tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/communications-technology-67/articlesCommunications technology – The Conversation2018-08-02T12:14:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1002772018-08-02T12:14:44Z2018-08-02T12:14:44Z5G: UK risks losing its lead, but some simple steps could prevent that<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230403/original/file-20180802-136676-1gs903w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&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-photo/young-woman-using-mobile-phone-bokeh-1105694417?src=dLY50sKShWSILtGTacgTHA-2-22">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>5G <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/forging-a-full-fibre-broadband-and-5g-future-for-all">is expected to</a> offer unprecedented data speeds, improve performance and be more energy efficient than the current 4G network. It could even deliver real-time haptic feedback - the power of touch across the mobile network - a feature which has huge implications for fields from <a href="https://www.ericsson.com/en/cases/2017/kings-college/kings-healthcare">medicine</a> to <a href="https://news.cityoflondon.gov.uk/city-of-london-to-host-the-worlds-first-5g-connected-theatre/">music</a>. </p>
<p>The UK is in a reasonably good position when it comes to mobile connectivity: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/727889/Future_Telecoms_Infrastructure_Review.pdf">87% of the UK</a> has a 4G signal from at least one operator, and the UK mobile market is viewed as being competitive. The UK government <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664563/industrial-strategy-white-paper-web-ready-version.pdf">has also committed</a> to becoming a world leader in 5G, by providing reliable high-speed connections throughout the nation’s towns, cities and rural areas, and <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/news/newsrecords/2018/02-February/British-universities-debut-world's-first-5G-end-to-end-network-at-Mobile-World-Congress.aspx">investing in university research and development</a> of 5G, which can be commercialised to benefit the general public. </p>
<h2>Missed opportunities</h2>
<p>Unless the government continues to support 5G innovation, however, it may not remain in such a strong position. Historically, the UK has a patchy record when it comes to capitalising on innovation. Key innovations were made in Britain that were crucial for the development of computing and the internet. But often these scientific and technological discoveries were not followed up and commercialised successfully in the UK. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230405/original/file-20180802-136670-1vp1lu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230405/original/file-20180802-136670-1vp1lu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230405/original/file-20180802-136670-1vp1lu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230405/original/file-20180802-136670-1vp1lu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230405/original/file-20180802-136670-1vp1lu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230405/original/file-20180802-136670-1vp1lu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230405/original/file-20180802-136670-1vp1lu0.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">Colossus in action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer#/media/File:Colossus.jpg">The National Archives/Wikipedia.</a></span>
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<p>In some cases, pioneers are barely remembered. Tommy Flowers and colleagues <a href="http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/1078/Tommy-Flowers/">built the first</a> programmable digital electronic computer – Colossus – to assist with code breaking and intelligence gathering at Bletchley Park during World War II. Ten were built in total, but after the war all but two were dismantled. The breakthroughs made in Britain were never followed up, and Colossus had little influence on the subsequent development of the computer, which happened mainly in the US.</p>
<p>Another example is “<a href="https://www.livinginternet.com/i/iw_packet_inv.htm">packet switching</a>”, a key technology underlying the development of the internet. Packet switching means dividing up a data message into separate parts or “packets”, routing each packet in the most efficient way and then reassembling the message at its destination. It was invented independently on both sides of the Atlantic, by Paul Baran in the US, and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224386328_The_early_history_of_packet_switching_in_the_UK_History_of_Communications">Donald Davies</a> in the UK. Indeed, it was Davies who <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/09/donald-davies/">coined the term</a> “packet switching”. </p>
<p>British scientists and engineers made key contributions to how the internet developed – but the centre of innovation soon moved elsewhere. Both Flowers and Davies are now recognised as pioneers of computing, but only belatedly.</p>
<h2>The valley of death</h2>
<p>More generally, the UK has struggled successfully to cross the “<a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmsctech/348/348.pdf">valley of death</a>” by translating its scientific and technological discoveries into commercially successful products and businesses. At King’s College London, my colleagues have worked on delivering 5G in a real-world setting – here’s <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/policy-institute/research-analysis/how-government-can-drive-5g-innovation.aspx">what my colleagues and I recommend</a> to ensure the UK maintains its position as a global leader. </p>
<p>At the moment, 5G is being developed as part of different projects led by a range of organisations. But there are few wider partnerships, and little focus on scaling up pilot projects or building larger networks. 5G requires radically different network infrastructure to 4G. And there are millions of lamp posts and other street furniture, where network equipment could be installed to build up coverage on a large scale. The government could make it simpler for operators, by creating a clear, nationwide process for leveraging these assets. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230402/original/file-20180802-136661-76fjjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230402/original/file-20180802-136661-76fjjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230402/original/file-20180802-136661-76fjjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230402/original/file-20180802-136661-76fjjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230402/original/file-20180802-136661-76fjjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230402/original/file-20180802-136661-76fjjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230402/original/file-20180802-136661-76fjjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&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">Let there be 5G.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-man-holding-scrolling-texting-his-1062243614?src=Oh5S169rYWLCmA5LkKQx_g-2-52">Shutterstock.</a></span>
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<p>The existing digital infrastructure could also be used more efficiently. There’s already a strong fibre network spanning the UK. But it’s owned by a range of organisations, all working separately. As a result, the network is not being used to maximum economic and operational benefit. The government should prioritise - and regulate if necessary - fibre sharing among public institutions and private operators. </p>
<p>The government should also take a more nuanced approach when it comes to giving operators the right to use certain radio frequencies. As it stands, use of the radio spectrum is auctioned off to the highest bidder. But there are better ways to foster innovation: for example, by leasing or sub-leasing frequencies over given locations and time periods. </p>
<p>This would allow a wide range of organisations to explore new uses for mobile technology, which might not be prioritised under the current system, if operators are uncertain about returns on investment. </p>
<h2>Don’t play ‘catch up’</h2>
<p>There should also be laws and policies allowing enterprises such as manufacturing sites, shopping malls, cultural institutions and other organisations to build their own networks for their clients, together with traditional mobile network operators. </p>
<p>King’s College London has a range of spectrum test licences and, because of these, has been able to develop, test and deploy the first attempts at 5G in the UK. This has attracted significant interest and attention from operators, who – with a few exceptions – are unable to commit many resources to exploring a very new technology.</p>
<p>There must also be a national approach to building the skills to leverage the benefits offered by 5G, as these are currently in short supply. The technology is likely to be commercialised before people have a chance to develop these skills - as is already happening with <a href="https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252436963/UK-demand-for-AI-professionals-has-almost-tripled-in-three-years">AI</a>, <a href="https://www.techuk.org/insights/reports/item/9469-the-uk-s-big-data-future-mind-the-gap">big data</a> and the <a href="https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1332655">Internet of Things</a>. It’s better to prioritise building up the skills needed for 5G now, rather than playing “catch up” later. </p>
<p>The UK has a unique opportunity. Through government leadership and investment, the foundations of 5G are being built across the UK. But more must be done if the UK is to avoid past mistakes, maintain its leadership in 5G and deliver the benefits to citizens and businesses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Kleinman is employed by King's College London </span></em></p>Many computers built at Bletchley Park were dismantled and progress stalled – it would be a tragedy if the same thing happened with 5G.Mark Kleinman, Professor of Public Policy, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862722017-11-09T12:31:15Z2017-11-09T12:31:15ZFive myths about email at work and how to cope with communications overload<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193977/original/file-20171109-27116-10bpv8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Email overload is stressing us out.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chutima Chaochaiya/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Email is integral to the way that many of us work. Yet there is no universally accepted standard for its use, which leaves many of us struggling to find strategies that will help us work effectively without also overstressing or causing email fatigue.</p>
<p>There is no shortage of <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Get-Your-Inbox-Down-Zero/dp/178578059X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510155139&sr=1-1&keywords=inbox+zero">self-help books</a> and <a href="https://www.coach.me/Marshall">time management gurus</a> who argue that email zen is possible. But with so much research being conducted in different fields there is a risk that populist volumes and consultants simply cherry-pick the data and findings to fit their point of view – that is, if their recommendations are even evidence-based at all.</p>
<p>We were commissioned by UK workplace experts ACAS to produce a <a href="http://www.acas.org.uk/emailresearch">systematic literature review across the fields of psychology, human-computer interaction and management</a> of the strategies people use to try and deal with the torrent of work email. This approach examines published data in a rigorous way, and after excluding many papers that didn’t fit our sifting criteria, we settled on assessing 42 papers. From these, we identified a number of themes relating to how email is used today, which were then matched against markers of productivity and well-being. Finally, these themes were sense-checked in a qualitative study with 12 representative participants. </p>
<p>What did we find? It became apparent that there is no one-size-fits-all set of strategies that improve both people’s productivity and well-being across job roles and industries. For example, a strategy such as catching up with email outside of work hours might help people feel more in control of their work, but it does not tangibly reduce work overload – and can create conflict in families where work is brought home.</p>
<p>But we were able to identify a number of strategies that research indicates are generally beneficial, and these can be used to dispel many of the popular myths about work email and how we “should” be using it. Here are the top five work email myths – busted by science.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193978/original/file-20171109-27120-nyjrw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193978/original/file-20171109-27120-nyjrw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193978/original/file-20171109-27120-nyjrw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193978/original/file-20171109-27120-nyjrw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193978/original/file-20171109-27120-nyjrw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193978/original/file-20171109-27120-nyjrw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193978/original/file-20171109-27120-nyjrw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&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">You’ve got mail. Loads of it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">one photo/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Myth #1: We should check email only a few times a day</h2>
<p>It’s not efficient to allow ourselves to be constantly interrupted by email alerts. But this doesn’t mean we should ignore email for prolonged periods. We found that workers who regularly checked and processed their email reported feeling more in control and less overloaded, regardless of the volume of email they received. Keeping on top of incoming email is important for taming the inbox and keeping email stress at bay.</p>
<h2>Myth #2: Email is a time-wasting distraction from real work</h2>
<p>Our research found that today only a tiny proportion of email sent and received at work is not work-critical. People use email as an essential tool in getting work tasks done efficiently, and most workers report that they would not be able to get their jobs done as effectively without it.</p>
<h2>Myth #3: Restricting email outside work hours will reduce stress</h2>
<p>We follow this area with interest, since new employment law in France coming into effect January 1, 2017, gives workers the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-proposed-right-to-disconnect-after-work-hours-is-welcome-but-not-enough-56381">right to disconnect</a>” after working a certain number of hours per day. In our research, we found no significant evidence that workers particularly want this, and instead reports are that workers like the flexibility that email can afford. </p>
<p>But it is considered poor etiquette to send an email that arrives outside of work hours. Functionality, such as delayed sending, allows staff to continue to process email out-of-hours without affecting those who want to switch off.</p>
<h2>Myth #4: We should set clear email response times</h2>
<p>When organisations set a policy that requires a response within a particular time frame, this is considered important for satisfying the customer. This may be undoubtedly necessary in some jobs, such as those that are particularly customer service-focused. But use of response times in other industries can create an unnecessary pressure to respond that causes high levels of strain for workers, and promotes a reactive rather than strategic approach. </p>
<p>Many of those sending email report that they neither expect nor require a quick response, so the pressure to respond quickly may be ill-founded as well as counterproductive. Organisations may do well to revisit such policies and possibly remove them.</p>
<h2>Myth #5: Using ‘CC’ and ‘reply-to-all’ are unnecessary and irritating</h2>
<p>The “CC” function of email that imitates the <a href="http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/definition/carbon-copy-cc">“carbon copy” duplicates created from carbon paper</a> days of handwritten notes and typescript, has been extensively studied. From our review, we concluded that the use of “CC” and “reply-to-all” have different effects on people depending on the culture of trust in which a worker operates. </p>
<p>Where there is a blame culture then “CC” tends to have a negative reputation, seen as a way workers may use email to cover their backs, hold others accountable, or engage in boasting, broadcasting or presenteeism. Where there are good work relationships among email partners, however, then “CC” is viewed positively, as helping workers share knowledge, keeping colleagues involved, and including colleagues regardless of their status.</p>
<p>Newer tools like <a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a>, <a href="https://www.yammer.com/">Yammer</a> and team inboxes were mentioned in our research. These were found especially useful by allowing workers to coordinate digital activities and communications, particularly on team projects where messages could be shared and discussions and threads could be picked up and linked to project documents. For shift and part-time workers, team-based systems can prevent the build-up of messages during non-work hours because other team members will pick these up in another’s absence.</p>
<p>So what can we conclude from this study? It’s clear that our coping strategies are evolving alongside the communications technology we use. And it should remind us that email does not exist in a vacuum: its usefulness at work depends on the individual and the office culture – that’s where organisations should look first for ways to improve communication at work while preventing staff from burning out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86272/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Russell receives funding from Acas. </span></em></p>The things we think about email, rightly or wrongly, and what light scientific research has to shine on them.Emma Russell, Senior Lecturer in Occupational Psychology Management, Kingston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/836052017-09-07T14:43:16Z2017-09-07T14:43:16ZLeaked emails: Ramaphosa’s hypocrisy on spying by the South African state<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185057/original/file-20170907-8341-1gjep07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa claims the country's security agencies hacked his emails.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the run up to the election of the <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/content/54th-national-conference">next president</a> of South Africa’s governing ANC in December, unknown entities are clearly working hard to discredit candidates who have spoken out against <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-threat-to-south-africas-democracy-runs-deeper-than-state-capture-78784">state capture</a>.</p>
<p>The latest dirty tricks have targeted Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who recently <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ramaphosa-launches-campaign-with-attack-on-zuma-guptas-20170423">condemned</a> the capture of the South African state, allegedly by <a href="http://pari.org.za/betrayal-promise-report/">business interests linked to</a> President Jacob Zuma. Someone has <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/sundayindependent/news/ramaphosa-in-womanising-e-mail-shock-11056138">leaked</a> Ramaphosa’s emails from his private Gmail accounts, suggesting that he was having multiple affairs, despite being married.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa has claimed that the fingerprints of the state intelligence services are all over the leaks. He has also <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017-09-02-intelligence-resources-hacked-my-email-ramaphosa/">located</a> the smear attempt within</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…a broader campaign that has targeted several political leaders‚ trade unionists‚ journalists and civil society activists.</p>
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<p>How much credibility do his claims have? Those responsible could be private actors with no links to the spy agencies. But, no one should be surprised if his allegations of state spying turn out to be correct. </p>
<p>After all, in 2005, state spy agencies were <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08baae5274a31e0000cc8/ReviewComm.Sept08.pdf">abused</a> in the bruising succession battle between then President Thabo Mbeki and his rival for the ANC presidency, Jacob Zuma. That behaviour seems to have been sustained.</p>
<p>There are systemic weaknesses in how the state intelligence services are regulated that predispose them to abuse. As a senior member of government, Ramaphosa must take political responsibility for keeping silent about these problems until now.</p>
<h2>Eavesdropping in South Africa</h2>
<p>It’s quite possible that Ramaphosa’s Gmail accounts were hacked. An intrusive piece of hacking software like <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/adelaides-accumulus-launches-b-one-hub-smart-home-play/">Finfisher</a> could do the trick. Finfisher is a weapons grade intrusion tool sold exclusively to governments. It is particularly useful for monitoring security conscious and mobile targets who make extensive use of encryption.</p>
<p>The tool allows its operator to take control of a target’s computer as soon as it is connected to the internet. Once the operator does so, it can turn on web cameras and microphones for surveillance purposes, and exfiltrate -withdraw- data from the target’s computer, such as emails.</p>
<p>By 2014, South Africa was the <a href="https://wikileaks.org/spyfiles4/customers.html">third largest named user</a> of Finfisher, after Slovakia and Estonia. </p>
<p>In 2015, the University of Toronto’s <a href="https://www.citizenlab.co/">Citizenlab</a> detected a Finfisher command-and-control server in South Africa. The discovery strongly suggested that the South African government continued to be a Finfisher user.</p>
<p>Leaked <a href="https://wikileaks.org/hackingteam/emails/">emails</a> from Finfisher’s competitor, the Italian-based Hacking Team, also provided evidence that South African government departments were in the market for hacking tools. And South Africa has a <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/mail-guardian/20151218/281625304257040">reputation</a> in international intelligence circles for targeting individuals (like journalists, activists and academics) through hacking, rather than engaging in <a href="https://probonomatters.co.za/online-privacy-guide-for-journalists-2017/">mass surveillance</a> of the kind practised by the US and the UK. Tools like Finfisher come in handy.</p>
<h2>Safeguards against abuse</h2>
<p>In spite of their invasiveness, hacking tools are under regulated in South Africa.</p>
<p>There are two communication interception centres in the State Security Agency that the general public knows about. The first is the <a href="http://www.oic.gov.za/">Office for Interception Centres</a>, which handles targeted interceptions approved by a special judge. It is inwardly focused, and provides services to national crime fighting agencies.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185069/original/file-20170907-10812-16j7d4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185069/original/file-20170907-10812-16j7d4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185069/original/file-20170907-10812-16j7d4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185069/original/file-20170907-10812-16j7d4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185069/original/file-20170907-10812-16j7d4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185069/original/file-20170907-10812-16j7d4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185069/original/file-20170907-10812-16j7d4l.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">
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</figure>
<p>The second is the <a href="http://www.mediaanddemocracy.com/uploads/1/6/5/7/16577624/comms-surveillance-nia-swart_feb2016.pdf">National Communications Centres</a>, which monitors the electronic communication. This centre is externally focused. It collects foreign signals intelligence.</p>
<p>While the Office for Interception Centres is established in terms of the <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/legis/num_act/roiocapocia2002943.pdf">Regulation of Interception of Communications</a> and Provision of Communication Related Information Act <a href="http://www.internet.org.za/ricpci.html">(Rica)</a>, the National Communications Centres has no explicit founding legislation, and no known rules that govern its activities. This is why the current <a href="http://amabhungane.co.za/article/2017-04-20-amab-challenges-snooping-law">court challenge</a> is significant.</p>
<p>In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights <a href="https://www.ilsa.org/jessup/jessup16/Batch%201/WEBER%20AND%20SARAVIA%20v.%20GERMANY.pdf">identified</a> six safeguards for strategic intelligence gathering, to limit the potential for abuses. </p>
<p>It says the law needs to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Spell out the nature of the offences which may give rise to an interception order.</li>
<li>Provide a definition of the categories of people liable to have their telephones tapped.</li>
<li>Limit on the duration of tapping.</li>
<li>Set out the procedure to be followed for examining, using and storing the data obtained</li>
<li>List precautions to be taken when communicating the data to other parties. </li>
<li>Spell out the circumstances in which recordings may or must be erased or the tapes destroyed. </li>
</ul>
<p>South Africa’s laws fail these tests dismally.</p>
<p>There are also no known rules governing the State Security Agency’s use of selectors - the search terms used to process raw communications data - for analysing mass communication. This could lead to abuse. </p>
<h2>Spying on political dissent</h2>
<p>The problem of under regulation does not end with the National Communications Centre. As the country’s civilian intelligence agency, the State Security Agency is meant to develop high level strategic intelligence to inform the Cabinet in deciding on the nation’s most urgent national intelligence priorities.</p>
<p>But, a State Security Agency <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1672699-organogram-of-south-africa-state-security-agency.html">organogram</a> leaked to Al Jazeera points to the existence of an operational entity in the domestic intelligence section called the Special Operations Unit. Little is known about its exact mandate.</p>
<p>The Sunday newspaper, City Press has <a href="http://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Sex-Sars-and-rogue-spies-20150429">linked</a> this unit to a number of dirty tricks. These include smearing top civil servants, and forming a rival trade union to the Association for Mineworkers and Construction Union in the platinum belt, as well as spying.</p>
<p>And, a recent <a href="https://www.privacyinternational.org/node/1031">investigation</a> by Privacy International exposed a revolving door between the intelligence agencies, the mining industry, and private security companies in the communications surveillance sector. In other words, not only are the state spy agencies underregulated; private sector ones are too.</p>
<p>So the available evidence points to the State Security Agency’s political and economic intelligence focus being used to legitimise government spying on perceived political critics, and protect the exploitative business practices of mining companies.</p>
<h2>Ramaphosa double standards</h2>
<p>In 2013, Parliament <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/15616/">narrowed</a> the definition of what constitutes a national security threat to exclude legitimate political activities. Be that as it may, it has not done enough to address the weaknesses that created space for the 2005 spying abuses to occur.</p>
<p>Complaints from <a href="http://www.r2k.org.za/2016/05/05/6594/">journalists</a> and <a href="http://bigbrother.r2k.org.za/">activists</a> about illegitimate spying by the state have been piling up for several years. As the Deputy President, Ramaphosa would have been aware of these complaints. Yet, as a shareholder and non-executive director of Lonmin, Ramaphosa would have benefited from the spy agencies’ interference in labour struggles in the platinum belt.</p>
<p>He has not spoken out about the under regulation of the spy agencies until now. Ramaphosa must take political responsibility for the utter mess that grips the state spy agencies.</p>
<p>Undoubtedly, spying on political elites threatens democracy, but it is self-serving of Ramaphosa to complain only when he himself becomes the target. Political leaders who are vying for the highest office in the land really need to be more principled.</p>
<p><em>The author is completing a book manuscript entitled ‘Stopping the spies: constructing and resisting the surveillance state in South Africa’ (forthcoming with Wits University Press in 2018)</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Duncan receives funding from the Open Society Foundation for South Africa. She is a member of the secrecy and securitisation sub-committee of the Right 2 Know Campaign, and a project leader of the Media Policy and Democracy Project.</span></em></p>It would be no surprise if Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s claims of the state spying on him turn out to be true. After all, state spy agencies have been abused before in ANC factional battles.Jane Duncan, Professor in the Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/820542017-08-14T02:34:20Z2017-08-14T02:34:20ZEnd-to-end encryption isn’t enough security for ‘real people’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181676/original/file-20170810-27691-1mm4rft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The weak spots are at the ends.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/concept-computer-network-security-end-padlock-400442002">ThamKC/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Government officials continue to seek technology companies’ help fighting terrorism and crime. But the most commonly proposed solution would severely limit regular people’s ability to communicate securely online. And it ignores the fact that governments have other ways to <a href="https://theconversation.com/bypassing-encryption-lawful-hacking-is-the-next-frontier-of-law-enforcement-technology-74122">keep an electronic eye on targets</a> of investigations.</p>
<p>In June, government intelligence officials from the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/25/world/uk-us-five-eyes-intelligence-explainer/index.html">Five Eyes Alliance</a> nations held a meeting in Ottawa, Canada, to talk about how to convince tech companies to “<a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/australia-will-lead-five-eyes-discussions-to-thwart-terrorist-encryption-brandis/">thwart the encryption of terrorist messaging</a>.” In July, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2017-07-14/press-conference-attorney-general-senator-hon-george-brandis-qc-and-acting">called on technology companies</a> to voluntarily ban all systems that totally encrypt messages in transit from sender to recipient, an approach known as “end-to-end encryption.” British Home Secretary Amber Rudd made global headlines with her July 31 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/home-secretary-amber-rudd-real-people-dont-need-end-to-end-encryption-terrorists-2017-8">newspaper opinion piece</a> arguing that “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/whatsapp-messages-private-amber-rudd-home-secretary-real-people-chat-apps-messaging-encrypted-a7870401.html">real people</a>” don’t need end-to-end encryption. </p>
<p>These claims completely ignore the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/06/22/battle-of-the-secure-messaging-apps-how-signal-beats-whatsapp/">one billion</a> real people who already use secure messaging apps like <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">Signal</a> and <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/">WhatsApp</a>. And it leaves no room for people who may decide they want that security in the future. Yet some technology companies look like they might be <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2017/07/17/apple-australia-encryption-law/">considering removing end-to-end encryption</a> – and others <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data">installed backdoors</a> for government access years ago. It’s been two decades since the <a href="https://www.epic.org/crypto/clipper/">Clipper chip</a> was in the news, but now a revival of the <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/cybersecurity-initiative/policy-papers/doomed-to-repeat-history-lessons-from-the-crypto-wars-of-the-1990s/">government-business-consumer “crypto-wars” of the 1990s</a> threatens.</p>
<p>One thing is very clear to computer scientists like me: We real people should work on improving security where we are most vulnerable – on our own devices.</p>
<h2>Endpoints are the weakest link</h2>
<p>For the moment at least, we do have good, easy-to-use solutions for secure communication between computers, including <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/11/hacker-lexicon-end-to-end-encryption/">end-to-end encryption</a> of our messages. End-to-end encryption means that a message is encrypted by the sender, and decrypted by the recipient, and no third party is able to decrypt the message.</p>
<p>End-to-end is important, but security experts have <a href="https://www.us-cert.gov/bsi/articles/knowledge/principles/securing-the-weakest-link">warned for years</a> that the most vulnerable place for your data is not during transit from place to place, but rather when it’s stored or displayed at one end or the other – on a screen, on a disk, in memory or on some device in the cloud.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/?">WikiLeaks release of CIA hacking tools</a> highlighted, if someone can gain control of a device, they can read the messages <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/opinion/the-truth-about-the-wikileaks-cia-cache.html">without needing to decrypt them</a>. And compromising endpoints – both smartphones and personal computers – is <a href="https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/critical-takeaways-wikileaks-vault/">getting easier</a> all the time.</p>
<p>Why are we most vulnerable at the endpoint? Because we don’t like to be inconvenienced, and because adding more protection makes our devices harder to use, the same way putting multiple locks on a door makes it harder to get in, for both the homeowner and the burglar. Inventing new ways to protect our digital endpoints without reducing their usefulness is very challenging, but some new technologies just over the horizon might help.</p>
<h2>Next-generation solutions</h2>
<p>Suppose a criminal organization or bad government, EvilRegime, wants to spy on you and everyone you communicate with. To protect yourself, you’ve installed an end-to-end encryption tool, such as <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">Signal</a>, for messaging. This makes eavesdropping – even with a court’s permission – that much more difficult for EvilRegime.</p>
<p>But what if EvilRegime tricks you into installing spyware on your device? For example, they could swap out a legitimate upgrade of your favorite game, “ClashBirds,” with a compromised version. Or, EvilRegime could use a malware “<a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/topic/network-investigative-techniques">network investigative technique</a>” as a backdoor into your machine. With control of your endpoint, EvilRegime can read your messages as you type them, even before they are encrypted.</p>
<p>To guard against either type of EvilRegime’s trickery, we need to improve our endpoint security game in a few key ways, making sure that:</p>
<ul>
<li>EvilRegime isn’t <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/new-android-threat-prowl-krysanec-malware-masquerades-legitimate-apps-unleashes-remote-access-1462013">masquerading</a> as the company that makes “ClashBirds” when we install our software. </li>
<li>No one has <a href="https://theintercept.com/2015/03/10/ispy-cia-campaign-steal-apples-secrets/">tampered</a> with our “ClashBirds” app before or after installation. </li>
<li>The app doesn’t have any <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/23/nsa-director-defends-backdoors-into-technology-companies">backdoors</a> or <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/11/what-is-a-zero-day/">security holes</a> that could be exploited by EvilRegime after we install it. </li>
</ul>
<p>In addition, it would be ideal if <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/03/why_america_s_current_approach_to_cybersecurity_is_so_dangerous.html">users could control their apps’ security themselves</a>, rather than having to rely on <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/14/secure-apps-in-googles-play-store-are-a-crapshoot/">app store security</a> provided by yet another vulnerable corporation.</p>
<p>Computer security experts are excited about the idea that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2017/01/24/a-complete-beginners-guide-to-blockchain/">blockchain technology</a> might be able to help us secure our own endpoints. Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, creates a <a href="https://theconversation.com/blockchains-focusing-on-bitcoin-misses-the-real-revolution-in-digital-trust-58125">verifiable, unchangeable public record</a> of information.</p>
<p>What this means for endpoint security is that computer scientists might be able to create blockchain-based tools to help us <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/CCGRID.2017.8">verify the origin of our apps</a>. We could also use blockchains to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/WICSA.2016.21">confirm our data haven’t been tampered with</a>, and to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/SPW.2015.27">ensure our privacy</a>. And as long as the source code for these programs is also free for us to inspect – as <a href="https://github.com/whispersystems/">Signal is</a> today – the security community will be able to <a href="https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/1999/0915.html#OpenSourceandSecurity">verify that there are no secret backdoors</a>.</p>
<p>As with any new technology, there is an enormous amount of <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b5b1a5f2-5030-11e7-bfb8-997009366969">hype and misinformation</a> around blockchain and what it can do. It will take time to sift through all these ideas and develop secure tools that are easy to use. In the meantime, we all need to continue to <a href="https://ssd.eff.org/en">use end-to-end encryption</a> apps whenever possible. We should also stay vigilant about <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-choose-terrible-passwords-and-how-to-fix-them-76619">password hygiene</a> and about what apps we install on our machines. Finally, we must demand that real people always have access to the best security mechanisms available, so we can decide for ourselves how and when to <a href="https://ssd.eff.org/en">resist surveillance</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Squire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Governments’ efforts to weaken communications security undermine and distract from the need to protect the real weak points in our online communications.Megan Squire, Professor of Computing Sciences, Elon UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/787252017-06-30T19:09:32Z2017-06-30T19:09:32ZOn the savanna, mobile phones haven’t transformed Maasai lives – yet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172559/original/file-20170606-3668-1lns0i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=450%2C505%2C1927%2C1722&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of Maasai men look at the mobile phone belonging to one of them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Baird</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mobile phones are everywhere. In fact, they may be nearly as common on the <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/04/15/cell-phones-in-africa-communication-lifeline/">African savanna</a> as they are on American subways. </p>
<p>With the explosion of mobile technology in developing countries, a common narrative is that <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21711511-mobile-phones-are-transforming-africa-where-they-can-get-signal-mobile-phones">phones are transforming</a> poor people’s lives. Phones, the story goes, reduce the effort required to search for information and make commerce more efficient.</p>
<p>As technology has spread, so has research on its effects. With support from the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, I study how Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania respond to various issues, including biodiversity conservation, globalization and technology. I and others are learning that mobile phones are changing lives, but perhaps not as much as some may think.</p>
<h2>Phones as new tools</h2>
<p>Studies have found that phones are critical new technologies to combat pastoralists’ greatest challenge: uncertainty. For generations, herders have moved across the landscape in search of forage and water for their livestock. Social networks are paramount for sharing information, but communication has long been challenging. Now, with phones, herders can share information easily, quickly and over great distances. </p>
<p>In Benin and Ethiopia, researchers have found that phones help facilitate social connections for <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/whp/nomp/2017/00000021/00000001/art00006">Fulani</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3197/np.2016.200104">Borana</a> herders, respectively. But efforts to leverage phones for broader economic gains are hampered by illiteracy and limited cellular coverage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173580/original/file-20170613-25879-1qww75t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cell towers, few and far between, provide patchy coverage in rural Tanzania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Baird</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among Maasai herders in Kenya, one study found that phone use is widespread but people largely communicate <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9710-4">within their existing social networks</a>. Establishing new connections is much less common.</p>
<p>Another study from Kenya found that Samburu herders <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2015.12.001">don’t rely on phones during drought periods</a>. It’s risky to move herds in search of water, and herders fear being misled by informants about where valuable resources are. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173579/original/file-20170613-25868-1mkw5lr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&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 Tarangire River is a critical source of water during the dry season.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Baird</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>In the hands of the Maasai</h2>
<p>My collaborators and I interviewed hundreds of Maasai in northern Tanzania to learn how they use mobile phones. In 2010, half of the households in our study area used phones. Now virtually all households do.</p>
<p>As one of our respondents commented, “The phone is one of the best tools we have ever seen.” </p>
<p>In our 2017 paper, <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/ses/joel-hartter">Joel Hartter</a> and I <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837716307323">describe how Maasai are integrating phones</a> into most aspects of their lives.</p>
<p>Like earlier studies, we found that Maasai use phones to support traditional herding activities. Herders call each other to locate resources or notify others when health emergencies arise. We also learned that they use phones for many other activities, including getting information that helps them farm.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173581/original/file-20170613-25827-19l6abv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Maasai man accessorizes with a beaded phone holder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Baird</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rain-fed agriculture poses a different challenge in this semi-arid region where rainfall is highly variable. Unable to move fields to water, Maasai try to coordinate their planting with the onset of the rainy season. </p>
<p>This is a precarious proposition each year. But with basic phones, Maasai call experienced smartphone users who can download weather forecasts. Demand for these few individuals is so high they’ve become like medicine men.</p>
<p>In addition, phones help communities manage persistent conflicts with wildlife. Elephants, zebra and bush pigs can devastate agricultural fields. And lions and other predators can threaten livestock and people alike. Maasai now use phones to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0694-2">communicate about about wildlife</a> and avoid conflicts or reduce their consequences.</p>
<p>And phones support commerce. Maasai can make calls to check prices for livestock and other commodities at different markets. Pictures of animals can be texted around to prospect for buyers. Mobile banking applications help users conduct transactions and monitor their accounts. </p>
<p>Phones are also drawing Maasai into less traditional activities. Young people use phones to play video games, store music and flirt on WhatsApp and Facebook. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173585/original/file-20170613-25839-de96s9.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young warriors use phones to take pics at a political meeting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Baird</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Phones also lie’</h2>
<p>Our respondents also told us that some people are using them to lie and cheat and steal. </p>
<p>As the Samburu herders of Kenya found, Maasai people also lie to callers about the locations of valuable forage or water. Young brides use phones to arrange extramarital rendezvous. And criminals can use phones to lure victims to “meetings” to ambush them en route.</p>
<p>Maasai have strong traditions surrounding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.02.002">lending and gift giving</a>; requests for a loan or a gift are typically made in person. People seeking assistance can use a phone to call ahead before paying a visit. Someone who doesn’t want to help can lie and say they’re not around.</p>
<p>As traditionally spiritual people, Maasai can be superstitious about phones. Respondents described instances of witchcraft where people received calls from mysterious numbers and instantly died. They also expressed grave concern about the fact that they, just like other phone users around the world, feel <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-phantom-cellphone-buzzes-73829">phantom phone vibrations</a>.</p>
<p>Taken together, these issues seem to have weakened community ties. Respondents told us that while phones make group meetings easier to arrange than in the past, it’s harder to get people to attend. In many ways, phones help people to be more independent – and individualistic.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173587/original/file-20170613-25868-1772rdq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Solar panels on hut roofs are used to charge phones and power lights and radios.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Timothy Baird</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Face-to-face communication is more common, more diverse</h2>
<p>In addition to simply describing how Maasai use phones, we also wanted to see if people use phones to communicate with more types of people or about more types of information than they do face to face.</p>
<p>In one of the most cited papers in social science, Mark Granovetter found that “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/225469">weak ties</a>” with acquaintances were more useful for finding and securing job opportunities than “strong ties” with close friends and family. The value of weak ties is that they provide new, diverse types of information.</p>
<p>We thought that phones may be helping people to expand their weak ties and broaden their horizons. What we found instead was that face-to-face communication was more diverse among the Maasai than phone-based communication, even when controlling for factors like age, wealth and education.</p>
<p>These findings are well aligned with those from other studies of phone use in developing communities. Generally, phones support longstanding, culturally ingrained activities – they don’t transform them. One change, though, is that phone use amplifies issues of trust and distrust.</p>
<p>These are some early findings, and many questions remain. This year, with funding from the National Science Foundation, we will begin examining <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1660428&HistoricalAwards=false">how phone use affects the social networks of Maasai men and women differently</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy D. Baird receives funding from the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration. </span></em></p>What do traditional Maasai people use mobile phones for?Timothy D. Baird, Assistant Professor of Geography, Virginia TechLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/753012017-03-29T08:04:26Z2017-03-29T08:04:26ZHow to keep your mobile phone connected when the network is down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162866/original/image-20170328-27496-1gu6eog.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen testing a prototype Mesh Extender device in Arkaroola, in Outback South Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Tropical Cyclone Debbie hit Queensland this week, one of the casualties was the region’s <a href="https://crowdsupport.telstra.com.au/t5/Announcements/Tropical-Cyclone-Debbie-Telstra-Service-Update/ba-p/664409">mobile phone network</a>.</p>
<p>Phone towers can stop working because they have been damaged by the wind, or because they have run out of diesel to run their generators. </p>
<p>Whatever the cause, the end result is the same: a number of people will find their mobile phones not connected to the network, leaving them without communications for an extended period of time. </p>
<p>It’s not just tropical cyclones that can affect mobile communications. <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/russell-island-bushfire-fire-crews-work-to-contain-large-fire-20161215-gtby7a.html">Bushfires</a> and other <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/mobile-phones/telstra-outage-blamed-on-fire-at-one-of-the-networks-exchanges/news-story/112e272a6935ae0fba9ddc4b0f88c9b2">disasters</a> can also lead to a break in the network.</p>
<p>This loss of communication is extremely isolating, and potentially very dangerous. Whether it’s the inability to call an ambulance or the absence of regular safety warnings, a lack of communications can be life-threatening.</p>
<p>The sensation of being cut off from the rest of the world also brings with it a danger of a different kind. Severe isolation can cause concern for our loved ones. This very human problem is what led me to start my research in this area.</p>
<p>So how can we let people communicate using their mobile phones, when the phone network isn’t available? </p>
<h2>All about networking</h2>
<p>For nationwide communications, you really do need phone towers and their supporting infrastructure. There currently just aren’t any good alternative solutions to providing communications on such a large scale. </p>
<p>But if you change the scope of the solution to focus more on internal communications within smaller communities, alternatives suddenly begin to present themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162868/original/image-20170328-21248-1hn2yyz.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Mesh Extender prototype, during a test exercise in the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, in outback South Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have spent the past seven years designing low-cost devices and free software to try to solve this problem. From this research and design process emerged the <a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval Project</a>. The concept is simple: we create Mesh Extender devices that act as communications hubs. </p>
<p>Mobile phones connect to Mesh Extenders using ordinary Wi-Fi. The Mesh Extender devices then relay communications between other mobile phones using an app that can be downloaded from the Mesh Extender itself. No internet or cellular network is required.</p>
<p>Compatibility is currently limited to Android devices with the hope of expanding to other providers as the project grows. </p>
<p>Installation of the app is all that is required to connect a mobile phone to the Mesh Extender system, and all communication that takes place on the network is encrypted, so the user’s privacy remains secure.</p>
<p>They system currently operates within a closed network, only connecting with mobile phones that already have the app installed. To connect with existing phone networks, partnerships with existing mobile operators would need to be formed in the future. </p>
<p>The advantage of using Wi-Fi is that it is already in almost every mobile phone on the planet. Its range, however, it still quite limited.</p>
<p>So to make our system work over useful distances, the Mesh Extenders have a second radio installed. That radio can communicate over several kilometres, as long as there are no significant obstacles.</p>
<p>The Mesh Extenders can also automatically relay among themselves, moving messages like a bucket brigade. This fully automatic operation makes it easy to build larger networks quickly, and also lets the network connect around obstacles, such as hills, that might prevent a direct link.</p>
<h2>A pilot study</h2>
<p>At the moment, this idea is still experimental. We have built prototype devices and apps, but they have not yet been widely tested. </p>
<p>This is starting to change. In 2016, the Serval Project was selected as one of five winning innovators to take part in the <a href="http://pacifichumanitarianchallenge.org/winners/#InfraIndepMob">Pacific Humanitarian Challenge</a>, a program by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT) <a href="https://innovationxchange.dfat.gov.au/">InnovationXchange</a> that aims to rethink the Australian response to humanitarian disasters in the Pacific. </p>
<p>We are now getting ready to test our technologies in Vanuatu later this year. Our goal is simple: to understand how useful our solutions are today, and to identify the areas where we can improve them.</p>
<p>The pilot is an important step in our quest to provide effective communication alternatives. </p>
<p>Not only will it help us to meet the needs of vulnerable Pacific Island populations during times of disaster, but it will also help us to better understand how this technology could be used locally in Australia.</p>
<p>Its use in cyclones and bushfires here immediately come to mind. But our technology could also be used to assist remote, isolated Australian communities with little to no communication options.</p>
<p>If you can make something simple and robust enough to use during a natural disaster, then it’s going to be able to handle a variety of other uses as well.</p>
<h2>No internet required</h2>
<p>These technologies can be used to create an internet-less system, similar to the “Internet of Things”, but one that connects a range of devices without the need to be online.</p>
<p>Farmers, for example, in regions where connection to the internet is impossible, could use this system to remotely control water pumps or monitor feral dog traps, saving time and vehicle wear.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162870/original/image-20170328-21258-1a2fznx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162870/original/image-20170328-21258-1a2fznx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162870/original/image-20170328-21258-1a2fznx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162870/original/image-20170328-21258-1a2fznx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162870/original/image-20170328-21258-1a2fznx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162870/original/image-20170328-21258-1a2fznx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162870/original/image-20170328-21258-1a2fznx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Checking on your property can be expensive and time consuming for farmers in remote areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More efficient land management increases the capacity and productivity of the land. The end result is more profitable farms. </p>
<p>Unlike some existing farm automation systems, our technologies are cheap and simple enough for the smallest of family farms to use.</p>
<p>Being able to help family farms is important. It is these farming families that build the heart and soul of our remote communities, through the need for schools, shops, hospitals and other services. </p>
<p>If we can make their lives easier, safer and more productive through better local communications, we stand a chance of improving <a href="http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-farming-and-agriculture">the long-term financial prosperity of farms</a></p>
<p>So what started out as a foreign aid project has evolved to incorporate the needs of Australians into its design.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Gardner-Stephen receives funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the NLnet Foundation, the Open Technology Fund and other funding bodies, and is president of the Serval Project Inc., a not-for-profit whose mission is to enable communications anywhere, any time, and works with industry and non-profits to pursue this goal. </span></em></p>Technology designed to keep mobile phones connected during a natural disaster could have wider uses in regional australia.Paul Gardner-Stephen, Senior Lecturer, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646532016-10-27T01:40:21Z2016-10-27T01:40:21ZDeep underground, smartphones can save miners’ lives<p>American mining production <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IPG21SQ">increased earlier this decade</a>, as industry sought to reduce its reliance on other countries for key minerals such as coal for energy and rare-earth metals for use in consumer electronics. But mining is dangerous – <a href="https://www.msha.gov/data-reports/statistics/mine-safety-and-health-glance">working underground carries risks</a> of explosions, fires, flooding and dangerous concentrations of poisonous gases.</p>
<p>Mine accidents have <a href="http://www.wvminesafety.org/fatal97.htm">killed tens of thousands</a> of mine workers worldwide in just the past decade. Most of these accidents occurred in structurally diverse underground mines with extensive labyrinths of interconnected tunnels. As mining progresses, workers move machinery around, which creates a continually changing environment. This makes search and rescue efforts even more complicated than they might otherwise be.</p>
<p>To address these dangers, <a href="http://arlweb.msha.gov/MinerAct/MinerActSingleSource.asp">U.S. federal regulations</a> require mine operators to monitor levels of methane, carbon monoxide, smoke and oxygen – and to warn miners of possible danger due to air poisoning, flood, fire or explosions. In addition, mining companies must have accident-response plans that include systems with two key capabilities: enabling two-way communications between miners trapped underground and rescuers on the surface, and tracking individual miners so responders can know where they need to dig.</p>
<p>So far, efforts to design systems that are both reliable and resilient when disaster strikes have run into significant roadblocks. My research group’s work is aimed at enhancing commercially available smartphones and wireless network equipment with software and hardware innovations to create a system that is straightforward and relatively simple to operate.</p>
<h2>Existing connections</h2>
<p>The past decade has seen several efforts to develop monitoring and emergency communication systems, which generally can be classified into three types: through-the-wire, through-the-Earth and through-the-air. Each has different flaws that make them less than ideal options.</p>
<p>Wired systems use coaxial cables or optical fibers to connect monitoring and communications equipment throughout the mine and on the surface. But these are costly and vulnerable to damage from fires and tunnel collapses. Imagine, for example, if a wall collapse cut off a room from its connecting tunnels: Chances are the cable in those tunnels would be damaged too.</p>
<p>Systems that send signals through the Earth use large loop antennas to send low-frequency radio waves through dirt and rock. The signals can’t carry much information beyond simple texts or sensor readings, and the equipment is expensive and bulky. </p>
<p>Airwave setups use wireless links, like cordless phones or Wi-Fi signals, to span distances of 1,000 to 2,500 feet. But these have limitations too. They depend on wired base stations distributed throughout mines, which are very like the wired-only systems and have similar cost and connectivity problems. </p>
<h2>Tracking underground</h2>
<p>Because they have to track individual miners’ movements underground, all of these systems also require every worker to carry expensive custom sensing units. The costs involved have meant that so far, most mines today use equipment that provides the bare minimum amount of safety required. This includes manually tracking miners’ locations using two-way pagers or video surveillance.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143318/original/image-20161026-32322-1has19l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s easy to get lost in here.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sudeep Pasricha/Colorado State University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If newer methods for tracking, sensing and communication could be developed, we could detect precursors to mishaps (such as noxious or combustible gas level concentrations in certain parts of a mine), and better aid rescue efforts in the aftermath of an accident. In my research, we’re trying to use regular consumer smartphones and smart wireless devices to solve these problems. This sort of system takes advantage of the facts that most people have phones with them all the time, and that modern smartphones have a wide range of sensors already built in.</p>
<p>Some prior work of mine found a way to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CODESISSS.2015.7331366">use smartphones to navigate indoor spaces</a>. We started by measuring the strength of the Wi-Fi signals the phone was receiving to approximate the distance the phone was from known transmitter locations. We factored in measurements from the phone’s inertial sensors to determine speed and direction of movement. And we applied a mathematical technique called <a href="http://www.cs.unc.edu/%7Ewelch/kalman/">Kalman filtering</a> to determine other useful information from additional sensors – such as number of steps taken.</p>
<p>When all these data were processed by machine learning techniques, we could determine a user’s location within one to three meters, despite noisy or erroneous readings from Wi-Fi radios and inertial sensors. That was much better than prior methods for indoor location-sensing based on inertial sensor readings and fingerprinting. But these studies were done above ground.</p>
<p>Doing the same thing underground is much more difficult. Not only are Wi-Fi signals unavailable underground, but other wireless signals, such as those from cellphone towers, are also not present. Even what signals are there, from communications equipment in the mine, bounce off uneven surfaces, are absorbed by earthen walls and must pass equipment and other obstacles in tunnels of varying dimensions. These complexities make determining a specific location even harder for an electronic device.</p>
<p>Moreover, sensors and smartphones used in mines must be particularly energy-efficient because recharging stations are scarce. And they must not use much power, to avoid igniting subsurface gases.</p>
<h2>A new approach</h2>
<p>Our research involves designing a wireless network made up of many low-cost stationary <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2012.09.091">Zigbee or Bluetooth sensors</a> deployed strategically around the mine, creating a web or mesh network that can connect with smartphones carried by the miners. We’ll design the exact location of the fixed sensors based on an <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2004.828457">analysis of how radio signals travel</a> in complex, changing and noisy <a href="http://inside.mines.edu/Mining-Edgar-Mine">underground mines</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143317/original/image-20161026-11236-trjutl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/143317/original/image-20161026-11236-trjutl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143317/original/image-20161026-11236-trjutl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143317/original/image-20161026-11236-trjutl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143317/original/image-20161026-11236-trjutl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143317/original/image-20161026-11236-trjutl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/143317/original/image-20161026-11236-trjutl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A proposed system layout for underground mine monitoring, tracking and communication.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sudeep Pasricha/Colorado State University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We’re also working to design new software algorithms and filtering techniques that can work on smartphones. When connected to the wireless mesh network, they will be able to accurately and efficiently calculate location in mines, despite the highly unpredictable nature of wireless signals.</p>
<p>Our hope is that we’ll figure out how to build a combination cyber and physical system for monitoring, communication and tracking in underground mines under normal conditions. Such a setup would also be helpful in emergency response and rescue operations. This could not only improve the safety of <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CEU1021200001">hundreds of thousands of American miners</a>, but also offer new opportunities for communications and improving human safety in a variety of extreme environments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64653/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sudeep Pasricha receives funding from the National Science Foundation on themes related to what is described in this article.</span></em></p>Mine communications are complex, slow and unreliable. The solution to keeping miners safe, and rescuing them when disaster strikes, might just be in their hands already.Sudeep Pasricha, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science , Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/512182015-11-26T16:35:55Z2015-11-26T16:35:55ZThe next war will be an information war, and we’re not ready for it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103325/original/image-20151126-28284-146ghxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_an_EC-130J_Commando_Solo_Mar_2003.jpg">Aaron Ansarov</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 21st century the familiar form of warfare in which physical damage is meted out against the opponent’s military forces and infrastructure has become only one form of attack. Instead, states are increasingly launching non-lethal attacks against an enemy’s information systems – this is the rise of information warfare.</p>
<p>Dan Kuehl of the National Defence University <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cBTYWOnmFbIC&pg=PR15&lpg=PR15&dq=%22conflict+or+struggle+between+two+or+more+groups+in+the+information+environment%22&source=bl&ots=6aAcUmPyX0&sig=-HCTZFx8DWhCIRNypFsx8Syv13s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwioxeSa7avJAhWCeQ8KHfIRD4EQ6AEIIDAA#v=onepage&q=%22conflict%20or%20struggle%20between%20two%20or%20more%20groups%20in%20the%20information%20environment%22&f=false">defined information warfare</a> as the “conflict or struggle between two or more groups in the information environment”. You might say that just sounds like a fancier way of describing hacking. In fact it’s a lot more sinister and a lot more dangerous than its somewhat tame name implies. </p>
<p>Western leaders are investing billions to develop capabilities matching those of China and Russia, establishing military commands for attacking, defending and exploiting the vulnerabilities of electronic communications networks. Information warfare combines electronic warfare, cyberwarfare and <a href="http://www.iwar.org.uk/psyops/">psy-ops</a> (psychological operations) into a single fighting organisation, and this will be central to all warfare in the future.</p>
<h2>The anatomy of information warfare</h2>
<p>The free flow of information within and between nation states is essential to business, international relations and social cohesion, as much as information is essential to a military force’s ability to fight. Communications today lean heavily on the internet, or via communications using various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (such as radio or microwaves) through terrestrial communications networks or satellite networks in space. We live in a highly connected world, but it doesn’t take much to tip over into instability or even chaos. </p>
<p>Electronic warfare is used to disrupt or neutralise these electromagnetic transmissions. These might be <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-syria-is-becoming-a-test-bed-for-high-tech-weapons-of-electronic-warfare-48779">electronic counter measures and jamming</a> used to cripple military communications or weapons guidance systems. Or it can include civil uses, for example the <a href="https://www.faa.gov/nextgen/programs/adsb">ADS-B</a> air traffic control system used by aircraft to avoid in-flight collisions, or the recently adopted European Rail Traffic Management System (<a href="http://www.ertms.net/">ERTMS</a>) that replaces railway trackside signalling and provides full control of trains. Jamming or degrading either of these would cause chaos.</p>
<p>We have become familiar with cyber-attacks launched through the internet against digital networks, which can make it impossible for businesses to operate. Enormous damage can follow, in cost and reputation, as seen from attacks on <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/10/sony-pictures-hack-the-whole-story/">Sony Pictures</a> and <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/66178/talktalk-hack-to-cost-35m-but-wont-dent-profits">TalkTalk</a>. Bringing down a stock exchange could cause massive financial losses. Cyber-attacks can also be directed at industrial control systems used in manufacturing plants or in power, water and gas utilities. With the capacity to affect such a wide range of national infrastructure lives would be put at risk.</p>
<p>Psy-ops are aimed more at degrading the morale and well-being of a nation’s citizens. This might include spreading false information, rumour and fear through social media and news outlets. The great level of connectedness that populations have today is a strength, but being instantly connected means that misinformation and fear can also spread rapidly, resulting in panic. </p>
<p>Information warfare, then, is the integration of electronic warfare, cyberwarfare and psychological operations, for both attack and defence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/103326/original/image-20151126-28263-t0dsnc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&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 joined-up approach to the many aspects of information warfare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IO_Integration_into_Joint_Operations_-_Notional.jpg">US DoD</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Information war has already broken out</h2>
<p>It’s suspected that Russia has launched increasingly sophisticated non-lethal attacks on its neighbours, for example against <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/9163598">Estonia</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2539157/Georgia-Russia-conducting-cyber-war.html">Georgia</a> and <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/21/russia-winning-the-electronic-war/">Ukraine</a>, which experienced an integrated onslaught of electronic, cyber-attacks and psychological operations. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://ics.sans.org/media/Media-report-of-the-BTC-pipeline-Cyber-Attack.pdf">convincing circumstantial evidence</a> that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan gas pipeline in Georgia was targeted using a sophisticated computer virus which caused an uncontrolled pressure build-up that led to an explosion. Even the so-called Islamic State has shown it has a good understanding of how to use and manipulate social media for use in psychological warfare. IS is reportedly building greater cyberwar and electronic warfare capabilities, as it recognises that winning the information war is key. </p>
<h2>A response to unconventional warfare</h2>
<p>In response to the threat of information war the British Army has established two new formations: the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31070114">77th Brigade</a> for dealing with psychological operations, and the <a href="http://www.army.mod.uk/intelligence/35393.aspx">1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade</a> which combines electronic warfare and intelligence. Hundreds of computer experts will be recruited as reservists, trained with the help of GCHQ’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/defence-and-security-blog/2013/sep/30/cyber-gchq-defence">Joint Cyber Unit</a>. </p>
<p>These are moves in the right direction, but the approach is too piecemeal. A recent <a href="https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1314/MR1314.ch6.pdf">RAND Corporation report</a> argued for a highly integrated approach to all aspects of information warfare in order to present an effective defence force. In the US, Admiral Michael S. Rogers released a <a href="http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/616512/us-cyber-command-chief-details-plans-to-meet-cyberspace-threats">Cyber Command vision statement</a>, describing how it would defend Department of Defence networks, systems and information against cyber attacks and provide support to military and contingency operations. The US approach is more integrated but this is only the case within the military – from a national perspective both countries lack an overall integrated approach with a common command structure that includes threats to civilian infrastructure. </p>
<p>So while the concept of information war appears to be well understood the aspects of it are not being addressed together, and such siloed thinking could lead to gaps in our security. Western governments have failed to fully grasp the vulnerability of electronic communications and the enormous risks this poses to critical infrastructure, transport, and the safety of civilians.</p>
<p>The US director of intelligence has emphasised <a href="http://www.nationalsecurity.news/2015-09-14-u-s-intelligence-director-says-online-threats-growing-as-more-nations-dedicate-resources-to-cyber-warfare.html">the enormity of the cyber-threat facing the US</a>, while British General Sir Nicholas Houghton in a <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/event/building-british-military-fit-future-challenges-rather-past-conflicts">speech at Chatham House</a> observed that most acts of physical war today incorporate an online aspect, where social networks are exploited to manipulate opinion and perception. He also acknowledged that the tactics employed by Russia combine aspects of information war and also counter-intelligence, espionage, economic warfare and the sponsoring of proxies. </p>
<p>We need to better understand the full scope of information warfare as it evolves, identify where we are most vulnerable, and then establish a single point of responsibility to implement defence mechanisms. Because those adversaries that are unconstrained by western policies, or by ethical or legal codes, can and will exploit our vulnerabilities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Stupples 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>Warfare is changing, and our approach to dealing with our adversaries must change too.David Stupples, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Director of Electronic Warfare Research, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/423182015-09-02T03:31:07Z2015-09-02T03:31:07ZHow new technologies are shaking up health care<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91264/original/image-20150810-11091-o1m05h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Health technology such as apps is changing doctor and patient interaction for the better. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/7897619082/">Intel Free Pass/flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New tests and drugs have impacted health care for many decades. But we’re now seeing the emergence of completely different kinds of technologies that will radically alter how health care is both accessed and delivered. </p>
<p>In the past, patient and doctor, or other clinician, would generally meet in person. The clinician would employ the traditional process of seeking a history, undertaking physical examination and perhaps organising tests, to obtain details of the patient’s health-care needs and preferences. </p>
<p>The clinician would then relate this information to current knowledge of disease, prognosis and therapeutics, hopefully involving the patient, and together they would make decisions about a management plan.</p>
<h2>A changing world</h2>
<p>The internet has changed all that. Health professionals or not, we already share similar access to vast amounts of information about disease processes and their management. Much of this is readily available so that patients can be, and often are, highly knowledgeable about their health and care options. </p>
<p>A growing number of health apps – <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25469795">of varying quality</a> – are available to support patients’ decisions about those options. And social media provide an instant network of peers with whom to share health concerns and experiences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91271/original/image-20150810-11085-pjovsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91271/original/image-20150810-11085-pjovsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91271/original/image-20150810-11085-pjovsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91271/original/image-20150810-11085-pjovsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91271/original/image-20150810-11085-pjovsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91271/original/image-20150810-11085-pjovsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91271/original/image-20150810-11085-pjovsi.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">Wearable devides can monitor physiological processes, and sync with phones and social media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjtechnewsphotolibrary/11735012205/">BTNHD Production/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Biosensitive wearable technologies now monitor basic physiological processes, such as pulse rate and physical activity, permitting analysis and interpretation in real time. <a href="http://www.pwc.com/us/en/technology/publications/wearable-technology.jhtml">Future wearables and home-based sensors</a> will track a growing range of measures, providing data for increasingly sophisticated assessment of the wearer’s current health status, and decision support for their care.</p>
<p>Many pharmacies and other primary health-care facilities offer point-of-care testing for use on site or at home. Right now such tests are largely limited to simple biological measures, such as blood glucose or cholesterol. But the range and number of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23242343">possible tests are expanding rapidly</a>, and coming down in price. </p>
<p>Soon it will be possible not <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24484215">only to diagnose a specific infection</a>, but to accurately predict which anti-infective (if any) would be most effective for its treatment. All this will be done within minutes, and often without the need for a doctor, nurse or other health-care professional to examine, test and prescribe.</p>
<p>At the same time, advances in human genomics are providing the basis for redefining and reclassifying diseases. These advances enable increasingly accurate prediction of risk; new opportunities for effective prevention; and rapid confirmation of a growing number of diagnoses, clarifying the patient’s likely prognosis as well as informing treatment selection. </p>
<p>This is the basis of personalised medicine, which seeks to match health-management advice to the individual and not just to their disease. Parallel developments in genetic analysis of tumours and of the pathogens that cause infections are <a href="https://www.mskcc.org/about/innovative-collaborations/watson-oncology">further refining the possibilities</a> for matching the treatment to the patient and their disease.</p>
<h2>Mental health too</h2>
<p>It’s not just physical health care that’s being affected; information and communication technologies are transforming psychological care. Psychologists and psychiatrists rarely examine patients physically, so <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22662727">video-consultations are becoming more common</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91266/original/image-20150810-11101-fh4lx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91266/original/image-20150810-11101-fh4lx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91266/original/image-20150810-11101-fh4lx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91266/original/image-20150810-11101-fh4lx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91266/original/image-20150810-11101-fh4lx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91266/original/image-20150810-11101-fh4lx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91266/original/image-20150810-11101-fh4lx1.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">Video consults are becoming more common, allowing patients to communicate with their clinicians remotely.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Blake/Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A growing number of websites provide online psychological assessment and advice for the user. These range from straightforward screening <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/depression/signs-and-symptoms/anxiety-and-depression-checklist-k10">for common mental problems</a> to sophisticated measurements of cognitive and emotional functioning, which <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25750532">can predict responsiveness</a> to specific therapies.</p>
<p>Psychological treatments, such as cognitive behavioural and mindfulness interventions, are <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23252357">readily available online</a>. There is strong evidence for their effectiveness when used appropriately.</p>
<p>Communications technology can also enable real-time <a href="http://www.centerwatch.com/news-online/article/1338/smart-pill-technology-could-monitor-patient-compliance-while-improving-clinical-trial-data-quality">monitoring of patients’ adherence</a> to prescribed medical treatment: this has obvious applications in the care, for example, of people with dementia. And <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25062783">smart dispensers</a> can help all of us remember to take our medicines.</p>
<p>These developments remove the need for patients and their clinicians to meet in person, or even to communicate synchronously, unless physical interaction such as surgery is required. The array of generic and patient-specific information, and of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24486732">electronic decision support aids</a> that both patients and clinicians can access, are redefining the role of the clinician. </p>
<p>Doctors will increasingly play a role as expert guides to available resources, facilitating patients’ choices and decision making. Physical infrastructure for emergency management, surgical intervention and care of the very sick will still be needed. But information technology’s ability to collapse time and space will increasingly alter how health care is accessed and delivered in the community, enabling the right care every time, and at the patient’s convenience. </p>
<p>The implications for health service planning and policy, and for health professional education, are profound. Key considerations will include enabling equity of access to the potential benefits of information technology and ensuring that this enhances rather than distracts from the human connection we all need when we feel ill or fearful about our health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42318/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Usherwood receives funding from NHMRC to research electronic decision support in primary health care.</span></em></p>New tests and drugs have always impacted health care. But completely different kinds of emerging technologies will soon radically alter how health care is both accessed and delivered.Tim Usherwood, Professor of General Practice, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/438912015-08-20T09:53:13Z2015-08-20T09:53:13ZTalking to Mars: new antenna design could aid interplanetary communication<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92449/original/image-20150819-10879-196hpry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jean Paul Santos with the finished 4x4 sub-array antenna assembly that may help rovers talk directly with Earth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/ucla-engineering-grad-student-attempts-to-talk-his-way-to-the-top">Matthew Chin</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When people think about antennas, they often picture old television sets with “rabbit ears” – two metal rods poking above the screen. Essentially, antennas are devices that allow the wireless transfer or reception of radio signals. They come in various sizes and shapes. For instance, it’s your cellphone’s antenna that allows you to stream videos, post a social media status, use GPS to find a restaurant and call a friend.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91932/original/image-20150814-2579-cj9ou5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mars rovers need to transmit all their cool findings back to Earth somehow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/images/?ImageID=3650">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This wireless technology opened the door to space exploration. Neil Armstrong’s voyage to the moon was possible because antennas allow communication between engineered space vehicles and Earth. It’s an antenna that allows the <a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/technology/bb_telecommunications.html">Mars rovers to communicate</a> with Earth from millions of miles away. To gather valuable scientific data, rovers often take measurements, pictures and video, then send them back home via radio waves at high frequencies, through their antennas. </p>
<p>Currently, the Mars rovers primarily rely on what’s called indirect or relay communications. They send their data to a much larger satellite antenna, called the <a href="http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter</a>, which then sends it all on to Earth at high transmission rates. The frequencies of transmission are in X-band, near 8 GHz, which has a radio wavelength close to 1.5 inches.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/91934/original/image-20150814-2585-qv9dhu.png?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>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It would be nice to cut out the middleman in transmitting communication back and forth between Earth and Mars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Kovitz, Jean Paul Santos and Yahya Rahmat-Samii</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our group here at the UCLA <a href="http://www.antlab.ee.ucla.edu/">Antenna Research, Analysis, and Measurement Laboratory</a> specializes in <a href="https://ieeetv.ieee.org/conference-highlights/from-maxwell-s-equations-to-modern-electromagnetics-and-antenna-engineering-marvels">designing advanced antenna systems</a>, including <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MAP.2015.2414534">spacecraft antennas</a> for future space missions. Now, with help from engineers at NASA’s <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL), we’re working to create a small yet powerful antenna that could allow the Mars rover to communicate directly with Earth, potentially cutting out the middleman. </p>
<p>At the present time, the Mars rover can relay information to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for just <a href="http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/technology/technologiesofbroadbenefit/telecom/">15 minutes twice a day</a> due to orbit conditions. Allowing the Mars rover to connect directly with Earth could offer a big increase in communication time – much more data could be sent back and forth when the rover is in direct line-of-sight. A direct link would also be an advantage in the event that large satellite orbiters are no longer available.</p>
<p>The challenge is to create an upgraded link that can do the job but also fit on the next upcoming Mars rover mission, <a href="http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/rover/">Mars2020</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QrNOHKjA2q4?wmode=transparent&start=3200" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Author Jean Paul Santos presents the Mars Rover antenna concept at the University of California’s Grad Slam competition.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good signal strength over astronomical distances</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92418/original/image-20150819-10863-10ut25n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like a bigger bucket in the rain, a larger antenna will receive a stronger radio signal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Kovitz, Jean Paul Santos and Yahya Rahmat-Samii</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We need to achieve good signal strength in the small space set aside on the rover for an antenna. The physics of radio waves tells us that the larger the antenna, the more power it can receive. Think of an antenna as like a bucket collecting rain. The larger the bucket’s opening, the more water it can catch at any given time. As long as the antenna is much bigger than the wavelength, it works the same way: the bigger it is, the more power it can receive or transmit. With more power, the data can be better extracted from the radio waves that carry pictures, video and commands. Extracting the data works similarly to modern television signals, with audio and video carried by radio waves. </p>
<p>For future Mars rovers, 40 cm x 40 cm x 5 cm is potentially the maximum volume that the antenna can occupy. With the available area set, our job as antenna engineers is to figure out the best and most efficient way to use all the space given to maximize the amount of power. </p>
<p>Other criteria for the antenna to work on a Mars 2020 rover include:</p>
<ul>
<li>must be lightweight</li>
<li>must run on the prospective power available for radio transmissions – about 100 Watts, the same amount used by a bright incandescent lightbulb </li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92419/original/image-20150819-10873-cecndr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To achieve good signal strength, a mechanical gimbal arm can line up the Mars rover and Earth’s antennas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/JPL-Caltech</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li>must be aligned with the Earth’s antenna. A robotic supporting arm called a gimbal can mechanically position the antenna. The Curiosity mission used a <a href="http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/">similar gimbal</a> to steer its high-gain antenna. </li>
</ul>
<h2>Adding up antenna elements into one array</h2>
<p>The big idea is to combine many small antennas (often called antenna elements) to make an altogether larger antenna. You can think of this antenna concept as like an organ system. An individual organ, such as the heart, can operate in and of itself. It’s when it’s combined with other organs that it can maintain a human being.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92451/original/image-20150819-10863-sjbmds.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&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 key is to get a really good antenna element that can join forces in an array. Note the half-E shape of the single element.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Kovitz, Jean Paul Santos and Yahya Rahmat-Samii</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our antenna “organs” begin with a specialized geometry that looks like half of the letter “E.” We derived it from the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/8.933489">original E-shaped</a> antenna design we’ve already had a lot of success with. This novel “half-E” shape allows the antenna to transmit and receive radio signals which are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_polarization">circularly polarized</a>. Basically that means the polarization of the radio waves can be oriented in a special configuration that helps reduce the effects of atmospheric gases and particles on the waves as they travel. It can also help to make sure a strong signal is maintained even if the rover itself or the antennas are moving.</p>
<p>When enough of these antenna elements – 256 in this case – are combined together just right into what antenna engineers call an <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MAP.2015.2397154">array</a>, the whole can transmit and receive much greater power.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92421/original/image-20150819-10834-4n1j83.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=362&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 antenna assembly is compact enough to fit within the rover’s space limitations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Kovitz, Jean Paul Santos and Yahya Rahmat-Samii</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The overall complete array should fit nicely within the required volume, whose maximum area is comparable to a standard 12-inch by 12-inch chessboard. It’s a compact way to pack the same antenna power into a much smaller space than if we relied on larger, bulkier dish antennas that have the added disadvantage of being harder to stow on the rover during flight.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92422/original/image-20150819-10861-dobwgx.png?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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Santos and Kovitz soldering the antenna assembly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean Paul Santos</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Transforming a novel idea into a real prototype</h2>
<p>Of course, any exciting venture in engineering research worth its salt comes with an experimental demonstration. As a first step, we designed, built and tested one of the smaller 4-by-4 element sub-arrays. We used simulation software to first understand how the antenna would perform in real-life scenarios. We drew the antenna in a computer-aided drafting program, which included all the necessary materials such as metals, ceramics and wires.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92423/original/image-20150819-10879-1eejixv.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Santos testing the antenna prototype’s characteristics in an anechoic (no echo) chamber.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joshua Kovitz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After much fine-tuning and verifying that the antenna meets the JPL requirements mentioned above, we began physically constructing it. And it took us several attempts. We started by taking a couple of pieces of lightweight ceramic coated with metal and used photolithography and chemical etching to create the specialized antenna geometry. Since this antenna is several layers, we had to solder them all together. When we tested the antenna’s actual performance, we were gratified to see our prototype behaved the way our simulations predicted!</p>
<p>With a successful prototyping of the 4-by-4 element sub-array, the next step would be to prototype the full-scale 16-by-16 element antenna. Ultimately, we’d like to test it on the Mars rover system itself at a NASA test site here on Earth. We hope that with this design, JPL can potentially augment its communication system so the rover can successfully call home directly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Paul Santos received funding for the research described in this article from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua M. Kovitz received funding for the research described in this article from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yahya Rahmat-Samii received funding for the research described in this article from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.</span></em></p>New research provides a compact but powerful way for Mars rovers to communicate directly with Earth via an array of smaller antenna elements, bypassing the need for an intermediary.Jean Paul Santos, PhD Student in Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los AngelesJoshua M Kovitz, PhD student in Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los AngelesYahya Rahmat-Samii, Professor of Electrical Engineering/Electromagnetics, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/391532015-03-24T06:22:56Z2015-03-24T06:22:56ZA promised ‘right’ to fast internet rings hollow for millions stuck with 20th-century speeds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75711/original/image-20150323-17720-pcsw2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Superfast? I'll be the judge of that.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BT van by urbanbuzz/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In response to the government’s <a href="http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2400294/budget-government-unveils-100mbps-ultrafast-broadband-plan-and-gbp40m-iot-push">recent declarations</a> that internet speeds of 100Mb/s should be available to “nearly all homes” in the UK, a great many might suggest that this is easier said than done. It would not be the first such bold claim, yet internet connections in many rural areas still languish at 20th-century speeds.</p>
<p>The government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-digital-communications-infrastructure-strategy/the-digital-communications-infrastructure-strategy">digital communications infrastructure strategy</a> contains the intention of giving customers the “right” to a broadband connection of at least 5Mb/s in their homes.</p>
<p>There’s no clear indication of any timeline for introduction, nor what is meant by “nearly all homes” and “affordable prices”. But in any case, bumping the minimum speed to 5Mb/s is hardly adequate to keep up with today’s online society. It’s less than the maximum possible <a href="http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2012/graph-ADSL-speed-versus-distance">ADSL1</a> speed of 8Mb/s that was common in the mid-2000s, far less than the 24Mb/s maximum speed of <a href="http://www.increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk/2012/graph-ADSL-speed-versus-distance">ADSL2+</a> that followed, and far, far less than the 30-60Mb/s speeds typical of fibre optic or cable broadband connections available today.</p>
<p>In fact a large number of rural homes still are not able to access even the previously promised 2Mb/s minimum of the <a href="http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/internet/110204/govt-reveals-plan-for-universal-2mb-broadband/">Digital Britain report in 2009</a>. </p>
<h2>Serious implications</h2>
<p>As part of our study of <a href="http://rural.oii.ox.ac.uk/">rural broadband access</a> we interviewed 27 people from rural areas in England and Wales about the quality of their internet connection and their daily experiences with slow and unreliable internet. Only three had download speeds of up to 6Mb/s, while most had connections that barely reached 1Mb/s. Even those who reported the faster speeds were still unable to carry out basic online tasks in a reasonable amount of time. For example using Google Maps, watching online videos, or opening several pages at once would require several minutes of buffering and waiting. Having several devices share the connection at a time wasn’t even an option.</p>
<p>So the pledge for a “right” to 5Mb/s made by the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, is as meaningless as previous promises for 2Mb/s. Nor is it close to fast enough. The advertised figure refers to download speed, of which the upload speed is typically only a fraction. This means uploads far slower even than these slow download speeds, rendering it all but unusable for those needing to send large files, such as businesses.</p>
<p>With constantly moving timescales for completion, the government doesn’t seem to regard adequate rural broadband connections as a matter of urgency, even while the consequences for those affected are often serious and urgent at the same time. In Snowdonia, for example, a fast and more importantly reliable broadband connection can be a matter of life and death. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.llanberismountainrescue.co.uk/">Llanberis Mountain Rescue</a> team at the foot of Mount Snowdon receives around 200 call-outs a year to rescue mountaineers from danger. Their systems are connected to police and emergency services, all of which run online to provide a quick and precise method of locating lost or injured mountaineers. But their internet connection is below 1Mb/s and cuts out regularly, especially in bad weather, which interferes with dispatching the rescue teams quickly. With low signal or no reception at all in the mountains, neither mobile phone networks nor satellite internet connections are alternatives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75713/original/image-20150323-17693-tp76oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75713/original/image-20150323-17693-tp76oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75713/original/image-20150323-17693-tp76oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75713/original/image-20150323-17693-tp76oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75713/original/image-20150323-17693-tp76oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75713/original/image-20150323-17693-tp76oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75713/original/image-20150323-17693-tp76oo.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">All geared up but no internet connection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anne-Marie Oostveen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Connection interrupted</h2>
<p>Even besides life and death situations, slow and unreliable internet can seriously affect people – their social lives, their family connections, their health and even their finances. Some of those we interviewed had to drive one-and-a-half hours to the nearest city in order to find internet connections fast enough to download large files for their businesses. Others reported losing clients because they weren’t able to maintain a consistent online presence or conduct Skype meetings. Families were unable to check up on serious health conditions of their children, while others, unable to work from home, were forced to commute long distances to an office. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75715/original/image-20150323-17702-lz0tib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75715/original/image-20150323-17702-lz0tib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75715/original/image-20150323-17702-lz0tib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75715/original/image-20150323-17702-lz0tib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75715/original/image-20150323-17702-lz0tib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75715/original/image-20150323-17702-lz0tib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75715/original/image-20150323-17702-lz0tib.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">Rural areas: high on appeal, low on internet connectivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bianca Reisdorf</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Especially in poorer rural areas such as North Wales, fast and reliable internet could boost the economy by enabling small businesses to emerge and thrive. It’s not a lack of imagination and ability holding people in the region back, it’s the lack of 21st-century communications infrastructure that most of us take for granted.</p>
<p>The government’s strategy document explains that it “wants to support the development of the UK’s digital communications infrastructure”, yet in doing so wishes “to maintain the principle that intervention should be limited to that which is required for the market to function effectively.”</p>
<p>It is exactly this vagueness that is currently preventing communities from taking matters into their own hands. Many of our interviewees said they still hoped BT would deploy fast internet to their village or premises, but had been given no sense of when that might occur, if at all, or that given timescales slip. “Soon” seems to be the word that keeps those in the countryside in check, causing them to hold off on looking for alternatives – such as community efforts like the <a href="http://b4rn.org.uk/">B4RN</a> initiative in Lancashire. </p>
<p>If the government is serious about the country’s role as a digital nation, it needs to provide feasible solutions for all populated areas of the country, which means affordable, and future-proof, which entails fibre to the premises (FTTP) – and sooner rather than later.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bianca Reisdorf receives funding from the University of Oxford’s John Fell Fund, which supports the Access Denied project under its small award scheme.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne-Marie Oostveen receives funding from the University of Oxford’s John Fell Fund, which supports the Access Denied project under its small award scheme.</span></em></p>Tell those living in the countryside about the government’s promised “right to fast internet” and they’ll show you 10 years of similar, unmet promises.Bianca Reisdorf, Lecturer in Media and Communication, Director of Distance Learning, University of LeicesterAnne-Marie Oostveen, Research Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/391402015-03-23T13:57:10Z2015-03-23T13:57:10ZThree wireless technologies that could make 5G even faster<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75677/original/image-20150323-17702-1agln5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">5G, wringing out the network cloth for the most capacity possible.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">towers by hin255/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The capacity of today’s wireless communications networks has <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5741160">increased one million-fold</a> since the introduction of the first <a href="http://www.techopedia.com/definition/24962/cellular-network">cellular network</a> in 1957.</p>
<p>But this improvement isn’t due to improving connectivity technologies such as WiFi, 2G, 3G and so on, which have contributed only a five-fold increase. Using additional radio frequency spectrum to carry network traffic accounts for a 25-fold improvement – but the largest single improvement, accounting for a 1,600-fold increase, is via shrinking the size of the network “cells” that constitute the network. In other words, installing more physical network towers, repeaters and other equipment to create a more dense network of nodes that can carry greater network traffic.</p>
<p>But this has been very expensive – digging for cables, putting up towers and base stations, installation and maintenance, and all the planning and bureaucratic requirements that entails. So much of the next generation 5G mobile network design focuses on squeezing greater speed and capacity from what we already have, without the costs of adding more infrastructure.</p>
<h2>Decoupling send and receive</h2>
<p>One area under investigation is the concept of downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) decoupling, dubbed by some of its co-inventors <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=7037069">DUDe</a>. From the first generation mobile networks to the latest 4G, the downlink (or receive) and uplink (or send) connections of any communication session have been coupled together. This means a mobile phone associates with one base station at a time and data is both sent and received through the same connection.</p>
<p>Historically this was a near-optimal approach, since that way the base station and mobile phone would establish the strongest connection that could be provided in both directions. However as mobile networks have become more diverse, mixing together network cells of different sizes and transmission towers of different transmission power, it now makes more sense to separate the two. A phone could receive information through a high-power, large network cell for maximum speed, and use smaller cells to send data through its lower-power radio. This can yield double capacity and make connections up to ten times more reliable.</p>
<h2>Doubling up on duplex</h2>
<p>Another area under investigation is that of <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/%7Eskatti/pubs/sigcomm13-fullduplex.pdf">full duplex</a> radio transmission. Full duplex refers to the concept of being able to transmit and receive over the same frequency at the same time, in the same way we’re able to talk over each other on a traditional, analog landline telephone.</p>
<p>The sort of repeaters used to extend network coverage in the satellite, broadcasting and mobile network industries have used full duplex for decades. But this is achieved using two different antennas placed sufficiently far apart that the strong transmitting signal does not interfere with the weaker receiver signal. Who can design a single-antenna system that provides full duplex operation?</p>
<p>It all comes down to using <a href="http://www.adaptivedigital.com/product/echo_cancel/echo_explain.htm">signal echo cancellation</a>. The first milestone work <a href="ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1094156">appeared in 1978</a> but was not <a href="ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=238098">made operational until the 1990s</a>. The essence of all these systems is to cancel the strong outgoing transmit signal from the weak incoming receive signal, eliminating interference. However this technique only works over a fairly narrow bandwidth of a few MHz or so.</p>
<p>Only recently has the ability to offer full duplex over wide bandwidths become available, ranging from 10-100MHz, where cancellation is achieved both in the analog as well as digital domain. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75678/original/image-20150323-17702-1pv2jo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CoSMIC, the first full-duplex wireless transceiver in a single silicon chip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jin Zhou/Harish Krishnaswamy/Columbia University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One firm leading in this area is <a href="http://kumunetworks.com">Kumu Networks</a>, a spin-out firm from Stanford University engineers which garnered US$15m investment funding following its first demonstration of full duplex using <a href="http://sing.stanford.edu/fullduplex/">signal inversion cancellation</a> techniques <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/full-duplex-radio-technology-developed/17880/">four years ago</a>. The technology refines existing theoretical work and is compliant with real-world cellular systems. This is an important step from a proposed feature to a viable product.</p>
<p>Using similar techniques, engineers at Columbia University have recently <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/cuso-ntm031315.php">implemented this on a single chip</a>, miniaturising the circuitry required for full duplex into a single silicon chip for the first time. At this scale, the technology could be introduced to mobile phone handsets or tablets to improve performance – potentially a game-changing moment as adding further silicon chips to existing mobile phones or tablets is relatively straightforward. With some extra tuning, if introduced universally this could essentially allow us to double network capacity overnight.</p>
<h2>Significantly more antennas</h2>
<p>Another approach is massive multiple antenna systems, dubbed Massive-MIMO. Invented by <a href="http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/marzetta/">Tom Marzetta at Bell Labs</a>, it uses a very, very large number of antennas stuffed into base stations and mobile phone handsets if possible. We’re talking thousands of antennas, rather than the three to six commonly used today. Counter-intuitively, in theory this would in fact <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6375940">eliminate interference</a> in the system and significantly boost network capacity and reliability.</p>
<p>For now, all these approaches are still at an early stage and face considerable challenges. However, while these 5G designs would require some software and hardware upgrades, one thing they won’t require is digging holes and laying cables.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mischa Dohler receives funding from the European Commission. He is affiliated with Worldsensing.</span></em></p>5G network design will have to find more inventive and less expensive ways of speeding up wireless networks.Mischa Dohler, Professor of Wireless Communications, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/228422014-06-17T05:32:49Z2014-06-17T05:32:49ZAustralia’s got ICT talent – so how do we make the most of it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51120/original/8wm8d9m8-1402881797.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As an enabling technology, ICT reaches into many fields including health, cybersecurity and engineering (shown here).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucdaviscoe/6046652813">Kevin Tong/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ian-chubb-5153/profile_bio">Ian Chubb</a>, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia now and in the future. Written by luminaries and accompanied by two expert commentaries to ensure a broader perspective, these articles run fortnightly and focus on each of the major scientific areas. This instalment takes a look at ICT’s role.</em></p>
<p>It’s finally dawning on private and public sectors that information and communications technology (ICT) is an enabling technology. ICT is relevant to companies – whether making drugs, mining coal, building a bridge or providing banking services – and government agencies, such as the Australian Taxation Office (<a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/">ATO</a>), operators of an urban railway systems and (obviously) Social Security and Defence Science and Technology Organisation (<a href="http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/">DTSO</a>). </p>
<p>One or two decades ago, it was common for casual commentary to suggest that Australia had missed the ICT bus:</p>
<ul>
<li>ICT multinationals, almost all foreign-owned, generally weren’t interested in doing more than selling in Australia</li>
<li>ICT-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) faced the usual challenges impacting all SMEs, and the additional one – their ICT specialist R&D staff were less qualified on average than R&D staff across other disciplines</li>
<li>CSIRO was perceived – perhaps unfairly – as not having significant impact in the area</li>
<li>international rankings of Australian computer science publication citations showed us <a href="http://ict-industry-reports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/10/2000-Australias-ICT-Research-Base-PMSEIC-Report.pdf">a long way behind</a> even the world average. </li>
</ul>
<p>These days, public perceptions of ICT’s importance are far more developed. Almost every day, we interact with a supermarket scanner, we check our email, we pass under a motorway toll point, we download our power bill or we check what our friends on Facebook are doing. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51101/original/25k89rhn-1402878989.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/louisa_catlover/5478816632">Louise Billeter/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is <a href="http://www.nicta.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/25682/Software_from_NICTA_spin-out_company_Open_Kernel_Labs_secures_one_billion_mobile_handsets_.pdf">Australian software</a> in more than a billion mobile phones worldwide. And while just a small fraction of those phones are in Australia, there are certainly enough that the community at large appreciates the transformational power of ICT and how pervasive it is, even if it is often behind the scenes. </p>
<p>The National Broadband Network (<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-national-broadband-network-nbn-207">NBN</a>), an ICT construct if ever there was one, has been the subject of significant <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-australia-afford-the-coalitions-nbn-17494">political controversy</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-what-do-you-think-of-the-nbn-17647">raised public awareness</a> of the pervasiveness of ICT. </p>
<h2>What’s down the track, then?</h2>
<p>Our everyday lives are going to be affected in an extraordinary number of ways, most involving the coupling of ICT ideas with technologies with which we are familiar. Likely scenarios include:</p>
<ul>
<li>instead of swallowing pills or receiving injections, devices in our body may <a href="https://theconversation.com/wearable-electronic-skin-delivers-drugs-and-stores-data-25279">administer drugs automatically</a>, at times and dosage levels tuned to our body’s requirements</li>
<li>firemen will be equipped with micro <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-just-for-war-how-drones-can-be-used-for-good-12692">airborne vehicles</a> to search a burning building for survivors</li>
<li>all road vehicles will be <a href="https://theconversation.com/self-driving-cars-and-autonomous-robots-where-to-now-19879">fitted with sensors</a> and devices to communicate with other vehicles and roadside infrastructure, to lessen collisions, and to reduce congestion through the provision of real-time advice; in due course, traffic densities on freeways will be increased through automated control of vehicles</li>
<li>the <a href="https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Online-services/In-detail/Online/Getting-started/?page=8#Online_services_for_individuals">ATO website</a> will accept queries on curly tax issues and provide an answer via an automated service which the taxpayer can rely on in meeting his or her tax obligations</li>
<li>partial sight will be restored through a <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-have-the-technology-progress-in-the-race-to-the-bionic-eye-3019">bionic eye</a> to people who have become blind through diseases such as macular degeneration (see video below)</li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dKy8OgVUmoo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<ul>
<li>people will improve their qualifications through enrolment in massive open online courses (<a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/massive-open-online-courses">MOOCs</a>), receiving a grade after automated processing of their assignments and examination papers</li>
<li>many farm fences will be eliminated; farm animals will be provided with sensors designed to localise the animal’s position and deliver an electric shock when it strays from a defined region</li>
<li>people will discuss contracts with a non-English-fluent Korean businessman using a two-way, unobtrusive real-time translation <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-smartphone-apps-are-revolutionising-language-learning-25165">phone app</a>, or via an add-on to a <a href="https://theconversation.com/turning-it-on-for-work-meetings-is-avatar-kinect-the-new-you-621">three-dimensional Skype</a> system</li>
<li>robot <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2HU3LGdbo">floor cleaners</a> in the home will be as fast and as efficient as vacuum cleaners pushed by a human.</li>
</ul>
<p>This list highlights the pervasiveness of ICT applications, and no doubt countless more examples can be advanced. Almost everyone would agree too that we would be better off with such advances (though with qualifications with issues such as privacy and security). So what is involved in getting there?</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51110/original/rfs79cbp-1402880414.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/arlophoto/8664276888">Arlo Bates/Flickr (cropped)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A passive approach is to imagine that using money earned from trade in agriculture or mining or education, we could simply buy tasty ICT morsels catching our fancy in the international market. But this won’t work. </p>
<p>We must have ICT skills: if we don’t, not only do we miss out on the pots of gold associated with the different business opportunities, but we will be ill-informed purchasers of sophisticated products. </p>
<p>If buying internationally, we could be as much victims of a ruthless vendor as the Icelandic bankers who purchased foreign financial products that <a href="http://jbh.is/09TIE53_2Sigurjonsson.pdf">ruined their country</a> in 2008. Imagine trying to decide what is the best technology or technologies for an NBN with little or no expertise. </p>
<p>The required human capital clearly must come from universities, and will only be up-to-date if the universities have adequately resourced staff of international standard. </p>
<h2>Three simple steps to maximise ICT talent</h2>
<p>First, it needs to be very easy for ICT researchers to collaborate with researchers in other disciplines; so many future applications will rest on a further disciplinary pillar besides ICT, precisely because it is an enabling technology. </p>
<p>Of course, institutional players such as the universities and the Australian Research Council (<a href="http://www.arc.gov.au/">ARC</a>) will sign on to this proposition, but giving effect to it can be still very challenging. </p>
<p>Fundamentally, prestige for an academic grounded in his or her achievements is generally seen as easier to attain when a single discipline is involved. Those crossing two (or more) disciplines are more likely to be considered as not making it well in either rather than achieving a high standard in more than one discipline. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51117/original/fwgr5w8s-1402881678.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of cross-disciplinary research: brain-computer interfacing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sybrenstuvel/3492628090">Sybren Stüvel/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there’s the question of money: if discipline-based panels allocate research funds, such researchers can lose out.</p>
<p>The second qualification is that the route to commercialisation of ideas needs to be straightforward. </p>
<p>In the ICT area commercialisation has been hugely assisted by the creation in 2002 of <a href="http://www.nicta.com.au/">NICTA</a>. This organisation has provided a bridge not only between its own researchers and the commercial world (including business creation with start-ups) but also between affiliated ICT researchers in universities and the commercial world. </p>
<p>Commercialisation is less the core business of universities than it is of NICTA, and most universities have less depth of ICT-relevant commercialisation skill set than NICTA has. </p>
<p>A third requirement is that it must be possible to pursue large-scale research ideas with public sector finance. With the limited exceptions provided by Cooperative Research Centres (<a href="http://crca.asn.au/">CRCs</a>) or ARC centres and defence-oriented work in DSTO, CSIRO and NICTA are probably the only examples.</p>
<p>A healthy coupling of the university sector to the commercial world is certainly not the whole story. That coupling needs to be grounded in a solid disciplinary base where the individuals can match it with the best in the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51124/original/csq789kp-1402882115.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The science of cyber analytics supports better predictions and guides adaptive responses of computers and computer networks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnnl/4295162815">PNNL - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Specialists are needed in subdisciplines such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/cybersecurity">cyber security</a>, machine learning, computer and communication networking, large scale and distributed systems, mobile communications and computing and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-big-data-13780">big data</a>, to name a few. </p>
<p>But without our ICT experts, we’ll be left behind the wayside – and catching up will be more difficult than ever.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-glance-148/profile_bio">David Glance</a>, Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia</h2>
<p>It is easy to confuse Australia’s passion for being users of the latest technology with a passion to be involved in creating them. </p>
<p>In fact, as the US continues to see a rise in <a href="http://cra.org/govaffairs/blog/2013/03/taulbeereport/">enrolments</a> in computer science degrees, Australia has seen a continuous <a href="http://www.acs.org.au/news-and-media/news-and-media-releases/2012/declining-enrolments-and-skills-shortages-threatens-future-of-ict">decline</a>. </p>
<p>It is not that Australians are less bright or resourceful or less hard working. It is not even a tyranny of distance because if there is one thing you can do remotely, it is develop and sell technology, especially software.</p>
<p>No – it may simply be the fact that on the whole, Australians are just not interested in developing ICT.</p>
<p>This is not a particular problem in a globalised world in which the ways of doing things in Australia are not that different to how things are done in the US or in Europe. </p>
<p>We can possibly rely on others to produce the technologies that we will need to drive a growing economy past the mining phase.</p>
<p>What will be vital as a minimum, though, will be the ability and desire to utilise ICT to support innovation in everything else that we actually do. </p>
<p>So even if being a primary provider of ICT is not in Australia’s future, being expert at using them will be.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/toby-walsh-51/profile_bio">Toby Walsh</a>, Research Leader at NICTA</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/51126/original/nvrxbswr-1402882578.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pgoyette/3866601916">Paul Goyette/Flickr (cropped)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>ICT has been a great driver for change over the past 10 years – and, as illustrated by Brian’s examples above, it is sure to continue being one of the most important drivers over the next decade.</p>
<p>So let’s not forget the immense environmental, societal as well as economic pressures that are building across the globe.</p>
<p>Australia, the lucky country, has escaped many of the troubles so far, but our luck can only last so long, and ICT is one of the few hopes we have to mitigate the problems that lie ahead. </p>
<p>We already work closely with our <a href="https://theconversation.com/optimising-the-future-with-mathematics-22122">mathematician colleagues</a> to develop equations to help government and business optimise their activities, and do more with less. It’s computers that <a href="http://www.techworld.com.au/article/542261/nicta_calls_smarter_infrastructure/">ultimately solve</a> these problems.</p>
<p>As the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/google-and-fairfax-playing-a-different-tax-game-20140509-37z0y.html">recent debate</a> over tax bills of multinationals demonstrate, nations must produce – not consume – intellectual property in the ICT space to reap the rewards.</p>
<p>Take Google, for example. Google sits on around <a href="http://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html">US$60 billion</a> – not bad for a company founded on the back of a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank">computer algorithm</a>. But those rewards don’t go to the users of Google. They flow back to the producers.</p>
<p>For this reason, Australia must produce ICT to ride the coming wave of change.</p>
<hr>
<p><br>
<strong>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/australia-2025-series">Australia 2025: smart science series</a>, co-published with the <a href="http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/2014/02/australia-2025-smart-science/">Office of the Chief Scientist</a>. Further reading: <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-future-depends-on-a-strong-science-focus-today-22075">Australia’s future depends on a strong science focus today</a> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/physics-a-fundamental-force-for-future-security-22121">Physics: a fundamental force for future security</a> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/proteins-to-plastics-chemistry-as-a-dynamic-discipline-22123">Proteins to plastics: chemistry as a dynamic discipline</a> <br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/optimising-the-future-with-mathematics-22122">Optimising the future with mathematics</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-can-nurture-growth-and-prosperity-through-biology-22255">Australia can nurture growth and prosperity through biology</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-healthy-future-lets-put-medical-science-under-the-microscope-23190">A healthy future? Let’s put medical science under the microscope</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/groundbreaking-earth-sciences-for-a-smart-and-lucky-country-22254">Groundbreaking earth sciences for a smart – and lucky – country</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reach-for-the-stars-australia-must-focus-on-astronomy-22124">To reach for the stars, Australia must focus on astronomy</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marine-science-challenges-for-a-growing-blue-economy-22845">Marine science: challenges for a growing ‘blue economy’</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/building-the-nation-will-be-impossible-without-engineers-23191">Building the nation will be impossible without engineers</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/agriculture-in-australia-growing-more-than-our-farming-future-22843">Agriculture in Australia: growing more than our farming future</a></strong> </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Anderson receives research funding from the Australian Research Council and National ICT Australia (NICTA). He works for the Australian National University. He owns shares in a number of companies which will benefit by the increased adoption of information and communications technology. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toby Walsh's research is supported by the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, the Australian Research Council and the Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development through grants AOARD-104123 and AOARD-124056.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Glance 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>AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia…Brian Anderson, Distinguished Professor, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/235312014-03-03T00:35:55Z2014-03-03T00:35:55ZEmergency services benefit from a high-speed world without wires<p>When disaster strikes – such as January’s bushfire in Victoria or the recent cold spell that froze much of north America – it’s vital for emergency services to get the latest information.</p>
<p>They need to access real-time data from any emergency sites and command centres so they can analyse it, make timely decisions and broadcast public-service updates.</p>
<p>CSIRO thinks it has a solution in its high speed and high bandwidth wireless technology known as Ngara, originally developed to help deliver <a href="http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/ICT-and-Services/Broadband-to-the-bush.aspx">broadband speeds to rural Australia</a>.</p>
<p>The organisations has announced a licensing deal with Australian company RF Technology to commercialise Ngara so it can be used to allow massive amounts of information to be passed between control centres and emergency services in the field.</p>
<p>There is already interest from agencies in the United States and it’s hoped that Australian agencies will soon follow.</p>
<h2>Squeezing more data through</h2>
<p>The technology will package four to five times the usual amount of data into the same spectrum. This will allow emergency services to send and receive real time data, track assets and view interactive maps and live high definition video from their vehicles. It’s a step in what has been a long journey toward an ambitious vision.</p>
<p>For years, the vision of the communications research community was “connecting anyone, anywhere, anytime” – a bold goal encompassing many technical challenges. Achieving that depended heavily on radio technology because only radio supports connectivity and mobility.</p>
<p>Over the years we designed ever more complex mobile radio systems – more exotic radio waveforms, more antenna elements, clever frequency reuse, separation of users by power or by spreading sequence and shrinking the “cell” sizes users operate in.</p>
<p>A research surge in the late 1990s and 2000s led to a wealth of technology developed in the constant drive to squeeze more out of radio spectrum, and to make connections faster and more reliable for mobile users.</p>
<p>This radio access technology became <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/37088/3g">3G</a>, <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/58327/lte">LTE</a>, <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-lte-advanced-and-why-should-you-care/">LTE-A</a> and now <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-4g-9448">4G</a>. Europe is working on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-after-4g-why-do-we-need-5g-phones-20180">5G</a> technology. We’ve also seen huge advances in wireless local area networks (<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/54773/wireless-lan">WLAN</a>) and a strong trend to offload cellular network data to WLAN to help cope with the traffic flowing through the networks.</p>
<h2>Demand for more keeps growing</h2>
<p>Despite this, the data rate demands from users are higher than what mobile technology can offer. <a href="http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white_paper_c11-520862.html">Industry commentators</a> who live in the world of fixed communication networks predict staggering growth in data demand which, time tells us, is constantly underestimated.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42265/original/njgkvk88-1393198178.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many connections required.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We’ve even stretched our ability to name the volume of data flowing through networks: following terabytes we have exabytes (10<sup>18),</sup> zetabytes (10<sup>21)</sup> and yottabyes (10<sup>24</sup> bytes) to describe galloping data volumes.</p>
<p>Beyond that, we run out of <a href="http://www.bipm.org/en/si/prefixes.html">prefixes</a>, but we’ve not run out of ideas to generate more data or new devices to connect to a <a href="http://csironewsblog.com/2013/11/20/living-life-wirelessly/">network</a>.</p>
<p>A few more serious problems arise from all of this traffic flowing through the world’s networks. The first is the “spectrum crunch”. We have sliced the available radio spectrum in frequency, time, space and power. We need to pull something big out of the hat to squeeze more out of the spectrum available in heavy traffic environments such as cities.</p>
<p>The second is the “backhaul bottleneck”. All the data produced in the radio access part of the network (where mobile users connect) needs to flow to other parts of the network (for example to fixed or mobile users in other cities).</p>
<p>Network operators maintain dedicated high capacity links to carry this “backhaul” traffic, typically by optical fibre or point-to-point microwave links. This works well when the backhaul connects two cities, but less well when connecting the “last mile” in a built-up urban environment.</p>
<p>When the total data volume which needs to be moved in terms of bits-per-second-per-square-metre rises into the range requiring backhaul capacities and is mobile, then some clever dynamic backhaul technology is needed.</p>
<p>As more of us carry yet more devices, and continue to enjoy high quality video-intensive services, we will keep pushing up our data rate demands on mobile networks. In theory, there is no known upper limit on the amount of data an individual can generate or consume. In practice, it depends on available bandwidth, the cost of data and the ability of devices to serve it up to us.</p>
<p>We have seen amazing progress in mobile data rates over the past decade. This trend will need to continue if we’re to keep pace with demand.</p>
<h2>A new solution</h2>
<p>To address the burgeoning data demand, and building on a strong history in <a href="http://www.csiro.au/wireless">wireless research</a>, CSIRO has developed two major pieces of new technology – Ngara point-to-point (backhaul) and Ngara point-to-multi-point (access) technology. (Ngara is an Aboriginal word from the language of the Dharug people and means to “listen, hear, think”.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/42272/original/w4vtdhyk-1393201570.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How Ngara works.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">CSIRO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The latter Ngara technology solves several big challenges over LTE networks through its “narrow cast” beam forming transmissions and smart algorithms which can form a large number of “fat pipes” in the air, reducing energy wastage of the radio signal, and increasing data rates and range.</p>
<p>It also enables wireless signals to avoid obstacles like trees, minimises the need for large chunks of expensive spectrum and allows agencies to dynamically change data rates where and when needed during an emergency.</p>
<p>In Australia we are looking at a field trial of Ngara in remote and regional communities to deliver critical broadband services such as health and education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Oppermann receives funding from RF Technology
He is affiliated with CSIRO</span></em></p>When disaster strikes – such as January’s bushfire in Victoria or the recent cold spell that froze much of north America – it’s vital for emergency services to get the latest information. They need to…Ian Oppermann, Director, CSIRO Digital Productivity and Services Flagship, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217682014-01-06T13:26:10Z2014-01-06T13:26:10ZWe’ve got the iPhone habit, so what’s it doing to our brains?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the lift, on the device.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">mini true</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38516/original/xrgb36q6-1389004977.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38516/original/xrgb36q6-1389004977.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38516/original/xrgb36q6-1389004977.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38516/original/xrgb36q6-1389004977.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38516/original/xrgb36q6-1389004977.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38516/original/xrgb36q6-1389004977.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38516/original/xrgb36q6-1389004977.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everybody’s doing it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Beale</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I knew I had a problem when, in the five seconds before the lift arrived, I found myself checking newsfeeds on my iPhone.</p>
<p>The constant, restless fingering of the phone’s shiny surface, this filling of every microscopic time-gap in the fabric of the day, is, I suddenly realised, an issue.</p>
<p>But it is not just me – in every coffee shop, bar, bus-stop, I see hands swiping and flickering eyes checking, pale fingers perfect reflections of the mental restlessness underlying their scrabbling.</p>
<p>There was a time when the people on the train opposite me would either be reading a book or newspaper, or, more usually, leaning back with a slightly vacant expression as their eyes dreamily trawled the passing townscape.</p>
<h2>Nail biting for the brain</h2>
<p>I remember in my first year in primary school, seeing a girl I fancied biting her nails. So I, who had never bitten a nail in my life, began to nibble at mine until all at once it was a near-indelible habit burned into my ultra-malleable young brain.</p>
<p>The reflexive pulling-out of my iPhone as the lift approached was, I suddenly realised, very similar to that nail-biting habit, except in one important respect: biting my nails occupied only a tiny proportion of my brain and it could, in fact, by warding off distracting thoughts, help me concentrate on reading that book or doing that sum.</p>
<p>The iPhone habit, on the other hand, is neurologically all-consuming – vision, touch, memory, thinking are all full-on occupied by this gorgeously shiny piece of technological seduction and software systems it channels such as Twitter, Wordpress, Facebook and the rest.</p>
<p>In that five seconds of insight as I waited for the lift to arrive, I saw that I had been systematically depriving my brain of an entire class of experiences which go under the names of mind-wandering, daydreaming or just plain sitting. As one sage remarked: “Sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits”.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/38519/original/sfgghnjz-1389007060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the lift, on the device.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">mini true</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, how did I react to this insight? Please don’t mock – but as soon as I stepped out at the third floor, I searched Google Scholar to find out what cognitive neuroscience might tell me about what I was doing to my brain. In fact, it was so interesting, that I nearly bumped into someone as I shuffled head-down, along the corridor to my office, my face shining with the tell-tale glow of the little screen.</p>
<p>Let’s start with memory. People in their early seventies listened to a story and then were asked to recall as much of it as they could. They then either just sat engaging in “wakeful resting” for 10 minutes or they played a spot-the-difference computer game.</p>
<p>Those who had rested for the ten minutes after learning the story remembered 20 percent more of it half an hour later than those who had played the game. Amazingly, and more importantly, these effects lasted a full seven days.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t the case that they were frantically rehearsing the story while supposed wakefully resting – <a href="http://www3.canyons.edu/faculty/rafterm/cognitive%20psychology/day%20pages/day%205%20information%20page_files/brief%20wakeful%20resting%20boosts%20new%20memories%20over%20the%20long%20term.pdf">debriefing afterwards showed that very little of that went on</a>. These effects, known as consolidation were an automatic process of laying down the memory that goes on in the resting brain, but not the computer-dazzled one.</p>
<p>By now a PhD student had found me standing outside my door, peering into my iPhone – gently, she asked me if I needed any help – I grunted unintelligibly, for by now <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/23/10/1117.short">I had discovered</a> that creative solutions to problems are more likely to come when your mind is wandering than when it is focused on a task like thumbing through a thousand tweets.</p>
<p>I froze, mid-fumble for my keys, eyes screwed into <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069841&representation=PDF">the tiny print</a>. Holy smoke, not only is this digital nail-biting going to worsen my already dodgy memory and stultify my creativity – it’s going to affect my mood too. Young adult Facebook users were texted five times per day for two weeks to ask about their mood and Facebook usage: the more people used Facebook at one time point, the more their life satisfaction declined over time.</p>
<p>By now I had just managed to get into my office and was just about to respond to the “ping” of an incoming email on the phone when I lifted my head and suddenly remembered a long-ago bitter taste.</p>
<p>Yes! That’s the answer – that’s how my mum got me off nail-biting – she painted this revolting green stuff onto my nails.</p>
<p>If I can only force my mind to wander for a bit, maybe I can come up with a creative way to curb iPhone use – some stinging substance to coat them with, perhaps? Hold on while I Google that …</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
I knew I had a problem when, in the five seconds before the lift arrived, I found myself checking newsfeeds on my iPhone. The constant, restless fingering of the phone’s shiny surface, this filling of…Ian H Robertson, Professor of Psychology, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198612013-11-13T06:12:45Z2013-11-13T06:12:45ZAll this talk about lights hides bigger energy challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/34941/original/fcwhz4bf-1384198060.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">HIt the switch, someone!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Fitzsimmons/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>To anyone following recent discussions about the UK’s energy sector, it might seem the nation is entirely lighting-obsessed.</p>
<p>When <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/nuclearpower/10393043/New-nuclear-plant-needed-to-keep-the-lights-on.html">announcing the deal</a> that paved the way for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, the energy secretary, Ed Davey, explained that it was <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-signs-deal-with-edf-for-new-reactors-nuclear-power-deal-is-vital-to-keeping-the-lights-on-says-ed-davey-8895014.html">“essential to keep the lights on”</a>, echoing earlier claims that energy reforms will <a href="http://sustainablereview.net/renewable-strike-prices-announced-energy-infrastructure-plans/">“keep the lights on and emissions down”</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Ed Miliband’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/24/energy-firms-declare-war-ed-miliband-fuel-freeze">announcement</a> last month that a Labour government would freeze gas and electricity bills led energy companies to warn that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/18/energy-prices-keeping-lights-on">“they might not be able to keep the lights on”</a>. Why is the rhetoric of “keeping the lights on” so important and why is lighting such a compelling and such a persistent point of reference?</p>
<p>Part of the answer has to do with what happens should the lights actually go out. As those cut off in the wake of the St Jude’s Day storm will be only too aware, blackouts are immensely disruptive. Even small-scale interruptions demonstrate how dependent our society has become on a reliable electricity supply. In this context, regular or prolonged outages would indicate that the government had failed to maintain basic standards of living.</p>
<p>Files released this summer show that during the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/16/newsid_2757000/2757099.stm">miners’ strikes</a> in the early 1980s Margaret Thatcher contemplated <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/10213447/Thatcher-made-secret-plans-to-bring-in-the-military-during-the-miners-strike.html">using the military</a> to help keep the lights on: a plan that clearly signalled the symbolic and actual significance of power. Then, as now, talk about the importance of keeping the lights on provides a chilling reminder to governments of how vulnerable they are when faced with a total breakdown of energy generation and supply.</p>
<p>But in the present context, the rhetoric of “keeping the lights on” is as misleading as it is compelling. Though there are billions of lights in the UK’s homes and in places of work and recreation, these are never on all at the same time. Many are off for a large part of the day and in any case lighting does not account for a very high percentage of energy use. Lighting is undoubtedly useful, but for some people it’s not the lights but the internet and communication systems that really need to be on.</p>
<p>In corporate talk, the phrase has <a href="http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/cwdn/2013/08/why-keep-the-lights-on-ktlo-is-a-waste.html">been adopted</a> to highlight the percentage of a company’s expenditure spent on keeping its information technology infrastructure running – the blinking lights of networking equipment, rather than overhead lights. This dependence runs deep: in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy in 2012, people <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/phone-charging-stations-nyc-solar-sandy_n_3460082.html">walked miles to charge their phones</a> – an indication of how thoroughly such communication devices had been embedded in their daily lives.</p>
<p>Reference to dramatic instances in which all power is lost obscures the fact that the real discussion is not about power cuts, nor is it about the lights alone. Instead, the critical questions –- questions that this “lights on” rhetoric systematically avoids -– are to do with energy demand: what is energy for, how do energy demands arise and how do they change?</p>
<p>These ought to be central concerns for energy policy, especially given the challenge of meeting CO<sub>2</sub> emissions targets, yet the “keeping the lights on” mantra perpetuates an unquestioned reliance upon electric power, reinforcing the view that energy consumption is non-negotiable and that it lies outside and not within the frame of legitimate policy debate. In effect, the phrase has come to symbolise a right to unlimited power; it suggests that as a nation there is no end to what we can consume.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as an unlimited energy supply. At every level, from the individual home to the grid itself, cables and infrastructures are sized and managed with certain patterns of demand in mind. Behind the scenes, the need for power is, and always has been, a topic of ongoing negotiation.</p>
<p>Instead of blindly insisting on the importance of keeping the lights on (and all that the phrase stands for) the real political challenge is to bring questions of demand into view. This is not just a matter of technological efficiency. What is needed is a fundamental debate about how much energy is enough, what does it mean to establish ways of living that call for much less power than we use today, and just how many lights could or should be kept on?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19861/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Hui and the DEMAND Centre receives funding from the RCUK Energy Programme and EDF as part of the R&D ECLEER Programme.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Shove and the DEMAND Centre receive funding from the RCUK Energy Programme and EDF as part of the R&D ECLEER Programme</span></em></p>To anyone following recent discussions about the UK’s energy sector, it might seem the nation is entirely lighting-obsessed. When announcing the deal that paved the way for a new nuclear power station…Allison Hui, Academic Fellow, DEMAND Centre, Lancaster UniversityElizabeth Shove, Professor, Sociology, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174552013-08-27T06:07:55Z2013-08-27T06:07:55ZMobile phones are a window to the soul in modern research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/29850/original/3fs5n7b7-1377334738.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How are you feeling today? Mobile phones tell us more than ever.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jonathan Adami</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does your world look like? What are the contours of your neighbourhood? How are you feeling today? Mobile phones are increasingly providing us with the answers to these questions.</p>
<p>In our daily activities, most of us move through only small areas of the cities or towns we call home. These areas — which geographers call “activity spaces” — may vary substantially and overlap little, even for people living in the same community. They are important because where we spend time determines our access to resources like medical care and fresh food, and our exposure to hazards like toxic chemicals, contagious diseases and violence. They affect our physical and emotional well-being. But we do not know a lot about activity spaces because, until recently, we did not have a good way to gather data on human movement. This is now changing as a result of the widespread use of mobile phones.</p>
<p>As researchers who study human mobility, we have been following the rise of mobile phones with great interest — from the obscure, clunky business tools of the 1980s to the tiny, sleek platforms of ubiquitous computing that we know today. The extent to which people have incorporated mobile phones into their daily lives opens up a powerful new window onto society. We have been exploring ways in which this window can be best exploited to answer important questions about who we are and how we live.</p>
<p>In a study recently published in <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13524-012-0175-z#page-1">Demography</a>, we found that mobile phone location data offers a much more nuanced picture of human activity spaces and environmental exposure than can be obtained from traditional methods.</p>
<p>We used mobile phones to survey people as they moved about their neighbourhoods. When a participant entered a predefined location, a survey question would automatically pop up on their phone, asking them to rate their happiness. We then linked each answer to the participant’s contemporaneous environmental context. We found that our male respondents tended to be less happy the further they were from home whereas we did not detect this trend among the women.</p>
<p>We are currently tailoring these mobile phone methods to learn more about the spatial nature of social inequality. To do this, we have developed an open source mobile phone application called <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Ejrpalmer/spacemapper.html">Space Mapper</a>, which lets participants share their movement data with us.</p>
<p>At the heart of our research is the premise that human well-being depends on environmental context. Because resources and hazards are distributed unevenly across space, where we live and spend time matters. But where we live and spend time is dictated by a range of factors often outside our control and often heavily shaped by government policy. These factors include race, ethnicity, gender, economic class or disability and they jeopardise basic principles of justice by ensuring that some groups fare worse than others. Our goal is to try to better understand this problem in order to find solutions.</p>
<p>Space Mapper is designed to minimise battery consumption and protect participants’ privacy. To date, Space Mapper has been downloaded by more than 2,500 people in 127 countries, and we have collected more than 740,000 location estimates.</p>
<p>The next step will be to compare cities based on the levels of “activity-space segregation” measured using Space Mapper and other data sources, and to explore the causes of this segregation. We are currently focused on Los Angeles, New York, and Barcelona but seeking new volunteers all the time to share their daily movements with us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/17455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Palmer receives funding from Princeton University. The research discussed in this article was supported by a grant from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy along with institutional support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant #5R24HD047879) and the National Institutes of Health (grant #5T32HD007163).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frederic Bartumeus and Thomas Espenshade do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What does your world look like? What are the contours of your neighbourhood? How are you feeling today? Mobile phones are increasingly providing us with the answers to these questions. In our daily activities…John Palmer, PhD student, Princeton UniversityFrederic Bartumeus, Associate Professor, Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Thomas Espenshade, Professor of Sociology, Princeton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160702013-07-15T03:40:39Z2013-07-15T03:40:39ZUS ‘choke-points’ for Australian telecoms data are no surprise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27432/original/p9fpyg86-1373852300.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Lawful interception" has been used by intelligence agencies for decades.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Craig Does Stuff</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hot on the heels of data analyst whistleblower Edward Snowden’s <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/the-nsa-files">revelations about the existence</a> of the PRISM electronic surveillance program operated by the United States’ National Security Agency since 2007, we’ve heard some more about communications surveillance – this time with an Australian connection. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/telstra-storing-data-on-behalf-of-us-government-20130712-hv0w4.html">latest story</a> – first reported on Friday <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/07/12/telstras-deal-with-the-devil-fbi-access-to-its-undersea-cables/">by Crikey</a> – suggests Telstra, via a jointly-owned subsidiary called Reach, signed up to <a href="http://info.publicintelligence.net/US-NSAs/US-NSAs-TelCove.pdf">an agreement</a> in November 2001 with the FBI and US Department of Justice to participate in surveillance of communications via <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/F/fiber_optics.html">optic fibre</a> links into and out of the USA. </p>
<p>The company provided physical facilities for interception, kept billing data and maintained the capabilities to collect other data should it be requested.</p>
<p>What’s particularly interesting about the latest revelations is that the US imposed obligations on a non-US company, in this case Reach, to conform to US <a href="http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/lawful-interception">lawful interception</a> (LI) law.</p>
<h2>Lawful interception</h2>
<p>In most jurisdictions around the world, any organisation or company that operates a publicly-available communications service (a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_service_provider">communications service provider</a> or CSP) is obliged to carry out phone taps or wiretaps should they be instructed by law enforcement agencies to do so. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27447/original/ct6rbcmy-1373858331.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Doha Sam</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But how LI is carried out and policed around the world varies greatly. In countries with a strong tradition of the rule of law, carrying out intercepts is separated from the law enforcement agencies who request and use it. Usually, the CSP providing the communications service will carry out the intercept at the request of the agency. </p>
<p>Doing interception this way results in an auditable separation between requesting an intercept and carrying it out, which reduces the risk of illegal interception and consequent corruption. </p>
<p>But in countries for which the rule of law is not as well entrenched, interception is both authorised and carried out by the law enforcement agency. But regardless as to how it is done, there are very few countries that do not have LI capabilities. </p>
<p>The Telstra revelations provide us with some insight into how the US carries out interception of modern communications services.</p>
<h2>Show me the data</h2>
<p>Until the 1990s, communications technologies were comparatively simple to intercept. Communications were <a href="http://computer.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony2.htm">circuit switched</a>, meaning an electrical circuit (or an emulation of a circuit) was set up from one fixed end-point (i.e. a phone) to another. </p>
<p>To carry out an intercept all that was required was that at some point on this circuit an electrical tap (or emulation of an electrical tap) be inserted. But in the 1990s things started to change.</p>
<p>The first big change was the move from wireless communications to optic fibre. For decades, long distance communications relied on either satellite or <a href="http://www.dpstele.com/dpsnews/techinfo/microwave_knowledge_base/microwave_communication.php">microwave communications</a> links at some point in the communications path. Even if a physical tap on the communications circuit was not possible, communications could often be intercepted via wireless receivers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27440/original/zpbhzsw7-1373855288.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There’s nothing new in communications surveillance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">marsmet472</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 1990s, telecommunications companies began replacing both microwave and satellite links with optic fibre which, compared to wireless communications, is more difficult to intercept.</p>
<p>The second big change was the advent of the <a href="http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet">internet</a>. Internet communication is based on <a href="http://voip.about.com/od/voipbasics/a/switchingtypes.htm">packet switching</a> – with “packet” in this case referring to separate, segmented lengths of data, sent individually and reassembled in the proper sequence later to make up the message. </p>
<p>The packets are prefixed with a header that contains information as to how the packet should make its way to its destination. </p>
<p>This provides tremendous flexibility, enabling the internet to carry all manner of communications, but it also creates a number of difficulties for interception, the main one being that the internet makes possible the separation of service and location. </p>
<p>In the old fixed-line telephone service, the voice call originates or terminates at the domestic handset, meaning a wiretap at the local exchange will collect communications to or from a given handset. </p>
<p>But with services such as web-based email that’s no longer true: a gmail or hotmail account can be accessed anywhere, making the location of an intercept a difficult issue.</p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>The latest revelations tell us more about how the US intelligence and law enforcement agencies dealt with these technical problems. </p>
<p>By the late 1990s, people working in the field of communications interception understood the extent of the problems outlined above; and even before September 11, 2001 they had the political support needed to carry out the solution, which was based on <a href="http://info.publicintelligence.net/US-NSAs/US-NSAs-TelCove.pdf">a number of obligations</a> imposed on communications companies before they would be given a license to operate. </p>
<p>Importantly, these obligations were imposed not just on domestic operators, but any operator, such as Reach, that provided optic-fibre communications into or out of the US.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/27446/original/97qjnrkg-1373858146.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">warrenski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most interesting obligation was that the operator must provide a “point of contact within the United States [for] Electronic Surveillance”. These points of contact appear to be “choke-points”; physical installations on US soil through which all communications must pass and so where any communication can be intercepted. </p>
<p>Regardless of where the communication originates or terminates, it will go through one of these choke-points. Of course, extracting a single communication from the mass that passes through these points is another <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/nsa-prism-server-collection-facebook-google">huge challenge</a>, but at least the data can be captured. </p>
<p>The points of contact solve the “location of an intercept” and packet switching problems identified above: the intelligence agencies see all optic fibre communication and all communications pass through one of the “points of contact”. </p>
<p>As well as the “points of contact” there are a number of other requirements on communications service providers. Billing data is often a useful source of intelligence information that may provide information about who has been communicating with whom, and companies must retain two years of billing data. Other data such as <a href="http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-Protocol">internet protocol</a> (IP) and email addresses also has to be retained if requested.</p>
<p>So, what can we conclude from the latest developments? There are no real surprises. We know that lawful interception has been a highly valued (if at times shockingly misused) tool of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for decades. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most important conclusion we can draw is that the law enforcement and intelligence agencies will not surrender such access easily.</p>
<p><br></p>
<h2>Further reading:</h2>
<p>See our coverage of the US <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/nsa-leaks">National Security Agency leaks</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/16070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Branch 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>Hot on the heels of data analyst whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about the existence of the PRISM electronic surveillance program operated by the United States’ National Security Agency since…Philip Branch, Senior Lecturer in Telecommunications, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126192013-03-26T03:23:00Z2013-03-26T03:23:00ZWe could be superheroes: the era of positive computing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21285/original/qrxjw5tz-1363258089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Technology such as the iPad has been found to affect our wellbeing both positively and negatively.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Tracey Nearmy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digital technologies have made their way into all aspects of our lives that <a href="https://theconversation.com/thumbs-up-facebook-might-actually-be-good-for-you-11889">influence our wellbeing</a> - affecting everything from social relationships and curiosity to engagement and learning. </p>
<p>Psychologists have generally focused on the negative impacts of using internet technologies or on the potential of these technologies to be used to help those suffering from mental health problems. </p>
<p>But recent advances in the development of tools go beyond prevention of disorders to actually promote well-being.</p>
<p>In fact, we may be entering an era of “positive computing”, in which technology will be designed specifically to promote wellbeing and human potential.</p>
<h2>A positive outlook</h2>
<p>The truth is, engineers such as myself aren’t known for our social and emotional intelligence. It’s no wonder we have seldom focused on the impact the technologies we create have on the psychological wellbeing of the people who use them. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=825&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21397/original/2m4tfch7-1363652569.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1037&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">n boyd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The advent of <a href="http://www.positivecomputing.org/">positive computing</a> provides us with an opportunity to put human potential and wellbeing front and centre when imagining and creating future technologies. </p>
<p>The press keeps the public anxious about the negative impacts of using internet technologies with <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2175230/Too-time-online-lead-stress-sleeping-disorders-depression.html">regular articles</a> on stress and suggestions for coping. </p>
<p>Psychiatrists themselves are planning to add “<a href="https://theconversation.com/internet-use-and-the-dsm-5s-revival-of-addiction-10346">Internet Addiction</a>” to their official <a href="http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html">Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</a>. </p>
<p>But we are less aware of how these same technologies can be used to help those suffering from mental health problems, or how they might help all of us live happier and psychologically healthier lives. </p>
<p>Researchers have <a href="http://www.jmir.org/">begun to investigate</a> how internet technologies such as e-mail, and social media platforms such as Facebook, could support young people in crisis, adults suffering from depression, and encourage smartphone users to be more mindful.</p>
<p>Those efforts come as we are seeing technology, psychology and neuroscience converge. On one hand, engineers are getting more involved in issues of human emotion, values and well-being, as well as recognising the need for it and the science behind it. </p>
<p>There is also an emerging interest among mental health professionals to understand how technology can be used - not only to treat illness - but also for a larger mission to promote positive psychology and optimum mental health in everyone.</p>
<h2>New moves</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ian-hickie-961/profile_bio">Ian Hickie</a> and I, at the University of Sydney, recently began a three-year project in collaboration with the <a href="http://www.yawcrc.org.au/">Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre</a> and the <a href="http://www.inspire.org.au/">Inspire Foundation</a>, in which we will conduct research to inform the development of an online clinic, a semi-automated triage system and an <a href="http://www.yawcrc.org.au/safe-and-supportive/online-wellbeing-centre">online hub</a> where young people can download tools and applications to help them improve their wellbeing. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21398/original/9x7jkdfs-1363652794.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">chrisdejabet</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Young and Well CRC is engaging in multidisciplinary approaches that bring software specialists together with psychologists and other mental health experts to create novel technologies specially designed to promote mental health.</p>
<p>In this, it is not alone. An increasing number of engineers and computer scientists are working, within multidisciplinary teams, on systems that promote pro-social behaviours such as altruism, empathy, resilience and mindfulness. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0055003;jsessionid=6153697949C9467C46BBDC53CFA3872D">recent study</a> published in PLOS One, a team at Stanford University, led by the cognitive psychologist <a href="http://tedx.stanford.edu/speakers-2012/jeremy-bailenson/">Jeremy Bailenson</a>, used augmented virtual reality games to develop helping behaviours - altruism, in other words.</p>
<h2>Simply super</h2>
<p>Half of the 60 participants who completed the study were given the virtual power to fly like Superman (the “superhero” condition), while the other half flew in a virtual helicopter. In the two-by-two design, participants in each of these groups were also allocated to either helping to find a lost sick child or tour a virtual city. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21394/original/hd8ck5qs-1363652342.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jerome Ware</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the end of the virtual-reality experience, participants were confronted by someone who needed help (the <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/dependent-personality-disorder">dependent behavioural</a> condition). </p>
<p>The researchers measured the time to, and amount of, help provided by those in the different experimental conditions, and the results showed those in the superhero condition were significantly faster and helped more than those in the touring conditions. </p>
<p>Six of the touring participants didn’t help at all, while every one of the former superheroes did. </p>
<p>Although the researchers hypothesised that the embodied experience of helping facilitated the transfer of this behaviour to the real-world, other studies have shown similar correlations between “positive” pro-social games and pro-social behaviours with lower tech immersion. </p>
<h2>No worries</h2>
<p>Technologies that foster the factors correlated to psychological wellbeing are only likely to become more common.</p>
<p>The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has recently funded <a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/20704">a project</a> led by neuroscientist Professor Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop mobile applications that support the development of children’s mindfulness skills. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Julia Gillard <a href="http://teachers.reachoutpro.com.au/blog/2013/2/21/wellbeing@school-resources-launches-in-adelaide.aspx">recently launched</a> wellbeing@school, a component of ReachOut.com, a highly successful online service delivered by the internet-based <a href="http://inspire.org.au/about/">Inspire Foundation</a>. These resources are mapped to the Australian Curriculum and will be offered at no cost to schools.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21286/original/95b48pmw-1363258450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21286/original/95b48pmw-1363258450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21286/original/95b48pmw-1363258450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21286/original/95b48pmw-1363258450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21286/original/95b48pmw-1363258450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21286/original/95b48pmw-1363258450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/21286/original/95b48pmw-1363258450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lloyd Jones</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research such as this, together with case studies from around the world, will be described in a forthcoming book I am co-authoring for The MIT Press with digital designer Dorian Peters at the University of Sydney. </p>
<p>The book, <em>Positive Computing: Technology for a Better World</em>, outlines the landscape of positive computing, an emerging field of research and practice dedicated to the investigation and design of technologies that support psychological well-being and human potential. </p>
<p>We believe that this research will bring together research and methodologies well-established in psychology, engineering, education and neuroscience, to begin a new era of digital experiences that are deeply human-centred. </p>
<p>It was Aristotle that said all our efforts in life are ultimately about seeking wellbeing - shouldn’t designers of technology be our allies on this journey?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rafael A. Calvo receives funding from the ARC, the Young and Well CRC and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SCHRCA). Rafael A. Calvo has received funding from Google and the Office of Learning and Teaching</span></em></p>Digital technologies have made their way into all aspects of our lives that influence our wellbeing - affecting everything from social relationships and curiosity to engagement and learning. Psychologists…Rafael A Calvo, Professor and ARC Future Fellow, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/118382013-02-13T19:26:08Z2013-02-13T19:26:08ZFree Wi-Fi for everyone everywhere (maybe)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20222/original/xyswy7p8-1360730010.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting something we all need for nothing … what's not to love?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">madlyinlovewithlife</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/tech-telecom-giants-take-sides-as-fcc-proposes-large-public-wifi-networks/2013/02/03/eb27d3e0-698b-11e2-ada3-d86a4806d5ee_story.html">reported</a> on February 4 that the US federal government wanted to create super Wi-Fi networks across the USA.</p>
<p>While it appears that statements by the US <a href="http://www.fcc.gov/">Federal Communications Commission (FCC)</a> Chairman Julius Genachowski were misinterpreted by The Washington Post, this story has <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/02/08/there-is-no-fcc-plan-for-free-nationwide-super-wifi-why-wont-this-story-die/">gone viral</a> and <a href="http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/there-no-free-supercalifragilistic-wi-fi/2013-02-07">will not die</a>.</p>
<p>To understand why, we need to look at what has been proposed (albeit accidentally) and what it would mean for consumers both in the US and in Australia, and for the wireless industry (including telecommunication companies).</p>
<h2>Spectrum reallocation</h2>
<p>Spectrum is a scarce resource and opportunities to reallocate large amounts of spectrum do not happen often. This is not to say <a href="http://apo.org.au/research/spectrum-reallocation-700-mhz-digital-dividend-band">spectrum reallocation</a> is rare - in fact, it happens all the time.</p>
<p>When there is an opportunity to reallocate spectrum, proposals are called for by the <a href="http://www.acma.gov.au/">Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)</a>. After the public consultation period ACMA makes recommendations to the government on how the spectrum is to be reallocated. </p>
<p>The federal government then makes a final determination on how the spectrum is to be allocated.</p>
<p>Around the world - including in Australia - spectrum that was allocated to analogue television is being reallocated now that the <a href="http://www.digitalready.gov.au/Home.aspx">digital television rollout</a> is nearly over. The Australian government has called this process the <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/radio/radiofrequency_spectrum/digital_dividend">digital dividend</a>. </p>
<p>Other spectrum changes are also being made including in the <a href="http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Technology-Blog/FCC-Announcement-new-5GHz-spectrum-for-Wi-Fi/ba-p/57582">5 GHz band</a> where spectrum is being reallocated to facilitate the introduction of 802.11ac gigabit Wi-Fi.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20186/original/v5ckm5dh-1360712625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20186/original/v5ckm5dh-1360712625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20186/original/v5ckm5dh-1360712625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20186/original/v5ckm5dh-1360712625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20186/original/v5ckm5dh-1360712625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20186/original/v5ckm5dh-1360712625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20186/original/v5ckm5dh-1360712625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Free Wi-Fi everywhere would require further allocation of unlicensed spectrum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tsahi Levent-Levi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before we go further, we need to understand the difference between licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Unlicensed spectrum means that anyone can use the spectrum in accordance with rules for the unlicensed spectrum specified by ACMA. </p>
<p>Licensed spectrum means the spectrum is licensed (sold) by the government to an organisation for a commercial use – such as mobile networks.</p>
<p>ACMA will generally specify unlicensed and licensed spectrum use rules that comply with standards set by the <a href="http://www.itu.int/en/Pages/default.aspx">United Nations International Telecommunications Union</a>. This means that equipment and system vendors can confidently build and sell equipment knowing that it should work in ITU-compliant markets.</p>
<p>In the US, the FCC is currently making changes to free up the licensed <a href="http://www.dailywireless.org/2013/02/05/t-mobile-files-600-mhz-proposal-eliminating-free-spectrum/">600 MHz spectrum</a> and the unlicensed TV <a href="http://phys.org/news/2012-09-whitespace-spectrum.html">white space spectrum</a> (the spectrum between television channels which is also known as guard bands). The FCC also plans to reallocate up to 195 MHz of unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz band for 802.11ac gigabit Wi-Fi.</p>
<h2>Accidental proposal</h2>
<p>The accidental proposal that has become a runaway story is that the FCC could allocate sufficient unlicensed spectrum in a television band to permit super Wi-Fi networks to be developed.</p>
<p>For this to occur there would need to be about 90 MHz of unlicensed spectrum allocated in a band somewhere around 700–800 MHz.</p>
<p>If the spectrum use rules also permitted high transmission power to be used it would be possible to create Wi-Fi hotspots that could span 30km or more. </p>
<p>A block of 90 MHz unlicensed spectrum in the 700 MHz band could be used to connect cars, trains, buses or motor homes to the internet. The unlicensed spectrum that is currently used for Wi-Fi is also used for baby monitors, garage door openers, cordless keyboards and mouses and a thousand other uses. We should expect similar innovation to occur should unlicensed spectrum in the 700 MHz band become available.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the FCC is not actually proposing to do this at all.</p>
<p>If the FCC actually did allocate 90 MHz of unlicensed spectrum in the 700-800 MHz bands the effect on the wireless industry would be significant. Gone would be the days of mobile phone companies ripping off customers with over-priced mobile and data plans and extortionate <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-australian-international-roaming-charges-the-greatest-rip-off-in-history-4340">international roaming charges</a>.</p>
<h2>Is there hope yet?</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://theconversation.com/top-ten-tech-predictions-for-2013-11274">top ten tech predictions for 2013</a> was the prediction that this would be the year of mobile and Wi-Fi.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20189/original/vqc3s949-1360712832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20189/original/vqc3s949-1360712832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20189/original/vqc3s949-1360712832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20189/original/vqc3s949-1360712832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20189/original/vqc3s949-1360712832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20189/original/vqc3s949-1360712832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/20189/original/vqc3s949-1360712832.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could paying for Wi-Fi in public places soon become a thing of the past?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">gibsonsgolfer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Australian government is in the middle of the <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/radio/radiofrequency_spectrum/digital_dividend">digital dividend auction</a> which includes 90 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band.</p>
<p>Vodafone has already <a href="http://www.technologyspectator.com.au/how-avoid-more-vodafails">indicated</a> that the government’s price for the spectrum is too high and will not bid for the 700 MHz spectrum. Optus has <a href="http://www.technologyspectator.com.au/optus-mulls-options-govts-spectrum-auction">not committed</a> to a bid for the 700 MHz spectrum.</p>
<p>The best solution for Australian consumers is for the government to withdraw the 90 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band from the digital dividend auction and to allocate it as unlicensed spectrum with high power transmission usage. </p>
<p>The benefit to Australia would be an explosion of innovative wireless systems including Wi-Fi networks that can stretch up to 30km for a single base station - though not immediately, as a new Wi-Fi standard would be needed.</p>
<p>Regional and remote Australia would benefit by being able to setup free Wi-Fi coverage for an entire town using a single base station.</p>
<p>The government expects about A$3 billion for the 700 MHz spectrum from the digital dividend auction. The National Broadband Network will cost the nation about A$43 billion initially, so the extra A$3 billion cost to not sell the 700 MHz spectrum is marginal. National productivity would benefit as new wireless systems appear.</p>
<p>Is there hope in this story yet?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/11838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark A Gregory 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>The Washington Post reported on February 4 that the US federal government wanted to create super Wi-Fi networks across the USA. While it appears that statements by the US Federal Communications Commission…Mark A Gregory, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/98742012-10-02T01:44:17Z2012-10-02T01:44:17ZHarnessing technology for better mental health services<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/16030/original/5638x6sm-1349058154.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New and emerging technologies may deliver effective, equitable, and cost-effective mental health services.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alec Couros</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On <a href="http://www.ruokday.com/">R U OK? Day</a> this year, this website <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-ok-ask-the-support-agencies-9563">turned the spotlight</a> on services that help and support people who are not okay – in particular on challenges that organisations such as Lifeline experience in meeting increasing demand with finite human and financial resources.</p>
<p>Meeting the demand for mental health problems is not a new challenge. Nor is it one that shows any sign of easing in the near future. As we reduce the stigma related to mental illness and improve help-seeking in the community, demand for mental health services will most likely grow. </p>
<p>Clearly, we need to increase investment in mental health services. But more money is just part of the answer – we also need to be more creative about how we deliver services.</p>
<p>Australian governments may never have the necessary funds at their disposal to ensure that a telephone counsellor, psychologist, psychiatrist or other mental health professional is available for every person in every part of the country, whenever one is required. So we need to look at innovative solutions that are effective, equitable, and cost-effective. </p>
<p>Information technology offers one way of delivering these services. The Inspire Foundation’s experience in delivering <a href="http://au.reachout.com/">ReachOut.com</a> – a national web-based mental health service for young people – shows that an effective solution is to harness the potential of new and emerging technologies. This program has been running for 15 years.</p>
<p>Last year, the website helped over 650,000 young Australians, at a cost of around $11.50 per person. Many of these young people accessed ReachOut.com on multiple occasions – with over five million page views in that same year. </p>
<p>One of the advantages of online services is that they are able to meet huge demand at any time from anywhere, and at little cost. This makes them an ideal complement to face-to-face mental health services. Technology-based services offer the additional benefit of anonymity and 24-hour availability, making them a comfortable, safe and easy support option – especially for young people.</p>
<p>As more people around Australia are able to access high speed broadband, further opportunities will emerge to develop and deliver novel services that can reach and engage large numbers of people at low cost. Many organisations are beginning to think about the implications of these developments.</p>
<p>And the <a href="http://www.yawcrc.org.au/">Young and Well CRC</a> will work over the next five years to deliver the necessary research and development to further exploit the potential of technology to meet Australia’s mental health challenges.</p>
<p>Online services should not replace more traditional forms of service delivery, be they face-to-face or via telephone. The research clearly shows that the development of a real-time therapeutic alliance between a client and therapist remains the most powerful strategy for change. </p>
<p>But online information services and technology-based therapeutic interventions can act as important adjuncts to care. Where such services are routinely integrated into the wider mental health system, they will relieve pressure on traditional services by enabling people to help themselves, help each other and access professional support in between or while waiting for access to other services. And this can only help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graham Martin receives funding from The Australian Research Council. He is a Board Member of Inspire Foundation</span></em></p>On R U OK? Day this year, this website turned the spotlight on services that help and support people who are not okay – in particular on challenges that organisations such as Lifeline experience in meeting…Graham Martin, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/75612012-06-14T20:09:22Z2012-06-14T20:09:22ZChallenge 6: Switching on to the politics of the digital era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11547/original/ywk9m3b6-1339116757.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Access to the internet is becoming less of a problem - but does society have the structures to support free exchange of information?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Howard Stateman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In part six of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Jake Wallis argues that the infrastructure of global communication networks is inherently political and calls for a switched-on populace.</p>
<hr>
<h2><a href="http://www.millennium-project.org/millennium/Global_Challenges/chall-06.html">Global challenge 6</a>: How can the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone?</h2>
<p>Challenge 6 of the Millenium Project’s Global Challenges Facing Humanity is a tricky one. How can the convergence of information and communications technologies (ICTs) work for everyone?</p>
<p>The problem, as cyberpunk author William Gibson <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1067220">famously said</a>, is that “the future is already here, it’s just not very evenly distributed.”</p>
<p>Some organisations have modelled online (ironically) the disparities in infrastructure and use of global information and communications networks. They use visualisation techniques to represent digital data. StatSilk uses data from the International Telecommunications Union (the United Nations’ specialist agency for information and communications technologies) to model the global distribution of broadband per 100 inhabitants: you can see it <a href="http://www.statsilk.com/maps/world-stats-open-data?l=broadband%20subscribers%20per%20100%20inhabitants">here</a>. The interactive model lets you watch as broadband spreads across the globe over the decade 1999-2009. You don’t need to be William Gibson to see that broadband is not very evenly distributed.</p>
<p>The global community must discuss how pervasive networks can best serve social well-being. The problem is that the inequalities inherent in existing global structures - distribution of food, clean water, health care and so on - are already reflected across our global networks.</p>
<p>Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, originally envisaged the internet as a universal communications medium beyond the constraints of proprietary software and computing hardware. The <a href="http://www.w3.org/">World Wide Web Consortium</a> (W3C), which Berners-Lee directs, has an unashamedly <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/mission">universal mission</a>:</p>
<p><em>The social value of the Web is that it enables human communication, commerce, and opportunities to share knowledge. One of W3C’s primary goals is to make these benefits available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability.</em> </p>
<p>But W3C is just one stakeholder in the web’s development. Some of the others get more attention. The chief executive of Google, Sergey Brin, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/15/web-freedom-threat-google-brin">recently lamented</a> the shift towards “walled gardens” on the web. Brin’s use of the term is interesting. In the context of the web, a “walled garden” is the term commonly used to describe online systems and data which are closed off in an environment designed to be inherently open. Brin was, of course, talking about Google’s primary competitors in the digital economy: Facebook and Apple. In fact, he may simply be talking about environments that can’t be indexed by Google.</p>
<p>Now that the infrastructure of the web is in place and extending, Berners-Lee has <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html">turned his attention</a> to the potential of the vast quantities of data that reside online. His idea is that the more accessible the data is, the greater its creative application. Data can be re-used [for disaster relief](<a href="http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/">http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/</a> or <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/">public accountability</a> or even the <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">maintenance of public spaces</a>.</p>
<p>During the debate around the <a href="http://www.nbn.gov.au/">National Broadband Network</a> (NBN), there has been significant confusion about the things improved networked infrastructure might offer Australian society. The government did not articulate the potential social benefits of public investment in broadband particularly clearly. It was clear throughout the debate that many of Australia’s elected representatives didn’t “get” the idea of the information society and digital economy - politicians asked why public money should be used to fund faster movie downloads for teenagers. The information society and digital economy are presented as models for development not just by the <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/what_is_the_digital_economy">Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy</a> but also by international organisations like the <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/towards-knowledge-societies-unesco-world-report/">United Nations Educational, Scientific Cultural Organization</a>.</p>
<p>The shape of the global economy is changing. For a highly educated and highly skilled nation like Australia, the future is in doing smart things with smart technology. Manufacturing could get a competitve advantage, for example, by producing customised on-demand products rather than getting involved in mass production (which the global economy has essentially outsourced to cheaper labour <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/manufactured-crisis-20120428-1xro9.html">in industrialising economies</a> anyway).</p>
<p>The Gillard government initially presented an economic rationale for the NBN. However, the debate has shifted into areas of broader social benefit as potential applications in health and education develop. For a nation dominated by the tyranny of distance, the collapsing of time and space enabled by broadband networks offers much.</p>
<p>The danger in facing this particular challenge in its global context is that our thinking becomes technologically deterministic: we begin to equate technology with progress in an uncritical way.</p>
<p>The potential of the social web as a platform for popular activism was apparent during the Arab Spring. But the events that we see unfolding in Syria demonstrate that without the structures of civil society, the intense political mobilisation afforded by the web goes nowhere. Technology does not bring democracy; in fact, it can be an incredibly effective tool of state surveillance and control. Since the Arab Spring, the United States (US) Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has increasingly intertwined internet freedom within the [thread of US foreign policy](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/21/internet_freedom?page=full](http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/21/internet_freedom?page=full).</p>
<p>As economic and citizenship practices shift into networked spaces, we need to think about how those practices can be absorbed into wider civil society and political institutions, regional economies and public services. Iceland, for example, has managed to incorporate new media into the democratic process in a meaningful way. Whilst recovering from the collapse of its banking system the Nordic island nation recently used a combination of social media environments to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing">crowdsource</a> the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/09/iceland-crowdsourcing-constitution-facebook">re-drafting of its constitution</a>. Technology can provide a platform for social change. What happens next depends on what society, collectively, chooses to do with it.</p>
<p>How do we promote international consensus around the development of communications technologies? One forum tries to respond to this specific question: the United Nations sanctioned annual <a href="http://groups.itu.int/wsis-forum2012/Information/WSISOverview.aspx">World Summit on the Information Society</a>. The 2012 summit, which met last month, identified areas that are crucially important to maximise the potential of networked ICT for global humanity. They drew attention to:</p>
<ul>
<li>equitable governance of cyberspace by all stakeholders</li>
<li>environmental sustainability of ICT usage</li>
<li>access to ICT by women</li>
<li>the role of ICT in post-conflict resolution.</li>
</ul>
<p>The infrastructure of our global networks is inherently political. Technology doesn’t create the future; the complex interaction of political structures and human agency does.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/7561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jake Wallis 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>In part six of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Jake Wallis argues that the infrastructure of global communication networks is inherently political and calls for a switched-on populace…Jake Wallis, Lecturer in the School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52002012-02-09T01:40:05Z2012-02-09T01:40:05ZI nd to spk 2 U mum: why texting won’t make you feel the love<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/7447/original/sx5mv4bx-1328585932.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sending an SMS might be easy, but catching up in person feels better.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jhaymesiviphotography </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Things have changed. Much of the time we used to spend chatting with friends or strangers in person is now spent tweeting, texting or updating our Facebook status. </p>
<p>Although technology allows us to rapidly communicate, how these indirect interactions affect our bodies and minds is not yet known. A <a href="http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138%2811%2900047-X/abstract">new study</a> by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that not all human interactions are created equal – at least not biochemically.</p>
<h2>Hormonally yours</h2>
<p>Hormones govern everything about our lives – from fetal development and the uncomfortable coming-of-age we all experience during puberty, to our susceptibility to foods high in sugars, and the inevitable crumbling of our reproductive systems. </p>
<p>Of all the hormones coursing through our bodies, it’s the effect of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin">oxytocin</a> we’re perhaps most familiar with. That’s because oxytocin is the hormone responsible for delivering the euphoric feeling we associate with love. </p>
<p>Among its myriad roles, oxytocin is critical for strengthening bonds between people and reducing stress and anxiety. Without it, we drift towards a more narcissistic, manipulative, reclusive and sociopathic lifestyle. One could easily imagine an Orwellian dystopia should this simple molecule not exist.</p>
<p>Apart from the daily doses of oxytocin our body automatically produces, direct social interactions with people close to us trigger further releases. This is especially helpful after stressful events and explains why we share such personal experiences with close friends and relatives. </p>
<p>The words of support we hear from those close to us trigger a welcome release of oxytocin that reduces our feelings of stress. </p>
<p>But is it the words themselves or the tonal sounds conveying the meaning of those words that provides this comfort? </p>
<h2>Hearing what others say </h2>
<p>Building on their <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1694/2661.full">previous work</a> showing young girls’ stress levels reduced quicker thanks to an oxytocin release after speaking with their mothers, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers wanted to determine why this would be the case.</p>
<p>Did the mothers’ comforting words help daughters regain their composure, or was it <em>hearing</em> those words that soothed their stressed souls?</p>
<p>The experiment involved subjecting girls between the ages of seven-and-a-half and 12 to a written test in front of an audience “trained to maintain a neutral facial expression” – a potentially terrifying experience, regardless of age!</p>
<p>After the test, the girls were allowed to either communicate with their mothers directly, over the phone, by texting, or not at all. </p>
<p>The team then measured salivary cortisol levels (a direct measure of stress) and urinary oxytocin levels (the body’s response to stress) to determine how the young girls’ bodies were coping. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the girls able to directly interact with their mothers had much lower stress levels and higher oxytocin levels. The girls who only interacted over the phone likewise enjoyed the recuperative effects of oxytocin. </p>
<p>The girls who only texted – thereby <em>reading</em>, not hearing, their mother’s responses – had higher stress levels and lower oxytocin releases, matching those girls not allowed to interact with anyone. </p>
<h2>Evolution vs. technology</h2>
<p>We’re born into a world where a mother’s voice and a baby’s cooing response results in a cascade of hormones in both parties that sets our course for development. This kind of bond exists because vocal communication is millions of years old, which is the timeframe needed for a connection between our physiology and vocal communication to evolve. </p>
<p>Written communication, by contrast, is comparably young, with the first known case arising approximately <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing">5,000 years ago</a>. This timeframe is simply too short in an evolutionary sense for a similar physiological connection to evolve with text. </p>
<p>Also, textual communication can be ambiguous compared with the tonal nuances used in vocal communication. This in turn means a physiological response to text is even less likely to evolve.</p>
<p>What does this mean? Letting everyone on Facebook know we’ve had a nosebleed, received a promotion or ditched our soulmate is fine for keeping people up to date. But these indirect interactions may lack the underlying physiological responses our bodies require to strengthen our bonds with others. </p>
<p>The long-term result our increasing neglect of vocal communication will have is impossible to imagine, but there’s a reason we want to chat to someone, not text them, after a particularly stressful day. </p>
<p>Although a Shakespearean sonnet can evoke strong emotional responses, it is not the words themselves but hearing them from a lover’s lips that evokes the euphoria within. Not even the most polished prose can deliver the physiological relief we receive upon hearing a mother’s “I’m sure you did great”!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Kasumovic receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Things have changed. Much of the time we used to spend chatting with friends or strangers in person is now spent tweeting, texting or updating our Facebook status. Although technology allows us to rapidly…Michael Kasumovic, Lecturer, ARC DECRA Fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/51632012-02-03T02:11:05Z2012-02-03T02:11:05ZOptus and Telstra do the techno-legal time warp<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/7361/original/9b6n2chw-1328229285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Broadcast rights have turned two giant telcos into sporting rivals.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Judy **</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Telecommunications giant Optus managed to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-01/optus-wins-landmark-footy-copyright-case/3805306">convince the Federal Court</a> in Sydney this week that there’s a legal blindspot in relation to its download pay-per-view service.</p>
<p>Telstra – given its business relationship with The National Rugby League (NRL) and Australian Football League (NFL) – had tried to prevent Optus from recording and re-broadcasting matches screened on free-to-air television. </p>
<p>But Justice Steven Rares found Optus’s mobile television service didn’t breach the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/">Copyright Act</a> for a couple of reasons: Optus keeps separate recordings for each customer, and individual customers are responsible for requesting the recordings.</p>
<p>So what’s going on here?</p>
<p>To my mind, former rugby league coach Roy Masters – ever the shrewd observer – hit the nail on the head when <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/decision-renders-tv-deals-worthless-20120201-1qthk.html#ixzz1lBzaUpwE">he wrote the following</a> for the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:</p>
<p>“They framed the copyright laws to protect the average punter from being sued for taping a TV show, including a football match on his home recorder. Now, their legislation is being used by Optus to sell a service.” </p>
<p>Naturally, Telstra has concerns. The AFL’s <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/afl-glee-at-125bn-right-deal/story-e6frg7mf-1226046436508">A$1.25 billion five-year rights deal</a> signed last season with Channel Seven, Foxtel and Telstra, included a A$153m payment by Telstra for the online broadcast rights to games. The NRL, likewise, expected a proportion of its next deal to come from internet rights.</p>
<h2>We’ve done nothing wrong</h2>
<p>Optus is not breaching current copyright laws by charging its customers for a record-and-download service that includes material in which its competitors hold some or all of the copyright.</p>
<p>In court, Optus successfully argued its customers already access its competitors’ content via free-to-air television and record and replay programs when they choose to. This model of free distribution is embedded in our media culture.</p>
<p>Now that old interpretation of the law – protecting home recording rights for the “average punter” – lets Optus monetise a data stream for its customers, using free content provided at great cost by others.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-02/afl-to-fight-optus-broadcast-ruling/3808122?section=sport">potential appeal issues</a> confirm it’s about the income from broadcast, repackaging and online rights. The AFL and NRL are claiming a loss of trade. If they stick to their word and fight back, and Telstra joins in, it could cascade into a series of messy contract disputes.</p>
<p>The whole issue is further complicated by the <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/television/antisiphoning_and_antihoarding">pay-TV siphoning regulations</a> in which all litigants are also stakeholders alongside Foxtel. As everyone knows, from the <a href="http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/">Communications Minister Stephen Conroy</a> down, the regulatory regime and legal framework for the digital economy and the new convergent media landscape is out of step with the machinery of change.</p>
<p>We have a high-performance engine under the hood, but the tyres and the suspension can’t really handle the speed. We are living through a techno-legal time warp.</p>
<p>The laws that worked to allow the “average punter” to record and replay TV shows using personal recording devices (such as <a href="http://www.mytivo.com.au/">TiVo</a>) are now creating lucrative business opportunities that everyone involved in this legal stoush is keen to exploit.</p>
<p>Monetising the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickstream">click-stream</a> is the main game in digital Dodge City and an analogue copyright law is not player-friendly for everyone. </p>
<p>Contrast Masters’ old-hand wryness with the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3420984.htm">corporate-speak from Optus spokeswoman, Clare Gill</a>:</p>
<p>“This has been a win for Australians, for innovation and for the law. This is a product similar to things that you can do today. So we see this no different (sic) from any other personal video recording device.”</p>
<p>As one punter wrote on sports website <a href="http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/02/02/mobile-madness-optus-decision-bad-news-for-codes/">The Roar</a>, it’s not a pretty sight to see communication giants slugging it out:</p>
<p>“The battle between the telcos is getting ugly, and the sporting landscape is getting caught up in it.”</p>
<p>At the heart of the legal issues is the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/caa2006213/">Copyright Amendment Act of 2006</a>, which specifically allows home recording of free-to-air TV content. At the time smartphones were not so ubiquitous and the download technology was clumsy. The law worked for its time. But not any more.</p>
<p>The techno-legal time-gap kicks in when the technology perfects a new application that the old rules were not designed to deal with. Here, the respondents argue, the law is out of date.</p>
<h2>Under review</h2>
<p>A review of digital copyright law was <a href="http://www.copyright.org.au/news-and-policy/details/id/2017/">announced late last year</a> by the then Attorney-General Robert McClelland. This is way overdue and may still take some time to come to fruition. The problem we have is that nothing in the government’s much-vaunted and much-despised <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/convergence_review">Convergence Review</a> seems to deal directly with this issue.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/143836/Convergence-Review-Interim-Report-web.pdf">interim report</a> from the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) doesn’t even deal with copyright law and, in a section where you might expect to find some comment on it – chapter seven, entitled “Competition” – there is only hollow sentiment and principle:</p>
<p>“Submissions to the Review addressing competition fell into two broad categories:</p>
<ul>
<li>Some stakeholders argued the market is functioning effectively and existing ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] powers are adequate when anti‑competitive situations arise (including in relation to content)</li>
<li>Other submissions expressed concern that emerging market situations could reduce competition in content and communications markets and that these situations will require a flexible operational response from the regulator.</li>
</ul>
<p>The regulator should be entrusted with suitable powers to deal with content‑related competition issues in rapidly changing markets.”</p>
<p>Surely taking copyrighted material and on-selling it, as Optus looks set to do, is “anti-competitive”, even if a six-year-old loophole says it’s OK to do it.</p>
<h2>The techno-legal time-gap</h2>
<p>I first wrote about the techno-legal time-gap in 2006 in <a href="http://www.oup.com.au/titles/higher_ed/media_studies/9780195553550">Communication and New Media: From Broadcast to Narrowcast</a>, a book I co-authored with John Harrison. In that book we made the point that legal, moral and ethical debates and regulation lag behind the speed of technological change. </p>
<p>My example at the time was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer">peer-to-peer file-sharing</a>, but within a year of the book’s publication, Napster and others were facing huge legal threats and were effectively shut down. The problem then migrated to The Pirate Bay and other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_/(protocol/)">BitTorrent</a> sites. As that appears to be resolved – to the commercial satisfaction of some players – a new front has opened up. </p>
<p>The latest target for the anti-piracy forces is Kim Dotcom, the founder of the Megaupload “cyberlocker”. Dotcom’s repurposing of other peoples’ content has got him into <a href="https://theconversation.com/megaupload-in-mega-trouble-so-back-up-your-online-content-4990">serious trouble</a>. Other service providers are also caught up in this net. </p>
<h2>Private matters </h2>
<p>The fights over copyright – or “copytheft” to some – are not the only digital skirmishes. The very concept of privacy – both real and online – has been blown wide open.</p>
<p>Not only has there been rampantly criminal behaviour that exploited loopholes in phone security leading to <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/murdoch-media-crisis">a tsunami of scandal engulfing the Murdochs</a>, it seems our total being is <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/social-media">exposed online</a>. </p>
<p>Daily hacks and <a href="https://theconversation.com/zombie-computers-cyber-security-phishing-what-you-need-to-know-1671">distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks</a> compromise data, much of it personal and all of it valuable in the surveillance economy. </p>
<p>It’s not just credit card fraud and online dating scams – seemingly innocuous transactions – buying products through online vendors, for instance – leave a trail that is collated, digested, modeled and spat back as marketing or social enhancement experiences.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hacking-cracking-and-the-wild-wild-web-738">“white hats”</a> among the online baddies. But caught up in all of this today we have Julian Assange, a military whistleblower (Bradley Manning) and a collection of techno-savvy activists (<a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/anonymous">Anonymous</a>) attempting to bring down the military-industrial complex. </p>
<p>They are all now caught up in the time warp. But the regulators are not having it all their own way. </p>
<h2>Paradox effects </h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/major-turn-off-leading-lights-stage-an-internet-blackout-to-fight-sopa-4964">Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) protests of the past few weeks</a> forced a backdown in the US over so-called internet censorship laws.</p>
<p>The time-gap exists across social media too. In 2006 Facebook was new and exclusive, Twitter was just around the corner, smartphones cost a fortune but the apps weren’t that good. In half a decade things have changed dramatically.</p>
<p>These paradox effects will continue. The review of copyright law, a new round of privacy commission <a href="http://www.privacy.gov.au/law/reform#privacy">policy papers</a> and the convergence review are all institutional attempts to deal with the contradictions, loopholes and inconsistencies.</p>
<p>We see the same pressures exerting themselves on the Australian Press Council and other regulators too. Analogue models of regulation, control and ethical boundary-setting are no longer working smoothly.
The Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance (MEAA) <a href="http://www.alliance.org.au/documents/codeofethics.pdf">code of ethics</a> was updated in 1997, but it too is now showing its age. </p>
<p>Where are the guidelines for journalists on managing their social media accounts? Where is the advice on how to deal with lifting material from Facebook or YouTube to illustrate a story?</p>
<p>I have collected several examples of these problems and discuss them on my blog (<a href="http://ethicalmartini.wordpress.com/">Ethical Martini</a>). Ripping images from Facebook, for example, is a breach of both copyright law and an invasion of privacy (even if legal).</p>
<p>None of these problems is easily fixed. They are global issues and the World Trade Organisation is one of several transnational bodies looking for answers. </p>
<p>The danger here is that regulators go with a business-friendly commercial fix, rather than regulation in the public interest.</p>
<p>At the heart of capitalist property law is the right to exploit: just ask Optus.</p>
<p><em>Martin Hirst is the author of <a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781742370576">News 2.0: Can Journalism Survive the Internet?</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Hirst is member of the MEAA. He is associate professor of journalism and multimedia at Deakin University. He is the author of News 2.0: Can journalism survive the Internet (Allen & Unwin, 2011).</span></em></p>Telecommunications giant Optus managed to convince the Federal Court in Sydney this week that there’s a legal blindspot in relation to its download pay-per-view service. Telstra – given its business relationship…Martin Hirst, Associate Professor Journalism & Media, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/46032011-12-08T03:03:40Z2011-12-08T03:03:40ZShould we send work email to the trash?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6184/original/v8rws8sb-1323151140.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Meeting requests, endless CC lists … is it time to try something new?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Travelin Librarian</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Email has moved from being the internet’s first killer app to being a productivity killer. You can make news by claiming to hate it, ban it or kill it. But the problem with email is not the technology – we’re simply using it to do too many things. </p>
<h2>Banning the inbox</h2>
<p>French technology firm <a href="http://atos.net/en-us/">Atos</a> recently announced an 18-month <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2011/11/tech-company-implements-employee-zero-email-policy/">plan to ban email</a>. CEO Thierry Breton claims only 10% of daily emails are useful and 18% are spam. </p>
<p>Atos will move the internal communications of its 74,000 employees from email to alternatives ranging from real-time messaging to a Facebook-style news feed. A spokesperson for the firm said internal mail has already been reduced by 20%. </p>
<p>The problem of overloaded inboxes is certainly acute; it stems from two central issues: </p>
<ol>
<li>There is a disjunct between employees’ “need to know” information and the technical ease of replicating and forwarding that information. </li>
<li>There is a tension between colleagues “being on the same page” and technical systems that are appropriate for enabling this. </li>
</ol>
<p>These problems have led to email becoming the one-stop-shop for both tasks, while acting as long-term storage for all potentially relevant information. Inboxes can fill up with 20 emails just from arranging one group meeting; or slightly different versions of files being sent and re-sent; or CC lists and mailing list subscriptions.</p>
<p>And that doesn’t even begin to address the problem of commercial and personal spam.</p>
<p>So has Atos hit on a viable solution?</p>
<h2>Bit literacy</h2>
<p>Tech writer <a href="http://goodexperience.com/mark/">Mark Hurst</a>, author of <a href="http://bitliteracy.com/">Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload</a>, would say no.</p>
<p><a href="http://goodexperience.com/2011/11/a-zero-email-policy-t.php">Hurst points out</a> that the Atos announcement follows an increasing trend of radically condemning email that has sprung up over the last few years.</p>
<p>In 2008, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2008/03/23/a-crisis-in-communication/">declared email was crisis</a>. Hurst <a href="http://goodexperience.com/2008/03/a-geek-who-cant-use-e.php">cuttingly responded</a> to this with the argument that a geek who can’t use email hasn’t thought through how it fits into the daily workflow. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, UNC Chapel Hill Professor Paul Jones <a href="http://reesenews.org/2011/06/02/professor-quits-e-mail-for-social-media/16193/">“quit” email</a>, instead offering students the opportunity to contact him via 12 alternative services. <a href="http://goodexperience.com/2011/06/one-professor-turns-o.php">Hurst criticised Jones</a> for replacing one service with a random collection of alternatives with different capabilities.</p>
<p>Why does Hurst love email so much? He proposes the technology itself is not the problem. Rather, he claims, individuals and institutions lack <a href="http://bitliteracy.com/chap1.html">“bit literacy”</a>. Bit literacy extends older concepts of “computer literacy” to include understandings of internet sharing technologies, of which workflows are a part.</p>
<p>Hurst’s strategy for inbox management proposes that the link between email and work should be on work as action not work as sorting information. <a href="http://goodexperience.com/2011/06/once-again-how-to-man.php">As he says</a>: “separate your to-dos from the rest of your emails, so that you can work from a to-do list, rather than an inbox.” This strategy has the advantage of being very simple and still allowing people to use email as their single point of contact.</p>
<h2>Fitting technology to the task</h2>
<p>The social aspect of email is still only part of the problem. The fast pace of technology development also means technologies can be better fitted to work tasks to which email is ill-suited.</p>
<p>Across all technologies, one fundamental issue that needs to be better addressed is improved search capability. The inability to search policies, documents, forms, calendars and so on is a primary reason why CC lists and other forms of replicated sending clutter up email inboxes. This process, known as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_search">federated searching</a>, is difficult, of course, but the benefits would be far-reaching.</p>
<p>After better search facilities, <a href="http://theconversation.com/chromebook-why-google-has-its-head-in-the-cloud-1285">cloud-based</a> document creation and storage is the next most likely technology that could help us limit email volume. </p>
<p>Cloud-based document creation allows users to work on one document that tracks revisions rather than using individual copies of documents with differences that need to be constantly reconciled by emailing around the latest draft.</p>
<p>Instant messaging and micro-blogging platforms such as <a href="https://www.yammer.com/">Yammer</a> could also reduce internal email. Their quasi-synchronous nature promotes decision making in the moment rather than delay. Character limits (if they exist) reduce messages to the bare bones and promote telephone or face-to-face interaction for more detailed issues. </p>
<p>The ability to filter and block certain forms of messages or people also reduces the amount of material that needs to be skimmed for relevance. </p>
<p>These technologies, and those yet to be imagined, hold the promise of better suiting technology to work (and social) needs. That being said, adoption is tricky to predict. The Australian-developed <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDu2A3WzQpo">Google Wave</a> held the promise of integrated, searchable, collaboration platform that merged instant messaging, status, email, document and image sharing (among other things). </p>
<p>But its cluttered interface led to poor take-up that <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/wave-goodbye-to-google-wave/">resulted in its demise</a> last year. Google Wave was designed to be the integrated single point of content that email could not deliver, but that “all-in-one” aspect may well have been part of the problem.</p>
<p>Discrete applications that do their task well, coupled with improved search functions, could be a better long-term solution. And that may not be as far-fetched as it sounds. </p>
<p>The rise of open document formats such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML">XML</a>, common standards for <a href="http://www.techterms.com/definition/metadata">meta-data</a> and common logins may well lead to a better future. That might sound complex, but think about what’s in your inbox now … isn’t it time to try something new?</p>
<p><strong>What are your thoughts on the possible demise of email? Post your comments below.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/4603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Rintel 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>Email has moved from being the internet’s first killer app to being a productivity killer. You can make news by claiming to hate it, ban it or kill it. But the problem with email is not the technology…Sean Rintel, Lecturer in Strategic Communication, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.