The next Chairman of JAUG was elected on the Internet (The term of office : Nov. 1999 - Oct. 2001) JAUG(Japanese ATP User Group) held an election of the next chairman on the Internet. JAUG was established on Oct. 1997, and the term of office was set 2 years. The election was held following the expiration of the term. JAUG has contributed to the development of ATP through the positive usage of the Internet, and also made the best of it on this election, resulting in the rapidity and effectiveness. The members of the election committee were as follows; The executive member : Dr. Yasuhide Kashiwagi of Kisarazu National College of Technology The auditing member : Masahiro kan of Toshiba Corporation The Web page for the election was opened on the JAUG server for ATP (alpha.kisarazu.ac.jp), which was settled at Kisarazu National College of technology with a financial support from JEC(Japanese EMTP committee). The page was protected with a password, which was set by the executive member. The invitation to the election was published on the JAUG homepage, which includes a call for candidacy and voting, a schedule, and a URL of a web page for the election. The password for the election was issued responding an E-mail to the executive member. An E-mail was also utilized for an effective promotion. The information published on the homepage was also sent to the subscribers in the mailing list via E-mail. The invitation to the election including a password was sent to the members of ATP password distribution list via E-mail. The schedule of the election was as follows; (1) Reception of candidacy : 20th Sept. to 1st Oct. (2) Voting : 2nd Oct. to 11 Oct. (3) Report of the auditing and the results of the voting : 12 Oct. (4) Nomination the new secretaries : 13 Oct. The details of the election are summarized below. (1) Reception of candidacy The reception of candidacy was done during 20 Sept. to 1st Oct. The candidates can write their views on a BBS(bulletin board)-style web page, and this writing was treated as the candidacy. This page has a general BBS style, so ATP users can write an open question to the candidates. Dr. Hiroshi Arita, who is a former chairman, run for a chairman. The voting began at 2nd Oct. The right for voting was given only for the persons who signed the ATP license application sheet, and the voting was limited once per person. (2) Voting If one inputted his E-mail address on the issuing page for a voting password, the password was sent to the address automatically. The address was recorded, and unjust voting could be prevented using the record. (3) Report of the auditing and the results of the voting Selecting a candidate and pushing a button for voting was processed automatically by a script and the sum was also made, which was however hidden during the voting. The source address of the connection was also recorded, which enabled to check the validity of the voting by comparing this access record and the E-mail record sending a password for voting. The voting was closed at 11 Oct., then the sum record was opened on the web page for the election. The effective vote was 30, and all was to Dr. Hiroshi Arita. All of the votes was check to be valid using the procedure described above. The check results and the records were sent to the auditing member, and they were verified. (4) Nomination the new secretaries After election of a chairman, Dr. Arita nominated the new secretaries as follows; Vice Chairman : Masahiro Kan of Toshiba Corporation Secretary : Dr. Tsuyoshi Funaki of Osaka University Secretary : Dr. Yasuhide Kashiwagi of Kisarazu National College of Technology Technical Adviser : Prof. Akihiro Ametani of Doshisha University Technical Adviser : Prof. Naoto Nagaoka of Doshisha University The auditing results, the speech of the new chairman, and the elected secretaries so on are published on the web page for candidacy. http://alpha.kisarazu.ac.jp/~atp/election/phase1/wforum.cgi (5) Future subject The Web election, which is thought to be the first attempt in the ATP-EMTP world, ended safely. Thanks for the cooperation. The points of reflection and problem are listed below, which are to be solved for the next election two years later. The password for the index page for election had been unnecessary. The conveniency had been lost worrying too much about security, so this password was abolished in the middle of the vote. The password for voting should have been disposable for just one time. It is desirable that the checking for vote validity is made automatically with some measure. A simple check function for a double vote was added, and a manual check was made after the fact, which was not easy to do. It was not easy to check the vote validity only using the record of IP addresses, because of the various problems such as the same IP address for different organizations, affiliated companies which use the same IP address with that of a parent company, a personal license which use a provider IP address. It is necessary to establish the connection measure to all the licensees. The E-mail addresses are documented only for the organizations joining ATP password distribution list now. It will be important to make an E-mail address list for all the licensees, and establish the communication measures to the licensee which cannot use an E-mail. Many perl-CGI scripts were used in this web election, which were all modified by the executive member using free scripts. We express our gratitude to the authors of such free scripts here. Bulletin board-style web page for candidacy and son onFWEB FORUM http://www.kent-web.com/bbs/wforum.html Automatic password issue and certification FEASY PSW http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~laut/easy/psw/ezpsw.html Vote on a Web page and summing FPerlInquire http://www.din.or.jp/~hideyuki/home/cgi/inquire.html (6) Rules of JAUG -------------------------------------------------------- Article 1. This organization is called as Japanese ATP User Group(JAUG). Article 2. This party has the same rule with that of the Canadian and American EMTP User Group(Can/Am). The aim of this party is approval of the ATP license application, spread, exchange of information, study and research, distribution of programs and program development in Japan and East Asia. Article 3. Chairman and a few secretaries are posted for a smooth operation of this party, and their term of office is 2 years. a. The chairman is elected by the person who signed the license, and can be reelected. b. The secretaries are appointed by the chairman. Article 4. This rule can be modified by the approval of more than a half of the persons who signed the license. Established at Sept. 10, 1999. -----------------------------------------------------------