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Alternative Routes to the Sustainable City

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:11:37 GMT

clipped by: ScottAkenhead
clipper's remarks: new book, needs a review

Clip Source: media.www.dailytexanonline.com

Over the years, Moore has won several awards for his architecture, research and books. He released his most recent book, "Alternative Routes to the Sustainable City: Austin, Curitiba, and Frankfurt," a few weeks ago. The collection of case studies explores the patterns of sustainability across cities and nations.

Clip Source: mail.google.com

Clip Source: media.www.dailytexanonline.com

Steven Moore, UT Barlett Cocke Regents Professor in Architecture and co-founder of the Center for Sustainable Development, in his Goldsmith Hall office.

Tags: sustainability, university, urban, architecture, s4s, city

IBM on Knowledge-Based Organizations: Scenario

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:24:10 GMT

clipped by: ScottAkenhead
clipper's remarks: useful reference to networking as foundation of knowledge sharing and creation in organizations.

Clip Source: www-935.ibm.com

"So the call came in late on Thursday afternoon and right away, I wished I hadn't answered the phone. We had received a last-second opportunity to bid on a sizable piece of work that the partner on the other end of the line really wanted to pursue. Unfortunately, I had little experience in the subject matter but happened to be the one with availability at the time. I had no clue how to even begin looking for relevant methodologies or case examples, so my first move was to tap into my network to find some relevant info and leads to other people or databases. And in fact, I relied pretty heavily on this group of people over the next couple of days. For example, Seth was great for pointing me to other people and relevant information, Paul provided ideas on the technical content of the project while Jeff really helped in showing me how to frame the client's issues in ways that we could sell. He also helped navigate and get buy-in from the client, given his knowledge of their operations and politics. And somehow in this process, we managed to pull it off…I mean the whole game is just being the person that can get the client what they need with the company's resources behind you. This almost always seems to mean knowing who knows what and figuring out a way to bring their knowledge to bear on your client's issue. Knowing who to turn to for what is ultimately the key to doing what you need to do quickly so you can go home to your family."

Our own research with 40 managers revealed that 85 percent claimed to receive knowledge critical to the successful completion of an important project from other people. Although these managers did employ the organization's knowledge base, it was often only to supplement knowledge they had acquired from other people. This, despite the fact that their organization had a leading-edge technical platform and institutionalized practices for capturing, screening and archiving codified knowledge.

Tags: knowledge, collaboration, organization, communication

EU support for Open Source plus UK Schools

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 20:07:10 GMT

clipped by: ScottAkenhead

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Software made by volunteers includes operating systems, such as Linux, and Microsoft Office-like programs such as OpenOffice.org.

Open source programs are already used by many companies particularly to run web servers, the computers that store and deliver web pages.

It estimates that the available programs represent the equivalent of 131,000 programmer years.

According to the study, the number of existing open source programs already available would have cost firms 12 billion Euros (£8 billion) to produce.

"This represents at least 800 million Euros (£525 million) in voluntary contributions from programmers alone each year," the report said.

At the moment, the report said, public organisations were the dominant beneficiaries of this work.

As well as providing incentives to the open source industry it also recommends that schools start to introduce more of the software.

To continue this uptake, the report recommends "correcting current policies and practices that implicitly or explicitly favour proprietary software".

This would instil "an attitude towards information technology that favours the ability to create and actively participate rather than just consume," the report said.

This view echoes those of 111 UK MPs who signed an early day motion in December 2006 to support the use of open source in schools.

Clip Source: mail.google.com

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The motion also criticised the "outdated" methods used to purchase software for schools that locked them into buying proprietary software.

Tags: opensource, eu, uk, school, cost