Pragyan Talk 100227

Regaining
Intellectual Leadership

Ramesh Jain 
jain@ics.uci.edu 

Pragyan, February 27, 2010 © Ramesh Jain 1

A New Star
 

Who is on Left?

Who is on Right?

Where is K R
Sridhar from?

REC, Trichy.


Discussion Today 
•  Personal note 
•  India: Then and Now 
•  Some facts 
•  Sharing and disseminaAng Experiences 
•  Role of Technology 
•  An Opportunity 


Personal Note: A passage 
•  Spent ﬁrst 12 years of life reading in candle light.  
Now … read on Kindle among other things. 
•  As a Regional College of Engineering (Nagpur) 
student, was against leaving India.  But,  ended 
up (with the privilege of) experiencing the East 
and the West and more. 
•  Would love to contribute my bit. 


A journey in life begins with understanding: 
•  Where you are,  
•  Where you want to be, and  
•  What are constraints and techniques 
available. 


And Then 

•  Be Passionate about the goal, 
•  Think out‐of‐the‐box,  
•  Be irreverent, and 
•  Think the Unthinkable and just do it. 


Einstein 

•  Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for 
tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop 
quesAoning.  

•  Once we accept our limits, we go beyond 
them. 


Leadership of India: Well recognized 
India had the start of the whole world in the beginning of 
things. She had the ﬁrst civiliza8on; she had the ﬁrst 
accumula8on of material wealth; she was populous with 
deep thinkers and subtle intellects; she had mines, and 
woods, and a frui?ul soul.  

Mark Twain


Nalanda 
•  The ﬁrst great university in recorded history. 
•  Started in 5th Century.  


Today the country that created 
Nalanda: 

•  Literacy rate 61% ‐‐ 147th out of 177 Countries 
•  No Indian University in top 100 in the World 
•  Even among Asian universiAes the ﬁrst name 
appears at 30th place. 


Mohenjo‐daro and Harappa 
2600 BC 

•  Top ciAes in the world. 
•  Beber planned than most ciAes in India today. 


Mohenjo‐daro 


Harappa 


India Today 
 
•  In Per Capita income: 165th ($3,100) out of 
212 countries. 
•  1.5 Personal Computers per 100 people   
–  US has 76.2   
–  Switzerland has 86.2 (Source: 
hbp://www.naAonmaster.com/red/graph/
med_pc_percap‐media‐number‐pcs‐per‐
capita&b_map=1) 


Thousands of Entrepreneurs
 

•  “our naAon, though it has no drinking water, 
electricity, sewage system, public 
transportaAon, sense of hygiene, discipline, 
courtesy, or punctuality, does have 
entrepreneurs.  Thousands and Thousands of 
them.” 

InnovaAons in India 
(Vikas Bajaj in New York Times Ar4cle)
 

•  Mr. Raghavan and others say India is held back by a 
ﬁnancial system that is reluctant to invest in 
unproven ideas, an educa4on system that 
emphasizes rote learning over problem solving, and 
a culture that looks down on failure and 
unconven4onal career choices. 

•  Did you see  Three Idiots? 


What is the most important 
invenAon in the last 1000 years? 
•  Einstein: Theory of relaAvity. 
•  Turing: Digital Computer. 
•  Curie: X‐rays 
•  Gutenberg: Moveable print 
•  Edison: Electric Bulb 
•  . 
•  . 
•  . 

It is all about 

ExperienAal 
 CommunicaAon 
    among Humans 

Events
Life = +
Experiences 


Recording Experiences 
•  Modes 
–  Visual 
–  Aural 
–  Text 
–  Log of acAviAes 
–  TacAle 

•  Technology and Sharing Experiences 


Share experiences : Languages
 


Across Time : Writing
 


Making it portable : Paper
 


DemocraAzaAon : Gutenberg’s Movable Press
 


Telegraph: Instantaneous Remote 


Telephone: Remote Speech 


Photography: Recording Visual 
Experience 


Audio Recording: Electrical Signals 
enter recording space  


Radio: Live Broadcast
 


Television: Live Broadcast combines 
two Media 


Digital Processing 


Internet: The Game Changer
 

Medium is the message. – McLuhan was right THEN.
Medium is just that – Medium.
Pragyan, February 27, 2010
NOW © Ramesh Jain 32

CommunicaAng Experiences: 
 
SpaAal and Temporal
 
Inventions Application Impact
Languages Communicate symbolic experiences

Written Languages Record Symbolic experiences (time)

Paper Portability (space)
Most influential
Print Invention in history distribution (time and space)
Mass

Telegraph Remote narrow communication (space)

Telephone Remote analog communication (space)

Radio Analog broadcasting of sound (space)

Television Combining two senses – media (space)

Recording media Photos, audio, video (time)

Digital processing Machine enhancement and processing
Future of
Internet Communication
Interactive Multimedia communication

The only source of knowledge is 
experience. 


Knowledge SocieAes 

The empires of the future are the empires of 
the mind.                                                          
       

         

                           Winston Churchill 

Digital World: Knowledge 
RevoluAon 

•  Limited to less than 15% populaAon of the 
world.   
•  Touches less than 2% of populaAon in 
developing countries. 


Digital Dividend: An Opportunity 
•  Technology is liberal in rewards and 
ruthless in punishment  
–  Rich get richer and poor stay poor 
•  At each technology inﬂecAon point, new 
leaders emerge. 
•  We are in a major technology inﬂecAon 
period.  Some aggressive countries have a 
great opportunity. 

Can that country be India?

Widening Gap 

•  Income disparity raAo in the 18th Century 
between the richest and the poorest 
countries was a mere 2:1, today it is more 
than 100:1.  
•  In 1988, median income in the richest 10 
percent of countries was 77 Ames that in 
the poorest 10 percent; by 1999 the gap 
had grown to 122 Ames.  

Some InteresAng Facts:  Then and now  
•  India and China 
– Accounted for 40% of world trade in 1840 
– Accounted for 3.4% of world trade in 1998 
•  India established the ﬁrst University in the 
world in Nalanda‐Taxilla 
– India published less than 2% of world’s 
scienAﬁc research papers (includes Indian 
journals) 


Turning Time: Almost 600 Year Ago 
•  Columbus was searching for fame and fortune – 
was going to India for 
–  Spices 
–  Wealth 
–  Technology 
–  Source of knowledge 
•  Gutenberg invented the prinAng technology 
that started 
–  Growth of wealth in west 
–  DominaAon of western technology 
–  Inﬂuence of western knowledge 


Why is Gutenberg’s Moveable Print so 
influenAal? 
•  Brought knowledge creaAon and access to 
masses. 
•  Resulted in increased awareness of scienAfic 
approaches. 
•  Reduced misinformaAon and influence of 
religions. 


India missed the last disrupAve 
‘knowledge revoluAon’.  

How can it parAcipate and lead the 
current disrupAve wave brought on 
by recent innovaAons?  


DisrupAve Stages in CompuAng:1 

Data Data:
Numbers, Text,
(Computation) Statistics, Sensors (Video)


CompuAng 1: Data 
•  Device: Mainframe and workstaAons 
•  Main applicaAons: 
–  ScienAﬁc and engineering 
–  Business 
•  Users:  
–  Sophis8cated 
–  Expected to be trained 



Information Information:
Search, Specialized sources
(Communication)

Data Data:
Numbers, Text,


CompuAng 2: InformaAon and 
CommunicaAon 
•  Device: PC and Internet 
–  InformaAon 
–  CommunicaAon 
•  Users:  
–  Common people in ‘developed world’ 
–  Easy access using keyboards 


Experience Experience:
What Next?
Direct observation or
(Insights) participation

Information Information:
Search, Specialized sources
(Communication)

Data Data:
Numbers, Text,


CompuAng 3: Experience 

•  Device: Mobile phones 
–  Experience management 
–  ExperienAal communicaAon 
•  Users:  
–  Humans 
–  No language issues 


Mobiles everywhere 


DistribuAon of Mobile Phones
 
Rank Country or region Number of mobile phones Population % of population Last updated

— World 4,100,000,000 6,797,100,000[1] 60.6 Dec 2008[2]
1 China 747,380,000 1,335,330,000 55.97 Dec 2009[3]
2 India 525,147,922 1,174,040,000 44.73 Dec 2009[4]
3 United States 276,610,580 308,505,000[1] 89.0 June. 2009[5]

4 Russia 207,900,000 141,915,979 143.2 Feb. 2009[6]
5 Brazil 173,960,000 191,480,630 90.84 Dec. 2009[7][8] [9]

6 Indonesia 140,200,000 231,369,500 60.53 Dec. 2008[10]
7 Japan 107,490,000 127,530,000 84.11 Mar. 2009[11]
8 Germany 107,000,000 81,882,342 130.15 2009[12]
9 Pakistan 97,579,940 168,500,500 59.60 Dec 2009[13]

10 Italy 88,580,000 60,090,400 147.41 Dec.2008[14]
11 Mexico 79,400,000 109,610,000 72.44 Mar.2009[15]

12 United Kingdom 75,750,000 61,612,300 122.95 Dec. 2008[16]
13 Vietnam 70,000,000 87,375,000 80.11 2009[17]
14 Philippines 67,900,000 92,226,600 73.62 Dec. 2008[18]

15 Turkey 66,000,000 71,517,100 92.29 2009[19]
16 Nigeria 64,000,000 154,729,000 41.36 Dec. 2009[20]

17 France 58,730,000 65,073,842 90.25 Dec. 2008[21]
18 Ukraine 55,170,908 46,143,700 119.56 April. 2009[22]
19 Thailand 51,377,000 65,000,000 79.0 2008

20 Spain 50,890,000 45,828,172 111.05 Dec. 2008[23]


What is a Mobile Phone? 
Mobile phone used to be a phone. It is :
•  Phone
•  Camera and an album
•  Music system
•  Video Game console
•  Communication device
•  Personal BUTLER
•  Computer
•  Information source
•  … much more

A Mobile Phone is 

Everybody’s loyal personal
multimedia communication
and experience associate.


A Great Opportunity 

Leading the World in bringing next 
genera4on compu4ng: the Folk 
Compu4ng.  


Opportunity: Folk CompuAng 
Taking CompuAng to Masses – focus on people 
in remote parts of even underdeveloped parts 
of the world.  

Social Networking as a driving applicaAon. 

May solve many interesAng problems. 


Challenges 
•  InteracAon environment, 
•  Content CreaAon, 
•  Content Management, and  
•  Content Access. 

Key: Content created by culturally
similar people is more useful.


InteracAon Environment 

Keyboard is the BIGGEST problem. 
Use natural communicaAon: 
Audio, Visual, TacAle. 
Good ﬁrst step towards Folk 
CompuAng. 


Content CreaAon 
•  Literacy = Knowledge 
•  All the worlds knowledge is primarily in text. 
•  Cameras and microphones are easier to use 
than keyboard and even pen. 

  Develop interactive content creation tools for
masses using phones.
  Can we develop ‘Word’ like Photoshop and
Director?


Content Management: Challenges
 

•  MulAmedia 
•  Diﬀerent Languages 
•  Event‐Object‐based Indexing 
•  Fast access on Mobile devices 


Access: Must be Natural
 
•  On Mobile phone like devices 
•  My mother should be able to ‘ask’ 
–  Natural language – not only keywords 
–  Voice/Image/Touch interfaces 
•  Culturally sensiAve 


InformaAon and CommunicaAon 
Technology for Development 


Global Projects in ICT for Development 


Limited Success of most such 
approaches. Why?  
•  PC Based.   
–  Very few PCs (less than 0.5 per 100 people) 
–  PC are diﬃcult to learn for ‘users’ 
•  Approaches were not very ‘natural’ for ‘users’ 
–  Tried to push approaches successful in developed 
world 
•  Failed to understand needs of people and 
develop appropriate applicaAons. 


mKrishi approach 

An innovaAve approach by TCS.  
I am working with them in this.
 


Taking the PROBLEM to an EXPERT 
Using Modern Technology 

•  PaAent to Doctor 
•  Field to Agriculture Expert 
•  ConstrucAon to Engineers 
•  … 


mKrishi Architecture 


Sensors in the ﬁeld 


Query No. 1519 

In Text:
Grapes have turned pink in color.
Please suggest the reason and
medicine to be applied.

Expert’s Response

Meaning:
Causes of Pink berry: (1) Haphazard use of fertilizer (2) Deficiency in Sulphur
or access Potash (3) Pest on flowers (4) Excess use of Gibberellic acid.
Pragyan, February 27,5Gm/Litre of Calcium Nitrate.
Remedy: Use 2010 © Ramesh Jain 67

Query No. 1519 


Expert Console 

Info specific From public
to crop website

Sensor data – if
applicable

Voice
query
Ready references
for expert
Picture


Commercial Launch Summary
State of Uttar
Pradesh

- 70 -

Name 4 most popular companies that emerged 
in the last 4 years.
 

•  Flickr 
•  YouTube  
•  Facebook 
•  Twiber 


Name 3 most popular Internet 
concepts in the last 3 years.
 

•  Social Networks 
•  Micro‐blogging (Ambient Awareness) 
•  Tags 
Interestingly, they did not come from
Google Yahoo Microsoft or Academia.


InteresAng!!!
 
•  Flickr  •  Social Networks 
•  YouTube  •  Microblogging 
•  Facebook  •  Tags 
•  Twiber 

What does this tell us?


Messages are clear
 
People want:

•  New media:  Text based media is not enough. 
•  Experiences: People want to experience and 
share experiences – with minimal latency. 
•  Socialize: Family and friends remain a strong 
inﬂuence in all facets of life. 
–  Family and friends are closer to each other today 
than ever!!! 


I have a dream …
Next GeneraAon of Social 
Networks 
For Masses in developing countries 
using Folk CompuAng on Mobile 
Phones. 


Knowledge and InnovaAon Sharing 
Networks 
•  InnovaAon Systems PerspecAve. 
•  Social Networking, B2B, Wiki, Twiber 
•  Put people in the centre 
•  System becomes ‘intelligent’ facilitator of 
learning, interacAons, communicaAons, and 
collaboraAons. 
•  Organic development to suit local context 


KISAN: Knowledge and InnovaAon 
Sharing Agriculture Network 


Create KISN for 
 
•  Agriculture 
•  Health 
•  EducaAon 
•  Societal problems 
•  . . . 


SelecAng RaAonal over MysAcal
 

Jawaharlal Nehru

•  “The future belongs to science and those who make friends with 
science.” 
•  “No country or people who are slaves to dogma and 
the dogmaAc mentality can progress, and unhappily 
our country and people have become 
extraordinarily dogmaAc and lible‐minded”   
More true today than when he said this about 60 years ago.

Time is Right 
•  We are at a major ‘Technology InﬂecAon’ point. 
•  India maybe the best place to do research in the 
new wave. 
•  This may be the best Ame to seed processes 
leading to revoluAonary results. 
•  Products developed for India are relevant to 80% 
of the world – all developing countries. 


You are in India at the Right Time.
 

Be ambiAous, driven, and bold and you 
will bring back the Intellectual 
Leadership to India.  


I invite you to join me in this Dream.
Please join me!

Thanks. 
For more informa4on, comments, cri4cisms 
contact: 
Mail: jain@ics.uci.edu 
Facebook: jain49 
TwiTer:jain49 

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