Learning to listen: technology and poor communities

Waleed al-Shobakky reports on a Sri Lankan robotics scientist leading an effort to get technology working for poor communities around the world | Science and Development Network

Bernadine Dias, a Sri Lankan-born scientist based at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States, admits she "wears many hats". Her main focus is robotics, but she also devotes a lot of time promoting innovative ways of using technology in poor communities.

In 2004, Dias founded an initiative called TechBridgeWorld to forge collaborations between CMU and developing communities around the world, including poor neighbourhoods in the United States.
Dias believes this kind of relationship benefits both partners: university staff and students learn about the real needs of the world's poor, while communities gain skills and access to technology.

Ongoing TechBridgeWorld projects are using technology to improve healthcare in Haiti and to teach English in Ghana. And when Dias moved to Qatar last year to teach in the robotics department of 'CMU-Q', her university's recently launched local branch, she took TechBridgeWorld with her.

Science in Arab media: barely scientifc

Science issues rarely appear in Arab media. When they do, they are either too sensational to be scientific or too scientific to be attractive to general audiences. Here, science communicators weigh in | IslamOnline.net

It does not take effort to note the dearth of content about science and technology in Arab media. Popular science magazines (like Scientific American or NewScientist) or television channels (like Discovery) are rare if at all existent. In mainstream print and broadcast media, the coverage of science and technology is modest, and with varying quality.

“The content about science and technology in Arab media is inadequate and low in quality compared to what we see and read in international media outlets, whether popular or specialized,” said Dr. Mohamed El-Makhzangy, an Egyptian science writer and novelist. “In most cases, the content [about science and technology] is based on poor translation of stories and programs from Western sources. 

And worse, the coverage sides heavily with the newsy and sensational angles, not science,” he said.

Oddly, this is not what the audience necessarily wants. “Only rarely are audience surveys done to assess what audiences in the Arab world really want to read/see/hear. And when these surveys are conducted, it is even rarer that they are actually acted upon,” said Nadia El-Awady, an Egyptian physician-turned-journalist and the editor of IslamOnline.net’s English Health & Science section. 

And it may come as a surprise to many that media outlets that provide in-depth content enjoy an enviable readership. IslamOnline.net’s Arabic science section, for example, attracts around 300,000 page views per month. And according to El-Makhzangy, well-made scientific documentaries are as attractive as action movies for a wide range of audiences in the region.

Maths for the masses

A partnership between UNESCO and a leading software company is introducing a new and affordable approach to mathematics teaching in Arab states, reports Waleed al-Shobakky | Science and Development Network

Teaching mathematics is a problem in both the developing and developed worlds. In North America, educators complain that even high-achieving students lack a good grasp of some basic mathematical concepts. The situation is even worse in the Arab region, according to the Arab Human Development Report 2003. 

The report, Building a Knowledge Society, emphasised the need for quality education, particularly in science and maths — areas that could help the lagging region move forward and catch up with developed nations.

But apparently, when it comes to maths, people lose their enthusiasm for learning. 

The puzzling success of open source

Against many economic, production and social norms, open-source software has emerged as a serious challenger to proprietary software products. Steven Weber’s new book comprehensively tells the story | IslamOnline.net

You perhaps consider, as I do, Titanic and Lord of the Rings as cinematic marvels. The special effects of both movies were made on machines running the Linux operating system; the most famous of open-source software products. And, notably, some of the world’s most celebrated commercial and non-commercial institutions are running their daily operations on Linux-mounted machines—including Google, Amazon, Reuters, Merrill Lynch, DreamWorks, the American Departments of Defense and Energy and the National Security Agency in the US. What is it in open-source software that has made it such a success?

Steven Weber’s book, “The Success of Open Source“, attempts to explain how the open-source software development process emerged, what factors make it work and what knowledge we can discern that can be applied in other, completely different arenas.

A Google of solutions

The world’s most successful search engine provides a host of ideas for developing the Arab world’s tenuous presence on the internet | Business Today Egypt

You have likely heard of Google, the popular search engine, and run a search query over the website for news about your favorite actor or for the names of new job applicants to know a little bit more about them than they included in their resumés. 

But you might not know that the company, founded in 1998, finally made an IPO on NASDAQ last August, and is now worth roughly $55 billion larger than the market capitalization of General Motors and Ford combined. How is this possible if people just click their way through the website without paying a penny?

Young Arab Engineers: Against All Odds

Growing intolerant to the current state of the high technology sector in the Arab region, three young Arab engineers are seeking to sow the seeds of change. Hence, Handasa Arabia (or Arabic Engineering), a non-profit, open-source organization, was born | IslamOnline.net

When it comes to scientific research or high technology, the Arab region is always, and perhaps justifiably so, assumed a desert. This region, however, is not deficient in a rare breed of people who want to turn the situation around – with financial return not being one of their aspirations.

The founders of Handasa Arabia (HA) have a lot in common. They are all familiar with the hardships of being hardware design engineers in an Arab country where, like almost all developing countries, the industry, if any, is primitive, the funding is extremely limited, and governmental support is minimal. In the meantime, they all hold it as an article of faith that in this seemingly desert region, and similar to other developing countries, skilled, well-educated hi-tech engineers are not in short supply. They were also well aware that the lack of proper jobs for young engineers leaves them with little choice but to succumb to a job in sales and marketing or, at best, in hardware maintenance.

Eastern Promise

India has always been a land of magical promise. But it’s also home to some of the world’s smartest and most innovative businesses, and they want to do business with us | Business Today Egypt

Business between India and Egypt is pretty good joint ventures are successful, and bilateral trade between the two countries is steadily growing. However, the full potential of mutual trade and investments hasn’t yet been fully tapped.

India must be doing something right. The words “India” and “Bangalore” kept coming up during the last American election campaign, which ended up with President G. W. Bush winning his second term in the White House. But India and Bangalore were, ironically, not mentioned in the context of the foreign affairs or the international political agenda of any of the challengers. They were at the center of a heated debate over a purely internal issue; jobs for Americans. Each party was proposing its own set of solutions to stem in the rising tendency, led by almost all the American corporate giants, including General Electric, Intel and Hewlett Packard, to outsource jobs to lower-wage, yet technically competent, markets. It is here that India’s Bangalore has become a visible example.

In fact, the success of the Indian companies is twofold. Not only have they been able to convince a host of the world’s best companies to relocate some of their jobs to call centers and IT consultancies in the Indian subcontinent, but they have simultaneously been able to expand outside India, particularly in the emerging markets, with no less success.