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Reader Ali Rashid writes would you please prepare something about Microsoft Access. At your service Ali.

Microsoft Access is probably the last application in the Office suite most people try to use. It is intimidating to learn in comparison to Word and Excel, and doesn’t produce anything nearly as pretty as PowerPoint. However Access is
possibly the most useful programme in Office, especially for those who run businesses.

Access is a database management programme. It allows you to create databases and then access the information in them in different ways.

Hang on a minute. What is a database?

A database is a store of information. Imagine a government office somewhere in Dar es Salaam. That office has lots of paper work. Lots and lots of paperwork. The papers can be about lots of different things – imports, exports, taxes and the like. These different pieces of paper are related to people, businesses and even other pieces of paper. A clever clerk might organise these pieces of paper so that those relating to the same person or company are stored next to each other and easy to find when it comes time to send the tax man round.

This is a database. An old fashioned one. Computers have revolutionised databases (although not necessarily Tanzanian government offices!) The same information from all those pieces of paper can be filed away on a computer database, which takes care of keeping the related records together. Much neater than a filing cabinet.

Access is like a giant filing cabinet squeezed inside a computer. By storing your information in an Access database you can access it in lots of different ways, just like the taxman.

Why bother?

If you have a warehouse full of car parts you would probably like to know which parts you have without looking through all the boxes. You might not be able to remember which part goes with which car. You might want to know how much you sold the last one for, and how much profit you make per part. A database can help you here.

Or perhaps you are a doctor. You want to be able to store your patients’ records in one place and access them quickly in an emergency. Perhaps you want to see how many people you prescribed a certain drug to in the last month. Rather than looking back through a pile of notebooks, you could search your database and in seconds have the answer.

Filling the drawers

Before you can do things like this you need to design and create a database and begin to populate it. This is the tricky bit. It requires thinking aboutwhat sort of information you want to keep and splitting it into different kinds of things and the properties of those things – people are things that have amongst other properties names, addresses and ages, car spare parts have numbers, names and cars they fit in.

For each thing that you identify you create a table. A table looks a lot like an Excel spreadsheet. A table has columns for each property you identified for the thing and rows for each individual person, car part or corresponding thing you want to store information on.

Chances are you identified several things. The busy mechanic will probably have tables for customer, products and order. The next task is to see the relationships between the different things – your customer raised an order for a particular product. Repeat customers may have several orders for the same or different products.

Access allows you to draw these relationships, making it easy for the mechanic to look back and see all the products they have sold to a customer over the last year.

Access also makes it easy to add new information to the database. You can create forms which make sure you add the correct pieces of information into the right columns on the right tables.

Database design is a tricky task – budding IT students out there should take note that most business people won’t be able to do this for themselves. Business people should take note that having access to business information in this way can point the way to more efficient working, marketing and other routes to increased profits.

Access + Word = easy mail outs

Access can be used in conjunction with other Office programmes to put the information used to purposes other than increasing knowledge about the things or people you work with. If you need to send letters to all your customers, Word
can query an Access database and create individually addressed letters and envelopes to hundreds of customers in less time than it would take to write two by hand.

As you can see Access (and other database programmes out there) can be used for all kinds of administrative and information purposes.

There isn’t room here to cover even the basics in detail. The printed Access manual that came with old versions of Office is an excellent introduction to databases if you can find it. Courses in database management are available at some schools in Arusha. Some web sites have a go at teaching the basics – here are a few good ones.

Interesting sites

• www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/access/ – a detailed tutorial for beginners
• www.geekgirls.com/menu_databases.htm – more general database tutorial
• www.microsoft-accesssolutions.co.uk – articles on designing databases

Originally published in Arusha Times 333

One call from a certain number to your mobile phone can kill you. A dangerous computer virus can cause your computer to explode without warning. If you forward a certain email, Bill Gates will send you $1000. If you don’t forward a certain email, parts of your anatomy you would rather didn’t will shrink.

All these stories have one thing in common.

None of them are true!

So called urban legends and hoaxes such as these are nothing new. Although they have become more widespread since technology has broadened the reach of communication, similar stories have been passed around societies for centuries.
Such stories are a little like viruses – they survive because we pass them on to other people who spread them further. The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has dubbed such things memes, similar to genes. They move on through generations, changing subtly as they go. Strong memes survive longer than weaker ones.

Chain Letters

Chain letters are the most overt form of meme – they ask you to pass them on. Somehow we must be compelled to do so. Various tactics are used. They mainly appeal to our hopes, fears and compassions.

The earliest chain letters appeal to peoples’ religious sensibilities. Chain letters from the 18th Century often included a prayer which was to be passed on to a number of other people. The more people who received the prayer, the greater the luck granted to the person who sent it on.

Those who don’t pass the letter on are threatened with an array of punishments. Reference is usually made to the fates of those who failed to comply. Boils, deaths and sudden loss of wealth are common. How people who don’t reply to a chain letter are identified is a mystery.

Similar chain letters exist today as emails containing prayers, patterns made from letters and symbols or simply assertions that the email is somehow blessed.

Some are not blessed by God. In our times where commercialism has replaced many functions of religion businesses are identified as the sources of good luck, usually in the form of money.

A common chain letter claims to be written by Bill Gates. If the email reaches 1,000 people, each of them will receive a cheque for $1,000! Of course, since the email began at least seven years ago it has reached several million people, not one of whom has received a cent.

Another common form of chain letter involves a list of names and addresses – the recipient of the letter sends a small sum of money to each of the people listed, then adds their name to the bottom of the list, and deletes the first persons. The letter tells of how you will receive thousands of dollars in return. Do not be fooled by such letters. Most participants send no money to anyone. They simply add their name and address to the bottom of the list and pass the letter on.

Pyramid schemes such as these have been very popular throughout history. The Albanian government was brought to its knees in 1997 when a large number of pyramid schemes collapsed. There simply weren’t enough people in Albania for the scheme to work. All pyramid schemes ultimately reach this limit. Only a very small number of people make money from such schemes – the majority lose both money and hope.

Many chain letters appeal to our compassion rather than greed. A common theme is the sick child who wishes to receive get well soon cards from the most people. In 1989 Craig Shergold, a 9 year old English boy, requested people send him get well cards, hoping to get into the Guinness Book of Records. 15 years later the request is still in circulation. Craig still receives thousands a day. He has recovered from cancer, and would like the attention to stop now please!

Other chain letters claim to be petitions against deforestation, boycotting petrol stations and preventing a woman from being stoned to death. As worthy as these causes may be, signing an online petition and passing it on is worthless. The lists cannot be verified, and there is rarely anyone waiting to receive them who will take any action because of them.

Talking can be just as effective as email for spreading memes. In Nigeria this year a rumour circulated that a man died after receiving a call from a mysterious number to his mobile phone. Superstitious Nigerians stopped using their phones completely, fearing the same fate, prompting the major phone companies to issue reassuring statements. No one has identified the man who supposedly died.

What is the moral of this story? People can be easily fooled by the power of suggestion. Be careful your email doesn’t hypnotise you!

Interesting links

• www.snopes.com – a fascinating collection of memes, true and false
• urbanlegends.about.com – yet more urban myths, mostly debunked
• www.homepage.net/pyramidcalculator – How many people are needed for pyramid schemes to work? More than the population of the earth!

Originally published in Arusha Times 332

What is IP?

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) defines Intellectual Property as creations of the mind. This means everything from scientific discoveries to songs. By referring to these things as property organisations such as WIPO seek to give them the same status as physical properties such as land or tools.

Most governments agree with this, so it is possible to own and trade in intellectual property in most countries, much as you would with physical property.

However there are some obvious differences between intellectual and physical property which have resulted in confusion and rebellion.

A resource that never runs out

When you create a piece of physical property you can hold it in your hand. Give it away or sell it, and you no longer hold it. Intellectual property on the other hand remains with you when you pass it to others. For many this undermines its status as property. Unlike physical property, intellectual property increases in value when you share it with others. As the age old adage goes Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to catch fish and he will never go hungry. He may also teach others so they no longer go hungry either.

On the internet the frailty of intellectual property has been most apparent in the sharing of music. Music can be shared easily with countless other people using the internet. This has angered many people who make their living through selling music – it undermines the way they make their living. Music sharers argue that most of these people do not create music. They just trade in the CDs by which other people can listen to it. The internet cuts out these middle-men. Musicians are still free to make money in other ways, such as playing live to a paying audience. After all, before the development of CDs, records or tapes there were musicians making a living through performance.

Another area of controversy around IP is in the scientific community. Science is founded on the sharing of intellectual property. Isaac Newton said that his discoveries where made by standing on the shoulders of giants, referring to scientists before him. From the viewpoint made possible by their discoveries he could see further and make his own.

Today, in order to make a living, many scientists work directly or indirectly for businesses that obtain ownership of new discoveries. Businesses seek to use these discoveries to gain advantages over their competitors. This would be thwarted by scientists working for different companies and sharing their ideas. In order to be paid many scientists have to prevent others from standing on their shoulders and seeing further.

In both cases we have a tension between advantages for everyone, and advantages for a few. Some would make the argument that without benefits for the few there is no incentive for scientists or musicians to innovate. Others say that the middle-men are no longer necessary in a world where communication is so fast, cheap and easy.

How could this possibly affect Tanzanians?

What on earth is the effect of this on people living in communities with limited access to modern communication techniques? Why should Tanzanians take an interest in IP?

Protecting local IP

Intellectual property is not just the realm of big businesses. Every single person on the planet has the right to benefit from their intellectual property.

The problem is that many small scale societies do not place a monetary value on their knowledge. Farming or medical techniques passed down for millennia amongst groups such as the Maasai and Chagga are intellectual property. However,
who would be so bold to claim they are theirs?

Intellectual property can be something of a land grab – the first to stake claim to a piece of IP becomes the owner. For people in smaller communities this may be hard to achieve, and there is the risk of those better read in the legalities of the system acquiring IP that is not the result of their, or their ancestors hard work.

Farming and IP

The people that may be the first to seriously meet the sharp edge of IP laws may be farmers. The genes of plants can be discovered and therefore become intellectual property. New strains of crops can be claimed as IP. In 1997, RiceTec, a multinational company claimed a patent on basmati rice to worldwide horror. The crop had been grown in India for thousands of years, yet here a relatively young company was seeking to control who could trade in this staple crop!

The use of more legitimate IP can also lead to controversy. Recently a Canadian farmer was sued by the multinational seed company Monsanto for keeping seeds from the previous year’s crops and planting them, in contravention of the license. Comically, the farmer had never signed a license, and claimed that his field had been contaminated by seeds blown in from a neighbouring farm.

As you can see, the world of intellectual property can intrude into the more physical world. It is likely to do so more and more all over the world. It is something even Tanzanians will need to understand.

Interesting links

• www.wipo.org – World Intellectual Property Organisation
• www.crisinfo.org – Campaign for the right to communicate
• www.zeropaid.com – the latest news on music and other types of file sharing
• www.scidev.net/indigenous/protecting/ – protecting indigenous knowledge
• www.primalseeds.org – protecting biodiversity and local food security

Originally published in Arusha Times 331

Anyone who has been online for a year or two will have received hundreds, possibly thousands, of junk emails. Most of us shut out the deluge by learning to recognise what is and isn’t a bogus message, or setting up systems to automatically filter junk from our inboxes.

Every so often messages will get through these slim lines of defence. Every so often you will read one of these messages. Strangely enough, a high proportion of these messages seem to come from Africa – usually Nigeria or Zimbabwe.

The email usually looks something like this:

Dear Sir,

We are top ranking officials in the Nigerian government. During the military regime in our country, top ranking officials regularly over invoiced various ministry contracts. We have located a sum of $140 million resulting from this over invoicing. Because of our positions, we cannot access this money in our own names. We need a reliable contact in another country who can arrange for the money to be transferred into a foreign bank account. You have been identified by us as such a person.

We have agreed to share the money thus:

1. 70% for us (the officials)
2. 30% for the foreign partner (you)

In order to complete the transaction please contact us with a suitable business name and details of a bank account into which the funds can be transferred.

Yours,

Made up ministers name (Dr.)

The emails always have the same features:

• a phenomenal amount of money (usually money no one will notice missing
• despite the huge sum)
• the chance for you to share in it
• the potential for you to steal all of it

Often the messages are typed ALL IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Some messages refer to lottery prizes, others claim to be from a rich person who wants to donate money to a church and needs help organising it.

As implausible as these messages seem, there are many people who fall for them.

In 2001, the FBI reports, American citizens lost over $117 million dollars to internet fraud scams, including ones like this.

These scams are known as 419 scams. This is because they originated in Nigeria where 419 is the section of penal code covering fraudsters.

419 scams proceed like this:

1. A gullible and possibly desperate person receives the email and sees the opportunity for wealth beyond their wildest dreams. They respond enthusiastically to the email.
2. The con man replies and begins to build a relationship with their victim. Several emails may go back and forth, discussing business, family and often religion. When the fraudsters feel they have built up a sufficient level of trust they will ask the victim to transfer some money to the Nigerian account in order to check the transfer route or to confirm that the victim is indeed trustworthy.
3. Depending on how much money the victim has transferred, the con men may give up with what they have. In some occasions they will see the potential to extract more money from the victim.
4. They may request the victim’s bank details and signature. Shortly afterwards the victim will find their bank account empty!
5. In order to make the transfer, some money may be required to bribe officials.
6. In some extreme cases, victims have been lured to Nigeria to meet the fraudsters in person. This has resulted in the abduction of victims, who are held to ransom, and in at least one case murdered.

These letters are often funny and appear extraordinarily naive. Since so many people fall for them, and that some nasty things have happened as a result, lawmakers around the world take them very seriously. In January this year 52 people were arrested in Amsterdam in connection with these scams.

The funny side

Not everyone takes this seriously though. There are a number of web sites out there documenting correspondence with the scammers. The Spam Letters is a site devoted to baiting junk mailers, and has a section on 419 scams. The victims have turned the tables on the gangsters and wind them up with often hilarious results. Some have even convinced the fraudsters to send photographs of themselves doing silly things. One has a young Nigerian with a large fish balanced on his head. Another holds a sign proclaiming they are an obscene object. An incredibly large number of scammers have been drawn into ludicrous correspondence.

What to do if you receive one of these emails

Emails offering things too good to be true usually are. No stranger ever contacted anyone and gave them millions of dollars. These people are out to rob you. Do not believe that you can get something for nothing!

You have three choices if you receive one of these emails – ignore it, forward it to the appropriate authorities, or try and wind these criminals up, giving them a taste of their own medicine.

Sites that turn the tables

• www.thespamletters.com
• www.ebolamonkeyman.com
• www.scamorama.com

Originally published in Arusha Times 329

Ever since its early days the World Wide Web and the Internet have been presented as education resources. Access to the web in particular has become something students, parents and schools aspire to. As with many other technologies there is a tendency to see the web as a magic wand that automatically improves our lives, without understanding how exactly this is meant to happen. Being online does not make you or your children cleverer. What it does provide is access to sources of information that may not otherwise have been available. In many cases these sources present a richer experience than more traditional educational resources. Richer experiences make for more fulfilling learning. However, it should be remembered that interacting with a group of fellow learners, or a teacher, in person is the most tried and tested form of learning of all. Presently the internet cannot provide this.

Language learning online

The internet is foremost a way of communicating with other people. It provides the means for writing and even speaking with distant people – but only if they understand what you say. Perhaps it is time to learn a new language.

The multimedia capabilities of some computers come into their own when learning a language. As well as following written instruction, you can listen to recordings and watch videos of native speakers, gaining an understanding of how to pronounce words.

• www.learnenglish.com – a free English language learning site by the British Council. Includes an interesting magazine with comprehension tests, grammar question and answers, popular songs, stories and cartoons. A great resource to help you improve your English.
• www.bbc.co.uk/languages – learn French, Spanish, German, Italian and a host of other languages. The site provides a gentle introduction to each language through short lessons focussed on speaking and listening.
• www.yale.edu/swahili – for those studying Swahili this resource will be indispensable. More formally focussed than the other sites, the Kamusi Project provides dictionaries translating words from English to Swahili and back, grammar guides and links to Swahili language resources.

Learning about agriculture

Most people in Tanzania have a great deal of experience growing plants, for food and increasingly for pleasure. Not only are there resources online for every plant you can imagine, but you can connect with other people growing the same crops to discuss methods. This provides the opportunity for mutual learning and cross pollination of ideas across a wider range of people.

• dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Science/Agriculture_and_Farming – Yahoo! Groups dedicated to discussing farming techniques and a variety of related subjects.
• www.agrifor.ac.uk – a portal leading to other sites discussing all aspects of agriculture, food production and forestry. This site focuses on scientific articles which may be of use to farmers seeking to improve their existing agricultural knowledge.

Learning music

A multimedia medium like the web is perfectly suited for teaching of music. Learn how to read musical notation, play an instrument or find out about the history of music from these sites.

• www.musictheory.net – music theory web site with exercises and lessons on music notation using sound and animation to help you read music.
• www.guitarists.net – free lessons get you started playing the guitar, forums to discuss technique. Pretty much
  everything you need for playing the guitar.
• www.electricbluesclub.co.uk – free lessons for playing the piano, brass instruments and guitar. Also includes charts, live web casts and music news.
• www.classicalscore.com – history of European music, from ancient music through to twentieth century composers.

Learning school subjects

Resources on the World Wide Web can help support your learning about all aspects of the world. Sites exist where you can find out more about other cultures, geographic processes, geology, economics and other things that affect our lives every day. These sites can help with homework, or refresh knowledge that you may not have exercised since you left school yourself.

• www.geography-site.co.uk – resources for teachers and students of human and physical geography. Even includes a section of geography jokes.
• www.educationplanet.com – a portal site linking to hundreds of sites teaching every subject under the sun.
• www.mathgoodies.com – free maths lessons, homework help, worksheets and forums.

Learning about computers

Obviously the web lends itself to learning about computers and the internet itself. If you want to build a web site, learn a programming language, or just how to use Office software better, the web is the obvious place to start.

• www.w3schools.com – learn how to make web sites, from the simple to the complex. Excellent lessons on HTML, JavaScript, ASP and other web technologies.
• www.itlearningmaterials.com – links to lessons on applications such as Excel, Word as well as more complex subjects such as programming languages.

I hope this little journey around learning resources on the web has been useful. There are literally thousands of sites out there that can help you learn. You may find it useful to search on Google for your specific needs.

Originally published in Arusha Times 327

Last week we took a brief journey through over 100,000 years of communication history – we travelled from the development of languages to their projection over long distances via shouting, writing, postal services and telegraph wires.

From beeps to print to voice

With Joseph Henry’s invention of the telegraph in 1831 developments took on a cheetah like speed – within thirty years wires were strung around and between many countries in the world. At first these were used to transmit simple signals in the form of short and long beeps – Morse code. Shortly after this, in 1843, Alexander Bain developed the chemical telegraph – a machine that enabled messages written on paper to be copied onto another machine a long distance away – the first Fax machine! Nearly twenty years later Alexander Graham Bell patented the electric telephone. This enabled people with no training to communicate in the most natural form – speaking – even when separated by hundreds of miles. The first telephone conversation was between Bell and his assistant, Watson – Mr Watson, come here, I want you! These words changed the world forever.

Over 45 years the limit of how fast people could communicate had gone from the speed of the fastest form of transport, to the speed that signals could travel down an electric wire – the speed of light! These developments made it possible to communicate efficiently over much larger distances, changing social lives, government, military operations, investments, agriculture, almost everything.

Time travel through storage

We saw how the storage of communication in the form of writing was a leap that permitted people to communicate through time as well as space. Shortly after the invention of the telephone, the storage of sound became possible. In 1877 Thomas Edison patented the phonograph, which used wax cylinders to record sound. Ten years later the invention of gramophone made it possible for sound recordings to last much longer – early recordings made over 100 years ago can still be listened to today.

Seeing as well as hearing

At the same time as these developments in sound, people were working hard on capturing images. For hundreds of years artists and scientists had known that a small hole in the wall of a darkened room would project an image of the outside world on the opposite wall. In 1814 Joseph Nic�phore Ni�pce used this principle to project an image of the world onto chemically treated paper in a box – the first photograph had been taken. Images from one part of the world could be brought to another. This allowed people in Tanzania to see what a London street looked like, and people in London to marvel at Maasai warriors dressed in their finery. In 1877, Eadweard Muybridge developed a camera which could take a series of photographs in rapid succession. He did this in order to win a bet on whether all a horses hooves left the ground when it ran. He lost the bet, but had invented the movie camera. By 1927 this had been combined with recorded sound, allowing people to share realistic (and not so realistic) experiences around the world.

Wireless communication

Communication was still physically shackled to the earth. Films and photographs had to be transported from place to place, and telephone calls could only be made between terminals joined by telegraph wires. In 1895 Guglielmo Marconi sent and received the first radio signals. By 1899 he had sent signals across the English Channel, and in 1902 sent the first radio signal across the Atlantic. The practical and economic limitations of audio communication were set to fall, along with the telegraph wires.

Images were shortly to follow, with the invention of television by John Logie Baird in 1925.

Moving into the hands of individuals

As these technologies have improved over time they have gradually worked their way into the lives of ordinary people the world over. Radios can be bought in markets in the most remote parts of the planet. Mobile phones are spreading throughout the world’s poorest countries. In the 20th century we went from being a world of strangers who couldn’t talk, to a world of people divided only by the cost of a phone call. In the coming century that cost is likely to fall.

Convergence

The technologies that I have discussed in these articles have all helped us store and transmit communication. All these technologies are joining together in the form of computers and the internet. A cheap computer connected to the internet gives a person access to storage and transmission of written words, sounds, and images both still and moving. The future will see this convergence grow, with mobile computers allowing us to take photographs and send them to our friends instantly, wherever they are. Eventually we may even combine ourselves with our mobile computers, and transmit our thoughts and experiences directly into the heads of other people.

Communication is after all about sharing experience.

Originally published in Arusha Times 326

It is with a mixture of techie glee and Orwellian paranoia that I present myself at the UK Passport Service offices to participate in the Biometrics Enrolment trial – part of preparations for the governments controversial National ID Cards scheme. I enrolled to find out more about the scheme as there has been little public debate about what will amount to the greatest intrusion of government into our lives since conscription ended in 1960.

Arriving at the UKPS office a queue snakes through the foyer leading to airport style metal detectors and x-ray machines. The people around me are mostly there to apply for passports – most look nervous. This is a watered down version of my experience at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate offices in Croyden, sorting out my wife’s visa – queuing, security, suspicion, fear of rejection.

Once inside I am queuing again. The lady from MORI has brought in someone from the street to make up numbers – the trial is several thousand people short and needs to make up numbers to be considered valid. The man doesn’t have all day – I offer him my place in the queue and he accepts. This gives me time to read the background material explaining the trial’s purpose -it discloses that all biometrics will be destroyed at the end of the trial. I had been warned by colleagues not to participate without confirmation of this.

After filling out the demographics section of the questionnaire comes the meat of the trial – being registered, counted, measured, numbered. This is done in a booth containing the hardware required for the biometricisation process. The operator checks my details and I am alarmed to see her enter the code from my questionnaire along with my name – I thought that was anonymous I say. It’s only for the card she says. I let it go.

First up is facial recognition. I look into the Panasonic BM-ET300, and a camera noise is played. Is this picture ok? the operator asks – it looks a little distorted, reminding me of web cam shots of red eyed computer programmers sitting at their machines long into the night. Yeah, fine.

Iris scanning comes next – I am to line up my eyes so they are central in the mirror on the BM-ET300. The machine bleats out instructions in a robotic female voice reminiscent of the computer in Alien – move back slightly, left, right slightly, forward slightly. I am a bit confused about what to do, but the operators defer to the machine – Just follow the machine’s instructions. Eventually I figure out that the circle in the centre of the mirror is a target – one eye should be centred on that. The snapshot sound plays, and I have been retina scanned. I am sure that only my left eye has been taken though, but the machine thinks otherwise, and we don’t argue with the machine. We sit and drum our fingers as communication is attempted between the UKPS and Atos Origin’s server in Andover. Thrice it fails, and the operator decides to skip the retina scan. I won’t be able to find out if my retina matches one of the others on the database, and I won’t have a complete biometrics card.

Fingerprints involve placing my fingerprints on a glass screen on an Identix TouchPrint 3100 – the computer screen shows a large image of my fingerprints. Each print is checked for quality, and then successfully checked against a dummy database in Andover. This time there is no network problem, and I have passed the test – there is no one else running around with my fingerprints as far as they know.

Finally they ask me to sign my name on LCD screen, which will also be stored on the card.

I am lead back into the queuing room and fill out the rest of the questionnaire – am I more or less concerned about biometrics now I have gone through the process? Do I think that ID cards will protect us from terrorism, illegal working, identity fraud?

Moments later my ID card is ready. The woman who is taking the questionnaire asks me which verification I would like to try – iris, facial recognition or fingerprints – I opt for facial recognition, knowing it is the least reliable of the biometrics. I sit down in front of another Panasonic device, a photo is taken, and my card is plugged into a reader. The operator turns her screen around to show me the picture from my card, with the reassuring word “Verified” in green underneath.

I am a valid human being, at least for the period of the trial.

Originally published in Out-law.com

With all the exciting developments in the realm of communications technology over the last few years it would be easy to think that we are living in times of the most astounding transformations. However, the technologies that so many of us are addicted to today – mobile phones, the internet, satellite TV – are built on the achievements of our ancestors. The history of communication goes back thousands of years. Each new development has transformed the world we live in. An understanding of the journey we have taken to get where we are now shows that today’s techniques are refinements of what came before. Really big revolutions may be still to come.

Early technologies

Communication begins with the first conversations between people – it is believed that language developed through gestures using the hands and body, and had evolved into spoken tongues by the time of the great migration of humans
from Africa some 100,000 years ago. The first long distance communication must have arisen shortly after conversation, with the discovery that it was possible to make oneself heard from a distance by shouting, or banging objects together
to make a sound that travels far. Fire and the smoke it produces may also have been used for simple communication between separated groups.

Writing and the storage of information

Communication techniques such as shouting and smoke signals allow people to make their mark over a wider area. The recording of information allowed human beings to communicate over great expanses of time. Cave paintings up to 36,500
years old have been found – people from that far back are communicating with us today (although it is hard to know what they were saying). 5,500 years ago, more systematised alphabets were developed by the Phoenicians, Sumerians and Egyptians. They also developed new ways of storing their information, some of which have survived till today. Scholars have had some success in translating these alphabets and the languages they convey, giving us insight into societies
long dead.

The realisations that it is possible to communicate through space and time are the two most important communication leaps in history. Everything that has come since has merely improved the efficiency of these two tasks.

Early postal services

The next leap was the combination of writing and transmitting information. This began with people or animals acting as couriers, delivering written messages. The first postal services were in China around 900BC. Human runners and birds were used to transport messages starting in at least 776BC, when the winner of the Olympic games was reported to the Athenians via homing pigeons – possible the first journalist reporting back to base from a remote location!

Long distance instant transmission

Getting messages over long distances took time, and it wasn’t long before people were discovering new ways of reducing this time. The first communication at the speed of light was as far back as 37BC, when the Romans used large mirrors to flash messages from Emperor Tiberius over long distances – a method known as the Heliograph.

Printing – mass reproduction -> mass distribution

The invention of the printing press in China some time after 300AD meant that the same message could be delivered to many people cheaply and more quickly than copying out the message many times by hand. This led to the first distribution
systems, a development which has allowed the flourishing of newspapers such as the one you now hold in your hands.

At the speed of electricity

With the discovery of electricity the speed and range of communication once again began to increase. In 1793 Claude Chappe invented the Semaphore telegraph line, which allowed reliable and fast communication over wires between distant
locations. Methods such as the Heliograph which require two locations being able to see each other limited the possible distance of rapid communications. The semaphore broke through this barrier, opening the way for even more radical
developments.

The invention of techniques such as Morse code allowed complex messages to be transferred at very high speeds over this new medium. This had huge repercussions for many aspects of human life – transport could be better coordinated, government could transmit decisions to distant offices almost instantaneously, businesses could work with more businesses over larger distances.

These first implementations of electronic communication opened the door for many of the technologies we take for granted – television, radio, telephones and the internet. Next week I will continue this short journey through or communications history, and look into my crystal ball at some possible future developments.

Interesting Sites

• Inventors @ about.com – links to many articles on inventions, including a timeline of communication.

Local IT News

A&A Computers have announced improvements to their online catalogue. Prices are now automatically kept up to date, and it is possible to tell if they have what you need in stock directly from the web site.

Originally published in Arusha Times 324

A recurring theme in these columns is that Tanzania is often only a few steps behind the other parts of the world that lead in technological developments.

Governmental politics is no different. Tanzania’s government sports a number of web sites where you can discover what is being done on your behalf by politicians and civil servants.

E-government, as it is becoming known, is an important development. In the past most governmental documents were publicly available in theory, but the reality was that to read them you had to travel to a specific place, and wait to be shown them. The World Wide Web has made it practical and cheap to publish these documents more widely. So much so that it is inexcusable not to do so.

Such development has a number of benefits. Citizens can now more easily see how their taxes are being spent. They can understand how decisions are reached by legislators. This knowledge empowers the populace to play a greater role in encouraging their representatives to act in their interests. In addition, where laws are published widely corruption is limited. Where government is more transparent, unscrupulous officials have less to hide behind. As access to information grows, the less opportunity there is for those in power to take advantage of ignorant citizens.

Online Bunge

In May this year, President Mkapa launched the new Parliament web site at www.parliament.go.tz. The site is part of an ongoing effort to make Parliament more accountable to the people, and to encourage greater participation. Speaker of the House Pius Msekwa said, We need to provide people with access to this information to achieve our goal which is transparency.

The site serves dual purposes, explaining the structures of government in Tanzania and how the parliament works, as well as acting as a public notice board of what is going on in parliament day to day. The site is a useful resource for those who want to learn about Tanzanian politics in general as well as those who may have an interest in specific legislation.

Visitors to the site can also find out about their local member of parliament in the Members’ Profile section, including the all important email address. The front page of the site features a randomly chosen MP from the directory.

The site gives ordinary Tanzanians (or at least those with access to the web) the opportunity to read legislation as it passes through the parliamentary machine. The front page of the site displays bills that are entering their second reading this month and bills that have passed in the previous month. Acts of Parliament dating back to 1962 are also available giving a historic record of Tanzanian legislation. The Hansards section records what Members said in Parliamentary debates. You will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader to read much of the sites content if you do not already have it.

Although a significant achievement there is still room for improvement on the Parliament site. Unfortunately it is currently only available in English, meaning for a great many Tanzanians the site is still not transparent. Some sections do not provide information that is very useful. The Diary of Events page, for example, is not very informative – it would be useful for lobbyists to know which committees are meeting and when so they can take action in time.

With the correct investment of money, time and effort the Parliamentary web site will become an important part of Tanzanian democracy.

Tanzanian National Web Site

Set up on 2001, the Tanzanian national web site at www.tanzania.go.tz is a growing resource. The site states that the main objective of the National Website is to promote the country’s potentials with a view of enhancing investment promotion, trade, tourism, cultural exchanges etc taking advantage of state of the art in information and communication technology (ICTs).

This site is a large resource containing information on every aspect of Tanzania’s economy, from Agriculture to Science & Technology. As might be expected from the site’s mission statement, the information is aimed at foreign investors. However, the site contains a lot of information useful for Tanzanians wishing to find out more about their country and how it is run. The front page links to the most popular pages on the site – currently Tax Exemptions and contact details for banks in Tanzania.

Unfortunately the National Web Site seems to have been designed by committee, with different sections of the site using different designs and navigation systems. This makes it very hard to find specific information, which is a pity on a site that clearly contains so much. This is always a danger on government web sites. If the aim is truly to make governing the country more transparent then information must not be buried! A search function and clear structure for the site would go some way to fixing this problem. In the site’s favour, it is duplicated in Kiswahili, meaning it is likely to be useful to a greater portion of Tanzania’s population. If they can find what they are looking for.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has used either of these sites. Did they help you achieve something? Do you believe that the web really creates a more transparent society in Tanzania? Write to duncandrury@yahoo.co.uk and let me know what you think.

Originally published in Arusha Times 323

The internet came to Arusha some years ago, but it is only recently that Arusha came to the Internet with a real presence in the virtual world. Naomba.com is a new Arusha based web portal set to take its place alongside the Arusha Times and other web sites showing the real face of Arusha and Tanzania to the rest of the wired world.

Background who, why, where

Naomba.com opened for service in November 2003. Naomba.com’s founders saw a need for Tanzanians to connect with each other quickly and easily using the internet, as has happened in other countries around the world. Traditional means of communication, such as printing, take a long time to create and distribute. Control of the publication is often as much in the hands of printers as the person paying for it. Whilst the internet can cut out some of these problems, it remains an expensive option for the smallest of businesses, many of whom find it hard to see how using the internet can benefit them. Why should a Tanzanian barber or fundi pay anything to advertise online? Is it worth even the smallest risk? To allow the smallest of businesses to find out what the potentials for them are, naomba.com’s founders decided to make basic internet services free.

Basic Services

The core of naomba.com’s service is providing its customers with a web presence. People can find out about your business via your web page on naomba.com. They can then contact you via your naomba.com email address. All for free!

Web hosting

Naomba.com will provide every registered business with a simple web page. This features up to five photographs, a description of your business, information about where you are physically located, opening hours and, if you have one, a link to your main web site. You can easily change these details yourself whenever you want. Once the page is completed, your business can be found through naomba.com’s directory – a bit like the Yellow Pages. People looking for plumbers in Arusha can search on naomba.com and find one nearby. Businesses can also tempt customers with printable discount coupons.

Email

Naomba.com offers a very attractive email service – like Hotmail and Yahoo!Mail, naomba.com is free. However, naomba.com give you much larger storage space (10mB per user) and the site has no annoying adverts, meaning it is faster to download – something those of us paying by the half hour will appreciate. Spam and virus protection are included for all accounts.

Public Services

In addition to the basic offer of a web presence, Naomba have a range of services of great use to Tanzanian communities.

Buy & Sell

Users of naomba.com can advertise things they want to sell, or things they are seeking to buy – a bit like an online version of Dar Advertiser or Arusha’s own Buy & Sell magazine (with which naomba.com share listings). naomba.com’s buy and sell listings can include photographs and are free!

Jobs offered/wanted

You are not limited to buying or selling objects on naomba.com – users can seek employment by advertising their skills. Likewise, employers seeking to fill a gap in their workforce can find suitable staff through a vacancy notice on naomba.com. Naomba.com has the potential to reach employers or potential staff around Tanzania, not just in your local area. Again, this service is free.

Events listings

If you want to publicise an event you are organising, naomba.com’s event diary is the place to be seen. Or if you are short of something to do, see what other people have lined up in the near future. All listings are free. If you have photos from an event, naomba.com will show them – the most recent photos appear on the front page! Coverage of corporate events may incur a small charge, but community events can post photographs for free.

Advertising

Larger businesses may want to advertise their services more prominently. For a fee, naomba.com will include an eye-catching advert on their front page, linking through to your business’s page. You will be able to see how effective
your advert is, as naomba.com keep track of how many people click on it.

News and other content

The front page of naomba.com includes the latest headlines from AllAfrica.com, as well as local weather forecasts for the next few days. Naomba.com also run regular photography and writing competitions which can be entered online.

Plans for the future

In the very near future, businesses listing on naomba.com will be able to list their products on the site, and provide a means for people to buy or reserve these products from the comfort of their homes/local internet café. It is already possible to book airline tickets and hotel rooms through the site, but very soon, for example, your car parts store may be able to let customers know what is in stock. Work is also underway to translate the site into Kiswahili.

With so many free services, who can afford not to have a web presence through naomba.com? And since all the information on naomba.com is about your local community – the time has surely come to change your home page from one based in America or Europe to this new home grown site!

Originally published in Arusha Times 322