Sri Lankan Government bans GPS in mobile phones?
June 28, 2008
A news report today suggests that the Government has banned GPS on mobile phones. Unsurprisingly, the Defence Spokesperson when queried didn’t know what’s going on – but this wouldn’t be the first time the Ministry of Defense carried out an initiative without its own rank and file being informed.
So it’s ok to sell GPS / Sat Nav units for vehicles but not ok to have the feature on mobile phones.
Someone please explain this one to me.
ICANN hacked and the essential insecurity of the web
June 28, 2008
What happens when the official domain names of the organizations that issue the domain names in general, and provide all the practical guidance on how the prevent DNS hijacking, end up having their own domain names hijacked? A wake up call for the Internet community…. One thing’s for sure though, if the ICANN and IANA can lose control of their domains, anyone can.
ICANN was hacked today – an incident that raises the question as to just how secure websites today are against DDOS attacks and indeed, the the rising mafia on the web that arises from protection rings that place BOTS to secure machines against other BOTS.
Realising that the web is essentially insecure and unreliable is a useful way, I find, to frame the optimism of ICTs dependent on it to support peacebuilding and peacekeeping operations.
Also begs the question, with all the attention on “the cloud” as the repository of services and information as well as the facilitator of knowledge exchange, what happens when a critical service, platform or mechanism is hacked into? Say during a humanitarian response?
Got an email from Steven Pong at Asia Society to take a look at The Fires Within: Sri Lanka at War, described as a “project, which attempts to document the humanitarian costs of the civil war, shows the work of photojournalist Ron Haviv, who has worked in conflict areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and the former Yugoslavia in the past.”
I don’t like it.
There’s nothing original or insightful in the photos or the content and I don’t believe that journalists who parachute in, spend a little time in the war zones, take a few photos and then go on to make a splash internationally for their work are those who in any meaningful way contribute to fragile processes of peacemaking. Self-aggrandizement trumps the longer term commitment necessary to truly understand the subjects and their role as both victims and perpetrators of the violence.
Ron isn’t a Kevin Sites. While Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone was a compelling series of narratives (incl. on Sri Lanka) Ron’s (photo)journalism seems superficial and of the sort that is the result of covering as much of terrain as possible in a few days without stopping, really listening, pausing to think and reflect and importantly, allowing the viewers to make up their minds about what a picture signifies without the burden of anonymous voices in the background egging them on.
“I think the strength of photography itself is inherent in the way we, as human beings, our brains work; when you remember things you remember them quite often in the still image. The still image has this ability, much more so than moving video, to kind of remain with you and sear itself into your mind.”
the presentation actually features video and other voices that aren’t identified. Although it’s not difficult to imagine why, I simply cannot identity with and in fact am angered by those (particularly journalists) who uncritically believe the suggestion that the LTTE is a “sole representative” of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
The problem with the likes of Ron is that having come into a war zone, they believe they go out with some nugget of wisdom or the truth that escapes the “natives”. So you then set out to make a piece with little or no consultation with local actors, leading to the a presentation such as this which juxtaposes the absurd with the sublime, severely vitiating the appeal of the whole.
And paragraphs like this which appear on the Asia Society’s site simply don’t help,
“As he shared his experiences in the country, Haviv said he was surprised to see the areas controlled entirely by the Tamil Tigers, complete with fully functioning parallel institutions including schools and courthouses. He witnessed how the Tamil Tigers were attempting to create their own autonomous region by providing basic necessities, even as some of the population was coerced by the LTTE to remain in those areas.”
Ron seems to be easily surprised and given to accept what he sees without too much of questioning. As one photographer to another, my advice would be to switch the rose tinted filters to UV, which can bring to sharper relief the reality of the conflict on the ground and the degree to which the LTTE has destroyed hope for peace in Sri Lanka, just as much as the incumbent regime in the South. A photo presentation that captures the sad penchant for violence of both actors would be worth looking at.
This is not one.
kiwanja.net launches the new FrontlineSMS
June 25, 2008
This is something I rarely do – plug a product. But my friend Ken Banks has something special with FrontlineSMS and I encourage you strongly to try it out.
I’ve played with the beta and written about it (in sum, not a very positive experience) but Ken assures me that the feedback received from the beta testing stage has been incorporated into the final product. Importantly and excitingly, FrontlineSMS now runs natively on OS X and Linux, which means that I don’t have to use Bootcamp anymore to use this.
For over a year now I’ve been following Ken’s work with FrontlineSMS and frankly, it’s been an inspiring story. In a conversation with Colin Rule in October last year, Ken Banks explains the raison d’etre of FrontlineSMS. Having already proven itself in Pakistan at the worst of times amongst many other places, the new avatar of FrontlineSMS with its multi-OS client will be a tool that drives SMS advocacy and strategic communications via mobiles, including that which I have written about earlier as the development of m-government services.
The Press Release of the new version of FrontlineSMS is here. Go to the FrontlineSMS website here.
I’m looking forward to using the new version and will put a post in the coming months with my experiences of using it for my work in Sri Lanka.
Mobile phone anthropology
June 22, 2008
Photo credit: Shaul Schwarz/Reportage, for The New York Times
Does observing the behaviour of people using mobile phone influence how they are made? Jan Chipchase wants that answer to be yes.
Read this fascinating article (don’t forget to look at the photos) published in New Scientist on how Jan’s travels and research are influencing the design of handsets and software features in them, such as seperate address books on the same phone (useful when many members of a family share the same device).
Also read his blog here, though on my Mac all the text is crossed out.
Readers interested in Jan’s work may also recall a more engaging story on him and his work in the NY Times in April this year titled Can the Cellphone help end Global Poverty?
I was asked to run the Crystal Ball session at the 2008 Online Dispute Resolution Forum and with Vint Cerf right in front of me, it was an interesting opportunity to go through some of the technologies I felt would change the manner in which ODR systems would be developed and used as well as, more generally, how awareness of ODR would be raised across the world. I called the presentation “Know the Technology” taking from a statement made by a panelist in one of the sessions earlier in the day.
The background to this presentation is encapsulated in a comment I made last year, in response to one by Graham Ross after the 2007 Online Dispute Resolution Forum in Liverpool, England. The points I raised in that comment are still valid.
Slide 2 – Google Maps / Google Earth
I suggested the use of free, web based map mash-ups for ODR, particularly for land / territorial disputes and those that are based on natural resources, demography and ethnic composition. It’s not a new idea, but one that many in the audience I don’t think knew just how is being used even today to transform disputes. As Paul Currion notes, “Geospatial technology will transform the way that people look at the world. Tools like Google Earth and Google Maps offer access to mapping technology for free.” Google Earth (the 3D version) hitherto available only as a standalone app is now on browsers. I’ve used maps to plot election violence and the existence of High Security Zones that contravene International Law in Sri Lanka. One of the most powerful examples of maps being used to save lives is Amnesty International’s Eyes on Darfur project.
Slide 4 – New media, Web 2.0, Twitter et al
The point of this slide was to give a snapshot of the myriad of technologies on the web, internet and also on mobiles – from AJAX to SMS, from blogs to instant messages, from VOIP to video, from emoticons to MMS that are changing the way in which we communicate via and on the web. The suggestion here was that the technologies, as much as ingrained cultures of the users, changed the manner in which interactions took place. Emoticons were, for example, not just seen as eye candy, but a tool that could aid in inter-cultural negotiations by communicating the intended meaning of the written word more accurately. These were all disruptive technologies that with each iteration took communications to an ever increasing user base with more or less equal access to the medium. Blogging platforms for example level the playing field for new voices, allowing those hitherto marginalised to (potentially, relatively easily and for free or very little cost) have as much impact on the web as State propaganda. What would this mean for ODR? Would it help or would it create more conflict? Are ODR tools and technology neutral? What features have been integrated into the current crop of ODR platforms? If not, why not?
Slide 5 – The TSA blog
I said that given that I am a terrorist until proven innocent every time I visit the US, the TSA blog (Transportation Security Administration) was an eye opener on how public input ostensibly makes its way into TSA policies. The content is written in a manner that’s friendly and open, the site itself has generated hundreds of comments as feedback, there is a sensible, open moderation rule set, the content itself is very useful and information, the site is regularly updated and comments responded to and overall a very interesting experiment in how one of the most reviled agencies from the perspective of a foreigner attempting to enter the US can engage in a public relations exercise that is really a conflict resolution / mitigation strategy. This to me is preventive diplomacy in the form of a blog.
Slide 6 – Mobile phone growth
4 years ago, in Melbourne, at the first ODR Forum I attended, I was the ONLY one who spoke about mobile phones and peacebuilding. In Victoria, virtually every single panel and Vint Cerf himself was talking about mobiles being the next platform for web and internet services to reach millions who would never be able to afford and never buy a PC.
Slide 7 – Smartphones
I asked the question, why wasn’t there a single ODR application that ran as a thin client on smartphones? I pictured the new iPhone 3G and the new Blackberry Bold, but I could have also easily said the Nokia N series and a plethora of new phones that really are mini-computers. Rather than treat the smaller form factor and screen size as a negative, when were the developers going to realise that these devices were assets for ODR?
Slide 8 – The iPhone revolutionises mobile web browsing
The stats are clear and incredible. Americans and other users of the iPhone in the DEVELOPED world are using it to browse the web in a manner that no other mobile device has engendered. Though many in the DEVELOPING world use their mobiles phones to send SMS and browse the web, it is only now that users in countries like the US are waking up to the possibilities of the mobile web. When will ODR solutions providers wake up to this new reality? (One solutions provider in fact told me that an iPhone app was in the works – I’m looking forward to that).
Slide 9 – New communities
Strangely, no one talked about Second Life in Victoria. I’ve dealt with Second Life and ODR exhaustively on this blog and suggested that with all the disputes occurring virtually amongst the millions of avatars in Second Life alone, esp. now that you could also access the platform thru your mobile (leave aside other MMORPGs) that virtual dispute resolution could be the next growth industry! After all, SL already has an International Justice Centre and an E-Justice centre!
See my presentation on Second Life below for more salient points:
Slide 10 – Facebook
Using the example of a pending Canadian case against Facebook’s sui generis understanding of and approach to issues related to privacy, I suggested that FB alone would redefine issues related to trust models, confidentiality frameworks and “common sense”.
Slide 11 – Broadband growth
I suggested that the global growth in wired and wireless broadband connectivity laid the foundation for more interactive, media rich ODR frameworks and mechanisms to take the place of / complement the existing crop of tools. Broadband allows for example video conference for free using tools like Skype that can be integrated into ODR tools.
Slide 12 – Telepresence
Cisco’s telepresence technology, though prohibitively expensive, nevertheless shows us the future of video conference. Cisco’s telepresence is the Bentley of video conferencing, but for many, the Volkswagen of the medium – Skype Video – proves adequate, with the new Skye beta version for Windows demonstrating this shift with a stronger emphasis on video.
Slide 13 – End of walled gardens and patents?
Some ODR providers today use patents to protect their ODR products like the incumbent US President George Bush uses the English language – in ways that are wholly nonsensical. I posed three new technologies – Google’s OpenSocial, DataPortability.org and OpenID.net as ways that would challenge the walled gardens of the current crop of ODR solutions. Here’s the scenario – what if your user identity was remotely and securely managed and you could log into and try different ODR products with a single username / password, allowing each system to access your case details as you see fit and seeing which one gives the best solution? No data / user lock in, no giving out personal information to dozens of sites each with varying privacy regulations and security architectures. Simple, effective, neat.
Think not? Think that the best ODR products will always need and warrant patents? Think again. Just take a look at to who has put their names behind Dataportability.org alone.
Free the user and everyone stands to benefit.
So what do YOU think the future of ODR will be, from a technological / technical perspective?
The rise of botnets?
June 21, 2008
Akamai has a couple of interesting visualisations of the internet on their site but the real time web monitor (updated every 24hrs) is very interesting. Today, it shows a high prevalence of attacks in China / Taiwan, though for some reason Chile also shows it is under higher than normal levels of attack.
Akamai measures attack traffic in real time across the Internet with our diverse network deployments. We collect data on the number of connections that are attempted, the source IP address, the destination IP address and the source and destination ports in real time. The packets captured are generally from automated scanning trojans and worms looking to infect new computers scanning randomly generated IP addresses. The attack traffic depicts the total number of attacks over the last twenty-four hours. Values are measured in attacks per 24 hours (attacks/24hrs). Regions are displayed as countries or states.
It’s an interesting visualisation of the rise of (positively frightening) botnets. I’m just after the 2008 Online Dispute Resolution Forum in Victoria where Vint Cerf gave a compelling presentation on botnets and the future of the internet, that I hope to blog about soon.
I first wrote about the Dropping Knowledge two years ago (almost to date), before they had their big pow-wow in Berlin – the Table of Free Voices. I honestly thought interest in the grandiose idea peter out. However, I was surprised to note that the site still exists and is at the time of writing taking a crack at defining terrorism based on the responses to questions asked at the Table of Free Voices.
My concerns with pre-fabricated “wisdom” as I noted in my first post on Dropping Knowledge remain. Two years on, the fact that the site and its information is still locked into a domain and associated formats that can’t easily be accessed via mobiles is quite appalling (the assumption being that everyone accesses and can access the web through broadband and PC is already egregiously incorrect). Yet, there is a significant corpus of thought here that’s worth perusing, though the huge variance in intelligence of the people who participated makes the entire initiative uneven (unlike Wikipedia, information generated by the initiative is not moderated / controlled / overseen by the commons).
BTW, should mention that there was one Sri Lankan at the “Table of Free Voices” – Neela Marikkar. Her response to the question, “We are in the knowledge age. How can the increase in access to technology (Internet and computer) among low- income communities help to promote social and economic development?” is here. Pico Iyer also mentions Sri Lanka in response to this question, though it’s for a very different reason!
Three problems with the site. One, the fact that it is not accessible by mobiles really limits the appeal and usefulness of this site to those who don’t have a PC and broadband access. Today it’s easy enough to create a simple iPhone, mobile Flash, mobile Java or even just a plain text site with all the transcripts for access via mobiles. The possibilities here are quite exciting.
Two, the sheer scope and depth of the content on the site is hard to access. There’s no interlinkages between topics, no semantic navigation, just a search functionality. Contrary to the site’s avowed aim to create and spread wisdom, all you have are basic tools that offer basic search functionality of information. the UI of the site overwhelms. It’s not immediately evident how to get access to information – clutter and just bad information design with an over-reliance on Flash graphics (no low bandwidth version at all).
Three and importantly, where’s the Living Library? No one’s called Dropping Knowledge on this and the site now conveniently has no mention of it either.
See my original post for the Living Library’s feature set as it was proposed two years ago. The “conceptual topography of 25,000 interconnected issues” and a library “offering 3D graphic navigation” is nowhere to be found. In taking a Google like approach to access information you lose a tremendous degree of value in semantic connections between the participants, the questions and the answers.
I wonder if they ran out of funding, programmers, interest or all three. I wish this was more like the Encyclopedia of Life.
Firefox 3 just manages 4,000 downloads in Sri Lanka
June 20, 2008
Of the over 8 million people who downloaded Firefox on the day it was launched, just over 4,000 were from Sri Lanka. Sounds low, but we downloaded more copies than Nepal and Bangladesh and very strangely, even more than Kenya that managed just 2,281 downloads.
Firefox remains the most reassuring browser to use from the perspective of online security, though from the perspective of OS integration and convenience, Safari on the Mac still remains my default browser. More out of habit than necessity, I still switch to FF when I do my internet banking and online purchases.
The new version is noticeably faster on the Mac when rendering pages over Safari. I’m in Victoria, Canada at the moment on a blazingly fast internet connection. Firefox renders / loads pages quicker and scrolling through media rich sites like Quicktime, Apple, MTV, CNET Video and Ajax sites is noticeably more responsive than Safari 3.1, which is certainly no slouch either. It also looks more like a native Mac app than any previous version, which is very nice.
I’ve promoted FF as the browser of choice for the work I do with Human Rights organisations in Sri Lanka. There’s some resistance (to move away from Internet Explorer), but I’m hopeful that with the new version and the ease of use, security and functionality it brings with it (the most significant I believe since Version 1 as a user of the browser from its beta days) more users will migrate to it as their default browser.
“China has only continued to tighten censorship of the Internet as the Olympics draw near, not loosen up as expected. That’s the conclusion of activists who monitor the state of censorship in China. They say that a number of China-related that events, such as the unrest in Tibet and the recent earthquakes, have caused authorities to clamp down even further on what can be published online within the country, and what information can be accessed by citizens.”
Read the Ars Technica article on China’s growing internet repression and censorship here. For background information on the range and depth of China’s suppression of free speech on the internet, read this.
To test to see whether your website can be accessed in China, click on http://greatfirewallofchina.org
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