Technologies – Page 16 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/01/132011/01/13

Reducing Afghan Corruption Through Mobile Payments to National Police

08 Wild Cards, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Corruption, Ethics, microfinancing, Military, Mobile, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Non-Governmental, Open Government, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

M-Paisa: Ending Afghan Corruption, one Text at a Time

Monty Munford Oct 17, 2010

Afghanistan supplies 92% of the world’s opiates. According to the latest available figures, the country produced 8,200 tons of heroin in 2008, more than double the the amount three years earlier.

But even being the heroin capital of the world, bringing in more money than most Afghans can dream of, the on-going war and rampant corruption means the money goes to the wrong people and the country has no infrastructure. There are no decent roads, no railways… But they do have mobile phones.

Four months ago, the Afghan National Police began to pay salaries through mobiles (using a text and Interactive Voice Response system), rather than in cash. The platform used was based on the M-Pesa service that has become highly successful in Kenya. Branded M-Paisa in Afghanistan, it was introduced by the operator Roshan in partnership with the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and had an immediate effect.

Full article

Thanks to Vinod Khosla via his Twitter feed.

Also see: Afghanistan War Wealth + Corruption Cycle (Opium, Hashish, Minerals, Past Pipeline Attempts)

2011/01/122011/01/12

Gerald Celente: Forecasting Revolution in 2011

01 Poverty, 03 Economy, 08 Wild Cards, Augmented Reality, Collective Intelligence, Computer/online security, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cyberscams, malware, spam, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Technologies, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

When reform becomes impossible, revolution becomes inevitable.

Phi Beta Iota: This guy is amazing. Visit his website.

Gerald Celente: Forecasted Panic in Dec 2007; EIN PDB forecasted crash in Oct 2007

2011/01/12

Votetocracy (vote on bills)

04 Education, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, Open Government, Reform, Technologies, Tools

homepage

http://www.votetocracy.com

Votetocracy is a place where every citizen can see every bill currently in congress, vote on those bills and send those votes to thier representatives. The site has been created by three regular citizens that felt it was time to get engaged with American politics. During our efforts to become more educated about our government we discovered that it was not all that easy. We found plenty of information. But it is written in difficult to understand political speak. We also found that it was not particularly easy to act on this information. When we found bills on government websites we had no measurable way to act on it. Sure, you could write a letter or contact our representatives, but had no real way of knowing that it would actually accomplish anything. These things felt like barriers. It was then that we dicided that there had to be a better way and Votetocracy is the the result of our efforts.

The site has the features neccesary for any citizen to find out what congress is working on. More importantly however is the ability to act on that information. We have created the site so that citizens can vote on the same bills as congress, send their vote to thier representatives with the click of the button.

We felt that there are three major areas that we could help citizens.

Access to information
Education about that information
And to provide the ability to act on that information and measure the results

Related:
+ Public Markup
+ Whitehouse 2 (ended Dec. 2010)
+ Open Congress
+ Open Secrets
+ Sunlight Foundation
+ Sunlight Labs

2011/01/112011/01/12

FuturICT Living Earth Simulator; EarthGame / Whole Earth Strategic Analytic Model

04 Education, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Geospatial, Gift Intelligence, History, info-graphics/data-visualization, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Reform, Technologies, Tools, True Cost

Today, we know more about the universe than about our society. It's time to use the power of information to explore social and economic life on Earth and discover options for a sustainable future. Together, we can manage the challenges of the 21st century, combining the best of all knowledge.

The FuturICT Knowledge Accelerator is a previously unseen multidisciplinary international scientific endeavour with focus on techno-socio-economic-environmental systems. The three main achievements of the FuturICT flagship will be the establishment of

a Living Earth Simulator (global-scale simulation of techno-socio-economic systems),
Crisis Observatories (for financial instabilities, scarcity of resources, emerging risks and conflicts, epidemics, etc.), and
an Innovation Accelerator (identifying innovations early on, evaluating them across disciplines and supporting co-creation projects between different scientific disciplines, business, and governance).

Comment: This is not a new idea but has expanded to a great extent. The 2004/2005 proposal “Re-configuring the Global Organisms' Operating System Through Mobile Democracy” mentions a whole earth simulation of knowledge layers + mobile connectivity to access & add to systems so that more people are involved in the shaping of our world. The Earth Intelligence Network in connection with Medard Gabel has been advocating an EarthGame + a strategic analytic model to jump-start a prosperous world @peace.

Below was posted at the Games for Change forum on the subject:

Continue reading “FuturICT Living Earth Simulator; EarthGame / Whole Earth Strategic Analytic Model”

2011/01/112011/01/12

Journal: Strategies & Technologies Russian Analyst on Chinese Stealth “Demonstrator”

02 China, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 06 Russia, 10 Security, Analysis, Intelligence (government), Military, Peace Intelligence, Technologies, YouTube

China jet upstages US defence chief visit
Sydney Morning Herald

VIDEO: Stealth Race: China test flies Chengdu J-20 ‘Black Eagle'

Key point: It's a demonstrator, not a production model. China is years from getting to production model.

VISIT: Centre for Analysis of Strategies & Technologies (CAST)

Minor league open source on plasma stealth:

Secret revealed: China’s 4th-generation fighter plane will use the plasma stealth technology

Mo, J. J., S. B. Liu, and N. C. Yuan, “Study on basic theory for plasma stealth,” Modern Radar, Vol. 22, No. 3, 9–12, 2002 (in. Chinese)

Continue reading “Journal: Strategies & Technologies Russian Analyst on Chinese Stealth “Demonstrator””

2011/01/032011/01/03

Journal: What’s Wrong with American defense….

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, History, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Strategy, Technologies

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

Phi Beta Iota: Notes summarizing the 59 minute video are below the line.

….Watch this!!!!! My good friend Pierre Sprey interviews Bill Hartung on Book TV about Hartung's new book, Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.

The book is a history of the largest military contractor in U.S. history, Lockheed Martin. Hartung argues that with 25 billion dollars annually in Defense Department contracts, Lockheed Martin's reach into American life is extensive and largely unknown, including creation of satellites used to spy on the phone calls of American citizens. He discusses the company's size, scope and influence with Pierre Sprey, father of the A-10 and F-16 military aircraft and a well-known thorn in the Pentagon's side. Chuck

William Hartung

Mr. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. He is the author of How Much are You Making on the War Daddy? and And Weapons for All. He's written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Nation magazine.

After Words: William Hartung, “Prophets of War,” hosted by Pierre Sprey

NOTE: Title leads to Words, WATCH leads to the actual playing of the video.

Summary of the 59 minute back and forth CSPAN BookTV Interview:

Continue reading “Journal: What’s Wrong with American defense….”

2011/01/032011/01/03

Journal: Eradicating Poverty One Micro-Job at a Time

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Geospatial, Historic Contributions, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Maps, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Open Government, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Reform, Research resources, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, Videos/Movies/Documentaries

Working for change: Samasource redefines international aid

December 10, 2010

On Need to Know, we do a lot of reporting about the world’s problems. But we’re premiering a new series about people coming up with creative solutions — it’s called “Agents of Change.”

Click on title to read short intro and option to view video….

9 minutes — summary

Social entrepreneur challenging conventional wisdom

Samasource–microwork (small digital tasks that can be done on an inexpensive computers).

Building 21st Century assembly line that can break down massive tasks (e.g. updating addresses for Google maps, or translating emergency messages from Creole to English). Won contracts with Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft.

15% premium for socially-conscious companies, AND competitive on cost, quality, and turnaround time.

Small scale digital tasks did not exist before.

Transforming lives, especially women, young men, and refugees. $5 a day is very much better than local norms, and buys an active English-speaking brain with hands able to do quality work.

IMPORTANT: Developing world is out-pacing USA and West generally in extending Internet infrastructure to the poor–centers created, humans come in, also doing viewing (Gorgon Stare, take note!), creating logs of store videos on shopper buying habits, anything that can be noticed and logged by a human–$5 a day.

Phi Beta Iota: We could not, in a million years, have found a better “off-set” to the USAF Gorgon Stare program. This micro-tasking, combining human brains and hands with Internet access, is one of the most profoundly intelligent and socio-economically useful ideas we have seen in our lifetimes (there are 800 of us here). BRAVO.