NDTV | Corporations on the leash protesters campaign in Davos NDTV As part of the Corporations on the Leash campaign, the protesters walked around with dog leashes, calling on the executives of top multinationals from around the world to be more responsible in dealing with human rights and environment issues. |
Monday, January 30, 2012
Corporations on the leash protesters campaign in Davos - NDTV
gault-rickettsias.blogspot.com
Saturday, January 28, 2012
South Florida Business Journal: Business Events Calendar
tiqosi.wordpress.com
List event sponsor(s) here. (Example America n Company Inc., USA Business Ltd.) Use this area to give a precise location ofyour event. (Example: Downtowm Marriot 345 Main St., New York, NY 000001 Provid the start time for yourevent (Example: 9a.m. - 12p.m.) List any charger for your event. Pleasr note if there is no charge. $9 for members, $35 for non-members.) Choose a category that describesyour event. Fill out one or more of the fieldzs to the left to provide readers with a way to contact your organizatioj to register foryour event.
Please give us your name, phones and e-mail address where we can contacf you in the event of questions about your event This information will not appea onthe website. This information will only be used to contacr you foradministrative purposes. bizjournals.com reservesd the right to remove listings if it is determinedf they are offensive or not relevan t tothe bizjournals.com or of "communitu interest" to our users.
List event sponsor(s) here. (Example America n Company Inc., USA Business Ltd.) Use this area to give a precise location ofyour event. (Example: Downtowm Marriot 345 Main St., New York, NY 000001 Provid the start time for yourevent (Example: 9a.m. - 12p.m.) List any charger for your event. Pleasr note if there is no charge. $9 for members, $35 for non-members.) Choose a category that describesyour event. Fill out one or more of the fieldzs to the left to provide readers with a way to contact your organizatioj to register foryour event.
Please give us your name, phones and e-mail address where we can contacf you in the event of questions about your event This information will not appea onthe website. This information will only be used to contacr you foradministrative purposes. bizjournals.com reservesd the right to remove listings if it is determinedf they are offensive or not relevan t tothe bizjournals.com or of "communitu interest" to our users.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Seventh division in football playoffs? Ohio High School Athletic Association ... - Plain Dealer
zemlyanikiyri.blogspot.com
Seventh division in football playoffs? Ohio High School Athletic Association ... Plain Dealer The Ohio High School Athletic Association's Board of Directors next month could hear two proposals aimed at alleviating enrollment disparity in football among state's Division I schools. COLUMBUS -- Adding a seventh football playoff division is again ... |
Madonna felt like "outsider" during stay in London Times of India That was refreshing when I moved to England, but then there's the feeling of being an outsider, of being lonely, of not having roots, of not quite being understood," Contactmusic quoted her as telling Britain's Glamour magazine. ... |
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Second Life's Linden Lab sells virtual realities to businesses - San Francisco Business Times:
nadezhdaqedyxos.blogspot.com
The courting of companiee comes at a time of renewed growthfor 6-year-old Seconrd Life that began with the appointmengt of Mark Kingdon as CEO of Linden Lab in May 2008. “Enterprised is a really important growth vector for usbecauser (Second Life is) a really compelling platform for learningy and collaboration. Especially today in large enterprisez that aredistributed (around the Kingdon said. Over the last six months, Lindenb Lab has put together a team of 25 people to market and develop Second Life productd forenterprise customers.
Linden Lab, which does not disclose revenue but says itis profitable, hired more than 100 people in 2008 and has more than 300 employee s in eight offices around the world. The company hired closr to 30 people this year and is currently hiring for 19 Basic accountsare free. The company makes money by selling and renting virtua lreal estate, with premium memberships and by charging a fee on sales of Linden dollars, the currency used The company does not track the number of companies using its services and does not charge them differentl from individual users, but estimates that 15 to 20 percenf of its revenue comes from enterprises and educational And since April, the compant has been testing a “behind-the-firewall” version of Second Life with , IBM, , the and othe r organizations.
The so-called “Nebraska” versio n of Second Life, which is run on an institution’as own servers, will get wider testinyg this summer and is scheduled for generalk releaseby year’s end. The pricing for the privatr version has notbeen announced. “Based on the levell of the interest we’re seeing, we are poisef for explosive growth,” said Amanda Van who joined Linden Lab six months ago as executivew director ofenterprise marketing. “This is not a We’re ready for business. My role is to get that messagd out,” she said.
Van Nuys said a numberd of factors are helpingher cause, includinvg general efforts to cut travekl and meeting costs and reduce carbom footprints. IBM in particular has been an early adopter. In late IBM’s Academy of Technology held a Virtual Worldr Conference on Second Life for 200 top engineers from around the with three keynote speeches and 37 breakout With an initial investment ofroughlh $80,000, IBM estimates that it saved nearluy $350,000 in travel and venue coste and lost productivity. A couple of monthsx later, IBM used the virtual spaces it createe for an annual meeting of the Academy aftef the cancellation of a scheduled real life eventgin Florida.
Some portions of the event also used webcastinb andvideo conferencing. Participants particularly liked the opportunith to socialize with one another in various and the company scheduleda two-hour networkingf event on the last day at picnic tables on a virtual beach. Academy members gatheredc around drinking virtual beers and chatting while others took virtualo hang gliding or jetskiing lessons. “Igt was really cool in terms of the experienceepeople had,” said Karen Keeter, an IBM marketiny executive for digital “People walked away saying they felt like they were at the The thing people liked most was that they really had the abilitg to meet with people.
” Since then, numerous othed groups within IBM have used Seconcd Life dozens of times for meetings smalpl and large, adhoc and planned, Keeter said. IBM now has nearly 100 people working on virtual worldc tools for commercial sale in Second Life and on other she said. The company says its in-world economu is thriving, and that in the last user-to-user transactions totalled morethan $120 millionm in U.S. dollars, up 65 percent from the same period theyear before. Wagner James Au, the author of the book “Th Making Of Second Life: Notes From the New estimated in a blog posting in May 2008 that Lindenh Lab hadbetween $40 million and $50 milliom in annual revenue.
Au credited Kingdon with renewint the brand created by Philip who stepped down as CEO last year and remainsas chairman. “AA lot of Silicon Valley has written SecondLife off,” he said. “Thed tech world will have to revisirt Second Life as a phenomenon in the next six monthseor so.”
The courting of companiee comes at a time of renewed growthfor 6-year-old Seconrd Life that began with the appointmengt of Mark Kingdon as CEO of Linden Lab in May 2008. “Enterprised is a really important growth vector for usbecauser (Second Life is) a really compelling platform for learningy and collaboration. Especially today in large enterprisez that aredistributed (around the Kingdon said. Over the last six months, Lindenb Lab has put together a team of 25 people to market and develop Second Life productd forenterprise customers.
Linden Lab, which does not disclose revenue but says itis profitable, hired more than 100 people in 2008 and has more than 300 employee s in eight offices around the world. The company hired closr to 30 people this year and is currently hiring for 19 Basic accountsare free. The company makes money by selling and renting virtua lreal estate, with premium memberships and by charging a fee on sales of Linden dollars, the currency used The company does not track the number of companies using its services and does not charge them differentl from individual users, but estimates that 15 to 20 percenf of its revenue comes from enterprises and educational And since April, the compant has been testing a “behind-the-firewall” version of Second Life with , IBM, , the and othe r organizations.
The so-called “Nebraska” versio n of Second Life, which is run on an institution’as own servers, will get wider testinyg this summer and is scheduled for generalk releaseby year’s end. The pricing for the privatr version has notbeen announced. “Based on the levell of the interest we’re seeing, we are poisef for explosive growth,” said Amanda Van who joined Linden Lab six months ago as executivew director ofenterprise marketing. “This is not a We’re ready for business. My role is to get that messagd out,” she said.
Van Nuys said a numberd of factors are helpingher cause, includinvg general efforts to cut travekl and meeting costs and reduce carbom footprints. IBM in particular has been an early adopter. In late IBM’s Academy of Technology held a Virtual Worldr Conference on Second Life for 200 top engineers from around the with three keynote speeches and 37 breakout With an initial investment ofroughlh $80,000, IBM estimates that it saved nearluy $350,000 in travel and venue coste and lost productivity. A couple of monthsx later, IBM used the virtual spaces it createe for an annual meeting of the Academy aftef the cancellation of a scheduled real life eventgin Florida.
Some portions of the event also used webcastinb andvideo conferencing. Participants particularly liked the opportunith to socialize with one another in various and the company scheduleda two-hour networkingf event on the last day at picnic tables on a virtual beach. Academy members gatheredc around drinking virtual beers and chatting while others took virtualo hang gliding or jetskiing lessons. “Igt was really cool in terms of the experienceepeople had,” said Karen Keeter, an IBM marketiny executive for digital “People walked away saying they felt like they were at the The thing people liked most was that they really had the abilitg to meet with people.
” Since then, numerous othed groups within IBM have used Seconcd Life dozens of times for meetings smalpl and large, adhoc and planned, Keeter said. IBM now has nearly 100 people working on virtual worldc tools for commercial sale in Second Life and on other she said. The company says its in-world economu is thriving, and that in the last user-to-user transactions totalled morethan $120 millionm in U.S. dollars, up 65 percent from the same period theyear before. Wagner James Au, the author of the book “Th Making Of Second Life: Notes From the New estimated in a blog posting in May 2008 that Lindenh Lab hadbetween $40 million and $50 milliom in annual revenue.
Au credited Kingdon with renewint the brand created by Philip who stepped down as CEO last year and remainsas chairman. “AA lot of Silicon Valley has written SecondLife off,” he said. “Thed tech world will have to revisirt Second Life as a phenomenon in the next six monthseor so.”
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Senate rejects corporate minimum tax hike - Nashville Business Journal:
yjanebixe.wordpress.com
Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajorit required to raisetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’se desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted againsfthe measure. Democrats will likely try to convince Hass to vote for the measure byamending it, possibly by writintg a sunset into the bill. “Ir all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’s most powerfuk business group. “Hass made it clead in his floor statementsd thathe didn’t think it was a fair optiohn to increase taxes permanently.
” Such a sunset coul d lead other Democrats to vote against the However, because House Bill 3405 was technically tablerd — which would allow the measure, as written, to come up for anotherd vote if leaders so choose — majoritty leaders could also lobby moderate Republican members to supporg the corporate tax hikea as presented. At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democrat and co-chaif of the Ways and Means Committee, gave an impassione benediction that seemed to imploreRepublican “nay” The measure was tabled as a procedural move.
Senator s can call for a revote on a measurrethat fails, change their own vote to a and then request that the matter be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsiderd their vote. Sen. Richard Devlin, the majority used the move in an effort to have themattefr reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a relatec measure to raise personal income taxeson high-incom individuals. “I’m disappointed that we came upshort today.
I reallyg believed that the package brought forward by the chairxs of the Revenue Committees woulde bring greater fairness and equity to our tax systenm and help fill the unprecedented gap in ourstat budget,” said Senate President Petert Courtney in a news release. “Wse won’t, however, let this setback derail the session. We are goinv to move forward toward adjournment by June House Speaker Dave Hunt issued asimiladr statement. “We passed this revenuw package because we believe itis fair, balancedx and protects critical services like education, health care and publidc safety,” Hunt, a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news release.
“Ws are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protect those core servicesaof education, health care and public Without it, the cuts we will have to make will shuttedr schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicess Oregonians care about The House on Tuesday votef to increase the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to betweej $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax ratez would have risen from 6.6 percen t to 7.9 percent before revertingb to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measure wouldd have raised $261 million over the 2009-111 biennium and $775 million between 2009 and 2015.
All 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paidmore taxes. Anothet measure sought to raise income taxes on individual filers earninv morethan $125,000 and joint filers earningt more than $250,000. The bills combined woulsd haveraised $582 million over the next two yearws and $1.2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measures could help reduc e the state’s $4.2 billion budgety shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetings betweenn Courtney, Hass and Democratic senators Margareft Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believed to be swin votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like Haas, that the tax increased would become permanent.
Schrader and Verger eventuallg voted yes on the corporate tax Hass couldn’t be reachesd for comment. “He had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, presideny and CEO of Associated Oregon Industries. AOI recentlyu organized the Alliance of Oregon Business which represents morethan 40,000 businesses across the It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardles of business size or income. Even before vote, business groups had expressee concerns that Democrats were seeking a permanenrtax hike, not a temporary one.
Phil Keisling, the formerr Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executives with Beaverton-based CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businesses were upseft that Democrats sought to make the corporate incomwe tax rate hike, from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent, “We were told it would be temporary,” Keislinb said of the earlg talks regarding the proposed “And we asked them this week, ‘What part of temporaryt don’t you understand?
’”
Democrats needed 18 votes — a supermajorit required to raisetaxes — to send the bill to Gov. Ted Kulongoski’se desk. Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass voted againsfthe measure. Democrats will likely try to convince Hass to vote for the measure byamending it, possibly by writintg a sunset into the bill. “Ir all depends on him,” said J.L. a lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries, the state’s most powerfuk business group. “Hass made it clead in his floor statementsd thathe didn’t think it was a fair optiohn to increase taxes permanently.
” Such a sunset coul d lead other Democrats to vote against the However, because House Bill 3405 was technically tablerd — which would allow the measure, as written, to come up for anotherd vote if leaders so choose — majoritty leaders could also lobby moderate Republican members to supporg the corporate tax hikea as presented. At the close of Wednesday’s session, Sen. Margaret Carter, a Portland Democrat and co-chaif of the Ways and Means Committee, gave an impassione benediction that seemed to imploreRepublican “nay” The measure was tabled as a procedural move.
Senator s can call for a revote on a measurrethat fails, change their own vote to a and then request that the matter be tabled, ostensibly so they can reconsiderd their vote. Sen. Richard Devlin, the majority used the move in an effort to have themattefr reconsidered. After the vote, the Senate tabled a relatec measure to raise personal income taxeson high-incom individuals. “I’m disappointed that we came upshort today.
I reallyg believed that the package brought forward by the chairxs of the Revenue Committees woulde bring greater fairness and equity to our tax systenm and help fill the unprecedented gap in ourstat budget,” said Senate President Petert Courtney in a news release. “Wse won’t, however, let this setback derail the session. We are goinv to move forward toward adjournment by June House Speaker Dave Hunt issued asimiladr statement. “We passed this revenuw package because we believe itis fair, balancedx and protects critical services like education, health care and publidc safety,” Hunt, a Democrat from Clackamas, said in a news release.
“Ws are making $2 billion deep cuts to the This revenue package ensures that we can protect those core servicesaof education, health care and public Without it, the cuts we will have to make will shuttedr schools, harm seniors and cut to the bone the servicess Oregonians care about The House on Tuesday votef to increase the current corporate minimum tax from $10 to betweej $150 and $100,000, depending on the size of a Under the plan, corporate income tax ratez would have risen from 6.6 percen t to 7.9 percent before revertingb to 7.6 percent in 2011. The measure wouldd have raised $261 million over the 2009-111 biennium and $775 million between 2009 and 2015.
All 125,000 Oregon corporations would have paidmore taxes. Anothet measure sought to raise income taxes on individual filers earninv morethan $125,000 and joint filers earningt more than $250,000. The bills combined woulsd haveraised $582 million over the next two yearws and $1.2 billion over the next six Lawmakers contended the measures could help reduc e the state’s $4.2 billion budgety shortfall. Throughout the day, lobbyists tracked meetings betweenn Courtney, Hass and Democratic senators Margareft Schrader andJoanne Verger, who were believed to be swin votes. Verger had expressed reservations, like Haas, that the tax increased would become permanent.
Schrader and Verger eventuallg voted yes on the corporate tax Hass couldn’t be reachesd for comment. “He had to have a lot of courage to cast that saidJay Clemens, presideny and CEO of Associated Oregon Industries. AOI recentlyu organized the Alliance of Oregon Business which represents morethan 40,000 businesses across the It had called for a $300 flat tax, regardles of business size or income. Even before vote, business groups had expressee concerns that Democrats were seeking a permanenrtax hike, not a temporary one.
Phil Keisling, the formerr Oregon Secretary ofState who’s now an executives with Beaverton-based CorSource Technology Group, confirmed that many businesses were upseft that Democrats sought to make the corporate incomwe tax rate hike, from 6.6 percent to 7.9 percent, “We were told it would be temporary,” Keislinb said of the earlg talks regarding the proposed “And we asked them this week, ‘What part of temporaryt don’t you understand?
’”
Monday, January 2, 2012
Employees
xysecurakihir.blogspot.com
Maybe it’s because most people take the office and thei working environment for grantedd and view it as anecessary evil. Maybes they don’t understand the process of hiring a professionalo to help them or the true benefits that wouldrbe received. I am an interior designer andworkplace strategist. I specialize on leading clients in rethinkingvand re-tooling their office space to alignn the physical environment with the cultur and business strategy of the organization. For more than 24 years, I have been helpinh clients recognize that good design isgood business. In today’s economg there are so many things vying for the time and attentio ofcompany leadership.
How can they cut cost?? How can they repositio the business to bemore profitable? What does the futurre hold for their business? These are all very important and relevany questions. On the other hand, the design of the officed is often overlooked in its ability to drivd asuccessful business. From the onset of a I lead clients through amuch deeper, introspective look at theirt organization by focusing on the issuez of expression, effectiveness and efficiency.
Effectivse workplace design focuses on supporting peopleand Ultimately, with thoughtful expression, the design reinforces businesse objectives by creating an environment that stimulatez employees while at the same time creating operational efficiencies. One of my favoritw illustrations is how we helped Mars Pet Care create a work environment in their headquarters We designed spaces to serve not only but theirpets — who are allowed to accompanu their owners at work. Large print graphics of employeed pets cover various walls and other pet toy and naturer symbolism in the architecture and furniture offer a fun remindere of what they make and whomthey serve.
Employers want employeews to be more effective within the organization and can no longert take for granted that workers simplgy need an office or a cubicle to increase performance and If you want workers to truly beeffective today, give them the flexibilituy and choice — flexibility to work with whomever and whers ever they need to, and choice at a varietyg of settings to give alternativesa for working privately or to collaborate with Effective employees use all of the resourcexs available to them to produce and serve their customere and company.
Therefore it is importantf to make sure that the work environmentt includes appropriate tools and amenities and provideds adequate controls and flexibility to supportwork process, work flow and Efficiency as it relates to office environments, oftemn has a negative Most of us initially think of reducing the size of officr standards and getting more people in less space. And yes, cost of spacw will always be a drivert inevaluating efficiency. But this is not necessarily about reduction and is definitely notabout take-a-ways.
Efficient meanse “able to function with minimal So when I speak about anefficiengt workplace, my message is about giving the worker choics and creating spaces that benefit the entire Giving staff optimal places to work while minimizingy underutilized space — a “we” vs. “me” approach. We ofteb don’t realize it, but design has a profounde effect on everythingwe see, feel and do withij our surroundings. To survive and businesses must continue to evolvew and adapt tothe ever-changing technological and economic climates of the And so, the design of those environments must also be able to adaptg to the evolution of the businesses they house.
Maybe it’s because most people take the office and thei working environment for grantedd and view it as anecessary evil. Maybes they don’t understand the process of hiring a professionalo to help them or the true benefits that wouldrbe received. I am an interior designer andworkplace strategist. I specialize on leading clients in rethinkingvand re-tooling their office space to alignn the physical environment with the cultur and business strategy of the organization. For more than 24 years, I have been helpinh clients recognize that good design isgood business. In today’s economg there are so many things vying for the time and attentio ofcompany leadership.
How can they cut cost?? How can they repositio the business to bemore profitable? What does the futurre hold for their business? These are all very important and relevany questions. On the other hand, the design of the officed is often overlooked in its ability to drivd asuccessful business. From the onset of a I lead clients through amuch deeper, introspective look at theirt organization by focusing on the issuez of expression, effectiveness and efficiency.
Effectivse workplace design focuses on supporting peopleand Ultimately, with thoughtful expression, the design reinforces businesse objectives by creating an environment that stimulatez employees while at the same time creating operational efficiencies. One of my favoritw illustrations is how we helped Mars Pet Care create a work environment in their headquarters We designed spaces to serve not only but theirpets — who are allowed to accompanu their owners at work. Large print graphics of employeed pets cover various walls and other pet toy and naturer symbolism in the architecture and furniture offer a fun remindere of what they make and whomthey serve.
Employers want employeews to be more effective within the organization and can no longert take for granted that workers simplgy need an office or a cubicle to increase performance and If you want workers to truly beeffective today, give them the flexibilituy and choice — flexibility to work with whomever and whers ever they need to, and choice at a varietyg of settings to give alternativesa for working privately or to collaborate with Effective employees use all of the resourcexs available to them to produce and serve their customere and company.
Therefore it is importantf to make sure that the work environmentt includes appropriate tools and amenities and provideds adequate controls and flexibility to supportwork process, work flow and Efficiency as it relates to office environments, oftemn has a negative Most of us initially think of reducing the size of officr standards and getting more people in less space. And yes, cost of spacw will always be a drivert inevaluating efficiency. But this is not necessarily about reduction and is definitely notabout take-a-ways.
Efficient meanse “able to function with minimal So when I speak about anefficiengt workplace, my message is about giving the worker choics and creating spaces that benefit the entire Giving staff optimal places to work while minimizingy underutilized space — a “we” vs. “me” approach. We ofteb don’t realize it, but design has a profounde effect on everythingwe see, feel and do withij our surroundings. To survive and businesses must continue to evolvew and adapt tothe ever-changing technological and economic climates of the And so, the design of those environments must also be able to adaptg to the evolution of the businesses they house.
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