Statkon closing dates

Copyright: lusi

STATKON has announced the following closing dates:

Submission of new data sets
Friday, 31 October 2008, 14:00.

New requests on existing data
Friday, 7 November 2008

Assistance with research and questionnaire design
27 November 2008

STATKON will re-open:
Monday, 19 January 2009 for assistance with research and questionnaire design, as well as acceptance of new data sets, and on Monday, 2 February 2009 for data analysis.

African online archive in the pipeline

Sabinet is trying to establish a digital archive of journals that have been published in Africa.

The archive will contain retrospective content with the aim of digitizing where possible, back to the first issue. The collection must be useful to researchers, scholars, professionals and anyone interested in accessing core African journal literature.

They are conducting a survey regarding the content of the archive. Please assist them by filling in the online survey and suggest topics and journals that you would like to see in such an archive

Closing date for the survey: 10th October 2008.

New Architecture/Building databases

Two new architecture databases are available on Sabinet:

ArchUP
The material from ArchUP comes from 93 different Architectural journals, which include 20,000 records.

Articles indexed over the years enable users to access information on architects, buildings, building materials and methods, design theory, urban design, and much more.

The coverage is from early 1970 through August 2008. New records will be loaded monthly.

PlanUP
PlanUP includes over 3,000 records, describing the building, architect and location.
PlanUP was developed for the indexing of the extended archive of the Department of Architecture at UP. Donations of the work of some of South Africa's major architects were accumulated over the years.

The database includes diverse research reports, articles, frameworks, sketches and photographs, original hand-drawn plans, elevations, sections, and diaries. New records will be loaded monthly.

Cover Wars

The American Society of Magazine Editors has released their finalist for the Cover of the Year award, here are a few of the finalists:

With the PICA awards coming up this year (keep 21 November open) the AMSE's is a nice warm-up.

The PICA's has not been without controversy this year as The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) has suspended seven of Media24's women's magazines. They are: True Love Babe, InStyle SA, True Love, Lééf, Fairlady, SARIE and True Love Bride. Apparently TrueLove Babe and InStyle SA inflated their ABC's by almost 50 percent!

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

University news from Africa

AFRICA: Unesco conference discusses quality assurance Jane Marshall
How to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through higher education and how to improve the quality of higher education in Africa came under discussion in Dakar this month. Delegates gathered in the Senegalese capital for the Third International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Africa, organised by the Unesco Bamako Cluster Office and Unesco's regional bureau for education Africa (Breda).



NIGERIA: Panic grips students in illegal universities Tunde Fatunde
The National Universities Commission of Nigeria recently published a list of 31 'illegal' universities - including offshore campuses of foreign universities - that it has not approved, prompting panic in the affected institutions. Students face a bleak future if their qualifications are not recognised, teachers are no longer sure of their jobs while governing councils fear being prosecuted and have been lobbying key people in the legislative and executive arms of Nigeria's 36 states to have their universities recognised and accredited.

NIGERIA: Clipping the wings of degree mills Peter Okebukola
Nigerian higher education system, which has 297 institutions (universities, polytechnics and colleges of education) and enrols more than 3.5 million students, is the most expansive in Africa. Highly respected in the past, the system is now sadly paled - among other quality-depressing factors by activities of degree mills.



ZIMBABWE: Academics and students doubt power deal Clemence Manyukwe
Academics and students in Zimbabwe have greeted a political power-sharing deal struck earlier this month with caution. Students see little chance of the settlement between long-ruling Zanu-PF party and the rival Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) succeeding, mainly owing to mistrust of autocratic President Robert Mugabe. But lecturers hope it will deliver academic freedom and a return of donors who cut support as oppression deepened.



ZAMBIA: University offers free Aids treatment Clemence Manyukwe
The University of Zambia is offering anti-retroviral treatment to students and staff free of charge to reduce the impact of the HIV-Aids pandemic on the African country's oldest institution of higher learning and the skilled graduates it produces.



SENEGAL: Anti-brain drain computing grid installed
Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD) in Dakar is the first university in sub-Saharan Africa to benefit from installation of a computing grid under the Reversing Brain Drain into Brain Gain for Africa project jointly run by Unesco, Hewlett-Packard and the CNRS, France's national scientific research centre. The new infrastructure will make it easier for researchers at the university to collaborate with colleagues abroad, and give them access to considerable information technology resources.



ANGOLA: Launch of 'knowledge and research' portal
The Ministry of Science and Technology has launched a 'knowledge and research' portal, accessible to the public, on which postgraduate works may be logged, researchers can contact one another, and academic and scientific information will be published.

University News from the West

New Questions on Women, Academe and Careers
Top scholars gather to share research findings and works in progress that explore why gender gaps persist in the professoriate and other prestigious jobs on campuses.


Did My Job Disappear?
Either in the classroom or at career services, top business schools scramble to counsel students and recent alumni whose job prospects may have taken a hit with the recent shakeups on Wall Street.

Covering Up or Scaring Off?
High school counselors remain divided on what they should tell colleges about the disciplinary records of applicants. Should admissions officers know if potential students were suspended?

The Competition to Be Transparent
Long criticized for providing too little information about their prices and performance, college groups are now pouring (often overlapping) information onto the Internet.

Planning for Contraction
Timothy Burke looks at the changing economic landscape for higher education -- and sees a coming period of relative austerity.

Can Higher Education Regulate Itself?
Amid "pause" in federal push to toughen oversight of campuses and accreditors, academic leaders begin discussion of how to persuade public (and elected officials) that colleges can govern themselves.

I'll Take My Lecture to Go, Please
Comprehensive study finds that students overwhelmingly prefer having their lectures available online, either for remote access or for later viewing.



THE Awards 2008: shortlist
It is four years since the launch of the Times Higher Education Awards.
For the 2008 Awards, more than 130 institutions have submitted an impressive 500-plus entries. As always, shortlisting has been a difficult task, but the entries in the 18 categories paint a picture of a higher education sector that is innovative, imaginative and inspirational

Howdy partners
As state funding for public education plummets, US universities are forging mutually beneficial alliances at local level. Jon Marcus reports

SPECIAL SERIES: How universities help fight crime Keith Nuthall
It's the mother of clichés: crime pays. But, happily for many of the world's top universities, this is sometimes true. With commercial and financial crime becoming ever more complex, academics are responding to demand and becoming experts on a subject that the private and public sectors want to understand. In the first of an occasional series of articles, University World News this week takes a look at some of the better-known North American academics in a cutting edge and developing field.

US: Experts tackle commercial criminals Monica Dobie
Companies fighting commercial crime are always on the lookout for new resources and tools to deal with the problem. Where better to look than the world's best universities in America?

EUROPE: EIT starts work with first board meeting Keith Nuthall
The often controversial European Institute of Innovation and Technology has begun operations, with its newly appointed governing board having its first meeting and the European Commission claiming it will help close Europe's research spending gap compared with the United States.

INDIA: Big grant for biomedical research Subbiah Arunachalam
Biomedical research in India is in for good times. The UK-based Wellcome Trust, the world's largest private sector funding agency for biomedical research, has joined with India's Department of Biotechnology to create a new biomedical research career programme. The £80 million (US$148.3 million), five-year partnership will not only boost cutting-edge biomedical research but also complement the recent Wellcome Trust investment to support public health research in the country.

RUSSIA: Study into training for oil and gas industryNick Holdsworth
Russia's ability to produce specialist graduates for the oil and gas industries will be put under the spotlight in a new European Union-funded comparative study. The six-month investigation, Building Capability in Russian Educational Institutions, is being put out to tender and is expected to be ready to start next year.


US: Investigating collaboration in graduate education
The American Council of Graduate Schools* is to investigate international collaborations in graduate education, following the award of a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The study will include joint and dual degrees, and student and faculty exchange programmes.


It's All About Teaching - Latest NYT Magazine Education Issue steven bell
The New York Times Magazine fall education issue is now available online and this issue's theme is "It's All About Teaching". From the issue description: Does teaching make you a bad writer? Could it make you a good president? How would you teach on YouTube? How would you teach in Dubai? How can you teach with ... style? From Alaska to Alabama to the Persian Gulf, we look at the mysteries of teaching in all its variety. There's too much here to describe it all so just take a look for yourself.

IHEs Improve Their Environmental Friendliness steven bell
Two out of three colleges and universities are more environmentally friendly than they were a year ago, according to a leading annual survey, as students press for more sustainable practices on their campuses. Just 15 schools received the highest grade. Colleges were graded on a range of factors - administration, climate change and energy, food and recycling, green building, student involvement, transportation, endowment transparency, investment priorities, and shareholder engagement.

Zakumi revealed

We have a new mascot for the 2010 Soccer World Cup - Zakumi! The ZA stand for South Africa and Kumi means 10 in various African languages.

Here is a snippet from his official website:

So what can we say about him? One thing is for sure, Zakumi will be first on the dancefloor and last off it at the biggest party in the world - the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. He wants to dance and entertain as many people as he can. He is an animator for fans, players and officials, for schoolchildren, teenagers and big kids alike!

Needless to say, he is extremely proud to be the Official Mascot and determined to be the best host for everyone visiting his beloved country. He symbolizes South Africa and the rest of the African continent through his self-confidence, pride, hospitality, social skills and warm-heartedness.

Zakumi is a jolly, self-confident, adventurous, spontaneous, and actually quite shrewd little fellow. He loves to perform and always follows his instinct and intuition, yet sometimes has the tendency to exaggerate a bit. You will often find him fooling about and teasing people but not in a mean way. He is warm-hearted and caring, and wants to make as many friends as possible.
He loves to play football as it is a great way to connect with others and break down language barriers. He always carries his football around which he will use to invite people to play with him.

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.

New titles @ the library

Copyright: bizior

For Sport & Movement Studies

Physical activity and health / Claude Bouchard, Steven N. Blair, William L. Haskell, editors.
PUBLISHER Champaign, Ill. : Human Kinetics, c2007.
SHELF NO KOP BOUC.

Arnheim's principles of athletic training : a competency-based approach / William E. Prentice.
PUBLISHER Boston : McGraw-Hill Higher Education, c2009.
SHELF NO KOP PREN.

Clinical exercise physiology / Jonathan K. Erhman ... [et al.], editors.
PUBLISHER Champaign, Ill. : Human Kinetics, c2003.
SHELF NO KOP EHRM.

Biomechanical analysis of fundamental human movements / Arthur E.Chapman.
PUBLISHER Champaign, Ill. : Human Kinetics, c2008.
SHELF NO KOP CHAP.

Dynamic physical education for elementary school children / Robert P. Pangrazi.
PUBLISHER San Francisco : Pearson/Benjamin Cummings, c2007.
SHELF NO KOB PANG.



Physical activity and type 2 diabetes : therapeutic effects and mechanisms of action / John A. Hawley, Juleen R. Zierath, editors.
PUBLISHER Champaign, Ill. : Human Kinetics, c2008.
SHELF NO KOP HAWL.

Low back disorders : evidence-based prevention and rehabilitation/ Stuart McGill.
PUBLISHER Champaign, Ill. : Human Kinetics, 2007.
SHELF NO KOP MCGI .

Physical activity assessments for health-related research / Gregory J. Welk, editor.
PUBLISHER Champaign, Ill. : Human Kinetics, c2002.
SHELF NO KOP WELK.

Skeletal muscle damage and repair / Peter M. Tiidus, editor.
PUBLISHER Champaign, Ill. : Human Kinetics, c2008.
SHELF NO KOP TIID.

For Business Management
Strategic management and business policy / Thomas L. Wheelen, J. David Hunger.
PUBLISHER Upper Saddle River, NJ ; Harlow : Pearson Prentice Hall, c2008.
SHELF NO EBM WHEE .

12 : the elements of great managing / by Rodd Wagner and James K.
Harter.
PUBLISHER New York, N.Y. : Gallup Press, 2006.
SHELF NO EBM WAGN.



For Marketing Management
Married to the brand : why consumers bond with some brands for life : lessons from 60 years of research into the psychology of consumer relationships / by William J. McEwen.
PUBLISHER New York : Gallup, 2005.
SHELF NO EBJ MCEW.

Pendorings 2008

Bizcommunity reported that Joe Public South Africa not only won three golden Pendorings at the 14th annual Pendoring advertising competition that took place on Friday, 19 September 2008, at Vodaworld in Midrand, Gauteng, it also walked away with the sought-after Prestige Award, the highest Pendoring honour. Francois de Villiers, executive creative director of Draftfcb (Cape Town), took home the Legend Award, given away for the second time only.

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University news from the West

Golden opportunities
As the Olympic flame departs Beijing 2008 and the world's attention shifts to London 2012, UK universities are looking forward to sharing the spotlight. Hannah Fearn reports
Judgment calls
Amid worries about examining practices, Times Higher Education asked ten academics to mark a first-year paper. Verdicts ranged from zero to a 2:1, but the markers identified an inherent consensus, says Rebecca Attwood
Reform unfair financial aid system, says Hepi
Report calls for national pool of fee income to end ‘market’ in bursaries
Staff may get a zero salary offer to avoid redundancies Reports from the Universities UK conference


Graduate Enrollments Are Up, but Uneven
Gains are greater for foreign students than those from the U.S., for blacks than for whites, and for those studying in the health sciences than in other disciplines.

Graduate Enrollments Are Up, but Uneven Gains are greater for foreign students than those from the U.S., for blacks than for whites, and for those studying in the health sciences than in other disciplines.

Sharing Your Notes Online -- and Getting Paid for It
A new Web site brings social networking and ad revenues to the traditional note-taking service, but the model could raise copyright issues. Knetwit, as it’s called, is a Web site that combines some familiar Web 2.0 features — user profiles, file sharing, online communities — with the goals of campus note-taking services. Students — or, potentially, professors — join the site for free and can post their notes, papers and other assignments that might be helpful to others. Depending on one’s point of view, that could be equivalent to study sessions or tantamount to cheating.


GLOBAL: OECD calls for greater internationalisation Karen MacGregor
Governments should position their higher education systems in the global arena, develop a strategy and framework for internationalisation and encourage institutions to be more proactive internationally, says an OECD report published last week. Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society offers this and other policy advice to countries striving to build tertiary education in ways that stimulate innovation, competitiveness and economic growth.

GLOBAL: What are universities for?
The enduring elements of the success of universities explain why, in a global economy, they are now regarded as crucial national assets. But a discussion paper released last Thursday says this has also resulted in a certain amount of "loose thinking" about the roles that universities can play in society, while obscuring their most important contributions to it.

US: Foreign students better at completing PhDs Philip Fine
International students in the US finish their PhDs at a higher rate than domestic students, according to the Council of Graduate Schools which has released results from the largest analysis to date of data on doctoral students.

NEW ZEALAND: New category of university rejected John Gerritsen
A parliamentary committee has advised against creation of a new category of tertiary institution aimed at bridging the gap between New Zealand's universities and polytechnics. The Education and Science Select committee delivered its report on a controversial Bill proposing creation of the 'university of technology' as a separate category of institution.

EUROPE: Radical new ICT approach needed Alan Osborn
The European Commission has launched a major consultation about the development of information and communications technology in the EU following indications that Europe is slipping further behind in the global technology race. The consultation runs until 7 November and is part of Brussels' far-reaching response to the so-called Ahu report issued this summer, which identified a number of key failings in European ICT research and innovation.


Higher Education Will Feel The Impact of Baby Boom Retirements steven bell Higher education in particular will be faced with a significant number of faculty members and administrative staff retiring, and that number is only projected to rise over the years. To gain a firsthand perspective on how the baby boomer retirement phenomenon is projected to affect higher education, we spoke with two key decision makers at prominent Southern California institutions. When they do leave, the administrative staff and faculty members walking out the university door are veritable vessels of institution-specific knowledge. "You're losing the institutional history and continuity of teaching content that you've had over the years," Rushforth said.

Remedial Education Is Costly For IHEs steven bell It's a tough lesson for millions of students just now arriving on campus: even if you have a high school diploma, you may not be ready for college. In fact, a new study calculates, one-third of American college students have to enroll in remedial classes. The bill to colleges and taxpayers for trying to bring them up to speed on material they were supposed to learn in high school comes to between $2.3 billion and $2.9 billion annually.

PetroSA wins international award

Copyright: je1196

PetroSA together with its joint venture company, GTL.F1, has won the prestigious Petroleum Economist Award for Project Innovation of the Year 2007 for its Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) technology.



Judging criteria for the category was as follows:

Nominees should be able to demonstrate:

• The use of new technology in developing and completing the project
• The application of revised procedure to accommodate unusual developments and tackle challenges
• The completion of at least one stage of the project, which commenced in 2007
• A multi-disciplined team approach or a significant cross-border involvement
• Plans for further innovations and investment in the project area

Fair play is the name of the day

Sunday the 21st of September is FIFA Fair Play Day which coincides with the United Nations' International Day of Peace.

"I am delighted to see fair play celebrated on this day because promoting sportsmanship is synonymous with promoting ethical values, a subject close to my heart. Football may teach us to win, but it also teaches us how to accept defeat with dignity. It teaches us to respect the rules of the game, and also to respect our opponents, our team-mates, the referee and the spectators. Football rejects doping, corruption, racism and violence and promotes healthy values," said FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter.

FIFA has invited all of its 208 member associations to celebrate this day by highlighting the values of fair play.

FIFA is highly committed to these values and, at its various competitions, honours teams whose sportsmanship is impeccable with the FIFA Fair Play Trophy, as well as with various medals, diplomas and a cheque for the purchase of Adidas equipment for youth teams.

Fifa Press Release

The impact of a recession on Brands

Brand Finance, a brand valuation consultancy, revealed the impact of recession on the top 100 leading global/US brands in their report Brand Value in a Recession which is an update of the Brand Finance 500 report published in May this year.

The report reveals that between January and September the brand value of these brand dropped to US$67 billion - a drop of 4.2%.


“In the current climate, it is essential to understand the absolute value of brands and what drives their value,” said David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance.

He continued, “The BRANDFINANCE Global 500 report provides an insight into the effect of recession on leading brands. There is clear evidence that basic, value for money brands like WalMart, AT&T, Exxon and McDonalds are performing very strongly, particularly when they invest consistently in advertising and marketing. By contrast unnecessary or discretionary brands like Starbucks, Nike, Coca Cola and L'Oreal are declining in value as consumers watch their finances more carefully.”

“There is also evidence at the global level that developing world brands are growing rapidly. Samsung, Tata, Bank of China and Lukoil are all good examples of this phenomenon.”

The study is calculated by Brand Finance based on the widely used and technically superior “Royalty from Relief” methodology, which assumes that a company does not own its brand name, and then calculates how much it would have to pay to license it from a third party.

Article published in Bizcommunity.com

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.

Revisiting the Long Tail

Publishers Weekly had an interesting article How fat is the Long Tail? referring to a presentation of Anita Elberse, associate professor at Harvard Business School, at the annual meeting of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG).


"Elberse said that while the growth of online retailing has resulted in the expansion of products that are available for sale in the long tail, there is little evidence to show that sales of niche products have significantly increased. “The tail is getting longer, but it isn’t getting fatter,” Elberse asserted, referring to Anderson’s contention that with more items in the tail, sales will increase."


Basing her presentation on the sales of video's and music, DVD rentals and music subscriptions Elberse disagrees with Anderson's argument that expects customers to move away from the
blockbusters—and appreciate obscure offerings more finding that:

• Light users of a product category are a relatively large proportion of the customers of the more popular products


• Niche products have a double disadvantage:
  (1) They are not well known
  (2) When they finally become known, their customers consist of people “who know better” ‒ they like the more popular products more

Her advice to publishers?

1. Do not radically alter current resource allocation or product portfolio management strategies. One or more winners still go a long way, and probably even further than before.


2. When producing niche goods intended for the tail end of the distribution, keep costs extremely low. The odds of success are not favorable here either,
   and they will likely become less so.

Her advice to online retailers?

1. Broaden your assortment with more niche products.


2. Strictly manage the costs of offering products that will rarely sell.


3. Resist the temptation to direct customers to the tail too often, or you’ll risk their dissatisfaction.

For more details about the study, read ʺShould You Invest in the Long Tail?ʺ/Anita Elberse, Harvard Business Review 86, nos. 7/8 (July ‐ August 2008), pages 88‐96.

Advertising and your children

Copyright erikdungan ()

The new regulations governing advertising to children have finally come out and Bizcommunity.com has asked various advertising and marketing agencies for their comment and analysis.

In the first in this series of articles, the overall impression, according to Draftfcb, is that the spirit of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa's code appears to be sound.The aim of the new legislation is to protect children from marketers trying to promote unhealthy lifestyles and when asked what this means for marketers and ad agencies and how they are affected, Draftfcb strategic planning director, Rita Larisma, told Bizcommunity, "Perhaps because the original rumours around revised legislation on marketing to children were so draconian, the final code of advertising, despite its increased strictness, seems quite reasonable."

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Turning research into rewards

Copyright barunpatro

Which universities get the most bang for their research buck? Forbes Entrepreneurship assembled a list of the top 15, based on a 2006 survey (the most recent data) of 189 schools by the Association of University Technology Managers, which tracks university-born patents and licensing revenues. (Stevens came in at number three; Stanford, number nine.)

Total research-related income generated by all 189 schools: $1.5 billion.

Another HE report released

This time it is the OECD which has released their Education at a Glance 2008:OECD Indicators report enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ performance.

It provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of 28 indicators on the performance of education systems and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally.

The indicators look at who participates in education, what is spent on it and how education systems operate and at the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students’ performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment

Highlights include:

• Meeting a rapidly rising demand for more and better education is creating intense pressures to raise spending on education and improve its efficiency.
• The total amount of public spending on educational institutions rose in all OECD countries over the last decade, on average by 19% between 2000 and 2005 alone, and in Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland and Korea by more than twice that amount.
• Another visible indication of the efforts governments are making can be seen in the fact that, over the last decade, the share of public budgets devoted to education grew by more than one percentage point – from 11.9% in 1995 to 13.2% in 2005

University news from Africa

SOUTH AFRICA: Report warns of freedom inroads Karen MacGregor
An exhaustive probe into institutional autonomy and academic freedom by a task team of South Africa's advisory Council on Higher Education has found that government's steering of universities has "grown more directive, less consultative, and occasionally prone to hierarchical decree". It proposes a range of actions including greater commitment on the part of the government to negotiating with universities on planning and funding.

SOUTH AFRICA: Race debacle vc resigns Karen MacGregor
Six months after a racist video showing white Afrikaner students abusing cleaners at the University of the Free State hit the headlines and prompted international outrage, the vice-chancellor has resigned. Professor Frederick Fourie said stress caused by political divisions and tensions in the university council and community had been "extremely draining" and he was stepping down "in the interest of transformation" and development at the university.


ZIMBABWE: Three students targeted for sanctions Clemence Manyukwe
Canada has slapped targeted sanctions on three Zimbabwean university students whose parents are accused of propping up the regime of dictatorial President Robert Mugabe. They are the first students to appear on a Canada list that now features some 180 politicians, entities and officials, spouses and children targeted for travel restrictions and an assets freeze.

ZIMBABWE: Economic crisis keeps universities closed Clemence Manyukwe
Zimbabwe's public universities have failed to re-open due to an escalating economic crisis, student unions have confirmed. Most universities were supposed to open last month or early this month, but lecturers have either gone on strike or there are no funds for operations.


NIGERIA: Polytechnics and colleges to award degrees Tunde Fatunde
Selected polytechnics and colleges of education will soon be upgraded to award university degrees, Nigerian Minister of State for Education Hajiya Aishatu Dukku has announced. Dukku said adequate funds would be made available to employ university-level teachers and upgrade infrastructure at the institutions. One of the main objectives of the reform is to create additional avenues for would-be students in a country where hundreds of thousands of qualified school-leavers are unable to clinch university places each year.


ZAMBIA: Third public university opens Clemence Manyukwe
Zambia's third public degree-awarding university began admitting its first intake of students last week. The new institution, established earlier this year after the National College for Management and Development Studies in Kabwe was converted into Mulungushi University, should help to ease congestion at the country's other two state-owned institutions of higher learning, the University of Zambia and Copperbelt University.


BURKINA FASO: Ouagadougou University reopens
A two-month crisis at the University of Ouagadougou is over, with students resuming their courses this month following concessions by the authorities to some of their demands. The campus was abruptly closed in June, after violent clashes between police and protesting students (see University World News, 20 July 2008).


DR CONGO: New technology university opens
A new university specialising in technology, the Université de Technologie du Congo, has opened in the Kinshasa suburb of Limete, Le Potentiel of Kinshasa reported. The establishment, officially opened on 1 September, will provide initial and continuing engineering courses in science and technology, together with studies in human and social sciences.