An Open Letter to John Key on ICT problems

Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010

Wesley Parish

Mr John Key NZ Prime Minister

Dear Mr Key

A few days ago I read an article called "Giving geeks some cool", by Owen Scott of the technology marketing company Concentrate Limited. http://www.concentrate.co.nz/technology-marketing/giving-geeks-some-cool/

I read it at the ICT private training institute I attend, where I hope to gain some sort of qualification roughly equivalent to my pre-existing knowledge, and thus, find a job at the end of it.

My impression from the article was that bad policy decisions taken by businesses in previous decades were coming home to roost, and some people were - not unexpectedly - panicking.

The article was ostensibly about the non-presence of the hi-tech ICT industry in kids' future plans.

But I doubt seriously, that a mere re-branding - which is what Owen Scott seemed to think was in order, will have as much effect as he seemed to think it would. He hit much, much nearer the mark with his comment that hi-tech ICT companies would need to be more open.

Let me illustrate, from personal experience - in December 1998, The Christchurch Press had an article and (if I remember correctly) an editorial on a major air traffic control problem that had surfaced, where aircraft would collide mid-air, all around the world, and people were dying.

I knew I could come up with a solution - the basis of a Traffic Advisory/Collision Avoidance System is a three-dimensional linear programming problem, or rather, a linear programming problem as a subset of three-dimensional trigonometry problem. There was supposed to be an Air Traffic Network System being set up to use satellites, repeaters, and whatnot, so that was settled. All I needed was some programming information on what calls to make to a putative GPS receiver - APIs in programming speak, Application Programming Interfaces, so I could get the required info to calculate current positions of the hypothetical aircraft.

I live in Christchurch, same as Trimble - aha, I thought, I'll ask them. They should be happy to have me ask, since it opens up a new market for their product. So I did. I got shunted from pillar to post, until it seemed I had come to the appropriate manager to ask. She said she'd ring back. She never did. At the time I had no Internet connection, so I missed out on downloading the various Public Domain GPS programs and source trees available. And without a GPS source, I couldn't see any way I could complete my personal project satisfactorily. So I gave it up.

The algorithm that I had worked out would be most satisfactory, was this: aircraft A connects to the ATN, sends out a signal using the fping program, which tells it whether or not any other aircraft are also on the network; aircraft B replies with its call-sign; aircraft A replies with its call-sign and information on its current location, speed and heading; aircraft B replies with its call-sign and information on its current location, speed and heading. The computers in aircraft A and B then calculate the likeliehood of collision based on this data, and if there is a possibility, communicate this to their aircrew and the other aircrew. In case of emergency, the flight path is automatically corrected.

I found out half-a-decade later, much to my disgust, that NASA had apparently come up with what I consider a most inferior alternative - the aircraft broadcast their current location to all-and-sundry. It has no inbuilt security features such as using the call-sign as an "anonymous" login for such vital information as its current location, speed and heading - consequently someone relatively high-up in the UK has blown their top over the thought that someone with an Apple iPhone can now get precise details for any commercial aircraft just by pointing their iPhone at said aircraft ... screaming about the risk this poses, if some hypothetical terrorist should ever get an iPhone .... My algorithm doesn't pose such a risk, since call-signs don't grow on trees.

As I say, New Zealand companies need to be much more open - and supportive of people asking for information. I'm sure Trimble doesn't like the implication of their behaviour in the late nineties; but I didn't like their attitude either.

And I can't have been the only one.

I think facing up to the Man-in-the-Mirror as a major part of their problems, would do New Zealand business a world of good.

ends

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