Faculty of Science and Technology

Week 8
Freedom of Speech &
Systems Reliability
ITECH 3203-7203
Professional Development
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Content of Course ...

Section Topics
1. Ethical • utilitarianism & character based
theories deontology • professional ethics
• contract-based &
2. Social impact • privacy & security • social issues
technology • cybercrime, IP & • Internet & systems
copyright reliability

3. Business and • professionalism

professional • leadership and management
practice • teams and negotiation
Summary

Citizens of cyberspace
Netiquette
Managing the Internet
Freedom of speech and censorship
Filtering
Systems failures: TRELIS, Sydney Water, RMIT, One Tel,
Therac-25 etc.
 Faculty of Science and Technology

Citizens of cyberspace
Introduction

Issues to consider …
•Should there be total freedom of expression on the
Internet?
•Should Internet content be controlled?
•Should there be a balance?
•If so, how are controls to be implemented?
•What is the role of governments and other significant
groups?
Citizens of Cyberspace

Definitions of netizen
• Anyone who uses the Internet
• Any person who:
• cares the Internet is used cooperatively
• sees the Internet for communication available and to benefit
all

• Compare with notion of “responsible citizen”

 Faculty of Science and Technology

What are the responsibilities of an

Australian citizen?
http://www.australiancitizenshiphq.com.au/australian-
citizenship/citizenship-responsibilities/
 Faculty of Science and Technology

Are you a responsible digizen?

http://www.australiancitizenshiphq.com.au/australian-
citizenship-test/australian-citizenship-practice-test/
 Faculty of Science and Technology

Netiquette
Netiquette

Shea (1994) rules of netiquette

• Rule 1: Remember the human
• Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online
that you follow in real life
• Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
• Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth
• Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
• Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
• Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
• Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy
• Rule 9: Don't abuse your power
• Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes
 Faculty of Science and Technology

What do you consider to be rules of good

netiquette?
 Faculty of Science and Technology

Are you netiquette savvy?

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?
title=netiquette-quiz
 Faculty of Science and Technology

Managing the Internet

Internet Governance

Significant features
• Real self or virtual self
• No geographic boundaries
• Information is free

Concerns
• Content distressing and unrestricted
e.g. violence, racial hatred, emotive imagery
• Cyber-related crime
Internet Governance
continued…

Concerns continued…
• Freedom of speech
• highly valued in individualistic cultures e.g. Australia

• Access of the Internet by children

• Content control and regulation issues to consider:
• how much?
• is it feasible?
 Faculty of Science and Technology

Who controls the Internet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvSBkoAdAPw
Internet Governance
continued…

Avenues of regulation
• Regulation by the state
• may involve an independent regulatory body

• Self-regulation
• a significant group, such as an industry, agrees to take the
responsibility for regulation

• Co-regulation
• self-regulation with a state regulator as a watchdog
Internet Governance
continued…

Regulation by the state?

• Problems
• legal standards vary e.g. freedom of speech, privacy
• cultural values vary
• regulation in one state can affects citizens in another without
their consent

• State control is best exercised through ISPs generally

operating within state boundaries
Internet Governance
continued…

Attempts at regulation

• Areas include: pornography, gambling, fraud, unfair

marketing, consumer protection, privacy, cyber-
squatting (exploiting domain names)

• Effectiveness by individual governments limited

• Clear need for global collaboration

 Faculty of Science and Technology

What is Internet Governance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veqNnfknxbI
Internet Governance
continued…

Multi-Stakeholder Approach

• Internet Governance Forum:

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/

• World Summit Information Society (WSIS) Forum:

http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html

• Australian Internet Governance Forum:

http://www.igf.org.au/about-igf
Internet Governance
continued…

Issues to consider …

• What are some problems with the Internet?

• What aspects should be governed?

• How should these be governed and monitored?

Internet Governance
continued…

Kleinsteuber (2004) self-regulation measures

• Rely on codes of practice (not law)
• Limit regulation attempted
• Use netiquette as a blueprint
• Consult wide range of experts
• Multi-stakeholder approach
• Must be transparent (use WWW)
• Trust in process required e.g. through online voting
Internet Governance
continued…

Kleinsteuber (2004) continued…

• Values of freedom of expression, diversity and
pluralism (holding more than one principle)
• Filtering a last resort
• Regulators must hold diverse values
• Easy access e.g. open architecture
Freedom of speech and censorship
Freedom of Speech

USA recognises freedom of speech as a fundamental

constitutional right

Australians hold a similar value but have no constitutional

guarantee

Many would argue that freedom of speech is a precondition

of the effective functioning of the Internet
 Faculty of Science and Technology

What does freedom of speech on the

Internet mean?
The right to express any opinions without censorship or
restraint
Censorship

Places limitations on freedom of speech as an absolute

right
Is not exclusive to the Internet
Film censors in Australia rate films for the guidance of
viewers, in particular for parents of under-age children
Is one response to perceived inappropriate content
involving a value-judgment by the receiver/censor of the
content
“The Internet sees censorship as damage and routes
around it” - Gilmore
“Enemies of the Internet”

A list of about 12 countries who attempt to “over-regulate”

or “repress” access to the Internet.
A second list of “countries under surveillance”
Compiled by Reporters sans frontiers (Reporters without
borders)
Guess what?? Australia is currently one of the countries
“under surveillance”
Filtering
Filtering

A form of censoring controlled by individual

states and ISPs
Major purpose is to protect children from inappropriate
material
Can be abused by excluding minority views and misused
by excluding socially useful sites (refer examples in
McDermid p.136)
Current Internet rating and filtering technology may
violate freedom of expression guarantees enshrined in
the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for
example.
Content Control

Two Commonwealth government initiatives in Australia:

Spam Act (2003)
Criminal Code Act (1995) – obliges ISPs to report material
containing child pornography
Spam

Unsolicited bulk email, ‘junk mail’

Estimated that:
• 80% of world-wide email is spam
• 60%+ spam has fraudulent elements e.g. Nigerian
money-laundering schemes

Australian spam legislation:

• Prohibits unsolicited commercial messages
• Provides for international collaboration
Illicit and Illegal Material

Legislation is one type of measure taken against sites

Blocking (denying access) is another
Approx. 60 countries use blocking to deny public access to
specific sites
Blocking is also carried out by repressive regimes
Australia allows blocking of content based on current
classification guidelines
Content Blocked

Filtering software will generally allow the blocking of

material that:
• Is sexually explicit
• Is graphically violent
• Is motivated by racial hatred
• Advocates illegal activity e.g. drugs, bomb-making,
terrorism, underage drinking and gambling

Some software will go further blocking material that many

would not regard as harmful or offensive
Other Issues

Regulation of filtering software to safeguard freedom of

speech
The use of censorware in homes may reflect more the
values of the software developers than parents
Protection of children from cyber-stalking and cyber-
bullying
 Faculty of Science and Technology

Systems failures
Systems Unreliability???

Issues to consider:
•Why do IT systems fail?
•Why does the profession as a whole appear not to learn
from past errors?

A number of related questions are asked in this lecture

Examples of failed systems are given
Responsibility has to be shared
Current Experience

Systems fail
Causes range from simple power outages to major system
errors
Extreme consequences include:
•Massive inconvenience
•Large financial disasters
•Loss of life
Expectations

Issues to consider:
•Is system failure abnormal, out-of-the-ordinary, exceptional
or is it to be regarded as part of normal life?
•Is bug-free software an unobtainable ideal?
•Are systems becoming too complex for limited human
intelligence?
•Are our expectations too high?
Problem Sources

Code that contains errors

Inaccurate system specifications
• How well did the users understand their needs?
• How good was the communication with the system
developers?
Unforeseen scenarios
• Was the system required to work under conditions
never envisaged?
Factors influencing software project failures
(Dalcher & Brodie, 2007, p.9)
Learning from Mistakes

It seems that we are not as good as other professions in

this regard
Does it have anything to do with the nature of IT?
Learning from mistakes requires:
• Motivation to make the effort
• Skills in identifying error causes
• Time to get full understanding

Examples of failures follow

Australian Examples

Result in significant resource wastage

• Isn’t one of the major objectives of IT systems to
make efficient use of resources?

Do severe damage to the reputation of the profession

Pharmaceutical Industry

Facts:
•Introduced a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
system in 2005.
•A$17 million was written off.
•Changeover from the legacy system used the staggered
approach in order to handle the complexity.
Problems:
•Discrepancies in the system conversion.
TRELIS Project

Facts:
•WA’s transport licensing system.
•Two years behind schedule, cost $82.2 m.
•On go-live data validation and processing errors.
•Result 22,000 transactions entered manually.

Problems:
• Inadequate controls on software quality
• Non-compliance with design standards
• Insufficient technical knowledge
• Time and cost pressures
Sydney Water

Facts:
•Customer billing system
• Abandoned after estimated costs went from A$38m to
A$135m
Problems:
• 6000 test problems 8 months after planned go-live date
• Lack of IT architecture for the organisation
• Non-compliance in 19/20 requirements
• Testing neither timely nor comprehensive
RMIT (Melbourne)

Facts:
• Student management system
• Scrapped after costs had increased nearly fourfold
A$12.6m to A$47m
• Problems with enrolments, billing, issuing HECS
statements, fulfilling reporting requirements
Problems:
• Data integrity compromised
• No PM or SDLC methodology used
• Inadequate testing
Customs Integrated Cargo System
Facts:
• System set up to process cargo entering and leaving
Australia (10-year overhaul)
• Customers required by law to use it
• Sydney & Melbourne ports at a standstill
• Huge fees for operators affected by delays
• Quarantine and security waived temporarily
• Help line inundated with calls
Problems:
• Faulty data returned by system
• Poor software, testing, training
The Edge Project
Facts:
• Joint project between government departments
• Expert system to improve quality of Centrelink (income
security) assessment decisions
• Previous system (ISIS) more reliable, new system scrapped
after 4 years – over budget, over time
• Expenditure more than A$60m
• Problems government departments working together
Problems:
• Delays in connecting Edge with the mainframe system and
ISIS
A Financial Disaster

Facts:
• Billing system
• Business growth brought serious delays and many bills
had errors
• Waiting times at the call centre unacceptable
• Extra A$120m cash to cover gap caused by delays
• Eventually the company closed down

Problems:
• Built in-house by inexperienced programmers using an
inadequate design and testing
International Examples

Following are examples of extreme impact including life

threatening, and loss of life
How does the public view our profession ???
London Ambulance Service

Facts:
•Dispatch system
•Manual system automated to deal with problems of
identifying incident locations, form handling and vehicle
status information
• Errors in recording vehicle information resulted in
inefficient dispatch and fewer resources
• Resulted in message queues expanding and response
times lengthening
• Delays resulted in repeat calls and bottlenecks
London Ambulance Service
continued…

Problems:
• Company supplying the bulk of the software had no
experience in this area
• Prescribed public sector project management method
not used i.e. (PRINCE)
• Software: incomplete, under-tested, poor user
interfaces, not robust, had errors
• Specifications contained unjustified assumptions
• Implementation high-risk, training poor
• Timetable too ambitious
Therac-25

Facts:
• Computer-controlled radiation machines made dose-rate
errors
• Patient deaths and injuries resulted
• Machines were kept in use

Problems:
• Poor hardware safety mechanisms
• Code reuse with software bugs
• Meaningless error messages
• Little documentation
Why Are Mistakes Repeated?
Consider …
• How many individuals and/or organisations think they are
ok and it is others with the problems?
• Are current methodologies satisfactory?
• Are guiding codes for the profession adequate?
• If the notion of error-free systems is an ideal rather than a
possibility, should this affect what systems are attempted?
• What warnings should be given to an increasingly aware
public?
Questions needing Answers

This lecture has provided examples of systems unreliability

How is the profession to learn from its mistakes?

When problems begin to appear in projects that we belong

to, what is our responsibility? What is our response?
The Next Step in this Course

This is the last lecture in the series of lectures on the social

implications of IT.
The final third of the course concerns the theme of
professional skills.
The series just completed and the series of ethics lectures,
should provide motivation for students to look afresh at
improving their professional skills.
At the very least the examples of failure given in this last
lecture, should highlight the urgent need for more IT
professionals of high quality.
Summary

A netizen is active participant in an online community.

Internet issues include freedom of speech, unrestricted
content, access by children, content control and regulation.
Netiquette is about good behaviour on the Internet.
Many argue freedom of speech is essential condition of the
Internet. Censorship places limitations on content e.g. filter,
legislation.
When IT systems fail consequences can be extreme e.g.
loss $ or life.
Summary
continued...

What causes IT systems to fail e.g. poor system

specifications, coding errors, poor testing, unforeseen
scenarios.
Some Australian examples of failed IT systems include
pharmaceutical industry, TRELIS, Sydney water, RMIT,
One Tel etc. International e.g. London Ambulance, Therac-
25.
References

Shea, V. (1994). Netiquette. San Francisco: Albion Books.

Retrieved March 5, 2015, from
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html