ANDROID FOR SURVEY

It was middle of a mobile based survey project. We needed an android phone with satellite GPS, Indic language support and relatively a big screen in a competitive price. We ran around for a week in all shops including the well established ones. But, unfortunately, all these features are not found in one device.

While returning from a shop in New Delhi’s Nehru Place, where the person was cutting the normal sim card to make it a micro sim card for a tablet, my colleague Ram told, “Drupedi had to marry five men in search of all the best possible human qualities.” I understood his frustration arising from the disappointment of not getting the desired model. I thought of documenting this experience in the hope that this will be useful for people like me in choosing the appropriate phone for survey.

We had no plan to take a high-end mobile brand like Samsung, as the cost was beyond the scope of the project. In my last project, we had used Micromax android phone and it worked quite well except for the battery problem in some sets—there was no replacement available in the market. Drawing from my past experience, I bought a Micromax A 45 punk mobile phone. 

We tested the set but to our utter surprise, we found that it does not have the satellite GPS; it only obtains the A-GPS by using the mobile network. Apparently, A-GPS works great in urban areas, but in rural areas, it has very high variance due to lower density of mobile tower. However, this mobile does support display of the composite character of Hindi/ Marathi character sets properly. I checked other mobile phones in this range and all have the same features.

My obvious choice then was Karbon. I spoke to the sweet talking lady in the customer care for 45 minutes. During the call, she transferred the call to two more persons, who were from the technical side. But the only tangible thing I managed to gather was a distributer in Lajpat Nagar and their phone number. I was required to go to the shop to explore further. Thanks to the customer care, if you have a mobile phone and you fill random coupons in mall, your communication skill in English could improve!  

We went to a Karbon distributor to explore further. We found that all android phones are available below INR 10,000, but do not have the language support. However, these phones have good GPS and great volume. The young gentleman sitting in the counter promised that he will fix the problem of language display the next day and suggested us to come with cash to buy the phone. With my limited technical knowledge and multiple try in the past, I was not very hopeful of him fixing the problem. Without any other option, I was forced to rely on him and our indigenous innovation. The next day, I went to the shop but our friend was not there. He was busy in a marriage. He referred us to one of his colleague, who simply said it is not possible.

Near to the Karbon shop, we checked the android phones of other brands in the same price category. We found that it does support the Indic character set and displays all in a rectangle box. I was quite disappointed and started exploring how to install font and have some compliance. But after referring to many group and install almost 10 patches, I realized that if any product is not supported by the manufacturer, it is difficult to get it working.

Next morning, I went to Samsung store and realized that almost all its models support all features except S II, which is less than INR 9000. On way back to my office, I saw a HTC store and found that HTC models that cost around INR 8000 fortunately supports multilingual and true GPS. They are within our extendable range. The only disadvantage is that it does not have the big screen as compared to Karbon and Micromax phone.

The grid below summarizes the details for the benefit of techies. 

Comparative Sheet of mobile phone functionalities and cost

I would like to thank my colleague Ram and Dampy in this mobile search. They visited almost all markets of Delhi to explore "Android for Survey". I would appreciate your comment and suggestion. 

You may write to kedar dot dash at gmail.com.

Gold plating in project management

Innovation is the critical success element for gaining competitive advantage in knowledge based economy. Out-of-box thinking, fusion of existing attributes and experimentation are considered as some of the building blocks of innovation.

There is no doubt in my mind that innovation is a must to build an excellent institution and ensure sustained business growth in the current scenario. But, it is not an easy option, in fact, if not managed strategically right, it is could be counter productive.

I would like to share my experience of not dealing best possible way..
Case I
It was the development of an e-Governance portal and contract was to develop a Content Management System and dynamic website being rendered from a secure database. The project had to go for security audit in next couple of days. We were working hard beyond office hours.

One day late evening, Subhendu, my colleague came to me with an idea of capturing the IP address of the browsing machine so that a location based analytics may be developed. His face was full of excitement and I too got excited and asked him "How long this will take".

He in his own optimistic style responded "one and half person day". Instantly, I multiplied it by 2 as I had clear idea that 100% padding is required for his optimism.

The idea was great and agreed by all stakeholders and subsequently implemented. After a couple of days, the project was submitted for auditing and the initial audit report came with two pages of summary substantiated with 100 page of possible security vulnerability and most of them are on the module that was dealing with capturing of the IP address.

The subsequent processes were followed to address the issue, which took couple of sleepless nights to resolve. One day, after the project was completed, I was standing on the roof top of our office and was asking myself

• Capturing of the IP was not a part of the scope so why we did it?
• If I would have said that this is not a part of the scope and we should not do it... than what would have been impact on his motivation..
• Was there a better way to deal with this?

Case II
It was a small research project to understand the impact of funding on the living condition of organic cotton farmer. We had been to Kalahandi, one of the beautiful and green places of Orissa, which is globally known to everybody for all wrong reasons. Thanks to emerging media reporting.

We interacted with the farmer community and took the video of all possible things ranging from peeing of a small child in a bucket to the ginning factory. On return, we completed the reporting in two weeks.

On the date of submission, we saw the edited video having nice cotton tree, women plucking cotton, cultural programme and ginning factory. The team was quite happy with the work and we sent it to the sponsor of the project with a delayed deadline. At the date of submission, we had the third reminder from the our finance manager to submit the report soon so that he can raise the invoice.

After two days, we received an email from project sponsor

---------------------Email Starts here-------------------------
Hi Team,
Great work done. The impact study is very well captured.

Need a small clarification.. is the ginning process that you have shown is certified by a textile engineer. Would appreciate an acknowledgement from an engineer working there.
...
Best regards,


xyz
------------------------email ends here ---------------------
We were taken aback. At that point of time, we had no option to say that this was not a part of the Term of Reference (ToR). We were very sure that, it will not be appreciated internally as it is going to delay the payment.

We started contacting the engineer at the ginning factory. The chief engineer was in a marriage ceremony of his sister-in-law and was supposed to be back after seven days. His juniors were not willing to say either "Yes or No" as they were very much aware of the implication of this.

Finally the engineer came after seven days and saw the presentation. He said

"very good video" and requested to courier his video interview in particular.

On asking specifically about the technical appropriateness, he responded saying

"Perfect Sir".

I was returning from the office in the late evening after sending the final email to our finance manager. Word that were hitting me were "Scope Management", "Gold Plating" , "Innovation in Emerging Economy" and "prioritising Deadlines"...

Good morning ... Tatkal

The calling bell by the maid was the awaking call in the morning. I got up and instantly realized that we need to go for railway ticket booking for my in-laws. As planned a day before, I made my wife leave the bed without any further delay. We both decided to go for the booking as there is a dedicated ladies queue. Booking ticket using tatkal services at 8 AM is something that everybody should try at least once in their life time. I am sure it will give you immense pleasure of your patience and will also enforce your believe that life with family is no less meditation than that of a yogi.

We started our mission in the chilled winter of Delhi in January using a auto rickshaw. The driver as usual refuses to use meter. Probably, this time he had a good reason to say that he can not drive auto as per government fixed meter in winter. Me and my wife started in the auto at 6:30 AM in the morning. I was covering my nose with the monkey cap and inhaling the hot moist air of my mouth. The winter in open auto rickshaw was a good enough punishment for anybody.

We reached Sarojini Nagar railway booking counter at 7:10 and I was quite happy to see there were only three women in the ladies queue with the hope that we will get the ticket in 15 minutes and I will be able to reach office in time. My wife stood in the queue without further delay and I started looking out for the reservation form. I got it quite quickly and than started filling the form. Suddenly my wife left the queue and called me. To our surprise, we got to know that the photocopy of identity card of traveling passenger is required to book the ticket.


"Ohhh..." something which came out of my mouth by default.

"what to do now.." Trupti asked.
"Let me check with some more," I said as I had the recent experience of AIIMS, where a gentleman gave a good piece of knowledge to leave the queue so that he can avail the ultrasound test service.

I went around asking few people about the new rule of photocopy in the complex process and to my surprise, most of them seemed to be aware of this.With utmost disappointment, we returned home. I was thinking of going to a Internet cafe as I had left the data card in the office. I reached home and started calling my junior colleague of my previous jobs to request for a ticket booking.

The first one said that his internet data card was just over last night and could not manage to send his CV to a prospective employer. The second one was quite brave to say that he slept last night late and was not feeling well enough to book a ticket. The Internet connection of the next two people were also not working. The fifth person, who is a system admin guy gave me a very good reason that there is a fiber cut in South Delhi and nowhere it would be working.

I was quite disappointed with the behaviors of my old colleagues. I was introspecting while walking to the internet cafe. I was searching for a cafe after three years in Delhi as I had internet connection all the time and to my surprise most of the cafe were closed at 7:55. Three years ago, there was cafe every where and student living in hostel used to stay the whole night in internet cafe for obvious reasons. Apparently one of them is a coaching centre, two of them are gym. Thanks to open telecoms policy (big scam) which made internet connection affordable to households.

Finally, I found a cafe in one of the corners of the village. When I entered, to my surprise there was only four persons in a 30-seater internet cafe. I purchased a coupon and started logging in. The railway booking website opened at 8:25 after waiting for 30 minutes. By that time I had checked my personal and official email account twice. I logged in and entered the passenger details and selected the payment gateway.

"You are being redirected to ... " Message got displayed. My pupil size increased with the hope that I will be able to book the ticket now. But the astrologer again proved to be right that if you work for 100 you will get 70.

"Session expires........", I started remembering the story "the old man and the sea".

Closed Internet explorer and opened Chrome with a hope that it will do better. Sent an SMS to my new Boss "Will be late .. Busy in some personal work" and instantly got a message OK.

By the time I managed to enter ticket details for the second time, it was 8:56 AM.

"Beep... Beep.. Please save all your work, your time will be over in next five minutes." The computer screen displayed the message.

"Boss .. one more coupon" I gave 10 more rupees and give it to the cafe boy. By the time I entered the coupon, the computer was logged off.

"Back to square one..." Started cursing myself for not extending the timing before.

Finally after 30 minutes of taking the second coupon, finally I had the ticket. I was quite happy that I was able to book the ticket. I was quite cool by that time and was realising the reason why all my old colleagues were giving technical reasons for not booking the ticket and the fact they are people with helping attitude. We have given blood to the needy in the past. So the moral of the story is, ask for a bottle of blood, you will get it easily, but not a tatkal railway ticket booking.

I was thinking of my first ticket booking in 1998 in Rourkela, I went to the railway station with Sushant and Probir and got the ticket. Two piece of paper, one was a small card (something that we get while checking weight in railway platform) and the other one was a carbon copy of white paper. Life was cool..

Now after 15 years, With broad band.. online booking...tatkal ...

My attention was brought to focus when my mobile vibrated.. Three SMS, one from ticket booking, one from credit card and the last from my wife "Get half KG tomato"

___________________________________________________

Kedar Dash
Katwarai Sarai, New Delhi
Author may be contacted at kedar dot dash at gmail dot com

Bridging the GAP using mobile phone

Enriched information and effective communication have always played a crucial role in development and have created avenues for innovation at large. Be it enabling effective governance or creating opinions for social causes, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have managed to put their foot print wide and larger.

Take recent examples of the Arab Spring or the London riots or the summer of anti-corruption unrest in India, ICTs have managed to amplify local causes of public interest beyond national borders, making the issues truly global.

Internet penetration in India and counterpart developing countries started in the late nineties, and today has found mainstream place in most urban areas, adding qualitative betterment to peoples’ lives at large. There are ample instances where we use internet in our daily life, like in booking train/ flight tickets, accessing matrimony services, and referring to Google while teaching our children.

There was another paradigm shift in this regard when mobile phones were introduced to the masses in India by creating conducive government policies and opening up the domestic market. During this time there were quite a few optimistic ideas of empowering the poorest and the most neglected by using ICTs and building bridges in service delivery.

The fascination of integrating mobile with internet has spurred a many discussions and debates amongst the intellectual masses. But the potential to reach the unexplored market at Base of Pyramid (BoP) is yet to be demonstrated in scale.
If we see the root cause, it seems there is a lack of capacity to develop & customize web-mobile applications at various levels, along with an inadequate framework to support the same. Simply speaking, a Civil Society Organisation based in a remote place cannot think of developing a mobile application for mass awareness on a social cause, or to provide contextual adaptation knowledge on climate change.
The good news however is that this is becoming possible, and for ICTs there is a ray of light in the near future so far as bridging of heterogeneous tools and techniques are concerned.

Android, an operating system and development framework for mobile devices is emerging in potential to break this barrier. Unlike other mobile Operating Systems, it is not difficult to learn. It is an open-source framework with a convincing degree of quality control mechanisms in place. And the most interesting fact is that it may be deployed in mobiles costing less than INR 5000 (Around 100 USD).

Using Android Framework, applications are working on GPS enabled android mobile phones to monitor sanitation behaviour of rural people in India. The data collected comprise of behavioural information on sanitation, with photographs, and latitude and longitude details, which get transferred to a central server using GPRS connection without any delay.

In case the GPRS network is not available, it resides in the mobile until the connectivity is established. A copy of the same remains in the sqllite (A light-weight database) mounted on the phone for future reference and editing.

In traditional research or field survey, the data collected from the field takes months to be represented in an actionable format to the policy maker. And many a times the research finding becomes irrelevant due to this delay. OneWorld’s mobile innovation for data collection looks promising in this regard to bridge such critical time gaps, while enabling greater accuracy.

I always believe, technology if engineered properly, proves to be quite instrumental in facilitating development. This simple innovation reinforces the same.

This story is also published in Eldis and may be seen at http://community.eldis.org/.5a305d9c .
______________________________________
Kedar Dash
Katwarai Sarai, New Delhi
Author may be contacted at kedar dot dash at gmail dot com

The 18th Day

It was the 18th Day of Mahabharat War. Tired Duryodhana(दुर्योधन) was resting inside Padma Sarobar (The Lotus pond). The Pandavas(पाण्डव) were eagerly looking forward to close the devastating war by get rid of the last man, the root cause.

They went to the padma sarovar and Bhim shouted at him for hiding and not adhering to trend of the worrier culture. After listening all harsh words, Duryodhana came out and invited the pandava to fight; In response Yudhisthira,s the eldest pandava offered him to fight with any one of the pandavas and promised that if he can manage to defeat him, he will accept his defeat and give the kingdom of Hastina to him.

Duryodhana looked at Yudhisthira. His face was full of frustration and but quite confident. He smiled carelessly and said, “Who will see me be the king. I have lost my ninety-nine brothers ; Dushasan - my obedient brother is not there; Karan - My dearest friend is no more; My Uncle (Mama) Sakuni - who used to be the source of my inspiration has left for ever. What will I do with the kingdom, the wealth ... They are quite meaningless. So even if I win, there is nothing left in for me to enjoy.

The fact is very true in our life. The success and failure only make sense if we have the people to share with us. In their absence it is absolutely meaningless.

There is a friend of mine, who hardly calls me. I do not remember when he last called. But, I find it always prompting from core of my heart to call him to share what I am doing.

One day I thought why am I so eager to call him. What is so special about him? I have no expectation of any kind from him, I am not impressed with his personality or any of his quality – But I call him and Trupti, My wife makes fun of me.

After thinking for couple of days, I realized that he is the person who was my college room made; we have shared a three year of our life together in college hostel, dreaming about the brightest future that we would have imagined at that point of time.

Life is all about companion. Cheers...

A Thought on Climate Change

Probably, Climate Change is the biggest challenge in the human race, may be well attributed by its global reach, impact on various section of the society and unpredictable magnitude of consequences. It is the very challenge, from where there is no escape but to fight. It will be a prolonged fight that human society needs to fight at various levels for their self and for the generation to come.

The very existence of modern world is a result of many cycle of climate change; Climate has been changing and will keep on changing. The eahth is capable of dissolving all carbon emitted to the climate in the sea with a small span of time.

One School of thought advocates that the human induced climate change is accelerating the climate change; The other puts the issue is a multidimensional cause-impact and scenario matrix, which brings more confusion than clarity .

While the scientific facts and causes are subject to argument and perspective, the immediate chhalenges posed by the changing climate is impacting the human being; and it is substantial.

There are evidences to prove this across the globe and call for urgent adaptation at all levels ranging from individual to nation and certainly beyond. The adaptation to climate change has to be a continous as the climate is changing continouly.

This concern is taken seriously by Government, Civil Society Organisation, corporate and various research institutions. Every section is trying to put their best to deal with it; a collaborative approach of working together is the way to address this issue.

Climate change is a global issue and it need to be negotiated with a open mind for the betterment for the place where we live, before it is too late.

Cyber Security: A must for ICT for Development

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are on the way of revolutionising our lives and society. They are playing a catalytic role in reaching out to common people and transforming everybody’s life through various tools and communication mediums.

In this context it has also become important to consider the security and the privacy aspect of information and communication technologies. This was echoed as a global concern in the WSIS Forum 2009 that was held in Geneva from 18-22 May, 2009.

The strength of ICTs in terms of its impacts in speed and scale is being used by unscrupulous elements to cause much damage in the cyber world. The threat of this damage is not just from viruses and malware. It also includes inaccurate and misleading information, fraud, theft and forgery, which exist online just as they do offline.

Organized crime has been on the rise as the internet provides a low risk but convenient platform for cyber crimes. There is also lack of harmonization, standardization and coordination in national and regional legislation between countries, which makes it difficult to trace the criminal.

At the WSIS Forum, participants from all over the globe emphasized building international cooperation to deal with the critical issue of cyber security.

The Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA) is an initiative started by International Telecommunication Union with partnership with various Government and international organizations to create a platform that will combat cyber threat at various levels.

The GCA is built upon five strategic pillars:
1. Legal Measures
2. Technical and Procedural Measures
3. Organizational Structures
4. Capacity Building
5. International Cooperation

Internet being a democratic technology, the threat to it will be a part of forthcoming technological evolution as well. This problem has to be tackled with coordination and partnership of the highest standard, across all stakeholders and across the global level.

Also Published in Digital Opportunity Channel