Group items tagged

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team Q: What do zippers, baby oil, brassieres and trampolines have in common? A: No, the answer isn't that they're all part of the setup for a highly inappropriate joke. In fact, the above list (along with thermos, cellophane, escalator, elevator, dry ice and many more) are all words that fell victim to those products' very success and, as they became more and more popular, slipped from trademarked status into common usage. Will "Google" manage to avoid this fate? This year has brought a spate of news stories about the word's addition to the Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English dictionaries, an honor that's simultaneously highly flattering and faintly unsettling. Consider, for example, this passage from a New York Times story published last May: "Jim sent a message introducing himself and asking, 'Do you want to make a movie?'" Mr. Fry recalled in a telephone interview from his home in Buda, Tex. 'So we Googled him, he passed the test, and T called him. That was in March 1996; we spent the summer coming up with the story, and we pitched it that fall.'" Now, since Larry and Sergey didn't actually launch Google until 1998, Mr. Fry's usage of 'Google' is as distressing to our trademark lawyers as it is thrilling to our marketing folks. So, lest our name go the way of the elevators and escalators of yesteryear, we thought it was time we offered this quick semantic primer. A trademark is a word, name, symbol or device that identifies a particular company's products or services. Google is a trademark identifying Google Inc. and our search technology and services. While we're pleased that so many people think of us when they think of searching the web, let's face it, we do have a brand to protect, so we'd like to make clear that you should please only use "Google" when you're actually referring to Google Inc. and our services. Here are some hopefully helpful examples. Usage: 'Google' as noun referring to, well, us.

" Equal-Opportunity Globalization Historically, companies in the United States, Europe and Japan have led globalization, because those countries pushed products and services into developing countries. As the business of offshore sourcing grows, globalization is beginning to become widely accepted elsewhere. With "nearshore" and offshore sourcing, the global equation has changed. Enterprises in developing countries and emerging markets are now reaching into developed economies, offering a talented workforce at a fraction of the price. Developed and developing economies are exploiting each other's markets, economies and labor forces. It is natural to expect that those disadvantaged by globalization - irrespective of market - will protest and make known their issues. Likewise, local politicians and political parties may try to protect jobs and obtain votes through legislation such as the bills currently being debated in four U.S. states aimed at blocking the outsourcing of government work to offshore enterprises. Moreover, unlike previous instances of globalization - in textiles, products and manufacturing - the latest round is occurring almost instantaneously over a vast and sophisticated communication network. This has enabled business, projects, tasks and jobs to be transferred to virtual workforces across the globe quickly and transparently - a trend that is occurring so rapidly as to disorient entire professions, societies and organizations. Changing Nature of Technical Work Another factor making outsourcing attractive is the changing nature of technical work. By 2006, service-oriented architecture (SOA) will be at least partially adopted in more than 60 percent of new, large and systematically oriented application development projects (0.7 probability). The proliferation of Web services and SOA is causing software to be developed in smaller units that are easier to map to business processes. These smaller units are also ideal for an offshore envi

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the use of an object (typically referred to as an RFID tag) applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader. Radio-frequency identification involves interrogators (also known as readers), and tags (also known as labels). Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio-frequency (RF) signal, and other specialized functions. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal. There are generally three types of RFID tags: active RFID tags, which contain a battery and can transmit signals autonomously, passive RFID tags, which have no battery and require an external source to provoke signal transmission, and battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags, which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link capability providing greater range. There are a variety of groups defining standards and regulating the use of RFID, including: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), ASTM International, DASH7 Alliance, EPCglobal. (Refer to Regulation and standardization below.) RFID has many applications; for example, it is used in enterprise supply chain management to improve the efficiency of inventory tracking and management.

""TriZetto has great employees, an agile solution set, and an unparalleled customer base in the healthcare payer and provider markets," said Devanny. "In the months and years ahead, we will build on this strong foundation to help healthcare organizations meet new challenges with new, world-class, technology-enabled solutions. We will continue to actively listen to our customers, letting their voice drive our capabilities, and become a much broader healthcare information-technology company. We will leverage TriZetto's unique assets and capabilities to transform connectivity and collaboration between health plans, providers and consumers. By helping integrate what has been a historically fragmented healthcare industry, TriZetto will help improve the efficiency, cost and quality of healthcare across our country and abroad." To realize this vision, Devanny has stressed five key areas of investment and organizational focus at TriZetto: -- Voice of the Customer, TriZetto's systematic approach to engaging its clients in a strategic dialogue to take customer service and satisfaction to a new level. -- Enterprise Software Solutions, a broad portfolio of flexible and scalable systems to help healthcare organizations improve efficiency and respond quickly in an evolving market. -- TriZetto Advantage Services(TM), comprehensive hosting, business process outsourcing and professional services to help customers meet key business objectives more quickly and with less risk. -- Systematic Health Management(TM), TriZetto's unique approach to population health management that helps customers improve the cost and quality of care. -- Payer- Provider Connectivity, to drive improved efficiency, productivity and collaboration between healthcare payers and providers. "

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, FWB: GGQ1) is a multinational public cloud computing, Internet search, and advertising technologies corporation. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products,[5] and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program"

Description of Google.

Workflow is a term used to describe the tasks, procedural steps, organizations or people involved, required input and output information, and tools needed for each step in a business process. A workflow approach to analyzing and managing a business process can be combined with an object-oriented programming approach, which tends to focus on documents and data. In general, workflow management focuses on processes rather than documents. A number of companies make workflow automation products that allow a company to create a workflow model and components such as online forms and then to use this product as a way to manage and enforce the consistent handling of work. For example, an insurance company could use a workflow automation application to ensure that a claim was handled consistently from initial call to final settlement. The workflow application would ensure that each person handling the claim used the correct online form and successfully completed their step before allowing the process to proceed to the next person and procedural step. A workflow engine is the component in a workflow automation program that knows all the procedures, steps in a procedure, and rules for each step. The workflow engine determines whether the process is ready to move to the next step. Some vendors sell workflow automation products for particular industries such as insurance and banking or for commonly-used processes such as handling computer service calls. Proponents of the workflow approach believe that task analysis and workflow modeling in themselves are likely to improve business operations.

Educational Leadership article from ASCD

"Mobile computing allows people to make use of computing and information systems without being tied to a desktop computer located in their office, classroom, or home. People can now make use of computer systems while on the move, whether waiting for a flight in some airport departure lounge, drinking coffee in their favorite cafe, simply driving home, or even just walking down the street. Thanks to the improved portability and processing power of laptop computers, Personal Digital Assistants, and even mobile phones, as well as improved battery life and the near universal coverage of wireless data communications networks, mobile computer users can now make use of almost the same range of services as desktop users. While the use of current mobile computers often follows the traditional pattern of a single user interacting with their dedicated computer via its own display and keyboard, mobile computing is still at an early stage of development. In his seminal paper on the computer for the 21st century written in 1991†, Marc Weiser noted that "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." Weiser put forward a vision of future computer systems in which "computers themselves vanish into the background". In doing so he inspired a field of research known as ubiquitous computing . In the ubiquitous computing vision, interconnected (mobile) computers are embedded unobtrusively in everyday appliances and environments and co-operate to provide information and services on behalf of their users. The ubiquitous computing vision is now becoming a reality enabled by recent and expected developments in new sensor technologies - increasing the range of stimuli that can be effectively sensed, by wireless networking - allowing mobile computer systems to co-operate, by miniaturization of computational devices - allowing massive deployment of sensor-based systems in every

"The "Big Idea" in The Lexus and the Olive Tree is found on page 232 where Friedman explains that: "if you can't see the world, and you can't see the interactions that are shaping the world, you surely cannot strategize about the world." He states that "you need a strategy for how to choose prosperity for your country or company.""

The Lexus and the Olive Tree is a 1999 book by Thomas L. Friedman that posits that the world is currently undergoing two struggles: the drive for prosperity and development, symbolized by the Lexus, and the desire to retain identity and traditions, symbolized by the olive tree. He says he came to this realization while eating a sushi box lunch on a Japanese bullet train after visiting a Lexus factory and reading an article about conflict in the Middle East. Friedman leads the reader on an international quest for a new understanding of the often misunderstood and misapplied term "globalization" by tapping on to stories of his actual experiences in interfacing with many of the global movers and shakers. He proposes that "globalization is not simply a trend or fad but is, rather, an international system. It is the system that has replaced the old Cold War system, and, like that Cold War System, globalization has its own rules and logic that today directly or indirectly influence the politics, environment, geopolitics and economics of virtually every country in the world."

"To come right to the main point of this review: Thomas Friedman's brilliant catch phase, book title and powerfully developed new thesis - "The World is Flat" - is yet another reaffirmation of what Bahá'u'lláh said about 150 years ago when He declared that "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." That's not to say there is nothing new in Mr. Friedman's latest book. The World Is Flat is a wide-ranging examination of how trends and technologies like freedom, the Internet, and open-source software are converging to make it possible for educated people everywhere to compete with the best and the brightest in North America and Europe . And that is changing everything, for people everywhere, much more quickly than had been previously imagined. Mr. Friedman, a Pulitzer prize-winning columnist for the New York Times , says the convergence of these trends and technologies is "flattening" the world. They create a "level playing field" where companies and individuals now successfully compete in the global market regardless of location. Mr. Friedman is by now an acknowledged expert on globalization, having outlined its impact in his 1999 book The Lexus and the Olive Tree . There he argued that globalization had become "the dominant international system at the end of the twentieth century - replacing the Cold War system…""

NTT Docomo, Inc.[1] (株式会社エヌ・ティ・ティ・ドコモ, Kabushiki Gaisha Enu Ti Ti Dokomo?, TYO: 9437, NYSE: DCM, LSE: NDCM) is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase, "do communications over the mobile network", and is also from a compound word dokomo, meaning "everywhere" in Japanese. Docomo provides phone, video phone (FOMA and Some PHS), i-mode (internet), and mail (i-mode mail, Short Mail, and SMS) services. The company has its headquarters in the Sanno Park Tower, Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo.[2] Docomo was spun off from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) in August 1991 to take over the mobile cellular operations. It provides 2G (mova) PDC cellular services on the 800 MHz band, and 3G FOMA W-CDMA services on the 2 GHz (UMTS2100) and 800 MHz(UMTS800(Band VI)) and 1800 MHz(UMTS1800(Band IX)) bands. Its businesses also included PHS (Paldio), paging, and satellite. Docomo ceased offering a PHS service on January 7, 2008. Contents [hide]

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP, Voice over IP) is a general term for a family of methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. Other terms frequently encountered and synonymous with VoIP are IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, and broadband phone. Internet telephony refers to communications services - voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging applications - that are transported via the Internet, rather than the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The basic steps involved in originating an Internet telephone call are conversion of the analog voice signal to digital format and compression/translation of the signal into Internet protocol (IP) packets for transmission over the Internet; the process is reversed at the receiving end.[1] VoIP systems employ session control protocols to control the set-up and tear-down of calls as well as audio codecs which encode speech allowing transmission over an IP network as digital audio via an audio stream. Codec use is varied between different implementations of VoIP (and often a range of codecs are used); some implementations rely on narrowband and compressed speech, while others support high fidelity stereo codecs.

Definition and examples of globalization

Definition of globalization: "Globalization (or globalisation) describes a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology.[1] However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and biological factors."

Globalization refers to the increasing unification of the world's economic order through reduction of such barriers to international trade as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas. The goal is to increase material wealth, goods, and services through an international division of labor by efficiencies catalyzed by international relations, specialization and competition. It describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through communication, transportation, and trade.

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world. Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, people-and, later, corporations-have been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

This site explains what globalization is and how it and evolved from thousands of years.

Workflow software can be used many ways for a government as well as politics and employment. Working as a group simultaneously is very important to fulfill some kind of difficult work, like administrating works such as Microsoft Sharepoint . Since the work that big companies do is very complicated and intertwined over and over with the part that do not really seem to be related that much, workflow software is almost mandatory to practice. Same as in politics and employment, the organization, association use this program for more efficient work capabilities (for their own profits). Many companies are using "computing in the cloud" which are free technologies like 

Prev. Project

"Corporations and governments are starting to worry about a common set of related issues. During the last two months I was fortunate to participate in several conversations with top corporate executives and foreign government officials all of whom are visiting Silicon Valley with increasing frequency. The conversations covered topics ranging from innovation and the rapid technological changes we are experiencing and must adapt to, the mismatch of skills and jobs and the changes we must institute to meet our evolving labor needs, and the state of the world economy and the continued impact of globalization. I want to summarize the topics being discussed by these diverse constituencies and provide a place for relevant comments and opinions."

JTE - can you put this into your own words?

"This tale of two boys, and of the millions of kids just like them, embodies the most stunning finding to come out of education research in the past decade: more than any other variable in education-more than schools or curriculum-teachers matter. Put concretely, if Mr. Taylor's student continued to learn at the same level for a few more years, his test scores would be no different from those of his more affluent peers in Northwest D.C. And if these two boys were to keep their respective teachers for three years, their lives would likely diverge forever. By high school, the compounded effects of the strong teacher-or the weak one-would become too great."

At the core of FreshBrain is an open and free web site freshbrain.org that provides teens with the opportunity to explore, engage, and create through activities and projects. FreshBrain takes advantage of the latest technologies, such as web conferencing and social networking, to provide a very progressive environment where teens can complete activities and work together on projects. This experience is enhanced with Advisors, available to support and mentor teens who are working on projects, with the intention of increasing the likelihood of success. In addition, FreshBrain provides teens with tools and training in the latest technologies to complete these projects. Providing the latest tools in technology, and a social interactive networking environment, has enabled teens to explore, create, and share with others. A result of pulling these two key online arenas together into one solution has enabled FreshBrain to attract teens comfortable with technology and communicating online. Creations from FreshBrain users range from music videos to logo designs.