Heather will explain the benefits of this technology together with a brief overview of how it works and its pros and cons.

She will also share with us her thoughts as to where WAP will take us in the future and other interesting debates such as security and predicted uptake figures.

Our telecommunications infrastructure is the lifeblood of industry and it's continued development is fundamental to our business success. Rarely have politics and technology been intertwined to such an extent as with issues surrounding the local loop. This is resulting in delays, with confusion and frustration amongst both users and the supply industry. In this presentation the technologies involved are examined, the constraints on deployment discussed, and some pragmatic views presented on the way forward

Bob Jones has worked in the data communications industry for 30 years. Since 1982 he has founded a number of UK based technology businesses most notably Sonix which became market leader in ISDN routers and was acquired by 3Com in 1995. His present businesses are Equinet, Imigix, and Chevin Software.

Even the most cursory examination of the history of Artificial Intelligence, AI, highlights numerous egregious claims of key researchers, particularly in relation to a populist form of computationalism. This doctrine holds that a suitably programmed computer instantiates conscious mental states purely in virtue of it carrying out a specific series of computations.

The argument to be presented in this talk is not significantly original -being a simple contraction of that originally presented in the Appendix to Putnam's (1988) treatise, Representation and Reality, and later discussed in Searle (1990) and Chalmers (1994) - but has critical implications for the prospect of conscious machines.

In this presentation, instead of seeking to emulate Putnam's claim that, everything implements every Finite State Automata (FSA), I will simply establish the weaker result that everything implements the specific FSA [Q], when executing program (p) on a particular input set (x). Then, equating Q(p,x) to an AI program passing the Turing Test, I will show that conceding the Strong AI thesis for Q (crediting it with mental states and consciousness) opens the door to a vicious form of panpsychism whereby all open systems, even rocks and cups of tea, have conscious experience and little pixies are seen dancing everywhere..

All businesses today operate in a turbulent environment, but postal organisations are in more of a state of flux than most. The Post Office is facing a period of unprecedentedly fast and far-reaching change, and in order to survive and prosper in newly competitive markets will need to react far more quickly. Information will be a key enabler of change, and this presentation explores the work which the Post Office Research Group is doing to ensure that we exploit information to the full.

Information is an activity. Information is a life form. Information is a relationship. - John Perry Barlow

As the business environment becomes ever more competitive, information is increasingly seen as the lifeblood of an organisation, and is often of more value than the transactions it describes. To compete successfully, a business needs to be able to answer questions such as:

• Can we use our data to make better decisions?
• Do we need more data to help us make those decisions, or do we need better techniques?
• How soon can we tell whether our decisions were good ones?
• Do we really know enough to decide whether a good decision for one part of the business is a bad decision for others?

This was the rationale behind the establishment of the Information Exploitation research theme in the Post Office Research Group. The objective of the theme is to find ways of using data to support the business directions of The Post Office, by identifying methodologies and techniques that will enable value to be extracted from available data assets.
However, to extract value from data, we first need to:

• have data;
• know that we have data;
• be able to access the data in a timely manner;
• find the valuable aspects of the data;
• get the data to the right group of people;
• enable groups of people to work efficiently together on exploiting the data;
• provide tools to analyse the data and present it as useful information.

Depending on the type of data involved, Information Exploitation can be broadly divided into two categories:

• Soft IE - the exploitation of unstructured data, e.g. document libraries, e-mail archives, and any other data which has no predefined structure. Soft IE is often described as Knowledge Management.
• Hard IE - the exploitation of structured data, which usually implies that the data will be stored in a database and accessed using a standard programming language such as SQL.

Information Exploitation is thus a very wide-ranging subject, both in terms of the technologies it includes and its relevance to businesses. Also, although our research focuses primarily on information technology, cultural and organisational issues are also critical. We have therefore focused our activities on a few selected areas which are particularly valuable to The Post Office, as described below.

Data Visualisation

It has been said that information comes about when we attribute meaning to data. However, direct presentation of the contents of databases is not the best way for people to understand the meaning behind the data. Instead, one of the most powerful techniques available for exploiting data is visual presentation, using data visualisation tools. People have a complex visual system, and there are a number of ways in which the processing abilities of this system can be used to great advantage. For example, visualisation systems can now display six or seven dimensions of data in a single diagram, using simulated three-dimensional images as well as other parameters such as colour, texture, line thickness, etc. These systems are particularly appropriate when we are interested in an overview of a complex system (the 'big picture') as they can help us to identify the key features of its performance and see how they relate to each other, but they can also help us to pick out small anomalies and exceptions. Visualisation is a thread running throughout the work we do in the Information Exploitation theme. We have used the techniques on a series of projects involving structured numerical data, enabling the rapid distillation of huge quantities of complex, fast-changing data into business decisions. We have also applied similar techniques to the visualisation of unstructured data contained in document libraries. But these are not the only types of data visualisation. There is a whole range of possible applications covering both the analysis and communication of data and its meaning, including visual presentation of concepts or designs, the communication of ideas - and even the generation of virtual environments for collaborative working. Although data visualisation has been used in scientific research for some years, companies are only now beginning to realise its potential. The time is right for wider appreciation of the benefits which data visualisation and related techniques can bring to businesses.

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management has been described as an over-hyped subject in disrepute. Yet it continues to dominate the business press, and indeed has found a new lease of life in the Internet economy, where mental agility and speed of reaction are critical. Many management writers emphasise the role of knowledge in building and sustaining competitive advantage:

The only thing that gives an organisation a competitive edge - the only thing that is sustainable - is what it knows, how it uses what it knows, and how fast it can know something new. - Prusak, 1996

And it is increasingly recognised by business executives and management consultants that the management of an organisation's knowledge will be pivotal to its success. Many leading companies now have well-established programmes of knowledge activity from which they can demonstrate significant returns. The Post Office, like most large businesses today, is increasingly reliant on the ability to co-ordinate and combine resources from different parts of the organisation in a rapid and flexible way. The quality of relationships within and between business units and with customers and partners is crucial, and this in turn will be governed by the effective flow of knowledge. So, getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time is critical. We are becoming used now to capturing knowledge in all its forms, whether it be the explicit knowledge contained in project documentation or the tacit knowledge in people's heads. But what does this knowledge look like? If we have a big database of documents, how can we work out what it contains? Which documents should I read to find out about a particular subject? Who should I talk to about it? And having found a document which is useful, which other documents should I read? Again visualisation techniques can help address these questions, and we are actively researching this area with university partners.

The Internet is the fastest growing communication medium of all time, increasing far faster than its predecessors - television, radio, telephone and fax. It took 38 years before 50 million Americans were listening to radio. Television reached that many in only 14 years, however, the Internet had reached that number in just four years.

In the next 20 years we will see our lives changed radically. The cause - Multi Access Devices. We are already conditioned to the benefits of the Internet via our PC, but soon there will be new innovations and services being delivered via channels we did not think possible a few years ago.

Dharmesh Mistry is the Chief Technical Officer of Entranet, the UK's leading online commerce provider to the financial services industry, who unveiled the world's first multi-device online voting application on BBC's Tomorrows World. The system allows citizens to vote via PC, WAP mobile phone, digital television, Palm Pilot, public kiosk, Alcatel telephone, and even a Dreamcast machine.

The presentation will discuss the technology, concepts and challenges behind delivering an E-Commerce solution over Multi Access Devices.

The future of the BCS will be the main item on the agenda of a series of regional briefing sessions to be attended by the President Alastair Macdonald and other senior officers and staff over the next few weeks. The purpose will be to give more information about the changes outlined in the interview with the President, published in the last edition of the Computer Bulletin, and to give members an opportunity to ask questions.

Whilst much of the discussion will be about the need for change, the main message will be positive and upbeat. 'The BCS has a tremendous opportunity' comments Colin Thompson, Director of the Society's change programme, 'We have achieved considerable success over the past few years particularly in areas such as ISEB qualifications, our professional examinations and the European Computer Driving License. Our aim now is to use the Internet as a vehicle to transform the Society and the service that we offer to members and others'.

Discussions at the briefing sessions will focus on four main areas for change:

• Redevelopment of the BCS Web site, to provide access to a wider range of technical, professional and career information and to enable members to network and to participate more effectively.
• Extending the scope of BCS membership into the areas of IS management and teaching as proposed by the Pollard report.
• Improving BCS marketing and communications, particularly through the implementation of a branding strategy currently being developed with the assistance of specialist agency Clark Hooper Momentum.
• Proposed changes to the organisational structure to ensure that resources are focussed most effectively on the delivery of service to members and customers. Proposals include the creation of a new 'Member Services Board and the setting up of a Members Forum for each of three broad areas of member interest - Engineering, Management and Education.

The Regional briefings are part of a wider commitment to communication and consultation that is an essential part of the change programme. Detailed comments have been collected from over 3000 members and around 500 non-members up to this point and Colin Thompson is determined that this consultation will continue as the programme moves forward. 'One of our main objectives' he says 'is to make BCS a 'must join' organisation, not just for practitioners but also their employers. That can be done, other organisations like the Chartered Institute of Personnel are doing it. But it demands the closest possible understanding of the needs, views and expectations of our members and customers'.

So, whatever your view of the BCS, as it is now or where it should be heading in the future, whether you are an active member of just interested in the future of your society, Alastair Macdonald and his team would be delighted to talk to you at one of the meetings

Today, e-commerce and m-commerce are part of everyday conversation. Much of the security of these systems is based on the concept of a "digital signature" and, indeed, laws are now being passed by many countries to provide a legal standing for such signatures. Currently, most digital signatures are computed using the RSA algorithm, but there are other possibilities.

One alternative approach is based on the relatively new idea of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which is perceived to have significant advantages over RSA in many circumstances, in particular when memory and processing power are limited. A good example of this is when using a smart card for calculating a signature.

This talk will look at some of the basic ideas behind ECC (without going into all the mathematics!), describe a number of ECC applications and will attempt to provide an objective view of the benefits and disbenefits of ECC vis-a-vis RSA.

Michael Ganley attended Royal Holloway College and Westfield College, both part of the University of London. He holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Algebra. He has worked for Racal for about 13 years and his current position is Head of Consultancy and Security Analysis at Zaxus Limited (formerly Racal Security and Payments).

Zaxus specialises in the provision of cryptographic security systems and products, both hardware and software, used by many of the world's leading financial institutions. As security becomes more of an issue, Zaxus' customer base is rapidly expanding to include commercial and Government users.

As well as providing specialised consultancy services, Michael's role includes algorithm analysis, system design, system audit and review, key management design and implementation, security policy and standards and operational management of security. He is retained as a security adviser by a number of the world's largest corporations. Michael also presents papers at security conferences throughout the world.

Before joining Racal, Michael worked as an academic mathematician at universities in the UK, USA and Australia. He has written many research papers in the areas of security, finite geometry, algebra and number theory.

Note: Since the writing of this summary, Zaxus has changed it's name to Thales E-Security

Laura will be presenting details of the history of the project and the difficulties that had to be overcome in making the 20 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary, the worlds leading authority on the history and development of the English language, available on the Internet.