From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 10/07):

There will be no post next week, due to the LOGIS Librarian being on leave.

Business & management:
• Even after 10 years, Google as a company still manages to “instill a sense of creative fearlessness and ambition”, even as it has grown to more than 16,000 employees.
• We all use spreadsheets in our work, but how well do we use them? There are a range of tools in Excel that can make reading or understanding data quicker or easier.
• Although not all of them are working due to financial need, 12% of pensioners are working in the UK and the number of retirement-age workers has risen by almost a quarter in the last 3 years.
• There was a time when some companies took time to make an investment in the Web, because “it’s for kids and geeks”. History may be repeating itself with the way companies are slow to take on social media.
• A recent article by a New York Times columnist on using social networking tools to cut down his incoming emails by 80% has generated discussion and blog posts.
•Data visualization is now easier with the website “many eyes”. If you register, you can upload your own datasets and create visualizations, start a discussion forum, and be alerted to comments about your datasets.
• Auckland has been rated 8th on a list of Australian favourite international destinations for business travel.

Education
• There is a belief that there are not enough resources to build all the campuses needed to cater for the growing number of students wanting higher education. The Internet is having an impact on the kind of education students need and on the means of providing it.
• Becta is the UK Government's lead agency for ICT in education, and has released a revised learning e-strategy: “Harnessing Technology: Next Generation Learning 2008-14”.
• The iPphone has truly arrived in NZ, but a European company that develops software to deliver e-learning within companies, has become the first to offer companies mobile e-learning via the iPhone.

Environment & sustainability:
• In the article “An Oceans Manifesto: The Present Global Crisis”, the author looks at how the international community can avoid the ecological destruction of the oceans without diverting attention or draining scarce resources from other pressing national and international concerns.
• The growing scarcity of fresh water is believed by some to be as serious a threat as global warming but is “under-reported in the … media and ignored by most political leaders”. In one scenario by Maude Barlow, author of Blue Covenant, a “powerful corporate water cartel has emerged to seize control of every aspect of water for its own profit” – water becomes a high-priced, traded commodity, and Barlow advocates for public stewardship of fresh water resources in order to avoid this future.
• A recent Scientific American article talks about handling climate change as an ethical question.
• A private members bill will be introduced to the Australian Capital Territory legislative assembly later this year that proposes that people would be offered the financial incentive to generate their own energy from a renewable source and be paid for the electricity they put back into the grid at a higher rate.
• The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), the NZ Council of Trade Unions (CTU) and Business New Zealand are working together to develop an industry training programme to improve energy efficiency in the workplace.
• The Gas Association of NZ and the LPG Association have jointly commissioned a report that says that direct use of gas for domestic water and space heating could cut NZ’s CO2 output by millions of tonnes per year.

Health & wellbeing:
• The UK children’s minister is suggesting that children under the age of 16 should be locked into school grounds over lunch hours, to prevent them from leaving school to buy junk food.
• The European Commission is proposing to establish a European Union-wide scheme to provide free fruit and vegetables to school children in an effort to improve health and nutrition.
• While gaming has been known to cause injuries to those who play too much, virtual games can also have beneficial effects on your health.

Law & Government:
• A UN document “Civic engagement in public policies : a toolkit” is available, that provides a toolkit for fostering the engagement of civil society, the private sector and citizens in general in public policies at all levels and types of government. (Also held in print format in the Libraries UN collection).
• A UK commentator writes from the British perspective on the economics of nationalisation versus privatization, comparing NZ with the UK.
• Richmond, California suffers from poverty and violence. The municipal government is sponsoring a programme that enrols inner-city youths for job training in energy efficiency, solar power and “green” construction.
• The UK government has just released a white paper that covers “proposals to deliver a fundamental shift in power, influence and responsibility into the hands of communities and citizens”, giving locals more ability to hold councils to account.
• Although the result wouldn’t be affected, glitches in the electronic counting system used in the London mayoral election are highlighting ongoing concerns about their use in voting.
• A UK town has imposed a curfew on teenagers in an attempt to curb “antisocial behaviour”
• Web commentator Gerry McGovern talks about how the Web has affected the way people do or don’t place their trust in experts and organisations any more.
• Fast Company.Com has released the 2008 list of their “Fast Cities” – cities that are “vibrant, creative, and growing, full of life and bursting with diversity in race, in culture, and in business”.

People, culture & diversity:
• Librarians have been discussing the role of gaming in libraries to attract young readers for some time, and the American Library Association has promoted the concept at its recent conference.
• “Asians in New Zealand: implications of a changing demography” has just been released by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. The report shows that NZ’s dependence on the Asian region economically will mean that the Asian population in NZ will continue to grow.
• A discussion document has been released as part of a review of outdoor recreation in NZ, with the review aiming to revitalize the sector.

Science, technology & transport:
• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a report on public transport: “The value of new public transport in deprived areas: who benefits, how and why?”
• The sci-fi theme of a having a persona that can move around inside a virtual world has been around for a while, and many individual virtual worlds now exist online. One company has gone a step further, and created a way that an avatar can leave virtual worlds like Second Life behind, and roam across the Web.
• Google plans to launch its new Street View mapping tool in the UK, but could face problems due to differences in the privacy laws there, from those in the US.
• A new study suggests that Internet browser software should have a “best before” date as a way to educate users that they need to regular refresh and update their browser software to avoid security issues.
• A flaw in the Internet’s addressing system could allow criminals to redirect users to fake web pages, even if they typed the correct address into a browser.