New Media – Page 2 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: New Media

Future Focused – Radio is Dead … Almost

Posted on November 12, 2017 in Industries, Strategy, Tactical

Go Lean Commentary

‘Focusing on the Future’ means letting go of the past!

This is easier said than done, but when it comes to investing time, talents and treasuries we should always focus our energies on going forward and not going backwards, on where the market is going and not where the market has been.

Alert: Radio, as a communications medium, is dead and dying. This applies in the advanced democracy of the US and in the Caribbean.

Doubtful about this actuality in the Caribbean? See the article in Appendix A below describing the closure of the state-run national radio station in St. Lucia.

Other media for communications – think newspapers, magazines and books – are also dead or dying. These are also identified as Old Media. In a previous blog-commentary, the following observance was made:

Print is not dead… yet? I almost didn’t notice!

If print is not dead yet, does that mean it is going to put up a fight? Will it make a comeback? I say “No”. It is just a matter of time. Print might experience only a slow death, but die … it will.

This has been the conclusion of the movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean – available to download for free. The point is that societies have been transformed; old strategies, old tactics. old implementations simply do not work anymore. Ignore this reality at your own peril.

Doubtful about this actuality in the US? See the article in Appendix B below describing the regulatory transformation to allow Old Media companies to consolidate to survive in the US. (Some media firms have a winning model; see Appendix VIDEO).

This fact – transformations in society – was an early motivation for the Go Lean book. It identified that the Caribbean region had been beset by these macro transformations, identified as Agents of Change in society:

Technology
Globalization
Aging Diaspora
Climate Change

The Caribbean region had not keep pace and suffered the peril … alluded to above. Our region is now in crisis.

Alas, the book asserts (Page 8) that this “crisis is a terrible thing to waste” and has provided new strategies, new tactics and new implementations so as to elevate Caribbean society. According to the book (Page 186), stewards of the Caribbean must embrace New Media – Internet and Communications Technologies – in order to communicate and engage Caribbean people in society. The book presents this Case Study:

The Bottom Line on Old Media versus New Media

The internet and mobile communications has changed the modern world; many industries that once flourished (music retailers, travel agencies, book sales, line telephone companies), now flounder. Media distribution via the internet or mobile devices are referred to as “new media”, while old distribution channels like newspapers, magazines, TV and radio are referred to as “old media”. The mainstream (“old”) media is pivotal for “freedom of the press” as they are effective at standing up to big institutions like governments and corporations. The art of “good” journalism requires the deeper pockets that mainstream media bring to the market, but old media is dying financially.

New media, on the other hand, is an aggregation of mainstream media. With the ubiquity of new media devices, people have freer, easier access and more options to news and information. On the plus side, there is now a greater diversity of ideas and viewpoints, on the minus side, with too many options, people tend to isolate their news consumption to only the views they want to hear. As new media matures, it is expected that it will take over the social responsibilities of old media, adopt the best practices of journalism, like fact checking (with the ease of information retrieval online), and finally return the industry to financial viability.

Old Media – radio, print (newspapers & magazines), etc. – is the past; New Media is the future.

This commentary continues this series on the Caribbean Future; this is Part 3 of 5 on this subject. The full series flows as:

Future Focused – Personal Development and the Internet
Future Focused – College, Caribbean Style
Future Focused – Radio is Dead
Future Focused – Policing the Police
Future Focused – e-Government Portal 101 – Available November 15

As initiated in the first blog-commentary in this series, a focus on the future mandates that we focus on reaching young people. Hint: they are not consuming Old Media.

So the stewards of a new Caribbean must engage New Media.

The Go Lean book provides a 370-page turn-by-turn guide for forging a new future; it details “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to engage Internet and Communications Technologies (ICT) and forge change in the region to foster a new future. This Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This is a Future Focused roadmap.

The Go Lean book also details that there must be a super-national management of the region’s airwave spectrum. Remember, some Caribbean member-states are only a few miles apart; two islands are actually shared by 2 different countries with a border within – Hispaniola with Haiti and the Dominican Republic; plus the Dutch and French sharing of Sint Maarten / Saint Martin. The book therefore states (Page 79) this excerpt:

D6 – Communications and Media Authority
The radio spectrum must be regulated on a regional level, beyond that of just one member-state. So as not to forge conflict with one radio/TV station from one member-state overriding the signal of another station in another state, the CU will be the overseer of all radio spectrum. This oversight will also extend to satellite regulations and broadband governance.

Though the current coordination among member-states is facilitated by national treaties, the accedence of the CU treaty will supersede all previous legal maneuvers. The scope and jurisdiction of this Agency will be exclusive to the region.

Auctions of radio spectrum can be a big source for garnering initial capital to launch the Trade Federation – this is how the CU can pay for change. But to monetize the management of radio spectrum will require one prerequisite step: convert all TV broadcasts to digital (from analog signals). This exercise is complex as it requires re-tooling all TV receptors for digital conversion – newer sets are already digital compliant. Countries like the US and the EU facilitated this conversion by granting decoding devices for the general public. This effort is too big for any one Caribbean member-state; it will require the coordination of a super-national agency, this Communications Authority.

This agency will also regulate other aspects of the media industry, promoting broadband acceptance and proliferations; plus serve as industry regulator for content issues. This agency will also liaison with an independent CU Agency for Public Broadcasting to facilitate/coordinate endeavors in the arena of public television and public radio. This includes providing funding.

Other than this Public Broadcasting functionality, this agency is modeled after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US.

Way Forward
Is there a Way Forward? Can the medium of radio be saved or maintained as a communication source to influence Caribbean minds?

Yes, but only for a little while; and perhaps only with the older generations. The Caribbean youth will require New Media.

There is a Way Forward; consider mobile (smart phones) and internet (browsers social media, search engines, etc.). But there is still some effective conscientizing taking place … on the radio. (See a previous conscientizing event here).

Consider this interview here with a “Radio Personality” in the Bahamas:

Title: Interview with a Radio Personality – Louby Georges
Radio is dying, yet many still depend on this medium for their livelihood, and as a means to engage the public. The promoters of the Go Lean movement conducted a structured interview with a “Radio Personality” in the Bahamas, Louby Georges, the Host of the show The Flipside on ZSR Sports Radio 103.5 in Nassau. He is on the frontlines of the battle of conscientizing the Caribbean market on the need to reform and transform our societal engines – he advocates for the Bahamas to better manage civil rights and human rights with the Haitian-Bahamian community; his quest is for the Bahamas to be a pluralistic democracy. (Louby is identified in this interview as LG; while the Author‘s questions are formatted in Bold). Consider his responses here as related to this endeavor to engage Caribbean people through the medium of “Radio”:

Tell me your story:

LG: I am a minority in a homogeneous society. I was born in the Bahamas after 1973, to parents that were not Bahamian citizens, (they were Haitian heritage). Therefore, I was Stateless for the first 19 years of my life. It was only at that age, that I was able to apply for my Bahamian citizenship. The award was not automatic, I had to jump through a lot of hoops, but in the end, my Bahamian citizenship was recognized. I am recognized as a “up and coming” young leader by International monitors.(I just attended the World Festival of Youth and Students 2017 in Sochi, Russia this past October). Yet, in my own country, people would rather I “sit down and shut up”.

Tell me about your journey in radio:

LG: I started in television, as part of a entrepreneurial endeavor with some partners. It was a weekly 30 minute show on the local Cable TV channel; I provided insights of the Haitian-Bahamian community. I was subsequently offered to do “The Flipside” on the radio for every weekday. I have been doing this for 4 years now.

Though your advocacy is for the Bahamas to accept their eventuality of a pluralistic democracy, why do you remain when it is so obvious that your presence as a pro-Haiti advocate is not welcomed?

LG: The Bahamas is the only home I know – though I speak Creole and have visited Haiti, the Bahamas is still my homeland – and I love this homeland and these people. If something is wrong in my home, then it is up to me – and other citizens – to do the housekeeping. I have a passion for this home and a disdain for being a stranger in a foreign land.

Considering all your travels, where in the world would you consider the best place to live?

LG: I have truly travelled – though I have not lived anywhere else – before the World Youth Festival this year, I was also invited to Youth Leadership conferences in Latin America and in the US. I have seen the good, bad and ugly of the world, but for me the best place to live is here at home in the Bahamas. Is it perfect? No, but it could be “better in the Bahamas”; despite the cliché, I truly believe that.

As a businessman, how do you feel about the Bahamas economy?

LG: It is not good, some may even say the economy is dying. Many of the problems stem from the single source of economic activity, tourism. If only we can diversify then there would be so much more potential.

How do you feel about Caribbean security?

LG: This is sad. On a scale of 1 to 10, our homeland security can be rated as a 3. We must do better, be safer.

Accepting that the Caribbean in general and the Bahamas in particular is your homeland, what would you want to see there in … 5 years?

LG: More opportunities and more capital for local business minded people. Which comes first, the capital or the opportunities? Let’s work hard to solving that in the next 5 years.

What would you want to see in the Bahamas in … 10 years?

LG: We need population growth. We need a bigger market so that our economy and society can grow. It is that simple, if we want to make progress, we must grow.

But so many Caribbean people have fled their homelands; this problem persists. Your parents emigrated from Haiti; large number of Caribbean people emigrate everyday. How would you feel if your lovely daughter here, decides that she wants to live in the US, Canada or some European country?

LG: I wouldn’t feel bad, but I would hope that she would have the same love for our homeland as I do. But I would understand. My country seems to “push” people away more than they are being “pulled” by other countries. This is why some of us must fight to reform and transform our country. Count me in for the fight.

What would you want to see in the Bahamas in … … 20 years?

LG: Our country is more than just Nassau. I would like to see more Family Island development. Those islands would be perfect to try different economic diversification models.
——-
Thank you for your responses Louby and your commitment to the Bahamas, Haiti and the Caribbean. We see you; we hear you and we feel your passion. We entreat you to look here, going forward, for more solutions on making our homeland better places to live, work and play.

As related in the foregoing article, Louby Georges believes that radio can still be used to conscientize with the Bahamian population. But he cautious that this business model is failing more and more each day. See this article here depicting dissension within the media company / radio station (ZSR 103.5 FM) where he works:

Takeover of ZSR 103.5 ‘defective’, but URCA approves Sebas’s radio deal

In 2017, a focus on the future for interstate communications must also consider broadband, streaming and/or the Internet. This consideration is embedded in the Go Lean roadmap. In fact, the book presents the good stewardship – a new regime – so that ICT can be a great equalizing element for leveling the playing field in competition with the rest of the world.

This CU/Go Lean roadmap details many aspects of the societal reboot for the Caribbean, not just ICT alone. In fact, the roadmap features these 3 prime directives to reform and transform society – all Future Focused:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The Go Lean book stresses that transforming Caribbean communications-media “engines” must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xii. Whereas the legacy in recent times in individual states may be that of ineffectual governance with no redress to higher authority, the accedence of this Federation will ensure accountability and escalation of the human and civil rights of the people for good governance, justice assurances, due process and the rule of law. …

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

The Go Lean book presents a detail plan for elevating existing tertiary education options and adding new ones. This federal government – CU Trade Federation – will NOT be academicians, but it will facilitate new and better education options. The motivation of this charter is the recognition that college education has failed the Caribbean region. We need to double-down on the intra-Caribbean strategy – promoting the many universities among the 30 member-states – and e-Learning options.

This Caribbean-style is Future Focused.

See the many considerations of this strategy in these previous blog-commentaries from the Go Lean movement:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=13321	Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Multilingual Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10750	Less and Less People Reading Newspapers
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10052	Fake News? Welcome to America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8328	New Media Example: YouTube Millionaire – ‘Tipsy Bartender’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6464	Sports Role Model – ‘WWE Network’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5353	POTUS and the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3974	Google and Mobile Phones – Here comes Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1634	Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right – A Book Review
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=248	Print is dead … soon

The Go Lean movement has collected the insights of Caribbean media entrepreneurs … like Louby Georges in the foregoing interview. This book was the result. This movement declares that while “Radio is Dead or Dying”, there is the appealing opportunity for a new media landscape. Imagine a www.myCaribbean.gov network for 42 million people, 10 million Diaspora, and 80 million visitors. Imagine too, a Caribbean Union channel on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. This prospect, and the benefits are before us if we prepare and forge a new unified, integrated Single Market for all of the Caribbean.

Yes, this vision is within reach.

Welcome to the future, to New Media. Say “Goodbye” to yesterday, to Old Media. Can we transform our Caribbean society?

Yes, we can! While this is not easy – it is heavy-lifting – it is conceivable, believable and achievable.

This is the kind of Future Focused efforts that are needed to reform and transform the Bahamas and all of Caribbean society; to make our homeland a better place to live, work, learn and play. 🙂

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

———

Appendix A – ECCO Boss believes more local radio stations could close

The General Manager of the Eastern Caribbean Collective Organisation for Music Rights (ECCO), Steve Etienne, has expressed the view that Saint Lucia could see the closure of more radio stations, following the recent announcement of the planned closure of state-owned Radio Saint Lucia.

He said the planned closure has come as no surprise to him.

“It should not be a surprise to anyone because RSL has operated in challenging situations that have been known to the public for some time,” Etienne observed.

However the ECCO official noted that the closure of the station will leave a void in the field of broadcasting because RSL played a unique role, despite its association with the government.

“They provided a lot of information and educational focus in lots of the areas that are not normally seen as attractive to radio,” Etienne stated.

He observed that ECCO has had a long relationship with RSL.

“We will miss that relationship,” Etienne said.

He noted that the station owed ECCO a substantial sum of money which the organisation will be seeking to recover.

Etienne explained that the closure of the station would be a loss to ECCO’s members because RSL provided a lot of air time for local music producers.

He stated that the station had a day set aside for playing local music.

“We will miss that, but I think that the slack will be picked up by other media houses – some have already started to focus on having specific segments for local music,” he remarked.

Etienne expressed the view that what is happening to RSL could befall other broadcasting entities.

“We have far too many radio stations and we haven’t got the finance – our economy cannot sustain or support twenty or so radio stations that we have and if business is done as business ought to be done, then several other radio stations will go the same way as RSL,” the ECCO General Manager said.

He explained that because ECCO is funded by a percentage of advertising revenue, the organisation is aware that lots of radio stations are struggling.

“Or at least they are telling us they are struggling and if that is the truth, then many would follow RSL,” he pointed out.

According to Etienne, Saint Lucia needs a thriving economy.

He declared that having radio stations that are unsustainable will not help the economy.

Source: Posted May 13, 2017; retrieved November 12, 2017 from: https://stluciatimes.com/2017/05/13/ecco-boss-believes-more-local-radio-stations-could-close

———

Appendix B – FCC Moves to End TV-Newspaper Ownership Ban

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said he’ll move to weaken or kill local media ownership restrictions next month, potentially clearing the way for more consolidation among companies that own TV and radio stations.

Chairman Ajit Pai told Congress he’ll ask the FCC, where he leads a Republican majority, to eliminate the rule barring common ownership of a newspaper and nearby broadcast station, and to revise restrictions on owning multiple broadcast outlets in a single market.

“If you believe, as I do, that the federal government has no business intervening in the news, then we must stop the federal government from intervening in the news business,” Pai said in a hearing of the House communications subcommittee. He said that’s why he offered his rules revision to “help pull the government once and for all out of the newsroom.”

Republicans have been calling, without success, to weaken or kill those rules for more than a decade, and Pai’s ascension to FCC chair as President Donald Trump’s choice gives the party a chance to accomplish that goal. He set a vote for Nov. 16.

Relaxed rules could help Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which earlier told the FCC that its proposed $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media Inc. would violate local-market ownership strictures in 10 cities.

Pai cast his ownership proposals as part of his commitment to the First Amendmentthat guarantees free speech — a live topic since Trump threatened broadcast licenses over news reports.

Democrats announced opposition even before Pai spoke.

“The already consolidated broadcast media market will become even more so, offering little to no discernible benefit for consumers,” Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat, said in testimony prepared for the hearing where Pai and the other commissioners appeared.

Broadcasters eager to consider merger deals have chafed under the ownership restrictions. The rules were written to guarantee a diversity of voices for local communities, and broadcasters say they’re outdated in an era of media abundance featuring cable and internet programming.

The local rules are separate from the national audience cap that limits companies to owning stations that reach 39 percent of the U.S. audience, which Pai didn’t address. That rule could force Sinclair to sell some stations in return for approval of its proposed purchase of Tribune. The deal is before the FCC and antitrust officials for approval.

Pai’s proposed deregulation could set off local transactions, involving station swaps and other small-scale deals, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker said in a note.

“We do NOT expect transformative M&A,” Ryvicker wrote, using a shorthand term for merger and acquisition activity. She said the broadcast industry would be strengthened because two-station sets are more profitable than stand-alone outlets.

Pai’s proposal needs to win a majority at the FCC, and will be subject to intense lobbying in the three weeks leading to the next monthly meeting when the vote is to take place.

Regulations to be revised include the local-TV rule. It allows a company to own two stations in a market if at least one of the stations is not ranked among the top four stations locally, and if the market still will have at least eight independently owned TV stations.

Pai told lawmakers he will propose to the commission that it eliminate the latter provision, known as the eight-voices test, and put in place a case-by-case review for allowing exceptions to the top-four prohibition.

Pai also said he’d seek to eliminate a rule restricting common ownership of a TV station and nearby radio station. The agency is to publish the proposed rules on Thursday, he said.

The National Association of Broadcasters said it “strongly supports” the proposal.

FCC restrictions have “punished free and local broadcasters at the expense of our pay TV and radio competitors,” said Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the trade group. “We look forward to rational media ownership rules that foster a bright future for broadcasters and our tens of millions of listeners and viewers.”

The News Media Alliance, formerly called the Newspaper Association of America, focused on the newspaper-broadcast rule, put in place in the 1970s.

“Outdated regulations preventing investment in one sector of the media market do not make sense, particularly when newspapers compete with countless sources of news and information every day,” said the trade group’s president, David Chavern.

The Free Press policy group objected.

“We need to strengthen local voices and increase viewpoint diversity, not surrender our airwaves to an ever-smaller group of giant conglomerates,” said Craig Aaron, president of the group. “Pai is clearly committed to doing the bidding of companies like Sinclair and clearing any obstacles to their voracious expansion.”

Representatives of cable and satellite-TV companies wary of the negotiating clout of combined stations have said they will be concerned if the top-four restriction is relaxed or eliminated. Broadcasters are raising fees they charge to cable and satellite companies in return for permission to carry their signals.

“Pai’s statement to end media rules is most retrograde in FCC history,” Michael Copps, a former Democratic FCC commissioner, said in a tweet. “Halloween sweets for Big Media, paves way for huge Yule for Sinclair.”

Source: Bloomberg posted October 25, 2017 retrieved November 12, 2017 from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-25/fcc-s-pai-sets-nov-16-vote-on-lifting-media-ownership-limits

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Appendix VIDEO – Hearst CEO Says the Death of Old Media Is Not True – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-10-24/hearst-ceo-says-the-death-of-old-media-is-not-true-video

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ICT, Model, New Media, Transform

Making a ‘Pluralistic Democracy’ – Multilingual Realities

Posted on October 24, 2017 in Ethos, Government, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

So, what has happened in our Caribbean region of 42 million people and 5 colonial legacies (American, British, France, Netherlands, Spain) was inevitable:

Multilingual society!

There is no getting around it. If the planners for a new Caribbean want to form a unified, integrated community, they will have to select one of these language options:

Dutch
English
French
Spanish
All of the Above

The answer must be #5. This is because the Caribbean is not a singularity; not in language, ethnicities nor culture.

In fact, the planners, the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean has presented that quest: to first make the Caribbean’s member-states a “Pluralistic Democracy”; and form a Single Market economy.

This “Pluralistic Democracy” would mean a society where the many different ethnic groups (and languages) have consideration, equal rights, equal privileges and equal protections under the law; where there are no superior rights to any majority and no special deprivations to any minority. The expectation of this Pluralism is for any one person to be treated like everyone else. The legal definition of Pluralism as a political philosophy is as follows …

… the recognition and affirmation of diversity within a political body, which permits the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions and lifestyles.^[1] While not all political pluralists advocate for a pluralist democracy, this is most common as democracy is often viewed as the most fair and effective way to moderate between the discrete values.^[2] – Wikipedia

This vision of a Caribbean “Pluralistic Democracy” should be more than words, but action too. The truth of the matter is that while this writer is English-speaking, the majority of the Caribbean’s population is not. Notice the correct Population and Language Distribution summary here and the full details in the Appendix below (based on 2010):

	Population:	Dutch	English	French	Spanish
Totals	42,198,874	809,834	6,747,229	9,887,899	24,753,912
Percentage	100.00%	1.92%	15.99%	23.43%	58.66%

The movement behind the book Go Lean…Caribbean has repeatedly related that there is a need for new stewardship of the Caribbean societal engines (economics, security and governance). Our region – collectively and individually – is in crisis due to our many societal defects and dysfunctions. The book opened with this declaration:

There is something wrong in the Caribbean. It is the greatest address in the world for its 4 language groups, but instead of the world “beating a path” to these doors, the people of the Caribbean have “beat down their doors” to get out.

The Go Lean book posits that the best-practice for reforming and transforming our society will come from confederating and collaborating a regional response to our local inadequacies; that the problems in Caribbean society are too dire for any one member-state to assuage on its own; there is the need for a regional technocracy. Further, the book explains that an integrated collective is the only way to contend with the Agents of Change (Page 57) that have dynamically affected the Caribbean eco-systems. These Agents of Change include:

Technology
Globalization
Aging Diaspora
Climate Change

The Agent of Change of Globalization implies trade of goods, services and capital with stakeholders in any location around the world. It goes without saying that the natural language of Globalization will be …

… it is what it is!

Here in the Caribbean, we must contend with the above 4 primary languages, plus a number of Creole spin-offs (think: Haitian Creole French and Papiamentu in the Dutch Caribbean). So we are not able to declare any one language standard. And this is OK, as we are ready for this Brave New World! We have spanned the globe and identified the best tools and techniques for managing a multilingual society.

In terms of tools, notice below this innovative technology being introduced in the North American marketplace, this year:

VIDEO 1 – Google Pixel Buds are wireless headphones that translate in real time – https://youtu.be/KE_DtGgovjc

Tech Insider

Published on Oct 4, 2017 – Google Pixel Buds are $160 wireless earbuds introduced during their October Pixel event. Designed to wrap around the back of a user’s neck, the headphones can use Google Assistant to answer questions and translate languages in real-time.

Category: Science & Technology

License: Standard YouTube License

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VIDEO 2 – See how Pixel Buds translate languages on the fly – https://youtu.be/B_BQjRs94ec

CNET

Published on Oct 5, 2017 – Read the CNET review article here – http://cnet.co/2yJA95f
CNET’s Lexy Savvides and Sean Hollister try out the real-time translation feature for Google’s new Pixel Buds.

Category: Science & Technology

License: Standard YouTube License

In terms of techniques, since our Caribbean territory is not the first region to contend with a multilingual population – and we will not be the last – we have great role models to consider.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean presents … Canada as such; a great role model that provides lessons-learned for a multilingual society. The Go Lean book – available to download for free – serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), for the elevation of Caribbean society – for all 30 member-states – to foster a “Pluralistic Democracy”. The reference to Canada’s role-model continues further:

10 Lessons from Canada’s History (Page 146)
#3 – Multiple Cultural Legacies and Languages
Canada is officially bilingual (English/French) & multicultural at the federal level. The need to structure legal frameworks for diversity was a compelling motivation for confederation, (and an example for the CU to model). The[ir] constitution allows for individual provinces to reflect realities of their populations & cultural differences.

VIDEO 3 – O Canada in 11 different languages – https://youtu.be/1jROsqdrLdk

Published on Jul 1, 2017 – Canada’s national anthem sung in 11 different languages

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

For more than 75 years, CBC News has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.

Category: News & Politics

License: Standard YouTube License

This vision is very though-provoking for the Caribbean. It asserts that if we want to elevate our societal engines then we must do the heavy-lifting of reforming our value systems or our community ethos – the spirit that informs our beliefs, customs and practices – to embrace all people in the region – despite the language – into an integrated brotherhood. This is the charter of the CU/Go Lean roadmap; it has these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines, including a separation-of-powers between the member-states and CU federal agencies.

The Go Lean book provides 370-pages of turn-by-turn instructions on “how” to adopt new community ethos, plus the strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to execute so as to reboot, reform and transform the societal engines of Caribbean society. There is a lot of consideration in the book for optimizing communications to the masses. Consider the Chapter excerpts and headlines from this sample on Page 186 entitled:

10 Ways to Improve Communications

1	*Lean-in for the Caribbean Single Market* & Economy (CSME) Initiative: Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU).**
2	CU Defense Pact: State Militias & Naval Operations The collective security agreement of the CU will allow the creation of a Homeland Security Department, to defend the member states against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The size of the CU market will allow it to afford cutting edge equipment, systems and training …
3	Media Industrial Complex The CU will oversee the radio spectrum used for radio, television and satellite communications. The radio spectrum must be regulated on a regional level, because the islands are so close to each other and foreign states, that there must be coordination of the common resource pool – the spectrum is limited. This FCC-style (USA) oversight will also extend to internet broadband (wireless & wire-line) governance. With the CU’s financial reforms, the emergence of card-based and e-payment systems will allow for the full exploitation of the media business models. Also, the CU, through licensing, can mandate a certain amount of programming of the educational, inspirational and public service variety.
4	4 Simultaneous Languages – SAP-type Channels The technology used for SAP (Secondary Audio Programming) channels will be deployed extensively to cover all four languages (Dutch, English, French and Spanish) in broadcasts to multi-state markets. Official websites, by the CU administration will be published in the four languages and this practice encouraged for private websites.
5	Public Broadcasting
6	Press Secretary / Public Relations Officers
7	Journalism Industry Certifications
8	Libel and Slander Due Process
9	Internet & Social Media
10	Libraries and Archives The CU will build and maintain libraries throughout the region, in a hub-and-spoke fashion. The central library, in the CU’s capital seat, will maintain the domain for all the official archives for the governmental administration, and then further provide intranet access to all the satellite library branches. The libraries are also pivotal for e-Learning in the CU.

In order to ensure success for the Caribbean’s future, the region must foster a better landscape for communicating to all people everywhere. (This includes sign-language for the hearing-impaired as well). Imagine hurricane and tsunami warnings, lives could be at stake!

Yes, this Go Lean roadmap considers the heavy-lifting of structuring Caribbean society to be a “Pluralistic Democracy”. This is far better than the unsustainable status quo. “Unsustainable” is an understatement; we have a crisis; we are bleeding our populations front-and-center. Communicating with our citizens in their Mother Tongue does feel more welcoming. There are direct references to jobs as well, with this multilingual advocacy.

The Go Lean book describes (Page 212) the Call/Contact Center industry that can be fostered in the Caribbean. Wherever there are people speaking the same language, local Caribbean Call Centers can be utilized to communicate with these people. The book specifically identifies 12,000 new …

Direct and indirect jobs at physical and virtual call centers

Imagine telemarketing, collections and customer service calls to Dutch-speaking people in Amsterdam … from Aruba. Or calls to French Canadians … from Martinique. This multilingual-based industry helps the people in the Caribbean to prosper where planted.

This – a “Pluralistic Democracy” – is indeed a Brave New World.

Welkom – Dutch
We welcome it – English
Bienvenue – French
Bienvenido – Spanish

Now is the time for all stakeholders in the Caribbean – in all language groups – to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap. We can just be ourselves, speaking our Mother Tongue. This is pivotal for our quest for a “Pluralistic Democracy”; this commentary is the final Part 3 of the 3-part series on this subject. The full collection is as follows:

Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Respect for Diwali
Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Freedom of Movement
Making a “Pluralistic Democracy” – Multilingual Realities

Yes. this “Pluralistic Democracy” vision is a BIG deal, yet it is conceivable, believable and achievable for making the Caribbean homeland better to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the free e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

———–

Appendix – Caribbean Population and Language Distribution

Member	Language	Population	Dutch	English	French	Spanish
Anguilla	English	13,477		13,477
Antigua and Barbuda	English	85,632		85,632
Aruba	Dutch	106,000	106,000
Bahamas	English	342,000		342,000
Barbados	English	279,000		279,000
Belize	English	320,000		320,000
Bermuda	English	67,837		67,837
British Virgin Islands	English	24,000		24,000
Cayman Islands	English	56,000		56,000
Cuba	Spanish	11,236,444				11,236,444
Dominica	English	72,660		72,660
Dominican Republic	Spanish	9,523,209				9,523,209
Grenada	English	110,000		110,000
Guadeloupe	French	405,500			405,500
Guyana	English	772,298		772,298
Haiti	French	9,035,536			9,035,536
Jamaica	English	2,825,928		2,825,928
Martinique	French	402,000			402,000
Montserrat	English	4,488		4,488
Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eust, St Maarten)	Dutch	231,834	231,834
Puerto Rico	Spanish	3,994,259				3,994,259
Saint Barthélemy	French	8,938			8,938
Saint Kitts and Nevis	English	42,696		42,696
Saint Lucia	English	160,765		160,765
Saint Martin	French	35,925			35,925
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	English	120,000		120,000
Suriname	Dutch	472,000	472,000
Trinidad and Tobago	English	1,305,000		1,305,000
Turks and Caicos Islands	English	36,600		36,600
US Virgin Islands	English	108,848		108,848
Totals		42,198,874	809,834	6,747,229	9,887,899	24,753,912
Percentage		100.00%	1.92%	15.99%	23.43%	58.66%

Source: Page 66 of book Go Lean … Caribbean; Published November, 2013.

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The Wait Ended – This Day Last Year – ENCORE

Posted on July 27, 2017 in Implementation, Social

Time flies … when you’re having fun – Old Adage

This has been the case in the last 12 months. On this day – July 27 – in 2016, the facility to download the book Go Lean … Caribbean finally became available.

Hip Hip Hooray!

We have not stood still since then. We have re-published the main Go Lean website into all 4 Caribbean languages – Dutch, English, French and Spanish – and published 180 more blog-commentaries.

Here below is an Encore of that original blog-commentary that announced the functionality to download the e-Book.

——————

Go Lean Commentary

“Now I tired waiting”.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean is now available to download as an e-Book … for free.

Get the e-Book here NOW!

What is the big deal?

Well, this book purports to be the answer … for what ails the Caribbean.

The book asserts that the Caribbean is in crisis; that the region of 42 million people in the 30 member-states is dysfunctional … to the point of flirting with Failed-State status. It is that serious!

The book posits that one identifying symptom is the high societal abandonment rate. The countries of the Caribbean region are experiencing a brain drain where 70 percent – on the average – of the tertiary-educated have fled for foreign shores.

70% …
… this is no way to nation-build.

These alarming abandonment rates have been communicated to the governments and leaders of the region and yet still, the problem persists. They have not taken action to curb the problem.

Comes now the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This 370-page publication presents the solutions for all the region, all the 4 language groups (Dutch, English, French and Spanish) by describing 144 different missions to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of the region. This is a serious answer to a serious crisis.

This book is published by a community development foundation made up of mostly Caribbean Diaspora. These ones have grown tired of waiting.

“Now I tired waiting”?
I’ve come to fix the …

This familiar refrain in the Caribbean has been repeated time and again, even sang in melody and rhyme. See/listen here, the classic Calypso song from the legendary Mighty Sparrow (and the lyrics in the Appendix below):

VIDEO – Mighty Sparrow – Mr. Walker – https://youtu.be/i5d9WzncTew

Published on Oct 22, 2012 – This song describes a frustrated man who was promised to marry a “not so beautiful” woman, but who was more prosperous economically than himself. This is presented here as a metaphor, of the frustration of waiting for change and finally taking positive action to effect the change oneself.
Album : Party Classics. 1986
All ownership belong to the copyright holder. There is no assumption of infringement here.

The Caribbean Diaspora – living abroad in the US, Canada and Western Europe – were always taught to believe that the Caribbean is the greatest address on the planet, and yet it was essential that they leave to forge an existence elsewhere. They have endured in these foreign lands, but they are still only alien residents. It is not home!

If only there were some solutions for their homeland?

Solutions for the Caribbean are the prime directives of the Go Lean/CU roadmap; just consider these:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The quest of the Go Lean/CU roadmap is direct: to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. The book presents how this quest is conceivable, believable and achievable. It posits that the foundation is now in place, and we only need some technocratic deliveries to move the Caribbean member-states from the current status quo to the new destination: a better homeland. This presents a solution where our youth will no longer have to leave, and our older generations can relish a return back home.

“Now I tired waiting”, I come to fix … “the situation”. We now present you the “fix”!

🙂

Download the e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – free … now!

———–

Appendix – Lyrics: Mighty Sparrow – Mr. Walker

She ugly yes, but she wearing them expensive dress
The People say she ugly, but she father full a money
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

Good morning Mister Walker
I come to see your daughter
Oh, Mister Walker!
I come to see your daughter
Sweet Rosemarie, she promise she gone marry me
And now I tired waiting!
I come to fix the wedding

After the wedding day, I don’t care what nobody say
Everytime I take a good look at she face I see a bankbook
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

Good morning Mister Walker
I come to see your daughter
Hmm, Mister Walker!
I come to see your daughter
Sweet Rosemarie, she promise she gone marry me
And now I tired waiting!
I come to fix the wedding, woy

Apart from that, they say how she so big and fat
When she dress they tantalize she, saying monkey wearing mini
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

Good morning Mister Walker
I come to see your daughter
Oy, Mister Walker!
I come to see your daughter
Sweet Rosemarie, she promise she gone marry me
And now I tired waiting!
I come to fix the wedding, Hmm

All I know, is I don’t intend to let she go
Cause if she was a beauty, nothing like me could get she
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

Source: Retrieved July 27, 2016 from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/mighty_sparrow/mr_walker.html

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Conscientizing on the Radio

Posted on July 13, 2017 in Social, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

Its Showtime!

Its time to get the message out; to “say it from the roof-top and say it from the steeple”^*.

But to be truly modern, the electronic media must also be engaged. This is the current effort of the movement behind the book Go Lean … Caribbean. The goal is to message to the Caribbean homeland, Caribbean Diaspora and the rest of the world. In other words, this goal is to conscientize …

Conscientize (verb) – to make somebody/yourself aware of important social or political issues. – Oxford Dictionary.

The message that this Go Lean movement wants to make people aware of is alarming:

There is something wrong in the Caribbean. It is the greatest address on the planet, but instead of the world “beating a path” to our doors, the people of the Caribbean have “beat down their doors” to get out. Our societal defects are so acute that our culture is in peril for future prospects.

This was the theme of the discussion on the Tampa Florida-based WMNF Radio Talk Show, The Sunday Forum, on July 9, 2017. The host, Walter Smith II^#, invited a stakeholder from the Go Lean movement to conscientize the audience in their broadcast area about the perils of Caribbean life. The following AUDIO Podcast is the broadcast from that show:

Appendix AUDIO-VIDEO – “Go Lean … Caribbean” Movement: Conscientizing on the Radio on July 9, 2017 – https://youtu.be/9XCYbIIYZio

Published on July 12, 2017 – The term “conscientize” means to make aware of important social or political issues. This AUDIO-VIDEO features stakeholders of the Go Lean movement conscientizing to make people more aware of the alarming situation in the homeland:

“that while the Caribbean is the greatest address on the planet, its people are “beating down the doors” to get out”.

This was the theme of the interview on the Tampa Florida-based WMNF Radio Talk Show, The Sunday Forum, on July 9, 2017 with host Walter L. Smith II.

Category: Nonprofits & Activism

License: Standard YouTube License

The AUDIO Podcast concludes with a reference to the Go Lean book, directing the audience to this 370-page guide that serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This entity is presented as a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic-security-governing engines of all 30 member-states. The quest is to provide a better direct stewardship, applying lessons-learned from global best practices.

There is the need for our region to elevate these societal engines of our communities. This quest is presented with these prime directives:

Optimize the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy; there is a potential to create 2.2 million new jobs and to grow the regional GDP to $800 Billion. The deficiency of jobs is one of the reasons that Caribbean people have emigrated.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these above engines, including a separation-of-powers between member-state governments and CU federal agencies.

We – those who love the Caribbean – must do something and this roadmap for the CU – modeled after the European Union (EU) – has addressed the issues, strategies, tactics and implementations to reform and transform the region.

Many people love our tropical region – residents, Diaspora and visitors alike – and yet we understand why and how people have left. As related in the foregoing AUDIO Podcast, some Caribbean member-states now have a near-Failed-State status (Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, etc.). It is time now to work to elevate our communities, as our youth, the next generation for the Caribbean, may not be inspired to participate in the future workings of our communities.

The Go Lean movement – the book and all efforts to conscientize via traditional and electronic media – stresses that reforming and transforming the Caribbean societal engines must be a regional pursuit. This was an early motivation for the roadmap, as pronounced in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Pages 12 – 13):

xi. Whereas all men are entitled to the benefits of good governance in a free society, “new guards” must be enacted to dissuade the emergence of incompetence, corruption, nepotism and cronyism at the peril of the people’s best interest. The Federation must guarantee the executions of a social contract between government and the governed.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes … can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

xxiv. Whereas a free market economy can be induced and spurred for continuous progress, the Federation must install the controls to better manage aspects of the economy: jobs, inflation, savings rate, investments and other economic principles. Thereby attracting direct foreign investment because of the stability and vibrancy of our economy.

The foregoing AUDIO Podcast stressed that these are desperate times in the Caribbean, calling for desperate measures. We hereby urge all Caribbean stakeholders to lean-in to this roadmap to introduce and implement the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) among the 30 member-states of the region.

Our people – whether they are in the homeland or in the Diaspora – have a simple request, they simply want a better Caribbean; a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for this roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

————–

Appendix – Footnotes:

* – “Sing it from the roof-top and sing it from the steeple” – Lyrics from the 1976 Song “People to People” by Bahamian Artist Eddie Minnis.

^# – Walter L Smith II is the host of the weekly radio show The Sunday Forum. Walter II stems from a legacy of great public service; he is the son of a former President of Florida A & M University, Walter L. Smith Sr.. Walter II has dedicated his time, talents and treasuries to this commitment to impact his community with progressive causes and advocacies. In 2016, he ran for the Democratic nomination for the Florida House of Representatives District 61 in the State Legislature.

Official Podcast Source: http://sound.wmnf.org/sound/wmnf_170709_120618_sundayforum2_215.MP3

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Managing the ‘Strong versus the Weak’ – Bullying in Schools

Posted on April 4, 2017 in Ethos, Government

Go Lean Commentary

“I believe that children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way …” – Song Lyrics – The Greatest Love Of All

The need to secure the community against threats and ‘bad actors’ must start with young people, school age children: High School, Middle School and Elementary.

Why so early? Because the tendency for strong individuals in a group to abuse the weak individuals starts early. Its an animalistic instinct to emerge as an Alpha Male or Alpha Female.

But we are not animals, despite any natural instincts. Societies come together to form a civilization with civil treatment of neighbors and fellow citizens. In the previous blog-commentary on the Model of Hammurabi it was detailed how that ancient King established laws to ensure that the “strong in society would not abuse the weak”. That blog concluded that the governmental authorities (the State) should provide the stewardship as specified in a Social Contract – where citizens surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority of the State in exchange for protection of remaining natural and legal rights – with all citizens in society, the strong ones and the weak ones. This commentary is the 3^rd of 4 in a series on “Managing the Strong versus the Weak”. The other commentaries detailed in this series are as follows:

Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Model of Hammurabi
Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Mental Disabilities
Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Bullying in Schools: “Teach them well and let them lead the way”
Managing the Strong versus the Weak – Book Review: Sold-Out!

All of these commentaries relate to nation-building, stressing the community ethos necessary to forge a society where all the people are protected all the time. Since “children are the future”, it is important to mitigate and remediate bad behavior of the strong children that may trample on the “weak” children – bullying; if we teach them well when they are young and impressionable, that will allow them to lead the way for future societal cohesion. (See the personification of these words – song lyrics – in the Music VIDEO in the Appendix below).

The United States, as a model of an advanced democracy in our region, provides us lessons in how effective programs can be that are designed to mitigate bullying. We get to see the progress and regression. See this report-news article here:

Title: School Bullying, Cyberbullying Continue to Drop

Sub-Title: School bullying is at its lowest rate since 2005, but girls are still bullied at higher rates.
By: Allie Bidwell

The percentage of students who reported being bullied or cyberbullied reached a record low in 2013, but female students are still victimized at higher rates, according to new data from the Department of Education.

The department on Friday released the results of the latest School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which showed that in 2013, the percentage of students ages 12-18 who reported being bullied dropped to 21.5 percent. That’s down from 27.8 percent in 2011, and a high of 31.7 percent in 2007. The percentage of students who reported being cyberbullied also fell to 6.9 percent in 2013, down from 9 percent in 2011.

The department’s National Center on Education Statistics began surveying students on bullying in 2005.

“As schools become safer, students are better able to thrive academically and socially,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. “Even though we’ve come a long way over the past few years in educating the public about the health and educational impacts that bullying can have on students, we still have more work to do to ensure the safety of our nation’s children.”

Despite the overall drop in bullying and cyberbullying, reporting rates remain low – just more than one-third of students who were victims of traditional bullying and fewer than one-quarter of cyberbullying victims reported the incident to an adult, the data show.

Female students also still consistently experience higher-than-average rates of victimization – 23.7 percent of female students said they had been bullied in 2013, and 8.6 percent said they had been cyberbullied. By comparison, 19.5 percent and 5.2 percent of male students in 2013 said they had been bullied and cyberbullied, respectively.

While there aren’t noticeable gender gaps in the location of bullying, female students were significantly more likely than male students to be made fun of, called names or insulted (14.7 percent compared with 12.6 percent), to be the subject of rumors (17 percent compared with 9.6 percent) and to be excluded from activities on purpose (5.5 percent compared with 3.5 percent). Male students who were bullied were more likely than female students to be pushed, shoved, tripped or spit on (7.4 percent compared with 4.6 percent).

Overall, bullied students were most likely to be made fun of, called names or insulted (13.6 percent) or to be the subject of rumors (13.2 percent). The most common forms of cyberbullying were unwanted contact via text messaging and posting hurtful information on the Internet.

Among students who were cyberbullied, female students were more likely to have hurtful information about them posted on the Internet (4.5 percent compared with 1.2 percent), to receive unwanted contact via instant messaging (3.4 percent compared with 1 percent) and unwanted contact via text messaging (4.9 percent compared with 1.6 percent).

Traditional bullying and cyberbullying also impact the behaviors of the affected students.
Among students who were victims of traditional bullying, more than 1 in 10 said they feared being attacked or harmed at school. That fear was slightly more frequent among victims of cyberbullying: about 1 in 8 students who had been cyberbullied said they feared attack or harm at school.

Generally, being the victim of cyberbullying appeared to affect students’ behavior more than traditional bullying – students who were cyberbullied were more likely to skip school, to avoid school activities, to avoid specific places at school and to carry a weapon to school.

Allie Bidwell is an education reporter for U.S. News & World Report.

[MORE: Social Combat: Bullying Risk Increases With Popularity]

[ALSO: Cyberbullied Teens Can Connect Online, In Person to Get Help]

Source: US News & World Report – Posted May 15, 2015; retrieved 04/01/2017 from: https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/05/15/school-bullying-cyber-bullying-continue-to-drop

The book Go Lean…Caribbean describes empowerments to target the economic, security and governing engines of society to ensure an adherence to the principle of the Greater Good. The book defines this principle as follows (Page 37):

“The greatest good to the greatest number of people which is the measure of right and wrong”. – Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

The Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU); it posits (Page 23) that whatever the circumstances, “bad actors” will always emerge to exploit opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent….

The CU‘s security apparatus must defend against regional threats, including domestic terrorism. This includes gangs and their junior counterparts, bullies. The community must accept that young ones will go astray, so Juvenile Justice programs should be centered on the goal to rehabilitate them into good citizens, before it’s too late. Community messaging (life-coaching and school-mentoring programs) must be part of the campaign for anti-bullying and mitigations.

The Go Lean book continues (Page 181) on the subject of “Junior Terrorism” with the quotation here:

The CU wants to “leave no child behind”. So bullying will be managed under a domestic terrorism and Juvenile Justice jurisdiction. The CU will conduct media campaigns for anti-bullying, life-coaching, and school-mentoring programs. The problem with teen distress is that violence can ensue from bullying perpetrators or in response to bullying.

We were all children at one point, and may have experienced the dynamics of bullying, either as a victor or a victim, but trust the facts here, the subject of bullying today is different; there is the New Media element; there is cyber-bullying.

Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic forms of contact. Cyberbullying has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers.^[1] Awareness in the United States has risen in the 2010s, due in part to high-profile cases.^[2][3] Bullying or harassment can be identified by repeated behavior and an intent to harm.^[4] Harmful bullying behavior can include posting rumors about a person, threats, sexual remarks, disclose victims’ personal information, or pejorative labels (i.e., hate speech).^[5]

Several US states and other countries have laws specific to regulating cyberbullying.^[6] These laws are designed to specifically target teen cyberbullying, while others use laws extending from the scope of physical harassment.^[7] In cases of adult cyberharassment, these reports are usually filed beginning with local police.^[8] Research has demonstrated a number of serious consequences of cyberbullying victimization.^[9] Victims may have lower self-esteem, increased suicidal ideation, and a variety of emotional responses, retaliating, being scared, frustrated, angry, and depressed.^[10] Individuals have reported that cyberbullying can be more harmful than traditional bullying.^[11]

Internet trolling is a common form of bullying over the Internet in an online community (such as social media) in order to elicit a reaction, disruption, or for their own personal amusement.^[12][13] Cyberstalking is another form of bullying or harassment that uses electronic communications to stalk a victim may pose a credible threat to the safety of the victim.^[14]Source: Retrieved April 2, 2017 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbullying

The Go Lean book describes the eco-system of Internet & Communications Technology (ICT) and strategizes to use ICT as a great equalizer in the world markets. Big countries and small countries can equally and evenly compete. So ICT can be beneficial, if …

… the downsides – like cyber-bullying – can be assuaged or mitigated.

The point of fostering and policing ICT has been previously elaborated on in prior blog-commentaries; see sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=8823	Lessons from China – WeChat: Model for Caribbean Social Media
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5435	China Internet Policing – Model for Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4793	Truth in Commerce – Learning from Yelp
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3881	Intelligence Agencies to Up Cyber Security Cooperation

According to the foregoing article, bullying is on the decline. This is a direct product of the effective messaging and school-based coaching. We need to model this in the Caribbean.

But also according to the foregoing article, the subject matters in the bullying eco-system that need the most attention are the girl-bullies, as opposed to boy-bullies. The messaging for girls – think: Mean Girls – must be customized as opposed to the messaging for boys. The art and science of this advocacy is just plain technocratic! This is a mission of the Go Lean/CU roadmap. The Go Lean book actually conveys that there are many empowerments for Caribbean stewards to implement to help the youth (boys and girls) of the region. This sends the right message that we will not allow the weak in society to be trampled on by the strong. Consider this advocacy here:

10 Ways to Impact Youth – Page 227

1	Lean-in for the CU to address regional problems! Of 42 million population, more than half below age 30; need jobs and security empowerments.
2	Infant Mortality
3	Health Care Neutralization – Trauma Centers, as injuries are the leading causes of death
4	Work Ethic – Youth assimilate well to ICT, so the CU will foster schemes to create and produce ICT, not just consume.
5	Juvenile Crime and the DARE Model Addressing the mission to remediate youth crime, the CU will implement specific programs to engage and mitigate youth crime, this is similar to DARE (Drug-Alcohol-Resistance-Endeavors) in the US for drug and gang anti-crime. Also, the Juvenile Justice solution will have vertical institutions for judiciary, corrections & probation, applying best practices of criminology/penology for youthful offenders.
6	Education Dynamics The CU will identify students early who display high aptitude in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; then develop them thru academies and e-learning. The CU will offer forgive-able loans for college. With the CU mission to stop the brain drain, every inducement will be extended to encourage graduates to stay in the region.
7	Sports Prospects The CU will encourage professional sports pursuits for many disciplines, incentivizing Sport Academies to foster the talent with proper risk mitigations.
8	Artist Development & Colonies
9	Music and Art (Performance & Visual) Appreciation
10	Repatriation – Family Reunification

The book Go Lean, serving as a roadmap, describes formal institutions to improve security like a regional Police and Military forces (including “Intelligence Gathering and Analysis”). There is the need to be on guard so that …

“… the strong should not harm the weak.”

This is the Code of Hammurabi, and despite having originated thousands of years ago, there is urgency to apply the principle today to counteract “bad actors”. The Go Lean book makes this revelation (Page 23):

… with the emergence of new economic engines, “bad actors” will also emerge thereafter to exploit the opportunities, with good, bad and evil intent.

This roadmap for Caribbean integration declares that peace, security and public safety is tantamount to economic prosperity. This is why an advocacy for the Greater Good must be championed as a community ethos. A prime precept is that it is “better to know than to not know” – this implies that privacy is secondary to security. A secondary precept is that bad things will happen to good people and so the community needs to be prepared to contend with the risks that can imperil the homeland.

The Go Lean roadmap details strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to impact this region in the cause against bullying. Consider this sample:

Community Ethos – Security Principles – Fully comprehensive empowerments	Page 22
Ways to Impact the Future – Count on the Greedy to be Greedy; [expect bullies to emerge]	Page 27
Ways to Foster Genius – Anti-Bullying Campaign – “Revenge of the Nerds”	Page 28
Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Ways to Improve Education	Page 159
Ways to Mitigate Black Markets – Prosecute economic crimes: Extortion and Intimidation	Page 165
Ways to Impact Justice – Juvenile Justice will have vertical institutions	Page 177
Ways to Reduce Crime – Youth Crime Awareness and Prevention	Page 178
Ways to Improve for Gun Control – Public Relations / Anti-Bullying Campaign	Page 179
Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Ways to Mitigate Terrorism – Bullying	Page 181
Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis – Internet/Cyber Crimes Monitoring	Page 182
Ways to Impact the Prison-Industrial Complex – Monitoring of Parolees	Page 211

The CU‘s efforts relate to our Prime Directives; as exemplified by these 3 statements:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and mitigate internal and external threats.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The purpose of these prime directives is to elevate all of Caribbean society, all 30 member-states. This is a Big Deal – too big for any one member-state alone. We must confederate, collaborate and convene together. We can succeed with an interdependence within the region. See these statements from the formal Declaration of Interdependence, at the start of the book (Page 12):

x. Whereas we are surrounded and allied to nations of larger proportions in land mass, populations, and treasuries, elements in their societies may have ill-intent in their pursuits, at the expense of the safety and security of our citizens. We must therefore appoint “new guards” to ensure our public safety and threats against our society, both domestic and foreign. The Federation must employ the latest advances and best practices … to assuage continuous threats against public safety.

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes, including … forms of terrorism [like bullying], can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

The points of security mitigation have been previously elaborated on in these prior blog-commentaries; see sample list here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10959	See Something, Say Something … Do Something
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10566	Funding the Caribbean Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10222	Waging a Successful War on Terrorism – (Junior Partner of ‘Bullying’)
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9072	Securing the Homeland – On the Ground
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7485	A Lesson in the History of Interpersonal Violence – Street Crimes
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=7179	SME Declaration: ‘Change Leaders in Crime Fight’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Jamaica received World Bank funds to help in crime fight

We must learn from the American lessons on mitigating bullying. Our society, every society has “weak (physical and mental) members” that must be protected from the “strong” members, even in the schools. We can assuage any abuse; we can teach the children … well … and let them lead the way.

We would hate to think that bullying may “push” citizens away from their Caribbean homelands. So we must reform and transform our societal engines. If we do this, we will make the Caribbean a better place to live, work, learn and play for all citizens “strong or weak”. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

—————-

Appendix VIDEO – Whitney Houston – Greatest Love Of All – https://youtu.be/IYzlVDlE72w

Uploaded on Sep 27, 2010 – Whitney Houston’s official music video for ‘Greatest Love Of All’. Click to listen to Whitney Houston on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/WhitneyHSpotify?IQ…

Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/WhitneyGreatestHit…
Google Play: http://smarturl.it/GLOGPlay?IQid=Whit…
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/WGHAmazon?IQid=Whi…

Follow Whitney Houston
Website: http://www.whitneyhouston.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhitneyHouston

Subscribe to Whitney Houston on YouTube: http://smarturl.it/WhitneyHoustonSub?…

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Less and Less People Reading Newspapers

Posted on March 6, 2017 in Economics, Ethos, Industries, Strategy

Go Lean Commentary

The Fourth Estate is under attack … by Free Market forces and technology. We should all be alarmed!

The Fourth Estate (or fourth power)… most commonly refers to the news media, especially print journalism or “the press”. The term makes implicit reference to the earlier division of the three Estates of the Realm: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. – Wikipedia.

This title is a reference to a societal-political force or institution whose influence is undeniable though it may not be consistently or officially recognized. In the US and other countries, there is constitutional protections for Freedom of the Press.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The United Nations‘ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”.

A free press is important for modern societies. Despite all the news and information, it can also be an important sentinel against “bad actors” – yes, “bad actors” will always emerge. But this freedom is a two-edge sword: free to succeed and free to fail. So the entities of the Fourth Estate must adapt, like everyone else, to global changes and competitive shifts, otherwise they die.

In a previous blog-commentary, the following observance was made:

“Print is not dead… yet? I almost didn’t notice!”

“If print is not dead yet, does that mean it is going to put up a fight? Will it make a comback? I say “No”. It is just a matter of time. Print might experience only a slow death, but die … it will.”

Continuing the count, if there is a Fourth Estate, then to no one’s surprise, there is also a Fifth Estate:

The Fifth Estate is a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media or “social license” . The “Fifth” Estate extends the sequence of the three classical Estates of the Realm and the preceding Fourth Estate, essentially the mainstream press. The use of “Fifth Estate” dates to the 1960s counterculture, and in particular the influential The Fifth Estate, an underground newspaper first published in Detroit in 1965. Web-based technologies have enhanced the scope and power of the Fifth Estate far beyond the modest and boutique^[1] conditions of its beginnings. – Wikipedia

This commentary is a blog, thus representative of the Fifth Estate. This continues a long series on the theme of New Media:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=10052	Fake News? Welcome to America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5353	POTUS and the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4076	American Media Fantasies -vs- Weather Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3974	Google and Mobile Phones – Here comes Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We *Don’t* Want from the US – #9: American Media Domination
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=248	Print is not dead yet

Welcome to the future. Say “Goodbye” to yesterday. Newspapers are representative of that yesterday. The daily newspaper in most communities are getting thinner, smaller in size, distribution and influence. This fact is born out in this news article:

Study: Less Than A Quarter Of Americans Read Newspapers
(CBS HOUSTON) — The number of Americans reading print newspapers, magazines and books is in rapid decline.

Only 29 percent of Americans now say they read a newspaper yesterday – with just 23 percent reading a print newspaper. Over the past decade, the percentage reading a print newspaper the previous day has fallen by 18 points (from 41 percent to 23 percent). Somewhat more (38 percent) say they regularly read a daily newspaper, although this percentage also has declined, from 54 percent in 2004.

Also according to the recent Pew Research Center poll, Americans enjoy reading as much as ever – 51 percent say they enjoy reading a lot. This is little changed over the past two decades, but a declining proportion gets news or reads other material on paper on a typical day. Many readers are now shifting to digital platforms to read the papers.

Substantial percentages of the regular readers of leading newspapers now read them digitally. Currently, 55 percent of regular New York Times readers say they read the paper mostly on a computer or mobile device, as do 48 percent of regular USA Today and 44 percent of Wall Street Journal readers.

Over the past decade, there have been smaller declines in the percentages of Americans reading a magazine or book in print (six points and four points, respectively) than for newspapers.

Print magazine reading is down by 7 percent from 2006, and book reading is down by 8 percent since 2006. Also, the percentage of people who wrote or received a personal letter declined 8 percent from 20 to 12 in the last six years.

And television viewership may be on the decline next.

While print sources have suffered readership losses in recent years, television news viewership has remained more stable. Currently, 55 percent say they watched the news or a news program on television yesterday, little changed from recent years. But there are signs this may also change. Only about a third (34 percent) of those younger than 30 say they watched TV news yesterday; in 2006, nearly half of young people (49 percent) said they watched TV news the prior day.

Among older age groups, the percentages saying they watched TV yesterday has not changed significantly over this period.

Source: CBS News; posted October 15, 2012; retrieved 03/05/2017 from: http://houston.cbslocal.com/2012/10/15/study-less-than-a-quarter-of-americans-read-newspapers/

The foregoing article is from 2012, but in the most recent episode of CBS Sunday Morning News Magazine (March 5, 2017), there was this “Pulse Poll”:

Many newspapers in major cities are “taking a hit”: circulation is down, advertising is down, the number of pages is down, but retail prices are up. The digital transformation is afoot. Consider the experience of the Miami Herald, in the Appendix below; (regrettably, a very long article).

So instead of newspapers, there is more reliance now on electronic media for news, information, and entertainment. The reference to electronic media does not only mean TV or radio, but rather, it includes the internet. A lot of consumers still read, just not in print, they now use internet websites, social media, e-Readers, blogs and email. This transformation does not only feature computer terminals and monitors, but smaller screens as well, as in mobile telephones or smart phones.

The change from the Fourth to the Fifth Estate is also affecting the legacy electronic media: TV and radio. These institutions are finding competition because of the internet.

As reported in that previous blog, “in the TV industry, more people are abandoning cable contracts for subscriptions services like Netflix and Hulu; they are still able to enjoy their favorite programming, just delivered by alternate means. For radio, the audience is shrinking due to the proliferation of mobile music options like Pandora, Rhapsody, Jango, Slacker, Roxio, etc.”

Are these future prospects true for the Caribbean as well?

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the “world is flat” and that globalization and technology has taken its toll on all aspects of Caribbean life. How are our media outlets doing in the region?

At first glance, the newspapers still thrive:

Circulation remain strong.
There are just as many pages – per section – compared to 10, 20 or 30 years ago.
The pages are still filled with advertising.
Retail prices has increased beyond inflation, close to $1 in equivalent US dollars.

This disposition is simply because there is less electronic delivery in the Caribbean. Alas, the same technology changes affecting the rest of the modern world will surely impact the Caribbean. Mobile-smartphone devices are becoming more ubiquitous, even in the Caribbean region in the countries normally considered Third World. The newspaper industry in the region will be imperiled if there are no mitigations. The Go Lean book presents that mitigation.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This empowerment effort is designed to move the region forward, to the corner of opportunity and preparation. This roadmap calls for confederating the 30 member-states in the region to provide optimization solutions in the areas of economics, security and governance. The Fourth Estate relates to all three areas. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has these prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to enhance public safety and protect the economic engines against “bad actors”.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

There is no doubt, the Print-Journalism industry is in decline. In conflict with the medium over elements of truth, the new American President, Donald Trump, pejoratively refers to the New York Times as the failing New York Times.

The Go Lean book purports that the Caribbean must do better. The Go Lean book details the policies and other community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate Caribbean society, and protect the media industry. The book details how to Bridge the Digital Divide (Page 31), deploy a customized Social Media network (Page 111) – branded as www.myCaribbean.gov with tentacles in mobile technologies – and Ways to Foster e-Commerce (Page 198).

All in all, the Go Lean roadmap posits that as a region, we cannot only expect to consume, but that we must create/compose as well. The end result of this roadmap is a complete eco-system to foster a viable electronic media industry.

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

Sign the petition to lean-in for the roadmap for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

————

Appendix – How The Miami Herald is getting to know its audience again

By: Kristen Hare

MIAMI — On the outside, the headquarters of the Miami Herald looks like any building in any part of town filled with wide warehouses, beige office plazas and chain restaurants. Inside, though, the values of the Herald are written on the walls.

Really.

On one teal green wall in slim white letters:

“Publish! Journalistic cowardliness is as evil as censorship.” — Gene Miller

On another (from the adjacent newsroom of the Spanish daily El Nuevo Herald):

“El periódico es una espada y su empuñadura la razón.” — José Martí

A few months ago, something new appeared on the big screen TVs hanging from cobalt blue walls in the middle of the newsroom: Chartbeat.

Newsrooms and journalists around the country have had access to real-time analytics for years. In March, the Herald joined in and gave everyone access to Chartbeat.

Then, every reporter was asked to raise total traffic to their stories by 7.5 percent. They got training in headline writing and search engine optimization. They started forming teams to function like startups, responsible for covering subjects such as Cuba, local government and food.

Change didn’t hit the newspaper industry in one big wallop. It has come, instead, in relentless small ones. The Herald didn’t just start making changes to adapt to digital, either. But for Aminda Marqués Gonzalez, the Herald’s executive editor and vice president, this year’s about accelerating those changes.

All of the shifts have one thing in common: They require everyone at the Herald to pay attention to its audience.

WELCOME TO MIAMI

In the middle of the newsroom, the big screens with Chartbeat tick along like departure boards at a train station. They serve a similar function, too. This story’s stalling, this one’s taking off, this one needs fuel.

The Herald is one of four legacy newspapers in the Knight-Temple Table Stakes Project, a $1.3 million initiative aimed at pushing regional news organizations toward the digital future. Here, analytics have been integral to that process.

But the Herald (and other McClatchy papers) didn’t wait until Table Stakes came along to get started. The company began working with the American Press Institute almost a year ago to try and get to know its audience better.

The institute’s Metrics for News program helps newsrooms figure out where their journalists are spending time, where their audiences are spending time and how to get the two to align more closely. Contrary to the typical notions of clickbait and virality, API has discovered that readers value actual reporting — enterprise work, local crime reporting and long-form journalism, among other things.

The Herald, for example, has found a strong and engaged audience for its local government coverage. But not every story resonates.

“It’s wonderful to say, we value enterprise, our focus is on enterprise, but if you’re a beat reporter, hey you make sources by going to meetings,” said Rick Hirsch, the Herald’s managing editor. “Part of this work is showing up.”

Add to this that Miami-Dade County has more than 30 municipalities, plus a big county and city government, and the Herald’s five local government reporters can’t possibly cover them all, even with a stable of freelancers. The challenge: How can the Herald structure coverage to build sources, keep track of what’s happening and make sure people find and read it?

In part, it’s about being less city-specific and focusing on topics everyone in the area cares about, Hirsch said. Should one reporter cover six cities, or should that reporter focus on transportation issues across them all? Should another focus on corruption? Another on spending and accountability?

“Are there ways to approach local government coverage that looks across city lines?” Hirsch asked. “I think there are, but it requires a little bit of a change in how we go about doing what we do, and it certainly means more of a team approach than we’ve had before.”

In the last few months, editors at the Herald began to see a way they just might be able make that happen.

MIAMI, INC

The Herald has launched several initiatives as part of the Table Stakes project. But one in particular ties in with all the rest: the formulation of “INCs,” (short for incorporated.) Basically, they’re meant to be self-contained startups within the newsroom.

“It’s a really different way of working,” Hirsch said. “The idea behind it is to develop a team approach with a leader who’s responsible to really focus on audience, to work with a team to develop coverage that responds to areas where we know there’s high engagement and at the same time look at other ways to reach people that aren’t just writing stories.”

The people running INCs aren’t just in charge of coverage, but also getting that coverage to spread on social media. And that means thinking digitally.

So far, INCs include Spanish and English coverage of Cuba and the Herald’s food coverage. Other areas that will become INCs are crime and courts, local government, entertainment and coverage of sports that appeals to the Herald’s local and international readers.

Carlos Frías, food editor, is a one-man INC.

It took awhile for him to realize that it’s all about workflow. Now, he aggregates. He works on getting headlines and social media language right. He spends his time on in-depth features. And when Frías sees a story he can’t get to, he reaches out to other departments. Could a suburban reporter cover it? Someone in sports? He’s curating work from the rest of the Herald that makes sense for his audience.

“Before, I was kind of just shoveling coal, but now I’m at the point that I realize that the beauty of this INC idea is you can leverage the resources that you have at the paper,” he said.

In the past, for instance, a story about National Doughnut Day that wasn’t ready for the print edition wouldn’t have been published at all. But when Frías heard about a new doughnut shop, he contacted a suburban reporter and editor, published the story online that day and promoted it heavily on social media. It ended up running in the newspaper on Sunday. A story that previously had limited reach instead got the star treatment with an audience that loves food.

Not all the INCs are as clear or as straightforward, however. In Cuba Today is one of those. The Herald and El Nuevo Herald’s coverage of Cuba has readership in English and Spanish, and became a standalone site in each language in December, before the INCs debuted.

Now, it’s gone from a vertical to a startup within the newsroom.

The team, led by editor Nancy San Martin, has four staffers devoted to coverage of Cuba. Two are reporters, two are producers and translators. The audience for both sites are heavily bilingual. Original content does best.

The challenge, San Martin said, is maintaining two sites in two different languages as well as providing coverage for the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald in print and for digital. She’s considering combining them into one Spanglish site (using a mix of English and Spanish).

Fundamentally, INCs aren’t meant to be verticals but to harness the Herald’s audience, Marqués said. They start by figuring out who the audience is, how to reach it and how to help it grow. They all include aggregation and a strong focus on social media. They also all ask — what else? Beyond advertising, is there anything to monetize? Events? A custom database? A newsletter?

As with real startups, though, each INC has different needs, different expectations and different possibilities. Just like there’s really not one audience, there’s not one formula for reaching them.

NOT THE HUNGER GAMES

When Nicholas Nehamas started at the Herald two years ago, reporters weren’t paying attention to what people were reading, where they were reading it or for how long.

“Now, two years later, I look up and there’s a big monitor with Chartbeat on it,” said Nehamas, who covers real estate, which will eventually become an INC. “And that makes a big difference in the way we think about our coverage and the stories we write, so that’s been a big impact, I think.”

That’s also resulted in something a lot of newsrooms are already doing — deciding what they’ll stop covering. In the past, the business desk covered quarterly earnings reports from banks. No longer.

“There are things you have to cover, even if not many people read them, but this is not one of them,” he said.

Saying no to those reports means more time for enterprise. For Nehamas, that enterprise included being part of the team that investigated the Panama Papers.

One of his fears, when reporters were asked to figure out how readers were responding, was that their efforts would all boil down to clicks. And sure, if he spent all his time writing about J-Lo’s latest home sale, he could meet his traffic goals. But that’s not what’s happened.

“I think reporters are seeing that it’s not going to be ‘The Hunger Games,'” he said. “We’re not going to be out there finding the grossest stories we can to report. We’re still fulfilling the old mission.”

Marqués agreed.

“Listening to your readers doesn’t mean that you lose your journalism values,” she said.

It does mean making lots of adjustments, however. Here are some other changes happening at the Herald that focus on audience:

—The morning breaking news team started working a digital schedule

“It sounds basic, but you can’t have a morning breaking news effort without moving people to the morning,” said Jeff Kleinman, day news editor.

Now, the team works from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., (and their work includes a daily Facebook Live morning update.) They’re not thinking about print packages or print space, but updating stories as more information comes in. When a reporter recently asked Kleinman how long a story should be, it took him a minute to answer.

“I’m not thinking length first thing in the morning,” he said. “I’m thinking speed and video and how this story can develop.”

They’re trying to detach themselves from the print monster, he added, “and it’s a monster that we all love and that’s baked into our newsroom, but it sometimes can hold you back.”

—They’re experimenting

The Herald’s sports desk is toying with the idea that its vast out-of-market readership will read coverage of sports in Spanglish. Instead of launching it as an INC or starting a new vertical, however, they’re testing to see if there’s an audience for it by using a Facebook group.

—They’re betting all these changes will bring a valuable audience

Marqués started at the Herald as an intern in 1986. In 2002, she left to work as an editor at People Magazine. There, she found an industry very tuned in to its audience. Editors knew what stories readers responded to. They tested covers. It was still a print-centric business, but it was also an audience-centric one.

When she returned to the Herald in 2007, Marqués started asking questions about readers. Now, she has tools to answer those questions and to show how readers are responding.

For instance, in June of last year, the Herald had 5.6 million total unique visitors. This June, they hit 10.8 million.

And as the Herald’s newsroom has transformed during the last year or so, its advertising side has as well, said Orlando Comas, McClatchy’s director of sales.

“It’s really less about ‘we’re just a newspaper company’ and more that we are connecting to our local audiences and our local businesses,” he said.

Higher pageviews translate directly into increased revenue from display ads. Indirectly, he said, higher engagement turns into revenue by creating a local audience that stays around and is more valuable to advertisers.

Print is still a focus, and it still brings in money, Marqués said. But the future is digital, “so that’s where we have to be hyper-focused.”

“We say in shorthand, ‘audience first,'” said Suzanne Levinson, who worked for the Herald for more that 30 years and is now head of digital news at McClatchy. “It’s really about adjusting how we do journalism.”

Marqués agreed.

“It’s a new medium. It’s not just a new platform,” she said. “And for too long we all treated it like just another platform.”

TOWARD THE SUMMIT

At its biggest, the Miami Herald had a newsroom of about 435. Now, it’s about 115. The cuts here, like at other newspapers, have been as relentless as the industry changes.

Over the years, the Herald has been sluggish in response to shifts in the news business, said David Neal, a breaking news reporter who has been at the Herald for 27 years.

“I feel like we were like the entire industry,” he said, “we were slow to respond to a lot of changes that you could see coming on the horizon even 20 years ago.”

Chartbeat is great, Neal said. It’s a good tool to see how your work is doing. But, for him, it still comes back to instincts.

“You can still figure out what’s gonna hit: sports, animals, pets of sports stars, a sex cruise.”

Because of all the changes the newsroom has weathered, morale’s not great, Neal said, “but there are still a lot of people here doing good work who are still energized and inspired and doing their best.”

Nehamas, who’s been here for a few years, sees a newsroom more open to change than when he started, and one that’s producing high-quality local journalism.

To him, morale seems very strong right now.

Frías is fairly new to the Herald, so he’s not sure what it was like before Chartbeat and INCs were part of life here. There’s a fear that the newsroom is no longer capable of tackling the kind of journalism the Herald produced 15 or 20 years ago, he said.

“It’s just not true,” Frías said. “It’s just you have to pick and choose your spots.”

San Martin can’t speak for the whole newsroom, but on the Cuba INC, things are working.

“We’ve created a family-style camaraderie and thoroughly enjoy the challenge of going after an increasing and diversified audience,” she said. “There is great satisfaction in knowing that we are attracting national and international visitors to our Cuba sites, including those living on the island.”

They’re seeing more retweets, likes, comments, mentions and aggregations of their work, and that’s satisfying. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, though.

“For us, the future is like climbing a mountain that we know will provide a breathtaking view,” she said. “We just keep working hard to reach the summit.”

FOLLOWING THE SIGNS

The biggest challenges facing the Herald now aren’t really about what’s happening with its audience. Instead, Hirsch said, they’re about time, culture and focus.

“I think this is a hard shift,” he said, “and it is uncomfortable, and so part of the change that people have to make is working differently, and that’s really hard…We’re taking folks who have a lot of muscle memory and working a certain way and saying, let’s do this differently.”

Because of that, all the changes the Herald is pursuing are, for now and probably for good, a work in progress. And that’s tough for people used to waiting to publish, print and share big things until they’re just about perfect.

“I wish it was in our DNA,” Hirsch said, “but it’s going to have to be a learned skill for us.”

When the Herald first relocated to Doral from downtown Miami in 2013, the inside of its new home was one of cold gray walls, countless hallways and turns. Along with the bright colors and fortifying quotes (which, yes, are just paint and words,) the newsroom installed street signs. They hang from many corners.

Palmetto. Miracle Mile. Calle Ocho.

Now, everyone knows their way around. But early on, those signs reminded them of where they’d been and helped them figure out where they were going. It’s not exactly like figuring out a path into a digital future. But it’s not all that different, either.

Source: Posted July 11, 2016; retrieved March 6, 2017 from: https://www.poynter.org/2016/how-the-miami-herald-is-getting-to-know-its-audience-again/414525/

————

See the VIDEO of the Miami Herald Digital Edition here:

VIDEO – Miami Herald Digital Newspaper – https://youtu.be/01GWq9mZsMg

Published on Sep 17, 2012 – Learn about the Miami Herald Digital Newspaper. The Miami Herald Digital Newspaper is an exact replica of the daily paper, available on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android and most tablets. You’ll love the convenience, at home or on the go.
Features include:
– Easy to use and navigate
– Available anywhere in the world with data access
– Share via email, Facebook & Twitter
– Searchable 30 day archive
– Quick links to advertiser websites

http://www.miamiherald.com/digital

Category: News & Politics
License: Standard YouTube License

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e-Commerce, ICT, Miami, New Media

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ENCORE: Time to Watch the SuperBowl Commercials … again

Posted on February 2, 2017 in Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

It’s SuperBowl time again. This year the BIG game is being played on February 5, 2017 in Houston, Texas between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. Below is an ENCORE of the blog-commentary from January 29, 2015 detailing the economic impact of SuperBowl commercials. The business model is still the same, so we can expect that the TV spots will try even harder to solicit and entertain us this year … again.

————

The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean encourages you to watch the Big Game on Sunday (February 1, 2015), Super Bowl XLIX from Phoenix –area, Arizona, between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. Pull for your favorite team and enjoy the half-time show (Katy Perry). It’s all free! It’s being paid for by the advertisers.

So as to complete the full economic cycle, be sure to watch the commercials; because this is Big Money; Big Stakes and a Big Deal. The 2014 version, Super Bowl XLVIII on FOX Broadcast Network was the most watched television program in US history with 111.5 million viewers.^[15][16] The Super Bowl half-time show featuring Bruno Mars was the most watched ever with 115.3 million viewers.^[15][16] Now, it’s not just TV, but “second- screen” (computers, tablets & mobile devices) as well; this is now tweet-along-with-us programming; notice the #BestBuds Twitter identifier in the following Ad:

VIDEO – http://youtu.be/EIUSkKTUftU – 2015 Budweiser Clydesdale Beer Run

Published on Jan 23, 2015 – It’s time for your Super Bowl beer run. Don’t disappoint a Clydesdale. Choose Budweiser for you and your #BestBuds on epic Super Bowl weekend!

For $4.5 million per 30 second ad, an advertiser had better get the “maximum bang for the buck”; but 30 seconds is still only 30 seconds. Enter the “second-screen”; now advertisers can stretch the attention of their audience by directing them to internet websites, Twitter followings and even YouTube videos and Facebook videos.

See these related stories, (sourced mostly from Variety.com – Hollywood & Entertainment Business Magazine; (retrieved 01-29-2015):

1. WATCH: Super Bowl 2015 Commercials

Audiences no longer need to wait until the Big Game to watch Super Bowl commercials, with an increasing number of marketers opting to release their spots days before kickoff. This year is no different, with Budweiser, Budweiser, Bud Light, Kia, Mercedes-Benz USA, T-Mobile, Victoria’s Secret, BMW, even Paramount with “Hot Tub Time Machine 2,” among those having already posted their ads online [on sites like YouTube].

The reason? The high cost to play the Super Bowl promo blitz is one. At around $4.5 million per 30 second ad, buying time during the match up between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots is at record levels. NBC is airing the game February 1.

2. Super Bowl Ads: NBC Turns to Tumblr to Post Spots After They Air on TV

NBC Sports has launched a new Super Bowl page on Yahoo’s [social media site] Tumblr that the programmer will use to feature Super Bowl XLIX’s TV ads immediately after they air on NBC on Sunday, February 1.

The new NBC Sports Tumblr page, accessible via NBCSports.com/Ads, will be populated with original content ahead of Super Bowl Sunday created by the NBC Sports’ marketing media team, as well as from re-blogging NFL-related Tumblr posts. On game day, the page will convert into a hub for Super Bowl TV ads.

3. NBCU Will Use Super Bowl XLIX Free Live-Stream to Promote Pay-TV Online Services

NBCUniversal will launch an 11-hour free digital video stream — centered around live coverage of this year’s Super Bowl — in a bid to get users to log in to its “TV Everywhere” (TVE) services across its broadcast and cable portfolio the rest of the year.

The Peacock’s “Super Stream Sunday” event will include NBC’s presentation of the Super Bowl, as well as the halftime show toplined by Katy Perry. The live-stream will kick off at 12 p.m. ET on Feb. 1 with NBC’s pregame coverage and concludes with an airing of a new episode of primetime drama “The Blacklist” at approximately 10 p.m. ET.

Ordinarily, access to the NBC Sports Live Extra and NBC.com content requires users to log in using credentials from participating [Pay] TV providers. The free promo is aimed at driving usage of TVE, to ensure those subscribers keep paying for television service.

“We are leveraging the massive digital reach of the Super Bowl to help raise overall awareness of TV Everywhere by allowing consumers to explore our vast TVE offering with this special one-day-only access,” said Alison Moore, GM and Exec VP of TV Everywhere for NBCU.

NBC does not have NFL live-streaming rights on smartphone devices, which the league has granted exclusively to Verizon Wireless. As such, the “Super Stream Sunday” content will be available on tablets and desktop computers.

4. Facebook may be the big winner of this year’s Super Bowl

For retailer Freshpet, a new ad campaign video was released to both YouTube and Facebook this past December. It quickly went viral. That wasn’t that surprising. The surprising part was the disparity between views on YouTube compared to Facebook. On YouTube, the video has racked up around 7.5 million views so far. On Facebook, the figure is 20 million. “It was fairly eye-opening,” he says. “Things are evolving really quickly.”

With stats like that, this might be the first year in which views of Super Bowl ads on Facebook eclipse those of YouTube.

No wonder then that many advertisers in the big game are looking to go Facebook native.

Show-business has changed. Sports has changed. TV has changed…

… there is now time-shifted viewing (DVR) and on-demand platforms offering an alphabetical menu of shows.

These changes are where this commentary relates to the Caribbean. The changing TV landscape affects the Caribbean region as well, or at least it should. This book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The roadmap has 3 prime directives:

Optimization of economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines and marshal against economic crimes.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The roadmap recognizes and fosters more sports business in the region. The genius qualifiers – athletic talent – of many Caribbean men and women are already heightened. The goal now is foster the local eco-system in the homeland so that those with talent would not have to flee the region to garner the business returns on their athletic investments. This Go Lean economic empowerment roadmap strategizes to create a Single Media Market to leverage the value of broadcast rights for the entire region, utilizing all the advantages of cutting edge ICT offerings. The result: an audience of 42 million people across 30 member-states and 4 languages, facilitating television, cable, satellite and internet streaming wherever economically viable.

Early in the book, the benefits of sports and technology empowerment is pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14), with these opening statements:

xiii.      Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xiv.      Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xv.      Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

xxxi.      Whereas sports have been a source of great pride for the Caribbean region, the economic returns from these ventures have not been evenly distributed as in other societies. The Federation must therefore facilitate the eco-systems and vertical industries of sports as a business, recreation, national pastime and even sports tourism – modeling the Olympics.

The region has the eco-system of free broadcast television, and the infrastructure for internet streaming. So the issues being tracked for this year’s Super Bowl have bearing in the execution of this roadmap.

The Go Lean roadmap was developed with the community ethos in mind to forge change and build up the communities around the sports world, plus the execution of related strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to make the change permanent. The following is a sample of these specific details from the book:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategic – Vision – Consolidating the Region in to a Single Market	Page 45
Strategic – Staffing – Sporting Events at Fairgrounds	Page 55
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Sports & Culture Administration	Page 81
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Fairgrounds Administration	Page 83
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities – Fairgrounds	Page 105
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #5 Four Languages in Unison / #8 Cyber Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Sports Academies to Foster Talent	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Local Government – Parks & Recreation	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Events	Page 191
Advocacy – Ways to Promote Fairgrounds	Page 192
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Intellectual Property Protections	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Empower Women	Page 226
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Sports	Page 229
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Sports Leagues	Page 234

This commentary previously featured subjects related to developing the eco-systems of the sports business, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3999	Breaking New Ground in the Changing Show-business Eco-System
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641	‘We Built This City on ‘ …Show-business
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3414	Levi’s® Stadium: A Team Effort for the Big Business of Sports
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3244	Sports Role Model – Broadcasting / Internet Streaming: espnW.
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2222	Sports Role Model – Playing For Pride … And More
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Sports Role Model – Turn On the SEC Network
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2152	Sports Role Model – US versus the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1446	Caribbean Players in the 2014 World Cup
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1341	Sports Role Model – College World Series Time
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1148	Sports Bubble – Franchise values in basketball
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1092	Aereo – Model for the Future of TV Blending with the Internet
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1020	Sports Revolutionary: Advocate Jeffrey Webb
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports in the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We Want from the US – # 10: Sports Professionalism
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=60	Could the Caribbean Host the Olympic Games?

The Go Lean book focuses primarily on economic issues, but it recognizes that sports and its attendant functions can build up a community, nation and region. But the quest to re-build, re-boot and re-tool the Caribbean will be more than just kids-play, it must model the Super Bowl and act like a Big Business.

The Go Lean roadmap describes the heavy-lifting activities for the many people, organizations and governments to accomplish this goal. But the goal is conceivable, believable and achievable. We can make the region a better place to live, work and play.

🙂

Download the book Go Lean…Caribbean now!

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Events, ICT, Model, New Media, Play, Sports

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Fake News? Welcome to America

Posted on December 19, 2016 in Ethos, Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

American media lives in a land of fantasy.

Consider these Fake News instances:

This is probably true of their news output because so many of the corporate structures that own non-fiction news operations also own fiction-based media operations. Consider these examples of same ownership:

Fox News	21st Century Fox Movie Studio
NBC News / CNBC / MSNBC	Universal Pictures
CBS News	Simon-Shuster Book Publishing
ABC News	Disney Studios; Pixar; Marvel Studios; LucasFilms; Touchstone Pictures
Cable News Network (CNN)	Warner Brothers Movie Studio

No doubt, this fact – knowing where the bread is buttered – contributes to the duality and duplicity of these corporate citizens.

Now there is a new phenomenon in the world of media duality and duplicity: Fake News.

This is more malicious than initial appearances. See/hear the full story here in this Podcast and the subsequent VIDEO:

Title: How Fake News Spreads & Why People Believe It

Published December 14, 2016 – Buzzfeed News’ media editor, Craig Silverman, dissects how false stories during the presidential campaign were spread on Facebook and monetized by Google Ad Sense. Also, critic at-large John Powers shares six things he loved this year that he didn’t get around to reviewing.

—————

VIDEO – The onslaught of fake news – http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-onslaught-of-fake-news/

Posted December 18, 2016 (9:53 minutes) – In these partisan, high-tech times, are the news stories we Americans read, see, and hear fact or fiction? Senior correspondent Ted Koppel examines the landscape of lies and slander disguised as news stories, spread via social media, that bear little relation to facts. (VIDEO plays best in Internet Explorer).

Fake News appear to just be another example of American Crony-Capitalism where they exploit the public good for private gain. Media has frequently been used to exploit the people. This commentary previously detailed the focus on fantasy as opposed to the vital facts of weather reporting.

Weather information is vital in different situations; think hurricanes. But news and information is vital everyday, rain or shine. So a situation where Fake News may thrive would be counterproductive to society. Many Americans — 62 percent to be exact — get some news from social media, according to the Pew Research Center. Of that group, 18 percent say they do so “often”.

This consideration aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean; this book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This empowerment effort represents a change for the region, calling on all 30 member-states in the region to confederate and provide their own solutions in the areas of economics, security and governance. News and information relates to all three areas. The CU/Go Lean roadmap has these prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion GDP and create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to enhance public safety and protect the resultant economic engines against “bad actors”.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The new emergence of Fake News seems apropos for the American eco-system, where fame seems more important than facts and style more important than substance:

Fame or infamy, either one is preferable to being forgotten – Hollywood Actress Lauren Bacall – Go Lean book Page 194.

This is a time when the American eco-system appears to be dysfunctional and filled with bad intent. No wonder the American eco-system is transforming from industrial to consumer, with trade deficits with all the industrial giants in the world; think Germany, Japan, South Korea and China.

The Caribbean is looking, listening and learning from the American model. We do NOT want to follow suit!

Yes, we want to develop our own social media – site: www.myCaribbean.gov – but with better rules for minimizing Fake News compared to the current American examples. Notice the mitigation now been deployed by Facebook & Google in the link here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-google-crack-down-fake-news-advertising-n684101

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts that the Caribbean region must not allow the US to take the lead for our own nation-building, that American capitalistic interest tends to highjack policies intended for the Greater Good. This assessment is logical considering that the 2016 Presidential Election may have been a victim of this systemic disinformation. This is an issue of security.

This broken system in America does not have to be modeled in the Caribbean. Change has now come. The driver of this change is technology and globalization. The Go Lean roadmap provides turn-by-turn directions on how to forge this change in the region for a reboot of these Caribbean societal systems, including media institutions. This roadmap is thusly viewed as more than just a planning tool, pronouncing this point early in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13) with this statement:

xvi. Whereas security of our homeland is inextricably linked to prosperity of the homeland, the economic and security interest of the region needs to be aligned under the same governance. Since economic crimes…can imperil the functioning of the wheels of commerce for all the citizenry, the accedence of this Federation must equip the security apparatus with the tools and techniques for predictive and proactive interdictions.

The Go Lean book purports that the Caribbean can – and must – do better. The vision of the CU is a confederation of the 30 member-states of the Caribbean to do the heavy-lifting of optimizing economic-security-governing engines. The Go Lean book details the policies and other community ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to elevate Caribbean society, and mandate a society based on truth:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy versus Public Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Whistleblower Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Light Up the Dark Places	Page 23
Community Ethos – Anti-Bullying and Mitigation	Page 23
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering	Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management – Notifications	Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Communications and Media Authority	Page 79
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Implementation – Ways to Impact Elections	Page 116
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 – Lax Regulations	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 169
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice	Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering & Analysis	Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood – Media Industrial Complex	Page 220

The foregoing Audio-Podcast and VIDEO relate the serious concern for Caribbean planners. While the US is the world’s largest Single Market economy, we want to only model some of the American example. We would rather foster a business climate to benefit the Greater Good, not just some special interest group.

There are many Go Lean blog commentaries that have echoed this point, addressing the subject of the Caribbean avoiding American consequences. See sample here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9648	Bad American Model – Public Schools for Black-and-Brown
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9646	Bad American Model – American Vices. Don’t Follow!
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9626	Bad American Model – Marginalizing Our Vote
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=9038	Charity Management: The Need for Self-Rule
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=6893	American Meteorologists Views On Climate Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=5482	American For-Profit Education: Plenty of Profit; Little Education
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4076	American Media Fantasies -vs- Weather Realities
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2338	How Caribbean can Mitigate the Dreaded ‘Plutocracy’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2259	The Criminalization of American Business
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1143	Health-care fraud in America; Criminals take $272 billion a year
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We *Don’t* Want from the US – American Self-Interest Policies

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that many problems of the region are too big for any one member-state to solve alone, but that we do not need American leadership, rather instead, we need the technocracy of the CU Trade Federation. The purpose this roadmap is to make our Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work, and play. Fake News does not fit into that vision, though it is inevitable if we allow online media to be molded by the American example. We do not want to be America; we want to be better.

We also do not want China’s internet policing models; this is too restrictive and too little regard for the freedom of the press. We want the provisions and benefits as described in the Go Lean book. This posits that to succeed as a society, and to succeed in our regional deployment of social media, the Caribbean must not only consume, but must also create, produce, and distribute intellectual property products and services. We need to be motivated for the Greater Good.

We do need regional oversight and regulation … for our airwaves and broadband networks, but not too heavy and not too light.

May this bad history of Fake News in America in 2016 be a cautionary tale for the Caribbean. A tale of how not to proceed.

Lesson learned! 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Crony-Capitalism, Model, New Media, Power, Transform

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Tired Waiting? Download the e-Book NOW!

Posted on July 27, 2016 in Implementation, Social

Go Lean Commentary

“Now I tired waiting”.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean is now available to download as an e-Book … for free.

Get the e-Book here NOW!

What is the big deal?

Well, this book purports to be the answer … for what ails the Caribbean.

70% …
… this is no way to nation-build.

These alarming abandonment rates have been communicated to the governments and leaders of the region and yet still, the problem persists. They have not taken action to curb the problem.

This book is published by a community development foundation made up of mostly Caribbean Diaspora. These ones have grown tired of waiting.

“Now I tired waiting”?
I’ve come to fix the …

VIDEO – Mighty Sparrow – Mr. Walker – https://youtu.be/i5d9WzncTew

Published on Oct 22, 2012 – This song describes a frustrated man who was promised to marry a “not so beautiful” woman, but who was more prosperous economically than himself. This is presented here as a metaphor, of the frustration of waiting for change and finally taking positive action to effect the change oneself.
Album : Party Classics. 1986
All ownership belong to the copyright holder. There is no assumption of infringement here.

If only there were some solutions for their homeland?

Solutions for the Caribbean are the prime directives of the Go Lean/CU roadmap; just consider these:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to ensure public safety and protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

“Now I tired waiting”, I come to fix … “the situation”. We now present you the “fix”!

🙂

Download the e-Book of Go Lean … Caribbean – free … now!

———–

Appendix – Lyrics: Mighty Sparrow – Mr. Walker

She ugly yes, but she wearing them expensive dress
The People say she ugly, but she father full a money
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

Good morning Mister Walker
I come to see your daughter
Oh, Mister Walker!
I come to see your daughter
Sweet Rosemarie, she promise she gone marry me
And now I tired waiting!
I come to fix the wedding

After the wedding day, I don’t care what nobody say
Everytime I take a good look at she face I see a bankbook
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

Apart from that, they say how she so big and fat
When she dress they tantalize she, saying monkey wearing mini
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

All I know, is I don’t intend to let she go
Cause if she was a beauty, nothing like me could get she
Oh Lord Mamma, woy woy

Source: Retrieved July 27, 2016 from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/m/mighty_sparrow/mr_walker.html

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Diaspora, Milestone, Music, New Media, Transform

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YouTube Millionaire: ‘Tipsy Bartender’

Posted on June 30, 2016 in Economics, Implementation, Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

“Out with the old; in with the new” …

… media that is.

The transformation to new media has taken hold. More and more people are consuming electronic media; so much so that it is becoming the mainstay for communications and entertainment.

This reference to electronic media conveys visual images; that means television, yes …

… but today, there is also the ubiquity of the internet, with its many video streaming services. The “new” in new media refers more to this medium than it does TV.

This is the change that has come to the world … and the Caribbean.

The book Go Lean … Caribbean advocates for the Caribbean region to better prepare to exploit the agents of change affecting the world. The book specifically identified technology and globalization among those agents (Page 57). It then declares that the region needs to move to the corner of preparation and opportunity.

Here – this commentary – is an example of the full manifestation of this “corner”. Identifying how – and why – networks can emerge without the need for investment into network infrastructure. The old adage is “where there’s a will, there’s a way”; but now there is only the need for the “will”, as the “way” is already in place, ubiquitous and fully accepted.

The Go Lean book relates how we are now able to have a network without the “network”. Many models abound on the world-wide-web. Previously, this commentary identified the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and ESPN-W; now the focus is the platform of YouTube, and the millionaires that have emerged. The YouTube network is delivered via the internet-streaming only.

This platform allows for nimble individuals and enterprises, the “fast and the furious”, to exploit the tenets of Internet Communications Technologies (ICT). So this platform – or even a homegrown duplicate as in the www.myCaribbean.gov portal defined in the Go Lean book – demonstrates how we in the Caribbean can elevate our eco-systems of ICT, entertainment, television, and economics.

This commentary presents the profile of one member of the Caribbean Diaspora – Bahamas – who serves as a role model for his exploitation of YouTube videos: Skyy John.

DATE OF BIRTH: January 2, 1978

BIRTHPLACE: Nassau, Bahamas

AGE: 38 years old

ABOUT
Host and creator of the YouTube channel Tipsy Bartender, the number one bartending show in the world. On the show, he makes crazy, colorful drinks.

BEFORE FAME
Before moving to America, he was a bank teller by day, a Dominos pizza delivery guy by night, and a fisherman on weekends. He is also a former member of the Bahamian military (Defence Force).

TRIVIA
He has acted in co-starring roles on television series, including The New Adventures of Old Christine, Cold Case, The Shield, The Young & Restless. He has also appeared in movies: Dorm Daze 2 (2006), Street Eyes (2015) and Whitey Goes to Compton (2011).
Source: Retrieved June 29, 2016 from http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/skyy-john.html

See a full interview from Tubefilter in the following article. Tubefilter is a curator of online videos from industry news, web series reviews, events, and an Awards Show. They published a web series on YouTube Millionaires. See the full article here:

Title: YouTube Millionaires: TipsyBartender Is “Here To Have Fun And Make Cocktails”
By: Sam Gutelle

Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.

Skyy John has successfully brought the party to YouTube. The 37-year-old Bahamian has found online success thanks to TipsyBartender, a channel on which he teaches viewers how to craft a variety of mixed drinks. John’s videos tend to have several elements in common: They feature colorful beverages, feature attractive women as John’s assistants, and convey a fun-loving atmosphere. This formula has proven to be a hit with the online audience. TipsyBartender, which is partnered with the Tastemade network, now has more than 1.4 million subscribers. Here’s what John had to say about that:

Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?

Skyy John: It feels amazing, humbling and empowering when you think of that many people supporting what you do.

I would like to tell each one of them that I love you, and you’re all very special to me. To celebrate hitting one million subscribers, I set up a meet and greet at a local bar. I bought everyone drinks and shots all night because it’s the least I could do to show my appreciation.

TF: How did you get started on YouTube?

SJ: In the early days of YouTube I had an idea for a talk show – I shot a really low budget pilot of it and posted it online. The response was good, so I kept making videos where I’d go around and interview people. As a means of diversifying my content, since I was a bartender, I’d show people how to make one or two cocktails. A friend of mine, Monroe, said “Hey, why don’t you start a bartending channel?” I said, “That’s a good idea,” and TipsyBartender was born.

TF: What made you decide to include women in all your videos?

SJ: When you come to the TipsyBartender channel and you watch an episode, yes I always have an attractive female cohost, and to the new viewer who thinks they’re there for looks, it’s much deeper than that. Behind the scenes, the show has been primarily powered by women, in terms of working out the format, designing the style of thumbnails, choosing the drinks that we make – it’s all been women. Without that very important female touch, the TipsyBartender show that you see today would not exist. I’d like to give a special thanks to Marjane and Emma, the two that really helped me create what you see today. TipsyBartender will always be home to women from all over the world who don’t get a chance in any other medium.

TF: When you create your videos, how do you balance entertaining your audience with conveying your recipes?

SJ: We maintain a very delicate balance between entertainment and education. We keep our recipes simple, which allows us to focus on the entertainment more. Our goal is to learn and have fun while doing it. We are, after all, a party channel.

TF: What in your mind is the most important component of a good cocktail?

SJ: The most important component of a good cocktail is you – the person that I’m serving. You have to like what I’m giving you. The easiest way to accomplish that is to build a cocktail using some ingredients that you already enjoy. You like Kool Aid? I’ll build around that. If you like ice cream, I’ll build around ice cream. You like Gatorade? I’ll build around that. Whatever you like, I’ll use – and that mentality is what makes me a pariah in the world of mixology because most mixologists feel that they know better than you what you should be drinking. They’ll give you a cocktail with aged whiskey, organic basil, handcrafted bitters, ice from the Alps, and tell you that “Hey, this is the most perfect best greatest drink ever!” What if that person you’re serving it to doesn’t like any of that s**t? Only you know what you like. You’re drinking the drink, I’m just working with you – i’m not a mixologist. I’m here to have fun and make cocktails. Drinking is supposed to be enjoyable, not feel like a damn chemistry exam.

TF: There don’t seem to be a ton of drinks channels on YouTube. Why do you think it’s not a more common category?

SJ: Because it’s very difficult to do. Drink-making is not that exciting because it’s very difficult to present it in an interesting format. Luckily, we’ve been able to get it right and to keep people interested, and every day we strive to continue doing what we’re doing and make our audience grow.

TF: What is your favorite cocktail you’ve made on your channel?

SJ: There are too many to list. Some of the favorite drinks I made were the rainbow shots, because that was difficult to learn how to do. Definitely some of the jungle juices because they’re pretty crazy, and believe it or not it requires a lot of math and planning to make the appropriate amounts in large quantities. Some of the jello shots we’ve made for sure. My favorites would probably have to be ice cream drinks or drinks based around rum, especially coconut rum.

TF: When you’re out bartending, do you ever get recognized as “that guy from the Internet”?

SJ: All the time – but I don’t bartend in a bar anymore. I actually got fired because of TipsyBartender. I was spending so much time on the show, so much time editing that I needed to get my shifts covered. Working in L.A. you got people covering shifts all the time, so it wasn’t really a problem at first. I was called into work for a meeting and they said I hadn’t been there in a few months – I said “I’ll get back to work, don’t worry I got you,” – but I didn’t realize that they were monitoring me. They discovered that in four months following our meeting, I only worked once. So I got the call saying “Go mix drinks man, we’ll handle the bar.”

TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?

SJ: TipsyBartender morphed into a truly global brand where we have tons of fans all over the world, primarily because we focused on Facebook, where videos are very easily shared. We’re now approaching 7 million fans that are highly engaged in what we do. Our Facebook engagement is higher than that of all the biggest liquor brands around the world combined! Our next step for us is to take our cocktails and products around the world. We’re also in the developing stages of creating a Kickstarter to fund our first bar in L.A.
Source: Tube Filter Online Magazine – Posted February 5, 2015; retrieved June 28, 2016 from: http://www.tubefilter.com/2015/02/05/tipsy-bartender-skyy-john-drinks-youtube-millionaires/

—————–

Alternative Interview: http://affairstoday.co.uk/interview-tipsy-bartender/

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VIDEO – How to make Rainbow Shots! – Tipsy Bartender – http://youtu.be/MoVZoCmkdjY

Published on Nov 17, 2011 – Subscribe to Tipsy Bartender: http://bit.ly/1krKA4R
The prettiest shots ever…RAINBOW SHOTS! These are the best looking rainbow shots ever!
OUR VLOG CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/TipsyVlogs

Is YouTube a successful business model for Skyy John? Yes indeed. See here as to the estimate of how much money he was making in 2011, long before he crossed the million-subscriber threshold; (1.4 million as of February 2015):

“How much money does Tipsy Bartender make?”
Skyy John is the Bahamian guy who runs the YouTube channel called Tipsy Bartender. He has an estimated net worth of $500,000. …

See the full article here: https://naibuzz.com/much-money-tipsy-bartender-makes-youtube/

The actuality of YouTube and the role model of Skyy John is a lesson for the Caribbean; there is heavy-lifting required to transform society. The book Go Lean…Caribbean serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), a technocratic federal government to administer and optimize the economic/security/governing engines of the region’s 30 member-states. In addition, there is the vision for the Caribbean Postal Union (CPU), the focus of which is to coordinate regional mail plus the www.myCaribbean.gov portal to offer email and social media functionality for all Caribbean stakeholders: 42 million residents, 10 million in the Diaspora and even the 80 million tourists-visitors.

The Go Lean roadmap accepts the precept that one person can make a difference in society. What’s more, that one person does not have to be a genius – in the way society measures genius – they only need to be committed and disciplined. That is the example of Skyy John, committed and disciplined in the occupation of bartending, not exactly a STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), but impactful nonetheless.

Bartending is more art than science.

This Go Lean economic empowerment roadmap strategizes to create a Single Media Market to leverage the population of the entire region, an audience of 42 million people across 30 member-states and 4 languages consuming cutting-edge ICT offerings. YouTube provides a great role model for the CU‘s executions; making the regional implementation of social media and internet streaming, www.myCaribbean.gov, economically viable. This means jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.

At the outset, the roadmap recognizes the need for ICT development and job creation with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13 & 14):

xxi. Whereas the preparation of our labor force can foster opportunities and dictate economic progress for current and future generations, the Federation must ensure that educational and job training opportunities are fully optimized for all residents of all member-states, with no partiality towards any gender or ethnic group. The Federation must recognize and facilitate excellence in many different fields of endeavor, including sciences, languages, arts, music and sports. This responsibility should be executed without incurring the risks of further human flight, as has been the past history.

xxvi. Whereas the Caribbean region must have new jobs to empower the engines of the economy and create the income sources for prosperity, and encourage the next generation to forge their dreams right at home, the Federation must therefore foster the development of new industries… . In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

xxvii. Whereas the region has endured a spectator status during the Industrial Revolution, we cannot stand on the sidelines of this new economy, the Information Revolution. Rather, the Federation must embrace all the tenets of Internet Communications Technology (ICT) to serve as an equalizing element in competition with the rest of the world. The Federation must bridge the digital divide and promote the community ethos that research/development is valuable and must be promoted and incentivized for adoption.

xxviii. Whereas intellectual property can easily traverse national borders, the rights and privileges of intellectual property must be respected at home and abroad. The Federation must install protections to ensure that no abuse of these rights go with impunity, and to ensure that foreign authorities enforce the rights of the intellectual property registered in our region.

In the Go Lean book and previous blogs, the Go Lean movement asserted that the market organizations and community investments to garner economic benefits of ICT are within reach, with the proper technocracy. The eco-system for streaming videos is inclusive of the roadmap’s quest to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in to the following community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean to deliver the solutions to elevate the Caribbean region through ICT:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – All Choices Involve Costs	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Economic Systems Influence Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Voluntary Trade Creates Wealth	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequence of Choice Lie in Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments – ROI	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – How to Grow the Economy to $800 Billion – Trade and Globalization	Page 70
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Postal Services	Page 78
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Interstate Commerce Administration	Page 79
Implementation – Year 1 / Assemble Phase – Establish CPU	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change – Group Purchase Organizations (GPO)	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Optimize Mail Service & the myCaribbean.gov Marketplace	Page 108
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean – # 8 Cyber-Caribbean	Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Hollywood	Page 203
Advocacy – Ways to Preserve Caribbean Heritage	Page 218

The Go Lean book asserts that the region can be a better place to live, work and play; that the economy can be grown methodically by embracing progressive strategies in ICT and video streaming. This point was further detailed in these previous blogs:

UberEverything in Africa – Model for ICT and Logistics

Zuckerberg’s Philanthropy Project Makes Investment for ICT Education

Transformations: Caribbean Postal Union – Delivering the Future

The Future of Money

How to address high consumer prices

Truth in Commerce – Learning from Yelp

Net Neutrality: It matters here … in the Caribbean

Role Model Jack Ma brings Alibaba Social Media Portal to America

Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market

Amazon’s new FIRE Smartphone

Grenada PM Urges CARICOM on ICT

This Go Lean roadmap is committed to availing the economic opportunities of ICT but the roadmap is bigger than just videos; its a concerted effort to elevate all of Caribbean society. The CU is the vehicle for this goal, this is detailed by the following 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy to $800 Billion & create 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

This Go Lean roadmap looks for the opportunities to foster interest that may exists in specific endeavors, and then explore the business opportunities around servicing that demand. This is the example that the ‘Tipsy Bartender’ (Skyy John) provides for his Caribbean neighbors – though he now lives in Los Angeles, California. Oh, how much better to foster these passions right here at home in the Caribbean region.

This quest is conceivable, believable and achievable, but it is not easy; it is heavy-lifting. This is the quest of Go Lean/CU roadmap, to do the heavy-lifting to make the Caribbean a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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