The Digital Divide

The Digital Divide is a manifestation of the tendency of technology to follow those with the access, and the skills to use it. Over time, this can lead to imbedded assumptions that tend to exclude people who lack capability to respond in appropriate ways.

For instance, the assumption that everyone who is eligible to work at a certain company has core IT skills may drive an employer to post job openings, accept resumes, schedule interviews, and extend offers only via the Web and e-mail. This could prevent individuals who lack these core skills or who lack access to IT infrastructure, from even learning about potential employment opportunities or the skills needed to gain employment with the firm.

In our public schools, the good news is many states have been very active in building out infrastructure – financing statewide networks and installing cable and fiber. I’m proud to say that in Washington state, thanks to a good technological employer base, excellent schools, and a healthy state budget, the K-20 network ensures that every grade and high school has high quality Internet access, and all 33 community and technical colleges, and the public 4-year universities all have at least one T1 connection.

However, other states have further to go, and even with infrastructure, most states have serious problems in attracting and retaining the necessary technical support personnel, and in training teachers and students in the uses of technology in ways that both groups become naturalized to technology.

We’re all encouraged by the occasional stories of “whiz kids” making $60 Grand per year while still in high school, designing corporate Web sites – and we have indications that computer penetration in homes in the US will equal penetration of televisions and radios not too long after the new Millennium.

While that’s pretty good news, it applies to North America. The figures for Europe are comparable. I had occasion to host a visit from China that came to NWCET to learn about technical education in the Washington community colleges – they have leapfrogged the infrastructure problems in many cases – remote villages that don’t even have running water are talking on cellular phones! Yet, much of the world still lacks infrastructure. And the two major drivers of Web expansion – commerce and information transportation – may not be too useful to populations still struggling with basic human needs.

We face the prospect of a country and a world differentiated by access to and facility with the digital domain. Information technology literacy is the “3-Rs” of the new millennium.
Telecommunications technology promises to make high quality connections available to virtually every point on the globe – so we will build this high speed highway to even the remotest points on t he planet – what wonderful possibilities – if we make sure everyone knows how to drive!

Copy right :

Speech of Peter Saflund to the Rural New England Information Technology Project at Greenfield Community College, Greenfield, MA, August 6, 1999.

Romeltea Media

Information Technology & World News Updated at: 4:58 AM

TSUNAMI INTERNATIONAL NEWS COVERAGE – MAY 17, 2006

AFP - SMS Glitch Mars Testing Of New Tsunami Warning System: Delayed SMS messages in Thailand marred Wednesday's otherwise successful trial of a regional tsunami warning system by dozens of countries across the Pacific. The exercise, code-named Pacific Wave '06, was initially declared a success by officials at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii, who said a series of earthquakes hitting the region for real had not disrupted the test." If those events were large enough to cause a tsunami warning to be issued then we would have terminated the test at that point," duty geophysicist Stuart Koyanagi told AFP.
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of New Zealand's Kermadec Islands late Tuesday, just hours before the test began, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.A 6.8 magnitude earthquake then struck near Indonesia's Nias island at 1528 GMT Tuesday and two temblors of magnitude 5.8 and 6.0 struck Tonga after the exercise began at 1900 GMT with a mock 9.2 quake off Chile, the USGS said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS ONLINE - Scientists Test Tsunami-Warning System: Dozens of Pacific-rim nations joined the first widespread test of a tsunami-warning system since killer waves in the Indian Ocean claimed more than 200,000. During the drill, earthquakes continued to shake the geologically unstable region. As the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach sent out bulletins warning of fictitious waves to more than 30 countries, participating governments tested how fast they receive the warnings and how rapidly they went through domestic emergency alert systems. Few reported problems, although Thailand officials said the drill revealed a crucial communication failure in their emergency plan. Tuesday's drill was the first extensive test of the warning system, in place since 1965, since the 2004 Asian tsunami that left at least 216,000 people dead or missing and prompted international demands for improvement.

REUTERS NEWS - Pacific Tsunami Warning Test Reveals Glitches: A Pacific-wide tsunami drill on Wednesday revealed glitches in the regional alert network ranging from a faulty fax machine in Malaysia to an overloaded telephone network in Thailand, officials said. To test how well countries and their people can be notified about possible tsunamis, Exercise Pacific Wave 2006 simulated two massive undersea earthquakes -- one off the coast of the Chile, the other north of the Philippines. "It was really a communications test for us," said Stuart Koyanagi, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, which coordinated the test. "For the most part, we were very pleased with the results, especially as it's the first time we've done this sort of thing," he said. "Tsunamis don't happen too often, so we have to keep people on their toes." For the Philippine quake, which primarily affected nations around the South China Sea, Japan's Meteorological Agency transmitted six dummy bulletins to 10 countries by fax, e-mail and a special weather-data communications system. "The last time there was one fax number in Malaysia that didn't receive the information, but that place received the information another way as well, so there was no big problem," said Osamu Kamigaichi,the agency's senior tsunami expert.

AFP - Spanish Design Picked For Thai Tsunami Memorial: A nature-conscious design by Spanish architects inspired by Buddhist pagodas was chosen Wednesday for a memorial to the 5,400 people killed when the 2004 tsunami hit Thailand. The team of Ana Somoza Jimenez, Angel Martinez, Eva Sebastian Penin and Raquel Lozano created a design with five buildings that resemble Thai temples set in a garden that blends in with the surrounding mountains.

"It's a world-class design which we believe is a memorial to humanity's capacity for cooperation and assistance to cope with natural calamity," Suwat Liptapanlop, deputy prime minister told a news conference."This place should serve as a memorial to all those who lost their loved ones," he said.The design was titled "Mountain of Remembrance", and it beat out four other finalists from Australia, China, Finland and the United States.In addition to the five main buildings, the memorial will include a hall of remembrance to the victims, a museum, a shop and a restaurant. It will also have one of the tsunami warning towers being built along the coast. The memorial will be built in part of the Khao Lak-Lamru national park on the coast in Phang Nga province, which suffered most of the casualties in Thailand.

INDONESIA:

Panic But No Damage After Quake Hits Indonesia's Nias: A strong quake with a magnitude of 6.4 rattled the Indonesian island of Nias, the meteorology office in Jakarta said Wednesday, causing mass panic among residents but no damage. The underwater quake hit at 10:28 pm (1528 GMT) Tuesday at a depth of 16 kilometres (9.94 miles), some 256 kilometres (159 miles) southwest of Sibolga on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the office's Lukman Hakim told AFP. The US Geological Survey had earlier put the quake's magnitude at 6.8.Residents said that their houses shook and many of them fled for higher ground fearing a repeat of the devastating December 26, 2004 tsunami. "Lots ran to the mountain -- maybe 50 percent of people ran to the mountain," said Acen, a worker at the public hospital in Gunung Sitoli, the main town on Nias. "Some ran out of their houses and went to check the beach" for signs of a tsunami, he said. However he said there appeared to be no injuries reported from the quake and no reports of damaged buildings in the town. Nias was one of the areas hardest hit by the massive 2004 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 people in the Indonesian province of Aceh. That quake measured 9.3 on the Richter scale.

THAILAND:

AP - Thai Disaster Center Says Tsunami Warning Drill Exposes Communications Problem: A crucial link in the communications chain to alert top Thai emergency officials of possible tsunamis failed to work Wednesday during a simulation of a Pacific region-wide warning system, a disaster response official said. Messages from Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center sent by SMS to the country's five top emergency coordinators failed to reach their targets or were delayed for hours, said Dr. Cherdsak Virapat, the center's chief for International Coordination. According to Thailand's disaster preparedness plans, the center was then supposed to inform its five executive directors of the alert by SMS, before informing other officials including the prime minister and provincial governors. But the phone network used to send the SMS messages failed to deliver them immediately, he said. "We found some problems," Cherdsak told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Today the mobile phone system run by one network has failed, so we got the message via another system. "He said he would propose solutions to the problem for the Thai Cabinet's consideration next week. For a real-life situation, alternative communication systems such as radio would be needed, he said.

*********************************

SMS Glitch Mars Testing Of New Tsunami Warning System
May 17, 2006 Wednesday
Agence France Presse -- English

BANGKOK, May 17 2006- Delayed SMS messages in Thailand marred Wednesday's otherwise successful trial of a regional tsunami warning system by dozens of countries across the Pacific.

The exercise, code-named Pacific Wave '06, was initially declared a success by officials at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii, who said a series of earthquakes hitting the region for real had not disrupted the test.

"If those events were large enough to cause a tsunami warning to be issued then we would have terminated the test at that point," duty geophysicist Stuart Koyanagi told AFP.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of New Zealand's Kermadec Islands late Tuesday, just hours before the test began, the US Geological Survey (USGS) reported.

A 6.8 magnitude earthquake then struck near Indonesia's Nias island at 1528 GMT Tuesday and two temblors of magnitude 5.8 and 6.0 struck Tonga after the exercise began at 1900 GMT with a mock 9.2 quake off Chile, the USGS said.

The warning centre in Hawaii, which launched the test exercise for more than 30 countries, said none of the earthquakes triggered genuine Pacific-wide tsunami warnings, but the two biggest could cause small local tsunamis.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the earthquake zones.

Of more concern to test organisers was news later that plans to alert emergency coordinators to tsunami threats failed to work in Thailand when busy cell phone networks took hours to deliver key messages.

"The problem we faced was with communications. We have no idea whether our messages sent to local operations chiefs by fax and SMS arrived on time or not, and by midday some of them said they did not recieve the SMS," Pakdivat Vajirapanlop from the National Disaster Warning Center told AFP.

"We need to know whether they have received our messages. What can they do if the messages don't arrive on time? Then the warning is useless," said Pakdivat, the center's deputy operations chief.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning System (PTWS) test was part of an effort to strengthen defences following the December 26, 2004 killer waves that swept across countries in the northern Indian Ocean, killing around 220,000 people.

Koyanagi, speaking before news of the warning delays in Thailand, admitted there were some areas where communications would need to be improved.

This mainly involved small island nations in the South Pacific, where communication systems were not well developed.

"I think for the first test there may have been a few that we had difficulty getting through to.

"The fact that the test ran for a pretty long period of time allowed us to backtrack and eventually get hold of just about everybody," he said.

The exercise began with a mock alert about the quake off the coast of Chile, which theoretically sparked a tsunami across the eastern Pacific. The second phase of the test involved a fake quake north of the Philippines.

Some countries, including the Philippines and Malaysia, staged partial evacuations as part of the exercise.

In the Philippines, civil defense officials evacuated the coastal village of Buhatan in the Bicol peninsula, 340 kilometers (212 miles) southeast of Manila, early Wednesday, taking all 1,143 residents to higher ground.

The drill took place before the simulated tsunami from the Chile quake was due to reach the shores of the western Pacific, the government seismology office said.

The alert message was successfully passed from regional to provincial to local officials, seismologist Esmeralda Banganan of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology told AFP.

In New Zealand, where false media reports of a tsunami caused panic earlier this month, officials spent the day in the crisis management centre beneath parliament.

"The major lessons learnt today are not about process, they have been about management decisions," the director of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management John Norton said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning System has been in existence for more than 40 years, but exercises have until now only been conducted at national or local level.

The PTWS comes under the aegis of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which last year also set down the foundations for a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean.

--------------------------

Scientists Test Tsunami-Warning System
By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer

May 17, 2006 Wednesday 10:32 AM GMT
Associated Press Online

EWA BEACH Hawaii- Dozens of Pacific-rim nations joined the first widespread test of a tsunami-warning system since killer waves in the Indian Ocean claimed more than 200,000. During the drill, earthquakes continued to shake the geologically unstable region.

As the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach sent out bulletins warning of fictitious waves to more than 30 countries, participating governments tested how fast they receive the warnings and how rapidly they went through domestic emergency alert systems. Few reported problems, although Thailand officials said the drill revealed a crucial communication failure in their emergency plan.

Tuesday's drill was the first extensive test of the warning system, in place since 1965, since the 2004 Asian tsunami that left at least 216,000 people dead or missing and prompted international demands for improvement.

Some areas also conducted mock evacuations, including the coastal village of Buhatan in the Philippines, where nearly 1,000 residents streamed out of their homes, tugging children and struggling to carry bamboo mats, hammocks, coffee pots and roosters.

Several real earthquakes hit Indonesia, Tonga and New Zealand during the exercise. The largest, centered about 710 miles northeast of Auckland, New Zealand, generated a minor local tsunami that did not affect any populated areas, New Zealand national civil defense controller Mike O'Leary said. It did not affect the drill.

A magnitude-5.8 earthquake rattled Tonga as emergency authorities were broadcasting the simulated earthquake alerts. The National Disaster Office was "bombarded with questions" as the quake hit in the midst of the tsunami test, deputy director Mali'u Takai said.

At the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the test began with a beeping sound signaling a mock magnitude 9.2 earthquake off the coast of Chile. Within 10 minutes, test warnings went out from the Hawaii facility, as well as the Alaska Tsunami Warning Center near Anchorage.

It was the first of nine bulletins issued throughout the day, warning of a fictitious wave that grew to as big as 30 feet. Tsunamis generally travel at the speed of a commercial jet, but the center increased the speed four times, for the drill to finish in six hours.

The drill revealed communication problems in Thailand, where the National Disaster Warning Center was supposed to inform its five executive directors of the alert by SMS before informing other officials including the prime minister and provincial governors

But the SMS messages failed to reach the five directors or were delayed for hours, said Dr. Cherdsak Virapat, the center's chief for International Coordination. Alternate communications systems would be needed for a real disaster, he said.

In Melbourne, Australia, Chris Ryan of the National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre said that except for some wrong numbers and the real earthquakes, "it all seems to have gone as planned."

Emergency responders in Hawaii tested their ability Tuesday to deal with an unlikely scenario: a category four hurricane and a 30-foot tsunami approaching the islands at the same time.

"Theoretically, it's possible that you could have two disasters at the same time," state Civil Defense spokesman Ray Lovell said. "We might as well see how well we can handle this."

The Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 prompted improvements in the Pacific warning system. Other countries, including Indonesia and nations in the Caribbean, are now spending millions of dollars to establish their own warning centers modeled after the Hawaii facility.

Prior to the Asian disaster, worldwide interest in tsunami warnings had waned.

"So this was a golden opportunity to try and bring that level of preparedness back up," said Charles McCreery, director of the warning center.

Associated Press writer Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.

On the Net:
International Tsunami Information Centre: http://www.tsunamiwave.org/

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Pacific Tsunami Warning Test Reveals Glitches
By Ed Cropley

May 17, 2006 Wednesday

Reuters News

BANGKOK, May 17 (Reuters) - A Pacific-wide tsunami drill on Wednesday revealed glitches in the regional alert network ranging from a faulty fax machine in Malaysia to an overloaded telephone network in Thailand, officials said.

To test how well countries and their people can be notified about possible tsunamis, Exercise Pacific Wave 2006 simulated two massive undersea earthquakes -- one off the coast of the Chile, the other north of the Philippines.

"It was really a communications test for us," said Stuart Koyanagi, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, which coordinated the test.

"For the most part, we were very pleased with the results, especially as it's the first time we've done this sort of thing," he said. "Tsunamis don't happen too often, so we have to keep people on their toes."

For the Philippine quake, which primarily affected nations around the South China Sea, Japan's Meteorological Agency transmitted six dummy bulletins to 10 countries by fax, e-mail and a special weather-data communications system.

"The last time there was one fax number in Malaysia that didn't receive the information, but that place received the information another way as well, so there was no big problem," said Osamu Kamigaichi,the agency's senior tsunami expert.

"The results were basically as we expected, although we thought that we'd succeed with every place every time."

In Thailand, where more than 5,000 people died in the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the government heard the message fine but a plan to issue a public alert by text message failed as phone networks ground to a halt.

Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop and a string of high-ranking officials presiding over the drill were left red faced as SMS alerts limped in as much as 15 minutes late.

"This is something we need to improve, otherwise it may cause great damage," Samith Dhammasaroj, head of the Thai Tsunami Warning Research Centre, told Reuters. "If we get the alerts late, the people in charge cannot issue evacuation orders."

There was better luck in the Philippines, where officials staged an evacuation drill in the remote coastal village of Buhatan, 340 km (200 miles) south-east of the capital Manila, to test residents' response time to a phone alert.

Sandwiched between Albay Gulf and the Philippine Sea, the village is often hit by typhoons and even ashfalls from the nearby Mayon Volcano, but before the exercise residents said they had no idea how to survive a killer wave.

In the run-up to the drill, provincial officials launched an aggressive public education campaign, including installing metal signs beside roads pointing the way to higher ground.

Renato Sulidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said nearly all those involved in the drill made it to safety in time. Only those who were sick or who had recently given birth stayed behind, he said. (Additional reporting by Elaine Lies in TOKYO, Karishma Vyas in MANILA and Panarat Thepgumpanat in BANGKOK)

--------------------

INDONESIA:

Panic But No Damage After Quake Hits Indonesia's Nias
May 17, 2006 Wednesday
Agence France Presse -- English

JAKARTA, May 17 2006- A strong quake with a magnitude of 6.4 rattled the Indonesian island of Nias, the meteorology office in Jakarta said Wednesday, causing mass panic among residents but no damage.

The underwater quake hit at 10:28 pm (1528 GMT) Tuesday at a depth of 16 kilometres (9.94 miles), some 256 kilometres (159 miles) southwest of Sibolga on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the office's Lukman Hakim told AFP.

The US Geological Survey had earlier put the quake's magnitude at 6.8.

Residents said that their houses shook and many of them fled for higher ground fearing a repeat of the devastating December 26, 2004 tsunami.

"Lots ran to the mountain -- maybe 50 percent of people ran to the mountain," said Acen, a worker at the public hospital in Gunung Sitoli, the main town on Nias.

"Some ran out of their houses and went to check the beach" for signs of a tsunami, he said.

However he said there appeared to be no injuries reported from the quake and no reports of damaged buildings in the town.

Nias was one of the areas hardest hit by the massive 2004 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 people in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

That quake measured 9.3 on the Richter scale.

Three months later, Nias was struck by an 8.7-magnitude quake, which killed 850 people, injured 6,000 and left tens of thousands homeless.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where the meeting of continental plates causes frequent seismic activity.

A geographical faultline runs parallel to the Indonesian island of Sumatra and tectonic activities along it have repeatedly led to strong earthquakes.

--------------------
THAILAND:

Thai Disaster Center Says Tsunami Warning Drill Exposes Communications Problem
By GRANT PECK, Associated Press Writer

May 17, 2006 Wednesday
Associated Press Worldstream

BANGKOK Thailand- A crucial link in the communications chain to alert top Thai emergency officials of possible tsunamis failed to work Wednesday during a simulation of a Pacific region-wide warning system, a disaster response official said.

Messages from Thailand's National Disaster Warning Center sent by SMS to the country's five top emergency coordinators failed to reach their targets or were delayed for hours, said Dr. Cherdsak Virapat, the center's chief for International Coordination.

According to Thailand's disaster preparedness plans, the center was then supposed to inform its five executive directors of the alert by SMS, before informing other officials including the prime minister and provincial governors.

But the phone network used to send the SMS messages failed to deliver them immediately, he said.

"We found some problems," Cherdsak told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Today the mobile phone system run by one network has failed, so we got the message via another system."

He said he would propose solutions to the problem for the Thai Cabinet's consideration next week.

For a real-life situation, alternative communication systems such as radio would be needed, he said.

The drill showed other weaknesses in the communication involving dependence on telephones, he added, saying that greater use of two-way radios was needed for tasks such as following the progress of evacuations.

At the same time, relevant agencies each had their open communications systems, which needed to be linked to each other, he said.

Faxed bulletins were received in timely fashion by the center from tsunami warning stations in Hawaii and Japan. Evacuation drills involving a total of 4,000 people in two seaside districts went well, according to Cherdsak, who said the exercise cost Thailand 2.6 million baht (US$68,700, euro53,300).

Thailand was among more than two dozen Pacific and Asian nations countries participating in the first region-wide tsunami warning drill, conducted under the name "Pacific Wave '06," by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, a U.N. agency.

--------------------

Simona Opitz
Information Officer
Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery
One UN Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Tel: 212-906-6928
Mob: 917-345-4352
e-mail: Simona.Opitz@undp.org www.tsunamispecialenvoy.org

Romeltea Media

Information Technology & World News Updated at: 12:31 PM

TEN TIPS FOR TALKING PUBLIC HEALTH

Created for Turning Point by the Sutton Group, December 2001

1. Don't speak "public health," speak English.
Imagine you are having dinner with your aunt and explaining to her what you do. Would you use workplace jargon? Would she know what you meant by terms like "infrastructure development," "community linkages" and "surveillance capacity?"
Speak in understandable, vivid terms, whether your audience is a policymaker, Chamber of Commerce president or a friend.
Consider some of the statements heard at a recent conference and how they might be put more clearly:
"There is a need for workforce development and preparedness initiatives throughout the United States" would be better put as "We need trained, quick response teams to protect our nation's health."
"We need to address the social determinants of health in order to alleviate the problem of health disparities," would sound more compelling as "We need to tackle the root causes of our health problems, such as lack of insurance or bad air, to ensure everyone has an equal chance of enjoying good health."

2. Know what you want people to do and ask them to do it.
Every conversation about public health, with a variety of people and organizations, presents an opportunity to press your agenda.
Consider what actions you want your audience to take. This is different from wanting your audience to understand public health, or to think it's important. What do you want people to do? What is needed? What will they get for their support?
This requires setting priorities. What are the top things you need to strengthen our state's public health infrastructure? Better email, telephone or computer systems so hospitals, health departments and others can communicate quickly? Training? What kind and why? Who is the person who can make this happen?
When you speak with a policymaker, advocate or even a senior official in your own department, keep these priorities in mind and express them clearly.

3. Make your case with your audience in mind.
Rather than telling people that public health is important and deserves to be funded, show them how it relates to their life and what they care about. When you ask for something, explain why it would benefit your audience.
Virginia's public health professionals enlisted businesses as advocates by conveying public health's benefits to them: a healthy labor pool, less absenteeism and lower insurance costs. The result was state backing for public health initiatives. Remind businesses they are on the front lines of many emergency health situations, and public health is there to support them.
If you are working to enlist hospitals in your efforts, talk about how public health and prevention efforts reduce the number of emergency room visits and the toll of chronic disease.

4. Show, don't tell.
Rather than telling people about public health, calculate and show what it means in practice.
For example, if people in your community care about security, think about positioning public health as a way to protect their health and well-being from harm, whether that harm comes from bioterrorism, disease, or pollution. Use examples to show how public health people protect citizens every day.
Putting costs or dollar amounts to situations can help. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials surveyed state health departments to show they expect to spend a budget-busting average of $1-5 million over the next three months responding to possible anthrax threats. This is more effective then telling policymakers that bioterrorism concerns are draining resources. It shows it, and it shows it dramatically.
Another example: rather than telling people that they should pay more attention to health disparities, show what this means in terms they care about. Minnesota calculated that if all babies died at the rate of American Indian infants, 600 children more—12 a week and 3,000 over five years—would be lost. The thought of thousands of children dying in infancy mobilizes policymakers to act.

5. Use the magic of stories, examples and analogies.
Public health, infrastructure and surveillance are concepts that most people don't understand. Examples or analogies are communications techniques that can bring these terms to life and illustrate their importance.
For example, think of how your work has affected people in your state or region. Describe the human face of public health. What does it look like? Did public health efforts protect thousands of children from life-threatening diseases through vaccinations? Did surveillance allow you to catch an outbreak of Hepatitis A early and prevent an epidemic? Are your citizens fitter and more long-lived than those in other states?
New York has used an excellent analogy for public health and why it requires more resources: public health as a silent insurance policy. We have not been paying into our policy regularly, yet now we want to cash it in because we need it to safeguard our health. Explain that if we want protection, we need to pay back into this policy by investing in public health. Then say exactly what investments are needed.
Another analogy used by a Virginia Turning Point member helps address the recent paradox of public health messages—that people should not panic because bioterrorism is unlikely to touch them, but that at the same time, the system is unprepared to cope if it occurs. The analogy was airport security. Was there airport security before September 11th? Yes. Is airport security prepared to deal with many problems? Yes. But given new realities and eventualities, it now needs to be upgraded. Similarly, the public health system has a level of preparedness, but we would be wise to invest the money to increase that preparedness.

6. Connect with current events.
Ask yourself how public health relates to what people in your community are talking about today. Then make that connection for them.
This does not mean you are changing your agenda each time the political winds change direction. It means you know how your work relates to events and issues affecting your community now. Try to think of issues that seize people's attention as openings for, not distractions from, your agenda and programs.
When the Genesee County, MI police were flooded with calls about suspected anthrax powder, they didn't know how to handle the material. The county health department immediately put together training for the police, and soon had postal workers and others asking for similar help. The local newspaper praised the public health department in an editorial. Now public health has the county's support, as well as new relationships to aid in many kinds of future initiatives.

7. Talk about the results, not the process.
A lot of important work is accomplished through workshops, meetings, partnerships and planning sessions. In fact, this process is probably central to your job. Unfortunately, it does not sound so exciting to the outside world.
When you talk about your successes or your plans, talk about the destination, not the journey. Which is more interesting—the wonderful place where you arrived (or are headed), or the 14-hour bus ride to get there? Rather than talking about a coalition formed between public health departments and hospital, describe the resulting daily bulletins between these groups that alerted them to unusual illness patterns. Did you set up a "workforce development center?" Rather than discussing that process, describe who has been trained and what they've done for real people.

8. Use your partners to advance your agenda.
You may not be in a position to speak out about public health, but what about your allies? In fact, they may be better positioned to sell your agenda. You have probably invested a lot of time and effort in forging relationships beyond the health department. When you need advocacy, those relationships prove invaluable.
Who in your coalitions or communities has influence on people key to advancing public health priorities? Do you have a partner in the business community who can testify before the state legislature for a key law? Will a hospital association director or doctor discuss public health issues before the public?

9. Use your interest groups.
Have you heard of the National Public Health Information Coalition? It has a database of every state's public health information officer. NACCHO has position papers for policymakers on key public health issues. ASTHO has a special bioterrorism task force setting up communications strategies. Look up your professional organization online or call them—they are in the business of helping you spread the message.

10. Avoid the lectures—people might listen.
Lastly, there is a saying in social marketing: swallow your cause. As a public health professional, you are committed to a good cause, and it is tempting to tell people that cause is important and expect that will change things. But you will be more effective if you can swallow that message and instead show people how your work relates to their concerns.This is not selling out—it is reaching out. If you can communicate effectively, their understanding—and appreciation—will follow.

Romeltea Media

Information Technology & World News Updated at: 11:34 AM

Crimes and Misdemeanors:Tips on Collegiality in Professional Paper Presentations

By : Pamela H. Simpson, Washington and Lee University

You have all seen it. Or heard about it. One person in a session seems to think what he or she has to say is so important that it warrants going over the twenty minutes allotted. Sometimes two or three presenters think it is simply impossible to say what they have to say in twenty minutes and each goes over a little--only five minutes--that’s not much, right? No one really expects you to do this in exactly twenty minutes, do they? The results? Each of those over-runs adds up; the last presenter has only ten minutes; the audience has no time for questions at all; the meeting organizer is banging on the door trying to get the next session into the room.

The failure to stay within the twenty-minute time slot might not seem like a capital crime, but it is the equivalent of getting up in front of your colleagues and declaring, “What I have to say is so important that it justifies my stealing the time of others on this panel and of the audience. [1]

Here are some hints for avoiding such “white-collar crime” and presenting a successful paper:

1. Write it ahead of time. Since usually you are required to submit your paper to the session chair before the meeting, one would think everyone ought to know exactly how long the paper is. Still, there are those who submit a 20-page paper and ignore the chair’s suggestions for cutting it. Common sense and experience indicate that a twenty-minute paper is about 10 pages long. That is with double spacing, 12-point type, and normal margins. Depending on how fast you read it will be about two minutes per page. The papers must be written. Loading a carousel full of slides and talking from notes may be appropriate for a classroom lecture, but not for a formal paper session at a professional meeting.

2. Stick to your script. Even with a 10-page text, some people find it impossible not to give a few asides or impromptu digressions in the course of reading the paper. All of these add minutes taking away from the time allotted to others. Stay at the podium too. There is no need to wander about the stage. If you want to point to something on the screen, arrange to have a laser pointer. Don’t distract your audience and yourself by dancing back and forth in front of the bright lights.

3. Practice it. If you are going to give a good paper, it has to be prepared ahead of time and practiced. Everyone gets nervous. Those people in the audience are your professional peers. Their opinions are ones you value. The key to doing the presentation well is to know your script. Practicing in front of friends and colleagues at home before you come to the meeting not only gives you familiarity with your text; it also can provide some useful feedback. Are your points clear? Does that image illustrate your ideas? Are you speaking clearly and slowly enough? Better to have your friends tell you than embarrass yourself at the meeting.

4. Slides or Digital Images. How many times have you seen presenters glance over at the screen and say, “Oh, where did that come from?” and then click the projector back and forth in confusion? It would not happen if they had practiced reading the paper with the images beforehand. It can be helpful to put a red star into the text every time you plan to advance to the next image. Thus as you read along and come to a red star, you know to punch the button. Write the names of the appropriate images in the margin near the star so you know what you meant to show. And practice it until all goes smoothly. Avoid having to go backward. Duplicate your images if you need to repeat them. Do whatever is necessary so all you have to do is push that advance button.

These days, you probably will be using digital images rather than slides. Make sure you coordinate with the meeting director as to whether or not you need to bring your own laptop, cable hookup, etc. Compatibility is always an issue; so if you need technical help, check with those who can help you before you get to the meeting. And if you are a Macintosh user, be certain to bring the proper VGA adapter.

5. Plan for disaster. What is the worst thing that can happen during a presentation? It might be that the technology doesn’t work, so it helps to have a backup (maybe even slides) and a disk as well as a memory stick. Get to the room ahead of time to make sure it works and you have time to find help if you need it. Don’t made the mistake I recently saw where a speaker had her paper on the same computer she planned to use to show the images. She had planned to read the paper from the computer screen, but of course, you can’t if you are using it for the images. She would have known the problem if she had practiced before hand.

Another problem I saw was someone trying to use an ArtStor presentation but the computer didn’t have the off-line image viewer. You can download it, but it takes time, so you don’t want to discover that you have to do that when you get up to talk. Power Point is probably easier than MDID or ArtStor for presentations off your home campus. Be prepared and anticipate problems before you get there.

And it is always a good idea to carry your paper and your images with you on the plane. Don’t check them with your bags. The last thing you need to worry about is lost luggage.

It is a great honor for your paper to have been chosen for presentation. Your ideas in the abstract have been interesting enough for selection. Now you have to do the hard work of writing the paper. If circumstances change and you cannot attend the meeting, let the organizers know in plenty of time for them to re-arrange the paper sessions. It is inconsiderate and professionally inappropriate to withdraw at the last minute or simply not show up for the meeting.

Finally, remember this is a paper, not the whole dissertation or book. You have to decide how to limit it to the twenty-minute format. If the text is more than 10 pages, cut it. When it comes to the presentation, stick to your script and practice, practice, practice. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well, especially in front of your professional colleagues.

[1] Patricia Marinardi wrote an essay for the College Art Association on “White Collar Crime” a number of years ago. The comment on stealing time is a paraphrase of her statement on the subject.

Romeltea Media

Information Technology & World News Updated at: 11:23 AM

BALI HOTELS ASSOCIATION DELIVERS VISA POLICY SURVEY RESULTS, RECOMMENDATIONS TO BALI GOVERNMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Robert Kelsall

BALI, INDONESIA, October, 27 2004—More than 50 percent of respondents to a recent survey indicate that “definitely, probably or maybe” their decision to return to Indonesia again is impacted by the current visa policy. Such opinions are among findings compiled by Bali Hotels Association (BHA), in response to government appeals for statistical information and feedback relating to the implementation of the February 2004 visa policy.

BHA, Bali’s group of star rated hotel and resort general managers, officially presented its findings today to Bali Tourism Office Director Gede Nurjaya. The report came from a survey conducted recently in which 10,000 questionnaires were distributed through 55 member hotels to arriving international visitors upon hotel check-in. Data was compiled by the Bali Tourism Board, as an independent, unbiased body, from the 21 percent of surveys completed and returned.

Survey respondents had already made a decision to come to Bali despite the implementation of the new visa policy. A survey conducted by BHA prior to the visa policy implementation indicated that 62 percent of respondents would not return should the policy be implemented. An online travel industry survey conducted previously by BHA indicated that 54 percent of agents felt the visa policy directly impacts bookings to Bali, steering visitors to other destinations.

The newly released report reveals that a significant number of visitors experienced inconvenience through delays in the visa process, particularly those whom were required to apply for a visa prior to visiting Bali. In principle, the survey reflected little opposition to charging a visa fee but there was notable opposition to the process. Survey analysis indicates that key markets such as Japan and Taiwan show a high level of dissatisfaction in the efficiency of processing visas. There is a direct correlation in the declining number of arrivals from countries whose nationalities indicated greater inconvenience in visa processing. And where Bali has seen market decreases, particularly from Europe and Scandinavia, Thailand has seen a correlating increase.

“Arrival statistics indicate a recovery of tourism to Bali,” said Robert Kelsall, Chairman of Bali Hotels Association. “But, we are creating a precarious situation, with Bali’s source markets becoming more limited as we experience declines in key source markets which historically produce quality visitors who stay longer and consequently spend more.”

Key Findings
· Efficiency: Overall, efficiency is lacking in service and processing, with 20 percent of all respondents unhappy, 25 percent of Japanese and 31 percent of Dutch
· Courtesy: Nearly all respondents found airport services discourteous
· Convenience: More than half of all respondents felt inconvenienced, with the Dutch, Germans and Japanese feeling most put out
· Information: 20 to 30 percent knew nothing of the new visa regulations, while more than half of Japanese found the airport process confusing—even Dutch and Australians complained bout the unclear process and unclear information at the airportWelcome: 30 percent of overall respondents felt unwelcome by the new procedure—that went up to 46 percent for Dutch and 60 percent for Japanese

· Processing Time: Most applying for visas at embassies abroad took more than one to two full weeks to get a visa. While the target time for processing at the airport is 10 minutes, the average wait time for those surveyed was 25 minutes. For Taiwanese, the average waiting time at the airport is 48 minutes.
· Cost: Although visa costs on arrival were stable, visas at embassies range from US$36 to $72, averaging $53.
· Return to Bali: more than half indicated the new process would probably/definitely/maybe deter them from returning to Indonesia.

VOA Background

The new policy, which was instituted in February 2004, limits visa-free entry to tourists from 21 countries, down from the previous list of 60 countries. Tourists from nine countries and two regions which extend similar privileges to Indonesians do not need visas: Brunei, Chile, Macau, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Three-day visas for US$10 and 30-day visas for US$25 are issued on arrival to nationals from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Citizens of countries not on either list must apply for a visa at an Indonesian embassy abroad, prior to arrival.

Summary
. A significant proportion of respondents encountered delays visa processing, whether at the airport or embassies abroad
. A higher level of dissatisfaction is noted for nationalities who had to apply for a visa before departing their country
. The queuing time target of 10 minutes for visa on arrival has not been met
. While some objection to the principal of charging fees was recorded, more significant is the inefficiency of the process
. Group handling procedures at the airport are slow and inefficient
. It can be deduced that the reduction in visitors from certain markets is directly related to the difficulty in that market obtaining a visa in their own country; a 30 percent shortfall in arrivals from Europe is noted in 2004 when compared to 2001
. Recent arrival statistics indicate that the current situation is severely limiting Bali’s source markets and that Bali is becoming highly dependent on a smaller number of markets with lower average length of stay and less spending per stay
. Competitor destinations, such as Thailand, have seen an increase in markets in which Bali has experienced a decrease—indicating that visitors are choosing competitor destinations
. Key markets such as Japan and Taiwan registered the highest levels of dissatisfaction with the current visa process
. The current Ministry of Foreign Affairs website’s information makes no mention of the new visa policy and still mentions a “visa free short term visit” of up to 60 days on arrival
. The key principle of only issuing free visas to countries who reciprocate is acceptable, however it is unclear about discrimination between those entitled to VOA and those that need to apply through their embassy before departure
BHA Recommendations to the Government
. Keep it simple and easy for key markets to obtain a visa
. Keep the visa process clean, efficient and transparent to the benefit of the destination
. Extend visa on arrival facilities to countries which have historically supported Indonesian tourism, including but not limited to the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Austria
. Improve the operational efficiency for visa processing, whether on arrival or at Indonesian embassies
. Visas could be made available through nominated travel agents or via the Internet
. Extend visa duration to 60 days or at least make the 60-day visa an option available at a surcharge to encourage longer-staying marketsMake visa extension available in Indonesia from 30-day to 60 without having to exit

Bali Hotels Association is a professional association of star-rated hotels and resorts in Bali.
Members include general managers from 58 hotels and resorts,representing 13,131 hotel rooms and 19,394 employees in the Bali hotel sector.

Bali Hotels Association Chairman Robert Kelsall, left, presents the published findings of the associations’ 2004 survey among arriving international tourists concerning Indonesia’s Visa on Arrival Policy Survey. Kakanwil Pariwisata Gede Nurjaya, chief of Bali’s Tourism Office, received the report to review with Bali Governor Dewa Beratha.

Romeltea Media

Information Technology & World News Updated at: 10:18 AM

August 15, 1998: Technology News

"by Eric E. Smith"

This article was originally printed in Peak Performance, the New Mexico ISPI chapter newsletter.

In my last article, I discussed the idea of standards for computer-based training and the fact that the major manufacturers of computer-based training development tools are pushing at least the development of standards for record keeping and communication with HR databases. While, in general, I applaud that movement, it does raise some other issues.
All of the companies (Asymetrix http://www.asymetrix.com/, Macromedia http://www.macromedia.com/, Oracle http://www.oracle.com/) discussed in that column as well as companies like Allen Communications http://www.allencomm.com/ are working on training development systems that focus on delivery of instruction without human intervention. In other words, it is designed for the learner to communicate only with the computer. This is what we have come to know as computer-based instruction. Simply moving it to an Intranet, as these companies propose, does not change that basic character. So, the result is really no different from LAN or CD-ROM delivery of training, other than the interface from the browser and some ease in maintaining the material.
Don’t misunderstand my position. I fully support this kind of training, but not for all things. It is great if you are trying to transmit basic information or teach basic skills, say manipulating the fields in a database or the hazards of a chemical spill. And there is a tremendous need for this approach, along with the many benefits well documented elsewhere.
But, is this approach really making maximal use of the Internet technologies we now have? I will suggest that it is not and further that for many training situations, this type of computer-based training is not sufficient. Instead, we must consider the nature of the Internet and the other capabilities that it provides, beyond presentation of information and the ability to support human-computer interaction.
In essence, the Internet is a two-way (or multi-way) communication tool, between people. We all (or most of us) use email on a daily basis. Perhaps you belong to a listserv discussion or monitor some newsgroups. Such systems support discussion and even learning through the interaction of people. This kind of interaction is necessary for any type of person-to-person or "soft skills" training within an organization. Further, I would argue that designing systems to foster student to student discussion and collaboration, even for basic training supported by traditional computer-based approaches will significantly enhance the training and improve the outcomes.
But, person-to-person discussion is not supported by the authoring tools we use for computer-based training. It can be found, to a limited degree, in some of the web-based learning systems shells, like TopClass (http://www.wbtsystems.com/), WebMentor (http://avilar.adasoft.com/avilar/index.html), or WebCT (http://homebrew1.cs.ubc.ca/webct/). However, these systems are limited in capability and features, adequate for learning systems, but not appropriate for enterprise wide groupware solutions.
If you anticipate the need to work with enterprise groupware solutions to meet the need for person-to-person interaction in training as well as supporting work groups, then you need to consider the commercial groupware and conferencing tools now available. All have their strengths and weaknesses. Some support asynchronous conferencing while others are limited to synchronous.
For the geographically dispersed organization (or temporally dispersed student population) you may be more interested in asynchronous tools. To help you identify and perhaps select the tools most useful in your organization, check out the article Meeting of the Minds at http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/discussion/_open.htm. This article is a great starting point in investigating the tools available and does provide a limited comparison of their features. Of course, using them in support of training was not the focus of the article, but you will find much of value there.
Remember, if you know of a web site or a technology that you think everyone in the chapter should know about, drop me a line at esmith@evandesign.com.
____________________________________________________________________________
Taken from Front Range Chapter's Excerpts from "The Criterion". August 1998.

Romeltea Media

Information Technology & World News Updated at: 10:07 AM