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| Configuration Management and Voting S... |
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| Author |
Message |
    
Catherine Ansbro
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Catherine_a
Post Number: 2097
Registered: 12-2004
Best of Black Box? 
Votes: 1 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Sunday, April 16, 2006 - 1:03 pm: | 
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http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1190&Itemi d=26
Configuration Management and Voting Systems
By John Washburn, VoteTrustUSA Voting Technology Task Force
April 14, 2006
This paper is directed to any person involved in the testing, certification, qualification, approval or purchase of election voting equipment. The paper covers why the esoteric field of configuration management (version control) is intimately and inextricably linked to the testing, certification, qualification, approval, purchase, delivery and auditing of election voting equipment. The paper describes:
• What is configuration management
• Why configuration management of software is difficult
• What is a physical configuration audit document
• What is minimum information which should be included in a physical configuration audit document
• How to use a physical configuration audit document to decide if your system is correct.
[See the link above to download the entire paper in pdf format. This is an outstanding piece of work by John Washburn.] |
Bruce Sims
Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Ubetchaiam
Post Number: 742
Registered: 06-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Sunday, April 16, 2006 - 5:20 pm: |
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Yes, thank you John, such documentation is essential in having the issues clarified for judgment. |
Joseph Hall
Voting Rights Forum Participant
Username: Joehall
Post Number: 63
Registered: 01-2005
Best of Black Box? N/A
Votes: 0 (A keeper?) | | Posted on Monday, April 17, 2006 - 6:24 pm: |
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(Hi, I was unable to find an email addr. for John Washburn. Hopefully he'll read this or someone will eventually point him here.)
I'd like to thank you, John, as this is a great piece written in a particularly accessible style on an essential topic in election systems.
Some comments:
* The PDF version and the HTML version are different; the PDF is perhaps an earlier version? Specific things I noted:
** In the "File Fingerprints" section there is a missing link labeled with "WIKI URL".
** In item 2. of the same section it should probably read "(1 bit changed) file and *compared with* the hash value".
** In the "Comparing Systems" section there are two paragraphs (the 3rd and 4th paragraph) where the second sentence might should read: "This PCA is an enumeration of all the *differences* found in the [...]".
** In the same section, 7th paragraph: It says, "There are ? kinds of differences [...]" (in the HTML the "?" is replaced with "three").
** The PDF has no conclusion but the HTML does.
* You might want to point to the NSRL data set for voting which has very high-level PCA information for voting systems. |
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