Researchers at Northwestern University have found that broadband prices in America have remained nearly stagnant since 2004. Duopoly in most urban markets is blamed for the lack of incentive to lower prices. It has also generated an argument: Why Isn’t the Price of Broadband Obeying Moore’s Law?
LIRNEasia‘s recently completed pilot project on the use of mobile phones for early detection of communicable diseases, led by Nuwan Waidyantha, was showcased at a press conference yesterday at Cinnamon Lakeside, Colombo. Below is an excerpt of an article appearing in Lanka Business Online. The ‘real-time bio-surveillance programme’ enables the rapid detection and notification of potential health outbreaks through mobile phones, software applications and a Web interface, said LIRNEasia, a regional information communications technology think tank. … The system was useful because of recent outbreaks of communicable diseases, with health authorities only aware of an outbreak when the media reported the death of several people. With the new system, data on patients and symptoms of illnesses are sent through mobile phones in real-time from hospital wards to the epidemiological centre.
On the eve of Nuwan Waidyanatha’s big dissemination event in Colombo, it was nice to see very high profile coverage for his work in one of India’s leading newspapers, the Hindu: The detection of spread of respiratory tract infection in conjunction with a viral fever in Sri Lanka that caught the attention of the health departments and escalating diarrhoea cases in Tamil Nadu were detected in a matter of a day after the onset of the outbreaks. Through alert systems in the pilot project, such situations were communicated to the local community and health departments, who then publicised preventive measures and treatment. Potentially, the RTBP reduces the time to identify a potential disease outbreak to just a day.
Fiber put in place for smart grid applications is making possible Gigabyte speed broadband, according to NYT. The high-speed Internet service is piggybacked on top of the utility’s smart-grid network, which was the reason for stringing the fiber optic cable to homes in the first place. Smart grids are advanced electrical networks that can improve energy efficiency, enable variable pricing based on the time of day, and reduce disruptions. They require digital networks for two-way communications, and computerized meters in homes. EPB had already begun a smart-grid program before the Obama administration included billions for grants for smart-grid projects in the economic stimulus program in 2009.
Rohan refers to Ryanair while discussing budget telecoms. CEO of this Irish aviation maverick wants to gain more altitude at lesser cost. Read more.
A public lecture entitled, “From euphoria to pragmatism: The experience and the potentials of eHealth in Asia” is to be held at the Sri Lanka Medical Association, Colombo 7, on 14 September 2010 from 1500Hrs to 1730Hrs. The new paradigm, called eHealth, is being adapted widely, from primary to tertiary health care in many countries. However, looking at the current literature on the subject, the reviews have been mixed. For every successful and sustainable initiative that has been adopted several have fallen on the wayside. This lecture will look into the experiences of eHealth in Asia.
For the perpetually connected, the experience of being unconnected is salutary; but not pleasant. The Sinharaja Forest Reserve is a world heritage site about three hours driving distance from Colombo. I spent two days there and unexpectedly found myself unconnected, except for a single location in the hotel that allowed the sending and receiving of texts if the phone was held high! It is not that the place is completely disconnected from electronic networks. I paid for the hotel using a credit card, which was processed through a fixed line.
A significant contribution to the m-money debate has been made by Chanuka Wattegama, until last month LIRNEasia’s Senior Research Manager and the person responsible for managing the Mobile 2.0 research module. The tightly argued piece contains many references to LIRNEasia work and is a perfect example of the success of LIRNEasia’s catalytic role. Worth reading in full by anyone interested in the subject. Ours is an anxious society that expects the protection of every electronic money transfer by the financial regulator.
Rohan Samarajiva, LIRNEasia‘s CEO, will deliver one of two keynote addresses on “Imagining the Future and Making it Happen”, at the inaugural WSO2 Conference, WSO2Con 2010, in Colombo, on 14 and 15 September 2010. The conference is organized by WSO2, the open source technology company headed by CEO Sanjiva Weerawarana, in celebration of its fifth anniversary. Download presentation slides, here. The conference intends to become an annual international event of bringing together a technology community to exchange knowledge, vision, and share best practices and success stories. Under the title, “Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing: Blueprint for the Future Enterprise”, this year’s conference will focus on the implications and opportunities unleashed by the convergence of SOA and Cloud computing.
The Indian farmers are exploiting mobile services and becoming more efficient. Weather forecasts and other information – critical to their livelihood – are being delivered through 2G networks. Thanks to the Indian operators’ innovative endeavor to tap the potentials at BOP. Daily Star reports quoting AFP. Extremely cheap connection (US$0.
Research ICT Africa (RIA) has recently published a policy paper entitled, ‘Gender Assessment of ICT Access and Usage in Africa‘, based on findings from a nationally-representative household and individual-level survey of ICT use in 17 African countries. The full paper can be downloaded here. LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager, Ayesha Zainudeen, was selected to review the paper; her written assessment is available here. An excerpt of the executive summary of the paper follows: What is clear from the Research ICT Africa (RIA) Household and Individual Access and Usage Survey is that the diffusion of ICT is highly uneven concentrating in urban areas and leaving some rural areas almost untouched. Access to these technologies is constrained by income as is usage, and as they become more complex, they are increasingly constrained by literacy and education.
Something that has been going on South Asia (efficiently or not) is now going to happen in China too, according to the NYT. The Chinese government on Wednesday began to require cellphone users to furnish identification when buying SIM cards, a move officials cast as an effort to rein in burgeoning cellphone spam, pornography and fraud schemes. The requirement, which has been in the works for years, is not unlike rules in many developed nations that ask users to present credit card data or other proof of identification to buy cellphone numbers. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that about 40 percent of China’s 800 million cellphone users were currently unidentified. Those users will be ordered to furnish identification by 2013 or lose their service, according to The Global Times, a state-run newspaper.
In 2006, when I expressed skepticism about government claims that Jaffna was getting a fiber optic network in the middle of the war, I was assailed. Unless SLT has built a second cable in 2009, in addition to the one they built in 2006, I was right. This would be the right time for Mr N.P. Perera, or whoever he was, to apologize.