You might not see iPods on Paris runways, but electronics have undergone a transformation from a utilitarian necessity to a fashion accessory. While electronics aren't exactly replacing jewelry as a status symbol - bling is still the thing - the types of gadgets a person can't live without speaks volumes about his or her lifestyle.
Those in the halls of power can't live without a BlackBerry - nor can Hollywood celebrities, it seems. Keeping in touch - anywhere, anytime - makes everything from cell phones to Bluetooth to PDAs must-haves. The popularity of electronics hasn't escaped the notice of those in the automotive world, as microchips have migrated from those controlling the vehicle's on-board computer system to the automotive accessory of the year - the Global Positioning System (GPS).
There are, of course, the ubiquitous headsets, which are connected to cell phones, MP3 players, or - for the electronics fashionista - the iPod nano. On any give airline flight, passengers will have a mind-boggling array of electronics on board to entertain them or keep them otherwise occupied. Computers, music players, and portable gaming devices all appear once cruising altitude is reached. With the plethora of must-have electronics devices, it's a wonder that today's travelers have room to pack their clothes!
Electronics have also begun to accessorize the home. When the X-Box 360 sold out before Christmas 2005, eBay sellers raked in the cash for the must-have gaming console, which sold on the auction site for $1,000 or more. Plasma and LCD televisions are proudly displayed on walls, while microchips are finding their way into our kitchen appliances. While true wireless integration is still some time away, the stage is being set for complete interactivity among all our electronic devices.
Luckily for consumers, the cost of electronics goes down with the passage of time. The newest and greatest must-have is sure to be priced at a discount within eighteen months, and will grace the clearance aisle a year after that. In the meantime, those of us who don't have the cash or the desire to keep up with the trends on the fashion runways or the trends in the world of electronics can continue to observe how the other half lives.
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Visit this Electronics Website and Majon's Electronics directory.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Robertson
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Electronic Medical Billing Software, HIPAA Compliance, and Role Based Access Control
HIPAA compliance requires special focus and effort as failure to comply carries significant risk of damage and penalties. A practice with multiple separate systems for patient scheduling, electronic medical records, and billing, requires multiple separate HIPAA management efforts. This article presents an integrated approach to HIPAA compliance and outlines key HIPAA terminology, principles, and requirements to help the practice owner to ensure HIPAA compliance by medical billing service and software vendors.
The last decade of the previous century witnessed accelerating proliferation of digital technology in health care, which, along with reduced costs and greater service quality, introduced new and greater risks for accidental disclosure of personal health information.
The Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 by Congress to establish national standards for privacy and security of personal health data. The Privacy Rule, written by the US Department of Health and Human Services took effect on April 14, 2003.
Failure to comply with HIPAA risks accreditation and reputation damage, lawsuits by federal government, financial penalties, ranging from $100 to $250,000, and imprisonment, ranging from one year to ten years.
Protected Health Information (PHI)
The key term of HIPAA is Protected Health Information (PHI), which includes anything that can be used to identify an individual and any information shared with other health care providers or clearinghouses in any media (digital, verbal, recorded voice, faxed, printed, or written). Information that can be used to identify an individual includes:
1. Name
2. Dates (except year)
3. Zip code of more than 3 digits, telephone and fax numbers, email
4. Social security numbers
5. Medical record numbers
6. Health plan numbers
7. License numbers
8. Photographs
Information shared with other healthcare providers or clearinghouses
1. Nursing and physician notes
2. Billing and other treatment records
Principles of HIPAA
HIPAA intends to allow smooth flow of PHI for healthcare operations subject to patient's consent but prohibit any flow of unauthorized PHI for any other purposes. Healthcare operations include treatment, payment, care quality assessment, competence review training, accreditation, insurance rating, auditing, and legal procedures.
HIPAA promotes fair information practices and requires those with access to PHI to safeguard it. Fair information practices means that a subject must be allowed
1. Access to PHI,
2. Correction for errors and completeness, and
3. Knowledge of others who use PHI
Safeguarding of PHI means that the persons that hold PHI must
1. Be accountable for own use and disclosure
2. Have a legal recourse to combat violations
HIPAA Implementation Process
HIPAA implementation begins upon making assumptions about PHI disclosure threat model. The implementation includes both pre-emptive and retroactive controls and involves process, technology, and personnel aspects.
A threat model helps understanding the purpose of HIPAA implementation process. It includes assumptions about
1. Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
2. Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
3. Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
4. Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
5. Scale (how many patient records threatened?).
HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of review seminars for personnel.
Technology Requirements for HIPAA Compliance
Technology implementation of HIPAA proceeds in stages from logical data definition to physical data center to network.
1. To assure physical data center security, the manager must
1. Lock data center
2. Manage access list
3. Track data center access with closed circuit TV cameras to monitor both internal and external building activities
4. Protect access to data center with 24 x 7 onsite security
5. Protect backup data
6. Test recovery procedure
2. For network security, the data center must have special facilities for
1. Secure networking - firewall protection, encrypted data transfer only
2. Network access monitoring and report auditing
3. For data security, the manager must have
1. Individual authentication - individual logins and passwords
2. Role Based Access Control (see below)
3. Audit trails - all access to all data fields tracked and recorded
4. Data discipline - Limited ability to download data
Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
RBAC improves convenience and flexibility of systems management. Greater convenience helps reducing the errors of commission and omission in granting access privileges to users. Greater flexibility helps implement the policy of least privilege, where the users are granted only as much privileges as required for completing their job.
RBAC promotes economies of scale, because the frequency of changes of role definition for a single user is higher than the frequency of changes of role definitions across entire organization. Thus, to make a massive change of privileges for a large number of users with same set of privileges, the administrator only makes changes to the role definition.
Hierarchical RBAC further promotes economies of scale and reduces the likelihood of errors. It allows redefining roles by inheriting privileges assigned to roles in the higher hierarchical level.
RBAC is based on establishing a set of user profiles or roles according to responsibilities. Each role has a predefined set of privileges. The user acquires privileges by receiving membership in the role or assignment of a profile by the administrator.
Every time when the definition of the role changes along with the set of privileges that is required to complete the job associated with the role, the administrator needs only to redefine the privileges of the role. The privileges of all of the users that have this role get redefined automatically.
Similarly, if the role of a single user is changed, the only operation that needs to be performed is the reassignment of the user profile, which will redefine user's access privileges automatically according to the new profile.
Summary
HIPAA compliance requires special practice management attention. A practice with multiple separate systems for scheduling, electronic medical records, and billing, requires multiple separate HIPAA management efforts. An integrated system reduces the complexity of HIPAA implementation. By outsourcing technology to a HIPAA-compliant vendor of vericle-like technology solution on an ASP or SaaS basis, HIPAA management overhead can be eliminated (see companion papers on ASP and SaaS for medical billing).
Yuval Lirov, PhD, author of "Mission Critical Systems Management" (Prentice Hall), inventor of patents in Artificial intelligence and Computer Security, and CEO of Vericle.net Billing Technologies and Services. Vericle® unites hundreds of billing services across the nation. Its electronic medical billing software tracks payer performance from a single point of control and shares compliance rules globally. Yuval invites you to register to the next webinar on audit risk at BillingPrecision.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yuval_Lirov
The last decade of the previous century witnessed accelerating proliferation of digital technology in health care, which, along with reduced costs and greater service quality, introduced new and greater risks for accidental disclosure of personal health information.
The Health insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed in 1996 by Congress to establish national standards for privacy and security of personal health data. The Privacy Rule, written by the US Department of Health and Human Services took effect on April 14, 2003.
Failure to comply with HIPAA risks accreditation and reputation damage, lawsuits by federal government, financial penalties, ranging from $100 to $250,000, and imprisonment, ranging from one year to ten years.
Protected Health Information (PHI)
The key term of HIPAA is Protected Health Information (PHI), which includes anything that can be used to identify an individual and any information shared with other health care providers or clearinghouses in any media (digital, verbal, recorded voice, faxed, printed, or written). Information that can be used to identify an individual includes:
1. Name
2. Dates (except year)
3. Zip code of more than 3 digits, telephone and fax numbers, email
4. Social security numbers
5. Medical record numbers
6. Health plan numbers
7. License numbers
8. Photographs
Information shared with other healthcare providers or clearinghouses
1. Nursing and physician notes
2. Billing and other treatment records
Principles of HIPAA
HIPAA intends to allow smooth flow of PHI for healthcare operations subject to patient's consent but prohibit any flow of unauthorized PHI for any other purposes. Healthcare operations include treatment, payment, care quality assessment, competence review training, accreditation, insurance rating, auditing, and legal procedures.
HIPAA promotes fair information practices and requires those with access to PHI to safeguard it. Fair information practices means that a subject must be allowed
1. Access to PHI,
2. Correction for errors and completeness, and
3. Knowledge of others who use PHI
Safeguarding of PHI means that the persons that hold PHI must
1. Be accountable for own use and disclosure
2. Have a legal recourse to combat violations
HIPAA Implementation Process
HIPAA implementation begins upon making assumptions about PHI disclosure threat model. The implementation includes both pre-emptive and retroactive controls and involves process, technology, and personnel aspects.
A threat model helps understanding the purpose of HIPAA implementation process. It includes assumptions about
1. Threat nature (Accidental disclosure by insiders? Access for profit? ),
2. Source of threat (outsider or insider?),
3. Means of potential threat (break in, physical intrusion, computer hack, virus?),
4. Specific kind of data at risk (patient identification, financials, medical?), and
5. Scale (how many patient records threatened?).
HIPAA process must include clearly stated policy, educational materials and events, clear enforcement means, a schedule for testing of HIPAA compliance, and means for continued transparency about HIPAA compliance. Stated policy typically includes a statement of least privilege data access to complete the job, definition of PHI and incident monitoring and reporting procedures. Educational materials may include case studies, control questions, and a schedule of review seminars for personnel.
Technology Requirements for HIPAA Compliance
Technology implementation of HIPAA proceeds in stages from logical data definition to physical data center to network.
1. To assure physical data center security, the manager must
1. Lock data center
2. Manage access list
3. Track data center access with closed circuit TV cameras to monitor both internal and external building activities
4. Protect access to data center with 24 x 7 onsite security
5. Protect backup data
6. Test recovery procedure
2. For network security, the data center must have special facilities for
1. Secure networking - firewall protection, encrypted data transfer only
2. Network access monitoring and report auditing
3. For data security, the manager must have
1. Individual authentication - individual logins and passwords
2. Role Based Access Control (see below)
3. Audit trails - all access to all data fields tracked and recorded
4. Data discipline - Limited ability to download data
Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
RBAC improves convenience and flexibility of systems management. Greater convenience helps reducing the errors of commission and omission in granting access privileges to users. Greater flexibility helps implement the policy of least privilege, where the users are granted only as much privileges as required for completing their job.
RBAC promotes economies of scale, because the frequency of changes of role definition for a single user is higher than the frequency of changes of role definitions across entire organization. Thus, to make a massive change of privileges for a large number of users with same set of privileges, the administrator only makes changes to the role definition.
Hierarchical RBAC further promotes economies of scale and reduces the likelihood of errors. It allows redefining roles by inheriting privileges assigned to roles in the higher hierarchical level.
RBAC is based on establishing a set of user profiles or roles according to responsibilities. Each role has a predefined set of privileges. The user acquires privileges by receiving membership in the role or assignment of a profile by the administrator.
Every time when the definition of the role changes along with the set of privileges that is required to complete the job associated with the role, the administrator needs only to redefine the privileges of the role. The privileges of all of the users that have this role get redefined automatically.
Similarly, if the role of a single user is changed, the only operation that needs to be performed is the reassignment of the user profile, which will redefine user's access privileges automatically according to the new profile.
Summary
HIPAA compliance requires special practice management attention. A practice with multiple separate systems for scheduling, electronic medical records, and billing, requires multiple separate HIPAA management efforts. An integrated system reduces the complexity of HIPAA implementation. By outsourcing technology to a HIPAA-compliant vendor of vericle-like technology solution on an ASP or SaaS basis, HIPAA management overhead can be eliminated (see companion papers on ASP and SaaS for medical billing).
Yuval Lirov, PhD, author of "Mission Critical Systems Management" (Prentice Hall), inventor of patents in Artificial intelligence and Computer Security, and CEO of Vericle.net Billing Technologies and Services. Vericle® unites hundreds of billing services across the nation. Its electronic medical billing software tracks payer performance from a single point of control and shares compliance rules globally. Yuval invites you to register to the next webinar on audit risk at BillingPrecision.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yuval_Lirov
Electronic Discovery
Electronic discovery is the detection of information in the digital format. Electronic information is retrieved from computer-based systems such as hard drives, CD ROMs, floppy disks, tapes and other electronic backup devices that may contain data. It involves the use of certain technologies that enable easy and consistent extraction of valuable data.
Today, there are millions of pages of electronic data that are being transferred through thousands of systems across the world every minute. The onset of electronic mailing systems, instant messaging and other online programs has made data transfer very fast and easy. In this process, there is the possibility of the data being lost or tampered with. Electronic discovery systems help to retrieve even lost or altered data as per user requirements. Electronic discovery can be used for any kind of data retrieval, such as document recovery, data recovery, evidence recovery and so on.
User files, backup media, spreadsheets, CAD/CAM/CAE and graphics, personnel records, policy and procedure manuals, software and source code, internet and intranet content, internet service providers, fax servers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), telephone /security / network activity systems, cell phones, pagers, voice/video mail and special databases such as CRM or ERP databases are the typical sources of data. Electronic extraction has to be done by professionals using proper tools, so that the information, especially the meta-data of the document, remains intact. Once the documents are extracted, they are processed through de-duplication.
Electronic discovery has its pros and cons. Rising levels of electronic data storage, expensive lawsuits and strict laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley, which require corporate archiving, are some of the reasons for the increasing use of electronic discovery. Information gathered from electronic sources can be used in litigation that can make or break companies. There are special software programs that enable easy and efficient retrieval of any kind of data from anywhere. There are some companies that specialize in providing electronic discovery services.
Some of the top providers of electronic discovery services are: Daticon, Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc., Kroll Ontrack Inc., Renew Data Corp, ZANTAZ Inc, Applied Discovery Inc., Fios Inc., Ibis Consulting, KPMG and SPI Litigation Direct. The top software programs in 2004 were: Concordance (Dataflight Software Inc.), Summation (Summation Legal Technologies Inc.), CaseMap (Bowne DecisionQuest (CaseSoft)), Access (Microsoft Corp.), Attenex (Attenex Corp.), Encase (Guidance Software Inc.), iConect (iConect Development), Introspect (ZANTAZ Inc.) and LiveNote (LiveNote Technologies).
Electronic Discovery provides detailed information on Electronic Discovery, Electronic Evidence Discovery, Electronic Data Discovery, Electronic Discovery Software and more. Electronic Discovery is affiliated with Electronic Component Distributors.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marcus_Peterson
Today, there are millions of pages of electronic data that are being transferred through thousands of systems across the world every minute. The onset of electronic mailing systems, instant messaging and other online programs has made data transfer very fast and easy. In this process, there is the possibility of the data being lost or tampered with. Electronic discovery systems help to retrieve even lost or altered data as per user requirements. Electronic discovery can be used for any kind of data retrieval, such as document recovery, data recovery, evidence recovery and so on.
User files, backup media, spreadsheets, CAD/CAM/CAE and graphics, personnel records, policy and procedure manuals, software and source code, internet and intranet content, internet service providers, fax servers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), telephone /security / network activity systems, cell phones, pagers, voice/video mail and special databases such as CRM or ERP databases are the typical sources of data. Electronic extraction has to be done by professionals using proper tools, so that the information, especially the meta-data of the document, remains intact. Once the documents are extracted, they are processed through de-duplication.
Electronic discovery has its pros and cons. Rising levels of electronic data storage, expensive lawsuits and strict laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley, which require corporate archiving, are some of the reasons for the increasing use of electronic discovery. Information gathered from electronic sources can be used in litigation that can make or break companies. There are special software programs that enable easy and efficient retrieval of any kind of data from anywhere. There are some companies that specialize in providing electronic discovery services.
Some of the top providers of electronic discovery services are: Daticon, Electronic Evidence Discovery Inc., Kroll Ontrack Inc., Renew Data Corp, ZANTAZ Inc, Applied Discovery Inc., Fios Inc., Ibis Consulting, KPMG and SPI Litigation Direct. The top software programs in 2004 were: Concordance (Dataflight Software Inc.), Summation (Summation Legal Technologies Inc.), CaseMap (Bowne DecisionQuest (CaseSoft)), Access (Microsoft Corp.), Attenex (Attenex Corp.), Encase (Guidance Software Inc.), iConect (iConect Development), Introspect (ZANTAZ Inc.) and LiveNote (LiveNote Technologies).
Electronic Discovery provides detailed information on Electronic Discovery, Electronic Evidence Discovery, Electronic Data Discovery, Electronic Discovery Software and more. Electronic Discovery is affiliated with Electronic Component Distributors.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marcus_Peterson
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
How do researchers search for electronic journal articles to support academic tasks
A recent case study analyzes the use of the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib). Specifically, the study looks at how academic status and discipline influence the search strategies used by university academic staff.
The main conclusion of the study is that patterns of searching for journal articles are changing because of increasing access to digital information resources. In particular, the role of colleagues is diminishing.
The study was done by Pertti Vakkari and Sanna Talja at the Department of Information Studies at the University of Tampere in Finland. They studied how academic staff proceed when they are looking for electronic articles for teaching, research and keeping up to date in their field.
The material analyzed is the result of a nationwide web survey of the users of FinELib, The Finnish National Electronic Library. The survey had 900 respondents.
Vakkari and Talja found that in all disciplines, keyword searching in journal- and reference databases were the most important methods, compared to browsing or obtaining material from colleagues.
The strategies varied in the different academic disciplines. Keyword searching in databases was more common in natural sciences, engineering and medicine than in other disciplines. Browsing, and conferring with colleagues as sources of access was significantly more common in humanities than in other disciplines.
Pertti Vakkari and Sanna Talja: “Searching for electronic journal articles to support academic tasks. A case study of the use of the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib)” in Information Research, Vol. 12 No. 1, October 2006.
http://www.pandia.com/sew/309-academics.html
The main conclusion of the study is that patterns of searching for journal articles are changing because of increasing access to digital information resources. In particular, the role of colleagues is diminishing.
The study was done by Pertti Vakkari and Sanna Talja at the Department of Information Studies at the University of Tampere in Finland. They studied how academic staff proceed when they are looking for electronic articles for teaching, research and keeping up to date in their field.
The material analyzed is the result of a nationwide web survey of the users of FinELib, The Finnish National Electronic Library. The survey had 900 respondents.
Vakkari and Talja found that in all disciplines, keyword searching in journal- and reference databases were the most important methods, compared to browsing or obtaining material from colleagues.
The strategies varied in the different academic disciplines. Keyword searching in databases was more common in natural sciences, engineering and medicine than in other disciplines. Browsing, and conferring with colleagues as sources of access was significantly more common in humanities than in other disciplines.
Pertti Vakkari and Sanna Talja: “Searching for electronic journal articles to support academic tasks. A case study of the use of the Finnish National Electronic Library (FinELib)” in Information Research, Vol. 12 No. 1, October 2006.
http://www.pandia.com/sew/309-academics.html
Elections easily hacked via electronic voting machines
(NewsTarget) As more voting processes across the country turn from the old-fashioned pencil-and-ballot to newer, computerized voting systems, the possibility increases that these new systems will be open to many kinds of electronic fraud.
Cheryl Kagan, a former Maryland Democratic legislator, was shocked when she opened her mail recently to discover three computer discs containing the secret source code for vote counting machines. The information she received could be used to alter the votes cast through Maryland's new electronic voting machines, said Kagan.
While not admitting guilt, Diebold -- the company that makes the voting machines -- responded to concerns by telling ABC News that the discs being circulated at random "do not alter the security of the Diebold touch-screen system in any way."
ABC News then obtained an independent report commissioned by the state of Maryland and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) which revealed that original Diebold factory passwords are still being used on many voting machines, making them "hackable" by a knowledgeable party intent on carrying out voting fraud.
The report commissioned and carried out by the SAIC also shows a host of other security flaws in the Diebold voting machines, including administrative override passwords that cannot be changed by local officials but can be used by hackers or those who have seen the discs.
The SAIC independent report goes on to state that one of the high risks to the Diebold voting machine systems appears if operating code discs are lost, stolen or seen by unauthorized parties, which is what has already happened based on the discs that were sent to Kagan.
In the recent past, national computer experts and government officials have voiced serious concerns that if the Diebold voting machines end up malfunctioning, no paper record will exist for a recount. Even worse, fears have sprung up that an entire election could be hacked and results altered.
http://www.newstarget.com/020882.html
Cheryl Kagan, a former Maryland Democratic legislator, was shocked when she opened her mail recently to discover three computer discs containing the secret source code for vote counting machines. The information she received could be used to alter the votes cast through Maryland's new electronic voting machines, said Kagan.
While not admitting guilt, Diebold -- the company that makes the voting machines -- responded to concerns by telling ABC News that the discs being circulated at random "do not alter the security of the Diebold touch-screen system in any way."
ABC News then obtained an independent report commissioned by the state of Maryland and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) which revealed that original Diebold factory passwords are still being used on many voting machines, making them "hackable" by a knowledgeable party intent on carrying out voting fraud.
The report commissioned and carried out by the SAIC also shows a host of other security flaws in the Diebold voting machines, including administrative override passwords that cannot be changed by local officials but can be used by hackers or those who have seen the discs.
The SAIC independent report goes on to state that one of the high risks to the Diebold voting machine systems appears if operating code discs are lost, stolen or seen by unauthorized parties, which is what has already happened based on the discs that were sent to Kagan.
In the recent past, national computer experts and government officials have voiced serious concerns that if the Diebold voting machines end up malfunctioning, no paper record will exist for a recount. Even worse, fears have sprung up that an entire election could be hacked and results altered.
http://www.newstarget.com/020882.html
Electronic access to authoritative publications for RAE 2008
An innovative partnership will enable RAE panel members to have free electronic access to journal articles submitted to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Project partners announcing the plan include the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), on behalf of the UK higher education funding bodies, the Publishers Licensing Society, CrossRef, Eduserv, the Copyright Licensing Agency and a wide array of rightsholders.
The RAE is a peer review process to evaluate the quality of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). This assessment informs the selective distribution of funds by the UK higher education funding bodies, and is administered on their behalf by the RAE team based at HEFCE.
For the assessment of research quality in different subject areas, HEIs make written submissions which may include up to four pieces of research output - made public between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2007 - for each researcher in their submission. The outputs can comprise a wide range of materials (e.g. books, conference proceedings, performances, patents) but the majority of outputs cited are journal articles. In the previous RAE in 2001, a total of 117,171 journal articles were submitted for assessment. Over 75,000 of these were published by the 10 leading academic publishers and the rest were published by a diverse group of smaller publishers. Accessing these articles was therefore a serious challenge for RAE assessment panels, which this partnership is uniquely positioned to address.
Under the arrangement, which is free of charge, RAE panel members will be able to access, full text electronic content directly from publishers' web-sites using cutting-edge technology from CrossRef and Eduserv. Other outputs cited in submissions which are not readily accessible in an electronic format, such as books, edited volumes and non-print research outputs, can be accessed by RAE panel members in physical form.
As the RAE licence will be free, it will save HEFCE significant administrative costs. This reflects the partnership between HEFCE and publishers, and the value to the publishing industry in demonstrating that it can work together to provide innovative licensing and access solutions. 'We are delighted to be able to conclude this agreement, which will help RAE panel members access outputs for assessment and ease the burden of data collection for submitting institutions,' said Ed Hughes, RAE manager. ' The UK higher education funding bodies welcome publishers' co-operation and the free licence to use copyright materials. These copyrights are of course held by authors, artists, and/or publishers and we acknowledge all parties,' he continued.
Alicia Wise of the Publishers Licensing Society said, 'This innovative and elegant solution has enabled us to solve a thorny access challenge. This clearly demonstrates that challenges can be overcome when publishers, intermediaries, and universities work in partnership. The arrangement does have boundaries in order to protect publishers and other rights owners. It will not permit use of works other than for the RAE, or the long term storage of electronic files by universities.'
http://www.rae.ac.uk/news/2007/elect.htm
The RAE is a peer review process to evaluate the quality of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). This assessment informs the selective distribution of funds by the UK higher education funding bodies, and is administered on their behalf by the RAE team based at HEFCE.
For the assessment of research quality in different subject areas, HEIs make written submissions which may include up to four pieces of research output - made public between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2007 - for each researcher in their submission. The outputs can comprise a wide range of materials (e.g. books, conference proceedings, performances, patents) but the majority of outputs cited are journal articles. In the previous RAE in 2001, a total of 117,171 journal articles were submitted for assessment. Over 75,000 of these were published by the 10 leading academic publishers and the rest were published by a diverse group of smaller publishers. Accessing these articles was therefore a serious challenge for RAE assessment panels, which this partnership is uniquely positioned to address.
Under the arrangement, which is free of charge, RAE panel members will be able to access, full text electronic content directly from publishers' web-sites using cutting-edge technology from CrossRef and Eduserv. Other outputs cited in submissions which are not readily accessible in an electronic format, such as books, edited volumes and non-print research outputs, can be accessed by RAE panel members in physical form.
As the RAE licence will be free, it will save HEFCE significant administrative costs. This reflects the partnership between HEFCE and publishers, and the value to the publishing industry in demonstrating that it can work together to provide innovative licensing and access solutions. 'We are delighted to be able to conclude this agreement, which will help RAE panel members access outputs for assessment and ease the burden of data collection for submitting institutions,' said Ed Hughes, RAE manager. ' The UK higher education funding bodies welcome publishers' co-operation and the free licence to use copyright materials. These copyrights are of course held by authors, artists, and/or publishers and we acknowledge all parties,' he continued.
Alicia Wise of the Publishers Licensing Society said, 'This innovative and elegant solution has enabled us to solve a thorny access challenge. This clearly demonstrates that challenges can be overcome when publishers, intermediaries, and universities work in partnership. The arrangement does have boundaries in order to protect publishers and other rights owners. It will not permit use of works other than for the RAE, or the long term storage of electronic files by universities.'
http://www.rae.ac.uk/news/2007/elect.htm
Monday, August 20, 2007
Vote of no confidence – how to improve electronic voting systems
There is no doubt that sophisticated computers have the potential to handle election data better than the card ballot method, yet contrary to what one might expect, the introduction of electronic voting systems across the world has been plagued with damaging allegations of incompetence, corruption and severe exploitation. The University Voting Systems Competition aims to raise the credibility levels of electronic voting systems and encourage people to get involved in the democratic process to such an extent that, not only will they vote for a leader, but they’ll design the very voting system itself. With some gaping design flaws and a lack of public confidence holding electronic voting machines back from making a significant impact in global democracy, it’s an initiative that’s sorely needed.
A certain amount of error is expected in elections, no matter what method is used to collate the votes. This error is acceptable only because, with one delivery system, it will impact the candidates more or less equally. When errors in vote tallying show bias, however, they become unacceptable. The problem with electronic voting systems is that, for a number of reasons, they are prone to the latter type of miscalculation.
The first reason for this is implementation. Due to financial or bureaucratic concerns, many countries are making the transition to electronic voting systems on a state by state basis. This is a cause for concern because if the error levels between the competing systems don’t match up, it could alter the result of the election. However, making an instant transition to a single computer voting system also carries a fatal flaw – the company in charge will have a monopoly, and therefore is in a position to remain unchallenged and unimproved.
The second reason electronic voting is treated with suspicion is because of the inherent weakness of a computer system. A paper ballot system leaves a hard copy record which can be scrutinized in a time consuming, but accurate, audit. But electronic voting systems sell themselves on the fact that they make paper trails unnecessary and redundant. Not only is there no hard evidence of the voting tally, but the computer records themselves can be erased or tampered with. Unlike with paper ballots, the electronic voting record is neither independent from the voting system, nor verifiably true.
Which leads to the third reason electronic voting is mistrusted. It increases the ease with which individuals in positions of power can manipulate the election results. Systems in use in the US and Europe have been questioned in terms of being vulnerable to software alteration that can effectively hack the system. In paper ballots, it’s not possible to simply press some buttons and change what people have written. In electronic voting, this is a frighteningly realistic scenario.
The University of Surrey won the best system in the VoComp tournament with their Prêt-à-Voter model. David Lundin, a PhD student and member of the team comments: “We want to make it possible for all voters to check that their votes were actually counted. This is called end-to-end verifiability and my bet is that this is the way we will safeguard democracy in the future.”
The electronic voting research conducted at Surrey and other institutions around the world aims to create systems that not only are able to count millions of votes quickly but also makes elections truly verifiable. Michael Shamos, a computer science professor responsible for testing the accuracy of voting machines, says of their many problems “If smart people put their minds to solving this, it will be cracked very quickly.” Lucky, then, that VoComp has the attention of the best and brightest.
http://www.gizmag.com/go/7755/
A certain amount of error is expected in elections, no matter what method is used to collate the votes. This error is acceptable only because, with one delivery system, it will impact the candidates more or less equally. When errors in vote tallying show bias, however, they become unacceptable. The problem with electronic voting systems is that, for a number of reasons, they are prone to the latter type of miscalculation.
The first reason for this is implementation. Due to financial or bureaucratic concerns, many countries are making the transition to electronic voting systems on a state by state basis. This is a cause for concern because if the error levels between the competing systems don’t match up, it could alter the result of the election. However, making an instant transition to a single computer voting system also carries a fatal flaw – the company in charge will have a monopoly, and therefore is in a position to remain unchallenged and unimproved.
The second reason electronic voting is treated with suspicion is because of the inherent weakness of a computer system. A paper ballot system leaves a hard copy record which can be scrutinized in a time consuming, but accurate, audit. But electronic voting systems sell themselves on the fact that they make paper trails unnecessary and redundant. Not only is there no hard evidence of the voting tally, but the computer records themselves can be erased or tampered with. Unlike with paper ballots, the electronic voting record is neither independent from the voting system, nor verifiably true.
Which leads to the third reason electronic voting is mistrusted. It increases the ease with which individuals in positions of power can manipulate the election results. Systems in use in the US and Europe have been questioned in terms of being vulnerable to software alteration that can effectively hack the system. In paper ballots, it’s not possible to simply press some buttons and change what people have written. In electronic voting, this is a frighteningly realistic scenario.
The University of Surrey won the best system in the VoComp tournament with their Prêt-à-Voter model. David Lundin, a PhD student and member of the team comments: “We want to make it possible for all voters to check that their votes were actually counted. This is called end-to-end verifiability and my bet is that this is the way we will safeguard democracy in the future.”
The electronic voting research conducted at Surrey and other institutions around the world aims to create systems that not only are able to count millions of votes quickly but also makes elections truly verifiable. Michael Shamos, a computer science professor responsible for testing the accuracy of voting machines, says of their many problems “If smart people put their minds to solving this, it will be cracked very quickly.” Lucky, then, that VoComp has the attention of the best and brightest.
http://www.gizmag.com/go/7755/
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