in an iPod world

Participate a study and earn $200

Temple University is launching a study that will analyze the potential for mobile devices to enhance the experience of tourists in Philadelphia, and are currently seeking 20 to 35 year old tourists who are planning to visit Philly this month to partake in the study.

The experiment is going to study how tourists gain valuable experiences as they are traveling while analyzing the potential for mobile applications. Using mobile technology, specifically the cell phone and the various features therein, like sharing pictures, GPS mapping, and text messaging, the study will look at how these functions support the tourist experience.

All participants will be given Amazon.com gift card worth $200 which can be used virtually anywhere.

Email Iis P. Tussyadiah at iist@temple.edu for details!

Temple University
National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce
1700 N Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122
iist@temple.edu

technology as hope

What is does information technology mean to us? For some, it is nothing but convenience. Whenever I use my newly acquired Blackberry to read and write e-mail, I am marveled by its efficiency. E-mail messages just roll in to my Blackberry no matter where I am. To others, it is a display of their wealth and position. There are mobile phones easily costing $30,000 or more. Or, you can indulge yourself with a big screen TV, providing images bigger than life. To others, it is pure pleasure. iPod, PS2, and now iPhones -- they are pure pleasure to see and use. Extremely well designed and engineered.

Yet, in all of that, there is another dimension of technology. That is, hope. There are people looking at technology as a way out from where they are. In projects like MIT's $100 Laptop and Wireless Philadelphia, information technology is conceived as a source of hope. Technology is expected to catalyze the social and economic changes. Technology is seen as a way to build a new community, better education programs, and safer environments. In countries like Egypt, information technology is seen as a source of economic prosperity. Just as India was able to use information technology to become a global economic player, many countries want to build their economic policy around information technology. They want to reform their education program, health care, public safety, transportation systems, and yes, almost all aspect of their lives using information technology. To them, information technology is a source of hope that will allow them to rid of the label of "the third world country."

This is the story that I would like to learn more about. To them, technology is not a matter of convenience, luxury or status, but it is about tomorrow, a better tomorrow. A much better tomorrow. And again, this is a story of design.

images of Egypt

More pictures can be seen here.

Shiphol airport Urinal with a fly

This is the famous urinal at the Shiphol airport in Amsterdam. They found that when men find something on the surface of a urinal, they tend to aim better and that way they can keep the cleaning cost in check. Whether it is true or not, this innovation has become popular among airports. You can see a similar one in JFK.

From American People: in Egypt

I am visiting Egypt in order to participate an education program for ICT Entrepreneurship in Egypt. It is an US AID program. The slogan of USAID caught my attention: From American People. I am happy to be a hand of American people.

Blackberry 8830

I got Blackberry 8830 World Edition. Alas, it does not support Korean characters, yet. Other than that, it is a nice device. I will how the worldwide e-mail support works when I go to Egypt next week.

Scratch -- a wonderful open source programming platform for kids

I just came across scratch, a programming environment developed by people at MIT media lab. It is wonderfully designed, fun, pleasant and powerful program environment, specifically designed for kids to learn how to program. I downloaded it and showed it to Daniel (11 years old), in few minutes he started making his own games and animations. It is an open source environment so kids can peek into how other more mature programmers wrote their program and learn from them and try to improve them. It also has tagging and ranking feature, just like YouTube. In fact, the user interface of the web site looks just like YouTube. It also has tremendous educational possibilities for kids to express their ideas in a rich-media environment. The project was funded NSF. This is a wonderful use of the taxpayers' money.

iGoogle

Try it yourself. It is quite nice.

mobile phone number portability

It has been few years since people are able to switch their mobile carrier without changing their mobile phone number. I recently got a Blackberry 8830 from Verizon Wireless. My old number was a part of a family plan. My new phone is a part of the Temple business account plan. And, I was told that I am not able to keep my old number. It seems really strange when they can let their customers who are switching over from another carrier keep their old number, while cannot let their own customers keep their old Verizon number. Something is not quite right in this picture.