[Olpc-open] FW: olpc and anti-corruption

Fri Apr 4 09:42:40 EDT 2008

Dear All,

Greetings from Kabul.  This is definitely an interesting idea to see 
what can be done for anti-corruption but I think there are some things 
that we have to be careful about:

1. We need to be careful of the link between the XO and any military / 
intelligence application.  My job is more technical out here.  However 
I've lived here for nearly two years so I have some understanding.  You 
might have read that because the Taleban suspected that mobile phone 
signals were being used by ISAF to track them down they blew up some 
base stations and the signal in those areas is now off during the 
night.  Sometimes those who are going by road to such provinces from 
Kabul are hiding their phone SIM cards, because if the bus gets stopped 
by the Taleban, they must not be caught with any westerner's number on 
their phone...  We don't to turn pilot schools into targets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7291833.stm

2. I would argue that an education project is a much stronger defence.  
As soon as someone learns how to read, and more importantly as part of 
the OLPC project, learns how to learn, learns what the Koran says and 
means, then I see the chances of this person going out and joining the 
insurgents to be far far lower. 

3. Knowing who you're dealing with is not so much as a problem as 
endemic corruption.  Most government workers are paid $50 a month - 
which in Kabul isn't even enough to buy Peanuts, or bread for the 
family.  So what are you going to do?  Take a 60 cent bribe per job 
possibly.  A few bribes a day and your family can eat.  Let me share a 
true story -

Guy goes to government office and has name put down on waiting list.

3 hours later still not seen to

Guy asks why?

You need pay me says the person with the list

So he pays $2 and gets to the top of the list

Goes to see the manager

Says "You should fire that person who is taking bribes for people to see 
you"

Manager says "OK, How much will you pay me to do that?"

4. You might have heard of the e-government Kiosk in India - where they 
established booths with operators that could do all the common 
government tasks - pay electricity bill, get driving license papers, etc. 

5. Where I would see a lot of potential in the future is that OLPC can 
greatly expand the number of people with access to a computer terminal.  
Which makes e-government much more viable in these kinds of places.  
That way people can skip the bureaucrats, bribery, the XO won't take 
bribes.  You might have come across the OFBIZ framework 
(ofbiz.apache.org) - this holds potential as a platform for e-government 
applications. 

6. I'm not sure that the culture in a post war country would work for 
providing ratings - in countries where law and order is lacking you 
often have to threaten to create a problem for someone if they do not 
co-operate with your request.  This can get very dirty and complicated.  
For example:

1. I have a disagreement with my house owner over the amount of rent 
that I owe

2. He stops my friend from getting my stuff back and then claims for the 
extra rent during the time that he refused to let the stuff be taken out 
and refused to take the key back and threatens to call the police.

3. He threatens to call the police if not paid rent for the time during 
which he refused to take the key back and refused to release anything 
from the house

4. I counter-threaten to call the police for stolen stuff

5. Agreement reached to pay him a little extra and take stuff out

Unfortunately there are still those who will resort to violence and a 
lot of the time people will be too afraid to put down the truth.  As 
well as that - people if asked by members of their family / close 
friends will put down false information without question.

7. If we can empower the government to deal more directly with people 
through the XO then this would really have a lot of promise.  The 
government could move people away from paper-pushing and into more 
meaningful work, over time. 

8. Don't get disappointed.  Afghanistan is recovering from a situation 
almost without parallel, 3 decades of almost all out war.  In 6 years a 
*LOT* has been accomplished.  13,000+ Registered companies, 4 mobile 
phone operators, 4 airlines, GDP Up, millions of kids back to school.  
Afghanistan has amongst the most free media in the region, even 
recording MPs sleeping in parliament and broadcasting it.  Even public 
campaigns about the lack of electricity done by radio operators.

9. Some ideas of XO apps could be:

 a. If we can make some kind of simple client-server app so that 
constituents can engage directly with politicians - using chat, Q+A, 
blogs, etc. that would hold a lot of promise.  For example the school 
children could give questions to their MP, then their MP can take this 
up in Kabul, and then give them the answer to their questions.

 b. As the government here can get really big and confusing - giving 
people a directory of who to contact about what is the first step.  At 
the moment the typical method is to find a friend / relation somewhere.  
If we can create an activity that is like a directory wizard that could 
be great.

Hope that has some interesting info...  Very much looking forward to 
seeing what ideas we can take forward...

Regards,

-Mike

alexandre van de sande wrote:

> this seems like something that could be done as a web service. I don't 
> like the "mandatory ehternet as IP" part, but the idea of transparency 
> and politicians reviews would make a great website. One that could be 
> used by OLPC, for example. Go for it.
>
>
> On 10/02/2008, at 17:18, Clark Pope wrote:
>> I'm curious if anyone is looking at using the OLPC as an 
>> anti-corruption tool. I hear that one of the major problems in 
>> afghanistan is corruption of the police and other officials not to 
>> mention civilians. I realized that these developing countries are a 
>> lot like Ebay: nobody knows who they can trust. The online sites have 
>> tried to tackle with ratings systems of users and buyers. My theory 
>> is the same thing could be accomplished with the OLPC. 
>>  
>> Basically, people would get an OLPC by providing picture and finger 
>> print at a vending machine. The units ethernet address would become 
>> the person's ID. The unit won't work with any other finger scan and 
>> if activity is not detected in 48 hours, let's say, the unit would be 
>> reported stolen or some GO would be prompted to investigate. 
>>  
>> In the marketplace and at government office both parties to a 
>> transaction would authenticate themselves to each other via their 
>> OLPCs. After the transaction each individual can rate the other. 
>>  
>> If a seller or official is corrupt it will become obvious very 
>> quickly as many people report on them. If people refuse to 
>> participate then others know not to do business with them. 
>>  
>> The same infrastructure can be used to report insurgents, essential 
>> services, voting, etc. 
>>  
>> Anyway, is anyone working on applications like this? Seems to me the 
>> coalition would pay for it since it is alot cheaper to empower 
>> millions of citizen watchers than it is to send more troops. 
>>  
>> Please respond to my email directly as I don't subscribe to this list. 
>>  
>> Thanks,
>> Clark
>>
>>
>>     From: cepope13 at hotmail.com <mailto:cepope13 at hotmail.com>
>>     To: cepope at nc.rr.com <mailto:cepope at nc.rr.com>
>>     Subject: olpc anti-corruption
>>     Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:58:47 -0500
>>
>>     dispense from vending machines
>>     government employee have paper trail
>>     ethernet address is the citizen id
>>     use for elections
>>     rate vendors and buyers
>>     use to validate government officials and report corruption
>>     pay contributors with monthly electronic deposits
>>     report status of water, sewer, and electricity
>>     call for help
>>      
>>     if stolen can be deactivated remotely
>>     fingerprint scan to purchase and use
>>      
>>     communications tool
>>     education tool
>>
>>     Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. Get it now!
>>     <http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_012008>
>>
>>
>> Climb to the top of the charts! Play the word scramble challenge with 
>> star power. Play now! 
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-- 

Mike Dawson
Deputy CEO
PAIWASTOON Networking Services Ltd.

Email: mike at paiwastoon.com.af
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Skype: mike.dawson

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Daral-Amman
Kabul, Afghanistan