Publication of the December 1998 IFIP Newsletter marked completion of the fifteenth year of this publication. We had planned to print a self-celebratory “centerfold,” displaying the first pages from issues over the past 15 years; however, we couldn’t make space for it in the December issue or this one. We shall be satisfied with just saying, “Happy birthday to us.” Hopefully, we’ll continue for a while longer and be able to celebrate our twentieth anniversary in a special way.
Jack Rosenfeld
Editor
The article in the December 1998 IFIP Newsletter about IFIP Congress ’98, the 15th World Computer Congress, discussed the organizational and social aspects of the Congress and summarized the plenary sessions. The present article, on the other hand, discusses the technical program and explores the wide range of topics covered. Since we did not have a staff of reporters to cover all the sessions of the seven component conferences of the Congress (up to 15 simultaneous sessions), this article contains the editor’s observations on the program, made on the basis of the sessions he attended and the Congress proceedings. The papers quoted are of general interest and not too technical.
Intellectual Property Rights
One of the more interesting papers in the 2nd International Conference on
Intellectual Property Rights (KnowRight ’98) was INFOethics: UNESCO’s Approach
to Free Flow of Information, an invited paper by Mr. Victor Montviloff (UNESCO), which
dealt, to a great extent, with ethical issues related to the dissemination of information
electronically. It began as follows: One of the fundamental missions of UNESCO is to
promote "the free exchange of ideas and knowledge."...
Access to, and free flow of information, protection of privacy and confidentiality,
protection against violence, quality and security of data in all its forms are issues of
major concern in the advancing Information Society. UNESCO concentrates its action on
these aspects, with the ultimate objective of facilitating the entry of all nations into
the so-called "cyberspace." Several controversial assertions were made by Mr.
Montviloff in his discussion of economic issues:
Every meeting [on] the free flow of information in the digital environment ends up
concentrating its attention mainly on electronic commerce, intellectual property rights
and copyright. This is understandable, as they are today important challenges in the
generation of economic development and cultural creativity....
One notes that debates on economic issues often lay emphasis on the rights of producers of
information and intermediaries in its circulation to the detriment of the rights of users.
Hence, the importance of developing our understanding of the latter. Who wishes to object
that the users’ rights to have access to accurate, reliable public information and to
be protected from violent information are basic human rights? ...
The USA is strongly campaigning for a universal declaration aiming at keeping the Internet
a free exchange zone, free from all forms of taxation. But whom will it concern? Most
certainly the multinationals in North America and Western Europe in marketing their
products and, even worse, their ideas conceived by them and designed by them to fit their
norms and values. How will it benefit a villager in an African countryside? Many countries
are very reticent about such a liberalization in which they see another form of economic
dominance even more pernicious than before. ...
We are also very conscious that [e-commerce] can easily become a new source of political
and social tensions if it is handled the way commerce has always been handled" to the
benefit of the rich. It is already becoming so, as the rules that are being laid down tend
to please the interest groups of the "giants," as it was worded by the
representatives of Bangladesh during the last session of our Executive Board. The gap
between rich and poor continues to deepen. ...
Information institutions [museums, libraries, etc.] have also reasons to be cautious about
electronic commerce. The richness of their collections is the "want" of many
(individuals or companies) for quick profit making. Moreover, this information may be
changed and manipulated without their knowledge. There are already many widely publicized
cases of big businesses exploiting huge public stores of information for their markets,
not giving sufficient legal guarantees to libraries, archives and museums. ...
UNESCO supports, through its INFOethics activities, a new approach. The approach is to
make accessible information and works not linked to the problems of copyright, either
because they are old and already largely available to the public, or because they are
produced by public or academic organizations that are essentially preoccupied by a
cost-effective diffusion of information of general interest. A growing number of authors
and scholars are ready to diffuse their work free of charge, with the sole condition to be
recognized as authors and with the guaranty of the integrity of their work; this is the
concept of "copyleft." ...
The author also addressed issues of cultural diversity, as follows:
We all know that the Internet is now largely dominated by the English-speaking world and
therefore by its culture. Nevertheless, the globalization of one language leads
automatically to the homogenization and domination of one culture. The lack of cultural
diversity is a critical issue, as it may lead to the loss of native cultures. The
electronic networks must seek to transmit the widest possible variety of cultural
viewpoints together with information that may not be commercially profitable, or may
interest only minority groups. ...
[In the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme], unique and rare documents are digitized and
put on the Web to ensure that they are known and accessible to the public at large ... the
ultimate aim of the Programme. At the same time, it serves to preserve the quality of the
documents and to incite others to create Web sites that could eventually constitute a
decentralized network among our Member States. ...
With regard to privacy, Mr. Montviloff made the following claims:
There is no privacy on the Internet. ... The European Union recently admitted that within
Europe the US routinely intercepts all e-mail, telephone and fax communications. ...
The English-speaking network called "Echelon" illustrates dramatically what can
happen. It has been revealed that the system intercepts 99.99% of all communications
throughout the world, and it keeps improving. The data thus collected can be used for any
purpose.
He ended by saying the following:
I wish to conclude by re-emphasizing that entering the age of globalization, we will have
to have a vision of our role in the Information Society and how we can contribute to make
it more fair, secure and liveable than it is now. ...
Mr. Montviloff also called attention to a UNESCO conference on Ethical, Legal and Societal
Challenges of Cyberspace, held in October 1998. Papers from this conference, in English
and French, can be found on the Web pages at http://www.unesco.org/webworld/infoethics_2/index.htm
Another KnowRight ’98 paper was The Ethics of Encryption and Inscription, by Mr.
Christopher Zielinski (GB), which reviewed the ethical arguments for and against
encryption. We give a few excerpts here.
This paper focuses on ethical issues related to the encryption of information. ...
Information may be owned, but in a way that is distinct from material property ownership.
It may be withheld from or, conversely, forced upon, citizens in ways that are distinct
from other forms of property. There may be a right to know ... particularly information
about oneself (privacy issues), but perhaps more widely about what one’s government
is doing (Freedom of Information aspects) and to have access to information that can help
in human development ("essential" information). ...
Thus, encryption is one method for protecting intellectual property in general, and
copyright information in particular. ... The ethical aspects lie in using encryption to
withhold information in circumstances where the information is critical to human
development....
However, before accepting this complacently as just another of those issues that separate
the North from the South, we should note that there are information-poor people in both
developing countries and in the industrialized West. With the gradual corralling of
valuable information into encrypted environments, such traditionally high-volume but
low-income classes as students throughout the world may find themselves and their
libraries unable to afford the only high-quality and timely information there will be,
which is electronic information.
The author also addressed the issue of tracing unauthorized users of intellectual
property: Those who create intellectual property (authors, artists, etc.) should be able
to use techniques, including encryption, to protect their creations, both in order to
ensure that the works are not tampered with, and in the endeavour to earn a living from
their creativity. ...
Tracking can provide information about piracy, about attacks that damage the authenticity
or integrity of the work, and about infringements of moral rights. The creator wants to
know this as much as the user wants guarantees of an integral, authentic text. ...
There is a point where the legitimate pursuit of rights-infringers infringes the rights to
privacy of those being pursued. ...
The first concern is that the right to track the location of specific content could be
abused by authoritarian forces. In general, it is certainly an invasion of privacy to seek
and gain accurate and consistent information about what an individual is reading, viewing,
hearing, tasting or feeling ... your senses are your private property. In the hands of a
malignant State apparatus, such information could lead to severe consequences if the
individual is thereby "revealed" to be outside the State-defined norms. ...
The solution to this dilemma would appear to lie in systems that track only the
unauthorized uses. In other words, you may look only where the work is not supposed to be,
rather than where it is lawfully stored. The watermark or identifier should also be used
to certify authenticity and integrity, as in a digital signature. ...
There is an avenue that provides hopes of a solution to this dichotomy, in systems that
combine unencrypted content with identification information held in digital watermarks. In
this scenario, the only defence against tampering or piracy is the law, and the
identification information is used as evidence of origins and ownership (issues such as
integrity and authenticity can also be handled this way).
This avenue, which I have termed "inscription," is currently being explored ...
People with Special Needs
A paper, entitled Adaptable, Adaptive and Extendable Information Systems for
Occupation, Activation and Stimulation of People with Dementia, with a humane goal was
presented in the 6th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special
Needs (ICCHP ’98). Written by Mr. Erwin Riederer (DE) and Prof. Richard Pieper (DE),
the paper described the use of a PC system to provide entertainment for people with
dementia.
The nature of the disorder was stated as follows: The afflicted people have a lot of
difficulty in coping with everyday life because of their cognitive impairments. There are
various safety problems, like injuries, falls, fire risk, wandering and getting lost. A
major problem of demented persons is their inability to spend time alone, i.e., keeping
themselves occupied. As the majority of them wants to stay at home, the informal carer (in
most cases, a family member) often is the second victim of this disease. Supervision of
the demented person, up to 24 hours a day, is a huge burden for the informal carer.
The objectives of the project were listed as follows: o Joyful and meaningful activity for
the patient o Stimulation, support and opportunity for interaction and positive feedback o
Relief of the burden of informal care, enhancement of effectiveness of formal care o
Therapeutic, rehabilitative effects, reduction of medical treatment and wandering The key
issues addressed were:
The paper continued by describing an entertainment application in which the users see
photographs (e.g., actors, paintings, flowers, and animals) with information and music.
The authors concluded as follows:
Persons with dementia can operate adapted computer applications up to a certain degree of
dementia. Then they need assistance. In a number of case studies with patients in middle
and even progressed states of the disease, the patients showed surprising effects, like
activation and strong interest ... in contrast to usual passive behaviour. ...
The domain of rehabilitation engineering should use HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)
concepts, and on the other hand HCI research should recognize rehabilitation engineering
as an excellent application area to tackle new problems and to develop concepts and goals
to support human activities apart from the usual narrow objectives of increasing
productivity and efficiency.
Another paper in the ICCHP ’98 conference dealt with a distinctly different group
with special needs: children with language disorders. The paper, Theory-Based Software Use
in Language Intervention by Dr. Mary Sweig Wilson (US) and Dr. Jeffrey Pascoe (US),
described software designed to help children "at risk for chronic language
disorders." Parts of this interesting paper are quoted here.
Using language-intervention software with non-professional assistance, children with
special needs in the early stages of language acquisition can make language gains
comparable to those seen during individual language therapy with a speech-language
pathologist. Significantly greater language development and improved communications skills
have been observed when regular use of language intervention software was added to the
ongoing curriculum of a special education classroom. There also is a broad consensus that
language intervention, regardless of specific procedures, is far more effective when the
intervention is engaging, appropriately challenging, requires active participation, and
provides a legitimate reason for engaging in communicative behavior. ...
Recognition of the potential of microcomputer-based language intervention strategies
inspired us to develop language intervention software that is now recognized as a valuable
supplement to traditional intervention strategies used with children. ...
The intensive instruction needed by children with language disorders often exceeds the
amount of time and energy that parents, teachers, speech-language pathologists, and
special educators can devote to this effort, especially since professional resources are
at a premium under even the best of circumstances. Moreover, the problem is compounded in
economically disadvantaged areas where the prevalence of language delay is so much
greater. ... From this perspective, effective language intervention software can be
regarded as a much-needed and cost-effective means to supplement the efforts of clinicians
and educators. ...
[An important component of the system is] an Intelligent Computer Assisted Training (ICAT)
system. This system will make it possible for the software to be controlled by
"artificial intelligence" methodology designed to guide the efforts of parents
and non-professionals who may implement language intervention plans, and thereby reduce
the burden placed on those who may lack clinical or technological expertise. Our ICAT
system was inspired by systems developed by the ... National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)... .
During ongoing field testing, the behavior of the ICAT system in our prototype language
intervention software continues to exceed our expectations. Higher functioning children
are quickly able to demonstrate their verb knowledge by accurately identifying verb
animations with minimal instructional support, yet at the same time they receive extra
training with added instructional support for those few verbs with which they are
struggling. The less dependable performance of children functioning at lower levels
triggers an increase in the level of instructional support when they respond incorrectly,
until they too reach an appropriate training level. Even after a single session there are
clear differences in the material being presented to individual children, and the material
is presented differently and appropriately for children with varied abilities.
The system, which involves attractive and entertaining multimedia presentations, was
demonstrated to the session attendees. Dr. Wilson expressed regret that it has not been as
easy to convince clinicians to use the system as had been originally thought.
IT&KNOWS
The papers in the Information Technology and KNOWledge Systems conference (IT
& KNOWS) ranged from very abstract to applied. One of the more interesting papers ...
from a sociological point of view ... was WhaleWatch: An Intelligent Model-Based
Mathematics Tutoring System by Prof. Carole Beal (US), Mr. Joseph Beck (US), Beverly Woolf
(US), and Prof. MaryAnne Rea-Ramirez (US), which addressed the issues of mathematics
education for women and computer-aided instruction. The problem with regard to women
learning mathematics was stated as follows:
Mathematics is a critical prerequisite for many college majors and science careers. Yet in
the transition from elementary school to middle school, when mathematics concepts become
more abstract, many students begin to lose confidence in their ability to do well in math.
...
In the United States and in many European countries, math avoidance is especially
prevalent among female students, who subsequently perform less well than their male
classmates on math achievement tests. Even the most mathematically gifted girls have less
math training and are less interested in science careers than their male peers. When
compared with boys, girls have an unrealistic pessimism about their math abilities; that
is, they come to feel that they lack ability while actually performing well. In contrast,
boys tend to remain quite optimistic about their abilities through college. ...
The gender differences in mathematics interest and concept of self can also be linked to
students’ experiences in math classes, in which girls receive less overall
instruction, and less effective instruction. Specifically, teachers provide girls with
less detailed information about how to solve problems and how to correct errors. Some
researchers have found that boys receive up to eight times more instructional feedback
from mathematics teachers than girls. Teachers tend to assume that girls have already done
the best they can, so they are somewhat reluctant to push a female student who has made
errors. In contrast, they typically assume that boys have simply not paid attention or
tried hard enough, and that boys can succeed with additional help and effort. In addition,
teachers ... the majority of whom are female ... themselves have relatively little
training in teaching mathematics and report that math is their least favorite subject to
teach. Thus, teachers themselves do not provide strong role models for mathematics
proficiency, nor to they convey convincingly to students that math is important and
valuable to learn. The traditional form of math instruction does not convey to students
how math can be used in other areas of the curriculum and in real-life tasks. Thus, it is
not surprising that girls conclude that math is not worth the effort to master. By the end
of elementary school, girls typically report enjoying other academic subjects, such as
writing and reading, more than math, and rate math as less valuable to learn than do boys.
One potential solution to the problem of math avoidance is to use intelligent model-based
tutoring systems to provide more effective instruction. ... We developed a model-based
intelligent tutor called WhaleWatch to teach fractions concepts....
WhaleWatch was specifically designed to support the learning styles that are appealing to
girls. Problems involving fractions are presented in the context of the domain of
environmental biology which, of the sciences, is particularly appealing to girls. In the
present version of the system, problems focus on a local endangered species, the Right
Whale (hence the name, WhaleWatch).
The authors administered questionnaires and examinations to the students using WhaleWatch
both before and after their lessons. They reported their success as follows: At pretest,
the boys had higher scores than girls for both math self confidence and beliefs in the
value of learning math. However, at post test, the girls’ ratings had increased
significantly. This result indicates that working with WhaleWatch had a positive effect on
girls’ attitudes about mathematics; in fact, at post test, there were no significant
gender differences for either math self confidence or math value. ...
The results of the present research suggest that individualized, supportive instruction
provided by an intelligent model-based system can be highly effective in promoting
students’ interest in math and their belief that they can learn mathematics. The
benefits were especially clear for students who were initially less interested in math
(mostly girls), and benefits were strongest for students who interacted more with the
system (those requiring more help; those who reached the most difficult level of
problems).
Information Security
One fascinating paper in the 14th Annual Information Security Conference
(IFIP/SEC ’98) was Can Computerized Immunity Be Achieved, Based on a Biological
Model? by Mr. Buks Louwrens (ZA) and Prof. Basie von Solms (ZA). It describes a futuristic
technique for maintaining a secure network. The abstract reads as follows: Modern day
network-centric computing can increasingly be viewed as a vast, extremely involved
organism, of which the boundaries are not clear, and most of the constituent parts are
unknown from any given viewpoint. It has already become difficult to effectively ensure
the security of such vast computing systems, and it may be impossible to do so in the
future with current approaches to computer security. On the other hand, nature has been
successful in defending its complex biological systems from infection and damage for
countless millennia by using highly specialized and evolved immune systems. It is
therefore postulated that a highly effective defensive mechanism can be developed to
transparently enforce an acceptable level of security in very extensive and complex
computer networks and systems, by building very basic, but specialized, autonomous
software agents that follow basic rules which can be deduced from biological immune
systems.
The paper included "basic rules for an immune system." We list some of them
here.
Teleteaching
The most popular of the conferences was Distance Learning, Training and Education
(TELETEACHING ’98), which had six simultaneous sessions at times. One of the papers
from this conference, Telecommunications in Secondary Education: Lithuanian Reality and
Perspectives by Dr. Valentina Dagiene (LT) and Lina Markauskaite (LT), described the
status of the use of telecommunications in secondary school education in Lithuania. We
quote part of the introduction here.
Informatics is usually taught as a separate subject in Lithuania. The subject became
compulsory in all secondary schools more than ten years ago. Recently, new informatics
curriculum and education standards have been developed for basic comprehensive schools.
Major attention is paid to the meaning and concept of CIT [Communication and Information
Technologies].
The development of information skills should satisfy students’ communication,
self-expression and creativity needs. Information abilities should help youngsters to feel
safe and take part in a rapidly changing world and to be responsible for the world
community. The best way is to start enhancing children’s information technology
skills from the earliest grades. Lithuanian schools are poorly equipped with hardware,
which is why only upper secondary school students have an opportunity to acquire CIT
knowledge and develop practical skills. Nevertheless, students should be acquainted with
the basic CIT concepts in earlier grades. These subjects should be covered during the
lessons of various subjects and out-of-class activities.
Since the 1998 school year, informatics has been a compulsory course in the final years of
basic school (9th and 10th grade). The informatics curricula of basic schools embrace four
main topics: informatics, algorithms, computers, and information technology.
The informatics course covers the principal CIT themes. These topics are studied as a
separate course. The integration of computers into the existing subjects is limited for
the following reasons: the lack of software and hardware in schools; the lack of knowledge
and insufficient training opportunities for teachers.
In 1996, more than 1,200 computers were in use in about 210 secondary schools. Only 85
schools (about 12% of all upper secondary schools) have computer labs with six or more
machines. In 1995, the Ministry of Education and Science focused its attention on the
policy of promoting the use of new technologies in education. This policy resulted in the
announcement of a new project, "Computers for Secondary, Vocational and High Schools
in Lithuania." ...
This project is the first significant contribution to the computerisation of Lithuanian
schools, but it satisfies only the minimal requirements of educational institutions.
Another paper from an East European country in TELETEACHING ’98 was The Ukrainian
Experience of Teachers’ Training on Telematics: Distance Case by Alexei Dovgiallo
(UA), Valentina Kolos (UA), and Svetlana Kudrjavtseva (UA). The paper, which dealt with
teacher training via the World Wide Web, began as follows: Until recently, the Internet
was practically restricted to relatively narrow professional groups working in technical
applications and natural sciences. These groups have had a sufficient background in
telematics and computing. Nowadays, the Internet is being extended to more and more
countries and is becoming available to new groups of users with various non-technical
professional and/or cultural needs. These new users may not have any specific skills in
informatics or networking. Telematics embedding in everyday life makes telematic literacy
strongly needed for professional activity in all areas. Countries of East Europe and New
Independent States are only beginning to experiment with telecommunication means. ... From
the point of view of information technologies, Ukraine is neither a developing nor a
developed country ... it is a country in transition that has the following needs: to
develop the infrastructure of communication and information technologies; to support and
develop existing intellectual resources; and to become integrated in world-wide
educational and information society. Ukraine needs the rapid evolution of content, methods
and means of public and vocational education to the level of international standards. The
Ministry of Education of Ukraine and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine have
prepared a conception of implementing telecommunication technologies in education that is
a part of the National Programme for Informatization of Ukraine.
Other Thoughts
Among the more entertaining paper titles were the following: CORBA Lacks Venom
No Place Like Home -- No Boss Smarter than Me?
The Future of Knowledge
Educating the Mind without the Body
Prof. Egon Hörbst (DE) was chair of the Congress International Program Committee The
Congress prceedings are available from the Austrian Computer Society. For more
information, please refer to the Web page at http://www.ocg.at/proceedingsoffer.html
.