I may get used to social events as time passes. First of its kind that I've attended for years has been today's event arranged by Google called "Google Mapping Party" at FAST-National University. They started off with an air of unflinching "belief" in revolutionizing technology (of West), then giving "perspective" on how under-developed this country is (no more emphasis is needed now-a-days for excellent repetition that has been taking place for over a century, as if the sole purpose of Man was to do development), and finally with so-called "future directions", exciting ones for youth, to engage in which, they were here for. I excuse if i've rambled.
You can read the details of what the event was about here.
Well. It was all about mapping places. Mapping is what users on internet 'voluntarily' do. You've Google Earth giving satellite pics over which you can develop layers of maps, like the ones you've in geography text-book, yes. Maps can do what finest satellite image may not be able to do, e.g., only map can tell you that this perverted building is a disco club, for satellite photos are mostly taken from the top angle. UGC - its all user-generated content, as i've said. Can be used for hundred of purposes; it helped in 2008 earth quake relief activities, when google on 8th on 9th Oct uploaded 7th Oct and 8th Oct images of earth-quake hit areas, making it clear which areas may have deformed as an aftermath of the quake, speaker said it helped a lot. You can even Geotag YouTube video of your locality. Many businesses are 'benefiting' from these maps. A guy from Silicon was telling how map making by communities has help plant and water various kinds of businesses.
Seems too cool... It shouldn't. A professor from PU raised interesting and often neglected questions pertaining to the 'philosophical implications' of such a technology. We're too excited (youth primarily) to question a Western import, so effectively have we been trained to accept the black gown without coupling it once again with the turban, be it white, black, green or red. His questions which affected the Google consultant to an extent:
1. Who owns the information? Who controls the project?
2. Who can potentially use it?
3. What if the owner shuts off all the user-generated content compiled after much time-consuming labour and struggle?
4. Where would all energy (of general public) that is going to be put in to this project go? It may instead of benefiting the nation go against it, if there's no direction to it.
5. If government is not involvement in this large scale mapping of each street of Pakistan, people are not going to have any back-up.
Faraz, a student at UK, out of spirits of patriotism, along with one another guy, "has been responsible for over 70,000 map edits on Google Map Maker since both started using it in 2008 soon after the application was launched." Recently, he mapped some part of FATA. Soon after his mapping that area was drone-attacked. He stopped mapping further. I read somewhere that in one of history's most bloody carnage that took place in Mumbai back in2008, Google Earth and smart phones played a crucial role in assisting the bloody murders of humanity.
Any argument of security, privacy and the precious time of youth that is going to be invested in mapping activity, like it is consumed by networking, and serious questions about such a technology's societal implication cannot stop a mentality that has no greater ambition or goal in life than to multiply trade, commerce and finance activities. It'd certainly help, as it is hoped, to increase profitability of businesses and provide basis for new businesses to spring up. But at the same time, it'd be totally naive to even suggest that all this can in any way contribute to the happiness of greater "number"; or provide welfare to people.
