Photo fakes, data loss and co-evolution

Over the last year there have been some high-profile photographs that initially caught the world’s attention and were then revealed to be fakes.

Picking some that I followed in the news we have the recent famous photo fakes from China (which for some reason are all animal-based) and include the wild tiger, photo contest pigeon shot, and antelopes by the new train to Tibet.

Now we also have augmented photos from the recent Iranian missile launch.

Sure, photographs have been altered since there has been photography and some fakes have lasted more than 100 years before being found out (such as one from the US Civil War). Intentionally doctored photographs were more difficult to make but certainly were made in the past.

One thing that all of the above examples have in common is that the doctored photos improve upon the composition of the original. The other thing they have in common is that they lessen the belief that we have in the photographic image, especially those from official sources. Further, the notoriety of these fakes will not dissuade people from creating more fakes; rather, more care will be taken and future fakes will be harder to spot until fake-spotting techniques also advance, resulting in better faking techniques, ad nauseum.

The issue is one of co-evolution. That is, once there is a way of protecting something valuable – a lock and key, for example – eventually someone will develop a way to pick the lock. We see this in areas as varied as encryption technology, the recent man-in-the-middle attack that freed the hostages in Colombia, elongated trumpet-vine flowers matched with elongated hummingbird beaks, and so on.

This continuous development of ways to break through security requires that corporations continually step-up controls on sensitive data. It is also why we can always expect to hear about examples of unintentional data loss in items as varied as social security numbers, pension data and credit card numbers. Mistakes also happen (a laptop with sensitive data is left on a bus) and databases are hacked. Since we have to share some degree of personal data in order to easily maneuver our way through this world, we need to prepare for eventual possible data loss. Therefore, corporate (or personal) data security is not only a question of what you do to prevent data loss, it is about what you do after it occurs.

Burmese days

Over the years, working in Asia/Pacific I was fortunate to visit Burma (Myanmar) a couple of times. Apart from being an absolutely beautiful country, my experiences were often with people so friendly that they went out of their way to help travelers such as myself.

Some things in Burma are unnecessarily unusual. Take the currency, the kyat. When I first went there, the denominations still included 45 and 90 kyat bills. Those denominations were introduced by Ne Win, who believed that he would live to the age of 90 if the country had currency in multiples of nine. It worked.

So in other words, for the sake of one person, the entire country had to sacrifice simple efficiency in daily commerce.

Now we have a situation where the recent cyclone has killed tens of thousands of people and the Burmese junta prevented or limited foreign aid from entering the country, ostensibly because of a fear of looking weak or of losing power. Add to that the lack of investment in Burmese infrastructure, education and a slow openness to communication from outside (you need a permit to have a fax machine and the Internet was only selectively legalized in 2003).

So perhaps given their past experience and current realities it should not be surprising that the military junta decides to retreat and fortify its position in the new capital of Naypyidaw. There is just no benefit for the junta to try to improve the situation in the country if there is no possible way for them to remain in power afterwards. It therefore has to pull back and fortify itself in the new capital and try to postpone the inevitable.

Olympic protests

Back in 1995 I was for a while with an NGO that worked to encourage diplomatic recognition between the US and Vietnam. When diplomatic recognition came that summer, there were a few protests in Washington by American Veterans and Vietnamese former refugees. One of the group leaders I was with debated whether to shield the Vietnamese government officials from seeing such protests. He soon relented, believing that there was value for them to see the differences of opinion; that is, on the US side the country had moved to support reestablishment of diplomatic relations but some dissenting voices remained – voices that at times even came into the conference room to demand answers from the officials. As we know, it all turned out fine and those protests are a footnote in the history of the last century.

Countries in the international spotlight must become accustomed to receiving criticism and having questions asked from all sides. The critics may be no better than the criticized, but that does not matter. To a certain degree, hearing criticism and answering questions are healthy exercises that inform of possibilities for improvement and allow people to learn more; but criticism and questions may also be a hallmark of special interests. Whether justified or not, this is a part of life in the spotlight. However, the pro-China Olympic protesters seem to be more concerned with forbidding the right to criticize or ask questions. The pro-China protesters’ focus seems to be one of legitimacy, noting the shortcomings of the pro-Tibet protesters and foreign countries where the torch relay was disrupted.

I look forward to moving past this part of the 2008 Olympics but wonder how long both sides will dwell on their emotional reactions to the other. Moreover, there is a competition over which side can produce the most supporters and the best slogans. These protests are certainly more than a footnote now. They may inform the way Chinese businesses and businesses from the rest of the world think about each other for some time.

Gamelan and the foreign exchange trading program

When I was in Bali this past summer I took a couple of lessons on one of the Balinese xylophone-like instruments used as part of gamelan orchestral music.

My teacher was exacting in the subject of his expertise. He insisted on me getting the technique and notes correct from the start and only let me proceed after I memorized each part of the song. No written music is used in traditional gamelan orchestras. After a time, hammer in hand, I came to appreciate the commitment that he demanded from each stroke against the instrument's metal bars.

During a tea break, seeing that I wore an old Columbia Business School t-shirt, he asked me about foreign exchange trading, a subject I know nothing about except that it is exceptionally difficult to profit from it. The gamelan teacher wanted to buy a FX computer trading program which would trade for him based on preset parameters.

The whole idea seemed absurd. There we were in the courtyard of a home in rural Bali, chickens running around, someone making batik next door. I advised him against the trading and I hope that he did not start speculating. But now I wonder: to what degree does what today passes for cool business logic and modernity, say in the form of business research, actually differ from his FX trading program?