Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing - a boon or bane to innovation?

By siliconindia news bureau

Bangalore: With the economic downturn, companies are looking at all options to cut costs and crowdsourcing is the latest entrant. By spending a fraction of the money for designing products, crowdsourcing looks like an attractive option for companies. According to Businessweek, LG crowdsourced a new cell phone design for just $20,000, the same project would have cost them in millions if it was designed by a design firm. But, currently experts are divided on the viability of crowdsourcing in the long run.

Some analysts predict that crowdsourcing is the future of the advertising, marketing and industrial design segments. They expect it to accelerate creativity across a larger network. Others predict that this practice of opening up a task to the public instead of keeping it in-house or using a contractor, will be the end of those businesses, who were earlier involved in similar projects, due to the downward pressure on prices.

The crowdsourcing marketplaces are CrowdSpring, InnoCentive, TopCoder and uTest provide platforms for companies to host their projects. Participants utilize this opportunity to create a design as per the company's requirements. After all the entries are submitted, the best design in the 'Crowd' is selected by the company. The marketplaces reward the winners of the contest with up to $50,000. According to Businessweek, due to crowdsourcing, traditional forms of compensation connecting corporations to creativity are splintering beyond money to include fame and community.

Some companies like Nike, Dell and Starbucks have created their own platforms, which allow customers to help them create new products and messages. Though, it faces many challenges ahead, the growth of crowdsourcing shows no signs of slowing down.

OGoBiblios 45

Visscher-Voerman, I. & Gustafson, K.L. (2004). Paradigms in the theory and practice of education and training design. Educational Technology Research and Development 52(2), 69-89.

Visscher-Voerman & Gustafson (2004) do not characterize their research as addressing a problem as much as filling a gap- the gap of empirical research to support claims that instructional design processes are more heterogeneous and diverse than represented by the dominant model of the field, ADDIE (analyze, design, develop, implement and evaluate). The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the actual practices of professional designers in order to “develop insight” into the differences between ADDIE and design practices by asking “What design strategies do professional, high-reputation designers use in practice in various training and education contexts?”

Visscher-Voerman & Gustafson (2004) call this a reconstructive study and use a “development research approach” that includes conducting twenty four case studies on different design projects by collecting data through interviews and document analysis in a two stage process. Between the two stages, they developed a conceptual framework and changed their original focus on activities to a focus on rationale for decision making. Twenty four case studies may not have been enough because they only find support for three out of four of the paradigms they eventually identify, yet they include the assumption that this other type of design paradigm still exists.

The participants are designers from six types of design settings, nominated as “competent, high-reputation professional designers” by experts from each of the six design settings. This purposive sampling strategy seemed valid, but one result of the sampling really stood out, the only designers chosen with formal design education, approximately 50% of the sample, all had their design education at the same university. This homogenous result would seem to point to a flaw in the sampling procedure, but it turns out this is the only university in the country where the study was conducted.

Visscher-Voerman & Gustafson (2004) organize the results of their first phase of analysis by describing the activities observed under each of the phases proposed by ADDIE, focusing on differences. In the results section for the second phase, they offer alternative design paradigms to describe the different rationales designers gave for the activities and align those paradigms with epistemic stances: e.g. Instrumental design paradigm- Modernism; Communicative design paradigm- Critical Theory; Pragmatic Paradigm- Pragmatism; and Artistic design paradigm- Postmodernism. They then relate each paradigm to corresponding ADDIE phases and roles of clients and designers.

I think this study makes an important contribution to advancing knowledge in Instructional Design & Technology. This field has this heavy ADDIE model hanging over it all the time, as almost the definition for the field, and it barely scratches the surface of what needs to understood, explored and morphed in the process of designing learning environments and opportunities. By taking on the task of describing the activities and rationales of designers in several settings and placing these descriptions within a useful framework, these authors offer guidance for practice, teaching and further research.

What I did not like about this study: They include the Artistic paradigm, yet admit none of the case studies reflect this paradigm in their rationales. This highlights what I am most concerned about in this type of research—it seems to just affirm a theory that we would probably all agree on from our experience with instructional design and different types of designer. It seemed they had these alternative paradigms in mind- a useful theory in my opinion. But they want to ground this theory in experience, so they conduct the case studies hoping to find the fit. They’ve chosen a qualitative research approach, which is supposed to be inductive. How do you end up with a paradigm with no evidence that induced it?

I am interested in describing, eventually through several case studies, the instructional design process in cross-border settings and cross-sector settings. This not only provides some guidance in the way of conceptual frameworks, it also highlights the messiness of trying to fit some of these very-close-to-causal (or at least mind-reading about intent) questions into a qualitative framework.

For Students in India, the American Dream Is Losing Its Appeal

For Students in India, the American Dream Is Losing Its Appeal

Excerpted from Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog (click on above link to read full story)

In 2007-8 the number of Indian students going to American universities rose 12.8 percent, to 94,563, making India the largest source of foreign students in the United States.
But because of tightening credit markets and a global slowdown in economic growth, Indian students are also finding it harder to secure loans to study abroad, and many are less willing to take on huge amounts of debt.

Ada Lovelace Day Honoree: Patricia Early

I want to honor Patricia Early, Trish, on Ada Lovelace Day because she's a tireless visionary for organic technology integration.

Trish wants to be a farmer when she grows up. But, actually, she already is. She works, almost full time in certain parts of the year, on a farm south of Atlanta with her grandfather. While she's farming, Trish is often envisioning organic ways to integrate technology into language learning.

In her role as coordinator of a language lab, she manages and implements all the typical approaches to language learning through technology... but the real impact of her approach is seen by the students voluntarily watching foreign films and hosting language clubs in the comfortable learning space she designed. This design reflects her feeling about technology integration as both an aesthetic and an adventure in identifying the right technology for the appropriate objective, but a propulsion that is always uniquely human. Her philosophy on technology (particularly in education) is that it is simply a tool and at it's best serves to support strong pedagogical planning and meaningful learning objectives. That being said, it is the Swiss Army Knife of educational tools, being both informative, analytical, creative, multimodal, motivational, and extra-textual, appealing in it's unique affordances to all learning styles and intelligences.

Learn more about Trish on her blogs & say hi:

Personal

Professional

Class

Building a Professional Network in China

Did you know that most Chinese mobile phone users don't use voicemail?

Members of the Graduates in Instructional Technology Student Association (GrITS) at Georgia State University learned that recently while collaborating with Zoo Atlanta's Academy for Conservation Training (ACT). ACT invited GrITS members to brainstorm technology solutions to help foster the professional network for zoo educators in China and maintain momentum between training programs. Similar to not using voicemail, Chinese online communication habits also seem to favor immediacy through the use of instant messaging, the most popular program is QQ.

Learn more about Chinese Social Networking Habits:

Where's China in Social Networking?

Linked In in China?

Online Social Networks in China

More information about ACT provided by Laurel Askue:

Funded by The UPS Foundation, Zoo Atlanta’s award-winning Academy for Conservation Training (ACT) is the preeminent conservation education training for Chinese zoo educators. The goal of ACT is to work with the Chinese Association of Zoologcial Gardens (the organization that oversees accredited zoos in China) to develop and support a network of professional zoo educators who have the skills, knowledge and tools to support their conservation missions through education. Prior to the launch of ACT in 2006, no professional development training existed for Chinese zoo educators and the majority of zoos in China did not have functioning education departments or trained educators on staff. Since the launch of the program, ACT has conducted five traveling trainings (in Chengdu, Kunming, Beijing, Guanzghou and Shanghai) that graduated a total of 201 educators from the top 45 zoos in China. Evaluation findings indicate that ACT has the potential to make a significant impact towards facilitating the establishment of the zoo education profession in China. Based on this, Zoo Atlanta is currently focusing its efforts on training a core group of ACT graduates who have demonstrated passion and commitment towards furthering the zoo education profession with the long-term goal that they will take ownership of future ACT content and be prepared to lead the ongoing development of the zoo educator profession in China. The next session of ACT is scheduled for June 2009 in Harbin, China. To learn more about ACT, visit www.zooatlanta.org or email laskue@zooatlanta.org.

Enrollment Ratio in Karnataka

The Times of India
March 2, 2009

Enrollment Ratio in Karnataka

BANGALORE: The enrolment ratio in higher education in Karnataka is 13% close to all India ratio, but the state needs to catch up with Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Punjab, which have ratios higher than Karnataka, according toUniversity Grants Commission (UGC) chairman Sukhadeo Thorat.

At the release of `Heritage in higher education' on Wednesday, he said all India enrolment ratio in higher education is 14%. "This was based on the 2004 national sample survey. It includes degree, certificate course, diploma and PhDs," he said.

"It remains to be seen how Karnataka catches up with other states. The government and citizens should work towards improving the ratio. Also, there should be expansion of institutes and more allocation to higher education."

According to him, the government and philanthropists play a major role in expanding the scope of higher education in Karnataka.

Disparity in many levels

There is a disparity between urban and rural areas, between the genders and among people from various castes in enrolment for higher education. Thorat said enrolment in rural areas is 7% while in urban areas it is 21%. For women, the ratio is 10% while it is 14% for men. The ratio is less than 1% under the poor category.

"However, under the income slab, the ratio is 57% in the highest income group in Karnataka," he said.

Fee structure is another problem

Apart from poverty and gender issues, the other factor that affects enrolment ratio relates to fee structure. Karnataka has scope for self-financing and private institutes, but enrolment ratio may remain less due to faults in the fee structure. Many are denied access to higher education due to this. "The government is taking corrective measures on this issue," Thorat added.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur said education gives knowledge, skills and attitude to shoulder one's responsibilities in life with confidence. "Education brings you respect. It should be imparted with a view to suit the type of society that we wish to build," he explained.

"People are attracted towards technological education. But it can't go alone without support from humanities. If it did, it tends to become imperfect."

India's Higher Education Sector

Sanjeev Bikchandani, Jayant Sinha: Freeing higher education
A series of measures is urgently called for to stave off the crisis in higher education.

Business Standard Feb 26 2009

India’s higher education sector is failing. Barely 7 per cent of Indians get to college; 99 per cent of these lucky few receive indifferent teaching in decrepit classrooms; they lack libraries, labs and computers; 80 per cent are unemployable; the moneyed elite flee abroad; meanwhile, we console ourselves with the careers of the 1 per cent that go to the IITs, IIMs and a few other premiere institutions. National commissions to fix higher education have come and gone. However, entrenched interests have blocked all reforms. Radical structural reforms are urgently required that will simultaneously attack regulation, funding, capacity, faculty and admissions/access. These reforms can create an open higher education system supervised by independent regulators and funded through government scholarships. Such a system is our best hope for responding to the massive need for higher education.

India has about 160 million people of college-going age. Some 11 million or 7 per cent are studying in degree-granting institutions. There are about 16,000 such institutions, of which 15,000 are private. About 90 per cent of students getting professional degrees in engineering and management are educated in more than 10,000 private institutions. Private medical colleges train roughly 40 per cent of all doctors. There are about 170,000 Indian students spending nearly $3.5 billion per year abroad. By some estimates, the total annual higher education spending is over $10 billion or a little less than 1 per cent of GDP. Government funding varies enormously. At one end are the pampered IITs with approximately Rs 1 to 2 lakh spent annually per student. At the other end are dilapidated colleges deep in India’s interior, where spending barely reaches Rs 2,000.

Private higher education is trapped in a vicious cycle of too many desperate students, poor regulation, inadequate capacity, mediocre faculty and inappropriate curricula. The government controls salaries, fees, courses, capacity, land allotments and facilities. Politicians and others with access procure cheap land from the government. They have no experience in education, but are able to run a high-return, low-risk annuity business and are able to dispense patronage. For instance, there is a well-known politician who currently runs 70 schools and 12 colleges through his trust.

Transforming this vast, sprawling system requires radical action in five key areas.

First, today’s licence raj operated by the human resource development ministry has to be transformed. The UGC, AICTE and other regulators must be freed from government control and should become truly independent. Degree-granting institutions will have to be certified by a renamed UGC, which can revoke that status if basic standards are not met. Accreditation agencies (such as the AICTE and Medical Council of India) should also be run by autonomous boards that establish world-class educational standards, degree requirements, curriculum, necessary facilities, faculty qualifications, admission standards and research protocols. The Boards should also require a CA-type national certification process for all the other professional disciplines such as law, medicine, architecture, dentistry, engineering etc. Board members for all regulatory agencies should be selected by duly appointed Nominating Committees of their Boards, not by the government.

The second major area to be addressed is government funding. The central government must fund all students admitted to an accredited institution. Market rates show that students spend about Rs 1 lakh in fees, boarding and educational materials per year at private institutions. Government could fund 50 per cent or Rs 50,000 per year as student scholarships. BPL students would receive 100 per cent funding. A national identity system with a payment processing platform would enable funds to be deposited directly in student accounts. State governments could add to these funds or provide additional funds to institutions in their state. Institutions will have to compete for students. Standards and facilities would start to rise immediately, faculty salaries will go up and entire industries will spring up to provide various educational services. If government funds Rs 50,000 per student for 12 million students, it would cost Rs 60,000 crore or about 1.1 per cent of GDP — about double today’s spending.

Dramatic capacity increases will happen quickly if the system is fully opened. For-profit institutions should be immediately allowed if they meet accreditation standards. Foreign ownership, joint ventures and alliances should be freely permitted as well. Student scholarships could be used across public or private institutions and will spark a massive build-out. The IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and most other top universities already have governing boards. They should become independent, autonomous institutions free of any government interference. The top institutions could create their own endowments, set their fee schedules, provide additional student funding and monetise their massive landholdings. Easy entry and autonomy should also spur wealthy Indian business families to endow universities as their counterparts have done around the world.

Faculty development will thrive in an open higher education system supported by scholarship-based funding. First, the top institutions will become major research hubs and train the faculty that will be required across the system. In the US, the top 10-15 universities such as those in the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford and Chicago play a similar role. Top faculty will cluster at these elite universities and create enormous positive spillovers in their regions. Second, with faculty salaries freed from government control, sufficient numbers of talented individuals will be attracted to the teaching profession. Third, faculty development and standards will be supervised by the accreditation agencies. Fourth, the central government must provide adequate funds and autonomy to the Science and Engineering Research Board so that it can truly promote high-quality research. Finally, each university can also encourage research and publications through its tenure-granting process.

With sufficient capacity available across the system, the vexing issue of admissions/access can finally be resolved. Admission should be transparent, points-based and under regulatory supervision. Affirmative action can be instituted for selected sections of society by setting suitably lower standards for admission. Sufficient capacity should be set aside for affirmative action; exact levels of affirmative action could be decided through the political process in each state, with the central government mandating some minimum standards for all institutions that benefit from scholarship-based funding. In principle, institutions that do not receive any government funding could relinquish affirmative action entirely — but that is probably not advisable.

Do these interconnected reforms imply rabid privatisation and state abandonment of higher education? Frankly, that has already happened. Instead, these reforms will result in fair-minded regulation, higher standards, talented and sufficient faculty, and transparent access to the system for all motivated young people. Democracies rarely address problems unless a full-blown crisis erupts; higher education is now in such a crisis and a young India urgently awaits. We cannot fail them.

Sanjeev Bikchandani is CEO and Founder of Info Edge, which operates Naukri.com and other websites; Jayant Sinha is Managing Director of Courage Capital Management, a global investment firm. These are their personal views.

Kolkata and Scotland to work together in education sector

Kolkata and Scotland to work together in education sector

UK minister for Scottish affairs, Ann McKechin has arrived in Kolkata with a 14-member delegation from eight Scottish colleges to promote closer cooperation between Kolkata and Scotland in the education sector.

Speaking at a workshop on education links organised by Scotland's Colleges International (SCI) in the city on Friday, Ms McKechin said Scottish colleges were ideally placed to train Indian students in a wide variety of subjects as well as form partnerships with educational institutions in Bengal to help deliver training, skills and tailormade training courses for this region.

According to 2007 figures, India is Scotland's biggest international market for college students with more than 1,400 Indians studying in Scottish colleges and another 3,000 in Scottish universities. The minister said the curriculum at Scottish colleges was wide ranging, from engineering and construction to fashion and creative industries and even greens-keeping expertise.

British deputy high commissioner Simon Wilson also spoke about Indo-UK education ties, including fostering research and supporting skill development. He said the UK-India education and research initiative (UKIERI) where both countries have pledged 23 million pounds each to improve educational links, is progressing well with 475 new Indo-UK higher education and school links having been created over the past two years.

"The flexible and competence-based approach to vocational education makes our colleges very attractive to students from India and elsewhere," said Ms McKechin. "The West Bengal government has identified biotechnology and information technology as potential growth industries to capitalise on the state's pool of skilled people. Scotland has strengths in both sectors," she added.

A Model Learning Village

Bharathiyar Community CenterA Model Learning Village For Water Harvesting and Sustainable Development

Every 15 seconds a child dies as a result of water deficiency, be it unsafe drinking water, water borne disease, lack of hygiene and/or sanitation (World Health Organization).

A community center is being built as a model to demonstrate how water harvesting can provide potable water and be used for farming in a very dry climate. This community center concept will benefit the people of 51 villages (322,680 people) in the Vilathikulam region (in Southern Tamil Nadu) and will be used as a model that can be replicated in other parts of India through the use of water harvesting, agricultural training, and assembly of solar panels to improve living conditions.

Click here for a gallery of project pictures http://sites.google.com/site/bccsupportdocument/

Just 9 days of rain in a year
The Vilathikulam region is located in the northern half of Tuticorin district. This being in a rain-shadow region, receives just 9 days of rain in a year. Therefore, the region is very dry and unable to grow traditional food crops. The region is also infested with thorny bushes called "prosopis juliflora" (known as "veli kaathan" in Tamil). The only crops that are grown are peanut and chilli.
Rural transformation in India rests in the hands of women. You may have heard that if you give money to the woman of the house, she takes care of the family. If you give the same money to the man of the house (in rural India), the woman and children will see little of it. The idea is to encourage and promote empowerment of women by providing them basic necessities, resources and income generating skills that will go to improve the quality of their life.

The community center will provide needed services and offer training to residents of all the 51 villages in the area. To this end the Center has leased 13 acres of property, including 4 acres of cultivable land which is being transformed into a model farm with multiple cropping.
The Bharathiyar Community Center Trust was created in 2007 to construct, operate and maintain the Center. The Trustees represent both local knowledge as well as other backgrounds.
The location of the BCC is at the intersection of two roads with public transport buses plying every 30 minutes. This helps people living in villages within a 10-15 km radius to reach the Community Center. The Center has plans to reimburse a two way bus fare to all visitors from the surrounding villages. There are firm plans to construct overnight lodging and kitchen facilities for the visiting farmers. All this will be provided free with the farmers paying in kind by working on the model farm. The output of the model farm will generate revenues for the BCC. In due course, the BCC plans to equip a bus with some of the BCC concepts to go beyond the 51 villages and cover in all some 250+ surrounding villages (covering practically the whole of the northern part of Tuticorin district) to spread the message of improved farming practices.

Two committed persons are actively involved in this project. One is Ram Krishnan, an IIT Madras alumni and resident of Minnesota for 40 years. He has been working in the Vilathikulam area since 2004 on water and livelihood projects in the arid area. He spends three to four months in a year in Vilathikulam - usually in April, August and December. While in the US, he is in constant touch with people in the area and the members of the BCC Committee via, email and telephone.

The second person is a native of Vilathikulam -- Dr. K Jothimony. He has a doctorate in chemistry from IIT, Madras and served in the state owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation for 18 years. He has also worked as a Fluids consultant in different multi-national corporations.. He continues to be associated with an American company. He is actively involved in community development activities in the Vilathikulam area having formed an NGO in 1997 in the field of rural education, health, women & child development and other livelihood activities.
The goal of the project is to provide educational and training support to the villagers in the areas of healthcare, renewable energy (solar and biomass), raising agricultural productivity, and improving water management.

Why Help Bharathiyar Community Center (BCC)?
The BCC serves an area of India that suffers from water scarcity, unemployment, low knowledge of sustainable agricultural practices, inadequate awareness of water management practices, poverty, and lack of education. The BCC will teach villagers water management practices such as the use of holding ponds, provision of potable water, sustainable agricultural practices, and health services. There is a program for the young to improve pre-school, middle school and high school education plus vocational training in skills development.

Briefly, BCC has the following objectives:
1. Serve as a model village.
2. Be self sufficient in water, food and energy.
3. Be a training ground for the villagers, for livelihood and other matters

Segments of the BCC, water ponds, agricultural test plots, food storage concepts are a proven model which when followed by the villagers will greatly improve their living standards. To ensure that each farmer acquires the skills and is able to introduce the new improved practices with confidence in his or her plot of land, the training focuses on giving the farmer actual hands-on experience working in the model farm.

How will this project help other parts of India?
India today has around 660 districts. Of this some 200 districts are the most backward with harsh living conditions. They have no access to good drinking water, do not make enough even for one square meal a day. Men in their prime working age leave their families behind, and move to larger towns and cities, in search of livelihood. This migratory pattern is leaving behind young children, old men, women of all age groups. If community centers of the BCC type are set up all across these 200 districts, they can provide essential services, vocational training and begin to perhaps reverse the process of migration.

Website and YouTube video offer more information
Weekly progress is monitored and reported on this site.
http://sites.google.com/site/bccworksite/site-visits-and-project-status
The YouTube video explains how they got started in Vilathikulam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0nGHmD8yw0

Monitoring and Evaluation
A BCC committee has been formed with local people’s representatives plus experts actively involved in the development of the area. This committee plans, implements, monitors and controls the BCC’s activities. The BCC has a field staff to mobilize the rural masses for various community activities. The field staff is being expanded. The BCC committee meets every Saturday to review its activities and prepare records and documentation. Periodic monitoring and evaluation is being carried out by both Mr. Ram Krishnan and Dr. K. Jothimony.

Seeking your participation and support
In this phase of the fund raising, they hope to raise $ 100,000.
Here are a few ways your donation can make a difference:
· $8,000 will build a potable drinking water system.
· $54,000 will build the community center building that will house classrooms.
· $16,000 will provide the seed money for building solar panels that can be used for light so that children can study at night.
· $22,000 will build the health services program, education program, and testing labs.
Are your donations tax deductible?
Yes.
They will send a receipt to your address as soon as they receive the funds. For contributors from within India they will send a copy of their 80G certificate for claiming tax deductions. Contributors from the US sending contributions through Akash Ganga would be eligible for US tax deductions
What documentation is provided for this exemption?
In the US, for a 501-c-3 unit, the documentation is a Letter from IRS stating that the receiving unit has been declared as a 501-c-3 Charitable Organization.
http://sites.google.com/site/bccworksite/akash-ganga-rwh
How and where to send your tax-deductible contribution
Make your check payable to “Akash Ganga RWH” On the outside cover, left bottom, please write “Akash Ganga RWH” Mail to 1653, 20th Avenue NW, St.Paul MN 55112

Contact : ram.krishnan@yahoo.com

Summation
Imagine, every day, having to figure out how to pay Rs. 2.50 per pot each time you needed drinking water. Alternatively, if that’s not affordable, you must walk almost 2km a day to the nearby town to collect the water needed for your family. Sometimes you have to balance the water on your head while carrying your child under a blazing sun. Bringing drinking water helps the woman to attend to the family, children’s education, learning livelihood skills and enrich her family thereby enriching the community.

Cultivating the innovators in your midst

Morning Manager
Harvey Schacter

Cultivating the innovators in your midst

In Harvard Business Review, consultants Jeffrey Cohn, John Katzenbach and Gus Vlak set out a six-stage process for finding breakthrough innovators and grooming them within an organization.

Scour ranks for raw talent
In most large organizations, the future innovators are hidden from senior management and deeply embedded in line jobs. You need to seek them out and at least temporarily disengage them from their duties. The best innovators have strong cognitive abilities; they zero in on important points and don't waste time on peripheral issues. They never rest on their laurels, and are always looking for ways to improve themselves and the processes around them. They have an independent mind, but also work well with others.

Have the right folks
Once you have spotted the candidates, you need to determine which ones actually have the innovator's spark and flair. Many of the companies the consultants explored - including Thomson Reuters PLC , Pitney Bowes Inc. and Visa Inc. - put them through one-on-one interviews, often conducted by outside assessment and leadership development experts. They are presented with a series of complex real-world scenarios from which some key information is omitted to gauge how they can weed through ambiguity - and then, as additional information is added, they are assessed for how they evaluate the potential impact.
"Can she turn that critical eye inward and change positions when warranted by the evidence, or does she cling tightly to past beliefs and mental models? True innovators never let pride or former success get in the way of a better solution," the consultants note. Also important: Can the candidate clearly and convincingly defend a decision and sell a point of view?

Work with live ammo
Give innovators real projects to work on to prove they can recognize promising ideas and lead cross-functional teams of experts to develop those ideas. During this effort, assure them access to top management so their abilities and progress can be watched. One global industrial products company in Britain also insists rising innovators spend a stint in the sales department. It's viewed as a good way to help the innovators understand what makes customers tick and sharpen the sales skills they will need to spearhead large-scale innovation down the road.

Provide multiple mentors
Pair innovators with carefully selected mentors who can groom them and offer advice on how to deal with people and situations the innovators will encounter turning their ideas into reality. In traditional mentoring situations, the mentor and acolyte stay together for a long time, but successful organizations are encouraging rising innovators to seek out different mentors over time. This gives them access to more ideas, and more flexibility to find the advice to fit a particular situation.

Foster peer networks
As well as providing mentors, give the innovators a chance to meet and talk with each other about their experiences. The opportunity to discuss with peers how they handle issues and the stress of innovation will be fruitful.

Replant them in the middle
After the innovators have been identified and developed - with mentors and peer networks in place - replant them in the middle of the organizational chart with ambiguous job responsibilities so that they will be free to act as innovation hubs, running with ideas and developing them through contacts they have developed. Formulate career paths for them that are suited to their abilities.

Dr. Sheth & Ratan Tata

This is a camera phone snapshot of a billboard in Mumbai of a CNBC special event for the founder of the ICA Institute, Dr. Jagdish Sheth, and chairman of India's largest conglomerate, the Tata Group, Ratan Tata.

Thiagi on Increasing Interactivity in Webcasts

I just attended ISPI's Skillcast on Increasing Interactivity in Webcasts with Thiagi, mine and many others favorite educative mentor.

He went over his basics- let the inmates run the asylum, look for ways to collaborate instead of compete and avoid jumping to conclusions. And always contradict yourself, but don't ever disagree.

Some tips from the webinar:

Drawing on his improv philosophy of training, here are his points on the "Yes!" attitude:

• Trust participants
• Accept everything
• Keep eyes on the prize
• Treat useful and useless inputs the same way
• Incorporate all relevant inputs
• Modify irrelevant inputs & incorporate them

He demonstrated this process with a card trick bywhich he leads the volunteer to the card he wants her to pick and magically reveals "her" choice.

He next asked participants to answer a question, then predict the most popular answers. What was the question?

Why do most webinars suck?

.... somewhere around this point I got called away from my desk and grabbed an apple...

Came back to discussion about giving a lesson on stereotyping through the diversion tactics of magic.

He ended with a very interesting exercise where he was showing 3 numbers on the screen then asked participants to submit a set of numbers that would be like this 3. He was using a term to say what it was, but who can understand him? "Jovel" juvel" something like that.

Examples he displayed:
5-10-11
20-40-41

So, he says- everyone submit a jovel or juvel. He probably explained more at the beginning but I had gotten distracted by texting on my I-phone.

I just submitted my husband's favorite number, my favorite number and the first one that came to mind. 11-37-42

The host read off several submissions... 1-2-3, 2-4-5, 3-6-7
Then he said, and someone submitted this one which is wrong... 11-37-42

And Thiagi said, Wait, it is right it is a "jo*uhl" Everyone thinks they have detected a pattern when they see the examples I presented n-n*2-n*2+1. So they submit what they think is a right answer.

But actually, he says, if you want to really test a theory, then you should submit something different. Because actually, a "jo*uhl" is just any 3 integers listed in ascending order.

Wish I could say I was "pushing the limits" with my submission, but I was just not paying very good attention. I would certainly have patted myself on the back for recognizing the pattern and submitted one to match had I been listening.

Take away... good results can come from barely listening to Thiagi.

Useful Webinar on R&D Talent in India

On Tuesday, November 18, 2008 I attended a webinar put on by a colleague who has presented for us at the ICA Institute, Gunjan Bagla, managing director of Amritt Ventures, Inc. . This webinar was presented by The Caltech Industrial Relations Center as part of their Critical Business Discussion Series.

He presented on leveraging India's talent for R&D: - R&D opportunities and business models in India - Challenges to making Indian R&D opportunities a reality - How to leverage investment with a distributed development model - and What impact open innovation will have on future development in India.

2 quick comments:

1) I always gather useful information and insight from Bagla's presentations and appreciate his reflective approach to topics. This is a topic of particular interest for my research, and I am glad to have access to Bagla as a resource.

2) I attended this webinar because of my interest in the topic, but I was also glad to be an audience member instead of the host. It reminded me how easy it is to get distracted at your desk while the webinar is going on, and I noted that Bagla's use of polls worked very well to get my attention back. I have been encouraging presenters to use the poll feature in our Around the World in Asian Days series, but now I will emphasize it even more.

What's Driving India's Rise as an R&D Hub?

What's Driving India's Rise as an R&D Hub?

India has long enjoyed a reputation as a destination for IT and business process outsourcing. Now, the country is fast emerging as a major center for cutting-edge research and development (R&D) projects for global multinationals such as Microsoft and Motorola as well as Indian firms. More and more companies in industries ranging from IT and telecommunications through pharmaceuticals and biotech are setting up ambitious R&D projects, in part to serve the Indian market, but also with an eye to delivering new generations of products faster to the global market.
What forces are shaping these trends? What does the future hold? To answer these questions and more, Knowledge@Wharton collaborated with The Economic Times Intelligence Group in Mumbai, India, on this special report on R&D in India. The articles below explore the factors driving global R&D toward India, the opportunities and challenges of contract research, and the human capital challenge that India faces, among several others.

NASA scientists ring up ISRO, want to work in 'desi' missions

Press Trust of India

NASA scientists ring up ISRO, want to work in 'desi' missions

Bangalore, Oct 25 (PTI) Several NASA scientists -- of Indian origin and foreigners alike -- are knocking the door of Indian Space Research Organisation looking for opportunities to work in future 'desi' space missions following the success of Chandrayaan-1 launch, a senior ISRO official said today.Project Director of Chandrayaan-1, India's first unmanned lunar mission, Mayilsamy Annadurai says he definitely sees a "small trend" of what he calls "reverse brain-drain"."Some of my friends and juniors working there (NASA) are looking for opportunities for working in ISRO," Annadurai said here.He said at least half-a-dozen of them had approached him seeking openings in the Indian space agency and he knew that "a good number of foreigners" were also looking for such jobs.Other senior ISRO officials sure would have got similar calls, he said. The question they are all asking is: "Is there any opportunity for working in future missions of ISRO".India's Chandrayaan-1, launched on Oct 22, is carrying 11 payloads (scientific instruments) -- two from NASA, three from European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and five from India."Fifty per cent of the instruments have come from outside. It's symbolic. Instead of we going there, they have come along with us as co-passengers," Annadurai said.ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said "comments and observations with envy that have come from overseas after Chandrayaan-1's launch reaffirms ISRO's matured and advanced technologies." After the launch, US Democratic Presidential nominee Barak Obama had said India's mission should be a wake-up call to America, and should remind his nation that it was getting complacent or sloppy about maintaining its position as the foremost nation in space exploration. PTI

Bridgeport Looks to India to Fill Teaching Gaps

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/nyregion/connecticut/21teachct.html?pagewanted=all

BRIDGING Brindavani Tallur says she is getting used to differences between teaching in India and at Harding High.

By MOINA NOOR

Published: September 19, 2000
Bridgeport

Thomas McDonald for The New York Times

BONDING Satya Mohan, in his physics class at Bassick High, says he feels he is part of the “Bassick family.” Kye Jackson, right, a student in Dr. Mohan’s class.

BRINDAVANI TALLUR, a 39-year-old science teacher from India, stands outside her classroom at Warren Harding High School here, and greets each of her ninth-grade students by name. “Welcome to Physical Science,” she says. “How was your weekend?” A few students return her greeting, but most look past her and enter the room noisily.

In India, Ms. Tallur was revered. When she entered her classroom, 70 students would rise, stand by their desks, and greet her in unison. “In India a teacher is next to God,” she explained, noting the contrast in behavior.

Now after a year of teaching at Harding in an international program, Ms. Tallur has become used to less respect. She is no longer surprised by profanity in the hallways and students talking out of turn in the classroom.

Ms. Tallur, who holds a master’s degree in chemistry and education, is one of 14 teachers from India, 10 men and 4 women, hired by the Bridgeport Board of Education to fill a shortage of math and science teachers in the district.

“We had eight vacancies in 2006 that we were desperately trying to fill,” said Carol Birks, the principal of Harding. “Our biology teacher had to teach extra physics classes. Sometimes we used long-term substitutes.”

Across Connecticut there is a shortage of math and science teachers for grades seven to 12, according to the State Department of Education. The problem is more acute in urban areas like Bridgeport with lower teacher salaries, said Carole Pannozzo, executive director of human resources for Bridgeport schools. The teachers from India are paid under the same formula as the local teachers, Ms. Pannozzo said.

To address the problem, the State Education Department created a Visiting International Teacher program in 2006, which allows school districts to hire certified math and science teachers from India on three-year contracts.

Last year, Bridgeport was the only district to sign up for a pilot program. This year the program has expanded — Bloomfield has hired three Indian teachers and Hartford has hired one. (This year Connecticut also initiated a program to bring volunteer teachers from China to teach Mandarin. There are 15 Chinese teachers working across the state).

In February 2007, Sharon Pivirotto, a recruiter for the Bridgeport public schools, and Mary Ann Hansen, a world languages consultant at the State Education Department, traveled to New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore to interview potential candidates. They met more than 100 teachers. Most were mid-career teachers, ages 30 to 40. Many of them had master’s degrees and some had Ph.D.s. Dr. Hansen’s main criteria during the interview process were fluency in English and an ability to adapt to a different system and culture.

Dr. Hansen said: “I asked them, ‘What is calculus?’ I wanted to make sure they answered in words, not formulas.”

Ms. Pivirotto presented the prospective candidates with scenarios about discipline. “How would you handle a verbally abusive student?” she would ask.

Of the 14 Indian teachers eventually hired, 10 are at Harding High School and 4 teach at Bassick High School across town.

The Indian teachers view the opportunity as a way to advance their careers and explore new methods in education and classroom management, said Raj Vanjani, vice president of the Teachers Placement Group, a Long Island-based agency that worked with Dr. Hansen to develop the visiting teachers program and that only works with teachers from India.

“In India, global experience is highly prized, and many dream of visiting America,” Mr. Vanjani said.

Discipline is probably one of the biggest challenges facing the new teachers, some of whom came from rigorous private schools.

Ms. Tallur taught chemistry to high school and middle school-age students in Hyderabad, where she said that discipline was not an issue.

“In India, most of the disciplining happens when children are younger,” she said. “It’s easy to bend the stem of a plant when it is young. Once the stem gets strong, it is much harder.”

At Bassick High School, Satya Mohan, a physics teacher, said he was surprised the first time a student put his head down on his desk and said, “I am not in the mood to listen today.”

“I thought to myself, well he is being honest,” Dr. Mohan said.

In spite of extensive training before starting in Bridgeport, Ms. Tallur admitted that the beginning of last year got off to a rocky start.

“I was told about discipline issues in my early orientation, but the intensity of the problem was very high,” Ms. Tallur said. “At first I got angry and frustrated. I tried to diagnose the problem and understand the children’s needs. I saw they needed guidance, love and affection. Now I touch them when I talk to them. I kid with them, but I also enforce my rules.”

Students said it took some adjustment on their part to have teachers from another country.

“The kids made fun of her accent, her shoes, anything,” said Lisel Martinez, a 10th grader at Harding who was in Ms. Tallur’s class last year. “But she didn’t show that she was upset. She really helped us, broke things down step by step. I think she really cared about us.”

Ms. Tallur said that the number of disciplinary infractions in her classroom decreased considerably by the end of the year. “Now when someone is not behaving, I take out my cellphone and start to call their parents,” she said. “I learned this trick from one of my colleagues.”

School administrators offer supportive services to the teachers. The new teachers were assigned mentors in their department, and they also had regular meetings with the school principal. “We knew it would be challenging in the beginning,” Ms. Birks said. “We wanted them to feel part of the community.”

Today, Ms. Tallur car-pools to school with a non-Indian colleague. “We no longer feel like outside teachers,” she said.

Dr. Mohan said he also had to analyze the challenges of urban education.

“Every child cannot be the same,” Dr. Mohan said. “We have to understand his setting. As teachers we try and match the gap in knowledge of each student and lift him up. That’s our job. We don’t want to be another challenge in their life.” He was director of the physics department at a college in Hyderabad, India, before coming to Bridgeport. He now considers himself part of the “Bassick family.”

School officials say they have benefited from the visiting teachers in other ways.

“These teachers have reminded me that we have to maintain high expectations for all our students,” said Ronald P. Remy, the principal of Bassick High School.

Not all of the Indian teachers had similarly successful years in Bridgeport. Two teachers at Cesar A. Batalla Elementary School, kindergarten to eighth grade, were asked to leave after a few months because they were not able to handle the discipline issues of middle school students. Two new teachers from India were placed at Harding this year, replacing the teachers who left.

Dr. Mohan said he particularly liked the hands-on approach to learning and the use of technology in American classrooms. Last year, he enlisted several of his students to participate in the citywide Science Fair where a few of them won prizes. This year he said he planned to get more students involved.

“Dr. Mohan encouraged me to be a part of the science fair,” said Darren Thompson, a sophomore at Bassick High. “We worked together after school on an aviation project.” This year he plans to work with Dr. Mohan on a solar energy project.

To date, there are no test scores that indicate student performance in math and science has improved since the arrival of the teachers from India, but administrators are optimistic. “We are hoping to see gains after a couple of years.” Ms. Birks said.

Several of the teachers live together in apartments. In the evenings, they cook together and discuss the day. “We spend a lot of time discussing problems and solutions with each other,” Ms. Tallur said.

Ms. Tallur and Dr. Mohan came back early from their summer vacations so they could be instructors at new teacher orientations at their respective high schools.

A few of the teachers have brought their families over for visits. On weekends, when they are not attending school basketball games and community forums, the teachers go on road trips.

“So far I’ve been to Boston, Niagara Falls, New York, Las Vegas and Disneyworld,” Dr. Mohan said. “We came to see America.”

Industry leaders, policy makers and international experts to address skills deficit issue at CII Summit

Industry leaders, policy makers and international experts to address skills deficit issue at CII Summit
MBAUniverse.com Bureau
Sep 16, 2008

Given the shortage of skilled manpower in fast growing sectors like Banking, Retail, Healthcare, Construction, Automotive sector and several other sectors, there is increased need for understanding the importance of Skills Development in India.To address the challenges and opportunities in the area, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will be holding the Global Summit on Skill Development on September 17-18, 2008 in New Delhi. India's first portal on employability development – EmployablityUniverse.com – is the official media partner of the summit.

The two-day summit will see host of national & global speakers from Government, Industry, Academia, Multi-lateral Agencies, etc. The Summit shall be attended by Senior Industry representatives & experts from Australia, Germany, US, China, Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Britain. Together they will offer perspectives on bridging the skill divide & sharing international best practices. Australia is the partner country for the Summit.

The Day 1 of the summit will have sessions on Global Practices in Skills, Engaging Stakeholders-Delivering through PPP, Universalizing Skills - From Policy to Practice where senior representatives from both industry & government shall discuss the skills needs for the country. Day 2 will have focused discussion on Sectoral Skills needs & the role of industry. The Sessions that will be covered this year are Automotive, Construction, Health, Retail & Financial Services.

Higher studies not priority for Indian engineering students

Silicon India News
Sat Aug 23

Higher studies not priority for Indian engineering students

The companies demanding higher degrees for candidates will have to wait. Higher education is not a priority for engineering students in India, despite a lot of new institutions being set up across the country. According to a study by two professors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), about 2.3 lakh students graduated in engineering in 2006 but only 20,000 master degrees and 1,000 PhDs were awarded in the same year.

Only one percent of B.Tech graduates opted for an M.Tech. and merely two percent of M.Tech graduates opted for PhD. The study named 'Engineering Education in India,' involved higher education institutions including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Science (IISc).The study suggests that India needs to start a series of initiatives, including partnerships with industries, strengthening existing PhD programs and research facilities.

But while in India, many companies are insisting upon higher academic performances of their staff, many U.S companies are just looking for the pure employable talent, no matter what their college scores are.

By 2012, Georgia, U.S., will require bachelor's or higher degree for only 20.1 percent of the total jobs, says Georgia Workforce Trends in Brief report, published by the Georgia Department of Labor. Eight percent - the fastest-growing sector of the jobs market - will require some postsecondary education. The remaining 71.8 percent - the majority of which are low-skilled, low-paying jobs - will require no formal education beyond high school, reports reflector.com.

TCS, Infy, Wipro may replace IT megavendors

Silicon India News

http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/45462/2

Bangalore: Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, and Wipro Technologies will emerge as the next generation of IT service mega-vendors.A Gartner study says that these vendors, which are collectively referred to as 'India-3' and are increasingly being considered for strategic service deals, will perhaps replace today's mega-vendors by revenue - IBM Global Services, Accenture and EDS - in this space by 2011.

Though much smaller in size when compared to the current mega-vendors, these emerging mega-vendors are increasingly competing for the same mega-deals that had been the exclusive domain of the incumbent mega-vendors. The 'India-3' have leveraged their strong success with meeting client needs to achieve record growth levels during a long period of time (30 quarters continuously) and have outperformed the incumbent mega-vendors by almost a 3:1 margin in growth rates. The market capitalization of the Indian providers is significantly higher than that of EDS, and almost on par with Accenture that are much larger companies in terms of revenue.

"The emerging mega-vendors have made dramatic progress in the past few years and have more than doubled their revenue in a four-year period, with the 2007 revenue being 2.6 times the 2004 revenue," says Partha Iyengar, VP and Regional Research Director, Gartner.The emerging mega-vendors have leveraged four critical competencies to achieve their status as emerging mega-vendors. The competencies are: process excellence; world-class HR practices; providing high quality services at a low cost; the achievement of significant and disproportionate 'mind share' compared to their actual size.

However, as per the study, it is clear that there is a divide between today's mega-vendors and the aspiring Indian mega-vendors. The Indian providers will have to address the issue of moving away from resource-intensive revenue growth to a model that provides higher leverage and increases revenue without a linear relationship to head count, which is the situation that exists today.

"There are strong indicators that 'India-3' (TCS, Infosys and Wipro) will be the next mega-vendors in IT services. However, to achieve this, the current standing of the India-3 will need to expand quickly to keep pace with the changing client environment for IT delivery in the future," said Iyengar.

What the U.S. Can Learn from Indian R&D

What the U.S. Can Learn from Indian R&D

Engineering companies in India play a leading role in educating their research employees, a practice the U.S. can adopt to help keep its global competitive edge

BusinessWeek

by Vivek Wadhwa

We've heard the dire warnings before. The U.S. is falling behind in math and science. A recent admonition came from the Business Roundtable, which cautioned that the U.S. could lose its competitive edge to India and China unless it doubles higher education graduation rates in engineering and science. Intel (INTC) Chairman Craig Barrett, a member of the influential association of executives, said America's economic future lies with its next generation of workers and its ability to develop new technologies and products. This means we must strengthen math and science education, he said. Yes, we need to keep improving education.
But too great an emphasis on education at the university and high school level lets off the hook another crucial contributor to the education of U.S. workers: the workplace.

Innovation clusters to drive growth

Innovation clusters to drive growth
FIRST PERSON: Ganesh Natarajan, Vice-chairman, Nasscom, and global CEO, Zensar Technologies
BS Reporter / Mumbai February 15, 2008


It’s time the Indian IT-BPO industry asked itself – has it given the world its Nano yet – or are we at least planning something on those lines which can put our industry firmly in the spotlight?

With innovation becoming the watchword of the Indian IT and BPO industry, the recognition by Nasscom of a series of sustaining innovations in companies ranging from Media Labs to Mango Technologies to multinational TI has left the industry asking for more – and some disruptive breakthrough innovations too. (A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a technological innovation, product, or service that uses a “disruptive” strategy, rather than a “sustaining” strategy, to overturn the existing dominant technologies or status quo products in a market.)

Disruptive innovations have the potential to add over $50 billion of revenue to the industry by 2012 and it would be wonderful if all the partners in the innovation ecosystem took on a mission to make this transformation a reality.

Unlike in Cuba and Singapore, where innovation is almost entirely government-led and funded, there is a truly participative approach in our country, where large firms, entrepreneurs, academic institutions and of course the government have equal roles to play in the National Innovation Mission.

The formation of innovation clusters – IT for automotive innovation in Pune and for telecom innovation in Chennai have already been initiated – and the evolution of collaborative programmes with educational institutions needs to be intensified this year.

The outstanding work done by Professor Michael Porter of Harvard Business School has amply demonstrated that the cluster approach could transform the fortunes of any industry or country and needs to be embraced in a collaborative format in our own industry to see breakthrough success.

Business model innovation is manifest in the global delivery platform which could well draw inspiration from Dr Kalam’s mention of virtual collaborative networks on the opening day of the summit.

The global delivery platform, in place already with various firms who are using talent from around the country and locations in Europe, China and Latin America to build new applications, has transformed the way businesses interact with IT by enabling disaggregated software development using collaborative tools and leverage the best talent from various locations.

Through this platform the domain expert is at the customer site taking requirement specifications, design and development happens at another location, and testing at a completely different location, capturing the best of all worlds.

Innovation is the best long term response to the input and environment pressures that the industry will continue to face. In the short term, Nasscom will continue to lead the way – through its well established initiatives in IT workforce development, accreditation and registration programmes for young hopefuls and the wide ranging data security initiatives that are making India the best destination to build and support world class software.

This year will see the building of communities where our young talent can interact with business leaders and customers in a truly collaborative environment to reinforce India’s thought leadership in the exciting knowledge universe.

Piramal Prize

Piramal Prize

The Piramal Prize seeks to enable cutting-edge entrepreneurial ideas that bring the highest standards of health to India's masses. Entries, for-profit or not-for-profit, should emphasize both profitablity/sustainability and maximum social impact. The most viable business model will receive INR 10,00,000 (10 Lakh / 1 million) in seed funding in addition to potential venture capital.
The Piramal Prize evaluation process involves three stages: The first stage requires teams to outline the problem being addressed, the nature of the innovation(s), and design of the enterprise. After submission, stage one entries will be viewable to the public on our website and will be open to comments and suggestions. Additionally, stage one entries may be modified by entrants until the submission deadline of April 1st, 2008. The second stage requires semi-finalists to submit detailed business plans and financial projections; the third stage invites five finalists to the Piramal Prize weekend at IIM-Ahmedabad in June 2008.
Entrance Requirements: Plans must directly or indirectly address the health crisis in India. Entries may be for-profit or not-for-profit, and should be sustainable business models that have a significant social impact. Applicants may enter as a team, with a maximum of three members. All participants must be over the age of 18.

Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Science

Global Advances Challenge U.S. Dominance in Science

The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia, the National Science Board said Tuesday in its biennial report on science and engineering.
The United States’ position is especially delicate, the agency said, given its reliance on foreign-born workers to fill technical jobs.
The board is the oversight agency for the National Science Foundation, the leading source of money for basic research in the physical sciences.
The report, on the Web at nsf.gov/statistics/indicators, recommends increased financing for basic research and greater “intellectual interchange” between researchers in academia and industry. The board also called for better efforts to track the globalization of high-tech manufacturing and services and their implications for the American economy.

Visual Communications Portfolio

Visit my recently completed Visual Communications Portfolio, with India and China's economic development as the primary theme.

Tata & Infosys manage talent crunch

TCS and Infy step efforts to manage talent crunch (Silicon India, November 6)
Top software services firms of India, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys Technologies are keen on acquisitions to boost their manpower, but are cautious of very large targets. TCS was keen on acquiring new potentials, "We have to acquire capabilities we don't have, that's our strategy," says S. Padmanabhan, Head of Global Human Resources, TCS.

India firms to enhance China's BPO skills

Indian firms to enhance China's BPO skills (Silicon India, November 8)
Two Indian firms signed an initial pact with a Chinese industry body to train Chinese students in skills required in the booming outsourcing sector. To enhance the level of certification and training required for the BPO industry, China-based Xi'an Service Outsourcing Development Association signed a MoU with Starting Point Competence Training and Snam Abrasive. The MoU, signed at the Xian-Bangalore Service Outsourcing conference, stressed on joint efforts to encourage, stimulate and formulate competency developmental activities. This would favor the BPO industry in Xi'an. The city in western China is referred to as the capital of that country's BPO industry.

The Changing Face of American Innovation

An interview with William Kerr in Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge: The Changing Face of American Innovation

The contributions made by immigrant scientists and engineers for developing new U.S. technologies have been formidable—but not always well described.

What we do know: While the foreign-born account for just over 10 percent of the U.S. working population, they represent 25 percent of the U.S. science and engineering workforce and nearly 50 percent of those with science and engineering doctorates. And at the Ph.D. level, ethnic researchers make an exceptional contribution to science as measured by Nobel Prizes, election to the National Academy of Sciences, patent citation counts, and so on.

Now new research based on patent and trademark data by Harvard Business School professor William Kerr drills down to further identify the probable ethnic composition of U.S. inventors, the industries they influence, and the geographies they work in.

But the paper, "The Ethnic Composition of U.S. Inventors," also documents a significant transformation in ethnic composition of U.S. scientists and engineers over the last 30 years, as Chinese and Indian inventors grew in importance as drivers of U.S. innovation...

India's Youth Set Sights Beyond Call Centers

India's Youth Set Sights Beyond Call Centers
(Forbes, October 8)

As India's economy booms, its young workers are no longer so keen on trying to soothe the irate customers of the global companies that outsource their call center jobs in the country. Industries like aviation and retail are among the new favorites for job seekers, says a study. The business process outsourcing sector, which now has attrition rates ranging from 25% to 30%, could see that number climb to 30% to 40% over the next two years, says the study on urban youths; emerging career choices, conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Diaspora Knowledge Network

India moots online global knowledge network CIOL
R Jai Krishna

The electronic platform to enable the Indian Diaspora to work on projects in the country without relocating

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Aimed at enabling the diverse Diaspora to work on projects in India without having to relocate, the Indian government will soon launch an electronic platform, which will serve as an online global knowledge network. The Diaspora Knowledge Network will enable the Indian Diaspora to deploy its knowledge and skills and transform ideas into individual initiatives and community action in India. The platform will enable the Diaspora to work on projects in India without shifting the base. The government will also soon establish a Global Indian Foundation, to provide the Overseas Indian Community a credible window to lead Diaspora philanthropy into deserving causes such as education, health and rural development in India. The Overseas Citizenship of India scheme, which is similar to the Green Card of USA, engages non-resident Indians.The newly-established Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre, a not-for-profit trust, promoted by the ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs will also act as the Diaspora’s window to invest in and benefit from India, and will serve as a ‘one stop shop.’The network will bring together about 30 million Indians living in 130 countries across the world. The move assumes added significance in the wake of the estimations that Diaspora will be generate an annual income equal to about 30 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product. At present, Indians living abroad produce an economic output of about $400 billion. The Diaspora is estimated to generate an annual income equal to about 30 per cent of India’s GDP. India is already the highest recipient of remittances from overseas at over $23 billion last year. Interestingly nearly half of these remittances – about $12 billion annually - comes from just five million overseas Indians in the Gulf.

India's up-n-coming see the glass half full

Youth In India Are Most Optimistic (Forbes, September 22)

When it comes to global happiness, young Indians score the highest, while Japan’s “now” generation rounds out the bottom of the list, says a new survey. “Indian youth are strikingly more optimistic about their own future and also about the future of society. The general picture in other countries is that young people tend to be personal optimists but societal pessimists,” said Mats Lindgren, CEO and founder of Kairos Future Group. He is visiting New Delhi Friday to present the Indian findings of the survey by the Swedish group.

Quest for Humanity in Corporate Atlanta

Quest for humanity in corporate Atlanta: Finding a place for the teacher idealist in corporate workforce development

IT&D On-site: Fortune 500 Logistics Company

Hosted by:
Learning & Development Manager
Head of Training & Development
Organizational Development
Instructional Design Supervisor
Information Systems
Learning & Development Manager, Corporate Schools
Enterprise Technology Hub
Compliance & Ethics Group

Philosophy: In the case of this organization, the philosophy of the company seems to be the philosophy of the instructional teams we met: “One company; one brand; one vision.” As a classmate ferreted out, the leadership philosophy is also “Servant leadership.” The presentations about the Career Development Process and the Management Learning & Development Process also revealed a strong philosophy of investing in their employees and providing a myriad of opportunities within the organization. Since this company is 100 years old and this training session was the first time we heard the word “union” mentioned, I was reminded of the important roles IT & D and organizational development theories have played in reshaping the employer/employee relationship over the last century in the US.

Taking clues from what we were presented, most of the teams seem to function primarily under objectivist principles. This is not surprising. They must set Health & Safety as its highest priority; similar to the Public Transportation System, as a transportation company, they have no room for mistakes when it comes to training drivers. Yet, in addition to the objectivist style training, the components of social networking shown by the Enterprise Technology Hub are decidedly the most constructivist learning environments we’ve seen in our site visits so far.

Strategy: As with the philosophy, the strategy of the company as a whole informs the strategy of the learning & development team:

Four Strategic Imperatives:
1) Value Added Solutions;
2) Enterprise of Excellence;
3) Building a Winning Team; &
4) Customer Focus.

They also showed signs of using the typical ADDIE model as their strategy for understanding needs, and shaping, developing, implementing and evaluating their solutions. For example, they performed a needs analysis by asking local teams to identify needs for their shared services initiative.

Like the Fortune 500 Printing Services Company, this organization wants their training to be just in time and more mobile.

Tactics: We were introduced to several interesting and innovative tactics during this session, but the word count limit on our site reports will limit me to list only a few of the highlights here:
Shared Services Initiative
Professional and useful interactive simulations
Muscle-memory training for walking
Social networking
Learning Management System: SCORM (Reiser & Dempsey (2007) provide detailed information of this on pg. 293 and point us to a website for more information http://www.adlnet.org/)
Community Internship Program

Resources:ASTD
Maisey Consortium

I was very interested in the Community Internship Program and wanted to post a note about it to see who else might want to discuss it.

They introduced this program to develop more understanding between managers and their staff by requiring managers to spend time in the communities of their fellow employees.

This is a particularly interesting strategy to me in the context of my research into the US-India workforce connections. The external pressures and infrastructural challenges of living in India are quite overwhelming, and it seems that an understanding of this environment could go a long way in bridging the gap between US & Indian team members.

This program also reminded me of McClusky's (1963) theory of margin that posits a ratio of load and power in an adult learner's life. The theory of margin provides a framework to consider the real world context of the adult learner's life circumstances when designing instruction.

What better way to understand the external load of your participants' lives than to live within their community for an extended period of time?

The next best resource for this for India so far is Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days Episode 2 on Outsourcing.

IT&D Pros: Language Lab Coordinator, State U

Shadowing Tracy Dodge*, Language Lab Coordinator, Department of Modern & Classical Languages, State University
*This is a pseudonym for the participant who will remain anonymous.
This observation began with an interview, during which I received a job description document. After the interview, Tracy allowed me to shadow her as she completed several duties of her job.

Details of Interview

Personal Career History
Tracy began working at State University as an adjunct Spanish Instructor. She then became the Administrative Coordinator for Modern & Classical Languages, and after writing a tech free proposal for the Language Acquisition and Resource Center became the Language Lab Coordinator.

Organizational Structure
The Language Acquisition and Resource Center (LARC) is a support lab for the Department for Modern & Classical Languages and the Department of ESL & Applied Linguistics. The Language Lab Coordinator reports to the Chair of the Department for Modern & Classical Languages.

Responsibilities
The responsibilities of this position include: supervision of Language Lab staff of student assistants; management of lab resources, including computers, A/V equipment and multimedia materials; procurement of funding for lab resources; consultation with faculty for technology integration in language classrooms; definition and documentation of internal procedures; and production of LARC communications.

Job Tasks Described in Interview
Tracy described her job as having two components: daily tasks and visioneering.

Daily Tasks
Tracy provides personal consultations with faculty to train them to use the control console, conduct assessments, move between activities and integrate certain applications into their course design. She also stays on-hand for lab setup and t
She also works with students as the LARC is an open lab for language students. She regularly advises students on study skills, study abroad programs and classes. She also provides technology troubleshooting help.
Tracy is responsible for needs assessment, hiring and evaluating lab personnel.
Tracy is the webmaster for the LARC site and maintains a WebCT board for student assistants containing documents and forms related to lab procedures.
Tracy collects extensive data on lab usage and submits quarterly reports to the Department Chair.

Visioneering
Tracy explained that she is responsible for the development and progress of the lab and spends significant time working towards goals for the LARC. For example, she considers what is needed for tech fee proposals, evaluates software for use in the lab and for managing the resources of the lab, and optimizes the use of the lab space.
Tracy regularly attends meetings across campus for collaborative purposes. For example, on the day of this observation, she planned to attend a UETS meeting featuring Horizon Wimba, a textbook with electronic components.
She is also currently designing a course, Foreign Language Educators and Technology, and proposing to host a conference for the International Association of Learning & Technology.

Challenges
Tracy finds it difficult to focus on visioneering because of the constant pull of her daily tasks in the lab. She is an involved manager and required to be on-site as much as possible.

Future Personal Goals
Tracy is currently in the process of reclassifying her job to Associate Director of the LARC because the current the term “coordinator” in her current title does not accurately characterize the level of autonomy and supervisory responsibility assigned to the position.

Job Tasks Observed

• Answering staff questions about immediate problems
• Class set up
• Data collection/Management
• Troubleshooting computer problems
• Managing Staff
• Managing materials
• Faculty consulting
• Printer services
• Scheduling student assistants
• Proposal to host IALLT conference

Document Analysis

Created web lesson on Document Analysis

OGoBiblios11

Yadapadithaya, P. S. (2001, December)
Training Evaluation
Evaluating corporate training and development: An Indian experience. International Journal of Training & Development, Vol. 5, Issue 4.
Survey
Yadapathiya (2001) surveys large corporations (more than 500 employees) in India (public, private and multinational) about training policies and practices. The survey reveals an increase in attention to training from 1991-99 following the introduction of the New Industrial Policy (NIP) which emphasized India’s transition to a market-oriented, global economy. At the time of this study 100% of the multinational corporations in India reported regular practices of training-needs analysis and evaluation of training programs, while the public and private Indian corporations reported only 80-85%.
The results also indicate the perceived deficiencies of the training and development programs including lack of clear policies, lack of results (“absence of transfer of learning”) and failure to evaluate effectiveness.
Use of training by multinational corporations in India is well-established. However, development of systematic training and development in Indian companies is relatively new (last 15 years).
Focus on individual development in Indian training practices lags severely behind that of the multinational corporations.
Uses Kirkpatrick’s rubric for evaluating training. Similar to the US, reactions are regularly gathered. More than half of Indian companies and over 90% of MNCs reported use of the second level of evaluation. Less than 30% of Indian public & private sector companies reported use of the third level of evaluation while close to 90% of MNCs reported the evaluation of behavioral changes. The difficulty of evaluating results is highlighted by the low percentage of India-only based companies (less than 10%) and MNCs (65%) reporting the use of this measure.
· Provides a useful breakdown of instruments used for data collection.

OGoBiblios9

Popli, S. (2005, April)
Training Evaluation
Ensuring customer delight: a quality approach to excellence in management education. Quality in Higher Education, Vol. 11 Issue 1
Survey/Interview
Popli approaches students in business education as customers and seeks to measure their satisfaction. Her evaluation of their training satisfies Kirkpatrick’s first level, reactions. Popli asks her participants to rate the level of importance and satisfaction with the following features of their management institute education: course organization, learning and teaching, placement, computing, library, and student services. Results show management students found learning & teaching and placement most important, and were more satisfied with learning & teaching than placement.
· Small sample, 80 students
· This methodology satisfies Kirkpatrick’s first level, reactions.
· Discusses shift in India’s underlying curricular theories similar to US- from teacher to self-directed learning (Knowles) and more focus on “how to learn” than “what to learn.”
· The quality of education concerns and the lack of fully developed accreditation standards make this type of research important.

Secrets of Offshoring Success

Editorial in CIO

India's Science Education

THE HINDU, FEBRUARY 19, 2007
China shows the way in science education
Gautam R. Desiraju

Style & Form in Writing the Dissertation Proposal

Presentation for class based on Proposals that Work, 4th Ed. by Lawrence F. Locke, Waneen Wyrick Spirduso, & Stephen J. Silverman

What's Next for India: Beyond the Back Office

Dear e-educator:

To read the full text: Boston Consulting Group - Knowledge Wharton Report
The report is titled: "What’s next for India: Beyond the Back Office".

Cheers,

Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship

India Acquires Western Companies

NY Times Article India Revels in Being the Buyer

From Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship

http://www.usindiafriendship.net/

Yoga in US public schools

An example of the reciprocal exchange with India.

Beyond the Program of Study Presentation

Presentation site for a discussion of the expectations for graduate teaching & research assistantships & faculty members.

India's Rising Growth Potential

Dear e-educator:

In its latest assessment dated January 22, 2007, of India's long-term economic outlook, which is titled, "India's Rising Growth Potential," Goldman Sachs suggests that India's influence on the world economy will be bigger and quicker than implied in its previously published BRICs research. (BRICs stand for "Brazil, Russia, India and China")

To read the full report, please log on to http://www.usindiafriendship.net/ and click the first topic under "Most recent Viewpoints", which is titled, "New Goldman Sachs Report: India's Rising Growth Potential, January 22, 2007 (PDF). "

Cheers,

Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship
http://www.usindiafriendship.net/

Internet Assignments

From the Haze of a Toxic Waste Moon

Engage Me or Enrage Me by Mark Prensky

An article about the need for stimulating course materials for students to tolerate educational environments: Engage Me or Enrage Me

Student Teacher Relations in Online Classrooms

This is an article from Epaper The Hindu appeared on Sep 17, 2006 in page 16. Click the following link to read : A complicated relationship

American Perceptions of Indians

BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE, SEPTEMBER 13, 2006

Viewpoint

By Vivek Wadhwa

Are Indians the Model Immigrants?

A BusinessWeek.com columnist and accomplished businessman, Wadhwa shares his views on why Indians are such a successful immigrant group

Why Johnny can't code

A Salon.com article about how the new generation of computer buffs use technology rather than create it: Why Johnny Can't Code

Toddlers & TV

TV Toddlers

An article related both to my interest in instructional technology and my guilt over letting my 18 month old watch up to 2 hours of TV a day already.