TeluGlobe » Career

Special Live Show on TORi: Mohana Murali with Satish Vemana About the Status of Indian Students at UNVA

Admin — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:01:26 +0000

Tune in to Prof Mohana Murali’s special live show on TORi on Sunday, Aug 7 at 2 PM US Eastern.

Mr. Satish Vemana, Treasurer of TANA will join Prof Mohan to give an update on TANA’s efforts to resolve the situation of Indian students affected by the ICE action against University of Norther Virginia.

Call in number: (703) 879-6611

Let’s Talk Turkey as Another US University is in the Feds Cross-hairs (Part 1 of 2)

Admin — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:03:57 +0000

Most of the followers of this blog and my internet radio show know that I have been very critical about many for-profit universities in general and what I consider as universities of fraud in particular. In past I did call out a few universities by name and mention that the degrees they are awarding are essentially worthless. However, I have been leery about labeling particular universities as complete fraud. Early this year, the Tri-Valley University saga opened a new chapter in this fight against universities of fraud.

In the wake of Feds shutting down Tri-Valley University, some callers on my show have asked me to name a few universities which I think are fraud. I don’t recall if I named any in response to those calls. Most probably I did not name University of Northern Virginia (UNVA). For, I did not have any hard evidence to support my assertions. However, if anyone has asked me privately, I would not have hesitated to name UVNA as a questionable entity. In fact, in my recent trip to India, a relative of mine asked me about UNVA in particular. I did not hold any punches and told him that not only UNVA is not a reputable university, it is also not accredited, and most possibly it is a big fraud.

View more videos at: http://www.nbcwashington.com.

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

As in the case of Tri-Valley University, about 90% of the students who are affected by this action by the Feds are Indians, and a vast majority of them are from Andhra Pradesh. I beg to differ from the standard line of excuse: ignorance or innocence. We all know the maxim: ignorantia legis neminem excusat (ignorance of the law excuses no one.) I contend that it is willful participation by many.

Now that Feds got into the picture, local and national Indian organizations are entering the scene to minimize the damage to students. This is commendable. However, shouldn’t these organizations be doing something preventive rather than being reactive? Come on; please don’t tell me that we could not possibly know. Many people knew. For example, many of us living in the Washington, DC area have our suspicions about UNVA. Yet we said or did nothing to convince those students to seek alternatives.

For get the involvement of organizations. I ask myself, “As an educator and a concerned citizen, what role do I have here?” That is, to say or do something so as to PREVENT the damage that could be caused to its student body. For that matter, don’t you think that this news is a cause of concern for the entire Indian community? It is a concern not just because Indian students are affected, but also because reputation of Indian community as a whole is at stake! Doesn’t frequent news like this breed prejudice that Indians are suckers for fraud, or worse, enablers of fraud?

I have no convincing answers to the issue of community role. However, I understand the awkward nature of telling a student on his face that the university he chose is possibly a fraud. Most likely, the student is also aware of it and he/she is ‘registered’ with university anyway. For, they are providing a ‘legal’ cover for working while still being a student. There may very well be some delusion at play here: “It won’t happen to this school,” or, “It won’t happen to me.”

Four weeks ago, Ms. Lisa M. Krieger of San Jose Mercury News interviewed me for her investigative piece, “Universities or Visa Mills” (SJMN, 7/17/2011). While my quotes did not make into the final article, as an off-the-record comment I told Lisa that University of Northern Virginia could very well be the next Tri-Valley University. It appears that Lisa’s article was delayed by one week due to the vetting process. Perhaps my bold statements about some of the universities were either not relevant to the article or my comments did not clear the vetting process by the SJMN lawyers. My hunch is that other than from my off-the record comment, Lisa may have heard a thing or two about UNVA from other sources. As the news about UNVA broke out, the first thing that came to my mind is that Lisa’s article did not mention anything about UNVA. I said to myself, “If a major news paper with its vast resources has to scrutinize a thoroughly investigated piece by a veteran journalist, it is quite understandable that normal people are careful in making public comments.”

(to be continued)

Fake Job Annoucement (for MMGL): GIS Analyst

Admin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:02:34 +0000

This is a fake job announcement for which two or three candidates will be interviewed on air on Friday’s (July 22) Mohana Muralaee GaanaLahari on TORi. My guest Dr. Michael Krimmer and myself have expertise in GIS. So, it is not surprising that I chose to place this fake announcement for a GIS Analyst. This announcement is adapted from an actual job announcement. [This is a bold experiment - may be one of a kind. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope that it will be successful.]

Job Description
MMGL is seeking a GIS Analyst. Normal duties include heads-up digitizing, data conversion, attributing spatial and tabular data, metadata, manipulation of raster and vector data using COTS and customized geoprocessing tools, documentation, presentation, GIS map creation, and customer support including travel to customer sites to meet required standards. The GIS Analyst may be asked to support projects dealing with analysis of infrastructure and environmental data in support of product development and new business opportunities.

Specific Qualifications and Skills:
Requirements include proficiency using the ArcGIS suite of products (ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolBox), the SDSFIE data standard, FGDC metadata creation, experience performing GIS data quality reviews, and must have excellent oral and written communication skills. Must be a team player. Applicant selected must be eligible to obtain a U.S. Government security clearance. Must have a valid driver’s license and clean driving record. Must be able to travel and conduct field GPS work.

Desirables:
Knowledge of data conversion, cartography, graphics, presentation writing, and report writing are a plus. Experience with ArcGIS Server highly desirable.

Desirable Certifications:
Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP)

Minimum Level of Education:
(Other education, commensurate experience and demonstrated ability of individual may be substituted.) BA/BS from an accredited college or university. GIS, Geography, Biology, Environmental Sciences, or other related fields.

Interested candidates must submit their resumes to mohan@teluglobe.com or kanaka@teluglobe.com

MMGL is an equal opportunity non-employer.

—————

What we intend to accomplish through this ‘work-shop’ like interview is to provide some professionalism tips via a mock interview. I certainly hope this experiment will be successful. Of course, we need some bold souls to respond to this announcement and be willing to be interviewed on air.

On July 22 MMGL: Career Planning and Professionalism

Admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:17:37 +0000

My good friend and a former student of mine, a veteran of the US Air Force, and currently an Assistant Professor in the Norther Virginia Community College (NVCC) System, Colonel Michael Krimmer, Ph.D. will join me on July 22, 2011 MMGL. We will will chit-chat about professionalism and career planning. [Fair warning: Neither of us claim to be experts in these subjects. However, the professional careers of both us spanned more than 60 years. We have been there and done that - so, we should know something about professionalism and career planning. ]

If there are any takers, we would like to conduct mock interviews for a couple of fake jobs. Revisit TeluGlobe for fake job postings. If you would like to be interviewed and be assessed on air, you may want to apply to these jobs before Thu evening. I promise: it will be a learning experience as well as entertaining.:)

BTW, this is not particularly relevant information. For those of you who do not know much about NVCC, it is one of the top-notch community college systems in US. FYI, Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill Biden is currently a professor at NVCC.

Class of 2011, Shall I Congratulate You or Apologize?

Admin — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:44:35 +0000

George Mason University Class of 2011: Hope the Smiles Sustain

Graduation time at Mason has been one of the best times on my job. This is a time of the year we all look forward to. Students with smiley faces and beaming optimism, and joy-filled parents -- the euphoria is contagious. It is also a moment of pride for all the faculty. The pride is doubled when a student wants to take a picture with the faculty.

I just came back from the convocation of Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason. I noticed a big difference between the class of 2011 the the classes prior to 2009. Record number of graduates and fewer than usual show-ups at graduations. Even among those who showed up, very few of the graduates and their parents looked happy. You can clearly feel the anxiety in their faces.

Clearly, decades of lousy economic and fiscal policies by my and preceding generations have not only widened the gap between the haves and have-nots, but also robbed the dreams of the young. Graduating classes of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011are finding it extremely hard to find a job, much less land a career they like. Via CNN

Fresh out of college, slim hope for a job

By Carl E. Van Horn and Cliff Zukin, Special to CNN

May 19, 2011 7:44 a.m. ED(CNN) — This year’s college graduates had reason to believe that job prospects for the class of 2011 might be brighter than those of recent classes tossed into the dark abyss of the Great Recession. News throughout their senior year seemed different — flush with stories of rising stocks, record corporate profits and new signs of consumer confidence.

Sadly, rumors of a recovering labor market might have been greatly exaggerated. Large numbers of recent graduates are still out searching for their first full-time job, years after their own commencement celebrations held years ago.

….

Members of the class of 2011 may be forced to make uncomfortable adjustments from their original expectations of post-college life to the reality described by the just slightly older graduates from the previous five years.

Young college graduates entering the labor market in 2011 are competing with millions of unemployed college graduates who have already made significant accommodations in order to get their first job: taking a position that paid a lot less than expected; working below what they regarded as their level of education; or accepting a job outside their area of interest.

And while these new graduates struggle to find their first job, most are entering the working world with a median debt of $20,000 and 83% still owe most of what they borrowed. Not surprisingly, nearly one in four graduates report that they still live with their parents as a way to manage their budgets.

….

Perhaps most troubling, a solid majority of recent college graduates we surveyed now believe that their generation will not do better than the one that came before them; not even half expect to have more financial success than their parents.

The corrosive effect of the Great Recession may rob the United States of much of the optimism that young graduates traditionally brought to our work force and society — replacing it with growing doubts about the long-standing American dream that each new generation will enjoy more prosperity than the last.

The foundation for much of our future is made with optimism and hope. What’s generation to do when these two are compromised?

Graduation Day: A day for pictures, smiles, joy and then for a question, "What's next?"

Comment? [This will be the PRIMARY topic on MMGL, May 20. Hope you can join the show and share your thoughts.]

Job Listing Mentioned on Apr 29 MMGL

Admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:10:34 +0000

Lockheed Martin Corporation:
Job details

Job 1 of 1

Req ID 199005BR
Industry Job Title C#.NET/Web Services Developer -- Virtual Opportunity
Standard Job Code/Title E1074:Software Engineer Stf
Required skills Selected candidate will have experience with .Net development experience in C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET and Web Services using .NET 3.0/3.5 frameworks (including Windows Communication Foundation).

Experience with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the development of SOA strategies and roadmaps.

Experience in developing enterprise level database using Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise 2005 or higher, including developing DTS Packages, Store Procedures, Views, and Triggers.
Desired skills Five plus years of .Net development experience in C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET and Web Services using .NET 3.0/3.5 frameworks (including Windows Communication Foundation).

Five plus years experience in developing enterprise level database using Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise 2005 or higher, including developing DTS Packages, Store Procedures, Views, and Triggers. Preferred experience with SQL Server Reporting Services.
Specific Job Description This opportunity is based with our customer in Arlington, VA and can be 100% telecommute/virtual opportunity.

Researches, designs, and develops computer software systems, in conjunction with hardware product development for various aerospace and scientific applications applying principles and techniques of computer science, engineering, and mathematical analysis. Perform highly complex analysis, test, design and/or development. Perform preliminary/original design and analysis. Plan strategies for analysis, test and design used for task planning and execution. Analyze project requirements and develop detailed objectives and detailed planning and conceptual designs. Without detailed direction, plan, prepare, and complete the design of assigned complex components and functional systems. Interact with internal and external customers. Assist the customer in defining system requirements and in the generation of specifications for products or sub systems. Provide technical guidance and direction to engineering team in the design, test, production and maintenance phases of a project.
Standard Job Description Plans, conducts, and coordinates software development activities. Designs, develops, documents, tests, and debugs software that contains logical and mathematical solutions to business/mission problems or questions in computer language for solutions by means of data processing equipment. Applies the appropriate standards, processes, procedures, and tools throughout the development life cycle. Applies knowledge of computer hardware and software, subject matter to be programmed in business/mission applications, information processing techniques used, and information gathered from system users to develop software. Corrects program errors, prepares operating instructions, compiles documentation of program development, and analyzes system capabilities to resolve questions of program intent, output requirements, input data acquisition, programming techniques, and controls. Ensures software standards are met.
Security Clearance Public Trust
Typical Minimums Bachelors degree from an accredited college in a related discipline, or equivalent experience/combined education, with 9 years of professional experience; or 7 years of professional experience with a related Masters degree. Considered an emerging authority.
LMCareers Business Unit ESS0997 IS&GS-CIVIL (S8200)
Business Area Info Systems & Global Sol
Program NISC III
Department 6045024:NISC III_OS
Job Class Information Technology
Job Category Experienced Professional
City/Building Location Arlington
State Virginia
Virtual Yes
Relocation Available No
Work Schedule STANDARD-Mon-Fri/8 hours a day
Req Type Task Order/IDIQ
Direct/Indirect Direct
Shift First

Today on MMGL (April 29, 2011): Job Interviews

Admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:23:07 +0000

I won’t get fixed on any one topic on any of my shows. This is what I want to talk about on today’s MMGL as the primary topic.

Share your positive and negative experiences during your previous interviews.
Share your tips here or on Facebook.

Talking Education, KG through Ph.D., with Professor Rao Mulpuri

Admin — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:43:56 +0000

On Good Friday’s Mohana Muralee GaanaLahari, April 22, 2010, Professor Rao Mulpuri will be my guest. We will be taking about education. Unlike his previous visits on the show, there will be no specific focus on the level -- Kinder Garten through Doctoral education. Be it a question about your kids’, or your own education, school choice, career choice, whatever- just give us a call: (703) 879 6611 or (703) 879 8267.[11 Am - 2 PM, US Eastern]

Also, keep in mind, Dr. Mulpuri is a movie buff and lighthearted. There can be moment of levity.

Values Of Education – Wonderful Speech

sunvedula — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:05:35 +0000

ఈ ప్రసంగం యువతకు మార్గదర్శకం, యువతకేకాదు అందరు వినదగినదని / ఆచరించ దగినదని , భావించి అందరితో పంచుకోవాలని ఆశతో ఇక్కడ పోస్ట్ చేస్తున్నాను ..
ప్రస్తుత సామజిక పరిస్తితులు మరియు విద్య యొక్క విలువ కళ్ళకు కట్టిన ప్రసంగం ! మీరు మీ సమయముని చూసుకుని అన్ని భాగములు వినమని ప్రార్థన ! ఇది వొక ఇంజనీరింగ్ కాలేజీ లో జరిగిన ప్రసంగం అని గమనించ గలరు

TV 9! Stop Scaring Public!!!!

Kanaka — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 05:46:40 +0000

Look at the way TV9 Channel is focusing on the security Tags and miss leading the viewers. In this 30 minutes, not even a minute worth useful information is provided to viewers. Can you believe the below strong statement from TV9

“10,000 more Andhra Students In USA are in Trouble ? ”

Part I

Part II

TG Tip: The Complete Guide to Saving Money on Textbooks

Kanaka — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:26:42 +0000

Textbooks are ridiculously expensive, and publishers love to pull tricks to force the purchase of new editions whenever possible. This school year, save loads of cash using these textbook-buying methods.

Photo by quirkyartist

In a nutshell, you’ve got four ways of obtaining textbooks; from most expensive to least expensive, you can: buy new, buy used, rent, or copy. Chances are you’ll need to combine a couple of methods based on availability and other issues you’ll encounter. Regardless of which method you’re employing, you’ve got plenty of ways to save money.

Buying New

Photo by GoCollege

The best strategy if you want to pay the most money when buying a new textbook: Go to your campus bookstore. Avoid this at all cost. There is rarely a situation where you can’t find a better deal through an online retailer like Amazon or even a local bookstore (although they may have to put in a special order). Whether you’re ordering online or in person, keep an eye out for coupons and deals to save a little extra.

If you do end up buying a brand new textbook and you want to make some of that money back, there are several places that will purchase your used textbooks. Your college bookstore is likely one option, but online textbook sellers like Amazon, Chegg, Barnes & Noble, BookByte, Cash4Books, and Alibris (which is Chegg-powered) are just some of your many options.

Buying Used

If you’re still set on owning your textbooks but don’t need a book that’s never been touched, buying used is a good way to save but comes with its own set of issues. With so many options online, you’ll want to pay attention to sites that have quality ratings or let you inquire about the quality of the textbook. While a mildly beat up book will serve you as well as a shiny new one, you want to be sure you don’t end up with a torn-up book spine or pages filled with cartoon penises. Also be sure to check the store’s return policy for those special occasions where you do, indeed, end up with a spineless, genital-ridden textbook and need a replacement. On the plus side, virtually every used textbook retailer is pretty careful about the used books they buy for resale, but once and awhile something will slip through the cracks. Additionally, in some cases you’ll find the best deals directly from another person and there won’t be an intermediary. It never hurts to double-check.

While a Google search will turn up a nearly endless supply of used textbook retailers, sorting through them all is a bit of a chore. Here is a semi-short list of your options:

Regardless of how you’re buying you’re going to want to find the cheapest price. Searching a bunch of sites individually can be a pain. CampusBooks and BigWords let you search several textbook stores at the same time for a real-time price comparison. BigWords also has an iPhone app for comparison shopping when you’re in, for example, your overpriced campus bookstore, though it’s missing a handy barcode scanning feature. CampusBooks has apps for both Android and iPhone with that feature. SnapTell (iPhone and Android), can also handle barcodes but will work from a photograph as well.

Renting

Textbook renting is becoming a more popular option these days, with Chegg sitting pretty as the (self-proclaimed) top textbook renting site at your disposal. Chegg lets you rent and return them, plus they’ll plant a tree for every rental. Chegg isn’t the only rental option you have, though. Valore, Textbook Rentals, BookRenter, Campus Book Rentals, andTextbooks.com are other possible options. Some colleges have even started renting textbooks directly. In some cases, they’ll even buy the book if they don’t have it available for rent. Check with your school to find out if that’s an option and plan ahead so they can order the book for you if necessary. If you’re going digital and want a rental option as well, check out CourseSmart. It’ll let you read online or via a copy-protected PDF. While they have iPhone and iPad apps available, support for other mobile platforms and eReaders is currently unavailable.

If you plan to sell your books once you’re finished with them anyway, you may as well rent. The important thing to remember is to avoid marking up the books or degrading their quality to much. If you do, you could end up paying a fee. Renting will save you money if you can take good care of the books, but since they’ll inevitably find a new home once you’ve finished you will need to keep them in the best shape possible.

Copying

Things get tricky when you want to copy. While you can potentially get a free textbook by photocopying or scanning the pages you need from your school library (or a friend), it takes a lot of work. If you have a day to get the job done (and you have free access to a photocopier or scanner), this may be a worthwhile option. Photo by DHagen

Photocopying is simple and sometimes serves as the best option. If you invest in a large three-ring binder, you can potentially store all your textbook pages in one place. You’ll want to contact your professors before classes begin to find out what chapters you’ll be covering so you can avoid copying more pages than you need (and wasting paper in the process). This can help you consolidate your reading material into a simple, smaller, and lighter solution. If you really want to be svelte and keep the weight out of your backpack, you can always leave textbook pages at home and swap them in as needed.

If you’d like to avoid the paper altogether and go digital, scanning textbooks is another option. This is an easy way to create PDF files that you can put on your laptop, ebook reader, or iPad, or sync with your Evernote account for free optical character recognition (OCR) of your textbook scans. For more information on digitizing books, check out our guide on digitizing your life and stay tuned for a guide to digitizing textbooks coming up later this week.

Getting the Right Book

Photo by r-land

If you’re not careful, you might end up spending good money on the wrong textbook. New editions generally reconfigure the chapters even if little new content has been added. While the book might still be usable it can be a pain to find what you’re looking for when the rest of the class has their book in a different order. Ensuring you order the correct volume(s) is also important, as each volume contains different chapters, and you can easily end up missing the material you need if you don’t check carefully. If you have the ability to contact your professors before classes begin, ask them for the book’s ISBN number to ensure you’ll find the right copy. If you can’t reach your professors, often the campus bookstore will have this information. If you’re really pressed, don’t feel you need to take the risk of buying the wrong book. Often you’ll find a copy of the book in the school library and can use that until you can get your hands on the right copy

[Via - Lifehacker]

10 Best Colleges Work For: My Employer Made the List

Admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:27:11 +0000

What are the top 10 best colleges work for? I don’t know about them. I love my job and my employer (even though they didn’t give me a rise in 3 years).

Though it is large — more than 30,000 students and nearly 3,000 faculty — the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that employees at the Virginia university maintain a high rate of job satisfaction.

Full list at Huffington Post

Financial “Engineers,” Rethink Your Relevance to the Society

Admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:00:27 +0000

So, you are a financial “professional” on Wall Street. You think the world owes you bazillion dollars because you are: a) very smart, and b) you have an MBA in finance, may be from Wharton, or Harvard or Columbia and therefore what you do must be good. You claim that your financial “innovations” help the economy and the society more than they hurt. Really?

This is an excerpt from a WSJ discussion forum at which Mr. Volker participated in Dec 2009.

Do Innovations Do Much Good?

MR. VOLCKER: A few years ago I happened to be at a conference of business people, not financial people, and I was making a presentation. The conference was being addressed by a very vigorous young investment banker from London who was explaining to all these older executives how their companies would be dust if they did not realize the joys of financial innovation and financial engineering, and that they had better get with it.

I was listening to this, and I found myself sitting next to one of the inventors of financial engineering. I didn’t know him, but I knew who he was and that he had won a Nobel Prize, and I nudged him and asked what all the financial engineering does for the economy and what it does for productivity.

Much to my surprise, he leaned over and whispered in my ear that it does nothing—and this was from a leader in the world of financial engineering. I asked him what it did do, and he said that it moves around the rents in the financial system—and besides, it’s a lot of intellectual fun.

Now, I have no doubts that it moves around the rents in the financial system, but not only this, as it seems to have vastly increased them.

How do I respond to a congressman who asks if the financial sector in the United States is so important that it generates 40% of all the profits in the country, 40%, after all of the bonuses and pay? Is it really a true reflection of the financial sector that it rose from 2½% of value added according to GNP numbers to 6½% in the last decade all of a sudden? Is that a reflection of all your financial innovation, or is it just a reflection of how much you pay? What about the effect of incentives on all our best young talent, particularly of a numerical kind, in the United States?

In Britain, I was just talking to a high-tech company about the immense attraction to go into finance when both Britain and the United States are suffering from a basic inability to produce things competitively, to keep up with the new economy. Is this a result of financial innovation that we should be really worried about?

Let us think about what structural changes are necessary to produce what is the heart of the problem, about too big to fail, moral hazard and the rest. As I say, I agree with many of your individual suggestions, but there were no suggestions in the area of moral hazard. It was suggested to improve regulation, and that may help, but having gone that far, it is better that you talk about some more serious structural changes.

I made a wiseacre remark that the most important financial innovation that I have seen the past 20 years is the automatic teller machine. That really helps people and prevents visits to the bank and is a real convenience.

How many other innovations can you tell me that have been as important to the individual as the automatic teller machine, which is in fact more of a mechanical innovation than a financial one?

My thoughts, exactly! When a majority of smart kids shun product-oriented engineering career paths and aspire to be financial engineers on Wall Street, it is not just sad -- it is downright troublesome. A bankster dude responded:

MR. MURRAY: The financial-innovation point is the one that you are making most strongly, and there was a statement that financial innovation is tied to economic growth, which Mr. Volcker is disputing. Eraj Shirvani [who is managing director of Credit Suisse in the investment-banking division], do you want to take that on?

ERAJ SHIRVANI: It is never fun to take on Paul Volcker, but maybe I can ask a question for clarification.

So, is your hypothesis that corporate bonds, the securitization market—none of these financial innovations have done anything to help the economy? What shocks me about today is the number of people in this room who have all been architects of the economy as we have it today who have now decided that all of a sudden everything they have worked on over the past 30 years is all bad and the pendulum has swung too far.

I worry when we say that nothing good can come from innovation. Have there been excesses? Absolutely. Have there been inappropriate products? Absolutely. Are there investors who should be held accountable for buying things they didn’t understand? Absolutely. However, that does not make it right to say that innovation in itself is a bad thing.

MR. VOLCKER: I am not sure that I said innovation in itself is a bad thing. I said that I have found very little evidence that vast amounts of innovation in financial markets in recent years have had a visible effect on the productivity of the economy. Maybe you can show me that I am wrong. All I know is that the economy was rising very nicely in the 1950s and 1960s without all of these innovations. Indeed, it was quite good in the 1980s without credit-default swaps and without securitization and without CDOs.

I do not know if something happened that suddenly made these innovations essential for growth. In fact, we had greater speed of growth and particularly did not put the whole economy at risk of collapse. That is the main concern that I think we all need to have.

If it is really true that the world economy was on the brink of a great depression that was greatly complicated by financial problems, then we have a rather basic problem that calls for our best thinking, and structural innovation if necessary. I do not want to stop you all from innovating, but do it within a structure that will not put the entire world economy at risk.

[Read the whole thing here]

Nobody is saying that nothing good came out of the so called “innovation.” The good that came out of is at best marginal. However, when you pit risks against rewards, it ain’t worth it. After all, this country saw the best economic expansion in the 1960s and early 70s -- despite a crippling war and barely any stock market boom, much less any financial “innovation.”

My humble request to those who compare Fraud Street banksters to pigs. Please don’t insult the pigs. When pigs are slain, you get bacon. But if you slay a bankster, you get nothing.

WFH – An Evolution in Workplace

msaradhi — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:08:35 +0000

There has been a tremendous shifts in workplace or rather what we call workplace. The primary driver for this shift are the advances in Information Technology and Communications or simply, ICT.

One of premise in Transportation Systems Planning is that transportation is a derived demand. Meaning transportation is a means but an end in itself. In typical urban constellation people make millions of to-and-fro trips in day from their place of living to their destinations. Without much impact to accuracy, the work and education trips constitute a greater percentage of the total trips.

In early 1980s or late 1970s Alvin Toffler had envisioned these shifts and wrote an excellent futuristic book, a number one best seller those days, ‘The Third Wave.’

So coming back to our discussion, ‘Work From Home’ or WFM in short, has caught up to maturity in major corporations across the globe. While this is not applicable for all types of roles (especially front desk or customer facing roles), a great many service oriented opportunities can be de-linked from the traditional 4-walled office buildings.

In a First Wave Society, man is more like a prosumer, and his workplace is nothing but his own home or his own field. With the advent of industralisation in the Second Wave, man is forced to relocate to the factory or massive work compound from his place of residence. This has given rise to the birth of ‘work trip’ and brought to the fore the crux of moving people in large scale from their respective places of residence to respective places of work.

In the Third Wave dominated by ICT, created a newer vast pool of services industry, in turn office complexes to house these soft skilled people. On another front, ICT also enabled remote connectivity to enterprise computing virtually from anywhere, and the only requirement is that the person needs to have a desktop, laptop or any other mobile device, connectivity to the internet!

Leveraging on these possibilities major corporations de-linked their staff from cubicles. Here everyone is a winner: the corporations reduced drastically on workstation costs, utility charges, consumbles (coffee, tea…), and even storage space. Where the employee had the flexibility to work at ease from his home environment, avoiding or minimsing the need to travel. Even if a trip is required he could probably plan during off peak periods. Society has the advantage that it receives lesser traffic loads, improved infrastruture maintenance costs, less fuels, lesser carbon foot print…

Infact, this is primary enabler that shifted whole lot of work packages to off shore, ie., how India is enojoying todday the boom of ICT opportunities.

In essence, in the 2nd Wave people moved where there is work. The ICT Revolution facilitated to distribute back the work closer to the employee’s home. Implying work moved where the employee is!

This is a very interesting shift in work delivery, and I am sure many are enjoying WFH culture. Of course, the employee needs to be more disciplined, at times, faces boredom; and the managers face difficulty to enforce compliance; and there is lesser opportunity for inter personal relations. Despite of all these short comings WFH is still an inevitable move for the society, and for good.

In early 1990s I was working on Collaborative Models for a large scale project of Singapore Government. Of course, the technologies are more wide spread now than then, but those models I envisaged haven’t yet became common place yet. There must be a revolution in Communications or Internet, Security has to be strengthened. Once that happens Anywhere Workplace to a great majority becomes a norm rather than exception. I believe that may not be too far…

Congratulations, Way to Go EAMCET Rankes!

Kanaka — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:39:58 +0000

“Congratulations America, You Now Own Red Roof Inn!”