Papers

1. -12-11-05 Global Online Shopping Patterns (International Herald Tribune)
   "With national forecasts for holiday sales generally gloomy, the British should be especially glad for the Internet this year. That's because the British are among the world's biggest online shoppers, according to a global survey, along with Germany and Austria." 12-05
   
   
2. Announcement of Open Source Software Study (California Legislative Counsel's Digest)
   "WHEREAS, The State of California has a compelling interest to ensure public confidence that election results are complete, honest, and accurate; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senatethereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby requests the Secretary of State to investigate and evaluate the use of open-source software in all voting machines in California and report his or her findings and recommendations to the Legislature by January 1, 2006...." 12-05
   
   
3. Announcement of Open Source Software Study (PingV.com)
   "The report could form the philosophical basis for our Open Voting bill and could also provide the justification for getting HAVA funding for voting system Research and Development. OVC is asking that the CA State Government hire the University of California to do this work. McPherson has also made public statements indicating that he is in favor of this. A recent article in the Oakland Tribune says, 'McPherson proposes pooling federal voting-reform money for several states and devoting it to research on the best way to verify electronic voting.' " 12-05
   
   
4. Assistive Voting Device Compared to Electronic Systems (Vote-Pad.us)
   Provides a cost and administrative comparison. 01-06
   
   
5. Assistive Voting Device Without Using a Computer (Vote-Pad.us)
   "The Voting-on-Paper Assistive Device (Vote-PAD) is an inexpensive, non-electronic, voter-assist alternative that helps most people with visual or dexterity impairments to vote independently."
   
   "The Vote-PAD can be used in any jurisdiction. It is customized to provide access to each precinct’s hand-counted or optically-scanned paper ballot. All jurisdictions must offer provisional ballots during federal elections, and many also provide paper ballot backups in case voting machines break down." 01-06
   
   
6. Editorial: Open Source Software Needed in Elections (Collision.net)
   "First off, the government should ditch the private-sector software makers. Then it should hire a crack team of programmers to write new code. Then -- and this is the crucial part -- it should put the source code online publicly, where anyone can critique or debug it. This honors the genius of the open-source movement. If you show something to a large enough group of critics, they'll notice (and find a way to remove) almost any possible flaw. If tens of thousands of programmers are scrutinizing the country's voting software, it's highly unlikely a serious bug will go uncaught. The government's programming team would then take the recommendations, incorporate them into an improved code and put that online, too." 12-05
   
   
7. Open Source Software Project for Elections (Wikifund.org)
   "An open and transparent voting system is crucial to a healthy democracy. Sadly, the current options for voting equipment include problematic manual machines or closed-source electronic solutions, allowing for an absence of a paper trail and no real way of verifying the results. The best solution? Develop an open-source solution that addresses all the major concerns within the current systems, while having the added benefit of being more affordable—and therefore cheaper—for individual counties to implement."
   
   "The Open Voting Consortium (OVC) has been instrumental in the initial progress toward this goal. A prototype has been built and tested, legislation has been proposed to require open-source solutions, and a plan has been developed to receive national certification for the software." 12-05
   
   
8. Open Source Software Protection (International Herald Tribune)
   "As open-source software spreads to personal computers, servers and Internet networking equipment around the world, so too is the misuse of the rules governing the software - a product that is commonly but often mistakenly thought to be free and unprotected."
   
   "Such plagiarism, experts say, has led to a string of lawsuits, created hurdles to technology mergers and opened up a market for products meant to guard against violations." 12-05
   
   
9. Wisconsin Passes Law to Allow Viewing of Source Code (Wistechnology)
   "Under the law as enacted, the source code would be placed into escrow with the elections board. It would be analyzed in the case of a recount, but not open to the public." 01-06
   
   

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