Uncategorized Archives - Jabbakam

The Hyperlocal Movement Takes off in the UK and Around the World

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 03:58:19 +0000

The Hyperlocal Movement Takes off in the UK and Around the World

One of the new buzzwords in social media and journalism in the UK is “Hyperlocal Neighbourhoods.” In California, the site OhSoWe calls its members “Homesteaders.” Homesteaders, as you may recall, were those who settled the “Wild West” of the US, daring to build communities, townships and societies from the wreckage left in the wake of the anarchy and lawlessness that ruled the day.

The “Homesteaders” from that bygone era were much like today’s “Homesteaders” in that they were attempting to create meaning and social cohesion from a violent and untamed terrain. Today’s homesteaders live online and inside a universe which, thus far, appears to have no boundries.

The hyperlocal networks and homestead communities which have sprouted up around (or perhaps have defined this movement) include Vermont’s Front Porch or London’s Harringay Online. New sites and communities are constantly popping up – all looking to fill the gap that has been left in the wake “Internet Revolution.”

With this revolution, our ideas of what community means have been and continue to be tested and our individual and collective worldviews and identities seem, at times, to have been irrevocably expanded or lost in a vast, unquantifiable space.

Hyperlocal Network initiatives like Networked Neighborhoods or Harringay Online are helping to break that space down into more manageable bits. These networks are cropping up all over the UK. In fact, the UK seems to be leading the effort to encourage citizens to engage in shaping a new collaborative and communicative democracy.

Jabbakam is also working towards making its contribution to these ideals. Have you read the Jabbakam White Paper? It has much to say about the future of democracy, the future of CCTV and the future of our real world communities and relationships.

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IP Cameras as NannyCams. Is it possible? Is It Ethical? Is It Legal?

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 03:54:55 +0000

Here at Jabbakam we are often asked about whether Jabbakam can be used as a nanny cam, particularly because Jabbakam live view and footage alerts can be viewed remotely using smartphones and other devices. Nanny cams continue to be one of the most popular ways that people use IP cameras and video surveillance technology.

There is not an easy answer to this question and it is not only about whether using IP camera technology and IP camera management systems to watch over the people that are watching over your children is possible – because it is… but there are also bigger legal and ethical issues to consider.

Are Nanny cams Legal? Are Nanny cams ethical?

Laws concerning IP camera recording vary from place to place, country to country, and region to region. In the United States for example, according to experts at about.com and ugolog.com it is legal to use a hidden camera in all 50 states – however, in several states in the US, it is illegal to surreptitiously record someone’s voice. Many IP cameras and IP camera management systems like Jabbakam do not have audio capabilities but can be used when remote viewing and monitoring of video is what is essential.

In the UK, according to Kidshield.eu it is legal to use recording devices in your own home provided that the cameras not be used “in areas where people would expect to have reasonable privacy for example in bathrooms.”

Kidshield.eu writes:

“In order to remain within the limitations of UK law, Kidshield would recommend that you inform your nanny that you may occasionally use a “nanny cam” to check in on your children – just don’t tell them where it is. In other EU countries we suggest that you consult legal advice before installing a nannycam.”

Whether the use of nannycams is ethical is open for debate. Ethicists have been weighing in on this issue since video surveillance technology was made affordable to the masses and since the first case of a nanny abusing her charges was caught on hidden surveillance camera.

The debate rages on amongst ethicists with moderates suggesting that the only ethical way to employ a nannycam is to make sure the nanny knows you are recording her, much in the same way that employers notify employees that they may in fact be reading emails sent from office computers

Bruce Weinstein, an ethics analyst for CNN counters saying

“Just think about it: What kind of relationship would you have with someone that would prompt you to secretly record them with your children? If you really take the well-being of the child seriously to begin with, you would get someone who is so trustworthy you wouldn’t need to watch them in the first place.”

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People steal the funniest things

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 03:42:34 +0000

As afficionados of the new community monitored TV (CMTV) will know, people will steal anything these days. We have noticed there seem to be some interesting regional variations. They also highlight the differences between CCTV and CMTV.

In Watford at the moment, there’s a spate of manhole cover theft. The burgling community of Morley in Lancashire is concentrating on stealing roofing material off sheltered housing. In south east London, according to reports, no fashion conscious criminal would be seen dead without a roll of copper cable under his arms. Although some have come remarkably close to death, after a challenging attempt to steal from an electricity sub-station.

The prize for ingenuity must go to Bradford’s Christopher Cunningham, 22, who has concentrated on the CCTV market. Not installing them, but stealing them and selling them. Unfortunately for the young entrepreneur, the four hours he spent unscrewing four CCTV cameras from the walls of the former Listers Arms pub in Manchester Road were recorded perfectly and broadcast by the website of the local paper, the Bradford Argus.

That exemplifies one of the essential differences between community monitored TV (CMTV) and CCTV. If this has happened on CMTV, at least of our community would have been watching, raised an alert and caught the young desperado in the act.

Under CCTV, by the time the footage had been reviewed, he was long gone. The cameras had already been sold by the time the police picked him up.

There’s a number of lesson here surely. People will steal anything. Theft is on the increase. And the case for CMTV has never been stronger. While CCTV puts the cameras out there, but what good is a camera if – for the most time – there’s no-one behind it. Most CCTV networks have one operator. CMTV, as the name implies, gets the community behind the cameras. That makes an enormous difference.

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When Bad Inventions Go Good

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 03:24:40 +0000

Have you tried those new Dyson urinals? They’re rubbish aren’t they? Without being too graphic, the drainage system leaves a lot to be desired. The floor becomes very wet. And what’s that blast of hot air all about? That’s the last thing that’ll help when you’re trying to relieve yourself in peace.

Dyson Air? Ha! If you ask me, James Dyson is over rated.

Mind you, I found another use for these wall mounted bathroom machines. They’re brilliant at drying your hands! You’d have thought, if he was such a business hot shot, he’d have spotted this opportunity.

Still, it’s often like that with technology. It’s invented for one purpose, but proves to be unexpectedly useful elsewhere. Take CCTV. As an instrument of oppression, it’s OK-ish. Nothing great, but OK for taxing motorists and catching the master criminals who try to put their recycling in the wrong bin.

But, if you tweak it a bit, and put the power of surveillance in the hands of the community, it’s actually incredibly empowering.

That’s the logic behind community monitored TV. When all the power of an entire network is trusted to one fat sweaty sociopath who wasn’t clever enough to get into the police, that’s not democracy at its best. In fact, that’s more akin to an ugly dictatorship.

It’s OK having cameras in The Gents, for example. But only certain people should be able to access those cameras. Not just for the privacy of the users, but to save the blushes of the camerawomen. Take it from me, you really don’t want to see the mess those Dyson machines make

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What’s so bad about the Big Society?

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:07:22 +0000

The idea of volunteering our free time to help the more vulnerable members of society is quite challenging to many people. Britain’s game show hosts, comedians and BBC breakfast show hosts seem desperately worried that it will damage the moral fabric of the country.

Presumably every hour wasted on the community is billable time that could have been more profitably spent on doing voice- overs for building societies, banks or dodgy insurance companies. What a joy it must be to be young and rich and left wing!

They do have a point, however. Maintaining community spirit is quite a labour intensive process. It’s a real slog getting round to see all the people you need to keep a friendly eye on.

Oddly enough, the fogeys are leading the way in this respect. The Isle of Wight isn’t traditionally regarded as one of the hot beds of technology innovation, but the deployment of community monitored TV could help Age Concern run its Good Neighbours scheme far more efficiently.

Residents in Cowes and East Cowes, who give up their time to keep a watchful eye on their elderly neighbours, could achieve all their routine checks in a fraction of the time. This would free them up for more of the ‘value added’ consultancy work, such as changing light bulbs, taking out rubbish or even writing official letters for their elderly constituents.

They could also offer ‘just in time’ online services, using the cameras. Such as dealing with aggressive door to door conmen, who target OAPs with their bamboozling schemes about how they could save money by switching to a new gas or electricity supplier. As advertised by some trendy left wing TV comic.

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New inventions can reap unexpected benefits

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 15:58:51 +0000

Every new invention always brings at least one totally unexpected benefit. Teflon was discovered by NASA, for example. I bet nobody expected Neil Armstrong to come back from the moon with a non stick frying pan.

Actually, it didn’t happen like that. Teflon was developed as a heat resistant material for coating a rocket. One day, for a bet, a rocket scientist decided to fry an egg on the hot surface of a landing craft he’d been testing. But the egg kept sliding off. Though initially furious, he suddenly had what philosophers call a eureka. We in the technology industry call it a ‘monetise moment’.

Surveillance cameras have been just as surprising. Originally developed by George Orwell, so that Stalin could plant more jackboots on more faces, from the comfort of his management console, networked video has mutated into something beautiful and empowering.

Surveillance cameras evolved into community monitored TV. One day, a random variation took place in the breed, which allowed multiple people to view cameras. A news species of CCTV (genus Community Monitorus) was created, which was much better adapted to social cohesion. Conditions for this new breed were ideal and the species, popularly known as community monitored TV, has thrived.

There are burgeoning communities of CMTV all over the place. They’re like electronic meerkats, only they don’t kill their young or indulge in vicious gangfights or take part in hideous TV commercials for dodgy insurance companies.

Community monitored TV is great for watching out for predators and a great tool when foraging for food. “Mum, that’s the Waitrose delivery man at the door!”

Some use them for Wildlife watching. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds encourages all its members to get online and it has a whole raft of cameras you can watch. From the comfort of your kitchen – while you’re frying up your eggs.

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Why people don’t recognise you with your clothes on

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 15:53:04 +0000

There’s a reason why people look completely different when you see them in a different context.

Neuro scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered how our memory for faces is subject to many different stimuli. The two most important being, respectively, object in place recognition memory and temporal order memory.

The first helps you remember where you put your car keys and the second helps you recall when you last had them. Neither form of memory will work if there is a disconnection between regions of the brain that collaborate to help you recall events or people.

So when you tell someone that you didn’t recognize them with those clothes on, you’re not being rude. It’s because there’s no connection being made between your hippocampus and either the perirhinal cortex or the medial prefrontal cortex. Make sure you explain this, or they’ll think you’ve been spying through their window like a paparazzi photographer.

It’s the same with community monitored TV. Often, several people can see the same person on screen and have a different recollection of him. But because they are all connected, they can share information and build a whole picture. It makes the difference between spotting danger and remaining oblivious.

So, imagine several members of the community are watching their Jabbakams at the same time, because Lady GaGa’s in town, with a paparazzi following. When a rather suspicious man is spotted, each CMTV watcher becomes the equivalent of one of the brain’s regions.

“I recognise that man,” says one CMTV watcher, who we’ll call Hippocampus, “he was on Newsnight defending hacking.”

This instant message stimulates a response a fellow CMTV viewer. “That’s right,” says Perirhinal Cortex’, “he told Jeremy Paxman that invading people’s homes is in the public interest.”

This intelligence, in turn, jogs the memory of another member of the Cortex family. “In Fleet Street, he’s known as ‘the bin man’. He goes through people’s rubbish looking for dirt on celebrities,” says a CMTV watcher we’ll call Medial Pre Frontal Cortex.

Everyone agrees this man should be the one they watch like a hawk while the media scrum is in town.

CMTV’s members collectively work like a brain and help to put the clothes on the naked tabloid dirtbag. And make their binbags and laundry baskets safer places.

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Back to the Future

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:53:59 +0000

“There’s a bit of a debate going on right now about CMTV.

It was sparked by this rather unfair criticism. Our response is at the bottom of the page. I thought this was a peerless example of a genre of marketing known as “moral panic” . That was until I discovered this gem on display in the British Museum of Witch Hunting.

It shows how computer manufacturers, like Sperry Univac, Borroughs Machines and Digital Equipment would have reacted to the launch of the personal computer (they are not available for comment today as they went out of business years ago) all those years ago.

Institute of Data Processors (c. 1978)

Malcolm Windley, Press Secretary

Dear Sirs,

You’ll see the headlines this month are all about a new breed of computer – the Personal Computer – that anyone can buy. According to the press, these personal computers will replace current mainframe systems that are safe, secure and efficient.

Who needs these new personal computers anyway?

Let us heed the words of legendary IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson who predicted: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” He didn’t get where he is today by giving untrained civilians access to unsafe computers.

The makers of these personal computers say that one day you will be able to do all kinds of things with them? Oh really? Can you buy the latest T Rex single with a computer? Of course not. Could Concorde be designed on a computer? Where would the engineers put their blueprints? In the computer?

Doctors are currently pioneering new techniques for heart surgery. Can you imagine them using a PC to help them carry out operations? Of course not! The punch cards would raise the prospect of infection. Besides, they could catch fire if the doctor’s cigarette falls out of the ashtray. What are we going to do about that: ask doctors to give up smoking and drinking?

But the personal computer merchants won’t admit any of these dangers. They hope to sell more computers and call this a “natural progression from the mainframe”. However, concerns have been raised across the institute of data processors – especially at IBM – in relation to the unregulated nature of these ‘personal computers’.

They always give them a misleadingly cuddly names don’t they? A more fitting name, we would suggest, might be ‘devil on your desktop’.

The rules about data processing are far too complex for the layman to understand, but let me warn you that these personal computers are over turning clearly defined responsibilities that have taken experts years to establish.

Any industry has to be sensibly regulated and any so called progress has to be viewed with suspicion. It’s the one issue that unites both workers and management in Britain’s car industry, which is the envy of the world – and always will be. You don’t see British Leyland bending in the wind of consumer demand. Which is why the Austin 1300 and the Morris Marina are the flagships of Britain’s economy. Where British Leyland leads, Britain will follow.

Thank goodness there are no computers involved in the car making process.

But the computer industry is different. Any Jack the Lad can stroll in off the street and buy a personal computer – no questions asked – without anyone inquiring where he got the money from. It doesn’t matter that he (or even she – don’t laugh!) doesn’t understand what he’s getting himself into. Nor do the vendors care about the possible dangers he could expose himself – and those around him – to.

People are rushing headlong into ‘personal computing’ with no guarantees on safety and with no proper training.

This would never happen in any other industry, like Security, where all staff would be personally vetted by upstanding members of the community, such as Mr Bellfield.

It’s quite understandable how jealous smaller retailers and homeowners may be tempted to use these inexpensive personal computers, and think they can do their own data processing. (Don’t laugh)

However, giving unidentified civilians access to a computer – which potentially contains sales records of purchases made by children and vulnerable adults – clearly raises concerns.

Our chief executive has outlined his concerns in a white paper which calls for a sensible debate. Please send an SAE for a copy of Goodness, Won’t Somebody Please Do Something?

What these personal computer makers – and their willing victims – are doing is not illegal. If we were to drag them to court, there are plenty of technicalities that would enable a lilly livered liberal judge to bounce them back on the streets without so much as a slap on the wrist.

Incredible isn’t it? How did it come to this? Well, by arguing that the stringent requirements that regulate the building of a data processing centre don’t apply to a desktop machine, the personal computer owners manage to circumvent the law.

Personal computer owners don’t need to be trained or vetted, which means that respectable mainframe makers can be undercut by these cheaper schemes.

The Data Processing Association has lobbied tirelessly, on the public’s behalf, for controls that would protect the established vendors. Unless our market can be ring fenced, jobs will be lost and the economy could be sent into a downward spiral. What the data processing industry needs is more legislation – and that legislation should only be processed on a registered – safe – mainframe computer.

Putting a desktop computer in every home would be a terrible retrograde step. Look at all the trouble that’s been caused by giving everyone the vote.

One of the strengths of the data processing lobby is that nobody voted for us. As a result, we have been able to regulate the data processing industry as we see fit because we know best.

With this in mind, the DPA has written to Mr Bellfield, the Data Processing and Security Commissioner to seek clarification on the legal implications of ‘Personal PCs’.

It’s not just in our interests. It’s a question of public safety, liberty and the rule of law.

There are still many, many things we don’t understand about the implications of computers. Until we do, it is vital that we stay in control of the market. Not just for our sakes, but for Britain, it’s children and it’s children’s children.

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The London Riots and CMTV

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:49:40 +0000

One of the first rioters to be arrested turns out to have been a teacher at a primary school.

Another was a lifeguard. Another a charity worker.

All are the type of community based jobs which give you unlimited license for pious posturing – should you be so inclined. Granted, the majority of teachers and nurses are too sensible to do this. But some on the fringes of the caring professions can’t help themselves.

We’ve all at some stage enjoyed some magnificent displays of moral exhibitionism from people who think that, because they work in a school or a hospital, that gives them the final word on any contentious social issue.

Seeing some of these bubbles burst is one of the few sources of comedy in the wake of these awful outbreaks of hooliganism.

The real positive that has emerged is how social media has been used to enable communities to fight back. The hash tags for Riot Clean Up and Operation Cup Of tea show how middle England is using communication to rebuild the community sprit destroyed by the Blackberry abusing hoodies.

Those who called for social media bans, after rioters used their phones to co-ordinate their attacks, are forgetting one thing. Social media gives investigators a very definite audit trail. It’s already being used as forensic evidence to prosecute a man in Lancashire who tried to encourage looting.

Community monitored TV, which is basically Facebook with a video camera, can only be seen as a force for good in this respect. It’s a social media on steroids that could help galavanise public spirit. How? Use your imagination.

Maybe we could use community monitored TV as more of an inclusive tool. Put a camera in, say, a youth club or pub. Attach it to Jabbakam.

The youths then take turns to show off their talent. They could dance, sing, read beat poetry – or just show off their latest creation. The rest of the community could watch on the CMTV at home and vote for a winner. It could be great fun.

Community spirit is organic. Social cohesion, shared experiences and security are three of the staples for building for a healthy community spirit.

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Sleepy Surrey shop heist shows value of strong video surveillance

Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:46:47 +0000

If all the shops had subscribed to Jabbakam there would be much more evidence

A couple of real life incidents have brought home to us the real game-changing transformation that the introduction of community based TV monitoring can provide. The trigger event was the burglary of a newsagent’s premises right in the heart of a sleepy Surrey village. The police would have stood an outside chance of catching the culprits if inexpensive IP based surveillance cameras had been involved.

Given that the Surrey Police have said that the chances of exactly the same crime being committed over and over again until the culprits are finally caught, perhaps our attention should be drawn to preventing another burglary from a shop close to the newsagent’s premises, which is situated right in the heart of a quiet Surrey village.

What actually happened was that two young men drove up in a relatively modern sporty saloon car late at night. The lads leapt out, and – carrying a crowbar – smashed their way into the newsagent’s premises. Once inside, the pair crowbarred the cigarette display off the wall and poured the shelves’ contents into waiting bags. For good measure, the pair also used the crowbar to open the till which contained a relatively small amount of money to act as a float for the next day’s business.

Now the shop’s owner (and we can’t identify him because none of this has gone to court yet), is relatively experienced and had gone to the trouble of installing four cameras for a CCTV installation. The sad fact is that these cameras failed to pick up sufficient leads for the police to work on. For example, the getaway car was indeed parked at the rear of the premises and was caught on TV. But its number plate was not clearly visible. Sadly, anyone who frequents that shop can view the TV monitor and see that there is little chance that a car’s licence plate will show up on this system when parked in that position.

After the theft, the police took away the shop’s hard disk in the vain hope that the grainy pictures of the criminals which it holds can be digitally enhanced to provide some kind of photo fit.

The second step for the police was to make inquires around neighbouring High Street premises with a view to finding more real evidence. For example, it is hoped that the footage from a local bank might actually provide a vehicle registration number. Better still, the young thieves had hoods pulled up over their heads and it is hoped that the bank’s cameras might have managed to get a full facial image of one of the crooks. The newsagent’s equipment didn’t quite manage that.

We firmly believe that if all the shopkeepers in the High Street had banded together with community TV monitoring system, the police would much more clues to work on. For example, at least one community camera should have picked up on a full or partial vehicle registration number. Furthermore, one camera in the vicinity should have obtained a decent picture of one culprit even if he or she was wearing a tightly pulled up hoodie.

The sad thing is that if all of the businesses on that particular High Street had signed up to an IP based surveillance system such as Jabbakam then there would have been plenty of video footage for the Police to work on. Plus, there would be no need for the hard disk to have been removed – potentially leaving the shop vulnerable to a second attack. Moreover, the likely rise in insurance premiums for the shops in that area would have surely have been less than the cost for all of them to join Jabbakam in the first place.

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