tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/hardware-22647/articlesHardware – The Conversation2022-01-03T15:58:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1732112022-01-03T15:58:38Z2022-01-03T15:58:38ZInvesting in technologies for student learning: 4 principles school boards and parents should consider<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436778/original/file-20211209-172173-1qn0ho5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C312%2C4745%2C3061&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The pandemic fuelled the market for educational technology providers to market hardware and software to Canadian school boards.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technology, in its many forms, has been present in the classroom <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2042753015579978">since the introduction of the blackboard</a>, followed decades later by the overhead projector. Now, in our digital age, classroom environments can always be connected to the internet, and educators need to make choices about both hardware and software.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for students to be digitally fluent and have adequate access to devices and broadband internet at school and at home.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tax-pandemic-profiteering-by-tech-companies-to-help-fund-public-education-155705">The pandemic certainly fuelled the market for educational technology</a> providers to market their hardware and software to Canadian school boards. </p>
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<img alt="An adult shows a child a device." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438578/original/file-20211220-23072-f8ukgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=663&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">How school boards allocate funds for technology matters to students’ educations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(UKBlack Tech)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Schools make <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-schools-spend-big-on-tech-that-doesnt-help">considerable financial investments each year in technology</a>. Each contract has its own terms and conditions which must be accepted for teachers and students to use the devices or services. My research focuses on how educational technologies make their way into classrooms, and the decision-making processes school boards use to select and implement technologies. </p>
<p>For the sake of quality education, student safety and well-being it’s important that school administrators and parents or guardians are in dialogue about basic frameworks and guiding principles related to <a href="https://edtechevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/1.-FINAL-EdTechGenomeProject-FinalReport_July2021-2.pdf">selecting technology</a> for schools. Many of these principles about technology and learning are also applicable for parents who may be considering purchasing technology at home for student learning.</p>
<p>Here, I propose four considerations when selecting technology to support teaching and learning.</p>
<h2>1. Why technology?</h2>
<p>Consumers experience relentless pressures to purchase. Commercial and marketing events like <a href="https://theconversation.com/dark-side-of-black-friday-the-major-drawbacks-with-this-shopping-bonanza-171713">Black Friday</a> <a href="https://www.techradar.com/cyber-monday/cyber-monday-deals-2021">and Cyber Monday</a> contribute to creating an appeal for new hardware. Thoroughly considering why technology should be chosen and how it integrates with learning can help decision-makers choose which technology is most valuable or crucial to teaching and learning. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.edutopia.org/article/powerful-model-understanding-good-tech-integration">One model</a> that can help these decisions is developed by education and technology researcher Ruben Puentedura. His <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26899092">SAMR Model</a> stands for substitution (Does the technology act as a direct substitute?); augmentation (Does it augment existing learning?); modification (Does it modify existing learning?) or redefinition (Does it redefine what happens in classrooms?).</p>
<p>For example, collaboratively working on a cloud-based document in groups that are in different locations could not be done without technology. This example shows modification or redefinition as it shifts how students collaborate. </p>
<p>Identifying if the technology is critical to the learning and how exactly it fits is a good first step in determining if there is a need for it. </p>
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<img alt="A teacher is seen in a classroom on a videoconference." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438573/original/file-20211220-25-jlgeok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">It’s important to ask how a technology augments, changes or redefines forms of learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alliance for Excellent Education/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<h2>2. Compatibility</h2>
<p>A vast variety of hardware devices run different operating systems. There are also many different software options. These factors, together, increase the potential of incompatibility. </p>
<p>When selecting hardware, one crucial decision is choosing between a hand-held or portable device, such as a tablet or a laptop computer. It’s important to note that tablets and laptops use different operating systems. Not all pieces of software will work equally well on all devices.</p>
<p>In efforts to overcome this potential incompatibly, many tools are now browser based. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.103985">web and video math tutorial systems</a> can be accessed via a web browser rather than downloaded and installed on a device, reducing their dependence on certain types of hardware. This can increase their compatibility but there may still be limitations on some platforms. </p>
<p>Knowing which software and tools educators plan to use use, and investigating their requirements, can help when choosing devices. </p>
<p>Another compatibility factor to consider is the integration with the school’s existing technology infrastructure. For example, a Chromebook running Chrome OS is heavily reliant on the Google Apps ecosystem. It wouldn’t be well-suited to an environment that is already using Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams for the collaborative environment.</p>
<p>Likewise, a school board which is using the <a href="https://edu.google.com/products/workspace-for-education/">Google Workspace for Education</a> (formerly G Suite for Education) will benefit from devices and software designed to work in the Google ecosystem, which include options like signing in with your Google account. </p>
<h2>3. Access</h2>
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<img alt="A child's hands on a keyboard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438579/original/file-20211220-48178-7784ry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In the classroom, logging in can be time consuming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nenad Stojkovic/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>There are many factors to consider with access. A key one is how people can log in and connect to services and networks whether at school or at home: Will the learners have to create accounts to access a tool that is being used? Can they access the tool using their existing school credentials? </p>
<p>In the classroom, logging in to a tool can be time consuming, especially for younger students. At home, if the student doesn’t know their username or password for a particular tool, this becomes a barrier. </p>
<p>Tools that don’t require users to log in are potentially easier to use and more accessible. But they are much less useful for teachers for tracking individual progress and assessment. </p>
<p>Tools that require credentials to be accessed should ideally use a single set of credentials or <a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/single-sign-on">single sign on</a> process. </p>
<p>Not having access to a physical device and broadband internet are also potential impediments. Some school boards have tried to equalize access by <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/11/08/new-tech-attempts-to-level-playing-field-for-student-success-in-sd8.html">providing devices to all students</a>. This can help in the schools but it doesn’t overcome the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/covid-19-highlights-urban-rural-digital-divide-1.5734167">inequitable access to broadband internet across Canadian communities</a>.</p>
<h2>4. Data privacy and security</h2>
<p>Mitigating all potential vulnerabilities and data breaches should certainly be a leading factor for school board administrators. As with all things digital, there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i11.10094">concerns over privacy</a>, ownership of and access to data. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-privacy-is-at-risk-with-rapid-shifts-to-online-schooling-under-coronavirus-135787">Children's privacy is at risk with rapid shifts to online schooling under coronavirus</a>
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<p>Studies suggest that <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/01/28/not-reading-the-small-print-is-privacy-policy-fail/4565274002/">very few of us read the terms and conditions</a> that come with new software or platforms. However, when it comes to consenting for minors and entering minors into relationships with software companies, a more critical eye is required. </p>
<p>It is important to be aware of <a href="https://theconversation.com/classdojo-raises-concerns-about-childrens-rights-111033">who has access to the information learners create</a> and to have a clear understanding of who the students can communicate with and how. Always check if there are any moderation or filtering settings available.
Students shouldn’t be using platforms for education that allow uninhibited communication with other users outside of their classes or schools. </p>
<p>While there are many factors that can influence how educators decide what technology to implement for students, these four key considerations are a place to begin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Technology has infiltrated education, but how do we choose what is best for teaching and learning?Lucas Johnson, PhD Student, Faculty of Education, Lakehead UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1599902021-05-20T12:27:00Z2021-05-20T12:27:00ZShape-shifting computer chip thwarts an army of hackers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401722/original/file-20210519-19-1m48kfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5656%2C3166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Morpheus secure processor works like a puzzle that keeps changing before hackers have a chance to solve it.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/TOOhhlGHOsQ">Alan de la Cruz via Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>We have developed and tested a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3297858.3304037">secure new computer processor</a> that thwarts hackers by randomly changing its underlying structure, thus making it virtually impossible to hack. </p>
<p>Last summer, 525 security researchers spent three months trying to hack our Morpheus processor as well as others. <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/processors/morpheus-turns-a-cpu-into-a-rubiks-cube-to-defeat-hackers">All attempts against Morpheus failed</a>. This study was part of a program sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Program Agency to <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/embedded-systems/darpa-hacks-its-secure-hardware-fends-off-most-attacks">design a secure processor</a> that could protect vulnerable software. DARPA <a href="https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2020-01-28">released the results on the program to the public</a> for the first time in January 2021.</p>
<p>A processor is the piece of computer hardware that runs software programs. Since a processor underlies all software systems, a secure processor has the potential to protect any software running on it from attack. Our team at the University of Michigan first developed Morpheus, a secure processor that thwarts attacks by turning the computer into a puzzle, in 2019.</p>
<p>A processor has an architecture – x86 for most laptops and ARM for most phones – which is the set of instructions software needs to run on the processor. Processors also <a href="https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/m/microarchitecture.htm">have a microarchitecture</a>, or the “guts” that enable the execution of the instruction set, the speed of this execution and how much power it consumes.</p>
<p>Hackers need to be intimately familiar with the details of the microarchitecture to <a href="https://theconversation.com/microprocessor-designers-realize-security-must-be-a-primary-concern-98044">graft their malicious code, or malware, onto vulnerable systems</a>. To stop attacks, Morpheus randomizes these implementation details to turn the system into a puzzle that hackers must solve before conducting security exploits. From one Morpheus machine to another, details like the commands the processor executes or the format of program data change in random ways. Because this happens at the microarchitecture level, software running on the processor is unaffected.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a fan on top of a metal square in the middle of a computer circuit board" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401701/original/file-20210519-19-1t96mso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Morpheus computer processor, inside the square beneath the fan on this circuit board, rapidly and continuously changes its underlying structure to thwart hackers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Todd Austin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>A skilled hacker could reverse-engineer a Morpheus machine in as little as a few hours, if given the chance. To counter this, Morpheus also changes the microarchitecture every few hundred milliseconds. Thus, not only do attackers have to reverse-engineer the microachitecture, but they have to do it very fast. With Morpheus, a hacker is confronted with a computer that has never been seen before and will never be seen again.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>To conduct a security exploit, hackers use vulnerabilities in software to get inside a device. Once inside, they <a href="https://theconversation.com/guarding-against-the-possible-spectre-in-every-machine-89825">graft their malware</a> onto the device. Malware is designed to infect the host device to steal sensitive data or spy on users.</p>
<p>The typical approach to computer security is to fix individual software vulnerabilities to keep hackers out. For these patch-based techniques to succeed, programmers must write perfect software without any bugs. But ask any programmer, and the idea of creating a perfect program is laughable. Bugs are everywhere, and security bugs are the most difficult to find because they don’t impair a program’s normal operation. </p>
<p>Morpheus takes a distinct approach to security by augmenting the underlying processor to prevent attackers from grafting malware onto the device. With this approach, Morpheus protects any vulnerable software that runs on it. </p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>For the longest time, processor designers considered security a problem for software programmers, since programmers made the software bugs that lead to security concerns. But recently computer designers have discovered that hardware can help protect software. </p>
<p>Academic efforts, such as <a href="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/ctsrd/cheri/">Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions</a> at the University of Cambridge, have demonstrated strong protection against memory bugs. Commercial efforts have begun as well, such as Intel’s soon-to-be-released <a href="https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/intel-cet-answers-call-protect-common-malware-threats/">Control-flow Enforcement Technology</a>. </p>
<p>Morpheus takes a notably different approach of ignoring the bugs and instead randomizes its internal implementation to thwart exploitation of bugs. Fortunately, these are complementary techniques, and combining them will likely make systems even more difficult to attack.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We are looking at how the fundamental design aspects of Morpheus can be applied to protect sensitive data on people’s devices and in the cloud. In addition to randomizing the implementation details of a system, how can we randomize data in a way that maintains privacy while not being a burden to software programmers?</p>
<p>[<em>Research into coronavirus and other news from science</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-corona-research">Subscribe to The Conversation’s new science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Todd Austin receives funding from DARPA, which supported the development of the Morpheus secure CPU through DARPA Contract HR0011-18-C-0019. He owns shares in Agita Labs, which is commercializing a derivative of the Morpheus technology. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Biernacki receives funding from DARPA, which supported the development of the Morpheus secure CPU through DARPA Contract HR0011-18-C-0019.</span></em></p>Most computer security focuses on software, but computer processors are vulnerable to hackers, too. An experimental secure processor changes its underlying structure before hackers can figure it out.Todd Austin, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of MichiganLauren Biernacki, Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science & Engineering, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1532802021-01-29T12:20:23Z2021-01-29T12:20:23ZMaking hardware ‘open source’ can help us fight future pandemics - here’s how we get there<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380865/original/file-20210127-23-jgz16f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C0%2C6866%2C3964&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/innovative-contemporary-smart-industry-product-design-1160095369">elenabsl/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In factories and industrial estates across the world, exceptional efforts are being made to ensure hospitals have ventilators, and logistics firms have freezers and refrigerators. Behind the scenes, this manufacturing drive has been taking place on an epic, unprecedented scale. In some places, it’s also been horrendously inefficient.</p>
<p>Some of that inefficiency is only to be expected. Manufacturing responsively at such short notice was <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/car-manufacturers-ventilators">always going to be messy</a>. But many of the hardware hold-ups we’ve witnessed – from production line bottlenecks to parts shortages – could be avoided in the future by applying an “open source” ethos to the world’s production of hardware.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-collective-intelligence-can-help-beat-coronavirus-in-developing-countries-136548">Five ways collective intelligence can help beat coronavirus in developing countries</a>
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<p>Open source design is a form of collective intelligence, where experts work together to create a design that anyone has the legal right to manufacture. The software industry has long shown that “open” collaboration is not only possible, but advantageous. Open source software is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/12/how-open-source-software-took-over-the-world">ubiquitous</a>, and the servers that power the internet itself are largely run on open technology, <a href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press-release/linux-foundation-updates-study-on-linux-development-statistics-who-writes-linux-and-who-supports-it/">collaboratively designed by competing companies</a>.</p>
<p>Early in the pandemic, and in recognition of the global emergency that was unfolding, dozens of the world’s largest companies did actually sign up to the “<a href="https://opencovidpledge.org/">Open COVID Pledge</a>”, promising to share their intellectual property to help fight the virus. On a smaller scale, <a href="https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.22942.2">more than 100 project teams</a> set out to create and share “open” ventilator designs that could be produced locally, helping address the pressing need for ventilators around the world.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, neither of these initiatives succeeded in producing ventilators at the rate required by stretched hospitals <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4594">in the early weeks of the pandemic</a>. After examining existing attempts to share the intellectual property of machines, our recent paper concludes that projects must <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2020.1859168">be open from the start</a> in order to make a success of open hardware. Everything from the first doodle on a napkin to the detailed calculations that verify safety must be available if other experts and manufacturers are going to participate in the design.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A breathing mask on top of a medical ventilator" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380867/original/file-20210127-17-juj317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380867/original/file-20210127-17-juj317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380867/original/file-20210127-17-juj317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380867/original/file-20210127-17-juj317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380867/original/file-20210127-17-juj317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380867/original/file-20210127-17-juj317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380867/original/file-20210127-17-juj317.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Medical ventilators have been in particular demand since the beginning of the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/respiratory-mask-resuscitator-ventilation-patient-pneumonia-1673318152">Dan Race/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The road to open hardware</h2>
<p>Producing hardware through open collaboration may be daunting. As opposed to the entirely virtual collaboration required for software development, hardware development needs physical parts – raw materials and machinery. It needs testing facilities and engineers to perform stress tests and safety checks.</p>
<p>There are promising signs that these challenges can be met. The <a href="https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap">RepRap 3D printer</a> project has brought low cost 3D printing to a wider audience, making affordable prototyping possible at a distance. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://white-rabbit.web.cern.ch/">CERN White Rabbit project</a> has shown that even the complex electronics that control the Large Hadron Collider can be developed as as open source hardware. But, <a href="https://zenodo.org/record/3862777">to be efficient we need better work flows for collaboration</a> – systems to help organise the distribution of tasks and responsibilities on collaborative hardware projects. </p>
<p>The journey from prototype to production is much more difficult, and less exciting, than the technical challenge of prototyping a device. Manufacturers must comply with international standards to <a href="https://www.iso.org/standard/59752.html">ensure quality</a> and <a href="https://www.iso.org/standard/72704.html">manage risk</a> related to their products. This is especially true of medical hardware, upon which lives depend. A key challenge for open hardware will be to achieve this certification in the same way that private companies do today.</p>
<p>Under current regulations, no matter how impressive and safe, ventilators constructed in volunteer maker spaces cannot be certified for medical use. But for equipment which is less strictly regulated, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.20944/preprints202003.0362.v1">like face shields</a>, open hardware is currently being leveraged successfully.</p>
<p>Achieving similar successes with high-tech medical devices will require organisations that are built to manufacture from open designs – dynamic factories, for instance, which will be responsive to global emergencies. It takes time to establish these organisations. But we can’t afford to wait for the next emergency: we should begin creating them today, in preparation for the next pandemic.</p>
<p>Of course, finding sustainable <a href="http://doi.org/10.5334/joh.4">business models</a> for open hardware is a challenge: can a system be created which shares intellectual property for free while helping designers and manufacturers profit? In one sense, open hardware has an advantage here: people are used to buying products, where online consumers are accustomed to using software for free.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, it’s likely that setting up an open hardware manufacturing ecosystem will need public funding, or investor funding buying into non-traditional business models. This would follow the trajectory of the internet, which began life <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/yes-government-researchers-really-did-invent-the-internet/">funded by public institutions</a> and is now home to the world’s biggest private enterprises.</p>
<h2>Closer inspection</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A home-made microscope, constructed from plastic and wires" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380923/original/file-20210127-21-dk9wun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The open source microscope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We’ve experimented with our own open hardware project to help us understand how the future of collaborative hardware might look. Our <a href="https://openflexure.org/projects/microscope/">OpenFlexure microscope</a> is designed to be manufactured at low cost in sub-Saharan Africa, to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1364/BOE.385729">used for malaria diagnoses</a>. We’ve probably spent more time designing the processes that help us share our knowledge effectively than designing the microscope itself. </p>
<p>In the short term, this slows our progress. In the long term, we expect that manufacturers anywhere in the world will be able to understand our design and adapt it to their local context. As these processes become further standardised, sharing designs for production will become increasingly simple. The final and most ambitious phase of our project will be working with manufacturers to produce microscopes certified for medical use – a huge step towards open source medical hardware we’d need to better fight a future pandemic.</p>
<p>Humanity already knew how to make ventilators decades before this pandemic hit. What was lacking was the access to this knowledge, the skills to work together on adapting a design, and the logistics to rapidly scale the manufacturing of complex machinery. It will take years to address these issues. Starting that process today will help us tackle global emergencies more dynamically and efficiently in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors co-founded OpenFlexure Industries, a micro-business selling DIY open source hardware kits.
Richard has received funding from UKRI, the Royal Society, and the Global Challenges Research Fund (URF\R1\180153, RGF\EA\181034, EP/R013969/1, EP/T029064/1).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors co-founded OpenFlexure Industries, a micro-business selling DIY open source hardware kits. </span></em></p>An ‘open’ approach to hardware could make production bottlenecks a thing of the past.Richard Bowman, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Proleptic Reader, Department of Physics, University of BathJulian Stirling, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Physics, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1460872021-01-24T14:08:36Z2021-01-24T14:08:36ZHidden in plain sight: The infrastructures that support artificial intelligence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360096/original/file-20200926-22-vahctv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C5955%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artificial intelligence requires machines, processing power and energy consumption, among other things. Often, we're unaware of the presence of this infrastructure around us.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During a walking tour of Queensland’s Daintree rainforest in Australia, a talented guide regularly pointed out creatures that were well camouflaged into their surroundings. At one point, he directed our attention to a tree trunk, where a large grasshopper was camouflaged. The guide’s observations and stories wove together the connections between biology, geology and colonialism, helping explain how big and small changes could transform life in this ecosystem.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Grasshopper camouflaged on a tree trunk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357895/original/file-20200914-22-1yv4zsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sometimes it’s difficult to see something, even when you’re staring directly at it. How many of us are aware of what’s hiding right in front of us?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our society has been altered by the rapid proliferation of new technologies and devices that produce digital data. Nested within and feeding on this data ecosystem, artificial intelligence (AI) executes cognitive tasks with more potency and speed than human beings. The large-scale transformative power of AI remains camouflaged in plain sight.</p>
<p>Through the lens of the <a href="http://infieri.umontreal.ca/en/home/#section-what-is-rih">responsible innovation in health research program</a> at the Université de Montréal, we critically examine what lies beyond our immediate experiences of AI.</p>
<h2>Artificial intelligence in our lives</h2>
<p>Much like driving a car, we do not need to understand how AI works in order to use its applications. And similar to ways in which the fossil fuel industry shaped the role of cars in our society, AI is delivered through powerful commercial interests and <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/libro?codigo=769585">large digital and physical infrastructures</a>. To better understand their impacts, there is an urgent need to critically appraise how AI delivers its much-touted promises.</p>
<p>At the onset of the Industrial Revolution, people in Montréal had no clue about the kinds of infrastructures that were going to be developed to extract, exploit, distribute and use fossil fuels. Montréal was ideally located to transport goods, including oil, and refineries were later concentrated along the Saint Lawrence River. Beyond negative impacts on residents’ health, the decisions made at the turn of the 20th century to exploit fossil fuels have had long lasting self-reinforcing effects.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A vintage photograph of Montréal in 1896." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357911/original/file-20200914-22-179j08m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The industrial landscape of the Lachine Canal — the birthplace of Montréal industry — pictured here in 1896.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/VIEW-2944">(Wm. Notman & Son/McCord Museum)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And now, in the 21st century, we are seeing the changes AI brings and we need to consider the wide-ranging ramifications.</p>
<h2>Physical support networks</h2>
<p>The jewel in the crown of the <a href="https://ppforum.ca/publications/new-north-star-ii/">intangibles economy</a>, AI needs <a href="https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/19990">expansive e-infrastructures</a> that have tangible impacts and costs. Estimates suggest “<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2205779-creating-an-ai-can-be-five-times-worse-for-the-planet-than-a-car/">that the carbon footprint of training a single AI is as much as 284 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent</a>” — five times the lifetime emissions of an average car.</p>
<p>If we choose to exploit the “<a href="https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/07/data-new-oil-digital-economy/">oil of the 21st century</a>,” we will have to build large powerful computational centres and sizable server farms. AI requires networking and cloud infrastructures to capture, analyze, share and archive vast amounts of data. </p>
<p>When deep learning techniques are involved, training is a key step that consists of feeding the algorithm with large and mostly unstructured datasets. The training of a single AI-based application may be split over dozens of chips and may require months to complete. </p>
<p>Although it only takes a low energy tap on a smartphone to use an application, its development is energy intensive and non-renewable energy sources have a much larger environmental impact. </p>
<h2>Energy for training</h2>
<p>Thankfully, data scientists are starting to calculate the energy required to develop AI tools before they are made available for use. For instance, a process involved in automating the design of a neural network through trial and error — called the Neural Architecture Search (NAS) — is highly energy intensive. Without NAS, training the <a href="http://www.talktotransformer.com/">AI tool Transformer</a> takes 84 hours, but with NAS it takes more than 270,000 hours, thereby “<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2205779-creating-an-ai-can-be-five-times-worse-for-the-planet-than-a-car/">requiring 3,000 times the amount of energy</a>.”</p>
<p>Reducing the carbon footprint of AI requires a “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.18653/v1/P19-1355">concerted effort by industry and academia to promote research of more computationally efficient algorithms</a>” and the use of more sustainable hardware and model development strategies.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4S5ZBjIvX2c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Yahoo! Finance takes a look at artificial intelligence and the environment.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Future policy</h2>
<p>Because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2015.5">data generated through digital interactions</a> are worth their weight in gold, commercial agreements are likely to keep the future of AI into the hands of those with corporate interests. Exploiting data to increase corporate profits are the core business of tech giants like Amazon and Google.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-a-new-way-to-regulate-social-media-platforms-109413">It's time for a new way to regulate social media platforms</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is one of the reasons why it is important for public policy-makers to create alternative entrepreneurial pathways where data scientists and programmers who aim to design much more meaningful AI can thrive.</p>
<p>Could AI empower those who tackle today’s major societal challenges and seek solutions for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15871-z">common good</a>? For instance, what would an eco-friendly AI tool to help us meet the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">United Nations Sustainable Development Goals</a> look like? What <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00584-1">alternative business and data governance models</a> should be promoted for benefits to be shared equitably? </p>
<p>Seeing the forest and the trees could turn a more responsible vision for the 21st century into a tangible reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146087/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pascale Lehoux receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR; #FDN-143294). The CReSP, where her research team is located, is supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQ-S).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lysanne Rivard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Artificial intelligence is supported by an infrastructure of hardware and software that is growing increasingly present in our lives, yet remains hidden in plain view.Pascale Lehoux, Professor of Health Management, Evaluation and Policy, Université de MontréalLysanne Rivard, Senior Research Advisor, Public Health Research Institute, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1531052021-01-18T19:03:25Z2021-01-18T19:03:25ZUpgrade rage: why you may have to buy a new device whether you want to or not<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378961/original/file-20210114-13-n2y960.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=747%2C639%2C4827%2C2782&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve probably all been there. We buy some new smart gadget and when we plug it in for the first time it requires an update to work.</p>
<p>So we end up spending hours downloading and updating before we can even play with our new toy.</p>
<p>But what happens when we can’t update our gadgets any further?</p>
<h2>Vintage technology</h2>
<p>Every year vendors such as <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201624">Apple</a> and <a href="https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en">Google</a> add to their list of vintage devices that no longer get operating system or security updates.</p>
<p>For example, owners of the Pixel 2 smartphone (released by Google in 2017) were <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/8/22164027/google-pixel-2-final-update-security-patch-november-2020">told in late 2020</a> they would no longer receive regular scheduled system updates and security updates.</p>
<p>Upgrading to Google’s newest smartphones won’t insulate them from this problem for long. Owners of the latest Pixel 5 are told to expect this device (released in October 2020) to be <a href="https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=%2Cpixel-phones">made vintage in 2023</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/apples-iphone-12-comes-without-a-charger-a-smart-waste-reduction-move-or-clever-cash-grab-148189">Apple's iPhone 12 comes without a charger: a smart waste-reduction move, or clever cash grab?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While Apple has a reputation for <a href="https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/how-long-apple-support-3795013/">supporting devices for longer</a> than Google and Samsung with Android, even Apple owners are occasionally in for a shock, such as <a href="https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250896394">those</a> <a href="https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/508611">users</a> who bought the Apple Watch SE or Apple Watch 3 late last year only to discover it only works with an iPhone 6s or above.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A frustrated comment from a user on a support group about incompatible Apple technology." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378966/original/file-20210115-23-dyh37g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When technology doesn’t communicate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250896394">Screenshot/Apple.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even if an operating system vendor still supports a device, this presumes <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/09/19/how-to-find-the-32-bit-apps-on-your-iphone-or-ipad-that-wont-work-in-ios-11-at-all">the apps</a> and <a href="https://www.verizon.com/support/no-longer-supported/">network connections</a> will still work for older devices, which is not always the case.</p>
<h2>The unrelenting march of technology</h2>
<p>Technology is not what it used to be. Twenty years ago, we could buy a laptop and everything would work pretty much the same for over a decade.</p>
<p>For example, switch on an old Windows XP machine (no longer supported by Microsoft) and any installed Word and Excel software will be there just as we left them, <a href="https://windowsreport.com/keep-using-windows-xp/">still available for your document and spreadsheeting needs</a>. (We need to be careful about updating any software as then it might not work on the XP machine.)</p>
<p>If we want to play some old computer games, there’s an argument that an <a href="https://www.myabandonware.com/howto/">old machine or operating system</a> will be a better choice to play on as a newer machine will run the game too fast, or be incompatible and not run it at all.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5Jp9kZNlb-Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Gaming on a 25 year old laptop.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the world of technology has changed in the last ten years or so. More and more apps need a <a href="https://m.oursky.com/why-every-app-should-go-offline-first-53d4570963bf">network connection to operate</a>, or take advantage of new features in the software or hardware that didn’t previously exist such as augmented reality (<a href="https://www.tomsguide.com/round-up/best-ar-apps">AR</a>), so they need a new device to work.</p>
<h2>Cables, chips and wireless networks</h2>
<p>Even on the hardware front, there are concerns. Try and attach our old fitness band to our new smartphone and we might find the <a href="https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/2315.htm">Bluetooth protocol it uses to communicate is no longer supported</a>, or the servers they used to run were <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/garmin-services-and-production-go-down-after-ransomware-attack/">attacked and taken down by hackers</a>.</p>
<p>Backers of the original smartwatch, The Pebble, found themselves on the wrong end of this situation when the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161207152451/https://blog.getpebble.com/2016/12/07/fitbit/">company was bought by Fitbit</a>, who decided to shut down the Pebble servers. This effectively turned all Pebble watches into <a href="https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/04/pebble-updates-watches-so-they-keep-ticking-beyond-the-grave/">paperweights</a>, although an unofficial fix was <a href="https://rebble.io/2020/04/13/squeezing-the-most-out-of-your-pebble.html">developed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The smartwatch in a box." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378967/original/file-20210115-23-12kss7g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The original Pebble smartwatch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pebble_smartwatch_size.jpg">Wikimedia/Romazur</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Assuming the hardware works, we might find the network connection deserts us.</p>
<p>The WiFi Alliance last year announced a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/23/21231623/6ghz-wifi-6e-explained-speed-availability-fcc-approval">new WiFi standard</a>, increasing speeds for countries that support it.</p>
<p>But it’s already the case that older WiFi devices running on older standards can have trouble connecting to new networks, and even if they can they are likely to <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/210062/how-802.11b-devices-slow-down-your-wi-fi-network-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/">slow down the whole network</a>.</p>
<p>In the world of cellular networking, some parts of the old 3G network (famous for powering the iPhone 3G released a little more than ten years ago) has been shut down in some countries (<a href="https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/Australian-3G-network-shutdown-what-you-need-to-know">including Australia</a>), with the whole service destined for the dustbin in several years. Even if we could power up that old iPhone, it wouldn’t get any phone service.</p>
<h2>A call for sustainable technology</h2>
<p>So what’s the solution to this problem of disposable and expiring technology? One suggestion is that manufacturers move to making devices more modular, comprised of several detachable components.</p>
<p>Components could then be replaced as they expire, just like we are able to do with desktop computers by replacing <a href="https://au.pcmag.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-founders-edition/64804/how-to-upgrade-a-graphics-card">the video card, sound card or other components</a>.</p>
<p>Some manufacturers, such as <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/android-creator-andy-rubin-launches-his-modular-essential-phone/">Essential</a>, <a href="https://www.androidauthority.com/moto-mods-789689/">Motorola</a> and <a href="https://www.gizmochina.com/2019/10/10/tech-throwback-thursday-how-googles-modular-smartphone-dream-was-killed/">Google</a> have all tried this approach with a modular phone but with limited success.</p>
<p>The modularisation process results in a larger, <a href="https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/02/21/moto-mods-how-a-modular-hardware-platform-locked-motorola-into-a-cycle-of-failure/">more cumbersome device</a> in a world where thin and svelte is everything.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/introducing-edna-the-chatbot-trained-to-help-patients-make-a-difficult-medical-decision-150847">Introducing Edna: the chatbot trained to help patients make a difficult medical decision</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Perhaps the best we can hope for is for manufacturers to work harder to recycle and upgrade devices for consumers. Companies such as Apple already do this, with <a href="https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2019/04/apple-expands-global-recycling-programs/">machines that can disassemble iPhones</a> and remove the precious metals and components for recycling, but more work needs to be done.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_Y_O-4Sqn94?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Daisy, Apple’s new iPhone disassembly robot.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In particular, the commercial aspect of these initiatives likely still needs to be worked out. Some service providers offer <a href="https://www.telstra.com.au/plans-devices/trade-in">trade-in in deals</a> for old phones but you still have to pay for a new phone. Many people aim to use older devices to avoid paying for a new device after all. </p>
<p>Until manufacturers are willing to perhaps just do a straight swap of that old gadget for a new model with no money down, it’s likely we will still live in our expiring device culture for a while yet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Cowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We are in a world where so-called smart devices can expire after just a few years so you have to upgrade to the latest model.Michael Cowling, Associate Professor - Information & Communication Technology (ICT), CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1243642019-10-28T11:57:18Z2019-10-28T11:57:18ZTechnology will not save us from climate change – but imagining new forms of society will<p>Citizen action on climate change has reached a new intensity: school children by the thousands regularly skip school to protest and Extinction Rebellion’s civil disobedience recently caused widespread disruption in cities around the world. Challenge and disruption is important in prompting change. But it’s also key that we consider – and show – how a zero carbon future could work in practice. This is where the field of <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/social-innovation">social innovation</a> – the development of new ideas that meet social needs – is coming of age.</p>
<p>When climate change was last so prominent, at the time of <a href="https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol">Kyoto</a>, 1997, and again in the mid-2000s, most of the emphasis was on targets and treaties on the one hand, and big R&D budgets for clean tech on the other. Now there is a much better understanding that if these aren’t combined with social innovation from the bottom up, they’re unlikely to stick. </p>
<p>One reason for this is that cutting carbon use depends on changing social norms and behaviour as much as technology – whether <a href="https://theconversation.com/going-entirely-organic-could-mean-food-emissions-up-70-in-england-and-wales-125656">local food sourcing</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-stop-buying-new-clothes-123881">reducing fast fashion</a>. Another reason is the urgent need to show the sceptics that they won’t necessarily be harmed by things like <a href="https://theconversation.com/emmanuel-macrons-carbon-tax-sparked-gilets-jaunes-protests-but-popular-climate-policy-is-possible-108437">higher petrol prices</a> or shrinking traditional industries like <a href="https://theconversation.com/coal-mines-can-be-closed-without-destroying-livelihoods-heres-how-124336">coal mining</a>. A low carbon economy can mean <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18112015/low-carbon-economy-may-create-2-million-jobs-study-finds-clean-energy">many more jobs</a>, for example in refurbishment or recycling e-waste. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/extinction-rebellions-car-free-streets-showcase-the-possibility-of-a-beautiful-safe-and-green-future-124924">Extinction Rebellion's car-free streets showcase the possibility of a beautiful, safe and green future</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But this requires a very different approach to innovation, in which investment in new technology is matched by investment in new ways of organising society. And investment in technology alone has dominated the last century.</p>
<h2>Investing in hardware</h2>
<p>In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a huge shift occurred in support of institutionalised science, which moved from being primarily a military concern (better warships or rifles) or a matter for enthusiastic amateurs, to becoming much more systematic. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298319/original/file-20191023-119438-1dufayj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298319/original/file-20191023-119438-1dufayj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298319/original/file-20191023-119438-1dufayj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298319/original/file-20191023-119438-1dufayj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298319/original/file-20191023-119438-1dufayj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298319/original/file-20191023-119438-1dufayj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298319/original/file-20191023-119438-1dufayj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=569&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A product of early R&D.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HMS_Dreadnought_1906_H61017.jpg#/media/File:HMS_Dreadnought_1906_H61017.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Governments invested large sums in research laboratories and universities, alongside a huge growth of spending on military technology, which constitutes <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R45403.pdf">more than 50%</a> of public research and development (R&D) in the US. Big firms set up R&D labs. The shares of GDP devoted to R&D crept up, to <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/researchanddevelopmentexpenditure/bulletins/ukgrossdomesticexpenditureonresearchanddevelopment/2017">around 2%</a> in countries like the UK and <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS?end=2017&start=1996">closer to 4%</a> in others like Korea and Finland. The result was a tide of new technologies that has changed every aspect of our lives.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, rapid innovation in hardware wasn’t matched by equally restless innovation in society. The same is true today. Large sums of public money are spent advancing aerospace or pharmaceuticals, but little comparable is done to innovate in homelessness or loneliness. The result has been a chronic gap between technological and economic dynamism on the one hand, and social stagnation on the other. And it’s the latter that often fuels resistance to necessary action on climate change.</p>
<p>As head of the UK government’s strategy unit, I was closely involved in setting <a href="http://www.gci.org.uk/Documents/TheEnergyReview.pdf">strategy on climate change</a> in the early 2000s, when the UK first committed to 60% reductions by 2050. Later that decade, ambition had risen to 80%, and now Britain is aiming for <a href="https://theconversation.com/2050-is-too-late-we-must-drastically-cut-emissions-much-sooner-121512">zero carbon</a>. In retrospect, we greatly underestimated the importance of bottom-up innovation. We were comfortable talking about taxes and incentives, regulations and targets. But we had little sense of the tools that are now available to mobilise mass creativity – testbeds and labs, impact investment and crowdfunding, challenges and open innovation.</p>
<h2>Social tools</h2>
<p>These tools are now becoming more mainstream, alongside the more traditional support for science and technology. They include, for example, experiments to find out what works best in persuading people to insulate their lofts, to go vegetarian or switch from a car commute to cycling. They include new kinds of social organisation – from new neighbourhoods designed for low carbon (like London’s <a href="https://www.bioregional.com/projects-and-services/case-studies/bedzed-the-uks-first-large-scale-eco-village">BEDZed</a>) to action by <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/project/big-green-challenge/">whole communities</a> to cut their emissions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298909/original/file-20191028-113991-15bwtzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298909/original/file-20191028-113991-15bwtzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298909/original/file-20191028-113991-15bwtzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298909/original/file-20191028-113991-15bwtzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298909/original/file-20191028-113991-15bwtzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298909/original/file-20191028-113991-15bwtzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298909/original/file-20191028-113991-15bwtzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">BedZED - the UK’s first large-scale eco-village.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/d9902518-7f7b-4fbd-8b01-291fd2cbbc92">Bioregional International</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-white-house-office-on_b_223759">President Obama</a> and California’s new governor, <a href="https://calmatters.org/economy/2019/06/newsom-digital-innovation-budget-technology/">Gavin Newsom</a>, both set up social innovation offices, and countries as varied as Malaysia and Canada have had national strategies for social innovation. Carlos Moedas, the EU’s commission of research, <a href="https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/carlos-moedas-eu-will-fund-more-social-innovation-because-it-s-future-innovation.html">commented</a> late in 2018 that the EU would put more money into social innovation “not because it’s trendy, but because we believe that the future of innovation is about social innovation”.</p>
<p>This shift to a broader understanding of innovation has big implications for the transition to a zero carbon economy. It means more support for places that are deliberately pioneering new ways of life – like <a href="https://www.world-habitat.org/world-habitat-awards/winners-and-finalists/30-years-of-planning-continuity-in-freiburg-germany/">Freiburg</a> in Germany, which has gone further than anywhere in designing new lifestyles into its physical structures, for example by banning and restricting cars, and building renewable energy into the city’s fabric.</p>
<p>It means more energetic experiment with new roles for communities – like the <a href="http://english.seoul.go.kr/creating-sharing-energy-energy-welfare-communities/">energy co-ops</a> in Seoul that fund solar panels through cheap loans. It means backing the thousands of local food projects around the world that are weaning people off dependence on agri-business and meat, and cutting food waste (a third of food is now <a href="https://theconversation.com/food-security-we-throw-away-a-third-of-the-food-we-grow-heres-what-to-do-about-waste-64854">thrown away</a>). And it means backing citizen action, like Ethiopia’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/al-gore-climate-change.html">extraordinary achievement</a> in planting hundreds of millions of trees in a single day earlier this year.</p>
<p>The key message of social innovation is that the scale of change needed in the next few years simply can’t be achieved just by top-down government policy or by grassroots action. This will become ever more apparent as the world grapples with implementing the Paris agreements, and hopefully goes further than their modest targets. Social innovation has a central role to play in mobilising society as a partner in this work.</p>
<p>For the next decade, this is where energy now needs to be directed. Change must be accelerated, not just in the organisation of our physical systems, but also in the way in which we live and relate to each other.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1125364">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124364/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Mulgan is CEO of Nesta, which has received funding from the European Commission for work on social innovation. He is an unpaid board member of SIX, the social innovation exchange. His book 'Social innovation; how societies find the power to change' is published this month by Polity Press.</span></em></p>Cutting carbon use depends on changing social norms and behaviour as much as technology.Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive, NestaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/853902017-10-22T19:01:09Z2017-10-22T19:01:09ZI’ve always wondered: why do our computing devices seem to slow down?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190337/original/file-20171016-21963-sm3929.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your gadgets might slow down if they're bloated with apps.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/modern-computer-gadgets-laptop-tablet-phone-226338589?src=y1aKLU74pCeT-r41bpS-fg-1-99">Neirfy/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is an article from I’ve Always Wondered, a series where readers send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. Send your question to alwayswondered@theconversation.edu.au</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>“Why do phones, tablets and computers always slow down as they get older, to the point that they become unusable, but when I back it up and restore it onto a brand new device, it’s fast again (despite not changing any of the installed software)?” - Jason Yosar</strong></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Plenty of misconceptions and conspiracy theories surround this topic. </p>
<p>Internet searches for “iPhone slow” <a href="https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2007-05-09%202017-10-05&q=iPhone%20slow">spike</a> after the release of a new-generation model, but there’s <a href="https://www.futuremark.com/pressreleases/is-it-true-that-iphones-get-slower-over-time">no evidence</a> to suggest that manufacturers deliberately degrade the performance of older devices with software updates. </p>
<p>Computer hardware does not typically slow down over its useful life. Instead, there are several other reasons why smartphones, tablets and PCs start to seem less snappy. The good news is that you can often take steps to improve your existing device’s performance. </p>
<h2>Memory bloat</h2>
<p>Each time they update, apps typically become larger and more full of features. Visual pizzazz is also a major attraction, and so desktop and mobile operating systems periodically receive significant redesigns. </p>
<p>All that extra functionality and glitz requires your device to do more computation than it did when it arrived home from the store. Given that it doesn’t magically speed up to compensate, it has less spare capacity available to respond to you quickly. </p>
<p>Newer apps not only tend to do more computation, they also usually take up more space in your device’s storage. </p>
<p>Devices only have a limited amount of fast “Random Access Memory” (RAM) available. One of a device’s data storage components, RAM is the rough equivalent of an office whiteboard - fast and convenient, but limited in capacity. Its contents are wiped every time you switch your device off. </p>
<p>When it runs out of space in RAM, your device can shift things to and from the much slower (and permanent until explicitly erased) data storage, flash memory, which takes considerable time. </p>
<p>In older PCs with mechanical hard disks, this used to be called “thrashing”, as users heard the hard disk’s read-write heads moving across the platters as they waited for data to be shifted in and out of the filled-up RAM.</p>
<p>Flash memory is silent and much faster than magnetic hard disks ever were, but it is still orders of magnitude slower than RAM.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190338/original/file-20171016-21935-6fikbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190338/original/file-20171016-21935-6fikbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190338/original/file-20171016-21935-6fikbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190338/original/file-20171016-21935-6fikbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190338/original/file-20171016-21935-6fikbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190338/original/file-20171016-21935-6fikbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190338/original/file-20171016-21935-6fikbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Random Access Memory is a form of data storage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rrrodrigo/4927107879/in/photolist-8voHvR-81pREH-jCn1Xq-4xitYa-eLFY8x-jCn1CY-5KtAAz-jCjzDF-jCm6qd-8tR3Vk-ewxeXy-jCiYLg-eTLxYm-fh3rfe-f4Qoea-fh3qA4-fhhEnq-jCm6mL-zcx7A-fh3rhe-Gs9Zo-fhhD8u-jCiHqV-jCjF2z-Gs9KQ-jCjTGf-jCjY9m-jCiEGk-jChLVK-jChNcT-XFSqU8-97P7nZ-63eRqK-jCiENc-jCjxS4-eoy5hW-GhJUC-jCiF7i-GrNEt-Gsedx-GhPnB-jCmD5s-fS8H2q-jCmDJy-GrNAD-jCkGW5-jCkJ9q-jCjU8e-jCm6SL-jCkNf1">Marcin Bajer/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Excessive cacheing</h2>
<p>To make their apps run faster, some designers make them store copies of things in RAM that they think the user might want to see again to speed things up. For instance, a web browser might retain a copy of what the content in each tab looks like, even if only one tab is visible at a given moment. </p>
<p>Known as cacheing, this makes things work much faster – until your system starts to run out of memory. For cacheing to be effective, the amount of space devoted to it must be carefully managed by the application and the device’s operating system.</p>
<p>Some app developers don’t put the effort that they should into doing this well, and their applications not only slow down over time, but can drag the rest of the system down with them too.</p>
<h2>More and more software</h2>
<p>It’s also not uncommon for useful software to be accompanied by “<a href="https://www.engadget.com/2015/03/06/java-adware-mac/">crapware</a>” – less-than-useful add-ons like browser toolbars – that use system resources and impact performance. </p>
<p>Additional software can slow a system down in many ways: filling up permanent storage, using up more precious RAM, and using the computer’s central processing unit “in the background” without you noticing. All these factors can result in the system having fewer resources available to respond to you promptly.</p>
<p>A new or factory-reset device tends to have less of this accumulated “cruft” (unwanted data and software) installed, and therefore has more resources available to do the tasks that a user actually wants.</p>
<p>Another unpleasant possibility is that some of the computing capabilities of your device are being used by malware - whether viruses, worms or other varieties of malicious software. </p>
<h2>What can you do?</h2>
<p>You’re not going to be able to match the performance of the latest and greatest high-end smartphone, tablet, or PC with an older model, as newer devices generally have fundamentally faster components. But with a small amount of effort, you can get the most out of your existing device.</p>
<p>Whether you’re using a phone, tablet, PC or Mac, the most useful zero-cost action you can take is to uninstall unnecessary apps and add-ons. </p>
<p>However, in some circumstances it may be easier - AFTER carefully backing up all your data - to simply perform the equivalent of a factory reset and reinstall the operating system from scratch, adding only the apps you actually need.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Merkel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are a few reasons why smartphones, tablets and PCs start to seem less snappy over time.Robert Merkel, Lecturer in Software Engineering, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763542017-04-25T11:47:34Z2017-04-25T11:47:34ZWe need to break science out of its ivory tower – here’s one way to do this<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165891/original/file-20170419-2431-1rntdm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Comaniciu Dan/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Without hardware, there is no science. From Hooke’s microscope to the Hubble telescope, instruments are modern science’s platforms for producing knowledge. But limited access to scientific tools impedes the progress and reach of science by restricting the type of people who can participate in research, favouring those who have access to well-resourced laboratories in industrial or academic institutions. </p>
<p>Scientists in developing countries, grassroots community organisations, and citizen scientists can struggle to obtain and maintain the equipment they require to answer their own research questions.</p>
<p>The result of this exclusion from participation is that scientific research becomes ever more elitist as a small number of people decide what the worthwhile and valid projects are. For example, the relative neglect of many tropical diseases and <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/11763/chapter/2">agricultural research on African subsistence crops</a> demonstrates that local concerns in areas with limited scientific resources are often not sufficiently addressed by global science.</p>
<p>Likewise, public concerns and desire for transparency around technology can also be ignored. Research on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/fracking-184">fracking</a> has received <a href="https://energy.gov/fe/science-innovation/oil-gas-research/shale-gas-rd">$137 million from the United States Department of Energy</a>. But despite vocal concerns about water pollution, no affordable technologies have been developed for communities to use to monitor their own air or water, even though <a href="http://www.apmreports.org/story/2016/12/13/epa-fracking-contamination-drinking-water">access to the relevant data from industry is difficult</a>. Locking science inside ivory and industry towers restricts what it can look like.</p>
<h2>Open hardware</h2>
<p>The open science hardware movement challenges these norms with the goal of providing different futures for science, using hardware as a launching point. It argues that plans, protocols and material lists for scientific instruments should be shared, accessible and able to be replicated. The fact that a lot of modern scientific equipment is a consumer product that is patented, not supplied with full design information and difficult to repair also blocks creativity and customisation. </p>
<p>For example, open source project <a href="http://oceanographyforeveryone.com/">Oceanography for Everyone</a> recently crowdfunded an open conductivity, temperature and depth (CTD) instrument out of frustration with the lack of low-cost instrumentation available. CTD instruments are the workhorses of oceanography research, and usually cost thousands of dollars. Oceanography for Everyone’s model achieves comparable data but costs US$300 to build, and the plans are <a href="https://github.com/OceanographyforEveryone/OpenCTD">public on GitHub</a>. Think of OpenCTD like a really nice shirt. You could buy one for $40, or if you don’t have enough money but you do have a sewing pattern and some time, you could purchase the fabric for $5 and make it yourself, and even customise it to your needs and tastes. </p>
<p>Lower cost is only one goal of open science hardware. <a href="https://home.cern/">CERN</a>, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, pioneered an <a href="http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cernohl/wiki">Open Hardware License</a> to enable large-scale, open collaboration on projects. One of these, <a href="http://www.ohwr.org/projects/white-rabbit">White Rabbit</a>, is an electronic controller for precise synchronisation of signals across vast distances. White Rabbit ensures that some of the world’s largest particle accelerators are coordinated. But it’s also freely available to anyone, and has <a href="http://smartgrid.epfl.ch/">found new uses</a> in designing smart electricity grids.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165881/original/file-20170419-2392-x5d34h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of CLEAR using hand tools to repair an open science hardware trawl (LADI trawl) for monitoring marine plastics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MEOPAR</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Equality or equity?</h2>
<p>Instruments such as <a href="https://github.com/OceanographyforEveryone/OpenCTD">OpenCTD</a> and <a href="http://www.ohwr.org/projects/white-rabbit">White Rabbit</a> are built on the premise of equality, the idea that everyone should have access to scientific tools. Yet the ability to access such tools is only half the story: it doesn’t address the acute disparities in who is creating science in the first place. And these are enormous. In 2015, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/26/africa-produces-just-11-of-global-scientific-knowledge">The Guardian reported</a> that Africa produces just 1.1% of global scientific knowledge. And <a href="http://www.who.int/tdr/research/gender/Women_overview_piece.pdf">recent data from UNESCO</a> indicates that only 28% of researchers globally are women. Women do not represent 50% of scientists in a single country in the world. </p>
<p>Attempting to address this problem, several feminist laboratories create and use open science hardware. For example, the <a href="https://civiclaboratory.nl/">Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR)</a> is a feminist marine pollution lab in Newfoundland, Canada. And the <a href="http://gynepunk.tumblr.com/">GynePunks</a> are a group of bio-hackers at the forefront of DIY gynaecology, based in Barcelona. </p>
<p>These labs are not merely bringing more women and trans scientist-inventors into science-as-usual. They prioritise equity rather than equality, recognising that when people start from fundamentally different social, economic, educational and political positions, treating everyone the same does not overcome those differences. In doing so, they transform science in terms of how research priorities are chosen and articulated, what kinds of knowledge is considered valid, and, of course, how scientific tools are made and distributed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165882/original/file-20170419-2410-2i58dk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Equality vs. Equity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Interaction Institute for Social Change. Artist: Angus Maguire. CC BY 2.0</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond the lab</h2>
<p>Particularly valuable work is being done by groups attempting to move science out of the lab and into places and frameworks where it would not usually occur. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://publiclab.org/wiki/stories">Public Lab</a> is a US-based environmental science community founded by frustrated citizens on the Gulf Coast following the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in 2010. Getting accurate, timely and public high resolution data about local damage was impossible due to flight restrictions over the spill area and satellites are too far away to provide the same level of detail. So citizen scientists stitched together photos from cheap cameras suspended from helium balloons. The tools are open and accessible, and the research is done by and for local people without science degrees.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165886/original/file-20170419-2431-15a2h46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public Lab volunteers mapping the Deep Horizon oil spill using a low-cost weather balloon setup that is openly documented on the Public Lab wiki.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Warren/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Likewise, the work of <a href="http://lifepatch.org/">Lifepatch</a>, an Indonesian citizen initiative in art, science, and technology which uses low-cost methods and open tools such as webcam microscopes, is deeply rooted in Indonesian collective culture. The questions of basic, daily life and <a href="http://jfac.jp/en/culture/features/asiahundreds014/2/">everyday needs</a> have driven projects with local communities on <a href="https://biodesign.cc/2013/05/11/water-sampling-workshop-at-lifepatch/">river water quality</a>, <a href="http://lifepatch.org/Citizen_science_recovering_volcanic_farmlands">bio-recovery of soils altered by volcanic eruptions</a> and <a href="https://transmediale.de/intelligent-bacteria-saccharomyces-cerevisiae">safe fermentation practices</a> in collaboration with local academics. </p>
<p>All of these projects demonstrate the value of science grounded in specific places, complex local traditions, ethics, contexts and research questions, rather than a universal science that works the same everywhere for everyone. We need to push science towards communal, bottom-up, and collaborative practices; away from territorial, proprietary, institutional, Western-dominated and individualistic practices. </p>
<p>This has significant implications for where science happens, who is involved, and as a result, the types of knowledge that can be produced. Open science hardware is about creating new futures for science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max Liboiron receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR), and the following funds at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada: Public Engagement, Harris Centre, and Multidisciplinary Projects.
Dr. Liboiron is director of Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), and is a co-organizer of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (2017). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Molloy is affiliated with the non-profit community lab Biomakespace and is a co-organizer of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (2016 and 2017). Her role at the University of Cambridge is partially funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre. This article does not reflect the views of the research councils.
</span></em></p>We can overcome the tyranny of inaccessible science hardware by building a movement for equity in science.Max Liboiron, Professor of Geography and Environmental Science, Memorial University of NewfoundlandJenny Molloy, Coordinator, Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/506642015-11-19T04:24:48Z2015-11-19T04:24:48ZThe big data challenge and how Africa can benefit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102326/original/image-20151118-14214-1vxrw3o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Large Hadron Collider is playing a key role in enabling the collection of big data. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-big-data-13780">Big data</a> has become some sort of celebrity. Everybody talks about it, but it is not clear what it is. To unpack its relevance to society it is important to backtrack a bit to understand why and how it came to be this ubiquitous problem.</p>
<p>Big data is about processing large amounts of data. It is associated with multiplicities of data formats stored somewhere, say in a <a href="http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing">cloud</a> or in distributed computing systems. </p>
<p>But the ability to generate data systematically outpaces the ability to store it. The amount of data is becoming so big and is produced so fast that it cannot be stored with current technologies in a cost effective way. What happens when big data becomes too big and too fast?</p>
<h2>How fundamental science contributes to society</h2>
<p>The big data problem is yet another example of how the methods and techniques developed by scientists to study nature have had an impact on society. The techno-economic fabric that underlies modern society would be unthinkable without these contributions.</p>
<p>There are numerous examples of how findings intended to probe nature ended up revolutionising life. Big data is intimately intertwined with fundamental science and continues to evolve with it.</p>
<p>Consider just a few examples: what would life be without electricity or electromagnetic waves? Without the fundamental studies of <a href="http://www.phy.pmf.unizg.hr/%7Edpaar/fizicari/xmaxwell.html">Maxwell</a>, <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1925/hertz-bio.html">Hertz</a> and other physicists on the nature of <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electromagnetism">electromagnetism</a> we would not have radio, television or other forms of wave mediated communication, for that matter.</p>
<p>Modern electronics is based on materials called <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/semiconductor">semi-conductors</a>. What would life today be without <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/electronics">electronics</a>? The invention of transistors and eventually of integrated circuits is based entirely on the work scientists have done by thoroughly studying semi-conductors.</p>
<p>Modern medicine relies on countless techniques and applications. These range from x-rays, medical imaging physics and nuclear magnetic resonance to other techniques such as radiation therapeutic and nuclear medicine physics. Modern medicine and research would be unthinkable without techniques that were initially conceived for scientific research purposes.</p>
<h2>How the information age came about</h2>
<p>The big data problem initially emerged as a result of the need for scientists to communicate and exchange data.</p>
<p>At the European laboratory <a href="http://home.cern/">CERN</a> in 1990, internet pioneer <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a> suggested a browser called <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html">WorldWideWeb</a>, leading to the first web server. The internet was born. </p>
<p>The internet has magnified the ability to exchange information and learn, leading to a proliferation of data.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t only about volume. The time lapsing between the generation and processing of information has also been greatly reduced.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider">Large Hadron Collider</a> has pushed the boundaries of data collection to limits never seen before.</p>
<p>When the project, and its experiments, were being conceived in the late 1980s scientists realised that new concepts and techniques needed to be developed to deal with streams of data that were bigger than had ever been seen before. </p>
<p>It was then that concepts that contributed to cloud and distributed computing were developed.</p>
<p>One of the main tasks of the Large Hadron Collider is to observe and explore the <a href="http://home.cern/topics/higgs-boson">Higgs boson</a>, a particle connected with the generation of mass of fundamental particles, by means of colliding protons at high energy. </p>
<p>The probability of finding a Higgs boson in a high-energy proton-proton collision is extremely small. For this reason it is necessary to collide many protons many times every second. </p>
<p>The Large Hadron Collider produces data flows of the order of petabytes every second. To give an idea of how big a petabyte is, the entire written works of mankind from beginning of written history, in all languages, can be stored in about 50 petabytes. An experiment at the Large Hadron Collider generates that much data in less than one minute.</p>
<p>Only a small fraction of the data produced is stored. But even this has already reached the exabyte scale (one thousand times a petabyte) leading to new challenges in distributed and cloud computing.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ska.ac.za/about/index.php">Square Kilometre Array</a> (SKA) in South Africa will start generating data in the 2020s. SKA will have the processing power of about 100 million PCs. The <a href="https://www.skatelescope.org/">data</a> it collects in a single day would take nearly two million years to play back on an iPod.</p>
<p>This will produce new challenges for the correlation of vast amounts of data.</p>
<h2>Big data and Africa</h2>
<p>The African continent often lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to embracing innovation. Nevertheless big data is increasingly being seen as a solution to tackling poverty on the continent.</p>
<p>The private sector has been the first to get out of the starting blocks.
The bigger African firms are, naturally, more likely to have big data projects. In Nigeria and <a href="http://www.africanbusinessreview.co.za/technology/1783/Big-Data-in-Africa:-IBM-Dissects-a-Developing-Trend-in-a-Developing-Market">Kenya</a> at least 40% of businesses are in the planning stages of a big data project compared with the global average of 51%. Only 24% of medium companies in the two countries are planning big data projects.</p>
<p>Rich rewards can be reaped from harnessing big data. For example, healthcare organisations can benefit from <a href="http://www.hissjournal.com/content/2/1/3">digitising</a>, combining and effectively using big data. This could enable a range of players, from single-physician offices and multi-provider groups to large hospital networks, to deliver better and more effective services. </p>
<p>Grasping the challenge of managing big data could have big economic spin-offs too. With economies becoming more and more sophisticated and complex the amount of data generated increases rapidly. As a result, in order to improve these complex processes it is necessary to process and understand increasing volumes of data. With this labour productivity is enhanced. </p>
<p>But for any of these benefits to become reality, Africa needs specialists who are proficient in big data techniques. Universities on the continent need to start teaching how big data can be used to find solutions to scientific problems. A sophisticated economy requires specialists who are skilled in big data techniques.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Mellado receives funding from the DST, NRF and the University of the Witwatersrand. </span></em></p>Big data is about processing large amounts of data. It is often associated with multiplicities of data. But the ability to generate data outpaces the ability to store it.Bruce Mellado, Professor of Physics, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.