Category: Digital Tools

Open-source urban design: let the games begin

February 4th, 2011 · admin · Digital Tools No comments - Tags: , ,

Betaville is an open-source multiplayer environment that offers a new approach to the urban design review process. Betaville integrates design proposals for real city spaces into a Google map platform where it can be shared, reviewed, tagged, discussed and further developed. Models can be accepted from Google Sketchup, as well as from more intense 3D rendering programs such as Autodesk Maya. Currently focused on New York, the environment can be used for design competitions, consultation, community review, and as a teaching aid for the presentation of students’ work.  In fact, anyone with web access can contribute to Betaville, and every contribution is open for review.

Described by urban designer Giles Thomson as an “architectural conversation”, the dynamic interface of Betaville creates a far more interactive and collaborative environment for planners, designers, and the community at large. Design proposals are typically available for the community to review for a limited amount of time in government institutions, with feedback taking the form of letters to the city council. Thomson goes on to say that Betavillle provides a “democratization of the planning process, taking it out from the closed doors of the bureaucracy.”

The Betaville development team consists of the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center and the Media 2 Culture program of the Hochschule Bremen, Germany, and is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Cultural Innovation Fund.

With a goal to transform the working relationships between planners, designers and the communities they develop, Betaville’s use of open-source strategies provides the opportunity and incentive for public project participation from anyone with the interest, inclination and internet access.

Apple verses Adobe, what’s the dealio?

February 4th, 2011 · admin · Digital Tools No comments

In a letter titled ‘Thoughts on Flash’, dated April 2010, Steve Jobs eloquently explains the riff between Apple’s latest products and Adobe Flash, essentially, why the iPhone, iPod and the iPad don’t support Flash.  Jobs’ key points are summarized as follows:

  1. Apple supports open standards for the web and has adopted HTML5 which is open and controlled by a standards committee. Adobe’s Flash is 100% proprietary, with Adobe having sole authority over its development, and thus if is a “closed system”.
  2. The majority of web video is now encoded in the H.264 format, which is viewable on all Apple devices.
  3. Flash compromises security, performs poorly on mobile devices and “is the number one reason Macs crash”.
  4. The older video encoding used by the majority of Flash websites requires software rather than hardware decoding, and halves battery life.
  5. Flash was not designed for touch screens, and relies on mice and rollovers, which have no place on the iPad, iPhone or iPod.
  6. Flash is a cross platform development tool, with a bad track record in adoption times of enhancements to Apple’s platform. Enhancements will only be adopted when they are available on all supported platforms (PCs, Andriod phones, etc.). This results in developers having access to a low level set of features.

While this letter puts a grim light on Adobe’s app development future, on September 9, 2010 Apple announced they would be “relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps”. This means that developers can now use Adobe’s Flash CS5 to create iPhone apps.

Google was happy about this too, as  developers can now use Google’s advertising solutions in Apple apps.

So, what can we take away from this? When Apple relaxes, many breathe a sigh of relief.

What is action without Purpose?

February 4th, 2011 · admin · Digital Tools No comments - Tags: ,

Purpose is in the business of mobilization, and their metrics are measured in action. Their mission: Create powerful movements that impact the political process, and solve global problems.

Purpose believes that solutions to crises of the 21st century require global policy shifts and tremendous consumer change. By mobilizing movements of people, online and off, Purpose is helping the green and social economy, as well as major brands, impact global problems.

The creators of Purpose, Jeremy Heimans and David Madden, have already experienced success in the ‘movement entrepreneurship’ world, founding the global movement Avaaz.org and the Australian political movement GetUp.org.

Avaaz, which means voice in many languages, was launched in 2007 with a mission to organize international citizens to take action on critical global issues. Whether the battle is against corruption, poverty, conflict or climate change, Avaaz’s internet model allows thousands of individuals to be forged into a collective and powerful force. Campaigning in 14 languages, with core teams on 4 continents and thousands of volunteers, Avaaz sets out to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform policy decisions. Currently Avvaz.org has over 5.5 million members.

Based in Australia, GetUp.org is an independent, community advocacy organization that facilitates Australians to get involved in key political issues and take strategic, coordinated action. With international recognition and praise, GetUp has more members than all of Australia’s political parties put together.

Purpose, based in New York, is creating “21st century movements”. Working with some of the leading players of the green and social economy, Purpose is helping movements to scale and mobilize around progressive causes.

An example of such a movement is ‘Global Zero: A World Without Nuclear Weapons’. Led by Queen Noor, Richard Branson, over 100 world leaders, and endorsed by President Obama, Global Zero’s goal is to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. Working with Purpose, Global Zero is pushing the issue of nuclear disarmament to the top of international agendas.

I spoke with James Slezak, who leads Purpose’s work on the sustainable economy. James is motivated by the belief that for the green movement to be successful major sectors of the economy must be rebuilt:

“In the green space the goal is to shift the ways we do things, the economy. This means making less, as well as changing what we make. What is also crucial is shifting demand away from unsustainable products to sustainable ones.”

James’ key projects include building a global movement to support the deployment of electric vehicles, as well as renewable power.

James and his team launched helloelectric.org, a strategic movement to get electric cars on roads faster. This movement demonstrates to society at large that viable alternatives to fossil fuel cars are now available, and also channels enthusiasm for the necessary transition. James is concerned that if electric cars are not trusted from their initial launch they will fail, and there will be no other realistic way for countries like America to lose their oil addiction.

Purpose is dedicated to creating a consumer movement to lay the groundwork for the transition to electric cars. The initial goal is to give populations the opportunity to demonstrate their need for electric cars, so that car companies can target sales in these communities, and increase confidence of investors in the technology.

To achieve this, Purpose is having conversations with government municipalities, electric car industry groups, and working closely with Project Get Ready.  Project Get Ready, a non-profit initiative of the Rocky Mountain Institute, is working with numerous partners and technical advisers to help cities develop plug-in vehicle infrastructure and introduce electric cars.

Purpose is also talking to car rental companies and taxi services looking to transfer some of their fleet to electric cars.

This dynamic dialogue of governments, private companies, and non-profits is geared towards sharing ideas and best practices to help cities make the transition to electric cars:

“The benefit of having so many people and like minded groups working together is that you can cross pollinate ideas, to see what works and what doesn’t. Having so much experience is one place also enables you to create benchmarks.”

James explained that to combat the major environmental and economic problems the world currently faces we must rebuild the energy sector and eradicate carbon emitting power sources. Turning the roads of the world electric will be a key strategy to achieving this, and Purpose will continue to drive this movement.

As international citizens looking for a brighter future, let’s help them get the pedal to the metal.

SMS frameworks: Complex challenges, elegant solutions

February 4th, 2011 · admin · Digital Tools No comments - Tags:

Tackling corruption and preventing the spread of tuberculosis in Africa are both pretty major challenges. When considering that vast numbers of the African population live without regular access to water, electricity, and health services, and where unemployment is higher than 25% in parts, these tasks are even more daunting.

However, the growth of mobile phone use Africa is leading the world.  A recent study commissioned by Vodafone showed that 97% of people surveyed in Tanzania could access a mobile phone, while only 28% could access a land line.

This is where RapidSMS and FrontlineSMS come into play, and major social challenges are tackled head on.

RapidSMS is a SMS-based framework that manages data collection, complex workflows, and group coordination using basic mobile phones, and is able to present information gathered, in real time, on the internet. The Tuberculosis (TB) Initiative of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is using RapidSMS in several African sites to develop a robust TB detection, monitoring, and treatment management system.

The primary objective of the TB MVP is to assist local teams of health workers   reduce the impact of TB. By improving case detection and increasing treatment success rates the initiative is decreasing TB transmission and fatalities.

Using RapidSMS, community health care workers quickly report patient information via their mobile phones and interact with the TB system using simple SMS messages. The system is then able to monitor and track treatment of patients, sending automated SMS alerts to the patient and their assigned community health care worker. Further, if a patient fails treatment and is suspected of having multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), a specimen is collected for drug susceptibility testing by liquid culture. The specimen is shipped, via regular mail, to the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for further testing.

Yanis Ben Amor of the Earth Institute, has played an active role in instigating the use of RapidSMS in the TB initiative:

“Traditionally these patients are tested and processed via a paper trail. By replacing some of these steps by SMS, we see no loss of information. Further, when we are dealing with live specimen for liquid culture of TB, time is key. If the shipment doesn’t reach the NRL within a set timeframe, or if the turnaround time for the results is too long, an alert will be sent to health workers to take another specimen. Similarly, other delays will send an alert reporting failures in the work flow, for example if a specimen goes missing.”

The data collected is displayed in a web dashboard, and provides real time monitoring of all specimens collected, their shipment status and their drug susceptibility profile. RapidSMS also generates reports that are fed into the National Healthcare Information Systems to inform local and national policy makers, as well as international groups such as the WHO.

FrontlineSMS is free award-winning, open source program that also turns a laptop and a mobile phone into a communications hub.  Through their mobile phones users can send and receive group text messages, with no internet connection required. All information exchanged is stored on the user’s central computer, with developers able to access the source code to add their own tailored features. Also freely available is FrontlineSMS credit, for SMS based microfinance, and FrontlineSMS Medic, which is used to implement healthcare.

Marco Puccia, founder of International Transparency Solutions, has coordinated the use of FrontlineSMS to combat corruption in international micro-financing projects. The battlefield in the fight against corruption looks different in every country, Puccia explains:

“What we consider corruption is considered gift giving in some countries. Corruption is somewhat cultural, and there is some corruption that is driven by need and not greed.”

Puccia was tasked to eradicate corruption in an undisclosed international microfinance group, which we will refer to as MG. MG works with partner organizations in India, Africa and Mexico to distribute small loans to local recipients. Although the financial books were balancing, there had been several media exposes revealing corruption in MG funds distribution system.

To eradicate corrupt communication from partner organizations when relaying the success of fund distribution to recipients, Puccia worked with MG to modify the recipients’ booking keeping process to include FrontlineSMS. All received funds and expenditure is reported by SMS directly to MG, and when numbers don’t balance an SMS alert is sent to a key MG task member. This eradicates the reliance on partner organizations for financial reporting, and gives MG a direct communication channel with the loan recipients.

Technology comes in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes the simplest solutions are the most elegant. By taking advantage of mobile phone use in Africa, the daunting tasks of eradicating corrupt systems and fighting disease can be successfully tackled. By working with a technology that the people already have and have enthusiastically adopted, these solutions are readily engaged with, and become part of the social and political landscape.

Americas Society: taking digital bulls by the horns

February 4th, 2011 · admin · Digital Tools No comments - Tags:

While many NGOs, non-profits, and news organizations are still baffled and skeptical of the impact new media tools can have,  Americas Society is embracing  the web and social media to broadcast news  and augment their readership. By engaging with twitter, facebook, and web2.0 platforms, Americas Society is an example of cultural institutes and policy think tanks coming into the digital realm.

On September 23, hours after news broke that a Colombian military attack had resulted in the death of a Revolutionary Armed Forced of Colombia (FARC) leader,  Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos spoke at an Americas Society event in New York. Live tweeting of Santos’ remarks entered the international  news stream, and it was announced to the world that not only had the FARC leader, Mono Jojoy, been killed, but 14 computers and 60 USB drives of information about the FARC had also been seized by Colombian authorities.

Santos: “What happened back home in #Colombia with this military success we had 24 hrs ago is going to change our history.”
(http://twitter.com/ascoa)

Santos went on to compare the significance of Jojoy’s death to the Colombian authorities with an announcement to New Yorker’s that “Osama bin Laden had been struck down”

The live tweeting of these monumental updates turned a speech at an annual conference into a dynamic source of real time news.  This is an example of one of many ways that Americas Society is utilizing digital media to engage audiences, while making their work more accessible. Recognizing that its conferences are key sources of news, Americas Society is not shying away from the social media tools at their disposal to get  timely information to their audiences.

Americas Society is a world leading non-profit dedicated to fostering an understanding of the contemporary political, social, and economic issues confronting the Americas. Providing analysis on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, Americas Society engages in  dialogue on the inter-American culture and relationship. Broadly speaking, Americas Society’s audience are those interested in analysis and a cultural understanding of the Americas.

David Gacs, New Media Manager at Americas Society (AS), is currently working, as part of a team, to develop the AS website to broaden readership and create a more social space through improved functionality, increased use of multimedia, and an embracing of social media tools. Along with a thriving twitter following, Americas Society also produces podcasts (available in itunes), live video streams, and RSS feeds. Currently, all major AS events and conferences are captured via webcasts, along with live tweeting and blogging. Gacs explains that as part of a team, he is continually “investigating ways to provide the media with better access to events, while offering channels of engagement to those who can’t attend.”

Gacs has worked on Americas Society resource guides covering major news events which include analysis, links to materials and multimedia, as well as a breakdown of key twitter hash tags, facebook pages, and mobile update services. The most recent of these resource guides was prepared for the crisis in Ecuador. On September 30, 2010, Ecuador declared a state of emergency after its president was sent to hospital as a result of  a tear gas attack by protesting police officers. The Americas Society’s resource guide gathered a selection of materials and coverage about the crisis, including the Ecuadoran government’s statement regarding the unrest, the U.S. State Department comments from Secretary Hillary Clinton, international news and analysis, and key social media links.

Digital innovation is also utilized by Americas Society’s sister publication, Americas Quarterly. The magazine is dedicated to policy analysis and debate of economics, finance, social development, and politics in the Western Hemisphere. The Americas Quarterly website encourages user generated communities, the sharing of articles, subscription to RSS feeds, commenting and discussions. The winter 2009  issue explored the digital divide, and addressed whether the IT economy deepens the division between those with  and without digital technology, and what governments, civil society and the private sector should to address this.

Americas Society engages with digital technology both on a practical and conceptual basis. Timely communication and consolidated communities are constantly being enhanced, while the international concerns of the the digital divide are explored through analysis and expert insights. It is through such thought leaders and their enthusiastic use of digital tools that new opportunities will become evident to the NGO and non-profit environment, and new fast and formidable communication channels will be opened.

All our ideas, for all our good

February 4th, 2011 · admin · Digital Tools No comments - Tags:

Social innovation, collaboration and transparency are goals of many contemporary projects for both the private and public sectors.  All Our Ideas is an online survey tool that marries social data collection with quantitative and qualitative methods.  The result – democratic, prioritized and open information.

All Our Ideas is an open source research project, with its goals to provide democratic, efficient and prioritized data collection. Described as an “interactive opinion poll”, users are able to contribute their own ideas and suggestions to the issue at hand. When asked if they consider A or B more important, users can say they like both, neither, need more information, or contribute their own alternative, C. Subsequent users are then questioned on the original ideas, as well as the user supplied content.

In essence, All Our Ideas is a tool to create simple, scalable, interactive surveys that gather social data, which is visualized and readily analysed. Because information can be added by respondents, as seen in focus group or interview surveying approaches, a ‘bottom up’ effect is had on the survey and research process.

Lead by Matthew Salganik from the Department of Sociology at Princeton University, All Our Ideas is being used by several prominent projects, including:

In many cases the information contributed by users to is more powerful than that provided by the organizations who create the polls. When developing plans for urban development community collaboration and feedback are the types of ‘bottom up’ information flows that are crucial for sustainable and well integrated urban design. With tools like All Our Ideas, clients become collaborators, and the community as a stakeholder. In the world of urban development, this translates to empowered people for tailored design.