in an iPod World

The vision of City as an Operating System

Last spring, we ran a design challenge for "North Broadband". The idea was to prototype a digital ecosystem that leverages various digital, physical, intellectual and financial resources that are already in place in North Philadelphia to transform the neighborhood. Ninety students in 15 teams, representing five schools and colleges participated in the challenge

The winning idea came from a team with the first-year full-time MBA students at Fox School. Their idea was to leverage digital infrastructure to transform local salons into edges of banking services for local neighbors. Here's how their idea works. During their research, they observed that there were more hair salons than bank offices in the neighbor. They also was told that one of the major challenges of local urban community is the lack of saving culture. Many families live from paycheck to paycheck, without having a bank account. When they receive a paycheck, they often use local payday loan services or other private financial services that charges a hefty service fee. At the same time, students noticed that there are many hair salons where many female members of the community visit on a regular basis (typically every other week).

Combining these two observations, they designed a powerful idea of "a hair salon as a bank office concept". By using broadband infrastructure and owner training (provided through the participating banks), a hair salon can serve as a bank branch where its customers can cash their paychecks and deposit money into their own bank account. In order to encourage saving behavior, the students proposed a "forced saving model" in which a fixed percentage of the price will be automatically saved into the customer's bank account. Therefore, the customers can not only cash their paychecks at a much affordable rate, each they make a visit to the hair salon to do their hair, they end up saving money into their bank account. Using a smart phone app, customers can watch their money growing, serving as a powerful incentive for them to continue to save. This is a win-win-win model. Customers get cheaper check-cashing service, do their hair and build their savings. Salon owners get a free customer relationship management system. Each customer's information will be saved and made available to the salon owners. They will also have locked-in customers. Finally, banks will expand their customer base and being able to penetrate the market that they were not able to access.

This is where the students idea ended. However, their idea serves as a powerful example of the vision of a digital city as a computing platform. Here, a local hair salon with a digital infrastructure can be conceptualized as a platform. The banking service is an app. And we can design other type of apps. Consider the following idea. Many of the salon customers have school-age children. What do their kids do while their moms are doing their hair? What if moms bring their kids to the salon? Temple University's Honors Program require students to serve the community at least 50 hours a semester and some of the students have hard time finding appropriate opportunities. What if we have a set of apps that allow parents to sign up for free tutoring sessions for their kids while they are at the hair salon and another app where Temple students can sign up for tutoring opportunity by indicating subjects and availability? That is another app that can be plugged into the city as an operating system.

We can continue to expand this idea in the domain of public health. Already the idea of using barber shops and hair salons as the community outreach centers for public health education programs. Again, we can use digital tools to provide necessary information and contents to shop owners (all HIPPA compliant). So, that is yet another app.

The idea of a city as an operating system is not just a conceptual idea. It needs to be technically implemented as well. The communication network bandwidth has now exceeded some of the old data bus speed. For example, USB 2.0 transmits data 480 mbps, about half of the speed of gigabit ethernet. We can literally architect an operating system by connecting buildings, sensors, and cars. In order turn a city as operating system where others can build apps, we need to design APIs and SDKs. Again, these are not just idea and metaphors. They need to be actual APIs and SDKs. By doing so, we can build an open, vibrant ecosystem, as opposed to vendor-centric closed system.

There are many digital city initiatives led by many vendors. What we need is a version of an internet for the city -- perhaps we can call it "Urbanet". Following the same principles that were used for the design of the Internet, one can begin to sketch out a new infrastructure that connects physical buildings, spaces and objects with digital worlds.

digital transformation, innovation

What will happen with $300 handset in 2040

Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank and Yahoo! Japan, has an interesting way of thinking about how the future will look different in about 30 years from now. With an average mobile device that costs $300, he says, we can now store 6400 songs, 4 years worth of news and 4 hours of movie. By 2040, he expects that those numbers will change to: 500 billion songs, 300 million years worth of news, and 30,000 years of movie. Although I am not sure where he got these numbers, one can easily project such staggering numbers by just extrapolating the past trend. The question is, what are you going to with all these storage space.

Another thought: About a year ago, I told folks at Samsung Electronics that one potential game changer for their mobile devices might be a radical increase of the storage capacity by an order of magnitude. Not just double or triple the size, compared to iPhone; 10 times more or 100 times more memory, making essentially people forget about memory all together when they use mobile devices. Given Samsung is the world's largest flash memory manufacturer, Samsung probably has the biggest cost advantage in pursuing such a strategy.

innovation

한국말로 글쓰기

작년 가을 부터 한국말로 된 책을 쓰기 시작했다. "디지털 시프트"라는 제목으로 디지털 기술이 가져오는 7가지 근본적인 변화를 중심으로 세상의 변화를 살펴보는 책이다. 이미 연구 논문으로 이렇게 저렇게 썼던 내용들과 강의시간에 사용했던 예들을 정리해서 일반인들과 경영자들을 대상으로 쓰고 있다. 문제는 한국말로 글을 쓰는 것이 이렇게 힘든 지 몰랐다는 것이다. 과거에 대학교, 대학원 시절에는 그런데 나름대로 글을 잘 쓴다고 자신이 있었다. 모시고 있는 교수님을 대신해서 신문 컬럼을 쓰기도 하고, 교회에서 내보내는 주보에 매주 컬럼을 맡아서 일년 넘도록 쓰기도 했다. 어느정도 글쟁이로 재미있고 맛나는 글을 쓰는 데는 일가견이 있다고 생각을 했었다.

그리고 미국에서 산 것이 근 20년. 대부분의 시간을 영어로 된 글을 읽고, 영어로 된 글을 쓰면서 살면서 그 시간을 보냈다. 참으로 힘들게 영어로 글쓰고, 읽고, 생각하는 훈련을 받았다. 그래도 집에서 평상어로 한국말을 쓰기 때문에 한글로 글을 쓰는 것은 그렇게 힘들꺼라는 생각을 하지 않았다. What a big mistake! 한마디로 참 힘들다. 그냥 한국말 영어를 섞어서 쓰라고 하면 차라리 쉬울 것 같은 생각도 든다. 물론 전문 용어들을 한글로 옮기는 것이 힘들 것이라는 예상은 했었다. 그런데, 문제는 단순히 전문용어의 문제가 아니다. 내가 한글로 써 놓은 글을 읽어 보면, 도대체 맛이 없다. 뭔가 독자의 마음을 사로잡는 그런 맛이 전혀 없다. 더구나 요즘 유행하는 표현, 특히 인터넷의 블로거들이나 전문가들이 쓴 글들이 가지고 있는 뭔가 특이한 그런 맛이 전혀 나질 않는다. 그런 글을 쓰기 위해서, 그런 글이 가지고 있는 생각의 흐름 속에 빠져 있어야 하는데, 그렇지를 못하다. 왜냐하면 그렇게 하기 위해서는 계속해서 그렇게 쓰인 글들을 읽으면서 그런 모양으로 생각을 해야하는데, 그것이 그렇게 쉽지가 않다. 더구나, 영어로 된 글들 또한 계속 작업을 해야하기 때문에, 마치 두가지 다른 운영체계를 한 컴퓨터에서 동시에 왔다갔다 하면서 사용하는 느낌이다.

그래서 오늘 부터 한글로 블로깅과 트위팅을 병행해보려고 한다. 짧게 나마 계속 한국말로 글쓰기 연습을 해야겠다느 생각이다. 그동안 사실 블로그를 거의 손을 놓고 있었다. 필라델피아 시와 하는 Urban Apps Studio 프로젝트와 Evolution of Digital Artifacts 프로젝트 때문에 블로그를 쓸 겨를이 없었다. 또다른 이유는 트위터를 사용하면서 점점 블로그를 사용하는 것이 귀챦아 졌다. 트위터 때문에 블로그가 귀챦아진 것은 단지 글쓰기뿐 만이 아니다. 읽기도 마찬가지이다. 과거에는 RSS feed를 통해서 몇가지 블로그를 정해놓고 읽었는데, 요즘은 트위터를 통해서 들어오는 글만 읽기 때문이다. 하지만 가능하면 오늘부터 짧게라도 지속적으로 블로그를 해보려고 한다.

writing

[reading] Program or be Programmed

I saw a video presentation by Douglass Rushkoff at Google recently. The main these of his talk was the fact that digital technology is different from other technologies as it can be programmed. Since it is one of the arguments that I have been making recently about digital technology, it picked my interest. (The other key attribute of digital technology is the homogeneity of information as represented by bits and that is about the other reading project, "the Information" written by J. Gleick, that I am currently doing now). I really like his argument about computer being "anything machine". It reminded me my first first experience with Apple II. Of course, I got it along with few programs. But by and large, it was an empty machine that was waiting to be programmed. I started to learn how to program in BASIC and soon Pascal and FORTRAN on CP/M, doing silly things that every body else had already done many times. It was exhilarating experience anyway, as I was building something of my own. I was hooked.

In the book, Rushkoff makes an argument that in the digital era, there are two modes of being -- to program or to be programmed. He then takes the premise as a basic analytical framework to analyze how digital technology affects our basic experiences in time, space, choice, identity, social, etc. in 10 chapters. I have finished only the first chapter which is about our temporal experience. While I like his approach to the subject much more than I did with the writing of Nicholas Carr who wrote "Shallow", I flet that Rushkoff fell into a similar trap of romanticizing the past unwarrantedly. If Carr romanticized the traditional society where we were still reading books and newspapers printed on paper, Rushkoff did the same with the early era of the Internet before we were connected to "always on" machines that vibrates each time someone sends us an email or post a message on our Facebook wall. He describes that the communication back then was much more reflective and thoughtful. He argues that because back then, we could "pause" and think more before we replied through asynchronous media such as bulletin board, our messages were more meaningful. Yet, it was precisely then when the idea of "flaming" was introduced by early scholars like Sarah Kiesler and Lee Sproull who studied the same asynchronous media that Rushkoff mentions. Of course, there are more thoughtless messages being sent around as people around the globe are constantly updating their status in 140 words. But at the same, one might find that the number of thoughtful messages and comments has increased just as well. Who knows? Of course, I send more messages with typos with the help of my IPhone. But I am not sure if I became more thoughtless in general. Perhaps. My wife can tell me that. But then, she always finds many of my actions thoughtless anyway. So, it is hard for me to believe that iPhone or Blackberry (which I had before I got an iPhone) is at fault here.

Well, I only read one chapter and the book is interesting. I am sure I will find more to agree with him as I go along. I just wanted to share my thoughts as quickly as possible. Oops. Rushkoff was right. I should have paused before I post this.

Tags: reading, Rushkoff

Netflix and Block Buster: An infographic via Joel West

Via: Online MBA Programs

Fox DESIGNWeek 2011

I am thrilled to announce that we will have Fox DESIGNWeek 2011 from March 11 - 18. The event has two components: North Broadband Challenge and incitexchange.

North Broadband Challenge

+ How can we use increasingly pervasive digital technology to re-imagine the future of the city?
+ Can we use digital technologies to inspire, mobilize, and create social, economic, cultural, political, and intellectual connections to solve the complex challenges that cities face today?
+ Can we build a sustainable open platform that encourages and supports a vibrant ecosystem of neighbors, entrepreneurs and communities?

Modern American cities that were built on physical infrastructure almost a century ago now face historic challenges of embracing digital infrastructure to re-invent the meaning of “urban life”. The city of Philadelphia represents post-industrial American cities facing this challenge. The Nutter Administration is particularly interested in how the City can work together with local institutions like Temple University to instigate sustainable economic and community development to transform neighborhoods.

Temple University has three campuses - Center City, Main Campus and Health Sciences - on Broad Street, Philadelphia’s main North-South artery. Each individual campus offers substantial physical, technological and intellectual resources that can be used to enrich neighboring areas.

The design challenge is to leverage Temple’s campuses and other existing technology assets along North Broad Street and the surrounding area to prototype a digital ecosystem. We envision North Broadband as a vibrant, generative, and entrepreneurial ecosystem where citizens, business and government can develop new products and services to meet various needs in our city by inspiring and mobilizing our collective efforts through the use of digital technology. The design should be environmentally responsible, economically sustainable, and humanly satisfying. The solution must be replicable and scalable, as it serves as a prototype for larger initiatives.

incitexchange

We will conclude the DESIGNWeek 2011 with incitexchange - an annual conference organized by the Center for Design+Innovation at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. Each year, a roster of international leaders in the fields of design, innovation, management and technology gather in Philadelphia to exchange ideas about their work, their thoughts and observations. A series of rapid-fire short individual presentations, coordinated dialogues and moderated panel discussions combine to encourage participants to talk, share and spontaneously collaborate. Hosted in the state-of-the-art facilities of the Fox School of Business’ Alter Hall, incitexchange builds upon the Fox School’s groundbreaking initiatives to integrate a design perspective into the culture of management education. As the first major business school to integrate design into its required all MBA programs, this conference reflects the goals to break down barriers and cross boundaries to generate innovative ideas.

The theme of incitexchange 2011 is "Boundaries: Re-imagined, Re-shaped, and Re-defined". Our world is divided by boundaries between disciplines, entities and ideologies. Boundaries between Art and Science, Government and its Citizens, and Business and Consumers. Breaching these boundaries is where real change occurs. This year, we will explore a range of ideas from the emerging possibilities for technology to redefine urban experiences to the way a design perspective is reshaping management education. Join us to share ideas with industry leaders, web renegade activists, designer advocates, political leaders, foodies, and discipline-crossing academics and researchers.

Come and join us!

design, innovation, announcement, cD+i, inciteXchange

new corporate activism

The founder of Twitter posted a blog, "The Tweets Must Flow". At the same time, working with Twitter, Google introduced voice-enabled Twitting service in order allow Internet-striped Egyptians to tweet through a voice mail. They are heralded as heroic acts by many internet zealots. And it fits nicely into a narrative of technology as a force for positive social change. These two are visible forms of corporate activism by two firms that represent social media. Given how corporations are often associated with the forces of resistance to change, this is a refreshing development.

However, this type of new corporate activism makes me a bit uncomfortable as well. After all, these two companies represent the "face" of social media industry. What is not clear is how much of this new corporative activism by Twitter and Google is indeed motivated by their commercial calculations. Indeed, these were really good PR stunts, if I take a very cynical perspective. After all, they are only accountable to their shareholders. In fact, Twitter is not even a public company yet. These companies are led by executives who are only accountable to their investors.

While I, along with millions of social media users, cheer for the stance that they take on this issue, I wonder will we do the same if they take a similar unilateral corporative activism stance on more controversial issues? In fact, will they take a similar stance even if their commercial interests can be compromised? Not that I am suspicious about their motivations, we need people who remain skeptical and vigilant about these new corporate activisms.

socia media, technology

The role of social media in Egypt

I read two articles (this and this) on the role of social media on what is going on Egypt. The first one is written by Malcolm Gladwell. The second one was written by Egyptian author, Haisam Abu-Samra.

Given what he has written few months ago, it is not surprising that Gladwell is very dismissive about the role of Twitter in Egyptian Revolution. He insists that it is the human voice and the contents, not the medium, that ignites a social revolution. He begins his article by arguing that it is what Mao said, not "how" he said that matters. But if President Hu Jintao starts twitting his thoughts and posting his ideas on his Facebook wall, it WILL be a news. Can you imagine millions of Chinese people replying on his wall with what they think about his idea? It will be even more of a news given that China is blocking Facebook.

The article by Haisam Abu-Samra is far more nuanced and interesting. Here's what he wrote:

The web is in many ways a more modern, much larger version of the kinds of public spaces and forums that have made citizenship possible throughout history. Losing it for a week didn’t stop Egyptians from protesting or airing their frustrations; we still know how to use physical public spaces, after all. But it did remind us that a forum for the open exchange of words and ideas is central to any sustainable democracy; alternatively, we end up in a perilous cycle of control and chaos. Instead of expressing pent-up opinions with fists and bullets, as is happening now in the streets of Cairo, people who can express them freely in conversation, even in a virtual one, have a chance to hear one another and deliberate together about the future. Never mind the vacant symbolism of “Twitter revolutions” and Youtube activism: losing the Internet at the hand of our own government simply offers us a powerful reminder of why we actually want the Internet to begin with, and why we’re doing any of this.

So the question is, can social revolutions happen without Twitter or other social media in today's world? Of course, the answer is yes. But are they the same old revolutions? The answer is probably no. A question is how are they different? Can someone explore structural and temporal differences between old political revolutions and SNS-enabled ones? That will make an interesting research project.

Egypt, politics, socia media

Social media and revolution

I finally had a chance to read Malcolm Gladwell's article on social media. He argues that social media cannot revolutionize the world. He disputes a popular beliefs that social media is a new tool for social activism. He points out two specific reasons why social media cannot be a tool for social revolution. First, he correctly points out that a key characteristics of social media is "not asking too much." As we often hear, instead of asking million dollar donation from five wealthy donors, a politician now can ask for a dollar from five million people. Popularity in YouTube, the "Like" button on Facebook, and "RT" of Twitter are all examples of not-asking-too-much. Gladwell notes that "[A]tivism that challenges the status quo -- that attacks deeply rooted problems -- is not for the faint of heart." In other words, a real revolution requires sacrifice and dedication. He further argues that such dedication can only come from a strong-tie, formed in real friendship. Second, according to Gladwell, a revolution requires disciplines and strategy, which he argues social media cannot provide. He argues that discipline and strategy can only come from a hierarchy.

Despite some obvious flaws in his arguments (for example, the notion that discipline and strategy cannot come from social media, thus, a revolution requires a hierarchy, is simply not true. One should not treat all networks as equal. Some networks, particularly with a strong central node, can have characteristics that resemble a hierarchy. It is just that the commands are not coming from the top; they are coming from the center of the network), I am intrigued by his bigger point: social media will not revolutionize the status quo. He ends his essay by quoting a story from a book, "Here Comes Everybody". In that story, a Wall Streeter used social media on the Internet to track down, shame, and eventually catch a teenager from Queens who stole his smart phone.

Shirky ends the story of the lost Sidekick by asking, portentously, “What happens next?”—no doubt imagining future waves of digital protesters. But he has already answered the question. What happens next is more of the same. A networked, weak-tie world is good at things like helping Wall Streeters get phones back from teen-age girls. Viva la revolución.

The story reminds me of a panel that I was on with a CIO of a large multinational company a couple years ago. A person from the audience asked, "When are we going to see the use of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, in Corporate America?" Without a missing a beat, the CIO responded, "Oh, yeah. It is coming. We are working on it. We are testing all forms of new technologies." However, I was much more skeptical. I responded to that reply by noting that the use of social media in an organization should be likened to the political revolutions in the 18th century that ended monarchy and led to the emergence of democracy. Just like democracy was a different kind of idea on how to govern people, social media represents a different kind idea on how to share information and knowledge. Therefore, one cannot and should not expect to see the proliferation of the real use of social media without expecting the transfer of power. That means, those who are in power will feel threatened; they will try to block the free flow of information and persecute those who promote the free flow of information through the use of social media. Just like people shed blood and lost their lives then, people will loose their jobs and careers will be ruined now. Only if those who challenge the powerful succeed, only then will we see the real revolution in organizations with social media. Until then, social media will be only used to re-affirm the current power structure. Those who are already in power will continue to exercise their power, using newly acquired propaganda machine -- social media -- only to re-affirm the current social structures.

p.s. I wrote this one last November only never to publish it as I was hoping to revise it further. Since then, we had Wikileaks, Tunisia and Egypt. Here are couple of my random reactions to those events.

Thought 1: What happened with Wikileaks shows that those in power will persecute those who try to use the power of social media to challenge the status quo.

Thought 2: What Egyptian government did with the Internet shows that no government should be allowed to control the Internet.

Thought 3: What is happening in Egypt and Tunisia show that social media can challenge the established social structures, even those as powerful as Egyptian government, only when people are willing to risk their lives. Young Egyptians did not just twitted. They marched on the street.

change, Egypt, socia media

Our country that I desire

I came across a writing of Kim Gu who was a political leader during the Japanese occupation. It was written in 1947, shortly after the end of the occupation. Korea was then already divided between North and South, occupied by the USSR and US with no independent government yet. Although it was written over 60 years ago, the power of his vision and idea still moves me. I am proud that we had such a visionary leader. Yet, I am deeply sad that we have not lived up to his vision. I copied the portion of his essay -- Our Country that I Desire -- in Korean and then translate it in English. Unfortunately, he was assassinated and never saw his vision to be realized. I hope to see the new generation of Koreans build Korea the most beautiful country in the world.

"나는 우리나라가 세계에서 가장 아름다운 나라가 되기를 원한다. 가장 부강한 나라가 되기를 원하는 것은 아니다. 내가 남의 침략에 가슴이 아팠으니, 내 나라가 남을 침략하는 것을 원치 아니한다. 우리의 부력(富力)은 우리의 생활을 풍족히 할 만하고, 우리의 강력(强力)은 남의 침략을 막을 만하면 족하다. 오직 한없이 가지고 싶은 것은 높은 문화의 힘이다. 문화의 힘은 우리 자신을 행복되게 하고, 나아가서 남에게 행복을 주겠기 때문이다. 지금 인류에게 부족한 것은 무력도 아니오, 경제력도 아니다. 인류가 현재에 불행한 근본 이유는 인의(仁義)가 부족하고, 자비가 부족하고, 사랑이 부족한 때문이다. 이 마음만 발달이 되면 현재 물질로도 온 인류가 다 편히 살아갈 수 있을 것이다. 인류의 이 정신을 배양하는 것은 오직 문화다. 나는 우리나라가 남의 것을 모방하는 나라가 되지 말고, 이러한 높고 새로운 문화의 근원이 되고, 목표가 되고, 모범이 되기를 원한다. 그래서 진정한 세계 평화가 우리나라에서, 우리나라로 말미암아 실현되기를 원한다."

"I want our country to become the most beautiful country in the world. Neither the wealthiest nor the mightiest. Since we suffered deeply from the invasion by another nation, I do not want us to invade others. I will be content if our wealth is sufficient to provide for all of us and our strength enough to protect us from others. The only one do I seek is the power of advanced culture. It is because the power of culture not only makes us happy, but does the same to others. What mankind lacks now is neither the military might nor the economic power. We all suffer because we lack benevolence and justice, mercy, and love. If we have these characters in us, we already have enough to provide sufficiently for all mankind to live well together. Culture is the only way to nurture these characters in us. I do not want us to imitate others'; instead, I want us to become the fountain, the standard, and the role model of the new culture with these ideals. Through this, I hope the permanent world peace will be gained in and by our country."

Korea, writing