Business & management:
• The chief executive of the Fenland District Council has shared his list of ‘top tips’ for transforming a council’s culture and performance. And from the same website, a senior manager’s checklist for joining up workforce strategies.
• A new group made up of academics and researchers from companies including IBM, Intel, Google and Microsoft, has been formed to research and build awareness of the world's greatest challenge to productivity: information overload
• A recent study on corporate social networks (i.e. online “communities”) called “The tribalization of business” shows that in spite of heavy investment in them by companies, user numbers may be mostly low. One commentator thinks they are a waste of time.
• The concept of a community of practice is now part of organisational development and knowledge management (KM). A commentator on KM suggests a low cost KM program using blogs, and he focuses “on the functionality that has been touted but rarely delivered by communities of practice.”
Education
• Will Knol eventually compete one day with Wikipedia? While Wikipedia has anonymity of the author at its heart, Google’s new Knol website lets people see who writes the articles and allows ranking of pages by popularity.
• A recent Science article “Electronic publishing and the narrowing of science and scholarship” suggests that having journals available online to researchers and scholars, rather than in print formats, “may accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas built upon”. (Ironically, the Libraries Digital Library no longer provides online access to current issues of Science journal – but Central still has the print edition…..)
• UK students sitting a chemistry exam made up of questions from the last 5 decades, performed better on more recent questions than on the oldest, and the average score was 25%
Environment & sustainability:
• A Forbes Special Report on water is available that covers issues like the fresh water shortage crisis, bottled vs tap water, water investments and a global water use map.
• Europe is seriously looking at the possibility of having clean electricity provided by giant solar farms in the Sahara Desert.
• Quality parks and green spaces in the UK are set to receive awards this week, with winners judged to be welcoming and well maintained with the support and involvement of the local community.
• The UK’s new Housing and Regeneration Bill is going through parliament, introducing new Community Land Trusts as another method to provide affordable housing.
• A UK council has re-introduced grazing to its urban parks after a 50-year absence, using rare breeds to improve the environment and provide community benefits.
• A controversial £500m plan to build thousands of homes may place Bath’s World Heritage site status under threat, with the local council also expressing concern.
Health & wellbeing:
• “Karoshi” or death from overwork is again being highlighted in Japan, where a Toyota employee who had been working more than 80 hours overtime a month died suddenly. Toyota is expected to soon overtake General Motors as the world’s biggest carmaker
Law & Government:
• The University of Michigan’s Urban Planning Program provides a “completely optional” urban planning summer reading list of books updated every year. Suggested titles range through classics of the 1960s to the latest publications.
People, culture & diversity:
• A British commentator has suggested that, to reduce knife crimes and create a sense of community in the city, perhaps a leaf should be taken out of the book of the ex-mayor of Bogota, Colombia.
• “Immigration and social cohesion in the UK: the rhythms and realities of everyday life” is a report drawing on material from 6 different UK sites. In another report from the same foundation, research looks at how organisations can “personalise” public services, rather than use 'one-size-fits-all' approaches: “Person-centred support: what service users and practitioners say”.
• The UK Audit Commission’s report “Don’t stop me now: preparing for an ageing population” has suggested that local councils do more to create an environment in which people thrive as they age, and avoid stereotyping of the aging.
• Multi-tasking, information overload and inattention – some believe that becoming distracted and unable to dedicate enough attention to things can be as dangerous as cigarette smoking. “Distracted : the erosion of attention and the coming Dark Age” is on order in Libraries.
Science, technology & transport:
• The University of Oxford’s e-Horizons project is “focused on critically assessing competing visions of the future of media, information and communication technologies and their societal implications”.
• According to a government report, the toxic nuclear site at Sellafield in the UK will not be safe for over 100 years.
• A new solar technology could be used to convert glass buildings into vast energy plants.
• The potential for using mobile phone technology in conservation and development areas of the world, is huge.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)