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’.
Dr. Til Schönherr – in memoriam
It 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.
Filed under ICT4D
National Science Competition
The 4th-6th March sees the UK’s National Science Competition and the “Big Bang Fair” for UK Young Scientists and Engineers taking place at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London. This forms the launch pad for National Science and Engineering ‘Week’ (6th-15th March) which is coordinated by the British Science Association, funded by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Engineering Technology Board (ETB).
As the organisers say, “There are many existing celebrations of young people’s achievements in science and engineering across the UK. The most established are the British Science Association CREST awards celebration and the Young Engineers’ final event. Spearheaded by Sir Anthony Cleaver, Chair of ETB and Sir Tom McKillop, Chair of the Science Council and with support of ETB and the science and engineering communities, these celebrations are now being brought together under the umbrella of The Big Bang. It aims to promote UK science and engineering generally, and inspire all students”.
The Big Bang saw 183 competitor stands and student projects, including winners from the more than 28,000 participants in the CREST scheme. Hopefully, events such as these will encourage many more of the UK’s most able young people to participate in the pursuit of high quality scientific research and practice. For those attending, make sure you visit stand 132 (about modelling flood protection in Oxfordshire) in the competition hall!
Filed under Higher Education
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’.”
Filed under Ethics, Social Networking
Berlin restaurants…
Walking through Berlin, I came across a restaurant named after one of my favourite grape varieties (Sagrantino) and apparently serving wines made by one of my favourite producers (Arnaldo Caprai, from Montefalco in Umbria)! The restaurant is Sagrantino – does anyone know if I would be disappointed going there?
In the meanwhile, four other interesting places to eat in Berlin, each with their own distinctive atmospheres are:
- Altes Zollhaus (Kreuzberg)
- Le Bar du Paris (Kantstrasse)
- Florian (Grolmanstrasse, Charlottenberg)
- Ristorante Pascarella (Schlütersratße)
Filed under Restaurants, Wine
Musical interlude
… thought I would use this space to provide links to the great music being produced by some of my friends:
- Bill Fleming – did a Master’s degree with us at Royal Holloway, and then went on to a PhD at Aberystwyth – but guess his heart is really in Georgia! He introduced me to the music of Austin, Texas, and related adventures… He is great on pedal steel guitar – but also vocals and a range of other instruments … His latest album is Ear to ‘ere – as he notes “ear to ‘ere has been a long, slow train a-comin. The tracks run all the way from the North Georgia Mountains to the Cambrian Hills of West Wales”. Other CDs include: 14×7 Hand-picked songs from Georgia; 18th Independence Day sounds and songs of Boogie 2000; 14 x 11 Songs from the South (London) [Bill on Myspace]
- Femi Iloyi aka Smooflow – worked with me on the Imfundo team in DFID – but has an amazing other life – his work campaigning against gun-crime and violence in London. He is half of Royal Priesthood – “the latest and greatest in UK’s underground hip-hop”- they were nominated in the category for best hip-hop artist at the Oasis Awards 2002, for best hip hop at Hip Hop Awards 2002, and best unsigned act at the Urban Music Awards in 2004 and 2005; in February 2009 he picked up the prize for best short film at the MTV awards [Royal Priesthood on Myspace, on Youtube; profile by Tony Cummings]
- Roxanne de Bastion – started her music career in Berlin, but moved to the UK in 2006, where as she says, “she’s managed an unrelenting schedule of performing, recording and band-ing. Highlights of her performing career (open air Festivals, rock venues and acoustic showcases) have been London’s The Troubadour, The 100 Club and The legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool”. She recorded ‘Mono’ her first solo EP at the Zube bunker [Roxanne on Myspace; and on the NME site playing at the Barfly]
Who said my tastes weren’t eclectic?!
Filed under Music
ICT4D – additions to the 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
Filed under ICT4D
Solar power for mobile ‘phones
A query about solar power solutions for mobile ‘phones made me think about posting this…
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.
Filed under 'phones
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.
Filed under Ethics, ICT4D general
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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