Clark, Eugene --- "Conference Report" [1996] JlLawInfoSci 9; (1996) 7(1) Journal of Law, Information and Science 119

• CONFERENCE REPORT
• Institute of Public Administration Australia conference: Internet - Superhighway or . . .Goat Track? , Canberra, Australia, 26 February 1996.

CONFERENCE REPORT
Institute of Public Administration Australia conference: Internet - Superhighway or . . .Goat Track? , Canberra, Australia, 26 February 1996.

EUGENE CLARK

During the last year, newspapers, journals and other media featured numerous reports which extolled the virtues of the Internet as words like 'superhighway' and 'cyberspace'. As the title of this conference suggests, the major theme was to invite speakers to take a more critical look at the promises of the Internet in order to estimate whether the hype has matched the reality, especially in relation to government agencies and the public sector generally.

The opening address was presented by Dr Roger Buckeridge, co-author of Commerce on the Internet and The Online Economy. He predicted that the computer with Internet access would soon replace television as the major technology in Australian homes. Businesses and government agencies are also increasingly using the Internet not only to extend their services and to respond more closely to their customer's needs, but also as an INTRAnet which enables the agency or business itself to function across multiple platforms and collaborate with other agencies/entities. Already, international corporations use the Internet as a vital management tool which enables communication across a rapidly changing platforms. The Internet has thus become a de facto global standard.

Buckeridge argued that one of the most important ingredients to fulfilling the promise of the Internet is the fostering of keen competition by Internet providers of the Internet to the household and business door. This represents a shift in power from the days when one telecommunications company dictated the technology and forced all to adapt. Such competition will promote growth and innovation and bring consumers price benefits. In addition, new credit arrangements will promote the use of the Internet for a wide variety of transactions which are currently done outside the home. Government agencies will also find that the Internet will enable them make dramatic changes in the delivery of their services. For example, CES could be put online so that jobs and people could be much more easily matched.

Buckeridge concluded with two important points. First, the time for business and government to plan for such changes is now. The Internet is already here and business and government should be planning now how to best utilise and take advantage of the new technology. Secondly, Australia must now be putting in place the necessary physical (cables, satellites, etc) and legal infrastructure which will promote, facilitate and encourage investment in the new technology. This will both make Australian businesses more competitive and at the same time attract foreign investment.

The following two sessions proffered two examples of the use of the Internet. Gary Hardy, Editorial Manager of the Victorian State Library demonstrated and talked about the development of their Internet site - VicNet which was proving to be very popular amongst Australians and Internet users from overseas. In Hardy's view, the key elements to a successful Internet site were quality content, relevance and speed. He pointed out that the Victorian site wad deliberately Spartan in its use of sound/video and other bells and whistles because these features made it very time consuming for many end-users to download what was really sought by most consumers--the underlying information. Dennis Smedley, Assistant Secretary, Information Management & Services, Department of Primary Industries & Energy commented further on the advantages offered by the Internet: information can be regularly and easily updated; it is interactive; and the provider can easily obtain statistics on its use and feedback from users.

One of the few sceptical views relating to the Internet came from the Chair of the first session, Stephen Bartos, Council Member of the IPAA. Bartos highlighted the following problems: 1) the bulk of the information on the Net is 'junk'; 2) as a result staff tended to waste considerable time sorting through lots of junk, before they found the small bit of truly useful information; 3) the process of downloading graphics/voice is extremely slow; 4) the statistics of usage are unreliable. They tell you how many people log on, but they do not indicate how people are actually using the information or whether they even find it useful.

Next followed Ian Barndt, Office of Government Technology and Denis Strangman, Convenor of the DAS Internet Users Group. Barndt identified a number of issues, including: how to cope with the rapid growth in demand; quality assurance; the need for better search tools/directories; the need to facilitate a single window across multiple platforms; how to get the balance right between privacy concerns and the need to know; how to secure confidential information and develop systems which give a variety of different levels of access. Barndt outlined the new government structures put into place to facilitate, develop and regulate the information technology area (see Office of the Government Information Technology, Framework and Strategies for Information Technology in the Commonwealth of Australia, December 1995) . From the standpoint of government agencies, he stressed the need to have community access points as well as more collaboration between government agencies and across Commonwealth State and Local government levels. Finally, Barndt pointed out that most consumers were not familiar with the organisation of government agencies. Thus there is a real need for getting information across different agencies. This could be facilitated, for example, by the use of 'meta data tags' so that agencies were using a common language and by more uniform cataloguing and organisation of information.

Strangman spoke of the experiences as the list manager for the DAS Internet group. He made the important point that one of the major strengths of the Internet is not only the availability of information but its ability to encourage association. For a list to operate well it is important to have an able list manager, good technical support, an understanding of netiquette and, if possible, dual moderation. In Strangman's experience the dominant values underlying lists has been that of 'altruism', people generally being very helpful and cooperative. In his experience, he never encountered the anti-women 'flaming' identified by Dale Spender as being a feature of a significant number of subscribers to some lists. .

Anthony Willis, of Blake Dawson Waldron surveyed the legal issues arising from the growth of the Internet. The main issues and points are summarised below:

1. Copyright outlined the recent work of the Copyright Convergence Group and the special problems raised by moral rights, enforcement and multi-media which involve a complex 'bundle' of different intellectual property rights.

2. Defamation mentioned the email defamation case involving the WA anthropologist who was awarded $40,000 and the reality that all those involved in the publication of the defamatory statement may have some risks of liability (Rindos v Hardwick (No 194 of 1993 (WA)). This issue poses the significant challenge of monitoring lists, some of which involve many thousands of messages a day.

3. Privacy Most privacy regulation to date has been in relation to government bodies and private bodies such as credit providers. However, the trend is to extend privacy regulation to the private sector as well. Absent privacy regulation, privacy issues would be governed by the equitable doctrine of confidentiality.

4. Obscene material There has been much discussion in Australia and regulation in the US and Germany related to obscene material which includes pornography as well as violent material.

5. Contracts Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) presents many challenges to traditional notions of contract law - so much so that a major paradigm shift is needed. Issues include: nature of a 'writing'; rules of evidence which call for the 'original' of the document; Statute of Frauds rules which require the document to be in 'writing'; problems of 'signature'; how to bind third parties who are not party to the original agreement; etc. As EDI transcends national boundaries and the trend to globalisation continues we should see moves to develop a uniform international law in this area.

6. Trade marks & domain names. In some jurisdictions there has been a problem created by parties who register domain names such as MacDonald's and then seek to sell their domain name to the holders of the trade mark in such names. Domain guidelines are now being developed which prohibit this practice and give preference to the trade mark holders.

7. Trade Practices Act, Fair Trading Acts and Misrepresentation Providers of information must be mindful that liability may be incurred should that information be misleading or likely to mislead or deceive. Commonwealth and State legislation as well as common law doctrines (fraud, misrepresentation) must be complied with.

8. Banks, currency transfer, customs, duties, taxes The rules governing currency transfer, customs and other duties, taxation and so on apply equally to transactions across the Internet.

9. GATT As a result of globalisation countries have become law takers as opposed to law makers. In other words, Australia has increasingly become a signatory to international conventions and regional and bi-lateral agreements, the obligations of which have required Australia to pass complying legislation. This trend is likely to continue, but it raises constitutional/political issues about Australian sovereignty and whether the external affairs powers have been abused.

10. Computer crime Different laws exist in State, Territories and the Commonwealth. Some regimes extend the traditional common law rules to include computer offences. Others have tended to enact laws specific to computer crime offences.

11. Negligence The principles inherent in the doctrine of negligence have proven to be highly resilient and applicable to a wide range of new technologies including computer applications. Providers of information have to be ever mindful that people rely on information and may suffer loss should the information prove to be inaccurate or misleading. Sound management practices which incorporate best practice and due care are essential.

12. Miscellaneous laws Many miscellaneous laws also impact upon the technology area. Just a few of these are: the Corporations law, Archives Act, Gambling legislation, and Audit legislation.

Willis also raised the spectre of six general issues:

1. Who is liable? It is important for all those involved in the development, maintenance, delivery or use of technology to ask themselves who is liable should something go wrong. Risk identification, allocation and prevention should be part of any management strategy.

2. What law applies? Technology does not respect national borders. Major problems exist regarding transborder information flows. In some cases, international conventions are working out solutions to these problems. In other cases, the parties must determine which law applies by putting in such terms in their individual contracts.

3. Who should control the Internet? Many political/legal issues remain regarding the ownership or control of the Internet and the extent to which its activities should be regulated and policed.

4. How do you detect breaches of the law and how can the law be enforced? In many cases, the problem is not one of the absence of laws, but how to detect breaches and, even if they can be detected, how to enforce the law.

5. What about civil liberties? There is a delicate balance between the need for the free flow of information (freedom of speech) and market forces to determine the fate/direction of the Internet versus the need for regulation to control its vices (eg, breach of privacy, obscenity, violence). There is a need for philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, government, business, consumer groups and others to participate in the resolution of such issues.

6. Questions of access. While there are likely to be many providers of applications and other services in connection to the Internet, there are only a limited number of players who are involved in the provision of the technological infrastructure which underlies the Internet. An important part of the Hilmer reforms was the role of monitoring the provision of essential facilities to ensure that all groups have access to such infrastructure. Other access issues involve how to ensure a competitive environment by extending to electronic commerce (whether provided by private business or government business enterprises) the same principles enshrined in Part IV of the Trade Practices Act and the soon to be enacted mirror legislation in States and Territories. Finally, there are social justice issues involved. Community access, especially to lower income groups and isolated rural areas, will also be important, less we create a great divide between the technologically rich and poor.

Dr Dale Spender, author of Nattering on the Net, raised important issues concerning the 'male' dominance of the Internet.

The session immediately after lunch took the form of a series of small group workshops. Ian Excell, Manager, Federal Region, Microsoft Australia, gave a supplier's view of Internet developments.

Sepp Babler, Assistant General Manager, Electronic Commerce, Purchasing Australia, outlined past, current and future developments in connection with Purchase Australia. Electronic commerce involves the use of such technologies as electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail, continuous acquisition and life cycle support, and electronic catalogue and directory systems. Australia has moved further down the electronic commerce track than most countries and interested readers would find it useful to visit the Government's web site: http://caspa.das.gov.au/ECOHome.html (Its Internet email address is: [e-mail]. )

Steve Orlowski, CW Attorney-General's Department, addressed the topic of security and encryption and noted that a proposed standard will be released for comment in the next couple of months.

Finally, Tom Worthington, Defence Web Administrator addressed issues of public access to Defence Internet Services (home page: http://www.adfa.oz.au/DOD/dodhmpgn.html ).

The final two sessions focused primarily on records and information management issues. Dagmar Parer, National Director, Records Control & Description, Australian Archives discussed the establishment and success of the Australian Archives site, the first such site in the world. Finally, Eric Wainwright, Deputy Director-General, Australian National Library,

In sum, this was an excellent conference. In my view, it achieved two important ends. First, it brought together in one forum, many diverse groups who are involved in the development of the Internet: government agencies, users of public information, suppliers, members of the law profession and business community. Secondly, participants were brought up to date with the latest developments and informed of the experience of the Internet experience various agencies, and were given some valuable insights into important issues inherent in the management of this new technology. My only criticism, and it is minor, of this and similar conference proceedings is that overwhelmingly they attract the converted as evidenced by a program dominated by adherents to the Internet as 'superhighway' metaphor. It would have been useful to have had a few more speakers who were less euphoric and who could have helped present a more balanced view. Overall, this was an important conference and one which demonstrates that Australia is in many respects on the leading edge of such issues.