Schlagwort-Archive: Infrastructure

Creating controllability step by step

A utopia of total control was described again and again in books and movies. Think about 1984 by George Orwell, where Big Brother has control of the most private spheres of life. Or remember Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, in which the possession or reading of books is legally forbidden and where the pervasiveness of the mass media in private life is well illustrated. These conceptions of the future that are shown in many science fiction stories provide an unattractive end state that was surely not developed at one go, but gradually. The required bases for such scenarios do not evolve from one day to the other. The whole begins completely innocently, by creating the controllability step by step.

Ueberwachung

The utopias provide only scrappy ideas, if at all, how these controls are created. The following steps show a possible scenario.

  1. Develop appealing offerings
    Everything starts with the technical feasibility. New products and services provide attractive solutions that are becoming by and by affordable for most of the consumers. With the television the unidirectional connection of spectators began. Broadcasts were sent from one sender to many receivers. With the Internet we have the bi-directional connection between many senders and many receivers. In this case there is also data transmitted that does not serve the actual purpose (e.g. duration, frequency and the interests of the users). On this basis further applications are possible, like the navigation system, cashless payment or the electronic passport. These applications transfer more and more confidential data.
    The users are thereby bound into the future control system, without being aware, how much they reveal about themselves.
  2. Free use through advertisement and handing over data
    For high prevalence more and more free or at least cheap offers are made that are “paid” with the supply of data. The users cannot determine, which data is getting exchanged with the data release or the regular update of the app.
    For data fisher men, like the global secret services, it is a smart approach to develop an attractive software that supplies them directly with the appropriate information.
  3. Creating laws and regulations
    This procedure becomes legal by explicitly confirming the terms and conditions of an app by the users – without this confirmation one would not get the software. One suggests security to the citizens by limiting the duration of the data storing and, for example, the necessity for a judicial decision for using the data. This is raising the question, which spies would have ever been made responsible for their illegal bugging and monitoring actions. This makes the juridical question questionable.
    The apparent rule of law is pure sham, as long as national borders and the nearly impossible control of their activities as well as the national self-interests provide the operators sufficient free space.
  4. Facilitating exhaustive tracking
    We weave today inadvertently a close meshed net of our behavior with the introduction of mobile offers, like the mobile phones, computers, navigation systems, location-dependent services and applications for detecting vehicles and packages as well as our individual browsing behavior. And everything can be found in the data storages of the Cloud. Calling a competitor of your employer by phone and the download of internal documents and the trip to this enterprise permit already nowadays unpleasant conclusions.
    The infrastructure is already there. As soon as unscrupulous persons receive the access, we are in a still more terrible 1984.
  5. Abolish alternative offers
    In order to guarantee all this it is helpful that alternative behaviors are no longer available. With the conversion of payphones from coins to calling cards it is any more possible to phone, without storing the connection details. The abolishment of cash, as it is getting real in Scandinavia, makes it impossible to pay, without having the payment documented. The electronic passport guarantees that all border crossings can be evaluated.
    As soon as those aspects of our everyday life are virtualized, everything is in the hand of those, who have control of this system.

This is nota re-narration of 1984, but a list of steps that lead to a pervasive monitor. With a close look, we will recognize that we let these steps already behind us in those regions of the world, where constant supply of electricity and information already exists. Occasional attempts to use these channels with appropriate filters for censorship leak out. This is not a classical end time scenario of conspiracy theoreticians, but our current reality. With the divulgence of governmental secrets by Snowdon, we had to learn that our fantasy is not big enough, in order to be able to imagine the current practices.

Bottom line: We already overhauled the utopia of George Orwell with today’s technical possibilities. The controllability of all people is technically possible today. If the scruples of those, who have the control, continue to disappear or control is taking over by a strong power, we will be in the position of Winston Smith – only with drastically expanded consequences.

Less and less for more and more

With each private or business purchase we evaluate, whether the respective deliverable justifies the price. I find the practical approach of a colleague interesting, who determines the value of a book in a simple manner. First he weighs the book in his hand and feels the haptics. Then, he looks for the number of pages and judges the binding of the book. Finally, he checks the typeface, the illustrations and the wording of an arbitrary page of the book. His evaluation of the book results from all criteria, independently of the actual content.

The business procurement is not as simple, since the deliverables, the products and services, can not be checked in such a simple manner. Already the specification of smart quality criteria is difficult for the buying company. Long-time purchasing power has made the procurement forget their abilities to completely evaluate in a fair way. This is one reason that they simplemindedly want to pay less and less for more and more.

Immermehr

One approach is to evaluate objectively the people, the machines, the material, the infrastructure and the margin of the supplier. The result is a realistic price calculation acceptable for all parties, which let suppliers and companies survive and prosper on a long-term basis. Beside Specific, Measurable, Adequate, Relevant and Testable descriptions of the requirements, it is helpful to consider the following components of a deliverable.

  • People
    Each deliverable is supplied by a certain number of people. They must have capabilities and cooperate reliably. At the same time, they need humane working conditions and a remuneration that ensures them a living. If one aspect is not fulfilled, problems evolve that endanger the overall system of the procuring party.
  • Machines
    are an important component of the value chain. The reliability and the quality of the results are determined by the quality of the components and their manufacturing. Good machines cost more. Also the contribution of services requires equipment – above all computers. Their reliability determines the steady contribution of the services. Failures of the machines endanger the overall system of the procuring party.
  • Material
    Some deliverables depend on raw materials or particularly treated materials and parts. Since meanwhile there is a world-wide competition for raw materials, the suppliers do not accept any longer unfair prices. Instead the dependent manufacturers have to be grateful to receive supply. An awkward procurement policy can endanger the overall system of the procuring party.
  • Infrastructure
    The infrastructure starts with power supply, goes to the transport routes and to the various buildings. A failure of the infrastructure can happen very quickly in crisis areas. This increased risk is not necessarily part of the economic calculation of offshoring. The consequences of earthquakes, pirates and bad building structure can endanger the overall system of the procuring party.
  • Margin of the vendor
    All profit-oriented enterprises strive for growth. Unfortunately, growth always happens at the expense of others. In the last twenty years, companies adapted their procurement in such a way that long-term contracts give them constantly sinking prices. The supplier has only a little leeway. (s. the previous bullet points). What remains is the renunciation of parts of the margin. If the supplier waives these non-profitable businesses, it can endanger the overall system of the procuring party.

Under the motto of a competitive procurement, companies delude themselves to the fallacy that they always have sufficient suppliers, in order to be able to negotiate ever lower prices. The former officially preferred supplier that made 80% of their business for one company, reorient oneself and supply perhaps only 20%. Thus, the purchasing power of the companies evaporates slowly, but constantly. Today the suppliers gain control and determine who gets what. A reasonable comparison of the deliverables is the basis for close, trustful cooperation that let participate in the past all companies involved in the success.

Bottom line: Each deliverable, whether it is a product or a service, creates expenditure for its production. As soon as this expenditure is not rewarded, not only the lowly paid supplier suffers. This will lead sooner or later not only for the supplier, but also for the procuring company to a collapse. Only with prices that ensure the viability of all involved parties, the overall system will survive.