Category Archives: ICT4D

April 10, 2009 · 9:23 pm

ContactPoint – the UK State is creating a database of all children

Along with many other parents across the UK, I have recently received a letter from one of my children’s schools informing me that legislation has just been passed “requiring Local Authorities to set up and run a nationwide database, known as ContactPoint, which will contain basic details about every child and young person under the age of 18 who is ordinarily resident in England”.

Why should this legislation have been passed?  Why is it compulsory?  Why should everyone have to be registered? In effect, as young people grow older, this database will eventually record information about everyone “normally resident” in the UK. It will provide yet another means through which the State collects private information about individuals, thereby enabling it to impose greater control over its citizens.

The ContactPoint website claims that ” ContactPoint will be the quick way for a practitioner to find out who else is working with the same child or young person, making it easier to deliver more coordinated support. ContactPoint is an online directory, available to authorised staff who need it to do their jobs, enabling the delivery of coordinated support for children and young people. It is also a vital tool to help safeguard children, helping to ensure that the right agencies are involved at the right time and children do not slip through the net”.

But does this require details on EVERY child in the UK to be recorded on a central database?  The passing of this legislation on 26th January gives rise to very great concern:

  1. Why should every child need to be registered?  Why does the state need to gain information about the name, address, date of birth, and contact details of all parents to be registered centrally?
  2. Given the inability of  the UK government to keep such data secure in the past, there are high risks that this personal information will become accessible to a wide range of people in the future.  Children will therefore be put at risk.
  3. There is no evidence that such a database will make any difference to early interventions when  children really do need the State to intervene to protect them
  4. Who really benefits from this?  Is it not the companies who have persuaded the Government to introduce such very expensive digital systems?
  5. What gives the State any right at all to collect such individual private information.

We must resist this ever great control by the state over its citizens – just because digital technologies enable us to do this, does not mean it is right.

Tim

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April 5, 2009 · 5:42 pm

Google’s brush with the mole men of Broughton

Those interested in the implications of ‘private’ information being made accessible to ‘others’ via the World Wide Web, might be amused by Rod Liddle’s article in the Sunday Times today entitled “The mole men of Broughton put the brakes on Google“.

As he says, “And we should worry a bit about Google, too. It has a suspiciously smiling facade for one of the most powerful and wealthy companies in the world. “Don’t be evil” is its rather cringy message to employees; everybody wears casual clothing, they have days of the week when they can work on stuff which interests them and there’s probably a Red Nose Day every afternoon. At least, in the good old days, with Rio Tinto-Zinc and Lonrho, you knew where you stood; these big corporations didn’t pretend to be nice. Google, however, tells everyone not to be evil and then connives with the authoritarian Chinese authorities in the creation of a firewall to keep out all sorts of stuff that might annoy them. Meanwhile, the company knows more about you than any intelligence agency could dream of. Use any of Google’s services and, like it or not, as a consequence of the much-criticised cookies, your every internet movement will be logged.  All that’s missing, one critic said five years ago, is it doesn’t know precisely where you live . . .”.

This raises very important issues about:

  • the rights that companies, or indeed governments, have to information about individual citizens
  • the amount of information people have about the uses to which such information is put
  • whose interests are best served by making this information available
  • the rights that individuals have to protect information about them being used without their explicit permission

An earlier article in The Times of 3rd April entitled “Village mob thwarts Google Street view car” is also worth reading for background to the story

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March 18, 2009 · 1:28 pm

Sierra Leone – water taxis and political violence

pelicanI was warned not to take the water taxi from the airport to Freetown!  But the hovercraft was not running, and people said the helicopter (at almost twice the price) was even worse!  But in choppy seas, water taxis are most definitely not advisable – a few minutes out, waves came crashing through the glass at the front, wetting everyone, and filling the boat with water.  Two passengers were swiftly despatched to the stern so that the prow would come up.  Fortunately, that prevented more deluges, but every time the small boat topped a wave it came crashing down with a sickening thud on the next crest.  The 20 minute journey lasted longer than a hour – and in the pitch black of night it seemed far worse than perhaps it actually was.  How many of these small boats don’t actually make it?  No-one apparently knows.

But Freetown itself has been rocked by violence again (swissinfo.ch report).  Following fights during a by-election last week in Pujehun District, people purporting to be supporters of the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) attacked the headquarters of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) on Monday.  Although I did not witness the attack, reports (see Reuters)  suggest that there was much violence, and several women claim to have been raped.  Perpetrators of the violence carried machetes, and the police are reported to have fired tear gas and bullets.  One person I spoke to definitely confirmed that there were at least four bursts of gunfire.  Two days later, the topic is still on many people’s minds, and is front page news in the newspapers.

Many are suggesting that the underlying causes of this violence is the widespread unemployment in the country.  Large numbers of people who were displaced during the civil war (1991-2002) moved to Freetown and have still not been able to find jobs.  Crime is reported to be increasing all the time, as some of these people resort to theft and threats of violence as the only way of gaining a livelihood.  As a commentary in the Standard Times on 16th March commented, ‘High unemployment among youths means many time bombs are waiting to go off at any time.  Is this what we expect at this precarious moment?  Who’s in charge here, and where is the pendulum of democracy and justice teetering towards? Our educational system has failed, especially the youths’.

Yesterday’s radio stations provided a wealth of commentary on the government’s decision in the aftermath of the violence to close the radio stations owned by the two main political parties, the APC’s ‘We Yone’ station and the SLPP’s ‘Unity Radio’ (see Cotton Tree News).  These are widely seen as having whipped up violent sentiments among the parties’ supporters, and some commentators likened their use to the role played by radios in Rwanda’s genocide.

Today, things seem quiet.  The word on the street is that arrests have been made.  However, many people are fearful that this may be just the tip of the iceberg, and that the country could be plunged back into the horrors of the 1990s.  Few want this, but for a country ranked bottom of the UN’s Human Development Index, the current global economic ‘crisis’ might herald a crisis of a very different kind.  It is incumbent on those who believe in peace and consensus politics, that we should find ways of supporting Sierra Leone, so that its people can look forward to the future with hope.

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March 8, 2009 · 11:41 am

UK surveillance update…

The Times yesterday published another article on CCTV cameras and surveillance in the UK, noting that the frequently cited claim that there are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in use in the UK is based on a survey of only two streets in London seven years ago!  Police forces across the country are now being asked to locate and record the location of every camera in the country – so that they can be used to identify suspected ‘criminals’.

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March 4, 2009 · 8:53 am

Dr. Til Schönherr – in memoriam

til_ijssel_h192It is with  very great sadness that I have recently learnt of Til Schönherr’s untimely and sudden death.  Til was project manager for eLearning strategy, media-didactic advice and training at InWEnt, Capacity Building International, Germany – a great enthusiast for the potential of eLearning to make a significant impact on development agendas, a generous and open colleague, and someone from whom I learnt a great deal.  He joined InWEnt’s E-Learning-Center in 2003, where he conceived and developed the “Capacity Building for e-Learning ” programme, and amongst his many activities, he played a leading role in the development of Global Campus 21, was enthusiastic about building collaborative partnerships with cognate organisations, was an active supporter of the e-Learning Africa conferences, and generously shared his time and insight with younger or less experienced colleagues.  Above all, I remember his intellectual generosity, the warmth of his handshake, the smile on his face, and the sharpness of his mind.  He was one of the people who contributed most over the last decade to our understanding of how to use e-Learning effectively in development practice – he will be very sorely missed.  Thanks Til for all you gave us.

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February 25, 2009 · 11:31 am

Are social networking sites encouraging infantilism?

A recent report in the Guardian has highlighted the lack of research and understanding of the impact of social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.  The report comments that:

“Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist. The startling warning from Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution, has led members of the government to admit their work on internet regulation has not extended to broader issues, such as the psychological impact on children. Greenfield believes ministers have not yet looked at the broad cultural and psychological effect of on-screen friendships via Facebook, Bebo and Twitter. She told the House of Lords that children’s experiences on social networking sites ‘are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilised, characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity’.”

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February 16, 2009 · 8:50 am

ICT4D – additions to the book!

ICT4D Book

ICT4D Book

One of the most interesting aspects of ICT4D is the pace of change of technologies, and the innovativeness of many of those involved in finding ways in which technologies might be used to support poor and marginalised people.  Trying to capture this in a book is always going to be tricky!  Much of my new book, simply entitled ICT4D (published by Cambridge University Press in February 2009), was written in 2007, and therefore does not include some of the most recent developments that have taken place in the field.  This post is therefore intended to provide updates on things that readers might find useful in addition to what is already there:

  • The use of mobile telephony has expanded even more swiftly than I had anticipated, and many new applications have been developed.  See particularly
    • Mobile (or branchless) banking, as with Safaricom and Vodafone’s M-PESA scheme in Kenya
    • The use of SMS messaging, especially by civil society groups, as developed by kiwanja.net with its FrontlineSMS service
  • New uses of social networking environments.
    • I had not initially realised the full potential of blogging environments – seeing the earliest blogs primarily as self-exhibitionism – but now realise that they are a very significant way of democratising the use of the web
    • The arrival of  cross platform short-messaging services such as twitter (follow me)
  • Small solar-powered and hand-cranked devices (see links on my previous blogs) – these really do provide alternative power sources, and offer insights into what may be possible in the future
  • Partnerships – while I still definitely believe in the importance of effective partnerships in implementing ICT4D initiatives, I might with hindsight have emphasised even more the challenges involved in delivering them.  Recent reports around the corruption associated with introducing computers into some countries give rise to concern.
  • Sen’s notion of development as freedoms – not sure why I did not include much about this in the original discussions about definitions of development.  I do explore this further in my recent draft paper “On the richness of Africa” and together with Dorothea Kleine in a paper on “What’s new in ICT4D”.  It also raises issues about rights and responsibilities – and my increasing concern with the damage that the individualism entailed in some global agendas relating to human rights is causing.  Arguments around this are hugely complex, and I would not want to be seen as over-simpliying here – but I am interested in exploring these issues in much further depth, particularly in the context of the the importance of ‘development responsibilities’ as well as ‘development rights’.

This post will regularly be updated with some of the things I find most interesting

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February 15, 2009 · 2:21 pm

Solar power for mobile ‘phones

A query about  solar power solutions for mobile ‘phones made me think about posting this…pmexblue2

Towards the end of last year, a friend kindly gave me a Powermonkey eXplorer.  This is a great device, and I took it with me during field work in Tanzania in January – it did exactly what it said it would, and I was also able to power up other people’s ‘phones – for which they were very grateful!

The manufacturers describe it as follows: “Compatible with the majority of mobile phones, iPods (including 2nd Gen iPhone), MP3 / MP4, PDAs and portable games consoles including the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS & DS-Lite, powermonkey-eXplorer will recharge your devices – giving you 96 hours of standby on your mobile, 40 hours on your iPod, 5 hours on your games console, 48 hours on your PDA and 6 hours on MP3/MP4 players … Make sure your powermonkey-eXplorer’s got full power at all times by charging it with the handy solarmonkey, which can be attached to a rucksack, hung from a window, left in a car or taken anywhere the sun shines! Make sure the powermonkey-eXplorer unit is turned OFF when re-charging from the solar slave in order to reduce charging time!  You can even use the solarmonkey to recharge your device directly – so you have back up power at all times”

It may not be cheap, but it does show what can be done.

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February 8, 2009 · 12:36 pm

Is the UK becoming a police state?

The Sunday Times published a front page report today noting that: ‘THE government is building a secret database to track and hold the international travel records of all 60m Britons. The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details for all 250m passenger movements in and out of the UK each year. The computerised pattern of every individual’s travel history will be stored for up to 10 years, the Home Office admits. The government says the new database, to be housed in an industrial estate in Wythenshawe, near Manchester, is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. However, opposition MPs, privacy campaigners and some government officials fear it is a significant step towards a total surveillance society.’

This is yet another example of the ways in which the state is using technology to gain unprecedented information about its citizens.  What right does it have to do so?

Even those who believe that the state can legitimately gather such information should be careful –  given the dismal failure of the state so far to keep such information from being ‘lost’ or ‘falling into the wrong hands’, what reassurances do we have that these data will be secure?

We need to encourgae a vigorous and participatory debate about these issues.

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February 6, 2009 · 1:41 pm

Is the UK becoming a surveillance state?

The BBC has today highlighted a recent House of Lords’ debate, noting that:

‘Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data are “pervasive” in British society and threaten to undermine democracy, peers have warned. CCTV cameras and the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy, the Lords constitution committee said. It called for compensation for people subject to illegal surveillance. The government said CCTV and DNA were “essential” to fight crime but Liberty said recent abuses of power meant “even the innocent have a lot to fear”‘.

The BBC report goes on to note that:

‘Human rights campaigners Liberty welcomed the report. Director Shami Chakrabarti said: “Liberty’s postbag suggests that the House of Lords is more in touch with public concerns that our elected government. “Over the past seven years we’ve been told ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ but a stream of data bungles and abuses of power suggest that even the innocent have a lot to fear.”‘

and

‘Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, urged the government to “reassert” its control over the use of data.He said: “Governments tend to think that gathering new information on citizens is a good thing. But that’s not true if our privacy is undermined and our data isn’t secure.”We need to see privacy by design: you can’t bolt on privacy at the end of big government IT projects, we need privacy safeguards built into systems right at the start.”‘

It is good to see this debate taking place.  Britain has more digital surveillance than anywhere else in the world, and this provides the context for very real ethical questions.  There are those who say that states are too inefficient to be able to manage this wealth of data effectively – and there is some evidence to support this.  However, even if this is true at a practical level, it does not negate the importance of the ethical questions.  ICTs are enabling fundamental changes to take place in the relationship between states/governments and societies, and we need to ask whether these are ‘right’.  Just because it is possible to use these new technologies for surveillance purposes,  does not mean that it is right to do so

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