of open access, ownership diversity, accountability, local control, and community reinvestment to support non-commercial media and communications.
• Apply equitably across all platforms: Phone, TV and Radio, Cable, Satellite & Broadband Services.

Hearing impaired see promise in high speed Internet video

June 17, 2005 by Chloe Albanesius

Congress should expand a provision of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on telecom access for the disabled to include high-speed Internet access -- so that the hearing-impaired can communicate via broadband video, advocates of the deaf community said Thursday.

Access to such service is a "civil rights issue," Andrew Imparato, president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, said during a Capitol Hill demonstration of real-time communication for the deaf.

The 1996 law, which some lawmakers are seeking to overhaul, currently "applies to old technology," he said, because it gives the disabled telecom access only via telephone and not broadband. "We need to make sure our policy brings us into the modern era," Imparato declared.

Other issues include the economic availability of equipment, Kelby Brick, director of law and advocacy for the National Association of the Deaf, said through a sign-language interpreter. With so many products on the market, some are bound to be incompatible -- making the devices useless if two deaf people who want to communicate have equipment with different standards, he added.

Brick called on Congress to require the FCC to recognize that video phone service is necessary and needs to be incorporated into updated telecom laws.

"Our goal is for it to work," Imparato said when asked if he supports mandated standards. That could mean industry-led standards reached through negotiation or action by Congress. "However it happens," it would be a good move, he said.

Brick, meanwhile, praised the FCC for requiring Internet phone providers to offer 911 service but urged the commission to also include video services. "We're talking about life-saving issues," he said.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee, said he would do "all that I can" to push legislation that makes new communication systems available to all. "It's imperative that the disabled have access to what other people have," he said.

Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., a member of the subcommittee, also pledged to be "very vocal" in support of making broadband technologies available to the deaf. "Telecommunications is the great equalizer," he said. Engel called tax cuts during the Bush administration "one of the major impediments in technology spending." He said his office encounters a number of groups pushing "good technology," but because Congress is "not doing a very good job of being fiscally responsible," many promising projects fall by the wayside.

Frank Bowe, a professor at New York's Hofstra University, was on hand for the demonstration of broadband communication technology. After dialing his office number, Bowe's secretary and sign-language interpreter appeared on the screen. Bowe was able to get real-time messages from his secretary and later converse with a student in sign language.

"I've never once spoken to my secretary on the phone," he said.

[Repost] [TN] State recognized for financial reporting excellence

American City Business Journals Inc.

The Government Finance Officers Association has given Tennessee a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting.

This is the 25th consecutive year, Tennessee has been recognized by the organization for its financial reporting.

<ed.note>Are they nuts??? Where's the xls version of the state budget that the citizens can use to crunch the numbers? Where's the real time web-based xbrl report site on the state web site so we can see expenditures at the close of business daily? They do realize that until recently the state budget was cobbled together from about 100 different resources -- and that for printing purposes only -- hence the pdfs. There has been no "big spreadsheet in the sky!" Here's a thought -- ask your politician for a budget -- not a budget summary -- in any number crunchable format -- and watch the tap dance begin!</ed.note>

"The state's accounting division goes relatively unnoticed to the general public, but likely carries one of the heavier responsibilities of state government," says Dave Goetz, Finance and Administration commissioner. "That is, responsibility for the accuracy, completeness and fairness in reporting the financial position and results of operations of the various funds of the state in a way that enables us to gain an understanding of the state's financial activities."

Goetz' division prepares the state's annual financial report and tracks the money the state spends through its budget, which was $20.2 billion in fiscal year 2003. The certificates are given to governmental organizations that publish easily readable and efficiently organized financial reports that meet generally accepted accounting principles.

The Government Finance Office Association represents finance officers in the United States and Canada.

Council of Europe e-voting Recommendations

Recommendation Rec(2004)11 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on legal, operational and technical standards for e-voting (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 30 September 2004 at the 898th meeting of the Ministers' Deputies)

Tests of electronic voting held during Portuguese general election

Feb. 21, 2005 eGovernment News

Two polling place e-voting systems and a remote Internet voting solution were tested during the Portuguese legislative elections of 20 February 2004. The objectives of the non-binding pilots were to test the use of electronic technologies throughout the whole voting process, from the identification and authentication of voters to the counting of electronic ballots. The pilots were conducted by a number of Portuguese and foreign companies, including Multicert, PT Corporate, Unisys, Indra, and Election Systems & Software.

The polling place e-voting systems, which had already been successfully tested during the June 2004 European elections, were tested in the 5 municipalities where the Portuguese President and the leaders of the five largest political parties were registered to vote. Together with 40,000 other registered voters, they were given the opportunity of trying the voting machines after casting their paper ballots. “I liked the system, it’s very interesting and easy”, said Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, who considered that “sooner or later” a binding e-voting system would “inevitably” be implemented.

Jon Stahl, Gideon Rosenblatt and the Three Pillars of Social Source

On the eve of the NTC, I though you all might be interested in reading a new "think paper" that my colleague Gideon Rosenblatt here at ONE/Northwest just published -- it's called "The Three Pillars of Social Source" and it starts like this....

You can read the whole thing, download a PDF, and most importantly, offer your comments and feedback at: http://www.movementasnetwork.org

The Three Pillars of Social Source

In the world of scarce resources plaguing the nonprofit technology sector, we currently suffer from a conflation of roles. This paper outlines three functional roles that are essential for a vibrant nonprofit technology sector. These “three pillars” include the “application developer”, the “application integrator” and the “application hoster.” Drawing clearer distinctions between these roles will help nonprofit technology assistance providers clarify their organizational missions, which will reduce competitive overlap and pave the way for improved collaboration between organizations. These steps are absolutely necessary if we are to evolve the nonprofit technology sector into a more integrated “social source” movement dedicated to empowering the agents of social service and social change throughout our societies.

The ideas in this paper echo a similar analysis of functional roles from an earlier paper on the environmental movement called Movement as Network, which argued that:

“The environmental movement is not just some vague concept, but an actual entity. It is a network, made up of very real interconnections between people and organizations; a networked whole that is greater than the sum of its individual parts.”

In much the same way, the nonprofit technology sector must also come to see itself as something greater than the sum of its individual parts, for it too is a network - a network with the potential to become a movement. What holds it back from its potential as a movement is the lack of a unifying mission. Yes, the nonprofit technology sector does exist to serve the technology needs of the nonprofit community. But that in itself is not unique. Microsoft plays this same role every time a nonprofit organization uses Word to write a letter or Excel to create a spreadsheet. What is it that makes the nonprofit technology sector greater than the sum of its parts? What is its vision - its reason for existence? What, in short, would turn it from a sector into a movement?

[Tennessee] The Drive to Save Lives

<ed.note>It should be noted that while Tennesseans for Fair Taxation constantly call for an income tax they refuse to acknowledge the lack of a Tennessee State Budget in a number crunchable format {xml | xbrl} (which the citizenry can actually review and audit to determine what amount is currently spent on any given program). In the interest of fairness, I have heard no call from the self-professed fiscal conservatives {a la phil valentine}, nor the self-professed public forums {thepublicforum.org | the league of women voters}. Apparently no one is interested in doing a cost|benefit analysis based on the actual data -- must be easier to just use "fakestistics"*.</ed.note>

“The Drive to Save Lives” is being organized by key TFT allies and coalition members to oppose Gov. Bredesen's proposal to cut of over 320,000 Tennesseans from the state's health care program, and drastically reduce coverage for 900,000 other Tennesseans.

With three ambulances carrying heath care advocates and TennCare enrollees across the state, the caravan will be stopping for media and public education events from Memphis to Tri-Cities over the next 9 days. Just today in Nashville, over 100 health care advocates gathered to send the caravan of ambulances off on their voyage. Click the links at right for more information on the activities in your area.

While TFT does not work directly on the health care issue, we recognize the proposed cuts are a symptom of Tennessee's outdated and unfair tax system that fails to invest in Tennessee and its future.

This announcement is being forwarded to our supporters as a courtesy to our member groups and allies who are spearheading the effort to save the lives of thousands across the state. For more information about the health care debate, visit the web site of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, a long-time TFT member group.

Philips connects communities through the Digital Home

Philips introduces InnoHub as part of USD 90 million investment in Singapore to accelerate Connected Planet strategy Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG) today announced its participation in the Connecting the Community pilot project that is being planned by the Singapore Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). Philips also introduced InnoHub, an integrated test bed facility to test and fine-tune products developed at the Philips Innovation Campus (PIC) in Singapore. Philips last year committed USD 90 million for the development of products and test bed facilities in Singapore as part of its Connected Planet strategy.

<ed.note>Seventy percent of persons with disabilities in the US are unemployed. The number 1 reason given is the lack of accessible transportation to the workplace, especially in rural areas. In response both Louisiana and Kentucky plan massive broadband build outs. What do Tennessee municipalities do? Build more roads!* The reality is a downtown Nashville fiber|wireless build out would be much more economically advantageous than modifying the roads because folks wouldn't need to drive nearly as much--they'd just work from home offices. Tennessee urban and rural economic development is stifled because, in an effort not to offend the automotive industry, we leave our most impoverished citizens with no employment recourse due to the lack of the new utility--ubiquitous broadband. *Project Net-Work encourages management to think outside of the cube and utilize people with disabilities as remote employees using assistive technology-enhanced home offices, broadband and vpns.</ed.note>

Philips through the Connecting the Community project will team up content and service providers to equip selected households with both wired and wireless broadband and connectivity products. During this six months pilot project, residents that volunteer to participate will experience relevant interactive services linked to their local community, including e-health, e-learning, e-security and digital entertainment applications.

One of the major trends that will impact consumers in the next few years is the consumerization of healthcare. People are beginning to take an active role in keeping themselves out of hospital, and taking care of their own health within the home. One of the applications Philips will explore during the Connecting the Community project is delivering personalized healthcare to the home over broadband in order to help meet consumers' rising demand for healthcare.

Disability Organizations Respond to SABE's Letter

Steve Eidelman of The Arc, eidelman@thearc.org, writes the following in reaction to JFA's posting of Chester Finn's letters: [Below] is the response sent to SABE. Chester Finn has assured us that SABE will not encourage people to boycott the meeting. We are redoubling our efforts to make certain that self advocates, as well as family members and direct support professionals, can attend the conference.

February 7, 2005
Dear Chester,
The Steering Committee of the Alliance for Full Participation would like to respond to your January 24 letter notifying us that Self Advocates Becoming Empowered has decided to withdraw participation as a Founder in the Alliance for Full Participation's 2005 Summit, "Many Voices, One Vision." The partners of the Alliance for Full Participation (AFP) deeply regret this decision. We regret that the AFP partners did not have the opportunity to respond and address SABE's concerns prior to the decision being made. The AFP partners will continue to extend an invitation to the SABE leadership to meet face to face to discuss and work together to resolve SABE's concerns. It is our hope that this invitation will be accepted so that our organizations can work together to determine a solution to these challenges and still continue to move forward to achieve the goals of the Summit. We regret any miscommunications or misunderstandings, and we hope that our partnership can begin again. The leadership of the Alliance for Full Participation is absolutely hopeful that reconciliation with SABE can be reached, and we will continue to work to achieve this outcome. Should this not occur, the AFP is committed to ensuring that the voice of self advocates is heard at this Summit. We have and will continue to actively seek funding streams to provide scholarships for self advocates and family members to attend the meeting; we continue to encourage self advocates and family members to participate in the state teams and at the national conference; and we are committed to ensuring self advocate and family member leadership and representation in breakout sessions and our Town Hall meeting. Chester, please feel free to contact any one of us so that we can work together to resolve SABE's concerns.

Sincerely,
Renee L. Pietrangelo
American Network of Community Options and Resources

M. Doreen Croser
Executive Director American Association on Mental Retardation, Inc.

Steven M. Eidelman
Executive Director The Arc of the United States

George Jesien, PhD
Executive Director Association of University Centers on Disabilities, Inc.

James F. Gardner Ph.D
President and CEO The Council on Quality and Leadership in Supports for People with Disabilities, Inc.

Robert M. Gettings
Executive Director National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services, Inc.

Karen F. Flippo
Executive Director National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities

Curt Decker
Executive Director National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems, Inc.

Stephen Bennett
President and CEO United Cerebral Palsy

Open Letter to the Alliance for Full Participation

Feb. 14, 2005 JFA Listserv

TO: The Steering Committee of the Alliance for Full Participation (AFP)

From: Chester Finn, Chair, Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)

I want to acknowledge and accept Steve Edelman's apology for his conduct on the last conference call. However, this does not mean that SABE will return to the AFP and participate in the Summit. We stand by our decision.

I want to make clear that our decision to withdraw from the AFP was not about the money or about what led up to our withdrawing from the AFP.

Our decision was about our philosophy. SABE supports self- advocates across the nation to speak up in order to gain their independence. Our mission is to ensure that people with disabilities (a) are treated as equals, (b) are given the same decisions, choices, rights, responsibilities, and chances to speak up to empower themselves, and (c) are given opportunities to learn from mistakes, as everyone else.

If the Alliance or individual organizations really want to work with us, they need to do the following:

eBusinessReady Certifies Six Software Products for ebXML Interoperability Testing

Jan. 19, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE)

Test Round Delivers Industry-Specific Functionality

eBusinessReady®, an industry-neutral software testing program under joint partnership of the Uniform Code Council, Inc.® (UCC®) and Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), announced today that six software products from six solution providers successfully completed the program's ebXML-3Q04 interoperability testing. This test round included a series of functionality tests for those participants within the automotive and health-care industries.

Industry-specific functionality within this ebXML test round included:

• A data compression test profile, as recommended by the Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) Transport Guidelines.
• An ebMS profile of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Public Health Information Network Messaging System (PHIN MS)
• A profile covering Health Level 7 (HL7) version 2 and version 3 messages in accordance with the HL7 Transport Specification ebXML - Release 1 (Draft Standard for Trial Use).

HL7 is a widely supported standards developing organization focusing on clinical and administrative healthcare. The CDC's PHIN program enables consistent exchange of response, health and disease tracking data between public health partners.

Companies demonstrating interoperability among their products included Cleo Communications, Cyclone Commerce, Inovis, Oxlo Systems Inc., Sterling Commerce, and webMethods, Inc.

"Since 1999, DGI has tested and certified hundreds of software products to support an interoperable global marketplace with a variety of standards," said Rik Drummond, DGI's chief executive officer. "We are pleased to see a continued growth of cross-industry adoption of the ebXML standard. Now, more companies can embrace the benefits and values that eBusinessReady certification delivers to manufacturers and retailers in the automotive, health-care and public health industries."

An eBusinessReady certified product enables vertical and horizontal interoperability across the supply chain and distribution channels. ebXML Messaging is a key standard that enables Web services, providing secure and reliable messaging for business-to-business communications. The companies underwent testing to demonstrate that their ebXML messaging software products complied with a common level of interoperability, enabling them to effectively communicate with other eBusiness solutions, eliminating costly communication obstacles and facilitating efficient trading partner relationships.

For additional information about the eBusinessReady ebXML test, visit http://www.ebusinessready.org/ebxml.html.

Note to Editors:

The following companies and products passed the eBusinessReady ebXML, third quarter, 2004 interoperability test:

-------------------   ------------------------------------------------
Company               Products
-------------------   ------------------------------------------------
Cleo Communications   VersaLex(TM) 2.3 tested in LexiCom(TM) v2.3
-------------------   ------------------------------------------------
Cyclone Commerce      Cyclone Interchange/Activator v5.3
-------------------   ------------------------------------------------
Inovis                BizManager v3.0
-------------------   ------------------------------------------------
Oxlo Systems, Inc.    AutoTPX ebMS MSH, v1.3
-------------------   ------------------------------------------------
Sterling Commerce     Gentran Integration Suite/Sterling Integrator v4
-------------------   ------------------------------------------------
webMethods, Inc.      webMethods ebXML Module v6.0.1
-------------------   ------------------------------------------------

Council of Europe Recommends EML

By Ram Kumar

Use of the OASIS Election Markup Language (EML) has been endorsed by the Council of Europe, an organization made up of 46 member states that has defended human rights, parliamentary democracy, and the rule of law since 1946. The organization has recommended that member states implement EML for future e-voting and e-referendum systems in order to ensure interoperability between possibly disparate component sources. EML, developed by the OASIS Election and Voter Services TC, contains rules for structuring data related to electoral lists, information for voters, and vote counting.

The Rise of Open-Source Politics

Nov. 22, 2004 by MICAH L. SIFRY, the Nation

Whether you're a Democrat in mourning or a Republican in glee, the results from election day should not obscure an important shift in America's civic life. New tools and practices born on the Internet have reached critical mass, enabling ordinary people to participate in processes that used to be closed to them. It may seem like cold comfort for Kerry supporters now, but the truth is that voters don't have to rely on elected or self-appointed leaders to chart the way forward anymore. The era of top-down politics--where campaigns, institutions and journalism were cloistered communities powered by hard-to-amass capital--is over. Something wilder, more engaging and infinitely more satisfying to individual participants is arising alongside the old order.

Urge Passage of MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON/FAMILY OPPORTUNITY ACT

Gwen Gillenwater of NCIL, gwen@ncil.org

Call on YOUR Representatives and Senators to Pass MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON/FAMILY OPPORTUNITY ACT Next Week!!!

Next week, Congress will return for what is known as a "lame duck" session. They will be in session for only one week or less. Their first order of business is to pass appropriations for 2005 and to increase the debt limit. But we need to remind Congress that it is time to "Keep the Promise" and pass Money Follows the Person and the Family Opportunity Act before the 108th Congress leaves Washington for the last time. For this reason NCIL and the below listed groups have joined together to encourage disability advocates and allies to make a final push to pass these bills NOW!!! Too long we have been promised results only to see negotiations break down with our goal in sight. Our message is simple: The time for excuses, vague promises that are not delivered upon and demands for program cuts to "pay for" MFP/FOA has passed.

Over a year ago, President Bush committed $1.75 billion for his Money Follows the Person/ Rebalancing Initiative. Now, it is time for Congress to break the gridlock around legislation and take long-overdue action to empower persons with disabilities to get the assistance they need in order to help individuals live in the community.

DHS plots security database

Nov. 10, 2004 By Dibya Sarkar

The Homeland Security Department is developing a single security clearance database that will include state, local and private-sector officials who will be authorized to gain access to a secure facility or classified information.

Jack Johnson, DHS' chief security officer, said officials are using the Office of Personnel Management's clearance database, which includes employees, detailees and contractors. They will expand the database to include authorized personnel outside the federal government.

IT Code of Conduct Gains Big Backers

Nov. 10, 2004 By Michael Singer

<ed.note>O.k., so where do I sign up for the cushy big salary US policy group job which oversees the rights of those poor non-US workers?</ed.note>

Three major IT companies are adding their muscle to a new industry program designed to standardize working conditions for non-U.S. workers.

Microsoft, Intel and Cisco Systems are the latest members of the recently announced Electronics Industry Code of Conduct (EICC).

The original members, IBM (Quote, Chart), HP and Dell (Quote, Chart), recently joined with overseas partners Celestica, Flextronics, Jabil, Sanmina SCI, and Solectron to establish the EICC.

As previously reported, the goal of the agreements is to make sure each global supply chain provider adheres to local laws but also be held accountable for global standards, such as fair labor and employment practices, health and safety, ethics and protection of the environment.

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a 20-year-old global advisory group, has been tapped to facilitate the new Cisco/Microsoft/Intel working group within the EICC. The first step, according to Todd Holmdahl, Microsoft corporate vice president, is to develop common mechanisms and tools that will enable compliance with the Code.

Holmdahl said the company believes the collaboration is an important step in helping ensure safe working conditions and environmentally-responsible manufacturing practices throughout our global supply chain.

Internet Helps Americans Become Aware of a Wider Range of Political Views

Oct. 29, 2004 By News Story

As wired Americans increasingly go online for political news and commentary, a new survey finds that the Internet is contributing to a wider awareness of political views during this year's campaign season.

This is significant because prominent commentators have expressed concern that growing use of the Internet would be harmful to democratic deliberation. They worried that citizens would use the Internet to seek information that reinforces their political preferences and avoid material that challenges their views. That would hurt citizens' chances of contributing to informed debates.

The new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Information survey belies those worries. It shows that Internet users have greater overall exposure to political arguments, including those that challenge their candidate preferences and their positions on some key issues.

Year of The Political Blogger

Nov. 2, 2004 Sean Michael Kerner

From the early days of Howard Dean's online fund-raising success in his Democratic presidential run to the rise of influential political Webloggers, 2004 ranks as a standout year for the Internet's impact on politics -- so far at least.

Perhaps the best symbol of the Internet's impact came through bloggers on the political process. This was the first year they earned media credentials to cover the Democratic and Republican conventions. The development helped raise the profile of already-popular bloggers, such as the DailyKos on the left and InstaPundit on the right.

Sharing space in Tuesday's New York Times editorial pages is the Op-Ed headline The Revolution Will Be Posted. "The commentary of bloggers - individuals or groups posting daily, hourly or second-by-second observations of and opinions on the campaign on their own Web sites - helped shape the 2004 race," said the intro to the piece, which asked bloggers from all political stripes to comment on what they thought was the most important event.

TheyWorkForYou

Everything MPs say in the House of Commons is recorded in a document called Hansard. TheyWorkForYou.com helps make sense of this vital democratic resource and, crucially, allows you to add your own comments and links to the official transcripts of Parliament. The site is currently being beta tested, so let us know if you find a bug, or have a suggestion. On this website you can: Find out about your MP; Search Parliament; Clarify, correct and add your own comments.

Election Markup Language Benefits

By Paul Spencer, Director, Boynings Consulting Ltd

*** This is a draft ***

EML has been designed to handle most aspects of Election and Voter Services from electoral registration, through voting to counting.

EML is not restricted to electronic voting - many parts of the language are applicable to traditional voting methods.

EML can handle many types of public and private elections, including refendums.

EML is managed by OASIS (http://www.oasis-open.org), the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. OASIS is a well-respected not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards.

The OASIS Technical Committee that manages EML has a wide international participation, including Governments, technology companies and election service providers world-wide.

EML is being submitted by OASIS to ISO as a proposal for an international standard for Election and Voter Services messaging.

EML is based on a reference process model. This provides a context for the specifications without restricting their use in any way.

EML has been proven by use in pilot public elections and forms the messaging standard for the UK Co-ordinated Online Register of Electors.

The Multidisciplinary Ad Hoc Group of Specialists on Legal, Operational and Technical standards for e-enabled voting (IP1-S-EE) of the Council Europe (representing 44 European countries) has recommended that "EML shall be used whenever possible for e-election and e-referendum applications".

EML has a tailoring mechanism to allow additional constraints to be applied for specific election scenarios.

EML is extensible, allowing additional elements to be added for specific uses without reference back to OASIS.

EML is responsive to changing requirements - additional requirements can be piloted using the extensibility of the language and added to the core specification if agreed by the Technical Committee.

EML has elements to support security features such as evidence of the right to vote and vote sealing.

EML has elements to support audit requirements including cross-referencing the number of votes counted against the number of votes cast and tracking the systems used to handle each individual vote.

Blogs Dot the Litigation Landscape

July 29, 2004 By Gail Diane Cox, The National Law Journal

Michael Jackson has one. Martha Stewart paid top dollar for hers. And the Justice Department got one as a gift in its antitrust trial against Oracle Corp. Web sites dedicated to a specific trial are ushering in a new era of client service, said Denise M. Howell, a Web log booster and intellectual property litigator who is of counsel to the Los Angeles office of Reed Smith.

Social networking

<Netmocracy>

Budding buddy business

Mercury News - "Social networking" start-ups represent one of the hottest areas of VC investing, says this piece. The best known social networking start-up is Friendster.com, which connects over 1.5 million young professionals with similar friends and personal interests. The article takes a closer look at how these companies enable users to "leverage" their social networks to meet new friends, line up dates and even receive introductions to potential VC investors. In addition to Friendster.com, other West Coast start-ups such as LinkedIn, Ryze, Tribe Networks and Spoke Software are also generating buzz in the VC community.

</Netmocracy>