[ACS LOGO]Australian Computer Society

Electronic Operations in the ACS

By Tom Worthington, President of the ACS

Presentation for the Electronic Operations Exchange meeting, Hosted by the BCS, UK, November 1996

Meeting Participants at end of day1, including Presidents of BCS, ACM, IPSJ, GI, CEPIS & ACSFig 1: Meeting Participants at end of day1, including Presidents of BCS, ACM, IPSJ, GI, CEPIS & ACS
Draft of 14 November 1996: modified for agenda of 29 October.
The content of this talk will be developed here. Suggestions and comments welcome: tom.worthington@tomw.net.au

Contents

Introduction

The British Computer Society has invited the ACS and other bodies to a meeting in the UK in mid November 1996 to discuss electronic publishing, networking and legal issues (related to electronic exchange). Also on the agenda is professional licensing and certification.

I will be attending on behalf of the ACS. Sending someone to the other side of the world is a significant expense for the ACS (and investment of my time). To ensure the return on this investment is maximised and to provide a practical demonstration of the subject (electronic operations) I have prepared this web page and released it for comment in advance of the meeting. This will be one of a series of presentations I am making on Electronic Futures over three months. The last will be delivered in Sydney in connection with the ACS's 30th Anniversary.

Tom Worthington at Windsor CastleFig 2: Tom Worthington at Windsor Castle
There is more than a little irony in flying to the other side of the world to attend a meeting about on-line working. Most of my work for the ACS and the Australian Department of Defence is now conducted on-line, whether my co-workers are across the hall or across the world. A recent Australian Government report [3] (which I helped with the technical aspects [4] of) proposes expanding this mode of working to the whole Government.

This presentation has been prepared in response to the invitation to the ACS. It is likely that the topics will change before the event, in response to comments. The first draft was written 29 September 1996. This draft incorporates some changes based on an a revised agenda dated 29 October 1996.

The challenge with electronic operations for IT societies is how to use IT to further their aims and to promote the use of this technology for the benefit of the wider community. This is a topic I raised in the September 1996 General Assembly of the International Federation for Information Processing.

Society Overview

The ACS is the professional association in Australia for those in the computing and information technology fields. Established in 1966, the ACS has over 16,000 members and on a per capita basis is one of the largest computer societies in the world.

The ACS has a structure of branches, chapters and special interest groups, holds meetings, runs conferences and produces publications, as does any professional society. The ACS is a memebr of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), and the South-East Asian Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC).

Electronic Publishing

The ACS has a healthy evolving electronic publishing activity. We use news groups, electronic mailings lists, and the Web. Before there was a web the ACS experimented with videotex and later Gopher. The ACS's experimentation with on-line publishing followed experience with the Internet in academia and went hand-in-hand with submissions to Government on public policy and development of the Australian Governments' services. As a result many of the social, policy, legal and practical issues have been extensively discussed (if not fully resolved).

Many analogies have been used to try and understand this use of IT. Terms such as the "Information Superhighway" were used when the Internet was becoming popular. These metaphors can be useful for thinking about new concepts, but can become conceptual straight jackets if retained too long. After a while the concepts which at first appear abstract become concrete and the metaphors are no longer needed. The Internet has now become a concrete entity which no longer needs highway analogies.

"Electronic publishing" is a metaphor for a way of distributing information which is like paper publishing but without the paper. However, electronic publishing is different to paper publishing in many ways and the analogy cannot be taken too far, or opportunities for new ways to use the technology will be missed. As an example the role of the author and reader are enhanced with electronic publishing and the "publisher" is all but obsolete.

Publishing merges with dialogue in the on-line environment. My experience has been that large formal organisations, such as computer societies and government agencies, have difficulty reconciling the central control they would like with publishing and the interactive nature of the 'net.

Traditionally structured publications when put on-line look very dull. Readers turn away from dull unresponsive publications. It may not be that readers are any more demanding with on-line publications, but that they have better means to put their views. Also readers are more demanding as they know that any individual can publish on-line, in competition with the largest organisations and Governments, if they wish.

A number of new ACS publications and parts of old ones are now routinely placed on-line. The major issues at present are:

Some on-line publications:

Networking

Networking can be technical networking (that is building data networks) or people networking. Both are important and technical networking does not work if the people issues are not considered.

In the last two years the wide scale implementation of the Internet has rendered discussion of what should be the public data network infrastructure largely obsolete. Regardless of its limitations, the Internet is now the public infrastructure for data networking. IT societies need to accept this reality and make use of the infrastructure, as well as help overcome some of the limitations of the current 'net.

The ACS uses the Internet for internal administration and governance to a limited extent and for commutation to, from and between members. To foster use of the technology the ACS introduced ACSlink, a commercial dial-up Internet service packaged for member use two years ago. About one quarter of ACS members are ACSlink subscribers and it is assumed most members now have access in some way.

The ACS Council has an electronic mailing list for discussion and information. Formal voting is not used on the mailing list, but considerable informal discussion takes place. There are also lists for branch executives, staff and specialised groups as well as member announcements. All but one list are un-moderated.

The ACS has two news groups for general discussion aus.org.acs and for book reviews for the Australian Computer Journal aus.org.acs.books These are un-moderated and public.

There are some resource finding materials on the ACS home page, such as a directory of office holders.

The most radical adoption of the technology is the ACS Remote SIG, which conducts all activities on-line.

Legal Issues

My experience of electronic publishing and on-line working over the last few years has been that legal impediments to using the technology are illusory. The problem has been a level of nervousness with the technology from lack of familiarity, rather than real legal uncertainties. In most cases existing law can be extended by interpretation into cyberspace and where it can't the law can be made by precedent.

Professional Licensing and Certification

This topic appears not to be related to electronic operations, but included in the agenda for convenience. IT professionals in Australia are not required to be licensed. The ACS recently introduced a certification program, by distance education. The ACS influences Australian IT professional standards through its accreditation of IT courses and with examinations. This is expected to be expanded with initiatives, such as a new Code of Professional Conduct and Professional Practice (including a requirement a level of on-line literacy for all IT professionals).

Notes

1. For example, see: Harter, Stephen P. "The Impact of Electronic Journals on Scholarly Communication: A Citation Analysis." The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 7, no. 5 (1996). Also available at <URL: http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v7/n5/hart7n5.html>.

2. For example, see: National Library of Australia "National Strategy for Provision of Access to Australian Electronic Publications: A National Library of Australia Position Paper" <URL: http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/paep.html>.

3. "Management of Government Information as a National Strategic Resource", Preliminary Report of the Information Management Steering Committee on Information Management in the Commonwealth Government, 18 October 1996, URL: http://www.ogit.gov.au/imscrpt.html

4. Architecture For Access To Government Information, Report of the IMSC -Technical Group, 25 July 1996, URL: http://www.adfa.oz.au/DOD/imsc/imsctg/imsctg1a.htm

See also