Principles For 21st Century Government

                This post is a summary of two articles. The first with the title above was published in 2014 at http://www.codeforamerica.org/governments/principles/. The second with the title of, "Principles for good governance in the 21st century." was published  at  http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UNPAN/UNPAN011842.pdf

                Governments through the use of technology and new ways of working can deliver a more effective, efficient, and fair governance for the 21st century. Through these, we have identified seven principles that we believe are critical for governments of any size, strucuture, or political persuasion in serving their communities. Governments should learn and apply these principles to any problem. 1) Design for people's needs - Government's purpose is to serve residents, and we can do this best when we deeply understand who we are working for. When government services are designed to treat all residents with respect, emphaty, and dignity, a transformative trust can be gained. Begin all projects by conducting research with the people to understand who they are and what they need. Design policy, and services around those needs, continuously returning to residents to get feedback. 2) Make it easy for everyone to participate - Serving everyone means working with, not just for, a true cross-section of the community. Governments should proactively collaborate with the community and seek participation from all residents in decisions that affect them. Communicate using language that is easy to understand. 3) Focus on what government can do - Government can not and should not do everything alone. With limited resources to solve complex problems, they should prioritize the work they can have most impact. Develop relationships with partners working towards similar goals, like universities to share skills and resources. Make it easy for others to build on their work by offering data with clear documentation. 4) Make data easy to find and use - Open data helps make government better. Governments hold a lot of information that is valuable and sometimes critically important. A 21st century government makes public data available so that others can use it in meaningful ways. Gets the relevant data at the right time, in a format that is easy to undestand for all. 5) Use data to make and improve decisions. - Good decisions are informed by data, and as we gather more information by testing assumptions, we can make better decisions. 21st century governments use data tools to get a more complete understanding of problems. Start with small solutions, test them to gather more data, and make improvements based on what is learned. Make this data publicy available to drive transparency, civic engagement, and accountability. 6) Organize for results - The successful governments have been those that challenge and reform policies and practices that are outdated and inefficient. This is nothing but the transformation of government, with technology and new processes working together. 21st century governments work in an agile way, continuously improving existing processes. Support new approaches to problems. Invest in staff to build skills, as well as hiring new talent. Acknowledge and reward good work. Recognize that once service has been delivered, continuous improvement must be in place.

                Defining the principles of good governance is difficult and controversial. The United Nations development Program (UNDP) enunciates a set of principles that, with slight variations, appear in much of the literature. There is strong evidence that these UNDP principles have a claim to universal recognition. In grouping them in five broad themes, we recognize that these principles often overlap or are conflicting at some point, that they play out in practice according to the actual social context, applying such principles is complex, and that they are all about not only the results of power but how well it is exercised. 1) Legitimacy and Voice - All men and women should have a voice in decision-making, either directly or through intermediate institutions. Good governance mediates differing interests to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interest. 2) Direction - Leaders and the public have a broad and long-term perspective on good governance and human development. There is also an understand of the historical, cultural and social complexities in which that perspective is grounded. 3) Performance - Institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders. Effectiveness and efficiency so the processes and produce results that meet needs while making the best use of resources. 4) Accountability - Decision-making in government, the private sector and civil society organizations are accountable to the public, as well as to institutional stakeholders. This accountability differs depending on the organizations and whether the decisions is internal and external. Transparency is built on the free flow of information. Enough information is provided to understand. 5) Fairness - All men and women have opportunities to improve or maintain their well-being. Legal frameworks should be fair and enforced impartially, particularly the law on human rights. Of the five principles, "Legitimacy and voice" and "Fairness" have the strongest claim to universal recognition based on over a half century of U.N. accomplishments in the field of human rights. Fairness is about the rule of law, among other things, this principle encompass an independent judiciary and right to seek legal remedies. Governance opens new intellectual space. It provides a concept that allow us to discuss the role of government in coping with public issues and the contribution that other players may make. It opens one's mind to the possibility that groups in society other than government many have to play a stronger role in addressing problems. The central conclusion is that a universal set of principles for defining good governance can be fashioned and that the strength of their universality rests to the body of international human rights. In addtion, these principles can be usefully applied to help deal with current governance challenges. Finally, the nature of governance, both the means and the end, needs to be understood. Only then it make sense to elaborate the principles in order to create a meaningful analytical tool.

What is Gone Wrong With Democracy

                     This post is a summary of an essay with the title above.  And was published  at  http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21596796-democracy-was-most-successful-political-idea-20th-century-why-has-it-run-trouble-and-what-can-be-do

                  The protesters who have overturned the politics of Ukraine have many aspirations for the country. Their fundamental demand is one that has motivated people over many decades to take a stand against corrupt, abusive and autocratic governments. They want a rules-based democracy. It is easy to understand why. Democracies are on average richer than non-democracies, are less likely to go to war and have a better record of fighting corruption. More fundamentally, democracies lets people speak their minds and shape their own and their children's futures. That so many people in so many parts of the world are prepared to risk so much for this idea. In the seconf half of the 20th century, democracies had taken root in the most difficult circumstances possible, in Germany, which had been traumatised by Nazism, in South Africa, which had been disfigured by apartheid. Decolonialisation created a host of new democracies in Africa and Asia, and autocratic regimes gave away to democracy in Spain and most Latin America countries. The Chinese Comunist Party has broken the democratic world's monopoly on economic progress. China's critics rightly condemn the government for controlling public opinion in all sort of ways, from imprisoning dissidents to censoring internet discussions. Building institutions needed to sustain democracy is slow work and has dispelled the once-popular notion that democracy will blossom rapidly and spontaneously once the seed is planted. Although democracy may be a universal aspirations, it is a culturally rooted practice. Western countries almost all extended the rights to vote long after the establishment of political systems, with powerful civil services and constitutional rights, in societies that cherished the notions of individual rights and independent judiciaries. In recent years the institutions that are meant to provide models for new democracies have come to seem dysfunctional in established ones. The U.S. has become a byword for gridlock, obsessed with partisan point-scoring that it has come to the verge of defaulting on its debts twice in the past two years. Its democracy is also corrupted by gerrymandering. This encourages extremism, because politicians have to appeal only to the party faithful, and in effect disenfranchises large numbers of voters. Nor is the E.U. a paragon of democracy. The E.U. has become a breeding ground for populist parties, which claim to defend ordinary people against arrogant elite. Greece's Golden Dawn is testing how far democracies can tolerate Nazi-style parties. A project designed to tame the beast of European populism is instead poking it back into life. From below come equally powerful challenges: from would-be breakaways nations, such as the Catalans and the Scots, from American city mayors. All are trying to reclaim power from national governments. there are also NGOs and lobbyists, which are disrupting traditional politics. The internet makes it easier to organize and agitate, the machinery and institutions of parliamentary democracy, where elections happen only every few years, look increasingly anachronistic. Adjusting to hard times will be made even more difficult by a growing cynism towards politics. Party membership is declining across the developed world: only 1% of Britons are now members of political parties compared with 20% in 1950. The result can be a toxic and unstable mixture: dependency on government on the one hand, and disdain for it on the other. The dependency forces government to overexpand and overburden itself, while the disdain robs its legitimacy. At the same time, democracies in the emerging world have encountered the same problems as those in the rich world. They too have overindulged in short-term spending rather than long-term investment. China's stunning advances conceal deeper problems. The political elite is becoming a self-perpetuating and self-serving clique. The 50 richest members of the China's National People's Congress are collective worth $94.7 billion, 60 times as much as the 50 richest members of the U.S. Congress. At the same time, as Alex de Tocqueville pointed out in the 19th century, democracies always look weaker than they really are: Being able to install alternative leaders offering alternative policies makes democracies better than autocracies at finding creative solutions to problems. The most striking thing about the founders of modern democracies such as: James Madison and John Stuart Mill is how hard-headed they were. They regard democracy as a powerful but imperfect mechanism: something that needed to be designed carefully, in order to harness human creativity but also to check human perversity, and then kept in good working order, constantly adjusted and worked upon. The need for hard-headedness is particularly pressing when establishing a nascent democracy. One reason why so many democratic experiments have failed recently is that they put too much emphasis on elections and too little on the other essential features of democracy. The power of the state needs to be checked, for instance, and individual rights such as freedom of speech. The most successful new democracies have all worked in large part because they avoided the temptations of majoritarianism, the notion that winning an election entitles  to do whatever it pleases. India and Brazil has survived as democracies for the same reason: both put limits on the power of the government and provided guarantees for individual rights. Robust constitutions not only promote long-term stability, but also bolster the struggle against corruption, the bane of developing nations. Conversely, the first sign that a fledgling democracy is heading for the rocks often comes when rulers try to erode constraints on their power. Foreign leaders should be more willing to speak out when rulers engage in such illiberal behaviour, even if a majority supports it. but the people who most need to learn this lesson are the architects of new democracies: they must recognise that robust checks and balances are just as vital to the establishment of a healthy democracy as the right to vote. Even those to live in mature democracies need to pay attention to the architecture of their political systems. The combination of globalisation and digital revolution has made some democracies look outdated. Established democracies need to updated their own political systems both to address the problems they face at home and to revitalise their image abroad. But reformers need to be more ambitious. The best way to constrain the power of special interests is to limit the number  of goodies that the state can hand out. And the best way to address popular disillusion towards politicians is to reduce the number of promises they can make. The notion of limited government was integral to the relaunch of democracy after the second world war. The U.N. and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established rights that countries could not breach, even if majorities wanted to do so. These checks were motivated by fear of tyranny. But today, the dangers to democracy are harder to spot. One is the growing size of the state. The relentless expansion of government is reducing liberty and handing ever more power to special interest. The other comes from the government's habits of making promises that it can not fulfil. Modern tech can promote civic involvement and innovation. Tech and direct democracy can keep each other in check. Several places are making progress towards getting this mixture right. The most encouraging example is California. Its system of direct democracy allowed its citizens to vote for contradictory policies. But over the past five years California has introduced reforms. Similarly, the Finnish government has set up a non-partisan commission to produce proposals. At the same time it is trying to harness e-democracy: parliament is obliged to consider any initiative that gains 50,000 signatures. But many more such experiments are needed, combining tech with direct democracy its to zigzag its way back to health. Democracy was the great victor of the ideological clashes of the 20th century, But if democracy is to remain as sucessful in the 21st century, it must be both assiduously nurtured and carefully maintained.

Gerrymandering - alter the boundaries od a constituency  to favour one political party in an election.
Anachronistic - a thing belonging to a period other than the one in which it exist.
Hard-headed - tough and realistic.
Relentless - never stoping or weakning.
Zigzag - a line of course or path, or progression characterized by alternate turns to one side and then to the other.

Manufacturing the Future: The Next Era of Global Growth and Innovation - Part II

               This is post is a summary of the chapter 5,with the title of, "Implications for policy makers." From the book with the title above, the same book of last week. Published in November 2012 at http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/manufacturing/the_future_of_manufacturing

                 Governments around the globe are under pressure to find ways to economic growth. Facing weak domestic demand, many policy makers have shifted focus to exports and to manufacturing. This has led nations to consider more active measure to support specific industries and sectors. As a result, we see increasing intensity in the already fierce competition among governments to attract and retain manufacturing companies and activities. In this chapter we conclude our analysis of the future of manufacturing with recommendations for how nations can develop policies and address the circumstances of their economies and the manufacturing industries they have or can attract. Good manufacturing policies are grounded in facts, performance and benchmarking data that establish a nation's starting point in global competition and an objective assessment of how trends in demand and other factors are influencing diverse manufacturing industries within the economy. We begin with a realistic diagnosis of what strengths a nation or region brings, as well as the weaknesses it needs to overcome and opportunities that can be exploited. A nation's comparative advantage are influenced by its endowments: its natural resources, the quality of its labor force, its energy, transportation, and finance systems. While certain physical endowments (e.g., iron ore and gold deposits, or geographic proximity to large markets) are immutable, many attributes evolve over time, reflecting the impact of government policy and companies actions. The depth of a nation's talent pool or the quality of its infrastructure is often a direct outcome of its policies. Endowments also shift as nations become wealthier. As incomes rise and low-cost labor is no longer a advantage, a nation's manufacturing mix shifts from labor-intensive industries to those that are R&D-intensive. Taiwan, followed this pattern and planned for the sequence in their industrial strategies, invested in creating a skilled labor force with strong engineering capabilities and introduced strong intellectual property protection. By themselves, however, good endowments do not guarantee strong performance and competitive advantage. How nations use their endowments and how they develop new capabilities often matter more. Japan, for example, lacks endowments of domestic energy assets, but policy has compensated for this gap. To help their manufacturers make the most of emerging demands trends, governments have several options. They can continue to provide financing for exports to developing economies. They can also play a role in connecting their exporting manufacturing companies to fast-growing markets by upgrading shipping or air-freight infrastructure negotiating trade agreements or helping to attract skilled talent. Governments can also help industry develop knowledge that will enable companies to succeed in new markets. Historically, manufacturing innovation has been the largest contributor to productivity growth across economies. Standards setting is a tool that governments can use to help commercialize innovation. Auto mileage standards and regulations on carbon emissions can provide the catalyst for products such as eletric vehicles or the adoption of green techniques. The skill challenge is already apparent in many sectors and is expected to get worse. With the increasing speed and complexity of industries, the need for more high-skilled workers is growing and shortages of workers with training in technical and analytical specialties are appearing. In the U.S. auto industry, 70% of executies surveyed, said they had trouble finding engineering and technical talent in 2011, up from 42% in 2010. In addition to efforts to improve public education, policy makers can help steer students into the appropriate fields. This can be done by providing accessible information about what workers at different occupations can expect to be paid, and how quickly new graduates are likely to be employed. Governments can prepare young people for emerging manufacturing jobs, develop vocational training that leads to industry and nationwide certification. A critical step is to build alignment around the economic goals. Governments at all levels have increased the odds of success by building solid private-sector support. When there is alignment by companies, workers, investors, and communities, strategies can have great impact. The German success in global automotive leadership, for example, depends in no small measure on broad support from governments, auto and auto parts companies, research institutions, employees, and the public. Tiny Oulu in Finland built a global mobile tech cluster through close collaboration between city government, local universities and Nokia. As the global economy continues to recover from recession, growth strategies are critically important. The damage inflicted on national balance sheets by debt crisis makes it more important than ever to spend public funds wisely, in this environment, ineffective and ill-conceived investments by governments will be doubly costly. 

Manufacturing the Future: The Next Era of Global Growth and Innovation

                 This post is a summary of a book with the complete title above, published in November 2012 by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the business and economics arm of McKinsey&Company http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/manufacturing/the_future_of_manufacturing  

                  The MGI undertook this research to gain a better understanding of how manufacturing contributes to developing and advanced economies in the 21st century. We find that manufacturing stll matters a great deal, driving innovation and productivity in advanced economies and economic advancement in developing ones. The factors we describe point to an era of truly global manufacturing in both advanced and developing economies. The new era of manufacturing will be marked by highly agile, networked enterprises that use inoformation and analytics as skillfully as they employ talent and machinery to deliver products to diverse global markets. As long as companies and countries understand and act on the powerful trends shaping the global competitive environment, they can thrive in this promising future. Manufacturing has always included a range of activities in addition to production. Over time, service-like activities, such as R&D, marketing and costumer support, have become a larger share of what manufacturing companies do. A new era of global manufacturing is ahead, driven by shifts in demand and by innovation in materials, processes, ICT and operations. The prospect is for more "global" manufacturing industry, in which developing economies are the source of costumers as well as the source of low-cost production. Some forces are already being felt: the shift of global demand toward developing economies, the proliferation of products to meet costumer demand, the growing importance of value-added services, and rising wages. Other trends are now becoming more pronounced, such as a growing scarcity of technical talent, and the use of greater intelligence in product design and manufacturing to boost resource and track activity in supply chains. Innovations create new possibilities. These innovations include new materials such as carbon fiber and nanotechnology, advanced robotics and 3-D printing, and new ICT that can generate new forms of intelligence, such as big data and the use of data-gathering sensors in production machinery and in logistics. Taken together, the opportunities and challenges have the potential to shift the basis for how companies pursue new markets and how they will expanf their production and R&D footprints. However, for most manufactures, the more pressing workforce issue likely will be the struggle to find well-trained talent. Manufacturing is increasingly high-tech. The global supply of high-skill workers is not keeping up the demand, and MGI projects a shortage of 40 million high-skilled workers by 2020. New ICTs, and new methods will require new tools, talent and mindsets. To respond quickly to changes and meet the demand for faster product cycles, companies will need to build integrated systems of suppliers, reseachers and partners. And the productivity will expand beyond capital/labor trade-offs to include resource productivity. Manufacturers have to fight hard to win the war for talent, everything from experts in big-data to skilled production workers. In many places, manufacturers will need to get more involved in building a talent supply. For example, Siemens is implementing apprenticeship program in Charlotte, North Carolina. Apprentices graduate from the work-study program with degrees in mechatronics. The role of policy in manufacturing is largely about enable and creating an environment for competitive and innovative companies to flourish, helping create sustainable conditions for local manufacturing. They need to remove regulatory barriers (from red tape to trade barriers) and strengthen underlying enablers by supporting R&D and investing in infrastructure. A key policy for manufaturing is education and skill development. The basis of competition in most sectors is shifting and access to diverse talent pool is critically important. Companies need to build R&D capabilities as well as expertise in data analytics and product design. They will need qualified, computer-savvy workers and agile managers. In addition to continuing efforts to improve public education, policy makers need to work with industry and educational institutions to ensure that skills learned in schools fit the needs of employers. Building an industrial base is necessary for economic development, we are not aware of a nation that has skipped the industrial stage and moved up to wealthy-nation status. So, for example, even as India has jumped ahead into services exports with a successful business-services outsourcing industry, it continues to follow the traditional development path, too, building up physical infrastructure to support industry and removing barriers to enable manufacturing to expand. In addition to its contribution to productivity and consumer surplus, manufacturing is a disproportionately important driver of R&D. Many innovations and tech that are developed in manufacturing also can be used in other sectors, multiplying the benefits beyond this sector. Among a small set of countries that we analyzed, manufacturing shouldered between 67% and 89% of business R&D expenses in 2008 and in Germany, Japan and the U.S. manufacturing companies registered between 53% and 73% of all patents between 2007 and 2009. Even in industries where innovation and production are tightly linked, companies do not automatically relocate R&D to their offshore production sites. Food companies must tailor their products to local taste. Yet Nestlé develops many of its products in Europe. Makers of mobile phones and other consumer eletronics products need to engage with dozens of parts suppliers that cluster around Asia production sites. Even so, Apple continues to come up with its innovative iPhone designs in California. And German automotive companies are among the most global players, yet Volkswagen maintains most of its platform development in Wolfsburg. New tech and innovations as well as new sources of demand provide the opportunity. In the coming years, countries will have a rising need for high-skill production workers, engineers who have the training to work in cross-functional specialties (e.g. eletric power trains in autos) and workers familiar with new materials and ICTs. Companies that can maintain or improve access to highly skilled talent, particularly in R&D will have a competitive advantage. To fill talent supply, companies are working individually or with other companies to partner with universities on training.In addition to technical skills, global manufacturers face a shortage of leadership talent, particularly in developing economies. Companies must create leadership opportunities in emerging markets, even if they have not spent time working in a developed economy. In Brazil, the mining giant Vale SA found that it lacked managerial talent and needed to train current workers as well as build a talent supply. It approached public universities in the states in which it had operations, and together they created graduated programs in disciplines directly related to its business. University professors teach the curriculum, and Vale executives work as part-time teachers and consultants. Vale has also invested $12 million in professional training centers outside the company to reach people.

Why do We Need to Study Literature?

                 This post is a summary of three articles. The first was  published at  http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/AP_CM_Eng_Lit_differential_instruction.pdf    The second with the title above was published in 2009 at                                                             http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-do-we-need-study-literature- The third was published at http://writingcommons.org/open-text/genres/academic-writing/literary-criticism/28-literary-criticism

                 iPods, Play Stations, YouTube, TV, Cable TV, Tweeting, Facebook or a good Book? Increasingly books face more and more competition for people's attention. Even who likes to read finds the onslaught of alternative media hard to ignore. Furthermore, if family members do not read at home, then it is likely that, reading literature (or reading at all) may not be modeled at home, a key element to encouraging reading. At the same time, the ENEM Exam is, among other things, a test of how well reader a student is. A well-read student is more likely to have a large vocabulary, respond more quickly to texts and with more eloquence, and have greater familiarity with the various motifs in the poetry and prose passages. This is such an important factor that planning for the ENEM exam must include a reading program for the two or three years of high school. Yet no amount of assigned reading in and out of class necessarily overcome the noise of the distractions seducing the students away from good authors. The exam rewards the well-read booklovers. Yet a love of literature is more likely to happen in the first 17 years of a student's life than in the months they have before the exam. Thus, the teacher has to prepare students for the rigorous reading expectations of university and to turn them on to reading during their months in the preparatory course.

               Literature is part of our cultural heritage which is freely available to everyone, and which can enrich our lives in all kinds of ways. Once we have broken the barriers that make studying literature seem daunting, we find that literary works can be entertaining, beautiful, funny, or tragic. They can convey profundity of thought, richness of emotion, and insight into character. They take us beyond our limited experience of life to show us the lives of other people at other times. They stir us intellectually and emotionally, and deepen our understanding of our history, our society, and our own individual lives. In great writing from the past we find the country of our ancestors, and we not only see the country and the people as they were, but we also soak up the climate of the times through the language itself, its vocabulary, grammar, and tone. Literature unlocks the culture of the time period, and in a way can give wisdom to the modern society about life. Literature allows us to interpret our own life and emotions and finds ways to relate to the story so we in turn can reflect. It is also a form of entertainment and allows people to use their imagination to visualize the story within their own mind. But the real point of literature is the story of life, and all people want to do is to connect to other human beings so they find meaning in their own life. Literature allows personal interpretation that reading a newspaper or most magazine do not allow. In literature, there are aspects like metaphors, weaving narratives, character points of view and irony that we have to actively sort through in order to truly understand the text. In essence, literature makes us smarter. Not only do we learn about the subjects that an author is writing about, but we make our mind stronger by putting the puzzle of words into coherent images in our mind. It also expand our vocabulary.

                 By reading and discussing literature, we expand our imagination, our sense of what is possible, and our ability to emphathize with others. Improve our ability to read critically and interpret texts while gaining appreciation for different literary genres and theories of interpretation. Texts that interpret literary works are usually persuasive texts. Literary critics may conduct a close reading of a literary work, critique a literary work from the stance of a particular literary theory, or debate the soundness of other critics' interpretations. The work of literary critics is similar to the work of authors writing evaluative texts. For example, the skills required to critique films, interpret laws, or evaluate artistic trends are similar to those skills required by literary critics. The genre of literary interpretation is more specialized than most of the genres addressed in this section, as suggeste below. People may discuss their reactions to literary works informally but literary criticism takes place more formally: in universities, academic magazines and websites. Below is a summary  of some of the more popular literary theories. Because it is a summary, the following tends to oversimplify the theories. Schools of Literary Criticism: New Criticism - Focuses on "objectively" evaluating the text, identifying its underlying form. May study, for example, a text's use of imagery, metaphor, or symbolism. It is not concerned with matters outside the text, such as contextual information. Feminism: Focused on understanding ways gender roles are reflected or contradicted by texts, how dominance and submission play out in texts, and how gender roles evolve in texts.Psychoanalytical: Focuses on psychological dimensions of the work. Postcolonial: Focuses on how Western culture's (mis)representation of third-world countries and peoples in stories, myths, and stereotypical images encourages repression and domination. Marxist: Focuses on ways texts reflect, reinforce, or challenge the effects of class, power relations and social roles.                                                                                                                   

International Privacy Day

                 Last week on Wednesday, Europe and U.S celebrated the Privacy online, so let is hope  this good idea to spread to rest of the world. This is so important right that there are many NGOs exclusively to protect it. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Privacy_Day. The second with the incomplete title above was published at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stewart-wolpin/internationalprivacyday. The third was published at https://www.staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/get-involved/. The fourth was published at https://www.priv.gc.ca/media/nr-c/2015/nr-c_150128_e.asp

               Also known as Data Privacy Day, Occurs every January 28. The purpose of this day is to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices. It is currently 'celebrated' in the U.S., Canada, and 27 European countries. In Europe it is referred to as Data Protection Day. Privacy Day's educational initiative originally focused on raising awareness among users about the importance of protecting the privacy of their personal information online. In addition to its educational initiative, Privacy Day promotes events and activities that stimulate the development of tech tools that promote individual control over personal information, encourage compliance with privacy laws, and create dialogues among stakeholders interested in advancing data protecting and privacy. The day was initiated by the Council of Europe to be first held in 2007. Two years later, The U.S. House of Representatives declared January 28 National Data Privacy Day.

               You probably know data is collected about you every time you visit a website, shop online, engage in social sharing, enable location services or send digital messages and email. But according to a recent global study by Microsoft, most cybers users still do not feel they are aware of the information that is being collected about them. So how do you protect yourself from undesired data collection, and your collected data from misuse or misappropriation? So it is up to us to understand our own privacy rights and how best to protect what is ours in cyberspace. If you are concerned about your data privacy, be willing to adjust your online habits. Sure, it is inconvenient having to lock all your house or car every time you leave it, but it is better than being robbed. Your personal data is just as if not more valuable, so it is worth giving up a little convenience to protect it.

                 Privacy Day is an international effort centered on respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust. Privacy Day's goals are to: raise awareness and educate consumers how their information may be collected and the benefits and risks of sharing personal data. Empower consumers to express their expectations for the use, protection and management of their data. Inspire through simple and actionable tips to more actively manage their online lives. Encourage and motivate users to consider the privacy implications of their online actions for themselves and others. Encourage businesses to be data stewards by being open and honest about how they collect, use and share personal information and clearly communicating any available privacy and security controls. Does the protection of data and privacy matter to you? If so, join us in raising awareness of Privacy. You have all the tools to be an effective advocate for protecting data and privacy online! Here are some of the things you can do : Be a leader on social media. Post privacy tips, or create your own messages. Get all your social media resources on this site. Attend a Privacy Day event. Networking events for privacy professionals. Share privacy resources. Print privacy tips sheets to display around the home computer or office, and other public gathering places like libraries and community centers. Discuss privacy with your family and friends. Have a "privacy talk" with your family and friends, reminding everyone not to overshare personal information online. Discuss other tips for using mobile devices and social networks responsibly. Use Privacy Day resources to guide the conversation.

               A growing number of Canadians say they are concerned about privacy, according to a nw survey commissioned by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. The poll found that nine in ten Canadians were concerned about privacy. One in three (34%) said they are extremely concerned, up from 25% in 2012. "Canadians are telling us they are concerned about many privacy issues, for example, data breaches, identity theft, digital privacy and warrantless access to personal data held by tele companies," says Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien. He adds, "Canadians deeply value privacy, but fear they are losing the control they have over their personal information. It is imperative we find ways to enhance that sense of control so that people feel their privacy rights are being respected." While they expressed concerns about many issues, roughly half of Canadians said they do not have a good understand of what businesses and government will do with their personal information. "There are lessons to draw from those findings," says Commissioner Therrien. "Government departments and agencies need to respond to citizens expectations that they be transparent about how they collect and use personal information."

          

Defining a 21st Century Education

                       This post is a summary of the part 1 of the book with the title above published at http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Learn-About/21st-Century/Defining-a-21st-Century-Education-Full-Report-PDF.pdf

                      Technology has been transforming human life in one way or another for thousands of years. But in the computer age, the pace of tech change is very rapid. Many experts say that since the 1970s, new tech, combined with demographic, political and economic trends, have altered work and social lives in ways that have significant consequences for today's young people. Those trends have prompted some education reformers to argue that the traditional curriculum is not enough: schools must provide students with a broader set of 21st century skills to thrive in a rapidly evolving, tech-saturated world. But defining what that term actually means can be daunting. Leaders should dig deeper than the flashy phrases and poorly defined buzzwords that tend to characterize the 21st century skills movement. They should make a serious effort to understand the best empirical evidence on what skills will be necessary for students. This book represent an initial attempt to lay the groundwork for such effort. Examining trends that have change the demands of work and life in the recent past and continue to do so today. The most important are automation, globalization, workplace change and policies increasing personal responsibility. Automation: Anybody who has visited a factory recently understand the impact of the use of computers and computer-driven machinery to replace human labor, has been significant. But automation means more than just replacing human limbs with computerized machinery on assembly lines. Today, computers also increasingly accomplishes a wide range of work-related thinking tasks once performed by humans. Economist Richard Murnane of Harvard have documented how computerization is increasing the demand for some kinds of skills even as it erases many jobs. That is because computers are good at information processing, and every job requires information processing of some sort. Computers can perform a task if the information involved can be digitized and presented in a suitable form, one the computer can understand and process. In addition, now computers can perform some simple kinds of pattern recognition, they are taking over other formerly human tasks, for example, recognizing and acting on words spoken into a telephone. To summarize, computers are substituting for humans in performing "routine" work tasks that require the rote following of rule or directions. At the same time, people are increasingly being called on to perform more complex thinking tasks that computers still can not perform, such as those that involve complex interactions with other humans or that require soving unexpected problems using expert thinking. Strong math and reading skills are essential, too, since they form the foundation for complex communication and expert thinking. Globalization: Another major trend shaping future skill demands is "globalization," the breaking down of economic, social, and intellectual borders between nations. Globalization has not taken place independently of technological change. Advances in ICTs have acted as "flatteners," leveling the playing field so that workers no longer enjoy a home court advantage and face increasing competition for skilled jobs. Work-flow software and common tech standards allowed disparate software packages to talk to each other, which in turn enabled work projects to be carved up into parts, sent out to whomever could perform them best and cheapest, and then reassembled into a final product. The result was new platform for conducting business, one that allowed much more collaboration across much greater distances. Eventually, a whole new set of business practices evolved to take advantage of this new platform: offshoring, outsourcing, supply-chaining, signaling a shift from "vertical" production to "horizontal" collaboration. One thing economists agree on is that the jobs lost to automation and offshoring are unlikely to return. They also increasingly agree that whether schools can adapt will not only have an impact on opportunities for individuals workers, but also on the country economies. Now that economists have access to several decades' worth of educational and economic data, they are able to analyze the relationship between a nation's skills and its economic prosperity in more sophisticated ways. Several recent studies have found that cognitive skills as measured by international assessments of math, science, and reading are powerful predictors not only of individual earnings but also the countries' economic growth. According to one set of studies led by Stanford economist Eric Hanushek, as the world becomes increasingly interdependent, enhancing human capital will become increasingly critical. And it is not just about cultivating the talent of gifted students. The researchers also investigated the question, "Which is more important for growth, having a substantial cadre of high performers or bringing everyone up to a basic level of performance? The scientists in a society may contribute to the creation of new tech, but in order to fully realize the potential of such innovations to boost overall productivity, members of the workforce have to be skilled enough to learn how to apply them in their jobs. Many countries are developing strong skills. China's Eleventh Five-Year Plan adopted in 2006 focused on tech innovation and the need for a rich talent base, calling government to cultivate talents and improve the capacity of universities in China will become an important force for the establishment of an innovation nation. A 2008 study revealed that big pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Johnson & Jonhson are beginning to offshore some of their advanced research work to China and India. Globalization is clearly influencing skill demands in several ways. First, because they will face a job market in which workers no longer have such a large "home court" job advantage, students will need to ensure that they have sufficient skills and enough education to compete for jobs in a truly global economy. Lower skilled jobs are the first to be outsourced, but higher skilled work is vulnerable. Globalization also is affecting the types of knowledge and skills students will need to thrive. Since they will be collaboration with people around the world, they will need to have greater "global literacy," knowledge about languages, people, and cultures outside their own countries. Workplace change: Many companies have realized that in a "global knowledge economy," human capital is their most important resource. And they are using their human capital in very different ways than they did 30 years ago. In globally competitive firms, jobs have changed in a number of ways. Less hierarchy and supervision, more autonomy and responsibility, more collaboration, less predictability and stability. How will workplaces and business practices change in the future? In new books like Wikinomics and Crowdsourcing journalists have described innovations collaboratively on the internet. So far, according to writer Jeff How, the impact on skill demands seems to mirror the impact of automation and globalization: "Crowdsourcing accelerates the globalization of labor and the economic dislocation. Like the internet through which it operates, crowdsourcing recognizes no boundaries. "The network does not care where you are, if you can perform the serice, design the product, or solve the problem, you have got the job." Personal responsibility: Clearly, the world in which people live is becoming both more complex and more demanding. That is not a bad thing. Jobs that are more challenging also tend to be more satisfying. At the same time, however, because of changes in corporate and government policies, individuals now shoulder a greater burden of risk and responsibility for their personal well-being. Three intersecting spheres illustrate the trend: job security, health care and financial planning. Taken together, all these trends have created twin forces that are changing what it takes to thrive in the world: First, the environment that people live in is becoming more complex and demanding, while, second, individuals are being asked to take on greater responsibility in their work and personal lives. As economist Anthony Carnevale frame the challenge in a recent article on math education, "It appears that the requirement for mathematical literacy is one of an ascending ability to use math operations with increasing independence and in situations of increasing complexity. This suggest that the way we teach math may not be aligned with the use in most jobs." Students will need strong skills to navigate a world where personal choice are fraught with greater risk. At least, they will need strong math and reading skills to understand the information necessary to understand their choices. And they will need to be able to use what they learn to understand critical information, including health and financial information, in order to make sound decisions that ensure their well-being.