Online Voting

The idea of online voting surfaced years ago as the Internet gained popularity. The term online voting usually refers to a remote voting system that allows voters to cast their ballots from any computer connected to the Internet.

Because of its advantages, online voting has the potential to attract net-savvy young voters who historically have voted in lower numbers than other segments of the population. It also simplifies the voting process for elderly and homebound voters. The convenience of online voting might also increase participation in local elections.

Online voting has the potential to decrease the number of ballots that are invalidated because of procedural problems, such as failing to completely punch out the “chad” on a ballot card, or checking more than one candidate on a paper ballot. Voting software can prevent voters from erroneously selecting more than one candidate and make sure that voters can revise their selections without invalidating their ballots.

Although there are plenty of supporters of this form of elections there are lots of opponents because of the risk of some technological issues with Internet security.

In addition to them online voting opponents have concerns about voter fraud and privacy.

For democracy to function properly, its citizens should be confident that the electoral system is honest and works. Online voting presents some sticky technological and social challenges. Although these challenges exist, secure technologies for online banking and e-commerce are working, so shouldn’t it be possible to design an online voting system that's secure enough to conduct our elections?

What do you think?

1. Would you prefer online voting to voting at a polling place?

2. Should online voting be available only to specific groups of people who currently have trouble reaching polling places?

3. What technical issues can online voting face and how to solve them?

Projects. Perform the project given.

1. Form a group of two to five students as the project team for a systems development project. Elect one person as the team leader, who will assign tasks to each group member. Your team’s mission is to complete the planning phase for a systems development project and produce a Project Development Plan. The first task is to identify and briefly describe an information system at school, work, or local business that needs improvement. The second task is to make a list of problems and opportunities that exist in that system. The third task is to make a list of tasks your team would perform, design, construct, and implement a new information system. Finally, incorporate all your findings into a document that would serve as the Project Development Plan. Submit this plan to your instructor, who might provide additional directions for your group work and report format.

2. Create 10 rules for an expert system that pertains to your career field. To complete the assignment, think of a set of simple decisions that someone on the job might be required to perform. For example, a loan officer might be required to make a quick evaluation of a borrower, an auto mechanic might be required to figure out what various tapping noises mean, or a fitness instructor might be required to recommend the best type of fitness class for clients. Make a list of 10 rules that would help make the decision. The rules should be in the format IF…THEN…Submit your rules to your instructor.

Final test. Do the tasks in the following test.

1. In the analysis phase, the project team determines how the new information system will meet the requirements. (True/False)

2. A … tool is a software application that is designed for documenting system requirements, diagramming current information systems, scheduling development tasks and developing computer programs.

3. The process of planning and building a new information system is referred to as systems … and design.

4. The goal of the…phase is to produce a list of requirements for a new or revised information system.

5. A Project Development Plan typically must be approved by the management before a project proceeds beyond the planning phase. (True/False)

6. In an information system context, a … is an exchange between two parties that is recorded and stored in a computer system.

7. Generally most transaction processing systems provide managers with detail reports that contain all the information needed to understand and analyze data. (True/False)

8. A transaction …- system provides a way to process, store, display, modify, or cancel transactions.

9. During the … phase, the project team supervises the tasks necessary to construct the new information system.

10. If you have a question about the information system you are using, the first step to finding the answer is to call the help desk. (True/False)

11. In the … phase, the project team identifies potential solutions, evaluates these solutions, and then selects the best solution.

12. If a project- team selects turnkey solution the next step would be to have the team’s system analysts create a set of application specifications. (True/False)

13. … processing using client/server or peer-to-peer architecture provides high level processing power at a low cost.

14. Which of the following documents ask a vendor both to recommend hard ware and software for an information system solution and to provide the vendors qualifications to implement the solution.

a) request for quotation c) request for solution

b) request for qualifications d) none of the above

15. Which type of transaction processing systems collects and holds a group of transactions for processing until the end of a day or a pay period.

a) online processing c) group processing

b) batch processing d) rollback processing

16. Unit testing is normally performed in a test area. (True/False)

17. Which phase of an SDLC is usually the most expensive?

18. The analysis phase concludes when the System Requirement Report is written. (True/False)

19. An expert system uses fuzzy logic to deal with imprecise data by asking for a level of confidence with an DLTP system, if one step fails during the transaction, the record will … to their original state.

20. All of the following activities take place during the implementation phase EXCEPT.

a) purchasing and installing software c) purchasing and installing software

b) creating applications d) testing applications

Date: 2015-01-12; view: 1030