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.

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.

How technology will impact HE

The future of higher education: how technology will shape learning is an Economist Intelligence Unit white paper, sponsored by the New Media Consortium.

Here is the executive summary:

Technological innovation, long a hallmark of academic research, may now be changing the very way that universities teach and students learn. For academic institutions, charged with equipping graduates to compete in today’s knowledge economy, the possibilities are great. Distance education, sophisticated learning-management systems and the opportunity to collaborate with research partners from around the world are just some of the transformational benefits that universities are embracing.

But significant challenges also loom.

For all of its benefits, technology remains a disruptive innovation—and an expensive one. Faculty members used to teaching in one way may be loath to invest the time to learn new methods, and may lack the budget for needed support.

This paper examines the role of technology in shaping the future of higher education. The major findings are as follows:

* Technology has had—and will continue to have—a significant impact on higher education. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of survey respondents from both the public and private sectors say that technological innovation will have a major influence on teaching methodologies over the next five years. In fact, technology will become a core differentiator in attracting students and corporate partners.

* Online learning is gaining a firm foothold in universities around the world. More than two-thirds of respondents from academia say that their institutions offer online courses. Many of them, especially those with a public-service mandate, consider online learning key to advancing their mission, placing advanced education within reach of people who might otherwise not be able to access it.

* Corporate-academic partnerships will form an increasing part of the university experience, at a time when locating funding and controlling costs are key concerns, and when only one-quarter of university chief information officers (CIOs) have a place at the table when it comes to setting strategy. To attract corporate partnerships, institutions will need to demonstrate a commitment to advanced technologies.

* University respondents view technology as having a largely positive impact on their campuses, but acknowledge that operational challenges may hinder the full benefits from being realised (for example, tenure, promotions and other organisational practices may need adjustment to encourage faculty members to adopt new technologies). In addition, technology may be disruptive in ways not intended: respondents note a rise in student plagiarism, cheating and distractability, which they attribute to easy and ready access to mobile technologies.

* Higher education is responding to globalisation. Respondents say that having an overseas presence will be the norm for the majority of universities over the coming years, and 54% of academic respondents say their institutions either already have foreign locations or plan to open them in the next three years. Distance education is also becoming increasingly global, with universities in the US and overseas leveraging advanced technologies to put education within reach of many more individuals around the world.

See into the future ...

Image: www.docjaksonsplace.com/fortunetellerstent.htm

A few weeks ago I wrote an entry on Perkonomics and how it seems to be one of the trends to keep an eye on according to Trendwatching.

They have now released some Q&A's on trend watching in their November Top 15 Trend Questions and Answers:

Q15: “How do I spot and apply trends?”
Q14: “What are good trend resources?”
Q13: “What will be the next Facebook or Google?”
Q12: “What’s next for ?”
Q11: “So how does PERKONOMICS relate to…?”
Q10: ”What trends are affecting ?”
Q9: “How do I know a trend isn’t just a fad?”
Q8: “When is the right time to act on a trend?”
Q7: “What are the trends in ?”
Q6: “Who sets trends?”
Q5: “How do I become a (better) trend watcher?”
Q4: “How much influence do trend watchers have?”
Q3: “What is a trend’s life cycle?”
Q2: “What’s going to be big in 2009?”
Q1: “How is the financial crisis going to impact my business?” .

It makes for some very interesting reading.

Strategic technologies for 2009

Gartner Inc., a technology research and advisory company, has ranked virtualization as the No. 1 strategic technology for next year, not for its "tremendously obvious" ability to virtualize servers, but for its increasing capability to virtualize just about everything else in a data center.

Here's Gartner's list for 2009:

1. Virtualization. (Ranked No. 5 last year)

In forecasting the impact of the economy on IT spending, Gartner put virtualization near the top of must-have technologies. But to make the strategic technology list, it had to have other characteristics as well, namely a Swiss Army Knife-like capability to be applied beyond servers.

Gartner analyst Carl Claunch said that in storage, for instance, virtualization allows users to "to combine different kinds and generations of storage technology." That gives them the freedom to mix and match storage technologies based on competitive bids, he said.

2. Cloud computing. (New to the list.)

If there was a technology hype list, cloud computing would have been the top choice, said Cearley. He got some audience chuckles with this line: "You can't swing a dead cat without hitting somebody that's talking about cloud computing these days."
But Gartner sees cloud computing as having a massive game-changing role, not only as the platform for software as a service, but as a computing and storage infrastructure provider, as well as a platform for information and business processes.

3. Computing fabrics. (No. 8 last year.)

Server technology is evolving to a point where you buy the physical resource you need, whether that is memory, I/O or processor, and fashion them together to create resource pools.

A computing fabric "combines those [resources] as you need them," said Claunch. IT shops will, potentially, be able to dispense with their separate pools of small, medium and large servers under this model. Blade servers have some of this capability -- the ability to move memory and processor capability -- but it's limited to what's inside the chassis, he said.

4. Web-oriented architecture. (New but similar to "the Web platform" -- No. 7 last year.) Gartner talked last year about how the Web will be the model for services delivery. This year, it discussed in terms of an architectural approach, how Web models will influence service-oriented architectures. The architecture, as the name implies, uses Web standards, identifiers, formats and protocols

5. Enterprise mashups. (No. 6 last year.)

Mashups, a fun word, are becoming a serious enterprise tool, allowing users to use public APIs to combine various services and capabilities quickly. The content aggregation tools give business users the flexibility to combine data inside and outside the enterprise.

6. Specialized systems. (New to the list.) A Cisco router is an obvious example, but there are specialized appliances for Java, data warehousing and other processes. It's an approach that could lead to some cost savings, and "could be wide open" as an emerging trend, said Claunch.

7. Social software and social networking. (No. 10 last year.) The tools offer "the ability to work across the organization in dynamic fashion," said Claunch.

8. Unified communications. (No. 2 last year.) Gartner said that over the next five year, "the number of different communications vendors companies may be reduced by at least 50%," thanks to unified communications.

9. Business intelligence. (New.)

This is hardly new to enterprises, but increases in computing power is giving companies the means to expand business intelligence capabilities, such as applying BI analytics directly into business processes.

10. Green IT. (No. 1 last year.)

Already a strategic technology that will not melt away, Green IT has not diminished in importance. For IT, green is everything, and that includes anything that can help cut the energy bill and reduce fuel use.

CIO published an article on What Gartner didn't say about virtualisation which goes into more detail about client virtualisation.

Looking towards the future

Copyright:Marzie

Every year The Futurist makes some forecasts on changes and trends we can expect in the following year. This year they have released an article: OUTLOOK 2009: Recent Forecasts from World Future Society for 2009 and Beyond .

The forecasts is not “predictions” of what the future will be like, but rather glimpses of what may happen or proposals for preferred futures.

So what can you expect?

In a nutshell: more sex, fewer antidepressants; more religious influence in China, less religious influence in the Middle East and the United States; more truth and transparency online, but a totally recorded real life.

The forecasts are divided into sections:

• Business and Economics

China will most likely become the world’s largest economy within the next three decades.

Tourism is expected to nearly double worldwide, from 842 million international tourist arrivals in 2006 to 1.6 billion in 2020

Retirees in the United States will increasingly return to the workforce. (The report is large US-based, however, this is a global trend)

Socioeconomic disparities will become more pronounced in aging societies.

Social safety nets will get cut. Governments across the industrialized world will pare down or scrap altogether their pension and health-care programs for retirees.

• Computers

Watch out! HAL from 2001 is on the way. Selfaware machine intelligence could be achieved by midcentury.

Search engines will become humanlike by 2050. With the “semantic” Web, AI-based search engines will comprehend users’ questions and queries just like a human assistant.

Rainbow traps may improve computing abilities.

“Serious gaming” will help train tomorrow’s health workers.

• Demography

Urbanization will hit 60% by 2030.

Workforces on the move will exacerbate social conflicts. Increased migrations of workers from developing countries to developed countries will help offset worker shortages in host countries.

• Energy

Access to electricity will reach 83% of the world by 2030.

Architects will harness energy from the movement of crowds.

Pursuit of alternatives to oil could help stabilize gas prices.

• Information Society

Everything you say and do may be recorded. By the late 2010s, ubiquitous unseen nanodevices will provide seamless communication and surveillance among all people everywhere.

Identity theft and other Internet crimes will increase at a faster pace.

You’ll have more friends whom you’ll never meet, and cyberfriends may outnumber real-life friends. (This has already happened in places like Facebook and MySpace, even perhaps Linked-In?)

• Technology and Science
  

The Internet will become more factually reliable and more transparent.

TV in 3-D.

Optical clocks may enable us to measure time much more precisely.

• Transportation

The car’s days as king of the road may soon be over.

Mobility is becoming a priority to more people in rising economies: More people will travel farther faster. Personal mobility is increasing in rapidly expanding economies.

Research labs are coming closer to “beaming” us up. Star Trek–type transporters may soon be possible for data transmission, but not for sending people places.

• Values and Society

People will have more sex. With women’s growing economic power around the world, arranged marriages are becoming less likely. As a result, women will feel freer to express their sexuality.

U.S. cultural hegemony may be over. The days of U.S. and First World dominance over the world’s culture and economy may soon be over.

New generations, new values. Self reliance and cooperation will become prevalent societal values as Generation X and Generation Y replace the baby-boom generation.

More people will consume ethically.

• Work and Careers

Succeeding in future niche careers may mean choosing an unusual major.

Tomorrow’s high-tech cowboys will telecommute.

Professional knowledge will become obsolete more quickly.

• World Affairs

The world’s legal systems will be networked. The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), a database of local and national laws for more than 50 participating countries, will grow to include more than 100 counties by 2010.


Militaries will use neuroscience breakthroughs to win future wars.



Climate change is already spurring armed conflict.

Cause related ads can raise sales by 74%

According to the 2008 Cone/Duke University Behavioral Cause Study there is a very strong link between the choices consumers make and cause related marketing.

The Study consists of a two phase research methodology. The first phase was conducted throughout October and December 2007 in a behavioral lab study at Duke University among a random sample of 182 participants, ranging in age from 18- to 62-years-old. The second phase, conducted online in July 2008, consisted of a demographically representative U.S. sample of 1,051 adults, including 625 women and 426 men.

Here are some of the highlights:

• 85% say it is acceptable for companies to include causes in their marketing (compared to 66% in 1993)
• 79% would be likely to switch brands if the other brand has a good cause associated with it
• 38% had purchased a product associated with a cause in the previous 12 months (compared to 20% in 1993)

Future trend they have identified include:

• Social Consciousness Elevation

Companies will serve as a catalyst in increasing understanding and fostering empathy among mainstream consumers about the ways in which complex, often unfamiliar global issues, such as access to clean water, human rights and gender equality, impact business and the health of society.

• Product Innovation

Companies will increasingly create new products or market existing ones with an eye toward manufacturing responsible goods that meet the everyday needs of their customers.

• Widespread Collaboration

Companies will look beyond NGOs as the sole source of their credibility halo.

• Global Customization

Multinationals will steer away from focusing on a single issue to creating global citizenship platforms, tailoring their efforts to meet the needs of key markets.

• Stakeholder Customization

To harness the passion and actions of their stakeholders and to deepen engagement, companies will identify legitimate opportunities to co-create cause efforts.

• Transparent Operation

To effectively build trust among even the most skeptical stakeholders, companies will disclose not only the details of a specific cause program, but also of the peripheral business issues that impact their actions

• Business-to-Business Translation

Business-to-business companies will become more accountable to their unique stakeholders, including employees, customers and vendors, and will brand, package and communicate their citizenship efforts.

• Measurement and Justification

Companies will be forced to redefine measurement metrics no longer based on outputs, but on the outcomes for society and their business.

Nielsen newsletter

Nielsen Consumer Insight has just released their October 2008 newsletter covering the following:

• Honey, We Acculturated the Kids!

Trying to tap the Hispanic market? You’ll need to take nativity (country of origin), linguistic ability and the influence of children into account to shape an effective marketing campaign and media strategy...

• Welcome Back to the Live Commercial.

As the struggle continues to increase the visibility of brands, an evolution of storyline product placements where brands join shows as near “cast members” is taking place. Advertisers are reaching deep into their playbooks back to product placement’s roots—the live commercial....

• Out with the Old – In With the New.

Retail shelf space is limited. A new item in, typically means an old item out. But delisting items can lead to severe opportunity costs. Knowing which items to delist — and why — are just as important as knowing which new items to launch...

• Private Label: What’s Really Driving Growth?

Long a stalwart of budget-conscious consumers, private label goods have enjoyed a sales juggernaut during these financially uncertain times. Or so it would seem. Turns out, growth is driven more by higher commodity prices than consumers shifting away from traditional brands...

• Brazil – A Happy Place to Live.

With strong financials and a diverse population, Brazil’s optimistic consumers are looking to their huge array of retail choices to help them trade up, as the largest economy in South America expands its presence around the world...

In the Trend Index Top 10 Digitally Downloaded Songs were:
1. So What - Pink
2. Whatever You Like - T.I
3. Disturbia - Rihanna

SA fifteen year on

Almost halfway through South Africa’s second decade of freedom, government is taking stock of how far it has gone in achieving the objective of improving the quality of life of all South Africans in their report Towards a Fifteen Year Review .

The review brings particular focus to the past five years, building on conclusions of Towards a Ten Year Review, published in 2003.

The 2008 review aims to answer 3 question:

1. To what extent has the Government achieved its policy objectives?
2. Are these the appropriate policy objectives?
3. What have the past five years brought in terms of progress towards these objectives?.

The themes covered are:

• Governance
• Social sector
• Economic
• Justice, crime prevention and security
• International relations, peace and security
• Targeted groups
• Major transversal post-2004 initiatives

Best Global Brands 2008

Interbrand has released their Best Brands for 2008 report recently and here is what the Top 10 looks like:

1. Ranked 1st in 2007, brand value +- $m 66,667
2. Ranked 3rd in 2007, brand value +- $m 59,031
3. Ranked 2nd in 2007, brand value +- $m 59,007
4. Ranked 4th in 2007, brand value +- $m 53,086
5. Ranked 5th in 2007, brand value +- $m 35,942
6. Ranked 6th in 2007, brand value +- $m 34,050
7. Ranked 7th in 2007, brand value +- $m 31,261
8. Ranked 8th in 2007, brand value +- $m 31,049
9. Ranked 9th in 2007, brand value +- $m 29,251
10. Ranked 20th in 2007, brand value +- $m 25,590
    

Here is what you can expect from the rest of the report:

• Guest contributor Harvard Business School Professor Nancy Koehn speaks out
  on managing brands
• The six laws of collaborative branding by Jason Baer - A guide to understanding the new era of branding in a consumer driven world
• Sustainability and its impact on brand value by Paula Oliveira and Andrea Sullivan -Can organizations structure their green, or sustainability, initiatives to produce value growth for the brand?
• The Red Thread by Jez Frampton - Putting the brand at core of the business becomes a uniting force behind everything you do and say to drive value
• Taking action: acting like a brand leader by Graham Hales - Practical steps for acting, behaving, and managing like a brand leader
• Interbrand’s method for valuing the 2008 Best Global Brands - Understanding our method and approach to looking at brands through a financial lens
• Profiles of the 2008 best global brands and industry insights - A snapshot of the top 100 global brands and insight into what’s driving growth in each industry
• The business purpose for brand valuation by Nik Stucky - A look at how we understand brands as business assets, and how brand value is a barometer for a healthy business
• The impact of risk on brand value by Jean-Baptiste Danet and Valérie Herdlicka - Brands create shareholder value and should be managed to mitigate risk of decreasing value
• The future of future-proofing brand investments by Greg Silverman - How will we measure the unobservable and make informed brand investment?
• Planning your touchpoints to accelerate profit by Rune Gustafson - Understanding brand as a central organizing principle requires the management of every touchpoint to build the experience for consumers
• Building brands in emerging markets by interbrand’s leaders in Brazil, China, India, and Russia Aléjandro Pinedo, Nicola Stanisch, Iain Ellwood, and Jonathan Chajet talk about the challenges and opportunities to build brands in developing economies
• Brands create nations by JÜrgen Häusler - A look at the association between nations and their brands
• The luxury kingdom by Manfredi Ricca - Understanding the laws ruling the luxury market
• It’s what on the inside that counts by Stephanie Colton and Carolyn Ray - An employee’s engagement with the brand means the difference between satisfied customers and bottom-line results
• The value of creativity by Andy Payne - A creative director’s point of view on the value of brands

AMPS 2008 released

SAARF has released the latest All Media and Products Survey - AMPS 2008A recently.

Overall, only print and online have attracted more media consumers than they did in the previous release, AMPS® 2007B. The electronic media have remained stable, while the out of home sector, once a stranger to the world of audience losses, has seen a number of its media types in decline.

Here are some highlights:

NEWSPAPERS

As in the previous AMPS® survey, the newspaper medium has again significantly improved its numbers. The medium in total is up from 46.8% in AMPS® 2007B, and from 44.4% a year ago, to 48.4%, with a total of 15,162-million readers. In the space of a year, newspapers have attracted a further 1,337-million readers.

MAGAZINES
AMPS® 2008A does not have good news for magazines overall, which have remained stable over the previous survey. While the current reach of 40.4% may not be a significant improvement over AMPS® 2007B, it is however a significant increase over the previous year, when magazine reach was 37.5%. Total magazine readership is 12,632-million, boosted primarily by growth in the Northern Cape, amongst females, and those aged 16-24.

TELEVISION
Across a week, 83.8% of South African adults watch television, remaining stable on the previous survey. The only significant change was seen for DStv, whose audience is up to 15.2%. While some of this increase is due to improvements on the DStv questions in the AMPS® questionnaire, the platform is still enjoying real growth, as seen in the rise in its subscriptions.

RADIO
Total radio listening across the week remains unchanged over the previous survey, with movement only in the North West, where listeners increased. Community radio however, has grown. Currently, the radio medium reaches 94.1% of all adults in SA (29,459-million listeners). The community radio sector reaches 18.4% of adults, up significantly over the 17.1% seen in AMPS® 2007B. Total community listenership is 5,750-million (up in the Northern Cape and North West).

CINEMA
Across all time filters, except “Cinema – Ever”, this medium has shown no significant growth or decline.

INTERNET
Internet usage continues to rise significantly, mirroring the trends seen in the previous AMPS® survey.
Across the week, 2,419-million South African adults go online, accounting for 7.7% of the adult population, a significant increase over the 6.9% seen in AMPS® 2007B. These gains came through specifically from the Northern Cape, and amongst the 16-24 age group.

Civil Aviation Bill 2008

Copyright: clix .

The Parliamentary Committee on Transport has been briefed on the Civil Aviation Bill 2008.

Summary:

The Civil Aviation Bill was presented to the Committee. It was explained that the Bill was quite technical.

Its primary purpose was to ensure that there was compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), to improve civil aviation in South Africa as well as consolidation of legislation.

The Bill also introduced the creation of the Aviation Safety Investigation Board (ASIB) whose primary purpose was to identify safety deficiencies, report publicly on its findings and its sole objective was accident prevention.

The Civil Aviation Authority was also covered in clauses 70 to 78, and the Civil Aviation Authority Board in clauses 70 to 90. The monitoring and enforcement of regulatory compliance was set out in clauses 101 to 140. The National Civil Aviation Security Coordinator provisions were in clauses 141 to 151.

Members asked why the Security Coordinator was being paid by the Department, and it was explained that some of the institutional issues would be addressed again after public comment.

The comment was made that it would be useful to look at the International Organisation’s requirements and wording and that the Department must start to develop policy.

Further questions related to the replacement of the Director, the position of the Executive Board, the sub entities associated with the Appeals Board, the need for the Appeals Committee, the disparity between the treatment of disabled people on different flights and airlines, and the need to look again at the clause dealing with owners of aircraft.

SA Development Indicators 2008

This 2008 edition of Development Indicators summarises data on trends mainly for the period up to the end of April 2008.

Like the previous edition, this year’s publication contains information sourced from official statistics, government databases and research by local and international institutions, which has been clustered into ten broad themes:

• Economic Growth and Transformation

Incl. GDP, FDI, CPI, Bond points spread, SA's competitiveness, Knowledge-based economic outlook etc

• Employment

Incl. Employment/Unemployment and Expanded public works programme (EPWP)

• Poverty and Inequality

Incl. Per capita income, Living standards, Inequality measures, Poverty gap analysis etc

• Household and Community Assets
Incl. Water, Sanitation, Electricity etc.

• Health

Incl. Life expectancy, Mortality, HIV prevalence etc.

• Education

Incl. Educator - learner ratio, Enrolment, Senior certificate pass rate, Matriculants with mathematics passes etc.

• Social Cohesion

Incl. Strength of civil society, Voter participation, Confident in a happy future for all races,
Identity based on self-description, Pride in being South African etc.

• Safety and Security

Incl. Number of all crimes, Contact crime, Property crime, Detection rate, Charges referred to court, Conviction rate, Inmates, Road accidents etc.

• International Relations

Incl. Peace operations, Democratically elected governments in Africa, Real GDP growth in Africa, Tourism, Mission operations and diplomats trained, International agreements

• Good Governance

Incl. Tax returns, Audits, Corruption perceptions, Budget transparency, Public opinion on delivery of basic services, Ease of doing business, Green house gas emissions, Demographic data

Each indicator is summarised in terms of policy goal, data table and/or graph, and trend analysis.

Higher Education Inflation Index for the USA released

Copyright yirsh

The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) is an inflation index designed specifically to track the main cost drivers in higher education in the USA.

It is an essential planning tool for educational managers, enabling schools to project the future budget and funding increases required to maintain real purchasing power and investment. HEPI is issued annually by Commonfund Institute and is distributed free of charge to educational institutions.

HEPI is a more accurate indicator of changes in costs for colleges and universities than the more familiar Consumer Price Index. It measures the average relative level of prices in a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by colleges and universities each year through current fund educational and general expenditures, excluding research.

HEPI is compiled from data reported and published by government and economic agencies. The eight categories cover current operational costs of colleges and universities. These include salaries for faculty, administrative employees, clerical employees, and service employees, fringe benefits, utilities, supplies and materials, and miscellaneous services.

HEPI has been calculated every year since 1983 and includes inflation data going back to 1961. Since fiscal year 2002, HEPI has been based on a regression formula. In 2005, Commonfund Institute assumed responsibility for maintaining HEPI and calculating its annual rate of change.

Who's in charge of Asia's Fab 50?

Forbes Business just released a list of CEO's of the Top 50 companies operating in Asia:

The Council for Medical Schemes Annual report released

Copyright by miqueias

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) released their Annual Report for 2007/2008 yesterday.

As the regulatory authority responsible for overseeing medical schemes in South Africa (SA), the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS or Council) administers and enforces the Medical Schemes Act 131 of 1998 (MSA or Act).
The CMS is an autonomous public agency funded through levies charged to medical schemes and is accountable to the Minister responsible for national health matters.

The report itself is quite long (177 pages), but the key goals of the CMS, taken from the report, are:

Goal 1: We monitor the impact of the Medical Schemes Act 131 of 1998 and recommend improvements.

Goal 2: Secure adequate protection for beneficiaries by approving the manner in which medical schemes carry out business and by monitoring their financial performance.

Goal 3: Support the work of trustees and promote public understanding of the way in which medical schemes function.

Goal 4: Take fair and timely enforcement actions when required.

Goal 5: Investigate and resolve complaints of beneficiaries.

Goal 6: Foster the development of the CMS as an attractive workplace and an employer of choice.

Goal 7: Develop strategic alliances with counterpart regulators and others.