Conference on Cities and ICT
In line with the ICT theme for this week (week 9), there is a conference this fall on "Societies and Cities in the Age of Instant Access" at the University of Utah. The keynote address is on "smart mobs", an interesting topic in terms of our "sim cities and the urban imagination" theme. Info below:
http://www.geog.utah.edu/instant_access/
We are on the verge of what many are calling the “second information revolution,” based on ubiquitous access to both computing and information. Handheld communication devices will become portable and even wearable remote control devices for both the social and physical worlds. At the same time, access to information will likely flourish, with an explosion in the volumes of data collected and distributed by these new devices—volumes of information about people delivered to more and more people, in new ways. The technologies of instant access have potential to transform dramatically our lives, cities, societies and economies much like the automobile changed our world in the previous century.
This research symposium will bring together leading international experts who will address and discuss issues surrounding the impact of instant access on social organization, institutions, urban morphology, heath and well-being, social justice and social exclusion.
http://www.geog.utah.edu/instant_access/
We are on the verge of what many are calling the “second information revolution,” based on ubiquitous access to both computing and information. Handheld communication devices will become portable and even wearable remote control devices for both the social and physical worlds. At the same time, access to information will likely flourish, with an explosion in the volumes of data collected and distributed by these new devices—volumes of information about people delivered to more and more people, in new ways. The technologies of instant access have potential to transform dramatically our lives, cities, societies and economies much like the automobile changed our world in the previous century.
This research symposium will bring together leading international experts who will address and discuss issues surrounding the impact of instant access on social organization, institutions, urban morphology, heath and well-being, social justice and social exclusion.
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Hey, I wanted to post this email I got from a friend of a friend in Sri Lanka. He is helping build temporary housing in the aftermath of the tsunami. It is some pretty cool stuff he's doing and the photos are mind boggling because of the reality of the situation. Here it goes...
What’s up, y’all?
>
>I hope this finds you in good health and spirits. If you are, know
> that there are a few on this list that aren’t, so take a minute
> sometime today to think about and appreciate that….that your reality
> could very easily be drastically different. That is what I have been
> reminded of everyday that I have been here, and I am sure that it will
> change the way I look at things from here on out as my ox cart
> continues to plow through the field of opportunities that come my way.
> I have learned that things like health, security, love, freedom, and
> food are not rights…they are luxuries.
> In the States, we luckily and naively tend to believe otherwise until
>
>something happens in our own life that prompts us to appreciate what we
> still have through our longing of what we have lost. Through their
> persevering, these people have taught me volumes about the strength of
> the human spirit and how to carry on when there is seemingly no reason
> to. Almost on a daily basis I have shaken my head in perplexed
> curiosity while contemplating how in the world I would handle the very
> same situation. Masochistically I wonder how many times each person
> must have thought, in their own way, “better you than me” when hearing
> the dismal plight of another. Truth be told, on some level I guess I
> have done the same thing; reflecting on what I still have and what
> could have been so easily taken away if I had been a tourist who was
> intrigued enough to venture out to see some fish flopping about on the
> reef. So, as I get ready to return to “the real world” on March 7th,
> (which for me now makes the ‘reality’ TV boom in our country both sad
> and laughable) I take with me an awareness that my life ain’t so
> bad….but it sure could be.
>
>Alright, here’s the meat: Thanks to some generous responses to my
> pleas for help, the temporary housing project idea I threw out a
> couple of weeks ago is now well underway. Since I last wrote, I have
> prepared, presented, received permission for, and have begun
> construction on a proposal to build 40+ temporary homes and a
> community center on land where an elementary school used to reside
> pre-tsunami. The work has been both challenging and fun, requiring
> me to do everything from walking political lines I know nothing about
> to shovelling sand into a truck at a ridiculous rate to keep up with
> some skinny ass kid 15 years my younger. The help I have received has
> been incredible, and there is no way I could have even started this
> without the assistance of AED’s tireless staff, as well as a gang of
> other individual, local, regional and international folks that have
> come through big time.
>
>As I have painfully learned, 40+ houses don’t just get built.
> Construction often takes more time than you have, and that certainly
> has been the case with what I am affectionately referring to as
> “Project Building Blocks” (for those of you who remember that name
> from a previous endeavor….good things never die!). As a result, the
> project will not be done before I have to return stateside (to honor a
> 1-day, non-rescheduable work agreement I made prior to leaving).
> Therefore……(drum roll)……I will be returning to Sri Lanka on March 13
> to finish what my naïve ass started. Now I don’t know much about
> much, but 80+ hours of travel in 6 days can’t be good for the old body
> clock, but I realize that that is a much smaller price to pay than not
> being here to see this thing through….both for the project’s sake and
> my own. Besides, I am having too much fun over here to have it end so
> quickly anyway.
>Quick Thoughts and Observations:
>
>-There were two separate times I left some of my belongings openly on a
> table to “reserve” my spot upon my return from the buffet table, only
> to find someone quite happily enjoying their meal amidst my stuff once
> I retuned. I then realized that I was speaking a non-verbal language
> that the gentleman knew nothing about, but not before I get a little
> heated, of course. This has happened on several occasions, like when
> I think they are shooing me away when they are really calling me over
> to them. The ambiguous bobble-head affirmation is still my favorite,
> though.
>
>-A snapshot from one of my daily driving experiences told thru the
> passengers and vehicles around me: a three-wheeled tuk tuk (taxi) full
> of caged chickens, a bus crammed full of passengers that slows down
> but will not actually stop to pick up and let off passengers, and a
> small motorcycle being ridden by a family of four (infant and toddler
> without helmets).
>
>-Almost every Buddhist driver I have hired will fold his hands in
> prayer as we pass a temple or actually stop to make a monetary
> donation. There is a very popular temple at the end of a bridge in a
> town called Kalutura where it is fascinating to not only watch, but
> actually be a part of people sporadically stopping their cars in the
> middle of the road to run to a donation box. I always expect it to be
> some sort of controlled chaos, but unfortunately it is always much
> more nonchalant than that.
>
>-they really celebrate the death of loved ones here. There are 7 day,
> 3 month, 6 month, and annual obituaries placed in most of the papers,
> and it is not uncommon to see a picture, date, and pleasantry
> acknowledging the person who has died.
>
>-no one is openly sad about what has gone on…death and struggles in the
> third world are common place. However, when re-telling their own
> story, people appear to be reliving it as if it were in the process of
> happening, and the terror and accompanying sadness is never far behind
> the beautiful smile that conceals them . The mental health of the
> affected cultures will be extremely important to keep an eye on down
> the road. Unfortunately due to language barriers and cultural
> machismo, there are not enough respective doctors or willing patients
> for true healing to take place.
>
>-Politics here are a joke. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t send money to
> any government, including our own if you expect it to help. If you
> do, know that your money has a better chance of actually getting to
> the people if you make paper airplanes out of $100 bills and throw
> them out of your window towards the east. What you can do is research
> and support an existing NGO that understands the importance of
> international transparency guidelines. As far as NGO’s go…the smaller
> the better is what my experience has shown me. The big boys tend to
> get in their own way and are just as bureaucratical as the government,
> and if I see another $80K USD Range Rover or Land Cruiser with UNICEF,
> World Food Program, or Save the Children on it, I am going to puke.
> It is merely politics played in another arena, and I even taken part
> in the lobbying process that many of them are being forced to play due
> to a decreasing amount of playing field. They need to spend their
> donors’ money, and they are becoming increasingly more “creative” in
> finding was to get it done.
>
>-I peed in a urinal that had no plumbing attached….the urine just
> dropped straight down into a trough that ran out of the back of the
> restaurant to God knows where. I still do not know why it was set up
> that way, but I have vowed that if I ever go back to that restaurant,
> I will pee straight into the trough in an act of defiance.
>
>-Speaking of bodily functions, Sri Lankans eat with their right hand
> (although in the big cities, like Colombo, people are “selling out” and
> slowly becoming civilized by using flatware. I actually like it, and
> there is a technique to it believe it or not. I can’t wait to bust
> out the first Sunday night dinner Sri Lnakan style and watch everyone
> end up a mess like I did the first week or so I was here. The left
> hand is reserved for other activities involving bodily functions, and
> its not until you realize that they do not use toilet paper that I got
> a little grossed out…especially after someone pointed out to me that
> the long, pinkie nail was not used for cocaine, but rather as a
> “toilet paper facilitation tool”, if you will.
>
>-hotels are central meeting places for some very interesting people
> from all over the world. I have seen individuals and/or groups of
> people from every corner of the world, and things like turbans,
> sarees, authentic henna tattoos, cloaks, and even masks no longer turn
> my head. Every travel book about this portion of the world
> (especially in the middle east and Africa) I have read seems to
> mention and glorify the goings on of a hotel…they seem to be central
> to many of the stories. After being here and experiencing a much more
> watered down version of that, I find myself able to not only imagine
> what those places are like, but wanting to be a part of it. Rafael,
> the French medical student out in the east has said to me on several
> occasions. “ I like to go where it happens.” Two months in a refugee
> camp in an LTTE controlled area along with ensuing trips to Nepal and
> Afghanistan support that statement, and part of me understands exactly
> what it is about those trips that is seductive to him. I feel like
> that may be something to explore down the road, and Africa and its
> AIDS crisis may be in my near future. Who knows, though, I could just
> as easily end up fishing instead.
>
>-saw the after effects of a bus/van crash that happened 1km from where
> we are building. When I saw the vehicles, I immediately knew that
> with the way the front seat areas had completely disappeared, no one
> had lived. I was later told that 3 died, including both drivers, and
> 10 passengers of the bus were hospitalised in critical condition. In
> small communities, word of mouth is incredible, and news of this crash
> passed up and down the coast with incredible quickness.
>
>-Hindi movies are as big over here as Holly wood movies are to us in
> the states. “Bollywood” turns out some doozies, and I thought I was
> going crazy on the plane ride over here when the actors commonly
> started a sentence in Hindi and finished it in English…with no
> apparent rhyme or reason as to when or why they did it. This was
> sporadically interrupted by a 10 minute music video-esque vignette
> that was beyond cheesy. Then suddenly, it ended as quickly as it
> began, and I found myself less intrigued about what was happening than
> I was about why they happended. I have to admit, though, it was a
> pretty good movie, even though at the end of this long love story…one
> in which this dude had scorned his family, unprecedentedly (not a word
> but it works) turned down an arranged marriage, secretly met and
> longed for this woman, finally gets her in the end….and they hug!
> There is no sexual anything in their movies, and that is
> simultaneously frustrating and cute. (fellas, please give me a pass on
> that last sentence).
>
>-The LTTE situation in the east is brewing big time. There was a
> fire-fight between them and another radical faction (not the
> government) a mere 50 meters outside of the Kirimichi Camp where we
> built the school a few weeks back! Apparently several soldiers from
> both sides were killed and every white person within 100 km has left
> the area. There is some small chatter that some of the tsunami money
> is being used by the President to fund the smaller faction in an
> effort to further weaken the LTTE. These circumstances are reminding
> many of a situation years back in which it was proved that the
> government killed a highly respected military official in an effort to
> piss them off so that they would help the government eradicate a
> young terrorist organization that was gaining political power and
> popularity with the people.
>
>-when shaking hands, men will sometimes lightly hold your hand for as
> long you let them, and apparently have no idea what to do with western
> style handshakes. They are also innocently affectionate with each
> other (i.e. holding hands while crossing the street, walking with
> their arm around each other, etc). I did not know it was customary to
> French kiss any man wearing leather pants and a tank top, however, but
> I have finally gotten used to it. Cultural differences sure are
> interesting.
>
>Well, that’s it for now. I’ll be home soon (sort of), and I look
> forward to catching up with you then. Be well, and thanks a million
> for your help and support. The next time I write will be in 9 days
> when I am back sitting in this very same chair at the business center
> in the lobby of the Galadari Hotel….after a much needed, albeit short
> trip home.
>
>Picture link is below, and as always, copy and paste into your browser
> and log on. Hope you enjoy.
>
>http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=c7lrm51.3y6rxxat&x=1&y=-3qsoej
>
>
>With love and blessing,
>
>Aaron
Prof. Pezzoli has been talking about building sustainable housing in the aftermath of the disaster, but I guess they have to start somewhere. Puts things in a bit of perspective. I think about this post (Conference on Cities) and my fellow student who asked in lecture a few weeks back why technology can't help in certain situations, and I think that the answer may be that not everyone in the world is on the same page when it comes to technology. Obviously we are "fortunate" with what we have, and we may not realize how much farther ahead of the curve we are than third world countries. Check out the photos, they're worth the time.
By S. Cutter, at 1:49 AM
A "second information revolution" i think is important because it is a part of globalization that helps increase our ability to be interconected. I also feel that on a day to day scale it can and has become an invasive part of our lives. It seems that we are all looking for a faster more efficient way of life and way to conduct the buisness of our lives. We are not able to escape this information revolution that will and has undoubtedly changed our lives.
By smaas, at 9:27 AM
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