unan - unimib meeting, july 2009

Perché un nuovo laboratorio?UNAN – UNIMIB Meetingon ICT

Roberto Polillopolillo@disco.unimib.it

UNAN, 31 July 2009

My goal

Share with you the philosophy of my present activities in UNIMIB

Learn about you and learn from your comments

Understand how we can cooperate, in the framework of UNAN-UNIMIB relationship

Proposed agenda

The context at UNIMIB Who I am TangoLab@DISCO The “new” Internet as an enabler Some tentative conclusions Your comments

1. The context at UNIMIB

DISCO

Dipartimento di Informatica, Sistemistica e Comunicazione of UNIMIB: www.disco.unimib.it

About 110 persons: 12 full prof 15 associate prof 22 researchers 30 PhD students 20 contract researchers 12 admin employees

DISCO: activities

Education: Laurea in Informatica Laurea magistrale in Informatica Laurea magistrale in Teoria e tecnologia della

comunicazione (with Faculty of Psycology)

Research:

Wide range of research, from theoretical computer science to system architecture, to software engineering, to artificial intelligence to bioinformatics

Info: www.disco.unimib.it (in Italian)

Corso di laurea magistrale inTeoria e tecnologia della comunicazione

Started 5 years ago Multi-disciplinary, “maestria” level (2

years) Joint venture between DISCO and Faculty

of Psycology Focus: how new technologies can support

human communication Students come from Informatics or

Communication Sciences

Corso di laurea magistrale inTeoria e tecnologia della comunicazione (II)

2. Who I am

Who I am

My background: Software Engineering Associate Professor since 1974, first at

UNIMI, since 1999 at UNIMIB 35 years experience in software services

industry in Italy

Who I am - presently

Director of Corso di laurea magistrale inTEORIA E TECNOLOGIA DELLA COMUNICAZIONE

In charge of courses on- Human-computer interaction- Web Design- The “new web” (Web 2.0)

Director of the new laboratory TangoLab@DISCO

My story

Engineering methods for software quality

Quality of human-computer interaction

The Internet and the Web to support human activities and communication

(Now) The “New Web” to support non-profit orgs and international cooperation

Who I am NOT

A system engineer (too old…) An expert in International Cooperation An expert of Nicaragua (but own an

home in Managua since 2007) A Spanish-language speaker

Therefore…

This is not a “lesson”, is a basis for discussion

Ideas are still in draft, and need to be refined

I am very interested in your help

3. TangoLab@DISCO

TangoLab@DISCO

“Technology Assistance to Non-Governmental Organizations Laboratory”

Started beginning 2009 Container of thesis in Informatics & Teoria

e tecnologia della comunicazione

TangoLab Mission

Identify, design & prototype innovative, effective, low-cost and sustainable ICT solutions, for no-profit orgs and their “customers” – and promote their use

TangoLab: motivation (1)

Too many emphasis on ICT gadgets around…especially in Human-Computer Interaction

Information & Communications Technologies must concentrate on important goals

ICT students must understand it, and be able to choose their goals accordingly

Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day

http://www.globalissues.org

Do we really want to design ICT solutions only for these?

TangoLab: motivation (2) ICT used by Non-Governmental Orgs often “rudimentary”

- no money- no know-how- focus on main organization goals

But ICT can produce powerful “leverage” effects- web site- domain specific applications- communications, communications, communications

Example

TangoLab survey of the quality of web sites of the Italian ONG recognized by Foreign Ministry (About 240)

No site

Rudimentary

Acceptable

Good

Very good

17%

23%43%

13%3%

“Now”, change we can!

In very recent years, entrance barriers to ICT have dramatically lowered Low-cost broadband internet connectivity Low-cost mobile telephony (services and devices) FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open/Source/Software) “Free” utility computing (software services over the net) “Web 2.0” applications Integration technologies Easy of use

TangoLab: Philosophy

No software development, but identification and integration of free software components

No set up of ICT infrastructures, but use of utility computing

The internet as the primary enabler Simple, usable, low cost and sustainable solutions Requirements and field testing through

partnerships with NGOs All results freely reusable

4. The “new” ICT as an enabler

Main points

Cellphones & PC penetration Broadband Internet connections FLOSS

(Free/Libre/Open/Source/Software) Utility computing Web 2.0 applications Integration (“Mashup”) technologies

The “explosion” of cellular phones

In 2007: 1 billion cellphones (vs 400 millions PC)

sold worldwide

In 2009: 90% of world population can have access

to a cellular phone

Source: United Nations

4.1 billions subscribers!

61% from 19% in 2002

Almost 1 out of 4 people

uses the Internet

Broadband still very low

No growth

Source: ITU 2009

MOBILE CELLULAR DIVIDE

IS SHRINKING

2008: 40% penetration!

Higher growth

(from 1% 2000 to 28%

2008)

+32% 2006/07

INTERNET PENETRATION IN DEVELOPING

COUNTRIES STILL LOW AT

13%

…especially in Africa at

5%

Internet broadband

Is “extremely” importantITU: “Many of the most effective applications and services that can foster development are only available through a high-speed Internet connection (e.g. e-commerce, e-government, e-banking)”

It is difficult to provide in developing countries, because of limited availability of fixed networks

But mobile broadband has a major potential to expand…

…even to provide broadband to PC

Fixed broadband subscribers

Mobile broadband subscribers

2% vs 20%

IDI (ICT Development Index) Developed by ITU to compare ICT

advancement in more than 150 countries worldwide

Recently calculated for 2002 and 2007 Can be found in

ITU, Measuring the Information Society, 2009 http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/material/IDI2009_w5.pdf

ITU model3 stages in the evolution towards the information society

Source: ITU

1 2 3

IDI OF CENTRO-AMERICA COUNTRIES

Source of data: ITU

On IDI, Honduras moved 12 places up from 2002 Nicaragua moved 1 place up from 2002

Enablers: FLOSS

FLOSS=Free/Libre/Open/Source/Software

Important example: software tools to develop web sites No programming skills needed Free use, in some cases free hosting

Enablers: Utility computing Computing power delivered through the

internet No local infrastructure needed, except access

(low cost PC) and broadband internet connection

Evolution40

2. Web 1.0

Provider hosting my site with my data

1. Local infrastructure

My data and applications

3. Web 2.0

My data, and 3d party applications as a service

broadband

Low cost PC

Utility computing: examples

Traditional web hosting services Storage services

Examples: DropBox, … Online office applications

Examples: Google Docs Repositories

Examples: flickr, youtube, slideshare, … Online applications (any type)

Example: private social networks platforms

Example: www.ning.com Allow building of private social networks No programming skills needed Not FLOSS, but low-cost hosting service

Enablers: Web 2.0 applications The Internet of the past was essentially:

mail + read-only Web (“Web 1.0”)

Now the user can communicate, create and share content (“Web 2.0”)

From the web as a network of sites..… to the web as a network of people

Enablers: “mashup” technologies Software technologies to mix existing

software components and services to create new applications

Internet, circa 1990

- A “telephone network, with PC’s instead of telephones”- Main application: email

Internet, circa 1995+

- A network of linked web sites- Main application: read-only Web

Internet, circa 2005+

- A network of people- Main applications: social networks, user-generated content, cooperative work (e.g.Wikipedia)

48Example: a network of “friends” in Facebook

Internet, circa 2010+

“The network is the computer”

- A network of services

5. Some tentative conclusions

(as a basis for discussion)

One

ICT is changing fast…

My grandaddy (born 1883) typewriter: I learned typing on it

Two

People is changing slowly… …but the world is getting younger and

younger …and the new generations have grown

(and will grow) with technology

We must target the new generation

Three

The “new” Web can give a lot of value…

…for a low cost

Four

The main enabler is broadband mobile access

All this suggest the following strategy

Invest in broadband mobile access, not in software development

The software is there, and is (almost) free Develop skills to identify, mix and integrate

existing software and services Take advantage of utility computing to

avoid building local infrastructures Concentrate on applications requirements,

prototyping and experimentation Distribute results over the net

I would be very interested in working with you to improve

this analysis

Thank you