9 Nov 2010

Global Pulse Labs: Building Innovation Hubs at the Country Level

In an increasingly interdependent and fast-changing world where crises emerge without warning, speed around the world and impact vulnerable populations in complex and long-lasting ways, leaders need not only new tools but also the means to continuously improve their capacities to adapt to new challenges.

The Global Pulse Initiative recognizes that using local innovation is key to the success of Global Pulse. That is why it is launching a lab-based approach to technology innovation, both at UN Headquarters and in the developing countries, where the energy and creative thinking needed to make Global Pulse a success will be found. To this end, Global Pulse’s country-level deployment strategy is centered on the concept of an innovation laboratory, or Pulse Lab.

The Pulse Lab is the means by which Global Pulse listens to the voices of the vulnerable - not only for what they have to say about their needs, but also for their experiences, their innovative ideas, and their knowledge of what works, what doesn’t, and why.

A network of five Pulse Labs will be established in selected countries by the end of  2012. Intended to function as semi-independent entities, they will serve as a hub for public-private partnerships, cross-disciplinary learning, and more effective collaboration with academic institutions, UN Agencies, NGOs, and local communities. The Labs will develop partnerships to build national capacity for innovation in data collection, real-time information analysis, and evidence-based decision-making. This will assist governments to develop policy and use resources efficiently and effectively to protect vulnerable populations with targeted responses. In time, a Pulse Lab will become a national brain trust and a center of excellence in innovation for crisis resilience.

The Pulse Lab is a physical facility housing a multi-disciplinary team of up to 20 people whose mission is to use innovation to support the work of Government in the use of emerging technologies for the protection of vulnerable populations. The Lab can be set up as an autonomous private-sector organization, as part of a university or academic institution, as part of a UN Agency country office, as a semi-autonomous government entity, as a unit in a government ministry, or as a long-term project within a technical partner in the region.

The Pulse Lab will develop a locally-contextualised implementation of the Pulse technology platform in the local language. Through a process of requirements gathering, rapid technology prototyping, field experimentation and rigorous evaluation, the Pulse Lab team of development practitioners, policy experts and technologists work closely with national institutions to strengthen capacity for early detection of impacts and rapid and effective policy responses.  They will work closely with both national and local government to identify gaps and opportunities, and use iterative rapid prototyping to develop a robust and scalable approach to monitor crisis impact and vulnerability.

The country-specific Pulse Lab will be established initially as a funded autonomous public/private partnership that over time must develop a path to sustainability.

Pulse Lab Deliverables within 18 month of Inception:

  1. Adapt the Pulse Analytical Framework to the national context
  2. Develop an overall approach to defining indicators and define an initial set of core national and sub-national impact and vulnerability indicators
  3. Understand gaps in current data collection efforts, current technological capacities, and design ways to bridge those gaps
  4. Establish strategic partnerships with mobile phone carriers and other relevant commercial services providers
  5. Customize the Pulse Platform to meet national requirements and translate it into priority national languages
  6. Identify relevant national information systems already in use nationally and develop a roadmap for integration
  7. Develop a practical framework for monitoring and evaluating progress, together with the means to highlight and share lessons learned and best practices
5 Nov 2010

Dancing out of time: Thoughts on asynchronous communication

Interesting article by Terry Jones of O'Reilly Radar on why asynchronous communication scales, and what we can do with that power.

I find it useful to try to think clearly about communication systems. This includes the ways in which they are synchronous or asynchronous (or a mixture), and the disruption that occurs when new technology allows us to replace synchronous systems with asynchronous ones, or to deliver new forms of asynchronous communication.

This post is the first of a two-part series. Below, I take a look at the core differences between synchronous and asynchronous techniques, and I suggest an alternative to traditional synchronous API-based communication between applications. Part two addresses Tim O'Reilly's question: "Where is the Web 2.0 address book?"

http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/10/dancing-out-of-time-thoughts-o.html

 

5 Nov 2010

Acoustic Sensors as Early Warning System for Landslides

New technology is being used to monitor soil acoustics to determine when a landslide is imminent. The system consists of a network of sensors, buried across a hillside considered a risk. As soil moves within the hillside, it creates noise – the more the significant the movement, the louder the noise.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/news-releases/2010/164_ALARMS.html

(from PSFK's ‘Real-Time’ Information Project for Global Pulse)

4 Nov 2010

Global Pulse and PSFK partner for Real-Time Information Project

PSFK and Global Pulse are partnering to produce a report on trends in real-time information. Over the past two weeks, PSFK gathered approximately 400 pieces of data identifying new information monitoring methods that provide rapid understanding of situations and provide decision makers with the real-time information they need.

We will be featuring some examples with brief descriptions to provide early guidance on the direction of the research.

Logo-psfk

4 Nov 2010

The Digital Disruption: Connectivity and the diffusion of power

Interesting article by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen of Google:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66781/eric-schmidt-and-jared-cohen/the-digital-disruption

Summary: Increased connectivity allows for the spread of liberal, open values but also poses a number of dangers. To foster the free flow of information and challenge authoritarian regimes, democratic states will have to learn to create alliances with people and companies at the forefront of the information revolution.

3 Nov 2010

Must see: Journalism in the Age of Data

Journalists are coping with the rising information flood by borrowing data visualization techniques from computer scientists, researchers and artists. Some newsrooms are already beginning to retool their staffs and systems to prepare for a future in which data becomes a medium. But how do we communicate with data, how can traditional narratives be fused with sophisticated, interactive information displays?

Produced by the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford.

Interviews include BBC News, Nicholas Felton, Ben Fry, Google, Jeff Heer, Nigel Holmes, Jonathan Jarvis, Aaron Koblin, MSNBC, The New York Times Graphics Division (e.g. Stephen Duenes and Amanda Cox), The Wall Street Journal, Eric Rodenbeck (Stamen Design), Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg, and many many more...

Journalism in the Age of Data

Global Pulse's Posterous

Harnessing innovation to protect the vulnerable. Views expressed are not representative of those of the United Nations.

Contributors

Chris van der Walt