Friday, January 23, 2009

Latest Key Findings




P6343.2 - Motor trade sales, November 2008
Motor trade sales for the three months ended November 2008 decreased by 0,2% compared with the three months ended November 2007, while the corresponding growth for the same period in 2007 was 6,0%. This decrease was mainly the result of the general decrease in new vehicle sales (contributing -6,2 percentage points). However, the negative growth was counteracted by the positive growth experienced in the form of sales of fuel and sales of accessories (contributing 3,8 and 3,1 percentage points respectively).

P6141.2 - Wholesale trade sales, November 2008
Wholesale trade sales, at constant (2000) prices, for the three months ended November 2008 increased by 2,7% compared with the three months ended November 2007. The annual growth rate for the corresponding period in 2007 was 6,0%. Seasonally adjusted wholesale trade sales, at constant (2000) prices, for the three months ended November 2008 increased by 0,3% compared with the three months ended August 2008.

Your clasroom in the future

The 2009 Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within Higher Education.

You can also view the reports for 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004 if you'd like to check how accurate their predictions were.

So expect more of the following in your classrooms in the next:

One year or less:
  • Mobiles
    Mobiles are already in use as tools for education on many campuses. New interfaces, the ability to connect to wifi and GPS in addition to a variety of cellular networks, and the availability of third-party applications have created a device with nearly infinite possibilities for education, networking, and personal productivity on the go; almost every student carries a mobile device, making it a natural choice for content delivery and even field work and data capture.

  • Cloud Computing
    The emergence of cloud-based applications is causing a shift in the way we think about how we use software and store our files. Educational institutions are beginning to take advantage of ready-made applications hosted on a dynamic, ever-expanding cloud that enable end users to perform tasks that have traditionally required site licensing, installation, and maintenance of individual software packages. Email, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, collaboration, media editing, and more can all be done inside a web browser, while the software and files are housed in the cloud.

Already, cloud-based applications are being used in the K-12 sector to provide virtual computers to students and staff without requiring each person to own the latest laptop or desktop machine; a handful of basic machines, provided they can access the Internet and support a web browser, are all that is needed for access to virtually unlimited data storage and programs of all kinds.

Two to Three years:

  • Geo-Everything
    Everything on the Earth’s surface has a location that can be expressed with just two coordinates. Using the new classes of geolocation tools, it is very easy to determine and capture the exact location of physical objects — as well as capturing the location where digital media such as photographs and video are taken. The other side of this coin is that it is also becoming easier to work with the geolocative data thus captured: it can be plotted on maps; combined with data about other events, objects, or people; graphed; charted; or manipulated in myriad ways.

A sampling of location-aware applications across disciplines includes the following:

Literature
Geotagging and virtual geocaching can be used to create annotated maps and real-world locations related to works of literature, enhancing the experience of reading the story. For instance, out of personal interest, one reader created a map of the course described in The Travels of Marco Polo, including passages from the text, photographs of the places mentioned (historical and contemporary), annotations and links, and other information
Medicine.
The University of Florida has used a 2-dimensional web-based Transparent Reality Simulation Engine to teach students how to operate medical machinery for several years. Recently, the addition of a GPS-enabled tablet device has allowed learners who are spatially challenged to experience the transparent reality visualization overlaid directly onto the real machine, enabling them to use the machine’s controls rather than a mouse as input to the simulation. Geolocation is used to track the tablet and align the physical machine with the visualization on the tablet.
Games-based Learning
The Local Games Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is developing "local games," learning experiences set in real-life neighborhoods and ecological habitats. Combining geolocation and alternate reality games, local games immerse the learner in a physical space as they explore the unique characteristics of the location and its inhabitants.


  • The Personal Web
    Armed with tools for tagging, aggregating, updating, and keeping track of content, today’s learners create and navigate a web that is increasingly tailored to their own needs and interests: this is the personal web.

The tools that enable the personal web are also ideal toolsets for research and learning. The ability to tag, categorize, and publish work online, instantly, without the need to understand or even touch the underlying technologies provides a host of opportunities for faculty and students. By organizing online information with tags and web feeds, it is a simple matter to create richly personal resource collections that are easily searchable, annotated, and that support any interest.

Four to Five Years:

  • Semantic-Aware Applications
    The idea behind the semantic web is that although online data is available for searching, its meaning is not: computers are very good at returning keywords, but very bad at understanding the context in which keywords are used.

The capability of semantic-aware applications to aid in searching and finding has implications for research, especially in light of the rate at which web content is being created. As semantic search tools continue to develop, it will be more common to see highly relevant results that display desired information in the hit list summary itself, saving time that is now spent clicking through to each page in turn. Semantic search also promises to reduce the number of unrelated or irrelevant results for a given search and to facilitate natural-language queries, both potentially useful features for researchers.

  • Smart Objects
    Smart objects are the link between the virtual world and the real. A smart object "knows" about itself — where and how it was made, what it is for, who owns it and how they use it, what other objects in the world are like it — and about its environment. Smart objects can report on their exact location and current state (full or empty, new or depleted, recently used or not).

There are very few examples of smart objects in use in academia, although significant research is being done into how to create and track smart objects and how they might eventually be used. A sampling of applications for smart objects across disciplines includes the following:

Archaeology.
The way that a single smart object connects to a network of information is useful for many disciplines. Consider a student or researcher examining a group of objects from an archaeological dig. A tag attached to the label of each object, when scanned with a mobile device like a camera-enabled phone, would instantly bring up photographs of other objects from the dig, video of the dig site, maps, and any other media or information associated with the area.
Health Care.
Researchers and students at the University of Arkansas have created a simulated hospital environment in the virtual world of Second Life to test the practical and social implications of tagging and tracking patients, hospital staff, supplies, and locations.
Oncology
At Purdue University, researchers have developed a tiny smart object designed to be injected into a tumor. Once placed there, the device can report on the doses of radiation received at the site where it is implanted and indicate the exact location of the tumor during treatment.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

New releases from StatsSA

StatsSA released their newest statistics:
P6242.1 - Retail trade sales, November 2008
Retail trade sales decrease in real terms Retail trade sales, at constant (2000) prices, for the three months ended November 2008 decreased by 4,0% compared with the three months ended November 2007. Retail trade sales, at constant (2000) prices, for the same period in 2007 increased by 1,1%.

Retail trade sales at constant (2000) prices for November 2008 also decreased by 4,0% compared with November 2007. Retail trade sales at constant (2000) prices for the first eleven months of 2008 reflected a decrease of 2,4% compared with the first eleven months of 2007, while growth for the same period in 2007 was 5,8%.

Retail trade sales at current prices, for the three months ended November 2008, increased by 11,4% compared with the three months ended November 2007. The major contributors to this increase were general dealers (+5,7 percentage points), retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods (+2,1 percentage points), retail trade in specialised food, beverages and tobacco stores (+1,8 percentage points), and all other retailers (+1,2 percentage points).

Retailers in household furniture, appliances and equipment contributed negatively (-0,6 of a percentage point) to the change in retail trade sales.

Retail trade sales at current prices for November 2008 increased by 10,7% compared with November 2007, while sales for the corresponding period in 2007 increased by 8,7%.

The total number of civil summonses issued for debt for the three months ended November 2008 increased by 5,2% compared with the three months ended November 2007. However, there was a decrease of 4,2% between November 2007 and November 2008.
The total number of civil judgements recorded for debt for the three months ended November 2008 decreased by 12,9% compared with the three months ended November 2007.
There was also a decrease of 16,4% between November 2007 and November 2008. The total value of civil judgements recorded for the three months ended November 2008 decreased by 3,4% compared with the three months ended November 2007. However, there was a 13,3% y/y increase in the value of civil judgements recorded for debt in November 2008.

The value of recorded building plans passed by larger municipalities (at current prices) during January to November 2008 decreased by 4,8% (-R3 649,1 million) compared with January to November 2007. This was due to a decrease of 15,1% (-R6 290,7 million) reported for residential buildings.
However, the decrease in residential buildings was partially counteracted by increases reported for non-residential buildings (17,0% or R2 475,7 million) and additions and alterations (0,8% or R165,8 million).

The preliminary estimates indicate that the value of buildings reported as completed to larger municipalities (at current prices) during the above-mentioned period increased by 9,3% (R4 000,9 million). Increases were reported for additions and alterations (25,2% or R1 912,9 million and non-residential buildings (24,4% or R2 100,0 million). Residential buildings decreased marginally by R12,0 million.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Business/Economics E-Reference Ratings

The Library Journal recently published an article comparing the various Business/Economic E-resources available.

Each database is rated based on the seven criteria librarians consider the most when making purchasing decisions:

  1. Scope - range and breadth of content
  2. Writing -quality of the writing; consideration of the audience
  3. Design - visual appeal; strengths and weakness of the interface
  4. Bells & Whistles - inclusion of multimedia files, interactive maps, blogs, and other features
  5. Ease of Use - logic behind the organization; efficiency of the search mechanisms
  6. Linking - cross-searchability with other files; ability to integrate with and link to other products
  7. Value for money - Value is a relative term, taking into consideration not only cost but myriad related factors. If a product is expensive, does its comprehensiveness and quality warrant the high cost? Are too much time and energy required to find material, given the price?

Below is the results in table format. (Click on image to enlarge)


Of the 14 databases used in the comparison UJ used to subscribe to 3:

  1. ABI/Inform - which we've cancelled. In the LJ comparison ABI/Inform did not receive a high rating for value for money, scope or writing. It did slightly better for ease of use.
  2. Business Source Complete - the Library subscribes to the Business Source package from Ebsco (the Complete package includes a few more journals). This database was rated as excellent in terms of scope and value for money; it also scored high in the other categories
  3. Emerald EMX - Emerald scored quite high for the linking they provide and also managed a good/plentiful rating for the other six criteria

Here is the comments from LJ regarding the two databases we still have (Business Source and Emerald):

  1. Visually attractive and easily searchable, this business resource offers everything a user would expect from a native EBSCO product. Searches can be limited to academic journals, trade publications, magazines, newspapers, books/monographs, company profiles, SWOT analysis, country reports, industry profiles, market research reports, and product reviews. With over 4000 titles (3000 full text), the product is well worth the price. If your library can afford only one business resource this year, give this one a try.
  2. Emerald has brilliantly combined its web site and online database into a single platform to provide 85,000 full-text articles from 175 peer-reviewed journals as well as web site content. Search results can be limited by clicking on articles, abstracts & reviews, Emerald site, or other content tabs. Current journal issues are easily located from the journal list, which are displayed with cover images, and links to RSS, latest issue, editorial team, and submission guidelines.

Web 2.0 comes to the White House


Hot of the press is the newly launched whitehouse.gov, the official White House website.
The new website includes interactive features such as a blog written by Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, email alerts and a feedback form. The briefing room includes space for a weekly video address, slide shows, proclamations, executive orders and information on appointments and nominees.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Pocket Guide to USA Transportation 2009

The USA Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), has published the Pocket Guide to Transportation 2009 – a 50-page quick reference guide to informative transportation data.

The 12th annual Pocket Guide covers data on the transportation system, transportation safety and security, mobility, transportation and the economy, and transportation and the environment.
This would a wonderful idea for our own Transport department to copy.

Marketing and Advertising trends for SA

The South African online marketing website bizcommunity.com released their Biz'09 Trend Report recently covering upcoming trends in SA.

Here are some of the predictions:

Special events to spur outdoor advertising in 2009
Changing shopper habits in 2009
How the digital landscape will shape marketing in 2009
Communication trends to be mindful of in 2009
The mobile media landscape in 2009 - a forecast
Sea change for SA Internet in 2009
eMarketing in 2009: exciting times, surprises predicted
A 2009 wishlist for African business objectives
Online consumer trends for 2009

Which would you choose - a hamburger or your friend?

Cherryflava reported on an innovative way Burger King used Facebook for a new burger campaign, the Whopper Sacrifice Campaign.

Burger King reckoned that Facebook friends are cheap, and by deleting 10 of them - you are rewarded with a health-problem causing Whopper...mmmm...meat.

Facebook, however, wasn't happy. It informed BK the application could not go against user expectations because Facebook explicitly says it will not inform users about friend removal.
For the application to continue, Facebook's tech team disabled the broadcasting feature.

After it learned of the restrictions, BK pulled the plug on Whopper Sacrifice. In just a week, the application boasted 82,000 users and more than 230,000 friends removed.

All eyes on Washington

The presidential inauguration is the official day that the President of the United States is sworn into office. The purpose of this inauguration is to honor the incoming president with formal ceremonies, including: a Presidential Swearing-in Ceremony, an Inaugural Address, and an Inaugural Parade.


The inauguration will take place tomorrow on January 20, 2009 in Washington D.C. on the steps of the United States Capitol and will be covered by all the big news channels on DSTV. The swearing-in ceremony starts at 19:00 (Africa time) with the Inaugural Parade starting at 21:30

President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office, which states the following:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."


The theme for the inauguration is The Birth of a New Freedom and keeping with the Election 2.0 style the Obama Inauguration already has an impressive website running with blogs, videos, bios etc.

New African marketing journal call for editors

The AFRICAN JOURNAL OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT (AJMM) is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal published that will be monthly by Academic Journals.
AJMM is dedicated to increasing the depth of the subject across disciplines with the ultimate aim of expanding knowledge of the subject.

Editors and reviewers
AJMM is seeking qualified researchers to join its editorial team as editors, subeditors or reviewers. Kindly send your resume to AJMM@acadjourn.org

Call for Papers
The journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence, and will publish:

· Original articles in basic and applied research
· Case studies
· Critical reviews, surveys, opinions, commentaries and essays

We invite you to submit your manuscript(s) to AJMM@acadjourn.org for publication in the Maiden Issue (April 2009).

Our objective is to inform authors of the decision on their manuscript(s) within four weeks of submission.

Following acceptance, a paper will normally be published in the next issue. Instruction for authors and other details are available on our website; http://www.academicjournals.org/AJMM/Instruction.htm


AJMM is an Open Access Journal

One key request of researchers across the world is unrestricted access to research publications. Open access gives a worldwide audience larger than that of any subscription-based journal and thus increases the visibility and impact of published works. It also enhances indexing, retrieval power and eliminates the need for permissions to reproduce and distribute content. AJMM is fully committed to the Open Access Initiative and will provide free access to all articles as soon as they are published.

For more information, please visit the journal site.

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