Sunday Posts

I just read about Galerianki , the Polish documentary on the phenomenon of mall girls, on today's International Herald Tribune . For the uninitiated, the mall girls are those teenagers, often in school, who hang around in shopping malls and try to spot wealthy individuals, draw their attention and perform sex acts in return to gifts, often in the form of expensive branded clothing, mobile phones and other accessories. Deviod of parental attention, as their parents struggle to keep pace with the demands of post-socialist Poland, these girls do not think they are prostitutes, and call their clients 'sponsors' or 'boyfriends', and sometimes 'frajer' ['loser]. This story attracts my interest because of a coincidence. I spotted the story on IHT only after having a discussion with someone in the Philippines about those girls in Philippines, young and full of girlie charm, who perform sex acts for money to pay for their exams. Yes, it is as...

I have talked about doing meaningful work before, but have not substantiated what I meant by that. But before that, a note on context. My point about wishing to spend 2010 doing meaningful work implied that what I have done before, or doing now, is meaningless. While it is possible to clarify and elaborate such a statement, this goes against one of my core beliefs: No work is absolutely futile. While I may be deeply frustrated by what I am doing, primarily on account of my inability to move forward on any front, this work also presents me an enormous opportunity to learn, and explore various aspects of international business. That can't be meaningless; work rarely is. I must admit that the current job that I do taught me a lot about work. One of the key lessons have been that you can not be a quitter. I have faced enormous difficulties while at work, not least because of the recession. I thought the project I was involved in was not important, had to deal with colleagues who took ...

I read Kenneth W Gronbach's The Age Curve with interest. But while the point the book makes is very valid, that marketers need to be more aware of the demographic trends and take these into account, I have to criticize the book for its structure and style. I think the biggest problem with business literature now is their structure. Every book seems to follow a structure of presenting a sort of 'Executive Summary' at the beginning, and then elaborate explanations and data in the subsequent chapters. Nice idea, but once you have started reading hundreds of books with the same format, it becomes boring, sometimes downright irritating. There may be quite a bit of argument in favour of such a format, but I just don't get it. I guess the key argument will be that today's business people do not read a book and hence a short executive summary is needed, but then why print a book? With all the innovations in electronic book reading, it does not seem book reading is dying i...

We are at a tipping point of history. Funny that I say that. Isn't history all about our past? About things that happened? If so, how can we be inside history, much less inside its tipping point? But, I say History is as much about the past as it is about the present and the future. It is a narrative of time, which engulfs us and shapes us. Like air, it is possible not to see history or feel it; but it is not possible to escape its presence. So, history has tipping points. It bends and turns, moves around. We may lose its sense, like the explorers on the Antarctic who would walk around on the Ice Floe and think that the compass is behaving erratically. However, there will be no mistakes when the Ice Floe melts under one's feet. We are at such a point in History. The narrative that we live by are a combination of assumptions, ideas and imaginations, all linked up with the values and visions of an age. Such constructs are extremely solid when shaped, just like the Ice Floe, they...

In a few hours, David Cameron will deliver a make-or-break speech in Brighton to the Conservative Party faithfuls. It is ironic to note how political cycles run: Only a few months ago, we talked about Gordon Brown fighting for his political life in the run up to his speech to labour party faithfuls in Brighton. The world seems to be coming a full circle. If opinion polls are any indication, this election seems to be slipping away from Cameron's grips. Oddly, the news from Downing Street has only got worse, but still, it seems, the British public is steadily started giving Mr Brown the benefit of doubt. Conservatives are already sounding defeatist, and talk of a hung parliament and the dangers of indecision that brings is the best they can talk about. If such an eventuality does happen, or as Sunday Times is predicting, Gordon Brown can manage to form a minority government, it will certainly destroy the conservative party with some finality. One can account for such shifting of alle...

Adding a fresh twist to the Sensitivity versus Freedom of Speech debate, the Danish newspaper Politiken , which published the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad with bomb-shaped turban and the like, apologised for any offences it may have caused. In fact, the apology comes after it has reprinted one of the cartoons, originally published in 2006 by another newspaper, after an attempt was made on the life of Kurt Westergaard , the cartoonist. The newspaper which originally printed the cartoons, Jyllands - Posten , criticized Politiken's apology, calling it a 'pathetic prostrating in front of a Saudi Lawyer' which deserves 'the first prize in stupidity'. Kurt Westergaard called it 'a setback for the freedom of speech' and the Danish Union of Journalists called the move 'kneeling before the opponents of the freedom of speech'. Such criticism comes despite the fact that Jyllands - Posten itself apologised for printing the cartoons back in 2006, and the oppo...

I have written about University model changing significantly and morphing into an User Network model, more akin to a library, where learners learn from each other. The reason behind imagining such transformation has obviously been the availability of technological options, and the social trends and imperatives of Lifelong Learning. One criticism I have received of such a visualization is that it pushes the teacher out of the equation, making her extinct and letting Learning Technologist take her place, or at least de -professionalizing teaching into some kind of technology assistant. First of all, I accept the criticism as valid. In my enthusiasm in writing about the universities as user networks, I almost forgot about teaching, not mentioning this at all. This, however, came from my own background and bias, because my engagement with education was mostly from the administrative and business perspective, rather than teaching itself. Being largely self-taught, it was rather obvious for...

The more I think about it, I become more convinced that universities have already started morphing into the User Network model, adopting the role of a guide and mentor to the seekers of knowledge, rather than trying to be the fountainhead of knowledge creation. One may as well argue some of the best research and innovation come out of universities. This is indeed true, and in that function, universities create knowledge. And, I see the universities concentrating more on research function, while morphing their teaching function into a technology-facilitated user network form. This does not happen today as the universities are expected to meet their social obligations through the performance of the teaching function. The economics of an university is dependent on dispensing education, and research is mostly an area where universities incur costs. The government policy expects the universities to produce a certain number of graduates, in line with the needs of the employers as well as the...

I am preparing to write the Open College idea down over the Christmas holidays and hence, doing some reading and review of ideas. There could not have been a better place to start the journey than Clayton Christensen's DISRUPTING CLASS [with Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson], where the effect of disruptive innovation on how education is delivered has been examined. The book is full of concepts about disruptive innovation and how they are brought to market, and a connecting fable which lets us understand the possibilities and challenges of technology introduction to the market. There are some rather disconnected, but useful stand-alone sections, on Pre -school education and Educational Research for example, but overall the book is a good read and stimulating for anyone interested in the business of education. The point of this post, of course, is not the book, but an idea contained therein, which requires closer examination in the context of the open college project. This is the ...