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Global thinking

admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:44:24 +0000

In the wide web world knowledge is more dynamic than ever. We discussed the issue and more with Roberto Galimberti, President of Etnoteam, Italy’s leading webdesign and information and communications technology company.

To what extent is the net a source of new knowledge?
Our time is often referred to as the “Age of Cognition”. What’s meant by this definition? It’s not as if knowledge was lacking in other societies before ours. Just think of all the great Ancient Greek philosophers. But there are times when knowledge is in greater supply as a commodity, more easily accessible, and circulates more widely and faster. The great seafaring expeditions of discovery of the past and the invention of the printing press represent such turning points in history. Today, knowledge and know-how are without a doubt assets. The remarkable speed of circulation thanks to the net was unthinkable just several years ago, and is indeed unprecedented. New knowledge has been spawned by this acceleration. The opportunity of quickly getting to once inaccessible information or information that one didn’t even know existed favours the birth of new ideas, new outlooks.

Mightn’t information overload actually turn out to be detrimental to the advancement of knowledge?
No, I wouldn’t say it’s detrimental; it’s noise, irksome perhaps, but one soon adapts.
The fact is that the amount of information download depends on one’s attitude and approach. I use the mail in real time and am able to select the information I want to receive. It’s no good being compulsive; one can easily end up downloading too much information that’s of no use at all. I’m a regular library goer and enjoy browsing about in bookstores, so I know how to find my way around, where to head for for a bargain, the right shelves where to find the books and authors I want. In a nut shell, I’ve learnt to be selective. I relate to the web in the same way –no different. There’s no need to be apprehensive or stressed about too much information coming in, just selective when downloading.

How will the organisation of society be affected in the information age?
I’m a firm believer in freedom, equality, and justice. Freedom is rooted in the ability to reason critically; informed and critical thinking is free by definition. The advancement of freedom goes hand in hand with that of knowledge, so that improvements in the social sphere, where universal brotherhood should be the ideal yardstick, may be expected to spring from such an association. But the economic sphere also stands to gain, for greater equality means more opportunities for all. The impetus to freedom conferred by more knowledge and its fairer distribution can definitely have a beneficial effect. It will help to overcome the social and economic barriers that have so far inhibited many from making the most of their lives.
The freedom of the web can indeed lead to intemperance, scattering a deluge of messages far and wide that are hard to cope with. This is presently the prevailing scenario. The only way to avoid the risk of burnout due to information overload is to have a good general education system to build up a wide knowledge base to start with. We’ve so far only nibbled at the reality confronting us. We’re bound to the past because we find it reassuring. Even minor changes to our routine cause us to panic, easily sparking a widespread negative reaction.

O.K., so we have information being exchanged on a global scale but in a physically fragmented scenario, made up of so many different countries, nations, individuals, all far less flexible than the web.
There’s got to be a mind-frame leap; we’ve got to start thinking globally. Knowledge by chunks and morsels won’t do anymore.
Shutting oneself up in a room and reading thousands of books isn’t going to turn me into an individual with a well rounded education and it’s not going to improve my understanding and grasp of reality. Being cultured means first and foremost being able to relate. It means having respect for the other and being keenly interested in what the other has to say. That’s essentially what the web is supposed to be all about.

In what way does enterprise bend knowledge to its utilitarian purposes?
If it’s really enterprise we’re talking about then we’re talking ethics. Genuine enterprise is not out to make a quick buck but to generate wealth, and genuine wealth cannot but be ethical. My grandfather used to call it “honesty.” Why waste words? “Honesty” is just as good a definition today as it was yesterday.

Do you think the modern-day business enterprise is in a position to put forward propositions beyond the economic field, suggesting new forms of social organisation or solutions to social problems?
What’s needed are entrepreneurs capable of a vision, with a prospective. They may be rare, but some there are.
We frequently hear talk of fundamentals. Well, the fundamental here is: “profit’s fine as long as it’s honest”.
There’s nothing more to be said. It all boils down to creating wealth honestly. Knowing how to do one’s job well and honestly, with conviction and commitment and an undimmed desire to always learn, to always go after and acquire new knowledge and to find pleasure and self gratification in doing so is at the heart of the matter. Moving into a global frame of mind is quite feasible because it’s in the very nature of human beings to want and to strive to know as much as possible of their surroundings, of the world they live in. Today there’s a tool that can favour this innate tendency. Let’s learn to use it well. There’s no need to be know-alls; there’s a mission for each and every one of us and we each have personal endowments and characteristics that may be turned into assets.

Where’s all this continuous innovation that the consumer often finds hard to cope or even merely keep up with heading?
I always remember the story of how polio was beaten because the vaccine’s inventor, Albert Sabin, refused to patent it. It’d be great if all such momentous discoveries were open-source, but it’ll take time. It needs a radical change in attitude and consciousness. The web is just a small, first step in the direction of pooling and sharing intellectual resources on a global scale. Indeed, its status will soon be like that of the telephone or television.
Technology-wise it’ll turn out to be commonplace, practically a household appliance. It’s the social contents that go into and come out of it that count; they can turn it into a genuine breakthrough. Its potential is still all waiting to be discovered and fully unleashed. There’s a lot of work out their for upcoming generations.

Do you envisage radical social changes?
The first history-making and – breaking revolution 10,000 years ago was in agriculture.
Since then and up to the industrial age information management patterns and techniques and its circulation within the body social stayed more or less the same. Today we’re on the verge of a great social revolution because, unlike in the past, what’s at stake is the very way in which we communicate. In the future education will have to be permanent; learning will be ongoing throughout an individual’s life span. We’ll have to get used to the idea of changing jobs every five to ten years.

Is there a good read you may like to recommend to help us continue learning?
“Globalisation and its Opponents” by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize winner for economics in 2001, may still be considered the cornerstone on the subject. It describes globalisation in clear and forthright terms. It’s an excellent read and so far hasn’t been superseded, despite being published in 2002. I say it hasn’t been “superseded” and “despite” because being up-todate is today a short-lived condition like never before.

The opinion

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:51:24 +0000

During these times of reflection and change caused by the global crisis we are all experiencing, I find the topic of listening to be extremely relevant. My approach is to see what can be learned from it, starting with the basic theories of modern management. I think this is essential, if we are to deal with the current economic situation.
For management guru Peter Drucker, the mission of any company is to obtain, and keep, customers. Easy to say, but to achieve this vital objective, a company first has to identify its potential customers and then win their loyalty – something that is far from simple to do. As we will see, this process is based on listening.
In order to identify potential consumers, a company needs to know how to focus on what society is communicating, through its lifestyles, trends (current or future) and weaknesses. Traditionally, a company’s Marketing department is responsible for this task. The second step is the responsibility of Sales, whose hands-on experience allows them to identify and interpret the specific needs and wants of each potential client. It is then up to Marketing to convert these signals into precise directions for product development, and transmit them to the R&D department, whose staff have a delicate, complex task. They have to generate ideas that can be transformed into projects, combining creativity with financial, technological and temporal limitations. To find their way through this jungle, the ability to listen is again key. In this case, it takes the form of brainstorming, where the team uncritically considers all the ideas – even the most bizarre – expressed by each member, until a popular winner emerges. At this point the Production department comes into play, is asked to listen to the proposals put forward by Marketing and R&D, and then has to make itself heard when setting out its own terms and conditions. Production limitations are often critical for the success of the new product, which might, at this point, see the light of day.
Is that the end of the road? Of course not. Since time has elapsed since the start of the process, the potential customer we talked to at the outset might now have different requirements. Or another competitor might have got there first. Or the initial ideas might have been thrown off course by problems encountered along the way. At this point, we find ourselves with a product that no longer matches the expectations of our potential customer. The people responsible for resolving this mismatch are the sales team. If they are good at their jobs, they’ll be able to use the Socratic art of maieutics and win the prospective client’s support for their proposals. How? By using a clever series of questions and answers, once again based on the ability to listen.
This time we really have reached the end of the road. It is an opportunity to remember that selling and using the maieutic method successfully is not only the task of a company’s sales force. We are all responsible for using this approach, no matter what our roles, in order to obtain approval, finance, or trust – in our professional or personal lives.

Authentic Cisneros

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:48:53 +0000

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 in a family of Mexican extraction. She’s currently one of the most complex literary voices of the United States.  Legend and history, poetry and prose, the radio and music, English and Spanish are interwoven in her writings like the threads that go to make up the warp and weft of a caramel coloured rebozo, the traditional Mexican shawl.
Straddling, as she does, both Mexico and the United States, we talk with her of the borders than run between tradition and modernity and of her capacity for building up a richer culture springing from the meeting of two different cultures, from their mutual contamination and from the impellent need to refresh the codes that make for a sense of belonging to a community.

With your book “Caramelo” you describe the continually altering Mexican-American world. How much does your cultural origin influence the American culture, fruit of a melting pot?
In my lifetime I’ve witnessed an incredible growth of the Mexican population in the U.S. Especially within the last ten years. This is most evident in the most universal area where communities converge: eating. Mexican food has become quite the rage of late. And I mean authentic Mexican food, not the Taco Bell chains that create a facsimile of Mexican cuisine, but the true Mexican food of the interior. This reality came home to me one day when I was aboard an airplane and breakfast was being served. Here we were at 30,000 feet above the earth and we were all eating breakfast tacos: scrambled eggs in a tortilla. I never thought I’d see the day an American airline would serve us the humble Mexican tortilla. These surreal moments happen more and more these days as the Mexican presence becomes so intricately enmeshed with the North American reality. Not only in gastronomy, but in fashion. Note the recent revival of painted Mexican skirts this summer, as well as the adoption of cholo wear fashioned after the Chicano street look. But I’d argue that influence is global. One of the more remarkable items of clothing I bought on my last trip from Madrid was a jacket with a cholo insignia on the back, and it was made by designers from Italy.

What does it mean to speak about Chicana culture?
The term “Chicano/a” is a political term, in much the same way that “feminist” is a word of political choice. There are many Mexican-Americans who do not like, use, or are familiar with the word. And recently I was startled to hear of a younger generation calling themselves “post Chicanos”.
I think of Chicano culture as a politicized culture that is neither Mexican nor American, but born from a country in the intellect. An invented country, perhaps, but certainly by someone who has enough political conscious to claim the word for herself. To call yourself Chicano means to be aware of the struggle and history of the Mexicans on both sides of the U.S./Mexican border. So I guess I’m saying someone has to have some social awareness to call themselves “Chicano/a”. It’s not the word of choice right now. I guess the word of choice is “hispanic” because the media and the government has colonized us with this term. Lately I’ve taken to calling myself Mexican so as not to differentiate myself from the illegal mexicans who are arriving in the U.S. I don’t want to separate myself from their struggle and their troubles, especially now when we’ve seen so much anti-immigrant sentiment. I’ve never seen the Mexicans stand up and call themselves Chicanos to defend us, but maybe this is a way to make them learn about who we are.

How difficult is it to abandon one’s own traditions in order to feel part of a new nation?
I truly do not know the answer to this question as I have never abandoned my own traditions. I am both Mexican and American simultaneously. I grew up eating tamales at Christmas, or making tacos out of the Thanksgiving turkey. U.S culture and Mexican culture has enhanced who I am, and the mix of the two has created something new. Sometimes the values of one is at odds with the other, but I’ve managed to balance both cultures to arrive at who I am. When I am travelling in Mexico, I’m most conscious that I am not a mexicana, and when I travel north from the border, I realize how much I’m not a gringa either. I’m neither this nor that, I’m an amphibian, able to live on land and water, but most at home in the middle place, the muddy loam, the rich place in between.