The colloquium began by Nalaka explaining the big picture; Climate change and energy use.  Global warming is not new but the rate of global warming is. There is a multiplicity of gases causing global warming and their sources.

Looking at the Green House Gas (GHG) mix, Carbon Dioxide is dominant. Made source is fossil fuel use. The ‘F’ gases such as CFC are the man made – now getting phased out.  There is an expansion in the volume of Green house gases.

Nalaka explaied that all GHG are not equal. Methene is much worse than Carbon Dioxide, but Carbon di Oxide has a much worse reputation

Looking at the sources of GHG, there is a variation depend on the organiation which the data is obtained from. A question was raised about the impact of forestry on GHG emmisions, Nalaka explained that deforestation is the main contributor. Electricity and heat or energy supply are the biggest source with forestry a close second.

Nalaka then went on to talk about the Stern Report (UK govt, 2006) which said  ’Climate change is the greatest market failure the world has ever seen…’ He higlighted the lack of referece to ICT in the report. The only direct reference was to household appliances. Green ICTs have received more attention since then. The Stern report has never been challenged on its premise or analysis as far as Nalaka was aware.  ICT and Aviation has roughly the same level of emmision, however aviation gets much more flack. ICT sector directly contribute 2.5% of total GHG emisions according to the Mckinsey report to the UN in 2007.

The adaptability of the IT and Telecom sector to consumer demands, as such the sector should be able to respond better to the problem of GHG emmision than other industries.

Next, Nalaka moved on to how the ICT sector ‘green’ itself beyond simple CSR/PR gestures? An ITU report elaborated on why the GHG from the ICT industry has been rising. Among the reasons  were Proliferation of user devicesUsers owning more devices, Devices today consume more energy and More processing needs more cooling. Nalaka then explained thaat some of the new technology such as sHD televisions draw more power than the traditional units. The stand by power or vampire enrgy too contributes significantly to energy consumption. standby power cost 8% of entire British domestic power consumption (UK Energy Rev, 2006)

Some of the suggestions given by Bill Melody were Improving sector’s own carbon footprint, ICT applications improving efficiency of other sectors, esp. infrastructure.Third order implications from widespread applications of green ICT that change institutions & behaviour patterns.

In taking the first point, with IT and telecom sectors, we can look at both Macro/industry level savings and then micro/consumer level savings.

In taking the Telecom sector, the opportunity lies in telecom migrating to Next Gen Networks (NGN) as Less switching centres needed, More tolerant climatic range specs (less need for air conditioning) and New standards (VDSL2) allow 3 power modes: full, low, sleep

Are savings being offset? Some of the questions are how energy-conscious are services & applications riding on NGNs? Rapid growth of web-based services driving up power demand & CO2 emissions

Rising power use by server farms supporting PC and mobile web use: Hidden green costs of Google apps? Does a web search kill a tree?

The ETNO report highlights the need for Srategic approach and also the need for scaling. The plan to reduce GHG will only work if the operators and players make a commitment.

What are the cost benefit ratios? What is the effect of ITC on the Transport? The other is the concept is cloud computing. Finding from 3rd annual survey by Rackspace, Pub Sep 2009 (150 IT managers worldwide) http://tiny.cc/GreenCloud says that there is no tangible drop.

What are the other low hanging fruits? Also which of the technology that can be passed without bing stuck in political bickering and policy paralysis? An example is the Copenhagen summit. In copenhegen no one wanted to be the first to make changes.

The other level is where ICTs and Telecom help other sectors go green? One OCED analysis says that creative use of ICTs can reduce electricity consupltion/GHG emmisions by 15%. THere is also the process (experimetal) of carbon capture. Norway is at the moment building carbon traps.

What are the cost benefit ratios? What is the effect of ITC on the Transport? The other is the concept is cloud computing. Finding from 3rd annual survey by Rackspace, Pub Sep 2009 (150 IT managers worldwide) http://tiny.cc/GreenCloud says that there is no tangible drop.

The Transmission and distribution loss is about 18% in Sri Lanka,  Delhi can be as high as 40%. A certain level is unavoidable. US is abut 7%, theoretically SL can go lower as the systemis much more compact. Most of the loss is that the generation and end use is not prperly coordinated. This is the Smart rid arguemtn. We also have to be awre of the re-bound. The relationaship is not linear. There is a need for better measuremnent.

Big Challenges: Growing human numbers, Rising middle classes through globalization and Global warming.

What is to be done? Look for a ‘handle’ on Climate/ET/IT, Ignore corporate spin, media hype, Search for strategic ‘entry points’, Study trends & patterns, Demystify industry data, find policy implications, Look for improvements that are: significant, affordable & less politically contentious Measurable & scalable

We also will require regular tracking, simple industry wide chnges and find Ways to crowd-source for monitoring and innovation.

ICTs have the ability to make under the radar changes unlike the avation industry.

Finally; “Telcos are punching below their weight in the climate change arena – they can be part of the solution than part of the problem. They will find it hard to avoid being victims of climate change, but they can reduce their role as villains; and they might even turn out to be heroes.” –  Stephen Young, Ovum Consulting http://www.ovum.com/go/content/c,67759 and “We need both IT and ET, flat and green, working together. Because only then can everyone and everything be both distributed and connected. If we can get that, the world will have a new operating system!” – K R Sridhar, CEO, Bloom Energy

Sujata Gamage: A starting point maybe to start with Melody’s levels and form a picture with the sectors metioned at te begining.

Rohan SAmarajiva: A clear starting poitn is the improvement of the individual sectors’ carbon foot print.

Healni Galpaya: Carbon trading seems to be failing, but there is an economic incentive(s) to switch to more green technology in the telecom sectors in developing countries that adopt the budget telecom model.

Nalaka: The cost of nergy sources such as solar power are falling.

Helani, Rohan: There is no taxes etc involved in the installation on solar panels. There is a need to work wtih the industry to learn more about this.

Rohan: Transport/ICT trade off? Improvements in Efficiency does not mean green solutions.

Shazna: Maybe we can look at the Telecom sector in terms of research:

Nalaka: That maybe a sarting point. No multi country studies have been done.

Rohan Samarajiva of LIRNEasia suggests in a recent paper that explores the success of
the ‘budget telecom network model’ in South Asia that ‘the idea of making universal
service transparent by creating universal service funds …was a good idea in its time
..but experience suggests that it is an idea that has run its course’. He identifies two
problems:
Billions of dollars of universal levies lie unspent in government accounts.
Where money has been disbursed it has generally gone to fixed network
operators, mostly incumbents. All the while, people in un- and underserviced
areas are being connected, not by the subsidized fixed line operators but by
the mobile operators, whose poor customers are paying to support the
inefficiencies of the incumbents.

Always nice to be quoted, but even nicer if at least one of these monsters is phased out. Hope the UNGIS carries some weight.

Chanuka Wattegama, Senior Research Manager, LIRNEasia, chaired the thematic session on ICT for Disaster Risk Reduction during the International Conference on Building a Local Government Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction in Incheon, Republic of Korea, on 11-13 August 2009.

The thematic session brought together specialists from Asia and the Pacific to share knowledge and experiences on ways in which ICTs have been used in response, recovery and risk reduction efforts. The session – organized by the United Nations Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT) – was part of the International Conference, jointly organized by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN-ISDR) and the Incheon Metropolitan City of the Republic of Korea, and was attended by senior government policymakers, disaster managers and representatives from international and regional agencies.

Chanuka was also interviewed by Korean electronic media on LIRNEasia’s disaster management efforts.

Dr. Gow who was previously at the LSE is now an Associate Professor at University of Alberta.

The presentation began by looking at situations where systems/programmes are developed but only to fall to disuse. The focus will be on the last-mile. The presentation looks at the long term viability of a system. Financial resources are eimportant. The need to tap everyday communicative acts was also highlighted. The need to move beyond a narrow scope of early warning. As investment in last mile systems fall, the vulnerability increases. The cycle continues. The need for more moderate investment was stressed.

If the vulnearbilities of the local communities are reduced then their ability to eliminate or mitigate the disaster increases. This over time leads to risk reduction.

What role does community media play in hazard warning?

The stages of disaster management cycle were introduced as mitigate, prepare, response and recover.

Technologies with local contributions and variety of technologies were discussed. A differentiation was made with the ‘cult media’ such as twitter. Peer to peer was recongised as the best in terms of emergency communication. A lot of this is going on already, in examples such as California wildfires. The idea of crisis informatics was also introduced. The idea of effective use was stressed. The importance of local knowledge and participation for effective use.The UN has similar ideas about warning to risk reduction.

Three related ideas was introduced. Early warning linked to disaster risk reduction and for it to be sustainable the effective use of ICTs should be done.

The need for knowledge sharing was stressed leading from talking amongst community members about risk reduction.

3 stories were highlighted.

story 1 was highlighted the creation community based hazard warning system. Successful but long term sustanance is in doubt. An example of community media bridging communities and the global media.

Story 2 on bridging the generational gap. In Andaman and Nicobar island, it was stories passed down for generations as folklore that saved lives. But there are risks due to false positives. However, it is an example of informal early warning over time. An inter-generational warning system.

Story 3 is on bridging both space and time. An individual who heard about the news 1000s miles away, called village elders and an emergency evacuation plan was put in place.

The road to disaster resilience needs both time and space and hence relationships. The importance of social capital in sustainability hazard warning systems.

The importance of the sharing economy was highlighted. 3 insights were identified as being necessary for the sharing economy  to work.

How does this work? The need for tools for sharing is necessary, phone calls, texting, pictures. Looking at the Haz Info project, mobiles were the most popular. Specialised technology maybe abandoned. Use of everyday technology will lead to better sustainability. These tools need to be given to the community.

The need to respect diversity was highlighted. Allow community members to spend little or more time as they want. A selfish motivation can lead to collective value eg: tagging pictures on flickr, but the tag is now available for everyone.

3rd Insight was identified as the need to build open systems. Allowing people to create and share as they wish.

Standards for information sharing is necessary for this, as in open application interfaces and non propriety licensing for the building of open systems.

The success stories from 2004 tsunami highlights the need for relationships across space and time. Importance of Social capital.

Local risk mapping was also introduced. A pilot in Vietnam found that ownership of the system to the community leads to long term sustainability.

The presentation concluded with idea that a successful strategy needs to go beyond early warning. Time and Space in terms of relationships is key. The findings of the 2004 Tsunami need to be shared.
Ms. Helani Galpaya asked if there is example on the disaster world that related to this concept. Dr. Gow replied that he idea was to look at the overarching aspects.

Prof. Rohan Samarajiva asked if flickr the best example of this concept or is it open source. The reply was Open source.

Dr. Gow in response to a question said that the emphasis in more on sharing economy as opposed to social media. The idea behind the concept is to understand what makes people share knowledge and build relationships that go beyond technology.

RS: The central argument of the concept is around sharing Economy.

Comments by RS: In Sri Lanka, most activity in open source is through payment. The platform maybe open source but people do not contribute willingly. In order for the sharing economy to work, other aspects such as infrastructure and other economic aspects may need to be in place. The sharing economy is more visible in more economically developed countries.

Community sharing will be more relevant some hazards as opposed to others.

Response from GG: Where hazards are likely to often, the systems are likely to work better. If government supply of hazard information is scarce, then community based solution is what will work. Eg: Call from a mobile. The more the community is used to sharing information about slow onset disasters, the better the community is prepared to deal with the situation.

Comments by RS: Sarvodaya may have data on this. Communities will do it if there is stimulus from outside. Salaried staff will be needed to provide the stimulus.

GG: Agree with the idea that stimulus is needed for community sharing. The need for the community to see the value of disaster preparedness is important. In a system where the hazard knowledge is not provided by the government, where does one go?

RS: In Sri Lanka we have examples of community based activity however, we seems to have difficulty in channelling it to productive purposes.

TW: How do we convince people (first responders) using two-way radio to use the internet? Demonstrating the value of the internet. With new digital generation this might not be an issue in the future.

NW: What can replace ‘internet sharing economy’?

RS: Issue between private and public goods.

HG: Examples of sharing traffic information on radio.

RS: The examples are there, village knowledge sharing will work. But the sharing economy in terms of the economy may not work in Sri Lanka.

RS: The catalyst in the form of salaried employees will be needed to tell the community to work on its contingency plans.

GG: The idea is to ensure that this method (sharing economy) to benefit all areas rather than just hazards.

RS: It is possible that this maybe happening in some of the villages as seen during the haz info projects.

DS: The knowledge sharing is already happening among the village. Why not piggy back on that?

GG: Yes if possible.

RS: So how do we find these people who already have system to share knowledge between villages?

DS: Systems already in the health sector at local government level.

RS: Will the system be sustainable?

DS: Recongnition acts as motivationas there is personal gain. Identity brings about value. Can that replace money value?

RS: However in order for the system to work there would be a need for money at some level.

TV commentary said Monday’s night-time launch from a Safir-2 rocket was “another achievement for Iranian scientists under sanctions”.

The satellite was designed for research and telecommunications purposes, the television report said.

Iran is subject to UN sanctions as some Western powers think it is trying to build a nuclear bomb, which it denies.

Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to the production of energy, and has emphasised its satellite project is entirely peaceful.

The launch of the Omid (Hope) satellite had been expected and was clearly timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, says the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Tehran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the satellite was launched to spread “monotheism, peace and justice” in the world.

Read the full story in BBC here.

The 3-day UN-SPIDER  workshop was notable in that it featured a number of German and international presentations on the themes of Session 1: “Space technology in support of risk and disaster management”, Session 2: “Vulnerability and Risk Assessment”, Session 3: “Contributions of space-based technologies to existing and proposed early warning systems”, and Session 4: “Disaster Medicine, Telemedicine and Integrated Vector Management (IVM)”. Natasha Udu-gama presented on “Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination” during Session 3 highlighting the usage of WorldSpace Addressable Radios for Emergency Alerts (AREA) systems as appropriate for last-mile hazard information dissemination in the LIRNEasia pilot project “Evaluating Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination”. The presentation also presented sustainability models for WorldSpace in Bangladesh and Indonesia, while demonstrating the role of last-mile systems with national early warning systems for developing nations and the need for sustainable options for integrating space-based technologies in the last mile.

The workshop included a number of international experts from the remote sensing and GIS fields, as well as NGOs, national donor agencies, national disaster management agencies and health fields. The interest in the last-mile was a significant talking point during the workshop and HazInfo was recognized as a leading best practice in this regard. Moreover, the theme of sustainable funding and continuation of best practices came to the fore with many of the participants calling for UN-SPIDER and other related working groups to become better proponents of ensuring that sustainable options are investigated and invested in.

Natasha’s presentation is available here.

Natasha will make a presentation on, ‘Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination’ at a session entitled, ‘Contribution of space-based technologies to existing and proposed Early Warning Systems’. This session will examine how public-private partnerships (PPP) centered on space-based technologies can enable the development, establishment and embedding of early warning systems.

The event is organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), with the aim of providing a platform for brainstorming and in-depth discussion among decision-makers and experts from both the space technology and disaster management communities, academia and private companies.

The UN-SPIDER was established as a programme of the UNOOSA, with the aim of providing universal access to all countries and relevant international and regional organizations to space-based information and services relevant to disaster management.

The theme of the workshop is in line with LIRNEasia’s disaster-risk management research project, HazInfo, which explored the use of different types of technology, one of which included Addressable Satellite Radio, developed by WorldSpace Global Data Solutions, in designing effective last-mile disaster mitigation and early-warning systems.

Topics of this workshop will include (among others):

• Relevant space-based solutions and information for risk and disaster management support and emergency response
• Presentations and discussion of the contribution of space-based technologies to existing Early Warning Systems, development of Risk Modelling and Vulnerability Assessments, as well as in the field of Emergency and Disaster Medicine.

More information is available here.

The next highest was Singapore at a surprisingly low 23rd, and Malaysia at 34th. The top 35 countries are otherwise dominated by Europe, Australasia and North America. 

The biggest revelation was that most Asian countries are sliding down the rankings.
Singapore was the most prominent to fall from grace, falling to 22nd from seventh position in 2005. China fell to 65 from 57, India from 87 to 113, Thailand from 46 to 62, the Philippines from 41 to 66 and Indonesia from 96 to 106.  

Other countries to slide included Maldives, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Brunei and Myanmar while Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia improved their rankings. Sweden topped the rankings followed by Denmark, Norway and the United States. Read more.

After Global Agreement, Companies May Bid Higher at Wireless Auction in U.S. – New York Times

Because the conference elicited a global consensus, that confidence should extend worldwide. The conference said that countries could use the 700-megahertz slice for wireless broadband services like cellphones, mobile TV and WiMax, although at each country’s time of choosing.

The conclusions of the conference, which operates under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, carry the weight of an international treaty.

“Most people in the industry believe this will be very important going forward in terms of supplying new services and new technologies to consumers around the world,” said Richard Russell, who led the 150-member United States delegation, which included government and industry representatives.

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The United Nations telecommunications agency in Geneva gave the upstart technology called WiMax a vote of approval, providing a sizable victory for Intel and something of a defeat for competing technologies from Qualcomm and Ericsson.

The International Telecommunication Union’s radio assembly agreed late Thursday to include WiMax, a wireless technology that allows Internet and other data connections across much broader areas than Wi-Fi, as part of what is called the third-generation family of mobile standards.

That endorsement opens the way for many of the union’s member countries to devote a part of the public radio spectrum to WiMax, and receivers for it could be built into laptop computers, phones, music players and other portable devices.

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The story about the undersea cable is quite intriguing. To the best of my knowledge, SEA-ME-WE 3 is the cable the government official is referring to (they were not part of the SEA-ME-WE 4 consortium). I have not checked this fact, but my recollection is that Burma had been disconnected from SEA-ME-WE 3 for non-payment some time ago. The cable was not ripped out and physically disconnected, but it was not operational.

It is of course possible that the debts were paid and the country reconnected in the past few months. However, given the Myanmar government’s bald-faced lies about the occupants of the cyber city, I would not rule out another violation of the fourth precept of Buddhism.

:: Daily Mirror – FINANCIAL TIMES ::

UN telecommunications agency chief Hamadoun Toure said Friday in Geneva that no government had the right to cut their citizens off from the Internet, following recent incidents in Myanmar.Toure, who heads the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), underlined that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had recently described safe access to the Internet as a basic human right.

The Internet blockage has severely reduced the flow of video, photos and first-hand reports of the violence there that had helped galvanise an outcry against the ruling generals.

The cut was widely blamed on security forces there. A telecom official in Myanmar had confirmed that the nation’s main link to the Internet was down, but blamed the problem on a damaged undersea cable.

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Intelligent planning and regulation make a huge difference to the number of people who die when disaster strikes, says Anna Tibaijuka, UN-Habitat’s executive director. In 1995 an earthquake in the Japanese city of Kobe killed 6,400 people; in 1999 a quake of similar magnitude in Turkey claimed over 17,000 lives. Corrupt local bureaucracies and slapdash building pushed up the Turkish toll.

The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, which killed at least 230,000 people, would have been a tragedy whatever the level of preparedness; but even when disaster strikes on a titanic scale, there are many factors within human control—a knowledgeable population, a good early-warning system and settlements built with disasters in mind—that can help to minimise the number of casualties.

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As part of a UN programme to tackle poverty in rural Africa, 79 villages across 10 African countries will be hooked up to cellular networks.

It is hoped that the connections will help improve healthcare and education, as well as boosting the local economy.

A 2005 study showed that an increase of 10 mobile phones per 100 people could increase GDP growth by 0.6%.

“This is a technology that is remarkably empowering, especially for remote areas where the ability to communicate is vital,” Dr Jeffery Sachs, Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General, told the BBC News website.

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(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Largely because of the mobile phone boom in developing countries, telephone service has quadrupled in the past decade to 4 billion lines worldwide, according to a report from the UN telecommunications agency.

The International Telecommunications Union counts 1.27 billion fixed lines and 2.68 billion mobile accounts. The total number of people represented by those figures is unclear because many people, particularly in industrial countries, have both kinds of service.

The increase has been especially strong in developing countries that have been able to provide cellular phone service to tens of millions of people much more cheaply than having to wire up homes and offices for fixed-line telephones.

As a result, 61% of the world’s mobile subscribers are in developing countries, the ITU said. China and India, for example, together added almost 200 million mobile subscribers to the global total in the first three months of this year.

In 1996 there were fewer than 1 billion fixed-line and mobile phone subscribers altogether. Fixed-line subscriptions have grown slowly since then, but mobile has taken off, showing “spectacular success,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, one of the report’s authors.

The report also said more than 1 billion people in the world use the Internet.

Although the least developed countries lag in telecom service, growth is picking up in Africa, thanks to advances in technology that enable broadband connections over mobile phones.

But the report said countries may need to change their regulatory requirements if the benefits of newer networks are to be realized.

© 2007 The Associated Press.
© 2007 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved

A crumpled note, delivered to a passing rock star-turned-philanthropist? No, Mr Sokor is a much sharper communicator than that. He texted this appeal from his own mobile phone to the mobiles of two United Nations officials, in London and
Nairobi. He got the numbers by surfing at an internet cafe at the North Kenyan camp. 

As Mr Sokor’s bemused
London recipient points out, two worlds were colliding. The age-old scourge of famine in the Horn of Africa had found a 21st-century response; and a familiar flow of authority, from rich donor to grateful recipient, had been reversed. It was also a  sign that technology need not create a “digital divide”: it can work  wonders in some of the world’s remotest, most wretched places. 

“Technology completely alters the way humanitarian work is done,” says Caroline Hurford of the World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations body that is the single largest distributor of food aid. Once upon a time, when disaster struck, big agencies would roll up with grain, blankets and medicine and start handing them out. Victims would struggle to the relief camps, if they could. For aid workers (let alone recipients) there was no easy way to talk to head office. 

Now, when an emergency occurs, the first people on the ground are often computer geeks, setting up telephone networks so other aid agencies can do their stuff. Donors keep track of supplies on spreadsheets and send each other SMS messages: this road has been attacked by bandits, that village cut off by floods. Transport agencies announce helicopter flights by e-mail. Aid providers can find out where exactly on an incoming ship their medical supplies are, saving hours hanging round the docks. Aid donors find it easier to locate the victims of disaster; and victims queue as eagerly for mobile-phone access as they do for food. 

Read the full story: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9546242