Mobile phones augmenting reality

The Nokia research team has demonstrated a prototype phone equipped with MARA software and the appropriate hardware: a global positioning system (GPS), an accelerometer, and a compass. The souped-up phone is able to identify restaurants, hotels, and landmarks and provide Web links and basic information about these objects on the phone’s screen. In addition, says David Murphy, an engineer at Nokia Research Center, in Helsinki, Finland, who works on the project, the system can also be used to find nearby friends who have phones with GPS and the appropriate software.

The field of augmented reality, in which supplementary information from a computer or the Internet is overlaid onto the real world, has been the topic of science fiction and serious academic and military study for years. Historically, augmented-reality systems have required small backpacks with computing and networking hardware that stream information onto a visual display. But in recent years, researchers have been experimenting with more consumer-friendly ways to augment reality.

Mobile phones, in particular, are an appealing gateway to the virtual world. Their computing capabilities have increased substantially, and a growing number are GPS-enabled and can access high-speed data networks.

Click here for the full article, and here for the Nokia Research Centre’s page on Mobile Augmented Reality Applications.

The potential of such research to create devices that can support situation awareness, the understanding of a locale (important in Online Dispute Resolution) or just as a handy mobile phone based walking guide to a foreign city or region is fascinating.

$100 Laptop – Fact or fiction?

In a post about Negroponte’s OLPC initiative earlier, written earlier this year, I ended by saying:

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.

Broadly echoing these observations, there’s a recent article on Technology Review that critically looks at the $100 laptop:

The simplest and strongest argument against the $100 laptop, though, is that even if it can be built, and even if it will work approximately as well as Negroponte promises it will, it’s still a waste of money. In an ideal world with unlimited government budgets, the argument goes, putting a laptop in the hands of every child would be a marvelous and valuable feat. But in the far-from-ideal worlds of developing countries, which generally have limited budgets and pervasive social problems, millions or billions of dollars’ worth of computers are a luxury that governments can ill afford. Brazil, for instance, which seems likely to buy a million laptops from OLPC as soon as they become available, has around 45 million school-age children: equipping all of them would cost something like $6.3 billion. Given the desperate poverty of many Brazilians, are laptops the best use for that kind of money?

The article is interesting for more than its examination of the laptop, since it also explores the new models of philanthropy that Negroponte and other like him are championing, perhaps harbingers of new models of funding for development in the years to come.

Videoletters – Using TV and new media for reconciliation

Videoletters is a tool for reconciliation in post-war countries & a conflict prevention tool in multy ethnic societies. By reconnecting former enemies, Videoletters contributes to open communication and makes reconciliation possible.

The Videoletters project aims to foster reconciliation in post-war countries in the former Yugoslavia by attempting to re-establish friendships that have been ruptured by the conflict. Individuals in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Monte Negro, and Kosovo are invited to exchange greetings through a video message, in an attempt to open channels of communication. The original documentary project by Dutch filmmakers Katarina Rejger and Eric van den Broekhas has since expanded to include television broadcasts, a mobile caravan, helplines and an interactive website.

For more details, click here.

For the Videoletters website, click here.

This is truly inspired and inspirational, and worthy of emulation in other countries to foster reconciliation and peacebuilding. See also an excellent Q&A video on the project.

For some existing productions done in Sri Lanka on reconciliation, see here. The problem with these productions is that they are hidden – once broadcast, there is no way to access them, whereas the interactive and user generated content on the Videoletters website makes for a far more useful and engaging selection of content.

Introducing Buddhist monks to non-violence…

Insight on Conflict [IoC] is a unique resource for everyone interested in the activities of grassroots peacebuilders. It provides access to the inspiring and valuable lessons of those living in conflict areas and working for peace. IoC provides comprehensive overviews of selected conflict areas and detailed information about organisations and initiatives working for peace in those areas.

I’ve been engaged off and on as a conflict resolution expert on the Insight on Conflict initiative by PeaceDirect for a little over a year now. Their beta website is online now, which is where I found an interesting initiative titled Peace Connectivity Programme for Religious Clergy.

A programme to introduce the Buddhist religous clergy to non-violent conflict transformation processes through providing training in English language, ICT and peace building skills.

Conducted by the Centre for Peace Building and Reconciliation it’s a fascinating initiative that when you first read it, sounds an oxymoron – teaching non-violent conflict transformation to Buddhist clergy brings to mind the old adage on carrying coals to Newcastle.

However, as the description of the initiative mentions:

The current voice of the Buddhist clergy is not favourable towards a non-violent solution to the ethnic conflict. The majority perceive the establishment of a dominant Sinhala-Buddhist ideology in the country as being crucial to safeguard the nation. The non-violent conflict transformation process so far in the country is seen as giving away the power and authority the Sinhala Buddhists have in the country. Since they are an influential group in the decision making process of the country in relation to the conflict, their voice for peace can make a difference in the pending war situation in the country. It is important for the Buddhist clergy to have exposure to non-violent conflict transformation strategies to be able to trust in such a process in Sri Lanka.

Therefore the project aims to provide the Buddhist clergy with awareness of new trends and mechanisms of conflict transformation. Teaching English, computer skills and peace building aim for this. Thorough this they would be able to have a wider exposure to the conflict transformation processes throughout the world and how non-violent conflict transformation strategies that are in alignment with Buddhism have been employed successfully in different contexts, as the movement of engaged Buddhism that was practiced in Vietnam and truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa.

Further the initiative expects to improve the Buddhist clergy’s familiarity with the Tamil culture and language through the Tamil language lessons.

This expects to mobilise the voice of Buddhist clergy for peace and through them, influence both the community and the policy making level.

The challenges facing anyone who tries to reach out to the Sangha in Sri Lanka to bring them more fully into the peace process as constructive social change agents are not insignificant, as this paper highlights.

To use ICT to facilitate this process is a novel idea and one that I will definitely keep my eye on.

See also:
Building peace through ICT – Ideas for practical ICT4Peace projects

Podcasts on Sri Lanka – Muslim Protests in Puttulam & Sri Lankans standing up against abductions

Voices of Reconciliation Radio, which will be officially launched later this year, has new content on Muslim Protests in Puttulam & Sri Lankans standing up against abductions.
In 1990, Muslims in Sri Lanka’s north were forcibly evicted from their homes. October 28 was the 16th commemoration of that day, and as VOR Radio finds out, passions are still running very high. Listen to (or download) the podcast here.

On Monday, November 6, a rally was held at Colombo’s Fort Railway Station to bring attention to the increasing amount of abductions around the island. VOR Radio was there, and spoke to protesters about their loved ones’ disappearances. Listen to (or download) the podcast here.

For more engaging content on peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, please visit VOR Radio.

See also:
Podcasts on current situation in Sri Lanka
Radio for peacebuilding – VOR Radio and Matara Media House
A conversation with Prof. Kevin Clements on Peace and Conflict in Sri Lanka

IBM Offers Broadband, VoIP Over Power Line

IBM has introduced a new technology in India, which combines broadband internet, VoIP and electricity via a single line. The technology, called Broadband over Power Line(BPL), does not require any additional infrastucture, because it offers speedier internet access and better quality of VoIP via the already exisiting power lines, so users will be able to pay a single bill for all three services. IBM is currently in talks with various utility providers to launch the system in India, within the next few months.

Occasionally I post on this blog developments in technology that can help citizens create, disseminate and access content on and for the web and internet through their PC’s in rural areas – especially as an aid to develop content that strengthens peace and supports reconciliation. One such development I came across was through an interesting news story I read today – on how India is offering broadband and VoIP over power lines.

I wonder what the pitfalls of adopting such an approach for Last Mile access for accessing the web and internet would be in Sri Lanka. According to this page, 73% of Sri Lankan households have electricity, though this does not take into account significant disparities between Provinces and Districts, or even the quality of service (power cuts are a daily occurrence in many parts of Colombo). However, it’s an interesting idea. Broadband over power lines (BPL) has been around for a while in countries like the US & Canada, and as this Wired report from 2005 notes, it’s another way through which the web and internet can penetrate into communities hitherto deprived of access.

“BPL isn’t necessarily an ideal end-to-end solution,” he said, “but one that can play a role along with technologies like wireless and fiber optics to bridge the last mile.”

See also:
Last mile & first mile, access & production

ICT4Peace Foundation spearheads global efforts to mainstream ICT for Peacebuilding

In an email I received recently from Daniel Stauffacher, Chairperson of the ICT4Peace Foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, he mentioned a letter from the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) that confirms the recognition of ICT4Peace as a full-fledged part of the official WSIS follow-up process (Geneva Plan of Action) by the UN, based on Paragraph 36 of the Tunis Commitment and as proposed by the ICT4Peace Foundation.

36. We value the potential of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict which, inter alia, negatively affects achieving development goals. ICTs can be used for identifying conflict situations through early-warning systems preventing conflicts, promoting their peaceful resolution, supporting humanitarian action, including protection of civilians in armed conflicts, facilitating peacekeeping missions, and assisting post conflict peace-building and reconstruction.

In addition DESA welcomed the offer of the ICT4Peace Foundation to lead the ICT4Peace community of expertise under the chapter Governance of the UN Global Alliance on ICT4 Development.

Looks like ICT4Peace is finally well on the way to being recognised as a body of theory, research and practice that is worthy of global attention.

DARPA’s GALE and the new generation of information analysis systems

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) isn’t known for thinking small, and DARPA has turned its attention (and budget) to a massive task: developing a set of software engines that can transcribe, translate, and summarize both text and speech without training or human intervention. The program, called the Global Autonomous Language Exploitation (GALE), attempts to address the lack of qualified linguists and analysts who know important languages like Mandarin and Arabic.

When bid solicitations went out last year, they told interested parties that DARPA wanted three separate modules built. The first handles the transcription of spoken languages into text. The second is a translation module that can convert foreign text into English, and the third is a “distillation” engine that can answer questions and summarize information provided by the other two modules.

This except, from a Wired news story today, is exciting for a number of reasons. Before we go into them however, this story also begs the question – don’t US government agencies ever talk to each other? I blogged earlier of an equally ambitious and related research project that is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas.

Now if only Homeland Defense and DARPA collaborated instead of competed, we might actually have something half-decent instead millions of dollars being spent on overlapping research. And we are talking about millions of dollars – US$ 16 million spent on GALE in the first year alone, with the organisations that are part of it, at least at present, commanding research budgets that run into billions of dollars (such as IBM Corp.). As another news story on GALE points out:

GALE’s goal is to deliver, by 2010, software that can almost instantly translate Arabic and Mandarin Chinese with 90 to 95 percent accuracy.

DARPA’s project, in its sheer ambition, sets out to achieve a task that in civilian use, can revolutionise the manner in which information is translated into knowledge for, say, foreign / third party mediators involved in brokering a peace agreement in the middle east or in any region that communicates in a language they are not well versed in. In Strong Angel III, I saw an inkling of what’s possible today with existing technology to transcribe, in real time, Arabic TV broadcasts into English. If this were to be developed further, and GALE is a harbinger of very large scale information analysis systems to come, we may well be dealing with the emergence of expert systems that can be tailor made to deliver contextual on demand feedback for complex questions faced by peace negotiators at every stage in a peace process.

This is, of course, based on the assumption that this technology will eventually make it into civilian hands. It would be terribly wasteful if the billions of dollars spent on research is only limited to the development of embargoed tools.

In my earlier post, I explored the power and potential of a search mashup that combined Podzinger, Riya, Clusty and The Living Library. I should add GALE to the list.

Prisoners of War & games that open our minds

I’ve written about the potential of games for peacebuilding before on this blog, especially PC and increasingly web based games that use Flash and other interactive technologies to highlight some of the most pressing concerns in the world today, such as the situation in Darfur.

I came across Prisoners of War today, created by the Red Cross soon after I read a Wired article, referenced on Colin’s blog, on a game called September 12th.

Unfortunately, September 12th does not run on the new Intel Mac’s, which is a strong case to build games using Flash alone. Having switched to a Mac, I’m also locked out of a Force More Powerful, which I was on the verge of purchasing when I switched to a Mac and discovered that it was only available for Windows PC’s.

As the Wired article quotes Mark Weitzman, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Task Force Against Hate:

“I think that what is essential is allowing players to freely experiment within a virtual environment and encourage them to discuss what they play with their peers,” says Frasca. “September 12th carries its own humanistic message, but I think that eventually, it would be even better if players would be able to use games as small laboratories for exploring — and contesting — their own beliefs.”

Of the two games mentioned here, I wish the model for future serious game development follows that of Prisoners of War – these games need the widest possible reach and need to be lightweight, engaging, simple to understand yet powerful in their message, run on any PC and importantly, run on low spec machines and those which only have dial up connections.

SSTR – Observations and Recommendations from the Field

The US Department of Defense released late in 2005 Directive 3000.05 on Military Support for Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) Operations. It is a dense document I keep revisiting to better understand, since every reading brings with it both a genuine hope that the US military will be more responsive & sensitive to conditions on the ground and even within 3000.05, the significant challenges that lie ahead in such a process.

Not everyone, rightfully, stands convinced that the US military (or any military for that matter) should get involved in humanitarian aid and long term reconstruction. The concerns are not insignificant, and obvious to anyone with experience in the field as to how the military acts, is perceived and thinks about field operations – in a manner and language often a polar opposite to humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organisations also operational in the same areas.

These were some of the discussions I engaged with during Strong Angel III, held earlier this year in San Diego. Members of the military and other defense and intelligence agencies had several closed door discussions with NGO personnel and humanitarian aid workers, with the result that both sides identified and understood the reasons behind a certain way of working and acting. (A report of these discussions is available here). Both sides were hostage to policy, often a matter that was beyond their control. Often a matter beyond their comprehension. Policies governed how both sides approached humanitarian aid in particular, and what may be called a SSTR process in general. Given that progressive and genuinely helpful intentions, ideas and modes of engagement within the military were hitherto thwarted by a lack of attention given to the spirit and nature of cooperation and collaboration with outside agencies, 3000.05 brings with it a broad framework for such a constructive and mutually beneficial engagement to take place.

No doubt, this is a long term process itself. The distrust on both sides and the skepticism of each other’s capacities, skills, expertise and experience is not going to be diminished overnight by a mere Directive. Neither is it clear how, now that the Directive is in operation, how the significant re-alignment of financial and human resources, along with the necessary shifts in thinking and planning, will occur in the US military.

I was approached by the charismatic Dr. Eric Rasmussen to help write a document, with many others with far more experience in the field and in the US military, that would explore ways to bridge the divide between Directive and actual application mentioned above. My self-interest was in mainstreaming aspects of gender sensitivity, conflict transformation and peacebuilding into any process that sought to apply the tenets of 3000.05 anywhere in the world, but most importantly in socio-politically and economically unstable regions (failed states, failing states, regions with ethno-political conflict, religious conflict, caste / class / gender tensions etc). As most will recognise, SSTR operations in these areas are fraught with the danger of on the hand propping up illiberal, undemocratic, authoritarian regimes and on the other, run the risk of creating parallel architectures of relief and authority that can undermine State authority. Both can lead to serious instability, chaos, violence and often, the loss of lives.

While it is doubtful in my mind whether any SSTR operation, no matter how sophisticated the tools, planning and experienced the personnel, is going to avoid conflict, the goal of integrating core tenets of conflict transformation, peacebuilding and gender sensitivity was to give those centre and forward in such operations the conceptual and practical tools with which to better understand the choas that surrounds them, which in turn hopefully leads to better decisions to collaborate with, support and strengthen processes and actors on the ground. Conflict we cannot avoid, violence, we possibly can.

Below is the final report, titled Stability, Security, Transition and Reconstruction: Observations and Recommendations from the Field. It is in my mind, a significant and prescient work that I hope will be a powerful change agent in progressively shaping US policies of engagement with humanitarian disasters, humanitarian aid and long term reconstruction in the future. I am happy that in a very small way, the interests of peacebuilding, gender and conflict transformation are written into this work, as well as many other points I had made in the first draft that Eric has silently incorporated, without question or revision, into the final text, for which I am extremely grateful.

The full report

The Executive Summary