Re: Data at Work: Report Card on Homelessness, FCM-QLI and CIEH Maps

Posted by Tracey P. Lauriault-2 on Mar 03, 2006; 2:44am
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Data-at-Work-Report-Card-on-Homelessness-FCM-QLI-and-CIEH-Maps-tp310p327.html

what is worse!
It was originally developed by CMHC, then tried in the community, the
community groups did not like it, so it went dormant for a while, then
the homelessness secretariat was developed, and they took it over and
tried to fix it and the story goes on...

Hmmm! Should we tell them?  I have some friends who work there and I
could see if they would be receptive your advice.  The issue will be,
how to fix and redeploy to hundreds of shelters across the country.  
Alternatively, they could get a heads up on what not to do next time.  
Russel, is this a GOSLING sorta thing?  Anyway, i am glad ya all looked
a little further.

Cheers
Tracey

Daniel Haran wrote:

> Great job Russell!
>
> I followed the link in the FOI response to the HIFIS training manual-
> wow. The username and passwords for this aren't even case-sensitive.
> This obviously wasn't planned for security.
>
> By the looks of the program it looks like it was written in Visual
> Basic, and the documentation recognizes that this requires running
> Microsoft Windows. Is this just a thin wrapper over Access? For the
> non-software types on the list: VB is used for rapidly developing
> programs on the Windows desktop. Most programmers I know look down on
> VB and consider Access to be a toy.
>
> HRSDC will not stop malicious hackers by denying Russell's FOI
> request. This looks quite easily crackable. Apart from the
> administrative overhead and the requirement for using Windows, this
> looks like a potentially dangerous "present" by HRSDC.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Daniel.
>
> On 3/2/06, Russell McOrmond <[hidden email]> wrote:
>  
>> Tracey P. Lauriault wrote:
>>    
>>> /a) Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) - an
>>> electronic records management system built for, and in consultation
>>> with, community stakeholders. It is provided free of charge as a means
>>> to collect information about the population using shelters while
>>> assisting in daily operations such as booking-in and out clients, and
>>> reporting on shelter use
>>> (http://www.homelessness.gc.ca/hifis/index_e.asp).
>>>      
>>    Please note the difference between free/gratis and free/libre here.
>> This is an unaccountable and non-transparent system which HIFIS has
>> refused to disclose any information on.
>>
>> HRSDC denied request for source code under ATIP request...
>> http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/1035
>>
>>    I believe there are considerable privacy and other problems with this
>> system, but without the ability to analyze the underlying policy (IE:
>> the source code that automates the government policy) there is no way to
>> know for sure.
>>
>>    What is and is not accessible to various parties, whether it be
>> shelters, police, or various special interest groups, is entirely
>> unknown as the policy is unknown.  I am very happy to hear from your
>> note that there are parts of the community that are contesting the tool,
>> and would love to get connected with some of them.  Maybe they would
>> have better luck extracting the policy.
>>
>> --
>>   Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
>>   2415+ Canadians oppose Bill C-60 which protects antiquated Recording,
>>   Movie and "software manufacturing" industries from modernization.
>>   http://KillBillC60.ca    Sign--> http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/
>>
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>>    
>
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