Future of the Media report revisited

Ross Dawson has kindly referred in detail to my post on the Future of the Media report, released recently, along with responses to Robin Good’s post as well.

Well worth reading as an on-going dialogue on how our world is changing and changed by media.

To be or not to be – The $100 laptop

Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child Child (OLPC) initiative was launched amidst great fanfare a few years ago. Its promise – to put in the hands of millions of children the essential computing hardware so as to facilitate their entry into the information society.

The so-called $100 laptop is perhaps no longer economically possible. And yet, the monicker stuck, even in the face of ridicule by industry giants such as Intel and Microsoft.

The debate between those promoting the $100 laptop and those who say that it is a well intentioned but ultimately pyrrhic idea is often shrill, with no real progress of moving either side closer to any common understanding of the possible uses and potential of the laptop.

I’ve always found the idea to be useful for Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). Negroponte’s laptop is designed to withstand the austere conditions of under developed communities, environments where the laptop I use to type this post would not even survive a day. For sure, there are ruggedised laptops, but these are far too expensive to even distributing on the scale that Negroponte envisions for his own laptop.

A cheap, affordable, rugged and capable PC, running software that allows users to effectively communicate with each other, create and access content on the web and distribute content that’s created by them amongst larger communities opens up what we take for granted in our urban hubs to rural communities, the inhabitants of an information hinterland that defines to date what is called the digital divide.

Sophisticated community and alternative mediation frameworks, such as those I’ve explored in a paper titled Online Dispute Resolution, Mobile Telephony and Internet Community Radios, can be significantly augmented by computing devices that operate in the vernacular (and English). Much of what I’ve envisioned here for micro, meso and macro level regional & national frameworks for ODR that cross-fertilise information and knowledge can piggyback on the wider availability of devices such as the $100 laptop.

The $100 is primarily thought of as a machine for education. What may be also useful is to envision ways through which the laptop can augment existing communal knowledge and wisdom. To “educate” communities is to assume that they do not already possess vital wisdom and experience, that in cases such as Sri Lanka, underpin ADR mechanisms. It also assumes that knowledge from outside facilitated through the $100 laptop can uplift the living conditions of marginalised communities. For sure, this may well be the case, but a great degree of humility and sensitivity is required to avoid a collateral arrogance that comes with the notion of educating the poor.

Central to the idea of education in Negroponte’s vision is to augment the capacity of children to better engage with the information society – English, math, general knowledge, critical & analytical thinking, basic programming skills, content creation skills – the bedrock of the information society.

However, the true utility of the $100 laptop for social empowerment is also questioned. Most recently, as was posted here, the Indians have argued against the introduction of the $100 laptop.

The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the laptop as “pedagogically suspect”. Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said: “We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools.”

Importantly, the spotlight on the $100 has taken away attention from a wide spectrum of other devices, such as smartphones and the Simputer, in achieving some of the same goals as Negroponte’s device. Debate on whether we should be taking of developing smarter mobile phones is interesting, given the ubiquitous mobile footprints in most of the regions and countries that the $100 will be introduced in.

Other devices, such as the Simputer, are also worth looking at – PDA’s that are cheap, run on open source software, operate in the vernacular, have colour screens, can connect to WiFi and mobile networks and enable users to create, store and distribute their own content.

In pushing one or the other technology, what many miss out on is the value of complementarity. No single device is going to bridge the digital divide. Designing systems that use the best fit for the local, regional and national levels requires a concert of technologies, access mechanisms, last mile delivery mechanisms, content storage and distribution technologies and devices.

A little over two years ago, I introduced what I called hybridity to ODR theorists and practitioners. At the time, many felt that ODR was inextricably entwined with PC’s, which I contested vehemently. Today, ODR visionaries are talking about a more democratic ODR systems design – where even those who do not have access to PC’s can avail themselves of the usefulness the so-called Fourth Estate of technology brings with it to dispute resolution processes.

$100 laptop needs to be seen in this light – not as a panacea for those forgotten by our information society, but as a means through which greater numbers of people will be able to see their unique imprint on the digital landscapes of governance and democracy.

As this author cautions, the $100 laptop needs to be seen in a critical light:

Negroponte has an attractive vision. Then again, MIT’s Media Lab has never lacked vision. It should shame nobody to ask about delivery, appropriateness and long-term strategy. Utopias are never cheap.

I would go further and stress again the need to look at the design of systems that go the last mile, facilitate content creation in the vernacular, are able to bring communities together through conversations that built trust and share knowledge, hold parochial politicians to account, facilitate democratic governance and the rule of law, promote transparency and in doing all this, contribute, in however small measure, to the general betterment of all communities.

Let’s be clear – the $100 won’t achieve this. But along with a range of other technologies – mobile phones, PDA’s, mesh networking, radios and PC’s – if used right, it does have a pretty darn good chance of helping achieve, for instance in the case of Sri Lanka, that which we need the most.

Just and sustainable peace.

United States Institute of Peace (USIP) online resources

Through Bill’s post, I recently came to know of a plethora of new additions to USIP’s new website. The earlier site, which I frequented regularly, was beginning to show its age. The new website is much cleaner, easier to navigate and has some great new content.

I was particularly interested in the certificate course on conflict analysis, a valuable learning tool as a basic entry point into those who seek to work in the area, or just wish to know the basics of CR / CM / CT and peacebuilding before undertaking a research study.

As Bill point out in his post, there are podcasts, archived recordings, online training and a bloody marvellous Margarita S. Studemeister Digital Library in International Conflict Management library.

Truly worth a visit.

News and information through SMS!

I was pleasantly surprised to discover the launch of a website that delivers news headlines through SMS for Sri Lankan mobile subcribers. Following in the footsteps of websites such as Rasasa, though nowhere near the level of services and sophistication, JasmineNews is nevertheless an interesting venture that seeks to disseminate news and information through SMS.

Speaking to its founder over the telephone today, I discovered that JasmineNews is still very small – though it has big plans for future expansion. I was dissapointed to hear that their business model does not allow them, for the moment, to think of using their website as a means through which the news that they send out to mobiles can be displayed online, but I was told that shoudl their subscription model work, with more users signing on, it could subsidise the costs of maintaining the news website.

With extremely low costs of maintaining such a site once the basic technical groundwork and UI is in place (take for instance Digg) I fail to recognise this as a valid argument against promoting their websites as a place where one can read online the news delivered via SMS – and more importantly, access archives. But I don’t want to sound too harsh – JasmineNews is new and for its innovative nature, worthy of support.

I was particularly impressed by a well thought out ethics section, though there seems to be a disconnect between Point 10 and the lack of website development as noted above.

“10) Source all news clearly and provide names of sources quoted on the JNW web site. Verify all headlines from at least 3 different sources.”

A more serious flaw is to be found in their Terms and Conditions page:

1) Jasmine Newswires (Pvt) Ltd text news cannot be forwarded to third parties and is grounds for termination of your service without liability to Jasmine Newswires.

I’ve given this some thought, but know of no conceivable manner in which JasmineNews is going to prevent those who receive an SMS from them from forwarding it to others. My experience of SMS messages in response to critical events, such as a suicide bomb attack, is that groups forward messages to each other. Once sent out, a message is in the public domain, and there is no way to stop it.

In fact, this is JasmineNews’ central caveat – if one looks at it from a profit making venture. Their subscription model:

Subscription rate for Sri Lankan network numbers:
For 1 subscriber for 1 month Rs600
For 1 subscriber for 3 months Rs600 per month (Rs1800)
For 1 subscriber for more than 3 months Rs600 per month

For 5 subscribers for 1 month Rs550 per person (Rs2750)
For 5 subscribers for more than 3 months Rs500 per person per month.
For 10 subscribers for 1 month Rs500 per person (Rs5000).
For 10 subscribers for more than 3 months Rs450 per person per month

almost totally breaks down without the support of consciencious consumers – in other words, why go for a group subscription when I can go for a single user subscription and forward the messages to my mates?

This aside, in terms of aspirations, the fact that JasmineNews wants to become a tri-lingual service, as noted in here, is what will really make it take-off. A future business model may be to link up with some bloggers in Sri Lanka so that a Jasmine-This! plug-in for Firefox can be developed that allows someone to point to news-worthy issues in much the same manner as plug-ins for del.icio.us.

I strongly suspect that if JasmineNews is successful, they will be bought over by a mobile telecoms provider in around 1 – 2 years time. JNW started reporting news in April 2006 and is accredited with the Information Department of Sri Lanka.

One (annoying) anomaly in the website as it stands today – with the JasmineNews website loaded on Firefox and running OS X, everything in Firefox slows down to a crawl. Close the tab, or window, with JasmineNews loaded, and everything is up to speed again. Haven’t verified this fully, but may be a coding issue that I hope JasmineNews gets looked at and fixed soon.

I’m not a subscriber yet, but hope to be soon and will post my experience with the service in a later post.

Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Human Rights Work – Advanced course

This e-learning course is intended for staff members of human rights and social justice NGOs and inter-governmental organisations who are responsible for information and communication (i.e. information officers, web editors, webmasters/webweavers, communication specialists) within their organisation. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) is a dynamic field where success is dependent upon skill development and practical experience. Participants will be introduced to proven methods of using ICTs to promote their human rights work. They will become equipped with the knowledge and tools to more effectively design and implement listservs, web sites, databases or multi-media for advocacy campaigns, training and information management.

For more details see here.

Smart Toolkit for evaluating information products and services

Over 2003 – 2004, I was involved in testing some components of this toolkit for evaluating ICT and information related initiatives such as newsletters, websites, workshops and training, online communities and radio programmes, facilitated by LEAP IMPACT – a joint initiative of CTA, IICD, Bellanet, and KIT.

I noticed recently that they have put up a PDF of the preliminary final version of the Toolkit, available here.

As the document states:

This Toolkit is for organisations interested in learning how to improve their project management practices and to develop a culture of evaluation. The Toolkit is also for anyone interested in good project management such as managers and funding agencies, as well as other stakeholders who play an active role in the life of the information product or service. The Toolkit particularly lends itself to the non-experts in evaluation, particularly those at the grassroots level, because of its style and the type of information provided.

The toolkit is also written with a view to facilitating iterative / self-learning, as opposed to external evaluations of initiatives that rarely transfer knowledge or build local capacities. In this respect, this is a well written and easy to understand set of tools that can easily be built into initiatives in the future, and in most cases, be effectively retro-fitted to existing projects as well, with a view to strengthening their quality, impact, reach, sustainability and long-term effectiveness.

Related resources:
Designing for Results: Integrating Monitoring and Evaluation in Conflict Transformation Programs

Vint Cerf on Net Neutrality

An succint podcast on the issue of net neutrality with Vint Cerf.

Related posts I’ve made on the issue of net neutrality:
Net neutrality and Trust
The future of the Internet and peacebuilding

Nanesala vs. VGK

“Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy” – George Bernard Shaw

If what is written on a comment that I read on Lirneasia’s blog today is true, the necessary use of expletives in a studied response to these comments prevents me from doing so on this blog.

Suffice to say that if this is any indication of the hogwash that may well define ICTA in the months to come, the future of ICT in Sri Lanka is very bleak indeed.

Blogging Left, Right & Centre

Turns out that in America at least, bloggers actively seek out political opinions that challenge their own!

With every conceivable political niche having its own Internet outpost, critics fear that the Internet could fragment into a set of like-minded communities. The Pew study shows that the opposite is also true. Instead of reading only sites with which they agree, nearly half of the general Internet population reads news and blogs without a particular political slant, and nearly a quarter of all readers actively seek out sources that challenge their own views. While political message boards can make one fear for the future of a democracy in which people can no longer debate and disagree well, the new study provides evidence that many Internet users refuse to lock themselves inside a political ghetto.

This excerpt from a Ars.Technica story on a recent Pew Internet & American Life project survey on bloggers is extremely interesting to read and makes on wish that a similar project could be carried out in Sri Lanka.

Any takers?

Swarming and the Future of Protesting

There are interesting article here on swarming and a novel system of mobile tracking that is envisaged as a foundation for more effective swarms. As Robin Good notes:

Text messaging has enabled, in the recent past, swarming actions, that have had very major social and cultural impacts. Howard Rheingold’s book, entitled Smart Mobs, explains and describes in much detail how text messaging has enabled groups of several thousands people to move and act rapidly by self-coordinating itself via SMS mobile phone messaging.

When applied to communication scenarios, swarming can indeed provide a uniquely flexible and robust method of rapid communication to both small and large groups of people, which has the powerful advantage of adapting quickly to changing environments and to continue functioning even when individual elements fail.

As I note in an earlier post:

The internet is a tool for communication. Used effectively it can galvanise ideas into action. Used ineffectively, it adds little to processes of democratisation or peace. The issue is not so much that people surf porn, use eBay or live in virtual reality, but how the web and internet can interest these people in social activism.

This hold true for mobile phone facilitated swarming as well – creating the technical networks are easy, sustaining the larger social movement is not. How ICT4Peace can fuel long term social activism through an event based approach such as regular swarms for peace is an area rich for research and practice.