Last night was census night and all over the country, millions of people
spent a few minutes making cryptic marks on dead trees using small sticks
filled with a pigment-rich liquid.
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At last,
the contents of Aardvark's "million-dollar ideas" notebook
are revealed for all to see!
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If that sounds a little primitive -- it is.
I don't recall seeing the total cost involved in delivering, retrieving and
processing all those forms but it must be many millions of dollars -- far
more than need be the case in this world of electronic communications and
the Internet.
In the wake of this costly and inefficient exercise, it's easy to see why the
governments all over the world are moving towards creating a significant
"e" component to their presence.
It's a bit of a shame that we aren't further down the track already or we
could have saved the price of hundreds of hip-operations, hundreds of coronary bypasses,
or thousands of scholarships worth of cash by allowing the more than half-million
Kiwis with Net access to fill out their census forms online.
Mind you -- I'm not going to criticise too much.
I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the forms I needed to complete
to file my latest patent application are available online. On the downside,
they have to be downloaded, printed and mailed back to the Patent Office.
Unfortunately the scope and number of e-government services available
online will be limited until there is a simple,
safe and secure method of uniquely identifying individuals.
Hang on -- what about a universal identity card that includes a unique
digital signature for each cardholder?
Uh-oh -- do I smell a rat -- or the potential for one?
Regular readers of this column will recall that on several occasions I've
talked about the concept of an "Internet License" -- some unique way of
identifying a Net-user in the same way that registration plates identify
your car and your drivers' license identifies you.
The concept is that if all ISPs required users to enter their unique digital
signature as part of the log-on process, it would become much easier for
the authorities to track down hackers, porn-traders, cyberstalkers and the
other nefarious types who haunt the darker reachers of the Net.
Would it be worth caving in to the desire for government to brand us all
with a unique and universal identification mark in order to counter
cyber-crime and allow such desirable e-government systems such as
online voting, etc?
Or should we steadfastly cling to the ability (right?) for law-abiding
Net users to browse, exchange email and chat online in relative privacy?
As always, your feedback is welcomed.
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Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it
now!
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