The Rise of the Wireless Internet

The introduction of the mobile phone revolutionised the way people traditionally communicated with one another. People suddenly became accessible independent of their location, at any time of the day or week. A salesperson in business for instance, who was always on the road could now be reached and could in turn make phone calls conveniently between customer meetings. Bundled with the basic mobile voice service was messaging in the form of voice or text. The latter has especially proven to be a useful and cost-effective method for conveying a short message. Collectively residential and business mobile subscribers use the short message service (SMS) to send millions of text messages per day (each not more than 160 characters in length). Information \u27push and pull\u27 services in the form of SMS, such as the latest sports results or betting odds, are now commonplace value-added features offered by second-generation (2G) mobile service providers

Self-guided bullets won\u27t stuff up, but what about the grunts and drones firing them?

At the beginning of this year Sandia Labs in the United States announced it had patented a design for a self-guided bullet that could help soldiers at war. The technology is expected to prevent the need for targeted air strikes that could kill innocent people while criminals take cover in their midst. This super self-guided bullet can hit laser-designated targets accurately to around 2,000 metres. An example of this capability can be found in the XM25 rifle. To rephrase the Cold War notion of limited nuclear warfare , we could now say with these latest developments to the war-fighting repertoire that we have the fundamental means for limited person warfare . Point at your target using the rifle\u27s laser rangefinder, pull the trigger and walk away assured that the kill has taken place, given the bullet detonates at the exact distance to the obstruction or strategically nearby. This technology can overcome trenches or urban theatre barricades such as walls

Israel, Palestine and the benefits of waging war through Twitter

Warfare, as we know, has gone digital, its volleys and counterattacks rattled out 140 characters at a time. Historically, nation states with superior military prowess have been in a position of influence, and are often dubbed superpowers. But in the post Cold War era, such geopolitical giants have not had a monopoly in terms of technological interventionism. Terrorist regimes have lifted the veil on conventional warfare and sought non-traditional methods to attack their counterparts. So-called rogue states , such as Iran and North Korea, have been accused of hiding weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and developing nuclear programs. Today asymmetrical attacks can have the same psychological impact as a missile strike - we need only evoke the downing of the Twin Towers as a prime example. A state that has limited capital to fund its wars and limited resources to equip its armed forces does not necessarily need heavy artillery and sophisticated weaponry. Unconventional warfare can wreak havoc

The proliferation of identification techniques for citizens throughout the ages

Manual identification techniques date back to ancient times, however the need to identify individuals has heightened particularly since the Industrial Revolution. This paper traces the use of identification techniques throughout the ages and focuses on the growing importance of citizen identification (ID) by governments. The paper uses a historical approach beginning with manual techniques such as tattoos, through to more recent automatic identification (auto-ID) techniques such as smart cards and biometrics. Data was collected primarily through qualitative document analysis, and the paper contains thick description typical of a narrative. The findings indicate that identification techniques born for one purpose have gradually found their way into alternate applications, and in some instances have been misused altogether. There is also strong evidence to suggest that governments are moving away from localized identification schemes to more global systems based on universal lifetime identifiers (ULI)

Control, trust, privacy, and security: evaluating location-based services

Location-based services (LBS) are those applications that utilize the position of an end-user, animal, or thing based on a given device (handheld, wearable, or implanted), for a particular purpose. This article uses scenario planning to identify the possible risks related to location-based services in the context of security and privacy. The original contribution of this article is that the dilemma has been related specifically to LBS, under the privacy-security dichotomy. Here, each side of the dichotomy is divided into three key components that combine to greatly magnify risk. Removing one or more components for each set decreases the privacy or security risk. Where more elements are present in conjunction, the risk is increased

The Rise and Fall of Digital Music Distribution Services: a Cross-Case Comparison of MP3.com, Napster and Kazaa

The aim of this research is to assess the role of digital music distribution services in the downturn and restructuring of the music industry. The research was bound by the systems of innovation conceptual framework and explores the dynamics between the technical, social, legal and economic dimensions with the purpose of understanding how the traditional supply chain has changed. The cases of MP3.com, Napster and Kazaa are studied for their historical significance and the sheer breadth of issues they bring to the fore. Data was collected using documentation review and interviews. The findings of the research show that the creation of digital music distribution services initially resulted in disintermediation. However, it was not long before record companies reintermediated into the supply chain with pay-per-download (PPD) and subscription payment schemes. Today, the law seems to be catching up with entities that illegally distribute music but it has not ceased the development of newer online establishments that are technically not in breach of legislation

Smart Environments & The Convergence of the Veillances: Privacy Violations to Consider

As a vast array of embedded smart devices will connect to the IoT (Internet of Things), society is rapidly moving into the unchartered territory of Pervasive Technology. Networks of devices will be unobtrusive; thereby freeing humans from the effort of human-to-machine (H2M) interactions, as well as elements of everyday decision-making. Technology will be far more intelligent and ubiquitous, thinking and acting for us behind the lines of visibility. The purpose of this paper is to probe the attributes of pervasive technologies (e.g. smart environments) within the context of the rapidly converging four veillances (i.e. surveillance, dataveillance, sousveillance, and uberveillance), so as to critically identify potential risk events of these processes. The authors utilized a philosophical research approach with intellectual analysis taking into account a framework of privacy border crossings violations for humans so as to yield value judgments and thereby generate discussion in the technology community

Introducing location-based services into information technology curriculum: reflections on practice

This paper describes how location-based services (LBS) was introduced into the information technology curriculum at the University of Wollongong in 2004. The inquiry is based on two academic reflections on practice. The results indicate that students found the course experience both intellectually challenging and rewarding. Academics linked to the project found the topic aligned well to their research interests and stimulated new ideas for grant applications. And industry representatives found the experience advantageous, a vehicle for collaboration, and subsequently a way to give something back to their local community. In summary the dynamic exchange of knowledge between staff, students, and industry was very successful

Microchip implants for humans as unique identifiers: a case study on VeriChip

Microchip implants for humans are not new. The installation of pacemakers in humans and a great number of other medical innovations for prosthesis are now considered straightforward procedures. Today we have even realised the potential for microchip implants to be embedded inside the body of humans for the purpose of acting as unique lifetime identifiers (ULI). Tiny radiofrequency identification (RFID) devices are now being utilised to store a unique 16-digit identification number

Infrastructure planning through geosocial intelligence: using Twitter as a platform for rapid assessment and civic co-management during flooding in Jakarta

The ability to collect data using sensor-based technologies is increasing within a public technical means. As governments in rapidly-urbanising developing nations seek to address the climatic, social and economic challenges of the 21st century, there is a progressive requirement to map and articulate civil infrastructure. When a local government needs to proactively react to impending and disruptive phenomena they increasingly look to data and technology to help them manage and respond accordingly. Mobile social media, in a citizens-as-sensors paradigm, offers the potential to collect data with which to advance our capacity to understand and promote resilience of cities to both extreme weather events as a result of climate change and to long-term infrastructure transformation as a process of climate adaptation. Location-based social media, in a big-data context, can drive rapid assessment processes of affected areas, and emerging patterns and trends can be revealing about next steps for situational management. This paper emphasises the positive uses of smart systems, drawing on research of infrastructure analysis using geosocial intelligence, in response to seasonal flooding in the city of Jakarta, Indonesia. Using a series of real-world examples, we argue that data collected from the field can be secured, anonymised and encrypted to support improved planning and civic co-management of megacities. The factors that affect such bi-directional information flows need to be built on sound principles of basic needs, privacy, and trust at the individual, neighbourhood and city scales