Headline, January17, 2014

'''TECHNOL​OGY !^TAKES-GU​ARD^! 

IN PAKISTAN''​'

GOVERNING  -or living in a crowded South Asian city,  is some experience. For once, or maybe ever,  - it is the problems that host you : -smog, contagious disease, corruption, and, and, and all just zap you.  

Overwhelmed muncipalities, especially those, just so,  miserably weakened by corruption and ineffeciencies,  offer a weak and a thinly spread response, if they ever do  -in your regressive chances of surviving.

After one and a recurring grim spell, of disease, viruses and disasters, Lahore's authorities last year looked for ways to use technology  -in particular through cheap, widely available smartphones- to help them put up a better fight against one fatal misery> mosquitoes.

They equipped 1,500 city workers with $100 smartphones and asked them to take  ''before and after'' photographs of their anti-dengue tasks and to upload them, tagged by location, so that they could be plotted on an online map, made available to the public.

The resulting data was then analysed to create a visualisation showing where and when dengue was infecting people. It was then possible to predict where dengue-infected mosquitoes would buzz up next.

The use of smartphones also had more subtle effects. Knowing they were being monitored and tracked in public, municipal workers also applied themselves more assiduously to their tasks.

Anyone looking at the online map could see that if the work being done in a particular area was adequate    -and complain it it was not.

Other officials, such as veterinarians who are paid to to travel to farms to deworm cows, have to take smartphones to record themselves at work and upload  geotagged  self-portraits to an official website. This makes it possible to audit, and track activity and outputs and caliberate, and recaliberate service.

Encouraged and inspired by early traction and even successes, the Punjab government then went on to try one more model: that involves making random calls to users of public services  -including the police, health services and administrative services such as registering property  -to inquire about the quality of service and whether they were asked to pay a bribe.

Even among the poorest fifth of households, 80% now use phones, so the technology can reach almost everyone. Illiteracy is a problem but the chief minister's call alerts a recipient to get help, if needed, with reading the text message, when it arrives.

The text message contains a specific question: did the police respond, as required, within 15 minutes of your emergency call? Were you asked for a bribe at the hospital, or when registering a property? By collating the responses, it is possible to spot problem departments and crooked officials.

Around 25,000 -30,000 automated calls are now being made each day, and ''we are gathering remarkable data on who is corrupt and where.'' says one top manager.

It is heartening that the first two months after the scheme began, 60% of respondents said they were happy with their recent experiences of public service. That could help blow steam and put anger over corruption into perspective.

At the time, it was striking, too, that many complaints were over unclean offices, unclear fees for official services and petty frustrations, rather than corruption alone.

Either fight, against dengue, or shoddy public services, could yet be reversed in Lahore. 

Smartphones, geotagged photos and canvassing for public feedback only help if the data gathered are acted upon, and the forward and growing integration is getting simpler: Like riding a bicycle.

The other obvious mistakes at conceptual level would be to misread the  ''googly'' and overlook software licensing costs and intricacies. 

Great batsmen will always tell you that : When not sure which way the ball will spin, it is always best to play forward ''Open source'' is the only hard road short-cut not only in the developing world, but the worldover.

The great and brave work that the chief minister Mian Shabaz Sharif, is attempting :  is to let the sun shine come right through on the working of public services in Lahore, the capital of the province.

But watch the ''visualization'', sir.  watch the pipes, and mind the patchwork. Legacy work in technology is a nightmare.

If he the chief minister succeeds, he will so readily inspire the next. And than as the wise just so heed : ''that nothing succeeds like success''..

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of all the four provinces of Pakistan: Punjab, Balouchistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtun Khawa.

See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Every Expanding Care '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless