ICT4D – Importance of Mapping

One of the major themes of this academic semester for me has consistently been technology, even outside of ICT4D. There are so many new applications and functionalities of technical devices that I hadn’t even considered before. More importantly, as someone who doesn’t necessarily consider herself a “techy” or particularly tech savvy, I’ve realized that there is still a good amount of work that I can do to promote the effective implementation and use of ICTs for development purposes. One specific example is mapping. Maps are such a basic concept that I was shocked to learn about their importance and the number of crowdsourced mapping tools and techniques that have been so vital in recent emergencies. For this reason, I’d like to focus this week’s blog post on my perspective of mapping.

 

In addition to ICT4D I’ve been involved with a new organization called Women in Technology (WIT) as well as learning technical skills for my own personal development. At the more local level of development, I am interested in furthering my knowledge of mapping by taking a GIS course next with Julie Hernandez. Mapping is not only important to development internationally but plays a large role locally as well. As Greg’s presentation showed us, food security in New Orleans is one such issue that has benefitted from mapping projects. ICT4D has additionally highlighted the importance of mapping before, during and after emergency situations. As social media is on the rise, tools such as Google’s ‘People Finder’ are becoming more widely accepted and made use of.

 

Overall, I can see mapping playing a large role in my future career whether I decide to go into international development, public health or some combination of the two. Not only is this important in organizing people or determining the need of development projects but mapping is also a useful way to research and organize data from a community. It presents a visual image that can sometimes be more helpful depending on the situation. I’m very glad that this was a part of the ICT4D curriculum as it is a very significant factor in technological as a development tool.

ICT4D: course lessons

Based on our readings, lectures, guest speakers, and presentations in this course, the most salient topics for me were: the dos and don’ts of ICT4D, appropriate technologies, why ICT4D projects fail, the relevance and role of ICT4D in the major sectors of development, mapping and emergency management/ disaster relief, social media, and cyber-security. The discussions and material from these sessions will stick with me the most as I move on in development. I learned several important lessons about ICT4D that will definitely contribute to my professional career in development, including the importance of:

1)   Ensuring that projects are demand driven

2)   Using local knowledge and power

3)   Taking the local context into highest consideration: the citizens’ current lifestyle, behaviors/ tendencies, the existing infrastructure (or lack thereof), most frequently used ICTs, their motivation towards the proposed idea (which should be created mutually) etc.

4)   Ensuring that the infrastructure that is required for your project is in place or in progress (electricity, Internet, etc)

It’s also important to realize that with technology and development comes a responsibility to protect individuals in the digitized world. Cybersecurity is an essential compliment to ICT4D.

The topics that resonated most with me, and the ones that I think will be most useful to me moving forward are the implications for ICT4D in the health care sector, and the potential for mHealth, mobiles, and radios for development in general. I hope to go into the field of maternal and child health in my future, and this class exposed me to the supporting role that ICTs can play in health care, which is something I had not considered in depth before. Through research for blog posts, our second paper, and our sector projects, I uncovered some fascinating ICT4health initiatives such as the Taru Initiative radio entertainment-education campaign in Bihar, India, the WHO mCheck project for maternal and child heath, the eMocha health app for smartphones that facilitates health care in developing countries greatly, and others. My eyes are now open to many more possibilities to improve health in developing countries via ICT solutions including distance learning, radio- based health campaigns, SMS texting interventions, and many more.

The implications for social media as a platform for ICT4D also spurred an interest in me. I think it was great that we had the opportunity to work with some of these platforms such Twitter and WordPress on a regular basis. It allowed me to become more ‘digitally literate’ and gave me a hand into the ICT4D community online. Now I always know where to go to access breaking news or general information, stories of ICT4D trials and errors, and current initiatives in the particular sectors of ICT4D which are most interesting to me (namely health). Getting to do real mapping with HOSTM was also undeniably a great learning experience; it was awesome to get the chance to contribute to real ICT4D work. In addition, crowdsourcing as a platform for ICT4D was a very new and intriguing concept for me that seems to have a lot of promise in our digital world.

In my opinion, the most useful framework presented in this class was Human Centered Development. I liked the report that we read a lot and I very much agree with the project design and implementation process that it promotes. It clearly proposes needs assessments and grassroots development, which I think are essential to development projects. It supports demand driven development, considerations of local context, culture, and peoples, monitoring and evaluation, sustainable human development etc; all of which we have established as “DOs” for development. The topics covered in this class gave us a great overview of an entire field in international development. I especially enjoyed module 2 where we reviewed several case studies, because that allowed us to take broader theories and frameworks and zoom in on the specifics. I think that we touched on all the right things, and our discussions were supplemented greatly by some amazing guest speakers that we had the opportunity to hear from.

How One Tweet Can Cause the Stock Market to Crash

One false tweet from the Associated Press’s Twitter account caused the stock market to crash within minutes. The tweet reported that there had been explosions at the White House that had injured President Obama. The message read “Breaking: Two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured”. Immediately, the stock market dropped, yet bounced back right after it became clear that the Associated Press’s Twitter account had been hacked.

The speed of the reaction highlights how fast and suceptible our financial markets are to technological glitches, and how significant Twitter’s impact can be. In the investing world, high-speed computer trades control the entire market, which explains why chaos ensued after the Tweet was posted. The tweet was posted at 1p.m., and between 1:08 and 1:10pm the Dow Jones Industrial average fell more than 100 points. Joseph Saluzzi of the equity-trading firm Themis Trading wrote “It wasn’t just the stock market. It was the bond market and the commodity market and everything. The event was done before humans could even process it”. He continues and says that tracking social media has “become the norm in trading”. Twitter and the Web are important for analyzing news feeds, yet this clearly backfires when a false or hacked tweet is posted.

This case isn’t the only example of a fake tweet causing a huge public reaction. In February, Burger King and Jeep’s Twitter accounts were hacked and spread rumors that said that each company had been sold to their rival. In the past year, National Public Radio, CBS 60 Minutes, and Reuters News and several other major Twitter accounts were hacked. However, the most recent AP hack had the most disastrous results: the tweet wiped out $136.5 billion of the S&P 500 index value.

This AP tweet, combined with all of the misinformation surrounding the Boston bombing shows how 140 characters can have instant and disastrous results for our public and our stock market. These hacks have been occurring all too often, and highlight that Twitter is often not a reliable or quality news source. We should all start to be more aware of the environment of social media: fake tweets happen, and we should all double check information before re-tweeting or reposting. We have to ask ourselves what’s more important: getting fast information or correct information.

Does Anonymous Pose a Threat to Cybersecurity?

This week’s topic of discussion was one of my favorites by far- Cybersecurity and hacking. Before reading the two articles discussed in class, and listening to our guest lecturer Ralph Russo, professor at Tulane University in the Homeland Security Program, I was not fully educated on cybersecurity and its threat to human individuals. When thinking about ICT4D I never thought cybersecrurity and hacking would apply as greatly as it really does. What really intrigued me about Professor Russo’s talk was when he mentioned the use of applications on mobile phones, and if they are a means to promote a cyber attack. This really got me thinking, everything is run by technology: every means of transportation, food stands, banking, water industries, etc.  In connection to developing countries, not having a cybersecurity plan can be detrimental to that countries success and can lead to further impoverishment. However can hacking also be beneficial to social welfare of individuals?   In regards to hacking and cybersecurity, I recently read an Article by Dave Smith in reference to the hacktivist group  Anonymous. To learn more  about Anonymous  please read brookekania  post  Internet Hackers: Anonymous.

In brief, Anonymous  is known for hacking an array of targets such as from the internet company  GoDaddy to religious organizations to government websites,the Pentagon, and most recently Bank of America and the controversial Steubenville High School Rape Case. This year Anonymous hacked into Bank of America,  releasing up  to 16 gigabytes of information related to  Bank of America, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and others. This group articulated that Bank of America had employed security firms to “spy and collect information on private citizens  (Smith, 2013)”, it also was spying on social activist groups, Anonymous being one of them.  The  group also released the salaries of  top CEO’s from around the world. Although many officials say that this was a hack, Anonymous denied this accusation by having one of their subgroup representatives  identifying itself as Par:AnoIA speak in a press release stating:

“The source of this release has confirmed that the data was not acquired by a hack but because it was stored on a misconfigured server and basically open for grabs,” Par:AnoIA said. “Looking at the data it becomes clear that Bank of America, TEKSystems and others (see origins of reports) gathered information on Anonymous and other activists’ movement on various social media platforms and public Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels (Adams, 2013).”

Additionally, the group found even more disturbing information, they discovered that the data was retrieved from an Israeli server in Tel Aviv. What is BofA’s connection with Isreal? The aim of releasing this information  was not to induce a cyber security threat on BofA. It was to inform the American people about  how corporations may be wrongfully spying on online activism that does not pose any threat impeding on individuals freedom. They also wanted to shed light on the questionable ways that BofA and other powerful corporations are funding these actions. Anonymous spokesperson stated: “We release the received files in full to raise awareness to this issue and to send a signal to corporations and Governments that this is unacceptable.” Although their actions were intended for the welfare of Americans, hacking into a bank poses serious cyber security threats to the country and its partners. Were Anonymous acts justified?

Anonymous was also in the news about their actions in the Steubenville High School Rape, where social media was used to perpetuate rape culture but also to bring light and justice to  sickening and graphic details about this controversial event. The case centered around two star high school football players and their involvement in raping an intoxicated unconscious teenage girl at a party. During the party pictures and videos  were taken of both the unconscious and the two teammates talking about their actions towards the girl. According to AlterNets’ writer  Kristen Gwynne, for months, only Alexandria Goddard of Prinniefied.com reported on the rape, where she stated that their was social media evidence (twitter, facebook, instagram) that could be linked to the perpetrators of this crime(Gwynne,2013). Her reporting drew in Anonymous and they were able to hack into these media sites where they released a disturbing video of the teenagers who performed this inhuman rape act. Through their hacking, Anonymous was able to bring justice to the victim’s family, and draw national attention to a crime that could have been easily thrown under the rocks. Although this event was not a threat to cybersecurity, it does pose a question about the privacy of the web and its monitoring. Should  social networks be monitored more heavily to prevent heinous crimes like this, and how could this be beneficial for developing countries?  From a capabilities approach, are the actions of Anonymous justified and can this hacktivist group be a catalyst for ICT4D?

 

http://www.alternet.org/how-anonymous-hacking-exposed-steubenville-high-school-rape-case

http://www.ibtimes.com/bank-america-hacked-anonymous-hackers-leak-secrets-about-executives-salaries-spy-activities-1107947

Social Media Brings Potential for Greater Cyber attacks

Throughout our class discussions we have highlighted the role of social media in developing world from humanitarian sector, to ending corruption, and raising awareness to name a few. Social media has brought about a lot of positive change throughout the world, but it also opens a new window for cyber attacks. Social media has allowed for the extremely rapid dissemination of information and high volumes, but with it comes the possibility of false information spread as it occurred in Assam, India. As the Muslim population grew in India, tensions continued to arise between the Muslim and Hindu groups. In July 2012, an indigenous tribe in Assam attacked a group of Muslim settlers, killing 78 people and relocating over 300,000 to refugee camps. Soon thereafter, reports of riots outside of Assam went viral with photos of riots taking place in different urban cities, ultimately inducing a mass panic. As it turns out these photos were false, and in fact were altered photos of other riots.  This is a good example of social media used for crowd manipulation and hysteria propaganda, and demonstrates the need for cyber security efforts to expand in this new digital tool.

Read more at :http://www.scribd.com/doc/127219170/On-Cybersecurity-Crowdsourcing-and-Social-Cyber-Attack-Commons-Lab-Policy-Memo-Series-Vol-1

Your Social Media: A Matter of National Cyber Security?

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a bill that would allow private companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google to share user information with the federal government without a warrant. To many this seems like complete breach of privacy but in reality it could soon be law. On Thursday US House of Representatives approved CISPA , but it is still unclear how the senate will vote.

So, what exactly does the government get to see and why do they want to see it in the first place?  To answer the first question, CISPA allows the government to ask communication providers like Facebook or Twitter to provide personal information if they think it pertains to a cyber security attack. Facebook and Twitter could also give information to the government if they notice suspicious behavior on their sites. The problem is that the wording of CISPA is very vague and as a result many privacy activists feel that it gives the government power to see way too much. According the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the bill is worded so that communications providers could share anyone’s emails, text messages, or files stored on clouds with the government. This gives communication providers a lot of power since they are the ones who ultimately choose what the government gets.

However, those in support of the bill maintain that CISPA is necessary to protect national cyber security, especially because they believe that cyber attacks from countries like China and Iran are becoming more likely. The author of the bill, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) says that “this is not a surveillance bill,” meaning that the goal of the bill is not for the government to monitor domestic social networks but rather for the government to respond more quickly to potential cyber security threats.

Currently, President Obama is prepared to veto the bill unless some significant changes are made. He is worried that this bill oversteps civilian privacy rights too. I personally think that communication providers should be allowed to share information with the government but only if they have some sort of evidence. Just like I wouldn’t want the police barging into my house without a warrant, I don’t want the government to have access to all of my most personal emails and texts without cause.

Professional Profile: Jon Camfield

I found Jon Camfield via a blog post from ICTworks.org by Wayan Vota, in which the subject was, “What are the best practices in ICT4D?” The post was sparked by this tweet from Jon Camfield:

Clearly, that sparked my interest given the subject of our lecture Thursday with our guest, Wayan Vota himself.

Upon checking out Camfield’s LinkedIn, I was able to get a lot of info on the guy, and it’s fair to say he has a pretty impressive background. So I will just give a brief overview of his work history/education and what he describes as his interests and how that relates to the paths that I believe many of us will soon be finding ourselves on in the next couple of years.

Education:

• finished undergrad 1999 from University of Texas at Austin with Plan II Honors, degree in Technology/Literacy/Culture, Philosophy and Spanish
• grad school: George Washington University – completed in 2005 in International Science and Technology Policy

Work Experience: 

• IT Manager at CrisisLink from 2005-2007
• ICT and Social Media Director at Youth Service America from 2007-2009
• Technology Strategist at Ashoka Changemakers from 2009-2012
• Technologist, Internet Initiatives Program at Internews from November 2012-present

In addition to his education and formal work experience, Camfield was a Peace Corps “ICT” volunteer in Jamaica, has been working since 2008 on the Changmakers.com platform, has published a number of articles such as “It’s Time to Start Judging Nonprofits Like For-Profits” and the presentation, “Scaling Social Enterprise.”

In his summary on LinkedIn, Jon says: “I believe in the power of social networks — both off- and on-line — to empower communities. Technology is an enabling force that can strengthen these networks as well as connect them globally to peers, partners, knowledge resources, as well as social innovations and development opportunities. I am interested in ICT projects that further international empowerment / development projects.”

thoughts . . .

One of the questions the class asked Wayan Vota was what kinds of things we needed to do to really get into the field of International Development or ICT4D. He pointed out a few key things like getting a LinkedIn, for starters, as well as a Twitter, and really working on establishing our networks. I now realize that in our world of such fast-paced technology and change, the only real way to keep up and stay involved is by moving with the direction of the current trends. Reading Jon Camfield’s profile on LinkedIn was not just eye-opening for the amount of experience he has that is surely ahead of all of us, but was also indicative of how important social networking is for all aspects of peoples lives today–as exemplified by his 500+ connections on LinkedIn.

Crowdsourcing Law Enforcement

I realize there are have been several posts this week regarding the Boston Marathon tragedy, but I am going to add another to the mix. ICT’s and social media use in emergency situations is still a relatively new phenomenon and it merits some analysis.

The rapid pace of the events in the last 24 hours is astounding. Just to recap: Police release photos of bombing suspects (5pm), FBI began receiving possible suspect names (7pm), violence in Watertown (1am).

An article by Time: Swampland, “FBI Releases Photos of Suspects: Let the Crowdsourcing Begin” describes “what might be the most intense act of crowdsourcing in history”. Within moments of releasing the suspect photos, Time says, the FBI received suggestions from Reddit users. This act of ‘crowdsourcing’-utilizing a large group of people to incrementally complete tasks- is a new trend in the online realm. It allows for unprecedented participation in emergency management, disasters, and other areas of ICT4D.

“Internet amateurs were rushing to collect images and data about the attack, with the goal of harnessing their vast numbers to help police zero in on the culprit…Hundreds of commenters weighed in on the possible origins of the pressure-cooker bombs used in the attacks; some scoured eBay for recent purchases of the devices.More analyzed crime-scene photos of possible bomb components.”

However, the article points out that “what some people derisively call Internet vigilantism can also have a dark side.” Users eager for something- justice, answers, safety-rushed to false conclusions. ”The photos released by the FBI today do not seem to match the individuals who drew the most interest on Reddit”

Recent crowdsourcing projects have had positive effects in emergency situations, but what about crowdsourced law enforcement? Are we inviting too many contributors, too many voices into the debate? Most users are untrained in forensics and surveillance. Could recruiting amateurs have negative consequences for the law enforcement efforts? Are civilians better off feeling useful and valued in an emergency situation, or is this publicity escalating the violence and fear? I think this event will serve as a precedent for future crowdsourcing, and will bring up important questions of  citizen participation in law enforcement.
Read more: 
http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/18/fbi-releases-photos-of-suspects-let-the-crowdsourcing-begin/#ixzz2QvRjxdJg

News Sites Less Trusted Now than Social Media Users

This is unusual for me – I wouldn’t really do an extra blogpost if I didn’t have to, but given what has been happening in the past few hours, I thought that I should comment, especially after our discussion on Tuesday after the bombing.

I heard from a friend last night that there was another shooting that happened last night, this time at MIT. I went onto CNN’s website to figure out what was happening and was greeted by very confusing information. It seemed that they were still talking about the Boston Marathon Bombing, but what I was looking for was information on the MIT shooting.

I decided to go to bed and learn more in the morning. I went on CNN’s website again and didn’t find anything helpful, so I turned instead to Facebook.

This is what a friend had posted:

“Okay folks, going to bed. I’ll try to summarize what I have so far for those who will wake up tomorrow.

MIT officer was shot and killed. Suspects were believed linked to the Marathon bombings and later confirmed. One suspect has been apprehended and killed, other is still at large. There was/is a police chase. Two bombs have been found and defused, reports of other bombs are popping up. There was huge firefight, which can be heard here: 

. At least on officer is down. Swat and snipers are on the scene along with FBI.

This reddit thread is much more accurate than what you will see on CNN or other sites: http://bit.ly/14AKI9V

Hopefully more accurate information will be available in the morning. I hate to say it, but CNN has been really slow and botched up a lot of the reporting. Check reddit, twitter, and local boston news/ police broadcast for more accurate info.“

And then this from another friend:

“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life. Random people on the Internet are better at reporting news than the people who get paid to do it.“

With his friends commenting:

“this reddit thread has been more reliable then CNN” and “but in all seriousness, it takes news a million confirmations before they can report anything. The guys on the internet are going off of police radios, which are primary sources but can still lead to false reports (especially if the cops get a false lead). CNN has NO excuse though“

Powerful stuff. Our once god-like media is being turned on for not providing enough accurate information fast enough. In an age when people want information immediately,  it’s tough to remember that getting accurate information still takes time.

Just wanted to add one more FB post that came up right now at 8:08 AM.

“New updates. CNN is doing a god awful job of reporting. Manhunt going on in Boston. Suspects believed to be brothers and from Chechnya, Russia. One is dead, other is still very much a threat. EOD departments are crawling due to number of bomb threats being called. Pertinent resources:”

Social Media & Social Etiquette, Boston Tragedy brings issue to light

In class this week,we addressed the social media frenzy that followed the unfolding of the tragic events that occurred in Boston earlier this week (two explosions went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon). As we mentioned in class and as Sarah references in her blog post, the reaction was quick and in many cases inaccurate. Individuals were arguably disrespecting the horrific tragedy by spreading false information and fabricating mythical iconic characters that died in the horrific event.

While this issue is very strongly argued to be breaking the rules of social media etiquette, there has been another, more subtle violation  to one’s “online manners.” Many active social media users were alarmed by the prevalent apathy that seemed to plague many Facebook and Twitter uses in the past few days following the event. Rather than publishing content that payed respect to the victims of the incident or at the very least refrain from posting happy, trivial statuses, many users were observed posting Spring Break Photos and complaining about having too many great summer music festivals to choose from.

This all raised the fundamental question: what isn’t appropriate to digitally talk about during a national tragedy?

“There are no concrete rules about these things, but you want to think about who it is affecting, how many people, the scope and scale before you share and as you move into sharing other things,” Jodi R.R. Smith, author of “The Etiquette Book,” told ABC News in an interview. (http://goo.gl/m95nL)

It seems that users need to recognize the larger context they are in, their posts much reach a wider audience than they initially expect them to, and they could be linked to someone who was affected in some manner by the tragedy.

However, some argue it’s ultimately the choice of the one who has been personally affected by the incident. Since they have no control over all the users they are linked to on these sites and all the potential content they may post, it is wise for them to remove themselves from the social media for the time being. Someone is ought to post something that will make them feel uncomfortable in this sensitive time.

I personally agree that on both ends, users must be conscious of the other users. Since one might be in a fragile state of mind, it is important that they are not connected to such a large and overwhelming social network. At the same time, if something so tragic happens, it is pretty justified to ask users to hold of their daily junk for another time, so they don’t distract individuals from important updates.

How would you all define social etiquette? In the scenarios provided, was social etiquette violated?