PCW: Internet regulations compromise browser privacy

As a journalist at PC World Australia:

A recent study has found that costly regulatory systems that place strict controls and regulations on Web site operators may not have their desired effect on online security. Instead, a self-regulatory system may be the best way of encouraging browser privacy on the Internet.

Internet users are typically asked to submit some personal information before transacting online. The study, run by Karim Jamal of the University of Alberta's School of Business, analysed how this information was used by the top 100 US-based online brokerages and businesses, including popular names like eBay. These Web sites were compared against 56 similar sites based in the UK.

At the time of the study, laws that now govern US-based Web site operators were not yet put in place so the Internet was a largely self-regulated domain. UK-based online operators, on the other hand, had their actions regulated and monitored by a large government bureaucracy.

The study found that while most of the Web operators in both countries did a good job of protecting user information, operators in the UK tended to be less forthcoming in disclosing their privacy policies. According to Jamal, sites in a self-regulated environment were more open about their policies to attract the trust of customers.

About a third of US sites were certified by Web privacy seals from Truste or BBB online to further reassure customers of the sites' trustworthiness.

"We found that Web sites who had a Web seal had very good disclosure of their privacy policies - easy to find, easy to read, much [more comprehensive] than Web sites without such seals, and none of them leaked customer data," Jamal said.

Web seals were far less prevalent in the regulated UK market. Not one of the UK Web sites studied was authenticated by a Web seal. Furthermore, the study found that several UK Web sites either presented convoluted privacy policies written entirely in legalese, or simply failed to disclose their privacy policies in clear violation of the law.

"They were hard to find, hard to read and provided as little information as possible," said Jamal, suggesting that the UK privacy policies served the purpose of preventing lawsuits instead of comforting and attracting customers.

Five US and three UK Web sites were discovered leaking personal information of their customers and even of Web surfers who cancelled their transactions before they were completed. Compromised accounts in the UK received much more spam than in the US, indicating that data was sold more widely in the UK.

"There was complacency, lack of compliance and legalese," Jamal said of the regulated UK market. "The law seems to undermine development of a market for seals, undermines the incentive to provide good disclosure in the privacy policy and creates false comfort."

Meanwhile, an unregulated market has been shown to encourage investments in filters and various authentication methods, including privacy protection via ISPs and Web seals, as operators are forced to rely on their reputations to promote their clean practices.

"The law freezes existing technology issues and solutions at a point in time and it is very easy for people to work around the law," Jamal said. "Very elaborate rules can be created, but it is very easy for people who want to get around them to defeat the spirit of the rules."

Jamal's findings were published in the July edition of US journal, Business Ethics Quarterly.

CW: ACIF-SPAN merger gets go-ahead

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Plans to merge the Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) and the Service Providers Association (SPAN) have been approved. From September 1, the Communications Alliance will be Australia's new peak body for the communications industry.

The merger was agreed upon by vote at special general meetings, held by ACIF on July 26 and by SPAN yesterday. The current chief executive officer of ACIF, Anne Hurley, will maintain her executive position in the newly formed Alliance.

Although unable to discuss any specifics of the meetings, Hurley said that besides a positive response from their members, ACIF also received "overwhelming external support from external stakeholders" for the merger proposal.

The 10 staff and 65 members of ACIF will come together with SPAN's four staff and 75 members to form an alliance of 14 staff and 150 members. The Alliance will be headquartered at ACIF's current office in North Sydney.

After the launch, a transitional board, co-chaired by current ACIF chairman Neville Stevens and SPAN chairman John Kranenburg will govern the combined body.

A newly-elected 18-person board of management, which will also include representatives of comms service providers and nominated association members, will start on December 1 and will elect its own chair. Current members of ACIF and SPAN will be equally eligible for nomination to the Alliance's board of management.

Hurley said she looked forward to furthering the shared agenda of both ACIF and SPAN through the Alliance. One such goal is identifying the direction for future communications technology to lead the transition to next-generation networks.

"ACIF is an organization with a primary focus on bringing the industry together to promote self-governance," she said, explaining that most of ACIF's industry discussions come in the form of unbiased forums. "We are very much aligned with SPAN, [which] held a lot of forums as well."

"[The Communications Alliance] will continue to do that," she said, adding that with larger pool of members, "it will now be in a position to develop industry decisions for government policies".

PCW: G9 plans FTTN for Australia without Telstra

As a journalist at PC World Australia:

Telstra pulling the plug on its FTTN network on Monday does not mean it's the end of FTTN in Australia. Rival fibre consortium, G9, will continue to move forward with its network plans without Telstra's help.

The G9 consortium, led by Optus and comprised also of AAPT, Internode, iiNet, Primus, Macquarie Telecom, Powertel, Soul and TransACT, last month unveiled plans for an alternative FTTN network that would be built and run under an independent umbrella company named SpeedReach. The network that will facilitate access to increasingly popular technologies like IPTV, Video-on-demand, interactive messaging and other high bandwidth applications is estimated to cost $4.1 billion.

While Telstra's participation in the move to FTTN would have enabled the G9 network to reach a much wider range of consumers, G9 will continue to pursue a smaller network without the telecommunications giant.

"Telstra's not the only telco in the world," said iiNet's regulatory affairs general manager Stephen Dalby, adding that Telstra would, of course, be welcome to join in the consortium's FTTN plans if only they would "swallow their pride" to do so.

"The more players the better," he said, speculating that other telecommunications companies such as British Telecom may yet jump on the G9 bandwagon.

Dalby is of the opinion that the outlook of the telecommunications industry has become more positive since Telstra has pulled out of its FTTN plan.

"We were [previously] on the outside; we weren't involved in what we feel is an important part of the industry," he said. "Now, with G9, we're part of the process."

However, this process will take some time. G9 is currently at the stage of figuring out how the project will be financed, and it may be months, even years, before FTTN plans finally come to fruition.

"It's a bit premature to talk about the exact services that will be offered," Dalby said. "We're looking at this as a once in a hundred years type of decision; if we were to replace copper with fibre, it should not be at the decision of one company in place of the entire industry."

An important aspect of G9's plans is that whoever owns the network will not have a retail arm, Dalby said. G9's approach to FTTN will be that of access seekers rather than access providers, resulting in a network that is easy and flexible for ISPs.

"We want to design it for anyone to have access to it," he said.

But in light of Telstra's own problems with the cost of deploying a FTTN network, and the difficulty of recovering such a cost under current ACCC regulations, Telstra remains sceptical of G9's success.

"If you look around the world it is hard to find very many examples of successful consortiums of this kind," Phil Burgess, Telstra's group managing director for public policy and communications, said at a press conference on Monday. "I think if the G9 can do this at a lower cost, they ought to do it, and if they succeed in doing it, then we will be first in line to be access seekers."

Meanwhile, Paul Brooks of Layer 10 Consulting believes faster broadband should already be available to a large proportion of Australians - if only Telstra would lift their administrative 1.5Mbps limit on their existing ADSL network.

"[Telstra] could provide 6 to 8Mbps or more to the majority of people in its coverage area today, with little more than a flick of a software switch," he said.

"In areas where they have installed ADSL2+ capable equipment they could potentially provide much higher speeds with the existing network, as is being demonstrated by many of the smaller providers already."

One of these smaller providers is Internode, which has been offering 24Mbps ADSL2+ since April last year. Citing the widespread availability of ADSL2+ as proof, Internode's managing director, Simon Hackett, went so far as to call Telstra's FTTN negotiations a "farce [with] little or nothing to do with consumer benefit".

"Telstra has limited its own retail customers to 1.5Mbps on copper lines that its competitors continue to demonstrate to be good for up to 24Mbps," he said. "Its own customers have been held to ransom by its political posturing for this entire period.

"Perhaps Telstra would care to sell its copper line network to the G9, so that it can be upgraded and maintained in the future by a consortium that puts consumer benefit ahead of whinging that the regulator said that it can't have a pony."

But Burgess suggested that Telstra is being treated unfairly by regulations and by the public's constant criticism of Telstra's position in the telecommunications industry.

"Nobody gets upset with Macquarie Bank or with Woolies or with anything else when they are successful, but if we get to be very successful we have people say, 'that's an unreasonable return'," he said. "Well, our view is that our shareholders want us to make large returns, they want us to be very successful, and that's what we intend to do."

ARN: Accucom takes wireless to Wenona

As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:

Accucom Systems Integration has teamed up with networking giant, Cisco, to provide uniform wireless coverage across a girls' school in North Sydney.

During the last three years, Accucom has worked with Cisco and the Wenona School to implement 49 Cisco 1200 Series wireless access points across the school's three campuses. The campuses are connected by a fibre optic network that also links the school's desktop computers.

The network is based on three Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series and about 40 Cisco Catalyst 2950 Series switches. It is connected to the Internet via two Cisco 800 Series integrated services routers.

Besides designing and implementing the network infrastructure, Accucom also manages the network and provides all tech support.

A fully functional wireless network has been up and running for the past 12 months, connecting about 500 Wenona students and 80 teachers.

However, there is still much to be done before the project is complete. Accucom has so far only executed the first of a three-stage rollout plan by installing the access points and reasonable security. The next stage, which is currently in testing, is to implement multiple radio servers and 802.1x security.

The second stage will involve the re-imaging of all laptops and the phasing out of 3Com switches. This is expected to be completed by end of year. The final stage is to implement a lightweight access point that will provide thin-client wireless acces, giving Cisco more control for managing the network centrally.

Accucom has been a Cisco partner for 12 years.

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CW: Chandler Macleod acquires Accenture's IT recruitment arm

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Human resource outsourcing and recruitment company Chandler Macleod this week announced its acquisition of IT contracting and recruitment provider Diversiti from Accenture.

Contracts were signed on Tuesday and Diversiti is due to be handed over as of August 31.

Chandler Macleod's managing director Stephen Cartwright was unable to disclose the cost of the company, due in part to the fact that only one third of the purchase price is to be paid up front.

The remaining amount will be paid as a fixed percentage of Diversiti's revenue and a preferred supplier agreement with Accenture over the next two years. This arrangement, said Cartwright, would provide Accenture with incentive to ensure the acquisition goes smoothly and the company does well.

Diversiti specializes in recruiting IT specialists as well as non-IT professionals on a permanent or contractual basis, for government bodies and private companies engaged in IT implementation projects. With 450 contractors deployed to around 100 clients across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, Diversiti currently boasts revenues in the order of $65 million a year.

The acquisition is expected to increase Chandler Macleod's presence in the fast-growing IT contracting and recruitment sector, while increasing Diversiti's reach in the HR industry.

"IT contracting and recruitment has been the one key sector missing from our suite of service offerings to clients, and I am confident that the acquisition will make Chandler Macleod an even stronger competitor in the marketplace," Cartwright said.

"Day to day [the acquisition] won't change the way that it is run," he said, "other than the fact that Diversiti is now a part of a larger recruitment agency with access to a larger pool of clients."

The company will join Chandler Macleod's "house of specialist brands" business model while continuing to run under its current banner.

PCW: Optus-HP partnership offers convenient Internet access

As a journalist at PC World Australia:

A partnership between Optus and Hewlett-Packard (HP) will provide home, small and medium business users with broadband-enabled notebooks.

Mobile computing packages including a HP notebook and an Optus broadband connection went on sale on Monday. The package will allow users to purchase and pay for a notebook and Internet connection in monthly instalments with no upfront charges.

The package is available with Optus's 3G service called Wireless Connect, or any of its cable or DSL options. Payment plans start at $79.90 per month for both the notebook and a cable connection of up to 9900Mbps/128Kbps in speed. After paying a $49 connection fee and $99 for a modem, consumers can expect to pay a minimum total cost of $2065 over a 24-month period. A similar plan is available on 256/64Kbps DSL, while users with Optus Wireless Connect can expect to pay a total of $1917.60 plus the cost of a wireless data card.

Users have their choice of six laptop models, chosen by HP on a Good, Better, Best scenario based on their demonstrated popularity with consumers. The notebooks on offer span HP's Consumer and SMB product ranges, including Compaq Presario and HP Compaq products. Notebooks range in price from $49.95 per month, totalling $1198.80 for a Compaq V2656AU to $109.95 per month for a HP nx6325, totalling $2638.80 over 24 months.

When purchased outright through HP, the V2656AU costs $999 and the nx6325, $1,599.

While the package is offered to current customers and strangers to Optus alike, users also subscribed to an Optus landline or mobile service will receive a $10 discount on their monthly bill.

CW: Box Hill TAFE adds to intern choices

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

A newly signed agreement between Box Hill TAFE and global IT organization NIIT Technologies will provide ICT students with the opportunity to gain industry experience in advance of graduation.

With today's competitive job market demanding practical workplace skills from new employees, work experience will be a foot in the door for Box Hill Institute students.

"It's well proven that the biggest challenge for students in getting their first real job is having work experience, to prove to employers that they have the right level of competency and understand the work environment," said John Price, who heads up NIIT Technologies in Australia.

Students will be involved in high-level database programming, application development and systems development at NIIT, from the initial planning stages to actual development work. Depending on their skill levels, Price expects that some students will be assigned small sections of software for development under the supervision of a mentor.

Projects will be advertised as opportunities arise, and students will be expected to apply as they would for a job. Applicant selection will be based on academic records and demonstrated communication skills. The NIIT placements, which are expected to last up to four months, will count towards students' academic credit.

"This really is an internship in a truer sense, where NIIT will identify live projects with deadlines and normal workplace things," said John Italiano, senior executive director of Box Hill Institute.

It is the joint hope of both NIIT and Box Hill Institute that the success of their partnership will prompt other ICT businesses to form similar alliances, to make the industry more accessible to new graduates.

"From our perspective it's more something we'd like to give to the industry," Price said. "We see it as a demonstration that we can, as a local employer, make a contribution to the Australian ICT industry."

CW: IT skills shortage pushes salaries north

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Despite a drop of 2.8 percent in ICT vacancies in July 2006, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) reports a steady demand for IT professionals in the workforce.

The 22,262 ICT vacancies recorded last month resulted in an index of 289.4, which means that there are nearly three times the number of advertised ICT vacancies now as in November 2002.

Although the ICT vacancies index is still 56 percent lower than its peak during the Y2K period, the demand for ICT skills has grown over the past year, increasing 17.7 percent since July 2005. Most of the current ICT vacancies are based in New South Wales (52.3 percent), with 25.3 percent in Victoria.

Michael Gray of the DEWR is quick to warn against using the index as a sole indication of job prospects in ICT. The index, he said, is calculated on the number of advertisements for IT positions that appear online. It does not account for listings that appear multiple times, or advertisements for positions that have already been filled.

"This is not reflecting an increase in demand; it is reflecting the number of [online advertised] vacancies," he said.

But that is not to say that prospects for IT professionals are not, in fact, very good. In fact, the national skills shortage has been driving up average salaries quite nicely.

The 2006 Australian Computer Society (ACS) Remuneration Survey, conducted by APESMA (Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia) on members of the ACS, revealed a 4.3 percent increase in the average salary for IT professionals over the last year to a national average of $85,610. An IT graduate fresh into the workforce can expect to receive remuneration of around $43,384, a 7.7 percent increase on the 2005 average.

IT professionals with scarce skills, such as high-level application development specialists, database managers, architects, security specialists and testers are attracting greater pay rises, with average salaries increasing up to 20 percent. Meanwhile, professionals with business and people skills to complement their technical abilities are enjoying very rewarding packages, particularly in finance companies.

"There's not enough of senior people around, and they're the ones who are pushing up the salaries," said Margaret Bozik, APESMA's labour market analyst.

"Over the past 18 months, money has been thrown at various IT projects. So, for a lot of graduates, they're likely to find work in the government sector and government-funded projects."

There has indeed been a significant rise in corporate and government investment in IT over the past two years. The federal government in May budgeted $2.7 billion for ICT projects, including $755 million in IT security.

The Australian government is awarding extra points and priority processing of visas to potential migrants with relevant IT skills and experience. There has also been an increase in the number of temporary work visas granted to IT professionals sponsored by Australian businesses.

IT work that has previously been outsourced in a number of large banks is now being brought back in-house. Commonwealth Bank and ANZ are among such organizations that "cite a desire to retain skills and control internally and observe that the cost-savings of outsourcing were not as high as previously", Bozik reports.

Other large organizations including state and federal departments are choosing to outsource major IT contracts to global companies such as IBM, Accenture and EDS. However, Bozik notes that while low-end IT occupations such as programmers, coders and support specialists may be at risk of offshoring, jobs that require advanced degrees as well as management and business skills show no signs of decline.

APESMA expects continued expansion in the labour market for IT professionals over the next two to three years.

PCW: IIA demands faster broadband to more Australians by 2010

As a journalist at PC World Australia:

The Internet Industry Association (IIA) believes approximately 80 per cent of the Australian population should have access to downstream speeds of 10Mbps, with 67 per cent having access to speeds above 24Mbps by the end of the decade.

In a report released on Monday, the IIA believes these speeds should be sufficient to support a mix of simultaneous, or near-simultaneous, services including VoIP, gaming, multichannel streaming and video on demand, music, legitimate P2P file sharing and browsing.

While upstream speeds are expected to remain relatively static for most home users, business and other high end users should have the option of full symmetrical services, with upstream speeds equivalent to downstream capabilities.

High end users such as research organisation's advanced digital media houses, corporates and early adopters are likely to also demand and pay for access to ultra high bandwidth.

While regional services will naturally be somewhat slower than those in metropolitan areas, services should nonetheless be sufficient to allow basic banking, VoIP and streaming applications. The IIA expects that the government may need to provide some assistance in regional areas for this target to be fully realised.

Mobile connectivity is expected to grow in quality and use in the near future. The prevalence of mobile phones, PDAs and other handheld devices will fuel the need for mobile broadband that supports high-resolution video streaming, video-enabled gaming, on-demand or live newscasts, webcam reception and video conferencing.

"Having targets give us something to aim for," said Peter Coroneos, chief executive of IIA. "We need to have a good idea of where other countries will be, and where we will be, in four years time."

Due to our geographical area and sparse population, it will be very difficult for Australia to achieve the level of broadband service in leading economies like Korea and Japan. Instead, the IIA targets plan on bringing to Australia the same technology and services as those available to countries like the United States and Canada.

Falling short of the 2010 targets could have dire consequences on Australia's economy. The absence of a well-connected information network is needed for scientific research, education and health industries.

"If we fail to achieve these targets, then I think we will fail as an economy and as a society," Coroneos said.

Although the report so intently outlines Australia's goals for the next four years, it does not go on to describe how we might achieve them. Instead, it has been intended as a discussion piece for the government, the industry and the public, to provide a direction for the future of broadband.

"It was not designed to be a how-to document," said Coroneos, explaining that reaching these outcomes is really a matter for policy makers and the industry.

The report is accessible here.

CW: Unis revamp IT courses to lure students

As a journalist at Computerworld Australia:

Two universities are changing the content of their IT degree courses for 2007.

The University of Technology Sydney is remodelling its undergraduate programs to better fit the current roles of IT professionals in the industry. As of next year, students enrolling in the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BScIT) program at UTS will choose to major in one of four subjects.

These major choices have been designed provide a foundation for today's typical IT careers: Business Information Systems Management may lead to a career in technology implementation and governance; Enterprise Systems Development to technology building; while Internetworking and Applications and Computing and Data Analytics can lead into technology services.

The new program will also offer more elective subjects offering students greater flexibility and will also allow the degree to be combined with a range of other disciplines. A student might enroll in a combined degree in business and IT, for example, to be awarded Bachelor of Business Bachelor of Science in Information Technology after four years of study.

Changes planned for undergraduate computer science and IT degrees at RMIT University are similarly geared towards flexibility. Besides the usual spread of combined degrees that will remain on offer, RMIT will also make available single IT degrees that allow students to choose their minors from areas outside of IT, including accounting, economics and management.

The non-IT minor option will not be available to students enrolled in IT as part of a combined degree. Single IT degrees will take the usual three years, and combined degrees four years, to complete.

"There is growing recognition of the need for IT professionals to have specialist skills in an IT area, while also having exposure to non-IT areas," said Saied Tahaghoghi, Senior lecturer and school program leader for international programs at RMIT.

Tahaghoghi said that employers realize the need for highly skilled IT staff who are also able to communicate and work with their non-IT colleagues to get the job done.

The new program has been designed with IT professionals on RMIT's Industry Advisory Board, including representatives from IBM, the Australian Computer Society, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, ANZ and Telstra.

"There is still a perception among non-IT people that IT is no longer an area of demand," Tahaghoghi said. "This is in large part due to the hype surrounding the dotcom boom, the Y2K problem, and outsourcing.

"The fact is that business needs IT more than ever and only a limited set of operations can be outsourced overseas."

While university enrollments in IT are currently far from reflecting the country's growing need for IT professionals, the updated programs are expected to have greater appeal.

"I believe that the flexibility of the program will attract students who would previously have not considered doing much study in IT," Tahaghoghi said.