Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55878
The project is being led by Brunel Business School in the United Kingdom. UbiPOL includes two other academic institutions— Sabanci University in Turkey and the Covinus University of Budapest in Hungary. Also participating are the Barnsley Metropolitan Coun- cil, a government agency in the U.K.; telecommunications company Turksat, in Turkey; and Web map provider Basarsoft, also in Turkey. Three communications and tech- nology companies also are involved, including PDM&FC in Portugal, IPA SA in Romania, and Fraun- hofer FOKUS in Germany. The UbiPOL partners plan to tap the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) locator in mobile phones to pinpoint the relevant locations for each user. Then, it will develop software capable of solicit- ing and recording users' opinions about specific policies that affect those locations. household management, and health and safety. "The consortium is working on ways of approaching citizens so they do not view the applications as interference by government," says Zahir Irani, dean of Brunel Business School and UbiPOL coordinator. The ultimate goal of the project, Irani emphasizes, is to engage citizens in the political process on issues that affect them most. It's an approach that promises to lead to "empowered decision making" by policymakers, he adds. The private sector—Apple specifically—has led the way in the development of mobile phone appli- cations for commercial gain, Irani points out. It makes sense for policy- makers to use them to increase citi- zens' participation in government. Data mining and data privacy For instance, with the proper mobile application, a citizen could quickly let policy makers know that a poorly maintained road needs attention. Once developed, the technology will be tested in the U.K. and Turkey in four areas: the environment, urban planning, are faculty specialties at Sabanci University, says Yucel Saygin, a professor in the school's Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences and a coordinator of a project called Mobility, Data Mining and Privacy (MODAP). As the software is devel- oped, SU faculty will address two overarching concerns of UbiPOL— retrieving data that is useful to gov- ernment and developing a secure system that citizens can trust. "Mobility data is using mobile devices to capture data about the behavior and movement patterns of people through their devices," Say- gin explains. "But while doing that, we also must respect the privacy of individuals, which is a challenging task. MODAP and UbiPOL have great synergy, since privacy is one of the most important aspects of both projects." For more information on the project, visit www.ubipol.eu. Texting While Learning While some professors require students to turn off their cell phones during lectures, David McDonald, direc- tor of emerging technologies at Georgia State University's Robin- son College of Business in Atlan- ta, wants those phones on. Using a new Text Question System (TQS) that McDonald helped cre- ate, students can text their ques- tions to a special number. Those questions are then displayed on a screen in front of the class. It can be easy for shy students or those not proficient in the language to get lost in large courses, says McDonald. With TQS, students can ask questions and contribute to the class in a less intimidating way, using very familiar technology. With each texted question or comment, they also can accrue points that go toward their final participation grade. McDonald first got the idea for TQS when he saw Atlanta-based Entercation using a similar system BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2010 59 IMAGE SOURCE/PHOTOLIBRARY