MobileActive.org

Join New Tactics in Human Rights, MobileActive.org and others for an online dialogue on Using Mobile Phones for Citizen Media. The dialogue is starting tomorrow, and will conclude on August 2nd. 

The conversation takes place here.

With the growing use of mobile phones for citizen media comes new risks, challenges and opportunities. This online dialogue is a space to discuss stories, tactics, and resources for using mobile phones for citizen media, as well as a space to discuss mobile risk assessment and security. Jin the discussion on July 27 to share your stories, ideas and resources!  

You can find more information on how to participate here.

MobileActive.org interviewed Apala Lahiri Chavan, an expert in Design for Emerging Markets. She is the current Chief Oracle and Innovator of Human Factors International. Through her experience working in the fields of human and computer interaction and user experience with a particular focus on emerging regions, Lahiri Chavan and her team have done cutting edge work in the design of interactive systems. More information about Lahiri Chavan and the work she has done can be found here.

In our interview, Lahiri Chavan talks to us about the importance of paying attention to contextual user needs when designing mobile technologies for users in emerging markets. She started her career as a computer programmer, although soon realized the lack of user-centered research employed in the development of interactive systems. This then motivated her to want to be an ‘advocate for the user’ as she explains in the interview. She wanted to start designing information systems that people could intuitively understand. Her passion to work with people in developing countries is what led her to the field of Contextual Innovation.

Contextual Innovations is a "systematic multidisciplinary process of inquiry into the new frontiers of user system interactions. It allows you to gain practical knowledge about your target markets to develop entirely novel, more useful and effective products and services." The importance of Contextual innovation is that is pay’s special attention to the unique user requirements of developing regions such has high illiteracy rates, multilingualism, and dialectal variation. Lahiri Chavan also also speaks about the importance of engaging citizens of emerging markets in to the design process.

To get a more detailed account of the phrase “Contextual Innovation’’ see Lahiri Chavan video about Design for Emerging Markets. She talks about the design process that must be employed when designing systems and products for users of developing regions. In this animation Lahiri Chavan goes through several processes of design innovations and calls attention to the importance of cross-cultural challenges. 

MobileActive.org recently had the opportunity to test an off-the-grid GSM base station. Kurtis Heimerl presented The Village Base Station (VBTS), (link is a PDF) a low-power means of providing mobile network service without grid power or network infrastructure.

Below, Heimerl demonstrates the basic workings of a GSM networks and OpenBTS, an open-source platform that allows one to set up a cellular network at a fraction of the cost of a GSM network. Heimerl shows how phones find their base towers and settle on a frequency, and how OpenBTS condenses that process into a lower-powered, cheaper network.

The Village Base Station is built around voice and low-bandwidth data transmissions. It is an economical solution for rural residents who are outside of typical network coverage or power access, or for people living in situations where network outages occur. In a white paper presenting the VBTS, Heimerl and co-author Eric Brewer describe the project as, "essentially an outdoor PC with a software-defined radio that implements a low-power low-capacity GSM base station. Long-distance WiFi provides 'backhaul' into the carrier." Below are images of elements of the Village Base Station and screenshots from our 'hackday' in a large American city when we demo'ed VBTS with Heimerl. (Warning: If you try this at home, be aware of your local regulator's potential licensing and other restrictions for setting up such network/connecting to it)

Smartphones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian) and many feature phones allow you to download and install mobile applications (“apps”). Apps do many useful things. However, some apps (and other types of software, such as your mobile operating system) can also present security risks. These include:

• Apps and other software may have access to information stored on or generated by your phone.

• Apps and other software may have the ability to transmit this information using your phone’s Internet connection.

Malicious apps or other mobile software installed on your mobile device can expose you to the following risks:

• Your conversations may be listened to or recorded without your knowledge.

• Your text messages, emails and web traffic may be monitored and logged.

• Data stored on your phone (contacts, calendar entries, photos and video) may be accessed or copied.

• Passwords stored or entered on your phone may be stolen and used to access your online accounts.

• Your locationmaybetracked, even when your phone is switched off.

With smartphones gaining market share, malicious apps are beginning to pose a serious threat. In an article titled “Your Apps Are Watching You”, the Wall Street Journal tested popular iPhone and Android apps, and found that of 101 apps tested, 56 transmitted a unique identifier for the phone without informing the user or asking for consent. 47 apps also transmitted the phone’s location, while 5 sent age, gender or other personal details to various companies. The App Genome Project reports that 28% of all apps in the Android Market and 34% of all free apps in the Apple App Store have the capability to access location, while 7.5% of Android Market apps and 11% of Apple App Store apps have the capability to access users’ contacts.

It can be very difficult to tell which apps are safe and which are not. App behaviours that might not bother most users, such as transmitting the phone’s location to an advertising server, can be unacceptable to people with higher privacy and security requirements.

This article offers suggestions on how to assess risks to security and privacy posed by apps.