A person in the know, a technical person, an engineer perhaps even gets asked a question. They recommend that it’s a bad idea. Oh okay. Then the person asking the question asks for some numbers. 0.4% failure rate. OH THAT’S NOT SO BAD THEN. And so it goes ahead anyway.

Talking scaling, 0.4% on a sample of 50 is pretty much nothing.  However there’s a reason some companies try and maintain a six-sigma process control that considers even 3 defective parts per million opportunities a minimum. Something that NASA goes above and beyond in their stuff.  Once you’re handling something that scales up, that “oh that’s not so bad” starts to become a big number.

Looking at one end for nice numbers can look good, but until you’re looking at the other end of things and side-effects which perhaps may not be so numberly which is where things can happen down the track can get predator-face ugly.  If it was a simple as pulling a test and taking some numbers, we’d be building tanks out of glass, and have chefs being replaced by robots.

That’s why the people in the know when they’re asked a question already know that something’s a pretty bad idea in the first place, before the somewhat small numbers begin seeming insignificant.

What does a number mean when the people making the decisions don’t understand or comprehend the weight on a value?

What’s the chances that this Internet filtering thing in Australia has been brought so far based upon the misunderstanding of a few ’small’ numbers?

The Australian Government has today issued their request for expressions of interest for ISPs who would want to participate in the live trials of the Government’s ISP-Level Internet Filtering scheme.  So far, there has been no further information released by El Senor Senator Conroy, his office or anyone else in the Government for that matter.

The fight is still continuing and raging, while the Government continues to run away with their fingers in their ears tralalalala’ing that it will still work. Even the countries that Conroy have claimed that Australia would be emulating are going WTF.

Actions taken by the online community have been mostly met with standard policy lines and template emails from the L&L parties that are normally based around “We value the protection of the children” toe-lines. That’s understandable given pretty much every member of the House of Representatives or the Senate has no previous history in a technical field.

Except perhaps one Liberal lower house rep who has responded with his own email saying that “The bottom line is that mandatory filtering does not work and it is up to the individual to protect themselves and their families.”  It was expected though as his own experiences in the big old technology world include a decade-plus history for the military in Intelligence and Security, a Masters in IT, Masters in Business Administration, Graduate Diploma in Information Analysis and founded an IT services firm who featured in BRW’s Fast 100 list.

Then there’s Malcolm Turnbull, new Leader of the Opposition – ex-Chairman of ISP OzEmail. (Who remembers them?)

Seems there’s lots of little fires that have sprung up in recent. Adult classification for games teasing the public with a let’s talk then scrubbing talks before it even began; The National Broadband Network is getting sucked under the waterfall as poor requirements and lack of decision makings bite back; and then the Government is determined to make Australia the first country in the world to protect the children from the big bad Internet.

Which brings me to the point, how can people who have absolutely no understanding themselves of the things that they are bringing into effect “in representation” of the Australian population have the final say?

Bring on the engineer politicians.

UserFriendly.org has some advice for the Australian Government.

Further reading:

• ? OCAU Wiki on Australian Internet Filtering
• ? Mark Newton, Filter advocates need to check their facts

Left 4 Dead is really really awesome.

Was out and about today. Was at a workplace that used fairly standard firewall software by the looks of things.  I got blocked trying to access The Australian IT.   The story in question? Stephen Conroy wades into child porn net flood.

What are the chances that the intended system will perform better than a commercial off the shelf solution?

(To prevent the ohno-sayers: Take note of the methods listed by the error box)

Well you might assume it wouldn’t be a problem in a filter the Australian Government is dumping a whole heap of money on. Or will it?

Mr Rizvi—At a very broad level, the purpose of the pilot is to look at two streams of potential filtering. The first stream of filtering is in terms of just filtering the ACMA black list and different methodologies for filtering the ACMA black list. What we will seek to test is the impact of that type of filtering in terms of a range of criteria. We will also test more sophisticated types of filtering that go beyond just simply testing the ACMA black list through to filtering larger black lists and also looking at other types of filtering including dynamic filtering, filtering using key words—those sorts of methodologies—to see what the impact of that type of filtering is in terms of both the ISP and the customer.

Following off of somebodythinkofthechildren.com and the previous “How to be Senator Conroy” post.

5. Bully and silence your critics.

Mark Newton, an engineer at Internode, has heavily criticised the Government and its filtering policy on the Whirlpool broadband community forum, going as far as saying it would enable child abuse.

…

On Tuesday, a policy advisor for Senator Conroy, Belinda Dennett, wrote an email to Internet Industry Association (IIA) board member Carolyn Dalton in an attempt to pressure Newton into reining in his dissent.

“In your capacity as a board member of the IIA I would like to express my serious concern that a IIA member would be sending out this sort of message. I have also advised [IIA chief executive] Peter Coroneos of my disappointment in this sort of irresponsible behaviour ,” the email, read.

It is understood the email was accompanied by a phone call demanding that the message be passed on to senior Internode management.  SMH

It should be noted the SMH article makes mention that even Youtube could be censored.

Far flung, but I have not seen any mention of how these banned site lists will be generated, if the porno-really-kiddy-bad-thanasia-fiddler-banned sites will be derived from the many already commercially available filtering software available off the shelf or whether they will be outsourcing an Indian company to seek out the most horrible filth on the Internet in the name of saving the children.

On that I leave you with a word from Ben (Franklin).

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Also I have received a few emails regarding my lack of pictures. Here’s your damn picture.

That’s bubble-wrap.

1. Discredit and devalue public opinion as wild and HYSTERICAL. Example.

Senator Ludlam – So what are your benchmarks or what is acceptable?

Senator Conroy – We are just at the very early stages. You are actually jumping ahead. I can understand that if you have been reading some of the wild and-

Senator Ludlam – Some of it is not so wild, Minister.

Senator Conroy – enthusiastic commentary that I keep seeing both in blogs and in the media.

2. Brag that you are certain you have read more blogs than the person opposing you even though you have no clue on how much research they have done. Then repeat step one. Example.

Senator Conroy-As I said, we are at the early stages. We have not made any decisions along those lines, so we are taking it step by step. This is a complex issue. Notwithstanding some of the commentary that borders on hysterical at times that you have possibly seen, we are just slowly and methodically working our way through and gathering information through this trial.

Senator Ludlam – Some of the comments that I have seen did not approach hysterical at all. I think there have been some quite well thought through concerns.

Senator Conroy-I am sure I have unfortunately probably seen a wider range of commentary than you have, Senator Ludlam.

3. Lie about your facts or at the very least bend the truth to make your words sound morally right. In fact do it while in Parliament. Example.

Senator Conroy – Just to indicate the countries that have implemented along the lines that Abul is talking about include Sweden, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. This is not some one-off excursion.

Makes you wonder why people who know what the hell they are doing aren’t in Government.  Mark Newton caught this one out.  Itch.

• UK: Government specifically excluded from online censorship by the Communications Act. British Telecom has implemented a private, voluntary clean feed system which its customers can use if they wish;
• Canada: Eight ISPs, without any Government coersion at all, run a voluntary parental control tool. The project’s FAQ specifically states that “There is no legal obligation to do this; it will be entirely voluntary. ISPs may have technical or other reasons for not adopting the system;
• Sweden: One ISP, Telenor, runs an optional blacklist. It was embroiled in controversy last year when the police tried to add P2P trackers to the list as child pornography sites, demonstrating how pernicious “scope creep” is in these systems: As soon as they exist, there’s always political pressure to make them block more;
• New Zealand: Examined the BT Cleanfeed system from the UK in 2005, and concluded that it was only 10-15 per cent effective in a fitness-for-purpose study launched by the Department of Internal Affairs Censorship Compliance Unit. The Government abandoned the idea as something too stupid to pursue; I contacted the President of InternetNZ today to confirm that there’s no NZ censorship system whatsoever, and they don’t expect that situation to change if there’s a change of Government in their election later this year.

4. Suggest that everyone in Australia is a bunch of pedophiles. Example.

Senator Ludlam – Just let me finish. In terms of the countries that you have just listed for me, it is mandatory or is it an opt-in system that, for example, concerned parents could take advantage of?

Senator Conroy – Illegal material is illegal material. Child pornography is child pornography. I trust you are not suggesting that people should have access to child pornography.

Today’s lesson is derived from somebodythinkofthechildren.com

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

I’m not feeling too well today so this will be a budget post. However a very important one. Something that’s been riding under the radar since the election.  Hopefully some of the other bloggers who read this will pass this further down the social daisychain better than the FPM site can.  Do take note.

Australians will be unable to opt-out of the government’s pending Internet content filtering scheme, and will instead be placed on a watered-down blacklist, experts say.

…

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) contacted by Computerworld say blanket content filtering will cripple Internet speeds because the technology is not up to scratch.

Online libertarians claim the blacklists could be expanded to censor material such as euthanasia, drugs and protest.

…

“Illegal is illegal and if there is infrastructure in place to block it, then it will be required to be blocked — end of story.”

…

“Once the public has allowed the system to be established, it is much easier to block other material,” Clapperton said.

Please do read the rest of the article at Computerworld.

I’d hate to pull the political bandwagon, but Rudd’s been smoking a bit too much of the Chinese pipe.

For many of us this would probably mean many sites we know well will be blacksited and unavailable to us given the current save-you-from-yourselves type society we live.  How many of the games you know have been banned from Australia?

If you feel you’re against this (and you should) – it’s one switch away from being at China’s censoring levels – contact your local Federal Representative in your area, as well as send a letter (yes an actual physical paper letter) to Stephen Conroy.  Why a paper letter? That’s because Timmy your e-mail basically doesn’t get read – they skim it (if at all) and then send you a pregenerated response.

It’s the proverbial Pandora’s box for Internet censorship. Where does it end?

UPDATE 19/Oct/2008

INTERNET users could be forced to subsidise the federal Government’s quest to censor the internet, with early estimates indicating the scheme could cost $60 million a year.  AustralianIT

When’s the last time you knew a Government project to stay on budget? How often does the Government admit defeat on a project instead of beating it to death to prove that it will work?

Of course you could always call the people opposing the government ignorant extremists.  From “Interview With Media Contact Tim Marshall For Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy.”

and you know there’s a few lobby groups in the sector who are pretty keen to put there extreme view out there without perhaps having too much interest in the facts.  Techwired Interview