For the students in the Energex MBA program, first of all I'd like to thank you for bearing with me for the 6 hours of classes today and to congratulate you on your decision to look me up online ;-)
If you're looking for the Exam revision slides, I believe I have uploaded them to the correct spot, but if I haven't please click here or here to see if you can access them. Finally, feel free to add comments to this post or contact me directly, to discuss any queries you have with the content or exam preparation.
And for those not enrolled in an MBA program at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business, I'm afraid you get access to nothing. Get yourself into gear and enrol if you want content. :-)
It was always going to happen.
Datacasting has been so restricted in so many jurisdictions that it has ended up a dismal failure in the digital television market. And takeup of high resolution sets has been similarly disappointing. Of course, there were those of us who were saying this 4 years ago, but no-one was prepared to listen.
And now, Japanese TV manufacturers are getting together to make an internet standard for digital televisions (thanks to Slashdot for this article). So where datacasting failed, internet may well prove to be the killer application of the DTV set. How ironic. The technology that drove DTV standards is now integrating with it. I guess this is proof of the old adage - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
The Australian Stock Exchange will release tomorrow its guidelines for Corporate Governance for Australian businesses and Channel 9's Business Sunday program interviewed Richard Humphrey on the subject this morning. I am interested in corporate governance not just because I'm presently Subject Area Coordinator for the area at the Brisbane Graduate School of Business, but also because the movement towards open governance is closely aligned with my own research on policy and practice. In this exceedingly market-driven business culture, the sense (and definition) of 'accountability' has shifted almost entirely away from the provision of service and being answerable to governing bodies, other businesses and the public at large, towards a definition which has more to do with profit and accumulation of power. I'm looking forward to seeing these guidelines tomorrow. I hope the sense of a (Habermasian) 'public interest'[1.] is returning to the business sector.
[1.] And no, 'public nterest' isn't what is popular. It emerges from what Habermas described as a 'public sphere'; a collection of services and actions performed for the greater good of the community.
Yoga was wonderful today. I was very tight across the shoulders after a very heavy week's work so my instructor had me doing low impact work, and when we finished the session she gave me a healing session, concentrating on my neck. Then afterward, we had coffee on Southbank and returned to the instructor's place where another yoga student who is training in massage gave me a full back massage for 30 minutes. Wonderful! I highly recommend this as a method of relaxing at the end of a tough week!
... And another session on educational technologies and assessment techniques. Good day, but very tired now. Long week.
Thankyou to those people who participated in the Institute of Public Administration Workshop on E-Writing and Editing today. You were a very welcoming crowd and were patient with the manner in which I approached the content of the workshop. Hope it was useful for you.
As promised, here are the Powerpoint slides used throughout the day. The ZDNet IT radar (visual communication) example is available here.
Please feel free to make comments and ask questions through this blog, or to me personally by emailing me at joanne@joannejacobs.net.
Just did a radio interview for ABC Gold Coast radio on technologies and the war and focussed somewhat on the so-called Iraqi blogger, Salam Pax, who keeps dear_raed.blogspot.com. There's no doubt that there is extraordinary power in war blogs, particularly as mainstream media are reducing coverage of the war in favour of 'regular programming'. It seems that while everyone likes watching a winner, as the war images are becoming more ugly, people are turning off. And so for those of us who want coverage of the war - not just mainstream media, but editorialised, and personalised accounts of war - the internet in general, and blogs in particular, are filling that void of information. But best of all, blogs are not subject to the media blankets that regulate our consumption of war information. It is possible through blogs to receive information characterised by Salam's account of the situation in Baghdad; unadulterated, 'real' and often personalised perspectives on regulated and official miltiary action. As I discuss in my blogging paper, blogs satisfy the search for the underlying reality in a world full of (commercial, government and media) representation.
1. Final bit of the blogging paper up here.
2. If 25 people in a class of 28 understand an English expression one way and 3 people understand it another way, does that mean majority rules?
3. The war has fallen away to an occasional post in among local news in news sites everywhere. Interesting huh?
4. Market research is the study of my Internet marketing class tonight. I love this topic. Actually I guess I have to say I love this subject. It's so cool to spend time discussing the influence of new media on industries and to show the consistencies and inconsistencies of virtual spaces on dominant marketing theory.
5. I love getting a lift home from work after teaching till 9pm.
6. I have had more professional work photos taken to somehow identify me as my existing photo (taken only 12 months previously) makes me virtually unrecognisable. The fact that I am now blonde with shoulder-length hair could be the problem.
7. I really should get my hair done next week.
8. There's more but it's all equally disjointed and I'd prefer to go eat dinner.
The third and penultimate section of my blogging paper is now online. The last section will be up later today. All comments appreciated.
I'm betting the Academy Award acceptance speech for documentary film-maker, Michael Moore, is probably going to be the most replayed aspect of the Oscars. :-)
In spite of the pain from an inflamed shoulder and neck last night, I was able to lie back on a hot water bottle and at least listen in to the final of the Cricket World Cup and celebrated the great Aussie victory. Well done lads!
On the latest war news, I am interested to note how the responses of pro-war 4BC listeners are changing in light of the footage of dead Americans on Iraqi television and the increasing death toll from the activities in the region. People who were formerly decrying we anti-war thinkers are beginning to wonder if the conflict is worth all these deaths. The trouble with the representation of anti-war sentiment is that there is always the sense that it is unpatriotic to be against war. A dear friend of mine pointed me to an article in The Age newspaper yesterday which is a much clearer explanation of my own anti-war leanings, than that which has been promoted in peace demonstrations across the globe. And I think this response is slowly permeating even the 4BC pro-war sectors.
I've just been watching Sky News footage of the battle going on in Umm Qasr. It's beyond description. Silence, punctuated by the battering of tanks and rifle fire from a building at the Port, with the odd comment from journalists and soldiers barking instructions.
And you know what? It's tedious. Smoke, lack of information and general confusion make it unlike any other footage of edited highlights. This is just fundamentally boring, except for the extraordinary fact that this is live footage of human beings fighting a real war. Noone knows what is going on - not even the soldiers, who with practised precision, make their reports and finish speaking to the journalist crouched beside them with the standard message, "Over". The tanks edge forwards and backwards, trying to peer through thick palls of smoke, and target the source of the gunfire. Sharp shooters from the allied forces lie prostrate on the ground, peering through the sight of their heavy weaponry, far too far away to be useful in this action. Occasionally they glance back at the journalists who are perched on some discarded stairwell or wall, and all present are seemingly bemused about the action.
Why are the forces at Umm Qasr fighting back? They are clearly outnumbered. Or are they? Who knows? Nobody. It's all so senseless. And all so bizarre.
I've had the television on all day with the news on the war. I'm drawn to it, and yet repulsed at the same time. I support the soldiers out there, but am fiercely against the war. And the news is making me sick. The battery over Iraq is my idea of hell. And the loss of life before my eyes is bringing up the sense of outrage and loss I had after September 11. Only difference is that on that night I had someone with me to get through this torture. And this time, there's a sick sense of pride over the extent of damage being caused.
And I thought we lived in a civilised age. How wrong can anyone get?
I've had the war news on all day and have been thoroughly flat about the whole thing. But bizarrely, during the ad breaks I keep seeing an advertisement that brightens things up for me. I must say this ad has had me giggling for some time now. It's the Peugeot ad, where an Indian guy takes his bomb of a car and crashes it into walls and has an elephant sit on it in order for it to look the shape of the new Peugeot 206. It's beautiful. Apparently the ad hit first place in English ratings of favourite ads last month.
I can see why. It's just so cute. Isn't it weird the sorts of things that can cheer you up when all the world is going to pieces?
Everyone knows this, but I felt it was important to note that the war has started. Some of the best information I'm receiving on the war is available at CNN, and at Sky News.
I'm also considering setting up an alternative IRC channel for people who used to communicate regularly using that technology (and were inclined to leave for a number of reasons, not least of which was the attitudes and behaviours of those people who populated our usual channel after a while). I don't want to replace or compete with the old channel, which still has participants therein, but I would like to attract back some of the great minds and hearts of people who have voluntarily exiled themselves from a great communications medium.
From the IT section of The Australian...
Yes, your bomb looks big in this
AUSTRALIAN technology that can detect explosives other
systems miss is heading to airports around the world,
through a multi-million-dollar agreement with US defence
giant Lockheed Martin.
http://email.ni.com.au/Click?q=6b-8g3ZIHErO-yGOIB8n4trNiuI
Your bomb looks big in this. Oh dear.
From ABC Online:
Posted: 8:14am AEDT
Bush phones Howard
The Prime Minister says the US President has asked Australia to commit troops to the likely war against Iraq. John Howard spoke to George W Bush earlier this morning.
Bad news.
I'm very in to futures analysis at the moment. That will come clear when I publish the last section of my paper on blogging, but in the meantime here's the next section.
Away from blogging but still on futures, Boingboing have an article on the release of the next version of Freenet software, designed to facilitate large-file peer-to-peer file transfers. Watch episodes of Buffy, 24 and any other show that takes your fancy that much sooner online.
I absolutely do not endorse copyright infringement. Unless it's something crappy like reality television, which is making the networks a killing for virtually no expenditure.
Last week Forbes.com released a survey completed in collaboration with Gartner and Survey.com saying that more executives get online before work than read a newspaper. There's a surprise. Not.
I'm in the middle of my paper on blogging and have posted the first 1000 or so words on my livejournal on the subject. This is going to be a fairly long paper - probably around the 4000 word mark - so I'm publishing online in stages. I do hope people will respond. It seems appropriate that an academic treatise on blogging should attract the same kind of reader response that I critique in the course of the paper.
Otherwise, all continues fairly quietly. I am loving this fabulous autumn weather here in Brisbane (overnight temperatures of 18 degrees Celsius and daily top temperatures of around 27 degrees). And while I may be living on a tight budget, it's still nice to be able to have fresh-cooked meals and take walks to breathe in the balmy air. And thanks to the recommendation of a good friend (thanks Misty!) I now have a gorgeous rose quartz pendant to catch the light, and radiate goodwill. Sometimes the little things mean so very much.
I notice from Slashdot that the web is effectually 10 years old today. I remember so clearly spending Easter with the family of my former husband in 1993, talking to one of the family members who works for Sun Microsystems Australia, and being so excited by this 'new' concept of the internet (my brother had had dialup access years earlier, but we had never called it 'the internet', just BBS and viatel services). My ex-husband and I saved up and went out to buy a 14.4K internal modem, and were proud as punch to have got the cheapest one on the market - only $350. Of course it wasn't approved by AUSTEL but at the time we were pirates and pioneers, and this modem was oh-so-much better than the 9K modem that had been gathering dust for some time. We had three hours access a day and we spent most of it downloading 30 second stamp-sized movies. And every *single* Australian site was listed on the National Library of Australia homepage. The web was very, very young. And within about a year, the global growth of internet adoption was over 300,000%. Wow. Halcyon days.
I just realised that I'm fairly unmemorable. Most people associate ideas, places, scents, expressions and songs with particular people in their lives. No-one does that with me. I'm not sure whether that means I'm colourless, or whether people just don't feel inspired enough when they spend time with me. Either way, it has the effect of quietly erasing any personal impact I may have had on others' lives. Ah mortality!
I have a busy weekend ahead. Marking, exam writing, planning and paper writing. I plan to just bunker down and get a lot done.
I'm anti-war. I think the decision by Prime Minister Howard to follow the Abbot and Costello act that Bush and Blair have going is frankly embarrassing and stupid. I think the politics being played in targeting Iraq when the main players in the game of terrorism are still at large are absurd, and frankly insulting, because they presuppose that citizens cannot recognise propaganda when they see it. (The fact that some people *can't* see it is beside the point. It's insulting to use it upon them anyway.)
I also see war as inevitable, and foresee a human catastrophe ahead. I am rather cynical about seeking out international students for Australian graduate programs in education because the impending war is going to dramatically affect visa requirements for entering the country and only the wealthiest families will be able to afford the privilege of studying here and making a better life for themselves. Forget about the digital divide; the economic, diplomatic and security-oriented divide that is emerging will have a much more lingering and devastating effect on the world's population than a generation of democratic and idealistic communications systems.
And the whole world will be poorer for that.
I don't even know why anyone would want to do this but you can now check DNA records via your mobile phone.
And yes, I'm in the middle of class. My students are preparing a case study. I'm blogging. It's called multitasking.
I so want a decent laptop. Can someone please buy one for me? Please??
The World is docked down the road from my place. As I look out my kitchen window I can see it towering above the apartment blocks on the edge of the Brisbane River. It's not every day you can say that you've seen the world before breakfast.
Right now I'm busy writing up my paper for the ANZCA conference, as well as writing exam papers for my units and generally being busier than usual. So I apologise if my posts are erratic and if I don't get back to people - I promise I will get to you this weekend. In the meantime it's back to work for me!
It's been far too long since I made a post to my blog. Just been one of those weeks.
I've just picked up copies of Rebecca Blood's two books (one an edited series of chapters, the other a full text) on blogging - look forward to a night of catching up with her work. Then I have a full paper for ANZCA due this Friday on 'The Rise of Blogs as a Product of Cybervoyeurism', drawing on the work of Christopher Lasch and others as I have noted elsewhere.
I'm also in the middle of marking for the first series of assignments for GSN470 E-Business (yes folks, I'll get back to you soon) and I'm writing exams for two units.
So I'm busy.
But the week and the weekend following was basically good. Saw Chicago (the movie) on Saturday night with Liz - just not a patch on the stage show and some odd casting decisions, I think. Nothing like as inspiring as most people are saying, but then most people don't go to much live theatre these days. Sad but true.
Quick message to Stephen Dann - really proud of your work on your business and your book, and glad things are coming together for you.
I've begun teaching this teaching period in Strategic Internet Marketing and tonight I teach E-Business, so I'm in the midst of notes everywhere. Anyone want to have a go at producing a management perspective on power law distribution? Chris Gulker's essay that appeared in The Independent last year makes a start with the focus on weblogs, but I think there's scope for a comparative analysis of Fourth Wave theory and the rise of power law distribution in technologies and in terms of business use of those technologies. Have I lost anyone yet?
Anyway, I'm busy. Will update livejournal on weblog research and update this place on other stuff later. Gotta go teach.
Weekend was a combination of great and horrible. Party at Tracey and Lachlan's was fun on Saturday night (even if there was no power). Thanks for having me guys. The less said of Sunday, the better.
There's something alive crunching around in the window frame of my office.
On research ideas, thanks to Jeremy Williams for this link to an article on the sociological aspects of blogs and their ability to shape perception. More on that and on the use of blogs to promote Dr Pepper drinks in my livejournal later today.
Finally I have created a link from my home page to the page for The Other Joanne Jacobs. Joanne is a former journalist in the US with the San Jose Mercury and is now an author and commentator who maintains a blog at joannejacobs.com. We tend to write on similar subjects and therefore occasionally get email messages for each other. It's eerie, as Joanne said to me by email just today.
35 degrees and humid. Okay 34.6 degrees. But still humid.