The World Mind Network

Lest you still think social networking on the Web is a waste of your time, here is an opportunity to deploy the real world-changing tools of the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Skype.

Among the projects established by World Mind Network members are a forum for improving science education co-moderated by Nobel laureate Peter Doherty (1996, Physiology or Medicine) and an interactive blog on the world economic crisis co-hosted by another Nobelist, Edmund Phelps (2006, Economics).

Music and literature also offer ripe opportunities for social networking on the site, including poetry challenges to fit the 140-character limitations of Twitter.

Source: WFS.org

Discarded Data and E-Waste

Discarded Data - A Threat to your security

A study sponsored by BT and Sims Lifecycle has revealed that 34% of discarded hard drives still contain confidential data. The nature of the data might even have threatened national security in the wrong hands. For example:

• a disk bought on eBay revealed details of test launch procedures for the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) ground to air missile defence system.
• two disks from the UK appear to have originated from Lanarkshire NHS Trust containing information from the Monklands and Hairmyres hospitals including: patient medical records, images of x-rays, medical-staff shifts and sensitive and confidential staff letters.

E-Waste Blitz in Victoria

Environment Victoria and the Total Environment Centre have launched a campaign calling on Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, to introduce a national electronic waste recycling scheme to stop toxic TVs, computers and mobile phones being dumped into landfill.

Fraser Brindley from Environment Victoria says e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in Australia and it's only going to get worse.

"E-waste is toxic and should not be thrown into landfill. Old TVs and computer monitors each contain more than a kilogram of lead which is poisonous and can leak from rubbish tips into our environment. With approximately 168 million pieces of e-waste already in landfill, this is already a huge problem," he says.

Source: Management Today (Aug 2009), Australian Institute of Management

How do you combat these issues?

To begin with it is imperative that business become more responsible for managing waste. In the case of Discarded Data businesses should enforce a policy to remove all sensitive data so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. When it comes to e-waste there are a number of organisations that are willing to accept older PCs, Monitors and other e-waste. Some even refurbish to make them available for the 3rd world countries.

Business cocooning curbs innovation

While reading Management Today (Aug 2009) I came accross an interesting article entitled: Business cocooning curbs innovation Streamlining business models to survive the GFC is curbing potential innovation, says Lee Ward, General Manager of Unisys global outsourcing and infrastructure services. Many businesses are trapped in a dangerous state of mind, Ward calls 'cocooning'. Business cocooning describes when a business focuses only on cutting operational costs rather than looking at ways to improve business processes through innovation; putting them at risk of not being able to respond efficiently to changes in market conditions. Ward believes outsourcing offers a key way of innovating for a business. "The longer the relationship, the better your suppliers know and understand the intricacies of your business and increase innovation," Ward says. Source: Management Today (Aug 2009), Australian Institute of Management

How will you spend your Kitetime?

Kitetime is taking time out from work to be with your loved ones, and in doing so it helps Redkite support children and young people with cancer and their families. Redkite helps parents spend time where it is needed most through the difficult cancer journey - with their sick child.

To support visit Kitetime

"IT Dashboard" Gives Up-to-Date Look at Tech Spending

Obama Administration Launches New Accountability Tracker

"IT Dashboard" Gives Up-to-Date Look at Tech Spending, Project Results

Washington, D.C.—People wanting to keep a closer eye on how the federal government is spending taxpayers' dollars have a new resource with the launch of the "IT Dashboard." This new tool is a one-stop clearinghouse of information allowing the American people to track federal information technology (IT) initiatives and hold the government accountable for progress and results.

"This administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government and the IT Dashboard exemplifies that goal," said federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra. "Through the dashboard, we are putting critical information about IT spending at people's fingertips. We are putting ourselves on the line for better management of taxpayers' dollars and better results from technology initiatives."

The dashboard is part of a revamped USASpending.gov site, created through a 2006 law designed to foster greater openness about government spending and contracting. That law, first introduced by then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama and a bipartisan group led by U.S Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was the catalyst for many of the open government initiatives that the Obama Administration has put forward.

"I'm encouraged the administration is taking aggressive steps to deliver the kind of transparency taxpayers expect and deserve. The improvements to the USAspending site will give taxpayers a clearer understanding of how government is spending their money, which will make it easier for all Americans to hold policymakers accountable," Coburn said.

The dashboard gives people the chance to see what IT projects are working and on-schedule (and which are not), offer alternative approaches, and provide direct feedback to the chief information officers at federal agencies—keeping tabs on the people who are responsible for spending taxpayers' dollars for technology. While the dashboard is focused initially on information technology, the Administration plans to adapt it to other aspects of federal spending.

For the current fiscal year, approximately $72 billion is budgeted for IT spending.

The dashboard also will play a significant role in performance management.

"Too often, problems are identified long after things are off track, costing more time and money to correct. The dashboard gives managers and the American public alike up-to-date access to how tax dollars are being spent and the return on their investment," federal Chief Performance Officer Jeff Zients explained. "This will mean greater accountability, improved performance, fewer wasted dollars, and better value for the American people."

The IT Dashboard offers a transparent look at how taxpayer money is being spent on technology projects. For example, a visitor can find the answer to a question like, "How much money does the government spend on IT that supports Science and Innovation? What was the change from last year?" The investment dashboard will illustrate an initiative's cost, timetable, and performance. Importantly, users also will have the direct contact information for the specific agency chief information officer to ask questions about why a project may be late or to offer ideas on how to achieve a goal more efficiently.

Source: usnews.com

What is Cloud Commuting?

I was reading an interesting article on a blog for outsourcing. Learn what is meant by 'Cloud Commuting.'

Maybe The Recession Wasn’t So Bad

What is "Cloud Commuting" and what does it mean to business owners and skilled professionals like you? Gene Marks, online columnist and author of the best-selling Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists, gives us his take on the rise of the cloud commuter, the recession and its impact, and how his business and others plan to adjust in this new age of online work.

Hmmm, maybe the recession hasn’t been such a bad thing after all.

Prices have been kept in check. Many of my competitors are either struggling or out of business entirely. Industries that have been failing for decades are now reorganizing themselves. Our bankers are picking up the phone when we call them. People have stopped buying useless crap on its way to the landfill. Being a cheapskate has even become vogue.

And business owners are no longer vilified for outsourcing. In fact, it’s not even called outsourcing anymore.

It’s called Cloud Commuting.

Cloud Commuting is a refreshing upgrade from the loaded term ‘outsourcing’ which suffered from a bum rap. For years, enterprising business owners like myself have been outsourcing work and subcontracting jobs to others in order to keep our costs as low as possible and to find the best people. In fact, ‘Division of Labor’ has always been right there on the top of the syllabus for Capitalism 101, right after "Lemonade Stands" and just before "Global Expansion".

Like every red-blooded opportunist, all we’re trying to do is to produce quality products and provide excellent services as cost effectively as we can. Once upon a time we faced the scorn of the media and others who looked down their noses at us. Well, a few quarters into the Great Recession, it’s now considered virtuous for business owners like us to do everything we can to keep our fixed costs low. And those same pundits who accused us of not employing people are now embracing us for bootstrapping our way back into the game by hiring our “cloud commuters”. Go figure.

Cloud Commuting is obviously a play on the buzzword “Cloud Computing” which is how the server-room nerds are unsuspectingly describing their ultimate obsolescence as more and more technology and data gets hosted by secured and reliable central servers in the sky. But, those server-room technicians will have the last laugh, as just as the technology is migrating to remote parts, so is the work. Configure a database from Maui? Aloha!

Talk about liberating. I’ve already started telling the world that my people are “Cloud Commuters”. Even my kids think it’s cool. Maybe they’ll even let me watch “The Hills” with them. OK, maybe, not.

The fact is that finding specialists “in the cloud” (or in a cave for all I care) is a critical part of running my business. My company sells business software. When I look to hire a telemarketer, I look for someone that specializes in software sales. When I need help writing up technical specifications, I need a person who’s done this before. When I want to employ some collection help, I want someone who does collection work for a living. Cloud commuting is all about finding people that specialize in something and hiring them to perform specific tasks at specific times for me.

My ten person company isn’t going to outsource our support operations to India anytime soon. In fact, we don’t have a support operation – it’s just a few us running around and yelling at each other. But when we do need specialists to complete a specific task, we here know that it’s downright Neanderthal-like to limit ourselves to our own backyard. We want to find the best people, no matter where they are. Indi(an)a. (New) England. (South) America. (Paris,) Texas. I couldn't care less whether they can see Russia from their house or not.

These knowledge workers, thanks to the recession, are now open for business the same hours as my neighborhood 7-Eleven. This virtual workforce is comprised of millions of innovative and talented professionals that have been let down by backward-thinking companies, and have made the move to control their own destiny. As an entrepreneur myself, I can relate.

Cloud Commuting is, for me as a business owner, the ultimate way to tap into a pool of talent while avoiding the risk of committing to full-time headcount. And I can say this now because we’re in a recession and we’ve already established that it’s OK to be a cheapskate. And as any recession survivor knows, the only way to get through these times is through a combination of heavy drinking and keeping our overhead low.

And we’re getting a lot of assistance from the geeks too. Within just the past few years, we’ve been ambushed with incredible technology that helps facilitate working with people in the cloud. There’s great remote connection that allows remote people to connect into a company’s computer and work as if they’re sitting in the home office. There’s desktop sharing software to display work as it’s done. There’s web-based meeting software to bring groups together from anywhere. There are teleportation systems that allow remote employees to step into a booth in their own homes and be physically transported, within seconds, to another location anywhere in the universe. There are free (or very inexpensive) services for phone calls, conferencing and messaging so that communications with any far flung specialist can happen immediately.

And then there’s Elance. They’ve has been creating innovative systems that have withstood not one but two economic downturns while putting over $200M in the pockets of their community of professionals. They’ve designed a platform that helps businesses, both big and small not only find great people but manage the entire working engagement online. From bidding to evaluation, to managing the work, all the way to payment. And they’re helping the experts find work too. They’ve recognized that gaining access to great people is the number one biggest problem for business owners like me, so they’ve provided a platform to make it much, much easier. Why didn’t I come up with that idea? I guess I was busy watching The Hills with my kids. Or, not.

So thanks Bear Stearns. And AIG. And General Motors. And Ben Bernanke. And all the other great people and companies who’ve played a part in our Great Recession. You’ve helped us flush out the weak. You’ve provided opportunities for the survivors. And you’ve enabled companies like Elance to build a system for helping us find and manage experts cost-effectively. In the cloud. Yeah, maybe this recession wasn’t so bad after all.

About the Author:

Gene Marks’ latest book is the best selling Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists. Gene is a regular online columnist for Forbes.com, Business Week.com and American City Business Journals. Gene also owns his small business outside of Philadelphia.

Source: Elance

Engineer Your Life

"Imagine what life would be like without pollution controls to preserve the environment, life-saving medical equipment, or low-cost building materials for fighting global poverty. All this takes engineering," states the National Academy of Engineering's Web site for high-school girls and the adults in their lives.

Engineering is vital to problem solving and, as a career, offers an opportunity to make a real difference in the world. Using stories of real women and student peers engaging in these activities, the program encourages more young women to enter the field in all its varieties, such as civil, aeronautic, biomedical, environmental, industrial, and computer engineering.

Resources for counselors, teachers, parents, and adult engineers are also available at the site.

"In very real and concrete ways, women that become engineers save lives, prevent disease, reduce poverty, and protect our planet," it states. "Dream Big. Love what you do. Become an engineer."

http://www.engineeryourlife.org

Source: WFS

Rapid Virus Detection

It's easy enough to avoid people who are obviously sick, but what if they've just been infected and aren't showing symptoms yet? An infection could spread and endanger many before anyone's been diagnosed.

A portable, ultrasensitive virus detector could perceive a virus within just five minutes, using samples of an individual's saliva, blood, or other body fluid. The device, under development at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, contains an array of receptors such as antibodies that will bind to microorganisms in the sample, thus creating a detectable interference pattern, like a fingerprint.

The ability to detect viruses almost instantly in clinics or other places without access to laboratories and trained personnel could be a boon to preventing future epidemics. The device can also detect bacteria, proteins, and DNA molecules. The university's spin-off company, Ostendum, plans to introduce the first detector to market in late 2010.

SOURCE: University of Twente, www.utwente.nl/en/ via WFS

Ideas on 'Quality Time' with your family

What ideas do you have for spending just 1 hour during a work week to reconnect and spend quality time with your family?

Background: I'm working with a charity called RedKite.com.au that helps kids with cancer and their families. They are starting a new campaign in September where employees will get KiteTime - one hour to spend during their work week - to reconnect and spend time with their family. Their employer and/or the employee will donate $20 to support KiteTime and RedKite.

They are looking for a list of great ideas that families can do together in just 1 hour to reconnect and spend quality time together.

Please suggest some activities - maybe some out of the ordinary - that families can do in just one hour.

Thanks for your help!

My "How to Think Like a Futurist" book preview gets featured on Slideshare.net! I'm honored..

How to Think Like a Futurist

View more PDF documents from Craig Rispin, csp.

Robot scientist becomes first machine to discover new scientific knowledge

Scientists funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have created a Robot Scientist which the researchers believe is the first machine to have independently discovered new scientific knowledge. The robot, called Adam, is a computer system that fully automates the scientific process. The work will be published tomorrow (03 April 2009) in the journal Science.

Prof Ross King, who led the research at Aberystwyth University, said: "Ultimately we hope to have teams of human and robot scientists working together in laboratories".

The scientists at Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge designed Adam to carry out each stage of the scientific process automatically without the need for further human intervention. The robot has discovered simple but new scientific knowledge about the genomics of the baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an organism that scientists use to model more complex life systems. The researchers have used separate manual experiments to confirm that Adam's hypotheses were both novel and correct.

"Because biological organisms are so complex it is important that the details of biological experiments are recorded in great detail. This is difficult and irksome for human scientists, but easy for Robot Scientists."

Using artificial intelligence, Adam hypothesised that certain genes in baker's yeast code for specific enzymes which catalyse biochemical reactions in yeast. The robot then devised experiments to test these predictions, ran the experiments using laboratory robotics, interpreted the results and repeated the cycle.

Adam is a still a prototype, but Prof King's team believe that their next robot, Eve, holds great promise for scientists searching for new drugs to combat diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis, an infection caused by a type of parasitic worm in the tropics.

Did You Know?

Below is a fantastic video on the progression of information technology. Researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman.

Tapping into social networking

Julianne Dowling quotes me and several other Thought Leaders in her article entitled, 'Tapping into social networking.'

--

Corporate Australia needs to try harder when it comes to tapping into tools such as Twitter, Facebook, forums and LinkedIn, say online experts.

And they say deep pockets don't always guarantee an edge.

Regard some of the mistakes made by the big end of town in terms of blasting corporate messages and clumsy YouTube uploads seeking to 'engage and bond'.

However, internet business coaches such as Gihan Perera say the very attributes of small business (agile, creative and personal) really suit the social networking community.

"The secret is to choose (the tool) appropriately and who you will connect with,'' he says.

Perera says business owners should stop being cynical and get on board with social media because of the benefits.

"Small business have innate advantages; they have trust,'' Perera explained.

Jennifer McNamara, who runs the Art Est. Art School in Sydney's inner-west, recently joined professionally networking site LinkedIn and intends to set up a portal on Facebook for her students, to save money on mailouts.

"People can more easily find out more information on art classes, art competitions and special offers through the internet,'' she says.

"If I can entice would-be students to sign up, then I can contact them all at a push of a button. It's a bit more instantaneous, and since we're very grassroots, we need to be innovative in the way we communicate.''

However business consultant Jennifer Dalitz, founder of online women's network www.sphinxx.org, with almost 1,000 women members, is considering taking off the social network functionality after she found many senior women didn't really use it.

"Sphinxx is about circulating information and support for working women with common challenges. A couple of years ago everyone believed online communities were the way to go but I don't think it's a meaningful way to connect for most women,'' she says.

"Women like face-to-face contact with access to female role models; they almost prefer the off-line contact.

"A lot of men embrace online social networks because it appeals to their inner ego.

"But really, a lot of women just don't have time once they come home to families.''

Dalitz say she often gets Facebook friend requests "from people I don't even know'' but her preferred network is LinkedIn, which is about her existing database.

"People just don't want to be bombarded with requests. It's not what busy women do,'' she says.

"So that's the limitation.''

With Facebook featuring over 175 million users and six million user groups, and Twitter revolutionising the idea of mass speak, Gihan Perera says the trick is to think about the commercial applications and make an effort to join the conversations.

His firm - www.gihanperara.com - advises entrepreneurs and internetpreneurs on better utilising the tools.

"There's so much information around and your audience will rely on you, if you can interpret that. Your job is to lead a community that you are involved with; that applies to any business.

"So, it's not just about giving new information but relevant information. No one can read everything, but business owners are experts in their field, and can share information out.''

One of Perera's clients is rossclennett.com, which is set up for an online member community.

A HR recruitment trainer who runs an online subscriber-based service, Clennett's site also makes use of LinkedIn.

Clennett has been writing a fortnightly newsletter for two years with a well-established following, so when he wanted members, they were ready to sign up.

"It worked because he had a two-year track record rather than just doing it cold. That's the difference,'' says Perera.

Perera's advice is to start slowly, sign up to some networks, and get to know how they work.

"When a large organisation in say, the financial services sector, starts from scratch, they may be going against their current customer style, and so customers will be sceptical,'' he says.

Indeed, many professionals are the trailblazers and larger companies, such as H&R Block in the US, already offer free tax advice on Second Life and tweet regularly on Twitter on the subject.

Futurecaster, author and professional speaker Craig Rispin, of www.futuretrendsgroup.com, says that while some entrepreneurs may be mentally blocked about social media tools, young staff or even work experience students can help get them started.

He often asks his audience to review his talks on Twitter or other social media as a way of getting the word out.

"Everything is being rated now,'' he observed and it's likely that all professions will be reviewed by the end users in future - see the US academic ratings by students in www.ratemyprofessors.com.

So how can medium-sized companies use this knowledge to increase their competitive position?

"The interesting thing is that many businesses, who find themselves squeezed by larger and smaller players, are downsizing and shedding their costs,'' said Rispin.

"I think that's a great opportunity.''

Of course, there's still plenty of focus on the global financial crisis, but "you have to take the time out from the gloom and doom and look over the horizon.''

There are also countless examples of businesses which started in a recession and became raging successes.

Evan Williams is the guy behind Blogger, which started in the last tech crash in 2001, and now runs online messaging service Twitter.

Speaking at the TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference held in California last month, Williams told the audience he had learned to follow his hunches.

Twitter was one such hunch. The idea was to allow brief text-like messages of 140 characters or less, allowing people to connect instantly.

'Tweet' updates were used during events such as the San Diego fires and Barack Obama also harnessed this method (or at least, one of his staff members did) to post daily election campaign messages until he became president.

Of course, being pushy or selling something too hard isn't the way to go, say these experts. Social media congregations are much more subtle.

Rispin says everyone should be future thinkers about their business and now, 'rebooting' your model is the name of the game.

"Technology is a great enabler; small business should stop and ask themselves what is it that they want?'' he says.

"Those who are innovating and creating the future will boom.''


Source: Small Business SMH

Technology revolutionises the learning experience

I was reading an article recently that highlighted that not only do the respected major universities overseas offer their content online but Australian institutions are following suit.  The article started, "Missed a lecture? It's probably online. Forgotten the building technique you just learned? Refer to the instruction video on your iPod. The book isn't on the shelf? Search for it in the E-library."

Having such content online has certainly improved over time. But the point the article was highlighting was how do you find it the content? Does a simple Google search provide you with everything you need to know?  The article quoted University of Western Sydney (UWS) pro-vice chancellor for learning and teaching, Professor Stuart Campbell, "Most young people have a pocket full of electronic devices and are huge users of social networking sites and messaging, but a lot of that is superficial. No matter how smart they are with technology, when students start using technology at uni, they have to prepare for a much deeper use. When they're searching for resources, they can't get away with a quick Google search - they need to put a lot more skill into finding things."

UWS now offer a range of workshops to bridge the gap in using gadgets versus technology.  Most subjects have their own websites for students to access notes, lectures and communicate via forums with other students or with academic staff.  Many universities offer wireless networks to make it more flexible to study while on campus.

Professor Campbell expects to see a greater move towards tertiary institutions delivering information via smaller devices. Will it replace face-to-face learning? "Learning is...a social experience. What we will be seeing more of is blended learning - human interaction with support from technology."

Source: Sydney Daily Telegraph (20 February 2009 - "Savvy Gen Y must dig deeper")

Long-term benefits of Recession-proofing Strategies

With more businesses and individual workers seeking ways to "recession-proof" themselves, could the economy emerge from hard times stronger and more innovative than ever?

Recession-proofing workers might focus on becoming more fearless and innovative. Take your ideas to the boss rather than allow uncertainties to back you into your cubicle, urges Robin Fisher Roffer, author of THE FEARLESS FISH OUT OF WATER (Wiley, 2009). "It may seem scary to make such a bold move in tenuous times," she says, "but leaders will appreciate any innovation that will get business moving right now."

Businesses, too, are encouraged to be fearlessly proactive rather than cautious and reactive. Hard times are the time for action, suggests consultant Suzanne Caplan, because inaction "spawns a pattern of victimization, and pins us down into a habit of only reacting to the bad, instead of planning for the better."

SOURCES: www.wfs.org

Robin Fisher Roffer, author of FEARLESS FISH OUT OF WATER 

Suzanne Caplan, founder and chief blogger, www.womenetcetera.com

Half the planet may face Food Crisis

Humanity must adapt to climate change now or face food crises that will affect half the world's population by 2100, warns a team of scientists led by David Battisti of the University of Washington, Seattle.

Rapid warming alters crop yields in both the tropics and subtropics, with the most-severe potential food shortages hitting the equatorial belt, home to the world's fastest-growing and poorest populations.  Water supplies are also affected by the climate, further imperiling food security, according to Battisti.

Studying historic food disruptions and temperature change, the researchers found that humanity has been able to adapt to conditions.  In the future, however, food systems will need to be rethought completely, the researchers argue. For instance, wheat currently makes up one-fourth of the calories consumed in India, but wheat yields there have been stagnant for a decade.

"We have to be rethinking agriculture systems as a whole, not only thinking about new varieties but also recognizing that many people will just move out of agriculture, and even move from the lands where they live now," says team member Rosamond Naylor, director of Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment.

Source - University of Washington, Seattle

Aussie travellers Google before they go

I was recently interviewed for an article written by Britt Smith of SMH.  The following is her article.

Aussie travellers Google before they go

Cyber-savvy tourists are travelling to their holiday destinations from their desks, long before they get on an aeroplane.

With the click of a mouse, soon-to-be jetsetters are transported into cities where they zoom around the streets, check out hotels and find the nearest pizza joint, bus stop or internet cafe.

And Australians can't get enough of the sophisticated, cyberspace tools.

About 20 million maps are being viewed on the internet in Australia every month - the third-most searched item after giant search engines Google and Yahoo, according to Sydney-based innovation expert Craig Rispin, who has worked for IBM and Apple.

And Nielsen NetRatings figures show Google Maps alone has 2.6 million Australian users each month.

"That's a lot of maps, that's huge, that's gigantic. People are really getting into this location-based searching," Rispin says.

"It's about imagining. Think about the amount of time people spend imagining what their holidays are going to be like - it's probably more time than they actually spend on their holidays.

"But now with the tools they don't have to visualise it - they have pictures."

Sophisticated cyberspace tools like Google Earth, Street View, and photo-sharing sites Flickr, are futuristic guide books that lets users fly anywhere in the world to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, buildings and up-to-date photos. They can even access street-level images of several countries.

The genius of the devices is that they're a one-stop-shop allowing the traveller to try before they buy, says Rispin.

He calls the phenomenon "location-based searching," made possible by the latest web technology which weaves together 3D images and text.

Rispin, who makes more than 100 overseas trips a year and researches every one of them online, isn't alone.

A recent Google-commissioned survey of Australians with internet access showed that 50 per cent used maps in the trip research process, and 80 per cent of those were online.

The survey also found 70 per cent used a website to help them decide which destination to visit.

Google Australia's Head of Travel, Claire Hatton said maps are "by far the biggest" searched item in the online travel sector.

"There is no doubt about it. Using maps has always been crucial to the travel process, but now it's more accessible and viewable - you can actually see the street," she says.

"People are using (web maps) to chose destinations and decide where to stay. It's a major part of how consumers use online to research holidays."

Hatton says hotels and tour operators are also jumping on board, adding maps to their websites for increased usability. And travellers are creating their own online travel maps using Google to share with friends and strangers.

Aside from the statistics, Rispin, says map searching is already mainstream, judging by the number of people he hears talking about it. But travellers, he says, usually couple the practise with text-based research on websites like the American tripadviser.com, which carries the tag line `Get the truth. Then go'.

Australians make up about 6 per cent of the site's traffic, he says, and its popularity is owed to independent, user-generated reviews.

It's such accessible resources that make him so confident that the 25 per cent of Australians who research their holidays online, will skyrocket to two-thirds within two years.

They'll be quick to catch on. A few mouse clicks could prevent a disastrous trip, he jokes.

"If you have ever travelled to Paris you want to see what the hotel looks like before you get there. I mean, you can be in the really bad part of town and you don't have any idea before you go.

"Now you can walk the streets and go, `oh that's just down the road' (with a) couple of clicks of the map."

Google's top ten overseas destination searches for 2008:

1. New Zealand
   
2. China
   
3. Singapore
   
4. London
   
5. USA
   
6. Beijing
   
7. Japan
   
8. Paris
   
9. New York
   
10. France
    

Yahoo7's top travel searches for 2008:

1. Gold Coast
   
2. Noosa (Sunshine Coast)
   
3. Apollo Bay (on the Great Ocean Road)
   
4. Surfer's Paradise
   
5. Melbourne
   
6. Alice Springs
   
7. Port Douglas
   
8. New Zealand
   
9. Vietnam
   
10. Europe
    

Nanotechnology Breakthroughs of the Next 15 Years

Nanotechnology — the manipulation of materials and machines at the nano-scale — one billionth of a meter — promises exciting new developments. Interviews with a group of nanotechnology experts yielded this list of likely developments:

Two to five years from now:

Car tires that need air only once a year.

Complete medical diagnostics on a single computer chip.

Go-anywhere concentrators that produce drinkable water from air.

Five to 10 years:

Powerful computers you can wear or fold into your wallet.

Drugs that turn AIDS and cancer into manageable conditions.

Smart buildings that self-stabilize during earthquakes or bombings.

10 to 15 years:

Artificial intelligence so sophisticated you can't tell if you're talking on the phone with a human or a machine.

Paint-on computer and entertainment video displays.

Elimination of invasive surgery, since bodies can be monitored and repaired almost totally from within.

Source - World Future Society

Forecasts for the Next 25 Years

Would you like to know what the next 25 years holds?  Here are 10 thoughts from the World Future Society.

Forecast #1: The world will have a billion millionaires by 2025. Globalization and technological innovation are driving this increased prosperity. But challenges to prosperity will also become more acute, such as water shortages that will affect two-thirds of world population by 2025.

Forecast #2: Fashion will go wired as technologies and tastes converge to revolutionize the textile industry. Researchers in smart fabrics and intelligent textiles (SFIT) are working with the fashion industry to bring us color-changing or perfume-emitting jeans, wristwatches that work as digital wallets, and running shoes like the Nike +iPod that watch where you’re going (possibly allowing others to do the same). Powering these gizmos remains a key obstacle. But industry watchers estimate that a $400 million market for SFIT is already in place and predict that smart fabrics could revitalize the U.S. and European textile industry.

Forecast #3: The threat of another cold war with China, Russia, or both could replace terrorism as the chief foreign-policy concern of the United States. Scenarios for what a war with China or Russia would look like make the clashes and wars in which the United States is now involved seem insignificant. The power of radical jihadists is trivial compared with Soviet missile capabilities, for instance. The focus of U.S. foreign policy should thus be on preventing an engagement among Great Powers.

Forecast #4: Counterfeiting of currency will proliferate, driving the move toward a cashless society. Sophisticated new optical scanning technologies could, in the next five years, be a boon for currency counterfeiters, so societies are increasingly putting aside their privacy fears about going cashless. Meanwhile, cashless technologies are improving, making them far easier and safer to use.

Forecast #5: The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event. The twenty-first century could witness a biodiversity collapse 100 to 1,000 times greater than any previous extinction since the dawn of humanity, according to the World Resources Institute. Protecting biodiversity in a time of increased resource consumption, overpopulation, and environmental degradation will require continued sacrifice on the part of local, often impoverished communities. Experts contend that incorporating local communities’ economic interests into conservation plans will be essential to species protection in the next century.

Forecast #6: Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century. Global fresh water shortages and drought conditions are spreading in both the developed and developing world. In response, the dry state of California is building 13 desalination plants that could provide 10%-20% of the state’s water in the next two decades. Desalination will become more mainstream by 2020.

Forecast #7: World population by 2050 may grow larger than previously expected, due in part to healthier, longer-living people. Slower than expected declines of fertility in developing countries and increasing longevity in richer countries are contributing to a higher rate of population growth. As a result, the UN has increased its forecast for global population from 9.1 billion people by 2050 to 9.2 billion.

Forecast #8: The number of Africans imperiled by floods will grow 70-fold by 2080. The rapid urbanization taking place throughout much of Africa makes flooding particularly dangerous, altering the natural flow of water and cutting off escape routes. If global sea levels rise by the predicted 38 cm by 2080, the number of Africans affected by floods will grow from 1 million to 70 million.

Forecast #9: Rising prices for natural resources could lead to a full-scale rush to develop the Arctic. Not just oil and natural gas, but also the Arctic’s supplies of nickel, copper, zinc, coal, freshwater, forests, and of course fish are highly coveted by the global economy. Whether the Arctic states tighten control over these commodities or find equitable and sustainable ways to share them will be a major political challenge in the decades ahead.

Forecast #10: More decisions will be made by nonhuman entities. Electronically enabled teams in networks, robots with artificial intelligence, and other noncarbon life-forms will make financial, health, educational, and even political decisions for us. Reason: Technologies are increasing the complexity of our lives and human workers’ competency is not keeping pace well enough to avoid disasters due to human error.

Source - World Future Society

Oceanic "Lab on a Chip"

A sturdy array of miniaturized sensors promises to help marine scientists track nutrients and pollutants in oceans, as well as temperature and other important chemical and biochemical characteristics.

Having passed its tests at depths of 1,600 meters (5,250 feet), the marine "lab on a chip" will be developed further for commercialization, according to project directors at the University of Southampton.

The scientists also aim to develop small chips that could identify individual phytoplankton in the oceans. Among the future applications of the chips will be environmental impact analysis and monitoring ship ballast water.

SOURCE: University of Southampton, http://www.soton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2008/dec/08_233.shtml

Decarbonizing Energy

Solar, wind, and biomass energy technologies that are available now could cut carbon emissions by one-third by 2030, as well as generate thousands of new jobs, according to "Low-Carbon Energy: A Roadmap," a new report from the Worldwatch Institute.

These power sources will need to be integrated with digital smart grids that can flexibly meet changes in supply and demand. In addition, economical energy storage capacity must be developed, says the report.  These measures will help retire hundreds of coal-fired plants, which provide 40% of the world's energy.

"We no longer need to say 'in the future' when talking about a low-carbon energy system," says Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin, author of the report. "These technologies—unlike carbon-capture facilities—are being deployed now and are poised to make the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels obsolete."

DETAILS: Worldwatch Institute, www.worldwatch.org/node/5948

10 Forecasts for 2009 and Beyond - Part Two

Forecast #6: The race for biomedical and genetic enhancement will — in the twenty-first century — be what the space race was in the previous century. Humanity is ready to pursue biomedical and genetic enhancement, says UCLA professor Gregory Stock, the money is already being invested, but, he says, “We'll also fret about these things — because we're human, and it's what we do.” — Gregory Stock quoted in THE FUTURIST, Nov-Dec 2007.

Forecast #7: Professional knowledge will become obsolete almost as quickly as it's acquired. An individual's professional knowledge is becoming outdated at a much faster rate than ever before. Most professions will require continuous instruction and retraining. Rapid changes in the job market and work-related technologies will necessitate job education for almost every worker. At any given moment, a substantial portion of the labor force will be in job retraining programs. — Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies, "Trends Shaping Tomorrow's World, Part Two," THE FUTURIST May-June 2008.

Forecast #8: Urbanization will hit 60% by 2030. As more of the world's population lives in cities, rapid development to accommodate them will make existing environmental and socioeconomic problems worse. Epidemics will be more common due to crowded dwelling units and poor sanitation. Global warming may accelerate due to higher carbon dioxide output and loss of carbon-absorbing plants. — Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies, “Trends Shaping Tomorrow's World,” THE FUTURIST Mar-Apr 2008.

Forecast #9: The Middle East will become more secular while religious influence in China will grow. Popular support for religious government is declining in places like Iraq, according to a University of Michigan study. The researchers report that in 2004 only one-fourth of respondents polled believed that Iraq would be a better place if religion and politics were separated. By 2007, that proportion was one-third. Separate reports reveal a countertrend in China. — World Trends & Forecasts, THE FUTURIST Nov-Dec 2007.

Forecast #10: Access to electricity will reach 83% of the world by 2030. Electrification has expanded around the world, from 40% connected in 1970 to 73% in 2000, and may reach 83% of the world's people by 2030. Electricity is fundamental to raising living standards and access to the world's products and services. Impoverished areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa still have low rates of electrification; Uganda is just 3.7% electrified. — Andy Hines, “Global Trends in Culture, Infrastructure, and Values,” Sep-Oct 2008.

Source: World Future Society http://wfs.org

10 Forecasts for 2009 and Beyond - Part One

Forecast # 1: Everything you say and do will be recorded by 2030. By the late 2010s, ubiquitous unseen nanodevices will provide seamless communication and surveillance among all people everywhere. Humans will have nanoimplants, facilitating interaction in an omnipresent network. Everyone will have a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Since nano storage capacity is almost limitless, all conversation and activity will be recorded and recoverable. — Gene Stephens, “Cybercrime in the Year 2025,” THE FUTURIST July-Aug 2008.

Forecast #2: Bioviolence will become a greater threat as the technology becomes more accessible. Emerging scientific disciplines (notably genomics, nanotechnology, and other microsciences) could pave the way for a bioattack. Bacteria and viruses could be altered to increase their lethality or to evade antibiotic treatment.— Barry Kellman, “Bioviolence: A Growing Threat,” THE FUTURIST May-June 2008.

Forecast #3: The car's days as king of the road will soon be over. More powerful wireless communication that reduces demand for travel, flying delivery drones to replace trucks, and policies to restrict the number of vehicles owned in each household are among the developments that could thwart the automobile's historic dominance on the environment and culture. If current trends were to continue, the world would have to make way for a total of 3 billion vehicles on the road by 2025. — Thomas J. Frey, "Disrupting the Automobile's Future," THE FUTURIST, Sep-Oct 2008.

Forecast #4: Careers, and the college majors for preparing for them, are becoming more specialized. An increase in unusual college majors may foretell the growth of unique new career specialties. Instead of simply majoring in business, more students are beginning to explore niche majors such as sustainable business, strategic intelligence, and entrepreneurship. Other unusual majors that are capturing students' imaginations: neuroscience and nanotechnology, computer and digital forensics, and comic book art. Scoff not: The market for comic books and graphic novels in the United States has grown 12% since 2006. —THE FUTURIST, World Trends & Forecasts, Sep-Oct 2008.

Forecast #5: There may not be world law in the foreseeable future, but the world's legal systems will be networked. The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), a database of local and national laws for more than 50 participating countries, will grow to include more than 100 counties by 2010. The database will lay the groundwork for a more universal understanding of the diversity of laws between nations and will create new opportunities for peace and international partnership.— Joseph N. Pelton, "Toward a Global Rule of Law: A Practical Step Toward World Peace," THE FUTURIST Nov-Dec 2007.

Part Two to follow next week.

Source: World Future Society http://wfs.org

Are businesses pulling back on innovation spending?

It's impossible to assess the success of an innovation strategy if you have trouble measuring it.

Keep this in mind while you read the headline that has emerged from the Boston Consulting Group report on innovation: there is strengthening correlation between executives frustrated with the return on innovation spending and businesses cutting back on innovation investment.

Fewer than half of the 3,000 managers surveyed are satisfied with the financial return on their investment in innovation.  And these figures have been declining steadily - 52% of executives were satisfied in 2006, 46% were satisfied in 2007, and 43% are satisfied in 2008.

The number of managers who say that their business plans to spend more on innovation in the coming year has also fallen - from 72% in 2006 to 67% in 2007 and 63% in 2008.

This is of great concern.  But a big clue as to what is driving this can be found in the results of the survey's question about how companies measure innovation success.  Just 43% of businesses surveyed track innovation as vigorously as they track other core business operations, and a mere 35% are happy with their innovation metrics.   This might be why: the most popular metrics are customer satisfaction, the percentage of sales from new products, and overall revenue growth.  These are all important measures of a company's management execution, but they hardly measure innovation success accurately.  Innovation metrics must be both specific and incremental.

Here is another interesting finding - the challenges that executives say get in the way of successful innovation strategies are directly within their control: lengthy development times, a risk-averse corporate culture, difficulty selecting the right ideas to commercialise, silos hindering internal co-operation.  BCG adds that year after year, respondents have consistently identified the same obstacles to innovation return.

An inescapable conclusion is that having identified exactly what ails them, managers and leadership teams are unable or unwilling to fix the root causes.  If that is the case, scaling back all efforts to innovate make sense.

Wait - does it make sense?  Wouldn't giving up on innovation, foresight, strategic thinking be a crippling decision?  Isn't innovation one of the few consistent sources of long-term competitive advantage?

In a tough economic environment, surely now is not the time to scale back on innovation.  Surely now, more than ever, businesses that are wavering need to redouble their efforts and fix the root causes that are holding them back.

What do you think?  How important is the ability to successfully innovate?  And how are you finding the process?

Source: Kristen Le Mesurier - http://blogs.theage.com.au/business/executivestyle/innovator/archives/2008/11/are_businesses.html

Do Futurists know the future?

"Futurists do not claim to be able to predict the future. So much of what will happen in the future depends on what we humans decide to do. If we could know the future with certainty, it would mean that the future could not be changed. Yet this is a main purpose of studying the future: to look at what may happen if present trends continue, decide if this is what is desirable, and, if it's not, work to change it. Knowing the trends can empower you for effective action." - Timothy Mack, President World Future Society

So what is the benefit of engaging a Futurist? Futurists keep abreast of developments, in our rapidly changing world, as new opportunities are emerging everywhere. By getting advance notice of these possible changes, you can take action and prepare to benefit from it in all aspects of your life. Understanding trends and possible future developments is some of the most valuable knowledge you can tap into. It enables you to prepare while you still have the opportunity and time to act.

To truly benefit you need to have confidence in a respected source. If you would like to Know First, Be First and Profit First then you need to hear Craig Rispin of The Future Trends Group. For more information please contact support@futuretrendsgroup.com

Livescribe's Pulse™ Smartpen - Software Updates

If you have a Livescribe Pulse™ Smartpen, upon my recommendation, then you may want to know that there has been some significant updates to its software.

Livescribe Desktop for Mac Public Beta:  The Pulse smartpen is now compatible with all Intel-based Mac computers with Leopard OS 10.5.  The software makes it possible for Mac users to upload their notes and audio recordings, play them back, search for words, and easily browse through digital copies of their notes.

Handwriting to Text Transcription: Responding to the number one requested feature among Pulse smartpen owners, Livescribe's partner Vision Objects is offering “MyScript for Livescribe” text transcription software, which allows note takers to seamlessly transcribe their handwritten notes into text.

With MyScript for Livescribe, consumers can make edits to their converted text and even create a personal dictionary of frequently used words to ensure a more accurate conversion.  The text can be copied and pasted into a variety of applications, including Microsoft Word and Outlook  MyScript for Livescribe transcription software can be downloaded as a free 30-day trial or purchased for $29.95 at www.visionobjects.com/store.  The software works best with neat and legible handwriting.

Print Your Own Paper: With the release of Livescribe Desktop for Windows 1.4, consumers have the ability to print dot paper notepads for free.  Dot paper notepads can be printed directly from the Livescribe Desktop toolbar on most color laser jet printers that are Adobe Post Script compatible and print at 600dpi or higher.  In addition, Livescribe provides a variety of dot paper notebooks, including lined and unlined journals and college-ruled notebooks for purchase at prices comparable to other college-ruled notebooks.

For more information regarding Livescribe Pulse™ Smartpen click here.

Scientist turns to inkjet printer for a new heart

ONE day we may be able to "print out" new human hearts using simple inkjet technology, according to a scientist who has already started printing cells.

Professor Makoto Nakamura has begun working on a printer that could jet out thousands of cells per second — rather than ink droplets — and to build them up into a three-dimensional organ.
"It would be like building a huge skyscraper on a micro level using different kinds of cells and other materials instead of steel beams, concrete and glass," he said. "Ultimately I hope to make a heart," said Prof Nakamura, from the graduate school of science and technology for
research at the state-run University of Toyama.

While he says it would take him some 20 years to develop a heart, the feat could pave the way to mass produce "good hearts" for patients waiting for transplants. A heart made of cells originating from the patient could eliminate fears that the body would reject it.
In the emerging field of organ printing, Prof Nakamura bills his work as the world's finest printed 3D structure with living cells. The technology works a bit like dealing with sliced fruit: an organ is cut horizontally, allowing researchers to see an array of cells on the surface. If a printer drops cells one by one into the right spots and repeats the process for
many layers, it creates a 3D organ. Much like a printer chooses different colours, the machine can position different types of cells to drop.

Prof Nakamura has already succeeded in building a tube with living cells as narrow as narrow as human hair. The tubes are made by a 3D inkjet bioprinter that Prof Nakamura's team developed over the past three years. The printer can adjust where to drop cells in the order of one-thousandth of a millimetre and produce a tube at a speed of three centimetres per two minutes.

Future planes, cars may be made of "buckypaper"

It's called "buckypaper" and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but don't be fooled by the cute name or flimsy appearance. It could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made.

Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.

"All those things are what a lot of people in nanotechnology have been working toward as sort of Holy Grails," said Wade Adams, a scientist at Rice University.

That idea — that there is great future promise for buckypaper and other derivatives of the ultra-tiny cylinders known as carbon nanotubes — has been floated for years now. However, researchers at Florida State University say they have made important progress that may soon turn hype into reality.

Buckypaper is made from tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Due to its unique properties, it is envisioned as a wondrous new material for light, energy-efficient aircraft and automobiles, more powerful computers, improved TV screens and many other products.

So far, buckypaper can be made at only a fraction of its potential strength, in small quantities and at a high price. The Florida State researchers are developing manufacturing techniques that soon may make it competitive with the best composite materials now available.

"If this thing goes into production, this very well could be a very, very game-changing or revolutionary technology to the aerospace business," said Les Kramer, chief technologist for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, which is helping fund the Florida State research.

The scientific discovery that led to buckypaper virtually came from outer space.

In 1985, British scientist Harry Kroto joined researchers at Rice for an experiment to create the same conditions that exist in a star. They wanted to find out how stars, the source of all carbon in the universe, make the element that is a main building block of life.

Everything went as planned with one exception.

"There was an extra character that turned up totally unexpected," recalled Kroto, now at Florida State heading a program that encourages the study of math, science and technology in public schools. "It was a discovery out of left field."

The surprise guest was a molecule with 60 carbon atoms shaped like a soccer ball. To Kroto, it also looked like the geodesic domes promoted by Buckminster Fuller, an architect, inventor and futurist. That inspired Kroto to name the new molecule buckminsterfullerene, or "buckyballs" for short.

For their discovery of the buckyball — the third form of pure carbon to be discovered after graphite and diamonds — Kroto and his Rice colleagues, Robert Curl Jr. and Richard E. Smalley, were awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1996.

Separately, Japanese physicist Sumio Iijima developed a tube-shaped variation while doing research at Arizona State University.

Researchers at Smalley's laboratory then inadvertently found that the tubes would stick together when disbursed in a liquid suspension and filtered through a fine mesh, producing a thin film — buckypaper.

The secret of its strength is the huge surface area of each nanotube, said Ben Wang, director of Florida State's High-Performance Materials Institute.

"If you take a gram of nanotubes, just one gram, and if you unfold every tube into a graphite sheet, you can cover about two-thirds of a football field," Wang said.

Carbon nanotubes are already beginning to be used to strengthen tennis rackets and bicycles, but in small amounts. The epoxy resins used in those applications are 1 to 5 percent carbon nanotubes, which are added in the form of a fine powder. Buckypaper, which is a thin film rather than a powder, has a much higher nanotube content — about 50 percent.

One challenge is that the tubes clump together at odd angles, limiting their strength in buckypaper. Wang and his fellow researchers found a solution: Exposing the tubes to high magnetism causes most of them to line up in the same direction, increasing their collective strength.

Another problem is the tubes are so perfectly smooth it's hard to hold them together with epoxy. Researchers are looking for ways to create some surface defects — but not too many — to improve bonding.

So far, the Florida State institute has been able to produce buckypaper with half the strength of the best existing composite material, known as IM7. Wang expects to close the gap quickly.

"By the end of next year we should have a buckypaper composite as strong as IM7, and it's 35 percent lighter," Wang said.

Buckypaper now is being made only in the laboratory, but Florida State is in the early stages of spinning out a company to make commercial buckypaper.

"These guys have actually demonstrated materials that are capable of being used on flying systems," said Adams, director of Rice's Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. "Having something that you can hold in your hand is an accomplishment in nanotechnology."

It takes upward of five years to get a new structural material certified for aviation use, so Wang said he expects buckypaper's first uses will be for electromagnetic interference shielding and lightning-strike protection on aircraft.

Electrical circuits and even natural causes such as the sun or Northern Lights can interfere with radios and other electronic gear. Buckypaper provides up to four times the shielding specified in a recent Air Force contract proposal, Wang said.

Typically, conventional composite materials have a copper mesh added for lightning protection. Replacing copper with buckypaper would save weight and fuel.

Wang demonstrated this with a composite model plane and a stun gun. Zapping an unprotected part of the model caused sparks to fly. The electric jolt, though, passed harmlessly across another section shielded by a strip of buckypaper.

Other near-term uses would be as electrodes for fuel cells, super capacitors and batteries, Wang said. Next in line, buckypaper could be a more efficient and lighter replacement for graphite sheets used in laptop computers to dissipate heat, which is harmful to electronics.

The long-range goal is to build planes, automobiles and other things with buckypaper composites. The military also is looking at it for use in armor plating and stealth technology.

"Our plan is perhaps in the next 12 months we'll begin maybe to have some commercial products," Wang said. "Nanotubes obviously are no longer just lab wonders. They have real world potential. It's real."

Computers begin to 'understand' the meanings of words

The technology now exists to teach computers the meanings of words so that they can "understand" the English language in much the same way as a human.

Cognition Technologies has released a "semantic map" that can give machines a vocabulary that is 10 times larger than that of a typical American college graduate.

The firm has begun licensing the map to software creators interested in developing programs that "understand" words based on their tenses and context in a sentence - in a similar way to the human brain.

"We have taught the computer virtually all the meanings of words and phrases in the English language," Cognition chief executive Scott Jarus told AFP. "This is clearly a building block for Web 3.0, or what is known as the Semantic Web. It has taken 30 years; it is a labour of love," Jarus said.

When applied to Internet searches, semantic technology delivers results directed at what users actually seem to be looking for instead of simply matching words used to online content. For example, a semantic online search for "melancholy songs with birds" would know to link sadness in lyrics with various species of birds.

Cognition's semantic map is already used in a LexisNexis Concordance "e-discovery" software to sift through documents amassed during evidence phases of trials.

"We help them find the needle in a haystack," Jarus said.

Cognition's Caselaw program uses the technology to look through more than a half-century of US federal court decisions for legal precedents, according to the company. The semantic map is also used in a widely-used medical database.

Cognition has a handful of rivals, with each firm taking its own approach to semantic technology. In July US software giant Microsoft bought San Francisco-based Powerset, a three-year-old start-up which specialises in interpreting the intent of people's Internet searches instead of matching specific words they use. Microsoft said it planned to use Powerset technology to enhance its free Live Search service.

China Milk Scandal Shows Ties Between Companies, City Officials

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A week before the Beijing Olympics began on Aug. 8, officials in Shijiazhuang, China, learned that baby formula made by one of the city's biggest companies was tainted with a toxic chemical. They said nothing.

It wasn't until five weeks later that they notified the provincial government, spurring the recall of Sanlu Group Co. milk, says Andrew Ferrier, chief executive officer of Auckland- based Fonterra Cooperative Group, which owns 43 percent of Sanlu.

The scandal, now involving 22 dairies and at least four deaths, shows the extent to which local officials protect large employers to create jobs, tax revenue and momentum for their political careers, says Peter Cheung, a professor at the University of Hong Kong who studies policy making in China.

``Local governments are always watching out for their local companies, and the bigger the company, the bigger the sway they'll have,'' says Bruce McLaughlin, a Shanghai-based consultant who investigates patent infringement in China. ``We never go to the local government when we investigate a company. They're no help or they'll leak information to the company.''

Authorities have arrested 18 people in connection with the milk scandal. Sanlu Chairwoman Tian Wenhua was detained by police, fired and removed from her Communist Party post, the official Xinhua News Agency reported this week. Five Shijiazhuang city officials, including the mayor, have been fired.

Calls to Sanlu weren't returned over the past two days. Sanlu apologized to consumers and promised to recall all milk powder produced before Aug. 6, Xinhua reported Sept. 15.

1,300 Hospitalized

More than 1,300 children have been hospitalized after drinking milk formula contaminated with melamine, a toxic chemical normally used in making plastics and tanning leather.

``These companies are too disgusting,'' Li Chunling, 60, said at a Shanghai market while returning milk powder she bought for her 9-month-old grandson. ``I don't have any sense of direction anymore about what to buy. I don't trust any of these products.''

The Communist Party in June announced plans to fight corruption with increased scrutiny of state-owned companies and local officials.

``Firmly punishing and effectively preventing corruption relates to the popularity and survival of the party, and is a political task the party must fully grasp,'' the party's Central Committee said June 22.

Corruptions Costs

Corruption costs the Chinese economy as much as $86 billion a year, or 3 percent of gross domestic product, the Washington- based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a report released last October.

In the run-up to the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics, international media featured reports about fish spiked with antibiotics and cancer-causing chemicals; chicken and duck eggs laced with a carcinogenic red dye; and frozen dumplings injected with pesticide. Melamine-laced pet food from China was blamed for killing as many as 4,000 dogs and cats in the U.S. last year.

This is the second time in four years that unsafe infant formula has killed children in China. Thirteen babies died of malnutrition in 2004 and almost 200 were hospitalized in Anhui province after drinking milk powder with no nutritional content.

Two Fuyang city officials received two-year and six-month jail terms for dereliction of duty in that case.

``I don't doubt there is corruption and collusion at the local level between governments and companies,'' says Cheung, director of the Master of Public Administration program at the University of Hong Kong. ``China needs to give more resources to regulators, and it needs more transparency.''

March Complaints

The milk scandal began in March, when Sanlu received complaints about its products, Ferrier said Sept. 17 in Auckland. At the time, tests by outside firms didn't find any melamine. Melamine can be used to disguise diluted milk because it makes protein levels appear higher than they really are.

On Aug. 2, Sanlu's board was informed that its formula was contaminated, Ferrier said. Sanlu's board includes three members from Fonterra.

Fonterra urged Sanlu to go public ``from day one,'' Ferrier said. The New Zealand company didn't speak out earlier because it wanted ``to work within the Chinese system.''

The New Zealand government was told about the contamination Sept. 5 and three days later ordered its own officials to inform authorities in Beijing, Prime Minister Helen Clark said, according to the New Zealand Press Association.

Officials in Shijiazhuang, 120 miles south of Beijing, didn't notify the Hebei provincial government until Sept. 9, provincial vice governor Yang Chongyong said this week at a briefing in Beijing. Yang's administration informed the central government a day later.

Deng Credo

Chinese government policy is driven by the 1992 credo of former leader Deng Xiaoping: ``To get rich is glorious.'' Local officials are considered for promotions based mainly on how they manage economic growth and maintain order, Cheung said.

In a nation where the World Bank says 207 million people live on about $1.25 a day, bribery is rampant. Last year, the former head of the nation's food and drug regulator was executed for accepting 6.5 million yuan ($950,000) in bribes and gifts. Six types of fake medicines were approved during his tenure, according to Xinhua.

``It's an impossible mission to keep away from poisoned food in China,'' says Lu Erjia, 31, who uses imported milk powder for her 7-month-old son. ``It is just another attack on our confidence in China's food safety.''