Carolyn Miller seems to have understood the essential problem. Many of us have
written to her privately about it. In the response to Diane, below, Carolyn
acknowledges that there is nothing that can be done to change human nature and
to keep faculty from sharing their [PINs or] passwords. Given that, one wonders
why NSF lawyers think NSF can change human nature to achieve the goal of an
authentic PI electronic signature? Clearly, as other attempts to change human
nature in Washington have failed miserably, this one starts out hobbled and
lame, as well.
Many, if not most, sponsored programs offices have had and will continue to find
it necessary to know the faculty PINs and passwords. The situation goes well
beyond "human nature" to organizational culture and necessities of dealing with
NSF's imperfect Fastlane system, often in the context of heated last moments
before the 5:00 pm "submit" deadline. In other words, we are dealing with much
more than human nature. There is a real need for sponsored programs offices'
expertise.
The problem for us is that, if the Federal Commons tries to assert the illusion
that an electronic signature is authentic despite the continuing truth of human
nature and organizational imperative, the relationship between PI and sponsored
program office must change. We are not in a position to assume power of
attorney for faculty members, and we cannot leave ourselves open to the charge
of misrepresenting the faculty member either. I think NSF and Commons
understands this, but are nevertheless willing for us to "work it out" on
individual bases, preserving the fundamental fiction.
The NSF (and Commons) goal of maintaining appropriate privacy for certain
faculty records in federal hands is a good one. However, this has nothing at
all to do with the submission of research proposals. These are not private
transactions; they are inter-institutional as every OMB and NSF regulation more
or less clearly says. The fact is that someone has thought to graft real and
forthcoming privacy concerns (perhaps solvable by electronic "signatures") onto
the grant application process. It is inappropriate and not too late to change.
Jim Brett
Diane M Meyer wrote:
>
> I keep track of the PIN's as they are assigned. I don't know how many times
> I've needed to look them up for PI's who forgot what it was. It's really much
> quicker than having to login to FastLane and assign a new one.
>
> I am including a message I received from Carolyn Miller in response to my
> question about this subject.
>
> -----begin message-----
> Diane,
> Your second alternative is what will happen - you will assign a temporary
> password which they will have to change the next time they attempt to log on
> to FastLane. It is really critical to the electronic signature project that
> passwords be known by only the person signing the document (although human
> nature being what it is, there is nothing we can do to prevent the person
> from sharing his/her password with others).
>
> --Carolyn
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Diane M Meyer [SMTP:xxxxxx@iastate.edu]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 3:40 PM
> > To: Miller, Carolyn
> > Subject: Re: FastLane Conversion from use of PINs to Passwords
> >
> > Carolyn,
> >
> > Thanks for the update! I can follow and support all of your points. As a
> > FastLane administrator, I do have one question. I receive numerous calls
> > from PI's asking for their PIN because they have forgotten it. Will there
> > be a way for me to look it up for them or do I just have to assign a
> > temporary one (as mentioned below) and have them login and change it to
> > something they will, hopefully, remember next year?
> >
> > At 10:01 AM 2/8/2000 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> > 6) if a research administrator changes an individual's password,
> > the individual is required to change the password to something else as a
> > part of the next log-on sequence.
> -----end message-----
>
> Diane M. Meyer |-| Budget/COS/FastLane Specialist
> Contracts & Grants, Iowa State University
> 221 Beardshear Hall
> Ames, Iowa 50011
> 515-294-4567 (voice) 515-294-8000 (fax)
> http://grants-svr.admin.iastate.edu/candg.html
> W-W-W < =====<<
--
James R. Brett, Ph.D., Director
Office of University Research
California State University, Long Beach
562-985-4833 fax 985-8665
http://www.csulb.edu/~research
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