Comments on: Approaching the Challenges of Digital Voting Technology http://www.trustthevote.org/approaching_challenges_digital_voting_technology Re-inventing How America Votes Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:21:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: jsebes http://www.trustthevote.org/approaching_challenges_digital_voting_technology/comment-page-1#comment-13 jsebes Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:58:12 +0000 http://wordpress.trustthevote.org/2008/02/16/approaching-the-challenges-of-digital-voting-technology#comment-13 <p>I can't speak with authority for these vendors, but I speculate. Opening proprietary systems goes against the gain of IP-based technology corporate culture. And doing so costs time and money like any new initiative in a technology development organization. To date, there has been no business benefit that would give an internal advocate a leg to stand in a proposal to create open access. With New York State waiving fees to vendors for open source systems, that may be starting to change. </p> I can’t speak with authority for these vendors, but I speculate. Opening proprietary systems goes against the gain of IP-based technology corporate culture. And doing so costs time and money like any new initiative in a technology development organization. To date, there has been no business benefit that would give an internal advocate a leg to stand in a proposal to create open access. With New York State waiving fees to vendors for open source systems, that may be starting to change.

]]> By: Scott Shorter http://www.trustthevote.org/approaching_challenges_digital_voting_technology/comment-page-1#comment-12 Scott Shorter Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:58:21 +0000 http://wordpress.trustthevote.org/2008/02/16/approaching-the-challenges-of-digital-voting-technology#comment-12 I believe wholeheartedly in the idea of granting the Internet read-only permission to see the design of a system, from source code to test results. Why do the mainstream vendors resist this idea so strongly? Possible scenarios include: <ul> <li>corporate IP policy forbids it <li>management is afraid of showing source code (because the code is poorly documented, flawed, malicious, they don't know what the public would find, or some anxiety inducing combination of the prior reasons) <li>business concerns that they lose their 'secret sauce' if they license anything open source <ul> I believe wholeheartedly in the idea of granting the Internet read-only permission to see the design of a system, from source code to test results.

Why do the mainstream vendors resist this idea so strongly?

Possible scenarios include:

  • corporate IP policy forbids it
  • management is afraid of showing source code (because the code is poorly documented, flawed, malicious, they don’t know what the public would find, or some anxiety inducing combination of the prior reasons)
  • business concerns that they lose their ’secret sauce’ if they license anything open source
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