Sci&Tech History

What do we need for a better life? Do we need reminder in our hand phone to warn us on several appointment, FoodPhone (helping to fight obesity), the HygieneGuard (motivating people to wash their hands after using the toilet), and the EconoMeter (helping people to drive their cars more economically)? If we do that, do we miss something in our humanity? Who have the right to decide whether the technology is good or bad? To sustain, industry need to make an innovation every day. So from their side, innovation in technology is a good thing. While as a user who heard new invention every day, see how the advertisement frame technology into an illustration of ideal life, technology seduce us to buy them.

I try to answer the questions above from the economic model. First, industry growth will reduce unemployment thus increase people welfare. Second, consumerism is needed to keep industry sustainability. But on the other hand, people consume technology as part of their life and don’t increase their humanity, i.e: share porn videos rather educational content. The complexity increase when analysis technology in the making. As human product, technology can not be separated from cultural context. Using Akrich term, there are in-scription in technology. The in-scription, in certain degrees, ‘force’ human to do something, and as consequence from human free-will, create an anti-program or move to something that never been calculated before.

Is it ethical to force people from development countries to use internet? Have we ever calculate the cultural implications?

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Does scientist has nationality? The Numb3rs serial I watched yesterday, triggered this question. In the episode, a colleague of Charlie Eppes (professor in Math) has been arrested since he sent a formula that can be used to alleviate poverty to Pakistan university. The conflict occur when the US federal agency arrest him with accusation sent a classified document abroad. The case makes me wonder, who own the science? Do we conduct research for the sake of human being or only for the institution/country we work with? Is it wrong to let somebody die in other part of the world by knowing that we don’t have any relative with them? A more fundamental question: are human fox for their kind or an angel?

Learning on competitiveness makes me think that growth occur with sacrificies. To support certain countries, other countries has to suffer. Natural exploitation, outsourcing, cheap labour are thing common in develop/under development countries, while high payment with safety standard can be found in the First World. An ironic part of this inequality is the international agencies role to make the situation stable. What should the development world do? Is it possible to make another part, rather following the development path proposed by the Fisrt countries and international agencies?

Maybe what I am saying is out of the title I proposed above. Scientist have their own world, legitimize by university rankings, number of publications, how often a scientist follows international conference etc. The culture imply unversality of science. In order to be well recognize in (international) scientific community you hav to shar your knowledge through papers (sometimes you even have to pay in order to publish your thought), but does the standard promote nation development? Does research conducted in the university promote/support national competitiveness?

I doubt it! Different situation, different initial condition, yet different impact.

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This morning I received an email on Indonesian president and vice president candidate polling. How the survey agency interpret the numbers is quite interesting. Using multistage random sampling covered 3000 respondents, the survey analyzed that from the respondents answers Indonesian most crucial issue is economic crisis. While questions that directly related with the candidate shows respectively integrity, empathy, competency, quick response, represent religion variety, combination of civil-military, represent local/cultural variety, and represent a certain party as criteria needed. The survey shows SBY-Boediono (71%) as the candidates that represent those criteria.

What interest me is how the survey deliver their findings. After number of the most favourite candidate based on the ideal criteria proposed, the presentation discussed about rumors of the most favourite candidate. The survey agency try to counter the rumors by prsenting another statistical data. For me, it is very tendencious

Anyway, it interesting to see how the numbers were being played. In rankings, in politics, in work… Well, we live in a competitive age I guess

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Why people always care about ranking? In one side, ranking can stimulate competitiveness, but in the other hand, how can something different be treated equally? In university ranking case for example, people always debating on how Indonesian universities can enter the top 100. Almost all of the resources was dedicated to improve the rankings, but by the end, protest was addressed due to high tuition fee. Maybe, I was too cynical. International ranking relate with national competitiveness. By assuming university as a knowledge producer, national competitiveness will increase when universities are productive in paper publications, pilot plant etc.

In some papers this relation seems true in the first world. University and industry have a good relation so knowledge and funding flow can run well, but in country like Indonesia, I kind of doubt it. It is true that a lot of scientist have relation with the industry but the flow is mostly human, rather money or knowledge (soft). I am thinking of a model that is more dynamic for Indonesia situation. Rather use the Korean model with their chaebol, I prefer using Taiwan with their Small-Medium Enterprises. How we choose our model will affect parameters used to evaluate the success/failure.

So why we care so much about rankings? Built your own rankings and be proud of it!

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Which one do you belief more, ctrl+c and ctrl+v or a typed paper based on what you have listened? I guess, everyone will choose the first choice. Along with neutrality, technology become tools that we trust more than human. Does our humanity also imply betrayal? Why technology is more reliable than human? In controlling, in forcing people what to do, in recording people absence?

As the abstract of of discussion and presentations on the topic of materiality, at St Hugh’s College (Oxford) on 13th May 2009, “Social scientists are developing ways of thinking about relationships to take into account our interaction with everyday objects. Expressions of sociality are being extended beyond the individual, to include aspects of personality cultivated by the experience of living in the material world around us. But how does the material world catalyse relationships and how do those relationships create the person? Are we enskilled by materiality, or governed by it? How do the properties of objects impose aspects of their ‘personality’ onto us? How can we characterise those relations if they aren’t simply ‘social? And how far can anthropology take these ideas and provide culturally-informed theories which may be useful to the social sciences generally?”

What do we refer by social, is it human versus non-human, material object versus mental? How can health, environmental issues take into account? Human, nature, non-human, mental, delusion?

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What do I actually hope from ICT? The question suddenly shocked me, I lost my orientation on ICT and development. I can show calculation on how open source software development can reduce national cost on ICT spending, but further, how can this development make change as stated over and over in ICT policy documents: to support democracy, equity and promote knowledge deployment. I’m lost. My involvement in ICT communty lately influence my subjectivity on how I see development.

I guess what interest me most is the way ICT can promote knowledge. How it can influence the way people act and behave. Using assumption I think therefor I am, it is knowledge that make people different from any other creature. But in it implementation, sometimes ICT is used to consumption purpose. Are we still fighting for the same purpose as the initial condition? How internet can help farmer to know the latest technology or invention in farming and break broker dominance? What kind of link needed? How can the inter-linkage is being promoted?

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What is Information and Communication Technology (ICT), really? The Millennium Declaration of the United Nations (UN) sees ICT as a tool having the potential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the historic UN 2000 Summit (Zhao, 2008). Further, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) stated that unlike most other technologies, ICT are general-purpose technologies, bringing improvements in productivity and efficiency throughout the economy. As stated in ‘The Digital Divide Report: ICT Diffusion Index 2005’, “Since its conception, we have hypothesized that, while not a cure-all, the internet could raise the quality of life in the developing world” (UNCTAD, 2006).

Indonesia’s ICT development starts with the same point of view, “to support nation unity, improve people welfare and prosperity fairly and equally; support economic and government field; and improve Indonesia relationship with other countries” (Indonesian Law No. 36/1999). The Law was followed by Presidential Instruction numbered 6/2001 focused on decreasing digital divide between Indonesia and other countries, yet also gap between rural and urban area. The aim of ICT development was made clear, although it relation with people welfare and support economic field was still questioned.

In relation with democracy, it is important to ask how do we want implement ICT for democracy? Through an open database or limited access? I like to analog democracy with rating in television program. For me, restriction is still needed for children so they won’t access adult content. Further, how do we want to translate democracy concept into reality?

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If you facing a lot of job, what would you prefer: going online or offline? In one hand, going online help you gain a lot idea through chaotic idea that cross over your eye, but on the same time, a lot of distraction made you unproductive, especially when you open social networks websites and chatting rooms. There are another possibilities to reduce distraction i.e: by going invisible, but I failed the temptation of changing my status on fb. Yeah, I must admit it, I’m a little bit lousy facing things related with discipline.

So here I am, still opening several windows, chatting, writing, and make concepton note on the same time. Don’t we love living in a paralell world?

Happy monday everyone…

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Currently, I’m working a paper on ICT for development. The study delivers me to ask about ICT and development relation: are we improving ICT for development or are we developing for ICT? Looking The Digital Divide Report launched by UNCTAD, ICT development tends to answer the second possibilities. Our success is represented by number of internet per person, not by its use. To explain this tendency, Harindranath and Sein (2007) divide ICT for development into four paradigm. First, functionalism: modernisation perspective of development and neutral view of ICT. Second, social relativism: modernisation perspective of development and situated view of ICT, third, radical structuralism: alternative perspective of development and neutral view of ICT, and last, neo-humanism: alternative perspective of development and situated view of ICT.

What happened in ICT development in Indonesia shows that we tend to develop ICT as a neutral tool. There are several good cases as seen in reformation era when internet was used as communication tools among activst, but there are also unexpectedeffect as pornography. The question arose: those ICT really neutral? By comparing internet and e-government, we can see that ICT is not neutral. The medium is the message.

As Onno W. Purbo said, “The barrier [is] actually not the tool. The barrier would be the education process. To educate the society to share the knowledge within the society, to encourage the society to produce their knowledge in local languages. That’s a major barrier. So, it’s not the tool, it’s not the money, it’s not the funding, actually the education process would be the barrier. Of course, the government also creates some sort of barrier in the public regulation. We need to liberalize the regulation to enable community broadcasting as well as low cost Internet access.”

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Yesterday afternoon, my colleague asking my facebook activity. He said based on a research, facebook (and maybe some other social network activities) is time-consuming and caused someone to be unproductive. Commenting on people status, change their profile, make some notes, request someone to join an online game are several out of many facilities offered on the social network. What do we get from those activities? Income, new friend, business opportunity? Maybe the answer is only one word: fun.

In a network analysis, a person tendency to join or choose a product can be seen from their relatives. If all of your friends join facebook, it is a kind of unusual if you don’t follow them. Using cluster mechanism, you can find factors that identify them as a group. This mechanism has been used in several online bookstore which completed with statistical data from customer habit. A person who buy Harry Potter for example, also like Twillight. The next customer who see this statistic will followed this tendency and usually it works.

A movie based on behavioural research and how to manipulate people through data can be watched in Hitch. A matchmaker who run his activities through observation.

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