What a thoughtful, kind, and generous guy!!!!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Amazing pictures of Miniature Parks in Austria
Please use the control keys at the bottom right to switch to full screen mode and to slide show mode.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Power of Social networking: Facebook helps unite a Family after thirty six years
An American marine who served in Vietnam, reunites with his son and his mother after thirty six years. The son who lives in France found him on the facebook and initiated the contact.
A very touching story. Another example of power of social networking..
A very touching story. Another example of power of social networking..
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
World Ranking of Universities in Ohio and Neighboring States
The Nobel prize winner Princeton Economist Dr. Paul Krugman recently wrote in New York Times that education is the key to success and competitiveness. He wrote
The following map shows their exact locations on the map. To see all the Universities location on this map press down on the right mouse button and drag the map in the direction you want to view the map or use the zoom in and zoom out feature by using the buttons shown in the top left position of the map.
If you had to explain America’s economic success with one word, that word would be “education.” In the 19th century, America led the way in universal basic education. Then, as other nations followed suit, the “high school revolution” of the early 20th century took us to a whole new level. And in the years after World War II, America established a commanding position in higher education.
But that was then. The rise of American education was, overwhelmingly, the rise of public education — and for the past 30 years our political scene has been dominated by the view that any and all government spending is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Education, as one of the largest components of public spending, has inevitably suffered. Source: New York Time Article
It is the preparedness of the human resources through education that determines the ability to compete globally and attain the top rankings. The quality of education people receive is determined by the quality of educational institutions.
Recently Times Higher Education supplement released the ranking of top two hundred world universities. The complete ranking is here. The list is heavily dominated by the major Universities in US with Harvard University in the first position.
How are the Universities in Ohio and the surroundings states do in the ranking? To answer this question I edited the long list of two hundred Universities and created the following table of thirteen Universities who appeared on the world ranking list. These Universities are from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. The first column shows the rank and the second column of the table lists the name of the Universities.
The following map shows their exact locations on the map. To see all the Universities location on this map press down on the right mouse button and drag the map in the direction you want to view the map or use the zoom in and zoom out feature by using the buttons shown in the top left position of the map.
There is a respectable showing of the Universities from Illinois,Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio on the world University ranking list. Overall Pennsylvania and Illinois Universities show up within the top fifty universities along with the University of Michigan at nineteenth position.
Ohio did not fare as well as its neighboring states. Its two Universities Case Western reserve University in Cleveland and Ohio state University in Columbus are ranked at 119 and 129 respectively.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2009
Engineering and Information Technology
Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2009
Top 200 world universities are Here
Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2009
Top 200 world universities are Here
US News Paper Web Sites: Viewership and Ranking
The table below shows some major and minor newspapers and the data about their viewer count and the ranking from compete.com
These numbers are not exact but provide an idea about the usage of the websites.
The things that is interesting is that all the major newspaper who hold commanding position in publishing also hold higher ranking for their web presence. However, their web presence is not as profitable as the old brick and mortar publishing.
Some new contenders like Huffington Post are rising through the ranks and have respectable viewership. They only have an online presence, therefore, different cost structure than the brick and mortar operations.
Will they be the new news organizations who will be part blogger, part news aggregator and part investigative journalism?
These numbers are not exact but provide an idea about the usage of the websites.
The things that is interesting is that all the major newspaper who hold commanding position in publishing also hold higher ranking for their web presence. However, their web presence is not as profitable as the old brick and mortar publishing.
Some new contenders like Huffington Post are rising through the ranks and have respectable viewership. They only have an online presence, therefore, different cost structure than the brick and mortar operations.
Will they be the new news organizations who will be part blogger, part news aggregator and part investigative journalism?
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Managemnet 1.0 vs Management 2.0
Management 1.0 COMMAND AND CONTROL
Management 2.0 COORDINATE AND CULTIVATE
People often wonder why management of most of the organizations is so command and control oriented. They start with mission and vision statements those are basically disguised commands for the non-managerial staff who have no say in formulating those statements or have a tioken representation to appear as a democratic organization.
The Management 1.0 is primarily based upon two major tools "Command and Control". It originated while managers were confronted with problem of converting independent farmers into productive industrial labor. The work on the farm was not strictly regulated by the clock while everything on a industrial production was made run on a clock to synchronize all the production activities. The "Command and Control" model of organizing was borrowed from the older organizing principle of organizing armies to fight wars.
The scheme worked for Industrial production where machines did the work and human labor was doing semi intelligent work that could not be automated. The practice once established also became the standard fare of teaching management. Here are the table of content from two Introductory textbooks for Management.
Click on the images for a larger view
Source and
Source
Both text book have a complete section devoted to CONTROL and the rest is about how develop the COMMAND process. What it shows is that the practice of command and control is very deeply entrenched within the management practices starting from teaching the introduction to management. The approach has value in the past when production was shifting from manual intensive agricultural production to machine supported industrial production. However, with the growth of service based organizations in which the individual worker relies on his or her skills to provide a service this type of approach does not work as effectively as it used to work in the past.
Dr. Zuboff a former professor of management at Harvard wrote an entire book outlining the problems of using older management techniques to service organizations
SourceAlso from Psychological research it is established that self motivated workers are more productive then the workers who are coerced into working using fear.
We Perform Best When No One Tells Us What To Do
via scientificblogging.com"There is a disconnect between what science knows and what business does."
He goes on to say,"Traditional notions of management work great if you want compliance, but if you want engagement, self-direction works best."
So does this mean we should cut back on bonuses and perks for good performance? Well, maybe. In tasks that involve focused, clear objectives and goals, incentives do work. However, in tasks that involve creativity, innovation, and generating original ideas, offering incentives actually distracts from the mind's ability to freely think outside of the box and be open to creative insights.
Another perspective on how best to evolve the management practices is provided in the book "Future of Work" by Thoams Malone from MIT that suggests Management by using "Coordinate and Cultivate"
Source
Are we going to see more movement towards less "Command and Control" and more "Coordinate and Cultivate" or the things will move towards more "Command and Control" till the current organizational structure that started at the beginning of Industrial era falls apart and we start over again. Here is a small poll and let us see what readers think.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Real Men Don't Cry
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cries during a news conference after winning the 2016 Olympics.
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