Waging a Winning War vs. Water Worries and Waste

(Wells, and Web’s Worthy, Well-proven Worldwide Ways)

A search on the Web would show the following data:

1. One billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.6-billion lack access to basic sanitation;
2. Half of the world’s hospitalizations are due to people drinking water contaminated with infectious agents, toxic chemicals, and radiological hazards;
3. Bacteria causing diarrhea accounts for 4.1% of the global disease burden, killing 1.8 million children a year;
4. More folks have access to a cell phone than a toilet;
5. In fact, the ancient Romans had better water quality than half the people alive today;
6. Nearly 1 out of every 5 deaths under the age of 5 worldwide is due to a water-related disease.
7. Every eight seconds, a child dies of a waterborne disease, in every case preventable if their parents had money to pay for water. 
8. A new World Bank reports says that by 2030, global demand for water will exceed supply by more than 40%.
9. Water scarcity: the world's freshwater resources are fixed, but both population and per capita consumption of water is growing. 
10. By 2025 one in three people around the world will experience either water scarcity or water stress.
11. Water makes up more than two thirds of human body weight, and without water, we would die in a few days. 
12. The human brain is made up of 95% water, blood is 82% and lungs 90%. 
13. A mere 2% drop in our body's water supply can trigger signs of dehydration: fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on smaller print, such as on a computer screen.
14. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79%, and the development of bladder cancer by 50%.

Water worries are real. In recognition, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution declaring Access to Clean and Safe Water as a human right. It actually reinforced what is deemed included in Article 25 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Because of these worries, the UN called on States and international organizations “to provide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.”

Technology transfer backed by financial resources and assistance to build capacity is indeed a hopeful sign to allay the fears and concerns.

Further search would also show that there are new technologies available to governments, international organizations, public utilities, and social enterprises.

An example is a water system called SLINGSHOT, which was invented by Dean Kamen. If produced in volume, the cost of production per unit is $2500 and another $2500 to power the device. If the system really works for five years, it is estimated that the cost of producing 1,000 liters of drinking water per day is $0.002 per liter. Even if the cost is tripled to cover interest and labor, the price of five liters is only four cents – compared to today’s thirty cents for the same supply.

Is there a market knowing that more than four billion earn less than $2 a day? Research shows that the twenty-five poorest countries spend twenty percent of their GDP on water. That percentage represents about thirty cents a day, which is $1.2 billion a day or about $400 billion a year. As Peter H. Diamandis, author of “Abundance” said, “there is a need”.

Peter Williams, Green Innovations Chief Technology Officer and IBM “Distinguished Scientist”, is of the view that Information Technology plays a very significant role in reducing the total cost of water use. He suggests creating an intelligent network of all waterworks – meaning a “Smart Grid for Water.” The plan is to embed all sorts of sensors, smart meters, and Artificial Intelligence-driven automation into the pipes, sewers, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, harbors, and, eventually our oceans. The estimated savings is 30-50% of water use.

There are at least 50 other emerging new water technologies that merit analysis and review. I will discuss them in future columns.

More than half a century ago, Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay was also known for his honesty and humility. He respected and honored the “common tao” and brought honor to our country. He was a President who recognized the value of WATER in our daily lives. In earnestness, he initiated a campaign to make sure that drinking water be made available through the construction of Artesian Wells in the barrios as well as irrigation for the farmers.

PNoy might want to consider a similar campaign in this digital age! 

International CES 2013

Yesterday, I received a reminder from the international headquarters of the International CES organizers that registration to the conference and exhibit show just started.

I wasted no time to register as a member of the Press again. Like in previous years, it will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The actual conference will be on January 8 – 12, 2013, but I will be going a little earlier to attend the Pre-Conference Media events. The latter starts January 6^th.

I am encouraging Asian Journal readers who are consumer technology professionals and/or enthusiasts to attend and register early. Registration now until August 31^st is free but it will cost $100 starting September 1^st and will increase to $200 on January 2, 2013.

This is the most important global technology event of the year. I have attended it every year for more than a decade now. It had grown in terms of attendance and exhibit participation annually since I started going.

During the International CES 2012, there were more than 140,000 of us attending. For International CES 2013, it is expected to attract more than 150,000 top executives, retail buyers, content providers, entertainment executives, venture capitalists, engineers, government officials and media from 150 countries.

Innovations, Inventions, and Initiatives in several aspects of life will be on display. New innovations in hardware, software and apps, cloud computing, lifestyle technologies, digital health and automotive technologies will be featured.

As I have described in my previous articles, attending the likes of the International CES is like witnessing “little miracles” created and performed by finite beings as if guided by some Infinite Being.

I always enjoyed watching the demos of new products either vying to be in the Top 10 Gadgets Standing or just exhibiting them in their respective booths.

It is always nice to see the best Mobile Apps demonstrated by developers, and analyze their relevance as tools to inform or be informed, to educate and be educated, to entertain and be entertained, and to be efficient and effective.

As a member of Press, I am lucky to be provided with samples of some of the new products and technologies for review. I also get to interview the CEOs of the companies that are launching and demonstrating their new gadgets.

The 2013 CES will feature 3,000 global technology companies unveiling the latest consumer technology products and services. Among the major categories of these products are electronic gaming, entertainment/content, digital imaging/photography, connected home technologies, automotive electronics, audio, video, TV, and many more.

The new President of PANASONIC, Kazuhiro Tsuga, will deliver the Opening Keynote Address. He is expected to address the “opportunities ahead for consumer electronics.”

Tsuga’s address will follow the State of the CE Industry keynote address by Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA ,which organizes, runs, and owns the celebrated conference.

Samsung’s President Stephen Woo will also deliver a Keynote Address to open day two of the conference. He will present his “insight on the role of components in enabling consumer product innovations.”

I expect Samsung to launch and unveil during the conference some new products and technologies that would affect the lives of consumers in the years to come.

I will update you on the other speakers, as we get closer to the event.

Most importantly, let me remind you again – register now! Do not miss the opportunity of a lifetime!

Tech Tools Against Poverty

Education is the best antidote to poverty, which poisons anybody’s battle for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said, “Education is the great equalizer for the poor.”

Making education more accessible to the poor therefore, must be a priority for those warriors in the battle against poverty.

Learning the fundamentals such as reading, writing, and arithmetic is a good foundation to access more information and knowledge.

Knowledge is wealth. Possessing a load of knowledge means adding more to your wealth. So any tool or technology that makes information, knowledge and education accessible, available and affordable to the poor should eventually lead to reduction if not eradication of poverty.

Information and Communications Technology is known to reduce poverty by improving poor people’s access to education, health, government and financial services.

For the technologies to be effectively used, there should be an infrastructure built precisely for the purpose. It is called information superhighway. The private sector, which are usually the telecom companies, are preferred to build it but for economic and commercial reasons, there is really no incentive to have it in low income communities.

So, the government may have to get involved. Like the regular superhighways or railways, the government may have to build the information infrastructure either solely or in partnership with the private sector and make it more accessible, available and affordable.

At the end of the last century when we were involved in Y2K projects, we proposed what we called; PRIDE (Philippine Rural Interconnection Development Enterprise) which would have built that kind of information infrastructure. To go with it I also proposed what I named as: Rural Electronification Program.

This would have guaranteed Internet access up to the remotest areas and built E-Centers in every barangay or mobile computer labs going to all the schools and barangays for computer and internet access.

Internet access means access to knowledge and education worldwide.

The proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) that would have implemented the concept that we proposed at the turn of the century, did not continue because of revelations of corruption involving Philippine Government officials.

It should not stop the Philippine government from doing it in partnership with the private sector, however.

Despite a more limited infrastructure, the Philippines still managed to be the Facebook capital, Text capital, Twitter capital, and even the Call Center capital of the world.

I am proud to have introduced the e-Book technology to the Philippines more than ten years ago. My company had the license to manufacture and exclusively distribute the eBookMan, which is the predecessor of the Amazon Kindle.

In this age of open education and open access, we are now aggressively pursuing online education.

E-Centers, Mobile Computer Labs, eBooks, eLibraries, and E-Learning (Online Education) and hundreds of thousands of mobile and computer applications are indeed helpful as tech tools for poverty reduction.

Who knows, we might also end up being the capital of the Planet of the Apps!

Ambiguity in Law and in Life

My barber thinks that Corona supported by Senator Judges Marcos and Santiago could have been more persuasive about using the ambiguity of the SALN Law argument. 

This is after I explained to my barber that something is “ambiguous” if it could have double or multiple meaning. Corona, Marcos, and Santiago just did not give ample explanation and samples.

My barber says, “Assets could be understood in many ways. Its Tagalog translation is “pag-aari”. A male public official, for example, could have a valuable and substantial asset dahil sa kanyang malaking pag-aari. The same is true with a female public official who could claim valuable asset because of her big frontal property.”

He further explains, “Corona’s banking and trust relationships could also be interpreted some other way like “banging and trusting partners”. You make deposits and withdrawals in trust. The deposits could be for a short or long time. They usually bear fruit or interest in 9 months, longer or lesser.”

He then concluded by asking, “If male or female ang public official na kamukha, kasing sexy o kasing “galing” at least sa isip niya, si Miriam Santiago, idideclara ba as Liability or Asset?”

Indeed, “ambiguity” could be claimed. Take it from my barber!

TABLETS

Then I started telling him about my excitement on the new Windows 8 Tablets that have just been launched and announced at the COMPUTEX 2012 in Taipei, Taiwan. The latter is the largest consumer electronics show in Asia. Its organizers always attend the International CES in Las Vegas to promote it. Together with the equivalent show in Germany, I have always wanted to attend both but never got around to synchronizing their schedule with mine.  Going to these technology conferences like CES, MACWORLD and FOSE (Government technologies) for me, is like witnessing “LITTLE MIRACLES” happening around the world.

A wise man he really is, my barber claims that there is also “ambiguity” in the word Tablet depending on how you use it. The Tablet of Moses containing the Ten Commandments has the goal of uplifting the soul through some spiritual standard. The Tablets that we take daily are for health care and physical well being through some prescribed medical standards. Now we have these Tablets identified as Androids, IPADs and Windows 8 with different operating standards and goals affecting everyday lives depending on the applications developed.

In this Planet of the APPS, applications could be on the ground offline, or in the cloud online.

Indeed, be it spiritual, physical or virtual, “ambiguity” could be claimed as well. Tech IT from my barber!

According to a study made by Morgan Stanley, “the Tablet is the fastest ramping mobile in history”. According to the survey, the market is even bigger and growing faster than they initially forecast. Purchase intentions in their survey indicate shipments of 133 million and 216 million in 2012 and 2013, or 57% and 112% larger than their initial estimates.

 While Microsoft was described as a company challenged earlier, it is now shifted to being in the best position to be very competitive. In fact, Windows 8 with Office in the Tablets now has the potential to drive market growth and share gains. The survey suggests 25% of users expect to buy Windows 8 and Office as a feature for those considering their first Tablet purchase.

The key variable that will determine the success of Microsoft and its partners according to the survey is Pricing. Consumers or respondents to the survey said that they are willing to pay a Tablet with Windows 8 and Office at price of $469 or a 6% discount to Apple’s iPad. I am sure Microsoft could lower the license fees to accommodate the Tablet manufacturers.

Many of the big players have signed in to be partners with Microsoft: Samsung, Acer, Lenovo, Intel, HP, Dell, AMD, Qualcomm and a few others. I am sure they could get it together.

My excitement as I explained to my barber is based on two developments. First, is the investment of Microsoft into Barnes & Noble. This means the availability of Windows 8 and Office in NOOK Tablets and hundreds of thousands of eBooks that Barnes and Noble owns or publishes. Second, is the presence of an offline search engines in all Windows 8 Tablets. This means that electronic libraries that are created and stored in the Tablets could now be searched, retrieved, bookmarked, and annotated offline without fear of external interference.

There is no ambiguity in my excitement to the developments!

INTERNATIONAL CTIA WIRELESS 2012

For the first time, I registered to attend the International CTIA Wireless 2012 Show to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 8-10, 2012.

CTIA, which stands for Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, approved my credentials as a Member of the Press. It also invited me to be a Judge of the 2012 CTIA Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Awards competition, which is on its seventh year.

The E-Tech Awards program draws hundreds of entries and honors the most innovative new products in the areas of mobile apps, consumer electronics, enterprise and infrastructure.

The International CTIA WIRELESS Show is All Things Mobile. It draws more than 40,000 qualified attendees every year; occupies more than 300,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space and hosts over 1,000 exhibitors.

Featured Keynote Speakers include Former President Bill Clinton; Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski; Gary Flood, President of the Global Products Division of the MasterCard Worldwide; Joe Kennedy, CEO & President of PANDORA; Patrick Riordan, President & CEO of Cellcom; Ralph de la Vega, President & CEO, AT&T Mobility; Dan Resse, CEO , Sprint Nextel Corporation; Philip Rumm, CEO & President, T-Mobile USA; Dan Mead, President & CEO, Verizon Wireless; Daniel Ek, CEO & Co-Founder Spotify; Gary Kovacs, CEO Mozilla Corporation; John Partridge, President of VISA, Inc.; and John Ricctiell, CEO of Electronic Arts.

Attendees will include service operators, retailers/distributors, applications providers, enterprise and vertical market users, content providers and mobile web companies.

Of course, there will be at least 1,000 press and analysts worldwide, and offers the most comprehensive educational programming in the industry.

The new Solutions Showcase features interactive exhibits from industry leaders such as AT & T, Verizon, Dell and Accenture who will bring wireless advancements to life. The attendees will experience current innovations and the future of wireless enterprise technology in automotive, energy and health.

Emerging Technology Showcase will feature more than 100 of the newest innovations.

The CTIA World will celebrate the wireless industry with interactive displays, programming and information on the grass-roots movement in each state.

I am particularly interested in seeing the Corporate Philanthropy Pavilion. This is supposed to be the first corporate social responsibility pavilion showcasing the different ways wireless technology makes our communities a better place to live.

The trend is going for All Things Mobile! CTIA is the driving force of this trend.

Reading in this Digital Age­

“Library in my pocket, knowledge at my fingertips.”

This is a phrase that we used to promote the eBookMan, an eBook reading device that my company had the license to manufacture and exclusively distribute in the Philippines.

It also served as a music player, MP3 and audiobook player aside from being a very good eBook reader. Amazon.com later on bought its technology and its successor device became the Amazon Kindle.

Having distributed the eBookMan, I learned to convert ordinary documents into the eBook format and download them into eBook devices. Correspondingly, I was able to create electronic libraries that are stored, retrievable, searchable, bookmarkable and annotatable in the eBookMan initially, and in all handheld devices eventually.

The most popular electronic library that we created in the Philippines was the electronic law library that contained all the Philippine laws and the Supreme Court decisions since 1901. We coined the phrase, addressing it to customers- mainly lawyers and law students, “You can now take the law into your own hands.” For PALM Pilot devices we called the library, “Law on the Go”.

When the Amazon Kindle became available in the United States, I purchased it knowing that all my existing libraries are transferable. It also let me continue converting documents into the eBook format that are downloadable and readable through the Kindle or Kindle Readers installed in other devices.

When I say documents, I mean docs that are in my computer as well as from online sources. Once these documents are stored in my computer or in my external hard drives, they are indexed. Hence, they all become searchable especially when they are converted into the eBook format.

Having access to a lot of data, information and knowledge from the Internet and from my own computer are indeed luxuries that many of us enjoy in this digital age. They all make us learned or potentially become one if we just desire to be such and dedicate some time to doing it.

Search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others index the documents in the Internet. Of course, the offline search engines of your computers do the same.

Lately, I have explored other sources of knowledge derived from published and indexed books. These are the national and local public libraries and the university libraries.

As a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia my library card allows me to access eBooks and audiobooks online and/or download them into my laptop, Kindle, iPAD, iPod (audio), Android, or iPhone.

As an alumnus of two universities in the U.S. I can also access their libraries. Their digital libraries are also good sources. Google is now digitizing the books of many major universities and is gradually making them available online. Project Gutenberg has digitized hundreds of thousands of books and making them available for free. With public support, they continue to digitize more and offer more.

When I was a young boy my father, who was a schoolteacher, used to say, “Just master the art of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, and you can survive, be competitive, and succeed.”

Nothing can be more true in this digital age.

I am attending FOSE 2012 as I write this column.  Like in the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 and MACWORLD/IWorld, I am lucky to obtain Press Credentials.

Originally named as plain Federal Office Systems Exposition (FOSE) exhibiting office ware in the Federal Government, it has evolved over the years as “the premier government information technology (IT) event that brings together federal, state, local and private sector partners to share the latest innovations and best practices in technology implementation.”

This year FOSE 2012 is focusing on both technology and policy management. It is comprised of five conferences: Cybersecurity, Cloud and Virtualization, Mobile Government, Defense Innovations as well as Records and Information Management.

Produced by 1105 Media's Government Events Group efficiently and effectively, FOSE 2012 is being held April 3 - 5 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

Providing a yearlong educational forum, FOSE will also host individual conferences for each of the topic areas above during 2012.

Kicking off the event on April 3rd was U.S. Chief Information Officer (CIO) Steven VanRoekel who delivered the opening keynote address. He expounded on the current landscape of federal IT as well as his vision for implementing a
common approach to the design of future federal architectures.

Tom Koulopolous, author of “The Innovation Zone”, was the featured speaker early in the afternoon. Koulopolous is known for “taking mystery out of innovation.”

One of the sessions that I attended was “The Dark Side of Facebook”. The speaker, Alix Levine who is the owner of WEBehavior, a consulting firm, discussed some samples and case studies on how the enemies of our way of life use Facebook for their sinister ends. I plan to write a separate article on this topic later.

The Wednesday keynote speaker will be former Senator George Mitchell and special envoy for Middle East peace. He is expected to offer a global perspective on government IT, including the impact of technology and social media on world political currents.

He will be followed in the afternoon by the first Navy SEAL ever to be appointed to a four-star flag rank, Adm. Eric Olson. His views on using technology to enhance the “new fighter warrior” will be aired. He will also offer “Lessons from the Bull Frog SEAL Commander”.

FOSE will feature five top women in government IT in a panel discussion on Thursday. They are Judy Marks, president of Siemens Government Technology; Dawn Meyerriecks, assistant director in the
Office of the National Director for Intelligence; Linda Rix, president of Avue Technologies; Lisa Schlosser, deputy administrator of OMB’s office of e-government and IT; and Susan Swart, CIO of the State Department. The panel will be moderated by 1105 Government Information Group President Anne Armstrong.

Being a member of the media, I am allowed to attend any or all of the sessions. Since I am unable to attend all, I will focus on some interesting sessions on Mobile Government, Cybersecurity, Cloud and Virtualization and Records and Information Management Conference Agenda. I will miss all the sessions on Defense Innovations because of time limitations.

I also plan to write about them in my next column.

It is indeed exciting and interesting to attend these sessions or conferences involving the government and its industry partners in the field of technology. I cite,for example, the initial stages of the Internet, the eBook and the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) technologies.
We all know that the Internet got started at the initiative of the U.S. Government. I was fortunate to be one of the first attendees of the conferences sponsored by the U.S. Federal Government on the eBook technology.

It was also due to these eGov conferences that I learned about the UAV technology. In fact, I was even appointed by one of the manufacturers/suppliers of the military to represent them in Southeast Asia.

In the case of the Philippines, the company was even willing, not only to sell it there, but also to transfer the technology for commercialization and for use of our military.

Unfortunately, despite an approved budget that passed through Philippine Congress to finance a pilot project, we failed to consummate an agreement probably because of our insistence on following the Anti-Corrupt Practices Act of the United States.

It might be worthwhile pursuing it again under the current Philippine regime if it is still possible. It is a very inexpensive and safe way to monitor our shorelines including those of the Spratlys.