NSFGRANT2004
Folks:
WHY we blog
Did Bill Gates shake the blogosphere? Bill Gates told Warren Buffett about blogging on Thursday. Buffett, the legendary investor and moving force behind Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) (BRK.A), was in attendance at the eighth annual CEO summit put on by Microsoft (MSFT) in Redmond, Wash. Also on hand were Barry Diller of InteractiveCorp (IACI), Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com (AMZN) and Dell Inc.'s (DELL) Michael Dell. They all heard Gates describe blogs and RSS feeds as tools that "make it very easy to communicate" with customers, suppliers and employees. The result, according to New York public relations executive Steve Rubel, is likely to be a number of meetings of executives and their PR people and IT managers to explore this "blogging thing Bill Gates talked about." Rubel, of CooperKatz & Co., also wrote Friday morning, "The blogosphere changed. It feels very much like 1995 all over again." Gates' endorsement of blogging, Rubel said, is likely to lead to more businesses using it: "Bottom-up business communication will only gain steam here." But there's more to the story. Gates' comments were also "a veiled declaration of war on Six Apart, Userland, Google and anyone else who makes blogging tools." Rubel's blog is called MicroPersuasion. Microsoft has indeed been a booster of blogs. More than 700 employees publish the online diaries, often discussing projects and software in development. One of the more ambitious is Channel9, the work of five company employees who "want a new level of communication between Microsoft and developers." It includes descriptions of new technology, video interviews of Microsoft program managers and developers, and some gossip.
Hi Folks:
Something to ponder on leadership, "what it is and what it should be."
http://www.public-cio.com/story.print.php?id=90221
blogger
Bet,
Jim
GRANT Team:
Can't need much more data. Something to ponder not squander.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/050704/opi_20040507038.shtml
blogger
Best,
Jim
Take this job and ship it? Well, perhaps not just yet
Web-posted May 7, 2004
"The great sucking sound of jobs leaving the country" is a line made famous by Ross Perot when he argued in 1992 that Americans should oppose the North American Free Trade Agreement.
That "sound" is making a comeback in this presidential election.
The major difference is that those '90s jobs were the blue-collar factory variety being transferred to Mexico. But the years that followed were pretty strong economically and the concerns died down.
Things are different today. After years of economic doldrums and massive American layoffs, the issue again seems to resonate with voters.
What seems to offend people now is that the departing jobs are white-collar computer programming and engineering positions going to India, China and the Philippines.
Part of the objection is that these are the jobs we had in mind for our children when we sent them off to college.
And despite campaign rhetoric that this process can be stopped, it is unlikely anyone can even slow it down.
The world has become a much smaller place. Advances in telecommunications and the Internet have created a global workplace where almost any work done on a computer can be done anywhere on the planet.
American companies are testing the waters and seeing which work might be accomplished cheaper in poorer countries with educated workers. There are even terms for the process: Moving jobs abroad is called "offshoring." Moving jobs someplace close, such as Mexico, is called "nearshoring." Bringing foreign workers to America to do the work is called "inshoring." Mixing it all up by having a little of everything is called "rightshoring."
The last term is the most telling. What is likely to shake out from all this shipping of jobs is that some work will go overseas. But certainly not all of it. American companies will find that some work here is worth the extra wages because it just won't happen anywhere else.
The "great sucking sound" phrase is effective because the news of repeated layoffs seems so ominous. During these "Chicken Little" episodes we tend to overlook other news about record auto sales and record home sales. If all the jobs are leaving, who is buying all this stuff? Could it be that sending work abroad strengthens huge potential markets for American goods and services?
Today's concerns have a familiar ring. They are similar to those voiced when Japan's manufacturing successes threatened American jobs in the 1980s. At the time, news reports painted Japanese industry as faultless and relentless. We feared their industrial wealth would buy out America.
Since then we have seen that while the Japanese are good at making some things, they have their own economic problems - partially brought on by their economic isolationism. They have not brought America to its knees, nor do they wish to. Where else could they sell so many of their goods?
The same is true of China, India and the Philippines. These countries have a surplus of educated workers but not an unlimited supply. Most of their population is undereducated and lives in poverty. Most have no social safety nets and inadequate health care. Most have problems with graft, corruption and fickle governments.
They also have an appetite for things American.
THE DAILY OAKLAND PRESS
GOOD MORNING
Gas is still cheaper than some brands of bottled water.
GRANT Team:
More information regarding research data.
http://www.oakland.k12.mi.us/resources/cfe/leadership_summit/index.html
blogger
This is incredible!
Beth
[ Fri Apr 30, 10:10:42 AM | Beth Nuccio | edit ]
Thanks for the supporting articles. They have been very valuable.
Our meeting with Ken Rogers was very interesting today. We discussed the need for an educated workforce in Oakland County and shared with him some of the difficulties OSMTech Academy had with funding. Ken stated that Automation Alley was not a source of funds but he would do what he could to help us. As the conversation progressed he asked if we had contacted Oakland Schools and we then explained more of our situation. We shared that there was a restructuring plan for OSMTech that would make OSMTech available to all 28 districts that was turned down by OS. We discussed some of our thoughts and stated that the plan is being reviewed by the State Dept. of Education. Rogers wants to meet with Keane, Jacobs, Aukee and the 4 parents present today to further discuss the viability of funding OSMTech through Career Focused money. We are in the process of arranging that meeting for next Friday.
Rogers also asked us to draft a letter to demonstrate Automation Alley's support of OSMTech. Some thoughts:
Off the top of my head (DRAFT Material)
This may also serve as "draft material" for the NSF Grant 2004 executive summary and/or narrative.
Oakland County has a population of 1.3 million. The county's 930 square-mile area includes the major urban area of Pontiac, with the rest split between suburban and rural areas.
Oakland County is home to many Fortune 500 Companies, and their requisite World Headquarters. This convergence of technological superiority is evidenced by "Automation Alley" a high-technology consortium envisioned by Oakland County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson, to showcase Oakland County as a catalyst for 21st Century Technological Innovation. More recently, Governor Granholm having recognized the disparity between our traditional manufacturing based Michigan economy and the need to prepare and address the future knowledge based information age gives testament to former Governor John Englers mandate for Michigan to become the Science & Technology State.
Oakland County, and its educational institutions must support and expand on numerous digital convergence strategic initiatives to achieve the continued dominance and expansion in an ever-expanding, fiercely competitive, global economy. Education must facilitate this transition from an industrial age superpower to a digital knowledge based information age juggernaut. This is our challenge. We must make it our nations educational mandate.
To that end Automation Alley finds itself in support of the OSMTech Academy educational approach currently housed at the Oakland Schools Technology Center / Northwest as a prime example of how traditional K-12 education must transform and align itself if we are to deliver students into the world of work rigorously academically prepared and technologically proficient. OSMTech could serve as a national model for the transformation and alignment of K-12 education and as so may find additional funding through the National Science Foundation (NSF).
OSMTech delivers a proven program that emphasizes how scientific and technological developments are achieved through the integration and application of science, math and technology as well as through research, innovation and cooperative outreach efforts.
OSMTech has the unique ability and a successful track record of delivering advanced technological methodologies to its students.
Recent research suggests that the United States has started to lose its worldwide dominance in critical areas of science and innovation, according to federal and private experts.
Foreign advances in basic science now often rival or even exceed America's, apparently with little public awareness of the trend or its implications for jobs, industry, national security or the vigor of the nation's intellectual and cultural life.
"The rest of the world is catching up," said John E. Jankowski, a senior analyst at the National Science Foundation, the federal agency that tracks science trends. "Science excellence is no longer the domain of just the U.S."
"We are in a new world, and it's increasingly going to be dominated by countries other than the United States," Denis Simon, dean of management and technology at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, recently said at a scientific meeting in Washington.
Europe and Asia are ascendant, analysts say, even if their achievements go unnoticed in the United States. Science analysts say Asia's push for excellence promises to be even more challenging.
"It's unbelievable," Diana Hicks, chairwoman of the school of public policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said of Asia's growth in science and technical innovation. "It's amazing to see these output numbers of papers and patents going up so fast."
"It's all in the ebb and flow of globalization," said Jack Fritz, a senior officer at the National Academy of Engineering, an advisory body to the federal government. He called the declines "the next big thing we will have to adjust to."
The adjustment we are advocating speaks to the challenge of regaining the nations global competitive scientific and technological advantage vs. merely becoming complacent and accepting of the current status-quo. We must move to educational excellence or continue to drift downward and become a true 2nd rate global competitor. This is our mutual challenge and it is no small task.
The rapidly changing American status has not gone unnoticed by politicians, with Democrats on the attack and the White House on the defensive.
Thoughts and suggestions, much appreciated!
Beth
GRANT Team:
The following is a "little bit" of research with HUGE implications regarding our nations competitive future and offers some underlying elemental substaniation for this K-12 education initiative.
U.S Losing Dominnance in Scientific Innovation
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/science/03RESE.html?hp
blogger
Best,
Jim
GRANT Team:
From the OSMTech blog-site. Progress is being made. Comments please.
Best,
Jim
[ Fri Apr 30, 10:10:42 AM | Beth Nuccio | edit ]
Thanks for the supporting articles. They have been very valuable.
Our meeting with Ken Rogers was very interesting today. We discussed the need for an educated workforce in Oakland County and shared with him some of the difficulties OSMTech Academy had with funding. Ken stated that Automation Alley was not a source of funds but he would do what he could to help us. As the converstation progressed he asked if we had contacted Oakland Schools and we then explained more of our situation. We shared that there was a restructuring plan for OSMTech that would make OSMTech available to all 28 districts that was turned down by OS. We discussed some of our thoughts and stated that the plan is being reviewed by the State Dept. of Education. Rogers wants to meet with Keane, Jacobs, Aukee and the 4 parents present today to further discuss the viability of funding OSMTech through Career Focused money. We are in the process of arranging that meeting for next Friday.
Rogers also asked us to draft a letter to demonstrate Automation Alley's support of OSMTech. Some thoughts:
OSMTech delivers a proven program that emphasizes how sceintific and technological developments are achieved through the integration and application of science, math and technology as well as through research, innovation and cooperative efforts.
OSMTech has a unique ability to deliver technology to students
Time tested, proven model
Thoughts and suggestions, much appreciated!
Beth
