E-GOVERNMENT
Study: Fed Sites Lack Accessibility
Students Fight E-Vote Firm
TELEVISION
Wisconsin Public Access Channel in Jeopardy
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
Council Meets to Discuss International ICT Standards
INTERNET
Senate Votes 97-0 to Restrict Email Ads
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E-GOVERNMENT
STUDY: FED SITES LACK ACCESSIBILITY
At a National Press Club event in Washington DC hosted by the Benton
Foundation and the NYS Forum, Professor Darrell West of Brown University's
Taubman Center for Public Policy presented his findings from his annual
survey of government website accessibility and readability. Despite progress
being made on some websites, most government websites still fail to comply
with the basic WC3 standards for website accessibility for the disabled.
Additionally, the majority of government websites are written for people who
read at the 12th grade level, despite the fact that half of all Americans
read at the 8th grade level or less. "Government officials should recognize
equity and accessibility as important principles of government, principles
that adhere in the physical and virtual worlds," West said. "People who are
poor, disabled, not highly literate or non-English speakers are entitled to
an equal opportunity to access essential information and services to improve
their lives." John Kemp, former chairman of the American Association of
People with Disabilities, added that the lack of compliance with
accessibility guidelines a "fundamental violation of civil rights." Kemp
continued, "This is our right to participate as citizens.... We welcome and
respect inclusion, and we are a far, far cry from that point."
SOURCE: Federal Computer Week; AUTHOR: Randall Edwards
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/1020/web-web-10-22-03.asp
Download the report:
http://www.benton.org/publibrary/egov/access2003.html (accessible version)
http://www.benton.org/publibrary/egov/access2003.doc (MS Word)
STUDENTS FIGHT E-VOTE FIRM
Students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvanian launched an "electronic
civil disobedience" campaign against e-vote machine maker Diebold Election
Systems. The students are protesting efforts by Diebold to prevent them and
other website owners from linking to some 15,000 internal company memos that
reveal the company was aware of its e-voting flaws, but sold the faulty
systems to states anyway. "These documents indicate the potential for
widespread election fraud in the U.S. or wherever else Diebold voting
machines are being used," says Will Doherty, media relations director for
the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Memos from 2001 reveal programming and
security flaws. For example, memos discuss crucial security flaws that would
allow the count of votes to be altered with no record of a security
intrusion. Other memos indicated that patches were installed after the
systems were already certified and delivered to states. Deibold has been
sending out cease-and-desist letters to force websites and ISP's to remove
the memos in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The
company is using DMCA to conceal flaws that directly affect the validity of
election results. This is a threat to our democracy, says Luke Smith, a
Swarthmore sophomore.
SOURCE: Wired; AUTHOR: Kim Zetter
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60927-2,00.html
TELEVISION
WISCONSIN PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL IN JEOPARDY
The city council of Madison, Wisconsin is considering a budget proposal that
would eliminate funding for the city's public access television station. For
the last 25 years, WYOU has served as Madison's sole local outlet for
community-produced programming. WYOU provides residents with technical
training and access to broadcasting technologies to produce their own local
programming. "WYOU strives to reach all members of the community by
broadening its involvement with locally based organizations. Staff and
volunteers coordinate event programming with social service organizations,
community centers, schools, music festivals, and an emerging local
filmmaking scene," the station said in a statement. "WYOU believes that
these efforts will lead to stronger and stronger local programming, boosting
the public power of the station, and leading to a cycle of growth the city
of Madison can point to as a beacon of community creativity and
involvement."
SOURCE: WYOU Television
http://www.msn.fullfeed.com/~wyou/
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
COUNCIL MEETS TO DISCUSS INTERNATIONAL ICT LITERACY STANDARDS
The Global Digital Literacy Council's bi-annual summit met in
Stratford-Upon-Avon in the UK to address issues that influence and drive the
development of information and communications technology (ICT) literacy
standards. The purpose of the summit is to create an international forum for
stakeholders to collaborate, shape and define emerging vendor-independent
global Internet and computer literacy standards. Delegates from the
Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Japan and Asia Pacific, discussed
educational, economic and social issues impacting the development and
adoption of digital literacy standards worldwide. "As the divide separating
basic individual skills and ICT skill requirements in society widens,
digital literacy initiatives are racing to the forefront of academic,
political and corporate agendas," the council said in a statement. The
summit produced an eight-month review of input from experts, who examined
the current Internet and Computing Core Certification standards. The council
also came to agreement on the comprehensive set of skills and knowledge
necessary for basic information and communications technology competence.
The Digital Literacy Council will continue to meet bi-annually to discuss
technical and social changes affecting digital literacy standards in
education and the workforce.
SOURCE: Global Digital Literacy Council
http://www.gdlcouncil.org/gdlc_pr.html
INTERNET
SENATE VOTES 97-0 TO RESTRICT EMAIL ADS
Yesterday, the US Senate approved the nation's first federal anti-spam
legislation 97 to 0 after reaching a compromise to propose the Federal
Communications Commission develop a no-spam registry similar to the
do-not-call-list for telemarketers. Senators Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Ron
Wyden (D-OR) sponsored the bill, which targets unsavory senders of
unsolicited commercial email by prohibiting messages that peddle financial
scams, fraudulent body-enhancement products and p0rn0graphy. It also draws
on amendments that would criminalize techniques used by spammers to thwart
detection by disguising identities, masking locations of computer's used to
send spam and automating spam attacks. The bill does not mandate the no-spam
registry, but directs the FCC to develop a registry system within six months
and to document technical hurdles. Marketing, retailing and Internet-access
companies argue the bill should be written carefully to avoid exclusion of
legitimate email. But anti-spam and consumer groups argue that the bill has
too many loopholes that could enable so called legitimate email to bombard
consumers. The Burns-Wyden bill would preempt all state anti-spam
legislation, some of which include tougher policies.
SOURCE: Washington Post; AUTHOR: Jonathan Krim
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3243-2003Oct22.html
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