Mastering Workflow Optimization: A Guide to Efficiency and Effectivenes

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In today’s competitive business environment, operational excellence is not just a goal but a necessity. The cornerstone of such excellence lies in how effectively and efficiently a company manages its workflows. A well-optimized workflow can be the difference between a business that merely survives and one that truly thrives. In this article we will explore innovative methods to optimize workflows for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.

Analyze Existing Procedures and Workflows

Begin by conducting a thorough analysis of your current operational activities. This should include identifying bottlenecks that may be slowing down processes and recognizing areas where redundancies may exist. Think of this phase as an audit, one that will serve as a baseline for improvement. Tools such as business process management software can assist in this review, mapping out existing workflows and highlighting areas for improvement.

Engage Team Members for Insights

While managerial perspectives are important, sometimes the most invaluable insights come from those on the front lines. Establish an environment of open communication, urging team members to share their experiences and viewpoints. Employee feedback can be a treasure trove of information that reveals hidden challenges and opportunities. For instance, Slack or Microsoft Teams can be platforms for gathering such feedback effectively, making communication more seamless.

Streamline the New Employee Onboarding Process

Bringing new talent on board should not be a time-consuming or confusing process. Clear documentation, guided training modules, and mentorship programs can make this transition smoother. This not only reduces the time it takes for new hires to become productive but also enhances the overall employee experience. Technologies like learning management systems (LMS) can be employed to facilitate this process.

Implement Digital Invoices

Establishing a solid bookkeeping and digital invoicing system is crucial for the financial health and organization of any business. It ensures accurate tracking of income and expenses, aids in financial planning, and streamlines the billing process. Utilizing a free online invoice maker can significantly enhance this aspect of your business. These tools allow you to create custom invoices by choosing from dozens of templates, fonts, and design elements, making it easy to reflect your brand’s identity while maintaining professionalism. The convenience of an invoice maker not only saves time but also helps in managing cash flow more effectively, providing a clear and efficient way to bill clients and track payments.

Minimize Multitasking to Enhance Focus

The myth of multitasking as an effective way to get more done has been debunked by numerous studies. Rather, encourage an environment where employees can focus on single tasks, thereby enhancing quality and productivity. Time management software like Pomodoro timers can help in setting specific periods for focused work.

Make Marketing Easy with Content Marketing

As an entrepreneur, harnessing the power of content marketing practices like SEO and keywording is pivotal in amplifying your business’s online reach. These strategies enhance your visibility on search engines, drawing more potential customers to your website by optimizing your content with relevant keywords. This process involves understanding what your target audience is searching for and integrating those terms into your web pages, blogs, and social media posts in a natural, engaging manner.

The beauty of this approach is the abundance of free online resources available, offering tips and best practices to guide you through optimizing your content. By leveraging these resources, you can effectively increase your digital footprint, attract a larger audience, and drive more business, all without the need for a significant financial investment.

Reevaluate the Necessity of Meetings

Meetings should be purposeful and action-oriented. Overly frequent or extended meetings can often detract from productive time. Digital Kanban boards can be an alternative for status updates, making it easier to track project milestones without the need for time-consuming meetings.

Foster a Collaborative Environment

A culture that promotes collaboration often results in optimized workflows. Tools like collaborative software, or even something as simple as a communal whiteboard, can facilitate brainstorming and project planning. By pooling collective skills and insights, teams can troubleshoot problems more efficiently, formulate better strategies, and execute tasks more effectively.

Achieving optimized workflows is not a one-time activity but an ongoing pursuit. Embracing continuous improvement, using automation, engaging team members, and integrating technology like customer data platforms are all essential steps toward a more efficient and effective business landscape.

Notes from Collaborative Knowledge Management—A Construction Case Study

Collaborative Knowledge Management—A Construction Case Study

doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2009.03.015

by Bhargav Dave, Lauri Koskela
Salford Centre for Research and Innovation, University of Salford

Abstract: Due to the new threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction companies must seek new solutions in order to remain ahead of the competition. Knowledge has been identified to be a significant organisational resource, which if used effectively can provide competitive advantage. A lot of emphasis is being put on how to identify, capture and share knowledge in today’s organisations. It has been argued over the years that due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction projects, capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project pose a challenge. As a result critical mistakes are repeated on projects and construction professionals have to keep “reinventing the wheel”. Given the nature of construction projects, collaborative knowledge management seems to be the most appropriate solution to capture project based knowledge. Information and communication technologies offer a number of solutions to implement collaborative knowledge management solutions. This paper discusses a range of these solutions and presents a case study where a collaborative knowledge management solution is implemented across a multi functional construction company.

The work presented in the case study was carried out while the first author was employed by the case study organisation. A social web application was implemented to solve a particular knowledge sharing problem within the organisation’s concrete pumping business. The new solution provided an effective and simple way to create knowledge by taking employees’ ideas through an iterative cycle of discussion.

Keywords:Knowledge management, Social web applications, Construction

The construction industry fails to retain project knowledge for future reuse. Some common factors behind this are; personnel changing companies or industry, teams being separated after completion of a project, lack of a standard platform to capture and share knowledge, lack of motivation, etc. Many companies have documentation processes such as post project reviews, in place to capture such knowledge, however in most instances these are not properly documented, and if documented they remain locked in archives.

During the monthly meetings and general supervision it was observed that the operators in both workshops regularly identified innovative solutions to solve problems of varying complexity. However due to a lack of formal documentation and sharing procedure, this knowledge was not retained and operators kept “reinventing the wheel” on a regular basis. It was also identified that a significant amount of commonly used information could be shared across the depots, however due to the lack of a sharing platform this could not be achieved.

the following issues were identified, which limited its use in this context:

  • Knowledge is only captured in form of documents, which are static in nature and don’t support the knowledge creation lifecycle
  • Operators, other than who created knowledge, can’t comment or update documents
  • Rich content (i.e. picture, multimedia) is not easy to embed or associate with knowledge
  • Searching within the knowledge base is not efficient
  • Multiple versions of same documents exist leading to confusion
  • Social interaction is important aspect of knowledge creation, this is not supported by the existing platform

 

References

[1]  E. Ofek, M. Sarvary, Leveraging the customer base: creating competitive advantage through knowledge management, Management Science 47 (11) (2001) 1441–1456.

[2]  E.A. Smith, The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the workplace, Journal of Knowledge Management 5 (2001) 311–321.

[3]  C. Switzer, Time for change: empowering organisations to succeed in the knowledge economy, Journal of Knowledge Management 12 (2) (2008) 18–28.

[4]  C.O. Egbu, The role of knowledge management and innovation in improving construction competitiveness, Building Technology and Management Journal 25 (1999) 1–10.

[5]  P.F. Drucker, Post-capitalist society, Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, 1994.

[6]  Y. Lin, L. Wang, H.P. Tseng, Enhancing knowledge exchange through web map based knowledge management system in construction: lessons learned in Taiwan, Automation in Construction 15 (2006) 693–705.

[7]  S.Newell,M.Bresnen,L.Edelman,H.Scarbrough,J.Swan,Sharing knowledge across projects: limits to ICT-led project review practices, Management Learning 37 (2006) 167–185.

[8] A. Kazi, A. Koivuniemi, Sharing through social interaction: The case study of YIT Construction Ltd. Real-Life KM, Lessons from the field, ISBN: 952-5004-72-4, 2006, pp. 63–81.

[9] A. Poyhonen, KM-factor—a method for analyzing the renewal capability of organiza- tions, the proceedings of the 6th International CINet Page 2 Conference: Continuous Innovation—(Ways of) Making Things Happen. 4–6 September, 2005, Brighton, UK, 2005.

[10] L. Lella, A.F. Dragoni, G. Giampieri, Enabling knowledge creation through associative networks and semantic web technologies, Proceedings of F.O.M.I. 2005, Castel Nuovo del Garda (Italy), June 9 2005.

[11] I.O. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi, The knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.

[12] P. Hearn, A. Bradier, A. Jubert, Building Communities: Organisational KM within the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies Programme, ITcon, Special Issue ICT for KM in Construction, vol. 7, 2002, pp. 63–68.

[13] C. Fricke, B. Faust, Knowledge transfer—acquiring implicit knowledge, Interna- tional Journal – Nuclear KM 2 (1) (2006) 46–56.

[14] KPMG, KM Research Report. (1998)
[15] APQC (American Productivity and Quality Centre) Consortium Benchmarking

Study Final Report Executive Summary, (1996).
[16] M.W. McElroy, The New KM: Complexity, Learning, and Sustainable Innovation,

Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002.
[17] T.H. Davenport, Thinking for a living. How to get better performance and results

from knowledge workers, Harvard Business School Press, 2005.
[18] C.J. Anumba, D. Ruikar, Z. Aziz, P.M. Carrillo, N. Bouchlaghem, Towards a web of construction knowledge and services, 4th ASCE, Int. Joint Symposium on IT in Civil

Engineering, Nashville, 2003.
[19] T.H. Davenport, P. Lawrence, Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage

What They Know, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA, 1998.
[20] K. Ruikar, C.J. Anumba, C. Egbu, Integrated use of technologies and techniques for construction knowledge management, Knowledge Management Research & Practice

5 (2007) 297–311.
[21] A.M. Al-Ghassani, Literature review on KM tools, Technical Report, July 2002,

Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, UK, 2002. [22] A.P. McAfee, Enterprise 2.0: the dawn of emergent collaboration, MIT Sloan

Management Review 47 (3) (2006) 21–28.
[23] J.M. Kamara, G. Augenbroe, C.J. Anumba, P.M. Carrillo, Knowledge management in

the architecture, engineering and construction industry, Construction Innovation

2 (2002) 53–67.
[24] Sir M. Latham, Constructing the team, Final report of the government/industry

review of procurement and contractual arrangements in the UK construction

industry, HMSO, London, 1994.
[25] Sir J. Egan, Rethinking construction, Rethinking construction: report of the cons-

truction task force on the scope for improving the quality and efficiency of UK construction, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London, 1998.

[26] J.H. Woo, Mark J. Clayton, Robert E. Johnson, Benito E. Flores, Christopher Ellis, Dynamic Knowledge Map: reusing experts’ tacit knowledge in the AEC industry, Journal of Automation in Construction 13 (2004) 203–207.

[27 A.R. Hevner, S.T. March, J. Park, S. Ram, Design science in information systems research, MIS Quarterly 28 (1) (2004) 75–106.

 

Review of Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Dr. Henry Cloud

According to Dr. Henry Cloud – an international lecturer, clinical psychologist , leadership coach and corporate consultant – integrity is an active process of decision-making when faced with various professional and personal challenges. In his best-selling book Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, one of several best-sellers that have received wide acclaim within the leadership development community, he explores the six definitive qualities of character that consists of integrity, explains why they are so important in an age when amoral attitudes are often viewed as a short-cut to success, and how to develop those characteristics. The book it both a stand-alone guide to helping develop the qualities needed for success in business, and is also part of a series on servant leadership – a branch of business literature based in Biblical, Christian values. In this field of thought – one that has found endorsements by some of the largest and most successful American companies – success is determined not onlyby the bottom life, but also by one’s capacity to attain business goals through compassionate, authentic and morally upright behavior. Integrity in Dr. Cloud’s view is not, a la Gordon Gecko, the ruthless pursuit of personal enrichment whatever the cost may be to others but is instead the daily work of management and owners collaborating with workers, suppliers, customers, regulators, and everyone else that interacts with a business enterprise in such a way that there exists a strong foundation of trust and respect between those relationships.

While Charles Koch is nowhere cited within this book, how Dr. Cloud explains about how one’s character is the truest foundation of success it made me think of Charles Koch’s quote, I’m paraphrasing, that given the choice between hiring someone with talent and virtue that the person with virtue should be the one that is chosen. Integrity as explicated by Dr. Cloud is in many ways based on an Aristotelian and/Christian conceptualization of character. The opening chapter of the book, in fact, starts by defining character and relating it to integrity while the second explains how it is thatcharacter, or virtue, that is the foundation of personal and professional success – however that is defines – more so than mere talent. Talent, for Dr. Cloud, is something that is a component of character, along with their competencies, their level of energy, their deal-making abilities, and their capacity to exert their intelligence towards various efforts. Ethical functioning if a component of character, in other words, but not all of it.

The importance of this character in this sense is described via an, in my opinion, very compelling analogy – that of the wake. Each interaction that we have with someone leaves a two-fold impression. One on the person impacted and the other based on how that impact is recognized and interpreted – aka the Task and the Relationship. Results matter, and the whether or not Tasks are successful performed according to the agreed upon requirements are the foundations of the Relationship. The utter simplicity of this conceptualization and the ease with which it can be visualized via the wake of a boat is, in my opinion, what makes this so powerful.

From this opening, Dr. Cloud then starts to expand on the specific character traits related to this dynamic that one can develop in order to demonstrate and expand one’s integrity chapter by chapter. The six character trait that Dr. Cloud states is necessary to embody and build integrity are as follows:

  1. The ability to connect authentically
  2. The ability to be oriented to Truth
  3. The ability to work in a way that gets results and finishes well
  4. The ability to embrace, engage and deal with the negative
  5. The ability to be oriented toward growth
  6. The ability to be transcendent

These qualities are the foundations of integrity and personal and professional success as, in order:

  1. This leads to the creation of mutual trust
  2. This leads to the assurance that one is operation in reality
  3. This leads to the attainment of whatever the success indicators are – be it goals, profits or the completion of a mission
  4. This leads to the resolution, cessation or transformation of problems
  5. This leads to the continuation of an business enterprise, as well as its potential to grow and increase across various metrics
  6. This leads to an enlargement of the individuals involved in an ethical/moral/spiritual manner

Each of the chapters provides a series of examples takes from business history, Dr. Cloud’s experiences as a business consultant or hypotheticals which are all insightful. Though a book within the field of Christian/Service Leadership business literature, and thus aligned with scriptural values, the manner in which he illustrates the benefits of applying such principles in business is not by saying “this matches what Jesus said, ergo it’s good” but by showing how that by embodying virtuous qualities of character that success is reached. More that an a mere guide for work-place relations, Dr. Cloud is keen to illustrate how if one has issues in one’s personal lives wherein a lack of integrity is causing problems that this will seep over into one’s professional life as well. “It behooves all of us to be working on whatever unresolved pain we are walking around with,” Dr. Cloud states following an explanation on the importance of managing one’s emotions “lest some issue in “reality” tap into it and overcome our ability to make good decisions.”

Emotional self-management here means the ability to lose well – with grace. Being able to cut your losses and move on, the ability to process and integrate loss such that strength, hope, patience and optimism can be developed from the experience so that success can be obtained in the future. Life is full of problem, without it there would be no potential for profit, so the proverbial elephant in the room must not be avoided but used a means towards orienting one’s intellect. As my father would put it – you need to have the capacity to Face, Trace, Embrace, and Replace the mindsets that lead to loss in order to integrate your character to go forward with a success-oriented mindset. Blaming others, even if the “outside” may have had a role in it, is another form of hampering self-improvement. It is the hallmark of narcissism and an indolent – meaning pain-avoiding – mentality. Being able to confront problems – which is what structures teams, projects, relationships and, well, life – creates structure by developing limits for what will be tolerated.

The ability to thrive, to flourish in an ever-changing environment and to overcome the self-pitying pull of negativism in the wake of failure, to resist the internal voice of “I’m not good enough” that allows for character growth and the integration of new capacities and skills. It’s what separates those with a growth-mindset from those with a fixed-mindset. It’s what separate those that are able to take risks based on a desire for growth versus those that foolishly leap into an enterprise like a gambler. It’s what separates those that realize they could benefit from personal coaching, therapy, training experiences, accountability relationship, groups for spiritual development, continuing education, etc. and those that have closed themselves off from having someone in their life whose views they must wrestle with or submit to. It is the difference between authenticity and integrity and narcissism. By being smaller, in other words, you can become to bigger – for it is by working to rid one’s self of ego-centricity and allowing universal values such as love, compassion, honesty, faithfulness and responsibility to be one’s gravitational center – personal and professional success are obtained.

Avowal of the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

The Society of Professional Journalists has an ethics code that they’ve published on their website.

Over the next several months I will be publishing content under a category that is new to my website: Journalism.

Given that I self-publish a wide variety of content on my website – from reflections on technology, marketing, satire, poetry, etc. – I thought it appropriate to publicly avow that all of the content that I publish under this label will be within the ethical code described below.

~

PREAMBLE

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media.

SEEK TRUTH AND REPORT IT

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

Journalists should:

Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.

Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.
Provide context. Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing or summarizing a story.

Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story.

Be cautious when making promises, but keep the promises they make.

Identify sources clearly. The public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources.

Consider sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Reserve anonymity for sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm, and have information that cannot be obtained elsewhere. Explain why anonymity was granted.

Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism or allegations of wrongdoing.

Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public.

Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless.

Support the open and civil exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.

Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the open, and that public records are open to all.

Provide access to source material when it is relevant and appropriate.
Boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience.

Seek sources whose voices we seldom hear.

Avoid stereotyping. Journalists should examine the ways their values and experiences may shape their reporting.

Label advocacy and commentary.
Never deliberately distort facts or context, including visual information.

Clearly label illustrations and re-enactments.

Never plagiarize. Always attribute.

MINIMIZE HARM

Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.

Journalists should:

Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance or undue intrusiveness.

Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use heightened sensitivity when dealing with juveniles, victims of sex crimes, and sources or subjects who are inexperienced or unable to give consent. Consider cultural differences in approach and treatment.

Recognize that legal access to information differs from an ethical justification to publish or broadcast.

Realize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than public figures and others who seek power, influence or attention. Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal information.

Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.
Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know. Consider the implications of identifying criminal suspects before they face legal charges.

Consider the long-term implications of the extended reach and permanence of publication. Provide updated and more complete information as appropriate.

ACT INDEPENDENTLY

The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.

Journalists should:

Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.

Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid politi- cal and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.

Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; do not pay for access to news. Identify content provided by outside sources, whether paid or not.

Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.

Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two. Prominently label sponsored content.

BE ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Ethical journalism means taking responsibility for one’s work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.

Journalists should:

Explain ethical choices and processes to audiences. Encourage a civil dialogue with the public about journalistic practices, coverage and news content.

Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.
Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications carefully and clearly.

Expose unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.

Abide by the same high standards they expect of others.

Notes on Implementing and Managing eGovernment: An International Text

I’ve been reading Richard Heek’s book Implementing and Managing eGovernment: An International Text as part of my doctoral thesis research and the book is, in a few words, foundational, seminal, required reading for anyone in the field of Innovation and Technology Management with a focus on eGovernment. I highly reccommend it.

Below are two organizational spreadsheets, followed by notes from the book.

Data Stakeholder Governance Considerations

Sample Item Costs for eGovernment Planning

Notes

There may be a focus on problem solving and innovation, and a focus on team-working and flexibility (Hafeez and Savani, 2003). The agencies may be characterized by what is known as a ‘task culture’. 

This hybrid management model argues first for an analysis of current public sector realities; and second for an assessment of which management and e-government system designs will best fit this reality. 

The sectors differ in many ways, including:

their espoused objectives (broader in the public sector); 

their view of ‘customers’ (more holistic in the public sector); 

their relation to ‘customers’ (mixed with roles as citizens and compliers in the public sector)

their accountabilities and perceived stakeholders (broader in the public sector)

their human and technological infra- structure (weaker in the public sector); 

the politicization of their processes (greater in the public sector); 

the scale and nature of competition (smaller and political in the public sector) 

Where decentralized information systems, manual or computerized, are already in place, barriers to centralization may be severe. In order to centralize, changes may need to be made to the organization’s whole information systems architecture: new data fields and formats, new hardware and software, new processes by which to handle data, and new processes by which to make decisions and take actions. 

Differences between the objectives and values (that is, the cultures) of particular groups in the public sector also cause a problem. 

Centralized approaches require the commitment of four key resources – money, time, people, and skills – all in short supply in the public sector. For many public organizations, a centralized approach may not be possible because of financial constraints; because staff are too busy on other things; or because no-one has the confidence or capabilities to undertake the necessary planning and coordination tasks. 

decentralized units develop different ways of working, different mindsets that create quite different views of the world between groups; different jargon used in communication; and different issues and people that are valued. 

aspects of system use such as implementation, operation, troubleshooting and maintenance are also likely to occur more quickly under a decentralized regime. 

Training, maintenance and administration costs also contribute. Large, centralized computing systems are estimated to cost something like one-third to one-half of this amount per user per year (CBR, 2001). 

A decentralized approach may be most economic for public organizations, because it saves on overt input costs. A centralized approach may be most efficient, because it avoids waste and duplication. But a successful hybrid approach may be most effective because it can simultaneously provide: 

  • the control necessary to share key resources (including data), to avoid duplication, and to achieve economies of scale; and
  • the freedom necessary to meet user needs, and to overcome blocks to IT usage and system development. 

US State Department, for example, successful progress on e-government has come from retaining computing and data management architecture under control of a central IT office, while decentralizing systems develop- ment responsibilities 

Division is compatible with – indeed, is defined as – simultaneous centralization and decentralization. It can be seen in the possible division of responsibilities described for systems development. It can also be seen in the division of responsibilities between client and server computers. 

That which we can call a managerial or information systems centralization, reflects Nolan’s (1979) well-known ‘stages of growth’. It shows the gradual increase in managerial attempts to control the information systems (which would include e-government systems) within an organization. Nolan’s model has been criticized for a lack of predictive power and a generality that fails to match individual organizational experience. However, its core sense of increasing managerial engagement with IT does appear sound. 

A decentralized approach will also help to spread IT awareness and skills, and even some understanding of the informational aspect of e-government, in a way that other approaches might not. For some public agencies, it is the lack of just such awareness, skills and under- standing that represents a key barrier to effective use of IT in government. 

there are tensions between the somewhat theoretical notions of organizational rationality, and the more real forces of politics in government. Hence, rational logic may play only a minor role in determining which approach is used. 

For example, the approach adopted will be shaped by the organization’s technology (e.g. whether the computing architecture is already centralized or decentralized); staffing and skills (e.g. what skills are avail- able); management systems and structures (e.g. whether the main organization has a centralized or decentralized structure) and other resources (e.g. the availability of finance). 

Stakeholder values will also play a role, such as their perceptions, their awareness of the costs and benefits of particular approaches, and their historical experi- ences. For instance, the recent experiences of staff with e-government systems create either a satisfaction that is inertial, or a dis- satisfaction that demands change. 

buuuut it is organizational politics and its roots in the self-interest of particular stakeholders that will help determine what management approach to e-government is selected 

Four familiar political constituencies (see Figure 2.2) can be identified, whose conflict or compromise within organizations helps to determine which approach is chosen: senior managers, politicians, IT staff, and mainstream staff. 

Broader political, pressures from the outside world – ranging from national political initiatives to dominant ideologies/philosophies – also play their part. Staff in public sector organizations are subject to continuous external pressures, that include (Barrett and Greene, 2001; Abramson and Morin, 2003): 

  • Pressure to conform to the requirements of external bodies, such as central government bodies and funding agencies. An e-government unit run by central government may, for example, be pushing a department to adopt certain centralized ‘best practices’: see, for example, Box 2.6. 
  • Pressure through (mis)perception of what other organizations are doing, which may be transmitted through informal contacts, management texts and training programs, or dealings with consultancy organizations. 
  • Pressure from private sector IT vendors to purchase particular technologies and systems. 

Chapter 3

eGovernment Strategy 

Centralized e-government strategic planning is a six-step process that, overall, asks: ‘Where
are we now?’, ‘Where do we want to get to?’, and ‘How do we get there from here?’

a successful strategy can develop senior management understanding that e-government systems are information systems not just IT, and build consensus and commitment to a strategic vision for e-government. It permits a fundamental review of the organization’s use of informa- tion and technology, leading to a comprehensive understanding of information systems requirements. 

It also provides a detailed plan of action on e-government for the organization. 

Problems of Federal eGovernment Expenditure in the US 

The 2003 US federal budget identified ‘six chronic problems that limit results from Federal IT spending: 

  • Agencies have automated existing outdated processes, instead of fixing underlying management problems or simplifying agency procedures to take advantage of new e-business and e-government capabilities. 
  • Agencies have made unnecessarily duplicative IT investments. 
  • Inadequate program management – many major IT projects have not met cost,
    schedule and performance goals. 
  • Few agencies have had plans demonstrating the linkage between IT capabilities
    and the business needs of the agency. 
  • Agencies have built individual capabilities that are not interoperable with one
    another. Few IT investments significantly improve mission performance. 
  • Poor IT security – major gaps have existed in agency and Government-wide inforsmation and IT-related security.’ 

e 2003 Federal Enterprise Architecture: A ‘business-based framework for Government-wide improvement … constructed through a collection of interrelated ‘reference models’ designed to facilitate cross-agency analysis and the identification of duplicative investments, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration within and across federal agencies.’ (FEAPMO, 2003)

The Strategic Context for Federal Public Agency eGovernment Strategy in the US 

The 2002 eGovernment Act

The 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act

The 2001 President’s Management Agenda

The 1998 Government Paperwork Elimination Act

The 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act

The 1996 Electronic Freedom of Information Act amendment:

The 1993 Government Performance Results Act:

Where are we now?

An answer would include details of the organization’s current structure and functions; key client groups; existing problems that need to be addressed; and important current and forth- coming factors – particularly policies and political priorities 

Where do we want to get to? 

An answer would include details of the organization’s objectives, and some vision of the future organization that will enable it to overcome current and forthcoming problems, and to achieve its objectives. Finally, it asks, ‘How do we get there?’ This would be achieved through a statement of management strategy about major changes to organizational structure and functions in order to reach its future vision. 

two types of organizational function are derived from the organization’s wider business strategy and prioritized for further investigation: 

  1. Existing organizational functions that are to be retained in order to meet organizational objectives 
  2. New organizational functions that need to be introduced in order to meet organizational objectives.

This is the essence of ‘portfolio’ or ‘program’ management: using criteria to align projects with agency strategy. 

Impact priorities, for example, might be: 

highest savings/financial return on investment

highest public visibility/political return on investment

highest learning/demonstrator effect

strongest focus on existing organizational deficiencies

strongest support to key external client  services (as opposed to internal administrative activities). 

Implementation priorities, for example, might be: 

lowest risk/highest feasibility

lowest cost to implement

fastest time for completion

eGovernment Systems Architecture needs three main components:

  1. A data model showing the structure of unified, organization-wide data to which the e-government systems will have access; often illustrated using an entity-relationship diagram (this and the other diagrams mentioned here are described in greater detail in Chapter 8).
  2. A process model showing the key activities of the organization that the e-government systems will either support or under- take; often illustrated using a process diagram.
  3. A data/process model showing the organization-wide connection between business processes and data entities, and the organization-wide movement of data that e-government systems will enable; often illustrated using a data flow diagram. 

Information engineering

This looks across the whole organization and focuses on two components:
business processes: the individual activities of the organization that help meet public sector objectives. 

data classes: data entities of relevance to the organization that are made up from individual data elements (or attributes). 

Data and process are principally connected, and therefore principally investigated, through the mechanism of decision making and action. 

From this investigation, the entire organization is analyzed into two long lists of business processes and data entities. These are cross-checked through a process/data matrix that shows which processes create or use which data. The data entities and processes can then be grouped together into clusters of data and processes that represent required e-government systems within the organization.

Critical success factors
it starts by asking managers to specify the factors they consider to be critical for the successful performance of particular organizational functions

It is the intention that e-government strategy be shaped by organizational objectives and process/information requirements rather than by technology: 

Determining eGovernment organizational architecture:

As part of the ITSPMO analysis, general strategic decisions may include:

  1. making sure that it is the government rather than the company that steers e-government 
  2. stating the approach to management of organizational change, including a determination of the needs for cultural change
  3. clearly allocating responsibilities for e-government systems development and management
  4. identifying major competency gaps and approaches to closing them through human resource strategies
  5. deciding how back-office procedures may be restructured to support e-government
  6. locating the e-government/IT function within the wider organizational structure
  7. demarcating which services (e.g. systems development, training and systems operation) are to be sourced in-house and outsourced
  8. identifying procedures to be used when tendering for and selecting e-government systems products and services
  9. specifying standard systems development methodologies and tools to be used 
  10. identifying financial approaches to be adopted, such as public–private partnerships.

Strategy Implementation 

Disseminate and Plan eGovernment Actions 

A typical business case for an e-government project might include a statement of project objectives; an estimation of benefits, risks and constraints; and an estimation of resource requirements covering finance, human resources (i.e. jobs and skills), technology, and timescales. Details of project deliverables (i.e. things the e-government projects should produce such as feasibility reports, specification documents, and both interim and final versions of the system) and timetables can be approved at this stage. So, too, can mechanisms for reporting back to the eGovernment Steering Group on progress. 

for personnel training and development, for finance, for technology, etc. There may also be an additional dimension to the matrix – time – showing what is to occur and be paid for within particular financial years. 

Many public organizations also find themselves in situations of constant and largely uncontrollable flux from factors such as changeover in ruling political parties; constant circulation of senior politicians and officials; emergence of new political initiatives and legislation that alter organizational activities, priorities and even structures; sudden imposition of cost- cutting measures; sudden external crises that demand a reaction; changes within the client groups the organizations serve; and changes in IT, IT standards and IT suppliers. 

The Outcome of eGovernment Strategy 

There are many ways for strategies to go wrong:

  • Lack of Strategy
  • Underused Strategy – The strategies give the impression of box-ticking – doing just enough to meet the demands of external policies and oversight agencies; and often doing that in a hurry – without true internal ownership of, or commitment to, the strategy. 
  • When strategy has been hijacked
  • When strategy is ‘strategic concrete’

Focus on process, not content

The process of trying to create a strategy may be more valuable than the formal deliverables. Value is sought from the informal process deliverables such as: making sense of the past, learning from experience, encouraging dialogue and communication, and making choices 

A hybrid approach to e-government planning will mean a balance between central and local. So, for instance, it could mean that e-government planning is seen as incremental, as participative, as limited in scope: guiding more than dictating. This approach is sometimes referred to as ‘pick- ing a course and steering it’: being adaptable to new constraints and new circumstances as they arise rather than imagining that the strategy is cast in ‘tablets of stone’. 

Sub-Strategic eGovernment Planning 

Given the many constraints to strategic plan- ning, it may be more feasible to plan at what might be termed the ‘sub-strategic’ level. This pares back what planning hopes to achieve until the intention matches what can be achieved in the organization. 

Tactical-Plus eGovernment Planning 

pushing the objectives of an individual e-government system ‘upstream’ to think how it contributes to the overall work of the organization; 

assessing the opportunity costs of going ahead with this particular e-government system rather than others; and/or 

assessing whether there should be com- patibilities between this and other exist- ing or planned systems. 

Chapter 4 Managing Public Data 

CARTA 

Completeness 

Accuracy
Relevance
Timeliness
Appropriate presentation

Prosumption – Where the consumers of public services themselves become producers of their own data often via web-based electronic forms.

What are the Positions to Consider when Managing?

Situation A: Departmental Location 

Situation B: Low-Level Independence 

Situation C: High-Level Independence 

Situation D: Outsourcing 

Outsourcing 

An equal, if not greater drive to outsourcing is to address human resource constraints by accessing staff, skills and ideas that are not available in-house. Other perceived benefits of outsourcing include the provision of a higher quality of service; greater certainty about costs; greater flexibility, especially of labor since it is easier to hire and fire external staff; access to advanced technology; and greater ability to focus management on the core deliverables of the public sector 

Cons

a clash of work cultures and understanding between the public sector client and the private sector sub-contractor; 

a loss of control over the service being provided, with the sub-contractor starting to dictate to a dependent client; 

a loss of core e-government competencies to the sub-contractor, such as controls over security. 

However, in practice, decision making about outsourcing in the public sector has only partly been driven by organizational rationality. It has also been driven by behavioral/political factors (Peled, 2000a). Managers are found to outsource e-government work because they: 

  • have been naive in their assumptions about the benefits that will ensue
  • believe association with such an initiative will be good for their careers 
  • wish to ‘clip the wings’ of the in-house IT unit
  • stand to gain financially thanks to the covert generosity of the sub-contractor

5.2 People

Competencies can be understood in relation to three domains:

Skills, Knowledge, Attitude 

Attitude is changes by appeals to the the rational mind, the political mind, and the heart. 

Greater use of case studies of e-government failure and/or best practice will likely be a move in the right direction (Parrado, 2002). Cases can persuade stake- holders, for instance, of the dangers of ignoring basic systems development prac- tice, or of the importance of understanding the organizational and human context of e-government systems. 

A good hybrid manager will recognize that psychological factors play a role: autonomy, challenge, recognition and the opportunity for career advancement. Direct work content factors are also important, such as training opportunities, flexibility of work schedule and clarity of task specification. 

On a shorter-term basis, responsibility for a personal development plan can be shifted to the employees, and used as part of the annual performance review. 

Plans must be far more than just a critical path; they must include deliverables, resource requirements, and reporting arrangements. Over time, the number of elements that must be planned has grown, typically in response to perceived problems with past projects. What was once just a ‘project plan’ has now been broken down; for example into: a scope management plan, a resource plan, a risk management plan, a procurement plan, a quality plan, a communication plan, a security plan, a change management plan, and a cost management plan.

Which standards should be followed? ISO 9001:2000 

Peer review – a hybrid rather than rational project technique – seems to have a better record, and has now been adopted by a number of governments as a best practice. 

Behavioral Approaches to Project Management 

the rational model fails to fully explain or predict what happens in the public sector. It also fails to fully guide real-world best practice, leading e-government practitioners to criticize PMMs for their inflexibility. Indeed, some who study the realities of projects see the rational approach as potentially guiding worst practice: 

“IT projects die by their own hand. The more they are bound by lists, rules, checks, restrictions, regulations, and so on, the more they drive out the human spirit of creativity, of innovation, of dealing with ambiguity, and of fun. People brought up in technical environments may not see the horror of this kind of approach.”

To plug this gap, and ensure that a more behavioral approach and more behavioral expertise are introduced, some governments are mandating the involvement of senior non-IT officials. The Canadian government, for example, defines a formal requirement on e-government projects for two things (OECD, 2001). First, a project sponsor who is responsible for the business function, and who has solely behavioral-side competencies ( judgment, leadership, communication, organizational awareness). Second, a project leader who is a senior departmental official with, again, largely behavioral-side competencies and only cursory IT management skills at best. Similarly, the UK government’s analysis of e-government project failures concluded with the requirement for projects to have a ‘senior responsible officer’ (CITU, 2000). The officer would be drawn from the business not the IT side of the organization. 

Primary Project Stakeholders

decision makers: those who make major project-related decisions, such as whether or not to proceed with the project

gatekeepers: those who control access to higher authorities

influencers: those who advise decision makers or whom decision makers take note of

end users: those who will directly use the output from the e-government system and/or from the business function it supports

champions: those who will support and muster resources for the project

Smart behavioral players work to break through the rationality barrier to get to the real objectives and values underneath. 

  • by understanding that professional relationships have different bases and require different techniques from those adopted with social relationships
  • by establishing rapport with the other person: looking for common ground 
  • developing on their areas of interest; even mirroring their speech and body language in order to ‘tune in’
  • by active listening that involves really concentrating and asking questions to get to the root of issues, beliefs, problems, needs, and so on 
  • by tailoring communication to the needs of the recipient 

Tailoring your Message 

The sociable ones: The idealistic ones:
  • Be clear and explicit, don’t just imply. 
  • Show me how people will benefit. 
  • Demonstrate immediate and
    practical results. 
  • Show me respect.
  • Engage with my personal values. 
  • Paint pictures and draw analogies
    that have meaning. 
  • Be passionate and engage my
    imagination. 
  • Show how it will contribute to
    the greater good of human kind.
The theoretical ones: The down to earth ones:
  • Show how it fits into the bigger picture. 
  • Ensure the theoretical base is sound. 
  • Appeal to my intellect and imagination. 
  • Be a credible source of information.
  • Be organized and structured. 
  • Be practical and realistic. 
  • Work logically and systematically
    through your analysis. 
  • Offer proof and evidence.

1. Preparation: Getting as much information as possible not just in relation to the topic under discussion but also in relation to the objectives and values of other parties; being clear about one’s own ‘bottom line’. 

2. Initial exchange: Drawing out other individuals and probing with questions to develop a better sense of their objectives and values; weighing up relative bargain- ing powers. 

3. Negotiation: being assertive; using and observing body language; identifying issues that can easily be agreed and issues that are low-cost to one side but high benefit to the other; being creative about what can be traded; exploring 

possible compromises. 

4. Agreement: summarizing the discussion; avoiding/dealing with last minute conditions. 

5. Implementation: setting out a clear schedule of tasks and responsibilities.

The acquisition of negotiating skills and the ability to apply the techniques just described is becoming increasingly integral to e-government project management 

Components of Massachusetts model: 

  • business problem and scope of work: the problem being addressed; the rationale for the e-government project; and the major tasks to be undertaken; 
  • workplan and time schedule: a Gantt chart ‘not intended to be a project log of each and every small detail, but rather a comprehensive plan of tasks, team resources and timelines’
  • management approach and personnel: for both the steering committee and project implementation team; 
  • acceptance criteria and deliverables: the key outputs from the project and criteria that will be used to judge whether or not that output is acceptable
  • task order budget
  • signatures: of all the key ‘business partners’.

Such structures as the above will allow 

  1. early identification of failures 
  2. mechanisms to disperse learning about both success and failure. 

Why should there be so much politicking around e-government? In short, because two pre-conditions of politicking are met. 

First, there are interdependent groups that have different objectives and values. This is clearly the case in public sector organizations. The ‘interdependent but different’ perspective applies to the formal functional divisions within public agencies. 

Second, there are important but scarce resources involved. 

e-Government brings together in large amounts both critical tangible resources – people, money and equipment – and critical intangible resources – information, power and kudos. They therefore form a key locus for organizational politics. 

Techniques of Influence 

Reason: ‘Relies on the presentation of data and information as the basis for a logical argument that supports a request.’ Reason is typically a first choice for influencing a boss or subordinate, and it often relates to a base of expert or information power. 

Friendliness: ‘Depends on the influencee thinking well of the influencer.’ It is often used with co-workers, but may also be used with subordinates and supe- riors. It often relates to a base of personal power. 

Coalition: ‘Mobilizing other people in the organization to support you, and thereby strengthening your request.’ It depends 

Bargaining: Negotiation and exchanging benefits based upon the social norms of obligation and reciprocate. The resources that are traded are very varied but can include assistance, support and information. It often relates to a base of reward power. Assertiveness: Uses continuous reminders via an insistent and forceful manner. It is often used with subordinates and relates to a base of legitimate power. 

Higher authority: ‘Uses the chain of command and outside sources of power to influence the target person.’ This can be the threat or promise of involving the influencee’s boss, or invoking that boss’ own priorities. It can also involve an appeal to higher ethical or cultural values within the organization. It may involve recourse to outside ‘experts’, such as consultants, or to the media. A variation, much found in e-government, is to blame the technology or the data, though this may fall under the heading of manipulation. Its strength relies particularly on affiliation power. 

Sanctions: Influence through the promise of reward or threat of punishments. In its negative form, this may encompass all formal disciplinary procedures up to dis- missal. It may encompass informal actions: blame, bad-mouthing, bullying. It may also encompass the removal of rewards (e.g. transfer, demotion). Sanctions often relate to a base of legitimate or coercive power. 

Manipulation: Influence by controlling the framing of discussions, or the claimed rules for discussion, or the information that is allowing into a negotiation. Part of this process will be the manipulation of the public discussions and public relations that set much of the agenda for government. This type of approach may also include undermining others involved. 

Withdrawal: Influence through disengagement or non-compliance. 

Time and again, middle managers in public sector organizations have good ideas for new or redesigned e-government systems. Yet they cannot get those ideas implemented. They blame their bosses, or the IT staff, or politicians, and so on. In many cases, though, they should blame themselves for failing to recognize their own need for better communication, negotiation and, above all, influencing skills. 

Chapter 6

Emerging Management Issues for eGovernment 

Great care must be taken that measures are valid (i.e. that they do measure what they seek to measure), relevant (i.e. that they measure something on which the employee’s actions have an effect) and valuable (i.e. that they measure what is organizationally important about the job). IT staff behavior will be skewed by performance measurement towards the measured components of the job and away from the non-measured. Only careful selection of indicators will ensure that this skewing is beneficial for the organization. 

Performance management in the public sector 

  • offer career development opportunities, or psychic pay: quasi-financial incentives such as paid time off or new equipment. In some surveys, public servants rate these above money as preferred rewards. 
  • Use group incentives since individual rewards can demotivate other team members, whereas group rewards tend to encourage collaboration.  
  • do not punish occasional mistakes, only chronic poor performance. Use progressive discipline but also use training and peer pressure. 

Three main focal points for performance indicators can be applied to the IS/IT function: 

Input- IT Measures

Output- Information Services

Outcome- Business Process

Measurement of Performance 

In most cases the measurement procedure will be clear within the indicator definition. Three main assessment indicators:

  • Internal subjective: The measures are based on the judgment of internal clients, such as customer satisfaction rating scales. 
  • Internal objective: The measures are based on objective quantification within the organization, such as the jobseeker placement measure. 
  • External: The measures are based on quantification from outside the organization. 
  • Price testing: Comparing the internal costs of a service with the estimated cost/price of external providers and benchmarking (which includes a broader set of performance measures) 

Control of Performance 

Provider management control: Managers within the IS/IT service provider are responsible for managerial rewards and remedial measures. 

Client management control: Managers within the IS/IT service client are responsible for managerial rewards and remedial measures. 

Client financial control: Managers within the IS/IT service client are responsible for financial rewards and remedial measures. 

Arbitrary basis: The sum paid does not relate to service use but to some relatively arbitrary measure such as the size of the user department. The lack of linkage creates limited financial control on performance; arguably less than that available via a managed service level agreement. 

Cost basis

Market basis 

The central thrust is that agencies must be good at writing documents and at managing projects. It would thus be possible to score a ‘green’ without producing anything that had actually made life better for citizens and other agency clients. 

The more the government charges for its data, the greater the barriers to access become. Yet the wider it allows access, the less it can earn from data sales. 

Access Policies for Freedom of Information

The enactment of FOI legislation has required the development of in-house policies by public agencies within its purview. Typical issues to be dealt with include (DOI, 2002): 

Terminology: Explicitly defining what is meant by terms such as records and requests; and classification of different types of data held by the agency.

Procedures: Clarifying how citizens/ businesses can obtain data direct without requests; how information requests are to be made; and the means by which those requests will be responded to.

Data management: Ensuring that the type of back-office, records and data manage- ment procedures described elsewhere in this chapter are followed so that data and records can be located in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Performance measures: Setting out performance indicators (typically time taken) for the FOI response service.

Charges: Determining a reasonable level of charges to be levied for searches and copying; determining policy on any fee waivers; putting a billing and payment system in place.

Handling variations: Determining procedures in the case of various types of data/records such as those not held by the agency; those held by other public agencies; those deemed sensitive or covered by privacy legislation; those held by other non-public agencies.

Appeals: Setting in place an appeals procedure to appeal against problems with performance, charges or denial of access.

Responsibilities: Designating specific officers as responsible for FOI implementation, and for appeals. 

Update: Putting in place a mechanism for review and update of FOI procedures (e.g. in response to new technology, case law, organizational changes, new orders, or FOI response performance and feedback). 

Digital Divide

Because of those costs, there is an uneven profile of those who own and use IT: the rich not the poor; the graduate not the school leaver; the ethnic majority not the ethnic minority; the urban not the rural citizen; the young not the old; men not women. 

Pouring resources into e-government can therefore benefit the haves rather than have nots, and increase polarization within society. There are already some signs of this, with evidence that local government electronic service delivery is of poorer quality in areas with lower levels of Internet access 

Governments may set up initiatives focused on increasing access to IT that is government-or-community-owned IT. Such IT may be placed in a variety of locations: 

  • public spaces, such as common areas within shopping malls; 
  • semi-public spaces, such as libraries or sport facilities; 
  • dedicated spaces, such as community telecentres housing a room-full of Internet- linked PCs. 

The watch- word for government must therefore be ‘supplement’ not ‘supplant’. Provision of public sector data and other services electronically should be seen as an additional weapon in the armory that sits alongside traditional face-to-face and phone-based methods. It should not be seen as a way of replacing those more traditional methods. 

Reviewing Sensitive Public Information

The following questions will assist security professionals in reviewing sensitive infor- mation that has been, or could be, made publicly accessible. 

Has the information been cleared and authorized for public release?

What impact could the information have if it was inadvertently transferred to an
unintended audience?

Does the information provide details concerning enterprise security?

Does the information contain personnel information such as biographical data,
addresses, etc.?

How could someone intent on causing harm misuse the information?

What instructions should be given to legitimate custodians of sensitive information
with regard to disseminating the information to other parties such as contractors?

Could this information be dangerous if it were used in conjunction with other
publicly available information?

Could someone use the information to target personnel, facilities or operations? 

Could the same or similar information be found elsewhere?

Does the information increase the attractiveness of a target? (OCIPEP, 2002)

Policies on Disability

the law sets a clear threshold that must be achieved. However, in practice, e-government managers often seem to be ‘satisficing’ the issue: doing just enough to cover their backs but still leaving a gap between policy and practice.

Difficulties

public managers face a difficult balancing act between the requirements of central legislation and the localized needs of the public agency. These may conflict where, for example, the agency has to make the best of an outdated physical environ- ment, or where lack of money means what is ergonomically-best cannot be afforded. This balancing act can appear in the gap between policy on paper and policy in prac- tice. eGovernment managers may develop an internal policy document that fully meets all legislative requirements, but may then not fully implement the document. 

Chapter 7

Success in e-government comes from intelligent selection of individual techniques, from
‘hybrid thinking’, and from action on design–reality gaps rather than from slavish adherence to one particular methodology.

Background understanding of a proposed e-government project comes from asking five
questions: Who is involved? What is the problem? Why is the project happening? What
constraints exist? What will change in the near future?

eGovernment projects can be assessed in relation to their feasibility, priority, opportunity costs, and impact.

Four Core Stages:

1. analysis of what is currently happening, and of whether and why a new e-government system is needed
2. design of the new e-government system’s components
3. construction of the new e-government system

4. implementation of the new e-government system 

Successfully planned e-government systems will therefore be those that require a manageable degree of change. 

In order to assess this ‘degree of change’, the core of the systems development method described here will therefore consist of three activities: 

  1. mapping out the realities of the current situation
  2. designing a proposal for the new situation
  3. assessing the difference between the two, and reacting to that difference 

Systems Development Life Cycle

1. Project assessment: Identifying possible e-government projects; outlining basic project parameters; and assessing whether or not to proceed with the project. 

2. Analysis of current reality: Description and analysis of the seven ITPOSMO dimensions as they exist within the current situation of the organization. 

3. Design of the proposed new situation: Setting objectives for the proposed new e-government system, and then describing in general terms how the seven ITPOSMO dimensions should be different for the new system to meet these objectives. Different options for the new system may be evaluated at this point. 

4. System construction: Acquiring any new technology; undertaking detailed design of the new system; then building it, testing it and documenting it. 

5. Implementation and beyond: Training users to use the new system; converting data to new formats; introducing the new system; monitoring and evaluating its performance and context; then undertaking any necessary system maintenance. 

SSADM: Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology, 

No method is perfect but there are dangers for the public sector in adopting some of the harder methods. The public sector has had a tendency to choose such methods which then prove too old, inflexible, top-down, detailed, jargonized and time-consuming (Korac-Boisvert and Kouzmin, 1995). While these might have been appropriate to the routine clerical automations of the 1960s, they work poorly in politicized situations of change and uncertainty. 

 

An Amicus Curiae for the DOJ: Definitions, Laws and Precedent

The Senate holding a Committee Hearing the FARA Act.

The response that I got from my case handler was, I’m paraphrasing paragraphs was “less poetry, more forwardness”.

Here was my response:

Greetings FARA Registration Unit,

Thank you for the prompt response and appreciation of my interest in the matter.
I made the decision to contact you after reading the appropriate legal definitions and the Atlantic Council’s “Agent of Influence: Should Russia’s RT Register as a Foreign Agent?”
Considering:
  • TeleSUR’s Incorporation documents – state that the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is the president of the company
  • TeleSUR’s budget is paid by the functionaries of the Nicolas Maduro government
  • The PSUV’s Redbook (Nicolas Maduro’s party) – states that “TeleSUR… was created to fight and defeat imperialism.”
  • The former President of TeleSUR, Hugo Chavez Frias, writing in his official Venezuela’s Program for the Homeland 203-2019 –  that their goal is to “Strengthen the multi-State Telesur television and radio networks and Radio del Sur, together with their respective electronic platforms… in order to disseminate the truth of our peoples and break the information blockade and censorship to which the peoples of imperialist powers are subject to by the transnational communication corporations.”
  • The director of the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information – who advises the Director of TeleSUR Patricia Villegas – stated in 2015 to the National Assembly that: “TeleSUR is oriented to promote a strategy that deepens the new socialist values and ethics”
  • TeleSUR’s official partnership with Russia’s RT – is required to register under FARA.
  • The official one-sided coverage and unofficial distribution and support networks are functionally operational to a political party press.

meet these qualifications according to the legal definitions?

Additionally, does not their promotion of violent content and anti-voting messaging, amongst all of the above reasons, indicate that the “news” exception does not apply in this instance?

Thank you again for your time.
Ariel Voyager Sheen
These are just future possibilities for FARA legislation. The above article is based on the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended, 22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq.

Notes on Strategic Management of Technological Innovation

I had a feeling that my fellow New York University Alumnus Mellissa A. Schilling would produce a worthy written work explaining the technical language used within the Innovation and Technology Management field, a discipline I’m now studying at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin, Colombia.

The case studies included covers a wide variety of topics. Innovation and strategy in high technology industries such as smartphones, videogames, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electric vehicles, and renewable energies. All interspersed with comments on issues related to platform dynamics, networks, creativity, and breakthrough innovation.

I made the below notes for myself, and highly encourage those also in this field to also purchase her book.

absorptive capacity
The ability of an organization to recognize, assim- ilate, and utilize new knowledge. 

whereby as firms accumulate knowledge, they also increase their future ability to assimi- late information. A firm’s prior related experience shapes its ability to recognize the value of new information, and to utilize that information effectively. 

This knowledge base enables the firm to more rapidly assess the value of related new materials, technologies, and methods. The effects of absorptive capacity suggest that firms that develop new technologies ahead of others may have an advantage in staying ahead. 

network externalities Also termed posi- tive consumption externalities, this is when the value of a good to a user increases with the number of other users of the same or simi- lar good. 

installed base The number of users of a particular good. For instance, the installed base of a particular video game console refers to the number of those consoles that are installed in homes worldwide. 

complementary goods Additional goods and services that enable or enhance the value of another good. For example, the value of a video game console is directly related to the availability of complementary goods such as video games, periph- eral devices, and services such as online gaming. 

path dependency When end results depend greatly on the events that took place leading up to the outcome. It is often impossible to reproduce the results that occur in such a situation. 

Firms will tend to use and build on their existing knowledge base rather than enter unfamiliar areas.

This can result in a very “sticky” technological paradigm that directs future technological inquiry in the area.

Thus, a dominant design is likely to influence the nature of the technological discontinuity that will eventually replace it. 

Increasing returns
When the rate of return (not just gross returns) from a product or process increases with the size of its installed base. 

Technologically superior products do not always win—the firms that win are usually the ones that know how to manage the multiple dimensions of value that shape design selection. 

Buyer Utility Map

It is important to consider six different utility levers, as well as six stages of the buyer experience cycle, to understand a new technol- ogy’s utility to a buyer. 

The stages they identify are purchase, delivery, use, supplements, maintenance, and disposal. The six utility levers they consider are customer productivity, simplicity, convenience, risk, fun and image, and environmental friendliness. Creating a grid with stages and levers yields a 36-cell utility map. Each cell provides an opportunity to offer a new value proposition to a customer. 

For example, instead of having a single entry for customer productivity, the map could have rows for several dimensions of productiv- ity such as speed, efficiency, scalability, and reliability. The map provides a guide for managers to consider multiple dimensions of technological value and multiple stages of the customer experience. 

Even if a new innovation has a significant advantage in functionality, its overall value may be significantly less than the incum- bent standard. 

For the new technology to compete on its stand-alone util- ity alone, that utility must be so great that it eclipses the combined value of an existing technology’s stand-alone utility, its installed base, and its complementary goods. 

When users are comparing the value of a new technology to an existing technology, they are weighing a combination of objective information (e.g., actual technological benefits, actual information on installed base or complementary goods), subjec- tive information (e.g., perceived technological benefits, perceived installed base or complementary goods), and expectations for the future (e.g., anticipated technological benefits, anticipated installed base and complementary goods). Thus, each of the primary value components described above also has corresponding perceived or anticipated value components 

“vaporware”—products that are not actually on the market and may not even exist but are advertised—by many software vendors. By building the impression among customers that a product is ubiquitous, firms can prompt rapid adoption of the product when it actually is available. Vaporware may also buy a firm valuable time in bringing its product to market. If other vendors beat the firm to market and the firm fears that customers may select a dominant design before its offering is introduced, it can use vaporware to attempt to persuade custom- ers to delay purchase until the firm’s product is available. 

first movers the first entrants to sell in a new product or ser- vice category. 

early followers Entrants that are early to market, but not first. 

late entrants Entrants that do not enter the market until the time the product begins to penetrate the mass market or later. 

in an industry characterized by increasing returns to adoption, there can be powerful advantages to being an early provider; a technol- ogy that is adopted early may rise in market power through self-reinforcing positive feedback mechanisms, culminating in its entrenchment as a dominant design. 

First movers typically bear the bulk of the research and development expenses for their product or service technologies, and they must also often pay to develop suppliers and distribution channels, plus consumer awareness. 

incumbent inertia – The tendency for incumbents to be slow to respond to changes in the industry environ- ment due to their large size, established routines, or prior strategic commitments to existing suppliers and customers. 

enabling technologies Component technologies that are necessary for the performance or desirability of a given innovation. 

How does a firm decide whether to attempt to pioneer a technology category or to wait while others do so? The answer will depend on several factors, including customer certainty, the margin of improvement offered by the new technology, the state of enabling technologies and complementary goods, the threat of competitive entry, the degree to which the industry exhibits increasing returns, and the firm’s resources. 

parallel development process When multiple stages of the new product  development process occur simultaneously. 

oligopolistic industries Highly consoli- dated industries with a few large competitors. 

exit barriers Costs or other commitments that make it difficult for firms to abandon an industry (large fixed-asset investments, emotional commitment to the industry, etc.). 

entry barriers Conditions that make it difficult or expensive for new firms to enter an industry (government regulation, large start-up costs, etc.). 

switching costs Factors that make it difficult or expensive to change suppliers or buyers, such as investments in specialized assets to work with a particular supplier or buyer. 

vertical integration Getting into
the business of one’s suppliers (backward vertical integration) or one’s buyers (forward vertical integration). For example, a firm that begins producing its own supplies has practiced backward vertical integration, and a firm that buys its distributor has practiced forward vertical integration. 

complements  Products or services that enhance the usefulness
or desirability of another product. 

stakeholder Any entity that has an interest (“stake”) in the organization. 

A strategic stakeholder analysis emphasizes the stakeholder management issues that are likely to impact the firm’s financial performance, while a normative stakeholder analysis emphasizes the stakeholder management issues the firm ought to attend to due to their ethical or moral implications. 

In Michael Porter’s model of a value chain, activities are divided into primary activities and support activities. Primary activities include inbound logistics (all activities required to receive, store, and disseminate inputs), operations (activities involved in the transformation of inputs into outputs), outbound logistics (activities required to collect, store, and distribute outputs), marketing and sales (activities to inform buyers about products and services and to induce their purchase), and service (after-sales activities required to keep the product or service working effectively). Support activities include procurement (the acquisition of inputs, but not their physical transfer, as that would be covered in inbound logistics), human resource management (activities such as recruiting, hiring, training, and compensating personnel), technology development (activities involved in developing and managing equipment, hardware, software, procedures, and knowledge necessary to transform inputs into outputs), and infrastructure (functions such as accounting, le- gal counsel, finance, planning, public affairs, government relations, quality assurance, and general management necessary to ensure smooth functioning of the firm). 

tacit resources – Resources of an intangible nature (such as knowl- edge) that cannot be readily codified. 

socially complex resources Resources or activities that emerge through the interaction of multiple individuals. 

causal ambiguity The relationship between a resource and the outcome it produces is poorly understood
(the causal mechanism is ambiguous). 

core competencies (or core capabilities) A set of integrated and harmonized abilities that distinguish the firm in the marketplace. 

By viewing the business as a portfolio of core competencies, managers are better able to focus on value creation and meaningful new business development, rather than cost cutting or opportunistic expansion. 

Sometimes the very things that a firm excels at can enslave it, making the firm rigid and overly committed to inappropriate skills and resources. 

While these systems and norms can prove beneficial in reinforcing and leveraging the firm’s existing core competencies, they can also inhibit the development of new core competencies. For example, a firm’s emphasis on a scientific discipline that is central to its core competency can make the firm less attractive to individuals from other disciplines. Rewards for engaging in core competency activities can discourage employees from pursuing more exploratory activities. 

dynamic capabilities A set of abilities that make a firm more agile and responsive to change. 

Strategic intent is to create value, which entails more than just improving operations or cutting costs; it means leveraging corporate resources to create more performance for customers, more well-being for employees, and more returns for shareholders. A company’s strategic intent is a long-term goal that is ambitious, builds upon and stretches the firm’s existing core competencies, and draws from all levels of the orga- nization. 

Successful and innovative firms question existing price-performance assumptions. They lead customers by developing and introducing products that extend well beyond current market requirements and help mold the market’s expectations for the future. 

The balanced scorecard is a measurement system that encourages the firm to consider its goals from multiple perspectives (financial, customer, business process, and innovation and learning), and establish measures that correspond to each of those perspectives. 

The Pareto principle refers to the fact that many events (such as a customer choosing a particular book) have a power law distribution, meaning that 20 percent of the books, shows, or songs attract 80 percent of the business. 

capital rationing – the allocation of a finite quantity of resources over different possible uses. 

R&D intensity – The ratio of R&D expendi- tures to sales. 

net present value (NPV) The discounted cash inflows of a project minus the discounted cash outflows. 

internal rate of return (IRR) The rate of return yielded by a project, nor- mally calculated as the discount rate that makes the net present value of an investment equal zero. 

discounted payback period
The time required to break even on a project using discounted cash flows. 

The internal rate of return of a project is the discount rate that makes the net present value of the investment zero. Managers can compare this rate of return to their required return to decide if the investment should be made. 

discounted cash flow estimates are only as accurate as the original estimates of the profits from the technology, and in many situations it is extremely difficult to antici- pate the returns of the technology… such methods discriminate heavily against projects that are long term or risky, and the methods may fail to capture the strategic importance of the investment decision. Technology development projects play a crucial role in building and leveraging firm capabilities, and creating options for the future. Investments in new core technologies are investments in the organization’s capabilities and learning, and they create opportunities for the firm that might other- wise be unavailable.1 Thus, standard discounted cash flow analysis has the potential to severely undervalue a development project’s contribution to the firm. 

To better incorporate strategic implications in the new product development investment decision, some managers and scholars have recently begun promoting the idea of treating new product development decisions as real options 

real options 

The applica- tion of stock option valua- tion methods to investments in nonfinancial assets. 

  • The cost of the R&D program can be considered the price of a call option. 
  • The cost of future investment required to capitalize on the R&D program (such as the cost of commercializing a new technology that is developed) can be considered the exercise price. 
  • The returns to the R&D investment are analogous to the value of a stock purchased with a call option.

Companies that use the project map categorize all their existing projects and proj- ects under consideration by the resources they require (e.g., engineers, time, capital, etc.) and by how they contribute to the company’s product line. The company can then map the project types and identify gaps in the development strategy. 

The mix of projects represented on such a map should be consistent both with the company’s resources, strategic position, and with its strategic intent 

As once noted by Jack Welch, for- mer CEO of General Electric, “You can’t grow long term if you can’t eat short term. Anyone can manage short. Anyone can manage long. Balancing those two things is what management is.”19 

conjoint analysis
A family of tech- niques that ena- bles assessment of the weight individuals put on different attributes of a choice. 

data envelopment analysis (DEA)
A method of ranking projects based on multiple decision criteria by comparing them to a hypo- thetical efficiency frontier. 

efficiency frontier The range of hypothetical configurations that optimize a combination of features. 

alliance Alliance is a general term that can refer to any type of relation- ship between firms. Alliances may be short or long term and may include for- mally contracted agreements or be entirely informal in nature. 

joint venture A partnership between two or more firms involving a sig- nificant equity stake by the part- ners and often resulting in the creation of a new business entity. 

Collaboration can include partnering with suppliers, customers, competitors, comple- mentors, organizations that offer similar products in different markets, organizations that offer different products in similar markets, nonprofit organizations, government organi- zations, universities, or others. Collaboration can also be used for many different pur- poses, including manufacturing, services, marketing, or technology-based objectives. 

The most common forms of collaborative arrangements used in technological innova- tion include strategic alliances, joint ventures, licensing, outsourcing, and collective research organizations. 

licensing A contractual arrangement whereby one organization or individual (the licensee) obtains the rights to use the proprietary technology (or trademark, or copyright, etc.) of another organization or individual (the licensor). 

capability complemen- tation Combining (“pooling”) the capabilities and other resources of partner firms, but not necessar- ily transferring those resources between the partners. 

capability transfer Exchange of capabilities across firms in such a manner that partners can internalize the capabilities and use them inde- pendently of the particular devel- opment project. 

managers should consider how their portfolio of alliances positions them in the web of relationships that connects their firm, their partners, and their partners’ partners.23 Such networks can be very influential in the diffusion of information and other resources, and being positioned well in an alli- ance network can confer significant advantages 

contract manufacturing When a firm hires another firm (often a specialized manufacturer) to manufacture its products. 

These risks can be minimized if the company limits the number of collaborations in which it engages, chooses its partners very carefully, and establishes appropriate monitoring and governance mechanisms to limit opportunism. 

Resource fit refers to the degree to which potential partners have resources that can be effectively integrated into a strategy that creates value.47 Such resources may be either complementary or supplementary. Most collaborations are motivated by the need to access resources the firm does not possess; such collaborations are based on the combination of complementary resources. 

Strategic fit refers to the degree to which partners have compatible objectives and styles. The objectives of the partners need not be the same as long as the objectives can be achieved without harming the alliance or the partners. Not knowing a partner’s true objectives or forging an alliance with a partner with incompatible objectives can result in conflict, wasted resources, and forfeited opportunities. 

governance – The act or process of exerting authority and/or control. 

alliance contracts Legally bind-ing contractual arrangements to ensure that partners (a) are fully aware of their rights and obligations in the collaboration and (b) have legal remedies avail- able if a partner should violate the agreement. 

equity ownership When each partner contrib- utes capital and owns a speci- fied right to a percentage of the proceeds from the alliance. 

relational governance Self-enforcing norms based on goodwill, trust, and reputation of the partners. These typically emerge over time through repeated experi- ences of working together. 

The num- ber of links an organization has in a network is known as its “degree centrality.” In general, the degree centrality of an organization tends to be strongly related to its size and prominence. The size and prominence of an organization help to determine how attractive it is to potential part- ners, and only large organizations typically have the resources necessary to manage a large num- ber of alliances. An organization does not, how- ever, have to be large or prominent to occupy a key brokerage position. 

appropriability The degree to which a firm is able to capture the rents from its innovation. 

tacit knowledge Knowledge that cannot be readily codified or trans- ferred in written form. 

socially complex knowledge Knowledge that arises from the interaction of multiple individuals. 

For some competitive situations, protecting a technology may not be as desirable as liberally diffusing it. In industries characterized by increasing returns, firms sometimes choose to liberally diffuse their technologies to increase their likelihood of rising to the position of dominant design.

open source software Software whose code is made freely available to others for use, augmentation, and resale. 

wholly proprietary systems Goods based on technology that is owned and vigorously pro- tected through patents, copy- rights, secrecy, or other mecha- nisms. Wholly proprietary tech- nologies may be legally produced and augmented only by their developers. 

wholly open systems Goods based on technology that is not protected and that is freely available for production or augmentation by other producers. 

original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) Firms that as- semble goods using components made by other manufacturers, also called value- added resellers (VARs). 

architectural control
The ability of a firm (or group of firms) to deter- mine the struc- ture, operation, compatibility, and development of a technology. 

If the firm is unable to produce the technology at sufficient volume or quality levels (or market the technology with sufficient intensity), then protecting the technology so that the firm is its sole provider may significantly hinder its adoption. 

if complementary goods influence the value of the technology to users, then the firm must (a) be able to produce the complements in sufficient range and quantity, (b) sponsor their production by other firms, or (c) encourage collective production of the complements through a more open technology strategy. 

If a firm lacks the production capability or expertise to produce a sufficient range of complementary goods, or the capital to acquire such capabilities quickly, it should encourage collective production of complements through a more open technology strategy and utilize forms of sponsorship. 

Resources for Internal Development 

If a firm does not have significant resources (capital, technological expertise) to invest in the technology’s functionality, it may have difficulty producing a technology that has an initial performance level, and rate of improvement, that the market finds attractive. In such instances, it can be valuable to tap the external development efforts of other firms (or individuals) through utilizing a more open technology strategy. 

A firm with architectural control can typically design the technology to be compatible with its own complements and incompatible with those of competitors. 

Technology trajectories are path dependent; minor events in their evolution can set them careen- ing off into unexpected directions. A firm that has a significant stake in a particular evolution path (because, for example, it has technological competencies that are much more amenable to one path of evolution than other potential paths) may place a high value on architectural control, which can enable it to co-opt or destroy less favorable development paths by denying their progenitors access to the market. 

Managers referred to Google as a flex- ible and flat “technocracy,” where resources and control were allocated based on the quality of people’s ideas rather than seniority or hierarchical status. Schmidt remarked, “One of the things that we’ve tried very hard to avoid at Google is the sort of divisional structure that prevents collaboration across units. It’s dif- ficult. So I understand why people want to build business units, and have their presidents. But by doing that you cut down the informal ties that, in an open culture, drive so much collaboration. If people in the organization understand the values of the company, they should be able to self-organize to work on the most interesting problems.”c 

it is often argued that small, flexible organizations with a minimum of rules and procedures will encourage creativity and experimentation, leading to more innovative ideas. At the same time, it is also frequently pointed out that well-developed procedures and standards can ensure that the organization makes better development investment decisions and is able to implement projects quickly and efficiently. 

disaggregated When something is separated into its constituent parts. 

formalization – The degree to which the firm utilizes rules, procedures, and written documentation to structure the behavior of individuals or groups within the organization. Formalization can substitute for some degree of managerial oversight, and thereby help large companies run smoothly with fewer managers. 

standardization – The degree to which activities are performed in a uniform manner. Standardization may be used to ensure quality levels are met and that custom- ers and suppliers are responded to consistently and equitably. However, by minimiz- ing variation, standardization can limit the creativity and experimentation that leads to innovative ideas. 

If a firm codifies all of its activities with detailed procedures, it may stifle employee creativity. Employees may not feel empowered or motivated to implement new solutions. 

centralization/ decentraliza- tion Centralization is the degree to which decision- making author- ity is kept at
top levels of management. Decentralization is the degree to which decision- making authority is pushed down to lower levels of the firm. 

mechanistic  An organiza- tion structure characterized by a high degree of formalization and standardiza- tion, causing operations to be almost automatic or mechanical. By establishing detailed rules, procedures, and standards, top management can push decision-making authority to lower levels of the firm while still ensuring that decisions are consistent with top management’s objectives. 

organic An organiza- tion structure characterized by a low degree of formalization and standardiza- tion. Employees may not have well-defined job responsibilities and operations may be charac- terized by a high degree of vari- ation. Employees are given far more lati- tude in their job responsibilities and operating procedures. Because much innovation arises from experimentation and improvisation, organic structures are often thought to be better for innovation despite their possible detriment to efficiency. 

ambidextrous organization The ability of an organization to behave almost as two different kinds of com- panies at once. Different divi- sions of the firm may have differ- ent structures and control systems, enabling them to have different cul- tures and patterns of operations. 

Skunk Works® 

Skunk Works® is a term that origi- nated with a divi- sion of Lockheed Martin that was formed in June of 1943 to quickly develop a jet fighter for the United States Army. It has evolved as skunk works to refer more generally to new product develop- ment teams that operate nearly autonomously from the parent organization, with considerable decentralization of authority and little bureauc- racy. 

there can be significant gains from isolating new product development teams from the mainstream organization.31 Separating the teams from the rest of the organization permits them to explore new alternatives, unfettered by the demands of the rest of the organization. 

Modularity is achieved in product design through the specification of standard inter- faces. 

Because modularity enables a wider range of end configurations to be achieved from a given set of inputs, it provides a relatively cost-effective way for firms to meet heterogeneous customer demands. Furthermore, since modularity can enable one component to be upgraded without changing other components, modular- ity can enable firms and customers to upgrade their products without replacing their entire system. 

By focusing on those activities in which the firm has a competitive advantage, the firm can improve its chance of developing a product that has a price-to-value ratio that attracts customers while reducing the overhead and administrative complexity of maintaining a wide scope of activities. This can cause whole industries to be trans- formed as large vertically integrated firms are displaced by nimbler, more specialized producers. 

center-for- global strategy
When all innova- tion activities are conducted at a central hub and innovations are then diffused throughout the company. This allows managers to:

  • Tightly coordinate all R&D activities (across both functions and projects). 
  • Achieve greater specialization and economies of scale in R&D activities while
    avoiding duplication of activities in multiple divisions. 
  • Develop and protect core competencies. 
  • Ensure that innovations are standardized and implemented throughout the company. 
  • a center-for-global approach tends to not be very responsive to the diverse demands of different markets. Furthermore, the divisions that serve these markets might resist adopting or promoting centrally developed innovations. As a result, inno- vations developed centrally may not closely fit the needs of foreign markets and may also not be deployed quickly or effectively.
  • local-for-local strategy When each divi- sion or subsidi- ary of the firm conducts its own R&D activities, tailored for the needs of the local market. 

There are several downsides to the local-for-local strategy, however. It can result in significant redundancy in activities as each division reinvents the wheel. Furthermore, each division may suffer from a lack of scale in R&D activities, and there is a risk that valuable innovations will not be diffused across the firm.

locally leveraged strategy
When each division or sub- sidiary of the firm conducts its own R&D activities, but the firm attempts to leverage result- ing innovations throughout the company. 

One way this strategy is employed in consumer markets is to assign an individual the role of international brand custodian. This person is responsible for ensuring that a successful brand is deployed into the firm’s multiple markets while also maintaining consistency in the product’s image and positioning.52 Such a strategy can be very effective if different markets the company serves have similar needs. 

globally linked strategy Innovation activities are decentralized, but also centrally coordinated for the global needs of the corporation. 

Bartlett and Ghoshal argue that, overall, the multinational firm’s objective is to make centralized innovation activities more effective (that is, better able to serve the various local markets) while making decentralized innovation activities more efficient (that is, eliminating redundancies and exploiting synergies across divisions). Bartlett and Ghoshal propose that firms should take a transnational approach wherein resources and capabilities that exist anywhere within the firm can be leveraged and deployed to exploit any opportunity that arises in any geographic market. They argue that this can be achieved by: 

  • Encouraging reciprocal interdependence among the divisions of the firm (that is, each division must recognize its dependency on the other divisions of the firm).
  • Utilizing integration mechanisms across the divisions, such as division-spanning
    teams, rotating personnel across divisions, and so on.
  • Balancing the organization’s identity between its national brands and its global image. 
  • member rotation programs facilitate the diffusion of knowledge throughout the firm.
  • We will begin by looking at the three key objectives of the new product develop- ment process: maximizing fit with customer requirements, minimizing cycle time, and controlling development costs. We then will turn to methods of achieving these objectives, including adopting parallel development processes, using project champi- ons, and involving customers and suppliers in the development process. Next we will look at a number of tools firms can utilize to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the development process, including creating go/kill decision points with stage- gate processes, defining design targets with quality function deployment, reducing costs and development time with design for manufacturing and CAD/CAM systems, and using metrics to assess the performance of the new product development process. 

For new product development to be successful, it must simultaneously achieve three sometimes-conflicting goals: (1) maximizing the product’s fit with customer requirements, (2) minimizing the development cycle time, and (3) controlling development costs. 

For a new product to be successful in the marketplace, it must offer more compelling features, greater quality, or more attractive pricing than competing products. Despite the obvious importance of this imperative, many new product development projects fail to achieve it. The firm may not have a clear sense of which features customers value the most, resulting in the firm’s overinvesting in some features at the expense of features the customer values more. Firms may also overestimate the customer’s willingness to pay for particular features, leading them to produce feature-packed products that are too expensive to gain significant market pen- etration. Firms may also have difficulty resolving heterogeneity in customer demands; if some customer groups desire different features from other groups, the firm may end up producing a product that makes compromises between these conflicting demands, and the resulting product may fail to be attractive to any of the customer groups. 

development cycle time
The time elapsed from project ini- tiation to product launch, usually measured in months or years. 

a company that is able to bring its product to market early has more time to develop (or encourage others to develop) complementary goods that enhance the value and attractiveness of the product. 

A firm with a short devel- opment cycle can take advantage of both first-mover and second-mover advantages. 

partly parallel development process
A development process in which some (or all) of the development activities at least partially overlap. That is, if activ- ity A would pre- cede activity B in a partly paral- lel development process, activity B might com- mence before activity A is completed. 

A sequential process has no early warning system to indicate that planned features are not manufacturable. Consequently, cycle time can lengthen as the project iterates back and forth between the product design and process design stages. 

Firms often make decisions about projects on the basis of financial considerations and level of production and technical synergy achieved by the new product proposal rather than on marketing criteria. This can lead to an overemphasis on incremental product updates that closely fit existing business activities.16 The screening decision should focus instead on the new product’s advantage and superiority to the consumer, and the growth of its target market. 

lead users  Customers who face the same general needs of the marketplace but are likely to experience them months or years earlier than the rest of the mar- ket and stand to benefit dispro- portionately from solutions to those needs. 

research has shown that many firms produce new products in less time, at a lower cost, and with higher quality by incorporating suppliers in inte- grated product development efforts.22 For example, consider Chrysler. Beginning in 1989, Chrysler reduced its supplier base from 2,500 to 1,140, offering the remaining suppliers long-term contracts and making them integrally involved in the process of designing new cars. Chrysler also introduced an initiative called SCORE (Supplier Cost Reduction Effort) that encouraged suppliers to make cost-saving suggestions in the development process. The net result was $2.5 billion in savings by 1998. 

crowdsourcing 

A distributed problem-solving model whereby a design problem or production task is presented to a group of people who voluntarily contribute their ideas and effort in exchange for compensation, intrinsic rewards, or a combination thereof. 

go/kill deci- sion points Gates established in the develop- ment process where managers must evaluate whether or not to kill the project or allow it to proceed. 

Each gate has three components: deliverables (these are the results of the previous stage and are the inputs for the gate review), criteria (these are the questions or metrics used to make the go/kill decision), and outputs (these are the results of the gate review process and may include a decision such as go, kill, hold, or recycle; outputs should also include an action plan for the dates and deliverables of the next gate). 

Some of the most prominent tools used to improve the development process include stage-gate processes, quality function deployment (“house of quality”), design for man- ufacturing, failure modes and effects analysis, and computer-aided design/computer- aided manufacturing. Using the available tools can greatly expedite the new product development process and maximize the product’s fit with customer requirements. 

Stage 1, the team does a quick investigation and conceptualization of the project. 

Stage 2, the team builds a business case that includes a defined product, its business justification, and a detailed plan of action for the next stages. 

Stage 3, the team begins the actual design and development of the product, including mapping out the manufactur- ing process, the market launch, and operating plans. In this stage, the team also defines the test plans utilized in the next stage. 

Stage 4, the team conducts the verification and validation process for the proposed new product, and its marketing and production. 

Stage 5, the product is ready for launch, and full commercial production and selling commence. 

At Microsoft, almost all projects receive either a post- mortem discussion or a written postmortem report to ensure that the company learns from each of its development experiences. These postmortems tend to be extremely candid and can be quite critical. As noted by one Microsoft manager, “The purpose of the document is to beat yourself up.” 

Measures of the success of the new product development process can help management to: 

  • Identify which projects met their goals and why. 
  • Benchmark the organization’s performance compared to that of competitors or to the organization’s own prior performance. 
  • Improve resource allocation and employee compensation. 
  • Refine future innovation strategies.

Multiple measures are important because any measure used singly may not give a fair representation of the effectiveness of the firm’s development process or its overall innovation performance. Also, the firm’s development strategy, industry, and other environmental circumstances must be considered when formulating measures and interpreting results.

social loafing When an individual in a team does not exert the expected amount of effort and relies instead on the work of other team members. 

cross- functional teams – Teams whose members are drawn from multiple func- tional areas in the firm such as R&D, marketing, manufacturing, distribution, and so on. 

Teams that are composed of people from diverse backgrounds have several advan- tages over teams that are drawn from only one or a few functional areas.9 A greater variety of specialists provides a broader knowledge base and increases the cross- fertilization of ideas. 

Functional experts often actively read journals and are involved in associations that directly affect their trade. These activities can lead to the creation and improvement of innovative ideas, as well as provide solutions to product develop- ment problems. 

homophily 

The tendency for individuals to like other people whom they perceive as being similar to themselves.

The most successful new prod- uct development teams have gatekeepers who provide important links to the environment. Ancona and Caldwell found that teams engaged in three primary types of boundary- spanning activity: 

 Ambassador activities—These activities were directed at representing the team to others and protecting the team from interference. For example, an ambassador might convince other individuals in the organization that the team’s activities are important. 

Task coordination activities—These activities emphasized coordinating and negotiating the team’s activities with other groups. For 

instance, task coordination activities might include negotiating delivery deadlines with other divisions of the firm or obtaining feed- back about the team’s performance.
Scouting activities—These activities were directed at scanning for ideas and information that might be useful to the team, enhancing its knowledge base. For example, scouting activities could include collecting data about what competitors were doing on similar projects or finding technical information that might be useful in the development project. 

Kichuk and Wiesner found that the personality characteristics that enhanced the success of a new product development team were high extroversion, high agreeableness, and low neuroticism.20 

Autonomous teams typically excel at rapid and efficient new product development, particularly when such development requires breaking away from the organization’s existing technologies and routines. Thus, autonomous teams are typically considered to be appropriate for break- through projects and some major platform projects. They can be the birthplace of new business units.25 However, the independence of the autonomous teams can cause them to underutilize the resources of the parent organization. 

In heavyweight and autonomous teams, the project manager must be someone who can lead and evalu- ate the team members, champion the development project both within the team and to the wider organization, and act as a translator between the various functions. 

The contract book provides a tool for monitoring and evaluating the team’s performance in meeting objectives by providing a set of performance benchmarks and deadlines to which the team’s performance can be compared. More important, however, the contract book is an important mechanism for estab- lishing team commitment to the project and a sense of ownership over the project. After negotiation and acceptance of this contract, all parties often sign the contract book as an indication of their intention to honor the plan and achieve the results. 

Gassman and von Zedtwitz studied 37 technology-intensive multinationals and identi- fied four patterns of teams: (1) decentralized self-coordination, (2) system integrator as coor- dinator, (3) core team as system architect, and (4) centralized venture team. 

The value of any technological innovation is only partly determined by what the tech- nology can do. A large part of the value of an innovation is determined by the degree to which people can understand it, access it, and integrate it within their lives. Deploy- ment is not just a way for the firm to earn revenues from its innovations; deployment is a core part of the innovation process itself. 

Generally, firms try to decrease their development cycles in order to decrease their costs and to increase their timing of entry options, but this does not imply that firms should always be racing to launch their products as early as possible. A firm can stra- tegically use launch timing to take advantage of business cycle or seasonal effects, to position its product with respect to previous generations of related technologies, and to ensure that production capacity and complementary goods or services are in place. 

cannibaliza- tion When a firm’s sales of one product (or at one location) diminish its sales of another of its products (or at another of its locations). 

If the firm invests in continuous innovation and willingly cannibalizes its existing products with more advanced products, the firm can make it very difficult for other firms to achieve a technological lead large enough to prove persuasive to customers. 

backward compatible When products of a technological generation can work with products of a previous generation. For example, a computer is backward compatible if it can run the same software as a previous generation of the computer. 

penetration pricing – When the price of a good is set very low (or free) to maxi- mize the good’s market share. 

When it is unclear how customers will respond to a particular price point, firms often use introductory pricing that indicates the pricing is for a stipulated time. This allows the company to test the market’s response to a product without committing to a long-term pricing structure. 

manufactur- ers’ repre- sentatives Independent agents that pro- mote and sell the product lines of one or a few man- ufacturers. They are often used when direct sell- ing is appropriate but the manu- facturer does not have a sufficiently large direct sales force to reach all appropriate mar- ket segments. 

wholesalers 

Companies that buy manufac- turer’s products in bulk, and
then resell them (often in smaller or more diverse bundles) to other supply channel members such as retailers. 

retailers 

Companies that sell goods to the public. 

original equipment manufac- turer (or value-added reseller) 

A company that buys products (or components of products) from other manufac- turers and assem- bles them or customizes them into a product that is then sold under the OEM’s own name. 

disintermedi- ation
When the number of inter- mediaries in a supply channel is reduced; for example, when manufacturers bypass whole- salers and/or retailers to sell directly to end users. 

How the product is sold may also affect the product’s positioning from the perspective of the customer. For example, if competing products are primarily sold in a high-contact mode such as specialty stores or via a direct sales force, selling the new product in a lower-contact channel such as mass discounters or through mail order might cause the customer to perceive the product as being of lower quality or more economical. 

Firms introducing a technological innovation can use strategic alliances or exclusivity contracts to encourage distributors to carry and promote their goods. By providing a distributor a stake in the success of the new technology, the firm may be able to persuade the distributor to carry and promote the new technology aggressively. 

viral marketing Sending informa- tion directly to targeted indi- viduals in effort to stimulate word-of-mouth advertising. Individuals are typically chosen on the basis of their position or role in particular social networks. 

These stages of adoption have been related to the adopter categories of inno- vators (in the very early stages); followed by early adopters, which cause adoption to accelerate; then the early majority and late majority as the innovation penetrates the mass market; and finally the laggards as the innovation approaches saturation.7 The characteristics of these groups make them responsive to different marketing strategies. 

A firm that aggressively promotes its products can increase both its actual installed base and its perceived installed base. 

Any of these individuals is capable of sparking an information epidemic:

Connectors are individuals who tend to form an exceptionally large circle of acquaintances. Sociolo- gists have found that if a random sample of people is asked to identify the individuals they know on a first-name basis, connectors will identify many times the number of people an average person identifies. 

Mavens are individuals who are driven to obtain and disseminate knowledge about one or more of their interests. Economists have widely studied “market mavens,” otherwise known as “price vigilantes.” 

salespersons are those individuals who are naturally talented persuaders. Such individu- als are gifted at providing verbal responses that their listener is likely to find compelling. 

TeleSUR: A Case Study in Unethical Journalism

This article reviews operational documents published by the Venezuelan government and the PSUV; news published by TeleSUR that has been shown to be fake; published investigations regarding the state of access to journalism in Venezuela and TeleSUR’s relation to current and former media partners; anonymous and public comments published by journalists that have previously worked for the organization; as well as originally obtained data and research.

I then present a case study which illustrates how TeleSUR and its journalistic associates violated the best practices for a standard of care in Journalism.

Based upon the above evidence, I then examine legal issues related to journalistic malpractice to determine whether TeleSUR aligns with the characteristics of a news organization or, as it’s many detractors say, it is better classified as a propaganda outlet for the Venezuelan government.

Operational Documents Indicate Motives for Unethical Practices

In December 2003, at a meeting of media professionals for brainstorming how a new propaganda machine — TeleSUR — would operate at the Cuartel de la Montana, Hugo Chaves spoke of his desire to “create a breach in the media wall” and via “social networks”. TeleSUR was started by people who wanted to have a means by which they could shape their audience’s perception to the same views as that held by those who funded it — the PSUV. Thus while TeleSUR may claim to be no different from other news organizations — the behavior of their correspondents, of their executives, and the people who provide it’s funding and oversight all show that this is not the case. Looking in Venezuela’s own public records allows one to see this clearly.

Former Telesur president Andres Izarra bluntly characterized the goal of the Venezuelan government’s media strategy as a form of “communication hegemony” (Pradas, 2007).

After stating that capitalism is reaching a potentially terminal crisis, Hugo Chavez states in his Program for the Homeland 2013–2019 that: “In the words of Antonio Gramsci, the old must finally end so that the birth of the new can be manifested to the full… it is difficult to know exactly when this great horizon will become visible, but we should deploy significant and well-aimed efforts in the interest of its advent”

The PSUV’s Redbook, the Bolivarian iteration of Mao’s Little Red Book, is another place where information on the nature of TeleSUR can be determined. After stating their resolve to create alliances with similar political and social movements worldwide with the aim of achieving a new international pluripolar order — they gives examples of such initiatives: “ALBA, Petrosur, Petro-Caribe, TeleSUR, Bank of the South, UNASUR and the creation project of the Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Nations, are to fight and defeat imperialism (PSUV 35; underline and italics added). In other words,TeleSUR is viewed by the party who controls the company as an instrument of war.

What the terrain for this conflict looks like for the PSUV/TeleSUR can be found on page 89 of Hugo Chavez’s 2013–2019 Program for the Country. After stating that the main goal is to create a “new communication order” to be built, it states the need to:

“Strengthen the multi-State Telesur television and radio networks and Radio del Sur, together with their respective electronic platforms… in order to disseminate the truth of our peoples and break the information blockade and censorship to which the peoples of imperialist powers are subject to by the transnational communication corporations.”

Again, in Hugo Chavez’s own words TeleSUR is not a news station, but conceived of as an instrument of information warfare.

In a 2015 presentation given to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information, the following information appears: “TeleSUR is oriented to promote a strategy that deepens the new socialist values and ethics”.

Their goal, another words, is to proselytize — not inform about the truth.

Low Quality, Poorly Sourced News Reporting With Undisclosed Bias

In June 2003, the New York times saw their brand forever tarnished after “executive editor Howell Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd resigned their posts amid a much-publicized scandal that not only rocked journalistic circles but also left the newspaper’s readers wondering just how severely they had been duped” (Calvert).

The reason? One of their journalists had been found guilty of significant fabrications, plagiarism and errors. Jayson Blair, now a case study of what not to do, “lacked journalistic integrity and violated cardinal tenets of journalistic practice.The Times found in its investigation at least a half-dozen instances in which Blair lifted sentences and quotations from other published sources such as Associated Press and Washington Post” (Calvert).

While such reporting at the New York Times causes a journalist to be fired and forever shamed; the managing and executive editors to resign in disgrace while also forcing the company to set up new processes to ensure it didn’t happen again — this is the normal form of news reporting for TeleSUR.

This is evident in the photo above and the article it comes from. You can see in the photo that there is no “real author” connect to it, no parent names their child “ms-RSF-rg” and the way the article is sourced is solely by stating the places where information was pulled from — not what was pulled from where — as is the traditional professional standard.

According to an interview with a former TeleSUR English employee their “news writers” — which operate on shifts from 7am to 3pm, 3pm to 11pm, and 11pm to 7am — are tasked each day with reviewing the current events of the days from news websites and then publishing 5 different stories. In the process of stitching the articles together they also go through an “ideological polishing”.

Another former TeleSUR employee I interviewed sent me the below meme that circulated around the Quito office to mock Cyril Mychalejko, the former assistant-director of TeleSUR English, for the frequency with which he requested changes to news coverage to better meet the current editorial line developed in at the head office in Caracas in coordination with Venezuela’s Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information.

Thus while the content is by definition news, given the poor citations for information sources; the lack of author attribution; and the political influence from Caracas on the story it is better classified as opinion rather than truth. Which makes sense, after all, as he who pays the piper calls the tune.

TeleSUR’s Anti-Science Fake News

The first sentence for this TeleSUR article that was re-posted by a number of major media outlets, is as follows.

“A mysterious, cigar-shaped, 400-meter-long object is speeding through our solar system at almost 200,000 miles per hour, and astronomers — including Professor Stephen Hawking — believe it might (or might not) be an alien spaceship.”

What’s interesting about TeleSUR’s take is that they explicitly give the belief that this object is an alien spaceship to Stephen Hawking- despite the fact that he never made such a comment.

How did serious news outlets depict the story? With the truth: Scientists Led by Stephen Hawking Believe Interstellar Object Visiting Us Could be Alien Spacecraft. Making up quotes and ascribing them to people is not something that a real news outlet does, it’s what a “fake news” outlet does.

TeleSUR’s Fake Political News

Despite what TeleSUR says, America doesn’t have a base in Costa Rica and the International Criminal Court has not declared Brazilian ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a political prisoner

As part of Telesur’s coverage of Costa Rica’s presidential elections, they once said that there was a U.S. Southern Command military based in Costa Rica.

The base, according to the report, “Presencia de milicia de EE.UU. en Costa Rica es evidente”, was located in the Guanacaste province. There is, however, no military base there. In a formal letter Patricia Villegas, TeleSUR’s second in command to Nicolas Maduro, the television station acknowledged it had made a “regrettable mistake”.

TeleSUR also falsely published patently false information about the

Interesting to note is that despite over a year having gone by since this fake news has been debunked, that Cuba’s news outlet — and TeleSUR partner — re RadioRebelde, still not taken down the fake news.

TeleSUR Republishing Russian Propaganda

One of the more ridiculous articles that TeleSUR English has published was about ‘Mummified Humanoid’ Found in Peru Raises ‘Alien’ Claims.

The American Council on Science and Health has an interesting take on this article in particular and those within this category in general as being a part of a general Russian campaign to influence Americans to have an anti-science. This isn’t just conjecture, but a part of research they’ve done to determine the sources of these articles.

As you can see from the above, after doing a Google search for other outlets that had published the “fake news” story, TeleSUR was first, with Russian media outlets coming in second. I blockquote the ACSH article below, which is

Truthfully, no respectable news outlet should have covered this. The head researcher is Konstantin Korotkov, a well-known crank who once claimed to have photographed a soul leaving a human body. He is a hoaxer, so this is a non-story, just like “Crazy Person on Street Keeps Yelling Crazy Things” is also a non-story. Korotkov should have been ignored. But he wasn’t. Why?

Fake Aliens and Fake News: It’s Always the Russians

The timeline seems to go like this:

The story began in Russia’s state-controlled media. On March 5th, Mir 24picked up the story, which was then followed by Sputnikon March 10th. Then, the mother of all Russian propaganda outlets, RT, ran the story early on March 13th. From there, the story went “mainstream” in the Western press.

Stop and think about that for a second. A complete hoax was circulated among Russian state-controlled media as legitimate news, and the Western media fell for it. Sure, some of them provided “caveats,” but the point is that Russian propaganda has so infiltrated the public discourse that it appears regularly in mainstream Western media outlets. That’s shocking.

Why is Russia doing this? It appears that the Kremlin is waging a war on truth. (There is a book that discusses this by Peter Pomerantsev called Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia.) By purposefully muddying the distinction between fact and fiction, the Kremlin can further its own agenda.

That’s also why propaganda outlets like Sputnik and RT are vehemently opposed to GMOs and fracking. Undermining America’s agriculture and energy sectors benefits Russia’s economy.

Before Western journalists, who seem only to care about boosting traffic, copy-and-paste these clickbait stories from their Russian counterparts, they might want to first ask, “Is it true?” and, “Whom does the story benefit?” You know… the sorts of questions journalists are supposed to ask.

What’s particularly interesting about TeleSUR English’s approach to journalism is that in their follow up article to this “Controversial Researcher Claims Mummies in Peru ‘Possibly Alien’” is the correction that they add on the bottom:

Disclaimer: the initial headline of this story has been changed from “Ancient Mummies in Peru ‘Not Human, Possibly Alien’: Scientists” to the current headline identifying Russian researcher Konstantin Korotkov as the scientist who claimed such findings. We have also included refutals of the claims by these Russian researchers in bold.

and the fact that the rebuttals of the claims that they added clearly show that the entire story is bogus — and yet it remains published.

Unethical Journalistic Practices Claimed By Anonymous Current and Former Employees

TeleSUR employees express fear of sharing their experience out of fear of the organization’s reach.

Convincing several former and current TeleSUR employees to share their story under the condition of anonymity isn’t the only way to learn about the unethical journalistic practices at TeleSUR.

On the GlassDoor reviewsfor TeleSUR English, there are a number of comments left which further indicate that the organization is the very definition of “fake news”

The news room at TeleSUR is described by one former journalist as follows:

“No ethics
– Cheap propaganda.
– No team work

This TV station is a joke. It’s all based in propaganda and lacks totally of ethics or professionalism. A government elite from Cuba and Venezuela manages all the “news” that are broadcasted. Couldn’t make less sense. Opinion diversity is banned and most of people in the offices have no experience in journalism/media at all. Pay… depends on who you know, and how aligned are you with their ideology (kiss butt).”

Another anonymous former employee highlights the connection between the Venezuelan Government and the organization in a different posting:

Cons

“Leftist slant on everything skews the truth sometimes. The building in Quito is mostly empty-space hasn’t been utilized well. Some staff are too affiliated with the Venezuelan government.”

Advice to Management

“Hire more journalists with journalistic qualifications and experience in order to grow the website further. Schedules are also subject to change without much notice.”

These concerns about professionalism are echoed by another commentator on February 6th, 2018:

Cons

“HR is rude and unhelpful, no clear lines of authority, low expectations, low accommodation for foreign staff, most people there aren’t journalists”

A Videographer and Senior Editor in Washington, DC — physically removed from the Quito location — is still able to feel the political pressure despite the geographic divide”

Cons

“Hard Left Ideology which makes very difficult to make real news”

Another anonymous source came to me directly.

After publishing my first article on Medium about TeleSUR English, I received an email that contained the following message from someone on staff:

The email closes with a re-iteration the themes of unprofessionalism and influence by the Venezuelan government:

“The top-down culture from Caracas to Quito and heedlessness regarding content quality and web management (which came to a head when the English page was accidentally un-published) consistently hobbles the performance of TSE, causing waves of talent to flee before TSE folds…”

There are, however, more than just anonymous sources that state that the TeleSUR is not a news station.

Unethical Journalistic Practices Claimed Openly by Current and Former Employees

After three years of trying to get TeleSUR to a specific level of professionalism and failing Aram Ahorian, one of TeleSUR’s founders, distanced himself from the organization saying thatit had become nothing but a cheap propaganda shop. “It is supposed to be a Latin American multi-state company. But it is not yet. It is a Venezuelan company, controlled by people who are interested in managing budgets and not news projects. It has to do with the internal struggle that exists in the Government of Venezuela.”

In October of 2018, TeleSUR anchor Daniela Vielman resigned from the network and released a statement stating that staff employed by TeleSUR are “treated as if they were working in a political party” and frequently imposed upon her and other “their political convictions.”

Following a post on Twitter that was critical of TeleSUR’s editorial choice to post an article supporting Donald Trump be Cassanda Fairbanks, former reporter Charles Davis saw all articles that he had previously written for them have their name taken off, and then shortly thereafter were deleted.

Jon Jeter’s article Betraying the Bolivarian Revolution goes into extensive detail about this. Given the conversation that the article was generating on Mint Press News, I created a employee satisfaction survey and posted a in the comments. The results as a whole were as I expected, and I include an except below.

What are some ways that TeleSUR English could improve?

1. Hire a new director [this was then Pablo Vivanco]

2. Value workers, develop clear journalistic standards

3. teleSUR could live up to the principals it espouses. Its operation in Caracas exists simply as a propaganda outlet for Venezuela foreign policy. I overheard star Spanish language reporters speculate how they could best portray the government in their pieces. If it truly represented the voice of the most vulnerable and traditionally underrepresented, we would hear the voices of Venezuela’s poorest, who are suffering the effects of the country’s worst ever crisis. Whatever the cause of that crisis may be, we never hear those perspectives. While many TeleSUR journalists are well intentioned, all content, no matter how insignificant or where it’s from, must pass through the Cold War like propaganda lens in Caracas before making it to air or online.

What three words would you use to describe TeleSUR English’s work culture?

1. Bad bad bad

2. Nepotism, back-stabbing, toxic

3. Disorganized, Dictatorial, Directionless

Anonymous sources of GlassDoor, anonymous sources obtained from an email and a targeted survey, as well as the comments of former employees all indicate that unethical journalistic practices are the norm at TeleSUR.

A conversation that occurred on March 21st, 2018 on Facebook in the comments section indicates that ethical violations went beyond the violation of professional standards, but also of labor law.

Unethical Business Practices with Journalists

In an exchange on Facebook former TeleSUR reporters Matt Sedillo and Irene Monica Sanchez, state that they were contracted for work and never paid.

In the comments section on the same post, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan stated “they made me feel like a sleazy bill collector because I asked where the money that they promised me was.”

Given TeleSURs relationship with Jacobin writers and staff, as well as Jacobin’s business ethics, one wonders as to the specifics of their relationship.

Another unethical business practice of TeleSUR’s explains why it is that so few of the journalists associated with TeleSUR don’t respond — non-disclosure agreements.

I’ve learned from multiple former personnel in telephone interviews that following the publication of material on the Caracas Chronicle website, all foreign personnel on the TeleSUR English staff signed non-disclosure agreement addendum to their contracts. They did so under duress as Pablo Vivanco implied that they would be fired if they did not sign. They did so without consideration — typical for new conditions being inserted into the contract. And they did not provide a certified true-copy in English of the new conditions for those that did not speak Spanish.

I also received reports of significant violations of Ecuador’s labor law, such as scheduling people to work 6 or 7 days in a row.

Unethical Behavior Towards Other Journalists

In the article Struggle, Appropriation and Attacks on Indigenous Journalismin the online magazine Intercontinental Cry we learn the story of Courtney Parker, a University of Georgia College of Public Health PhD candidate. Parker was investigating Nicaragua’s northern Caribbean coast — where there are ongoing conflicts between Indigenous Miskitu people’s and colonialists. After publishing a series of sourced articles about the shooting of an Indigenous Miskitu leader by Sandanista youth and other issues in the area, a series of articles published online by a Sandinista-party associated “independent” media outlet. In what could be described as Orwellian irony,

“The politically motivated attack accused Parker and others of being part of some corporate imperialist power conglomerate trying to influence the upcoming November elections (where Daniel Ortega is set to run virtually unopposed with his wife as vice-president.) The byline claimed that “the reposting in various progressive outlets of biased report confirms the convergence in reporting international affairs between alternative and corporate media.”

Following the publication of these reports, TeleSUR then republished content contained there. Because of this and other examples of unethical behavior, The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas published an exposé about the Sandinista party and the Nicaraguan army intimidating and spying on journalists working for the magazine, Confidencial.

During their investigation the Knight Center documented multiple “campaigns to discredit journalists through official and unofficial media…” (i.e. the tag team efforts of Telesur and Tortilla Con Sal.)

It is not just reporters in countries that are aligned with Venezuela that face coordinated responses for coverage that contradicts the TeleSUR narrative. Within Venezuela a number of news stations that reported about corruption, electoral fraud, or systematic government problems have had their websites blocked. In The State of Internet Censorship in Venezuela, a group of digitalinvestigators analyzed the relationship between digital media access and censorship and was able to show how ISPs use DNS and HTTP means to prevent access to such material. In their summation the Venezuelan state — of which TeleSUR is an appendage of — is able to block the narratives that conflict with the one it wishes to promote.

“The censorship events identified as part of this study (particularly the blocking of news websites and blogs) contradict the rights outlined by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in its report on Standards for a Free, Open and Inclusive Internet. Media censorship and the blocking of blogs limit press freedom and the right to freedom of thought and expression. In examining each right outlined by IACHR, questions around the necessity and proportionality of these censorship events are inevitably raised, particularly in terms of how they relate to human rights.”

While difficult to determine whether or not Wikipedia contributor with DNS address 82.35.252.246 was a TeleSUR employee or not, given that this is the only article that they have ever worked on this is very likely the case.

It’s likely that in addition to the Venezuelan government’s attempts to silence journalists within their country; and coordinated attempts to delegitimize journalists that present a narrative contrasting to their own; that there also exists a need for TeleSUR to monitor public spaces like Wikipedia to ensure that content critical of its operation is not available.

Given that Chris Hedges, a regular TeleSUR and RT contributor, recently reported about how Wikipedia was a “tool of the elite” this is ironic in a special way.

Content and Imagery to Incite Violence

This set of pictures using Donald Trump’s campaign slogan is just one of many examples wherein internecine conflict is praised. By itself, there’s nothing innately problematic about this. Media, however, occurs within an symbolic ecosystem so a broader context to fully understand the images is required.

In my other case-study article on TeleSUR’s use of fake and alternative news sites and coordinated inauthentic journalism I illustrated how clustered use of a literary analogy in relation to a news event indicated that a number of showed there to be some kind of connection amongst the authors.

Given the journalists employment history; that Venezuelan media theorist and TeleSUR consultant Luis Britto frequently uses the term; as well as other TeleSUR-associated writers prior mobilization of the analogy I hypothesized that it was part of a concerted effort to attempt to influence Americans. This, however, is not the only manner in which their content seeks to shape their reader’s perceptions. Another way that they have sought to shape perceptions of America is by associating it with fascism through their own media and via the media channels of their partners.

Despite the fact that subject area specialists say that it is a “bad historical analogy,” since Donald Trump’s oath of office a veritable cottage industry of journalists and political commentator debating and editorializing as to whether or not he a fascist has formed (Riley 31). One political organization with extensive connections to Antifa — which is composed of members of various U.S. Communists groups such as the Revolutionary Communist Party and Workers World Party — is Refuse Fascism.

According to Influence Watch, Refuse Fascism is a project fiscally sponsored by Alliance for Global Justice, which is a front organization — like Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.); World Can’t Wait; Not In Our Name;and Stop Banking the Bomb – for the Revolutionary Communist Party. They desire the violent overthrow of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and justify this by asserting that the Trump administration functions is a “fascist regime.”

The group has been associated with “organizing demonstrations against President Trump’s inauguration as part of the “Disrupt J20” movement orchestrating demonstrations against right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous which devolved into rioting, and plann marches and occupations to last until President Trump and Vice President Pence leave office.

Via TeleSUR’s official media distribution channel — images reinforcing that it is imperative to kill fascists are shared, while through their coordinated inauthentic behavior network crasser propaganda images are shared. Not surprisingly, the suggestion that politicians should be killed by snipers occurred during the 2018 elections. If this seems just like a fortuitous juxtaposition, it’s important to know that the ANSWER Coalition has a long-standing association with the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee — Venezuelan and Cuban intelligence front groups.

This front group and it’s organizational core, the Revolutionary Communist Party, along with Venezuela’s other partners such as the Workers World Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation thus not only provide a ready audience to consume TeleSUR’s content but also act on the political philosophy informing it.

TeleSUR’s Connections with Radical Political Activity

It’s operationally difficult to determine the impact the above content has on its audience. There are, however, instances I was able to determine through investigation on Facebook.

One was a Hands Off Venezuela member and Toronto Against Fascism associate, Mubarik Adams, who attended the Steve Bannon v. David Frum debate with a large group of political activists with the express purpose of using violence to end the event.

In the article Defend Antifa on the Workers World Party website the group states, “Communists and anarchists have proudly worn the mantle of antifa since the very beginning. Communists gave their lives in the tens of millions to fight Nazis in Europe, and armed multinational communist fighters have long battles the Klan’s fascist terror in the South.”

Considering Venezuelan political activist and former visiting professor to University of North Carolina and Consul General of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in New Orleans, Louisiana Jesus “Chuco” Garciahas frequently encouraged students to engage in radical political activism, it’s no surprise that for TeleSUR, violent, organized armed conflict between racial groups is its vision of American Greatness (Brown-Vincent 11).

Given that George Ciccariello-Maher has a specialization in Venezuela and has been an outspoken defender of Antifa and participant in it’s female recruitment program, it begs the question as to his involvement as well.

TeleSUR Partners Work with Yemeni Intelligence to Doxx US Troops

Showing that 30 day bans can be like whack-a-mole — once an account goes down, associated accounts post new links to the same information. For context, VK is a social media and social networking service based in Saint Petersburg.

As I first described in Censorship or Community Standards, Geopolitics Alert is one of TeleSUR’s many media partners.

While previously they seemed to be just a pair of journalists that benefitted from the fake-backlinking and coordinated inauthentic behavior networks — now they’ve moved to active and open collaboration with Yemeni intelligence services by publishing the personal information of active U.S. military personnel.

Terrorist Threats Made in Florida Come to Life in Colombia

The day before a car bomb targeting a police academy in Bogota, Colombia exploded and killed at least 21 people — Tyler Miller, a resident of Lake Worth, Florida was arrested for spraypainting “Kill A Cop, Save a Life” next to a hammer and sickle.

He was one of four people allegedly involved in the incident and apparently this wasn’t the first time that Miller had had a run in with the law. According to previous arrest reports,

Back in 2013, Miller had another run in with law enforcement when they say he tried to buy an SKS Semi-Automatic Rifle online.

According to the report, a witness reported seeing him at a firearms store and filling out paperwork, wearing a Chinese military uniform.

Deputies then made a visit to his house and found two AK-47 style airsoft guns in his room, which was decorated with Russian and Chinese communist-type paraphernalia.

What specific connections exist between Tyler Miller and media operations directed by the Venezuelan intelligence services intending to radicalize Americans is now unclear.

What is apparent is the connection between TeleSUR’s glorification of politically motived violence and it’s perceived need to “teach the public a lesson”.

Following the bombing of the police station in Bogota, I started receiving a apologias for it in WhatApps group chats that I’ve been able to get added to since moving to Colombia.

One of the things that the rapid, targeted deployment of such content suggests is that these media artefacts were prepared in advance of the bombing.

TeleSUR’s Connections with Violent Latin American Organizations

TeleSUR has long been accused of having institutional ties to the FARC-EP.

Besides discovering a number of FARC-EP documents stored on TeleSUR’s website — which can be perused here– and that FARC-EP associated accounts like to share TeleSUR content I’ve not yet been able to ascertain any new information on the relationship between TeleSUR and FARC-EP.

I did, however, find something else interesting.

After I started friending a large number of the accounts associated with TeleSUR’s coordinated inauthenic behavior network, besides the FARC-EP accounts being suggested to me as People You May Know a number of ELN and EPL accounts started being suggested to me.

A curious person, I friended them and started to see the type of content that they were sharing and groups they were involved in.

Reviewing a number of the likes and shares on FARC-EP, ELN and EPL accounts was notable as many of them were also sharing TeleSUR content.

While the current state of my research means that there is little to be said about all these connections — other than they at some level they exist — there are other questions to be raised about the relationship between TeleSUR and the promotion of violence.

Specifically questions relates to TeleSUR’s hiring practices.

Former correspondents for TeleSUR — like Gerardo Torres Zelaya — have been identified as participating in violent street protests while others have been linked to FARC.

Taken from an Ecuadorian Facebook Group of Feminists, who investigated Orlando Perez following his assault on his girlfriend.

The current Vice-President of TeleSUR English, Orlando Perez, was arrested and sentenced for a politically-motivated kidnapping in his 20s; was arrested in connection with the death of two people making bombs and then let go; and refers to people who disagree with his political positions as mentally-retarded.

My research in this area is underdeveloped due to a paucity of sources willing to provide on-record accounts — but these cases combined with the former employee assessments does seem to reinforce that notion that rather than journalistic talent, skill or ability driving hiring-decisions an antagonism capitalism and the United States is instead what is sought in employees — and those that push back in the name of truth are then pushed out.

TeleSUR’s Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Network’s Anti-Voting Messaging

Being an instrument of Nicolas Maduro’s political will, the anti-systemic political activity which TeleSUR disseminates is not limited to the United States.

Numerous accounts in Spain — specifically Valencia, Barcelona and Euskadi — all post content discouraging people from voting. Instead of traditional political activity people are encouraged to attend lectures on topics such as the Greatness of Stalin or political assemblies hosted by local radical organizations affiliated with the PSUV.

Coordinated Unprofessional News Reportage via TeleSUR Associated Journalists

Carlos Ballasteros — a longtime friend of then former director of TeleSUR English Pablo Vivanco, a fact not disclosed in the Newsweek article — had a correction added to his article by the editorial staff of Newsweek as in the original article he mispresented the facts.

After I published Censorship or Community Standards, I decided to test a hypothesis I had — specifically that none of the other TeleSUR-associated journalists that I’d found engaged in false reporting would correct their errors if notified.

I sent notification to all the Journalists that had also covered TeleSUR’s unpublishing informing them that they were mistaken and sharing a link to my investigation.

· I sent notification to Abby Martin’s producers via Facebook.

· I sent an email, a Facebook Message and left a comment on Twitter to notify Branko Marcetic.

· I tweeted to Jacobininforming them that the article by Branko Marcetic they are hosting was factually incorrect.

· I sent a Facebook message to Adriano Contreras asking for comment. He responded that he was not allowed to speak without the authorization of TeleSUR, which given the context, makes such a response another example of Orwellian Irony.

· I left a comment on the Medium blog of Caitlin Johnstone.

· I left a comment on the Twitter account of Aaron Mate.

In fact, over two months after I notified them they had published unverified false reports, not a single one of these self-proclaimed journalists has responded to my contacts or updated their coverage.

I also emailed Tatiana Rojas, the current Director of TeleSUR English, if she cared to comment or disprove my claims in Censorship of Community Standards– but I received no response.

The only person that did respond was Andre Damon, of World Socialist Website. However after explaining the reason for my contact — to let him know that his reportage was wrong and to ask to speak with whomever is directing their black hat back-linking and coordinate inauthentic behavior network on Facebook — all communication immediately ceased.

Based upon the guidelines described in The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, this means that all of these people are in violation of the Principles of Ethical Journalism.

How TeleSUR’s Defenders Violate the Professional Community’s Ethical Norms

Unlike other professional associations, such the American Bar Association or Medical Board, there is no formal professional body by which charges of violations of ethical journalism can either be brought up. To some extent the Society of Professional Journalists can enforce their Rules through their official statements about the behavior of journalists, but they are not an enforcement body.

The Society of Professional Journalists states that there are four foundational principles for the ethical journalist:

· Seek Truth and Report It

· Minimize Harm

· Act Independently

· Be Accountable and Transparent

The full document can be found here.

I excerpt sections here in order to reference specific behaviors.

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

Journalists should:

· Take responsibility for the accuracy of their work.

· Verify information before releasing it.

· Use original sources whenever possible.

· Remember that neither speed nor format excuses inaccuracy.

· Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.

· Respond quickly to questions about accuracy, clarity and fairness.

By refusing to make transparency, honesty and integrity their operational principles all of the above mentioned TeleSUR and the Journalists associated with them all violate the Society of Professional Journalist’s principle to Be Accountable and Transparent by “exposing unethical conduct in journalism, including within their organizations.”

TeleSUR’s Rejection by Former Partners

Besides the journalists which have gone to work for TeleSUR only to leave because of an unprofessional work environment, a number of TeleSUR’s media partners in Latin America have also decided to part ways with the company.

The overarching narrative for why this is so is that the company’s issues described above are seen as part of systemic ethical issues rather than isolated incidences.

In 2016 Argentina decided that they were not going to renew the digital signal of TeleSUR.

The interview that Patricia Villegas, the President of TeleSUR, had with Alejandro Alfie is informative as to why the government chose not to renew.

Despite the fact that TeleSUR’s founders — Hugo Chavez, Andres Izarra, Aram Aharoiam and others — avow that their goal for this network to be a means of spreading Bolivarian Propaganda; that TeleSUR’s corporate documents states this as well; that workers for TeleSUR view themselves as spreading leftist content; that the PSUV views TeleSUR as an instrument for spreading its message — when faced with a question about political pluralism, Patricia Villegas states with conviction that they have “a plurality of perspectives”.

When then asked about TeleSUR’s Twitter Account promoting a protest march by Chavistas; about reporting done TeleSUR which disseminated false information that made a geo-political enemy look bad; and her own political activity online — Villegas evades any and all responsibility or accountability by stating that other people were responsible for the first two and then avoids answering the question as to whether or not she believes Argentina is a dictatorship.

In 2017 Ecuador similarly broke ties with TeleSUR.

Considering that Venezuelan political groups associated with the government hold events intended to encourage people to break the law, and that TeleSUR associated accounts promote it within Peru, one can only wonder how long they will stay on air in that country.

Penalties Given to TeleSUR’s Partners

CCTV from China, RT and Sputnik from Russian and HispanTV from Iran are some of the media partners that TeleSUR has made. While this may seem like normal coordination amongst upstarts media organization seeking to obtain market shares in regions seen as key for future success, since the state governments are paying for their operation instead of corporate sponsors or subscriptions, this isn’t a valid rationale.

In his article for the Center for International Media Assistance entitled “Foreign Media and Misinformation: How TeleSUR and RT Coordinate Programs and Messages” Patricio Provitina provides another explanation

“These news outlets claim that their content offers an alternative, developing world perspective that counters the interests and agendas pushed in Western media coverage of domestic and international events. However, in reality, these state- sponsored media outlets are only designed to convey the Chinese, Russian, or Venezuelan government’s perspective to the rest of the world. Since these governments are authoritarian regimes that often impede freedom of the press at home, their foreign-language media outlets reflect domestic habits of selective issue coverage, omitting or distorting important facts in news stories, and making up information to reshape public opinion regarding specific issues or events. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that when state interests align, these outlets coordinate news story coverage, messaging, and programming.”

Analyzing En La Mira, one of the examples of Russian and Venezuelan state media collaboration, Provitina describes it as follows:

“The shows create simplistic, conspiracy-driven explanations that tie a country’s internal problems to an external source of power meddling in the affairs of the country. The evidence presented as proof of a foreign plot tends to mix-up un-related facts, half-truths, or highly edited video interviews with policy makers, intellectuals, and academics who echo or truly believe the conspiracy narratives of each show.”

Iran’s HispanTV accounts were deleted and blocked from YouTube.

Russia’s RT and Sputnik have also been penalized for coordinated inauthentic behavior, similar to that used by Venezuela via their coordinated inauthentic behavior network.

Argentina sought to cancel RT’s television contracts, but used economic pressure to stay on the air after Macri’s election (Cardenal).

Further Research TeleSUR’s Unethical Journalism

While many unethical journalist practices engaged in by TeleSUR employees and associates are covered here, this is only a small fraction of a full analysis. Venezuela’s PSUV has invested millions of dollars over many years into developing a company that at face is a news organization, but underneath is a propaganda organ for helping Nicolas Maduro achieve his geopolitical interests.

I am currently awaiting word from Social Science One as to the status of my research proposal: The Social Media Behavior of Venezuelan State Media: A Case Study in TeleSUR English. I look forward to sharing this research on Medium, which will focus less on the qualitative issues discussed above — like the widespread evidence of TeleSUR journalists nor following professional norms — and will instead focus on depicting their efforts quantiatively.

Sources

Barajas, Héctor. TeleSUR after the End of Chavismo.

Baerga, Vanesa Media Imperialism in Latin America and the Emergence of Telesur.University of Nottingham.

Brown-Vincent, Layla Dalal Zanele Sekou. We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting for:Pan-African Consciousness Raising and Organizing in the United States and Venezuela

Canizalez, Andres. Framing Revolution and Re-Framing Counter-Revolution:

History, Context and Journalism in the new Left-wing Latin American Paradigm.

Cardenal, Juan Pablo. Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence Chapter 2: Navigating Political Change in Argentina. International Forum for Democratic Studies. National Endowment for Democracy.

Chirinos, Mariengracia; Azpúrua, Andrés; Evdokimov, Leonid; Xynou, Maria. The State of Internet Censorship in Venezuela: A study by IPYS Venezuela, Venezuela Inteligente and the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI). 16 August 2018

Clay Calvert and Robert D. Richards, Journalistic Malpractice: Suing Jayson Blair and the New York Times for Fraud and Negligence, 14 Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. 1 (2003). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/iplj/vol14/iss1/1

Contreras, Adriano. Facebook.

Di Rocco, Massimo. The Arab Spring is a Latin American Winter: TeleSUR’s “Ideological Approach” and the Breakaway from the Al-Jazeera Network. Global Media Journal, Spring/Summer 2012 issue.

Hugh J. O’Halloran. Journalistic Malpractice: The Need for a Professional Standard of Care in Defamation Cases. Marquette Law Review

International Media Support (IMS). Threats, Lies and Censorship: Media in Venezuela. 2016.

Jairo Lugo-Ocando , Olga Guedes & Andrs Caizlez (2011) Framing Revolution and Re-Framing Counter-Revolution: History, Context and Journalism in the new Left-wing Latin American Paradigm, Journalism Practice, 5:5, 599–612, DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2011.601912

Jeter, Jon. Betraying the Bolivarian Revolution: Vichy Journalism at teleSUR English. Mint Press News.

Johnstone, Caitlin. “Duhhh, Stop Defending Alex Jones! This Will Never Hurt The Left, Derp Duh!”

Martin, Abby. Abby Martin Exposes Untold History of U.S. Empire.

Marcetic, Branko. Why Did Facebook Purge TeleSUR English?.Jacobin

Mate, Aaron. Twitter.

Parker, Courtney. Struggle, Appropriation and Attacks on Indigenous Journalism.Intercontinental Cry.

Provitina, Patricio. “Foreign Media and Misinformation: How TeleSUR and RT Coordinate Programs and Messages”. The Center for International Media Assistance.

Riley, Dylan. What Is Trump, New Left Review 114, November-December 2018

Atlantic Council Fellowship Application

Tell your story. What makes you who you are? 
For generations my father’s family were rabbis in Ukraine and my mother’s family were prosperous pig farmers in Denmark. This convergence of poles apart cultural backgrounds informs my personality in such a way that I have a great appreciation for the humorous circumstances of life; an understanding of the importance of initiative, integrity, education and the need to be intrepid in the face of daunting circumstances.

These qualities have allowed me to live a unique life. I’ve made my home in Florida, Czech Republic, New York City, Spain and Colombia and my experiences there developed my professional capabilities; helped me be able to relate to people of all types – from barely literate campesinos to CEOs of high tech software companies; and inculcated a great appreciation for cultural diversity. Improvement of the public and private spheres by applying my skills and capabilities is how I currently direct my life activity.

What tipping or inflection points do you anticipate in your area of expertise over the next 5-10 years? How well-positioned are you to take advantage of this or to be on the cutting-edge of driving these transformations?
As more developed countries transition to whole-of-government software platforms with unprecedented analytical and planning capacity and as medium to large companies within those countries similarly become better able to understand and capitalize on business intelligence trends their collective enhancements will result in an epistemic shift within the people that populate these classes that manage people and capital. While significantly more technical, it will also lead to levelling s each country in some way or other adopts the optimum models. Thus technical innovations and information technologies will continue to cause vast social, economic and political disruptions over the next ten years in ways that can most accurately only be anticipated as intense process for all involved.

My doctoral studies in Innovation and Technology Management helps me to position myself as someone that can work as a consultant and advisor to public and private organizations so that they can more rapidly adopt, exploit and further develop the potential inherent in these revolutionary technologies. Outside of this program, I am also engaged in several long-term initiatives – my Social Science One project being one; the application to this Fellowship another – in order to situate myself as a thought leader in this field.

#MillenniumFellowshipApp: The 21st century will see the end of…
many of the knowledge gaps causing unwitting sub-optimal decision-making at the individual, social, economic & political levels. Increased information access, planning and communication technologies will continue to change the world in profound ways.

#MillenniumFellowshipApp: I’m impacting my community by…
Prototyping an e-government software development project that would accelerate the quality, efficiency and capabilities of public service provision to citizens and assist businesses.

#MillenniumFellowshipApp: This isn’t on my resume, but ask me about…
My TeleSUR project. I verified 3 Senators’ concerns, published, publicized, then became one of the first people to develop social scientific methods for interpreting Facebook data.

Short Bibliography
Ariel Sheen is a Colombian National Scholarship award winner engaged in Doctoral training in Innovation and Technology Management at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin. His research is on technology transfer, public/private software development partnerships and the relationship between information management and political institutions.
He earned his Master’s degree from New York University in Experimental Humanities on 2011 and is also a Social Science One research grant-recipient for the Facebook sponsored investigation into Social Media and Democracy.
Formerly a creative director at a Fortune 500 digital marketing company and a professor of political science, he aims to use his expertise to assist governments and businesses understand and adapt to the technological possibilities inherent within the 4th industrial revolution.