I guess saying something does get you somewhere (other than the satisfaction of venting) sometimes.  I’m sure you read my email to Mellon Arena about the tickets we had purchased for Star Wars: In Concert… and if not, read it now!

Interestingly, in frustration, I copied my email to a few news outlets… and it had an every so slightly different subject line.  The reply that I got from Mr. Scalzott (Mellon Arena Event Coordinator) had the same subject line as the email that I sent to the news outlets… so he had to obtain the message from someone other than me.

• To Mellon Arena Directly: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert
• To The News Outlets: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

At any rate, a positive reply is a positive reply… so I’m happy with the outcome.  And, hopefully it’s as interesting/entertaining to you as it is to me.

There’s actually a few exchanges here, so provided you’ve read the 1st one, these should all make sense.  I’ll start with the initial reply:

From: Derek Scalzott  DScalzott@mellonarena.com
To: me@myemailaddre.ss
Sent: Tue, December 1, 2009 2:52:23 PM
Subject: RE: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Hi, Eric –

I would like to take the time to discuss your seating situation over the phone.  Is there a number at which I may reach you?

Thank you,

Derek Scalzott
Event Coordinator
Mellon Arena
66 Mario Lemieux Place
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
email: dscalzott@mellonarena.com
phone: 412.642.2189
fax: 412.642.1905

The phone?  Ah!  My secondary response…

From: Eric Carroll  me@myemailaddre.ss
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 4:07 PM
To: Derek Scalzott  DScalzott@mellonarena.com
Subject: Re: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Hello Derek,

Thank you for taking the time to read my message & initiate a response.  I’m not much one for phone conversations, and I’m not sure if I really have anything else to say other than what I’ve already written.  I just felt the need to express my disappointment, and that it was echoed by several other concert-goers around me.  I understand that viewpoints and seating have become an issue over the years, and that it will be (hopefully) fixed by the creation of the new building.  I’m sure that you & your staff have nothing but the best intentions when hosting an event… but sometimes things like this seem large enough to not be overlooked.

I would look forward to any comments that you may have on the matter.

Thank you,
-Eric

…And we have a coherent, intelligent, apologetic and gracious reply:

From: Derek Scalzott  DScalzott@mellonarena.com
To: me@myemailaddre.ss
Sent: Tue, December 1, 2009 4:57:12 PM
Subject: RE: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Eric,

First, I thank you for taking the time to express your disappointment and, furthermore, to articulate it so clearly.  Sometimes, though it is unfortunate for both us and the occasional guest in your shoes, it takes a patron’s voice to point out an oversight on our end.

I’d like to first attempt to explain part of our procedure in order to clue you in on what happened for your own reference, elaborate on what I would have hoped to have had happen, and, then, explore our next step.

During a normal concert, one more typical than this Star Wars production, our box office works to pinpoint every seat in the house that is anything less than full-view.  Normally, a limited-view seat is one that has an obstructed view of the stage itself.  The same was done for this Star Wars show, but because the screen played an integral role in the production, the box office had to dilligently account for both the stage and screen in deciphering full-view seats from limited-view seats.  However, certain areas including your section were mistakenly labeled full-view because the stage itself was completely visible.

In an attempt to best serve our guests, we hold back a small number of tickets so that we can remedy any seating issues like this one.  Ideally, your situation would have been brought to the attention of management on the spot.  I only wish now that we would have had the opportunity to relocate you upon your discovery of the frustrating seat location.  I understand that patrons often question confronting event staff with problems, but I would certainly encourage you to feel free to voice your concerns in any building in the future!  It only helps us to make your stay better, which is our goal in the end!

Regardless, I understand that the show has come and gone and that the experience cannot be reclaimed.  Unfortunately, I am unable to refund your money for the Star Wars tickets since it has been passed along to their organization.  However, I wish to try and compensate you by inviting you back to another non-hockey event at Mellon Arena compliments of us (we do not control Pittsburgh Penguins tickets).  I am happy to offer (4) four tickets to Harlem Globetrotters, Sesame Street Live, Shrine Circus, or Disney On Ice, for example.  Please let me know if you have any interest and we will look forward to better serving you on your next visit.

Again, Eric, I apologize for the less-than-desired experience and I hope to have the opportunity to provide a better experience in the future.

Sincerely,
Derek Scalzott
Event Coordinator
Mellon Arena
66 Mario Lemieux Place
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
email: dscalzott@mellonarena.com
phone: 412.642.2189
fax: 412.642.1905

Well, I think you’ll agree that’s an awesome reply, no?  Not only does he acknowledge the problem, but explains where & how the error occurred, and how I could have perhaps handled the situation on the spot.

Sadly by the time we realized that our view was so bad, I didn’t think we had the time to remedy the situation before missing out on any of the music.  This will be a lesson to me though in how these things work.  Address the issue immediately, get immediate results.  It’s interesting to me that no money for a show can be refunded once it’s passed on to George Lucas and friends.  Ha ha ha.  Not that I was looking for monetary compensation.

Offering us 4 tickets to an upcoming event (albeit not for a hockey game which would be sweet) is over-compensating.  I didn’t do this for a refund or free stuff. I did it because I just felt that someone needed to know.  Not that I’d insult the man by turning him down…  but I don’t think the circus is coming any time soon, and it’s about the only thing on that list I’d be interested in.  The Globetrotters might be cool…  I saw those guys when I was a little kid.  Remember how they were all over Scooby-Doo back in the day?

Oh well, I’ll send off a reply and let you know what happens!

]]> http://mrspeer.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/adios/ Sat, 28 Nov 2009 04:34:09 +0000 srspeer http://mrspeer.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/adios/

♫ : Gustavo Cerati

Pones Canciones Tristes Para Sentirte Mejor

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

‘Shameful Flight’ relates the history of the final years of the British Raj in India, including the partition of India into both Pakistan (West and East) and India, and the early hostility of the two new nations destined for perpetual warfare in such regions as the Kashmir.The history of this era of political instability on the subcontinent includes all the main players from Great Britain, India and Pakistan.These main players include Winston Churchill, Viceroy Louis Mountbatten, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah. There is not a single figure in this history of India’s partition who comes out of it in a good light, though several seem to have had very well-intentioned aims and motivations. It is the true story of lost opportunity and the devastating consequences of human pride and selfishness that have reverberated down through the decades to the present day and remain visible in the continuing clashes between India and Pakistan, as well as in the extremism expressed in both the Islamic and Hindu communities throughout the sub-continent. It is a story of perpetual tragedy and human suffering with no end in sight.

This book is extremely easy to read, passes on a wealth of historical information and whets the appetite for further research on the India/Pakistan situation. It provides enlightenment, by bringing understanding to the current political instability in both India and Pakistan, by clearly revealing the root of the problem – the manner of the birth of both nations out of British imperialism and that nation’s final haphazard departure aptly described as a ‘Shameful Flight.’ This is a great book for understanding the sub-continent and the wounds it still carries to this day.

This book was provided to me for review by Oxford University Press – www.oup.com

2012 es una de las muchas peliculas que trata sobre el mitico fin del mundo de una forma convincente y realista con escenas de exelente calidad y muy buena historia nos representa el fin del mundo, aca el trailer….

Realmente creo que si pueda suceder algo pero no tan debastador como para matar al 90% de la poblacion ademas hay muchas teorias y si son creibles pero como un cometa que aparentemente no existe pasara muy cerca del planeta y lograra cambiar debastadoramente nuestro clima…. ¡es eso posible¡.

© Photographer | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Description:
Free Stock Photo of ‘Glow Wire’ being shaken and moved in the darkness.
Keywords:
aura,red, beam, black, blue, blur, clean, corona, dark, darkness, energize, energy, expression, fluorescence, fuze, ghost, glo, glow, half, illuminated, illumination, incandescence, inner, layer, light, luminescence, physics, pure, radiation, ray, science, scintillation, signal, source, stick, streamer, swoosh, texture, visible, visual, waved, wire, woosh

In Japan’s early history, a serious disregard for manners could be punishable by death, and any samurai could kill any common person who failed to show him proper respect. The Japanese were required to behave in precisely prescribed ways—wearing permitted clothing, walking only a certain way, sleeping with their heads pointing in a certain direction and legs arranged a particular way. Eating, greeting, gesturing with hands, opening doors and many work tasks had to be done in assigned ways without deviation. Conduct became a measure of morality, and virtue in manners was visible for all to see. Even today, the code of conduct plays a significant role in the lives of the Japanese. Many societies, not Japan alone, have a prescribed form and manner for every familiar situation that might arise. Unforeseen situations can cause intense embarrassment or discomfort. Throughout East Asia, actions are judged by the manner in which they are performed. More important than the accomplishment of a task is the question of how someone went about trying to complete the task: Did he act sincerely? More important than winning the race is the grace of the runner. More important than expertise is the way one gets along with others. More important than profits is harmony. In contrast, Westerners and particularly Americans are more concerned with the principles of things, hard “measures” and objective facts. Although rules of ethics are extremely important, we are more goal oriented than method-conscious, we say “a good loser is a loser.”

One aspect of form is the concept of “face.” Much has been written about “face-saving” in Japan and China, but face-saving is important absolutely everywhere. The difference is only a matter of degree and nuance. Where an American might feel a little guilty or inadequate, an Asian, Arab or South American may feel deep shame and humiliation. What an American might see as a little honest and constructive criticism, the foreigner may take as a devastating blow to pride and dignity. A foreigner is likely to be sensitive to feelings of others in transactions that an American would consider strictly impersonal, such as returning a defective product or switching hairdressers. The traveler simply must be more conscious of saying things or behaving in ways that cannot be taken as disrespect, criticism or humiliation. In some countries it seems just about anything can be taken personally, even such indirect affronts as not taking your shoes off in a mosque or complaining about the heat.

Harmony with the environment can be as important as sensitivity to people in some cultures. In Japan a woman wears a soft pastel dress to a flower show so as not to take away from the beauty of the flowers. In countries where people believe in reincarnation they are careful about all forms of life. In India, for example, people are careful not to swallow gnats or step on ants—one might be a relative.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight.

“Photons, you see, are those tiny elementary particles that constitute the most basic unit of light and all forms of electromagnetic radiation. Without them, we would not be able to see.” He looks around the classroom to see if anyone is listening. Not one but three people are nodding off in dramatic fashion against clenched fists, pens poignantly steadied, tips against paper as if, in their sleep, they will take notes. “Photons are light in a most basic sense and what we see are the reflections, scatterings or absorptions of those photons as they interact with objects in the outside world. What we see, we refer to as the visible light, one of the seven possibilities on the modern conception of the spectrum of light.” A pen is dropped. It slams against the tiled floors, the sound reverberating against the concrete walls. He pauses and begins to think of those first days of his teaching when it all seemed possible. He was going to push the boundaries, expand the limits of the minds of men and women alike, blow up old conceptions of the world and egg students on to offer new ones. But here he was. The guy with the puffy fro in back chats with his latest girlfriend, the blond woman with the pink ‘fuck-me’ dress in the front chews on her gum like she’s a cow chewing cud,  the young man with black hair and a solid uni-brow plays on his hand-held PS2. Disinterest marks the minutes of their lives in his class and he balefully continues unabated, teaching of the very matter which constitutes their lives and his.

“So what does this all mean? Why should you care? Well, maybe you shouldn’t as it seems some of you don’t. But I would propose the following: we see only 1/7th of the spectrum of light. All around us, every single day there exists light which we do not see. Of that 1/7th, we do not even see all of it as some of it is either absorbed into the objects, scattered beyond our vision, lost to somewhere else. Think about this and then think of the fact that when you see, you do not see but objects in a way, see you. What does that do, to say this?” The boy in the green sweatshirt and the frumpy corduroys seems to listen intently, leans forward in his chair awaiting the professors rhetorical reply. “Well, I would say it offers a damn good idea towards complicating the notion of human agency. Think about it. If objects act upon us, act upon our eyes, and offer us our visible world that everyday we work with, live in, operate against, where is our agency, how does that idea that we humans are the actors upon this world really hold up? What does it mean that in our daily lives, we operate while seeing only a fraction of a fraction of the possibility of vision, that the vision that we do see is comprised of millions of tiny photons and that even then, most of those are lost or filtered out by our eyes?” Now on the edge of his seat, the boy in the green sweatshirt looks intensely at the professor. His face is strained, the veins in his forehead protrude by what seems to be inches. The boy’s lips tightly pressed together, he stands and lets out a fart that slams against the professor’s face, weaves toxic gases through the nostrils of his fellow classmates, and settles into a grimy soup that wafts through the singed air.

The professor pulls the chafed stool towards him, gracefully takes a seat and ponders the many limitations on vision.

Anyone considering a career transition is likely asking themselves, ‘Where do I begin?’  Without a doubt, trying to break into a new career field is an overwhelming and daunting task.  Not only is it overwhelming, it can also be difficult to step outside of your comfort zone.

After recently deciding to move my career in a different direction, I can relate to the many challenges one faces when embarking down a new career path.  While it is often a long and difficult path to take, I am confident a rewarding career awaits me at the end.  Hopefully what I am learning along the way will be useful to others who are considering a career change.

Career Transition: A Blueprint for Success

• Determine your goals.  This may sound simple, but you need to define your goal and set measurable action items along the way.
• Create a timeline to measure your progress and to hold yourself accountable.
• Convey your goals to others.  They will help hold  you accountable.
• Determine the ‘who’s who’ in your new career field.  How can you meet, or be introduced, to at least one person?
• Find an organization, club or group in your field.  Attend a meeting or event and network with those in attendance.  Do not leave without meeting (and securing contact information) for at least three new contacts.
• Let everyone you know (friends, family, previous co-workers) that you are looking to make a change.  Ask if they know someone who might be able to help.
• Be visible – physically, socially, professionally and digitally.  Connect with colleagues and acquaintances via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Increase the reach and effectiveness of your digital footprint.  If a potential employer were to Google your name, what would they find?
• Expand yourself beyond a piece of paper.  You are more than just a name and a list of skills on a resume.  You are a real, live, talented person, both on and off paper.  Help potential employers, colleagues and professional contacts get to know the real you.
• Brand yourself.  You are more than just a name.  Establish your brand.  Give your name meaning and then sell it!
• Stay positive.  Not only is it difficult to change careers, especially in a down economy, it can also be tough to stay positive.  Sometimes it may feel like you are taking one step forward and two steps back.  Keep this in mind – at least you are taking steps in the right direction.

Fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves become bright yellows and reds, pumpkins are ripe, and the air is crisp. The best part of fall, besides Thanksgiving, is Halloween. With my favorite holiday one day away, I thought it would be a good idea to post up some Halloween safety advice as well as let you guys know what I have planned. *Menacing music here*

If you are taking your kid out for All Hallow’s Eve or even if you are just going out yourself, you need to make sure that you are visible for obvious reasons. My solution to this was making my kid’s costumes myself from scratch. I have made a ghost costume for my son and a cute red and blue gypsy dress with a blue and silver glitter shawl for my daughter. White and silver are good colors, because they are easy to see in dark places. While it may not be as practical for you to make your own costumes, mainly due to the amount of sewing, there are other ways that you can make sure that you can keep up with your kids. Use reflector strips, you know, the kind that keeps people on bicycles from getting hit by traffic. A few of those work well for visibility. If you can’t find the stick on strips, you could always just use one of the panel pieces that are meant to attach to the back of the bicycle or the spokes. Just attach it to the costume and you are set for a fun night out. If you don’t want to go through that type of hassle, stock up on the glow stick bracelets and necklaces. Wile not as bright as the reflectors, they will work as long as you keep an eye on them for when they start running out and becoming dull. They are cheap and easy to switch, because no kid I know would choose a dead glow stick over a new one that works.

If you are looking to score candy, choose your hunting area carefully. Houses that are well-lit are the houses you want to go to. They usually have the most candy in my experience. You do not want to go trick or treating down a dark alley, yet again for obvious reasons. Other places that give out free loot to costumed kids include some Sonic restaurant in small towns, or at least mine did. I use to get free ice cream from them every year. Parades are great places for scoring loot on Halloween. If you visit your local haunted house, you may just get lucky and score some stuff there as well. Remember to ask yourself these important questions while out and about. Is it well-lit? Are there other people around that could hear me scream if a psycho lives here? Is there a main road close at hand if we have to run away? Over all just use your common sense.

While we are on the subject of candy, I must remind you that you should always check your candy. While the whole razor in the apple was just a story to scare kids, it makes a good point. Better safe than sorry. If a piece of candy you received is open, you should just throw it away. Kids are all reaching their hands into the same buckets and cauldrons of candy, so if something is open you really don’t want to try to think of everything those kids could have touched in between candy grabbing. If you get fruit instead of candy, make sure you wash it before you let your kids eat it. As I said, better safe than sorry. One last thing before moving on, if you have hand sanitizer, you may want to use it, your kids as well, to ensure that you keep germs to a minimum. Nothing is worse than having a sick kid the week after Halloween, laying on the couch and begging for more candy.

If you are going to a party on Halloween and are planning to take the kids along, make sure that it is a child friendly party. I’m sure you don’t want to have to explain the difference between a big person drink and why kids can only have water wile you are trying to enjoy yourself. A call to the person having the party is all it takes to ensure you know if it is the best place to go with your child. Above all else be safe while you are out having fun. If you are letting your child go out with friends, make sure you remind them of these important things before he or she leaves the house. Make sure that they understand that Halloween is about having fun and being safe while doing it. Never never let your child go out alone and if you do, make sure it is the older child rather than the young one.

As for me, I will be going to a party to drop off a birthday gift for a friend’s toddler, and then taking my kids around to trick or treat while my husband hands out candy to the neighborhood kids. Halloween is just a few years old here in Germany, so I’m not really expecting much. I just really want to dress up in my evil forest fairy costume. Have fun and be safe! I guess I am off now to finish my second Jack o’ Lantern, which I will post pics of as soon as I get another few minutes to sit, and to finish with that gypsy costume, which I will also get pictures of.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

One more for the less green project, this one taken from a favorite local hiding spot.  Good light, good archatcture, good mood.  I think that sometimes this is how I really see things, through less green eyes – revelaing an unprepared nature towards modern progression.  In truth the green is what I love to see, it is only the lack of it that makes it’s greates impression.

No clue about their Energy Consumption.

So far, people in France tend to pay not much attention to their energy consumption. How come ?

Automatic Payment. In France, every month the forecasted energy bill is deducted from ones bank account and the difference compensated once a year.

Indifference. Energy is still regarded as an eternal source. Thereby, French government believes that French energy is  considered as ‘not that bad to the environment’, compared to fossil fuels. 75% of the French energy (1) has nuclear origins that emits hardly green house gases (left aside the nuclear waste).

Example of a EDF Bill Sept

Customers now want to ‘manage’ their energy spend.

Due to the economic crisis and increasing environmental awareness, both entreprises and citizens are now searching for new ways to reduce costs. The current energy bill is seen as ‘opaque’ and certainly not sufficiently transparent.

Suppliers respond with energy meters, energy management tools as well as product redesigns.

French multinationals (Bouygues Immobilier, Veolia, Total and EDF) as well as SME’s and start-ups (Fludia, AVOB) come up with innovative solutions that visualise energy use and help customers reducing their energy consumption. In the upcoming posts I will give you some examples.

1. source : World Nuclear Association http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf40.html

Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux . Le Petit Prince

than why is it that my Heart only loves the visible ?. the invisible he forgot how to love .

By Noah Shachtman

October 19, 2009 “Wired” — America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon. In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.
Visible crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn’t touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what’s being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.

“That’s kind of the basic step — get in and monitor,” says company senior vice president Blake Cahill.

Then Visible “scores” each post, labeling it as positive or negative, mixed or neutral. It examines how influential a conversation or an author is. (”Trying to determine who really matters,” as Cahill puts it.) Finally, Visible gives users a chance to tag posts, forward them to colleagues and allow them to response through a web interface.

In-Q-Tel says it wants Visible to keep track of foreign social media, and give spooks “early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,” spokesperson Donald Tighe tells Danger Room.

Of course, such a tool can also be pointed inward, at domestic bloggers or tweeters. Visible already keeps tabs on web 2.0 sites for Dell, AT&T and Verizon. For Microsoft, the company is monitoring the buzz on its Windows 7 rollout. For Spam-maker Hormel, Visible is tracking animal-right activists’ online campaigns against the company.

“Anything that is out in the open is fair game for collection,” says Steven Aftergood, who tracks intelligence issues at the Federation of American Scientists. But “even if information is openly gathered by intelligence agencies it would still be problematic if it were used for unauthorized domestic investigations or operations. Intelligence agencies or employees might be tempted to use the tools at their disposal to compile information on political figures, critics, journalists or others, and to exploit such information for political advantage. That is not permissible even if all of the information in question is technically ‘open source.”

Visible chief executive officer Dan Vetras says the CIA is now an “end customer,” thanks to the In-Q-Tel investment. And more government clients are now on the horizon. “We just got awarded another one in the last few days,” Vetras adds.

Tighe disputes this — sort of. “This contract, this deal, this investment has nothing to do with any agency of government and this company,” he says. But Tighe quickly notes that In-Q-Tel does have “an interested end customer” in the intelligence community for Visibile. And if all goes well, the company’s software will be used in pilot programs at that agency. “In pilots, we use real data. And during the adoption phase, we use it real missions.”

Neither party would disclose the size of In-Q-Tel’s investment in Visible, a 90-person company with expected revenues of about $20 million in 2010. But a source familiar with the deal says the In-Q-Tel cash will be used to boost Visible’s foreign languages capabilities, which already include Arabic, French, Spanish and nine other languages.

trupulse2Visible has been trying for nearly a year to break into the government field. In late 2008, the company teamed up with the Washington, DC, consulting firm Concepts & Strategies, which has handled media monitoring and translation services for U.S. Strategic Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others. On its website, Concepts & Strategies is recruiting “social media engagement specialists” with Defense Department experience and a high proficiency in Arabic, Farsi, French, Urdu or Russian. The company is also looking for an “information system security engineer” who already has a “Top Secret SCI [Sensitive Compartmentalized Information] with NSA Full Scope Polygraph” security clearance.

Link to article

One of the most visible functions of the PR department is to help management plan for and respond to crisis. A good PR professional looks for potentil problems, constantly scans the business environment, then alerts management to the implications of such problems, and suggests the best course of action.

Disasters of earthquake proportions fall into the category of public relations nightmares created by sudden , violent accidents. Plane crashes, oil spills, chemical leaks, and product defects all belong to this group. The other type of crisis is the sort that builds slowly and occurs because of a company’s conscious, but ill-founded, decisions.

Whn disaster strikes , a defensive posture is generally counterproductive. The best course is to be proactive, admit your mistakes and apologize.

When disaster hits most companies respond, to some degree, through their public relations department, but they often ignore the audience that is likely to be hit hardest—employees. To minimize the impact of any crisis on employees, be sure to communicate honestly, openly, and often, actively encourage employees to share their concerns, and use caution when sharing personal opinions.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Despite the enormous attention paid to popular management literature, the importance of leadership in change management cannot be over-emphasized. Research has shown that many change programs fail because they lack commitment and support from the top management. While effective change management requires credible and visible leadership in all the phases, it is crucial in the execution phase. Large-scale, organization-wide change efforts require sustained efforts and the role of leadership is to ensure momentum for the change effort. Contrary to popular belief, organizational change does not necessarily require charismatic leadership. It does require different leadership roles for the different tasks. The key idea here is that change management require different leadership roles.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Por M.F. para Cuatropuntocero.

La web, el chat, Facebook, el blog, Twitter, Fotolog, MySpace. Las redes sociales se extienden y la sociedad parece ser un entramado informático de personas que se comunican con mayor frecuencia a través de espacios virtuales. La vida cotidiana ya es impensable sin formar parte de alguna y esto llegó a los escenarios, se filtró en los guiones y fue incorporado por los actores.

En Sauna, Agostina se reencuentra con Michael a través de Facebook; fueron pareja, ella se mudó y perdieron todo tipo de contacto. Pero a través de la red vuelven a cruzarse. Ezequiel Tronconi (autor y director) cuenta que la idea del encuentro a través de una comunidad online surgió de modo natural. “Uso Facebook para difundir la obra y mis otros trabajos como el film La Tigra que recorre varios festivales. La red me ayuda a mantener contacto con la gente que uno conoce en viajes y que de otro modo no podría estar al tanto de sus vidas”, explica Tronconi sobre la utilidad que le da las redes sociales, aunque, dice, hay cosas a las que todavía no se acostumbra: “Encontrarme con gente que te dice ‘soy tu amigo del caralibro’ y te hablan con naturalidad y confianza cuando en verdad es la primera vez que te ven cara a cara. Es raro y extraño, pero esta bueno”.

En Caperucita (Un espectáculo feroz), Cora (Alejandra Flechner) se reúne con sus amigas frente al monitor de la PC y arma citas por chat con hombres que no conoce. “Es habitual en esta época establecer lazos a través de la red. En el caso de este personaje sorprende el tipo de vínculo que busca. Es una madre inmadura, no acepta la muerte y todo el tiempo juega con fuego. Cora es un riesgo permanente y el uso de la red dice mucho del personaje”, explica Javier Daulte, el autor y director. La aparición de referencias a las redes sociales en los textos también es nueva para los actores. “Llamó la atención. No son artistas conectados a las redes” confirma Daulte, que sólo usa el mail y por razones laborales.

En Noches de verano se cuentan distintas historias de vida relacionadas entre sí. El encuentro de desconocidos que se conocen a través del chat, la reunión de amigas vía celular, la tortuosa vincha del call center y los acuerdos hechos por sms (mensajes de texto) son parte de la historia. Por otro lado, Visible tiene como punto de partida el cruce de la comunicación a partir de los objetos y la tecnología. La historia cuenta “fragmentos de la vida de cualquier joven urbano: chateo, celulares, cámaras, búsquedas y buscadores”, explica Ana Alvarado (coordinación general). Se puede ver a 5 actores “con pocos indicadores que los diferencien unos de otros que se comunican y se aíslan alternativamente”. La obra vuelve a escena en el mes de noviembre (no se preocupen, los mantendremos informados).

Algunos son reacios. Otros tratan de cuidar su intimidad. Fulanos arman reuniones con ex compañeros del colegio. Menganos buscan nuevas conquistas. Tronconi las usa para difundir su trabajo, al igual que la gente de Noches de verano. Daulte sabe que son vitales en la realidad de hoy, pero elige no usar más que una cuenta de correo electrónico. Una temática que nos invita a discutir sobre el aislamiento físico y cómo lo privado se vuelve público. En la vida y en el teatro.

Campo y Sabor

Descubriendo el nuevo mundo del sabor

Octubre 11 de 2009  – Corregimiento de Villacarmelo – Cali

Para establecer un contacto de la Reserva Natural Villa Maga con la comunidad del corregimiento de Villacarmelo de Cali y como un nuevo ingrediente del encuentro de Villamag@s que por sexta vez se reúne en este 2009, se realizará el Festival Gastrofónico Campo y Sabor en la cabecera del corregimiento el día 11 de octubre, actividad que cubrirá buena parte del día y de la noche.

Este primer festival, porque aspiramos a que sea institucionalizado para hacerlo cada año en el puente del 12 de octubre en el corregimiento de Villacarmelo, porque en la Reserva natural Villa Maga también participa el Grupo Campo y Sabor, es una alegoría al descubrimiento de los extraños sabores que encontraron los españoles en los nuevos productos de la tierra Abya Yala que después los europeos llamaron América, enriqueciendose de esa manera las prácticas culinarias de los dos continentes.

El evento tiene el componente artístico basado en el grupo musical campesino CAMPO Y SABOR que se especializa en cantos a la comida y en la promoción de la seguridad y soberanías alimentarias, como también de otras personas o grupos de la región que se motiven a cantar con esta temática tan importante porque toca con la vida misma.

En esta primera ocasión la parte alimentaria se hará basada en los productos que elaboran personas de la región, pero para el futuro se incorporarán recetas investigadas  dentro del programa «Recursos Genéticos no Valorados» desarrollado por el Instituto Mayor Campesino de Buga, previa capacitación a la comunidad de Villacarmelo, complementada con la exhibición y venta de productos agrícolas orgánicos, en fresco o procesados, que contribuyan al desarrollo de una cultura alimentaria sana.

porque todos los sabores vienen del Campo

We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are. Shift from the original status is the key for success.

If a company is loosing the market (or) customers, the company has to realize that somebody is doing well ahead. So it is necessary to find out the ways to get their competitor’s level and have to beat them to retain the market and customers. An ideal tool to meet this level is benchmarking.

Benchmarking is a way to go backstage and watch another company’s performance from the wings where all the stage tricks and hurried re-alignments are visible. It is the practice of being humble enough to admit that someone else is better at something, and wise enough to learn to how to match and even surpass, them at it.

It is the process of identification, understanding and practicing the outstanding practices and processes from organizations anywhere in the world to help the organizations to improve its perfomance.

While benchmarking, it is not ethical to benchmark a product with another. This will give only the numerical values of weight, width, height, number of defects and number of rejections. But the objective is to benchmark a process with the best processes anywhere in the world having that best product as a target.

Benchmarking is not copying or imitating. This involves observing and learning from others. it is not a time-bound event. It is a continuous journey and an ongoing process without end, till the company is existing. The more we split the process into small segments the more will be the value added to each individual process. This is the key feature of benchmarking.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

There is no “which comes first” question when it comes to selling marketing.

In a climate where budgets are still tight and people are not willing to spend, the argument shifts from how much marketing to do, to why do marketing.

So, to further illustrate the point, question 1 goes from:

1. What channels should we use to connect to our audience?

to

2. Why should we dedicate any dollars to marketing in a time like this?

So as communicators, we must add more ammunition to selling our industry more than our services.

Three ways that we, The Charlotte Agency, believe marketing communications should be done is as follows:

1. Affordable: Especially in a down economy, ensuring small businesses rates that will provide them the activity they need to attract more customers is crucial.

2. Available: Utilizing the appropriate channels to target an organization’s market.

3. Visible:  Good marketing guarantees that the money an organization spends on it will give it the spotlight it deserves.

Cheers!

No se trata de posturas, es de fondo el asunto … la forma ayuda igual; el trabajo comunitario por el bien viVir obliga al trabajo desde el indiViduo; hasta el Sub en Chiapas se lo dice a Manu Chau … Chiapas, la Sierra, el Amazonas o lo que se quiere defender finalmente está en cada corazón, así que el actuar indiVidual (SER: La conexión con el Todo) el respeto a la Madre y con pensamiento colectiVo se llega … VEN SEREMOS !

todo lo que se necesita

Cumbre del Puno: Declaración de Mama Quta Titikaka

Reunidos en la Paqarina Mayor de Lago Mama Qota Titikaka, 6500 delegados de las organizaciones representativas de los pueblos indígenas originarios de 22 países del Abya Yala y pueblos hermanos de África, Estados Unidos, Canadá, Circulo Polar y otras partes del mundo, con la participación de 500 observadores de diversos movimientos sociales, resolvemos lo siguiente…  lea más