Society in the Clouds

By Peter Lake & Elizabeth Uruchurtu

There is no doubt that technology can make enormous changes to human society. Advances in Information and Communication technologies (ICT) have created deep-seated changes to the way humans interact, affecting the cultural, political, and economic fabric of many of our societies.

However, Cloud computing is a relatively new phenomenon. Whilst the underlying technologies have been with us for a very long time, the term “Cloud Computing” has only been with us for several years. There is still a great debate about what Cloud actually means. Hill et al1 describe it thus:

In a nutshell, Cloud computing is a means by which computational power, storage, collaboration infrastructure, business processes and applications can be delivered as a utility, that is, a service or collection of services that meet your demands.

What has undoubtedly brought Cloud to the forefront for businesses, is the new business model that it supports. Put simply, the ownership of expensive, hard to maintain, hard to manage computing resources can be passed to specialist service providers who then rent back the services to their customers. This can move expensive hardware purchases from CAPEX to revenue costs. There can therefore be little doubt that Cloud’s recent success is, in some way, a consequence of the current economic climate.

But Cloud will affect much more than just company finances. This is especially true if, as seems to have become the norm, Cloud blurs the boundaries between the Internet, the web of things, and mobile computing. Users will soon expect to be able to access any data, application, or service from wherever they are, using whatever device they currently are accessing.

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Computing Becomes a Part of Society’s Fabric

In the early history of modern computing many of the developments were driven by military or commercial needs. The large mainframe computers that were the primary form of computing were so expensive that only wealthy corporations or governments could afford to purchase and run them. The vast majority of non-computer literate people would react to computing with a sense of awe and might even be frightened by it.

But in many developed nations the picture is very different now. With the advent of personal computing in the 1980s people could control their own computing needs rather than needing to talk to a Cobol programmer. Initially, expense meant that personal computers where largely only available to senior executives in large corporations. But now they, or equivalent devices like tablets or laptops, have become just another household electric item, as typical in a household as the TV.

The acceptance of PCs into the household was doubtless aided by the transition from text-based interaction to the Graphical User Interface, such as that provided by Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac. The trend towards ease of use allowed non-computer literate people to become familiar with the benefits that a home computer provided.

The fact that so many people now use the Internet without even thinking about it has also been a driver. When we moved to Web 2.0 we saw a change in approach from the Web as a provider of static information, to a place for interaction with dynamic data. Web 2.0 is all about allowing and encouraging users to interact with websites easily, again removing barriers of fear.

Another factor in the gradual assimilation of computing into all aspects of society has been the addition of ICT in the curriculum for children from the age of five. Many parents found that they could easily be out-computed by their children and had to learn computing skills to keep up. And now, those who had the advantage of that curriculum twenty plus years ago are themselves parents who are used to computing being at the heart of many aspects of their lives.

So society’s attitude to computing has changed significantly in the past few decades. In some countries it is the computer illiterate person who is unusual. People are no longer frightened by the technology itself.

 

Not Everyone does Computing

Of course we should not assume that what we are lucky to have in most of Europe or the USA is available everywhere. Much of what is written about the availability and flexibility of the Cloud is written from a western perspective. And yet, one of the authors of this article, although a UK citizen, lives in a small village where broadband performance is terrible and far from reliable.

Look further to some nations in Africa, for example, and concepts like ubiquitous Cloud computing are far from materialising because there is no appropriate technical infrastructure in place. And then there are also those people who choose not to use ICT. Last year (2012) the Pew Research Centre published a report called ‘Older adults and internet use’2. The statistics show that, although overall 82% of all American adults aged 18 and older say they use the Internet or email at least occasionally, only 53% of Americans over the age of 64 did. This is a large section of society you cannot get to participate in online questionnaires, for example.

Nonetheless, there is an increasing number of countries where Internet usage is well above 50% and this has led to changes in social interactions of many types. Facebook and Twitter communities have grown to be enormous. So big, in fact, that politicians have had to start paying attention to them.

 

Cloud and Formal Politics

Perhaps the most famous example of politicians getting involved with Cloud was President Obama during his presidential campaigns.

Amazon is amongst the major players in Cloud computing, and their Amazon Web Services (AWS) were used by the Obama 2012 campaign. AWS published a blog post3 describing how they helped them manage some very complex applications such as data modelling, multi-channel media management, social tools to assist with coordination and collaboration between volunteers, donors and supporters, and high volume transaction processing. The four-year cycle of presidential campaigns makes the Cloud rent-as-needed approach ideal, as they can scale their operations up months before the campaign, and then right down again afterwards. This approach removes the need to invest in high-end, expensive servers that will end up being unused for three years out of four (and which will probably be out of date by the next campaign anyway).

Naturally, the cost savings are next to nothing if the systems don’t work as they should. But since the main project goal was to get Obama re-elected, we can probably agree that they did work indeed.

 

Cloud and Informal Politics

It isn’t just national party politics that can feel the Cloud effect. The Lancet4 reported an example of Facebook’s power in Taiwan. For years there had been a stalemate in terms of the Department of Health not finding the funding required to update and expand emergency rooms. One of the emergency physicians, who was also an active blogger, set up a Facebook group called “Rescue the Emergency Room”. Within a month it had 1500 followers, mostly emergency room staff. When the figure got to 1800 the Minister started to pay attention. Meetings were held and the Minister made impromptu visits to several emergency rooms, and then, in a press release, vowed to spend more resources for hospitals to reduce emergency room over-crowding and improve the quality of care.

 

ICT in NGOs

Over the past few years the role of non-governmental organisations has gained increased recognition. It is now acknowledged that the world is facing a variety of global problems (social, economic, ecological, etc.) that cannot be tackled solely by national institutions, governmental organisations, or inter-governmental institutions (e.g. the United Nations, World Bank, WTO, etc.)5.

Society organisations range from community-based organisations, non-governmental organisations and activist groups to think tanks, trade unions, professional associations, cultural groups, religious organisations, informal citizen organisations, foundations, commissions and clubs. A number of terms are used to refer to these kinds of organisations, including non-governmental organisations (NGO), civil society organisations (CSO), community benefit organisations (CBO), charities, social benefit organisations (SBO), etc. In this article we use “NGO” as an umbrella term for the sector.

The preconditions of ICT adoption and usage in the third sector are fairly different from conventional (business or governmental) organisations.

Use of technology by social organisations is not a new phenomenon: in the 18th and 19th centuries they used print media, whereas the 20th century gave way to radio and television broadcasting, which served as important tools for communication among NGOs6.

Over the past decades, technological progress has introduced new Information and Communication Technologies to social organisations and movements, including the use of short message systems (SMS), e-mail and social media applications as new forms of online organisation, advocacy, fundraising and petition campaigns7. It is now hard to think of an NGO that does not make use of technology in the way it operates or delivers its services.

When looking at ICT usage among NGOs, we observe that most organisations have an infrastructure that comprises a virtual presence (e.g. Website), online tools for planning and organising groups (e.g. wiki pages, blogs, mailing lists), and make extensive use of social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Yet social organisations and movements often still rely on face-to-face meetings and telephone conference meetings8.

There are a number of factors that make ICT usage among NGOs very specific9. Most NGOs:

• are diverse in their composition and operations. A great number of society organisations have informal organisational structures and highly varying technological know-how among volunteers and staff.
• have no budget for development, improvement or maintenance of their ICT infrastructure.
• face real difficulties in obtaining funding for technology. Since their activities are mainly run by donations, these donations are dedicated explicitly to achieve their main objectives.
• lack a strategy about how technology can be used to improve services.
• lack a staff member with ICT in their job description, which creates a dependency on ad-hoc technical support from whatever source it can be obtained.These factors highlight that the preconditions of ICT adoption and usage in the third sector are fairly different from conventional (business or governmental) organisations.

Cloud computing has enormous potential for non-governmental organisations. It can help them improve their work practices, better communicate with clients, partners and stakeholders, demonstrate the value of the work they do and provide innovative services to their users.

Cloud and NGOs

Cloud computing has enormous potential for non-governmental organisations. It can help them improve their work practices, better communicate with clients, partners and stakeholders, demonstrate the value of the work they do and provide innovative services to their users10. However, taking advantage of the opportunities that Cloud computing offers to NGOs requires a better understanding of the organisation’s communication and collaboration practices, as well as the benefits, costs, motivators and barriers to adopting Cloud computing.

In order to understand these factors, TechSoup Global network11 conducted a survey in 2012 among non-governmental organisations around the world regarding their current Cloud computing usage and future plans for its adoption12. They received 10,593 responses from 88 countries, representing a wide range of organisational mission types, from social benefit to poverty relief activities. Furthermore, 92% of the respondents described themselves as partly or solely responsible for IT decision-making in their organisation, which indicates that the vast majority of respondents were knowledgeable representatives of their organisations’ perspectives on Cloud computing.

Administration-related benefits, such as easier access to software, reduced system administration and rapid deployment of services topped the list of perceived advantages that Cloud computing can bring to NGOs. Organisations also cited low capital investment, fewer IT staff needed, transforming capital expenses to operating expenses, improved collaboration, easier to partner with other organisations, improved data security, and better data organisation and control.

Results from this survey indicate that the majority of the NGOs in the world are already using Cloud-base services: 90% of respondents indicated using at least one Cloud-based application13. However, Cloud adoption is far from consistent among NGOs. On average, organisations are using three to four types of Cloud-based applications, but 35% of them reported using only one to two types of Cloud-based services.

The Cloud-based services cited most frequently by respondents were: E-mail (55%), social networking/Web 2.0 (47%), File storage/sharing (26%), Web conferencing (24%), and office productivity (23%). In terms of specific Cloud-based applications, the most often used included: Facebook (70%), Gmail (63%), and Skype (50%).

While these results can be seen as an indication of the extent to which NGOs are involved with Cloud computing, they also show some lack of understanding of this technology. When respondents were asked if they were using a specific Cloud-based application (such as Skype), responses were different than when asked if they used a Cloud-based application for Web conferencing. For example, while 24% of respondents said they were using Cloud-based Web conferencing, 55% of respondents said they were using WebEx, Citrix GoToMeeting, ReadyTalk, or Skype.

The TechSoup report suggests that the number of Cloud-based applications used by each individual organisation is important because it relates to their perspective on Cloud computing. It is observed that the more Cloud-based apps are used in a NGO, the more advantages they report in using Cloud computing, and the faster their reported timeframe is for adopting Cloud applications in the future.

 

Barriers to Cloud Adoption

The survey also found that lack of knowledge is the biggest barrier to Cloud computing adoption: 60% of the respondents pointed out at inadequate training, lack of management support for Cloud, and lack of funder support. Furthermore, 30% of respondents said they “don’t know enough about Cloud computing to know what the barriers are”.

Other barriers identified included costs (monthly fees, setup, migration, Internet), data security and data loss concerns, lack of trust (Cloud not ready to depend on, integration issues, and general lack of trust) and non-controllable factors.

Differences in regional perspectives are also observed. Respondents in countries with lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita cited barriers at higher levels than respondents in higher-per-capita GDP countries. In particular, lower-per-capita GDP countries appear to face some significant obstacles in terms of non-controllable externalities, including government regulations, unstable electric grid, lack of dependable Internet connectivity, and foreign currency issues.

A great divide was also observed in terms of NGOs’ plans to migrate their operations to the Cloud: while 53% of respondents indicated they would be moving to the Cloud within two to three years or faster, a sizeable minority of respondents (36%) said they had no plans whatsoever to move their IT to the Cloud.

NGOs have to lobby funders for ICT development and support on the Cloud, and make them realise that technology is an organisational development need.

The Future of the Social Cloud

As expressed earlier, ICT have transformed society and the approach to organisations management, whether they are public, private or non-profit. Cloud computing represents an opportunity for improving work practices by enabling information to be acquired and shared more efficiently, and breaking down barriers by facilitating regional and transnational collaboration.

There are however a number of barriers NGOs have to overcome to adopt Cloud computing to fulfil their social mission; in particular, lack of knowledge, lack of training, and lack of funding.

NGOs have to lobby funders for ICT development and support on the Cloud, and make them realise that technology is an organisational development need. Organisations also need to make a greater effort in developing the technical skills of staff and volunteers, for which they can join existing support networks.

In turn, funders need to support applications for Cloud computing projects by recognising that technology is a core need of organisations and not an optional extra. They need to invest in training and development of the staff that assess NGOs applications for funding, enabling them to recognise realistic ICT budgets and projects that make good use of technology – in particular Cloud-based services that can be more cost-effective than purchasing equipment. Funders can also monitor the amount of current funding allocated to technology in order to inform future decision-making.

Policy makers and Governments can also help ensure that NGOs benefit from better use of technology by allowing for Cloud computing needs in their proposals. A big challenge is realising aspects of national infrastructure such as electricity grids and dependable Internet infrastructure, which will undoubtedly benefit society at large.

About the Authors
Elizabeth Uruchurtu is a Senior lecturer in the Faculty of ACES at Sheffield Hallam University. She is interested in how interactive technology can improve everyday learning and working activities. She lectures and undertakes research and knowledge transfer work in areas such as Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design and Mobile and Cloud computing. She holds a PhD in Computing from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland.

Peter Lake is a Principal Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, specialising in database technology. Formerly the Technical Director of a software house, he has 25 years of industrial experience with many database types from small stand-alone systems, through to Mainframes. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of Cloud and Big Data, although he also enjoys getting involved in database performance and other DBA issues.

References
1. Hill, R., Hirsch, L., Lake, P. & Moshiri S. (2013): Guide to Cloud Computing: principles and practice. London: Springer.
2. Zickuhr, K. & Madden, M. (2012) “Older Adults and Internet Use” Pew Internet & American Life Project [Online]. Last accessed on 9th-May-2013 at www.pewInternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Older_adults_and_Internet_use.pdf
3. Retrieved from Amazon Web Services Blog: (http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2012/11/aws-in-action-behind-the-scenes-of-a-presidential-campaign.html)
4. Shabbir Syed-Abdul, C.-W. L. (2011). “Facebook use leads to health-care reform in Taiwan.” Lancet Online.
5. Saeed, S., Rohde,M. & Wulf, V. (2009) “Technologies within transnational social activist communities: an ethnographic study of the european social forum”. In Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and technologies (C&T ‘09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 85-94. DOI=10.1145/1556460.1556474
Lasa (2006) Circuit rides 2.0. London: Lasa Publications. [Online]. Last accessed 13-May-2013 at: http://www.lasa.org.uk/uploads/publications/ictpublications/computanews_guides/CR_Guide.pdf
TechSoup Global (2012) 2012 Global Cloud Survey. [Online] last accessed 20-May-2013 at: http://www.techsoupglobal.org/sites/default/files/TechSoup_Global_Cloud_Report_Executive_Summary.pdf
6. Saeed, S., Rohde,M. & Wulf, V. (2009) “Technologies within transnational social activist communities: an ethnographic study of the european social forum”. In Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and technologies (C&T ‘09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 85-94. DOI=10.1145/1556460.1556474
7. Ibid.
Lasa (2006) Circuit rides 2.0. London: Lasa Publications. [Online]. Last accessed 13-May-2013 at: http://www.lasa.org.uk/uploads/publications/ictpublications/computanews_guides/CR_Guide.pdf
8. Saeed, S., Rohde,M. & Wulf, V. (2009) “Technologies within transnational social activist communities: an ethnographic study of the european social forum”. In Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Communities and technologies (C&T ‘09). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 85-94. DOI=10.1145/1556460.1556474
9. Ibid.
Lasa (2006) Circuit rides 2.0. London: Lasa Publications. [Online]. Last accessed 13-May-2013 at: http://www.lasa.org.uk/uploads/publications/ictpublications/computanews_guides/CR_Guide.pdf
10. Lasa (2006) Circuit rides 2.0. London: Lasa Publications. [Online]. Last accessed 13-May-2013 at: http://www.lasa.org.uk/uploads/publications/ictpublications/computanews_guides/CR_Guide.pdf
11. Techcoup Global network (www.techsoupglobal.org) provides an online platform enabling NGOs around the world access to a socially responsible supply chain for technology products and support.
12. TechSoup Global (2012) 2012 Global Cloud Survey. [Online] last accessed 20-May-2013 at: http://www.techsoupglobal.org/sites/default/files/TechSoup_Global_Cloud_Report_Executive_Summary.pdf
13. “Cloud usage” was defined as using one or more Cloud-based applications to perform a particular function, using specific Cloud vendors, or using specific branded Cloud-based applications. This excluded typical browsing and Internet searching.

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