RE: [election-services] Developing EML OSI core foundation tools

["Borras, John" <John.Borras@legsb.gov.uk>]

David

Sorry about the delay in getting round to this.  My initial reaction is very hesitant. Based on our experiences here in UK on trying to use the open source version of ebXML Registry then that's a route I would find hard to support. In that case it has taken an enormous amount of effort and expertise to try to implement something which actually doesn't do the whole job.  All in all a waste of time and really doesn't promote good messages on the work of the TC.  So not a good case study to use as an exemplar.  Not sure I want a similar label on our TC.

So if we were to pursue this course of action how would be guarantee that we would get a worthwhile output, what resources are required from the TC, and should we embark on this before we get much more evidence that we have the right set of requirements and specifications in v4? 

John


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


> Team,
>
> It's been a frustrating week here in the USA, watching the machinations of
> the US vendors and stakeholders as part of the HAVA/TGDC process;
> the State officials are panicing about compliance for the 2006 elections,
> and NIST has not been able to stand up a make real recommendations
> without anything first being approved by the vendor engineering teams!
>
> Essentially all attempts at introduce real progress on trusted mechanisms
> at the foundation of the voting process have been stymied.  Along with
> attempts to introduce EML XML as even an optional solution for
> implementing in obvious areas of the process - such as voting records
> themselves.
>
> Example - VVPAT has made promising progress legislatively - with over
> 20 Sates having pending legislation to require it.
>
> Enter the vendors - with their minimalist market-driven thinking.
> Upshot is proprietary plexi-glass sealed printers
> that capture voting logs into the a sealed bin as part of the DRE unit.
> Needless to say these units are an order of magnitude more expensive
> than a regular simple printer.
>
> And sealed pritners fails true VVPAT on multiple levels; fails to
> enspire any trust whatsoever for voters (just more of the same in terms
> of hidden process); and also fails many of the principles of
> OASIS EML around voter privacy, etc, that came from the
> EU requirements.  Apart from those singificant short comings - the
> way the US is intending to allow VVPAT to be
> implemented is a marvellous idea...
>
> The long and the short of this is that it has become clear to me that
> OASIS EML next requires a solution toolkit that is open source.
>
> We have learned this from ebXML Registry and ebXML Messaging.
> Both have OSI foundation components - that solution providers can
> then take and deliver commercial solutions by tailoring to their local
> marketplace needs.
>
> I would therefore like to hear from members here who would like
> to work with us here in the USA (the IEEE team and the OVC
> - Open Voting Consortium - http://www.openvotingconsortium.org/)
> and develop this as a SourceForge project.
>
> I would also be interested in seeing if we can get EU funding for this,
> and or donations of existing code components to form the underpinning.
>
> I'm suspecting that new EU member countries especially would
> benefit from a collaborative development effort to get this code
> out there.  Also - does say the UK government own rights to
> code it has funded already - that could form an initial 'seed' here?
>
> A resource site hosted by the EU would also be great - but we
> could also use OASIS resources to host a developer discuss list -
> again OASIS is already running several of those.
>
> Assuming that Java is the target environment maybe
> http://www.jEML.org if it is available - or similar - is what I'm
> envisioning here.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Any takers out there?
>
> Thanks, DW
>
>
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-- 
Simon Bain
TENdotZERO
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