Obama “Hustling” E-Commerce Exports
Posted on | February 19, 2011 | No Comments
President Obama recently spoke to the US Chamber of Commerce about the importance his administration was putting on exports and trade agreements. The event coincided with the release of a document on global e-commerce that discusses topics such as harmonizing commodity descriptions, export controls and regulation, free trade agreements, international payment systems, fraud warnings, and shipping methods.
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We know what it will take for America to win the future. We need to out-innovate, we need to out-educate, we need to out-build our competitors. We need an economy that’s based not on what we consume and borrow from other nations, but what we make and what we sell around the world. We need to make America the best place on Earth to do business.
And this is a job for all of us. As a government, we will help lay the foundation for you to grow and innovate and succeed. We will upgrade our transportation and communication networks so you can move goods and information more quickly and more cheaply. We’ll invest in education so that you can hire the most skilled, talented workers in the world. And we’ll work to knock down barriers that make it harder for you to compete, from the tax code to the regulatory system.
The event coincided with the release of an extensive booklet, Preparing Your Business for Global E-Commerce: A Guide for Online Retailers to Manage Operations, Inventory, and Payment Issues, published by export.gov, the administration’s portal for assisting international trade. Export.gov is managed by the International Trade Administration in collaboration and helps coordinate the different agencies with some involvement in global commerce such as the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, State, Treasury as well as the Ex-Im Bank and Small Business Administration (SBA). The booklet gives detailed support on exporting goods and services.
The author of a booklet Ken Walsh, International Trade Specialist with the U.S. Commercial Service, an agency of the Department of Commerce, gives an audio interview on global e-commerce.
This is an example of how third parties can assist an e-commerce site in expanding to other countries.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: export.gov > global e-commerce > International Trade Administration
Social Network Seminar – Translating Virtual Engagement into Political Reality
Posted on | February 17, 2011 | No Comments
CrossRoads Spring 2011:
Social Networks – translating virtual engagement into political reality
Friday, February 18, 6-8:30pm
NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, room 405
Speaker:
Andrew Noyes, Public Policy Communications Manager, Facebook, (Washington D.C.)
Interviewed by: Dr. Anthony Pennings, NYU-McGhee-DCoM
Andrew Noyes joined Facebook in 2009 after covering Capitol Hill, the White House, federal agencies, nonprofits, and think tanks as a member of the Washington press corps. In his current role, he nurtures relationships with policymakers, the press and the public and explains how the social networking giant helps its more than 500 million users share in a more trusted environment; helps makes the world more connected; and drives economic growth.
His areas of focus include expanding digital privacy protection through user control of data; enhancing cybersecurity and online safety; and protecting free speech. Previously, Andrew wrote for CongressDaily, Technology Daily, Communications Daily and Washingtonian Internet Daily where he specialized in intellectual property; Internet governance; antitrust and competition; and privacy and data security. He also launched and authored Tech Daily Dose, a popular blog on NationalJournal.com, and was a contributor to National Journal and Government Executive magazines. Over the course of more than a decade, Andrew also wrote news, business, and human-interest stories for a range of other publications including Washington, Capitol File, DC Magazine, the Baltimore Sun, The Advocate and more. Andrew has also served on the adjunct faculty at American University and has provided commentary for MSNBC, CBS, C-SPAN, National Public Radio, Federal News Radio and other media outlets.
Dr. Anthony Pennings has been at the McGhee Division since 2002 where he started the BS in Digital Communications and Media and teaches a variety of courses dealing with the management and politics of digital media and information systems. He has a PhD in Political Science and wrote his dissertation on cyberpunk fiction and electronic money. He also has a MA in Communications, both from the University of Hawaii where he was a Fellow at the East-West Center’s Institute of Culture and Communications doing research on computerization, media, and telecommunications issues in Asia. He got his first teaching position at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand where he taught television production but returned to his New York home in the mid 1990s after he heard about the World Wide Web. At Marist College he taught Multimedia and Web production, feeding the New York area with hundreds of skilled web producers during the dot.com area. Last month he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach digital media economics in Japan and revise his book on computerization in Asia.
Mechthild Schmidt joined DCoM in Fall 2003 after a career as animator and art director in broadcast, advertising and interactive media. A Clinical Associate Professor, she has initiated and run the CrossRoads series since 2004.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Multimedia and Multiple Intelligences
Posted on | February 13, 2011 | No Comments
When I was teaching at Victoria University in New Zealand, I was invited to give a keynote address for a distance learning conference at Massey University. I chose to draw on Howard Gardner‘s theories of multiple intelligence and connect them to multimedia. I always thought that the Harvard psychology professor had developed a framework that was useful (and admittedly quite obvious) for guiding multimedia innovations while recognizing the diversity of learning styles by different people. Gardner, who is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, developed the following list of intelligences: linguistic, musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, intrapersonal and bodily-kinesthetic.
Here is a short video introducing the multiple intelligences by Chris Warren.
I want to elaborate on his ideas with my own thoughts in some future postings and more importantly start to make the connections between specific tools and the types of intelligences they can help create. Here is a preliminary list of my thoughts.
Linguistic – Certainly one of the implications of the web was the return to reading and it seems as if the emergence of the iPad is a remediation of the magazine with an enhancement of its interactive aspects. Recently I put a crossword puzzle on my website, although mainly as an antidote to any TV watching. But we can expect that multimedia will continue to develop programs, especially for kids, to help understand and use words, to develop story-telling and poetic capabilities, and to develop other word and reading games.
Visual-Spatial – It was in New Zealand that I played iD’s Doom for the first time. Its first-person capability was an extraordinary new experience for navigating in a virtual space that simulated a real-world environment and I remember playing it for 12 hours straight (My memory was enhanced because I had to walk past a graveyard at 4am). Spatial understanding has been augmented by a number of multimedia tools including charts, maps, and other types of 3-D modeling, although it remains to be tested what impact it has on visual-spatial intelligence.
Bodily-Kinesthetic – Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Kinect are two of the newer consumer products that expand the visual-spatial dimensions of multimedia with an enhanced sense of body awareness and coordination. Wii games can involve waist control with a virtual hula hoop and develop eye-hand coordination by playing tennis or baseball your living room. One of the games we have at home is The Beatles Rock Band on my Xbox, which is teaching my 6 year-old how to drum like Ringo Starr.
Musical – While the early trend was to intellectualize music and “coagulate” music skills into keyboards and computer programs, games on the Xbox console and other devices are creating ways to enhance musical appreciation and skill acquisition.
Interpersonal – What is social media if not, hopefully, the development of better interpersonal skills? Does texting enhance interpersonal skills? chatting online? Skyping? Collaboration tools enhance group learning and cooperative work. Perhaps it is no wonder that Howard Gardner’s foray into the digital world has been through an exploration of ethics. The proliferation of the smartphone lately has raised concerns that people are withdrawing from face-to-face interactions.
Intrapersonal – Media have always been used for self-exploration through tools like diaries, blogs and biofeedback devices. Also, self-directed learning can be a tool for interpersonal discovery. The trend continues to be towards using digital multimedia in the online education world because of its opportunities for unique and personalized experiences.
Logical-Mathematical – Although this still tends to be the preferred mental mode of modern life, it is challenged by the entertainment culture that media themselves have helped to promote. Economic competition from Asia and other parts of the world have renewed calls for strengthening the educational curriculum to enhances this type of intelligence, and multimedia can play a part.
My interest in computers was first stimulated by a computer game on a system called Plato that simulated an automobile racing track, and each student could propel their car forward by answering math questions such as 49+59. A correct answer would propel the car forward a certain distance. I was amazed by the enjoyment and enhanced attention given by the students as each tried to win the race by answering the questions correctly and quickly.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: bodily-kinesthetic > Howard Gardner > interpersonal > intrapersonal > linguistic > Multiple Intelligences
Wanted: Top Skills in Information System Management
Posted on | February 12, 2011 | No Comments
The market for information tech and systems management skills is starting to look good again, despite a continued trend to look offshore. The following are some of the ISM (Information Systems Management) skills in demand and what talented professionals are making.
- ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming)
- ETL – Extract, Transform, Load
- Informatica
- Oracle Database and Application Server
- Virtualization
- J2EE/Java
ABAP, pronounced as ‘ah-bop’, is a high level application-specific fourth-generation programming language created by the German company SAP, one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world. ABAP runs the SAP enterprise technology database platform that includes NetWeaver and SAP Application Server. Originally designed for materials management and financial and management accounting in large corporations, ABAP now provides programmers with the opportunity to make around $106, 000.
ETL is a process in the SQL environment that involves collecting data from a variety of sources, transforming the data towards a business/operational end and then loading the data into a target database. IT pros with skills and experience in Extract Transform and Load make around $100,000. ETL has been combined into single programming tools that have been used by IBM (IBM InfoSphere DataStage), Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, and Oracle (Oracle Warehouse Builder).
This California company holds some of the most recognized data integration tools including include PowerCenter, PowerExchange and 29West‘s Ultra Messaging. Informatica experts earn an average of $102,000.
Larry Ellison’s Oracle continues to be at the center of the information systems environment and knowledge of Oracle RDBMS and/or Oracle Application Server provides good job opportunities. Oracle Application Server expertise can get you about $88,000 while programmers for Oracle Database are able to take in $91,000.
Virtual means real in effect if not in actuality. Virtualization in an IT sense is the creation of a completely functional hardware platform, network resource, operating system, or a storage device completely regardless of their physical layout or location, meaning it is device-independent for the most part. It is not particularly new and should not be confused with emulation. Virtualization skills run about $85,000.
From its Java beginnings as a client side programming language for mobile applications, J2EE/Java skills have expanded to a wide set of applications. In particular, it has become integral to a wide range of enterprise applications primarily with the use of J2EE. These skills are very much in demand and can garner from $90,000 to $101,000.
Other areas in demand are Peoplesoft, Business Process Improvement, Service Oriented Architecture, Information Security, Global E-commerce, Cloud Management, Salesforce.com, Project Management, Windows Administration, and an assortment of Web Development, Network Administration, and Digital Media skills.
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Anthony J. Pennings, PhD is the Professor of Global Media at Hannam University in South Korea. Previously, he taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and was on the faculty of New York University from 2002-2012. He also taught at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and was a Fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii during the 1990s.
Tags: ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) > ETL - Extract > Informatica > Information Security > J2EE > J2EE/Java > Java > Load > Network Administration > Oracle Database and Application Server > Service Oriented Architecture > Transform > Virtualization
From Sputnik Moment to the Reagan Revolution
Posted on | February 6, 2011 | No Comments
President Obama has mentioned the Sputnik satellite several times in speeches over the last few years to refer to the contemporary challenges facing the US such as climate change, oil depletion and the decline of the American economy. Most recently in the 2011 State of the Union address, he spoke of the Soviet Union’s space success that cut deep into the American psyche and resulted in the the Cold War descending to even chiller depths. He also mentioned that the event sparked the public will for massive investments in science and technology. He called on America to recognize the present as another Sputnik Moment.
- “Half a century ago, the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik. We had no idea how we’d beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t there yet. NASA didn’t exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn’t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs.”
Within months of the Sputnik flight, a new trajectory for America’s space program was set. Drawing on Nazi technology and following Arthur C. Clarke’s schematics to put “rocket stations” into orbit for radio communications, the US accelerated a rocket program. This program refined the propulsion and guidance technology to launch chimpanzees into space and set human astronauts on the lunar surface. Sputnik would help propel satellite research and development. It would transform strategic international espionage and reconnaissance based on Blackbird and U-2 aircraft into a space-based network of covert remote sensing and spy satellites. It would also help create the Intelsat network of global communications connecting the broadcast, telephone data communications systems of countries around the world.
Picking the Fruits of the Cold War
But perhaps more significant was the payoff that began some 20 years later as the technologies created by the Cold War became instruments of economic transformation. President Ronald Reagan, whose 100th birthday anniversary is today, restored a certain measure of American pride, energized American entrepreneurial spirit, and created a new-found skepticism about a growing US bureaucracy. But to really understand his legacy it is important to realize how he cashed in on America’s stock of research and development originating from that Sputnik moment. The Reagan Revolution was one of commercializing and privatizing the fruits of the Cold War and the developments that came out of it. Ronald Reagan helped transition military, space, and intelligence technologies into the commercial practices and products that would spur the economy for several decades.
He addressed the American public in 1981 on US economic problems.
Originally a great admirer of the New Deal, Reagan was changed by his days in Hollywood when he was subject to the New Deal/Cold War’s top tax rate of 92% on his movie and public relations earnings. He became an admirer of Friedrich Von Hayek and other free market advocates including George Gilder and Arthur Laffer, proponents of supply-side economics, which favored the producers in the market equation between supply and demand. In other words, Reagan believed the way to get the American economy on track was to “get government off our backs” and create incentives such as tax breaks for “suppliers” to create new products and services. In the production of commerce, these suppliers would have to hire workers and buy the resources that go into the new products.
Reagan inherited a struggling economy suffering from two oil crises and stifling inflation. After he had taken over, Fed policy rocked the economy further by increasing interest rates to record levels and sending the unemployment to 9.7%. Trade deficits with Japan and Germany added to the outflow of capital along with increasing dependence on oil.
What characterized the economic turnaround of the 1980s was the transition of Cold War technology into microprocessors, personal computers, compact discs, satellite television, and data communications. Supply-side economics, with the help of prominent “supply-siders”, such as Intel’s Gordon Moore, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Lotus’ Mitch Kapor, and CNN’s Ted Turner as well as others such as Michael Dell, capitalized on the space race’s microprocessor and satellite technology to create a new information and communications age. Transistor technology, shaped by Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and the Apollo Moon project into the microprocessor technology of the 1970s, became the brains of the Apple and IBM personal computers that characterized the decade. Satellite technologies and the Space Shuttle were launched on the back of rockets designed by the engineers educated by the GI Bill. Data network technologies invented to create a defensive radar warning shield to protect against nuclear attack became the local area networks (LANs) and global X.25 data lines that propelled enterprise computing and online financial markets.
So the original Sputnik moment, within the context of the Cold War, sparked an extraordinary surge in science and technology that Reagan’s supply side economics helped commercialize into today’s computerized global society. Can Obama’s America create a similar transformation? Are the Bush and Obama tax cuts enough to unleash the “wave of innovation” that will result in the networked green economy needed to overcome the problems associated with the declining availability of affordable petroleum? Was the stimulus that was needed to recover from the abyss of the Great Recession be enough to mobilize the educational and research resources needed create the industries and jobs of the future? Has the “War on Terror” developed a sufficient stock of technological innovations that can be mined for economic adoption? What additional resources can be mustered in an age of continuing deficits and partisan political fighting?
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD is the Professor of Global Media at Hannam University in South Korea. Previously, he taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas and was on the faculty of New York University from 2002-2012. He also taught at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and was a Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii during the 1990s.
Tags: Reagan Revolution > Ronald Reagan > Sputnik > Sputnik Moment > supply siders
China bids Baidu to Google
Posted on | February 2, 2011 | No Comments
While the big search engine news is the row between Google and Microsoft’s Bing, China’s Baidu continues to become a search behemoth with financial successes exceeding expectations and a dominating market share in Chinese language search.
Sanctioned by the People’s Republic of China, Baidu’s name comes from a poem written during the Song Dynasty over 800 years ago and about searching for a beautiful woman in a chaotic crowd. Baidu, which literally means hundreds, refers to the many glances scanning the crowd before she is finally sighted. The term seems appropriate for the massive quantitative crunching of today’s search engines and especially the complex mapping of the Chinese language.
Located in Beijing and registered in the Cayman Islands, Baidu is the most successful Chinese language search engine to date, reaching 76% of the market in fourth quarter of 2010. It’s total revenues in the same quarter were estimated at $371 million, nearly double its figures from the same period a year earlier.
Some background on Baidu:
Google’s market share fell below 20% for the first time in the last quarter of 2010, due in part, to Google’s decision to reroute its traffic to its Hong Kong servers. The decision was made last year in order to avoid some self-censorship requirements imposed by mainland China.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: Baidu > Chinese language > Google vs Baidu > Google vs. Bing > search engines
Comcast and General Electric Complete NBC Universal Deal
Posted on | January 31, 2011 | No Comments
Comcast has now completed it’s acquisition of NBC Universal. Marguerite Reardon reports that the new company will retain the NBC Universal name, but Comcast now owns 51 percent, while General Electric will retain 49 percent. The deal comes after The US Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission recently allowed the joint venture to continue. However, it imposed several conditions on the media corporation, which is now valued at $37 billion. The conditions were meant to keep the new conglomerate from stifling competition, particularly in the online video distribution business.
Susan Crawford, a Special Assistant to President Obama for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, gave a talk at NYU last November on the implications of the deal.
The new firm will combine Comcast’s 23 million cable subscribers and nearly 17 million Internet broadband users with GE’s cable channels, including Bravo, CNBC, E!, G4, MSNBC, SyFy, and USA, its NBC broadcast TV stations, NBC-affiliated stations, Spanish-speaking Telemundo and mun2, plus Universal Studios and related international theme parks. (I’ve been to the one in Japan.)
The FCC voted 4-1 for the approval, with Democratic commissioner, Michael J. Copps, opposing the deal and warning about the power of the new conglomerate:
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“The Comcast-NBCU joint venture opens the door to the cable-ization of the open Internet. The potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users, and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.”
PBS did a good analysis early on in the process.
A former NBC employee now in the Senate, Al Franken weighs in on the merger.
Avoiding being just an empty pipe has been one of Comcast’s major concerns. It now boasts on its website that the combination gives them “a world-class cable network portfolio”, one of the world’s most successful movie production studios, and “an Emmy Award-winning television production studio”.
One of the big things to look for with the merger is a serious bid to challenge ESPN in the sports arena.
Citation APA (7th Edition)
Pennings, A.J. (2011, Jan 31). Comcast and General Electric Complete NBC Universal Deal. apennings.com https://apennings.com/media-strategies/comcast-and-general-electric-complete-nbc-universal-deal/
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: Comcast > General Electric > MSNBC > NBC Universal > Susan Crawford
Communications and Media Policy in the 112th Congress
Posted on | January 30, 2011 | No Comments
The Republican victory in House of Representatives suggests new dynamics for communications policy in the 112th Congress although the majority of Democrats in the Senate, however slim, will make it unlikely that any radical changes will occur in the upcoming year.
In the Congress, “communications” covers a wide range of media and telecommunications issues including those involving cable TV, cell phones, commercial TV, consumer electronics, the Internet, noncommercial television, public safety communications, satellite broadcast, satellite communications, radio, telephones, as well as wireline and wireless broadband.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is now chaired by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) with Greg Walden (R-Ore.) taking over the powerful Communications, Technology and Internet subcommittee and is likely to combat the administration’s net neutrality initiatives. The subcommittee has jurisdiction over all telecommunication and information transmissions including foreign telecommunications and cybersecurity. The Democrats have named Rep. Anna Eshoo as the ranking minority member of the subcommittee. Eshoo represents northern California and has been involved in telecom and other high-tech issues.
In the Senate, John D. Rockefeller heads the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation with former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry chairing the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, which I have heard is now called the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. The ranking minority member is Republican John Ensign of Nevada.
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Majority Members – Democrats
Kerry, John F. (MA), Chairman
Inouye, Daniel K. (HI)
Nelson, Bill (FL)
Cantwell, Maria (WA)
Lautenberg, Frank R. (NJ)
Pryor, Mark L. (AR)
McCaskill, Claire (MO)
Klobuchar, Amy (MN)
Udall, Tom (NM)
Warner, Mark R. (VA)
Begich, Mark (AK)
Rockefeller, John D. (WV), Ex Officio
The Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet is responsible for oversight of a number of government organizations most notably the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA). The NTIA advises the President on telecommunications policy, manages government electromagnetic spectrum as well as its broadband initiatives.
Anthony J. Pennings, PhD has been on the NYU faculty since 2001 teaching digital media, information systems management, and global communications.
Tags: 112th Congress > and the Internet > Communications > Greg Walden (R-Ore.) > House Committee on Energy and Commerce > John D. Rockefeller > Rep. Anna Eshoo > Rep. Fred Upton > Senate Subcommittee on Communications > Technology > Technology and Internet subcommittee
Referencing this Material
About Me
Professor at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and strategic communications.
You can reach me at:
apennings70@gmail.com
anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr
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