Thursday June 23, 2005

PEACE be with you.

Technocrats always seemed to be good at making machines talk to each other and make them work with each other better day-by-day, by designing all kinds of simple to complex protocols, software stacks, middlewares, applications , you name it. But at the sametime, it seems very less work has been done/invested in adapting the technology to solve the same kind of problems among people. (Well, Iam not talking about something on a larger/global scale where online communities and blogs are bringing people much closer and doing a wonderful job but, something on a very smaller scale where it involves just you and people around you, whom you may not really know personally. Technologies that will help bring unknown people together, for a good cause and in helping each other.

Bluetooth is a fascinating technology and I (still) sincerely believe that it will make a major difference in our lives someday, not just by replacing cables or by transfering our files to nearby printers, but something radically different and also simple to use in our day-to-day lives.

Here is something that I wrote down a few years back while I was working on J2ME technology. Thought I'll share my write up.

"PEACE" BE WITH YOU

I believe, all of us (atleast most of us) are willing to help others if they ask for any kind of help , no matter how well we know them or hardly know them or doesn't know them at all. If it's a very small genuine help, which is doable, we'll always try to do the best we can. I think it's a fair statement to say, helping instincts are always kind of built in everyone of us. Most of the time, we are always surrounded by people who are willing to help us and we are also one of that kind.

But situations in real life are quite different :

At a movie theatre

Say you went to a movie theatre, standing in line with your girl friend/wife (significant other, whoever) for buying the tickets. Then you came to know that the tickets were sold out. You really/desperately want to see that movie. you feel, it'll be nice if someone who has extra tickets comes to you and gives it to you. Or may be, you might go around looking for some one who might have extra tickets. But none of us are going to shout loudly and ask if anyone has extra tickets though it might actually work! We don't do it because we believe it is indecent and an inappropriate thing to do.

or

You may be the person who has extra tickets but, for some reason decided not to go to that movie. But you don't want to waste the tickets. You don't mind giving the tickets if someone asks for it. Or you might ask someone who looks decent and approach him and ask him if he needs any extra tickets. But you're more concerned about how others will look at you/judge you if keep going about and asking everyone if they needs any extra tickets. At the most you'll ask one or two persons, that all. And after that you'll walk away with tickets in your pocket (if you're like me)

In a Restaurant

You go to a restaurant, you see it's quite occupied. You feel it would be nice to know if someone is about to leave within a few minutes so that you can wait for some more time or decide in going to some other place. But the problem is whom to ask ? You obviously can't shout loudly ?! "Hello, is any body leaving within a few minutes or kind enough to leave the table if you're done with "...doesn't sound appropriate isn't it ? but theoretically it does work if you do it (ie, people do give their table if they are done with)

In the Parking lot

You would love to hear from some saying "Iam leaving the parking lot, you can take my slot so that you dont have to go in circles". wouldn't that be a bliss ?!! But also keep in mind that, you dont mind looking at the person who is driving besides and say "Iam gonna take my car. You can take that slot". You have done that many times to others and others have also done that to you. But this will happen only when both the parties make an eye contact. or elese, we're back into circling.

In an Airport

You get down in an International airport of a country where you have no clue about their language. Have no clue about where to start or whom to ask for help when you step out. You would love to see someone who speaks your language. But again the problem is how do we know who speaks our language ? Do we go about asking everyone ? that looks silly! So most of the time we try to look for the symbols / directions that take us where we wanted to go.

Just take a moment and think about all the situations that we run into our daily lives where we need some small amount of help here and there (no matter how small they are ) just to make our lives a little easy if someone offers it.

Now, remember what we agreed in the beginning :

Most of the time, we are always surrounded by people who are willing to help us and we are also one of that kind.

But the reality is - most of the time, we don't get that help because WE DON'T ASK FOR IT for whatever preconceived notions that we all carry in our minds. We are actually surrounded by the help we want except that we dont take it!

Ok...now that I have said all that, let me get to the point :

How can technology help us in easing out at the situations that I have mentioned above which is , knowing / understanding when people who are surrounding us are looking out for help and similarly vice versa. How to get some help from our own surrounding ?

Here is how we look these days. We carry cell phones, PDA's, laptops and all kind of mobile devices. Think about an application that we develop which runs on these mobile devices which can talk to each other for a given specific area of coverage.

Imagine an application (what I call it as "PEACE") that would be available for all platforms be it a J2ME or a BREW or a .Net Compact Framcwork or a Laptop of whatever OS. Any bluetooth enabled mobile device.

When someone invokes our application, it immediately senses its surrounding and builds up a network with whoever is running the same application. When you walk away from that place, it breaks away from that network, then senses the new place that you are currently in and then build/joins the new network. The people who download our application and run it on their device are the ones who believe in the ideology of helping others in need and also asking for help when they are in need.. It's kind of that "Peace Brother!" feeling.

Now think about the situations that I mentioned first :

At the theatre, you came to know that the tickets were sold out. You pickup your cell phone and bring up the PEACE application (that's running in the background) It immediately senses with it's bluetooth technology and builds up a peer-to-peer network on demand and either creates a small community dynamically or joins which is already built by your buddies who are running the same application. So where you can ask for any extra tickets, you'll hear it from your buddies (if they can provide you). So when you walk away from the theatre, our PEACE application detaches it self from that network and say you go to a restaurant, you join the network that was already built and you join that community. Now you can ask thru your PEACE application if someone can give up their table if they are done and people who are on that network would obviously give it if they intend to.

The PEACE application that is running in your mobile device constantly looks for other PEACE applications within your surrounding . They all work together in harmony, in building up the P2P network (for whatever range, your bluetooth device can provide). They all put the infrastructure in place for you to communicate with other people who are running the same application. So the next time when you run out of coins in using a vending machine in the airport, all you need to do is to bring up the PEACE application because by then, it has already spoken to a person whose sitting in one corner, using his laptop (who also runs PEACE application) and another person whose is using his PDA for whatever purpose - they all get the notice that someone around them is in need of some coins. A very simple help that anyone can provide if they (download) and believe in PEACE.

I wish my dream comes true someday where I can download such applications on my cellphone to reach the unknowns. Well, may be they already exists and it's just that Iam not aware of :-)

PEACE be with you,

Ananda