t324: keeping ahead in information and communication technologies first semester –...
TRANSCRIPT
T324: KEEPING AHEAD IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIESFirst Semester – 2011/2012—Fall 2011Tutorial 2 (B3,P1 (S5—7), B3,P2S1)
OutlineA
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Tackling congestion Road pricing Conclusion The ICT revolution and developing
countries Case Study Selection
Tackling congestion5
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Introduction
Apply some of the systems questions to some of the circumstances described in: the National Audit Office’s (2004) report, Tackling Congestion by Making Better Use of England’s Motorways and Trunk Roads. http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0405/ta
ckling_congestion.aspx Taking a socio-technical system
approach to road congestion => we need to think about the system.
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What is ‘Executive summary’? Unlike other summaries, which are usually written
on the assumption that a reader has read the entire document, an executive summary is written assuming the reader might read nothing but the summary.
So an executive summary attempts to distil an entire document to a few pages or less.
The process of distilling the document invariably means making choices about inclusions and exclusions.
To that extent the summary can reflect the values or biases of the person summarising the document (who might not be the same person as the one who wrote it).
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Activity 11 (exploratory)
Please read the ‘Executive summary’ section of Tackling Congestion (pp. 1–9). As you read, try to answer the following questions, which are 4.5(a) and 4.7(e) from the set given in Section 4:1. What special or chance events have
occurred recently? (Interpret ‘recently’ generously, and bear in mind that the report was published in 2004.) (p)
2. Whose values determine what is ‘desirable’? (D)
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Note
We will concentrate on just one part of the technology referred to in Tackling Congestion, namely roadside information systems (RIS).
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Roadside information systems (RIS) One of the allegations made in Tackling
Congestion is that the Highways Agency failed to provide effective on-road information.
Let’s investigate reasons for the failure. As a way of approaching the issue we
will think about it in terms of a socio-technical system, a roadside traffic information system.
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Failure investigation process The process consists of these four
stages: Find out more about the roadside
information system. Draw a system map. Add information flows to the system map. Try to account for the failure.
The systems questions, or some of them, play a role in all these stages.
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Caution
The Tackling Congestion report is just one account. If we were investigating this issue seriously, we would need to find out much more about the events described than is contained in this report. However, because of the limited time available, we will work almost exclusively with this report.
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Roadside information system: Components and Environment
Road users are the people for whom the roadside information is intended.
The Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association are two professional bodies whose members are important consumers of roadside information.
Ordinary motorists also use roadside information (though no motoring organisations are mentioned in these pages).
The Highways Agency manages the road network and installs the roadside equipment and signs.
The police, through a network of Police Control Offices, have operated the signals.
The police have monitored road conditions, mainly by using their patrols and CCTV [closed-circuit television] cameras’
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Developing system map
Questions that helps to organize the information gathered for incorporation into the system map. 4.1(c): What are the components of its
environment? 4.2(b): What are the system’s inputs and
outputs? 4.2(c): What are the flows between the
functional subsystems? 4.3(a): Which people and groups belong to
the system?
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RIS system mapA
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RIS system map + information flows
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Congestion reduction system What, basically, does the system do?
A roadside traffic information system should probably be seen as being embedded in a system to reduce congestion on the roads
The congestion reduction system should contain much more than just the roadside traffic information system, and the road users will now almost certainly receive information from sources other than roadside signs.
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Congestion reduction system if the roadside traffic information system
is expected to help reduce congestion, its success or failure will almost certainly be judged in terms of congestion reduction, rather than simply in terms of the efficiency with which it delivers information.
Provided congestion on the road network can be adequately defined and measured, the state of congestion on the road network provides a ‘quantifiable measure of performance’ of the congestion reduction system, of which the roadside traffic information system is just one part
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National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC)
Major functions and goals One of the major functions of the NTCC in
UK is providing traffic information. The (NTCC) provides free, real-time
information on England’s network of motorways and trunk roads to road users, allowing them to plan routes and avoid congested areas.
Goals of congestion avoidance are achieved through the provision of information.
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National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC)
Audience Includes people at home planning journeys
(and presumably wishing to avoid congestion) rather than just people already on the road.
This expansion of audience takes advantage of new technologies, and can be seen as a strategy for avoiding congestion, rather than just alleviating congestion when it happens.
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National Traffic Control Centre (NTCC)
Audience Example of one of the newer methods of
disseminating traffic information (at the time of writing): RSS reader
Information such can also be made available via the cellular phone system to mobile devices inside vehicles. Alternatively, or additionally, navigational devices inside cars could use this information when giving a route to a driver A
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Summary
The systems questions can be used at all stages of the process of failure analysis.
They can be used for gathering information, to help construct a view of the system and as a way of highlighting problematic areas.
The systems questions do not lead directly to problem areas, but suggest further lines of inquiry.
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Road pricing6
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Introduction
Managing the use of the road network through Congestion reduction Congestion reduction can be thought of as
a way of managing the use of the road network.
By encouraging road users to avoid certain parts of the road network, or to reschedule their journey, we are managing the way the network is used.
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Introduction
Why traffic information systems cannot be used as traffic management tools? They are fairly indirect. They do not offer easily administered
penalties and rewards for particular patterns of road use.
The only incentive to a road user to change their pattern of use is their presumed desire to avoid congestion
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Introduction
Road pricing is to create a more effective management tool In road pricing, users are financially
penalised for particular patterns of road use, and ‘rewarded’ for other patterns.
This is done by charging road users for the use they make of roads.
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Introduction
Enhancing effectiveness of road pricing as a congestion management tool The effectiveness of road pricing as a congestion
management tool is presumed to be enhanced by variable charging. That is to say: Some roads might carry a higher charge than other
roads. Use of a road at certain times of day might be
charged more than at other times. Certain types of vehicle might be charged more than
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Road pricing – The system
System questions 4.6(a) what, basically, does the system do? 4.6(b) what gives the system its identity? 4.6(c) what are the main objectives? 4.6(d) can the achievement of the system’s
objectives be measured? 4.6(e) to what extent are the objectives met? 4.6(f) what is the capacity of the technology
to meet users’ and customers’ needs? 4.6(g) what are the main conflicts? 4.6(h) what is the balance of power?
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Road pricing – The system
1. What, basically, does the system do?2. What are the main objectives? 3. Can the achievement of the system’s
objectives be measured?
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Road pricing – The system
1. It enables management of the road network
2. The main objective is to control congestion, which might mean reducing it, or might mean holding it at current levels.
3. Congestion could be measured, for example, by calculating average journey times, or calculating average journey speeds.
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Tracking and electronic logs
Vehicle navigation systems calculate the position of a vehicle from data received from satellites, and match that position information to electronically stored maps within the devices.
It would be feasible to marry these devices to others that could keep an electronic log of the journeys made.
Logs of vehicle journeys would have to be uploaded periodically from the vehicle to the charging system, and there are various ways this might be done.
For example, the log might be uploaded through the cellular phone system, through dedicated short range wireless networks transmitting from cars to roadside receivers or through swipe cards which could be read at filling stations or other places.
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Tracking and electronic logs
Example (using the US GPS satellite system): The National Motorway Charging Scheme for lorries,
introduced in Germany in January 2005. The lorries are fitted with on-board units which keep
logs of the journeys made. The vehicle’s location is calculated by the on-board
unit from data received from the US GPS satellite system.
The on-board unit calculates the charge due, and sends this data, together with the journey details, to a toll collection centre via the cellular phone system.
A bill is then sent to the lorry’s owner or driver(Commission for Integrated Transport, 2007).
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Tracking and electronic logs
Other ways of tracking journeys Other ways of tracking journeys might involve
roadside automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, coupled to the national database of vehicles, which records details of vehicles and their owners.
Yet another possibility is for vehicles to carry a tag which carries identification details. These details are transmitted by microwave to
‘readers’ positioned at the roadside or overhead. Details of the vehicle’s movements can be logged
from the records of these roadside or overhead readers.
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Road pricing – The system ‘Technical’ systems questions (4.4)
a) What technologies does the system use?b) What legislation, standards or regulations govern the
use of the technologies?c) What codes of practice are relevant?d) Is the technology mature or novel? (Old and obsolete?
New and untested?)e) How long will it be stable?f) Are there maintenance or updating implications?g) Are there reliability or safety issues?h) Does it require new skills to be developed? (Retraining
of existing staff? Recruitment of new staff?)i) What are the interfaces between the people and the
technology?
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Activity 22 (self-assessment) What technologies might the road-
pricing system use? (Think of the system at a high level, rather than, for example, at the level of credit card payment technology or invoice-mailing technology.)
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Activity 22 (self-assessment) Answer: Depending on the location system used,
the following might be used, possibly in combination: Satellite location technology ANPR RFID dedicated short range communication
(DSRC).
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Activity 23
For the technologies in the last activity: Is the technology mature or novel? (Old and
obsolete? New and untested?) Are there reliability issues?
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Activity 23 – Answer (1/2)
At the time of writing (2007): Satellite location technology for use in vehicles
is rapidly becoming established, with the prices of units for cars dropping rapidly.
ANPR and RFID are well established. Dedicated short range communication (DSRC)
is novel. However, although several of the
technologies are mature of approaching maturity, what is novel for road pricing is putting them together into a system on the scale envisaged.
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Activity 23 – Answer (2/2)
Reliability issues: Satellite location is fairly reliable. But there are
potential problems with the limited precision available from the GPS. (If two roads are close together, the system might not be able to determine which road the vehicle is on.) The European Galileo system offers higher precision, but at the time of writing is in development.
ANPR is subject to error through misreading of the number-plate. However, in a practical system a vehicle’s number-plate would typically be read many times during a journey, so overall the reliability could be acceptable.
RFID is very reliable. DSRC is still an unknown quantity
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Why reduce congestion? The Eddington Report
In 2005, Sir Rod Eddington was asked by the UK government to examine: the long-term links between transport and the UK’s
economic productivity, growth and stability, within the context of the Government’s broader commitment to sustainable development. (HM Treasury, 2007)
His report, entitled The Eddington Transport Study, was published in December 2006.
It runs to four volumes, with a fifth summary volume. All five volumes can be downloaded via web:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/about/strategy/transportstrategy/eddingtonstudy/
However, the entire report is long, so we shall concentrate on just the summary volume. Even that is long (over 60 pages), so we shall just direct you to selected pages.
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Do Activity 24
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Why reduce congestion? The Eddington Report
Eddington’s distinct reasons One thing that emerges strongly from
Activity 24 is that Eddington has a distinct reason for wanting to reduce congestion – namely a wish to reduce the financial burden on business.
In addition, he wants transport to bear the true environmental cost of its operations.
To achieve both of these objectives, he advocates road pricing, but as part of a ‘sophisticated policy’ (recommendation 15(3)) that would also include investment in roads and public transport.
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Complexity and practicality
Any practical road-pricing system on a large scale would be complex – too complex for us to delve into here.
So instead we are going to concentrate on what might appear to be a detail.
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Scenario for reducing congestion
Suppose we have a section of trunk road from A to B which is regularly congested at certain times of the day
However, suppose there is an alternative route from A to B . This alternative route happens to pass through a residential area.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Solution 1:
In an effort to reduce congestion, a high charging rate could be imposed for this trunk road at the busiest times of the day.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Potential Problem with Solution 1:
Imposing a high charging rate for the trunk road is likely to drive yet more people through the residential area increasing the suffering of residents.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Alternate 1 to Solution 1
Impose the same rate for the residential route as well, to make it less attractive as an alternative to the trunk route.
This is the basis of one type of zonal system, where all the roads in a particular zone are charged at the same rate.
However, if the residential route does offer a way of bypassing the congestion, it will still attract traffic off the trunk road.
Perhaps, then, the charge for using the route through the residential area should be much higher than that on the trunk road.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Alternate 1 to Solution 1
By making the residential route much more expensive, we attempt to make users of the trunk route stay on the trunk route, or not undertake the journey at all.
Within the residential area there will be a lot of people who are used to making local journeys.
These local journeys might not use the trunk road at all, and so do not contribute to the congestion that we want to reduce.
It would be unfair if these road users had to pay a high charge just to make their local journeys.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Alternate 2:
One possibility is that vehicle owners living in the residential area could be charged at a lower rate than that applying to through-traffic trying to bypass the congestion.
This would be feasible because a road-pricing system would have access to the national database of vehicle owners.
It would therefore ‘know’ who the local road users were and who were not.
Note, however, that what counts as a local journey in an urban area might be quite different from what counts as a local journey in a rural area, so the pricing system might need to take this into account.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Computer models:
Not surprisingly, with a system like this, with many interacting variables, behaviour of the users is hard to predict.
Computer models allow such things as different pricing structures to be tested to see what effect they have, but these models have to make assumptions about how road users respond to variations in charging rate, and these assumptions may turn out to be unwarranted.
Furthermore, we can expect a system as complex as this to have emergent properties.
The purpose of a road pricing system, however, is to change behaviour in a controllable way.
There is a danger that by just getting the technical parts of the system to work, designers will imagine that the larger system will work in the way intended.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Gradualist approach
Bringing in a system like road pricing piecemeal.
In this way it might be possible to avoid outright catastrophe, because with each cautious step forward there is a possibility of retreat if things do not work out.
It seems very likely that well before any major implementation of road pricing takes place, more cities will adopt city-centre congestion charging similar to that in London, and that the charging in London will expand.
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Scenario for reducing congestion Pros and Cons
As mentioned above, one consequence of a gradual approach is that failure, if it occurs, is less likely to be judged as catastrophic. Indeed, it might be possible to recover from failure quite successfully.
The drawback, naturally, is that it will take an appreciable time for the system to start yielding the benefits that Rod Eddington, for example, hopes to see from road pricing.
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Questions of performance
Recurring themes in poorly performing projects: Performance: deficiencies in the apparent
organisational structure of the project, resulting in an inability to measure performance, exercise sufficient control or carry out effective decision making
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Questions of performance
Three possible consequences of a defective organisational structure: Inability to measure performance Inability to exercise sufficient control Inability to make decisions effectively.
Conversion to analytical questions: Can performance be measured? Can sufficient control be exercised? Can decisions be made effectively?
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Questions of performance
1. Can performance be measured?
2. Can sufficient control be exercised?
3. Can decisions be made effectively?
1. What measures of performance are used?
2. How is it possible to implement changes?
3. On what criterion can one decide what change is desirable?
Performance questions System question
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Conclusion7
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Failure can be instructive
Scientists, product designers and artists are used to the right answer emerging only after lots of wrong ones have been discarded.
For them, the failures are often regarded as vital stages towards success.
‘Successful design, whether of solid or intangible things, rests on anticipating how failure can or might occur’ (Petroski (2006, p. 5))
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Envisaging the ways in which systems can fail
With complex socio-technical systems, trying to envisage the ways in which they can fail, and designing around them, can present formidable difficulties.
Sauer (1993, p. ix) says: ‘I want it to be publicly accepted that information systems are typically hard to develop and prone to fail’.
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Uncertainty
Sauer also stresses that: “An information system will almost always involve some element of innovation”
A number of consequences follow from this: though there may be carefully specified
designs, there is always uncertainty about what the final product will be.
there is uncertainty about how the process of constructing the product will turn out.
there is uncertainty about who precisely the final product will serve and how well it will serve them.
(Sauer, 1993, p. 12)
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The socio-technical systems approach
Faced with uncertainties, designers usually have to draw on resources such as experience, judgement, imagination and insight, aided by various tools.
The socio-technical systems approach is one such tool.
As you have seen, it is an analytical tool, enabling us to see how something is put together, or might be put together, and to see what processes or influences are at work.
But the need for intelligent and creative analysis and synthesis always remains.
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Failure is seldom due to purely technical part
The technology sits within a socio-technical system, and the problems are often due to the failure of the designers to take into account the socio-technical nature of the system.
The human parts of the system are often unpredictable, not because people are by nature perverse, but because they are far more complex than the technology they are called upon to work with.
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The ICT revolution and developing countries
IntroductionB3P2Sec1
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Introduction
World can be divided into: South: developing world is often known as the
South. North: mostly developed world (USA, Canada,
Europe, etc.)
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Challenges
Challenges in the south limited resources and infrastructure livelihoods of many people are constrained
by very low incomes lack of access to services Other dimensions of poverty and
inequality. There are thus inequalities
within the South between South and North Within the North
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Table 1A
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Notes on table 1
Approximation High income roughly equates to the North, low
income to the South, with middle and lower middle income countries straddling the two
Data in Table 1 gives an idea of the immense differences between country categories.
Table 1 also shows the upward trends in all cases.
Access to and use of mobile phones, in particular, have mushroomed in all parts of the world
But there will be inequalities between and within different parts of the world for a long time to come.
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Digital divide
Differences in access to and use of ICTs between and within North and South are frequently called the digital divide.
Although it is impressive to see the dramatic changes that are happening with respect to ICT, it is also important to understand the challenges for the South.
While changes in ICT access and use in the South present some problems that are similar to those in the North, as we shall see there are also different realities and greater difficulties in overcoming those problems and challenges.
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Constraints on access to, and use of, ICTs
This part (B3P2 of the course) Examines the constraints on access to,
and use of, ICTs, and how ICTs are transforming lives in other parts of the world.
B3P2 Focuses on countries in sub-Saharan Africa (particularly Uganda and Ghana), although it will also pick up on global issues and refer to countries in other areas of the world.
For this offer of the course, the case study on Uganda of B3P2Sec2 will be replaced by an ICT case study on the Middle East that will be selected as part of TMA by students.
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Constraints on access to, and use of, ICTs
ICT revolution in the developing world Electronic networks are becoming an everyday
phenomenon for many people BUT there are huge differences in people’s
access to the different technologies (Computers & mobile phones) and in the constraints confronting their use.
Constraints include Connectivity Cost (hardware, software, ISP connections and
bandwidth) Different literacy and language requirements of
different technologies.
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Potential to promote development There is tremendous potential for ICTs
to promote and support social and economic development By enabling connections with the
knowledge economy By enabling access to information By supporting teaching and learning By promoting human networks of many
different kinds).
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Connection between the technological and the social
Connection between the technological and the social, and how they influence each other.
Importance to take into account the lived realities and physical infrastructure in assessing what technological change can and cannot achieve.
Changes in ICTs enable new potential and new possibilities for human and social development.
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Activity 1
Short reading activity that reflects on the issues raised in this introduction: the ICT revolution and developing countries.
This activity refers to a short extract from the book Bridging the Digital Divide, edited by Angathevar Baskaran and Mammo Muchie and published in 2006, which is printed in Block 3 Articles.
The book examines ICT development in several countries: Brazil, China, India, Thailand and the region of southern Africa, as well as South Africa.
Brazil, India, China and South Africa, together with Russia, are known as the BRICS – a term derived from the initial letters of the five countries.
These countries are seen to be emerging as the major economic powers of the future (particularly India and China, at the time of writing).
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Activity 1
The extract we use here is part of the introductory chapter of the book, written by the book’s editors and looking forward to the other chapters in the book.
It consists of two sections: ‘Significance of ICT revolution’ and ‘Change in perception of ICT: from economic growth to broader social–economic development’.
These sections provide some useful insights into the issue of the digital divide and the role of ICTs in national development.
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Activity 1
For the first section of the extract, ‘Significance of ICT revolution’, make your notes as a list of short sentences, phrases or words under the general heading ‘Benefits and challenges of the ICT revolution’.
For the second section of the extract, ‘Change in perception of ICT: from economic growth to broader social–economic development’, construct your notes as a mind map. A mind map is a diagram which links together ideas, starting from a central theme.
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Activity 1
Use Figure 11 as a starting point for your mind map, with the central theme of ‘social–economic development’. (If you are unfamiliar with mind maps, you can use the internet to get more information about them.)
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Common Framework for ICT Case Study Selection in the TMA For Country Branch of the Student
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Introduction: These slides contain information about
selecting an ICT case study by students for their own country as part of their TMA.
The selected ICT case study should be applicable to the Middle Eastern environment.
Students are not required to write a case study but rather they are required to select a Case Study on ICT dealing with various issues of ICT related to their own branch country.
Case Study: Definition
Source: http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/casestudy/pop2a.cfm
Case study refers to the collection and presentation of detailed information about a particular participant or small group, frequently including the accounts of subjects themselves.
A form of qualitative descriptive research, the case study looks intensely at an individual or small participant pool, drawing conclusions only about that participant or group and only in that specific context.
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Educational Applications: Source:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/casestudy/pop2a.cfm
"Instituted at Harvard Business School in the 1950s as a primary method of teaching, cases have since been used in classrooms and lecture halls alike, either as part of a course of study or as the main focus of the course to which other teaching material is added" (Armisted 1984).
Through careful examination and discussion of various cases, "students learn to identify actual problems, to recognize key players and their agendas, and to become aware of those aspects of the situation that contribute to the problem" (Merseth 1991).
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In addition, students are encouraged to "generate their own analysis of the problems under consideration, to develop their own solutions, and to practically apply their own knowledge of theory to these problems" (Boyce 1993).
Along the way, students also develop "the power to analyze and to master a tangled circumstance by identifying and delineating important factors; the ability to utilize ideas, to test them against facts, and to throw them into fresh combinations" (Merseth 1991).
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TMA Info: Common Framework for Case Study Selection:
Instead of the ICT case study on Uganda in Section 2 of Block 3, you will be required to select an ICT case study for your own AOU Country Branch.
By selection of a case study it is meant that you perform a literature search on the internet (e.g. Google, AOU e-library etc.) and find the relevant technical article, report or publication dealing with ICT systems of your country.
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The ICT system(s) of your selected case study should deal either with Communication Technologies (e.g. GSM, CDMA, Wi-Fi, Wi-MAX, DSL, SDH, DWDM, Gadgets (iPhones, Blackberry) etc.) or
Computer Technologies (e.g. The Internet, iPads, Laptops etc.) or both.
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Your selected case study article should deal with some (not necessarily with all) of the following ICT issues such as: The digital Divide between Urban and
Rural areas. The different types of communication
technologies such as computer and mobile phones discussed in the case study.
The extent and type of connectivity i.e. bandwidth and speed of connection or speed of operation.
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Report on Case Study as Part of TMA:
After selecting your case study, you should discuss the following points and submit them in the form of a small report along with your selected case study article: Does your selected case study deal with
social, technical aspects of ICTs. Explain in your own words.
Explain whether your case study deals mainly with Computers or Mobile Phones or both as ICT systems. You must mention these systems and their technology.
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Are digital Divide issues of Urban and Rural areas, if any, discussed in your selected case study. If not, then discuss the main theme of the case study.
Are connectivity issues such as bandwidth and speed discussed in the case study. In case of computer systems, explain if any performance issues such as speed of operation etc. are discussed in the case study.
Explain how did you perform your literature search and cite your sources and references.
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Form of Case Study:
Your selected ICT case study will normally be in the form of a report or technical publication related to your AOU Branch Country.
Google search and the AOU e-library are good sources to start your search.
Useful Links: http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/casestudies/
index.html Google scholar.
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