@T: ALWAYS THE TWAIN

For anyone interested in knowing what the powerful / great / good / distinguished / intelligentsia are discussing at Davos, please click on these pictures:

PETER DRUCKER QUOTED @ DAVOS 2010

In yesterday’s panel discussion entitled ‘Business Leadership for the 21st Century’, the noted management guru was cited:

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909-2005)

I wonder whether Davos attendees, Drucker himself and his heirs — whether intellectual or actual — put his wise words into PRACTICE and don’t simply preach it. After all, we’ve had a global financial crisis, various controversial wars, country trade stand-offs, MPs’ expenses scandals and technology crash+burns in the Semantic and socmedia sectors……………………………

Somewhere, somehow leadership clearly did the wrong things, couldn’t connect and contextualize the dots, steered into icebergs, fell asleep on their watch or went AWOL.

Here’s a question that might be interesting: “What’s it called when management doesn’t do things right and leadership doesn’t do the right things?”

Answer: WRONG.

Today is THE day when we’ll finally know what Apple’s tablet (codename “K48″) will look like and its functionality. I’m beyond excited and have been ever since I heard of the Axiotron:

Today, the tech blog Engadget released this image of what they believe to be the Apple tablet:

I was hoping for something along these lines (if readers click on this picture they’ll be directed to the Gizmodo site and its exhaustive links of previous and ongoing Apple tablet rumors:

Why the particular interest on my part? Well, I just bought a netbook for la mia Mamma except that I was actually going to get her an Apple tablet — the very one being released imminently, albeit she chose the netbook. I also have a friend whose birthday is coming up and he needs a new laptop / tablet and keeps admiring my Apple products (he’s a PC faithful so far), so this new Apple tablet would be SUPER-SMART & COOL present to give!

UPDATE

Hurrah! It looks nothing like the monstrosity speculatively provided by Engadget! It looks closed to the screen crossing the Mac Air with the iPhone! Mashable was possibly the closest in terms of its speculations of what the iPad would look like before it was actually announced:

Here’s what iPad IS ACTUALLY ALL ABOUT (clicking on this image will take readers to the Apple site where you can register to get information and notifications on when it actually ships):

Plus here’s Steve Jobs’ presentation of the iPad:

GRAMMYS 2010

Now watch how brilliant Apple’s marketing strategy is:

* announce the launch on 26 January

* on 31 January, tie the iPad in with the Grammys, the cool music crowd (and the typical iTune music store demographic) and a comedian noted for his cool.

* advertise to the TV crowd that the iPad can act as their teleprompter.

Strategic genius!

Here’s a clip from one of my favorite movies, La Vita è Bella! In 2010 it’s likely that I’ll be in Italy quite a bit; I’ve already been asked to return to Rome where I spent some of Xmas 2009.

Last week in my Italian class we were asked to design a psychology test for job interview candidates. Naturally, whilst the other groups created fairly simple three-question tests of the type “Are you easily stressed? Yes or no?” I came up with a three tiered test involving multiple choice questions with a scale of probability and a scenario. This was my scenario:

* The building has to be evacuated because of a fire. What would be the order that you’d evacuate your fellow employees?

(a.) Top floor first and then work your way down?

(b.) Middle floor, then bottom floor before the top floor?

(c.) All the women and children first, and then the men and the pets?

Quite mischievously, to my group, I said that anyone who answers (c) has a great sense of humor — or twisted nobility. The answer which indicates that the person has good leadership skills and powers of deduction and judgment is (a).

Anyway, as it happened, the guinea pig for my test unwittingly answered (c). He’s a journalist so who says chivalry is kaput? Lol.

Ok and below is the Google Translate version of what I just wrote above. As we can see, the translation’s fairly good except in one or two places so I’ve corrected the Google Translate mistakes (in brackets).

It will be quite something if one day my sense of humor in Italian is the same as my ability to read the financial newspapers in Italian or as good as Roberto Benigni!

Ah and what’s the point of attending Italian classes when there are such good online translation services?

Simple: reduce lost in translation occurrences and know where the misunderstandings can and are occurring.

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La settimana scorsa nella mia classe di italiano ci è stato chiesto di progettare un test di psicologia per i candidati colloquio (potenziali) di lavoro. Naturalmente, mentre gli altri gruppi creati abbastanza semplice a tre prove questione del tipo “Sei facilmente sottolineato (stressato)? Sì o no?” Sono (sono) venuto con un test di tre livelli che coinvolgono domande a scelta multipla con una scala di probabilità e di uno scenario. Questo era il mio scenario:

* L’edificio deve essere evacuati a causa di un incendio. Quale sarebbe l’ordine che avevi evacuare i vostri colleghi?

(a.) Top primo piano (L’ultimo) e poi proseguite verso?

(b) Piano Oriente (Piano mezzo), poi piano terra prima che il piano superiore (l’ultimo)?

(c.) Tutte le donne e bambini in primo luogo, e poi gli uomini e gli animali domestici?

Molto (Un puo) maliziosamente, al mio gruppo, ho detto che chi risposte (c) ha un grande senso dell’umorismo — o nobiltà contorti. La risposta che indica che la persona ha una buona capacità di leadership (comando) e le competenze della detrazione e il giudizio è (a).

In ogni caso, come è successo, la cavia per la mia prova involontariamente risposto (c). Lui è un giornalista così che dice la cavalleria è kaput? Un sacco di risate (LOL).

Ok e sotto è la versione di Google Translate di quello che ho appena scritto sopra. Come si può vedere, la traduzione è abbastanza buona, tranne in uno o due posti in modo ancor più sotto ho corretto gli errori di Google Translate (tra parentesi).

Sarà cosa da poco se un giorno il mio senso dell ‘umorismo in italiano è lo stesso che la mia capacità di leggere i giornali finanziari in italiano o in buono come Roberto Benigni!

Ah e qual è il punto di frequentare corsi di italiano quando ci sono tali buoni servizi di traduzione on-line?

Semplice: ridurre la perdita di eventi di traduzione (perso nella traduzione) e conoscere (sapere) gli eventi in cui i malintesi possono e si stanno verificando.

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By the way, just the simple fact that Google Translate chose to use CONOSCERE (to know someone, a place) when the correct verb to use in this situation is SAPERE (to know about an inanimate object or subject) is a reflection that as smart as AI and translation software is, human understanding and grasp of a language remains more semantically attuned…….for now.

Ah and good leaders should have good senses of humor. Otherwise, they’d sink into a DEEP AND IRRECOVERABLE DEPRESSION about how it’s possible that seeming academic superstars graduated from the top MBA schools, Ivy League / Oxbridge institutions, law establishments, and ended up creating the global financial crisis and all the other messes.

Ironic, hmmmn?

This Internet flame between Google and China is interesting because the question has been posed previously:

·      CAN THE NATION STATE SURVIVE THE WEB?( http://www.bbc.co.uk/digitalrevolution/makingofprog2.shtml )

And the Google situation is possibly the first example of an influential Web co taking on the power of a nation state, China.

Well, it’s probably helpful to keep apace of the story and online threads to-date so here are some links:

·      http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

·      http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-01/25/content_9368402.htm

·      http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60L1DK20100125?type=politicsNews

·      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8478005.stm

·      http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/092d5ab6-08fc-11df-ba88-00144feabdc0.html

·      http://news.cnet.com/Evidence-found-of-Chinese-attack-on-Google/2100-7349_3-6250413.html

·      http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/12/google’s-china-stance-more-about-business-than-thwarting-evil/

Plus here’s some context on Google’s interactions with the People’s Daily site and the current situation with Chinese authors and Google Book’s alleged infringement of their copyright:

·      http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2009/10/27/banned-by-google-peoples-daily-web-site-claims/tab/article/

·      http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/6813963.html

Oh and let’s include how the “Iranian Cyber Army,” who got a reputation for disabling Twitter on 17/18 December 2009, was said to be responsible for attacking Baidu this January with trojans. Baidu is China’s top search site with two-thirds of the market share and Google’s direct competitor:

·      http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/12/iranian-hackers-chinese-search-engine

So…………..it’s interesting that Google complained of an alleged security breach by CHINA-IP-ADDRESS-USING hackers on the same day (12 Jan 2010) that the Chinese’s top search site was also supposedly subjected to an attack by the “Iranian Cyber Army”.

Of course, none of the media or tech commentators have put this together yet so readers of @T are the first to even be made aware of this “oddity of coincidence”.

Could it be that there are black hat hackers (also known as “crackers” and let’s remember the word associations with “crackpots” and “crazies”) who are NEITHER American nor Chinese — or maybe include both nationalities plus some other countries — playing the US and China off each other?

Readers will note that I use the term “CHINA-IP-ADDRESS-USING HACKERS” rather than “Chinese hackers”. Just because the source address of Google’s hackers originated from a China-based server does not necessarily mean that Chinese hackers were involved. Let’s make the distinctions clear.

Ditto just because a hacking team call themselves the “Iranian Cyber Army” it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re Iranians.

After all, some people online are not who they seem: they use all sorts of pseudonyms and false information. Some might even claim their names are “Snow White”, they live in Russia and they work for the KGB or that they’re a Nigerian and have US$1 million in prize money waiting for you in a Swiss bank account that you can access if you’ll only provide all your bank details or that they can make you sexier than Casanova himself. In reality, their name is probably Ted or Ting Ting, they live in Mississippi or Manchuria and they’re a 300lb postman or housewife.

Anyway, it would be a lot more conducive if the likes of Senator Clinton and Google’s strategy team adopted a SMARTER AND MORE EXPERIENCED DIPLOMATIC approach to resolving the current scenario with China. Direct challenges about how China operates its policies on freedom of information, censorship and cyber-security are probably going to be counterproductive for resolution.

From my perspective, there are clearly language and cultural philosophy issues involved. The US government definitions of “freedom”, “censorship” and “security” aren’t the same as the Chinese government’s. Neither definitions are the absolute nor the best, imo.

Sometimes, some governments’ definitions of these three words are not even the same as its own electorate’s. For example, it’s said that censorship and anything against freedom of information doesn’t happen in Western democracies. Hmmn……….then news items like these appear:

·      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245599/David-Kelly-post-mortem-kept-secret-70-years-doctors-accuse-Lord-Hutton-concealing-vital-information.html

·      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/6735670/Dr-David-Kelly-doctors-start-legal-action-for-new-inquest.html

Even between American technology aficionados there’s an array of definitions on “freedom, censorship and security”. When a US social network decides to close a user group or remove their content that’s also an infringement of the principle of free flows of information; censorship like this happens and it’s rarely reported upon by the media.

Moreover, any form of editorialism (whether self and voluntary, imposed by journalistic regulatory associations with industry standard practices or a reflection of political affiliations) is a form of censorship.

Now another interesting perspective is that, sometimes, some Western democracies levy the “It’s government propaganda!” against other states — as if the Western democracies don’t and have never used the media for their own purposes (e.g., winning elections, concealing information from their people and pushing through policies).

Okay, here’s the thing: if there was no propaganda (or to use its preferred euphemism “PR / spin in the national or public interest”), there’d have been no wars……….EVER. PERIOD. No Crusades, no Hastings, no Alamo, no Trafalgar, no 1812, no Indochine, no World Wars, no Israel vs Palestine, no Cold War, no Iraq War, no Afghanistan, no trade wars, no etcetera etcetera.

So…………..this all leads us back to one of our pet subjects: IT’S ALL SEMANTICS, RAGAZZI.

Now begins the journey towards language, standards and conduct that’s more conducive to cyber coexistence.

To any readers who haven’t done so yet, please donate to the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) which includes major charities like ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children:

This weekend I was in the H+M store and the experience made me stop and think about how some retailers are adopting a helpful approach. Yes, some of them do have questionable labor practices and operate “sweatshops” in developing countries and exploit their workforce. Nonetheless, some are admirable in the way they’re contributing towards efforts to help the Haitian people and any efforts along these lines should be mentioned and commended!

What happened was that (at point-of-sale) an H+M sales assistant asked me if I wanted to donate towards their Haitian appeal. Now, when we buy anything online via the likes of Paypal, Amazon etc. we’re given the option to donate GBP1 or more to a known charity but what I realized in H+M is that few retail stores in the UK do this. Often, they don’t even have a collection box for loose change that we may want to give to charity.

So it was good to see H+M staff conscientiously ask every customer if they want to donate.

Later, I was in Harrods and they made no such attempt to persuade customers to do so — which is a missed opportunity since a Harrods customer donating even 1 percent of their purchase price would be equivalent in hard cash to more than 10 percent from another store. That or instead of getting an extra 10 percent off with their Harrods loyalty card the store could have offered to contribute that 10 percent to the Haitian disaster fund. Of course, any customer of any premium department store could, of their own volition, opt NOT to buy that purse or gizmo in the sale that cost GBP250 and send the money to DEC instead………….

Hmmn, consumerism and moralism whizzing in my mind and then I happened upon an article anout small pots of lip balms that cost GBP30 whilst, elsewhere, I watched a news report noting that GBP30 is how much it costs for a tent that can house 10 people for 12 months in Haiti………

Images of lots of shoppers swarming GBP100+ items in department stores also replaying in my mind……

Let’s just say that I didn’t spend much this weekend on retail therapy and I am donating to the Haiti appeal.

As for the hubris part, well…….on some discussion boards some commentators have bemoaned the fact that Western democracies are constantly having to financially support economically bankrupt dictatorships and that when we donate the monies only end up being siphoned off by unscrupulous parties or in administration costs. Granted, that’s a point of concern for the globally civic-minded.

However, three considerations:

(1.) Western democracies are simply lucky they didn’t draw the teutonic plates short straw;

(2.) 99% of Haitians cannot be blamed for a handful of corrupt dictators, management incompetents and money siphoners.

(3.) HUMANITY + COMPASSION sets us apart from the machines and the (sch)muck.

Interestingly, it has also been the week in which JP Morgan has indicated its US$1+ billion bonus pool, President Obama has announced measures to clawback some of the monies US taxpayers stumped up to bail out the banks and there’s yet another cycle of “How to reform the banks and their bonus culture” media-bashing of bankers.

Of course there has to be some co-ordinated global philosophy and practice wherein capitalism can work with altruism in a substantive and meaningful way. That, though, may need to come from sources other than the politicians (because, let’s be frank, some of them are so busy electioneering and point-scoring that they’re losing the ability to THINK THROUGH PROPERLY and DO).

Please donate to the DEC, thanks!

I wrote this before I left for Xmas vacation and set the publish button for 01 January 2010, but it didn’t activate so here’s the post (published manually — WordPress glitch and now I understand why none of my friends were aware I was on my travels and offline!).

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Where it begins and how it ends,

I seek no answers for,

Mid-flight whilst another dawn breaks,

Is the only state of now I can sense—

All else being ambient expanse,

A vacuum,

No echoes,

Soul secrets not to be heard nor spoken of.

Who sits and steps beside me,

A mystery, an odyssey, an ocean of life,

I don’t dive—

In case I drown or disturb that reverie,

A silent moment of still,

Life only in my breath.

No memories of pasts forgotten with fleeting blinks,

Smiles painted on mask-like faces sauntering along — anon,

Places that spark some profound residual belonging,

Tribal,

Homecoming,

The limbs and gasps and scintillations of love,

Asleep I dream only of reality,

Once more mid-flight towards a future in flux.

REALITIES AND RESOLUTIONS

As 2010 starts, I’m in one of my favorite countries (Italy) and my resolutions for this decade are S-I-M-P-L-E:

* Smart Innovation, Meaningful Perseverance, LOL Evolution

Hope you all have a wonderful 2010!