Or at least the Chinese government thinks so, according to the Catholic News Agency.
First, a bit about the gap between blogs. I have been very busy. :-) Actually, although I spent a couple of the last few month in Europe, the main reason I got away from blogging is that I began using the time I set aside for online interaction on twitter and developing a facebook presence (and, of course, continuing to keep up in Second Life). Social networking online can be more time consuming than “normal” networking.
Anyway, I have also been trying to catch up on my reading and wanted to mention the latest edition of innovate: the journal of online education. One of the article which caught my eye, because of my recent experiences, is an article by Stephen Downes: Places to go: Facebook. In it, Downes looks at the history, and some of the positive and negative aspects of this social networking tool.
Another article that particularly interested me, as a member of the National Council of Social Studies Teachers, was an article titled: Using Digital Mapping Programs to Augment Student Learning in Social Studies. The thrust of the article can be summarized in their introductory paragraph:
“A growing body of research suggests that digital mapping systems can
play a role in helping students engage with community issues by linking
spatial information with map overlays that depict demographic,
environmental, and public policy data for the students’ communities
(Kerski 2003). Social studies teachers who have used digital mapping
technology in the classroom point to the unique ability of such
programs to display a multitude of digital spatial relationships that
cannot be represented easily by printed maps (Alibrandi 2003; Audet and
Ludwig 2003).”
In addition to providing a theoretical argument for this practice, they provide concrete examples and models.
As usual, innovate online provides the reader with thought-provoking ideas.
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It sounds like there may be a chance that the US Congress will do the right thing and allow the purchase of locally grown food (rather than only that from US farmers) during “emergency” situations.
Further, I’m hoping that whoever administers the program thinks that children starving while we turn our corn into fuel is an emergency situation.
In our continued discussion of strategic planning we will focus on the methods that an organization can use to examine itself and its place in the world. An honest and accurate self-assessment is the key to realistic strategic planning. This is true whether we are looking at an individual or a large multi-national corporation.
From a personal perspective, virtually all of the strategic planning processes I have been involved with have begun with an environmental scan and then moved into a SWOT analysis.  This is a method that allows you to do a quick overview of your organizations present situation. This analysis consists of looking at an organization’s Strengths (potential competitive advantages), Weaknesses (potential deficiencies in one or more resources or competencies), Opportunities (good things that might be coming up), and Threats (things to keep an eye on).
Undertaking such a process should never be done lightly. It is a tremendous amount of work and requires a significant commitment of an organization’s resources. If an organization’s decision makers are going to approach such a project, they should only do so if they are both willing and able to complete an honest and thorough process.
I once belonged to a non-profit organization that was in the midst of “growing pains.†This was a fairly new organization. It had been formed as a reaction to some state policies that clearly were going to impact the municipalities. The organization did an excellent job of clarifying the issues, educating the members and the legislature and gaining support for its position. Within three years it had managed to accomplish the main goals that had led to its formation.
However, like people, organizations do not like to die. The organizational infrastructure – leadership, contact lists, funding – was in place and it seemed as if it would make sense to continue to assist communities on issues within the group’s expertise. Operationally it had proven itself very effective, and so it communities continued to support it, expecting that they would continue to receive value for their membership dues.
It soon became clear that various members of the executive committee had very different ideas about how this assistance should be provided and at what levels, how it should be funded and what the long-term goals should be. We had all agreed on the original mission, and were successful, but now that it was time to move on there was little agreement as to where the group was, or should be, going.
We decided, after a few attempts to reach an accord regarding a process, that we would get an outside facilitator to work with us, even though several of us had been through the process with prior organizations. It was felt that this would level the playing field and help avoid a situation where those who tended to be dominant, by virtue of position or personality, had an inordinate amount of influence.
Without going into details, the process ended in failure, although most people denied it at the time. The problem was that people were just not honest about strengths and weaknesses. We were a volunteer non-profit board, with no staff, who, by and large, had fairly demanding full-time jobs. The willing spirit far outweighed the weak flesh. The organization continues to exist, but last I heard it was still trying to find its niche.
This type of thing can happen to for-profit organizations as well. A small company may get giddy at the thought of becoming the sole supplier to a multi-national, but there may be organizational, technical or financial reasons that it is just not practical to take such a big leap.
This is the real benefit of strategic planning: If done properly, it should allow a small business owner to set a grand vision and then lay out the path that will get her from where she is to where she wants to be. An honest and accurate SWOT analysis is vital if the process is going to be meaningful.Â
The first article talks about the UN’s growing difficulties in providing adequate funding for existing food aid programs and the second article demonstrates the law of unintended consequences on the same subject.
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First, let me say that I feel badly about linking to an article that the NY Times has behind a subscription wall. Second, let me say that I do not believe that articles such as this should be hidden behind a subscription wall.
I just returned to the USA from ten months in Moldova. Part of my time there was working on an initiative of the US Ambassador that would help bring potable drinking water to the 80% of the people who didn’t have it and would increase access to simple and cheap solutions to things like rickets and goiters.
So, when I saw this article, called Attack of the Worms, by Nicholas Kristof that discussed how much can be done for so little to address a huge problem I immediately went to blog it. And then I realized it was part of the subscription Times Select service.
In the past I have just written a summary of such articles in a blog, so I went to do the same for this. However, as I reread Kristof, I realized that his succinctly written article was too powerful to summarize. So, I googled the article and came across a copy at the Behind the Times blog I linked to above.
As I suggested above, the issue Kristof addresses is only one of a number that fall into the category of cheaply fixable major issues. Others are access to Vitamin D, penicillin and iodine. And anyone who has worked with health care can probably add to the list.
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