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IBM Announces IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities

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Tekedia Editors
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IBM has  announced the IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities, a new solution designed to help cities of all sizes gain a holistic view of information across city departments and agencies. By infusing analytical insights into municipal operations through one central point of command, cities will be able to better anticipate problems, respond to crises, and manage resources.

 

That was contained in a press release by the iconic US company.


The Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities, according to IBM will allow cities to use information and analytics to make smarter and more timely decisions, helping local leaders manage a spectrum of events, both planned and unplanned, such as deploying water maintenance crews to repair pumps before they break, alerting fire crews to broken fire hydrants at an emergency scene, or anticipating traffic congestion and preparing redirection scenarios.

 

The Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities can be extended to help support a wide range of integration projects across the city or within agencies and departments. City leaders can adopt service solutions from IBM or IBM Partners that integrate city management of services such as public safety, transportation, water, building and energy management with the Intelligent Operation Center.

 

Examples of city-wide uses supported by the Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities include the management of Public Safety, Transportation and Water.

 

Public Safety: IBM provides real-time analytical solutions that enable public safety professionals to reduce crime, protect first responders and improve citizen services while preserving government budget resources.  Local, state, federal and non-government authorities can harness the intelligence derived from sensors, crime data bases, cameras and integrated communications to make smarter, more timely decisions.   For example, IBM’s video analysis software working with the Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities can instantly detect and respond to physical security threats.  When coupled with video systems from partners such as Cisco Systems, the IBM solution can manage and coordinate video events.

 

Transportation: Traffic is a crucial element of the daily operations of any city. Each year American drivers waste an estimated 3.7 billion hours, the equivalent of 5 days each, sitting in traffic burning 2.3 billion gallons of fuel. Current transportation systems and infrastructures are strained and continue to become even more burdened due to the growing population and increased demands for mobility. IBM uses analytics technologies to provide travelers with real-time traffic information across multiple modes of traffic so that they can choose the best route for their commute. For example, the Intelligent Operations Center allows analysts to anticipate traffic disruptions and model ‘what if” scenarios providing options to minimize traffic congestion.  Automated directives can trigger communication and collaboration across the city departments and out to citizen alerts.

 

Water: There are millions of miles of water pipes hidden beneath cities around the world, many of which are more than 100 years old. Today, up to up to 60 percent of water is lost due to leaky pipes, but with a thoughtful combination of planning and new technology, maintenance and repair of water infrastructure can take a quantum leap.  IBM’s near-real-time analytics can track and report on infrastructure conditions from filtration equipment, water pumps and valves to collection pipes, water storage basins and laboratory equipment.  The ability to monitor these systems in real-time means that potential problems such as a burst water main, a slow leak, a broken pump or a hazardous waste water overflow can be quickly identified and resolved – or even predicted and prevented.  The Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities can also tap into geospatial data to pinpoint the exact location of problem areas.  Over time, increased awareness on water consumption can lead to changes in attitudes, behaviors, and habits that enhance sustainability.

 

Google Steps Up To Help African Artists Manage Their Rights Globally

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Tekedia Editors
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That Africa is rich with talents is an open truth. Many legends have lived and died very poor. They made great music, but never made money out of it. So Google wants to help Africa to make sure that all the artists get rewarded for their works.

 

In a blog entry, Google stated that in “order to address some of these challenges, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), has undertaken a number of initiatives intended to benefit musicians in Africa. Among the initiatives, is a collaboration between WIPO and Google focused on building software that will make it easier, faster, and simpler for musicians and composers in 11 West African countries to get paid for the use of their music worldwide – and help increase their music’s visibility internationally at the same time”

 

According to Google Africa, 11 countries made a move for this and they include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.  With Google as its pro bono technology partner, WIPO will improve its existing rights-management software to do just that.

 

Google concludes in the blog that  the aim “is to make it easier and more efficient for artists to get paid for their work. Performers, composers, record labels and music publishers will be able to register their music and have that information automatically shared and globally accessible”.

 

Google continues to innovate in its efforts to add value in Africa. It would be good to see how this will work  out. The challenge in Africa with copyright is not a technology problem, but a legal one. If you do not have a legal system to enforce the rights, all the technologies will fail.

 

Tekedia thinks only a strong legal system will solve this problem. But never doubt Google because they have proven time over again that they see things beyond where everyone sees.

Internet Access a Human Right, Says The United Nations

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Tekedia Editors
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A United Nations report said that disconnecting people from the internet is a human rights violation and against international law.

 

The report railed against France and the United Kingdom, which have passed laws to remove accused copyright scofflaws from the internet. It also protested blocking internet access to quell political unrest (.pdf).

 

While blocking and filtering measures deny users access to specific content on the Internet, states have also taken measures to cut off access to the Internet entirely. The Special Rapporteur considers cutting off users from internet access, regardless of the justification provided, including on the grounds of violating intellectual property rights law, to be disproportionate and thus a violation of article 19, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 

The Special Rapporteur calls upon all states to ensure that Internet access is maintained at all times, including during times of political unrest. In particular, the Special Rapporteur urges States to repeal or amend existing intellectual copyright laws which permit users to be disconnected from Internet access, and to refrain from adopting such laws.

 

The report summary has contained in part:

 

Chapter III of the report underlines the applicability of international human rights norms and standards on the right to freedom of opinion and expression to the Internet as a communication
medium, and sets out the exceptional circumstances under which the dissemination of
certain types of information may be restricted.

 

Cisco Kenya Expo 2011 – 28/29 June at the Kenyatta International Conference Center

By
Tekedia Editors
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0

 

Kenya Ministry of Information and Communications and Cisco will host  Cisco Kenya Expo 2011, and is scheduled for 28th to the 29th of June at the Kenyatta International Conference Center. This premier education event for IT, networking and communications professionals is being held for the first time in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

The theme of this conference is  “Collaboration and Virtualization beyond Borders”.

 

A statement from Cisco read in full:

 

Hello & Welcome,

It is my pleasure to invite you to the Cisco Expo Kenya Conference to be held from the 28th – 29th June 2011 at the Kenyatta International Conference Center Nairobi, Kenya.

 

Cisco Expo is the premier IT conference dedicated to networking and communications technology in Kenya. Taking place over two days, the conference offers participants a unique platform to further their knowledge and skills through a comprehensive program that addresses strategic and also technical concerns of companies and institutions.

 

This year our theme is collaboration and virtualization beyond borders.

 

Today’s business environment consists of a complex network of customers, colleagues and partners. We believe that companies that use collaborative processes and tools to enable their employees, customers and partners, to communicate anytime, from any location with any device, are able to improve the speed and efficiency of its operations.

 

Cisco Expo Conference 2011 will bring together our existing and potential customers and partners, representatives of state and local authorities and representatives of major players in ICT and other parts of the economy.

 

We look forward to seeing you in Nairobi at the  Cisco Expo Kenya 2011!

 

Shahab Meshki
General Manager
Cisco Kenya

African Indigenous Technology and Its Broken Succession

By
Tekedia Editors
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2

Aham lives in Atu, a village in Osimiri in Nigeria. Atu is peaceful with energy of a typical African tropical climate. Boys and girls enjoy life in this agrarian society. Bird hunting was part of fun.

 

But one day, Aham and his friend, Uche, had gone for bird hunting in a forest few miles away from the village square. While in the forest, Uche was bitten by a very poisonous snake, avuala, and in the mayhem that followed, Aham ran away. While running, he fell down and broke his arms.

 

Luckily, Nkwo, the palm wine tapper was on duty that moment. Right on his tree, he saw what happened and quickly made it straight to where the boys were crying in pains and agonies. Within few minutes, the boys had been taken to the local herbal doctors: one to the local ‘orthopedic surgeon’, the other to a master specialist on snake poison. Both survived. That was eighty years ago.

 

Today, western education has brought many promises. It has opened opportunities for boys and girls to dream big. And become great not just in villages but anywhere.

 

Parents send their kids to schools because schools make them great. However, western education has facilitated a broken succession across villages in Africa. A generation of indigenous knowledge acquired, refined and transferred for more than ten generations are endangered.

 

That creates a problem in some villages because the rate at which development from western education is coming is slower than the rate the indigenous are losing grasp of their own technology.

 

When one orthopedic hospital serves a region comprising of many states with underpaid doctors and experts, few get quality solutions. The other alternative which their parents had depended upon has been destroyed because the skilled people have died or dying.

 

The children of the ‘experts’ have migrated to the urban areas and no one knows the herbs or the processes which can help people in need overcome their challenges.

 

It is a double tragedy! You have lost what you have in the promise of new things which have refused to materialize. That is the challenge, not just in Africa, but in many developing countries where modern technology has not diffused to fill the vacuum created by a broken indigenous technology succession.

 

The question that must be asked is this? Why can’t the government identify these people and develop a process to document what they do in order to preserve knowledge.

 

Better, can the government support them to transition to the new level and use the new (educated) generation to innovate on those trades? We want all children to go to school, but we also want a process that understands that in many rural Africa, we have got technology that must be preserved.

 

A process that does this is very important in Africa. Film them, send them government paid interns, pay them to talk and find ways to conserve that knowledge.

 

Anyhow, we need to preserve what has evolved over generations of Africans. Now is the time to harvest them and put some intellectual property rights which can help them become great.

 

Yes, Africa can be made big from within and our indigenous technology must be strengthened. This calls for African Union/NEPAD to identify this trend as a problem and vigorously tackle it. It must develop a process to curtail the loss of these essential technologies while strengthening a system that will modernize them.

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