Once in a while, we wish that we would wake up a little later, not rush to shower and get dressed, have a decent breakfast and avoid jumping into the car and dealing with traffic. This may happen most often than not. Considering the amount of time a Kenyan worker wastes on the roads, he or she would be more productive working from home, within a cozy ambience and a relaxed mood; this is known as teleworking or telecommuting; than in traffic and later in a closed office. In the modern workspace, the daily commuting to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Employees work from home, while others, occasionally also referred to as nomad workers or web commuters, utilize mobile telecommunications technology to work from coffee shops or other locations. A common phrase frequently repeated in telecommuting is that "work is something you do, not somewhere you travel to".
Another aspect of the modern workspace is globalization, which means an employee could cover multiple territories. There is a need to reduce travel costs by allowing the employee to work away from the office as much as he or she is virtually in it. Telecommuting thus protects our environment by reducing carbon emissions. Working from home also means the employee can save money in other ways in addition to cutting down on commuting such as less money is spent on lunch , no longer have to buy formal office attire and so on. The changing work practices and increased mobility have produced a new breed of telecommuter, a more sophisticated consumer with demand for rich-media technologies, devices and applications.
CIOs are faced with a challenge which requires them to provide a solution which connects any mobile device to your corporate resources over any mobile network for the telecommuters. In other words, to provide secure access to the office network from remote PCs, laptops, tablets, mobile phones and web browsers. There is also a need to use social tools, for instance blogs, wikis and social network sites, to increase productivity, improve access to subject matter experts, and connect co-workers across functional and geographic boundaries. Business intelligence on the market trends can be gathered by linking the use of social software to the enterprise network.
In the current market, various enterprise solutions available such that a telecommuter has access to business information on the mobile phone when he or she is on the go – email, calendars, documents, tasks. Instances include enterprise solutions like MS Exchange, SharePoint and BlackBerry Enterprise Server. For more collaborative experiences, HyperOffice enables you to push and keep in sync with corporate email, calendars, contacts, tasks; share documents and calendars; irrespective of mobile device – iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, many Nokia and Android phones, Java and SyncML phones, and more. Web conferencing lets you connect with anyone, anywhere, in real time. For instance, WebEx combines desktop sharing through a web browser with phone conferencing and video, so everyone sees the same thing while you talk.
Telecommuting has been facing a couple of challenges though. For a start, mobile devices present a more constrained computing environment compared to desktop computers. In terms of battery life and form factor, mobile devices tend to have less powerful CPUs, less memory, less storage, restricted power consumption, smaller displays, missing or restricted input devices. Secondly, collaboration applications require dedicated servers and technical staff leading to a high cost of ownership. In fact, some applications, such as the Blackberry Server Enterprise, will only work with particular devices; compelling an organization to replace all the devices. Mobile devices also present a security risk since users carry sensitive information wherever they go. It is prudent to install on-board encryption software or a mechanism to wipe sensitive in case the device is lost. Because monitoring performance is more difficult for those working at home, managers often do not recognize the contributions made by telecommuters by way of good performance reviews and promotions.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Data Centers Going Green
Recently, Kenya Data Networks (KDN) launched their new data center at the Nairobi based Sameer Business Park. The Tier 3 data centre will cut gas emissions and energy use through an improved architectural design and partial use of renewal energy. It will be among the first data centers to use of latest solar-power technology to provide the energy requirements of the facility. The data centre is poised to offer services such as hosting data and software applications to serve international and local businesses. It is expected that the centre will relieve the region from having to seek data back-up services in Europe and America, and reduce on the business operations expenditure.
Looking at the East African region, the Rwandan government has commenced on the construction of a data center. The World Bank has provided US$24 million to facilitate Rwanda's construction of its center and the country's plan to connect to the regional undersea cables running under the Indian Ocean, including Seacom, TEAMs and the EaSSY project, in order to address connectivity problems. On the other hand, Vodacom is seeking to cement its presence in East Africa's data business. In Rwanda, the construction of Vodacom’s data center is being carried out by a Swedish company, Coromatic, at a cost of more than US$5 million. All of these data centers are designed to utilize power efficiently and produce less emission.
Similarly, Google is preparing to open its newest data center, a large facility in a former paper mill in Hamina, Finland. The facility uses the sea to replace the chiller in its cooling system, collecting cool water from an inlet pipe located about 7.5 meters beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea. The technique, known as "Free Cooling", achieves cooling by removing heat from your facility without using the chiller. This is done by using low temperature ambient air, evaporating water, or using a large thermal reservoir. Minimizing the use of chillers is typically the largest opportunity for savings for large organizations with huge data centers.
IBM teamed with New York State and Syracuse University to open the Green Data Center at Syracuse University provides a showcase for a number of state-of-the-art technologies designed to reduce power consumption and emissions. Built at a cost of $12.4 million, the 12,000 square-foot facility generates its own power on site, for electrical, heating, and cooling systems. It houses energy efficient IBM Blade Center, Power 575, and z10 servers and is expected to use 50% less energy than a comparably sized data center using traditional power sources and hardware. IBM contributed $5 million in design services and equipment to the project, while the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority kicked in about $2 million.
In 2009, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd, opened its green data center in Yokohama, Japan. The Yokohama Third Center occupies 10,000 square meters of total floor space. A rooftop garden at the HDS data center provides the building with shade that contributes to the lowering of summertime indoor temperature by as much as three degrees Celsius. Nitrogen gas fire extinguishers and cooling systems using outdoor air, both of which have zero ozone depletion and global warming potentials, are installed as measures contributing to the improvement of regional and global environments. The opened green facility incorporates power-efficient data center technology designed to achieve a benchmarking rating of 1.6 Power Usage Effectiveness.
What about small and midsize companies? They are unable to spend thousands of shillings for sea water systems, solar panels or wind generators. How do they make their data centers environmentally friendly? Direct energy consumption in the data center, is significant and small and midsize companies have the need to pursue greater energy efficiency along with performance. There are cheap and simple ways of minimizing energy consumption and improve efficiency in the data center. For instance, try not to cool parts of the data center where there is no equipment.
About 10 to 30 percent of the servers in most data centers are usually underutilized. Conduct an inventory on which of these servers can be virtualized onto another new server and turn those older servers off. Also, turn the lights off in your data center. Servers are not afraid of the dark and can easily be managed remotely. It is also important to use scalable or modular systems so you use only the needed energy capacity. So, big or small organization, you can have your data center going green!
Looking at the East African region, the Rwandan government has commenced on the construction of a data center. The World Bank has provided US$24 million to facilitate Rwanda's construction of its center and the country's plan to connect to the regional undersea cables running under the Indian Ocean, including Seacom, TEAMs and the EaSSY project, in order to address connectivity problems. On the other hand, Vodacom is seeking to cement its presence in East Africa's data business. In Rwanda, the construction of Vodacom’s data center is being carried out by a Swedish company, Coromatic, at a cost of more than US$5 million. All of these data centers are designed to utilize power efficiently and produce less emission.
Similarly, Google is preparing to open its newest data center, a large facility in a former paper mill in Hamina, Finland. The facility uses the sea to replace the chiller in its cooling system, collecting cool water from an inlet pipe located about 7.5 meters beneath the surface of the Baltic Sea. The technique, known as "Free Cooling", achieves cooling by removing heat from your facility without using the chiller. This is done by using low temperature ambient air, evaporating water, or using a large thermal reservoir. Minimizing the use of chillers is typically the largest opportunity for savings for large organizations with huge data centers.
IBM teamed with New York State and Syracuse University to open the Green Data Center at Syracuse University provides a showcase for a number of state-of-the-art technologies designed to reduce power consumption and emissions. Built at a cost of $12.4 million, the 12,000 square-foot facility generates its own power on site, for electrical, heating, and cooling systems. It houses energy efficient IBM Blade Center, Power 575, and z10 servers and is expected to use 50% less energy than a comparably sized data center using traditional power sources and hardware. IBM contributed $5 million in design services and equipment to the project, while the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority kicked in about $2 million.
In 2009, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd, opened its green data center in Yokohama, Japan. The Yokohama Third Center occupies 10,000 square meters of total floor space. A rooftop garden at the HDS data center provides the building with shade that contributes to the lowering of summertime indoor temperature by as much as three degrees Celsius. Nitrogen gas fire extinguishers and cooling systems using outdoor air, both of which have zero ozone depletion and global warming potentials, are installed as measures contributing to the improvement of regional and global environments. The opened green facility incorporates power-efficient data center technology designed to achieve a benchmarking rating of 1.6 Power Usage Effectiveness.
What about small and midsize companies? They are unable to spend thousands of shillings for sea water systems, solar panels or wind generators. How do they make their data centers environmentally friendly? Direct energy consumption in the data center, is significant and small and midsize companies have the need to pursue greater energy efficiency along with performance. There are cheap and simple ways of minimizing energy consumption and improve efficiency in the data center. For instance, try not to cool parts of the data center where there is no equipment.
About 10 to 30 percent of the servers in most data centers are usually underutilized. Conduct an inventory on which of these servers can be virtualized onto another new server and turn those older servers off. Also, turn the lights off in your data center. Servers are not afraid of the dark and can easily be managed remotely. It is also important to use scalable or modular systems so you use only the needed energy capacity. So, big or small organization, you can have your data center going green!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
What The Konza Technopolis Promises
60 Km south of Nairobi sits a 5,000-acre piece of land that has been earmarked for a multi-billion shilling technopolis. A technopolis ‘technology city’ is an area with a collection of buildings dedicated to scientific research on a business footing. Typically businesses and organizations in the cities focus on product advancement and innovation. A ground breaking ceremony of the project is scheduled for September this year, as part of Kenya Vision 2030 flagship projects. A master plan for the phase one of the Kshs. 800 billion project has been drafted by International Design Engineers, Pell Frischmann from London, UK. This phase will include a science and technology park spearheaded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, a Business Processing and Outsourcing (BPO) park, world class hotels, a stadium and other social amenities typical of a city.
But what causes excitement about this project? Kenya intends to use the facility to promote conference tourism and is preparing a bid for the 2018 GSMA World Congress.
The annual meeting brings together 800 of the world’s mobile operators, more than 200 technology companies and about 50,000 IT executives. The new city will be under Konza Technology City Authority, a new parastatal to be created to ensure continuity of the project. Various firms will be competing for contracts to build Kenya’s multi-billion Shilling dream ICT park on a 5,000-acre site south of Nairobi. In the list of contenders are India’s Mahindra, Tata Infrastructure, Leasing and Financial Services, Wipro from America and global technology firm IBM. Winners of the master builder tender are expected to develop property on location and upon conclusion lease it out (for 99 years) or sell it to interested buyers.
Similar cities already exist in Malaysia (PutraJaya), Panama (Pacifico), the Philippines (Subic-Clark) and China (Shenzhen). Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) ventures have recorded tremendous growth globally. For instance, India took over most of the BPO services – from search engine optimization to contact center services, an avenue that Kenya will be pursuing. India had revenues of US$10.9 billion from offshore BPO and US$30 billion from IT and total BPO (expected in FY 2008). Important centers in India are Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Patna and New Delhi.India thus has some 5-6% share of the total BPO Industry, but a commanding 63% share of the offshore component.
In the Philippines, pioneer BPO companies developed and expanded their services not only in the country’s capital but to other key cities such as Cebu in the south. Other prominent examples include the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, The Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, NanKang Software Park, Cambridge Science Park and NETpark in County Durham, England, Pardis Technology Park in Iran and Daedeok Innopolis in South Korea. Security risk is the major drawback with Business Process Outsourcing. Outsourcing of an Information System, for example, can cause security risks both from a communication and from a privacy perspective.
If Kenya decides to set up a BPO park at the Konza Technolopolis, using world class infrastructure and technology, the park would to facilitate research, education and business, creating thousands of jobs for the innovate ‘techies’ with a business acumen. Besides building area, these parks offer a number of shared resources, such as uninterruptible power supply, telecommunications hubs, reception and security, management offices, restaurants, bank offices, convention center, parking, internal transportation, entertainment and sports facilities, etc. In this way, the park offers considerable advantages to hosted companies, by reducing overhead costs with these facilities.
The new city is part of a strategic plan to position Kenya as the region’s technology hub, using the development to entice venture capitalists to finance local companies and international companies to set up base in the country. Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as biotechnology, IT, software, etc. The typical venture capital investment occurs after the seed funding round as growth funding round in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event, such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital is a subset of private equity. Therefore all venture capital is private equity, but not all private equity is venture capital. For local talent, this is a reason why the project should be exciting!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Technology For Entertainment
In June this year, a holographic telepresence session was demonstrated at the Cisco Expo 2011 at the KICC - for the first time in Africa. A 3D image of a Cisco Executive at San Jose was beamed to a screen in front of an audience in Nairobi, creating an almost real life interactive experience. This was similar to the CNN's holographic election coverage in November 2008 in the US. The cable news network projected 3D 360 degree footage of virtual correspondent Jessica Yellin from Chicago all the way to the station's election center in New York. The female reporter seen in the CNN newsroom was actually miles away but appeared to be standing on stage inside the room courtesy the "hologram technology". The concept of 3D telepresence, a real-time dynamic hologram depicting a scene occurring in a different location, attracted considerable public interest since it was depicted in the original Star Wars film in 1977.
Holography is a technique that is used to display objects or scenes in three dimensions. Such three-dimensional (3D) images, or holograms, can be seen with the unassisted eye and are very similar to how humans see the actual environment surrounding them. A practical method of producing truly three-dimensional images that do not require the viewer to wear special eyewear has many potential applications - in telemedicine, mapping and entertainment, for instance. A 50 Hz nanosecond pulsed laser is used to write the holographic pixels. Multicoloured holographic 3D images are produced by using angular multiplexing, and the full parallax display employs spatial multiplexing. However, the challenge for most entertainment devices is the lack of the capability to update images with sufficient speed to convey movement.
Apart from holographic telepresence, television series such as 24, NCIS, CSI NY, Bones and Grey's Anatomy, have been featuring technologies such as HD telepresence, GSM triangulation and 3D Project Mapping. Also growing in popularity is 3D gaming, both online and offline. Modern game or graphics engines generally provide a scene graph, which is an object-oriented representation of the 3D game world which often simplifies game design and can be used for more efficient rendering of vast virtual worlds. As game engine technology matures and becomes more user-friendly, the application of game engines has broadened in scope. To facilitate this accessibility, new hardware platforms are now being targeted by game engines, including mobile phones (e.g. Android phones, iPhone) and web browsers.
3D projection mapping has recently emerged as one of the subtle forms of advertising, with big companies like Nokia, Samsung and BMW projecting beautiful 3D video displays on buildings around the world and sharing their campaigns on the web. 3D projection is any method of mapping three-dimensional points to a two-dimensional plane. As most current methods for displaying graphical data are based on planar two-dimensional media, the use of this type of projection is widespread, especially in computer graphics, engineering and drafting. Using the 3D projection mapping technique video artists are able to project images, video and motion graphics onto buildings and other 3D objects to make it look as if the objects are moving, morphing, and changing structure.
Computer Generated Imagery, or CGI, is an emerging aspect that has changed motion picture special effects. Digital compositing allows far more control and creative freedom than optical compositing, and does not degrade the image like analogue (optical) processes. Digital imagery has enabled technicians to create detailed models, matte "paintings," and even fully realized characters with the malleability of computer software. The most spectacular use of CGI has been the creation of photographically realistic images of fantasy creations. Images could be created in a computer using the techniques of animated cartoons or model animation. In 1993, stop-motion animators working on the realistic dinosaurs of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park were retrained in the use of computer input devices.
What we commonly known as animation is actually called rendering in CGI. Rendering is the final process of creating the actual 2D image or animation from the prepared scene. This can be compared to taking a photo or filming the scene after the setup is finished in real life. The mode of CGI is making its way into the local entertainment content such as Ngukinyukia by Kayamba Africa, Reuben Kigame's Mushukuruni and the Sunflower Kids Club's Where Will I go, Twamwimbia by Balozi Productions. Rendering may take from fractions of a second to days for a single image/frame. In general, different methods are better suited for either photo-realistic rendering, or real-time rendering.
Holography is a technique that is used to display objects or scenes in three dimensions. Such three-dimensional (3D) images, or holograms, can be seen with the unassisted eye and are very similar to how humans see the actual environment surrounding them. A practical method of producing truly three-dimensional images that do not require the viewer to wear special eyewear has many potential applications - in telemedicine, mapping and entertainment, for instance. A 50 Hz nanosecond pulsed laser is used to write the holographic pixels. Multicoloured holographic 3D images are produced by using angular multiplexing, and the full parallax display employs spatial multiplexing. However, the challenge for most entertainment devices is the lack of the capability to update images with sufficient speed to convey movement.
Apart from holographic telepresence, television series such as 24, NCIS, CSI NY, Bones and Grey's Anatomy, have been featuring technologies such as HD telepresence, GSM triangulation and 3D Project Mapping. Also growing in popularity is 3D gaming, both online and offline. Modern game or graphics engines generally provide a scene graph, which is an object-oriented representation of the 3D game world which often simplifies game design and can be used for more efficient rendering of vast virtual worlds. As game engine technology matures and becomes more user-friendly, the application of game engines has broadened in scope. To facilitate this accessibility, new hardware platforms are now being targeted by game engines, including mobile phones (e.g. Android phones, iPhone) and web browsers.
3D projection mapping has recently emerged as one of the subtle forms of advertising, with big companies like Nokia, Samsung and BMW projecting beautiful 3D video displays on buildings around the world and sharing their campaigns on the web. 3D projection is any method of mapping three-dimensional points to a two-dimensional plane. As most current methods for displaying graphical data are based on planar two-dimensional media, the use of this type of projection is widespread, especially in computer graphics, engineering and drafting. Using the 3D projection mapping technique video artists are able to project images, video and motion graphics onto buildings and other 3D objects to make it look as if the objects are moving, morphing, and changing structure.
Computer Generated Imagery, or CGI, is an emerging aspect that has changed motion picture special effects. Digital compositing allows far more control and creative freedom than optical compositing, and does not degrade the image like analogue (optical) processes. Digital imagery has enabled technicians to create detailed models, matte "paintings," and even fully realized characters with the malleability of computer software. The most spectacular use of CGI has been the creation of photographically realistic images of fantasy creations. Images could be created in a computer using the techniques of animated cartoons or model animation. In 1993, stop-motion animators working on the realistic dinosaurs of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park were retrained in the use of computer input devices.
What we commonly known as animation is actually called rendering in CGI. Rendering is the final process of creating the actual 2D image or animation from the prepared scene. This can be compared to taking a photo or filming the scene after the setup is finished in real life. The mode of CGI is making its way into the local entertainment content such as Ngukinyukia by Kayamba Africa, Reuben Kigame's Mushukuruni and the Sunflower Kids Club's Where Will I go, Twamwimbia by Balozi Productions. Rendering may take from fractions of a second to days for a single image/frame. In general, different methods are better suited for either photo-realistic rendering, or real-time rendering.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
And Here Comes The Cloud Phone
Movirtu, a UK-based company that provides Mobile Identity Management (MIM) solutions for wireless telecommunication service providers, plans to roll out a cloud phone aimed at low-income users in Madagascar. The product was being tested in 2010 and started being deployed as a pilot in Madagascar by Airtel Madagascar. With a single community phone, such as ‘Simu Ya Jamii’, an agent will be able to offer access to individual accounts and the customers will be able to maintain their called identification (Caller ID). The account details are stored in the operator's hub and each individual user on the platform gets to store contacts and can have a service which forwards missed calls to another phone for when they are not logged in. It also contains a gateway that will allow them to use m-money services like M-Pesa.
According to the World Bank, 4 billion people live on less than Kshs. 180 ($2) per day – most of who live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. This means that buying a phone for this population is not a priority as compared to basic needs such as food. With the cheapest phone going for around Kshs. 1,000, this cost is beyond their means thus most of these families miss the opportunity to enjoy services that most of us do on the mobile network. Their lives could be greatly enhanced socially and economically with access to a mobile phone. The mobile phone immediately puts them in touch with families, healthcare services or potential employers, without having to travel many miles from their rural villages. Hence, a cloud phone shared among three or five persons would bring reprieve to the rural communities and provide a channel of communication to the outside world.
So, how does a cloud phone work?
Once launched by a local operator, people subscribe to the service by visiting their local village payphone agent or airtime voucher vendor to purchase a mobile number. To access their account, they simply borrow a phone from a friend or family member or use a community phone. No special handsets, SIM cards or additional client software are required; rather, the service works instantly on all basic mobile handsets available today
The subscriber enters a network code; that, in turn, activates the cloud infrastructure platform, such as MXShare from Movirtu, and enables the Cloud Phone service on the handset. The Cloud Phone service makes them an identified subscriber with a unique phone number and prepaid account.
Movirtu will be charging a subscriber an estimated amount of between Kshs.10 to Kshs.20 to buy a phone number which will then give a subscriber access to the phone profile in the cloud mobile infrastructure. The subscriber logs in with his or her own number and a pin code for authentication. Then a prompt is played by the cloud platform such as, "Hello, John. Your balance is Kshs.20. You have two missed calls. You've got one SMS message." The call costs are the same as the existing prepaid tariffs that already exist on the prepaid network. Besides allowing subscribers to receive remittances, the technology can be used as a gateway for the introduction of shared mobile-Web enabled devices in the rural communities. This will propagate better services such as m-commerce, m-health and m-learning. These services are key in the achievement of the objectives of Vision 2030.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Is Your Data Really Secure?
Several days ago, suspected hackers tried to steal the passwords of hundreds of Google email account holders, including those of senior U.S. government officials, Chinese activists and journalists, Google claimed. The company said it recently detected the security breach and stopped what it described as “a campaign to take users’ passwords and monitor their emails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples’ forwarding and delegating settings.” Google’s email service enables users to forward messages automatically and grant others access to their accounts. In April, the media covered a story on a cyber attack on Sony Corporation by a group of unknown cyber criminals who hacked into their servers and stole the data of over a 100 million users. Ring a bell? The entire fiasco is reported to have cost Sony an estimated figure of over $171.2 million, but more importantly seemed to have lost the trust it had with its customers. By comparison, the earthquake and tsunami March 11 caused an estimated $208.5 million hit on the company's profit for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Most often than not, we provide more and more information to the Internet about us, our lifestyle and family from blog posts, social media sites and friends’ pages. However, we seldom stop to consider how secure your data is. The recent cyber attack events went on to illustrate that the importance of data security is critical, both for computer users and most businesses. There are three kinds of data; data at rest, data in motion and data in use. Bank account details, client information, payment information, personal files and so on are data we store, share or use for different purposes. All of this information can be hard to replace and potentially dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. Data lost due to disasters such as a flood or fire is crushing, but losing it to cyber criminals or a malware infection can have much greater consequences. Threats to data security can either be physical-such as a fire, power outage, theft or malicious damage- or human- such as the mistaken processing of information, unintended disposal of data, cyber attack or erroneous input.
So, how can we secure our data? Data security starts with a strategic planning and risk assessment. Technically, it’s not possible to guarantee 100% security for data in any form; we can only avert cyber attacks and mitigate their impact. The key questions we would ask ourselves: What would happen if you lost your’s or your organization’s data? ; What would happen if an organization lost your data?; Who has access to data at rest?; Who is allowed to move data?; Who uses the internet, email systems and how they access it? Who will be allowed access and who will be restricted?; Whether or not one is required to use passwords and how they are maintained? and properly training the staff and enforcing data security. We can then identify areas of vulnerability and develop strategies for securing your data and information systems. Since data can be compromised in many ways, the best security against misuse or theft involves a combination of technical measures, physical security and a well educated staff.
Hand-held devices and laptop computers have become popular in the business environment. To a mobile worker, there are benefits aplenty to mobile information access. According to McAfee, on average, one in three employees keep sensitive work-related information on their mobile devices. However, as mobile access to sensitive corporate information becomes more popular and the number and type of mobile devices used to access such information increases, security is an important concern. Mobility has its own characteristics and, hence, security issues. Mobile computers are at a much greater risk of data loss through damage and theft. The mobile device problem goes both ways. While many employees use their personal devices to handle work-related tasks, such as accessing corporate email and viewing documents, nearly 63 percent of work-issued mobile devices were being used by employees for personal activities, such as access to Internet.
Given the unique nature of the mobile environment, mobile security is not a single security solution but rather a combination of solutions extending the existing security infrastructure to the location of the mobile devices. An administrator needs to create security policies specific to mobile device usage. In case of a loss of a mobile device, we need to minimize the impact of the lost device: Password-protect all devices, encrypt sensitive documents on the device, and don't use automatic scripts for VPN login. Mobile device security policies should also include minimizing access to limited sources using firewalls. It is also important to protect the device from physical damage by using a casing. Internet access should be in needful and careful manner to prevent spyware from invading our mobile devices.
Most often than not, we provide more and more information to the Internet about us, our lifestyle and family from blog posts, social media sites and friends’ pages. However, we seldom stop to consider how secure your data is. The recent cyber attack events went on to illustrate that the importance of data security is critical, both for computer users and most businesses. There are three kinds of data; data at rest, data in motion and data in use. Bank account details, client information, payment information, personal files and so on are data we store, share or use for different purposes. All of this information can be hard to replace and potentially dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. Data lost due to disasters such as a flood or fire is crushing, but losing it to cyber criminals or a malware infection can have much greater consequences. Threats to data security can either be physical-such as a fire, power outage, theft or malicious damage- or human- such as the mistaken processing of information, unintended disposal of data, cyber attack or erroneous input.
So, how can we secure our data? Data security starts with a strategic planning and risk assessment. Technically, it’s not possible to guarantee 100% security for data in any form; we can only avert cyber attacks and mitigate their impact. The key questions we would ask ourselves: What would happen if you lost your’s or your organization’s data? ; What would happen if an organization lost your data?; Who has access to data at rest?; Who is allowed to move data?; Who uses the internet, email systems and how they access it? Who will be allowed access and who will be restricted?; Whether or not one is required to use passwords and how they are maintained? and properly training the staff and enforcing data security. We can then identify areas of vulnerability and develop strategies for securing your data and information systems. Since data can be compromised in many ways, the best security against misuse or theft involves a combination of technical measures, physical security and a well educated staff.
Hand-held devices and laptop computers have become popular in the business environment. To a mobile worker, there are benefits aplenty to mobile information access. According to McAfee, on average, one in three employees keep sensitive work-related information on their mobile devices. However, as mobile access to sensitive corporate information becomes more popular and the number and type of mobile devices used to access such information increases, security is an important concern. Mobility has its own characteristics and, hence, security issues. Mobile computers are at a much greater risk of data loss through damage and theft. The mobile device problem goes both ways. While many employees use their personal devices to handle work-related tasks, such as accessing corporate email and viewing documents, nearly 63 percent of work-issued mobile devices were being used by employees for personal activities, such as access to Internet.
Given the unique nature of the mobile environment, mobile security is not a single security solution but rather a combination of solutions extending the existing security infrastructure to the location of the mobile devices. An administrator needs to create security policies specific to mobile device usage. In case of a loss of a mobile device, we need to minimize the impact of the lost device: Password-protect all devices, encrypt sensitive documents on the device, and don't use automatic scripts for VPN login. Mobile device security policies should also include minimizing access to limited sources using firewalls. It is also important to protect the device from physical damage by using a casing. Internet access should be in needful and careful manner to prevent spyware from invading our mobile devices.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Access To Technology For People Living With Disabilities
In Kenya and East Africa, there is a critical shortage of resources and opportunities for people with physical or mental disabilities. One major challenge that people with disability face is low literacy levels and in essence access to modern technology. Computer literacy, in particular, is paramount in the day-to-day activities of today’s world; using smartphones, ATMs, Job Applications, E-Commerce and so on. Various organizations have come to their aid by providing basic training on fundamentals of computer literacy that will positively impacts the lives of people living with disabilities. On top of this debilitating lack of education, opportunities to join the workforce are further hindered by general bias and a lack of awareness that people with disability can handle many of the same tasks that sighted people can.
Deaf Aid, a Norwegian development organization, has been working hard to change that by engaging in several programs throughout Kenya that are helping deaf youth develop valuable knowledge and skills. Deaf Aid’s activities include creating a Kenyan sign language, launching an education and child development center in the Kibera slums, and, most recently, providing educational resources to help deaf students develop IT skills. Deaf Aid in conjunction with Cisco Systems established a Cisco Networkin Academy with a lab to equip deaf students with ICT skills. Hital Muraj, Cisco Networking Academy manager for East Africa facilitated the establishment of the academy while the Norwegian Government supplied refurbished computers.
The academy had to develop sign languages useful in the identification of gadgets like hard disk, and Internet for easier understanding. Out of the first 15 students who have graduated from the Cisco Networking Academy program, 11 have found internships and four have started full-time jobs. Andrew Wasike, a former student at the academy, is a technician with Computer Planet. Computer Planet is a computer maintenance and networking services company located along Mombasa Road. Wasike is responsible for software installation, networking, and repair of computers and printers. This is a rare opportunity for a deaf student.
InABLE, an organization based in the US, has set pace in assist blind and visually impaired children access technology. To improve future opportunities for these children, inABLE has brought computers, the internet and assistive technology to the blind children of Thika School for The Blind. The organization believes that computer literacy will not only allow our students to bridge the academic gap with their sighted peers, but also arm them with valuable skills that allow them to enter a job marketplace that has dismissed them for too long. The idea came up about when the founder of inABLE, Ms. Irene Mbari-Kirika, traveled back to her Kenya from the US to establish a library and encountered a particularly engaging group of blind students had insufficient educational resources and nonexistent assistive computer technology.
People who are blind and visually impaired, however, find cell phones difficult devices to operate. Basically, a phone has got a screen, keys, and switches for power and volume. One key is often indistinguishable from another by touch. The screens are small. The switches are often in inconvenient locations. Incorporating a keyboard for sending text further complicates the device. Most phones do not have audio output of either keys pressed or information displayed on the screen. Over the years earlier several companies were have been to experimenting with more accessible designs. Current smart phones can access email and the Internet; limitations in their screen-reading software prevent the plethora of information from being read aloud.
Audiovox was one of the first to develop a voice-recognition system for the cell phone. Its Voice Guidance System gave users the ability to speak a phone number to dial and listen to incoming caller ID. Verizon soon followed with its own software. A recently added application called Voice Genesis Vemail allows email to be read aloud on some phones. Samsung entered the field with the design of a conceptual Braille keyboard phone. The Touch Messenger would enable visually impaired users to carry on a mobile conversation in Braille. The device has two Braille pads. Messages can be typed on the top keypad and read on the lower. Some cell phones advancements can have previously unforeseen benefits for visually impaired users. Kurzweil Technologies, the inventor of various text-reading devices, has developed a device based on the Nokia N82 smart phone. This new phone literally reads to you. Take a picture of a printed page or an object, guided by a voice-recognition system. Press a button, and presto—printed material is read using a synthesized voice.
So, how would the deaf use smartphones? For most smartmobile phones, they must send text messages. But that can be limiting because it doesn’t convey emotions, voice inflections or body language. Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a system that helps deaf and hearing-challenged users communicate using video chat. For most people, video chat on cellphones is a fun application. But for deaf users, video chat could make a huge difference to their quality of life.With video chat, they can use Sign Language, just as they do in face-to-face conversations. The software, mobile ASL, can potentially run on any device. The software is specially designed to allow video chat through cellphones, without taking up a lot of bandwidth.
Deaf Aid, a Norwegian development organization, has been working hard to change that by engaging in several programs throughout Kenya that are helping deaf youth develop valuable knowledge and skills. Deaf Aid’s activities include creating a Kenyan sign language, launching an education and child development center in the Kibera slums, and, most recently, providing educational resources to help deaf students develop IT skills. Deaf Aid in conjunction with Cisco Systems established a Cisco Networkin Academy with a lab to equip deaf students with ICT skills. Hital Muraj, Cisco Networking Academy manager for East Africa facilitated the establishment of the academy while the Norwegian Government supplied refurbished computers.
The academy had to develop sign languages useful in the identification of gadgets like hard disk, and Internet for easier understanding. Out of the first 15 students who have graduated from the Cisco Networking Academy program, 11 have found internships and four have started full-time jobs. Andrew Wasike, a former student at the academy, is a technician with Computer Planet. Computer Planet is a computer maintenance and networking services company located along Mombasa Road. Wasike is responsible for software installation, networking, and repair of computers and printers. This is a rare opportunity for a deaf student.
InABLE, an organization based in the US, has set pace in assist blind and visually impaired children access technology. To improve future opportunities for these children, inABLE has brought computers, the internet and assistive technology to the blind children of Thika School for The Blind. The organization believes that computer literacy will not only allow our students to bridge the academic gap with their sighted peers, but also arm them with valuable skills that allow them to enter a job marketplace that has dismissed them for too long. The idea came up about when the founder of inABLE, Ms. Irene Mbari-Kirika, traveled back to her Kenya from the US to establish a library and encountered a particularly engaging group of blind students had insufficient educational resources and nonexistent assistive computer technology.
People who are blind and visually impaired, however, find cell phones difficult devices to operate. Basically, a phone has got a screen, keys, and switches for power and volume. One key is often indistinguishable from another by touch. The screens are small. The switches are often in inconvenient locations. Incorporating a keyboard for sending text further complicates the device. Most phones do not have audio output of either keys pressed or information displayed on the screen. Over the years earlier several companies were have been to experimenting with more accessible designs. Current smart phones can access email and the Internet; limitations in their screen-reading software prevent the plethora of information from being read aloud.
Audiovox was one of the first to develop a voice-recognition system for the cell phone. Its Voice Guidance System gave users the ability to speak a phone number to dial and listen to incoming caller ID. Verizon soon followed with its own software. A recently added application called Voice Genesis Vemail allows email to be read aloud on some phones. Samsung entered the field with the design of a conceptual Braille keyboard phone. The Touch Messenger would enable visually impaired users to carry on a mobile conversation in Braille. The device has two Braille pads. Messages can be typed on the top keypad and read on the lower. Some cell phones advancements can have previously unforeseen benefits for visually impaired users. Kurzweil Technologies, the inventor of various text-reading devices, has developed a device based on the Nokia N82 smart phone. This new phone literally reads to you. Take a picture of a printed page or an object, guided by a voice-recognition system. Press a button, and presto—printed material is read using a synthesized voice.
So, how would the deaf use smartphones? For most smartmobile phones, they must send text messages. But that can be limiting because it doesn’t convey emotions, voice inflections or body language. Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a system that helps deaf and hearing-challenged users communicate using video chat. For most people, video chat on cellphones is a fun application. But for deaf users, video chat could make a huge difference to their quality of life.With video chat, they can use Sign Language, just as they do in face-to-face conversations. The software, mobile ASL, can potentially run on any device. The software is specially designed to allow video chat through cellphones, without taking up a lot of bandwidth.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The dilemma of a mobile application developer in Kenya
A couple of months ago, the cheapest Android smartphone was released into the Kenyan market. The proliferation of cheap Smartphones in the market is paving way for a lucrative mobile software development industry that is steadily picking up in the country.
Traditionally, SIM application toolkit (STK) has been commonly used to provide Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) subscribers with various value-added services such as mobile money services. On the other hand, mobile computing embraces a host of portable technologies that makes Internet access on the go not only possible, but integral to every day life.
There are many different hardware components found in mobile devices therefore their applications are developed using different software architectures. Some application software platforms including Java ME, Symbian platform, Android, Windows Mobile, Qt framework, BREW and Palm OS. Symbian OS, Palm OS, Windows Mobile and iOS support typical application binaries as found on smartphones with code which executes in the native machine format of the processor.
A mobile application developer develops software by using different platforms and programming languages based on the target mobile device. Kenya has provided a conducive environment for mobile software developers so far. The popularity of the Android and Symbian OS mobile devices has been growing steadily. Apart from the availability of cheaper smartphones, application developers in Kenya can now publish and distribute their mobile applications directly onto Nokia’s OVI Store.
Android provides a platform to create products and services targeted at local markets. Android applications are written in the Java programming language, a common programming language among developers. In addition, the Android software development kit can easily be downloaded from the Internet for free and installed in a Windows, MacOS or Linux workstation.
Samsung has also launched a mobile application platform named ‘Bada’. Samsung has been running a mobile applications development competition to encourage developers to use this platform. One of the winners of the previous competition is Mikul Shah who developed an ‘Eat Out’ mobile application. The app is Kenya’s first mobile restaurant guide, allowing users to search for restaurants using location, cuisine and budget.
To encourage local developers, companies like Google have organized a G-Kenya event in September 2010 to talk about Android and the emerging mobile opportunities for African developers and to meet with software developers, entrepreneurs and students in Kenya. One of the sessions involved training on localized tools to spur economic development for people in Kenya.
Google has added some intuitive apps that developers can leverage on. For instance, Voice Actions, a Google voice search for Android presents an awesome new way to search, control, and communicate on your phone faster than ever before, by using your voice. One of these new Voice Actions lets users find and automatically play music, users can quickly find the music they want online and play it.
For a Kenyan developer, one dilemma is choosing a platform to develop mobile apps. For many developers, their decision is based on the popularity of the mobile device, and what the trend is in terms of mobile apps development. Another dilemma is how to make money from the applications developed. Considering the fact that most Kenyans do not have credit cards to facilitate the purchase of applications from the app stores, this is quite a challenge.
To address this issue, mobile operators in Kenya are working on a billing mechanism that deducts the charge of an application from the airtime, once a subscriber downloads it from an app store. This means the developers can easily track their revenues and access the funds comfortably from local providers. The developer has to cater for the users’ preferences such as language, appearance, working tools, app library and so on.
For most users, the value is in the integration of the app to their business processes and the day-to-day life. For instance, a centrally controlled dispatcher for a Courier Service Company can use several mobile smart phones or PDA units or a mobile device the can control you TV set just like a remote control.
Traditionally, SIM application toolkit (STK) has been commonly used to provide Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) subscribers with various value-added services such as mobile money services. On the other hand, mobile computing embraces a host of portable technologies that makes Internet access on the go not only possible, but integral to every day life.
There are many different hardware components found in mobile devices therefore their applications are developed using different software architectures. Some application software platforms including Java ME, Symbian platform, Android, Windows Mobile, Qt framework, BREW and Palm OS. Symbian OS, Palm OS, Windows Mobile and iOS support typical application binaries as found on smartphones with code which executes in the native machine format of the processor.
A mobile application developer develops software by using different platforms and programming languages based on the target mobile device. Kenya has provided a conducive environment for mobile software developers so far. The popularity of the Android and Symbian OS mobile devices has been growing steadily. Apart from the availability of cheaper smartphones, application developers in Kenya can now publish and distribute their mobile applications directly onto Nokia’s OVI Store.
Android provides a platform to create products and services targeted at local markets. Android applications are written in the Java programming language, a common programming language among developers. In addition, the Android software development kit can easily be downloaded from the Internet for free and installed in a Windows, MacOS or Linux workstation.
Samsung has also launched a mobile application platform named ‘Bada’. Samsung has been running a mobile applications development competition to encourage developers to use this platform. One of the winners of the previous competition is Mikul Shah who developed an ‘Eat Out’ mobile application. The app is Kenya’s first mobile restaurant guide, allowing users to search for restaurants using location, cuisine and budget.
To encourage local developers, companies like Google have organized a G-Kenya event in September 2010 to talk about Android and the emerging mobile opportunities for African developers and to meet with software developers, entrepreneurs and students in Kenya. One of the sessions involved training on localized tools to spur economic development for people in Kenya.
Google has added some intuitive apps that developers can leverage on. For instance, Voice Actions, a Google voice search for Android presents an awesome new way to search, control, and communicate on your phone faster than ever before, by using your voice. One of these new Voice Actions lets users find and automatically play music, users can quickly find the music they want online and play it.
For a Kenyan developer, one dilemma is choosing a platform to develop mobile apps. For many developers, their decision is based on the popularity of the mobile device, and what the trend is in terms of mobile apps development. Another dilemma is how to make money from the applications developed. Considering the fact that most Kenyans do not have credit cards to facilitate the purchase of applications from the app stores, this is quite a challenge.
To address this issue, mobile operators in Kenya are working on a billing mechanism that deducts the charge of an application from the airtime, once a subscriber downloads it from an app store. This means the developers can easily track their revenues and access the funds comfortably from local providers. The developer has to cater for the users’ preferences such as language, appearance, working tools, app library and so on.
For most users, the value is in the integration of the app to their business processes and the day-to-day life. For instance, a centrally controlled dispatcher for a Courier Service Company can use several mobile smart phones or PDA units or a mobile device the can control you TV set just like a remote control.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
IPv4 Depletion Countdown
On February 3, 2011, in a public ceremony in Miami, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) handed out the last five remaining IPv4 address blocks to five regional organizations. The IPv6 transition had officially begun. IANA is responsible for managing the Internet Protocol address spaces and assignment of address blocks to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), for maintaining registries of Internet protocol identifiers, and for the management of the top-level domain name space (DNS root zone), which includes the operation of root nameservers. RIRs in turn, follow their regional policies to delegate resources to their customers, which include Internet service providers and end-user organizations. There are five RIRs namely; African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) for Africa, American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) for the United States, Canada, and several parts of the Caribbean region, Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) for Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and neighboring countries, Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre (LACNIC) for Latin America and parts of the Caribbean region and RIPE NCC for Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
The depletion of the IPv4 allocation pool has been a concern since the late 1980s, when the Internet started to experience dramatic growth. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) created the Routing and Addressing Group (ROAD) in November 1991 to respond to the scalability problem caused by the classful network allocation system in place at the time. The anticipated shortage has been the driving factor in creating and adopting several new technologies, including Classless Inter-Domain Routing in 1993, network address translation and a new version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6, in 1998. IPv4 uses 32-bit (four-byte) addresses, which limits the address space to 4,294,967,296 possible unique addresses. However, some are reserved for special purposes such as private networks, approximately 18 million addresses and multicast addresses, approximately 270 million addresses. This reduces the number of addresses that can potentially be allocated for routing on the public Internet. The IPv4 addresses are divided into 256/8 primary allocation blocks, where each "/8" corresponds to 16,777,216 unique address values. Since that last block of the IPv4 public IP addresses was allocated, migration IPv6 is hence inevitable.
Source: www.cisco.com
But what is IPv6 and what does it mean to our daily lives? IPv6 is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP) that is designed to succeed Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). Unlike IPv4 which utilizes 32 bits for an IP address, IPv6 uses a 128-bit address translating to 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IP addresses. IPv6 includes a transition mechanism which is designed to allow users to adopt and deploy IPv6 while providing direct interoperability between IPv4 and IPv6 hosts. Nomadic personal computing devices have become popular as their prices decrease and their capabilities increase, for instance, the tablets. These types of devices will become consumer devices and will replace the current generation of cellular phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants. Networking between computing devices is key. In essence, the devices can acquire IPv6 addresses as unique identifiers without the risk of depletion.
Apart from Internet access, demand for IP addresses has also been growing in other areas. In the security sector for instance, use of remotely controlled IP cameras and burglary sensors has been on the rise. Control of traffic control is also been done using IP camera. With the migration to digital TV and popularity of Video on Demand (VoD), the entertainment industry is acquiring a colossal number of IP addresses. Some modern televisions even have the capabilities to provide Internet access, a possibility is that every television set will become an Internet host. As our homes become smarter, every device that we need to control in our day to day life requires an IP address. These devices consist of lighting equipment, heating and cooling equipment, motors, and other types of equipment which are currently controlled via analog switches and in aggregate consume considerable amounts of electrical power. IPv6 provides a scalable, interoperable and versatile world- wide solution for all the IP addressing demands.
IPv6 has been ready for deployment since 1998 when it was designed by IETF after forecasting IPv4 depletion. Despite the benefits and apparent inevitability of IPv6, few network operators have deployed it. As of October 2010, Arbor Networks reported that IPv6 represented less than 1/20 of 1% of overall Internet traffic. The remaining 99.95% of Internet traffic uses IPv4. Network operators that don't move aggressively to support IPv6 on their public-facing Web sites and services will be forced to use complex, expensive translation mechanisms between IPv4 and IPv6 such as carrier-grade network address translation. Local service providers should engage in planning activities for the migration of both the core and the client-facing networks to IPv6.
The depletion of the IPv4 allocation pool has been a concern since the late 1980s, when the Internet started to experience dramatic growth. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) created the Routing and Addressing Group (ROAD) in November 1991 to respond to the scalability problem caused by the classful network allocation system in place at the time. The anticipated shortage has been the driving factor in creating and adopting several new technologies, including Classless Inter-Domain Routing in 1993, network address translation and a new version of the Internet Protocol, IPv6, in 1998. IPv4 uses 32-bit (four-byte) addresses, which limits the address space to 4,294,967,296 possible unique addresses. However, some are reserved for special purposes such as private networks, approximately 18 million addresses and multicast addresses, approximately 270 million addresses. This reduces the number of addresses that can potentially be allocated for routing on the public Internet. The IPv4 addresses are divided into 256/8 primary allocation blocks, where each "/8" corresponds to 16,777,216 unique address values. Since that last block of the IPv4 public IP addresses was allocated, migration IPv6 is hence inevitable.
Source: www.cisco.com
But what is IPv6 and what does it mean to our daily lives? IPv6 is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP) that is designed to succeed Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). Unlike IPv4 which utilizes 32 bits for an IP address, IPv6 uses a 128-bit address translating to 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IP addresses. IPv6 includes a transition mechanism which is designed to allow users to adopt and deploy IPv6 while providing direct interoperability between IPv4 and IPv6 hosts. Nomadic personal computing devices have become popular as their prices decrease and their capabilities increase, for instance, the tablets. These types of devices will become consumer devices and will replace the current generation of cellular phones, pagers, and personal digital assistants. Networking between computing devices is key. In essence, the devices can acquire IPv6 addresses as unique identifiers without the risk of depletion.
Apart from Internet access, demand for IP addresses has also been growing in other areas. In the security sector for instance, use of remotely controlled IP cameras and burglary sensors has been on the rise. Control of traffic control is also been done using IP camera. With the migration to digital TV and popularity of Video on Demand (VoD), the entertainment industry is acquiring a colossal number of IP addresses. Some modern televisions even have the capabilities to provide Internet access, a possibility is that every television set will become an Internet host. As our homes become smarter, every device that we need to control in our day to day life requires an IP address. These devices consist of lighting equipment, heating and cooling equipment, motors, and other types of equipment which are currently controlled via analog switches and in aggregate consume considerable amounts of electrical power. IPv6 provides a scalable, interoperable and versatile world- wide solution for all the IP addressing demands.
IPv6 has been ready for deployment since 1998 when it was designed by IETF after forecasting IPv4 depletion. Despite the benefits and apparent inevitability of IPv6, few network operators have deployed it. As of October 2010, Arbor Networks reported that IPv6 represented less than 1/20 of 1% of overall Internet traffic. The remaining 99.95% of Internet traffic uses IPv4. Network operators that don't move aggressively to support IPv6 on their public-facing Web sites and services will be forced to use complex, expensive translation mechanisms between IPv4 and IPv6 such as carrier-grade network address translation. Local service providers should engage in planning activities for the migration of both the core and the client-facing networks to IPv6.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Published Paper
Link
http://www5.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/Forschung/Publikationen/2009/Mwangi09-EOV.pdf
http://www5.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/Forschung/Publikationen/2009/Mwangi09-EOV.pdf
Friday, January 14, 2011
Is Telepresence The Future Of Global Business?
From the recent trends in the industry, the answer is definitely a ‘yes’. Telepresence offers more than simply a hassle-free alternative to delayed flights and security checks. As companies become increasingly global in scale, and gas prices reach unprecedented highs, telepresence promises to drastically cut travel costs while greatly improving productivity and reducing harmful gas emissions. Travel industry – air travel, marine travel and car travel - is one of the sectors that has high rate of carbon dioxide emissions. According to British Airways, a 747-400 plane cruises at 576 mph (927km/h), burns 12,788 liters of fuel per hour, and carries 409 passengers when full. This means that on average each passenger burns approximately 31 liters of fuel per hour. What if there was a way of averting the burning of thousands of liters of fuel by travelers? For instance, in business traveling, traders need to travel to source for commodities, meet potential clients, close deals and attend trade fairs. With modern telecommunications technology business persons can replace the hassle of travel and carry out their duties without causing damage to the environment.
Telepresence, which integrates life-size High Definition (HD) video with high-quality sound in a room setup, creates the feel of actually being in the same room as participants at other locations. The technology can be implemented anywhere in the world utilizing the global Internet Protocol (IP) network, as simple as walking into the conference room next door. Establishing a virtual meeting place, however, isn’t the only application of telepresence technology. With its high definition cameras and huge projection screens, systems are also able to illustrate physical characteristics and cues, such as a sweaty brow, in great detail. Communication is mostly non-verbal than verbal and this renders telepresence an ideal vehicle for business negotiations and sales pitches. Then there is telepresence’s potential for allowing human resource executives to interview job candidates from afar while still getting a feeling for an applicant’s personality. The technology is also employed in other sectors such as education, health, military and government. In the not-so-far future, it’s likely that telepresence will aid geographically scattered engineers and product managers in the product development process.
In technical terms telepresence is similar to video conferencing, only that it gives an immersive experience. It provides stimuli such that the user perceives no differences from actual presence of the counterpart. As the screen size increases, so does the sense of immersion, as well as the range of subjective mental experiences available to viewers. The stimuli depends on the application and bandwidth used. Consider a person watching television, for example, the primary senses of vision and hearing are stimulated giving the impression that the watcher is no longer at home. Similar capabilities give telepresence a level of visual and acoustic realism that encourages active usage. The quality of experience also may be influenced by room customization. While high-end telepresence users might have many of these added services, other users may have simple rooms outfitted with plug-and- play, high definition technology. Indeed, any room can be a telepresence room.
The fundamental methodology used in a telepresence system is digital compression of audio and video streams in real time. The audio and video signal is sampled and quantized, a process called encoding. This process results in a digital stream of 1s and 0s is subdivided into labeled packets, which are then transmitted over the global IP network. The receiving telepresence system decodes the digital stream to display the visual and generate the audio. The hardware or software that performs this compression is called a codec (coder/decoder). To create a vivid, compelling and natural experience a resolution of between 720p and 1080p at 30 frames per second is deployed, giving a crystal clear video stream. For audio standards-based wideband codecs are implemented to improve the voice quality carried over IP networks. Wideband codecs provide clearer, more lifelike voice communications and markedly improved intelligibility because of the additional voice data included in the audio stream. They also double the voice signal range, in the range of 30 hertz to 7000 hertz or higher, while using the same network bandwidth as narrowband codecs.
Telepresence, which integrates life-size High Definition (HD) video with high-quality sound in a room setup, creates the feel of actually being in the same room as participants at other locations. The technology can be implemented anywhere in the world utilizing the global Internet Protocol (IP) network, as simple as walking into the conference room next door. Establishing a virtual meeting place, however, isn’t the only application of telepresence technology. With its high definition cameras and huge projection screens, systems are also able to illustrate physical characteristics and cues, such as a sweaty brow, in great detail. Communication is mostly non-verbal than verbal and this renders telepresence an ideal vehicle for business negotiations and sales pitches. Then there is telepresence’s potential for allowing human resource executives to interview job candidates from afar while still getting a feeling for an applicant’s personality. The technology is also employed in other sectors such as education, health, military and government. In the not-so-far future, it’s likely that telepresence will aid geographically scattered engineers and product managers in the product development process.
In technical terms telepresence is similar to video conferencing, only that it gives an immersive experience. It provides stimuli such that the user perceives no differences from actual presence of the counterpart. As the screen size increases, so does the sense of immersion, as well as the range of subjective mental experiences available to viewers. The stimuli depends on the application and bandwidth used. Consider a person watching television, for example, the primary senses of vision and hearing are stimulated giving the impression that the watcher is no longer at home. Similar capabilities give telepresence a level of visual and acoustic realism that encourages active usage. The quality of experience also may be influenced by room customization. While high-end telepresence users might have many of these added services, other users may have simple rooms outfitted with plug-and- play, high definition technology. Indeed, any room can be a telepresence room.
The fundamental methodology used in a telepresence system is digital compression of audio and video streams in real time. The audio and video signal is sampled and quantized, a process called encoding. This process results in a digital stream of 1s and 0s is subdivided into labeled packets, which are then transmitted over the global IP network. The receiving telepresence system decodes the digital stream to display the visual and generate the audio. The hardware or software that performs this compression is called a codec (coder/decoder). To create a vivid, compelling and natural experience a resolution of between 720p and 1080p at 30 frames per second is deployed, giving a crystal clear video stream. For audio standards-based wideband codecs are implemented to improve the voice quality carried over IP networks. Wideband codecs provide clearer, more lifelike voice communications and markedly improved intelligibility because of the additional voice data included in the audio stream. They also double the voice signal range, in the range of 30 hertz to 7000 hertz or higher, while using the same network bandwidth as narrowband codecs.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Is Kenya Becoming A Virtual Money Economy?
Mobile Money Transfer and Mobile Banking have become very popular products in the Kenyan market. In fact, approximately over 12 million mobile phone subscribers make mobile payments and as mobile phone penetration continues to grow, these products are becoming more relevant to the market. Once a mobile subscriber registers for either of the products, a virtual wallet enabled for them on their phone. The subscriber can then use the mobile phone for various transactions. Person-to-person money transfer has boosted incomes of rural recipients through the ease, security, and affordability that allow their relatives or friends in urban centers to send money home more frequently. Another important consideration is that Kenya is one of several countries in sub-Saharan Africa where remittances from members of the diaspora living in Europe, the Middle East and the US form a crucial source of foreign currency. Mobile phone-based money transfer and banking solutions have been recognised as the avenue to take banking services to people outside the formal financial industry. The services are cheaper than conventional banking, which comes with expenses the poor could not afford. The informal sector of the economy thus has the potential to save money formally and to do so in a safe and productive way, earning interest, and not sitting idle and vulnerable under mattresses or at the bottom of dustbins.
In essence, “Mobile Money” is cash converted to electronic form, stored in a virtual account in the SIM card. Mobile Money solutions such as M-PESA, ZAP, YU Cash and Orange Money run on a SIM Application Toolkit, commonly referred to as STK. STK is a standard of the GSM system which enables the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) to initiate actions which can be used for various value-added services. The SIM Application Toolkit consists of a set of commands programmed into the SIM which define how the SIM should interact directly with the outside world and initiates commands independently of the handset and the network. This enables the SIM to build up an interactive exchange between a network application and the end user and access, or control access to, the network. The SIM also gives commands to the handset such as displaying menus and/or asking for user input. Designed as a single application environment, the STK can be started during the initial power up of the SIM card and is especially suited to low level applications with simple user interfaces. Mobile money transfer systems are already being used to allow bulk disbursement of payments from organizations to employees, and have been used to allow the disbursement and repayment of micro loans.
On the other hand, Mobile Banking such as KCB Connect, Hello Money and Easy24, utilizes a unique platform known as Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). USSD is a protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the service provider's computers. USSD can be used for WAP browsing, prepaid callback service, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network. USSD messages are up to 182 alphanumeric characters in length. Unlike Short Message Service (SMS) messages, USSD messages create a real-time connection during a USSD session. The connection remains open, allowing a two-way exchange of a sequence of data. This makes USSD more responsive than services that use SMS. It is highly user-friendly, and provides an extremely convenient system for customers to access virtual account in real time. Services available with mobile banking include: Check their bank balance; View a mini bank statement; Change PIN; Request Bank Statements; Transfer of Funds in-between personal accounts and nominated accounts; Pay utility bills – Pay your Power/ Water /Satellite TV; Enquire on FX rates; Top-up their mobile phone balance; and Request a cheque book. Mobile banking services have various benefits to the population, including increased productivity and capital flows, helping to manage cashflow as well as enhancing management of erratic incomes.
Another growing trend in the Kenyan market is development of e-commerce and Internet banking solutions such as Rupu, Jambopay, PesaPal, Straight 2 Bank and Barclays Integrator. These solutions increase efficiency since the merchant is a technology solution rather than a physical person or premises, allowing exchange of goods or services in a virtual environment. Services available through the Internet Banking solution include: Inter Account transfers; EFT payments; Local EFT payments to other banks; Cross Currency payments; Direct Debit Payments; Recurring Payments; Urgent Payments (RTGS); and Electronic Cheque Payments. Commercial banks that have already deployed Internet banking are; Barclays Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, African Banking Corporation, Bank of India, Chase Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa, Consolidated Bank, Cooperative Bank of Kenya, Diamond Trust Bank, Oriental Commercial Bank, Paramount Universal Bank, Prime Bank, Standard Chartered, Trans National Bank, CFC Stanbic Bank, Ecobank Kenya Ltd, Equatorial Commercial Bank Ltd, Equity Bank Ltd, Family Bank, Fidelity Bank, I & M Bank, Middle East Bank (K) Ltd, National Bank of Kenya and NIC Bank. Judging by the enthusiasm in the market, Kenya may be heading to an economy where less tangible money is in circulation.
In essence, “Mobile Money” is cash converted to electronic form, stored in a virtual account in the SIM card. Mobile Money solutions such as M-PESA, ZAP, YU Cash and Orange Money run on a SIM Application Toolkit, commonly referred to as STK. STK is a standard of the GSM system which enables the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) to initiate actions which can be used for various value-added services. The SIM Application Toolkit consists of a set of commands programmed into the SIM which define how the SIM should interact directly with the outside world and initiates commands independently of the handset and the network. This enables the SIM to build up an interactive exchange between a network application and the end user and access, or control access to, the network. The SIM also gives commands to the handset such as displaying menus and/or asking for user input. Designed as a single application environment, the STK can be started during the initial power up of the SIM card and is especially suited to low level applications with simple user interfaces. Mobile money transfer systems are already being used to allow bulk disbursement of payments from organizations to employees, and have been used to allow the disbursement and repayment of micro loans.
On the other hand, Mobile Banking such as KCB Connect, Hello Money and Easy24, utilizes a unique platform known as Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD). USSD is a protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the service provider's computers. USSD can be used for WAP browsing, prepaid callback service, location-based content services, menu-based information services, and as part of configuring the phone on the network. USSD messages are up to 182 alphanumeric characters in length. Unlike Short Message Service (SMS) messages, USSD messages create a real-time connection during a USSD session. The connection remains open, allowing a two-way exchange of a sequence of data. This makes USSD more responsive than services that use SMS. It is highly user-friendly, and provides an extremely convenient system for customers to access virtual account in real time. Services available with mobile banking include: Check their bank balance; View a mini bank statement; Change PIN; Request Bank Statements; Transfer of Funds in-between personal accounts and nominated accounts; Pay utility bills – Pay your Power/ Water /Satellite TV; Enquire on FX rates; Top-up their mobile phone balance; and Request a cheque book. Mobile banking services have various benefits to the population, including increased productivity and capital flows, helping to manage cashflow as well as enhancing management of erratic incomes.
Another growing trend in the Kenyan market is development of e-commerce and Internet banking solutions such as Rupu, Jambopay, PesaPal, Straight 2 Bank and Barclays Integrator. These solutions increase efficiency since the merchant is a technology solution rather than a physical person or premises, allowing exchange of goods or services in a virtual environment. Services available through the Internet Banking solution include: Inter Account transfers; EFT payments; Local EFT payments to other banks; Cross Currency payments; Direct Debit Payments; Recurring Payments; Urgent Payments (RTGS); and Electronic Cheque Payments. Commercial banks that have already deployed Internet banking are; Barclays Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, African Banking Corporation, Bank of India, Chase Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa, Consolidated Bank, Cooperative Bank of Kenya, Diamond Trust Bank, Oriental Commercial Bank, Paramount Universal Bank, Prime Bank, Standard Chartered, Trans National Bank, CFC Stanbic Bank, Ecobank Kenya Ltd, Equatorial Commercial Bank Ltd, Equity Bank Ltd, Family Bank, Fidelity Bank, I & M Bank, Middle East Bank (K) Ltd, National Bank of Kenya and NIC Bank. Judging by the enthusiasm in the market, Kenya may be heading to an economy where less tangible money is in circulation.
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