According to a USA Today report, many lives could have been saved in the disastrous Southeast Asia tsunami if better technology had been in place. The report suggests that tens of thousands of lives were lost due to an information breakdown, not an act of nature. The report questions why messages were not posted on the Internet, sent across news sources or sent to wireless phones. Many believe that an electronic warning of some kind could have saved countless lives. Government and technology companies are examining ways to spread information quickly in the event of future disasters. (Source: USA Today)
Just several days after the disaster I read a statement by the Indian government in an Austrian newspaper. The statement was about the lack of detection and warning system that could have saved so many lives. Their response: yes the system was offered, but was refused because the infrastructure required to actually carry out the warning to people was lacking and the price of the system was, then, not justified. Maybe the heavy duty infrastructure is indeed lacking. People in India, Sri Lanka or Thailand weren't exactly watching their TV's all the time. Yet there IS a light weight communication system that is certainly available. Mobile phones. Mobile phones are extraordinarily popular in these countries because they are cheap, available, and a communication modality like no other ever available in these regions. A simple text message broadcast by the government or by the provider networks could have saved so many lives... Yet again, technology is there, just not quite there...
Note: Recent CTIA numbers show that cell phone penetration in Malaisia is in low double digits (low teens that is) and single digits in India. These countries really are too poor to have a notification infrastructure even as light-weight as a cell phone. Besides, what would anyone do if they suddenly read an SMS saying - message from the government - tsunami is coming, move away from the beach! Most people would probably think it a bad joke. Along with a notification system there must be education as to how a notification system is used! Yes technology could help, but it can only help if there is a population that has the ability & understanding to use it.
07 January, 2005
European wireless carriers support relief efforts
"Wireless service providers around the world are helping raise money for people affected by the tsunami in Southeast Asia. Four wireless carriers in Italy began sending subscribers text messages inviting them to donate to charities supporting rescue efforts. Subscribers can send a text message to a designated number, the cost of the text message is then donated to the fund. By December 30, 2004 the effort had raised 15 million Euro. Wireless carriers around the world have mimicked this initiative and continue to support recovery efforts. (Source: Wall Street Journal, AFP)"
This is an incredibly good example of application of behavioral economics. Charitable giving has always been a puzzle for neo-classical economists. Charity and altruisitic behavior clearly go against the concept of the rational asset-maximizing being that economic theories take as a good approximation of human behavior. Many papers have been written on charitable giving and analysits have pointed to other types of utility derived from giving (tax breaks being one of the major ones). In the example above, nobody is getting tax breaks or recognition. However, there is something about mental accounting (see Richard Thaler's paper entitled "Mental Accounting Matters") or even discounting combined with peer pressure that really worked. Of course, it would have been impossible without the extreme level of convenience of simply sending a text message. The price is very low, potential for peer pressure is very high (imagine doing this with a group of friends and everyone sending a text message donation rather than texting each other for a day), satisfaction ... well satisfaction is guaranteed. So maybe, maybe American's are not a selfish nation, but rather our charitable giving mechanisms are so outdated, they create too many opportunity costs for the actual act of giving. People would be willing to give if they were reminded about it and given an easy opportunity to do so. Go Europe.
This is an incredibly good example of application of behavioral economics. Charitable giving has always been a puzzle for neo-classical economists. Charity and altruisitic behavior clearly go against the concept of the rational asset-maximizing being that economic theories take as a good approximation of human behavior. Many papers have been written on charitable giving and analysits have pointed to other types of utility derived from giving (tax breaks being one of the major ones). In the example above, nobody is getting tax breaks or recognition. However, there is something about mental accounting (see Richard Thaler's paper entitled "Mental Accounting Matters") or even discounting combined with peer pressure that really worked. Of course, it would have been impossible without the extreme level of convenience of simply sending a text message. The price is very low, potential for peer pressure is very high (imagine doing this with a group of friends and everyone sending a text message donation rather than texting each other for a day), satisfaction ... well satisfaction is guaranteed. So maybe, maybe American's are not a selfish nation, but rather our charitable giving mechanisms are so outdated, they create too many opportunity costs for the actual act of giving. People would be willing to give if they were reminded about it and given an easy opportunity to do so. Go Europe.
19 December, 2004
Knowing It All: The Pursuit of Knowledge, From Genesis to Google
The New York Times > Week in Review > Knowing It All: The Pursuit of Knowledge, From Genesis to Google
The article contends with the human ambition to know everything and the immediate drawback of memory - reading everything is not knowing everything and knowing everything is pretty much impossible as Ptolemey I found out oh so many centuries ago... Now Google wants to digitize a bunch of libraries... will that make the fish-eye of our lense and the diameter of our tunnel vision smaller or larger? As any graduate student knows - the more you learn the more you feel you need to learn. As the circumference of the tiny circle of knowledge increases so does the awareness of the vastness of the unkown surrounding it. The concept is simple and yet we persist.
I don't remember anything... most things I read fall together and I can recall mere whispers of the ideas. Sometimes, I pick up a paper and realize that I had read it in depth not too long ago when I get half way through it. More often, I pick up a paper I know I have read and discover that I do not remember anything! This is frightening, considering that I have cited this paper in my own work several times! Universal knowledge, ultimate knowledge is impossible... but we try, oh how we try...
The article contends with the human ambition to know everything and the immediate drawback of memory - reading everything is not knowing everything and knowing everything is pretty much impossible as Ptolemey I found out oh so many centuries ago... Now Google wants to digitize a bunch of libraries... will that make the fish-eye of our lense and the diameter of our tunnel vision smaller or larger? As any graduate student knows - the more you learn the more you feel you need to learn. As the circumference of the tiny circle of knowledge increases so does the awareness of the vastness of the unkown surrounding it. The concept is simple and yet we persist.
I don't remember anything... most things I read fall together and I can recall mere whispers of the ideas. Sometimes, I pick up a paper and realize that I had read it in depth not too long ago when I get half way through it. More often, I pick up a paper I know I have read and discover that I do not remember anything! This is frightening, considering that I have cited this paper in my own work several times! Universal knowledge, ultimate knowledge is impossible... but we try, oh how we try...
18 December, 2004
A.C.L.U.'s Search for Data on Donors Stirs Privacy Fears
The New York Times > National > A.C.L.U.'s Search for Data on Donors Stirs Privacy Fears
This article exposes ACLU for just another organization that whines one thing and does something different. As someone who has donated money to ACLU even while being a very poor graduate student, I not just concerned for my own privacy in view of the organization's idiocy, but have lost any desire to give them any money. Ever. Even the sad attempts of Michale Meyers to claim that the board knew nothing about this, are pathetic and laughable. The board just expected not to get caught. Richard Nixon didn't expect to get caught either. ACLU must understand that "cultivating donors" is rather different from collecting information that is perceived private even if it is publically available. One of the major points of the fight for privacy right now stands with that issue - the issue that there is a difference between legal privacy and privacy through obscurity, yet we, as people, have a hard time understanding which information about us is what. THAT is the problem, the problem that as humans we simply lack enough foresight and fall into corporate promotional traps. The excuse that "this is no different from doing a Google search" is moot in this case!
Much of ACLU's donor pool are very smart people who are very aware of these issues and I doubt that few of them will miss this one ... It's too bad, but this is an example of an organization forgetting what it stands for and falling for the carrot of information bloat.
This article exposes ACLU for just another organization that whines one thing and does something different. As someone who has donated money to ACLU even while being a very poor graduate student, I not just concerned for my own privacy in view of the organization's idiocy, but have lost any desire to give them any money. Ever. Even the sad attempts of Michale Meyers to claim that the board knew nothing about this, are pathetic and laughable. The board just expected not to get caught. Richard Nixon didn't expect to get caught either. ACLU must understand that "cultivating donors" is rather different from collecting information that is perceived private even if it is publically available. One of the major points of the fight for privacy right now stands with that issue - the issue that there is a difference between legal privacy and privacy through obscurity, yet we, as people, have a hard time understanding which information about us is what. THAT is the problem, the problem that as humans we simply lack enough foresight and fall into corporate promotional traps. The excuse that "this is no different from doing a Google search" is moot in this case!
Much of ACLU's donor pool are very smart people who are very aware of these issues and I doubt that few of them will miss this one ... It's too bad, but this is an example of an organization forgetting what it stands for and falling for the carrot of information bloat.
11 December, 2004
Cellphones Aloft: The Inevitable Is Closer
The New York Times > Technology > Cellphones Aloft: The Inevitable Is Closer - There was something curiously archaic in the inability to use cell phones on the airplane. At the same time, it was a bit of a safe heaven - you were not "expected" to be able to take calls because you were... well a few thousand feet above ground and acceptable unavailable.
Allowing cell phone use on the airplanes will not just make some people more annoying than others, but may also create expectations for people who aren't flying, expectations that would force people who are to take the calls even if they do not want to. Yet another social space invaded by noise, yet this one is so cramped and claustrophobic, with no escape for SO many hours (especially on transatlantic flights) that it is really a question of whether allowing cell phones could make long difficult flights even longer and more difficult...
Allowing cell phone use on the airplanes will not just make some people more annoying than others, but may also create expectations for people who aren't flying, expectations that would force people who are to take the calls even if they do not want to. Yet another social space invaded by noise, yet this one is so cramped and claustrophobic, with no escape for SO many hours (especially on transatlantic flights) that it is really a question of whether allowing cell phones could make long difficult flights even longer and more difficult...
Engaging the City - CHI 2005 Workshop
Engaging the City: Public Interfaces as Civic Intermediary
As interest in the city grows as a viable site for HCI research, the organizers of this workshop aim to shift the research perspective from the architects plan view to the street level. No longer reducing the city to a dense population of users, we challenge our participants to consider the city not just as a backdrop for interactions but as an inalienable part of interactions that happen within it. By reorienting ourselves, we move beyond the city as a muse to the city as a resource for public exchange.
This workshop is designed to explore notions of exchange within an urban landscape. What relationships do we have with the city? What do we give and take from it and each other in its embrace? How is this exchange enacted in and upon the city in everyday life? And how can technological innovation capture or foster this exchange?
The challenge for the HCI community is to design public interfaces that provide citizens with more active access, authorship, and agency. The workshops field research component will involve visiting the city of Portland as a case study for processing and refining these theoretical considerations. We would like to gather a representative group of social scientists, technologists, urban planners, architects, artists, and designers whose work addresses issues of shared public interfaces and interactions.
Application
Participants will be selected based on a demonstrated interest in the topic, as seen through position papers submitted prior to the workshop that consist of:
• A discussion of background, interests, current work and relevance to workshop goals.
• An object/image/idea which represents an active exchange with the city.
Participants should be prepared to demonstrate this item’s context within the theoretical framework of access, agency, and authorship.
Acceptable submission formats include: Word or PDF. Send submissions and questions regarding format to Michele Chang at: michele.f.chang@intel.com.
Workshop URL: http://hciresearch.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/engaging_cities/
ORGANIZERS
Michele Chang, Intel Corporation, People and Practices Research
Katrina Jungnickel, INCITE, University of Surrey
Chet Orloff, School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University
Irina Shklovski, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
As interest in the city grows as a viable site for HCI research, the organizers of this workshop aim to shift the research perspective from the architects plan view to the street level. No longer reducing the city to a dense population of users, we challenge our participants to consider the city not just as a backdrop for interactions but as an inalienable part of interactions that happen within it. By reorienting ourselves, we move beyond the city as a muse to the city as a resource for public exchange.
This workshop is designed to explore notions of exchange within an urban landscape. What relationships do we have with the city? What do we give and take from it and each other in its embrace? How is this exchange enacted in and upon the city in everyday life? And how can technological innovation capture or foster this exchange?
The challenge for the HCI community is to design public interfaces that provide citizens with more active access, authorship, and agency. The workshops field research component will involve visiting the city of Portland as a case study for processing and refining these theoretical considerations. We would like to gather a representative group of social scientists, technologists, urban planners, architects, artists, and designers whose work addresses issues of shared public interfaces and interactions.
Application
Participants will be selected based on a demonstrated interest in the topic, as seen through position papers submitted prior to the workshop that consist of:
• A discussion of background, interests, current work and relevance to workshop goals.
• An object/image/idea which represents an active exchange with the city.
Participants should be prepared to demonstrate this item’s context within the theoretical framework of access, agency, and authorship.
Acceptable submission formats include: Word or PDF. Send submissions and questions regarding format to Michele Chang at: michele.f.chang@intel.com.
Workshop URL: http://hciresearch.hcii.cs.cmu.edu/engaging_cities/
ORGANIZERS
Michele Chang, Intel Corporation, People and Practices Research
Katrina Jungnickel, INCITE, University of Surrey
Chet Orloff, School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University
Irina Shklovski, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
08 December, 2004
PC pioneer leaves its history behind
BBC NEWS | Business | PC pioneer leaves its history behind - soo... Thinkpads will be made by Lenovo of China now... hmmm... no big change there :)
Lifestyle 'governs mobile choice'
BBC NEWS | Technology | Lifestyle 'governs mobile choice' - This article reports on a study done for Ericsson on ways to entice users to buy new handsets. Surprise, they found that lifestyle choices are better predictors of handset selection and purchase than the number of features a particular phone posesses. The feature bloat has gotten to the point where certain aspects of a phone appeal more or less to different types of populations. This idea of lifestyle is new for technology makers who have long operated on "build it and they will buy it and we will transform their lives" type of method. Awareness of the influence of lifestyle choices and the idea that technology doesn't "transform" human behavior per se, at least not immediately. In fact, technology must appeal to existing practices somehow augmenting them, and through this augmentation it eventually changes behavior patterns. This is an exciting change to see in industrial technology makers. It also smells of job prospects :)
Nextel Communications Increases Boost Mobile Subscribers
Nextel Communications reported one million subscribers for its Boost Mobile prepaid subsidiary at the end of November 2004. The company had expected to add 650,000 new subscribers in 2004, up from 385,000 in 2003. (Source: Reuters)
This is quite interesting. Boost Mobile is one of the pre-paid companies, but their rates are actually quite reasonable and you can see on their site they explicitly market to teenagers - the white middle-class boys actually. The first thing that comes up when you click "rates" is the rate for text messaging and not calling. This is an indicator both of their target audience and the types of services they sell most. This is very similar to providers in the UK much more so than in the US. The fact that Boost has only existed for a year and is exceeding expectations in terms of subscribers is also similar to what Vodafone and T-Mobile experienced in Europe nearly a decade ago. It could be that it was indeed the payment structure and the kind of perception of the consumers that wireless companies had here and geography of the country and it's habits, that created such a huge difference in patterns of mobile services consumption.
This is quite interesting. Boost Mobile is one of the pre-paid companies, but their rates are actually quite reasonable and you can see on their site they explicitly market to teenagers - the white middle-class boys actually. The first thing that comes up when you click "rates" is the rate for text messaging and not calling. This is an indicator both of their target audience and the types of services they sell most. This is very similar to providers in the UK much more so than in the US. The fact that Boost has only existed for a year and is exceeding expectations in terms of subscribers is also similar to what Vodafone and T-Mobile experienced in Europe nearly a decade ago. It could be that it was indeed the payment structure and the kind of perception of the consumers that wireless companies had here and geography of the country and it's habits, that created such a huge difference in patterns of mobile services consumption.
30 November, 2004
Congress trims money for science agency
The New York Times > Washington > Congress Trims Money for Science Agency - and the news many of us have been waiting for... Federal NSF funding has been cut. It's a big deal, but is it really as big as we are saying it is? The overall NSF budget is over 5 billion dollars. It was cut by approximately 300 million... quite a bit, but the total is still quite large. I wonder which areas that NSF commonly funds will get cut. Coming from a school with a LOT of NSF funding this is really an interesting question. Hmmm but NIH got more funding... maybe its time to focus on health?
28 November, 2004
Competition? Nah, legislature is far easier and more permanent...
"Telecom Companies Report Concern for Free Wi-Fi Access
As many large cities, such as Philadelphia and San Francisco, announce plans to offer free, city-wide Wi-Fi access, many telecommunications and cable companies are nervous about competing with the government and are pushing states to pass legislation that could make it illegal for cities to offer the service. Critics denounce this legislative tactic, arguing that, in terms of high speed Internet access, the U.S. lags behind other countries because phone and cable companies have been slow to roll out the service in some areas. The telecom companies, who are looking to their digital-subscriber-line (DSL) and cable-modem businesses for growth, argue that it is unfair for them to have to compete against the government and that the legislation enables them to improve service to their customers by investing in their networks. (Source: Wall Street Journal)"
It is becoming indicative of large corporations in this country, that when they are faced with the possibility that their established practices may have to be re-evaluated due to new kinds of competition emerging, they rush to push for legislature to force things like that to go away, rather than figuring out ways to survive... freedom eh?
As many large cities, such as Philadelphia and San Francisco, announce plans to offer free, city-wide Wi-Fi access, many telecommunications and cable companies are nervous about competing with the government and are pushing states to pass legislation that could make it illegal for cities to offer the service. Critics denounce this legislative tactic, arguing that, in terms of high speed Internet access, the U.S. lags behind other countries because phone and cable companies have been slow to roll out the service in some areas. The telecom companies, who are looking to their digital-subscriber-line (DSL) and cable-modem businesses for growth, argue that it is unfair for them to have to compete against the government and that the legislation enables them to improve service to their customers by investing in their networks. (Source: Wall Street Journal)"
It is becoming indicative of large corporations in this country, that when they are faced with the possibility that their established practices may have to be re-evaluated due to new kinds of competition emerging, they rush to push for legislature to force things like that to go away, rather than figuring out ways to survive... freedom eh?
Adelstein will have more time to "fight indicency"
"FCC Commissioner Adelstein Confirmed for Another Term
The U.S. Senate approved Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein for a full (five-year) term to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Adelstein, who joined the FCC in 2002, has supported rural issues and the crackdown on TV indecency. (Source: Associated Press, Reuters)"
Just to make sure that we can continue with inventing better ways to censor and making the media in this country as close to puritanical as possible, the venerable Jonathan Adelstein has been approved to spend some more of his precious time helping with that.
The U.S. Senate approved Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein for a full (five-year) term to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Adelstein, who joined the FCC in 2002, has supported rural issues and the crackdown on TV indecency. (Source: Associated Press, Reuters)"
Just to make sure that we can continue with inventing better ways to censor and making the media in this country as close to puritanical as possible, the venerable Jonathan Adelstein has been approved to spend some more of his precious time helping with that.
A more effective way to censor free speech...
In the New York Times article by Frank Rich called Bono's New Casualty: 'Private Ryan' the author tackles the "unusual" case of self-censorship that was observed when, last week, a number of networks actually refused to show an award winning movie - Saving Private Ryan - because they were afraid they would get slapped with a fee from FCC for ofering graphic violence and dirty language on television. Hmm... in the country where violence was always rated as OK (while sex was belieed to be an aweful, terrible thing, never to be shown to children, especially if it's a "male member" that's visible), this is sort of worrying. This kind of self-censorship is not new but the level at which it is done, is certainly far more intense than ever before. The far right have gained a lot of power over the last few years and we are starting to feel that. Soon enough all of our media is going to be as clean and anemic as public radio and TV are already. Soon enough we will be going back to the dark ages, maybe some of us need to re-read "The Scarlet Letter" with a bit of a ciritical eye again?
The following quote in the article is testament enough to the worry that there are bad things to come (and this guy is far less paranoid about freedom of speech and surveillance than I am): "What makes the 'Ryan' case both chilling and a harbinger of what's to come is that it isn't about Janet Jackson and sex but about the presentation of war at a time when we are fighting one. That some of the companies whose stations refused to broadcast 'Saving Private Ryan' also own major American newspapers in cities as various as Providence and Atlanta leaves you wondering what other kind of self-censorship will be practiced next. If these media outlets are afraid to show a graphic Hollywood treatment of a 60-year-old war starring the beloved Tom Hanks because the feds might fine them, toy with their licenses or deny them permission to expand their empires, might they defensively soften their news divisions' efforts to present the graphic truth of an ongoing war? The pressure groups that are exercised by Bono and 'Saving Private Ryan' are often the same ones who are campaigning to derail any news organization that's not towing the administration line in lockstep with Fox."
My question however, is - do you really think that print media hasn't been censoring in the same way maybe for an even longer time? Here is a country of "freedom" and "freedom of speech" where the media are about as believable as they were in my beloved Former Soviet Union... The major newspaper there was called "Truth" ironically enough. Yet unlike Americans, people living in the former soviet union over the last 5-6 decades or so never actualy really had illusions of a good government that wouldn't lie to them. There, rigged elections are expected, shadow governments are understood as a necessary evil that is not changeable unless its done through overt power or quieter methods of murder and death. There, media is heard and read with a grain of salt by a large proportion of population, the same population that doesn't value the lives of individuals that comprise it, knowing that nobody does. Sometimes I am terrified that, living in this country, there is an illusion of trust, freedom and value of human life. I am scared that this illusion may have made people here too soft and too open, too vulnerable to a reality that may actually be closer to the one I'd left behind than any of us had ever expected...
The following quote in the article is testament enough to the worry that there are bad things to come (and this guy is far less paranoid about freedom of speech and surveillance than I am): "What makes the 'Ryan' case both chilling and a harbinger of what's to come is that it isn't about Janet Jackson and sex but about the presentation of war at a time when we are fighting one. That some of the companies whose stations refused to broadcast 'Saving Private Ryan' also own major American newspapers in cities as various as Providence and Atlanta leaves you wondering what other kind of self-censorship will be practiced next. If these media outlets are afraid to show a graphic Hollywood treatment of a 60-year-old war starring the beloved Tom Hanks because the feds might fine them, toy with their licenses or deny them permission to expand their empires, might they defensively soften their news divisions' efforts to present the graphic truth of an ongoing war? The pressure groups that are exercised by Bono and 'Saving Private Ryan' are often the same ones who are campaigning to derail any news organization that's not towing the administration line in lockstep with Fox."
My question however, is - do you really think that print media hasn't been censoring in the same way maybe for an even longer time? Here is a country of "freedom" and "freedom of speech" where the media are about as believable as they were in my beloved Former Soviet Union... The major newspaper there was called "Truth" ironically enough. Yet unlike Americans, people living in the former soviet union over the last 5-6 decades or so never actualy really had illusions of a good government that wouldn't lie to them. There, rigged elections are expected, shadow governments are understood as a necessary evil that is not changeable unless its done through overt power or quieter methods of murder and death. There, media is heard and read with a grain of salt by a large proportion of population, the same population that doesn't value the lives of individuals that comprise it, knowing that nobody does. Sometimes I am terrified that, living in this country, there is an illusion of trust, freedom and value of human life. I am scared that this illusion may have made people here too soft and too open, too vulnerable to a reality that may actually be closer to the one I'd left behind than any of us had ever expected...
18 November, 2004
That moose may soon be just a mouse click away
CNN.com - That moose may soon be just a mouse click away - Nov 16, 2004 -
"HOUSTON, Texas (Reuters) -- Hunters soon may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet, a prospect that has state wildlife officials up in arms.
The Web site already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope and wild pigs, site creator John Underwood said on Tuesday.
Texas officials are not quite sure what to make of Underwood's Web site, but may tweak existing laws to make sure Internet hunting does not get out of hand."
talk about progress... no more expensive equipment, dreary hours of slogging through the wilderness in an attempt to kill an animal. Now you can do that from the comfort of your own home! click - boom - dead... progress
"HOUSTON, Texas (Reuters) -- Hunters soon may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet, a prospect that has state wildlife officials up in arms.
The Web site already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope and wild pigs, site creator John Underwood said on Tuesday.
Texas officials are not quite sure what to make of Underwood's Web site, but may tweak existing laws to make sure Internet hunting does not get out of hand."
talk about progress... no more expensive equipment, dreary hours of slogging through the wilderness in an attempt to kill an animal. Now you can do that from the comfort of your own home! click - boom - dead... progress
17 November, 2004
In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye
The New York Times > Technology > In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye: "Hoping to prevent the loss of a child through kidnapping or more innocent circumstances, a few schools have begun monitoring student arrivals and departures using technology similar to that used to track livestock and pallets of retail shipments. "
Not only is this article amusing through its comparison of children and livestock, but it also creates an eery illustration of the way many American's have internalized fear of "what if violence happens" to the point where they are willing to give up their children's relative freedom even in an overprotective soccer-culture, for another grain of rice in the "peace of mind" box.
"At the Spring district, where no student has ever been kidnapped, the system is expected to be used for more pedestrian purposes, Chief Bragg said: to reassure frantic parents, for example, calling because their child, rather than coming home as expected, went to a friend's house, an extracurricular activity or a Girl Scout meeting.
When the district unanimously approved the $180,000 system, neither teachers nor parents objected, said the president of the board. Rather, parents appear to be applauding. "I'm sure we're being overprotective, but you hear about all this violence," said Elisa Temple-Harvey, 34, the parent of a fourth grader. "I'm not saying this will curtail it, or stop it, but at least I know she made it to campus."
There have been several books berating the media growth towards creating a "culture of fear" in the country, where it continually seems that terrorists are always around the corner. We have been conditioned to perceive terrorism as senseless violence that can happen anywhere for no reason what so ever. We don't even stop to consider that terrorism, as a tool, is actually a very deliberate weapon of terror and confusion, used in a way that is exremely pre-meditated.
"But there are critics, including some older students and privacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, who argue that the system is security paranoia." - The article states these few lines about "the opposition" with a tone that is almost berating - how can they! silly people!
"It is "naïve to believe all this data will only be used to track children in the extremely unlikely event of the rare kidnapping by a stranger," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the A.C.L.U.
Mr. Steinhardt said schools, once they had invested in the technology, could feel compelled to get a greater return on investment by putting it to other uses, like tracking where students go after school.
Advocates of the technology said they did not plan to go that far. But, they said, they do see broader possibilities, such as implanting RFID tags under the skin of children to avoid problems with lost or forgotten tags. More immediately, they said, they could see using the technology to track whether students attend individual classes."
The most amusing thing is the complete lack of horror at these ideas and the calm discussion of them. Tracking students as livestock is amusing. Granted over the last century, the western word has created a childhood that they have vowed to protect for their children. Yet this protection has been extending towards complete control, with technology leading the way. Some probably unintended outcomes from these attempts for complete control may result in less individual independence, fera of the new and unknown to a debilitating extent, less exploration and more constraints, lower levels of extrenalized rebelling translated into higher levels of internalized (thus more destructive in the long run) rebelling. Ladies and gentlemen, time to scar our own children for the peace of mind...
The article concludes with an insistent discussion of kidnapping (something that has never happened in the district using the technology). Why is it likely to happen then? Why is it something that is necessary to control for? A pre-emptive strategy for an unlikely event? Or is it the excuse to get the technology in place and waiting for further developments to really put it to use... hmmm... frightening
Not only is this article amusing through its comparison of children and livestock, but it also creates an eery illustration of the way many American's have internalized fear of "what if violence happens" to the point where they are willing to give up their children's relative freedom even in an overprotective soccer-culture, for another grain of rice in the "peace of mind" box.
"At the Spring district, where no student has ever been kidnapped, the system is expected to be used for more pedestrian purposes, Chief Bragg said: to reassure frantic parents, for example, calling because their child, rather than coming home as expected, went to a friend's house, an extracurricular activity or a Girl Scout meeting.
When the district unanimously approved the $180,000 system, neither teachers nor parents objected, said the president of the board. Rather, parents appear to be applauding. "I'm sure we're being overprotective, but you hear about all this violence," said Elisa Temple-Harvey, 34, the parent of a fourth grader. "I'm not saying this will curtail it, or stop it, but at least I know she made it to campus."
There have been several books berating the media growth towards creating a "culture of fear" in the country, where it continually seems that terrorists are always around the corner. We have been conditioned to perceive terrorism as senseless violence that can happen anywhere for no reason what so ever. We don't even stop to consider that terrorism, as a tool, is actually a very deliberate weapon of terror and confusion, used in a way that is exremely pre-meditated.
"But there are critics, including some older students and privacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, who argue that the system is security paranoia." - The article states these few lines about "the opposition" with a tone that is almost berating - how can they! silly people!
"It is "naïve to believe all this data will only be used to track children in the extremely unlikely event of the rare kidnapping by a stranger," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the A.C.L.U.
Mr. Steinhardt said schools, once they had invested in the technology, could feel compelled to get a greater return on investment by putting it to other uses, like tracking where students go after school.
Advocates of the technology said they did not plan to go that far. But, they said, they do see broader possibilities, such as implanting RFID tags under the skin of children to avoid problems with lost or forgotten tags. More immediately, they said, they could see using the technology to track whether students attend individual classes."
The most amusing thing is the complete lack of horror at these ideas and the calm discussion of them. Tracking students as livestock is amusing. Granted over the last century, the western word has created a childhood that they have vowed to protect for their children. Yet this protection has been extending towards complete control, with technology leading the way. Some probably unintended outcomes from these attempts for complete control may result in less individual independence, fera of the new and unknown to a debilitating extent, less exploration and more constraints, lower levels of extrenalized rebelling translated into higher levels of internalized (thus more destructive in the long run) rebelling. Ladies and gentlemen, time to scar our own children for the peace of mind...
The article concludes with an insistent discussion of kidnapping (something that has never happened in the district using the technology). Why is it likely to happen then? Why is it something that is necessary to control for? A pre-emptive strategy for an unlikely event? Or is it the excuse to get the technology in place and waiting for further developments to really put it to use... hmmm... frightening
16 November, 2004
Wireless Phones May Become Wireless Wallets
Wireless service providers and finance companies are now looking to turn wireless phones into wireless wallets. Companies such as Motorola and MasterCard have announced a field test of wireless phones equipped with chips allowing users to swipe the phones to pay for products. According to a USA Today report, the advantages of using a wireless phone "wallet" will be the speed and convenience of not having to pull out cash or credit cards. (Source: USA Today)
Wallets have been a focus of attention lately in studies done at IIT by Christina Nippert-Eng and Jay Melican, studies underway at Intel Research in the PaPR group, studies at France Telecom under the guidance of Christian Licoppe... These studies have been looking at wallets as repositories of modalities of access, identification, memory, self. They embody the contradictions of public and private, containing the most private information that is often displayed in public. I wonder though, whether Motorola and MasterCard had considered these issues of public and private, the repository of status and access, the symbology of a wallet when they considered making a "wireless" wallet out of a phone. No, really, it's not about giving the phone the capability of making wireless transactions (although this does raise issues of security in data transfer and costs). It's about calling it a "wireless wallet". Because it's not quite there yet... and I wonder if it will ever be (although it's on the way, certainly). the phone itself is a physical object that can interact, produce, inspire and contain. Curious, where this is going to go... e-wallets have been a fantasy of big tech companies for a while now... as always, the next big thing...
Wallets have been a focus of attention lately in studies done at IIT by Christina Nippert-Eng and Jay Melican, studies underway at Intel Research in the PaPR group, studies at France Telecom under the guidance of Christian Licoppe... These studies have been looking at wallets as repositories of modalities of access, identification, memory, self. They embody the contradictions of public and private, containing the most private information that is often displayed in public. I wonder though, whether Motorola and MasterCard had considered these issues of public and private, the repository of status and access, the symbology of a wallet when they considered making a "wireless" wallet out of a phone. No, really, it's not about giving the phone the capability of making wireless transactions (although this does raise issues of security in data transfer and costs). It's about calling it a "wireless wallet". Because it's not quite there yet... and I wonder if it will ever be (although it's on the way, certainly). the phone itself is a physical object that can interact, produce, inspire and contain. Curious, where this is going to go... e-wallets have been a fantasy of big tech companies for a while now... as always, the next big thing...
15 November, 2004
What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits
The New York Times > Business > Your Money > What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers' Habits. This article has overtones of both surveillance and smart business. Most of all, however, it's very entertaining.
Some excerpts:
"HURRICANE FRANCES was on its way, barreling across the Caribbean, threatening a direct hit on Florida's Atlantic coast. Residents made for higher ground, but far away, in Bentonville, Ark., executives at Wal-Mart Stores decided that the situation offered a great opportunity for one of their newest data-driven weapons, something that the company calls predictive technology.
A week ahead of the storm's landfall, Linda M. Dillman, Wal-Mart's chief information officer, pressed her staff to come up with forecasts based on what had happened when Hurricane Charley struck several weeks earlier. Backed by the trillions of bytes' worth of shopper history that is stored in Wal-Mart's computer network, she felt that the company could "start predicting what's going to happen, instead of waiting for it to happen," as she put it.
*******
The experts mined the data and found that the stores would indeed need certain products - and not just the usual flashlights. "We didn't know in the past that strawberry Pop-Tarts increase in sales, like seven times their normal sales rate, ahead of a hurricane," Ms. Dillman said in a recent interview. "And the pre-hurricane top-selling item was beer."
Thanks to those insights, trucks filled with toaster pastries and six-packs were soon speeding down Interstate 95 toward Wal-Marts in the path of Frances. Most of the products that were stocked for the storm sold quickly, the company said."
Well the American comfort foods are pop-tarts and beer, it turns out. Strangely enough, as a consumer I can completely understand this result. Nevertheless, what I find most amusing is that WalMart made the news with this kind of investigation. Data mining for these kinds of patterns seems like an obvious use of the data mega stores collect. I am surprised they didn't think of this before! However, this is exceedingly entertaining :)
Some excerpts:
"HURRICANE FRANCES was on its way, barreling across the Caribbean, threatening a direct hit on Florida's Atlantic coast. Residents made for higher ground, but far away, in Bentonville, Ark., executives at Wal-Mart Stores decided that the situation offered a great opportunity for one of their newest data-driven weapons, something that the company calls predictive technology.
A week ahead of the storm's landfall, Linda M. Dillman, Wal-Mart's chief information officer, pressed her staff to come up with forecasts based on what had happened when Hurricane Charley struck several weeks earlier. Backed by the trillions of bytes' worth of shopper history that is stored in Wal-Mart's computer network, she felt that the company could "start predicting what's going to happen, instead of waiting for it to happen," as she put it.
*******
The experts mined the data and found that the stores would indeed need certain products - and not just the usual flashlights. "We didn't know in the past that strawberry Pop-Tarts increase in sales, like seven times their normal sales rate, ahead of a hurricane," Ms. Dillman said in a recent interview. "And the pre-hurricane top-selling item was beer."
Thanks to those insights, trucks filled with toaster pastries and six-packs were soon speeding down Interstate 95 toward Wal-Marts in the path of Frances. Most of the products that were stocked for the storm sold quickly, the company said."
Well the American comfort foods are pop-tarts and beer, it turns out. Strangely enough, as a consumer I can completely understand this result. Nevertheless, what I find most amusing is that WalMart made the news with this kind of investigation. Data mining for these kinds of patterns seems like an obvious use of the data mega stores collect. I am surprised they didn't think of this before! However, this is exceedingly entertaining :)
14 November, 2004
Postings: Letting the Internet Knock on the Door
The New York Times > Real Estate > Postings: Letting the Internet Knock on the Door
The article describes and internet website that attempts to facilitate nieghbors meeting neighbors. Created by the the author of TheLunchClub.net, this website went online last month and has had some success. People simply want to find ways to meet people, whether online or in real life, using tools available to them (tools that are both physical and digital).
T
his is fascinating and amusing at the same time. Most importantly, it's not a YASN idea, but an idea based on a physical location, dependant on physical proximity and an individual has to champion the physical aspects of things. This is important - despite the attraction of YASNs they hvae largerly failed to produce any reason for their existence, aside from the occasional showing who you know, etc. Sites that have a reason for existence and are capable to introduce some aspects of a YASN (providing a map of buildings for example and suggesting that people from nearby buildings might want to meet, etc), these are the ones that are more likely to become successful. What's even more interesting, is that these sites in particular, are successful precisely because they base themselves in the phyeical realm, using the digital as a tool to get closer physically... awesome...
The article describes and internet website that attempts to facilitate nieghbors meeting neighbors. Created by the the author of TheLunchClub.net, this website went online last month and has had some success. People simply want to find ways to meet people, whether online or in real life, using tools available to them (tools that are both physical and digital).
T
his is fascinating and amusing at the same time. Most importantly, it's not a YASN idea, but an idea based on a physical location, dependant on physical proximity and an individual has to champion the physical aspects of things. This is important - despite the attraction of YASNs they hvae largerly failed to produce any reason for their existence, aside from the occasional showing who you know, etc. Sites that have a reason for existence and are capable to introduce some aspects of a YASN (providing a map of buildings for example and suggesting that people from nearby buildings might want to meet, etc), these are the ones that are more likely to become successful. What's even more interesting, is that these sites in particular, are successful precisely because they base themselves in the phyeical realm, using the digital as a tool to get closer physically... awesome...
12 November, 2004
Wanted by the Police: A Good Interface
The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > Wanted by the Police: A Good Interface This article is an absolutely brilliant testament to necessity of HCI methods in building software for end users. I especially like the statement that some people are not familiar with the Windows interface so you can't assume a certain knowledge set which forms a basis for the design and that is something that many HCI experts forget as well.
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