Human Planet

We’re at an interesting time in technology, particularly in mobile technology. As hardware prices continue to fall and hardware capabilities continue to rise, mobile devices that can run more advanced Operating Systems than the RTOS-style software, which has traditionally powered “feature phones” - the most-sold price point for devices globally - are pushing down into the mainstream more and more.

Phones running LiMo-compliant Platforms, phones running Android, and Apple’s iPhone line, are all proliferating, but as they proliferate they also evolve. At last year’s eComm conference in Amsterdam, one speaker likened the evolution of the communications side of the mobile device ecosystem to the evolution seen in the dinosaurs—and to their eventual extinction. Technologies are born, develop, evolve, and become extinct as their “niches” are taken away by more “fit” technologies.

We’re seeing much the same in mobile devices as well, and we’ll continue to see it over the next several years. In the “Cambrian explosion”, more species of a wider variety of sorts came into existence over the shortest time span ever seen in evolutionary history. Of course, most of those species eventually became extinct or adapted in major ways by the end of this period.

First, device form-factors and capabilities will continue to develop in a dramatic fashion.

The inescapable desire of device manufacturers and carriers to personalize and customize their devices, in both hardware and software, is a direct challenge to the desire to be able to run a given application on as wide a range of devices as possible. It’s a difficult problem, and one which can be approached in a variety of ways. One of the first approaches is exemplified by efforts like BONDI, JIL and now WAC, utilizing the common infrastructure of the web as a basis for widely-deployable applications.

Another approach, exemplified by Apple and Palm, is to simply exert complete control over both the hardware and the software. While this approach can produce good results in the short term, it entails doing every single bit of the heavy lifting on both the hardware and the software side to keep up with the entirety of the competition out there. So far, Apple has done a reasonably good job, Palm less so. However, history suggests that this isn’t a tenable strategy: Apple in the early 90s, and Palm in the early 2000s, both lost the majority of their market share when credible alternatives (Windows 3.1 in Apple’s case, more capable phones in general in Palm’s) came along.

Several factors suggest that the mobile space may prove even more challenging: people routinely change phones every year or two, and they typically display little “brand consciousness” when they do so, for the most part. A mobile phone represents a much smaller investment today than a desktop computer (with less power and storage) actually did five or six years ago. Even iPhone “power users” typically only use one or two of the applications they’ve downloaded; on average, the investment in applications on an iPhone is less than $80.

Additionally, we’re going to be seeing other devices, tablet-like home devices, connected “digital picture frames” and other “smart objects” increasingly integrated with our mobile devices, our media collections, our news sources, and so forth. We’re going to be seeing a lot of evolution in the mobile space in the next five years, and—as with all evolution—much of the success is likely to come from unexpected directions. All in all, we’re in early days here.

Second, the way we view one of the most important capabilities of these devices is going to be changing.

Coming away from Mobile World Congress this year, one of the clear trends I see coming is the dissection and reintegration of the “social graph”. Currently, we see a point of tension between centralized sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, versus the variety of things people do online and the equal variety of information they might want to share, and more importantly, aggregate. The desire of these centralized sites to each be “all things to all people”—an impossibility—is going to prove to be the “pain point” here.

An example: you have a set of contacts on your phone, a set of contacts on Facebook, a set of contacts on LinkedIn, etc., but they’re all discrete: knowing a person on Facebook doesn’t get the phone number they posted there into your contacts, you have to use a special Facebook application, or visit the site via the web, to get it; when they change jobs, you have to go to LinkedIn or run a LinkedIn app to learn that. Efforts like Vodafone’s 360 service, running on the LiMo-compliant M1 and H1 phones, are an example of early efforts to grapple with this, but there’s still more change coming.

I expect that the “news” currently aggregated on places like Facebook will become increasingly untethered from specific sites and more like RSS “feeds” which are ultimately both generated and aggregated directly on the device you happen to be using at the moment rather than in a centralized location: when I change my email address, for example, it’ll change for everyone with whom I’ve shared it, regardless of how I shared it with them originally. And I equally expect that the devices—and the ways that applications are developed and distributed—is going to be undergoing a sea change over the same period. More on this in a future column.

We’re heading into our own Cambrian explosion. In the last one, being a trilobite was the “big thing”. But where are the trilobites now?

 

In the bubble where I live, media, information, and communication technologies (MICTs) are truly ubiquitous.  Most of the time I, and those around me, use these technologies thinking very little about how they were invented and the people who brought them to us.  Yet, the more I learn about MICT the more fascinated I become with the individuals behind some of the major technological breakthroughs and innovations.  I think some of their personal stories are truly fascinating and can give us a really unique perspective on their inventions.

My dad sent me a link to a documentary about one such person, Felix Zandman (in the picture).  I have never heard about him before, even though most of my gadgets, and in fact the field of my studies, owe quite a lot to his talent.  If you are using a laptop, a mobile phone, a digital camera or any other piece of electronics, most probably you are enjoying fruits of his work.  Zandman, who is one of the only six recipients of  Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Electronic Distributors Association (and a “few” other awards), is the founder of Vishay Intertechnology – one of the world’s largest manufacturers of discrete semiconductors and passive electronic components.  In fact, many of the innovations in the sphere of minimization of electronic components came from Zandman’s ideas, which I think is amazing.

Even more amazing in my view is Zandmand’s personal story.  His entire family, except for one uncle, was killed in the Holocaust.  He survived through a series of coincidences (or miracles if you want), human compassion, and living in a hole (literally) with 3 (and then 4) more people for 17 months.  He came out of that war with nothing and ended up building a Fortune 1000 company and creating technology that touches lives of billions of people.  I find his personal story truly amazing and inspiring, and my attempt to abbreviate it here does not do it much justice.

If you have an hour to spare, I encourage you to watch the entire documentary.  Someone uploaded it on 56.com (part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4 – warning: it’s really slow, you need to let it buffer for a while to watch it smoothly) and the first 20 minutes or so are also available on YouTube (part 1, part 2) – all with English subtitles and narration.  Most of what I know about the story of Felix Zandman at this point is from this documentary (the online materials are scarce), but it really got me interested in his personality and now I also intend to read his memoirs, Never The Last Journey.

This blog provides some quick/ad-hoc comments on the Apple/HTC patent fight.

Analysis of the patents in suit, and their potential applicability to HTC product (and Android...), can be found elsewhere.

There has also been considerable speculation as to Apple’s “end game” (apparently protection of innovation may not be the motivation!)

The use by Apple of the ITC as one of the forums in which to assert their grievances/patents is noteworthy.  For those not familiar with the US International Trade Commission (“ITC”) it’s a quasi judicial/administrative body designed to prevent counterfeit (and US patent infringing) product getting into the US. Expedited process rules mean “investigations” (as cases are known) are concluded quicker, and more cost effectively, than cases in the US Courts. The ITC can’t award damages but can, if a complaint is upheld, issue an order barring the import (by the respondent – HTC here) into the US of infringing product – a draconian remedy if ever there was one!

As is usual, Apple has also issued US District Court proceedings (in Delaware) against HTC.  This is to recover damages (money...) but will take longer to conclude than the ITC case.

It’s also likely that a third battle front will be opened, by HTC, in the US Patent Office, where they could seek re-examination of some of the patents being asserted by Apple. Any successful re-examinations could, at least in part, help frustrate (or at least slow down) the ITC and Court cases.

Settlement can never be discounted in disputes such as this, but the initial soundings mean this looks unlikely in the short/mid-term.

I’ll monitor progression of this one with interest.

 

 

In medieval times, the Romans used to pick out the weakest soldiers and line them on top of a cliff, count them and whoever was the 13th soldier they used to drop him down the cliff. This I think should be done to fundamentalists in India and Pakistan who are trying to disrupt the talks.

Okay, I might be suggesting a gruesome thing but it has been 63 years and not once we have reached a good and final decision about anything. Be it the water treaty, Kashmir, Siachen, even the bus service that started from Dehli to Lahore. We fought three wars and both ended up with casualities and no solution.

The Agra Summit that Mush attended seemed to go well in the start until it ended with no-result whatsoever because of Mush's over-enthusiastic/over-confident attitude and BJP's hawks Advani and Jaswant Singh (incidentally, Jaswant Singh who had a real negative attitude towards Pakistan ended up writing a wonderful book on Quaid-i-Azam as a genius and the only leader of the subcontinent, so let's not drop him down the cliff).

Then last year the hope of talks ended up in doldrums because of Mumbai terror attacks by a lunatic so-called jihadi party,by the way, should be dropped off the cliff. The result was again many innocent lives were lost and the talks were suspended. India blamed Pakistan and Pakistan told India to show a little support and patience as they are fighting with terrorism internally.

So, after U.S./KSA's insistence that they both hold talks and India's awe at the way Pakistani army has outwitted the Taliban and Pakistan's eagerness to show a positive image, this time, the FMs of India and Pakistan have met, finally. What do you think will be the outcome of such talks where skepticism, suspicion exists on both sides, where the fundamentalists on both sides are plotting ways to disrupt tasks, where Manmohan Singh is looking for support in Mid-East and where both countries have different agendas, here and here to pursue? Isn't the outcome way too predictable?

The partnership between the Ministry of Education and Fundación Omar Dengo in Costa Rica is seen by many as a model for introducing, implementing and evaluating technology use in education. The Omar Dengo Foundation (ODF) is a private non-profit organization that has been managing and carrying out national and regional projects in the fields of human development, educational innovation and new technologies since 1987. Its different projects have benefitted more than 1.5 million Costa Ricans, including children and young people, students, educators, professionals, people from the community, and senior citizens, contributing to renovation of the national educational processes by introducing and taking advantage of digital technologies. A few programs of  ODF are highlighted below.

Through Innov@ Institute, the unit responsible for creating proposals for programming and the products and services offered, the organization has gained expertise in ‘education informatics’, ‘cognition, programming and learning’, ‘digital government’, ‘robotics and learning’, ‘entrepreneurship and digital productivity’.

“Labor@: Centers for entrepreneurial practice” teaches the high school students, office productivity software, logical reasoning and effective use of ICTs in business – by providing a simulation of working in a firm, a part from, business management and entrepreneurial skills.

“Explor@: Using digital technologies to foster youth talents” is collaboration of government with Walmart and Microsoft aimed to target 20,000 youth inspiring them to use ICTs for innovation. The project organizes workshops for electronic game design, digital newspaper editing, web-designing, disaster prevention, data processing packages and software.

The magazine Zon@ M is a digital newspaper distributed twice each year over the Internet, prepared by students in grades 7, 8, and 9 who participate in the Digital Journalism Club.

CADE program is an educational program designed to promote active citizenship. The program seeks to strengthen and develop deliberative capabilities in children and adolescents using digital technologies as didactical resources.

Robotica is an Educational Robotics Program providing a digital environment relying on digital technologies and inspiring innovation, creativity, thought, analysis, design and troubleshooting. The program also includes training for teachers and a discussion blog. The official website states the motive as:

“The purpose is to use the work done on projects to create a scientific-technological culture where the students prepare significant programming products, build prototypes related to industrial or technological process simulation, or recreate sites and events linked to their socio-cultural setting.”

New Millennium is a digital magazine for students published on the Internet in two annual editions. This project seeks for Costa Rican students to be creative and active Internet users, using this medium to express themselves and share what they have learned with boys and girls from around the world. In addition, it is an attempt for students to be able to appropriate the technology, i.e, know how to use it and build significant products.

Edunov@ explores the use of mobile technology in education.

Reviews of Omar Dengo Foundation’s project can be seen here, here and here.

Finally the details of the NOKIA Innovation contest as prophesied in our previous post are out. The contest details are available at the Official Site. The targeted contest for Pakistani Developers are here. The contest focuses on development of mobile applications.

Access all details regarding the contest are here. read more

Once a year or so ICANN holds a conference called ICANN Studienkreis.  This is another forum where one can get updated with various ongoing internet governance topics.  The last meeting took place earlier this week in Barcelona, but unfortunately there was no streaming of the event and I could not find any records or transcripts from it.  The only available record is the agenda with links to a number of PDFs of various presentation.  These are of course not very informative, but there is still something we can learn from them.

One presentation that caught my attention was by Andrey Kolesnikov from the Russian Coordination Centre for TLD.ru, which he gave in a session on internationlized domain names (PDF).  It caught my attention because I got recently interested in the debate surrounding this topic and hoped to learn about how things are going in countries that have already applied for a localized top level domains (other presenters on the panel were from Egypt and China). There is only so much one can learn from just looking at PPT slides, but here is an attempt.

Russia is the only country I know of that has already auctioned localized domain names, even though the approval of the top level domain in Cyrillic is still in the works.   As such, Kolesnikov was in a position to shed some light on the actual demand for localized domain names, as opposed to arguments about their great potential.  And if I read his slides correctly, I think he did.  Here is what he has to show:

The early registration process, or the “sunrise” period, is still going on, but these numbers are interesting.   There are currently over 369K domain names registered in Russia and according to Coordination Centre for TLD.ru, there are over 2.6 million domains registered under the .ru top level domain (RU).  In other words. we can see that the trademark holders and Russian domainers are either careful with grabbing this opportunity or skeptical of the entire enterprise.  Of course this is a very early stage in the process, but if it is indicative of a trend, than at least in the case of Russia, the skeptics might have a point.  Of course the situation may be different in other parts of the world and in other cultures, but Russian industry does not seem to be too excited.

Am I overanalyzing this?  Am I taking these number out of context?  What do you think?

Hi all,

During my small semester break I managed to connect my Bumble-b chip to an analog-digital converter (ADC).

With this I can read voltage changes and send the information to the computer to plot live.

Here is a demonstration video:

How its all connected

The Bumble-b is connected to the MCP3204 ADC, here is the schmatic from dflecher’s site:

MCP3204 wiring schematic

Software on the Bumble-B

The pulling is done with a library written by dflecher and help from LUFA (The USB-AVR library). My source is available here I recommend you look at my original Bumble-B post on how to compile and develop.

Software on the computer

To plot I used a pyOpenGL, which is a python binding to draw graphics. I based it off one of the demo examples for pyOpenGL. I did not spend much time on it, and there is a lot to improve. Like adding a grid, more options and speeding up the incoming data. Still, this tiny script is a proof of concept.

Small basic oscilloscope showing a remote control signal

I would be glad if anyone tells me how to speed up the Bumble-b serial communication, and draw faster on PyOpenGL, since this is the current bottleneck for a faster oscilloscope.

Here are all the sources I wrote for this post:

• Source for the bumble-b driver
• Source for the pyOpenGL live plotting scope

Note: This project is also compatible with the upcoming Bumble-b2

That is all for now, I hope to find time to post during this long semester

Australia’s primary school students are now being equipped with the skills needed for the digital age. School students are now being switched on to some of the most up-to-date technology available, from laptop computers for students in years 9-12 to interactive whiteboards, video-conferencing equipment and even virtual classrooms.

The West Australian Education Department recently trialled a program that allowed students and teachers to download free information and resources through iTunes U – an area of the iTunes store offering free education content from top institutions around the world.

Schools throughout Australia will be using the technology of interactive white-boards, which have the capabilities of connecting immediately to the internet so students and teachers can access information immediately. By connecting the whiteboards to a laptop computer and projector, teachers can also convert freehand writing on the whiteboard into text, and then print it for students.

The Victorian education department is now trialing virtual classrooms – a computer accessible, online learning environment intended to fulfill many of the learning facilitation roles of a physical classroom. The
Queensland Education Department has a similar concept in the Learning Place – a comprehensive online eLearning environment available to all staff and students with anywhere, anytime access through a dedicated portal.

Source: Sydney morning herald

This is most certainly not the umpteenth article you will be reading about Mobile World Congress 2010 this week – everybody’s got their take on what the highlights of the events were.

For me personally, the following caught my attention:

The geeks do PR (and apparently still no evil)!!

Google delightfully stole the limelight while Nokia was sulking away in their posh Barcelona hotel suite. (But hey, GSMA is really starting to push the boundaries….is anybody listening?) Coming back to Google, Eric Schmidt delivered a sensational keynote presentation on Tuesday – “Mobile First” and make sure you stand right in the intersection between Computing, Connectivity and Cloud. Gosh, can’t these guys suffer from the “demo effect”? They just sailed through all these speech and image recognition demos – really cool stuff!!

The WAVE that rides the ocean (BADA)

Samsung’s WAVE device based on the BADA Platform hit the Spanish Mediterranean city with all the fireworks or should I say all the splashes – Super Amoled, Integrated Address Book, Social Networking Hub – you name it, it’s got it……..except for…… multi-touch (damn Apple and its patents!!)

The giant wakes up from its slumber

In a desperate attempt to reverse its flailing smartphone platform unit, Microsoft rushed` to deliver Windows Phone 7.0. Ok, I admit it’s cool (except for the name) – it’s something I’d like to play with(checkout Zune, XBOX and Bing on the device) but hey, didn’t Apple do something similar about 2 years ago. More importantly, why are the PC and Internet companies so intent on turning the traditional handset manufacturers into fulfilment houses and the operators into dumb pipes? (I know Eric, you said they are valuable partners)

 

We are not dumb pipes!!

 

Fight-back time from the mobile operators – united they stand to fight the Internet and PC giants but what a dumb name - Wholesale Application Community! But as the saying goes, it’s the intention that counts and the spirit to fight back is indeed very much there! The app market is way too fragmented today and this common platform leveraging established standards such as BONDI will provide a seamless way for app developers to target billions of subscribers and build sustainable business models around mobile application development and distribution. (you can see I’m biased ;-) we love operators in LiMo!)

Meego (or Me Too?)

Linux still seems to be very much the flavour of the day in the industry and consolidation in any way or means is good in an industry that endeavours to reduce fragmentation but always seems to be announcing yet another platform. N900, Nokia’s first commercial device on Maemo, did receive good reviews even though developers knew a major Qt overhaul was about to take place breaking compatibility with future versions. I can see why Meego makes sense for Intel and but I have yet to figure out the Nokia angle….

Last words

All of the above can be interpreted as “good” or “bad” depending on which camp you are in.

In terms of the “ugly”, it’s most certainly the lack of law and order that several of the MWC 2010 visitors (including myself) had the misfortune of experiencing in the city of Gaudi. The authorities most certainly need to take some drastic actions to cut down on the number of muggings and armed robbery that visitors are subject to in the streets of Barcelona throughout the duration of the Congress.

Adios Barcelona!

 

NormalText-to-speech (TTS) is an application that converts text on a webpage to synthesized speech so that people unable to read the text owing to their visual impairment could understand the web content with their hearing ability. Over the years, the Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) has been working very hard to provide training in this aspect for blind people.

According to MAB’s  ICT manager Encik Silatul Rahim bin Dahman: developed countries have made it compulsory through legislation for web content operators to conform to a set of design guidelines called the Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) in order to facilitate the “reading” of their content with the help of TTS technology. For instance, every image on the web page must be tagged with an alternative text so that visually challenged web users could ”listen” to the text read out to them by the speech synthesizer.

Otherwise, what they might hear could just be jumbled up vocals that do not make sense to them. He pointed out that TTS is not only applicable to personal computers; it could also be applied to mobile phones.

Rahim was the first blind Malaysian to have received TTS training in the United States. He helped set up a training centre in Penang upon his return to the country in 1993,
while the centre at Brickfields began its operation in 2005. Another training centre was recently set up in Kuching, Sarawak this July. “I may be 100% blind but the internet has taken away 50% of my disability,” says Rahim.

Normally it takes a learner about five days to pick up the fundamental skills of surfing the net with TTS. There are some 30 computers at the centre open for visually handicapped individuals to use. There are currently 20,500 blind people
registered with the Social Welfare Department, of whom some 2,000 people or about 10% have received TTS training from the MAB. Other than providing training courses for local blind people, MAB also offers courses for people from other regional countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Indonesia. In addition to IT training, MAB also provides a broad range of other services to help the blind people, including rehabilitation, recreational facilities, pre-school programes, vocational training (woodwork, massage, reflexology, computer programming, etc.) as well as disaster relief.

Sources: MySinchew, The nut graph
(image courtesy to nut graph)

“Partners in Learning” is a global initiative designed to actively increase access to technology and improve its use in learning. Since its launch in 2003, Partners in Learning has touched the lives of more than 135 million students, teachers, and education policymakers in 101 countries.

Its program “Innovative Schools” helps schools around the world to move beyond the limits of the classroom and traditional learning models. For instance, In Singapore, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore and Microsoft have initiated BackPack.NET, an ambitious five year program which encourages inquiry, creativity, and student-centered learning through advanced applications of technology in the classroom. It includes a pilot project that puts Tablet PCs into the hands of every student at a number of “pioneer schools.”

“Innovative Teachers” connects and empowers educators worldwide. For example, in India, Microsoft is working with education departments, colleges, and universities to incorporate pre-service information and communications technology (ICT) curriculum in a sustainable and scalable model. Already, 160,000 teachers and hundreds of teacher educators have been trained in ICT skills. The Innovative Teachers Network enables teachers to learn from one another and work collaboratively on new approaches to learning through national or region-wide portals. Today, on a daily basis, more than 400,000 teachers on 52 local networks connect and share ideas, practices, and professional development resources.

“Innovative Students” aims to provide students with access to programs and curriculum that help fully integrate technology into the learning process, both in school and at home. It also enables qualified governments to provide used computers and affordable software to underserved primary and secondary student households that aspire to own a PC. Microsoft is also supporting the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) research project to contribute information and policy insights on effective education transformation.

Detailed information about Microsoft Partners in learning initiatives in five Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam can be found in this case study.

Source: Adapted from Microsoft Partners in Learning webpage and brochure.

If you are interested in Internet Governance research, you may find the following call for contributions, issues by GigaNet, relevant.

Third International Workshop on Global Internet Governance: An Interdisciplinary Research Field in Construction

Montreal (QC), Canada – 30-31 May 2010

Organized by GigaNet, in cooperation with The Canadian Communication Association and Media@McGill

Co-sponsored by GigaNet, ACC-CCA, Media@McGill, LIP6/CNRS and UPMC

Preliminary Announcement and Call for Contributions

The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) invites you to participate in its third scholarly workshop to be held in Montreal (QC), Canada, on 30-31 May 2010. This workshop is organized in cooperation with the Canadian Communication Association and Media@McGill, during the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) 2010 Congress week in Montreal.

Building on the success of its first two editions, respectively in Paris, France in June 2008 and in Brussels, Belgium in May 2009, the purpose of this third GigaNet workshop is twofold:

The first day will be dedicated to outreach sessions aimed at increasing the interest in the Global Internet Governance field among both various academic disciplines and the civil society at large, including but not limited to NGOs and civil society groups active in related fields. These outreach sessions will include academic tutorials on Global Internet Governance as well as information and discussion led by experts in the field on current Global Internet Governance debates and their relevance to public policy making.   Detailed information on the outreach sessions’ program will be distributed closer to the event itself.

The second day will feature thematic presentations selected upon submissions made in response to this call for contributions. We invite scholars to present and discuss their work- in-progress in Internet Governance-related research, with the aim to identify emerging research themes and design a research agenda. Rather than featuring academic paper presentations, the workshop aims at providing a survey of current academic activities in the field, in order to share ideas and forge possible collaborations.

Submissions are expected to focus on presenting problematics, research designs, preliminary empirical results and conclusions in the aim of stimulating reflection and discussion amongst the audience. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

involved actors and their interactions; Internet governance institutions and regimes; legal, socio-economical, behavioral and technical regulation means; Internet governance policy issues.

Submissions in view of thematic presentations should be sent by 20 March 2010 to Meryem Marzouki (Meryem.Marzouki@lip6.fr). They should be written in English and include the name, affiliation, e-mail address and short bio of author(s), along with no more than 500 words of research work description. The program committee will notify applicants by 20 April 2010. To encourage knowledge dissemination, relevant submissions will be published on the workshop website. Authors of selected submissions will be invited to present their work in the workshop thematic sessions.

Program Committee:

Laura DeNardis, Yale U., USA; Meryem Marzouki, CNRS & U. Pierre et Marie Curie, France; Milton Mueller, Syracuse U., USA & Delft Technical U., The Netherlands; Claudia Padovani, Padova U., Italy & McGill U., Canada; Jeremy Shtern, Ryerson U., Canada.

Local Organizing Committee:

Juliana Dalley, McGill U., Canada; Becky Lentz, McGill U., Canada; Daniel Paré, U. of Ottawa, Canada; Claire Roberge, McGill U., Canada.

There is no registration fee for this event. A registration form will be circulated with the program.

Workshop website: http://giga-net.org/page/2010-international-workshop

GigaNet: giga-net.org – ACC-CCA: www.acc-cca.ca – Media@McGill: media.mcgill.ca

To receive further workshop updates, and other GigaNet news, please subscribe to the information dissemination mailing list: info-giganet (http://www-rp.lip6.fr/wws/info/info-giganet)

SchoolNet is an initiative that promotes the effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in learning through supporting the connection of schools to the Internet and by creating a network of schools. The UNESCO SchoolNet project, “Strengthening ICT in Schools and SchoolNet Project in ASEAN Setting”, was initiated in recognition of the need to assist teachers in integrating ICT into teaching and to facilitate participation of teachers and students in the Asia-Pacific region in SchoolNet telecollaboration activities.

The project was launched in July 2003 and focuses on three subject areas, languages, mathematics and science. SchoolNet activities have been piloted in 24 schools in8 participating countries of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) region: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Viet Nam.

The UNESCO SchoolNet project aims to encourage use of ICT in teaching-learning, improve connectivity, expand access to the wealth of educational resources available via the Internet and establish and promote SchoolNet in the Asia-Pacific region. National coordinators facilitate project implementation in each participating ASEAN-region country. Project partners include Japanese Funds-in-Trust and ASEAN Foundation.

Source:UNESCO SchoolNet Project resource

The IBM KidSmart Early Learning Program integrates new interactive teaching and learning activities using the latest technology into the pre-kindergarten curricula. The program is now being implemented in 60 countries internationally, serving more than 2 million children from remote geographic areas to underprivileged areas of town and cities.

IBM’s KidSmart program includes the Young Explorer™, a computer housed in brightly colored, kid-friendly Little Tikes™ furniture and equipped with award-winning educational software to help children learn and explore concepts in math, science and language. Through KidSmart, IBM donates one Young Explorer unit to select schools and also installs educational software for free on a school’s existing computers. The program includes follow-up services: If the schools experience software-related problems, IBM will fix the problems and reinstall the programs if necessary.

The program’s main target is children who do not have access to computers. IBM thus coordinates with the National Education Ministry to select schools to be included in KidSmart. IBM also runs teacher training workshops as part of KidSmart to introduce teachers to the technology, and also to teach them how to integrate KidSmart as a classroom activity.

Since its launch in 1998, IBM has invested more than $106 million in the KidSmart Early Learning Program, including the donation of more than 45,000 KidSmart Early Learning Centers. The program is now in 60 countries, and has trained more than 100,000 teachers and served more than 10 million students.

There’s also a web site available to support teachers and parents. The KidSmart Early Learning website was created in collaboration with the Center for Children and Technology, Bank Street College of Education and United Way. Available in 9 languages, the website includes a guide for parents to encourage early learning at home and a section for preschool teachers that details how they can best use technology to support learning in their classrooms.

Source: IBM website

Metfone Viettel, a Cambodia-based affiliate of the Vietnamese military-owned Viettel Corporation, offers free internet services to schools in Cambodia.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) on “Metfone Internet in school and scholarship program”, valued up to 5 million USD, has been signed between Metfone and Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MoEYS) on December 29, 2009.

Following the MOU, from 2009 -2015, Metfone will provide free Internet connections and related equipments to all public schools, education centers, universities, colleges and MoEYS’s offices in Cambodia, totaling up to 2,000 access points. Moreover, under Metfone scholarship fund, hundreds of excellent pupils and students would be awarded scholarships worth 240 USD for two years (10 USD per month).

Also, in this MOU signing ceremony, 334 broadband internet connections were handed over as completion of phase 1, for schools, departments and computers for learning, teaching, managing and e-education purpose of Cambodia.

It is expected that by 2015, more than one million students and teachers will enjoy utilities and benefits upon the completion of the connections, generating new drive/stimulus for the development of education in Cambodia.

Source: Adapted from Foreign Press Center Vietnam

There is a lot going on, so here is another digest.  It starts with some feedback from the recent open consultations for the upcoming IGF.  Then it includes links to some studies, including the recently released Berkman report on broadband policy and then to some interesting opinions about the role of content piracy in technology adoption and about the link between net neutrality and job creation.  And of course, as usual, some fun stuff :)

Recent news related

Interesting reports, numbers, and visualizations

Interesting thoughts, ideas, opinions, and discussions

Digital Divide

MICT regulation

MICT business

“New” media

Simply Interesting, Fun, and Coll Stuff

Recent news related

The preparations for the next Internet Governance Forum are under way and on February 9th Geneva hosted the first round of Open Consultations.  I haven’t had a chance to watch the recording or read the transcript yet, but there were a few reactions to it already in the blogosphere.   Jeremy Malcolm of the IGF Watch has pointed out the political struggle between the various UN bodies that claim the authority over deciding the future of the IGF and Wolfgang Kleinwachter provided an analysis of this development alerting against erosion of the principle of multistakeholderism from the future Internet Governance arrangement.

Interesting reports, numbers, and visualizations

“Next Generation Connectivity” (PDF) – One of the (if not the) most comprehensive review of broadband policies worldwide; commissioned by the FCC, conducted by the Berkman Center.  If you don’t have the time or stamina for the entire thing, there is a Berkman radio bit about it and there is an NPR take on it.  There is also an interview with Yochai Benkler where he discusses the report:

“Sustainable Development and ICTs” (via @ictlogist) – A special issue of Information, Communication & Society; unfortunately, it is behind a paywall (with an exception of one article).

“Development as politics” – A promising interview with Nobel Laureate Michale Spence, recommended by Chris Blattman from Yale, about international development and politics.  You may find the report he refers to here.

“Obstacles to social mobility weaken equal opportunities and economic growth, says OECD study” – An OECD study about social mobility where they demonstrate that parents’ socioeconomic status and education are the two most influential factors on the child’s socioeconomic success; i wonder if the dynamics are similar in the non OECD countries.

“The 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review” (via holesinthenet) – A report that details the trends in usage of social networks and other “new” media in the US.

And some regional stats:

• Azerbaijan – Broadband
• Europe – Mobile, internet
• USA – Internet

If you are into regional stats, World Bank made their API available for developers to play with their data and also offer some widgets on their website, like this one, showing Internet penetration worldwide (based on the ITU data):

Internet users (per 100 people) - 2008 You need to upgrade your Flash Player Source: World Bank Data - Internet Users

“Feltron 2009 Annual Report” – Or as Flowing Data called it – “OCD Made Sexy” – Nicholas Feltron collects data about himself throughout the year and then publishes it in really cool infographics.

Interesting thoughts, ideas, opinions, and discussions

“Media Piracy in Emerging Economies” – Joe Karaganis, of the Social Science Research Council, presented a forthcoming six-country study of media piracy at the Berkman Center  It turns out to be quite an interesting aspect of MICT diffusion and adoption.  In the link you will find the video,  but you can also download the audio recording, and read David Weinberg’s live blogging from the event.

“Africa’s Eastern Promise” (via Chris Blattman) – An interesting and thoughtful analysis of Africa-China relations and the role and the interests of the later in the developmental efforts of the former.

“Russia’s New Media Paradox” (via @evgenymorozov) – Maxim Trudolyubov, of the NY Review of Books, writes a very detailed and thoughtful analysis of the state of “new” media in Russia and the new affordances it brings to both civic discourse and ability to suppress it; I think it resonates well with some earlier arguments of Evgeny Morozov about how the “new” media aid oppressive regimes.

“Revising the Lisbon Strategy through the OECD Innovation Strategy” – A speech by OECD Deputy Secretary-General Pier Carlo Padoan on topics of innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The economics of child soldiering” – A blog post about research conducted by Cris Blattman of Yale, where he takes a very (perhaps too) analytical approach to the problem of child soldering; I found it particularly interesting because of the links one can potentially make between developing human capital as a way of fighting this horrific phenomenon.

Digital Divide

“Hope founders where ministers lack e-mail” (via @evgenymorozov) – A apiece on the efforts and challenges of bringing the Sudanese government online.

MICT regulation

“German Government Steps Away from 2009 Filtering Plan” and “Italian gov’t backs down slightly over Web regulation bill” (via Information Policy) – It is actually nice to see a different take on content regulation; most of other countries seem to tighten their grip of the content.

“Icelandic Modern Media Initiative” (via @rmack) – An even more interesting initiative by the government of Iceland to sort out the new media environment in an open-minded manner.  As La Quadrature du Net describes this, it is a parliamentarian resolution aimed “to initiate a legislative process in order to guarantee by law the freedom of expression and communication on the Internet.”

“Internet Regulations Will Hinder Job Creation” (PDF) – A recent study conducted by the American Consumer Institute that suggests that Net Neutrality regulation will harm job creation; basically what they say is that infrastructure companies generate more investment and more jobs, compared to the companies that build their business based on those networks.

“Bottom Line: The Truth About Network Neutrality & Investment” – An older report from the “Free Press” looking at the links between net neutrality principles and investment; here you can also find criticism of the this report.

MICT business

“Startup Failure Rates — The REAL Numbers” (via comments at Re-gur-gi-tate (n)) – A bit old (2008), but still interesting statistics about the success/failure rates of new businesses, based on a book on the subject (if you are looking for the bottom line, 29% survive).

“Typos may earn Google $500m a year” (via @sdkaaa) – Something that I think is obvious being explained with data and detail; the domain name industry has been making money out of URLs that are misspellings of popular websites by hosting ads there – this article lays out how Google is making quite a lot of money out of it as well.  I still wonder who clicks on ads on those websites?

“New” media

“Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome” (via @Viil) – A NYT report about a study about the most emailed NYT articles; apparently the longer and the more intellectually engaging articles are getting emailed more.  Surprising!

Simply Interesting, Fun, and Coll Stuff

“A Brief History of Time… in the New World!” – A nice story about clocks and gravity.

On a bit more serious note, check out “Asia Internet Museum” – I think this is a really interesting initiative as we are not documenting enough the development of this medium.

Also, in a similar vein – “20 Great Talks on the Future of Information” – i think I’ve heard a couple of them in the past, so I think it should be a valuable link to have.

“Save pens. Use Garamond font” – Have you ever wondered how much ink it takes for the various fonts we use?  Flowing Data shares an insight…

“PleaseRobMe.com” (via @evgenymorozov) – A very creative way to raise awareness about how we use and share information from a group that seems equally creative – they call themselves “Forthehack“.

A bit old, but still interesting to listen to – Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 (via the scholarly kitchen):

“A brief history of pretty much everything” – A nice animation that sums up pretty much everything, which I came across while looking for material for the course I am TAing for this semester.

“Hovercouch” – Somewhat crazy and fun project by one of Veronica’s friends.

This is somewhat a detour from the usual MICT stuff, but I hope you forgive me as I think the topic is interesting.

The Israeli political scene seems to be very disturbed recently.  No, it is not about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is not about Iran, and it is not about about the recent tensions with Syria.  The debate is about a proposal by the government to amend external voting in the law or in other words to allow Israeli citizens abroad to vote in the election (HE).  I’ve heard this idea floating before, but I have never seen such a vibrant debate about this issue, which has recently become very close to my heart.

The situation today is that anybody holding an Israeli passport can vote in the Israeli election, but this person has to be physically present in Israel on the election day.  If you are studying, working, or simply on vacation abroad during the election day, you cannot go to the consulate and vote.  The only people entitled to vote remotely are diplomats and sailors.

The debate is happening on two levels.  On one level, it is a purely political debate, because some believe that the voters living abroad tend to vote to the right and thus the government is pushing for the change of law and the opposition is vigorously opposing it (HE1, HE2, HE3).  On another level, which constitutes most of the rhetoric, the debate is about values – should people who are not living in the country, particularly such country as Israel, be able to decide for those who will actually have to live with the consequences ? (HE1, HE2, HE3, He4, He5, HE6, HE7, HE8)

Some context may help understanding the later facet of the debate better.  Ever since the establishment of the state, people moving to live in Israel were referred to as “olim” or people who are “coming up” to live in and build the country.  On the other hand, people who left Israel to live elsewhere were referred to as “yordim,” meaning people who “stepped down,” left, deserted or abandoned the enterprise of building a Jewish state.  Traditionally, it was completely unacceptable to leave the country.  People who did that, and in fact their entire families, were frowned upon and looked down at.  However, in the past decade or so the criticism softened and in fact Israel is experiencing a brain drain (there are about 500-700K holders of Israeli passports currently living abroad).  The argument of those opposing the law thus resonates with the old sentiment and claims that the people who decided to abandon the not-so-luxurious Israeli realities have no right to decide for those who stayed.  In Israel, they say, election are not just about social issues, which are also important, but they are also about existential topics like war and peace.  If you are not going to live with the consequences of the vote, you shouldn’t have the right to vote, in the first place.  If it is important for you to vote, you can invest in coming to Israel once in four years to do that.

And this is where it is getting personal for me I guess.  It is getting personal because I couldn’t vote in the last election and given the frequency with which elections happen in Israel, I most probably won’t be able to vote in the next one as well.  The issue I am taking with this situation can also be viewed on a couple of level.  First, there is a financial  and logistic concern.  As a student, I simply cannot afford a random visit to Israel.  No matter how much I care about the democracy, the Maslow principles are getting in the way (not to mention the fact that my life is pretty much dictated by the academic calendar).  Second, there is a more substantive argument about my right to influence the reality of my country.  At the end of the day you can take an Israeli out of Israel, but you cannot take Israel completely out of the Israeli.  It starts with the fact that even though I am physically not in Israel at the moment, I am still influenced by the political decisions of its leaders (whether these are some of the taxes I am still paying or protests I encounter on campus, on  street or anywhere else).  But even more that that, as someone currently living abroad on a student visa, I think I should be able to influence the realities I am supposed to come back to upon completion of my studies.  I may decide not to go back to Israel after I finish my PhD, but then it will be a totally different story; right now I don’t have any tools to influence the reality I am supposed to return to, which I think is counterproductive for the country if it wants me back (somewhat related HE).

I may be wrong, but at this point of my life it somehow makes sense (and apparently not just to me – HE1, HE2).  Many of the arguments I read are dismissing any variation of making voting accessible to Israelis living abroad (here is an article in HE stating that 66% of Israelis oppose this idea).  It is “either you are with us or you are against us,” which I find both outdated and counterproductive.  There was a study triggered by this debate, which compared the external voting arrangements in other countries and showed how most of the world has reacted to globalization and to the fact that citizens who live abroad are still citizens of the country (PDF in HE).  In fact, one of the proposed versions of the law is taking a moderate approach that limits the period when one could vote abroad to six years, subject to spending at least 40 days over that period in Israel (HE), but the public discourse neglects the details and focuses on the principle.  This situation is similar to the arrangement in New-Zealand for example.  To be fair, some people do say that students should be given the right to vote (HE), but I think that if such an arrangement will be accepted, let’s say with the conditions similar to what is stated above, it should cover not just the students, but everybody else as well.

I wonder if you have any thoughts on the subject and what the situation is in your country?

Microsoft has recently developed a new technology – called MultiPoint – which has high potential to serve rural areas which have limited technology infrastructure and budget, to integrate technology in education. MultiPoint Mouse SDK applications allow schools to increase the number of students that can access technology in a classroom or lab, simply by plugging in an existing or new mouse per student. This product enables up to 25 children to simultaneously use and operate a single computer via multiple mice. This saves schools having to buy a separate PC for each child.

Applications built on the MultiPoint Mouse SDK can increase student learning comprehension through interactive methods. Applications built on the MultiPoint Mouse SDK can provide teachers with tools to gain real-time assessment information to help them provide a personalized learning experience for each of their students.

MultiPoint Mouse is already being used in 12 countries. Video demonstrating uses and benefits of MultiPoint Mouse can be seen here.

The IT for Rural Schools Program was started in 1995, with the objective of minimizing educational inequality by providing rural school teachers, students, and children with disabilities with access to computer technology. The project covers some 72 rural schools across Thailand.

Launched in 1998, the Learn and Have Fun with CAI for Primary School Students Project has the main function of identifying quality CAI software from abroad for use in Thai primary schools, and integrating this software initially into three subject areas: math, science, and English. The project also includes staff development to train teachers in the full and effective use of the CAI software in their classes.

RH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn believes that if prison inmates are trained in skills that are of a practical use and in high demand, such as computer skills, they will have a better chance of finding a good job after their sentences are finished and of becoming good citizens of benefit to society. Acting on this belief, Her Royal Highness launched the IT for Inmates Program under the Princess’s IT Project. The Program began at Bang hen Central Women’s Prison at Khlong Prem in 1997. In 1992, the Technical Information Access Center under the National Science and Technology Development Agency hired the prison inmates to type Thai and English journal indexes. At present, numerous organizations offer the inmates typing jobs. Between 1992 and 2003, the inmates earned a combined total of approximately 160,000 baht in this way. Later, the prisoners also learnt computer graphics. At present, the average accumulated income generated as a result of this Program is about 50,000 baht per month.

In 2003, HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn provided an opportunity for the inmates to contribute to society by taking part in the production of audio books for the blind. This project came about through collaboration among three bodies: the Princess’ IT Project, the Thai Blind Association and Bangkhen Women’s Prison. Initially, some 47 inmates participated in the project, 35 of whom read, while the other 12 carried out audio editing using the computers. By the end of 2003, this group of inmates was expected to have produced a total of 1,000 hours of audio books.

Further details can be seen in this report.
Source: UNESCO Bangkok online resources