Business & management:
• Commercial-scale plastic electronics factories are now a reality. Plastic Logic is using its plant to produce an e-reader with a plastic electronic display, while its competitor Polymer Vision is also producing an e-reader, with a display that folds over to make the reader pocket-sized when shut.
• A new series of occasional papers has been released by the Ministry of Economic Development, among them: “Labour productivity in Auckland firms”.
Education
• Well over 50% of parents in a survey by the UK government’s education technology agency, have said that they want schools to use texting and emails to keep them more informed on how their children are performing.
• A list of free e-learning resources (such as diagramming software, mind mapping, digital publishing, etc) is available on a website put together by a UK learning technologist.
Environment & sustainability:
• There is greater interest in households making use of grey water, but safe and hygienic use is not as straightforward as people think.
• A study was submitted to the Swedish Environment Advisory Council last year: “A study on gender equality as a prerequisite for sustainable development: what we know about the extent to which women globally live in a more sustainable way than men, leave a smaller ecological footprint and cause less climate change.” While gender issues in sustainability may have the greatest impact in developing nations, equity in sustainability is an issue for everyone.
• E-Day will be happening again this year on the 4th of October at over 30 sites around NZ, as an environmentally friendly way of disposing of mobile phones and computers no longer wanted.
• A pilot project in the UK to collect household food waste separately and divert it for composting, has been hailed as a success, with 19 English local authorities experimenting with ways of collecting the food waste.
Health & wellbeing:
• The UK Dept of Health has identified 9 personality types of heavy drinkers who are at risk of liver damage and other alcohol-related illnesses.
Law & Government:
• England and Wales are the only places in Europe where there are no legally binding minimum space standards for housing, and to fight the “rabbit hutch” phenomenon, the Lord Mayor of London will be reintroducing minimum space standards on all publicly-funded housing in the capital. (During the 2007 consultation on the NZ Building Code Review, minimum space standards were discussed.)
• The number of people over the age of 100 in Japan has risen past 36 000, (up 4 000 in a year), increasing cause for concern about funding the country’s pension system.
• An official sharia law court already operates in Leicestershire, as do Jewish Beth Din courts elsewhere in the UK, but there has been much discussion this week about the news that the UK government has sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.
• A university professor of community cohesion provides a brief comparison of the difference between the UK & the US approach to housing supply and policies.
• A secret Welsh eco-village only discovered in 1998 during an aerial survey of a national park, will be allowed to remain, after a 10 year planning dispute.
People, culture & diversity:
• British researchers analysing a survey of cynicism in the UK, believe that the increasing level of cynicism about politics and society in general, could have an impact on democracy and the cohesiveness of society.
• The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a study about the role community groups can take in tackling poverty in their neighbourhood.
• The Pew Survey of Global Attitudes has released the report: “Unfavorable views of Jews and Muslims on the increase in Europe”. This particular survey covers 24 countries around the world (Australia, Indonesia & Japan, USA, Mexico & Argentina were the only Pacific nations surveyed), and includes Muslim attitudes on extremism, other countries and gender issues. The survey document provides detailed data on the questions asked.
• Another Pew study has found that virtually all American teenagers play electronic games of some sort, and that game playing is social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time and can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life.
• The Children and Young People: Indicators of Wellbeing in New Zealand 2008 report has been released by the Ministry of Social Development.
Science, technology & transport:
• Following on from testing on French roads, Toyota and a French energy company have launched a year of testing a plug-in Prius hybrid in the UK.
• Oxford’s Said Business School has released the results of the world Broadband Quality Score study that shows that Japan is the only country with the broadband quality to cope with next-generation internet applications.
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee has expressed concern about the way the Internet is being used to spread disinformation. He is co-creator of the World Wide Web Foundation, which aims to make the web truly worldwide, and will look at ways to help people decide if websites are trustworthy and reliable sources of information.
• From the Google Blog: “The future of search” – what is going to happen to Internet searching in the next 10 years? A number of experts were asked and their responses will be added to the Google Blog during September.,
• The National Freight Demands Study has been released by the Ministry of Transport, and covers volumes, distribution, trends and flows.
• NZ will be one of the first countries to see the new Mitsubishi electric vehicle next year, with Mitsubishi working with Meridian Energy.
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Thursday, 11 September 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 11/09):
Business & management:
• The Human Rights Commission guide “Valuing Experience: a practical guide to recruiting and retaining older workers” is now available.
• The World Bank’s Doing Business 2009 Report is the 5th since 2004, with the top 3 countries being Singapore, NZ and the US.
• A new guide is available, produced by the Accident Compensation Council, the Alcohol Advisory Council of NZ and the NZ Drug Foundation: “Alcohol and other drugs in the workplace - employer guide”.
• Web 2.0 is challenging the old management model of command and control – while businesses are not democracies, but the social aspects of Web 2.0 technologies can support the making of better, more informed decisions.
• The global networking company Cisco has launched Cisco Virtual Office, a tool that encourages remote working, thus saving on the business and environmental costs of office space.
Education
• An assistant professor in educational communication and technology in the US, has written a paper showing how online gaming may be fostering the “scientific habit of mind” in teenagers, i.e. their ability to reason scientifically when faced with a problem.
• The report “Education at a glance 2008: OECD indicators” shows that while OECD countries overall are investing more in education, “in several countries increases in spending have been insufficient to match rapidly rising student numbers”. An interesting figure for NZ is “an 8‐fold increase in foreign student numbers”.
Environment & sustainability:
• The chief of the UN’s meteorological agency has called for weather forecasters to play a greater role in planning for economic development and poverty reduction because of the impact climate change has on water resources.
• The UNEP has joined with Google Earth to provide people with a way to visit environmental hot spots, and see “before and after” images of the changing environment.
• A Japanese property development company is going to sell houses with outdoor parking spaces equipped with power outlets for charging electric vehicles.
Health & wellbeing:
• The UN Secretary-General has called for urgent action to promote literacy around the world, noting the implications of not being able to read on human health and efforts to access vital prevention, treatment and support services.
• Particulate air pollution is already known to increase the risk of heart attack, but researchers have discovered that the air pollution from traffic may also affect the electrical signals in the heart.
Law & Government:
• A new points-based immigration system in the UK will cut the number of non-EU migrants who will be able to be recruited for work in the UK. Shearers and ballet dancers will have a better chance of getting in under the new system, than doctors and most types of nurses.
• People sending anonymous text messages may think that they can’t be identified, but a recent case in the UK shows that forensic linguists can prove that text messaging is individual to each author, and can use this to solve crimes.
People, culture & diversity:
• Well meant plans to develop and regenerate ailing communities can go disastrously wrong. A new UK report calls for a change to the way social fragmentation and the isolation of poorer communities is tackled. (“Sustainable paths to community development” is being ordered by LOGIS.)
• The Wellbeing Project in the UK has published another report via the Young Foundation (note a previous report in the 12th June LOGIS updates posting) on methods to measure wellbeing at a local level: “Local wellbeing: can we measure it?”
• UNESCO is putting pressure on the UK to provide better protection for 7 world heritage sites that it considers are in danger from building developments.
• A researcher commissioned to look at the impact of technology on how connected people are (to one another) says that the conventional notion of 6 degrees of separation is out of date, and that the average person nowadays is connected by just 3 degrees.
• UNESCO has announced that it will be supporting Egypt in its intention to build a partially underwater museum in the Bay of Alexandria in the area of Cleopatra’s palace.
Science, technology & transport:
• The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest broadband market, but the UN’s Telecommunication/Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Indicators Report for the region shows that poor countries continue to have limited and predominantly low speed access to the Internet.
• Concern has been raised by the Fire Protection Association at the Fire NZ conference, about the effectiveness of passive fire protection in buildings in NZ, especially multi-storey buildings.
• E-ink didn’t take off as fast as people thought it might, but the October issue of Esquire magazine has just published a flexible animated cover using E-ink technology.
• A speaker at a UK conference sees “geo-tagging” as a way to move the web away from being tied to our computers and taking it out to GPS-enabled phones or other mobile devices. The challenge is still to get all the geographically specific information gathered and then shared or relayed.
• California researchers are testing a self-steering bus that follows magnetic strips embedded in the road, hoping to increase efficiency and cut the cost of rapid transit systems.
• India has gone into production with the world’s first commercially produced compressed air powered vehicle – but what’s greener: air cars, electric cars or hybrids?
• From this week, anyone in the UK sitting their driving test will be assessed on their ability to drive or ride in a way that shows eco-safe driving techniques.
• The Human Rights Commission guide “Valuing Experience: a practical guide to recruiting and retaining older workers” is now available.
• The World Bank’s Doing Business 2009 Report is the 5th since 2004, with the top 3 countries being Singapore, NZ and the US.
• A new guide is available, produced by the Accident Compensation Council, the Alcohol Advisory Council of NZ and the NZ Drug Foundation: “Alcohol and other drugs in the workplace - employer guide”.
• Web 2.0 is challenging the old management model of command and control – while businesses are not democracies, but the social aspects of Web 2.0 technologies can support the making of better, more informed decisions.
• The global networking company Cisco has launched Cisco Virtual Office, a tool that encourages remote working, thus saving on the business and environmental costs of office space.
Education
• An assistant professor in educational communication and technology in the US, has written a paper showing how online gaming may be fostering the “scientific habit of mind” in teenagers, i.e. their ability to reason scientifically when faced with a problem.
• The report “Education at a glance 2008: OECD indicators” shows that while OECD countries overall are investing more in education, “in several countries increases in spending have been insufficient to match rapidly rising student numbers”. An interesting figure for NZ is “an 8‐fold increase in foreign student numbers”.
Environment & sustainability:
• The chief of the UN’s meteorological agency has called for weather forecasters to play a greater role in planning for economic development and poverty reduction because of the impact climate change has on water resources.
• The UNEP has joined with Google Earth to provide people with a way to visit environmental hot spots, and see “before and after” images of the changing environment.
• A Japanese property development company is going to sell houses with outdoor parking spaces equipped with power outlets for charging electric vehicles.
Health & wellbeing:
• The UN Secretary-General has called for urgent action to promote literacy around the world, noting the implications of not being able to read on human health and efforts to access vital prevention, treatment and support services.
• Particulate air pollution is already known to increase the risk of heart attack, but researchers have discovered that the air pollution from traffic may also affect the electrical signals in the heart.
Law & Government:
• A new points-based immigration system in the UK will cut the number of non-EU migrants who will be able to be recruited for work in the UK. Shearers and ballet dancers will have a better chance of getting in under the new system, than doctors and most types of nurses.
• People sending anonymous text messages may think that they can’t be identified, but a recent case in the UK shows that forensic linguists can prove that text messaging is individual to each author, and can use this to solve crimes.
People, culture & diversity:
• Well meant plans to develop and regenerate ailing communities can go disastrously wrong. A new UK report calls for a change to the way social fragmentation and the isolation of poorer communities is tackled. (“Sustainable paths to community development” is being ordered by LOGIS.)
• The Wellbeing Project in the UK has published another report via the Young Foundation (note a previous report in the 12th June LOGIS updates posting) on methods to measure wellbeing at a local level: “Local wellbeing: can we measure it?”
• UNESCO is putting pressure on the UK to provide better protection for 7 world heritage sites that it considers are in danger from building developments.
• A researcher commissioned to look at the impact of technology on how connected people are (to one another) says that the conventional notion of 6 degrees of separation is out of date, and that the average person nowadays is connected by just 3 degrees.
• UNESCO has announced that it will be supporting Egypt in its intention to build a partially underwater museum in the Bay of Alexandria in the area of Cleopatra’s palace.
Science, technology & transport:
• The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest broadband market, but the UN’s Telecommunication/Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Indicators Report for the region shows that poor countries continue to have limited and predominantly low speed access to the Internet.
• Concern has been raised by the Fire Protection Association at the Fire NZ conference, about the effectiveness of passive fire protection in buildings in NZ, especially multi-storey buildings.
• E-ink didn’t take off as fast as people thought it might, but the October issue of Esquire magazine has just published a flexible animated cover using E-ink technology.
• A speaker at a UK conference sees “geo-tagging” as a way to move the web away from being tied to our computers and taking it out to GPS-enabled phones or other mobile devices. The challenge is still to get all the geographically specific information gathered and then shared or relayed.
• California researchers are testing a self-steering bus that follows magnetic strips embedded in the road, hoping to increase efficiency and cut the cost of rapid transit systems.
• India has gone into production with the world’s first commercially produced compressed air powered vehicle – but what’s greener: air cars, electric cars or hybrids?
• From this week, anyone in the UK sitting their driving test will be assessed on their ability to drive or ride in a way that shows eco-safe driving techniques.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 04/09):
Business & management:
• Ernst and Young LLP have produced a report on the privacy and security risks involved in telecommuting.
• Every year the construction and demolition industries dispose of tonnes of waste, much of it recyclable. “Deconstruction” takes buildings apart piece by piece to allow for better reuse or recycling.
• There are differences between Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 – giving people Web 2.0 tools and hoping that there will be good adoption inside an organisation probably won’t work – the value of the tools needs to be sold. Getting the right social tools for Enterprise 2.0 is important and there are 4 components that will dictate how well they work in an organisation.
Education
• In November, there will be a 5-day free online conference: “Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations 2008”. For information about how to attend and take part, check the conference wiki and blog.
• The argument about digital textbooks goes on – now a report by a student group in the US, says that the digital editions of textbooks don’t have the features that students want.
Environment & sustainability:
• The US, Australia and Iceland have formed the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology, to “aggressively foster and promote cutting edge geothermal technologies to promote energy security and address global climate change”.
• London’s mayor has launched its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy proposing the greening of the city to help deal with increased risk of floods, droughts and heat waves.
• This year’s Global Corruption Report is the first to assess how corruption affects the water sector worldwide.
• NIWA has developed a new web tool called Coastal Explorer to provide information about NZ’s shoreline and beaches, such as geology, topography, tides, sediment, etc.
• The Dept of Internal Affairs launched the discussion document “Building sustainable communities: designing a place-based approach to sustainable urban development in New Zealand”.
Health & wellbeing:
• Recent research by the Internet Watch Foundation has shown that paedophiles using the Internet to view images, are rarely, “just looking”.
• The World Health Organisation’s report: “Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health” has raised the issue that inequities in health are killing people and resulting in lower life expectancies.
• Massey University researchers have discovered that not only do children who live on farms have fewer incidences of asthma, allergies and eczema, but that pre-natal exposure also helps raise the protection.
•A trial using a virtual reality treadmill to help people walk again after illnesses such as stroke, “tricks” the brain into walking with better balance and more distance, improving recovery.
Law & Government:
• A US article “Improving technology utilization in electronic government around the world, 2008” shows that countries vary greatly in e-government and there has been a strong rise in the number of governments offering services fully available online. However, only 14% offer the ability to personalize government websites, and only 3% offer PDA access.
• “Should planners start playing computer games? Arguments from Simcity and
Second Life” is a free article from the journal “Planning theory and practice”. (This is a journal available via the Digital Library, but embargoed by the publisher for 1 year. Publishers often make occasional articles freely available on their websites as “tempters”.)
• Ongoing research into the Gender Equality Duty in the UK, has shown that in terms of gender and planning many people - usually women - are being left at a disadvantage because the layout of their local community takes no account of the different ways in which women use public space compared with men.
People, culture & diversity:
• While libraries in the US are thriving in the digital age, many libraries face cut backs in budget, reduced hours or closure.
• The International journal of heritage studies is a journal for scholars and practitioners from many disciplines with a common involvement in the heritage. Although the journal is available to council staff on the Libraries Digital Library databases in full text, it is embargoed by the publisher for 1 year. For that reason, LOGIS has purchased a print subscription to the journal that will be starting this year. If you are interested in being on the distribution list for the journal, please let the LOGIS Librarian know.
• The UK Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a viewpoint report on museums: “Can museums be a potent force in social and urban regeneration?”
• Computer scientists at the University of Washington are working on a way to make it possible for the deaf to use sign language via cell phones.
• UNESCO has announced that Melbourne is the 12th member of the Creative Cities Network, founded in 2004.
Science, technology & transport:
• Israel is backing an ambitious programme to change the way vehicles are powered, and will be a “guinea-pig” country to test the system’s ability to make the country completely independent of oil to run vehicles.
• The California Senate has approved an urban sprawl bill that ties billions of dollars of state and federal transportation funding to compliance with efforts to reduce sprawl, and by extension, commutes.
• The president of the British Cartographic Society is concerned that maps provided online such as those from Google and Multimap are leaving out the rich geography and history of Britain.
• A German power station is the first coal-fired plant in the world ready to capture and store its own CO2 emissions.
• Google has launched a beta version of an open source web browser called Chrome, to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• Land Transport New Zealand’s “Pedestrian planning and design guide” outlines a process for deciding on the type of provision that should be made for pedestrians and provides design advice and standards. • Stephen Downes has written his take on 10 future trends on or a
• Ernst and Young LLP have produced a report on the privacy and security risks involved in telecommuting.
• Every year the construction and demolition industries dispose of tonnes of waste, much of it recyclable. “Deconstruction” takes buildings apart piece by piece to allow for better reuse or recycling.
• There are differences between Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 – giving people Web 2.0 tools and hoping that there will be good adoption inside an organisation probably won’t work – the value of the tools needs to be sold. Getting the right social tools for Enterprise 2.0 is important and there are 4 components that will dictate how well they work in an organisation.
Education
• In November, there will be a 5-day free online conference: “Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations 2008”. For information about how to attend and take part, check the conference wiki and blog.
• The argument about digital textbooks goes on – now a report by a student group in the US, says that the digital editions of textbooks don’t have the features that students want.
Environment & sustainability:
• The US, Australia and Iceland have formed the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology, to “aggressively foster and promote cutting edge geothermal technologies to promote energy security and address global climate change”.
• London’s mayor has launched its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy proposing the greening of the city to help deal with increased risk of floods, droughts and heat waves.
• This year’s Global Corruption Report is the first to assess how corruption affects the water sector worldwide.
• NIWA has developed a new web tool called Coastal Explorer to provide information about NZ’s shoreline and beaches, such as geology, topography, tides, sediment, etc.
• The Dept of Internal Affairs launched the discussion document “Building sustainable communities: designing a place-based approach to sustainable urban development in New Zealand”.
Health & wellbeing:
• Recent research by the Internet Watch Foundation has shown that paedophiles using the Internet to view images, are rarely, “just looking”.
• The World Health Organisation’s report: “Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health” has raised the issue that inequities in health are killing people and resulting in lower life expectancies.
• Massey University researchers have discovered that not only do children who live on farms have fewer incidences of asthma, allergies and eczema, but that pre-natal exposure also helps raise the protection.
•A trial using a virtual reality treadmill to help people walk again after illnesses such as stroke, “tricks” the brain into walking with better balance and more distance, improving recovery.
Law & Government:
• A US article “Improving technology utilization in electronic government around the world, 2008” shows that countries vary greatly in e-government and there has been a strong rise in the number of governments offering services fully available online. However, only 14% offer the ability to personalize government websites, and only 3% offer PDA access.
• “Should planners start playing computer games? Arguments from Simcity and
Second Life” is a free article from the journal “Planning theory and practice”. (This is a journal available via the Digital Library, but embargoed by the publisher for 1 year. Publishers often make occasional articles freely available on their websites as “tempters”.)
• Ongoing research into the Gender Equality Duty in the UK, has shown that in terms of gender and planning many people - usually women - are being left at a disadvantage because the layout of their local community takes no account of the different ways in which women use public space compared with men.
People, culture & diversity:
• While libraries in the US are thriving in the digital age, many libraries face cut backs in budget, reduced hours or closure.
• The International journal of heritage studies is a journal for scholars and practitioners from many disciplines with a common involvement in the heritage. Although the journal is available to council staff on the Libraries Digital Library databases in full text, it is embargoed by the publisher for 1 year. For that reason, LOGIS has purchased a print subscription to the journal that will be starting this year. If you are interested in being on the distribution list for the journal, please let the LOGIS Librarian know.
• The UK Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a viewpoint report on museums: “Can museums be a potent force in social and urban regeneration?”
• Computer scientists at the University of Washington are working on a way to make it possible for the deaf to use sign language via cell phones.
• UNESCO has announced that Melbourne is the 12th member of the Creative Cities Network, founded in 2004.
Science, technology & transport:
• Israel is backing an ambitious programme to change the way vehicles are powered, and will be a “guinea-pig” country to test the system’s ability to make the country completely independent of oil to run vehicles.
• The California Senate has approved an urban sprawl bill that ties billions of dollars of state and federal transportation funding to compliance with efforts to reduce sprawl, and by extension, commutes.
• The president of the British Cartographic Society is concerned that maps provided online such as those from Google and Multimap are leaving out the rich geography and history of Britain.
• A German power station is the first coal-fired plant in the world ready to capture and store its own CO2 emissions.
• Google has launched a beta version of an open source web browser called Chrome, to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• Land Transport New Zealand’s “Pedestrian planning and design guide” outlines a process for deciding on the type of provision that should be made for pedestrians and provides design advice and standards. • Stephen Downes has written his take on 10 future trends on or a
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