August 2017 - KICTANet

A Civics Lesson for Facebook - social network’s new democratic-minded tools
by WANGARI KABIRU 12 Aug '17

12 Aug '17

Blessed Saturday! Let's get into social-democracy now in the political space! Read on... Blessings. Regards/Wangari --- Pray God Bless. 2013Wangari circa - "Being of the Light, We are Restored Through Faith in Mind, Body and Spirit; We Manifest The Kingdom of God on Earth". http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/08/facebook_now_… A Civics Lesson for Facebook Why there’s reason to be wary of the social network’s new democratic-minded tools. As CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out in a sizable manifesto earlier this year, Facebook has grand ambitions to create a platform that goes beyond just connecting family and friends. More than social media, it wants to create the social infrastructure that powers communities from niche interest groups to nations. But can tools to improve civic engagement from a clickbait-driven company really be good for democracy?As part of its new Town Hall project, Facebook recently unveiled three new features aimed at linking government representatives with the citizens they’re elected to serve. The first, constituent badges, enables users to voluntarily identify themselves (via address verification) as residents of a particular district. Politicians will then be able to see these badges, allowing them to determine whether, say, a commenter on their page resides in the area they represent. The second, district targeting, will allow elected officials to create posts and polls soliciting feedback that will only be visible to their constituents. Finally, there’s constituent insights, which will permit politicians to view and comment on news stories that are popular in their political districts.Whether by intention or accident, Facebook seems to be designing democracy in its own clickbait-driven image.This all sounds nice on the surface. After all, it seems like Facebook finally is beginning to acknowledge its political influence, a role it initially rejected in the aftermath of the 2016 election. And it’s seemingly channeling that power for public benefit by making it easier for constituents to engage with elusive politicians.Yet, there’s reason to stop short of lauding the social media network’s attempts to better our representative government. Not only is it unclear whether these tools will actually foster meaningful engagement, it’s also questionable whether private companies like Facebook—even if they’re well-meaning—should be trusted to keep democracies’ best interests at heart. Get Future Tense in your inbox. For starters, whether by intention or accident, Facebook seems to be designing democracy in its own clickbait-driven image. The Town Hall tools all revolve around attention: They encourage both politicians and users to find ways to better grab one another’s eyeballs (to use the social media term of art). But the kind of attention Facebook demands from us—incessantly chasing what’s trending, viral, getting clicks—rarely works in favor of the long-term public interest. Think of Donald Trump, obsessively monitoring his ratings and flitting to whatever message gets a rise from his base. Such messaging may get attention, but it’s not what’s best for the American people. Yet this kind of frenetic attention baiting is essential to Facebook’s business model. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario in which these new tools end up pushing politicians to primarily focus on the whims or dank memes of the day, instead of heeding to the more substantial issues.I’m also concerned about the assumptions about human behavior and demographics that Facebook appears to be making with these features. For one, the Town Hall tools assume that what people read and share on the social media platform makes for a reasonably good representation of what they want their politicians to be concerned about. But there’s little reason to believe this is true. Users often post articles that they dislike, disagree with, find hilariously stupid—I certainly do. But it’s unlikely that Facebook will be successfully categorizing these posts as such before they share them with politicians. Does what you read when you’re slacking off at work actually represent the big issues you’re concerned about, or is it just what happens to catch your eye at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday? Is a news story important just because it happens to be trending?What’s more, we don’t actually control what we see in our Facebook feed; Facebook does. Unlike a newspaper or magazine that shows readers stories the editorial board deems significant, Facebook’s algorithm is designed to show stories it thinks an individual user wants to view. The website simply isn’t that motivated to get you to eat your vegetables (if vegetables are “dry foreign affairs stories with large words”). Its interests lie in keeping you scrolling endlessly through your feed. Research has shown that this filtering distorts the content that people see, possibly creating damaging filter bubbles and further polarizing politics. It also gives Facebook outsize control over what media it chooses to promote—a state of affairs that benefits the company but may not always benefit you.This distortion isn’t just coming from the company, either. As Facebook itself admitted, governments and other actors have exploited the platform to spread misinformation. The company’s efforts to eradicate this issue are still at an early stage, and from the limited information provided, it’s not hard to imagine these propaganda bots and digital information warriors gaming the address-verification system and pretending to be constituents.The second big assumption that the Town Hall tools idea makes is that Facebook users are reasonably representative of the actual opinions of the population. Except this isn’t a sure thing: There’s ample evidence that privileged groups are more “visible” in big data sets (for example, people with regular internet access are more likely to be engaged in social media than those without). While 68 percent of U.S. adults use Facebook—making it the most widely used social media platform in the country—these users are more likely to be young, low-income, and female.Bias may also impact who actually uses and engages with Facebook’s Town Hall tools. Just 9 percent of social media users say that they regularly discuss or comment on politics, and only 25 percent of social media users follow political figures. Users concerned with privacy may not feel comfortable handing over sensitive information like their home address to the company (with good reason), even if it means they can’t be verified as a constituent. Others may feel pressured to disclose their private information as a prerequisite for interacting with their representatives. While Facebook likely could correct for these biases, it might not want to; after all, the company directly benefits from more users and more user data.Finally, Facebook makes a third problematic assumption: that elected officials and their teams are capable of sifting out important, policy-actionable items from a constant, minimally curated stream of what their constituents are reading and posting. It’s a worldview with an exceptionally optimistic perspective on the filtering abilities of most people—let alone politicians. It’s not just the barrage of data that’s the issue, but the fact that it’s also essentially meaningless if it can’t be properly analyzed. Considering there are entire industries of highly trained professionals who spend their careers trying to do this—and still regularly get things wrong—what makes Facebook think these tools will be anything but a distraction for elected officials?Beyond thinking about how these tools might influence the responsiveness of politicians to their constituents, it’s also worth considering the motivations of the politicians themselves. During the 2016 election, for example, the Trump campaign worked to dissuade potential Clinton supporters from turning out through something called “dark posts”—in this case, targeted negative ads that were invisible to anyone but the recipient, obscuring them from public scrutiny. It remains unclear how much of a difference, if any, these posts made on the outcome. But the tactic is unlikely to go away—and may be made more powerful by leveraging the social media platform’s Town Hall tools by enabling politicians to better tailor their messaging to constituents’ particular pain points. Elected officials might also be able to gain an advantage over potential electoral challengers, as it doesn’t appear that Facebook offers similar tools to candidates yet. Has the company gamed out these unpleasant but realistic possibilities?We don’t know because Facebook isn’t transparent about its processes or about its overarching goals with these recent forays into democracy building. And it’s important to remember that it doesn’t have to be. It’s a publicly held company whose primary responsibility is to its shareholders. It’s not a representative government. Nor is it a public utility. Though it may be using lofty press releases and Zuckerberg’s not-so-subtle appearances at Iowa truck stops to promote a new, civic-minded image, it has no obligation to be inclusive or representative, or to do what’s best for citizens.This does not mean Facebook is evil or ill-intentioned; it simply means that Facebook can only be what it is. As Donald Trump is proving, you can’t run government like a real estate business. We shouldn’t run government like a social media company, either.This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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KICTANet Preliminary Observations on Technology Deployment in Kenya's General Election 2017
by Mutungi Joel 11 Aug '17

11 Aug '17

Thanks a lot for the report. On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 2:01 PM, <kictanet-request(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: > Send kictanet mailing list submissions to > kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > kictanet-request(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > > You can reach the person managing the list at > kictanet-owner(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of kictanet digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. > > KICTANet Preliminary Observations on Technology Deployment in > Kenya?s General Election 2017 (Grace Githaiga) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2017 10:50:48 +0000 > From: Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga(a)hotmail.com> > To: "kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke" <kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> > Subject: [kictanet] KICTANet Preliminary Observations on Technology > Deployment in Kenya?s General Election 2017 > Message-ID: > <DB6P189MB045593A92F2D87934479257EB4890@DB6P189MB0455. > EURP189.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > Listers > > Greetings. > > Please find attached an interim report on KICTANet's observation on the > technology deployment of the electoral process from a user end perspective. > We are working an elaborate report and will share in due course. > > We thank all our observers and all members who contributed to all the > discussions on the topic of technology use in the elections. > > Best regards > > > Githaiga, Grace > > > > Co-Convenor > Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) > Twitter:@ggithaiga > Tel: 254722701495 > Skype: gracegithaiga > Alternate email: ggithaiga(a)hotmail.com<mailto:ggithaiga@hotmail.com> > Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga > www.kictanet.or.ke > > "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and > come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability > to bring about change ? but in yours"---Barrack Obama. > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ---------------------- > > Grace Githaiga > > Twitter: @ggithaiga > > Skype: gracegithaiga > > Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga > > > ...the most important office in a democracy is the citizen. So, you see, > that?s what our democracy demands. It needs you!----Barrack Obama. >

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Research Report: Free Basics in Real Life - “poor internet for poor people” or "offering some web experience"
by WANGARI KABIRU 10 Aug '17

10 Aug '17

https://advox.globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/FreeBasicsinRealL… https://advox.globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/KENYA.pdf "Facebook’s Free Basics program aims to help bridge the digital divide through a mobile-basedplatform that allows users to connect to a handful of online services free of charge. In a visionstatement for the program, Facebook surmises that “[by] introducing people to the benefits of theinternet” they will help justify the cost of mobile data and thereby “bring more people online andhelp improve their lives.”The program has been the subject of controversy since its inception, reviving the debate overopen access and the digital divide. Digital rights experts have argued that the program violatesnetwork neutrality, brings an imbalance to local content and mobile subscription markets, andcreates a “poor internet for poor people” that does not allow users to truly explore and discover theglobal internet.1 Others have praised it for offering users some degree of experience with the web,and for incentivizing operators to make mobile data more affordable for more customers...." --Read on! Blessed day Regards/Wangari --- Pray God Bless. 2013Wangari circa - "Being of the Light, We are Restored Through Faith in Mind, Body and Spirit; We Manifest The Kingdom of God on Earth".

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IEBC Website - Polling stations with no GSM Coverage
by John Kieti 09 Aug '17

09 Aug '17

Hi Listers, Been checking the IEBC website since Friday morning - Observing persistent outage of the main section www.iebc.or.ke (voter status section still reliably accessible voterstatus.iebc.or.ke). Not very good timing for service outages. Been hopeful the main site will be back sooner. Anyways am looking for the list of 11,155 polling stations without network coverage as per the attached summary. Supposedly it is on the website. Anyone with the itemised list? Best regards -- John Kieti Phone: +254-735-764242 // +254-722-764242 Twitter: @johnKieti // Skype: jkieti Blog: gmeltdown.com <http://www.gmeltdown.com> // LinkedIn: https://ke.linkedin.com/in/*kieti* <https://ke.linkedin.com/in/kieti> The ordinary just won't do

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Request for information on technology deployment during elections
by Grace Githaiga 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

Listers We hope that you have and continue to perform your civic duty. In today's elections, technology systems deployment is at three levels: a) Voters were registered using the Biometric Voter Registration system (BVR). b) At the polling centres, voters will be identified at first instance using Electronic Voter Identification system (EVID). c) After votes are counted, results will be transmitted using the Results Transmission System (RTS). Note: The EVID and the RTS is the SAME system. The tablet for identifying voters is the SAME tablet for scanning and transmitting results and which is referred to as the Integrated Elections Management Systems (IEMS). Apart from the above systems, the public will also access election related information through communication systems, especially the Internet. KICTANet has been observing certain features on IEBC’s use of technology, and other related aspects to access to information. KICTANet is today observing the use of the two systems (EVID and RTS). The Network will additionally continue to observe access to election information during the period. We request your participation in this survey. We provide a link to a document which we are using as a guide for observers during the election. The guide covers five activities namely: opening of the polling station and set up; voter identification and assisted voters; vote counting procedures; tallying procedures; and closing procedures. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/198xRPeUMoNsYPLn2rhCtZhTkxd3AxFJVgOFKwKxSje… Yourparticipation iscompletelyvoluntaryandallofyourresponseswillbekept anonymous in the report that KICTANet will produce as a result of this process. As always, we highly appreciate your time and contribution. Asanteni sana. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga(a)hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.

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Fwd: Tips to Spot False News
by Grace Githaiga 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

FYI --- Original message follows --- Subject: Tips to Spot False News From: "FB Africa Policy" To: undisclosed recipients: Date: 08-08-2017 01:37 If your organization has an active WhatsApp group, we wanted to provide some tips on how to detect false news. The tips can easily be distributed on WhatsApp and we hope you can share them with your networks. We know that WhatsApp groups provide a space for people to connect and share. We take fighting false news via Facebook and WhatsApp seriously. We hope that you can share these tips with your networks. Attached are 10 images with tips on how to spot false news. We encourage you to share these with your WhatsApp community. Directions on how to share the images are below. Our recommendation is to send all of these 10 photos + cover photo in sequence. WhatsApp will automatically group them into an album so it's easy to read. Here are the instructions for sending multiple photos in both Android and iPhone. For Android: 1. Select multiple photos and send. For iPhone: 1. Tap on the media sharing button next to the text field. 2. Select “Choose Existing Photo” 3. Now, select one of the photos you want to send. (Note that you can't select multiple photos here…) 4. Once you select the photo, on the next screen, tap on “+” as shown below. 5. Now, you just have to select all the photos you want to send. 6. Once you've added the photos, tap on Done. And then, tap on Send. The photos will be sent. Best The Facebook Africa Policy Team Co-Convenor Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) Twitter:@ggithaiga Tel: 254722701495 Skype: gracegithaiga Alternate email: ggithaiga(a)hotmail.com Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gracegithaiga www.kictanet.or.ke "Change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand it. I am asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change – but in yours"---Barrack Obama.

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Catalyzing local investments in technology startups to ensure big ticket exits and local value realization
by Mbugua Njihia 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

We need to be more intent in marshaling local capital, whether from angel investors, venture capital, private equity or a better structured bourse process that can allow for more people to participate with smaller amounts - http://www.mbuguanjihia.com/business/catalyzing-local-investments-technolog… *Regards,* Mbugua Njihia ᐧ

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As shootings soar, Chicago police use technology to predict crime
by Nelson Kwaje 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

It reads like an excerpt from the movie "Minority Report" http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chicago-police-technology-idUSKBN1AL08P As shootings soar, Chicago police use technology to predict crime One of the technologies being used in the 7th District is HunchLab, a predictive policing program made by Philadelphia-based company Azavea. It combines crime data with factors including the location of local businesses, the weather and socioeconomic information to forecast where crime might occur. The results help officers decide how to deploy resources. Another is the Strategic Subject's List, a database of individuals likely to be involved in shootings that was developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology. Police are tight-lipped about how it is compiled, saying only that the algorithm looks at eight factors including gang affiliation and prior drug arrests to assign people a number between 0 and 500. A higher number reflects higher risk. They are also using the gunfire detection system made by ShotSpotter Inc (SSTI.O), which uses sensors to locate the source of gunshots. Police officials declined, however, to say how many such devices were installed in the 7th District Nelson Kwaje ⁣Sent from BlueMail

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Re: [kictanet] Best example for the need of protection from the media itself
by Ali Hussein 03 Aug '17

03 Aug '17

Dorcas I concur with you in this case. 'Mainstream' media ought to do better than bloggers if simply because they have better resources. This was a case of compounding an already volatile situation with the murder of our brother Chris. They should have done basic corroboration and gone beyond innuendo. However, we should be careful not to throw the baby with the bath water.. Regards *Ali Hussein* *Principal* *Hussein & Associates* Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with. On Tue, Aug 1, 2017 at 1:19 PM, Dorcas Muthoni via kictanet < kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote: > Earlier Today > > https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktnnews/video/2000134625/- > breaking-news-kdf-spokesperson-colonel-joseph-owuoth-has-gone-missing > > Now > https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktnnews/video/2000134629/- > developing-story-kdf-spokesperson-colonel-joseph- > owuoth-confirms-that-he-is-alive > > > _______________________________________________ > kictanet mailing list > kictanet(a)lists.kictanet.or.ke > https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet > Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet > Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ > > Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ > mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com > > The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform > for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and > regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT > sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development. > > KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors > online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, > share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do > not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications. > >

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RIP IEBC ICT Manager Chris Musando
by Mwendwa Kivuva 02 Aug '17

02 Aug '17

Chris Musando, the IEBC ICT manager honored the invite to participate at the 2017 Kenya IGF. He gave some good perspectives on Internet and Elections. Here is the video of the proceedings https://www.facebook.com/KenyaIGF/videos/1401631396551852/ We pay tribute to him, and RIP. May his family find consolation in these trying moments. Regards. ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva twitter.com/lordmwesh

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