Call for Action!

Adjunct Professor David P. Reed's research focuses on designing systems that manage, communicate, and manipulate information shared among people. He is best known for co-developing the Internet design principle known as the "end-to-end argument" (with MIT Professors J.H. Saltzer and David D. Clark), and "Reed's Law," which describes the economics of group formation in networks.

Reed works with Andrew Lippman in developing the Lab's Viral Communications program, exploring the adaptive, scalable, and evolving wireless network architectures that have fascinated him for years. In addition, along with Lippman, David D. Clark of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Prof. Charles Fine of the Sloan School of Management, he has helped create the MIT Communications Futures Program.

A member of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, where he is an HP Fellow, Reed has also consulted widely to the computer industry, and has served as senior research scientist at Interval Research Corporation and as vice president and chief scientist for Lotus Development Corporation. Previously he was vice president of research and development and chief scientist at Software Arts.

Reed was a faculty member in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from 1978 to 1983, working in the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS). He also earned his BS, MS, EE, and PhD degrees in EECS while conducting research at LCS and its predecessor, Project MAC.

TruthTally provides a platform for disenfranchised citizens to voice their vote, capturing a more accurate record of public opinion during election events. The development team created TruthTally in response to the statistic that Zimbabweian government intimidation tactics dissuaded 50% of registered Zimbabweian voters from participating in elections.

TruthTally utilizes database, web and cell phone technology, allowing voters to anonymously cast their vote and declare the reason why they were unable to participate in the election process. Disenfranchised voters can send SMS to the TruthTally database. From the database, SMS activity routes to the TruthTally webpage for public display and to phone numbers in the TruthTally mobile phone subscribers list.

TruthTally also provides a mobile phone program that converts incoming TruthTally SMS activity into audio. This software turns a mobile device into an instrument of activism, enabling disenfranchised voters a voice of protest that can be publicly heard anywhere in the world.

TruthTally webpage: http://tapioca.tv/mit/voting/

Code to make sms talk on the Nokia N95 S60 is as follows:

from audio import *
say("Hello World!")
say("This is a call for action!")

import inbox

i=inbox.Inbox() # Default folder is inbox. Give inbox.ESent as parameter for sent SMSes
id = 0

def cb_inbox(id_cb):
global id
id=id_cb
say ("got SMS!!!")
say (i.content(id_cb))

i.bind(cb_inbox)

For those of you experiencing IAP CFA withdrawal symptoms, the OpenNet Initiative's latest book Access Denied - The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering may help, especially Chapter 6 and its sections on global civic networks, independent media, and tools of communication and hacktivism.
Recently published (2008) and edited by Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain. And a lot of it is online:

http://opennet.net/accessdenied

TO: ALL CITIZENS OF INSTITUTISTAN
FROM: PRESIDENT MUPOHTEE
DATE: JAN 23. 2008

The country of Institutistan announces the official results of the Vote is DRAMATIC LANDSLIDE of 80% win by our Presiden Mupohtee.

The President’s mandate includes overseeing all economic, military, diplomatic, and social missions in the country. As a result, the citizens of INSTITUTISTAN can now benefit of our transparent government and our democratic challenges.

Sincerely

President Mupohtee

Martha's really excited to be one of Little Squinto's newest shareholders!

January 23,2009

The Rio Squinto Corporation is proud to announce the formation of a subsidiary company that is revolutionizing the mining business. Little Squinto, LLP makes workers co-partners in the mining business.

By offering its employees shares in the company, workers can help continue developing Institutistan into a shining example of worker-driven industries in the 21st Century.

Now Little Squinto and the workers can develop Institutistan's resources together, and continue to expand into region's that are ripe for mining.

This shareholder model promotes the democratic values that we at Rio Squinto cherish so deeply. After all, by making our workers co-owners of Little Squinto, giving them greater voice in helping us strengthen communities, and continue working to preserve the environment while making them active partners in developing our natural resources.

Little Squinto's triple bottom line is: to serve the best intrest of its shareholders through profit maximization, to develop and use new technologies that advance the mining industry, and to preserve and defend the environment.

Little Squinto already has a number of worker-shareholders but is accepting applications.

Hi Fellow Hackateers,

I got a couple Macs to recognize Bluetooth devices this morning through the following process. Perhaps it will work for the remainder.

1. Open up Ubuntu

2. Navigate to System>Preferences>Bluetooth in Ubuntu.

3. A pop-up window will appear. Under "Notification", within the "General" tab, click "Always Display Icon".

4. Click the "Close" button. The Bluetooth logo should show in one of the corners of the Ubuntu desktop (mine's in the upper right corner).

5. Restart Ubuntu by navigating to System>Shut Down. When the pop-up window displays, click "restart". DO NOT TRY TO RESTART THROUGH THE VMTOOLS MENU. THIS METHOD WILL SUSPEND YOUR SESSION, BUT WILL NOT RESTART UBUNTU.

6. Once Ubuntu is up and running again, click on the Bluetooth logo. The menu option "Setup new device" will appear. Click on it.

7. A pop-up window titled "INTRODUCTION" "Welcome to the Bluetooth device setup Wizard". Click the "Forward" button.

8. A new pop-up window will appear. Bluetooth devices should start populating the window. Once the device name matching your device populates the window, select it by clicking "Forward".
9. A new pop-up titled "CONNECTING TO DEVICE" will appear. This window will provide a four digit code that you will need to enter into the device to validate the connection. Once you enter the code, you should be done.

Hope this works. Keep on Truck'n.

"Oh great, now U think U're my soulmate
U don't even know what kind of cereal I like
Wrong! Cap'n Crunch with soy milk
[...]
(Na na, na na na na)
Joint 2 joint {x3}"

Prince Lyrics
" Joint 2 Joint "
(c) 1996 Emancipation Music - ASCAP

Now I understand what's behind my favorite musician's favorite cereals - it's all about sound.
Thank you, Nadav!

Like Katrin Verclas said, health is big.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123249533946000191.html
THE INFORMED PATIENT - JANUARY 21, 2009
Incentives Push More Doctors to E-Prescribe
Electronic Systems Shown to Reduce Dangerous Errors; A Cure for Poor Penmanship
By LAURA LANDRO

With a host of new incentives, doctors are finally beginning to scrap pen and paper in favor of electronic prescriptions.

Medicare this month began paying doctors a bonus if they switch their patients over to e-prescribing. Some private health plans also have begun offering extra payments along with free equipment, such as digital handheld devices. And a coalition of technology companies is giving doctors free software to encourage them to ditch their paper prescription pads. As a result, the number of physicians prescribing medicines electronically has more than doubled in the past year to about 70,000, or about 12% of all office-based doctors.

E-prescribing allows doctors to transmit prescriptions via a secure Internet network directly to pharmacies using an office or laptop computer or a digital handheld device. >> Read further --

Here's a quick link to blog post by Huma Yusef over at New Civic Media
http://civic.mit.edu/watchlistenlearn/old-and-new-media-converging-durin...