A wise person taught me years ago, that technology is meant to carry out our intentions. On a simple level, if I want to call a colleague, it is not my intention to call her office, her home, or her temporary location. It is my intention to call her. So, I say "call Helen", and technology simplifies the search and calls Helen, wherever she is.
On a more fundamental level -- technology is always connected to our intentions. That is both a moral and practical foundation.
Our humanity is always at play. In a world that truly appreciates diversity -- we should never inhibit the personal and professional development of anyone. That is a fundamental of a truly inclusive organization, community, or group of communities.
Here's a site that I have just learned about. There is an interesting correlation to education and the issue of community-based technology. We need to look at "communities of need" and not simply communities of greed. I know that sounds harsh. But when technology is only developed from a profit point of view, our humanity may be at question.
http://studentforce.ning.com/
Not trying to sound convoluted (though that is a something I find hard to avoid sometimes. :)Technology, and our intentions with the development and use of technology, strikes at our basic humanity. Always.
It is our responsibility to be active participants and not simply leave technology to the experts.
Sal Rasa
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Really smart
"The invention of the remote control changed the timing of the world"- Comedian, writer, director - Sid Caesar
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Brain Research Supports Long-Term Teachings of Cis Berry
I know that Cis will be modest about this. But this news from MIT, is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the deep research and new understanding regarding how our brain actually works.
What I am learning (and getting advice on), is that everything Cis has written about language, nuance and loss of nuance, literal imposition vs. inner voice and articulation etc., is supported by what scientists are discovering. Take a look at this brief article.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/brain-language-0301.html -- MIT Newsletter
Now, a study from MIT neuroscientists shows that in individuals born blind, parts of the visual cortex are recruited for language processing. The finding suggests that the visual cortex can dramatically change its function — from visual processing to language — and it also appears to overturn the idea that language processing can only occur in highly specialized brain regions that are genetically programmed for language tasks.
“Your brain is not a prepackaged kind of thing. It doesn’t develop along a fixed trajectory, rather, it’s a self-building toolkit. The building process is profoundly influenced by the experiences you have during your development,” says Marina Bedny, an MIT postdoctoral associate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and lead author of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Feb. 28.
What I am learning (and getting advice on), is that everything Cis has written about language, nuance and loss of nuance, literal imposition vs. inner voice and articulation etc., is supported by what scientists are discovering. Take a look at this brief article.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/brain-language-0301.html -- MIT Newsletter
Now, a study from MIT neuroscientists shows that in individuals born blind, parts of the visual cortex are recruited for language processing. The finding suggests that the visual cortex can dramatically change its function — from visual processing to language — and it also appears to overturn the idea that language processing can only occur in highly specialized brain regions that are genetically programmed for language tasks.
“Your brain is not a prepackaged kind of thing. It doesn’t develop along a fixed trajectory, rather, it’s a self-building toolkit. The building process is profoundly influenced by the experiences you have during your development,” says Marina Bedny, an MIT postdoctoral associate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and lead author of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Feb. 28.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A Thought About the Irag War and Gratitude to Those Who Served
Today, as we hear about American troops leaving Iraq, it's a time to deeply thank those who served. It is also, a time to reflect on the morality and humanity of our actions as a nation. Putting aside, incidental political bias and really looking at what we are doing.
Religions have always played their part in wars. I found the following statement to the Bush Administration to be a remarkably insightful plea from the oldest religious order of monks and nuns in the Catholic church. - Sal Rasa
This is the official position of Sr. Joan Chittister's religious order on the war in Iraq:
The following STATEMENT FROM BENEDICTINE MEN AND WOMEN arose from the meeting of Benedictine Presidents of Women's Federations and Men's Congregations of the United States held on October 12, 2002.
STATEMENT FROM BENEDICTINE MEN AND WOMEN
We Benedictine men and women, members of the oldest religious order in the Roman Catholic Church, are alarmed by President Bush’s and the US government’s steady movement toward an unprecedented pre-emptive attack against the people of Iraq. Born in late antiquity when marauding armies made all civilization vulnerable to violence, Benedictines adopted as their motto the Latin word Pax (Peace), and the central teaching in our 1500 year-old Rule of Benedict is that everyone, including every stranger, is to be welcomed as a blessing and treated as Christ. From that stance of reverence for the other, we state our opposition to a military attack on Iraq for the following reasons:
· A military attack against a densely populated country, already decimated by war and economic sanctions, will put millions of vulnerable civilians at risk of death and disease;
· The threatened military attack would follow over a decade of repressive sanctions that have already killed millions of innocent Iraqis, many of them children, who die of malnutrition, contaminated water, and a shortage of medication for treatable diseases;
· A military attack will not decrease but increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks against the US and any allies who join us, both by giving immediate incentive to existing terrorist cells and by drawing more resentful and desperate young people of Islamic nations towards terrorist ideology;
· A military attack now will further divert attention and resources from solving our domestic economic problems, which threaten millions of American families and individuals with the terror of hunger, homelessness, and unemployment;
· A military attack would needlessly put at risk the young men and women in the US military who would fight this war;
In saying this, we also recognize that Saddam Hussein’s threats must be taken seriously. We realize that he did use chemical weapons against his own people in the 1980’s, when he was allied with the US. We believe that United Nations diplomacy must be used to resolve this ongoing problem; threats to attack serve only to destabilize the situation and make more likely the use of any weapons Iraq may have.
One of the main reasons given by the administration for going to war is that, as Americans, we must refuse to live in fear. As people of faith, we know that fear is a spiritual problem. Fear can only be overcome by confronting fear itself, not by eradicating every new object of fear. The answer to fear is not war but a deep and living faith.
Some of us Benedictines oppose all war as immoral, but all of us oppose this particular war as immoral. We will each do what we can to prevent it. As we gather each day for prayer in our monasteries, we pledge to join together in praying that peace will prevail.
--
For additional information contact:
Sister Mary Lou Kownacki, O.S.B.
Mount Saint Benedict Monastery
6101 East Lake Road
Erie, PA 16511
http://www.osb.org/amcass/peace0210.html
Religions have always played their part in wars. I found the following statement to the Bush Administration to be a remarkably insightful plea from the oldest religious order of monks and nuns in the Catholic church. - Sal Rasa
This is the official position of Sr. Joan Chittister's religious order on the war in Iraq:
The following STATEMENT FROM BENEDICTINE MEN AND WOMEN arose from the meeting of Benedictine Presidents of Women's Federations and Men's Congregations of the United States held on October 12, 2002.
STATEMENT FROM BENEDICTINE MEN AND WOMEN
We Benedictine men and women, members of the oldest religious order in the Roman Catholic Church, are alarmed by President Bush’s and the US government’s steady movement toward an unprecedented pre-emptive attack against the people of Iraq. Born in late antiquity when marauding armies made all civilization vulnerable to violence, Benedictines adopted as their motto the Latin word Pax (Peace), and the central teaching in our 1500 year-old Rule of Benedict is that everyone, including every stranger, is to be welcomed as a blessing and treated as Christ. From that stance of reverence for the other, we state our opposition to a military attack on Iraq for the following reasons:
· A military attack against a densely populated country, already decimated by war and economic sanctions, will put millions of vulnerable civilians at risk of death and disease;
· The threatened military attack would follow over a decade of repressive sanctions that have already killed millions of innocent Iraqis, many of them children, who die of malnutrition, contaminated water, and a shortage of medication for treatable diseases;
· A military attack will not decrease but increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks against the US and any allies who join us, both by giving immediate incentive to existing terrorist cells and by drawing more resentful and desperate young people of Islamic nations towards terrorist ideology;
· A military attack now will further divert attention and resources from solving our domestic economic problems, which threaten millions of American families and individuals with the terror of hunger, homelessness, and unemployment;
· A military attack would needlessly put at risk the young men and women in the US military who would fight this war;
In saying this, we also recognize that Saddam Hussein’s threats must be taken seriously. We realize that he did use chemical weapons against his own people in the 1980’s, when he was allied with the US. We believe that United Nations diplomacy must be used to resolve this ongoing problem; threats to attack serve only to destabilize the situation and make more likely the use of any weapons Iraq may have.
One of the main reasons given by the administration for going to war is that, as Americans, we must refuse to live in fear. As people of faith, we know that fear is a spiritual problem. Fear can only be overcome by confronting fear itself, not by eradicating every new object of fear. The answer to fear is not war but a deep and living faith.
Some of us Benedictines oppose all war as immoral, but all of us oppose this particular war as immoral. We will each do what we can to prevent it. As we gather each day for prayer in our monasteries, we pledge to join together in praying that peace will prevail.
--
For additional information contact:
Sister Mary Lou Kownacki, O.S.B.
Mount Saint Benedict Monastery
6101 East Lake Road
Erie, PA 16511
http://www.osb.org/amcass/peace0210.html
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Let's listen to our heritage
"He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the
Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands".
- The Declaration of Independence, referring to the King of Great Britain.
Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands".
- The Declaration of Independence, referring to the King of Great Britain.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Looking back at Katrina seems like looking forward
will take you to the original article and slide show.
Hurricane Katrina struck the New Orleans area early morning August 29, 2005. The storm surge breached the city's levees at multiple points, leaving 80 percent of the city submerged, tens of thousands of victims clinging to rooftops, and hundreds of thousands scattered to shelters around the country....
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Do we really understand politics?
"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war." Maria Montessori
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Is This Why I Pay Almost 3K Per Month for Two People?
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/09/15/potter_pr/index.html
How corporate P.R. works to kill healthcare reform
Health insurers have become expert at using P.R. to get what they want. I got out before the latest round
Editor's note: Wendell Potter, formerly a communications officer for the private health insurer Cigna, is now the Senior Fellow on Health Care for the Center for Media and Democracy. He delivered the remarks below at the Center for American Progress.
By Wendell Potter
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Knowledgeable and Clear Health Care Infomation
Always compelling and open, this blog by Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston is important to all of us right now.
RUNNING A HOSPITAL
THIS IS A BLOG STARTED BY A CEO OF A LARGE BOSTON HOSPITAL TO SHARE THOUGHTS ABOUT HOSPITALS, MEDICINE, AND HEALTH CARE ISSUES.
http://www.runningahospital.blogspot.com/
Please help others to read this and become more informed about critical decision making as a country and as families, patients and practitioners.
Sal
RUNNING A HOSPITAL
THIS IS A BLOG STARTED BY A CEO OF A LARGE BOSTON HOSPITAL TO SHARE THOUGHTS ABOUT HOSPITALS, MEDICINE, AND HEALTH CARE ISSUES.
http://www.runningahospital.blogspot.com/
Please help others to read this and become more informed about critical decision making as a country and as families, patients and practitioners.
Sal
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Heard from a friend at the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) today, and was reminded of what the author Tom Wolf recently said regarding the current world economy and who we look to for influence.
Wolf said: "Wall Street is like Broadway. Nothing new happens there anymore".
Here's to the people at the RSC who work so hard to carry on the work of theatre. The way Shakespeare was, and is, always current.
Here's to the RSC's willingness to confront the search for truth, humanity and politics.
In today's world, they are a very old company brave enough to work in earnest.
Sal
Interesting Article About Facebook Use
I am working with some grad students who make the point that much of what we so urgently here about now regarding networking issues is old news to them.
They wonder "why did it take so long for people to talk about this stuff?"
Sal
By RANDY COHEN
Published: July 1, 2009
My friend is a popular eighth-grade teacher. She has a Facebook account and has been “friended” by many of her students, who make their pages available to her. Consequently, she has learned a lot about them, including the inevitable under-age drinking and drug use and occasional school-related mischief like cheating on tests or plagiarizing assignments. Must she report any of this to the school, the police or the parents? The school has no policy for dealing with this modern problem. A.S., NEW YORK
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05FOB-ethicist-t.html
They wonder "why did it take so long for people to talk about this stuff?"
Sal
By RANDY COHEN
Published: July 1, 2009
My friend is a popular eighth-grade teacher. She has a Facebook account and has been “friended” by many of her students, who make their pages available to her. Consequently, she has learned a lot about them, including the inevitable under-age drinking and drug use and occasional school-related mischief like cheating on tests or plagiarizing assignments. Must she report any of this to the school, the police or the parents? The school has no policy for dealing with this modern problem. A.S., NEW YORK
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05FOB-ethicist-t.html
Monday, May 11, 2009
What's New and Good and Bad
Today, for the first time in the history of the work place, we have a small army of workers who are skilled at creating and using visual media. An arena that was previously held for "experts".
And, I understand that visual media dates back to the cave days. Every tribe has it's story tellers. Now, everyone has a pallet.
I was listening to a radio discussion about cruelty on U Tube. How people actually find humor in human suffering with certain videos.
One response regarding a video apparently showing someone in mental and physical torment was: "I did not even think the person was real".
This got me to thinking. I spend considerable time developing and observing social networks and social network analysis. It is becoming clear to me that the very same mechanisms for creating community also can and do build arenas totally absent of empathy.
This lack of empathy was a notion put forth by the commentator during his interview.
I also began to think that the ability to network is new, but then again, is it? And, it seems that many people, build networks, text one another and use abbreviated language to build a sense of home. A home that is theirs. Not their parent's home, or their relative's home, but their own home.
Historically, there are many references to arenas without empathy. In Ancient Rome for example, empathy was a vote by the aristocracy and a cry from the public for yes or no.
Our ability to network is deeper than the social marketing hype we are experiencing today.
It has something to do with our nature. And that, we must always recognize as good and capable of what is bad.
Post Options
Sal
And, I understand that visual media dates back to the cave days. Every tribe has it's story tellers. Now, everyone has a pallet.
I was listening to a radio discussion about cruelty on U Tube. How people actually find humor in human suffering with certain videos.
One response regarding a video apparently showing someone in mental and physical torment was: "I did not even think the person was real".
This got me to thinking. I spend considerable time developing and observing social networks and social network analysis. It is becoming clear to me that the very same mechanisms for creating community also can and do build arenas totally absent of empathy.
This lack of empathy was a notion put forth by the commentator during his interview.
I also began to think that the ability to network is new, but then again, is it? And, it seems that many people, build networks, text one another and use abbreviated language to build a sense of home. A home that is theirs. Not their parent's home, or their relative's home, but their own home.
Historically, there are many references to arenas without empathy. In Ancient Rome for example, empathy was a vote by the aristocracy and a cry from the public for yes or no.
Our ability to network is deeper than the social marketing hype we are experiencing today.
It has something to do with our nature. And that, we must always recognize as good and capable of what is bad.
Post Options
Sal
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Lost a friend this week
Gerald Frisch died the other day. Jerry was the inventor of The Three Way Validation process.
Simply put, Jerry's process was developed long before technology would exist to accomplish what his system identified.
Jerry was committed to concepts like:
Jerry was in his early ninety's when he provoked me to attend several meetings with NYC hospital executives. He would leave these meetings with a clear notion of who was the real activist and who was the complacent buyer who would not act on anything valuable.
He started his career in the Armed Forces, went on to U.S. News and World Report and then formed his own company.
I learned a great deal from him. I will miss his difficult self and the challenges he gave me to keep up with his thinking.
Sal
Simply put, Jerry's process was developed long before technology would exist to accomplish what his system identified.
Jerry was committed to concepts like:
- No proposals. Only Action Plans.
- Helping CEOs discover if their intentions were really communicated and acted upon by managers, workers and associated communication strategies.
Jerry was in his early ninety's when he provoked me to attend several meetings with NYC hospital executives. He would leave these meetings with a clear notion of who was the real activist and who was the complacent buyer who would not act on anything valuable.
He started his career in the Armed Forces, went on to U.S. News and World Report and then formed his own company.
I learned a great deal from him. I will miss his difficult self and the challenges he gave me to keep up with his thinking.
Sal
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
A Great Deal is Being Missed in My Neighborhood
Today, several imperatives exist to create ethical, meaningful and profitable business
- Transparency of intentions and expectations. People need to understand what you are about and what’s in it for them, in order to engage during a stressful time.
- Statements like “added value” can be interpreted as bromides unless there is some visible example of what you are talking about
- In today’s networked environment, connecting to underlying issues and related community needs will support decisions to stimulate the buying of services. This must be understood as foundational and not theoretical.
Small businesses with BIG problems and Big businesses with many SMALL problems that will become enormous.
In February, during The Ideas to Help NYC's Economy event sponsored by Crains, it was stated that re-vitalizing the economy of New York City is “dependent upon the development of small businesses…small business cannot make the mistakes of big business”. It’s true, we must support the small business community and we cannot afford the “big” mistakes.
There is however, a current and curious imbalance
Too many small businesses are closing, due to sudden and unusually high rent increases in areas like Greenwich Village. And, even before that terrible surprise occurs, these owners may not have had the finances or ability to have developed fundamental business plans.
In larger organizations, silos act like neighborhoods or fiefdoms, avoiding collaboration and resulting in lost ROI. A walk along Hudson Street in NYC, is an alarming example of businesses that are gone forever with a significant number of these properties abandoned for several years.
Interestingly, we now have a small army of experienced advisers who have no work.
Neighborhood degeneration is costly in every way
Financial, cultural and security issues are all at question. What’s missing and what I believe in offering, is a proven methodology based on rapid discovery with the ability to align intentions, strategy and results.
It’s not traditional or costly consulting. This approach helps to contemporize and accelerate the work of everyone who is involved. I am interested in getting business for myself and with my colleagues, by helping others find meaningful work, using a networked approach to help one another.
It's important today, to collect real data to dissect significant problems and provide actual communication steps that can be used immediately, to create measurable improvement.
Small businesses create conversations that define our commerce and culture
Today, I had several conversations with store owners who live for their family business. The conversations were deeply moving and totally relevant to the vitality of NYC's economy and life.
Sal
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
"It's noboby. Just the IT guy"
A new Turner Broadcast television show called Trust Me, is set in a traditional Chicago big scale advertising company.
The show has a ring of giving life to a dinosaur and not really connected to today's business environment.
I though it was an ironic moment tonight, when I caught this comment.
The senior creative director was hiding his boss in the creative director's office. Seems that his boss had been sent home to calm down after an intramural altercation.
When a copy writer (and the show has some pretty solid work place stereotypes), asked the creative director - "who's in there?" - the response was : "Oh, that's nobody. It's the IT guy".
Now, that rang true. And maybe, the only moment of the show that did.
Out of touch dinosaurs in all industries, always give themselves away with the simple language of exclusion and silo behavior.
How many organizations still think of IT as the help desk?
While it is not uncommon to respect and even publicize the IT functions of a company, it's another thing to collaborate with IT to achieve business objectives and strategies.
I am not saying anything new. In fact, that's the point.
Sometimes, pop-culture TV is more insightful than intended.
Sal
The show has a ring of giving life to a dinosaur and not really connected to today's business environment.
I though it was an ironic moment tonight, when I caught this comment.
The senior creative director was hiding his boss in the creative director's office. Seems that his boss had been sent home to calm down after an intramural altercation.
When a copy writer (and the show has some pretty solid work place stereotypes), asked the creative director - "who's in there?" - the response was : "Oh, that's nobody. It's the IT guy".
Now, that rang true. And maybe, the only moment of the show that did.
Out of touch dinosaurs in all industries, always give themselves away with the simple language of exclusion and silo behavior.
How many organizations still think of IT as the help desk?
While it is not uncommon to respect and even publicize the IT functions of a company, it's another thing to collaborate with IT to achieve business objectives and strategies.
I am not saying anything new. In fact, that's the point.
Sometimes, pop-culture TV is more insightful than intended.
Sal
Monday, March 30, 2009
Olympus Medical Center (WA) gets approval for a $2 million GE Centricity practice EMR purchase. This board member must know hospital IT: "There are going to be changes. I just feel them. And I think all of them are going to cost money."
Posted on HIStalk today.
http://histalk2.com/2009/03/28/monday-morning-update-33009/
Posted on HIStalk today.
http://histalk2.com/2009/03/28/monday-morning-update-33009/
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Health Care Innovation?
Posted today, on http://www.histalk.com
"An OB-GYN sues a Utah hospital, claiming the CEO forced him out and that nurses falsified charts to make him look bad. He also claims he dictated a chart note that contradicted the nurse’s fraudulent changes, but the hospital deleted it from the EMR. The HIPAA audit trail should prove it one way or another, and surely the hospital won’t publicly claim that its systems don’t have one".
Interesting perspective on electronic medical records and security.
Sal
"An OB-GYN sues a Utah hospital, claiming the CEO forced him out and that nurses falsified charts to make him look bad. He also claims he dictated a chart note that contradicted the nurse’s fraudulent changes, but the hospital deleted it from the EMR. The HIPAA audit trail should prove it one way or another, and surely the hospital won’t publicly claim that its systems don’t have one".
Interesting perspective on electronic medical records and security.
Sal
Friday, March 13, 2009
Companies Look to Provide Infrastructure Services
Interesting announcement today from IBM about water. I wonder how this kind of innovation to "go on the offensive" can help organize issues in health care infrastructure? Like Electronic Medical Records. It does not take much imagination to consider "infrastructure" to connect with a different look at what the word means. Feeding mass data into network computing is the very heart of infrastructure in a networked economy.
Have a read. Interesting, that water is a primary survival need.
Sal
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/ibm-launches-water-management-services/381202?cid=12
SAN FRANCISCO -IBM Corp. wants to get really deep into water.
The technology company is launching a new line of water services Friday, hoping to tap a new sales vein by taking the manual labor out of fighting pollution and managing water supplies. IBM says the overall water-management services market could be worth $20 billion in five years.
The effort is part of a wider role IBM wants to play in infrastructure services, including automobile traffic and power grids. In each instance, IBM is trying to persuade utilities and government agencies to overhaul their computer networks and link digital sensors together for better insights.
For example, instead of a meter-reader from the power company traipsing through your backyard, IBM is banking that one day your meter and your neighbors' will feed data directly into the utility's computer network.
Same for water.
IBM says its new services will help water providers become more efficient in overseeing ever-more-precious supplies and responding faster to contamination and other emergencies.
The company has been working on a project called SmartBay with an Irish marine institute to develop sensors that are monitoring pollution, marine life and wave conditions around Galway Bay and transmitting data to researchers. Among the benefits, IBM contends, is that computers can track floating debris that pose a hazard to commercial fishermen.
This "smarter planet" theme is part of IBM's strategy to keep making money in the recession. The company's chairman and CEO, Sam Palmisano , said in a letter to shareholders this week that IBM will be aggressive in drumming up business in areas like managing traffic, power grids, water, food, health care and finance. He vowed the efforts will help Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM grow by getting early starts in areas that will need help for years to come.
We will not simply ride out the storm," Palmisano wrote. "Rather, we will take a long-term view, and go on offense."
Have a read. Interesting, that water is a primary survival need.
Sal
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/ibm-launches-water-management-services/381202?cid=12
SAN FRANCISCO -IBM Corp. wants to get really deep into water.
The technology company is launching a new line of water services Friday, hoping to tap a new sales vein by taking the manual labor out of fighting pollution and managing water supplies. IBM says the overall water-management services market could be worth $20 billion in five years.
The effort is part of a wider role IBM wants to play in infrastructure services, including automobile traffic and power grids. In each instance, IBM is trying to persuade utilities and government agencies to overhaul their computer networks and link digital sensors together for better insights.
For example, instead of a meter-reader from the power company traipsing through your backyard, IBM is banking that one day your meter and your neighbors' will feed data directly into the utility's computer network.
Same for water.
IBM says its new services will help water providers become more efficient in overseeing ever-more-precious supplies and responding faster to contamination and other emergencies.
The company has been working on a project called SmartBay with an Irish marine institute to develop sensors that are monitoring pollution, marine life and wave conditions around Galway Bay and transmitting data to researchers. Among the benefits, IBM contends, is that computers can track floating debris that pose a hazard to commercial fishermen.
This "smarter planet" theme is part of IBM's strategy to keep making money in the recession. The company's chairman and CEO, Sam Palmisano , said in a letter to shareholders this week that IBM will be aggressive in drumming up business in areas like managing traffic, power grids, water, food, health care and finance. He vowed the efforts will help Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM grow by getting early starts in areas that will need help for years to come.
We will not simply ride out the storm," Palmisano wrote. "Rather, we will take a long-term view, and go on offense."
Friday, March 6, 2009
Five Sites that Let You Experience the Real-Time Web Today
"One of the most interesting trends on the Internet right now is a move towards a more real-time experience. We have seen a lot of discussion lately about how Twitter is leading the charge by creating a search engine for the real-time web, for example. However, there are also a good number of other services that already expose some of the promises of the real-time web. In this post, we will have a look at some of the most interesting ones."
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/five_sites_that_let_your_experience_the_real-time.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/five_sites_that_let_your_experience_the_real-time.php
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Good Info Sent to Me Regarding Health Care Collaboration
A Disruptive Solution for Health Care
As this nation looks to a paradigm shift in order to tackle our healthcare crisis (because what we’ve been doing over and over clearly isn’t working), it’s exciting to see that leading publications carry the same theme in their reporting on this critical issue that impacts all of us:
- It’s important to find a way to get people engaged in the process instead of being the subject of the process.
- There’s a belief that disruptive innovation, as happens over and over in business, can lead to significant wealth creation opportunities, this time, along with providing enormous societal value.
- People need to find holistic incentive.
- A collaborative approach to more consistent engagement is required.
- The lead event can’t simply be more consumerism; there has to be a desire to change behavior based on the construction of personalized knowledge first.
- There is no “pill,” but rather it’s about taking a systems-based approach to create the requisite new mental model in order to come up with a sustainable solution.
- Whatever is done has to be profitable, and it has to be profitable quickly.
- The solution has to be scalable.
The following sampling of content are just a few of the many articles, peoples, blogs, reports etc all circling around the same vision and understanding.
EthoSquare captures all of these in its discovery learning application with the launch of the Quality of Life Network.
A Disruptive Solution for Health Care - BusinessWeek – 23-February-2009
Full article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090220_090975.htm
“The answers lie in understanding the concept of disruptive innovation, which explains how successful and dominant businesses can be completely upended by new players that enter the marketplace using markedly different business models. ... So if change is so difficult, how does an industry ever introduce greater quality, efficiency, and affordability? Disruptive innovations have been able to do this over and over in a myriad of industries by initially taking root and introducing change in areas of "nonconsumption."”
How to Make Electronic Medical Records a Reality - New York Times – 01-March-2009
Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/business/01unbox.html
““This is really not a technology problem,” observed Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s a matter of incentives and market failure.” ... But the technology is just a tool, one that needs to be used properly to improve health care. ...So the legislation states that physicians will be paid only for the “meaningful use” of digital records.”
Health-Care Technology: Patient Involvement Helps - BusinessWeek – 23-February-2009
Full article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090223_182043.htm
“... getting patients involved in the effort, along with hospitals and doctors' offices, can lead to substantial benefits. The research, conducted by Harvard Medical School and two other institutions, shows that reminding patients to take a critical cancer test is actually more effective than reminding their doctors about the same test. ... Employers are showing an increasing interest in electronic records, too. ... Rather than putting all the emphasis on how physicians will use e-records, the focus also has to be on how e-records can be used to get patients more involved in their care.”
Health-Care Reform, Corporate Style – BusinessWeek – 29-July-2008
Full article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_32/b4095000246100.htm
“ ... If on-site clinics are beloved by boss and worker alike, why aren't all companies building them? For starters, there has to be scale. Clinic managers say there should be at least 1,000 employees in a single location to make the economics work, and the majority of workers must sign up.”
As this nation looks to a paradigm shift in order to tackle our healthcare crisis (because what we’ve been doing over and over clearly isn’t working), it’s exciting to see that leading publications carry the same theme in their reporting on this critical issue that impacts all of us:
- It’s important to find a way to get people engaged in the process instead of being the subject of the process.
- There’s a belief that disruptive innovation, as happens over and over in business, can lead to significant wealth creation opportunities, this time, along with providing enormous societal value.
- People need to find holistic incentive.
- A collaborative approach to more consistent engagement is required.
- The lead event can’t simply be more consumerism; there has to be a desire to change behavior based on the construction of personalized knowledge first.
- There is no “pill,” but rather it’s about taking a systems-based approach to create the requisite new mental model in order to come up with a sustainable solution.
- Whatever is done has to be profitable, and it has to be profitable quickly.
- The solution has to be scalable.
The following sampling of content are just a few of the many articles, peoples, blogs, reports etc all circling around the same vision and understanding.
EthoSquare captures all of these in its discovery learning application with the launch of the Quality of Life Network.
A Disruptive Solution for Health Care - BusinessWeek – 23-February-2009
Full article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090220_090975.htm
“The answers lie in understanding the concept of disruptive innovation, which explains how successful and dominant businesses can be completely upended by new players that enter the marketplace using markedly different business models. ... So if change is so difficult, how does an industry ever introduce greater quality, efficiency, and affordability? Disruptive innovations have been able to do this over and over in a myriad of industries by initially taking root and introducing change in areas of "nonconsumption."”
How to Make Electronic Medical Records a Reality - New York Times – 01-March-2009
Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/business/01unbox.html
““This is really not a technology problem,” observed Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s a matter of incentives and market failure.” ... But the technology is just a tool, one that needs to be used properly to improve health care. ...So the legislation states that physicians will be paid only for the “meaningful use” of digital records.”
Health-Care Technology: Patient Involvement Helps - BusinessWeek – 23-February-2009
Full article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090223_182043.htm
“... getting patients involved in the effort, along with hospitals and doctors' offices, can lead to substantial benefits. The research, conducted by Harvard Medical School and two other institutions, shows that reminding patients to take a critical cancer test is actually more effective than reminding their doctors about the same test. ... Employers are showing an increasing interest in electronic records, too. ... Rather than putting all the emphasis on how physicians will use e-records, the focus also has to be on how e-records can be used to get patients more involved in their care.”
Health-Care Reform, Corporate Style – BusinessWeek – 29-July-2008
Full article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_32/b4095000246100.htm
“ ... If on-site clinics are beloved by boss and worker alike, why aren't all companies building them? For starters, there has to be scale. Clinic managers say there should be at least 1,000 employees in a single location to make the economics work, and the majority of workers must sign up.”
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