Un’altra vostra segnalazione di grande valore e interesse: ieri parlavamo di un problema da affrontare, oggi di un’opportunità da cogliere.
Si tratta di un Premio promosso dalla Confindustria di Salerno e giunto con grande successo alla quarta edizione.
Sotto puoi leggere tutte le informazioni: sbrigati a farlo, c’è tempo fino al 26 novembre.
Segnalo volentieri questo premio perchè la condivisione di best practices sul tema dell’innovazione è uno degli obiettivi di AREA Science Park (e del Gruppo di Facebook “Come trasformare la Ricerca in Innovazione“).

> Presentazione iniziativa
> Linee guida Premio Best Practices 
   (da compilare entro il 26.11)
> Accordo Confidi Province Lombarde 
   (chi partecipa al premio potrà offrire ai clienti la possibilità di finanziare in modo agevolato i loro servizi)

Qui sotto un articolo che spiega molto bene l’iniziativa.
Buona lettura e.. in bocca al lupo!

Best Practices per l’Innovazione IV edizione :
il (buon) senso delle imprese dei servizi innovativi per lo sviluppo e le nuove opportunità dell’evento.

Eppur si muove.
Cresce e si rinnova.
Ed è arrivato alla quarta puntata, tra i marosi di una crisi che nessuno è in grado di prevedere quando verrà superata, ma che deve essere affrontata anche con il necessario supporto delle imprese della conoscenza, un supporto necessario contro i sintomi da sindrome cinese, dollaro debole e congiuntura altalenante.

L’iniziativa nata a Salerno nel 2006, progressivamente è diventata patrimonio culturale della varia umanità professionale che caratterizza il gruppo servizi innovativi e tecnologici di Confindustria ed è con piacere, lo ammetto con una punta di soddisfazione, che ha trovato il consenso soprattutto delle imprese  che hanno partecipato nei tre  anni passati  come : Healthware (testardamente presenti sin dalla prima edizione, e in qualche occasione anche con più di un progetto) Deloitte, Finsud, Economedia, Ipr Feedback, Risorse Ambientali, Kelyon, Halgol e Mediarelational, diventate spontaneamente sostenitrici e promotrici ad altri colleghi dell’evento che vuole rappresentarle, nella loro essenza, al mercato potenziale.

Best Practices compie 4 anni e si arricchisce di nuove opportunità nate dalle contaminazioni e dai confronti avvenuti in occasione della III edizione.

Tra queste l’idea che elaborare, con il Confidi delle Province Lombarde, insediatosi presso la sede di Confindustria Salerno, un prodotto chirografaro verticale destinato a garantire gli investimenti in innovazione proposti dalle imprese partecipanti al premio.

Questo prodotto nasce dalla collaborazione post-premio tra gli organizzatori del premio e l’azienda di consulenza napoletana Strategitaly, guidata da Edoardo Magnotta, che ha partecipato all’edizione scorsa, e ha lo scopo di fornire le garanzie accessorie alle banche (in queste ore è in via di definizione l’accordo con una primaria azienda nazionale, che per prima si proporrà al mercato con il nostro prodotto) per i clienti delle aziende partecipanti alla competizione in questi anni.

La garanzia permetterà ai clienti delle aziende partecipanti di accedere ad un finanziamento agevolato, fino a 500.000,00 Euro, della durata massima di 60 mesi e con 12 mesi di preammortamento per investimenti immateriali (piani di marketing, sviluppo di software, consulenze direzionali, etc.) , equiparando gli investimenti innovativi, in modo ufficiale, alla stregua di beni ammortizzabili, quali essi naturalmente sono.

Questo strumento rappresenta non solo un mezzo utile per supportare e stimolare la diffusione dell’ innovazione e il sostegno allo sviluppo delle imprese (che le banche dicono di prediligere ai finanziamenti per liquidità), ma anche un esempio dei meccanismi virtuosi che possono nascere all’interno di un contenitore di idee che da vita a sinergie ed innovazioni operative, un piccolo frammento di cultura dello sviluppo che dovrebbe (dovrebbe) essere patrimonio della classe dirigente del nostro Paese.

Le novità dell’edizione 2009 non finiscono qua.
Quest’anno infatti il premio si sviluppa su due giornate in due sedi.

Il 3 dicembre presso l’Unione Industriale di Napoli ed il 4 dicembre presso la sua sede d’origine salernitana.

In questa seconda giornata è prevista anche una cena che avrà anche la finalità di promuovere la conoscenza dello sponsor sociale che darà una vera e propria certificazione etica (un’innovazione, solidale, del premio) alla nostra manifestazione.

La decisione di raddoppiare le giornate è nata dalla volontà  del presidente regionale del gruppo, l’ing. Nicola Salzano de Luna, che già lo scorso anno aveva voluto patrocinare l’evento sotto l’egida del raggruppamento regionale e che ha inteso valorizzare ulteriormente il percorso organizzativo, con una partecipazione diretta e concreta della struttura.

Un bel segnale di apprezzamento e di stimolo al lavoro svolto, che premia lo sforzo dedicato alle imprese dei servizi innovativi (quelle dell’ i.c.t., del marketing, della consulenza, della formazione, ecc.), alle quali saranno offerte due giornate in due prestigiose sedi confindustriali, per presentare le proprie best practices, incontrare nuovi clienti e invitare potenziali contatti, confrontarsi, scambiarsi opportunità e accrescere il proprio patrimonio relazionale.

Il vero obiettivo dell’evento resta infatti quello di creare una rete di rapporti consapevoli, in grado cioè di poter creare referenze attive, un meccanismo commerciale che premia e seleziona le competenze reali.

Allo scopo di garantire la qualità delle proposte, la selezione dei progetti sarà effettuata dal comitato tecnico scientifico, composto da imprenditori e docenti universitari, secondo le linee guida elaborate nelle precedenti edizioni del premio.

Per partecipare (la dead line è prevista per il 26 novembre) bisogna compilare accuratamente queste linee guida (da richiedere e inviare compilate alla segreteria organizzativa : premiobp@confindustria.sa.it) illustrando in modo chiaro un’esperienza di lavoro reale conclusa a favore di un cliente (pubblico o privato), segnalando i risultati ottenuto da quest’ultimo in termini oggettivi (es. nuovi mercati, riduzione di costi, incremento delle vendite, progetto di un nuovo prodotto) e soggettivi (es. miglioramento del clima e delle competenze aziendali attraverso progetti di formazione e motivazione).

La promozione dei progetti partecipanti sarà garantita da una brochure che verrà fornita a tutte le imprese e divulgata nel sistema confindustriale, metodo che ha già prodotto qualche opportunità di lavoro nelle edizioni precedenti per alcune aziende.

Questo è l’obiettivo che ci poniamo anche quest’anno.

Continuo a pensare che la ricerca della qualità sia un dovere per ogni organizzazione, un obbligo nei confronti dei futuri che ogni comunità intende costruire.

Il nostro piccolo impegno per andare alla ricerca delle qualità e promuoverle comincia a dare i suoi frutti e a raccogliere attenzioni e consensi.

E’ un lavoro (non saprei definirlo diversamente) complesso e non richiesto, ma stimolante e capace di far germogliare idee (come nei migliori think tank) e favorire quel senso di partecipazione spontanea che da un senso compiuto alla vita di una comunità di interessi, quale il nostro gruppo vuole e può essere.

Poco per affrontare questo inverno rigido.
Molto se l’alternativa è affrontarlo da soli.

(personale variante de “un piccolo passo per l’uomo, ma un grande passo per l’umanità” di lunare memoria).

Making a difference in Parkinson’s disease: An audit of patient perspectives,   Sharon Reading , Patricia McGee , British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, Vol. 5, Iss. 11, 13 Nov 2009, pp 496 – 501

Abstract:

Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects approximately 120 000 people in the UK with an age range from people in their 30s upwards. The classic signs of PD are slowness and poverty of movement, tremor and rigidity. Patients experience motor and non-motor complications and some papers suggest up to 80% of patients may go on to develop dementia. PD is a chronic progressive illness with no known cure. Treatment is based on individual need as there is much variation in symptoms. Three years ago, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for the care of people with Parkinson’s were published (2006). However, two leading charities have recently completed surveys which show that large numbers of patients remain unhappy with the overall care they receive.
In Newcastle, a team of Parkinson’s disease nurse specialists conducted an audit of the service they provide. The main aims were to survey the quality of the service from the patients’ perspective and to provide a model for future development based on the findings. The key tool was a patient satisfaction survey of 300 people attending the outpatient clinics.

From 209 completed questionnaires, only two patients reported overall dissatisfaction. This article looks at the areas that patients found particularly helpful such as daily telephone advice lines and home visits and those where there was room for improvement such as access to information.

Lancashire Care staff can request the full-text of this paper, email: susan.jennings@lancashirecare.nhs.uk

Pravin Kothari

I just returned home from a week in Washington DC where we held a regional Customer Advisory Board meeting and a CISO Roundtable event.

It was great to spend time with some of our customers from up and down the east coast and even one all the way from Utah.  Significant number of our customers from various industries including financials, healthcare, federal, Canada, etc. attended the meeting.   We discussed our product roadmap and vision and received excellent validation and feedback.  Most of the customers presented their deployments and success stories. It was also a great chance for the customers to hear about each other’s projects and discuss lessons learned. Kudos to our customer support and professional services teams, which earned universal high praise from our customers.  Some high level feedback and observations from the Customer Advisory Board:

• Plan big but start small: All the customers had a great deployment strategy.  They all bought Agiliance’s product because they had a vision of an enterprise GRC platform, a platform that can address all their GRC needs across the enterprise.  However, they all had a very realistic deployment strategy.  The key is to start with a very precise project with a very precise business benefit.  Demonstrate value to the business and gain support for the tool, then broaden the usage.  Many of the customers in attendance are on their second and third phase of deployment.  Customers typically start with 1 to 2 of their use cases and then grow from there.
• No one can afford customization any more: The impact of this down economy is still very real.  Everybody has less resource than before.  Customer expectations have clearly changed.  Customers want a product that works out of the box, that is easy to use, is easy to administer, and easy to upgrade.  No one can justify large consulting bills year-in and year-out, even the large financial services and federal customers who have historically done a lot of customization to the products they buy.  Customers want a product that works and not leave the main task as an exercise for them.
• Automation is no longer a nice-to-have: Compliance is still the number one driver for customer’s adoption of GRC technology.  The burden of regulatory and contractual compliance is driving customers to automation.  Everyone at the meeting agreed that there is no way their sizable organizations can maintain any resemblance of compliance without the help of technology.  Resource and budget is just too limited vs. the responsibility they have to meet.  Customers want to offload manual, repetitive and non-value-add work from their staff, improve efficiency and focus more on their business needs.

A big thank you to the customers who attended this Customer Advisory Board meeting and provided valuable feedback to help us continue to grow the product and company.  I will summarize the key takeaways from the CISO Roundtable event once I get a chance to catch up from my week-long trip.

Have you ever linked to a web site only to leave right away because it was cluttered and confusing?

It happens all the time. Why struggle through a disorganized mess when it’s easy to hop off and head to another destination that offers the same services?

Just like in real life, clutter on the web presents lack of focus. What’s less obvious is how a visually appealing website can suffer from the same problem.

Hidden problems with hierarchy

Visual confusion occurs when too many elements on a page carry the same weight visually. There’s no clear starting point, or hierarchy. So a visitor’s eyes dart about the page and more or less fight to figure out where to land first.

In another situation, your company name, tagline and main navigation are positioned atop your homepage; where you want users to see it right away; yet this isn’t necessarily how someone experiences the page. If, for example, your logo and main navigation are muted in design as compared to a right-hand sidebar sporting an array of eye-catching graphics, the visitor’s focus is pulled to those jazzier images. Their eyes glance over the top of the page such that it may not even register. Your main message is instantly diluted.

Good-looking design does not guarantee optimum user experience

It’s like when you go into a furniture store and see a chair that’s sharp and stylish yet is uncomfortable to sit in. You pass it up and search for something that both looks and feels right.

Your website can be much the same when form trumps function. A bugaboo here is that a nicely laid-out page does not immediately present itself as problematic — it looks fine to the naked eye.

That’s where usability testing comes in. The testing reveals hidden problems that hinder your site from working at peak level.

A costly step to overlook

It perplexes me how a business can launch a website without first seeing how the site is perceived and used by target audiences. This type of testing is an undervalued and overlooked step to website success.

Meanwhile, the same company takes pains to put a lot of effort into search engine optimization of keywords, tags and other elements of coding. So great; you figure out how to rank high in search results, only to misguide those eyeballs when they reach your lovely site.

Repeat after me: Usability testing is not a luxury

There are companies that specialize in user experience. Depending on the depth and purpose of your site you may want to fork out the dough to bring in an expert. Many web developers offer this service, too. I advise at least going the latter route. Particularly when you’ve got lots of forms an/or e-commerce going on, it can be money well spent.

If purse strings don’t allow paying for usability testing, take matters into your own hands. It need not be a costly complex process.

And to prove it, my next post will offer tips on how you can conduct usability testing for low or no cost. Stay tuned.

-Deni Kasrel

Have you, too, noticed web sites that look good but lack focus? Do you think more sites can benefit from usability testing? Comments welcome.

I have noticed in both observing and working with non profits that their uptake and utilization of social media is creative, innovative and extensive and when I came upon this study by  the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research who had recently completed (June 2009) one of the first statistically significant studies on the usage of social media by United States charities that my anecdotal suspicions were supported by empirical evidence. 

The new study compares organizational adoption of social media in 2007 and 2008 by the 200 largest charities in the United States as compiled annually by Forbes Magazine. For complete details on Forbes Magazine’s list of the largest charities, please visit their website at Forbes.com.  They are some of the best-known charities in the country including the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity International and Easter Seals. The participating non-profits have headquarters in every major US city including New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco. They were asked detailed questions about the organizations’ familiarity with, usage of, monitoring of and attitude towards six common forms of social media (blogs, wikis, podcasts, online video, message boards and social networking).

So what are some of the best practices and uses of social media as displayed by the top 200 US NGO’s.

13 Best Practices Of  Social Media Implemented By the Top 200 US Charities

This new research shows that charitable organizations are still outpacing the business world and academia in their use of social media. In the latest study (2008) a remarkable eighty-nine percent of charitable organizations are using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis. 

1. Blogging is the leading social media channel: 
   • A majority (57%) of the organizations are blogging versus 41% by Universities and Colleges, 39% by the Top 500 fastest growing companies and 16% by the Fortune 500 .
   • 52% of the respondents to the 2008 survey still without a blog said they planned to add one in the future, making blogs the most popular tool now and for the foreseeable future. 
   • When asked if they felt their blogs were successful, approximately 90% of charities with blogs said yes. This finding is also consistent with studies in business and academia that have consistently shown those using social media are satisfied and feel it provides positive results
2. Vital for fundraising:  Forty-five percent of those studied report social media is very important to their fundraising strategy. While these organizations are best known for their non-profit status and their fundraising campaigns, they demonstrate an acute, and still growing, awareness of the importance of Web 2.0 strategies in meeting their objectives. 
3. Video is now one of the core features of social media: The use of video in their blogs jumped from 40% in the 2007 study to 65% the following year.
4. Social networking site use is now considered mainstream not optional: Social networking up 47%
5. WordPress as a platform for the blog is dominant:  Twenty-six percent of those with blogs are using WordPress software as a platform
6. Twitter is used extensively 
7. YouTube video uploads are prominent.
8. Allowing the accepting of comments is almost universal: also known as allowing conversation (85% of those charities with blogs accepted comments and 88% in 2008)
9. RSS feed use is considered a vital feature of a blog:  (57% in 2007 compared to 67% in 2008) Note: This simplifies the blogosphere for readers who may want to keep up with a certain conversation or be informed of new information without having to check the blog of interest every day to see if there is something new.
10. Email subscriptions is Crucial on your blog: now in the majority (23% in 2007 compared to 56% in 2008) 
11. Promoting the blog is an essential activity: The promotion was email, press release and newsletters in 2007 , with 2008 seeing the use of  social networking to promote their blog
12. Success is mainly measured by the number of hits or comments they receive on their website or blog: Also in 2008 many reported donations coming in as a result of social media communications as an additional form of measurement.
13. Monitoring of Social Media is considered important by the majority of  Non Profits: They are listening to what’s being said about them online. Sixty-six percent of respondents in 2007 and 75% in 2008 report they monitor the Internet for buzz, posts, conversations and news about their institution. Most of these organizations realize the importance of knowing what conversation might occur around their cause, their name, their location or constituents. How do they monitor buzz about themselves or their causes.
    • In 2007, 42% did searches manually using basic search engines like Google and appropriate key words.
    • In 2008, that dropped to 36% while the number of charities automating their searches climbed from 34% to 42%. Google alerts were the most popular automated searches.

Note: When comparing charities with other sectors also using social media and monitoring their names, brands or products, these non-profits again stand out. In 2008, 54% of US colleges and universities monitored buzz online about their school, 60% of the Inc. 500 monitored their brands or name and 75% of the top charities monitored their names, causes or other pertinent information. This group is both active and sophisticated in their use of social media.  

Conclusion 

This new study, looking at social media usage among the nonprofit sector, reveals that social media has become an incredibly important part of the communication strategy for US charities. The largest non-profits are continuing to outpace businesses and even academic institutions in their familiarity, use, and monitoring activity. These top organizations have found a new and exciting way to win the hearts (and maybe the dollars) of potential donors.

So are you practicing and implementing social media best practice in your organisation?

You’ve successfully launched a survey, gathered results and now it’s time to share them with your audience.

I know, reporting research results is supposed to be cut and dried.  No emotion, no opinion, just the facts.  That might be true for academia and basic research, but in the world of business it’s all about using the results to help us make “good” decisions.  Here is a great way to synthesize and summarize your results in a way that will help your audience easily process what the results mean and then make a sound decision based on those results.

How to Present Your Results and Get Recommendations Implemented

1. Focus on the Objective as the Burning Issue. In the first thirty seconds of your presentation, remind everyone of what decision you’re trying to make and what the project’s burning issue is.  Here’s an example: “Our competitors have already launched Wickety Widget to stellar results, but they are missing out on a key customer segment. Can we interest 1000 soccer moms to buy our Wacky Wodget in the next quarter and take that segment  for ourselves?
2. Tell a story. It’s not news anymore that we base many decisions more on an emotional basis than on a logical basis.  Since your data is the logic – give your audience and emotional hat to hang your data on.  Tell them the story behind the objective of your research.  How did this burning issue develop?  What observations or opportunities did you identify that prompted the research.  What benefits did you think were possible…if only…? Telling a good story will lend context to the data and help your audience formulate an opinion and make decisions.  Use your data as supporting evidence to the key points of the story.  In other words, instead of using your data and charts to drive the story, use the story to drive the data and the charts.
3. Give the Answer in the Chart Title. Charts generally confuse people — especially table charts.  That’s why it’s brilliant strategy to give your chart title as a conclusion to what the chart means.  For example “85% of our target market prefers the purple flying elephant logo.”  This way, when they see the chart, they won’t have to do their own analysis, they will simply confirm what you’ve already told them and this is what will stay in their memory.
4. State your recommendation as a solution. Right about this time in the presentation, your audience understands the issue, is wrapped up in the story and sees the data that you’ve presented as supporting the story.  The next thing they want to see is what you’re going to do about it.  What is the recommendation and the solution?  This is where you really have an opportunity to shine.  Don’t just present the data, take this golden opportunity to think of creative solutions, recommendations and implementation strategies.  Look for creative ways to create mock-ups and other physical representations of solutions.  Actually seeing a solution gets people excited and relieves them of the responsibility to think of something.  You look like a hero and your recommendation just took another step toward becoming reality.
5. Give them a payoff. Tell your audience why this idea is good for them.  How will they benefit from implementing these recommendations.
6. Tell them how to take action. Come prepared with an action you want them to take.  Do they need to approve a budget?  Have the paperwork there and ready for their signature.  Do they need to get together for another meeting?  Have access to a calendar and schedule that date.  You’ll never have the audience this excited again, so take advantage of it.

This outline will take a little longer to prepare than your standard Power Point presentation, but it will only take about ten minutes to deliver and will get your audience saying “YES” to your recommendations.

Try it and let us know how it worked.

About the Author: Ivana Taylor is CEO of Third Force, a strategic firm that helps small businesses get and keep their ideal customer. She’s the co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers” and proprietor of DIYMarketers, a site for in-house marketers. Her blog is Strategy Stew.   You can reach her directly at Ivana@thirdforce.net.

Milano. Il caso più eclatante è forse quello di Banca d’Italia, che grazie all’adesione agli standard informatici e alle best practices ITIL ha avuto un ruolo determinante nell’ambito del progetto europeo voluto dalla BCE che raccoglie in un’unica piattaforma 22 comunità bancarie (3.800 partecipanti indiretti, per un totale di 11.000 istituzioni raggiungibili) ora in grado di scambiarsi pagamenti, informazioni e documenti senza intermediazioni e senza smarrimenti, come invece accadeva prima.  Ma anche realtà più piccole e con intenti diversi possono trarre grande beneficio dall’ottimizzare i processi e le risorse dell’IT: come la Regione Toscana, che non si limita a erogare servizi di pagamento e di modulistica sul proprio sito, ma ha reso trasparente l’attività del Consiglio, permettendo ai circa 3.700.000 cittadini toscani di partecipare tramite social network, wiki e blog alle decisioni che vengono prese. O una importante realtà italiana come i Baglioni Hotels (15 hotel di lusso supportati da un piccolo IT di 6 persone) che hanno deciso di applicare ITIL, grazie al quale possono anche gestire emergenze come quelle affrontate durante la visita dei Reali di Giordania.   Sono alcuni dei casi di successo – insieme ad Avvocatura dello Stato, ING Direct, RAI, Lombardia Informatica e INVA Valle d’Aosta, Sky, Vodafone, SSC di Telecom Italia – che ieri hanno portato la loro testimonianza alla conferenza annuale di itSMF (www.itsmf.it), all’Atahotel Executive a Milano, dal titolo “L’esperienza, la sfida, l’innovazione nella gestione dei servizi IT”, sponsorizzata da Axios Systems, Avocent, Beta 80 Group, Quint, Reply, Bmc Software, CA, Compuware, Icons, Engineering, HP, IBM, Intarget, Pat e patrocinata da Assintel. E in un momento di crisi come quello che stiamo passando – con una domanda IT che ci si aspetta in calo anche nei prossimi mesi e un mercato in regressione, come ha ribadito Giorgio Rapari, presidente di Assintel – non è cosa da poco. Anche per questo itSMF intende rilanciarsi e diventare più concreta, più incisiva, più vicina ai soci, ha spiegato il neoletto presidente Alessio Cuppari. Tra le nuove iniziative, un osservatorio permanente sulla diffusione delle best practice ITIL tra le aziende italiane.

Das Weiterbildungsmagazin managerSeminare hat das Reiss Profile zum Titelthema in seiner aktuellen November-Ausgabe gewählt. Dabei folgt das Magazin dem Ansatz von Steven Reiss, dass jeder Mensch in seiner Individualität zu betrachten ist. Und dies ist insbesondere für Führungskräfte wichtig. Mit seiner Methode der 16 Lebensmotive, hat Steven Reiss ein Instrument zur Persönlichkeits-Analyse geschaffen, das unter anderem von Personalarbeitern und Führungskräften sehr erfolgreich eingesetzt wird.

Neben einem Beitrag der Reiss Profile Master Frauke Ion und Markus Brand, die die Methode und ihre Anwendung im Bereich Führung ausführlich beschreiben, ist auch ein Interview mit dem Namensgeber und Gründer des Reiss Profile, Prof. Dr. Steven Reiss, in der aktuellen Ausgabe der mangerSeminare veröffentlicht.

In dem Interview unter dem Titel ‘Das Instrument kann Konflikte aus dem Weg räumen’, erläutert er:

• die Ursprünge des Reiss Profile
• die Einzigartigkeit seiner Forschungsarbeit
• Anwendungsbeispiele aus dem Alltag und
• Anwendungsbeispiele im Business.

Seine wichtigste Botschaft fasst Steven Reiss dabei wie folgt zusammen: „Verändere die Situation nach Deinen Vorstellungen, bevor Du versuchst, dich selbst oder andere zu ändern.”

Informationen zum Interview und zum Fachartikel gibt es auf der Website von managerSeminare.

Principles of good practice:

• Document the know-how of the different pedagogical approaches implemented in practice.
• Improve students’ learning outcomes throughout implementation of technology that serves such purpose.
• Continually improve the means and spaces of interaction with students.

Case summary

The HP Technology for Teaching initiative grants teams of faculty from colleges or universities, 2-year or 4-year, public or private, an award to redesign a course using technology, such as Tablet PCs. Project teams include one or more faculty members acting as the principal investigators often with other team members who are experts in instructional design or technology integration.

Over the last three years, for more than 200 projects in 34 countries, the use of the technology, the changes in pedagogy, and the courses being redesigned have evolved as technology is used in new ways across academic disciplines. [The] aim [is] to improve student-learning outcomes.

Source: http://cms.carnegiefoundation.org/gallery_of_tl/transforming_teaching_and_learning_through_the_effective_use_of_innovative_technology.html

Principles of good practice:

• Guarantee quality of student learning.
• Foster connections between academic disciplines and practical and theoretical knowledge in students.
• Propose to students different approaches to cross-cultural knowledge and perspectives.
• Empower students to gain intellectual and practical skills through life.
• To be creative
• Integrate and interpret knowledge form different disciplines.
• Apply knowledge to real-world
• Know how to learn
• To be reflective
• Foster students’ self – assessment and design rubrics for this purpose.

Case summary

Some organizations are exploring the state-of-art of integrative learning and its potential to improve education.

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (2002),[ reports that ] many campuses today are creating opportunities for more integrative, connected learning. First-year seminars, learning communities, interdisciplinary studies, capstone experiences, portfolios, student self-assessment, and other innovations are increasingly in evidence. [However, ] they often involve small numbers of students or exist in isolation, disconnected from other parts of the curriculum and from other reform efforts. Indeed, the very structures of academic life encourage students to see their courses as isolated requirements to complete.

Some institutions have implemented such models within their curricula.

To support [integrative learning], many colleges and universities today are developing new kinds of institutional “scaffolding”—courses that invite students to take different perspectives on an issue, capstone projects that ask students to draw on learning from earlier courses to explore a new topic or solve a problem, experiences that combine academic and community-based work, or systems of journaling and reflection like those known as “learning portfolios.”

However, the mayor impediment to implement successfully integrative learning is the credit system in which the programs are articulated.

Since the replacement of the required curriculum with “free electives” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the provision of content through courses counted in standard credit units has long encouraged faculty and students alike to think of learning in course-like modules or chunks.

Since a growing number of students are taking advantage of the credits system to take courses in different institutions, the need to implement a solid strategy of integrative learning is even bigger.

The need to find ways to help students connect their learning is underlined by the fact that a growing proportion are now taking advantage of the portability provided by the course-credit accounting system and attending more than one institution over their college careers.

During the last decades some models and tools have been developed to guide students with their learning process.

The idea that integrative learning depends on students to make connections is hardly a new one. Indeed, the burden of integration has traditionally fallen primarily on the learner, with campuses assuming that bright students would have the wit and grit to pull the pieces together as they moved through their studies. What’s new, perhaps, is a conviction that “intentional learning,” as called for in the Greater
Expectations report (AAC&U 2002), is a capacity that we can and should help all students develop as a key to integrative learning.

The following models and tools have helped to achieve this goal:

· Self-directed learning (Brookfi eld 1986; Sabral 1997; Taylor and Burgess 1995): a process in which students reflect on and formulate their own learning goals.
· Learning how to learn(Fink 2003): describes three capabilities associated with this term.

· Strategic learner (Weinstein, 1996): Characterized by students’ knowledge in five broad categories:

· Metacognition (Glaser, 1984): it entails knowing what one knows and does not know, predicting outcomes, planning ahead, efficiently apportioning time and cognitive resources, and monitoring one’s efforts to solve a problem or to learn.
· Doing and thinking are complementary (Schon,1983): we “surface and criticize the tacit understandings that have grown up around the repetitive experiences of a specialized practice, and can make new sense of…situations of uncertainty or uniqueness.”
· Student portfolios, mentioned earlier as a vehicle for fostering integrative abilities, can also be a vehicle for assessment. A typical focus of portfolio assessment is writing ability, which is highly relevant to integrative learning. But some campuses are employing the approach to assess a broader set of outcomes as well (Cambridge 2001).

The Carnegie Foundation and the Association of American Colleges and Universities (…) are working with ten campuses in a joint project called “Integrative Learning: Opportunities to Connect.”* Selected on the basis of work already accomplished and a plan to extend that work, participating campuses are developing new models to provide students with more purposeful, progressively challenging, integrative educational experiences.

Reference:
Huber, M. & Hutchings, P (2004) Integrative Learning: Mapping the terrain. [online] Association of American Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC. http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/sites/default/files/publications/elibrary_pdf_636.pdf
(Accessed 20 november 2009)

With 94% of the world’s population not speaking English as their first language and 75% not speaking English at all, its imperative for organizations on a global level to deploy a multilingual model for all their business correspondences, client feedback, employee appraisals, researches, etc.

Many don’t realize that QuestionPro can speak multiple languages! The multilingual functionality within QuestionPro makes it easy to program a survey in multiple languages. The basic concept is simple: for each question, you can add the question and answer text for each language you want to offer to your respondents.

To start create the survey in the language you’re most comfortable with. Then, going into the ‘edit’ section for each question in the survey, you can add the text for the question and answer options for the respective languages. On the analysis side, you can segment your  reports based on different languages or view the data in aggregate form.

More Info:

• Multi-lingual surveys: http://questionpro.com/help/220.html

Never let it be said, that just because I don’t believe in it (as a valid or valuable communications and marketing tool) that I don’t share the opposing viewpoint for the benefit and edification of you, my dear, dear blog snorkellers. So here is the script of a presentation given recently at an events industry event. (Yes, you read that right.) As I read it, I thought – well, if I HAD to try and convince someone of the value of social media, this is the sort of thing I’d use. I will issue a health warning though. It doesn’t, at any point, answer the questions ‘how much will I have to invest to leverage social media to my advantage’ and ‘what sort of return can I expect on my investment’. This is OK for the events industry, who have always struggled with ROI, and just keep talking until people forget what it was they wanted to know, but in other, more focused sectors, this might be an issue. Make up your own mind.

“WHAT THE HELL IS SOCIAL MEDIA?   

Social media is “an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos, and audio.”

More simply it just describes the millions of conversations people are having with each other across the world 24/7 

Why the HELL should I care?  Here are 10 really, really good reasons why…  
REASON #1   

Because social media is now the number one online activity beating porn and personal email to the top spot. 
(Nielsen Wire)  
REASON #2   

Because 2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks.

(Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places) 
REASON #3   

Because time spent on social networks is growing at 3x the overall internet rate, accounting for 10% of all internet time.

(Nielsen, Global Faces & Networked Places) 
REASON #4   

Because online including social media has become the most influential source in helping consumer make purchasing decisions.

(Weber Shandwick Inline Research)
REASON #5   

Because social media is like word of mouth on steroids.
REASON #6   

Because social media is democratizing communications. Big time.

“Technology is shifting the power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are in control.”

(Rupert Murdoch, Global Media Entrepreneur)  
REASON #7   

Because millions of people are creating content for the social web.

Your competitors are already there. Your customers have been there for a long time. If your business isn’t putting itself out there, it ought to be.

(Business Week, February 19, 2009)
REASON #8
The next 3 billion consumers will access the internet from a mobile device.   Google Already 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices.  People update anywhere, anytime. 
Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences!       
(Mashable.com) 
REASON #9   

In almost all cases social media is free.  All it will cost you is time.
REASON #10   

Because social media is hell of a force to be reckoned with.
Years to reach 50 million users:  
Radio – 38 years
TV – 13 years
Internet – 4 years
iPod – 3 years
Facebook added 175 million users between in less than 11 months 
The phenomenal growth of Facebook:
January 2009: 150 million users
April 2009: 200 million users
July 2009: 250 million users
September 2009: 300 million users
Friday, November 6th, 2009: 325 million users
That’s half a million users every single day
(Mashable.com) 

If Facebook were a country it would be bigger than the USA and the 3^rd largest in the World  
1.                         China
2.                         India
3.                         Facebook
4.                         United States
5.                         Indonesia
6.                         Brazil
7.                         Pakistan
8.                         Bangladesh
9.                         Russia
10.                      Nigeria     

13 hours:  the amount of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

412.3 years: the length of time it would take to view every YouTube video.

1 billion: the number of YouTube videos viewed per day.

3.06 billion: The number of photos archived on Flickr.com as of June 2009. That’s roughly 1 photo per every 2 people on the planet.

1382%: The year on year growth rate of Twitter users from February 2008 to February 2009.

3,000,000: the average number of Tweets sent per day on twitter.com

5.4 billion: The number of twitter messages sent since launch
5 billion: The number of minutes spent on Facebook each day
1 billion: The amount of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.

Social media is not yet another channel for broadcasting bullsh*t.

You see, it’s supposed to be a dialogue, not a monologue.

One way marketing has had its day! 

Stop thinking “campaigns”. Start thinking “conversations”.

Listening first, selling second 
Unfortunately most companies are still treating social media like just another marketing channel when in fact it’s so much more…

1: public relations

2: customer service

3: loyalty-building

4: collaboration

5: networking

6: thought-leadership

And yes, customer acquisition, too.  

If your product sucks, social media won’t fix it.

However, if your customer service sucks, social media can help.

If your repeat business sucks, social media can help.

If your company’s word of mouth sucks, social media can help.

Social media playtime is over – its time to get serious!     
Never forget the basic rules…

Rule #1: listen – Google alerts and Tweetdeck (for starters)

Rule #2: engage

Rule #3: measure – audience, engagement , loyalty, influence action (metrics should map to goals)

Now go out there and get social!  Because this is only the beginning.”

In the last BT Intranet user survey I carried out earlier in 2009 I asked people in BT if merging information and applications into logical groups based around activities/functions would help them.  The majority answered ‘Yes’.

I am now testing the new version that tries to do this with users and asking for their views.

The last major change to the BT Homepage was at the beginning of 2009 with a recent change in some of the colours when the 2012 challenge countdown began earlier this month.

I’m sharing the proposed changes and how we are testing these with users in these slides.

What do you think of the changes and how we are testing with people to make sure they are right or be able to make further changes to get it better?

PS I’m on holiday for the next two weeks.  My blog decided it wants a break too .  So, my next post will be in December.

Înlănțuire clară

Probabil știi deja că unul din avantajele jQuery este înlănțuirea metodelor. Dacă nu știai, hai să-ți explic pe scurt cam ce e: odată ce ai folosit un selector, poți manipula acel selector într-o singură linie de cod, de exemplu:

 $("#container").find("#obj1").css({ opacity: 0 }).fadeTo(400, 1).end().find("#obj2") 

Așadar, toate metodele apelate mai sus vor afecta ultimul obiect HTML selectat cu jQuery. În cazul de mai sus, metoda find va acționa asupra obiectului container, apoi metodele css, fadeTo și end vor acționa toate, pe rând, asupra obiectului #obj1, ș.a.m.d. În alte limbaje de programare nu am văzut facilitatea asta, fiind nevoit să apelezi pe câte o nouă linie o altă metoda asupra aceluiași obiect.

În caz că ești curios, codul de mai sus caută obiectul HTML cu id-ul container, apoi caută printre descendenții (copii) acestuia elementul #obj1 pe care îl ascunde cu metoda css setându-i transparența maximă, apoi îl reafișează puțin câte puțin scăzând transparența într-un interval de 400ms, apoi metoda end se întoarce la ultimul obiect HTML găsit înaintea lui #obj1, și anume #container, după care caută printre descendenții săi obiectul #obj2.

Acum, revenind la oile noastre, o practică foarte bună a tuturor programatorilor este să scrie codul cât mai clar, citeț, ușor de urmărit. În cazul nostru, JavaScript ne permite scrierea codului de mai sus în felul următor:

$("#container").find(#"obj1")
                  .css({ opacity: 0 })
                  .fadeTo(400, 1)
               .end()
               .find("#obj2")

Crede-mă, te va ajuta enorm când vei umbla prin fișierele JavaScript pentru a depista erori, de exemplu, sau când vei încerca să-ți reamintești de ce ai făcut ce ai făcut.

BBC News has appointed Alex Gubbay as its first Social Media Editor. Gubbay will take on this new role in January, leading editorial development of user-generated content and social media initiatives across the Newsroom. He will coordinate the work of correspondents and reporters using social media tools, ensuring best practice is developed and shared within BBC Journalism. He will manage the existing User Generated Content hub within BBC Newswire, coordinating high-quality UGC newsgathering and effective comment and debate on all of the Newsroom platforms. The hub is a central part of BBC News – generating newsmaking material on stories including the Iran protests, violence in western China, and many UK consumer and social affairs issues. Part of the role will be to help develop new ways for audiences to have their say on stories being covered by BBC News, and to ensure technology is developed to support the social media and UGC operations across BBC Journalism

http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/bbc-news-appoints-its-first-social-media-editor

An American academic by the name of Steven Kerr wrote a profound article in 1975 entitled ‘On the folly of Rewarding A while Hoping for B’

Central to the content of the article is the reality that reward systems exist which encourage behavior contrary to what is wanted/desired. The behaviours that are desired are frequently not rewarded at all. Steve’s article provided examples of these ‘fouled up systems’ within politics, in war, in medicine, in universities, in consulting, in sports, in government and in business.

I’ve been promoting the fact for many years that one of the only ways of creating sustainable competitive advantage is through the design and delivery of a unique and distinctive customer experience. Achieving this outcome is a consequence of enlightened leadership and organizational design based upon systemic thinking such that all business resources and capabilities are aligned, embedded and mobilized in order to achieve the business purpose. The only way to achieve this is by creating and managing ratios and metrics that drive the appropriate behaviours to achieve the ultimate objective.

In today’s world (and more importantly in tomorrow’s world) this becomes even more important if businesses are going to differentiate themselves and become more accountable for their actions. I think it was Lou Gerstner, IBM turnaround fame, who said that ‘you get what you inspect, not what you expect.’

So, until businesses establish some ‘balance’ in their ‘un-balanced’ scorecards, until businesses truly start collaborating and co-creating with a real commitment and understanding of the ‘meaning’ behind their stated vision, mission and strategic intent, until businesses start seeing and understanding the critically important links across systems, resources, processes, policies AND their strategic  objectives and until organizations establish metrics that underpin EXACTLY those behaviours that they desire, we will continue to see ‘more of the same!’ When the rate of change inside the organization is less than the rate of change outside the organization, that organization is living on borrowed time. Sadly, the consequence is that you and I, as consumers, will continue to suffer mediocre and random experiences at best. AND, that sucks!

Opinion piece in PRWeek, issue dated November 13, by Robert Phillips, UK CEO of Edelman. He uses the word ‘mandate’ twice, both times incorrectly.

Is it just me, or is the word ‘mandate’ getting an increasing amount of use amongst communicators currently? Often, as far as I can see, being used to supplant the tried and tested ‘brief’ or ‘account’ or, heaven forbid, ‘service contract’.

Well – here’s the news. It’s an incorrect usage. Getting a mandate does not mean being contracted to provide a service (PR or otherwise) for money. Just a quick look at t’internet reveals the definition here reproduced:

mandate

n [ˈmændeɪt -dɪt]

1. an official or authoritative instruction or command

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) Politics the support or commission given to a government and its policies or an elected representative and his policies through an electoral victory

3. (Historical Terms) (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) (often capital) Also called mandated territory (formerly) any of the territories under the trusteeship of the League of Nations administered by one of its member states

4. (Law)

a.  Roman law a contract by which one person commissions another to act for him gratuitously and the other accepts the commission

b.  Contract law a contract of bailment under which the party entrusted with goods undertakes to perform gratuitously some service in respect of such goods

c.  Scots law a contract by which a person is engaged to act in the management of the affairs of another

vb [ˈmændeɪt] (tr)

1. (Law) International law to assign (territory) to a nation under a mandate

2. to delegate authority to

3. Obsolete to give a command to

[from Latin mandātum something commanded, from mandāre to command, perhaps from manus hand + dāre to give]

mandator  n

Collins Essential English Dictionary, 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006

Nowhere in the definition can I see the meaning that Phillips and others within the industry would attribute to the word mandate.

Doesn’t make us, as communicators, look very clever, does it.

And as for the rest of Phillips’ article – well, I’ll post some comments when I’m feeling slightly more objective.

Saab - change perspective

Heutzutage muss man sich wirklich etwas einfallen lassen, wenn man die Menschen für das eigene Produkt begeistern will. Gerade die Internet-Präsenz gewinnt dabei immer mehr an Bedeutung. Das sind jetzt keine überragenden Neuigkeiten. Aber heute wollen wir wieder einmal eine Website vorstellen. Und diese erfüllt genau diese Ansprüche in höchstem Maße. Die Rede ist von changeperspective.saab.com. Aus der URL wird ersichtlich, dass es sich hierbei um eine Webpräsenz des schwedischen Autobauers Saab handelt. Wir haben wirklich selten eine Website gesehen, die es auf so kreative Art und Weise schafft, sowohl Produktpräsentation als auch Unternehmensphilosophie vorzustellen.

Saab präsentiert sich innovativ: “Nur wer neue Perspektiven sucht, der wird auch neue Lösungen finden.” und lädt den User ein, die Sichtweise des Unternehmens zu entdecken. Ein witziger Trailer führt zunächst auf die Seite, wo sich traditionell die Produktinformationen und Inhalte über das Unternehmen befinden. Das macht Saab letztlich auch – jedoch verpackt in einer Kombination aus Realität und Animation. So verwandelt sich ein Tannenzapfen indem man ihn zum Rotieren bringt, in einen Turbolader oder ein Elch steht inmitten eines Klappbuches und wenn man die Seiten umschlägt, ändern sich die Jahreszeiten.

Was letztlich wirklich, abgesehen von der kreativen Umsetzung, spannend an der Seite ist: der User wird animiert, aktiv zu sein und geht gewissermaßen spielerisch auf die Suche nach den gewünschten Informationen. Wenn er sich also für “Fahren” interessiert, dann wird er diese Animation anklicken. Während sich normalerweise eine Seite öffnet und man da die Informationen brav aufgezählt vorfindet, geht man bei changeperspective auf Reisen. In diesem Fall folgt man dem Stift, wie er über das Blatt Papier wie ein Auto auf der Straße fährt. Das, was man wissen will, findet man natürlich trotzdem. Und keine Sorge, die Animationen wirken keinesfalls reizüberflutend.

Nun ist das geschriebene Wort letztlich doch ungenügend, um die Eindrücke der Seite adäquat wiedergeben zu können. Also am besten selbst auf die Website gehen und die Perspektiven ändern…

Und für einen ersten Eindruck: hier noch der Werbespot von Saab, der sich stark an der Homepage orientiert.

I recently had a discussion with a colleague. He found strange a client had no feelings of survivor guilt when quitting contracts with externals.

I replied that was completely ridicolous and inappropriate context to see survivor guilt.

But I understand that crisis, depression, and the peculiar (WRONG) way consultancy is perceived in Italy can lead to this misundertsanding.

Too often, consultants themselves do not know what their job is, the risks and the characteristics of consulting.

Working on business as usual for so much time tend to make people confusing their role, where they are, and what they are paid for.

This make me listen to completely inappropriate phrases like “we are a great team, we should be never separated” said by a consultant referring to a competitor firm consultant. Or some others saying “my client will never quit my contract, we spent almost every week end togheter with our families for the past 2 years”.

This means that when something totally normal like a contract expiring occurs, they feel completely disappointed, and somehow betraied by their client.

Don’t forget the turkey lesson: he is fed in a warm place with good food and non need to worry about anything….till Thanksgiving day when he goes straight in the oven.

With potatoes.

Gerade habe ich mir auf YouTube den Videokanal der Berliner Philharmoniker angeschaut. Das Videomaterial dort ist sehr beeindruckend, beste Qualität und neben vielen Ausschnitten aus dem Repertoire des Orchesters gibt es auch ein zweiteiliges Gespräch mit dem Dirigenten Simon Rattle. Nicht nur die Anzahl der Videos ist beachtlich, auch die Zahl der Zugriffe kann sich sehen lassen.

Knapp 37.000 Zugriffe verzeichnet dieser dreieinhalbminütige Ausschnitt aus Brahms erster Symphonie:

Die jeweiligen Ausschnitte verstehen sich als Appetizer für das Angebot, sich die Konzerte in der Digital Concert Hall in voller Länge anzuhören. 9.90 Euro bezahlt man für den Online-Hörgenuss. Während andere Kulturbetriebe eher auf einen Besuch von Ausstellung, Konzert, etc. abzielen, geht es den Berliner Philharmonikern anscheinend eher darum, das digitale Angebot zu promoten. Bei einem international so renommierten Orchester ist das nicht unlogisch, denn die vielen Fans aus dem Ausland bekommen so eine Möglichkeit, die Konzerte auch über die Distanz hinweg genießen zu können.

Zwar sind die Berliner Philharmoniker auch auf Twitter und Facebook vertreten, ihre Ziele scheinen dort aber andere zu sein, wird hier doch eher über das Orchester und seine Auftritte berichtet.

Schade ist, dass man nicht erfährt, wer auf Twitter und Facebook für das Orchester kommuniziert. Auch auf die Kommentare auf Facebook wird kaum eingegangen. Aber das Angebot wird angenommen, zeigen die zahlreichen Follower und Friends. Mich persönlich würde vor allem der Blick hinter die Kulissen interessieren. Da wäre ein Blog eine schöne Möglichkeit.

The whole social media space is a minefield littered with UXBs and especially so for a company’s employees. Social media are growing and changing and influencing behaviours far faster than most people can keep up – it’s got to the point where a corporate use of social media policy is not only a business necessity, it’s actually part of the corporate ‘duty of care’ to employees.

Here’s a thought – educating employees in the use of social media may be seen, in the future, as an employee benefit provided by the company. Possibly those more forward-thinking companies, without exposing themselves to the free-for-all that is open employee access, might actually be seen to be taking a lead on the issue, simply by ensuring their employees are social media savvy in a semi-formal fashion. Brown-bag training sessions, interactive intranets. Who knows.

Anyway – here’s an article from The Guardian that deals with the specific problems of colleagues following you on Twitter, or friending you on Facebook. Particularly senior colleagues. The implication – and it’s correct – is that social media are blurring the lines between work life and personal life. There is no such thing as a personal life anymore – what you’ve got is a work life and life when you’re not working. Use of social media – Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, et al – means that anyone can find you at anytime. Nothing that you post to these sites is private. There is a record of all you have written and uploaded. If it sounds a bit Big Brother, that’s because it is.

There is, obviously, a solution to the dilemma. It’s taken a lot of thought. It’s not popular. It flies in the face of current thinking. It’s this. DON’T USE TWITTER OR FACEBOOK. OR ANY OTHER SOCIAL MEDIUM. If you want to organise a party, send out invitations via email (still trackable, but not available to everyone). If you fancy getting in touch with someone – meet them for a drink. Give them a call. Write a letter. Go on, give it a try.

But no. You want to be free, to get LinkedIn, to have a good time. And this why – as the boundaries between you personally and you professionally blur and dissolve – it’s more and more important that there are not only corporate social media policies, but corporate social media etiquette statements also.

It pains me, but we’re here (how? how?) and now we have to deal with it. So, in the spirit of understanding and sharing, here’s something that I stumbled across earlier. I should say now that these are the thoughts of one Bristol-based managing editor (mid-thirties, apparently) who makes it clear on his blog that monkeys like me are not to steal his thoughts without due attribution and permission. I haven’t got permission, but consider this attribution. These are not my thoughts – I am simply passing on the wisdom of another.

(NB The guidelines that Mr Bristol sets out here are, actually, quite corporately focused. But they work equally well for use of social media on a personal level. You could adapt them. But I’d ask Mr Bristol for his permission first. You never know.)

Ich wurde gerade von einem Kollegen drauf gebracht und musste es gleich ausprobieren: Unicode Variablen in PHP funktionieren!
$ュ = 'this ';
$ア = 'are ';
$ル = 'japanese ';
$ニ = 'vars';
echo $ュ.$ア.$ル.$ニ; //this are japanese vars

Dafür muss das Skript aber Unicode kodiert sein. Klar!
Funktioniert übrigens auch dann, wenn es nicht danach aussieht, weil der Editor es zB nicht darstellen kann:

Das Problem bei Unicode PHP Skripten ist, das (meistens) ein BOM an den Datei Anfang, also noch vor das “<?php" gesetzt wird. Damit wird ein Ausgabe gemacht und Funktionen wie "header()” führen zu der Fehlermeldung “Cannot modify header information – headers already sent”.

Also: PHP Dateien immer ASCII kodiert abspeichern!