How technology is shaping society

Cell phone camera images for decentralized law enforcement

New York will now accept digital images from cell phone cameras in 911 and 311 call centers, and use these images in better handling the emergency situations. While This is the first in nation to use digital images in a very innovative use of technology, for a technology that has been used for all things including news reporting, mobile commerce and law enforcement, this is not the first. Boston Police department started using SMS to fight crime in 2006, and others have used it outside of US for crime fighting. And imagine the GPS enabled cell phone also transmitting exact location, along with images, to help authorities find the place, and potentially save lives!

If used effectively and positively, this technology has the potential to change the way law enforcement is done in the coming years.

Exam Results on Mobile - in India!

Reliance Mobile of India will provide its customers in the state of Haryana, exam results using SMS! I suddenly remembered days when I was a kid going through Haryana board examls! Since the results are  (as they have been always) released around mid night at the education departments central location, the sheets containing results used to take hours to reach my city (Panipat). So, I would be standing on a book shop starting at mid night till the results arrive, anxious and fearful, not that I would fail the exam, but what grade would I get.
And SMS is making all that anxiety and fear disappear! Good use of technolgoy, in this case though!

Using Postman's phone to talk to Son

When I was young, my family would wait for postman to come and deliver mail especially, when we were waiting for exam results . Now, postman comes with phone and a mom in Bihar can talk to his paddy laborer son in Punjab using postman's paid wireless local loop phone.
In this age, when time is the most precious thing, writing letters will decline, even in rural India. So, using postmen to take the phone to most poor areas of India is a good deed as well as new revenue stream.

Indian village puts itself on Internet

Reuters has this story about Indian village of Hansdehar (in my state of Haryana) uploading itself onto Internet. This is really great news! Certainly this will bring more awareness in rural India, and will also expose the world to the Indian rural talent. However, the story also reflects on the state of Indian villages. While younger villagers see this as an opportunity to prepare to exit from the village and move to cities in search of better life, others see this as a tool to cut the middlemen.

I believe Internet, alongwith cell phone, has the potential to be a corruption killer! Something that Indian government has not been able to do for decades.

Saving time for Vegetable vendors using cell phone

  in Bangladesh has a successful Village Phone program. From there web site "The program facilitates women borrowers of Grameen Bank to the GSM technology through the village phones. They become effectively mobile public call offices. This not only provides rural poor with new, exciting income-generating opportunities, but it also helps to enhance the social status of women from poor rural households."
Mobile phone has allowed these village people to feel more empowered. For example, in my home town of Panipat in India, a street vendor who would earlier come and stop at almost every door and shout to indicate his arrival and wait for people to come out and buy vegetables, often wasting his valuable time and still missing out on many potential customers, now just gets a call from each house that is interested in the vegetables that he has on that perticular day, comes stops on those houses first and then, if he is left with anything, would go on usual route.
Saves so much time for the vendor! Because time saved is money!

Who will buy YouTube?

Seamus McCauley in his blog Virtual Economics commented on the earlier posting by Russell  Shaw at  ZDnet  about who will buy YouTube.

Here is what I think about YouTube. Certainly YouTube has value for sites like EBay. YouTube can provide a platform for EBay sellers to put their product promotion videos and demostration of how to use the product, alongiwth their auctions. When I visit EBay, I want to SEE how the product I am interesting in (e.g. a VOIP phone) will be used. Think of that as a demostration or product use. EBay can even let the buyers upload the video of the product use alongwith feedback. This will be a very visual feedback about the product.
For that matter, YouTube should even explore the possibility of any product manufacturer putting up their product use demostration, so buyers can just go their, see how to use and troubleshoot the product. These manuals can be searchable, e.g. what is that indicator on my car dashboard? It can even serve as pre-buying comparision guide for potential buyers, where they can watch the product use and decide whether to buy or not.

Kid puts 2% of his future income on auction on EBay

A kid called Ron Steen put up his 2% of future income for auction on EBay. There is a piece about this auction here. I think this is a great idea! Even if EBay removed the listing (perhaps because of legal issues around this deal), the idea may have future in education loans market! How about education loan providers start providing loans based on what is the potential future income! MyRichUncle does look at the student criteria including SAT score, credit score, programs of study (which is one indicator of future income), but if the student's goal of future income is also considered and is tied to future incentives from loan company, then it might motivate the students to work harder.

Something like this would not have been possible without EBay! Now that is a real use of technology!