In its 123 page submission to the 2016 Census Senate Inquiry, the
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) seeks to blame IBM for the failure
of the system on Census night:
http://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=124f22ba-caaa-46ff-899d-7d96851fee3e&subId=414127
Similarly, in the case of "Maguire v Sydney Organising Committee for the
Olympic Games (2000)", SOCOG sought to deflect responsibility for
defects in its web site to the contractor, IBM. However, this was
rejected and SOCOG, not the contractor, was found responsible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maguire_v_Sydney_Organising_Committee_for_the_Olympic_Games_(2000)
SOCOG was a temporary organization set up just to run the Sydney
Olympics, with limited experience. In contrast, the ABS has decades of
experience in statistical collection using IT systems and cannot
credibly transfer responsibility to IBM.
The 2016 Census will become a useful case study for teaching
professional responsibility to IT students:
http://www.tomw.net.au/basic_ict_professional_ethics/
--
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards
Legislation
Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science, College of
Engineering & Computer Science, Australian National University
http://people.cecs.anu.edu.au/user/3890 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4799-8464
_______________________________________________
Link mailing list
Link@mailman.anu.edu.au
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
