A full month? October, 2009

A practical impossibility

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

If you follow my blog, you know that, beside the rumors, I surrendered to the idea that, without Dutch, I would never be able to do here what I did since 1990 (project and change management).

But this is not the practical impossibility I am referring to in the title.

On my personal Facebook profile, I started a small count-down, as since I passed an A2 exam in Dutch in June 2009, I was looking for any position that could use as much as possible of my experience and skills (or add new ones, if needed), while completing my language skills (local and not).

The tool? Studying more formally for the exam was a first step- you can get individual language training (up to 60 hours) if you get at least A2.

This article is 750 words, but divided in sections (150 words each; excluding the index).

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

Beyond microfinancing: the vision

Monday, October 26th, 2009

If you pick up any newspaper or magazine covering economic issues, every month you will find articles about microfinancing.

The idea of microfinancing expand globalization benefits available to developing countries, by changing the way funding is accessible.

Figures do not lie. And the picture that is projected, despite the 2006 Nobel peace prize to the Grameen Bank founder, is closer to the old way of managing financial relationships with developing countries, creating what was described already in 1990 in a Museum in Germany as the “spiral of debt”.

The idea? Merging microfinancing and charity to deliver self-sustaining development.

This article is the sequel of the “Beyond Microfinancing” article, published on 2009-10-12.

Focus: an action plan for ethical micro-financing.

(1000 words)

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

AGB2009: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

This part of the AGB2009 series (see the presentation)
AGB2009: QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES

BACKGROUND

Look around: you will see an increasing role in our complex society for various forms of “oversight”, “audit”, “watchdog”, “rating” entities.

ABSTRACT

The first issue is certainly related to authority and initiation.

If, by consensus, established authorities set up a watchdog, the line of authority is clearly inherited from the source, and the initiation contains also the framework for the potential evolution (or dissolution) of the new watchdog.

But what about some of the pre- and post-Internet self-appointed watchdogs?

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

AGB2009: the future of IT

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

This part of the AGB2009 series (see the presentation)
AGB2009: THE FUTURE OF IT

BACKGROUND

It has been a long time since IBM supposedly said that few computers would be enough to forever satisfy all the computing needs of humanity.

Do not worry: this is not a technical article.

ABSTRACT

My suggestion? Well, I still hold an Italian passport.

Therefore, I suggested an idea inspired by another industry: segmenting the market by building standardized elements, and then offering different levels of “tailoring”, but with an option to then re-insert, after sometime, the custom-designed services into the basic portfolio.

But, in my view, the issue is becoming even more nuanced. And more complex. And still actual.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

Taxing the digital economy:blueprint for a virtual nation?

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

This short article (1000 words) tries to see some potential side-effects of the digital economy

Certainly, I am neither the first nor the last.

But it is a little bit disheartening to see how the discussions proceed as if reality had been frozen when the discussions began.

Probably SecondLife was the first case where a real-world entity had to sustain a virtual world currency to avoid a crisis of confidence.

And who should regulate these neo-financial virtual entities?

A short article.

As usual, with more questions than answers.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

Broadband- universal access: push or pull?

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

This short article (1000 words) has just a purpose: try to see beyond broadband.

It is quite interesting to read every few days articles repeating yesterday’s news, trying to foster a change to generate the news of tomorrow.

What I am referring to? Well, considering the title… Finland’s choice to have universal broadband access by 2015.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

AGB2009: technological disintermediation

Monday, October 19th, 2009

This part of the AGB2009 series (see the presentation)
AGB2009: technological disintermediation

BACKGROUND

Technology and tecnological innovation are not anymore what they used to be.

ABSTRACT

Most of the publications on the “new” or “soft” economy talk only about the positive side-effects of this “crowdsourcing” of innovation, but..

In the past, user-generated innovations required skills, or money, or both, e.g. in “tuning” the engine of you car.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For this article, not really a bibliography, but a “mini-library”.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

AGB2009: a creative workplace

Friday, October 16th, 2009

This part of the AGB2009 series (see the presentation)
AGB2009: a creative workplace

BACKGROUND

Over the last few decades, creativity, or its development, became an industry in itself.

ABSTRACT

I have a systemic (or “holistic”, if you prefer) approach to change: no initiative lives in a vacuum, and is constrained by time and environment.

The starting point has therefore often to be the end: in our case, why do you want to introduce creativity in the workplace.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

"Ondernemen in Vlaanderen" and educational systems

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

I attended today a conference in Gent, “Ondernemen in Vlaanderen”

Earlier today I twittered: “In Dutch now, but why the talks about talent come always to the same diagnosis?”.

This short article (800 words) is to share some considerations from few conferences that I followed today.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati

Beyond microfinancing

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Beyond Microfinancing

If you pick up any newspaper or magazine covering economic issues, every month you will find articles about microfinancing.

The idea of microfinancing expand globalization benefits available to developing countries, by changing the way funding is accessible.

Figures do not lie. And the picture that is projected, despite the 2006 Nobel peace prize to the Grameen Bank founder, is closer to the old way of managing financial relationships with developing countries, creating what was described already in 1990 in a Museum in Germany as the “spiral of debt”.

The idea? Merging microfinancing and charity to deliver self-sustaining development.

(2000 words)

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • Technorati