BAMSDSS What Good is it

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BAMS/DSS What Good is it??

• TUG Conference
• September 7-10, 2003
• Jeff Hisem and (a lot of help from)
• Jennifer McAllister
• Ohio Department of Transportation

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Historiographically speaking, a study into the
origin and evolution of the Internet should not
pose much of a problem. The period of time in
which it has taken place is relatively minuscule
-- only 30-40 years at the time this essay was
written. Moreover, our ability to archive and
document events has, in the latter half of the
twentieth century, become quite extensive. In
spite of this, the origin and evolution of the
Internet is not as clear as one would think. The
common assumption is the Internet was the outcome
of a military project from the cold war era, one
that was supposed to be able to survive a nuclear
war. This position made its first appearance in
mainstream thought in early 1993 when Bruce
Sterling made a note of it in the Magazine of
Fantasy and Science Fiction. 1 Accordingly, most
are of the opinion that the Internet was securely
tied to the Pentagon and the military's plan to
develop a system to help wage a major war against
the Soviet Union. It was only when this system
was no longer needed by the military
establishment of the US was it then given over to
academic researchers, and from there hijacked by
commercial interests. Some have challenged this
assumption, however. Michael and Ronda Hauben, in
their book "Netizens On the History and Impact
of Usenet and the Internet", reject the notion
that the Pentagon and the US Defense Department
played such an active role in the development of
the Internet. Although a report in 1962 by Paul
Baran for Rand Corporation is often referred to
as the starting point for the evolution of the
Internet, in where the US Air Force was
interested in ways to persevere their
communications infrastructure in the event of an
attack, the Haubens stress that research in this
area was inspired by scientific aims not applied
military research objectives. Thus, from the
outset the development of computer networking had
a scientific -- as opposed to military -- focus.
Jay Hauben, an editor of the Computer
Amateurist, www.ais.org/jrh takes a similar
view. He argues that there were elements within
the science policy and military communities which
recognised, firstly, the central importance of
basic and open research and the role of
scientists in making science policy and,
secondly, that science and technology hold the
promise of future solutions to the problems both
in peace and in war that stand in the way of a
better life for most people. In tracing the
origins of the Internet and the foundations upon
which it was built (i.e., ARPA and the ARPANET),
Hauben considers the period from 1945-58 as
crucial. His understanding of that period is that
the creation of ARPA (the Advanced Research
Project Agency) in 1958 was as a counter to cold
war dominance of funding which went to big
weapons and to classified and secret research,
and therefore not real science. "The mission
of ARPA from its very inception was embodied in
its name support and guidence to the science
community for doing forefront research which
would be more advanced than other sectors in US
society would undertake." HaubenThe
multi-purpose approach to research, which lay at
the very heart of US scientific research at the
end of the Second World War, is still not clearly
understood nor recognised. Also, the reason why
ARPA operated under the Department of Defense is
not as obvious as it would seem. Hauben delves
into the complexities of the issue "Based on
the crucial contribution of scientists under
civilian leadership to the successful defeat of
the Nazi war machine in WWII, there were strong
advocates among military people of generous
Federal support for autonomous basic scientific
research. This was first achieved through an
organization within the Department of Defense,
the Office of Naval Research, which established a
relationship of generous financial support for,
and facilitation of, autonomous scientific
research at US universities especially 1946-1950.
The establishment of ARPA in early 1958 was a
return to a policy of support for basic research
independent of the branches but within the
DOD."What also needs to be taken into
consideration are the ulterior motives of leaders
and policy makers of the period. The president of
the time, Dwight Eisenhower, was skeptical about
the growing power of the military-industrial
complex, and had warned on several occasions
about the dangers it posed. John von Neumann,
celebrated in Hungary as the "founding father of
computer technology", likewise was wary about
conducting any sort of scientific research in
conjunction with the military. Nevertheless, he
ended up accepting the notion of having civilian
scientists working within the US Department of
Defense. A possible reason for this could be he
believed, along with Eisenhower, that civilian
influence within the Department of Defense might
act as a restraining influence on the military.
In their book "Netizens On the History and
Impact of Usenet and the Internet", Michael and
Ronda Hauben point out that the vision which
inspired the development of the ARPANET, the
predecessor to the Internet, came from J.C.R.
Licklider, not from any military plans or
proposals. Licklider's idea of an "Intergalactic
Network" where researchers shared their ideas and
resources was the idea that inspired others like
Larry Roberts to understand the importance for
the future of creating a computer network. In
their book (which has been online since 1994),
the Haubens describe how Licklider encouraged
researchers to see the need to define the
problems and benefits that would result from
computer networking. In this way a whole
generation of researchers was inspired to take up
the difficult challenges of creating a new kind
of communications network, a packet switching
computer communications network.2 In a recent
article, "Computer Science and the Role of
Government in Creating the Internet ARPA/IPTO
(1962-1986), Ronda Hauben also describes how the
U.S. Congress held hearings in the 1950's to try
to determine how to make it possible for
scientists to work with the U.S. Department of
Defense. Noted scientists like John von Neumann
testified in these hearings in the US Congress
about the need for support for basic research by
the U.S. Department of Defense. Von Neumann
advised that it was no easy task to create the
interface between the military and scientists
which would give the scientists the kind of
environment they needed to be able to do such
research. For example, in testimony before the
Riehlman Committee in the U.S. House of
Representatives, in 1954, von Neumann cautioned
"There are all sorts of difficulties in
marrying the civilian function of research and
development with the military and those things
deserve careful study."
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The Origin of the Internet

• The Internet started in the late 1960s as a
  project of the U.S. Department of Defense the
  military wanted a communication network that
  would function even if parts of it were broken!
  . . . In October 1969, two computers talked to
  each across a telephone line this network was
  named ARPAnet. As time passed, ARPAnet grew and
  connected many more computers between each
  other."
• http//www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/photonics/revolution
  /history/internet0.html

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B.A.M.S.DSS
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Historical Bid Data

• Program used by our Estimators for quick checks
  on prices
• Data dumped to CSV format
• Imported into Access
• Retrieves the data by Project
• Displays low, high, avg bid estimate

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The Estimators Helper
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Bid Data for the General Public

• Placed on the web
• Derived in the same way as the estimators
• Engineers estimate is removed

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Web version
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Specific Items
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Miscellaneous Item Report

• For estimators and general public
• Shows costs for our miscellaneous items
• Useful because it includes the miscellaneous
  supplementary description
• Estimator can search using all or part of the
  description
• It finds all items that match

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Miscellaneous Item Report
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Work Type Verification

• Done a couple times/year
• Verifies that the project work types entered are
  indeed correct
• Produces a spreadsheet that shows s of each
  kind of work in each project
• Spreadsheet

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Bridge Unit Cost Report

• Office of Structural Engineering creates a report
  annually
• We provide them with a spreadsheet with pertinent
  bridge data derived from DSS data
• Spreadsheet

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Other DSS generated Reports

• Life-cycle cost analysis
• Avg Asphalt price maps
• Line Item Profiles
• Geomedia Maps
• Summary of Contracts Awarded
• Line Item Surveys
• Cost Indices

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Additional Ad Hoc Reports (from historical price
reports)

• Amount spent on bridges since fiscal 1995
• County pavement maintenance information for
  calendar year 2000
• Sign lighting projects since Jan 2000
• Cost per deck area for bridges with lengths
  between 20' - 40
• Total length of 642,643, and 644 pavement
  markings for cal.2000 in miles
• District 1 bridge information from 1997 - cost
  per sq.ft. of deck
• Request on costs in Applachian Corridor for CY
  2000
• cost information for preventive maint. techniques
  - crack sealing, slurry seal, nova chip..