ICT – Page 9 – Go Lean…Caribbean

Tag: ICT

Net Neutrality: It Matters Here …

Posted on March 1, 2015 in Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

The world has changed! Much of the world’s media content is now being delivered via internet protocols (IP). In 1999, the telephone company Qwest Communications* ran a television commercial depicting that soon every movie ever made would be available on the internet for easy retrieval – see VIDEO below in Appendix A. The world is not at this point … just yet. But it will be for our children.

This commentary is a melding of ICT (Internet & Communications Technology), media, television, economics, competition and future forecasting – this is a big deal for the US … and the Caribbean. With the internet as the delivery vehicle, there must now be oversight of the information super-highway. Too much – as in the future for our children – is at stake.

One aspect of that oversight is the principle of net neutrality, allowing all internet traffic to be managed uniformly; (see Appendix B below). This has been the standard since the emergence of the commercial internet. The possibility of abolishing net neutrality has been of great debate as of late, with the American authorities – the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – ruling on the continuation of the net neutrality policy. The ruling demonstrates that the two decades of laissez-faire policy by the FCC is now being supplanted with a more broad authority over the Internet.

Title: US Internet providers hit with tougher rules, plan challenges
By: Alina Selyukh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the strictest-ever rules on Internet providers, who in turn pledged to battle the new restrictions in the courts and Congress, saying they would discourage investment and stifle innovation.

The rules, which will go into effect in coming weeks, are expected to face legal challenges from multiple parties such as wireless, cable and other broadband companies and trade groups that represent them.

Experts expect the industry to seek a stay of the rules, first at the FCC and then in courts, though the chances for success of such an appeal is unclear.

The new regulations come after a year of jostling between cable and telecom companies and net neutrality advocates, which included web startups. It culminated in the FCC receiving a record 4 million comments and a call from President Barack Obama to adopt the strongest rules possible.

The agency’s new policy, approved as expected along party lines, reclassifies broadband, both fixed and mobile, as a more heavily regulated “telecommunications service,” more like a traditional telephone service.

In the past, broadband was classified as a more lightly regulated “information service,” which factored into a federal court’s rejection of the FCC’s previous set of rules in January 2014.

The shift gives the FCC more authority to police various types of deals between providers such as Comcast Corp and content companies such as Netflix Inc to ensure they are just and reasonable for consumers and competitors.

Internet providers will be banned from blocking or slowing any traffic and from striking deals with content companies, known as paid prioritization, for smoother delivery of traffic to consumers.

The FCC also expands its oversight power to so-called interconnection deals, in which content companies pay broadband providers to connect with their networks. The FCC would review complaints on a case-by-case basis.

Republican FCC commissioners, who see the new rules as a government power grab, delivered lengthy dissents. Their colleagues in Congress hope to counter the new rules with legislation. All five FCC members are expected to testify in the Senate on March 18.

Large Internet providers say they support the no-blocking and no-discrimination principles of the new rules but that the FCC’s regulatory path will discourage investment by lowering returns and limiting experimentation with services and business plans.

Some smaller telecoms, such as Sprint Corp and T-Mobile US Inc , have argued new rules will have little impact on investments. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday agreed.

“The (Internet service providers’) revenue stream will be the same tomorrow as it was yesterday,” he said at the FCC meeting.

“I have spent a lot of time in public policy, and today is the proudest day of my public policy life,” he later told reporters.

Legal experts and industry lobbyists say corporate lawyers are waiting for the FCC to publish the specifics of the rules, a document more than 300 pages long. Lawsuits can be filed after the rules are recorded in the Federal Register, likely days later.

Wheeler sought to address in the new rules some Internet providers’ concerns, proposing no price regulations, tariffs or requirements to give competitors access to networks.

Cable and telecom shares saw muted reactions on Thursday. They had jumped earlier this month when Wheeler confirmed long-bubbling expectations that he would seek a tougher regulatory regime, with some adjustments to the network needs.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Additional reporting by Malathi Nayak and Andrew Chung; Editing by Christian Plumb and Ken Wills)
Source: Reuters News Wire Service – Retrieved February 26, 2015 from:
http://news.yahoo.com/tougher-internet-rules-hit-cable-telecoms-companies-060527764–finance.html

Related Stories

Broadband Investors Should Wake Up to Net Neutrality – The Wall Street Journal

In landmark decision, US plan bans two-speed Internet – AFP

Net Fix: 8 burning questions about Net neutrality – CNET

VIDEO: Net Neutrality: How Open-Internet Activists Won Big – http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/net-neutrality-how-open-internet-activists-won-big-n313406

This article aligns with the book Go Lean…Caribbean. We learn a lot of lessons from this discussion. It reflects the regional oversight that the book envisions for the Caribbean region. Will there be the need for net neutrality discussions and reform for the Caribbean? Will competition policy be set to cater to private or corporate special interests? The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) to navigate issues like these for the Greater Good. This CU roadmap is designed to elevate Caribbean society by these three prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines; growing the regional economy to $800 Billion and creating 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines, utilizing a separation-of-powers with member-states.

All 3 of these directives of the Go Lean roadmap have deliveries on the internet, as this covers telephone, cable, broadband, Wifi and satellite. Offering some of these services to a regional market would garner extended competition, better pricing and more offerings. This is why the book posits that some issues are too big for any one member-state to manage alone – especially with such close proximities – there are times when there must be a cross-border, multilateral coordination. Such an important attribute affects our youth, more so than any other stakeholders. This vision is defined early in the book (Pages 11 – 14) with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

viii. Whereas the population size is too small to foster good negotiations for products and commodities from international vendors, the Federation must allow the unification of the region as one purchasing agent, thereby garnering better terms and discounts.

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…

xxvi.  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.

xxvii.  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.

xxx.   Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

The Go Lean roadmap calls for the market organizations and community investments to garner economic benefits from the single market that could not be derived otherwise. The roadmap posits that having a larger market allows more leverage and more impetus to facilitate the roadmap’s quest to make the Caribbean region a better place to live, work and play.

One tenant of a free market economy is the emergence of a “better mousetrap”. This idiom asserts that the world would beat a path to the door of that mousetrap. But if the cable companies get their way, they would be able to enter the “room of business opportunity”, then “lock the door behind them” to ensure no one else could enter. This paradox would be unproductive for future growth with the internet and the attendant functions of electronic commerce.

The subject of net neutrality in the US is just another example of American crony-capitalism where public policy is often hijacked to benefit private parties. Consider this chart of well-documented cases of bad corporate behavior:

Big Media	Cable companies conspire to keep rates high; textbook publishers practice price gouging; Hollywood insists on big tax breaks/ subsidies for on-location shooting.
Big Oil	While lobbying for continuous tax subsidies, the industry have colluded to artificially keep prices high and garner rocket profits ($38+ Billion every quarter).
Big Box	Retail chains impoverish small merchants on Main Street with Antitrust-like tactics, thusly impacting community jobs.
Big Pharma	Chemo-therapy cost $20,000+/month; and the War against Cancer is imperiled due to industry profit insistence.
Big Tobacco	Cigarettes are not natural tobacco but rather latent with chemicals to spruce addiction.
Big Agra	Agribusiness concerns bully family farmers and crowd out the market; plus fight common sense food labeling efforts.
Big Data	Brokers for internet and demographic data clearly have no regards to privacy concerns.
Big Banks	Wall Street’s damage to housing and student loans are incontrovertible.
Big Weather	Overblown hype of “Weather Forecasts” to dictate commercial transactions.
Big Real Estate	Preserving MLS for Real Estate brokers only, forcing 6% commission rates, when the buyers and sellers can meet without them.

The Go Lean roadmap places a lot of focus on ICT, electronic commerce, and the landscape to incentivize youth participation in a Caribbean future.

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 and electronic commerce: as follows:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Confederate into a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Embrace the Advances of Technology	Page 46
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Communications and Media Authority	Page 79
Implementation – Foreign Policies at Start-up	Page 102
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization – Technology Equalization	Page 119
Planning – Big Ideas – 10 Big Ideas – #8 Cyber Caribbean	Page 127
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – Promotion of e-Learning	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance – e-Government & e-Delivery Deployments	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract – Technology/Efficiencies	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications – Regulate Media Industrial Complex	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology – Intellectual Property Protections	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce – e-Payments & Wifi Facilitations	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street – Wifi & Mobile Apps: Time and Place	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Monopolies – Utilities to Oversee ICT/New Media	Page 202
Advocacy – Ways to Impact the Youth – Foster Work Ethic for ICT	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Broadband for Work-at-Home	Page 234
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Rural Living – e-Learning to Mitigate Relocations	Page 235
Appendix – Copyright Infringement – Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights	Page 351

The book Go Lean…Caribbean, and aligning blog-commentaries assert that the region can be a better homeland, improving on economic, security and governing engines. The region can be elevated by embracing ICT and forging more industrial development in cyber-space. This is essential to project to the Caribbean youth that they can prosper where they are planted here at home, because of the regional, technocratic efforts/successes.

Previous blogs/commentaries also exclaimed societal benefits from pursuits in regional coordination; consider this sample of previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=4308	Regional Coordination for Emergency Telephone Number, like “911”
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3974	Model for Regional Internet Excellence: Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3881	Regional Coordination for Cyber Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Model of Regionalism: Europe – All Grown Up
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2887	Caribbean Region Must Work Together to Address Rum Subsidies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	Regional Sports Role Model for Broadcast Networks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888	e-Government: Taking the Town Square Digital to Reinvent Government
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308	CARCIP – Regional Effort Foster Technology Innovations

The Go Lean book posits that the internet can level the playing field (Page 119), allowing small institutions to compete with larger ones; and small states to compete with larger ones. The assertion is that ICT must be regulated – as a utility- at the regional level for the Caribbean Greater Good, as there are too many instances with overlapping radio spectrum. Instead of managing this process with bilateral treaties – the status quo – the Go Lean approach is a confederation treaty with all 30 member-states; the CU would regulate internet broadband providers as public utilities in a separation-of-power structure with the federal agency versus member-states.

The region needs the delivery of this Go Lean roadmap. More innovation will emerge with the internet; and we need some of that innovation locally in the Caribbean. Without the equalizing effects of technology/ICT, we will be rendered even more inconsequential for the future. Then our youth will not be inspired to invest in their homeland. This is sad for the youth and even more sad for the homeland.

The quest of Go Lean/CU is to do the heavy-lifting to make the Caribbean homeland a better place to live, work and play. This is conceivable, believable and achievable!

🙂

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

———–

APPENDICES:

A. VIDEO: Qwest TV Commercial 1999 – http://youtu.be/xAxtxPAUcwQ

Uploaded on January 30, 2012 – Remember how absurd this seemed in 1999 before the internet really took off? When the weary traveler asked the front desk what entertainment was available, the response was: “all rooms have every movie ever made in any language anytime, day or night.”

* Qwest Communications International, Inc. is now superseded as a corporate entity; it was acquired in 2010 and continues as CenturyLink, Inc.

———–

B. Net Neutrality

This is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003 as an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier.^[1][2][3][4]

There has been extensive debate about whether net neutrality should be required by law, particularly in the United States. Debate over the issue of net neutrality predates the coining of the term. Advocates of net neutrality such as Lawrence Lessig have raised concerns about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g. websites, services, and protocols), and even to block out competitors.^[5] On the contrary, opponents claim net neutrality regulations would deter investment into improving broadband infrastructure and try to fix something that isn’t broken.^[6][7]

Net neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige subscribers to buy their otherwise noncompetitive services.^[8] Many believe net neutrality to be primarily important for the preservation of current internet freedoms; a lack of net neutrality would allow Internet service providers, such as Comcast, to extract payment from content providers like Netflix, and these charges would ultimately be passed on to consumers.^[9][10] Prominent supporters of net neutrality include Vinton Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web, law professor Tim Wu, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Tumblr founder David Karp, and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver.^{[11][12][13][14]} (See John Oliver VIDEO in Appendix C). Organizations and companies that support net neutrality include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Greenpeace, Tumblr, Kickstarter, Vimeo, Wikia, and others.^[8][15][16]

Net neutrality opponents from the likes of IBM, Intel, Juniper, Qualcomm, and Cisco claim that net neutrality would deter investment into broadband infrastructure, saying that “shifting to Title II means that instead of billions of broadband investment driving other sectors of the economy forward, any reduction in this spending will stifle growth across the entire economy. Title II is going to lead to a slowdown, if not a hold, in broadband build out, because if you don’t know that you can recover on your investment, you won’t make it.” ^[17][18] Prominent opponents also include Netscape founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, co-inventor of the Internet Protocol Bob Kahn, PayPal founder and Facebook investor Peter Thiel, Internet engineer and former Chief Technologist for the FCC David Farber, Broadcast.com founder Mark Cuban, and Nobel Prize economist Gary Becker.^{[19][20][21][22][23]}

Examples of net neutrality violations include when the Internet service provider Comcast intentionally slowed peer-to-peer communications.^[27]

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality)

————

C. VIDEO – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Net Neutrality (HBO) – http://youtu.be/fpbOEoRrHyU

Published on June 1, 2014 – Cable companies are trying to create an unequal playing field for internet speeds, but they’re doing it so boringly that most news outlets aren’t covering it.
John Oliver explains the controversy and lets viewers know how they can voice their displeasure to the FCC. (Content warning: Some profanity!)

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e-Commerce, ICT, New Media

Study: Homes Marketed via the MLS Sell for More

Posted on February 25, 2015 in Economics, Implementation

Go Lean Commentary

Change has come to the world of real estate. According to many sources, the real estate brokerage industry will be one of the next industries to become obsolete due to the ubiquity of the internet. If you doubt this statement, just think of travel agents, record stores, book retailers, video rental, etc. Enough said…

This subject is pivotal in the roadmap for elevation of the Caribbean economy, which maintains that internet/electronic commerce business models are critical in creating jobs and growing the region’s GDP. The publishers of the book Go Lean…Caribbean project that 2.2 million new jobs hang in the balance.

This commentary is also about managing change!

At the heart of a real estate transaction is a buyer and a seller, looking for each other. This is a perfect application for social media networks; think online dating. But instead of social media, the industry has MLS or Multiple Listing Services (see Appendix* below). Now come the internet and all the application developers. Here’s the problem, for the MLS world: the buyer or seller is not the end consumer, but rather the buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent. The commission money involved, normally 6% of selling price, is split between the two agents. This applies on small transactions (think: $50,000) and large $million transactions. Yet now, the internet allows buyers and sellers to get together without the brokerage agents; one major player in this online race is Zillow (see Appendix^# below); an online real estate database that was founded in 2005 by former Microsoft executives.

Change is afoot…
If the internet option continues to gain more and more market share, this will neutralize the role of agents, and their industry-exclusive MLS options. Zillow reported more than 24 million unique visitors in September 2011, representing year-over-year growth of 103 percent.^[23][24] (Zillow has data on 110 million homes across the United States, not just those homes currently for sale).

VIDEO – Zillow: “Lake House” Commercial – http://youtu.be/WZk__l8yCHo

Published on February 20, 2015 – “Lake House” is Zillow’s fifth TV spot, the latest in the company’s highly successful first-ever national advertising campaign, “Find Your Way Home.” The spot was produced by Deutsch LA and features the single “Atlas Hands” by Benjamin Francis Leftwich. See all of Zillow’s TV spots at http://www.zillow.com/tv/.

Most MLS systems restrict membership and access to real estate brokers (and their agents) who are appropriately licensed by the state/province, and are members of industry association (e.g., NAR or CREA). But access is becoming more open as Internet sites offer the public the ability to view portions of MLS listings. (There still remains some limitation to access to information within MLS’s; generally, only agents who are compensated proportional to the value of the sale have uninhibited access to the MLS database). Many public Web forums have a limited ability in terms of reviewing comparable properties, past sales prices or monthly supply statistics.

A person selling his/her own property – acting as a For Sale By Owner (or FSBO) seller – cannot generally put a listing for the home directly into an MLS. (An example of an exception to this general practice is the national MLS for Spain, AMLASpain, where FSBO listings are allowed.^[3] Similarly, a licensed broker who chooses to neither join the trade association nor operate a business within the association’s rules, cannot join most MLS’s.) However, there are brokers and many online services which offer FSBO sellers the option of listing their property in their local MLS database by paying a flat fee or another non-traditional compensation method.^[4]

In Canada, CREA has come under scrutiny and investigation by the Competition Bureau and litigation by former CREA member and real estate brokerage Realtysellers (Ontario) Ltd., for the organization’s control over the Canadian MLS system.^[5] In 2001, Realtysellers (Ontario) Ltd., a discount real-estate firm was launched that reduced the role of agents and the commissions they collect from home buyers and sellers. The brokerage later shut down and launched a $100 million lawsuit against CREA and TREB, alleging that they breached an earlier out-of-court settlement that the parties entered into in 2003.

The Empire Strikes Back…
In January (2015), Zillow and ListHub, a subsidiary of Move, Inc. the operator of Realtor.com, ended their agreement for Zillow to receive listings through ListHub. This will take effect on April 6, 2015. Earlier this month (February 16), Zillow closed on its acquisition of Trulia, forming the new Zillow Group. As a result, ListHub announced that it ended its relationship with Trulia; giving a 5 day transition period before it stops sending listings to Trulia.

The actions and conflicts between the online real estate portals and MLS’s are continuing to escalate. One of the major industry players TREND, the exclusive MLS for the Greater Philadelphia-area (Pennsylvania) sent out a communications to their broker clients on February 20, openingly acknowledging the jockeying taking place; with their commitment to stay engaged:

TREND has been in discussions to determine how we can best help our members protect their interests and easily distribute their listings to portals they choose. We plan to continue these discussions.

The issues presented in this commentary is the cornerstone of several ongoing arguments about the current health of the real-estate market, which are centered on free and open information being necessary for both the buying and selling parties to ensure fair prices are negotiated during closing, ultimately allowing a stable and less volatile market.

No doubt, there is some collusion between MLS’s and the brokerage industry to maintain the status quo. But the industry claims to still bring added-value. According to this article, the MLS systems hold sway over the industry, impacting its customers (real estate brokers and agents) with optimized sales and profits; they claim that the homes they market sell for more money. See story here:

Title: Study Finds Homes Marketed via the Cooperative Brokerage Community on the MLS Sell for More
Posted: December 5, 2014, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; retrieved February 24, 2015 from: http://www.trendmls.com/Guest/News/ShowDoc.aspx?id=7425#.VoybLp0o673

Earlier this year, TREND, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, studied the percent of sales marketed on the MLS. The study found that in the last 3 years more than 80% of sales were marketed on the MLS, and that properties marketed on the MLS had a higher median sold price compared to properties that were marketed off the MLS.

To perform this study, TREND examined 13 years of MLS and Public Records data, comparing each Public Records sale record to MLS sale records to determine which sales were marketed on the MLS.

“Our goal with this study was to see how many sales that would typically involve a real estate professional were listed on the MLS. Knowing there are various ways and reasons real estate is transacted in the market, we wanted to focus the study on the ‘bread and butter’ market segment of the brokerage community. To do this we honed in on residential, single-family resale properties over 50 thousand dollars,” Vice President of Product Management, Ken Schneider said.

Due to the quantity of data accessible, as an MLS and Public Records provider, TREND was able to determine that the percent of sales marketed on the MLS across the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area has grown over the last 13 years. It also remains strong, with an average of 82% of sales in 2013 marketed on the MLS, and many communities posting even higher numbers.

The study also uncovered a quantifiable benefit to marketing a property on the MLS: higher sold prices. For example, in 2013, properties marketed on the MLS had a 21% higher median sold price compared to properties marketed off the MLS.

“These numbers showed that over the years and through various market conditions, it is in a consumer’s best interest to work with a real estate professional that will expose their property to the cooperative brokerage community,” Vice President of Product Management, Ken Schneider said.

Ultimately, the study showed when properties are advertised in a competitive marketplace to the cooperative brokerage community on the MLS, they command the highest prices.

“The results of this study are a testament to the historical and ongoing integrity, commitment, cooperation and collaboration of the brokers and brokerages in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, which ultimately benefits their clients”, Vice President of Product Management, Ken Schneider said.

For more information on this study, view the complete report. View the Full Report.

About TREND
The TREND community encompasses approximately 27,000 real estate brokers and agents in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. As partners in the business of real estate information and technology, TREND members guide the evolution of our MLS and Public Records systems, and contribute to the MLS database of approximately 2.9 million listings. TREND also provides member access to public records for over 5.1 million properties, appointment management tools, valuable industry and market information, and personalized customer service. Together, the TREND community facilitates the sale of more than 70,000 properties a year at a value of over 18 billion dollars. For more information, visit www.trendmls.com.

The issues of MLS versus online portals affect the Caribbean as well. The book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). The CU/Go Lean roadmap has 3 prime directives:

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

The roadmap envisions a robust social media network, www.myCaribbean.gov, and e-Government insourcing of property registrations in the region. Early in the book, the benefits of technology empowerment is pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 14), with these opening statements:

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 … 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.

The Caribbean has the eco-system of Multiple Listing Services, and real estate brokers and agents. But where there are buyers and sellers, the marketplace will always find a way to complete transactions. In the US, change has come, the stakeholders will simply adapt. With Zillow’s 24 million unique website visitors, individual brokerage firms will have to negotiate direct feeds to Zillow – a trend already started – and agents will simply upload their listings directly. The status quo now is for selling-agents to promote properties on up to 160 different websites. The photo here and foregoing VIDEO of Zillow Advertising – designed to generate even more consumer traffic to designated web site – demonstrate the changing landscape for the real estate brokerage industry.

There is much for the Caribbean to glean from observing the developments of this American industry. The Go Lean book already details best-practices for the full embrace of Internet Communications Technologies (ICT). Imagine the www.myCaribbean.gov site with 150 million unique profiles (residents, visitors, Diaspora, businesses, trading partners, etc.). Then add new profiles, a single property site with property address as the URL, for every house that is “For Sale”.

Electronic introduction: buyers meet sellers; sellers meet buyers. That opening “prophecy” manifested: real estate brokerage – a next industry to become obsolete due to the ubiquity of the internet.

The book details the community ethos to adapt to the changed ICT landscape, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to forge best practices:

Community Ethos – Economic Principle – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI)	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Strategy – Integrate Region in a Single Market	Page 45
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Minimizing Bubble – Countering 2008 Housing Crisis	Page 69
Tactical – Growing to $800 Billion Economy – New High Multiplier Industries	Page 70
Separation of Powers – Patent, Standards, and Copyrights Office	Page 78
Separation of Powers – Communications and Media Authority	Page 79
Separation of Powers –Housing and Urban Authority	Page 83
Implementation – Integrate – Deploy www.myCaribbean.gov Portal	Page 97
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #8: Caribbean Cloud	Page 127
Planning – Lessons Learned from 2008 – Housing-born Crisis; Lax Oversight	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Housing – e-Government for Registrations	Page 161
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 Develop a Pre-Fab Housing Industry & eco-System	Page 207
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living	Page 234

This subject of managing the changing ICT landscape has been detailed in previous Go Lean blogs/commentaries, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3974	Google and Mobile Phones – Here comes Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3915	‘Change the way you see the world; you change the world you see’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3490	How One Internet Entrepreneur Can Rally a Whole Community
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2953	Funding Caribbean Entrepreneurs – The ‘Crowdfunding’ Way
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1634	ICT Book Review: ‘Chasing Youth Culture and Getting It Right’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416	Amazon’s new FIRE Smartphone – Transforming e-Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=528	Social Media Model – Facebook planning to provide mobile payments
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308	CARCIP Urges Greater ICT Innovation

The CU implementation is necessary to regulate and oversee many of the developments that are occurring because of our changing world. The world will continue to change whether we want it to or not. The smart move is to exploit the changes. The Go Lean book concludes in exhortation to the region:

Get moving … now is the time. Opportunities abound; even if there is only little commerce to exploit now, there is opportunity enough in the preparation for the coming change. So act now! Get moving to that place, the “corner” of preparation and opportunity.

Now is the time to lean-in for the changes and empowerments in the Go Lean roadmap. Now is the time to make the Caribbean a better homeland to live, work and play. 🙂
———–

APPENDIX * – MLS or Multiple Listing Service/System

A MLS is a suite of services that enables real estate brokers to establish contractual offers of compensation (among brokers), facilitates cooperation with other broker participants, accumulates and disseminates information to enable appraisals, and is a facility for the orderly correlation and dissemination of listing information to better serve broker’s clients, customers and the public. A multiple listing service’s database and software is used by real estate brokers in real estate, representing sellers under a listing contract to widely share information about properties with other brokers who may represent potential buyers or wish to cooperate with a seller’s broker in finding a buyer for the property or asset. The listing data stored in a multiple listing service’s database is the proprietary information of the broker who has obtained a listing agreement with a property’s seller. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_listing_service)

———–

APPENDIX ^#: Additional “home” work – July 28, 2014 News Report: Zillow Buying Trulia

Video Direct Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/video/zillow-buying-trulia-35-billion-24748326

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Crony-Capitalism, Housing, ICT, Jobs, Sales, STEM, Transform

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911 – Emergency Response: System in Crisis

Posted on February 23, 2015 in Government, Implementation

Go Lean Commentary

Emergency management, as defined in the book Go Lean…Caribbean, is an art and a science.

The Go Lean book embarks on the strategy to consolidate the Emergency Management (preparation and response) for the entire Caribbean region. Therefore the issue of Emergency Telephone Numbers is of serious concern; sometimes it’s a life-or-death matter.

Despite all the attendant issues – technology, standards, geography, legacy, and language – this is first-and-foremost an issue of life-and-death. Failure in this area is not an option. Consider here this example of short-comings in the US system:

VIDEO Title: Some 911 systems can’t find you in an emergency due to dated technology – http://www.today.com/video/today/57011057#57011057

Published on Feb 23, 2015 – Some 911 systems can’t find you in an emergency

Many 911 centers around the country still rely on dated cell tower technology instead of something as widely used as Google Maps, which means dispatchers may not be able to locate you in an emergency – and the consequences can be tragic. TODAY’s national investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen reports; (see transcript in the Appendix below).

There is no one world standard for Emergency Telephone Numbers. But the number is always intuitive; normally just a 3-digit code and applicable on a land-line or a mobile phone – this is an issue of technology. Normally neighboring countries share the same number, even if a dual overlap applies; so as to assuage any confusion for people when they absolutely have an emergency.

In the Caribbean region, like most places, everyone expects to pick up a phone and dial a 3-digit code – like 911 – and within short order be able to talk with an Emergency Management First-Responder for Police, Ambulance and Fire incidences.

Unfortunately for the Caribbean, we have 5 different legacies that rule the standards of day-to-day life: American, British, Dutch, French and the Spanish Caribbean. But geographically, since the region is physically located among all these cultures; all territories must comply with a consistent structure; that consistency is identified as the North American Numbering Plan.

So 911 rules…

But for countries with active European oversight, they normally go further and allow their European Emergency Phone Number configurations to also apply while in the Caribbean member-states. So the 3-digit code in the European Union – 112 – will also work in the Dutch and French member-states.

This issue reflects the regional oversight the book Go Lean…Caribbean envisions for the Caribbean region. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU roadmap is designed to elevate Caribbean society by these prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines; growing the regional economy.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

All 3 of these features of the Go Lean roadmap relate to this topic of Emergency Telephone Numbers. There is the need for effectiveness and efficiency so as to protect the life and property of all Caribbean stakeholders: residents and visitors alike. The book posits that some issues are too big for any one member-state to manage alone – especially with such close proximities – there are times when there must be cross-border, multilateral coordination. This vision is defined early in the book (Pages 12 – 14) with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

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. As such, any threats of a “failed state” status for any member state must enact emergency measures on behalf of the Federation to protect the human, civil and property rights of the citizens, residents, allies, trading partners, and visitors of the affected member state and the Federation as a whole.

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.

xviii. Whereas all citizens in the Federation member-states may not have the same physical abilities, reasonable accommodations must be made so that individuals with physical and mental disabilities can still access public and governmental services so as to foster a satisfactory pursuit of life’s liberties and opportunities for happiness.

xxiii. Whereas many countries in our region are dependent Overseas Territory of imperial powers, the systems of governance can be instituted on a regional and local basis, rather than requiring oversight or accountability from distant masters far removed from their subjects of administration. The Federation must facilitate success in autonomous rule by sharing tools, systems and teamwork within the geographical region.

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.

Though the issue of “911” is primarily associated with the North American Numbering Plan; this discussion of emergency contacts is not just the focus for North America.

The following information is retrieved from Wikipedia regarding the universality of Emergency Telephone Numbers; (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number):

In many countries the public telephone network has a single emergency telephone number (sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number or the emergency services number) that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and dialed quickly. Some countries have a different emergency number for each of the different emergency services; these often differ only by the last digit. In the European Union, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and others “112” was introduced as a common emergency call number during the 1990s, and as the GSM standard it is now a well known mobile telephone emergency number around the globe^[1] alongside the North American “911“.

Mobile Telephones
Mobile phones can be used in countries with different emergency numbers. This means that a traveller visiting a foreign country does not have to know the local emergency numbers. The mobile phone and the SIM card have a preprogrammed list of emergency numbers. When the user tries to set up a call using an emergency number known by a GSM or 3G phone, the special emergency call setup takes place. The actual number is not even transmitted into the network, but the network redirects the emergency call to the local emergency desk. Most GSM mobile phones can dial emergency numbers even when the phone keyboard is locked, the phone is without a SIM card, emergency number is entered instead of the PIN or there isn’t a network signal (busy network).

Most GSM mobile phones have 112, 999 and 911 as pre-programmed emergency numbers that are always available.^[15] The SIM card issued by the operator can contain additional country-specific emergency numbers that can be used even when roaming abroad. The GSM network can also update the list of well-known emergency numbers when the phone registers to it.

Some notable exceptions in the Caribbean neighborhood include:

Country

Police

Ambulance

Fire

Mexico
066

065

068

Bahamas
919 or 911

Haiti
114

118

115

Jamaica
119

110

Trinidad and Tobago
999

990

Guyana
911

913

912

Suriname
112

Considering the experiences from the foregoing VIDEO, the US needs better coordination with their Communications Regulator and Emergency Management Agencies. While it is out-of-scope for the Go Lean roadmap to change America, we can do better in the Caribbean. The CU is formed from a pledge for efficient, agile regional coordination. The Go Lean book describes this oversight as “lean”. The concept of “lean” is very prominent in the Go Lean book (and movement), even adopting the title, Go Lean, for this quest for excellence in Caribbean economic empowerment, security coordination and governing efforts. The label “lean” is therefore indicative of this quest; the word is used in the book as a noun, a verb and an adjective. This point is pronounced early in the book (Page 4) with these statements:

The CU will lean on, lean in, lean over backwards, and then lean towards…
The CU will embrace lean, agile, efficient organization structures – more virtual, less physical, more systems, less payroll.

This commitment to “lean” lends confidence to the coordination of the CU federal authorities. The Go Lean book hypothesizes that the Caribbean region can succeed in transforming our society in short order; the roadmap is a 5 year plan. Previous blogs/commentaries also exclaimed societal benefits from pursuits in regional coordination; consider this sample of previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3881	Regional Coordination: Cyber Security Cooperation
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3834	State of the Caribbean Union’s Regional Society
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3760	Regional Proxy for Citizenship Programs
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3713	NEXUS – Model of Regional Border Control
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3594	Lessons for Regional Coordination for Queen Conch
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3582	Better Coordination for Regional Banks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3432	Mitigating Regional Preponderance to Beg for Development Aid
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3354	Regional Call to End the US Embargo on Cuba
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Model of Regionalism: Europe – All Grown Up
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2887	Caribbean Region Must Work Together to Address Rum Subsidies
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2614	The ‘Great ShakeOut’ Earthquake Drill for the Region’s Seismic Areas
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2435	Role Model for Caribbean Economy: Korea
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2359	Regional calls for innovative ideas to finance Small Island Development
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2171	SEC Network – Role Model for Regional Sports Broadcast Networks
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1965	America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean Regional Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554	Status of Forces Agreement for a Regional Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	One currency, divergent economies – Model for the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=479	PetroCaribe press ahead with plan to eradicate hunger & poverty in the region
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=318	Collegiate Sports Eco-System for the Caribbean Region
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308	CARCIP – Regional Effort Can Foster Technology Innovations

The Go Lean book posits that communication technologies must be regulated at the regional level for the Greater Good of the Caribbean. There are too many instances with overlapping spectrum from one member-state to another. Citizens should not need to worry about border considerations during emergency incidences. There should be a smartphone mobile app for the Caribbean region from Step One/Day One of the CU implementation. In the present tense, this regional coordination is managed by bilateral treaties. A unitary confederation treaty – for all 30 member-states – would be better.

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster better regional coordination within the Caribbean neighborhood. This list provides a sample, as follows:

Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Security Principle – Privacy versus Public Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Provide Emergency Management Arts and Sciences for Disasters	Page 45
Strategy – Mission – Embrace the Advances of Technology	Page 46
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Climate Change	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Homeland Security – Emergency Management	Page 76
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Communications and Media Authority	Page 79
Implementation – Assemble Regional Organs Under Umbrella Confederation	Page 96
Implementation – Security Initiatives at Start-up – Intelligence Collaboration	Page 103
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid – Natural Disaster Relief	Page 115
Planning – Big Ideas – Homeland Security Pact	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 Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters	Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Emergency Management – Trauma Medicine	Page 196
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street – Mobile Apps: Time and Place	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights	Page 220
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Urban Living – Proximity to First Responders	Page 234
Appendix – Interstate Compacts – Model: Great Lakes Compact	Page 278
Appendix – Emergency Management – Service Continuity Management	Page 338
Appendix – Emergency Management – Trauma Medicine Principles	Page 339

The foregoing VIDEO and news article identifies the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the regulator for US land-line and mobile telephone systems. Who assumes this role for the Caribbean? While the same FCC has jurisdiction over 2 Caribbean member-states (Puerto Rico & US Virgin Islands), there is the need for a deputized agency for the other 28 Caribbean member-states. The Go Lean roadmap calls for an Interstate Compact among the US Territories that is also ratified as an international treaty for all the other member-states. This constitutes the Caribbean Union treaty. Also, as many Interstate Compacts create independent agencies to administer the tenants of the multi-party agreements – think the New York/New Jersey Port Authority – the CU treaty will be administered by the region-wide, deputized technocracy, that is the Trade Federation, specifically the Commerce Department’s Communications and Media Authority.

The CU – with an agency within the Homeland Security Department – also doubles as the regional Emergency Management Agency.

This allows for better coordination of Emergency Telephone Numbers – 911, 919, 112, etc. – for the region. The Communications regulator and Emergency Management under the same “umbrella”: a better pairing!

The region needs this delivery; it makes the Caribbean a better place for emergencies. Now is the time to lean-in to this Go Lean roadmap; now is the time to deliver the Caribbean as a better place to live, work and play… for today and for the future. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———–

Appendix: 911 System Crisis – VIDEO Transcript
Jeff Rossen and Charlie McLravy TODAY – February 23, 2015

It was shortly after 4 a.m. on the foggy morning of December 29 when Shanell Anderson took a wrong turn in the dark in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood.

The 31-year-old supervisor for a newspaper delivery service was substituting for an employee who had called in sick when she accidentally drove her SUV into a large pond. Her Nissan Xterra began filling with water, its doors held shut by hundreds of pounds of water pressure.

Anderson had nothing to break the windows with, but she did have a cellphone. She dialed 911.

“911, what is the address of your emergency?” the dispatcher answered. “Where’s your emergency?”

“I’m in a car in a lake,” Anderson replied.

“Where?” said the dispatcher. “Where are you?”

“The Fairway!” Anderson answered.

“Give me the address again, make sure I have it right.”

“The Fairway and Batesville.”

“Batesville and what?” the dispatcher asked.

“The Fairway is a street, ma’am.”

“The Fairway?” the dispatcher repeated. “I don’t have that.”

“Ma’am, I’m losing air very quickly,” Anderson said.

“Give me the address one more time, it’s not working,” the dispatcher asked.

“The Fairway!” Anderson yelled, and spelled the name. “F-A-I-R-W-A-Y!”

The 911 recording captured the dispatcher saying “I lost her” before the line went dead.

It took first responders nearly 20 minutes to get to the location and almost another nine minutes to find Anderson’s car 8 feet underwater. By the time they dove into the lake, broke into the completely submerged SUV and removed her from it, she was unresponsive.

Paramedics were able to restart Anderson’s heart. She was taken to the hospital, where she clung to life in a coma for a week and a half before her organs failed and she died.

The reason it took responders so long to find Anderson is because she was sinking into a pond in the next county. Her desperate call to 911 was picked up by a cell tower in Fulton County, but the pond she was trapped in was actually in Cherokee County. The 911 dispatcher who took her call couldn’t find Anderson’s location because the map on her system only showed Fulton County, where she worked — not nearby Cherokee County, where Anderson was.

The 911 center Anderson’s call was routed to is one of many around the country that still rely on dated cell tower technology instead of something as widely used as Google Maps. Wireless 911 calls get routed to the wrong call centers so often that many dispatchers have dedicated buttons to transfer callers to neighboring departments.

Brendan Keefe, chief investigative reporter for NBC Atlanta affiliate WXIA, was the first to report on the problem with the 911 system there. His report prompted NBC News and Gannett-owned news outlets across the country to launch their own investigations into the issue.

“It has one fatal flaw; it stops at the city line,” Keefe said of Atlanta’s 911 system. “If you hit a cell tower outside their jurisdiction, they don’t know where you are.”

“If the phone had automatically routed to the correct jurisdiction, this very well may have had a different outcome,” Carl Hall, chief of technology at the Public Safety Department in Alpharetta, Georgia (in Fulton County), told Keefe in an recent interview. Hall oversees one of the most advanced 911 centers in the nation, accredited in the top 2 percent and equipped with the latest gear.

“The address of that tower determines which 911 center that call goes to,” Hall told Keefe. “It’s not based on the location of the telephone; it’s the physical address of the tower, not the physical address of the phone.”

Adding to the delay, Fulton County’s 911 follows the industry standard of using proprietary maps instead of technology like Google Maps, which most of us have installed on our cellphones.

“That’s the whole point of 911— finding you quickly,” said Anderson’s mother, Jacquene Curlee. “But when it matters, when someone’s life is in danger, they can’t find you. That is absolutely absurd.”

To demonstrate the problem, TODAY national investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen visited a 911 center in Fairfax, Virginia, with Steve Souder, director of the Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications. Rossen dialed 911 from inside the center and asked the responding dispatcher to identify his location.

Consulting a computer, the dispatcher replied: “Showing 4610 West Ox Road.”

“Absolutely not,” Souder said. “That’s about a quarter of a mile from where we are.”

“And we’re inside a 911 center,” Rossen said. “And they still can’t find us.”

Responsibility for fixing the problem falls to the Federal Communications Commission. “We need to concentrate on the technologies that make cellphone information and location available to 911 centers instantly,” said Jamie Barnett, a former FCC official who now represents a coalition of emergency responders and 911 dispatchers who are pushing the commission and Congress to improve 911 systems. “The technology exists that can provide it within seconds.”

“It is unacceptable that I can make a wireless call and people can’t find me,” FCC chairman Tom Wheeler acknowledged to Rossen. “Local government controls what happens with 911; the wireless carriers have the technology, and we have the oversight, with jurisdiction over the carriers, but not over local government.

“And so our job is: How do we keep pushing?” Wheeler continued. “And what we’ve recently done is to come up with a new set of rules that have pushed further.”

The new rules “demand 40 percent accuracy within the next two years,” Rossen pointed out. “How bad is it right now, if in two years the goal is 40 percent accuracy? Which I think we can agree is not a great number.”

“We have to push to make sure that both the wireless carriers and the local 911 folks are prepared to be able to exceed that and to give the kind of expectation that you and I have a right to have when we call 911,” Wheeler replied.

Wheeler also revealed that the FCC is developing a 911 app — like Uber for 911. He said that there is no timetable yet for when the app will be ready.

But that is not good enough or fast enough for Shanell Anderson’s mother.

“Her death was so senseless,” Jacquene Curlee said. “Our 911 system doesn’t work.”

Source: NBC News – The Today Show – Retrieved February 23, 2015 from:
http://www.today.com/news/some-911-systems-cant-find-you-emergency-2D80503362

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ICT, Model, Security, Tourism

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Daktronics – Keeping score on the world’s largest video displays

Posted on February 6, 2015 in Ethos, Industries

Go Lean Commentary

The book Go Lean…Caribbean asserts (Page 20) that elevating Caribbean society has to be a total commitment, involving “Head, Heart, Hands”, in full measure. Head refers to visions, roadmaps and strategies; heart refers to the community ethos, the motivation and spirit that drives the community; hands refer to the industrious energy to do the heavy-lifting to make progress.

The Go Lean book, and accompanying blog/commentaries, frequently focuses on the subject of models and lessons from companies and institutions that exemplify these above values.

One such company stemmed from humble beginnings, in a small town, with the motive to retain local talent in the local area; to give people the opportunity to prosper where they are planted. The firm is Daktronics, founded in 1968 by Drs. Aelred Kurtenbach and Duane Sander, professors of electrical engineering at South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD. The company began with the design and manufacture of electronic voting systems for state legislatures.

In 1971, Daktronics developed the patented Matside® wrestling scoreboard, the first product in the company’s growing and evolving line. Then in 1994, Daktronics continued growth allowed them to become a publicly traded company, offering shares under the symbol DAKT on the NASDAQ National Market Exchange.

Today, Daktronics has grown from a small company operating out of a garage to the world leader, offering the most complete product lineup in the display industry. The company’s vision is to be the world leader at informing and entertaining audiences through dynamic audio-visual communications systems. Their mission statement details a commitment to:

Deliver industry leading value to customers
Engage employees through challenging and rewarding opportunities
Develop strategic partnerships with suppliers
Leverage their strengths in product innovation, manufacturing, and service
Contribute to the betterment of their communities
Generate an attractive return for investors

The book Go Lean…Caribbean boasts a similar vision and mission for the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), to impact the Caribbean region. The book describes initiatives from top-to-bottom in the Information Technology/ICT industry space, asserting that the region should not only consume, but should create, develop and produce as well. So Daktronics is a good role model for Caribbean initiatives. The book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic CU. This CU roadmap is designed to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of Caribbean society; this vision is defined early in the book (Page 14) with these statements in the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

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.

xxxiii. Whereas lessons can be learned and applied from the study of the recent history of other societies, the Federation must formalize statutes and organizational dimensions to … implement the good examples learned from developments/communities like New York City, Germany, Japan, Canada, the old American West and tenants of the US Constitution.

Daktronics has found its niche, especially in the market of giant scoreboards at sports stadiums; consider their activities as highlighted in the following VIDEO; (or the written narrative below):

VIDEO: Daktronics Featured on CBS Sunday Morning – http://youtu.be/KY9SS2jMVUo –

Published on February 1, 2015 – How did a small Midwest company, Daktronics of Brookings-South Dakota, operating out of a garage end up as the leading provider of professional sports scoreboards? CBS News national correspondent Lee Cowan spent three days at company headquarters to find out.

These Go Lean blogs have previously detailed the economic and civic advantages of sports enterprises. Now we can consider how opportunities have been exploited in the attendant functions of sports, scoreboard systems (then spinning-off to Main Street):

The Daktronics difference is obvious from local high school scoreboards to “giant-esque” video systems in major league stadiums; from roadside LED signs to “Gee-Whiz” digital signage in iconic sites like Times Square (New York) and Piccadilly Circus (London) – see sample of non-sports installations in the Appendix below. There is a good chance one can see Daktronics products every day as their range of products make them the most experienced digital display manufacturer in the industry.

From the “comfy confines” of rural South Dakota, this electronics company (Dak + tronics) has shocked the world; proving that change can emerge from anywhere, even remote locales. This provides great inspiration for any island in the Caribbean! Daktronics’ contribution to the world is their focus on efficiency, quality and agility. This is what the Go Lean book refers to as “lean”.

The concept of “lean” is very prominent in the book (and movement), even adapting the title, Go Lean, for the quest for excellence in Caribbean economic empowerment and governing efforts. The label “lean” is indicative of this quest; the word is used as a noun, a verb and an adjective. This point is pronounced early in the book (Page 4) with these statements:

The CU will lean on, lean in, lean over backwards, and then lean towards…
The CU will embrace lean, agile, efficient organizational structures – more virtual, less physical, more systems, less payroll.

The Daktronics experience lends confidence to the viability of the revolutionary changes being proposed by the Go Lean roadmap, that we can succeed in transforming our society through innovative technology. Previous blogs/commentaries also exclaimed societal benefits from pursuits in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Consider this sample of previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3974	Google and Mobile Phones – Here comes Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3915	Microsoft Holograms Transforming How We See the World
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3889	RBC EZPay and other Banking Automations – Ready for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3490	How One STEM Entrepreneurial Start-up Can Rally a Whole Community
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3276	STEM/Medical Role Model Shaking Up the World of Cancer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3187	Robots help Amazon tackle and dominate Cyber Monday
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2488	Role Model Jack Ma brings Alibaba to America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126	Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1743	Google and Novartis to develop ‘smart’ contact lens
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416	Amazon’s new FIRE Smartphone
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277	The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888	Book Review: ‘Citizenville – Take the Town Square Digital & Reinvent Govt’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=554	Cuban cancer medication registered in 28 countries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308	CARCIP Urges Greater Innovation

The Go Lean book posits that technology and ICT can level the playing field of competition and trade with the rest of the world. Surely this entire Daktronics commentary demonstrates the advantage of leading with technological innovations. We do not have to be in Silicon Valley to have an impact. Daktronics was foundered and remains based in a Midwest rural city (Brookings, SD) of only 22,000 people. Yes, an innovator can also be on a beach in the Caribbean homeland, with a great idea and support of his community.

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster great contributions from Caribbean technology innovators. The list is as follows:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Return on Investments	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Exploit Globalization – Producers & Consumers	Page 46
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Growing to $800 Billion GDP – East Asian Tigers Lesson	Page 69
Tactical – Separation of Powers	Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Planning – Big Ideas – Cyber Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – STEM Promotion	Page 159
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 Youth	Page 227
Appendix – CU Job Creations	Page 257
Appendix – Copyright Infringement – Protecting Intellectual Businesses	Page 351

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean to lean-in for the empowerments in the book Go Lean … Caribbean. This is a big deal for the region. The benefits are simply too alluring to not commit to this cause:

Optimization of the economic engines; growing the regional economy to $800 Billion & creating 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The region needs this delivery. Without the equalizing effects of technology/ICT, we will continue to be rendered inconsequential on the world scene. This was the motivation of Drs. Aelred Kurtenbach and Duane Sander, founders of Daktronics. We can channel their resolve and commitment to retain our young people to remain in their homeland. We can do for the Caribbean what they have done for rural South Dakota.

Now is the time to deliver the Caribbean as a better place to live, work and play… for today and for the future. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

———-

Appendix – Daktronics Sample Non-Sports Client Installations

———-
Appendix VIDEO Narrative:

Title: Keeping score on the world’s largest video displays
By: Lee Cowan, CBS News National Correspondent; Posted February 1, 2015 from:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/keeping-score-on-the-worlds-largest-video-displays/

Here on the plains of South Dakota, being a football fan can be a bit lonely. The closest NFL team is a four-hour drive from here.

And yet, the town of Brookings, South Dakota, has a big stake in tonight’s Super Bowl — because this is where the NFL goes up in lights.

The town is the home of a company called Daktronics, which, in the late 1990s, entered what’s become an arms race to build the biggest and most vivid video scoreboards in football … including one that will be used at tonight’s big game in Arizona.

If you’re surprised that something that big comes from such a small place, don’t worry — Daktronics CEO Reece Kurtenbach is pretty used to that. He says it’s one of the “mental hurdles” they’ve had to overcome: “We’re here in South Dakota, we have a high-tech company – ‘Where’s South Dakota?'” he laughed. “And you have to kind of position it on the map for some people, even in the U.S.!”

It all started back in 1968 on the campus of South Dakota State University with two friendly engineering professors.

Al Kurtenbach (Reece’s father) and fellow professor Duane Sander were looking for a way to help their students find local jobs.

“We were seeing our students leaving the state and thought we should try to do something to keep our students here,” said Sander.

They rented space in a tire repair shop just off Main Street in Brookings, and never really planned to leave.

“When you talk to startup companies, talk to venture capitalists, those kind of people, they always talk about the exit strategy — ‘What’s your exit strategy?'” said Al Kurtenbach. “And my exit strategy for the company was no exit!”

His first hire was a graduate student named Jim Morgan. He went on to become Daktronics’ CEO years later, but back in those days he didn’t even know what the company was supposed to make.

“Basically, we really didn’t have a product when we started,” said Morgan, “so every accomplishment you celebrated in those days!”

They finally put their engineering minds together to build a scoreboard for wrestling matches. It may look simple, but at the time it was revolutionary.

And they’ve never looked back since.

“If somebody was interested in having us build another scoreboard, we were willing to do that,” said Sander.

They were soon building scoreboards for high schools, colleges, you name it.

In 1980 Daktronics was even asked to ply their trade at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. It was a turning point for them, to have a worldwide audience for what they were building in Brookings. “Yeah, it was fairly good advertising!” laughed Sander.

Back then, they were timing world records. Today, they’re making them. Daktronics holds the distinction of building the largest video displays in sports, installed at the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Each is bigger than the field the Jags plays on — 362 feet long, six stories high.

And with a price-tag to match. The scoreboards come in at nearly $9 million a piece.

To really appreciate their size, you’ve got to see them in person. There’s almost 22,000 square feet of screen. With Cowan’s face displayed, that makes Lee’s face big enough to be on Mount Rushmore. His eyeballs are about 11 feet across.

The NFL is counting on bigger being better, a way to entice fans off their comfy couches to buy tickets to see the spectacle in person.

“You have many great reasons to stay home,” said Larry Rosen, executive producer of the Jaguars’ big screen entertainment. “You have your 62-inch HD in your man cave or whatever. Those are great reasons to stay home. I need to provide you with a different kind of experience that you can only get in a venue.”

The resolution is four times better than what one could get at home. The screens are a constellation of millions of LEDs — about the size of a small thumb tack — spaced about a half an inch apart. Standing near them, it’s hard to actually picture a picture; all your eyes focus on are clusters of red, blue and green lights.

But back away . . . and those clusters miraculously blend together into a portrait in vivid detail.

The panels undergo brutal testing to make sure they can withstand the elements — everything from the steamy heat of Sun Life Stadium in Miami, to the pounding rain and snow of Chicago’s Soldier Field. Some are even submerged in water.

But perhaps the biggest test for Daktronics has been the students at SDSU, where Al Kurtenbach — long since retired as a professor — still rarely misses a Jackrabbits game (under HIS scoreboard, of course).

In the early ’80s, only 22 percent of Engineering graduates here actually found work near Brookings, S.D. Today, that number is closer to 62 percent. Many of Daktronics’ would-be employees now attend class in the university’s Daktronics Engineering Hall.

“I felt we always had to show them exciting work, demonstrate that there was exciting work right here in Brookings,” said Kurtenbach.

Daktronics, of course, isn’t the only manufacturer of stadium big screens. Mitsubishi turned heads years ago with a massive display at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.

But it’s Daktronics that has just been awarded the contract to build the biggest scoreboard to date. Called a “Halo Board,” it will ring the top of the new Atlanta Stadium. The only way for this screen to get any bigger is for the stadium itself to grow.

“How big can these displays get?” asked Cowan. “I mean, are we approaching sort of the biggest they’re gonna be?”

“I think it depends on how large the checkbook is,” said Kurtenbach. “That would certainly be a factor. If the checkbook is larger, we’ll sure try to build it!”

And we, undoubtedly, will watch.

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ICT, Jobs, Model, New Media, Play

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Watch the Super Bowl … Commercials

Posted on January 29, 2015 in Industries, Social

Go Lean Commentary

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 free e-book of Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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

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Google and Mobile Phones – Here comes Change

Posted on January 27, 2015 in Ethos, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

The American company Google Inc. is shaking up the telecommunication industry … again. Whereas their structure originated as a software/Search Engine/ICT* company, they have since branched out into wireless/networking and mobile hardware.

This is not surprising! Google has been a maverick from the beginning.

Their mission statement from the outset, according to Wikipedia, was …

“to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,”^[11] and its unofficial slogan was: “Don’t be evil.”^[12][13] Rapid growth since incorporation in 1998 (as of January 2014, the market capitalization had grown to $397 billion^[60]) has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions and partnerships beyond Google’s core search engine. It offers online productivity software including email (Gmail), a cloud storage service (Google Drive), YouTube video-sharing, an office suite (Google Docs) and a social networking service (Google+). Desktop products include applications for web browsing, organizing and editing photos, and instant messaging. The company leads the development of the Android mobile operating system and the browser-only Chrome OS^[15] for a netbook known as a Chromebook. Google has moved increasingly into communications hardware: it partners with major electronics manufacturers ^[16] in the production of its “high-quality low-cost”^[17] Nexus devices and acquired Motorola Mobility in May 2012.^[18] Also in 2012, a fiber-optic infrastructure was installed in Kansas City to facilitate a Google Fiber broadband service.^[19]

Despite American incorporation, headquarters and funding, Google has a R&D/QA^# presence in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico). This is a good start for what the book Go Lean…Caribbean envisions for the Caribbean region. The book describes initiatives from top-to-bottom in the Information Technology/ICT industry space, asserting that the region cannot only consume, but must create, develop and produce as well. So Google is a good role model for the future – yet undefined – industrial expressions in this industry. The book Go Lean…Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This CU roadmap is designed to elevate the economic, security and governing engines of Caribbean society; this vision is defined early in the book (Page 14) with the opening Declaration of Interdependence:

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 Google QA activity is highlighted in the following news article:

Title #1: Google Is Testing Its New Modular Smartphone on this Caribbean Island
By: Caribbean Journal staff – Caribbean Journal – Regional News Site (Posted 01/14/2015; Retrieved 01/27/2015) – http://www.caribjournal.com/2015/01/14/google-is-testing-its-new-modular-smartphone-on-this-caribbean-island/#

Google’s revolutionary new smartphone project is getting its first test in the Caribbean.

The global tech giant will be launching the pilot test of its Project Ara smartphone in the Puerto Rico market, the company announced Wednesday.

Project Ara is a modular smartphone, which allows users to swap out individual components of the phone, from the camera to the speaker to the lights.

The aim is a totally customizable phone — almost turning the phone into a collection of “physical” apps.

“A phone is part of it. Part of it is a phone,” is how Project Ara describes it.

Project Ara is part of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group. The phone will run the Android operating system.

Pricing is not yet known.

See more in the video below:

VIDEO: Project Ara: Part of it – http://youtu.be/intua_p4kE0 – Published on Jan 14, 2015

There is an obvious advantage to testing a revolutionary product in a place like Puerto Rico: it is homogenous. Everyone on the island meets a certain consistent profile, an adequate educational accomplishment, American cultural assimilation, bilingual efficiency. If the Google test is successful here, then the product will be proven for the entire Western Hemispheric market. This Google Ara phone should emerge from these tests as a “lean”-mean consumer machine, ready to shock the world of mobile communications – here comes change!

The concept of “lean” is very prominent in the Go Lean book (and movement), even adapting the title, Go Lean, for the quest for excellence in Caribbean economic empowerment and governing efforts. The label “lean” is indicative of this quest; the word is used as a noun, a verb and an adjective. This point is pronounced early in the book (Page 4) with these statements:

The CU will lean on, lean in, lean over backwards, and then lean towards…

The CU will embrace lean, agile, efficient organization structures – more virtual, less physical, more systems, less payroll.

This following news article demonstrates Google’s next strategic step, establishing more of a footprint in the North American mobile communications market. See story here:

Title # 2: Google Inc Could Wreak Havoc on Its New Wireless Partners
By: Adam Levy, January 27, 2015

If you’re looking to switch wireless carriers, you may soon have another option.

Google is reportedly working on a mobile virtual private network, or MVNO, that uses access to the Sprint (NYSE: S ) and T-Mobile (NYSE: TMUS ) wireless networks. While the agreement with Google will generate additional revenue for the wireless carriers, it represents a serious threat to their core businesses.

With a price war already in full swing among the major industry players and the cost of airwave spectrum rising well above expectations, Google could cause more headaches for Sprint and T-Mobile than it’s worth.

Selling excess capacity
MVNO agreements are typically very valuable for carriers, as they can sell excess capacity and achieve high margins without the need to do any sales or marketing work — this Google deal is no exception. Macquarie Securities analyst Kevin Smithen believes the search giant could pay out $1 billion in service fees to the carriers in 2018.

Both companies have plenty of spare capacity, too. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray told investors earlier this month that it has more spectrum per subscriber than both of its largest rivals. Sprint, however, has even more excess capacity, which leads Smithen to predict it will take about three-fourths of Google’s MVNO business.

Those revenues will allow Sprint and T-Mobile to reinvest in their networks, which will help attract new customers and prevent current customers from leaving. On the flip side, any improvements to their networks will also improve the Google service making it even more attractive.

And there lies the big risk
While Google’s plans are still extremely vague, it seems like the biggest goal is to make wireless data networks fast and cheap. To that end, it makes sense for Google to offer a high-value option through its MVNO, similar to what it has accomplished with the rollout of Google Fiber.

Google can afford to offer things like unlimited high-speed data at near cost — the company is expected to pay $2 per GB — because it makes money almost any time a smartphone user accesses the Web. Google took an estimated 37% of total mobile ad spending last year, so it stands to gain from making data access as inexpensive as possible.

While Sprint and T-Mobile have done a good job undercutting the competition on price, Google could do so even further.

The risk seems greater for Sprint, which appears to have little to compete on besides price. T-Mobile is more focused on providing a valuable customer experience for its subscribers with the Un-Carrier initiatives to differentiate itself. Of course, there is little holding Google back from offering similar perks as the Un-Carrier (potentially with a focus on Google services like YouTube and Google Play).

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint has put limits in place to prevent the Google MVNO from growing too large. That should be a smart move considering the carrier is likely to lose at least some customers to the new service. There is no indication, however, that such a stipulation exists in the T-Mobile agreement.

Still, if Google hits that volume trigger, there is little stopping the company from licensing capacity from another network. And there is no guarantee that if Google’s network coverage suffers, customers will leave for Sprint — the company is best off renegotiating at the best rate it can get at that point.

A prisoner’s dilemma
With significant risk involved in allowing Google into the wireless market, the only explanation for why Sprint or T-Mobile would agree to license their capacities is that Google played one off the other. Thinking it would be better to at least get something out of the deal than to just lose customers to another Google upstart, both companies agreed to a deal. The fact that Google will rely on their networks should neutralize most of the potential impact from the new service.

Source: Motley Fool Investor Advisory Site (Retrieved 01/27/2015) –
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/27/google-inc-could-wreak-havoc-on-its-new-wireless-p.aspx

From being non-existent 20 years ago to now executing a strategy to dominate the mobile communication eco-system, shows how quickly a well-executed roadmap can impact the world.

This lends confidence to the viability of the revolutionary changes being proposed by the Go Lean roadmap. We can succeed in transforming our society in short order; the roadmap is a 5 year plan. Previous blogs/commentaries also exclaimed societal benefits from pursuits in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Consider this sample of previous blogs:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3915	‘Change the way you see the world; you change the world you see’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3889	RBC EZPay and other Banking Automations – Ready for Change
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3490	How One STEM Entrepreneurial Start-up Can Rally a Whole Community
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3276	STEM/Medical Role Model Shaking Up the World of Cancer
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3187	Robots help Amazon tackle and dominate Cyber Monday
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2488	Role Model Jack Ma brings Alibaba to America
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126	Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1743	Google and Novartis to develop ‘smart’ contact lens
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416	Amazon’s new FIRE Smartphone
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277	The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=888	Book Review: ‘Citizenville – Take the Town Square Digital & Reinvent Govt’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=554	Cuban cancer medication registered in 28 countries
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308	CARCIP Urges Greater Innovation

The Go Lean book posits that technology and ICT can level the playing field of competition and trade with the rest of the world. Surely this entire Google commentary demonstrates the advantage of leading with technological innovations. We do not have to be in Silicon Valley to have an impact. No, an innovator can be on a beach in the Caribbean homeland, with a great idea and support of his community. “Lightning in a bottle” is a valid analogy.

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Systems Influence Individual Choices	Page 21
Community Ethos – Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Governing Principle – Return on Investments	Page 24
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 Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Mission – Exploit Globalization – Producers & Consumers	Page 46
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 57
Strategy – Agents of Change – Globalization	Page 57
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers	Page 71
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Planning – Big Ideas – Cyber Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – STEM Promotion	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Main Street – Mobile Apps: Time and Place	Page 201
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Youth	Page 227
Appendix – CU Job Creations	Page 257
Appendix – Copyright Infringement – Protecting Intellectual Businesses	Page 351

Optimization of the economic engines; growing the regional economy to $800 Billion & creating 2.2 million new jobs.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improvement of Caribbean governance to support these engines.

The region needs this delivery. Without the equalizing effects of technology/ICT, we will be rendered inconsequential on the world scene. No wait: we are already! For this reason, we cannot and have not been able to retain our young people to commit to their Caribbean homeland, but rather we are only “fattening frogs for snake”.

This roadmap declares: Enough already – time for a change!

Now is the time to deliver the Caribbean as a better place to live, work and play… for today and for the future. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

————

Source References:

* ICT = Internet Communications Technologies

^# QA = Quality Assurance – the cycles and processing to testing the quality on hardware, software and services.

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ICT, Model, New Media

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‘Change the way you see the world; you change the world you see’

Posted on January 24, 2015 in Ethos, Industries, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

Drawing reference to this quotation:

“No flying cars, no dinners in a pill, and certainly no cool rocketing off to space cities in the required outfit of the future. We seem to have failed the expectations of the most wild-eyed seers from the past – futurologists who were for the most part in love with a supercharged, technologically sexy future where science would free us from the daily grind, for holidays on the moon or underseas. But here we remain, plodding along … in a familiar world that is neither utopia nor dystopia.” – Go Lean…Caribbean (Page 26)

As evident in the above quotation, the Go Lean book focuses heavily on the future. But now that it is 2015, many people are disappointed that the future they had envisioned has not materialized. “The future ain’t what it used to be” – the book quotes this phrase as originating from Yogi Berra, the iconic Baseball Hall-of-Famer known for his eclectic phraseology.

There are many organizations that are focusing on future innovations, one of them is computer software giant Microsoft. As follows is a VIDEO featuring the company’s new hologram offering. This will change the way we see the world and with it we can change the world we see.

This quest aligns with the Go Lean book, in its mission to change the Caribbean, to elevate its society by optimizing the economic, security and governing engines. See this related VIDEO:

VIDEO – Microsoft HoloLens Review, mind blowing Augmented Reality! – https://youtu.be/ihKUoZxNClA

Published on Jul 21, 2016 – Microsoft HoloLens review, AR- mind blowing! By James Mackey!

My expectations were already high, but when I tried the HoloLens, my mind was blown at how outrageously good it is.

I show you Microsoft Office 365 running through my HoloLens, accessing Excel and Word as Holograms. I then access Microsoft Edge for web browsing plus YouTube, just incredible; AR for business.

I run some extremely cool HoloLens apps such as LSrD (wow, imagine the DMT trips you could simulate on this!) and then Galaxy Explorer to see our Solar System including the Sun and Saturn at very close up range.

I then run a Beta 3D simulation of a shark, once again, absolutely incredible. I zoom into the shark hologram whilst it’s swimming around my living room.

It’s without doubt the hand gestures need some work as it’s hard to manipulate objects when at a distance. The only other problem is the field of view is small, but once this has been resolved through future iterations of the HoloLens, AR is set to change the world.

Then, to go a step further with my futurist hat on, consider the Softcell Lens (AR in a contact Lens) and the EyeTap and the future really looks exciting, I see AR impacting every part of our lives. If we want it to of course.

I also link to my blog in the video where I discuss AR street dating, volumetrically captured video conferencing, AR shopping, facial and emotion recognition, and much more; http://www.mackie.xyz/james-mackie-pu…

I discuss emails, text messages and phone calls delivered through AR, the replacement / death of mobile phones and the personal computer. Death of the mouse & keyboard, eye-tracking, field of view, Adaptive Focus (Magic Leap) and even, imaginary friends!

AR | HoloLens | Microsoft HoloLens | Augmented Reality | futurist

Category: Science & Technology

License: Standard YouTube License

The book Go Lean…Caribbean champions the cause of building and optimizing the Caribbean eco-system. There are a lot of expectations for technology in the region, to aid and assist with all aspects of the Go Lean prime directives, defined as follows:

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.

The book 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 in the homeland of the region’s 30 member-states. The CU strives to elevate all of Caribbean society and culture. The Go Lean…Caribbean clearly recognizes that holograms will contribute to cultural development of any society. The Caribbean does not only want to be on the consuming end of these developments; we want to create, develop and contribute to the innovations. This starts by fostering genius in Caribbean stakeholders who demonstrate competence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This may apply more to the youth markets.

At the outset, the Go Lean roadmap recognizes the value of harnessing STEM career options. This intent was pronounced early in the book with these statements in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12 & 14):

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.

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, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, prefabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. 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.

xxx. Whereas the effects of globalization can be felt in every aspect of Caribbean life, from the acquisition of food and clothing, to the ubiquity of ICT, the region cannot only consume, it is imperative that our lands also produce and add to the international community, even if doing so requires some sacrifice and subsidy.

The hologram system in the foregoing VIDEO is a combination of hardware and software, an appliance from Microsoft. But according to their press release, Independent Software Vendors will be partnering with Microsoft to develop and deploy software solutions. The Go Lean roadmap posits that the Caribbean must contribute software solutions for applications in this industry space. We cannot only consume; so a recommended community ethos for the region to adapt, “Return on Investments” (Page 24), calls for embedding incentives and inducements to encourage students and apprenticeships in this field. Imagine forgive-able student loans, on-the-job training employment contracts, paid internships, signing bonuses, etc. This ethos also translates into governing principles for federally sponsored business incubators, R&D initiatives, grants, entrepreneurship programs and the regional implementation of Self-Governing Entities (SGE).

The book estimates 64,000 new direct and indirect technology/software jobs in the Caribbean marketplace.

The Go Lean roadmap was constructed with the community ethos in mind to forge change and build up communities, 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 – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Choose	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – People Respond to Incentives in Predictable Ways	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – The Consequences of Choices Lie in the Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Economic Principles – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – Governing Principles – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Turn-Around	Page 33
Community Ethos – Ways to Promote Happiness	Page 36
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Vision – Confederate 30 Member-States	Page 45
Strategy – Vision – Invite Diaspora Back to the Caribbean Homeland	Page 46
Strategy – Mission – Exploit the benefits and opportunities of globalization	Page 46
Tactical – Confederating a Permanent Union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Steps to Implement Self-Governing Entities	Page 105
Implementation – Trends in Implementing Data Centers – Creating the ‘Cloud’	Page 106
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media – Caribbean Cloud	Page 111
Implementation – Reasons to Repatriate to the Caribbean	Page 118
Planning – 10 Big Ideas for the Caribbean Region – Cyber-Caribbean	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 136
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Create Jobs	Page 152
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Education – STEM Promotion	Page 159
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance – e-Government & e-Delivery	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Communications	Page 186
Advocacy – Ways to Enhance Tourism – Internet Marketing	Page 190
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 Youth	Page 227
Advocacy – Ways to Improve the Arts	Page 230
Appendix – CU Job Creations	Page 257
Appendix – Copyright Infringement – Protecting Intellectual Businesses	Page 351

This Go Lean roadmap calls for the heavy-lifting to build-up Caribbean communities, to shepherd important aspects of Caribbean life, so as to better prepare for the future, dissuade emigration and encourage repatriation.

These goals were previously featured in Go Lean blogs/commentaries, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3641	‘We Built This City … on Music, Entertainment and Leisure Businesses’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3490	How One Internet Entrepreneur Can Rally a Whole Community
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3384	Plea to Detroit: Less Tech, Please
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3187	Robots help Amazon tackle Cyber Monday
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2953	Funding Caribbean Entrepreneurs – The ‘Crowdfunding’ Way
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2126	Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1698	STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487	Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1416	Amazon’s new FIRE Smartphone
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1277	The need for highway safety innovations – here comes Google
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=673	Ghost Ships Emergence – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=308	CARCIP Urges Greater Innovation

The Go Lean book focuses primarily on economic issues, and it recognizes that computer hardware, software and appliances, like the hologram system in the foregoing VIDEO, is the future direction for industrial developments. This is where the jobs are to be found. The Go Lean roadmap describes the heavy-lifting for people, organizations and governments to forge these innovations here at home in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is no Silicon Valley nor Silicon Beach, but a nascent industry can still be fostered and nurtured into fruition.

A Big Dream? No, this is a conceivable, believable and achievable business plan. The Go Lean book offers the turn-by-turn directions for strategies, tactics and implementations. With the right commitment of time, talent and treasuries, we can make the region a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

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

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e-Commerce, ICT, Model, New Media, Play, STEM

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RBC EZPay – Ready for Change

Posted on January 23, 2015 in Economics, Industries, Locations

Go Lean Commentary

It’s time to introduce the Caribbean Dollar (C$) as a regional currency. Though there will be coins and notes, the primary focus will be on electronic transactions. This is the future!

Electronic Payments schemes (card-based & internet) are very important in the strategy to elevate the Caribbean economy, bring change and empower people, process and profits.

According to the subsequent news article, the regional banks – in this case the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) – are ready for this change.

Roseau, Dominica – RBC Royal Bank today unveiled its new RBC EZ Pay Wireless Terminals, a wireless device that can be used to complete credit card transactions anywhere where a cellular phone can be used.

“This product is ideal for car rental companies, as well as for use at restaurants, tour and taxi operators, local outdoor markets, trade shows and even community and festive events,” said Mr. Yuri Lazare, Country Head, Dominica. “We are proud to be the pioneers of this technology in Dominica, providing a payment solution that is limitless in terms of where it can be used; effortless in that it is so easy to set up and use; and completely wireless, allowing merchants to accept payments wherever their customers are.”

RBC is the first financial services company in Dominica to offer this innovative product, which has many features. RBC EZ Pay is a high-speed, cordless point-of-sale terminal with an integrated antenna and printer. It has the ability to process Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club and Discover credit cards. It also has a backlit display, a secure network and a rechargeable/removable battery.

“Retailers who have previewed the RBC EZ Pay Wireless Terminal like it because it provides flexibility to set up temporary payment locations, such as at sidewalk sales and special events. The device also gives restaurant owners the flexibility to take payment from their customers wherever they are seated, even on outdoor patios or bars,” said Dave Legge, Manager for Commercial Financial Services, Eastern Caribbean. “With this system, car rental companies and other on-the-go vendors can now accept credit payments, which can help expand their business.”

This new product launch continues the long tradition of leadership that RBC has displayed in Dominica. “In March this year, RBC celebrated 95 continuous years of doing business in Dominica and we look forward to continuing this partnership for many years to come” said Mr. Yuri Lazare, Country Head Dominica. “We appreciate the many opportunities we have had to play a role in the national development of the country. Today’s launch is historic and evidence of our dedication to delivering innovative product solutions that create an environment in which Dominicans can maximize their entrepreneurial potential.”

Business persons interested in learning more about this new product and obtaining pricing can visit our Roseau branch or call Ermine Darroux at 255 – 1803.
Dominica News Online – Website for Daily Newspaper- (Posted 06/11/2010; Retrieved 01/23/2015) –
http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/business/rbc-unveils-rbc-ez-pay-wireless-terminals/

This point is detailed in the book Go Lean…Caribbean, a roadmap for the introduction of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU) and the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB). This Go Lean roadmap has 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/CU/CCB roadmap looks to employ electronic payments schemes to impact the growth of the regional economy. There are two CU schemes that relate to this foregoing news story, as they require the demonstrated POS terminals:

Cruise Passenger Smartcards – The Go Lean roadmap posits that the cruise industry needs the Caribbean more than the Caribbean needs the industry. But the cruise lines have embedded rules/regulations designed to maximize their revenues at the expense of the port-side establishments. The CU solution is to deploy a scheme for smartcards that function on the ships and at the port cities.
e-Commerce Facilitation – The Go Lean roadmap defines that the Caribbean Dollar (C$) will be mostly cashless, an accounting currency. So the Caribbean Central Bank (CCB) will settle all C$ electronic transactions (MasterCard-Visa style or ACH style) and charge interchange/clearance fees. This scheme allows for the emergence of full-throttle e-Commerce activities.

The focus of these schemes is not technology, its economics. These electronic payments provide the impetus for M1, the economic measurement of currency/money in circulation (M0) plus overnight bank deposits. As M1 values increase, there is a dynamic to create money “from thin-air”, called the money multiplier. The more money in the system, the more liquidity for investment and industrial expansion opportunities.

An additional economic benefit is the mitigation of Black Market “under-the-table” transactions that proliferate in a cash-only environment. These neutralize government revenue schemes: sales tax, VAT, etc.

Though the foregoing article refers to the Royal Bank of Canada, the currency in focus here is not the Canadian dollar, but rather the new Caribbean dollar. This Canadian bank, along with others – Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) / FirstCaribbean – support local currencies, like the Bahamian dollars, Jamaican dollars, T&T dollars, etc. In fact, in whichever country RBC operates, they transact in local currency. The Go Lean roadmap calls for that same participation with the new C$ regional currency.

If the Caribbean member-states already have currencies, why is there the need to transform to a new currency regime?

The Go Lean book posits that the Caribbean is in crisis, and that this “crisis is a terrible thing to waste”. The region has been devastated by currency mis-management over the decades; (for example, the Jamaica dollar was trading 87-to-1 at the end of 2009 and conditions have only worsened since then). In most cases, local Caribbean currencies have been pegged to the US Dollar, but even American stewardship have hurt Caribbean fortunes, the dollar has lost value compared to other bread-basket currencies (Euros, British Pound Sterling, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan, etc.), meaning that the global buying power has dwindled more and more for the average Caribbean resident due to no fault of his own. These internal and external currency factors have contributed to the Caribbean economic crisis, and the urgent need for reform, re-boot and remediation.

The book posits that to adapt and thrive in the new global marketplace there must be more strenuous management, technocratic optimizations, of the region’s currencies. This is the charge of Go Lean roadmap, opening with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 13) and these pronouncements:

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.

xxv. Whereas the legacy of international democracies had been imperiled due to a global financial crisis, the structure of the Federation must allow for financial stability and assurance of the Federation’s institutions. To mandate the economic vibrancy of the region, monetary and fiscal controls and policies must be incorporated as proactive and reactive measures. These measures must address threats against the financial integrity of the Federation and of the member-states.

Creating the CU/CCB governance is “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap. The strategy is to implement the bank and C$ currency with the appropriate regulatory framework, tools and infrastructure, to facilitate the electronic schemes identified above.

The foregoing article, demonstrates that this regional bank (RBC) is ready for this change, but evidence abounds that the other banks are equally competitive. See VIDEO sample below for the bank-neutral “The Square Credit Card Reader”.

The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to foster the proper controls for electronic payments/virtual money in the Caribbean region:

Community Ethos – Economic Principles	Page 21
Community Ethos – Money Multiplier Principle	Page 22
Community Ethos – “Light Up the Dark Places”	Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Promote Intellectual Property	Page 29
Community Ethos – Ways to Bridge the Digital Divide	Page 31
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Central Banking	Page 73
Implementation – Assemble Central Bank Cooperative	Page 96
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media	Page 111
Planning – Ways to Better Manage Image	Page 129
Anecdote – Caribbean Currencies	Page 149
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Black Markets	Page 165
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Cooperatives	Page 176
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Cruise Tourism – Smartcard scheme	Page 193
Advocacy – Ways to Foster Technology	Page 197
Advocacy – Ways to Foster e-Commerce	Page 198
Advocacy – Reforms for Banking Regulations	Page 199
Appendix – Alternative Remittance Modes	Page 270

The points of effective, technocratic banking/currency stewardship, were further elaborated upon in these previous blog/commentaries:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3814	Lessons from the Swiss unpegging the franc
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3582	For Canadian Banks: Caribbean is a ‘Bad Bet’
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3090	Lessons Learned – Europe Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2009
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2930	‘Too Big To Fail’ – Caribbean Version
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2074	MetroCard – Model for the Caribbean Dollar
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1350	PayPal expands payment services to 10 markets
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=906	Bitcoin virtual currency needs regulatory framework to change image
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=833	One currency, divergent economies

There are so many benefits to deploying the e-Payment functionality of the C$:

More Cruise Tourism Spending
Fostering e-Commerce
Increase of M1
Mitigation of Black Markets

Now is the time for all of the Caribbean, the people, the banking establishments and governing institutions, to lean-in for these empowerments described in the Go Lean/CU/CCB roadmap. The benefits are too alluring, and far overdue, a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

——-

VIDEO – How To Use The Square Credit Card Reader With Your Phone. Get It For Free. http://youtu.be/-RtmHsLxcrA

Published on Jun 28, 2014 – Using The Reader. Take Credit Card Payments With Your Phone. Signing up, getting and how to use the Square credit card reader by Square Up with a Samsung Galaxy Note III. Tutorial. Great for small businesses.

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Intelligence Agencies to Up Cyber Security Cooperation

Posted on January 22, 2015 in Government, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

Cyber Security has been all the rage in the news as of late, affecting governments (both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), corporations and regular citizens. Consider these recent headlines*:

N.S.A. tapped into North Korean networks before Sony attack

China suspected of cyber-attack on Microsoft

19,000 French websites suffered cyber attacks

North Korea’s official news website serves malware

Sony hack – by North Korea – corporate cyberwar game changer

It is therefore not surprising that governments are ramping up their cyber-security defenses. The following news story relates a bilateral effort by the US and the UK. This is of importance to Caribbean stakeholders as there are 2 US Territories in the region (Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands) and 18 British affiliates (Overseas Territories and Commonwealth nations). The article is as follows:

Title: UK and U.S. intelligence agencies to up cyber security cooperation
Reporting by: Kylie MacLellan; Editing by: Dominic Evans

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain and the United States will increase cooperation on cyber security, Prime Minister David Cameron said, setting up “cyber cells” to share intelligence and conduct simulated attacks to test the defences of organisations such as banks.

Cameron is on a two-day visit to Washington focused on the economy and security, and is due to have a second meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday at the White House.

“We have got hugely capable cyber defences, we have got the expertise and that is why we should combine as we are going to, set up cyber cells on both sides of the Atlantic to share information,” Cameron told the BBC in an interview aired on Friday.

The cooperation between Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency and the U.S. National Security Agency will include joint war games, with the first exercise later this year to involve the Bank of England and commercial banks in both the City of London and Wall Street, the BBC reported.

“This is a real signal it is time to step up the efforts and to do more,” said Cameron.

The British leader said he also planned to discuss with Obama how the two countries could work more closely with big Internet companies such as Facebook and Google to monitor communications between terror suspects.

The overriding theme of the foregoing news article is the cyber-security is not automatic; it takes heavy-lifting on behalf of stakeholders to ensure the appropriate protections.
Reuters News Wire Service (Posted January 16, 2015; retrieved January 23, 2015) –
http://news.yahoo.com/uk-u-intelligence-agencies-cyber-security-cooperation-090538081–finance.html

What are the Caribbean protections? Are we prepared?

These questions are being considered in connection of the new book Go Lean…Caribbean. The book calls for the elevation of Caribbean society by means of economic optimizations, security provisions and enhanced governance. The issues in the foregoing article are all security related; but this cyber-security is a new battleground, so everything is different: the weapons, tools, and even the enemies are different. This is a changed, scary world!

But this new world must be embraced and mastered. The Go Lean book hails the advantages that technology can bring to small countries. The book relates (Page 127) how Internet & Communications Technologies (ICT) can be a great equalizer in competition with the rest of the world. This embrace of ICT must include e-Government and e-Delivery (outsourcing and in-sourcing for member-states systems), Mobile, Social Media, Postal/Electronic Mail, e-Learning and wireline/wireless/satellite initiatives. Technology brings good, bad and ugly repercussions.

The book Go Lean…Caribbean posits that the region must prepare its own security apparatus for its own security needs, including cyber-security. So the request is that all 30 Caribbean member-states confederate and create the technocratic Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU), complete with the authority to establish and execute a security apparatus. In fact, this Go Lean book serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the CU and 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, authorized by a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance, including a separation-of-powers between CU federal agencies and member-states’ governments, to support these engines.

The book contends, and the recent news reports confirm, that bad actors will also emerge to exploit any economic successes in the world. This point is pronounced early in the book with the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 12) that claims:

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 piracy and other forms of terrorism, 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.

So while the CU is set to optimize Caribbean society through economic empowerment, with a heavy emphasis of technology, the Go Lean roadmap posits that the security dynamics (and cyber-security) of the region must be linked to this same endeavor.

The strategy is to confederate under a unified entity made up of the Caribbean to provide homeland security and intelligence gathering-and-analysis for the Caribbean. But this Homeland Security for the Caribbean will have a different meaning than for our American and British counterparts. Though we must be on defense against military intrusions like terrorism and piracy, we mostly have to contend with threats that may imperil the region’s economic engines, like tourism. This includes online fraud scheme and breaches that may undermine the integrity of our institutions and establishments. Imagine a “hack” that harvests credit card account numbers used at area hotels; if those fall into the wrong hands, the experience could tarnish the goodwill of the Caribbean brand.

There is also the need for vigilance against natural and man-made concerns like hurricanes, earthquakes, oil/chemical spills, enterprise corruption and narco-terrorism. These episodes create the need for intelligence gathering-and-analysis to manage the right resource for the right time and right place. All in all, the goal of CU intelligence must be public safety and economic security!

The Go Lean roadmap thusly calls for permanent professional Naval and Marine expeditionary forces, plus a robust Intelligence Agency (including Cyber-security). The CU Trade Federation will lead, fund and facilitate these entities. This effort will be “Step One, Day One” in the Go Lean roadmap, with the full facilitation and accountability.

This effort is defined in the book and blog commentaries as Unified Command-and-Control (UCC). The Go Lean book details a series of community ethos, strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies necessary to establish and succeed with UCC structures in the Caribbean region:

Economic Principle – Consequences of Choices Lie in Future	Page 21
Community Ethos – Privacy –vs- Public Protection	Page 23
Community Ethos – Intelligence Gathering	Page 23
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Cooperatives	Page 25
Community Ethos – Ways to Foster Genius	Page 27
Community Ethos – Ways to Improve Sharing	Page 35
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Tactical – Confederating a non-sovereign union	Page 63
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Homeland Security	Page 75
Tactical – Separation of Powers – Emergency Management	Page 76
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Start-up Foreign Policy Initiatives	Page 102
Implementation – Start-up Security Initiatives	Page 103
Implementation – 10 Trends in Implementing Data Centers	Page 106
Implementation – Ways to Impact Social Media – www.myCaribbean.gov	Page 111
Implementation – Ways to Foster International Aid – Military Aid	Page 115
Implementation – Ways to Benefit from Globalization	Page 119
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #3: Homeland Security Pact	Page 127
Planning – 10 Big Ideas – #8: Cyber Caribbean Efforts	Page 127
Planning – Ways to Model the EU – Sharing	Page 130
Planning – Ways to Make the Caribbean Better	Page 131
Planning – Ways to Improve Failed-State Indices – Intelligence	Page 134
Planning – Lessons from East Germany – Regional Security	Page 139
Planning – Lessons from the American West – Law & Order	Page 142
Advocacy – Ways to Grow the Economy	Page 151
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Governance	Page 168
Advocacy – Ways to Better Manage the Social Contract	Page 170
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Leadership	Page 171
Advocacy – Ways to Impact Justice	Page 177
Advocacy – Ways to Reduce Crime	Page 178
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Gun Control	Page 179
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Homeland Security	Page 180
Advocacy – Ways to Mitigate Terrorism	Page 181
Advocacy – Ways to Improve Intelligence Gathering/Analysis	Page 182
Advocacy – Ways to Improve for Natural Disasters	Page 184
Advocacy – Ways to Protect Human Rights	Page 220
Appendix – Failed-State Definition: Security Apparatus Oversight	Page 273

Other subjects related to security empowerments and UCC for the region have been blogged in other Go Lean…Caribbean commentaries, as sampled here:

https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3713	NEXUS: Facilitating Detroit-Windsor Border Security & Commerce
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=3662	Migrant flow from Caribbean spikes and threaten US Border Security
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=2684	Role Model for Justice-Intelligence-Security: The Pinkertons
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1965	America’s Navy – 100 Percent – Model for Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1554	Status of Forces Agreement = Security Pact
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1531	A Lesson in History: 100 Years Ago – World War I
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1487	Here come the Drones … and the Concerns
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=1076	Trinidad Muslims travel to Venezuela for jihadist training
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=960	NSA records all phone calls in Bahamas, according to Snowden
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=809	Muslim officials condemn abductions of Nigerian girls
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=789	America’s War on the Caribbean
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=535	Remembering and learning from Boston
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=392	Jamaica to receive World Bank funds to help in crime fight
https://goleancaribbean.com/blog/?p=273	10 Things We Want from the US: #4 – Pax Americana

Cyber-security is now en vogue; everyone understands the complexity and necessity to secure personal data, data centers and online privacy. “Art is now imitating life” in this regards, as a new television show is about to be launched in the US on the CBS network; see VIDEO below.

This fact mandates that the Social Contract between Caribbean citizens and their governments now automatically assumes that data protections are in place. Yet, the foregoing article helps to appreciate the cutting-edge advances being promulgated on both sides, benevolent and malevolent. The Go Lean roadmap posits that the challenges for the Caribbean to compete, even in the fields of cyber-security, may be too big for any one Caribbean member-state to tackle alone, rather, shifting the responsibility to a region-wide, professionally-managed, deputized technocracy will result in greater production and greater accountability. This deputized agency is the Caribbean Union Trade Federation.

Underlying to the prime directives of elevating the economics, security and governing engines of the Caribbean, is the desire to make the Caribbean homeland, a better place to live, work and play. We do not want a few “bad actors”, high-tech or low-tech, disrupting the peace and integrity of Caribbean institutions. Therefore all Caribbean stakeholders – residents, Diaspora, visitors, businesses and governments – are hereby urged to lean-in to the Go Lean roadmap, this plan for confederacy, collaboration and convention. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix *Source Reference: http://www.telos.com/news-and-events/cybersecurity-news/

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APPENDIX VIDEO: Trailer of new CBS TV Show: CSI Cyber – https://youtu.be/cWMcSiRcbC8

Published on Jan 9, 2015 – CSI Cyber premieres March 4th, 2015 at 10pm on CBS.
Property of CBS ©. No copyright infringement intended or implied.

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ICT, New Media, Security

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Plea to Detroit: Less Tech, Please

Posted on December 13, 2014 in Ethos, Industries, Planning

Go Lean Commentary

It’s competition time for the cockpits of today’s automobiles.

The appeal here is being made to Detroit. In this case the city is referenced as a metonym for the Automaker Planners and Decision-makers. Metonyms are frequent references in the book Go Lean…Caribbean, with the following considerations:

Silicon Valley – Page 30 – American High Tech Center
Wall Street – Page 155 – Big Banks/Financial Centers
Hollywood – Page 203 – US Movie/TV/Media Producers

This book Go Lean… Caribbean, serves as a roadmap for the introduction and implementation of the Caribbean Union Trade Federation (CU). This effort will marshal the region to avail the opportunities associated with technology and automobiles – there is a plan to foster a local automotive industry. In fact The CU/Go Lean roadmap has these 3 prime directives:

Optimization of the economic engines in order to grow the regional economy.
Establishment of a security apparatus to protect the resultant economic engines.
Improve Caribbean governance to support these engines.

Automakers are competing in a “space race” for more and more technology in the cockpits (Car decks and Heads-Up Display) of cars. This is not always good; as related by the following news/opinion writer:

By: John C. Abell, Senior Editor
Title: My Plea to Detroit: Less Tech, Please

I once ranted that the only thing I wanted in a “smart” TV was Bluetooth. I was only half kidding. But car-markers are going down the same road as some TV set manufacturers by bloating their products with too much of the wrong tech, adding expense and complexity that we do not need. “We took a look from the ground up of what a self-driving car would look like,” Brin said.

“Smart” has become an overused modifier for devices that are better off dumb. Do you really need a connected refrigerator that tells you to buy milk and streams music?

You aren’t going to be forced to buy a smart fridge. There are too many other choices. But if automakers aren’t stopped they will install useless, redundant technology as standard equipment for you will have to buy, maintain and even keep paying subscription fees to justify the existence of something you didn’t need in the first place.

Consider today’s news of Ford’s latest attempt to market an in-dash tech system. Let’s leave aside the safety discussion about whether the driver should be messing around with pinch-to-zoom multitouch screens and looking for entertainment while operating a massive vehicle at highway speeds. Let’s also concede that voice control addresses much of the safety concern and that the quiet, serene environment that is a car interior is made for that kind of interface.

I’m still stuck on a basic question: What cabin technology can an automaker build into a car that I can’t bring myself, more cheaply? What I need, still, only, is Bluetooth and a comfortable seat for my smartphone, which is as smart as can be and always with me.

There’s ample history to push back against so-called tech advancement in cars.

In the year 2000 President Clinton opened up the satellite GPS tracking system to anybody at a resolution of down to 10 meters. That 10-fold improvement suddenly made military-grade tech practical for your family car. Companies like Garmin and Magellan, which had been catering to sporting folk, found a new market. And newcomers like TomTom and Dash got into the game.

As a chronic early adopter I have owned several stand-alone GPS units and have always resisted buying $2,000 in-dash GPS because I could always get $200 on-dash equivalents. And then smartphones became the only GPS device you needed, reducing the cost to about zero while also making the device infinitely portable. Goodbye Garmin.

Carmakers merely co-opted a good idea, charging us a stiff premium for what it presented as essentially style choice. Remember that theme …

Several automakers tout that their cars are “Pandora ready.” Who cares? Pandora is only one of more than 100 streaming music services, has fewer than half the subscribers of Spotify and about a million fewer songs than major rivals. And — oh yeah — Apple recently got into the game with a native iPhone service that oddly enough looks and feels exactly like its more established predecessors.

Detroit has also discovered hotspots and thinks it’s doing you a favor building that into your next car. GM and Ford, the Wall Street Journal reports, are convinced “technology offerings are increasingly important to new car buyers. A total of 38% of those buying domestic vehicles cite the latest technology features as a reason for their purchase, according to a recent survey by automotive consultants J.D. Power and Associates.”

Sigh. Here’s an opportunity for you to pay for yet another data plan, in addition to the one you use at home and the one you use on your phone. Or, instead, you can remember that your phone is a 4G hotspot, and that some plans don’t charge you more to use it. Want something even more robust? Get a MiFi for a hotspot that you also don’t have to leave in your car and has excellent battery life.

I’m a little less sure that OnStar has outlived its usefulness. This service — which pre-dates the GPS and mobile phone revolution — is a uniquely human-powered concierge service that many will find valuable for that kind of piece of mind. But if a panic button is all you need, it’s probably overkill. Plus, they are serious boosters of Bluetooth, so good for them.

Instead of adding to sticker shock with shiny things Detroit should take a look at what appliance companies like GE and Whirlpool are doing. Connected appliances leverage the smartphone their designers very safely assume you already have. So your smart oven won’t remind you that it’s your anniversary, but it will respond to a command to pre-heat that you might send as you leave the supermarket.

Like appliance makers, automaker need to realize that the smartphone has become the ultimate universal remote and gateway that they cannot and should not try to improve upon. Save the innovation for under the hood — and for making the cabin as smartphone friendly as possible.
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Are you among the 38% J.D. Powers say are enticed by “technology offerings” or does your car still have roll-up windows? Are you in the auto industry and convinced that in-cabin tech is the future?
Linked-In Blogger: John C Abell (Posted 12-12-2014) –
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-plea-detroit-less-tech-john-c-abell?trk=hp-feed-article-title

This assessment on Detroit is being made from … Detroit. In addition to the automotive industry, there is a lot of economic lessons to learn from the city itself. This once great industrial center has endured a failed-city status – 18 months under Bankruptcy Court oversight – and is now strategizing a turn-around. There is a lot of parallel with Caribbean communities, except for the lack of core competence in the automotive industry space. (The Go Lean book describes other core competencies related to the Caribbean – Page 58).

The Caribbean region cannot ignore technological advances and industrial developments. This means jobs; for today and tomorrow. The automotive industry have always been a source of high-paying jobs that transformed society. The Go Lean book relates the factor of high-job multipliers, where each direct job in a community creates multiple indirect jobs – the automotive industry is #1 for job multipliers. The roadmap’s quest to increase the regional economy and create 2.2 million new jobs, must consider all dimensions of this industry. We can learn so much about job creation from Detroit.

This is the declaration of the book Go Lean…Caribbean. This purports that a new industrial revolution is emerging and Caribbean society must engage. This is pronounced in the Declaration of Interdependence (Page 14), with these opening statements:

xxvii. 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, like that of ship-building, automobile manufacturing, pre-fabricated housing, frozen foods, pipelines, call centers, and the prison industrial complex. In addition, the Federation must invigorate the enterprises related to existing industries like tourism, fisheries and lotteries – impacting the region with more jobs.

xxviii. 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.

There is a lot at stake for the Caribbean in considering this subject area. One Caribbean icon/artist, Bob Marley, wrote not to be a “stock on the shelf” (“Pimpers Paradise” Uprising Album 1980). The region’s 42 million people demand a supply of innovative automobiles – real innovation, not just fluff to increase the sticker price as reported in the foregoing article. We do not only want to consume, we want to supply!

Producing and not only consuming has been a consistent theme in prior Go Lean blog/commentaries, sampled here:

Role Model Shaking Up the World of Cancer Research & Innovation

Where the Jobs Are – Computers Reshaping Global Job Market

Where the Jobs Are – One Scenario: Ship-breaking

STEM Jobs Are Filling Slowly; Despite High Demand

Google conducting research for highway safety innovations

Ghost ships – Autonomous cargo vessels without a crew

The Go Lean book provides a roadmap for developing and fostering a domestic automotive industry. The process starts with a spirit/attitude to not tolerate the status quo. This spirit is described in the book as a community ethos for research-and-development. The book details other ethos to adopt, plus the executions of the following strategies, tactics, implementations and advocacies to forge innovation and industrial growth in Caribbean communities:

Community Ethos – Deferred Gratification	Page 21
Community Ethos – People Respond to Incentives	Page 21
Community Ethos – Job Multiplier	Page 22
Community Ethos – “Crap” Happens	Page 23
Community Ethos – Lean Operations	Page 24
Community Ethos – Return on Investments (ROI)	Page 24
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact the Future	Page 26
Community Ethos – Ways to Help Entrepreneurship	Page 28
Community Ethos – Ways to Impact Research & Development	Page 30
Community Ethos – Impact the Greater Good	Page 37
Strategy – Agents of Change – Technology	Page 48
Tactical – Fostering a Technocracy	Page 64
Tactical – How to Calculate GDP	Page 67
Tactical – Growing Economy – New High Multiplier Industries	Page 68
Separation of Powers – Public Works & Infrastructure	Page 82
Separation of Powers – Department of Transportation	Page 84
Implementation – Ways to Pay for Change	Page 101
Implementation – Ways to Deliver	Page 109
Planning – 10 Big Ideas	Page 127
Planning – Lessons from Detroit	Page 140
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 Improve Transportation	Page 205
Advocacy – Ways to Develop the Auto Industry	Page 206
Appendix – Job Multipliers – Detroit 11.0 Rate #1 of all industries	Page 260

The laws of supply and demand is the bedrock of economics. This roadmap to elevate Caribbean society must lead first with a strong economic plan. The goal is to increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), so this means more domestic consumption and less imports. This is possible in the automotive industry space if the new domestic automotive product offerings are appealing and innovative. The Caribbean region has historically been slow at adopting technological innovation. But change has now come to the Caribbean! This is bigger than just being the first to adopt new innovation; we want to be the innovators.

The focus is automotive and yet the topic featured in the foregoing article include phrases like Internet Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, music streaming (Pandora & Spotify) and satellite concierge. This is not your “grandfather’s Chevrolet”; yet this is not even the future; this is the present state of “Detroit”!

The insights from the foregoing article and the embedded VIDEO below, help us to appreciate that the future is now! We, the Caribbean region, want to be consequential in that future, not just “a stock on the shelf”. With the proper planning, preparation and participation, we help to make our homeland a better place to live, work and play. 🙂

Download the book Go Lean … Caribbean – now!

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Appendix VIDEO: CNET On Cars – Car Tech 101: The future of head-up displays – http://youtu.be/KWs9ucwO4Vo

Published on Nov 24, 2014 – Head-up displays are starting to show up everywhere. Brian Cooley tells you why HUDs may be the next revolution in car tech.

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Auto, Detroit, ICT, Sales, STEM

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Country	Police	Ambulance		Fire
Mexico	066	065		068
Bahamas	919 or 911
Haiti	114	118		115
Jamaica	119	110
Trinidad and Tobago	999	990
Guyana	911	913	912
Suriname	112