INSPIRE•EMPOWER winners

n During his keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Beijing, Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett announced the four winners of the INSPIRE•EMPOWER Challenge. Launched at the IDF in San Francisco last summer, the challenge called on the developer community to submit the most innovative ideas for applying technology to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. More than 200 proposals were submitted from 44 countries around the world.

“The caliber of submissions demonstrates the incredible collaborative power of the developer community to use technology to help solve real-world problems,” said Barrett. The winners of the four $100,000 prizes were evaluated primarily for impact, sustainability and innovativeness. The prize money will be used solely toward the implementation of their solutions. The winners are:

• CellScope: Telemicroscopy for Disease Diagnosis: Daniel Fletcher, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, leads a research team responsible for the CellScope, a blend of “cell phone” and “microscope.” This new approach turns camera-enabled mobile devices, such as smart phones, into high-resolution, hand-held microscopes with the capability to capture and transmit images. CellScope provides a portable and inexpensive way to diagnose and monitor infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria in the developing world.

• Great Lakes Cassava Initiative (GLCI): Michael Potts, Catholic Relief Services’ director for GLCI, is overseeing a pilot project using laptops to help cassava farmers. Millions in East and Central Africa rely on cassava as a primary food source, but two diseases are wiping out the crops. GLCI aims to educate 1.15 million farmers in six countries about these diseases and provide them with disease-resistant cassava plants. The laptops facilitate information exchange among farmers, field agents and project managers; support remote distribution of training modules; and improve disease monitoring through automatic data transfers.

• Mobile Solar Computer Classroom (MSCC): Eric Morrow, executive director of the Maendeleo Foundation in Uganda, operates a computer-lab-on-wheels that takes teachers to multiple schools each week to provide PC skills, training to up to 100 children per day. Topped with solar panels to re-charge the computers, the MSCC is a modified SUV with a foldable tent, tables, chairs and 15 Intel-powered classmate PCs. The foundation hopes to open the doors to better paying jobs and to spur an African-owned and -operated computer services industry to boost local economies, decrease unemployment and help alleviate poverty.

• Rural Livelihood Enhan-cement: Bibek Chapagain, Clean Energy Group director at Winrock International, has proposed a Rural Livelihood Enhancement project to deliver information and communication technology (ICT) services to rural communities in Nepal. To address the lack of grid electricity, the project will utilize renewable power from micro-hydro stations and solar photovoltaic panels. The goal of the project is to bring about economic development and improve access to energy, education, employment and information in remote areas. The ICT service centers will serve as computer labs for students and will be open to the public during off-school hours to provide services to the community.

YouTube symphony orchestra

n Tim Lee had a cool idea. YouTube had become both a meeting place and a showcase for individuals. Why not harness the power of YouTube to join people from all over the world in a creative project?

A one-time piano and violin student, Lee came up with the idea of using YouTube to host musicians in a virtual orchestra. They would upload their audition tapes to YouTube, which would combine them in an orchestral mashup. The best of the artists might even meet and perform in a real concert.

Early in 2008 Lee ran the idea past some of his colleagues in the London office of Google. They liked it. Presented to a wider audience at Google’s company headquarters, the concept was approved. Lee swung into action. "I literally cold-called places like Carnegie Hall and the London Symphony Orchestra," he said. Lee acknowledges that there was always the chance that music professionals would think that his idea was "completely ridiculous." But they didn't.

Carnegie Hall, booked years in advance, just happened to have a free spot in April 2009. Could YouTube meet its schedule? The London Symphony also liked what it heard and decided that the project fit well with its educational mission.

“I never intended to go out and find a world-famous, Oscar-winning composer,” Lee said. But when, in late spring 2008, he called Tan Dun, who composed the score of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” for advice, Tan offered to write an original piece for the orchestra himself. The composer was busy with the Beijing Olympics through August, but he could deliver it in September. For the YouTube Orchestra, Tan created the five-minute Internet Symphony No. 1, “Eroica,” so named because it contains broad hints of Beethoven’s “Eroica,” and also prominently features the theme from his Olympic victory anthem.

The project was rolled out in December. YouTube viewers were invited to download the score written for their particular instruments; play along as the London Symphony Orchestra performed the piece; take online lessons taped by 25 musicians from the London Symphony; and, finally, upload their entries.

YouTube received 3,000 videos from 70 countries. Professional musicians winnowed the lot. YouTube subscribers voted and Michael Tilson Thomas, musical director of the San Francisco Symphony, selected the finalists. This week more than 90 musicians are traveling to New York, where on April 15 the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Tilson Thomas, will make its worldwide debut.

Great expectations

n An ABI Research survey on mobile phone users’ age-related feature and price assumptions, found that illogically, nearly half of the respondents in the 40-59 age bracket expected a touch screen on a $50 mobile device. That survey, conducted in February 2009, aimed to discover what features people have on their phones, which are actually being used, and what features people of different ages expect to find on cellular handsets at various price-points.

The top features, present on over half of all respondents’ phones, were a camera, Internet access, the ability to play music, to record video, to send and receive e-mail and to do instant messaging. A significantly higher proportion of those aged 18-29 had these features, and some of a dozen others, in their phones. According to ABI’s research practice director Kevin Burden, “We found the classic 80/20 usage pattern: about 80 percent of those surveyed used only 20 percent of the available functions.”

The survey also queried users about what they’d expect to find in phones costing $50, $100 and $150. Users of every age assumed that they would find Internet access, e-mail and music in phones at all price points.

But Burden found that some interesting patterns emerged. “The older the respondents, the lower their expectations. We were explicit in our question: not what you want in a phone, but what you expect to find in it. And as age rises, almost every feature is less expected, at every price point. The only exception is older respondents’ expecting touch screens in low-end models.”

Do older people expect advanced features to cost even more than $150? “Very likely, it's inexperience,” Burden believes. “Simplicity has been more important than functionality in older age groups. They tend not to have highly functional phones, so they’re not clear on what they should receive at any given price point. Whatever the reason, such information will help handset manufacturers design age-appropriate devices.”