University of Western Police Brutality - YOUTUBE = NEWS

Prior to the internet how long would it have taken to get a news event out? A couple of hours would have been considered fast. In the time of news print, it would require the effort of a team of people to get a story ready and run the printing press to release the 'special edition'. An example of this is highlighted in the TIME article from 1945 . Today however, news can be spread by one individual around the world in a matter of seconds.

The recent incident on the campus of Western University highlights the power of the individual in a world revloving around technology. Of course these youtube news events aren't without its drawbacks. For example, we don't know the whole story, but what we do know is that the police were taking no prisoners when this guy would not "stop resisting".

News can spread like wild fire and eyes are everywhere. The video below is what was released about 20 mintues after the event took place and quickly captured the attention of tens of thousands of people.



Now I am not the biggest fan of authority figures either, but this guy is clearly going to have strong views against authority after this event. There is clearly more to this than we see, but what we can see from the video is how perceptions can be made from partial information. The UWO gazette cover the arrest in more detail.

In the world today it is important to realize how businesses can communicate across borders and retrieve news events relavent to its industry quickly and efficiently. No longer is it difficult to obtain news from any corner of the globe. The internet in all its awesome power has made e-business possible and the possibility for individuals to report their own news events.

I'm going to coin a new term which I think is very true and relates to this post it is e-news. The ability for the  individual to post news electronically from anywhere in the world.

So keep those cameras rolling, because you never know when you will have the next big story.

Let's push things forward

Focus on the future don't dwell on the past, learn from our mistakes and more importantly the mistakes of others. As Issac Newton said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". What can we take from this?

Well for starters, there is no way in our lifetime that we can make all the mistakes that we would require to get everything right. What I mean by this, is basically, to learn from the mistakes of others. Whether that be other companies, other friends, our parents or role models. By learning from others we can make improvements on their methods, thus pushing things forward.

Keep moving forward, grow, learn and develop. We are constantly learning in our lives, and if not, you better start. Life evolves and we need to be constantly adapting whether that's in the business world or otherwise.

I recently attended a dinner/awards ceremony for I.E. Canada and they were awarding companies for improving process for export, greening the supply chain and leadership. They are recognizing the individuals who are moving forward.

Life can throw some tough times at us and although living in the present is very important and appreciating what we have, it is just as important to focus on the future and where our hard work today will put us in the future.

So I urge all of my readers, keep moving forward and live in the now, think in the future. 

Human Resources? What human resources?

Human resources, where do I begin????   How about I don't !  Sounds like a good idea to me. I don't want to be one to preach to the masses but as the flobots so eloquently put it in their song 'handlebars' (which you should definitely check out), they say " I can lead a nation with a microphone".  Now I'm not saying I can lead a nation, heck according to my followers only 14 people really care about what I have to say, but I digress.

Human resources, not something we consider all that often, however, aparently HR takes up 70% of the expenses of a company to pay wages. blah blah blah. But seriously, just for a moment, human resources is something that every business needs to consider, especially when sending employees overseas. I am reading a book right now that makes you think about human resources without you even knowing it. On the Wings of Eagles, is a book written by Ken Follett, lately a personal favorite of mine. Without getting into too much detail it's about executives of an american company working in Iran, confusion ensues and the executives are thrown in jail. Then the company organizes a team of people to secretly go and break them out - as a friend put it after my explanation ' it sounds like a guy's book'. I'd probably have to agree. But it makes you think about the elements to consider when working on international assignments which are related to human resouces.

So what do you know, I guess I do have to consider human resouces down the road. But no matter the business, whether online or 'brick and mortar' the people outside - the customer keep you in business and the people inside - the employees run the business. Therefore we can't avoid the human element, thus making HR relevant to all of us.

Oh, and yes I can ride a bike with no handlebars.

Question! How do we feed 9,100,000,000 people?

People say I eat a lot, this could be true, however, I don't waste my food and I live to eat as well as eat to live. I am very fortunate to be living a life where I don't have to question where my next meal is going to come from, even though I am a student, I still get my food. However, there is a growing shortage of food around the world.

Recent BBC reports have suggested that food production needs to increase 70%, WOW. Are you kidding me? Well, no, I'm pretty sure they are not and the people that are suffering from food shortages are the same people who struggle for water. We complain about the price of gas being too high and then we rush out and spend $1.50 on half a liter of water. Have you considered what kind of a mess we could be in if gas prices were that high for us?

What we need to recognize is that those suffering from food and water shortages are also the individuals that we are so keen on getting computers into their hands and the internet at the tips of their fingers. I am all for the development of the web and trying to reach the far corners of the globe and involve them in the tech generation, but first we need to FEED them. Companies need to focus on ways to feed the future. If as much attention that is put towards food and feeding the world as is put on technology and what it can do for us, there just might be 3 billion other people that can contribute to the betterment of the world.

Smart Phones for Smart Companies...coming up next, Smart people

It's a berry good thing that we like technology, because technology, in its own messed up way, has a method to making our lives easier.

Smartphones are fast becoming the way to stay connected to the web. Businesses all over the world are turning to blackberries, iphones and also the windows phone, yes there is a phone with the windows O/S. Even the president of the United States, Mr. Obama has the blackberry to get those important emails when he needs them. We thought that with wireless internet we would always be connected, then they introduced cell phones with web capability. It was the "in" thing - to be able to surf the web on your phone.

Of course we have come along way from checking movie times and the score in the game. Now we have nothing short of a computer literally in the palm of our hand, which we are now sticking into our ear. This is ofcourse in an attempt to increase the handsfree capability. Which is great, because companies are not going to want their employees crashing, trying to reply to emails or make the important call while driving in the rain. Some new technology on the market which has identified this need of handsfree has introduced a nifty product that will read your emails to you via bluetooth and also reads the news and weather and everything the primative web capable phones did, but wirelessly and handsfree. It's the iLane.

The cool thing with technology is that companies can now be even more connected. They can really be an e-business. Technology is great and is helping us in ways we never even imagined, I mean the internet and web are pretty sweet and its off this technology that grew e-business, and the whole wireless world.