Hackathons to End Corruption

Transparency International and
Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) have
collaborated to organize Hackathons that are aimed to challenge
anti-corruption and technology experts to work together and create
innovative solutions to corruption challenges. Corruption is an
impatient to the development process, therefore initiatives are needed
to make governments more accountable and less corrupt. This is there
ICT4D comes in. Both Transparency International and Random Hacks of
Kindness believe that technology can serves as a tool in the worldwide
fight against corruption. The hackathon relies on ‘problem statements’
from Transparency International chapters, and members of the public,
while Random Hacks of Kindness mobilizes their base of technological
do-gooders.

These are the questions that they try to tackle together:

• How can mobile technologies help us in monitoring elections across the world?
• How can we visualise and structure our research data to engage more people?
• How can we analyse public data through smart engines, or link
• databases to shed light on the misuse of public funds?
• How can we make e-solutions to prove the competitiveness of ethical
• business behaviour?

Participants include hackers, coders, programmers, designers,
do-gooders, politicians, NGOs, political theorists and everyone else
ready to make a practical contribution to stopping corruption. The
Hackathon is live-streamed over the internet to over 8 countries who
have participants working together to find innovative ways to use
technology to fight corruption.

On example of such a Hackaton was headed by Transparencia Colombia who
with RHoK in Bogota, Telefonica, Movistar, Wayra Colombia, Microsoft
and Public,  developed a web and mobile citizen tool to report
electoral advertising for 2014 elections called Participa. They also
were able to developed an online platform for tracking citizen
corruption allegations on their way through Guatemalan public offices,
illustrating that the power technology has in the efforts to fight
corruption.

Cyber Security: Fighting Back In Uganda

In this week’s lecture by Ralph Russo and previous discussion about cyber security I was intrigued about the extent of cyber security protocols and standards that are present in Uganda. From my research on ICTs in the business and industry sector in Uganda I was aware that security for both the companies and the consumer was an issue. The above video gives a wonderful overview of the effects of cyber crime on businesses, with losses ranging in the billions of shillings (1 USD to 2,160 USH), and that NITA-U has set up a task force to create safe e-commerce networks.

NITA-U isn’t the only task force on the cyber security scene though. A February All Africa article shares that  the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG)  partnered with Symantec in order to provide security storage and management solutions to one of Africa’s fastest growing telecommunications companies. But its not just the private sector that is standing up against cyber crime. In a 2013 article from IT News Africa the Ugandan government also established a Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) under the country’s Communications Commission (UCC) in order to more effectively  detect cyber crime. CERT is equipped with state of the art equipment and IT experts that will aid in the continuos and growing battle against cyber crime in conjunction with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

With the pace that technology is evolving it seems like an immeasurable feat to keep up with the high rates of cyber crime and as Ralph Russo shared with us it is important to keep connections with those entities attempting to put a stop to cyber crime. As seen in examples above Uganda is creating a firm platform, consisting of both public and private organizations, aimed to stop cyber crime and create a more secure environment for businesses to grow and thrive.

Government Employees Need to get Schooled on Cybersecurity

This week, both our classmate Annie Mellon and our guest speaker Professor Ralph Russo, briefly discussed the pressing issue of cyber security and cited examples from different security breaches including worms that invade control systems in nuclear plants to mobile applications that hijack airplanes. Russo mentioned that he fears the government does not know how to cope with many of these serious threats. After researching the matter, it turns out they don’t.

According to an article by CBS (http://goo.gl/KZd3L), no organized, across-the-board computer safety training is offered for employees even though electronic data theft from governments among other issues are unquestionably on the rise. One would think at least Wikileaks or Anonymous would be a wake-up call.

Information technology experts view training as an integral component of cybersecurity and D.C. officials admit their own employees should be more educated on computer use (yet seem to have a hard time acting on it), especially as governments face sophisticated cyber-threats such as those referenced above and as human errors have contributed (and will continue to contribute) to widespread data breaches.

While government officials have legitimate points when they argue that developing internet security through new products and tools come first, others argue that it should be the other way around. What do you all think? Should training be put on the so-called back-burner for now?

One might have to consider what Eric Chapman, deputy director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center at the University of Maryland, has to say:

If you have one user who’s fundamentally unaware of what a spear-phishing email looks like, the entire enterprise is vulnerable

If US employees are incompetent at dealing with these rapidly emerging issues, government employees in the developing word certainly are not equipped to dealing with them. Will basic training even suffice to combat many of the issues? Hacking into the cyber space has become more sophisticatedly performed with every day. These are ill-intentioned uber-geniuses we are dealing with.

Cyber Security Measures in the U.S.

Our guest speaker Ralph Russo, professor at Tulane University in the Homeland Security Program, discussed all things Cyber Security with us today. He mentioned the concept of malware or malevolent software that essentially allows hackers to gain access to information, disrupt a computer’s operation or perform whatever actions the hacker desires. One of the main issues he brought up is the United States’ concern about malware being on U.S. devices bought from China. I decided to look into this a little bit more and found the following article.

The article outlines a “new provision of the government’s latest spending law requires three federal agencies — NASA and the departments of Justice and Commerce — to buy gear only after performing a cyber-security risk assessment carried out in consultation with law-enforcement agencies”. This is because the government is worried about its important agencies and the threat of cyber attacks to them. There are many U.S. suspicions against China’s participation in cyber attacks on the U.S. Particularly because a U.S. research firm claimed “to have traced numerous cyber attacks to a specific unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army, one operating within a particular building in Shanghai.”

The threat of cyber attacks is growing therefore cyber security is an extremely relevant topic in today’s world. However, fortunately this is not an unknown threat to our government and cyber security measures are starting to be implemented as the newest law exemplifies.

UNICEF’s Knight News Challenge – Voices of Youth Maps

These past couple of weeks we have been introduced to some interesting and (at least for me) new things. The open street map assignment made me aware of something I never knew existed until now. I think it’s a really interesting component of what role ICTs can have in impacting development, especially when taken into context with disaster response. Along these lines, I found this really cool project that is part of a challenge put on by the Knight Foundation, the “Knight News Challenge” with the subject “How might we improve the way citizens and governments interact?” Here is a brief video giving some context to the project:

UNICEF, as part of this challenge, is working on a project geared towards empowering youth in cities to map their neighborhoods in order to facilitate the communication between government and citizens, as well as improve response measures taken in disaster prone urban areas. The project focuses for now on the cities of Port-au-Prince and Rio de Janeiro.

Their project in one sentence: “Digital maps created by young advocates establish a collaborative space for municipal government and community to work together towards safer neighborhoods.” 

In February 2013 they trained ~300 youth mappers to cover 11 favelas in Rio and 2 neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. These ‘youth reports’ have already led to bridges getting fixed, flood walls being reinforced, and playgrounds cleared of stagnant water according to their description.

youth mappers in action – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Their approach uses a workshop which employs the UNICEF- Geographic Information System (UNICEF-GIS) which is a smartphone app. It allows the users to collect and “share location sensitive reports in a simple, private and secure manner.” The app creates a map of all reports filtered depending on the hazards, etc. Voices of Youth (the UNICEF moderated youth-friendly public platform) allows the mappers to turn their reports into “powerful advocacy materials, which they can promote collectively through other social and local media channels.”

Why Youth Mappers? “because young people bring a truthful first-hand and real perspective to the program, making our maps extremely compelling. If [the government] ignores maps by youth, then they are denying the needs of their most vulnerable and innocent citizens who are the voices of the future, as well as potential community leaders.”

Between March 1st and July 1st?

1) Prototyping an “Urgency Rank System”. The number of reports are increasingly growing, and in response we are devising a system to label and rank                          reports based on severity and urgency.

2) An administrative system that will allow users to create profiles and trainers to customize the layers on their maps.

3) A widget that will allow for a new interlinked Voices of Youth Maps to be embedded easily into any website for sharing youth posted multi-media reports.

4) Various upgrades to capacity and usability for UNICEF-GIS app and website.

5) A “Voices of Youth Maps and Civic Media How-To Guidebook” for streamlining trainings and project implementation as we scale to new cities.

Can Indices Potentially Hurt ICT4D Initiatives?

Many ICT4D initiatives have yet to scale or prove to be sustainable post implementation. Chapter five of Unwin’s textbook emphasizes that in order for ICT4D initiatives to actually have a chance at producing a lasting benefit, it is essential to lay a solid foundation of effective national ICT policies and strategies. He highlights the need for these policies and strategies in that the market alone will not allow ICTs to reach the poor and confidence must be given to the private sector to ensure their investments are safe and will produce a profit.

However, after all our class discussions covering indices and their importance in terms of measuring ICTs for development, I thought it was particularly interesting when he points out how indices can potentially hurt ICT4D initiatives. He explains that excessive attention to the indices may lead governments to dump large sums of money into programs solely attempting to feature their country higher up in the indices rankings/ratings which can ultimately divert attention from implementation of initiatives at the ground level. Moreover, governments become more considered with the numbers placed on their status rather than focusing on funding efficacious ICT4D practices.

indices measuring ICTs

“Breaking the MGD Hegemony” has Yielded Progress for ICT Strategies in Latin American

In Richard Heeks’ article: ICTs and the MDGs: On the Wrong Track? (http://tinyurl.com/b4nswgp) he shines a critical light on how relevant, or rather not relevant, the Millennium Development Goals are in the application of ICTs, and vis-versa. In this piece, Heeks uses colorful metaphors and analogies to incite a re-evaluation of ICT development agendas, specifically speculating on how they are currently being “pressed through the MGD filter,” and how this is causing a misprioritization of the domains in which ICTs should be implemented.

In his discussion, Heeks brings up a very interesting point about how many developing countries are denied “the very paths to development that the industrialized countries used.” For example, the urging of developing countries to rely on the market rather than the state is in direct conflict with how central of a role the government played in the development of these very industrialized nations. This brings me to my next point, which is that Heeks may be correct in his exhortation of taking alternative, non-MGD type strides when investing in and implementing ICTs for development. Evidence of how this divergence is capable of yielding progress can be found in our text. Unwin provides readers with a tangible example of how a contradictory approach to ICT4D, namely charging the head of state and government with the task of driving strategies forward, rather than private-sector market forces, can be very successful. The example he discusses is that of Latin America, the region I am focusing on in this class. Untwin explains how effective ICT strategies and policies in Latin American can be distinguished by certain features of them such as their “embracing of the entire government of a country…importance of a single overarching national authority..[and] the head of state playing a prominent role in driving them forward.” These qualities, which challenge the values of the MGDs, have proven to be responsible for the success of said strategies in Latin America. Had Heeks read the report cited by Untwin that describes the positive evolution of ICT strategies in the region, I think he’d say “I told you so!”

 

Internet Access as a Power of the People

According to the EIU’s Digital Economy Rankings, “the internet is now fundamental to commercial success and social prosperity” and further more that “societies use digital tools to move towards their collective goals more quickly.” These aforementioned goals cover the spectrum, ranging from simple efforts towards economic and education improvement to the improvement and over haul of corrupt, inefficient and inequitable governments. We have seen the latter occur in various countries in the Middle East over the last few years.  Mainly, the use of social media as means for communication and organization of social efforts, as well as the use on Internet access control as a way for governments to control and maintain their citizens actions.

The use of social media through out the rebellions in Syria, Egypt, Libya and other areas is no secret. Major North American Press organizations broadcast tweets to keep viewers in the know across the globe. But more interesting than the simple ability of these 140 word messages to organize activists and rebels, was their power to inspire hope. A study done at the University of Washington concluded the following,

“Our evidence suggests that social media carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy across North Africa and the Middle East, and helped raise expectations for the success of political uprising,” said Philip Howard, the project lead and an associate professor in communication at the University of Washington.  “People who shared interest in democracy built extensive social networks and organized political action. Social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom.”

Where twitter is less popular, say for example in Tunisia, less than 20 percent of the population uses social media, but almost everyone has access to a mobile phone.  Twitter helped to show us the broader world of mobile communication that was occurring, including text messages, pictures, and voice that were being transmitted.

As we take time to consider the imminent power that social media and Internet use can have in promoting the power of people over their government, we also see the power the government may have in shutting down these actions.

As seen is in this map of “Rick of Internet Disconnection” from November 2012, the majority of the world is at risk of being shut down. To this I’m posing the question, how fundamental is our right to Internet access? In what cases should the government be able to control the World Wide Web, and in what ways does this hinder any nations ability to access true and transparent democracy?

Energy and Cost Effectiveness in the Cloud

When discussing the benefits of cloud computing, we talked about it being cheaper than other options, such as buying external hardwear, etc. However, what we did not delve deeply into was the macro cost effectiveness of cloud computing, often with the added bonus of it being better for the environment. For example, as Google expands its service, it created “Google Apps for Government,” which focuses on providing a secure and efficient cloud server for government agencies to utilize.

Benefits that it advertises include the decreased amounts of infrastructure that needs to be built to house a data center. It also allows less maintence of said centers, which lead to monthly costs such as electricity, air conditioning to maintiain the equiptment, and water for cooling the systems. The elimination of all these costs leads to huge amounts of savings, which makes the cost of “Google Apps for Government” itself negligible in comparison.

Another way that these Google apps minimize environmental and cost impacts is through a decrease in the need for travel. This service offers efficient video and digital interfacing, so that it can decrease the need for travel. This is a huge cast saver, as well as helping the environment as it decreases the harmful greenhouse gasses that are released when flying or driving.

Overall, Google Apps for Government seems to be a useful way in utilizing the cloud to save money, help the environment, and allow the government to address its consituents concerns to release less carbon. Google seems to be leading the field in this focus on adapting the cloud for specific fields, and it is an innovative way to make money and improve efficency at the same time.

The Lagging Cyber-Security of Indonesia

Indonesia is currently experiencing explosive growth, especially with regards to Java’s ICT sector, which the government is heavily focused on developing into an Indonesian New Taipei. Despite this focus on the cutting edge of ICT, the government itself has had some problems with modernizing, especially with regards to cyber-security.

When we as Americans think of .gov internet domains, we think of extremely secure areas. In Indonesia, the national go.id domain is instead a symbol of vulnerability. The go.id domain has been hacked numerous times, both by political protestors and more malicious hackers. The most famous, and embarrassing instance, was when a university senior names Dani Firmansyah was able to hack the website of the General Election Commission during an election and changed the candidate names. While the hack caused no damage, it certainly sent a message about the state of cyber-security in Indonesia. Other highlights have been the replacement of security camera feeds at the House of Representatives with graphic pornography and over 3 million individual cyber attacks so far.

While statement attacks like the pornography and candidate name changes only embarrass the government, the malicious attacks are often less noticeable and can lead to serious security breaches and monetary losses. Given how focused Indonesia is on Foreign Direct Investment, so many breaches are no doubt hurting the economy by decreasing investor confidence. The current asymmetrical trajectory of Indonesia’s ICT development is a serious hindrance to national security and investment, and must be addressed as the country moves into the digital age.

 

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/19/online-threat-govt-told-strengthen-cyber-security.html