“Give it the ol’ college try.”

We’ve all heard it. Whether from a coach, a parent or other authority figure, the phrase is often used as encouragement when one is faced with a seemingly insurmountable task. It instructs us to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and do our best, even in the face of possible, or even likely, defeat. Lately, the phrase seems all too apt as post-secondary students worldwide are dropping out of school at alarming rates. In fact, a recent study found that one in four freshman in the U.S. does not complete their first year of school, despite giving college a try.

It’s possible that high school students simply do not have a realistic idea of what college is actually like. Although 80% of students graduating high school think they are ready for college once they have their diplomas, the reality does not reflect this confidence. If students base their visions of college on the pop culture representation in movies like Van Wilder or Old School, they are in for a shock when their first week of classes results in the expectation that they will complete two personal essays, an analysis of the role abolitionists played in the Civil War and 140 pages of background reading over the weekend. Highly motivated individuals are able to navigate the initial adjustment to college by tweaking their study habits. But many are not up to this challenge. This is not solely an American phenomenon, either; studies suggest that up to half of all college students drop out of college for various reasons before earning a degree. To put it in perspective, China has a 55.8 percent attainment rate, which measures the percentage of students who complete their degrees, compared to Japan’s 53.7 percent; New Zealand’s 47.3 percent; Ireland’s 43.9 percent; and America’s 40 percent.

Of course, it’s possible that many of these students simply don’t see the point of staying in college. With a record 50 percent of young adults unemployed or underemployed (meaning they either have part-time jobs or jobs for which they are overqualified), more American college graduates are living at home with their parents after school than at any time since 1950.

However, despite such discouraging job statistics, it would be unfair to blame the job market for the ill preparedness displayed by many high school graduates. Consider the following:

- At the time of graduation, nine in ten American high school graduates cannot identify Afghanistan on a map of Asia

- Three in ten cannot find China—the biggest country in the world—on a globe

- Roughly half cannot find New York State on a U.S. map

As a result of these and other findings, more than 2.2 million college freshman must take remedial courses that teach high school material during their first year in college in order to catch up with their peers. Taxpayers shell out $5.6 billion for these remedial courses. To put that figure into perspective, if differently allocated, that money could pay for 175,000 students to attend four years of college.

High school achievement aside, some people argue that the point of college is for students to expand their social and mental horizons rather than to scale new academic heights. Still, while strong arguments can be made for the value of experience over formal education, the bachelor’s degree has become the new high school diploma in many professional circles. Even if students don’t end up pursuing a career in the same field as their major, completing a degree signals to prospective employers that students are hard workers who can finish their commitments.

Students who are currently struggling with school should know that there are many resources available, from reaching out to on-campus advisors, joining study groups and taking advantage of technology to help them study more efficiently through online classes. College is hard work, despite its sometimes-hazy portrayal in pop culture. But it doesn’t have to be impossible, provided students prepare themselves socially and academically for the challenge.

Read more: http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2013/01/17/unprepared-for-college/

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) confirmed the booming 104% upswing in Smartphone and Tablet usage in Australia between June 2011 and June 2012 in their report launched yesterday. Nearly 50% of all adults in Australia have an internet-enabled smartphone.

The ACMA research report mirrors the explosive growth in smartphones and tablets (commonly referred to as “BYOD” devices i.e. “Bring Your Own Devices”) being seen within all organisations on a global basis.

According to Andrew Cook of Blue Coat Systems Australia, what is not evident from this report, is that this accelerating adoption of mobile devices is fundamentally shifting the security threat landscape for Internet usage.

Porn and banking sites accessed on the go increase the risk of criminal access or phishing of mobile users according to Blue Coat’s latest survey of 75 million users, which was released this week.

“Classic security attacks that have dominated traditional PCs for many years such as spam, phishing, and malware are being increasing detected on mobile devices.  The global report launched by Blue Coat this week shows that cybercriminals are shifting their gaze from desktops to mobiles as a highly lucrative, expanding, and uncontrolled new opportunity for theft and fraud,” said Andrew.

“Blue Coat’s data shows that there has been a 600% increase in malware designed for Android smartphones during the end of 2012.  40% of all mobile malware blocked by Bluecoat’s security solutions has originated from known ‘malnets’ – diverse malware networks used to launch highly dynamic malware threats and increasingly malicious mobile applications.

“So while the growth in uptake of mobile devices in the Australian markets is quite interesting within the context of device numbers, 4G services, and increased Internet usage, the underlying security implications are both profound and acute.”

Link to Blue Coat’s Mobile Security Report: http://www.bluecoat.com/sites/default/files/documents/files/BC_2013_Mobile_Malware_Report-v1d.pdf.

Link to the ACMA Report: http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310665/report-3-smartphones-tablets-comms_report_11-12_series.pdf

From Economist Intelligence Unit

For many economies, 2012 was a year to forget. Austerity in the developed world and a slowdown in China dented global growth. The downturn caused hardship for households and businesses, and headaches for many politicians. Markets also endured their torrid moments, mainly reflecting ever-changing perceptions of the risk of a break-up of the euro zone. In the US, electoral politics got in the way of constructive economic debate.

In 2013 global economic prospects look slightly brighter. Here, we list some of the key economic themes that are likely to occupy governments, businesses, consumers and investors in the year ahead:

Stronger global GDP growth. The global economy will remain weak, but some improvement is in prospect. The downturn in the euro zone will ease, with the 17-country bloc likely to return to very weak year-on-year growth in late 2013. Recent stimulus in China should feed through more visibly during the year, with Chinese growth accelerating to an annual average of about 8.5%—although it should be noted that this will be a peak for the current cycle and is unlikely to be matched again given the slowdown in China’s trend growth rate. Congress’s January 1st mini-deal on the “fiscal cliff” removed an immediate threat to US growth prospects, but how the world’s biggest economy performs in 2013 will depend on the extent to which the next few months are marred by similar fiscal policy showdowns. The key downside risk to our forecasts will remain the possibility of further financial upheaval in the euro zone. But upside risks are arguably strengthening, in particular over the timing of the modest global recovery, which could gather pace sooner than we expect if confidence returns.

Relative calm in the euro zone? We expect plenty more ups and downs in efforts to contain and, ultimately, resolve the debt crisis in the euro zone, but the picture has brightened since mid-2012. The European Central Bank’s commitment in principle to unlimited sovereign debt purchases has calmed financial markets. Italian and Spanish sovereign bond yields have fallen to much more sustainable levels compared with late 2011 and mid-2012. The single currency’s crisis seems to have entered a less acute phase, in which concerns about austerity, slow growth and a lack of competitiveness are starting to replace fears of sovereign default and financial-market implosion. That said, the fundamentals of the debt crisis are far from resolved, and worries about France—something of a laggard in owning up to the severity of its fiscal challenges—could come to the fore this year. Events—from the Italian general election to political unrest in Greece—still have the potential to trigger a crisis, but 2013 could well be a year in which the euro zone’s problems largely rumble on.

More fiscal brinksmanship in the US. If the world breathed a sigh of relief when US lawmakers struck a deal on January 1st 2013 to prevent/delay implementation of assorted fiscal tightening that could have sent the US into recession, the risks of a self-inflicted economic downturn have not disappeared. A grand bargain over the country’s long-term fiscal challenges has eluded Democrats and Republicans, and the fiscal cliff mini-deal was disappointingly modest in scope. The legislation preserves some tax breaks and extends unemployment benefits but has deferred any decision on government spending cuts. This sets the US up for repeated bouts of political wrangling over fiscal policy during 2013. In particular, partisan brinksmanship will complicate negotiations over the raising of the US federal debt ceiling (which will probably be necessary in late February). All this bodes ill for economic policymaking during the year, and could hurt consumer and business sentiment—although markets and firms have become more resilient.

An extension of the risk asset rally. Quantitative easing (QE) in the US and elsewhere, combined with a slackening of financial tensions in the euro zone periphery, has fuelled a rally in risk assets in the past few months. The rally has a decent chance of continuing in 2013, as the ultra-low interest-rate environment in the developed world will encourage investors to seek higher yields in riskier assets such as equities, commodities and corporate bonds. That investors are still moving into risk assets is visible in higher yields on the traditional safe havens of US and German government bonds. Although still very low by historical standards—indicating continued investor caution—US 10-year yields were at 1.92% on January 7th, around 50 basis points up from July 2012. German yields are up by a similar amount from their June 2012 lows. For many investors, the search for yield may override valuation fundamentals, which could be a source of longer-term financial risk when markets eventually normalise.

A Japanese reflation agenda. The election of Shinzo Abe as Japan’s prime minister in December 2012 has potential repercussions that extend well beyond the domestic economy. One of Mr Abe’s main policy goals is to end the deflationary pressures that have long dogged Japan, and thereby to create conditions for self-sustaining economic growth. As part of this agenda, we expect Mr Abe to push aggressively for the Bank of Japan to raise its inflation target from 1% to 2% and to commit to unorthodox monetary easing on a much greater scale—both to stimulate domestic demand and to counter the deflationary impact on Japan of QE elsewhere. The success or failure of these efforts could have implications for global exchange rates, and the policies could create international trade tensions if perceived by Japan’s trading partners as an attempt artificially to support Japanese exports. Yet Japan’s poor demographics and other fundamentals mean that Mr Abe’s stimulus measures may fail to gain traction. At the same time, the prime minister’s agenda raises the prospect of increasing political interference with the central bank.

A higher profile for structural reform. In the coming year policymaking may take a longer-term view. Emergency measures were necessary in 2008-09 to prevent collapse of the global financial system and in 2010-12 to prevent a possible fracturing of the euro zone. Major risks to the integrity of the euro remain. Nonetheless, just as global financial policymaking is now focusing on systemic protection against future crises—albeit with uneven results, for example in banking regulation—in the euro zone questions of long-term competitiveness and structural reform are gaining a higher profile. Provided that further acute bouts of financial contagion can be avoided, issues such as the need to lower unit labour costs, liberalise services markets and create better conditions for innovation and sustainable growth will gain prominence. The reform focus will be echoed in parts of the emerging world—most notably in Brazil, where policymakers are having to come to terms with the country’s post-2010 slowdown and address long-standing needs for greater flexibility in the economy.

Austerity. Fiscal tightening will continue to constrain growth and dominate the public debate in many countries in 2013. Most obviously, it will remain a central economic and political issue in the EU, in part because of the severe fiscal consolidation still under way. Our budget-balance forecasts indicate that 20 out of the EU’s 27 member countries will experience fiscal tightening in 2013, which in many cases will come on top of a prior year of such hardship in 2012. In the UK, austerity will remain a source of tension between the two partners in the coalition government. In a number of countries in Europe, the social and political pressures that have emerged as a result of austerity will continue to fuel hostility towards immigrants and ethnic minorities. In the US, austerity will not bite as deeply or cause as severe social stresses, but the debate about fiscal sustainability will be intense and highly politicised. More broadly, in many countries a combination of weak or negative growth and a lack of fiscal resources will limit policy options.

Political changes. 2013 looks set to be relatively quiet year for major elections, but a number of forthcoming and ongoing political changes will still bear watching. Some of these will be the result of transitions that commenced in 2012. As discussed above, the change of government in Japan has potentially far-reaching economic policy consequences. China, meanwhile, is still in the early stages of a once-in-a-decade transition to a new political leadership. Economic challenges facing the new leadership (the members of which will be further formalised at a government conclave in March) include planning structural reforms to anticipate the erosion of China’s advantages as a low-cost export manufacturer. In Europe, general elections in Italy (in February) and Germany (in September) will be important for those countries’ continued policy responses to the euro debt crisis.

Ben Grubb

Deputy technology editor,  theage.com.au

Who needs a mouse?

Gesture-based computing will become one of the biggest trends in 2013 as devices begin to make use of our eyes, and different movements of our hands.

Just like the technology in the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, gesture-based computing will enable people to control their smart TVs and computers using only their hands, and without having to touch a remote or keyboard.

In 2002, gesture-based computing was the stuff of sci-fi films.

Gadgets such as Samsung’s MV900F – a digital camera that can zoom in and out or capture a shot just by waving your hand – already make use of gestures.

But it will take a company such as Leap Motion to truly revolutionise gesture-based computing in 2013 with the release of its iPod-sized controller, which senses your individual hand and finger movements so you can interact directly with your PC.

On Friday, ASUS announced it would bundle Leap Motion’s gadget with select new computers “later this year”. This deal will ensure widespread adoption of the technology. Eye-tracking is also set to become more prevalent in computers by way of accessories such as REX.

Made by tech company Tobii, REX can be used with software to track exactly what you’re looking at on a screen, allowing you do things such as scroll sideways or blast moving asteroids with your eyes. Tobii is due to sell 5000 REXs later this year with pre-orders starting in March.

Vodafone Australia begins to make a come back

Can Vodafone’s rollout of 4G help it make a comeback? Photo: Getty Images

It might sound like a bit of a stretch, especially when you consider that in the two years to July 2012, Vodafone lost a million customers (a loss attributed primarily to poor network performance).

But hear me out. The company said last year that in “early 2013″ it would begin rolling out a 4G LTE network “in selected areas” (something Telstra began rolling out in September 2011 and Optus in April 2012).

With that in mind, and the fact that it has been upgrading its 3G network to cope better with traffic by utilising dual-channel HSPA+ (DC-HSPA+) technology, I predict that the telco will make a significant comeback this year after users begin to notice significant network improvements.

Once its 4G network is rolled out in capital cities, Vodafone’s iPhone 5 users will be some of the first users to notice faster speeds. Those who use 3G phones will probably also notice a difference once 4G users jump off the 3G network and onto 4G, meaning the 3G network will become less congested.

Essentially, 4G will lighten the load of its 3G network. But will it be enough for the telco, whose reputation has been damaged by past under-investment in its network, to win back customers?

Telsyte senior research analyst Chris Coughlan believes “post 2015 as a more realistic turn-around timeframe”.

Augmented reality gets closer

A Google employee wears a pair of Glass. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

Debuted in June last year, Project Glass, a research and development program by Google to make an augmented reality head-mounted display, will start to gain some traction this year after prototype devices ship early in the year to US Google I/O (input/output) developers who pre-ordered them for $US1500 ($1436).

A consumer version is expected to be ready within a year of the device shipping to developers. Project Glass has a lot of potential, and that potential will start to become clearer once developers get their hands on it.

Looking at the sky might show you the weather; looking at someone whose name you’ve forgotten could also become less awkward with facial recognition built-in; and remembering to get the milk and bread your husband or wife told you to get at the supermarket will become easier when notifications based on where you are pop up with reminders.

Smartphones flex their muscles

Nokia shows off its bendable prototype device

Cracked and broken screens are a common smartphone curse, but Samsung has developed bendable screens to make phones more flexible – and much less prone to breaking. The company is expected to unveil a 5.5-inch bendable display with a high-definition resolution of 1280 x 720 and 267 pixels per inch at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month.

Samsung isn’t the only one testing out bendable screens. Nokia previewed a prototype flexible mobile computer in October 2011 that you twist and bend to control, and also a special coating that can be applied to gadgets to repel water, oily fingerprints, dust and dirt.

Wi-Fi technology gets faster

Wi-Fi is set to become faster this year. Photo: Jamie Brown

The 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard is expected to be ratified this year, meaning data transfers of up to 1.3Gbps will be possible, theoretically, on first-generation gear in perfect conditions.

Transferring data via 802.11ac should also mean longer battery life for devices using it, as data will be delivered quicker. Reports suggest Apple’s 2013 MacBook line-up will make use of the new standard care of chip maker Broadcom.

Devices such as the iPhone 5 currently use 802.11n technology, which supports up to 300 Mbps under the best conditions. This makes 802.11ac more than four times faster than what’s currently available.

Hackers target your mobile/tablet

“Ransomware” has been customised to scare Australians. Photo: Botnets.fr

Ransomware – hacker software that holds a user’s PC to ransom for money after they visit an infected website – will continue to be a problem and will rise to become one of the best ways for criminals to scam money.

Security company McAfee predicts that Ransomware will this year begin to affect mobile and tablet users, as well as PC users. Similarly, hackers will continue to hold businesses’ data to ransom by breaking into their poorly secured servers and demanding money for files to be decrypted.

Although this type of hacking has been possible for some time, hackers will begin targeting new industries that haven’t thought about computer security in the past. One such industry affected in late 2012 was the health industry: at least three medical centres were targeted in Queensland.

‘Find my iPhone’ comes to anything and everything

StickNFind … the technology that helps you find things you’ve lost that use it.

Apple made losing your iPad or iPhone and then attempting to find it almost fun with its Find My iPhone app.

Now, a Florida start-up is taking a similar experience to other gadgets with its “StickNFind” Bluetooth-powered locations stickers.

The stickers, which are being crowd-funded on indiegogo.com, can be attached to almost anything including people, iPads, cameras, books or wallets, and then found using a smartphone app with a radar-like screen, which locates them within a 30-metre range.

StickNFind plans to distribute the stickers to backers of its project beginning in March.

TVs get bigger, better and clearer

LG’s 55-inch OLED TV that is just 4-millimeters thick.

You’d think TVs couldn’t get any thinner, but just this week LG started taking pre-orders in South Korea for its wafer-thin, 4mm-thick, 55-inch OLED TV.

Large OLED TVs were meant to come to market late last year but were delayed because of manufacturing issues. This year, we’ll finally start to see LG and Samsung bring them to market.

It’s unclear when Sony and Panasonic will do the same. OLED is a new large-screen technology that is much more energy-efficient than traditional liquid crystal display (LCD) screens.

But with an expected Australian price tag of $10,000, the power savings will be hard to justify. An OLED display works without a backlight – hence why it doesn’t use as much power as an LCD. It can therefore display deep black levels, which is also why it can be a lot thinner and lighter than an LCD.

Wireless charging comes to gadgets

Last year, Nokia released its Lumia 920, which utilises wireless charging via an inductive charging power mat that uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy.

This year, wireless charging will become more prevalent on smartphones and gadgets as manufacturers figure out ways to make it work with their devices.

Inductive charging has advantages and disadvantages, but when used in conjunction with regular charging, it can be a neat feature for those who just want to place their device on a mat and have it charge without having to fiddle with a charger (especially in the dark).

Advantages of inductive charging include convenience and a lower risk of getting electrocuted, while disadvantages include its extra expense and the fact that devices can’t be moved while charging.

Anonymity on the web disappears

Foursquare is the latest social networking website to crack down on anonymity online, but it definitely wasn’t the first.

In September 2011, I wrote about the death of anonymity online and throughout 2012 a number of social networking sites moved to make sure you started using your real name. Many policies resulted in suspension if you used a fake name, and Facebook even started trialling a pop-up that asked your friends to confirm your identity to try to see if you were lying about your name. Because of this, I don’t see anonymity on the web lasting too much longer.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/augmented-reality-and-bendy-screens-in-a-handsfree-2013-20130104-2c8c6.html#ixzz2H5sfZyRb

As a global leader on China Outsourcing and Market, Devott released its annual forecasts of Top 10 Trends in China Outsourcing via its international informational portal www.chnsourcing.com on December 25, 2012. Based on extensive data from its customers around country and globe, Devott studied the mechanism of the vertical transformation and undisclosed the drivers of the trends along with industry standards and own methodologies. Devott predicts that under the native influence of the shrinking global markets and sluggish recovery in major economic powers, national protectionism as demonstrated in US Presidential Election, China-Japan Island Conflict, reducing growth rate in China, there are numerous challenges and adversities China Outsourcing will face in 2013.

Prediction 1: The market size of onshore and offshore will be contracted slightly; Competitions over prices will be intensified.

It’s a bumpy road to recover the global economy. The unemployment rate keeps going up and the international offshore market will further shrink. As to Chinese outsourcing service enterprises, the European and American market will shrink dramatically with the re-emergence of trade protectionism and insourcing restart. To Japanese market, due to the declining Japanese economy as well as disgusting impact from political factor that the dispute on Diaoyu Island between China and Japan ,Japanese outsourcing market is getting fewer opportunities for China in 2013. Under high expectations, Chinese domestic market is still waiting for breakout because of without enough driving force from the State-owned enterprises and government agencies although domestic market increases fast. The overall recession of the onshore and offshore market directly results in more fierce market competition. Meanwhile, the majority of the companies are on the low end of the industrial chain that resulting from Chinese outsourcing industry’s remaining on primary stage, the price war is going to be intensifying in 2013 both for offshore and onshore market.

Prediction 2: Overseas investment from China based sourcing corporations will get more consensus; More Chinese companies will plan and implement their global strategies onshore in developed countries.

More and more work is called for being shifted back to local caused by American president election, which has become a big feature in the second industrial transfer for global service outsourcing. As the worldwide largest outsourcer, the United States leads the “outsourcing backflow“ trend which will drive the global outsourcing enterprises to reformulate the strategy of development and market. To set up branches and delivery centers locally in the U.S. will become one of the core trends for Chinese outsourcing industry in 2013. Many countries’ outsourcing enterprise will launch fierce rival in the U.S., especially the competition between China and India.

Prediction 3: Growth Drivers of China Outsourcing will be transformed rapidly, depending more on capital and market instead of incentives and low cost talent.

Through the rapid growth of the industry size, the development of the whole Chinese outsourcing industry is evolving from the basic embryonic stage to the upgrade stage, during which every factor coordinates and interacts with each other to establish an ecosystem for service outsourcing. Chinese outsourcing industry’s growth pattern is onto a turning point. “Market + capital” model is going to replace “policy + talents” to facilitate the future industry, so as to lead the industry’s transformation and upgrading.

Forecast 4: M&A activities will be increased considerably; so are hidden risks and negative impact of the Investments.

Under the shrinking domestic market and intensifying competition, as well as being driven by some industry giants such as Pactera, Achievo and The Devott Fund, the trend of investment and acquisition within outsourcing industry will further be continued in 2013. The trend of industrial integration will be intensified. However, due to the great risks of M&A, all kinds’ of problems gradually appeared in the process of M&A at the later stage. Consequently, the number of failing cases will be on an increase accordingly.

Prediction 5: Focus of the growth will be more on innovation than cost reduction.

Due to incapable of affording the innovation and transition for some enterprises after economic crisis such as market survey, trial operation, and risk and opportunity costs, they crave for outsourcing enterprises with professional abilities and practical experience as their intellectual strategic partners to help them improve efficiency and transform their businesses. Therefore, the value of outsourcing service is predicted to shift from cost reduction and core competence enhancement to innovation support to reshape their core competence. Meanwhile, the status of the outsourcing enterprises will be improved as well.

Prediction 6: “Big” is no longer growth objective. Fast deployment, flexible practices and vertical solutions are 2013 Performance Indexes in corporate board rooms.

In 2013, the global service outsourcing buyers will become more cautious on outsourcing strategy decision making and service providers’ choosing. Resources resolutions become very popular in this industry. With the development of the global buyers’ demand, the development of China’s outsourcing service providers will change their direction to “flexible structure, rapid iteration and fast reaction”. Global buyers pay more attention to enterprise solutions and service capacity and request the enterprise develop professionally.

Prediction 7: New Delivery Models and Business Processes Developed by “Cloud Platform” will penetrate deeper of enterprise markets.

Starting from 2013, cloud outsourcing based on the “cloud” platform and “cloud” model increasingly become the mainstream and trend in the development of outsourcing industry. With the core element – CCES (Cloud Computing Enabled Service) model, could sourcing drives the whole industry to achieve the transformation and upgrading and extend to 3.0 eras. The whole industry will be endowed with new connotation. At the same time, crowdsourcing as a new mode will get more and more respected and application by global buyers.

Predictions 8: New Outsourcing Models and Process Management Methodologies will appear widely in Big Data Era.

As data becomes a new hub to promote industrial development and the core element, a new service outsourcing segmentation field appear and rapid development – that is, great data outsourcing. As a new field of KPO, great data outsourcing based on data mining will be got full development in 2013. A large number of great data outsourcing enterprises will appear and gather abundance data outsourcing solutions. At the same time, the development of great data outsourcing will give rise to a new business model and accelerate technological progress.

Prediction 9: The weight of BPO in outsourcing industry will be increased. It’s expected the first public company in BPO vertical emerges in 2013.

In 2013, China’s BPO industry will develop rapidly from the document entry, data processing and other low-end level BPOs to high-end level BPOs which related to the core businesses. At present there is no one real BPO enterprise in 29 local service outsourcing listed companies. Until 2013, the situation will be broken and the industry will appear “competitive advantage gets sustainable” situation, the leaders will enjoy extra income.

Prediction 10: Supports and incentive policies and regulations remain key driving forces to China Outsourcing’s transformation and innovation

In 2013, the public platform construction funds and services tax and other services outsourcing policy are expected to extend. The whole service outsourcing industry will get a further development by personal training of service outsourcing, developing the international market, intellectual property protection and other aspects. At the same time, the state will take new measures on the new features appeared in the development of service outsourcing industry such as support large enterprises mergers and acquisitions and increase the management training subsidy of service outsourcing enterprises.

According to the problems China service outsourcing industry may face in 2013, “Forecasts and Suggestions of Service Outsourcing for China 2013” gives ten core development suggestions from the government and enterprise aspects. For more detailed information and download, please visit: http://www.chnsourcing.com.cn/top/tenforecast/2013/

By Steve Lohr

It was the bold title of a conference this month at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and of a widely read article in The Harvard Business Review last October: “Big Data: The Management Revolution.”

Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist at the MIT Center for Digital Business, led off the conference by saying that Big Data would be “the next big chapter of our business history.” Next on stage was Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor and director of the MIT center and a co-author of the article with McAfee. Big Data, Brynjolfsson said, will “replace ideas, paradigms, organisations and ways of thinking about the world.”

These drumroll claims rest on the premise that data like web-browsing trails, sensor signals, GPS tracking, and social network messages will open the door to measuring and monitoring people and machines as never before. And by setting clever computer algorithms loose on the data troves, you can predict behaviour of all kinds: shopping, dating and voting, for example.

The results, according to technologists and business executives, will be a smarter world, with more efficient companies, better-served consumers and superior decisions guided by data and analysis.

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I’ve written about what is now being called Big Data a fair bit over the years, and I think it’s a powerful tool and an unstoppable trend. But at year-end, I thought, might be a time for reflection, questions and qualms about this technology.

Quest for insights

The quest to draw useful insights from business measurements is nothing new. Big Data is a descendant of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s “scientific management” of more than a century ago. Taylor’s instrument of measurement was the stopwatch, timing and monitoring a worker’s every movement. Taylor and his acolytes used these time-and-motion studies to redesign work for maximum efficiency. The excesses of this approach would become satirical grist for Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. The enthusiasm for quantitative methods has waxed and waned ever since.

Big Data proponents point to the internet for examples of triumphant data businesses, notably Google. But many of the Big Data techniques of math modelling, predictive algorithms and artificial intelligence software were first widely applied on Wall Street.

At the MIT conference, a panel was asked to cite examples of big failures in Big Data. No one could really think of any. Soon after, though, Roberto Rigobon could barely contain himself as he took to the stage. Rigobon, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, said the financial crisis certainly humbled the data hounds. “Hedge funds failed all over the world,” he said.

The problem with math

The problem is that a math model, like a metaphor, is a simplification. This type of modelling came out of the sciences, where the behaviour of particles in a fluid, for example, is predictable according to the laws of physics.

In so many Big Data applications, a math model attaches a crisp number to human behaviour, interests and preferences. The peril of that approach, as in finance, was the subject of a recent book by Emanuel Derman, a former quant at Goldman Sachs and now a professor at Columbia University. Its title is “Models. Behaving. Badly.”

Claudia Perlich, chief scientist at Media6Degrees, an online ad-targeting start-up in New York, puts the problem this way: “You can fool yourself with data like you can’t with anything else. I fear a Big Data bubble.”

The bubble that concerns Perlich is not so much a surge of investment, with new companies forming and then failing in large numbers. That’s capitalism, she says. She is worried about a rush of people calling themselves “data scientists,” doing poor work and giving the field a bad name.

Indeed, Big Data does seem to be facing a workforce bottleneck.

“We can’t grow the skills fast enough,” says Perlich, who formerly worked for IBM Watson Labs and is an adjunct professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

A report last year by the McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of the consulting firm, projected that the United States needed 140,000 to 190,000 more workers with “deep analytical” expertise and 1.5 million more data-literate managers, whether retrained or hired.

Step one: defining the problem

Thomas H. Davenport, a visiting professor at the Harvard Business School, is writing a book called Keeping Up With the Quants to help managers cope with the Big Data challenge. A major part of managing Big Data projects, he says, is asking the right questions: How do you define the problem? What data do you need? Where does it come from? What are the assumptions behind the model that the data is fed into? How is the model different from reality?

Society might be well served if the model makers pondered the ethical dimensions of their work as well as studying the math, according to Rachel Schutt, a senior statistician at Google Research.

“Models do not just predict, but they can make things happen,” says Schutt, who taught a data science course this year at Columbia. “That’s not discussed generally in our field.”

Behavioural loop

Models can create what data scientists call a behavioural loop. A person feeds in data, which is collected by an algorithm that then presents the user with choices, thus steering behaviour.

Consider Facebook. You put personal data on your Facebook page, and Facebook’s software tracks your clicks and your searches on the site. Then, algorithms sift through that data to present you with “friend” suggestions.

Understandably, the increasing use of software that microscopically tracks and monitors online behaviour has raised privacy worries. Will Big Data usher in a digital surveillance state, mainly serving corporate interests?

Personally, my bigger concern is that the algorithms that are shaping my digital world are too simple-minded, rather than too smart. That was a theme of a book by Eli Pariser, titled The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You.

It’s encouraging that thoughtful data scientists like Perlich and Schutt recognise the limits and shortcomings of the Big Data technology that they are building. Listening to the data is important, they say, but so is experience and intuition. After all, what is intuition at its best but large amounts of data of all kinds filtered through a human brain rather than a math model?

At the MIT conference, Schutt was asked what makes a good data scientist. Obviously, she replied, the requirements include computer science and math skills, but you also want someone who has a deep, wide-ranging curiosity, is innovative and is guided by experience as well as data.

“I don’t worship the machine,” she said.

The New York Times
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/big-data-is-great-but-so-is-intuition-20121231-2c24m.html#ixzz2GtOXwdTk

By Bernard Sia

As an IT Outsourcer, I cringe at the thought of having to support 30 different variations of mobile operating systems; it does not matter whether the phone is service provider locked or jail-broken with viruses and all.

Who is to be blamed when the proverbial mess hits the fan?

Naturally the easy way out for an outsourcer is to draw a solid line that says, I am sorry, that is not within our contract. But seriously, as an innovative company; you would want to stand head and shoulders above your competitors and say; YES, we are able to support that phone. Not only that, we can secure critical business information, anywhere; anytime!

Personally, I find the whole security issue overblown. Since the dawn of civilization people have been lurking the halls of temples and rat on priests feasting on animal offerings, and no amount of inner sanctums could keep a lid on towns folk whispering.

Fortunately today; we have a host of technologies that allows us to trace how information flows, from who, to whom, on top of versioning every change that occurs.

Unfortunately, technology cannot change the human psyche. Whenever there’s an opportunity, opportunism arises.

Over in Malaysia, BYOD devices have taken over the boardroom; and senior management have made iPads and Berry’s the communications medium of choice. Don’t be surprised if you walk into the elevator of PETRONAS Twin Towers and you see tenants carrying an iPad, a Blackberry, his own personal mobile; with potentially an ultrabook tucked inside the suitcase.

So the right question to ask is not about the perils of BYOD, but how do you manage risks arising from Human Behaviour.

My take on it:-

a)    Make it a corporate policy
Ensure that all staffs sign on a document specifying their roles and responsibilities with corporate information.

b)    Make it known that big brother is watching

“WARNING”  this email is Information Rights Managed (IRM) and Data leakage Protected (DLP), and the sensitivity setting is “CORPORATE USE ONLY”. As mentioned, a number of IRM technologies allow you to monitor unauthorized information leakage and trigger a warning should the mail be forwarded beyond the corporate domain.

But seriously, if your staffs are bent on selling corporate information; there’s nothing that can stop the employee from taking a picture off the monitor; or even scribbling it down on a piece of paper.

c)     Be a great company, with a purpose, manned by good people

That trumps any security tool out there in the market.

Happy New Year!

Tony Moore

brisbanetimes.com.au senior reporter

Furious staff unions have lodged a formal objection with Brisbane City Council over its handling of plans to outsource 50 information technology jobs overseas.

The Australian Services Union says the plans are in direct breach of an enterprise bargaining agreement, which states staff whose work could be outsourced must be given enough information to build a business case to bid for the work themselves.

The council has confirmed it plans to outsource IT jobs in three work areas – help desk, project services and administration – but a spokesman for Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said a final decision on exactly where the jobs would be outsourced had not been made.

However ASU assistant secretary Jennifer Thomas said the council’s staff was horrified to learn in yesterday’s report that plans could be announced within weeks.

Ms Thomas said the council had only once before raised the idea of outsourcing jobs, to a firm called QPG, which was part-owned by the Local Government Association and founded by former Labor lord mayor Jim Soorley.

In 2008, Mr Soorley wanted the 156 local councils in Queensland to think of alternatives to having their own rates section, IT sections and their own payroll sections.

Ms Thomas said the council’s current proposal had her fearing the worst, because the United Kingdom structure of QPG was recently sold to India.

“It really has been a bit of a fizzer,” she said.

Ms Thomas said the council’s IT staff were now confused and demanding information.

“In their minds they have not been provided with a business case yet,” she said.

“…There was really only some rumours about it going to some international competitors before Christmas.

“So now, the immediate view on that from staff was that they could never compete with those type of prices and they all want to keep their jobs.”

Ms Thomas said, after lodging the formal complaint, the union would begin meeting with its members before deciding how to help them bid for their own jobs.

“If they have to compete with international rates with the work going overseas then that brings a new dimension into what we will have to do,” she said.

The council’s Finance and Administration chairman Julian Simmonds said staff and unions had been fully consulted about the plan.

Council opposition leader Milton Dick questioned why the council was considering outsourcing IT jobs to overseas firms “when there are hundreds of trained IT professionals within Brisbane who are more than capable of doing the job.”

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Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/it-pro/government-it/councils-job-outsourcing-plans-breach-eba-union-20130107-2ccy0.html#ixzz2HLbTJW3z

By Mark Atterby – Senior Staff Writer

The fast rising middle class in developing countries, the rapid pace of technology and innovation, smaller contracts and projects, as well as increasing shipping and fuels costs are just some of the factors shaping the future of BPO and outsourcing across the globe. As 2013 rapidly approaches predictions abound, about the death of the “traditional” outsourcing model. “The end of outsourcing as we know it”, maybe over dramatic, but in 2013 will the industry will continue undergoing significant changes to meet local and global economic challenges.

Wages increasing in China and India

The middle classes are growing in countries like India and China, where wages and standards of living are on the increase. For the last 10 years Chinese salaries have increased 15% per year. According to some sources the middle class in China is expected to expand to 600 million by 2020. Definitions of middle class can vary. One definition is an income above $10,000. Others say it is a household that owns an apartment and a car, or has enough money to eat out and take vacations. Either way they are a force to be reckoned with.

Europe and North America are re-shoring manufacturing

This increase in off-shored labour costs combined with the weakened currencies of most Western economies as well as continuing increases in fuel and transportation costs, is encouraging companies in North America and Europe to question the value of offshoring their operations. Bloomberg recently reported, “Manufacturers, including Caterpillar (CAT), Ford (F), and General Electric (GE), are starting to move some production back to the U.S., although it’s still just a trickle. The two factors that drove companies overseas, cheap fuel and labour, no longer favour far-flung ventures.”[i]

Australia, with its high dollar, low unemployment and high real estate costs in metropolitan areas, may not experience, at least in the short term, what has been referred to as re-shoring. According to a recent report by the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research over a million Australian service sector jobs are expected to go overseas in the next few years.

Off-shoring isn’t just about cost

The burgeoning middle class in heavily populated countries such as China, India, Russia and Brazil represent the fastest growing markets in the world. Western firms are opening new branches in overseas markets, furthering the development of the middle class in those economies. Blurring the line between offshoring work and creating employment to service new markets, (proximity to market) many organisations view outsourcing as a means to expand and grow in developing markets.

Outsourcing also acts as an enabler for investment in growth and innovation for a variety of industries including telecommunications, retail, insurance, healthcare and travel, according to the Everest Group. The money saved by outsourcing on non-core business activities frees up the availability of scarce capital, providing quality talent, innovative practices and management bandwidth.  Theses savings can be ploughed back into growth initiatives in the home market as well as overseas markets.

Pressures on the Australian economy

The slowing of the mining boom is expected to put pressure on the Australian economy, which has been buffered from the global financial crisis through buoyant exports for commodities. Matched with the poor productivity of the broader economy, Australia needs to look at restructuring its economy to take advantage of the opportunities in Asia.

The RBA deputy governor Philip Lowe was recently quoted, ”Over the medium term, whether or not Australia fully capitalises on the opportunities that the growth of Asia presents depends critically upon the ability of both workers and businesses to adapt, and to build and use our human capital,” Mr. Lowe said. ”If we are to take advantage of these opportunities, a highly skilled and outward-looking workforce is critical,” he said.[ii]

The outsourcing and BPO industries can play an important and positive role in restructuring the Australian economy now that the mining boom is slowing.

Innovate or whither

Rather than a vehicle to reduce costs outsourcing will continue to reshape itself as a methodology to add strategic value and assist organisations to innovate and exploit emerging trends and opportunities.

Jag Dalal, COP and IAOP’s Managing Director of Thought Leadership highlights how technology, including managing data and analytics, social media and cloud computing, will drive outsourcing growth in various segments, offering greater flexibility, cost-effectiveness and insight into the business processes being managed.

Voice and email are declining as communication channels for customers, being replaced by self-service web and mobile applications and social media. As social media and mobile application become common communication channels for consumers to interact with businesses, companies who outsource their customer service will need to pay greater attention to social media trends and customer responses. Rapid response to social media complaints and problems will be essential for firms who want to remain competitive and relevant.

In 2013 governance will be more important than ever to predict and hedge against risks, but more importantly to ensure strategic value is built and developed in the relationship for the benefit of both provider and buyer. In developing new contracts, expect increased awareness and involvement in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Fair wages and labour practices, environmental impact, local community support and sustainability, will move to the forefront of engagements between providers and customers, as prestigious brands do not want to be associated with polluting ‘sweat shops’.

Top IAOP 10 Outsourcing Trends for 2013

Handling Risk - Government regulations will continue to be enforced and companies will need to adapt and find better, more efficient ways to handle compliance, legal and financial risk.

Governance Grows - Governance will be more important than ever to predict against risks. Expect to see many more different sourcing arrangements than in the past.

Real Deal Partnerships - Buyers and sellers will move beyond talking about partnering and actually achieve it.

Social Responsibility & Impacts - Corporate social responsibility — including fair wages and labour practices, environmental impact, local community support and sustainability — will move to the forefront of engagements between providers and customers.

Professional Certification and Talent - Having employees with the right credentials, expertise and talents will continue to be important in the coming year.

Data Security - Security of data as well as availability of systems and networks will remain a major issue for customers and providers.

Technology - Trends in technology, including managing data, social media and cloud computing, will drive outsourcing growth in various segments.

Alternative Energy - Driven by rising costs and service interruptions, providers with large data and telecommunications centres may look to other energy sources, such as solar or wind.

“Rising utility costs, interruption of service due to natural or man-made events as well as environmental impact of accessing natural resources will drive outsourcing providers to consider alternate sources for their energy consumption,” predicts Jag Dalal, COP and IAOP’s Managing Director of Thought Leadership.

Analytics - Analytics will be the key revenue driver for rapidly commoditizing BPO businesses.

Rural Sourcing - Outsourcing in U.S. state and local government will continue to accelerate given the continued sluggish economy and dwindling tax base, increasing demand for rural sourcing.

For the full report, read “Trends & Forecasts” in the Nov./Dec. issue of IAOP’s PULSE magazine at www.IAOP.org/PULSE.

[1] http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/for-some-us-manufacturers-time-to-head-home-02022012.html

[1] http://www.theage.com.au/business/that-makes-it-80000-jobs-sent-offshore-how-many-more-20121009-27bd0.html

By Nate Goodman

IBM asked CEOs all over the world what they believe is going to happen with social media for the next three to five years. What they had to say was revealing.

“For the first time in my career, I feel old. People in their 20s work and think about this social stuff in a different way,” a U.K. insurance industry CEO shared. “We’re using it as a way of connecting with friends and socializing; the kids coming up are using it as a way of life.”

But do most CEOs acknowledge what is happening with social?

Over half of the CEOs “expect social channels to be a primary way of engaging customers.”

That’s an important way to look at social. Marketers are constantly looking atoutbound social efforts. But listening to what customers are saying about your brand on social channels is critical. Here the CEOs have it right. Your company better be listening to what customers are saying on social channels, because customers aren’t saying things anywhere else.

A U.S. CEO from the financial vertical said,

“We’re approaching the stage when almost everyone will have to figure out how to use social to conduct business successfully.”

Interestingly, views on social media among the CEOs vary widely across industries. Here’s the percentage of CEOs in these verticals that expect social media to be a key channel for customer engagement.

Education 77%

Telecommunications 73%

Retail 72%

Insurance 51%

Electronics 52 %

Industrial products 34%

CEOs recognize social media’s real value as a source of insight and a means of collaboration.

“We use social media less as a marketing or distribution channel and more as a knowledge platform to obtain information about customers,” said an Insurance CEO from Switzerland.

Along the lines of the B2B market, a U.K. CEO from the media and entertainment vertical pointed out,

“Our B2B customers are also consumers of social media; you cannot split the two.”

What that means is that whether you are using social media to promote and monitor your brand or not, your customers are. It’s not your choice. You can’t opt-out of social.

In the words of one Australian healthcare industry CEO, “Social media has grown faster than industry knowledge on how to use it.” And a life sciences industry CEO from Switzerland admitted, “We are all scared to death about social media within our industry. We want to start with it. But we’re all just looking at each other, and nothing material is happening.”

By far the most definitive, interesting statement contained in this study is that as a method of engaging with customers, CEOs predict

Social media will be bigger than websites, call centers, and channel partners, and become the number-two way to engage customers (the number one way is still sales reps).

Although these leaders have the right idea about social, the study has one major flaw. It didn’t ask what CEOs feel is the most effective method of driving revenue. Kind of an important thing don’t you think? Although you might believe social media is the greatest thing ever, and that social will be a major revenue driver in the next 3-5 years, the reality is that social media’s impact on actual revenue sucks compared to email marketing.  When it comes to actually marketing to customers, email dwarfs social in terms of customer preference of communication channels*. My point? Social media is great, I use it myself. Just don’t get too cocky about it.

View the infographic

Nate Goodman

Nate Goodman (@ThoughtReach) is a software designer with over 11 years in the  email marketing, social media, and CRM space.  Nate is known for two things: sipping Fair Trade coffee all day long and not being able to keep a straight face after playing a practical joke on his co-workers.

By Richard Branson

Many a Chairman will say he looks at his company like a family and then acts in a way which makes you glad you’re not related!

I have always pushed Virgin companies to walk the talk on that and ensure everybody feels part of the team.

Colleagues should take care of each other, have fun, celebrate success, learn by failure, look for reasons to praise not to criticise, communicate freely and respect each other.

This is doubly important for the Virgin Galactic team in Mojave, where we are busy creating the world’s first commercial spaceline. The team spirit and sense of togetherness instilled in such a young, innovative group is really inspiring to see.

My daughter Holly and I visited Mojave recently and, as well getting hands-on with the business of building spaceships, were able to spend time with some really inspiring people. Even in a space-age company aiming for the stars, it is your staff who are the key  to success.

If you’re here on LinkedIn in search of jobs, they may just have a space for you on one of the most exciting teams in the universe. Head over to Virgin Galactic to see if you will boldly go for any of their current vacancies.

And remember, we’re all only human – at least until Virgin Galactic start employing life-forms from other planets!

By Deepti Krishnan

The Book Industry Study Group’s research has shown a massive acceleration of e-books adoption by consumers in the final quarter of 2010, and the start of 2011, when e-books took off in earnest. The exhibit titled “% Book Buyers Who Purchased An E-book (US)” illustrates that for the remainder of 2011, the growth of e-book buyers slowed down.

Digitization will increase as readers increasingly turn to mobile devices to consume their reading content. The panelists on the Global 50 CEO panel at the Frankfurt Book Fair held in October 2012 agreed that eBooks are well on their way to change the way the publishing industry operates.

As the world enters the digital age, transitioning from a centuries-old tradition of print, most publishers continue to turn to third-party content technology partners for support. The fourth annual eBook survey from Aptara found that more than half (54%) of e-book publishers rely on a third-party for the majority of e-book content conversion and production. The breakdown of drivers for outsourcing e-book production by segment is given in the exhibit titled “What is the main driver for using an external technology partner?”. The primary reason, a majority (55%) of publishers continue to outsource work is the lack of internal capabilities and resources, followed by scalability (17%) as external partners can more easily scale to handle larger volumes.

According to latest industry estimates, while total book sales revenues fell by 2.5% in 2011, increase in sales of e-books resulted in overall unit sales of books, including print and e-books, increasing by 3.4%. The sales penetration of e-books in the trade segment has been striking. E-books comprised 15% of all sales in the trade segment in 2011, compared to 6% in 2010. This helped total sales in the trade segment to reach USD 13.97 bn, an increase of 0.5% from the previous year.

The bread and butter of the Outsourced Publishing Services (OPS) industry has historically been the Scientific/Technical/Medical (STM) segment. But OPS providers should gear up to address trade publishers looking to outsource e-book production. More than half of publishers’ content is “digital waste”, as 65% of e-book publishers have converted less than half of their legacy titles, or their backlist, into e-books, making the outsourcing potential for e-book production in the trade segment higher. When targeting trade publishers, OPS providers need to have a system in place to address their pain points: capability and scalability. More than half of trade publishers (57%) cite lack of internal capabilities as their driver for outsourcing e-book production, though scalability is another significant factor (16%).

Leading OPS providers, such as QBend (a subsidiary of S4Carlisle) and Newgen have already launched proprietary tools to convert easily to e-book formats. SNAP (Search, Navigate, Assemble, Publish) from QBend lets publishers create custom e-books using their drag and drop interface; SILK from Newgen allows publishers to convert PDF files into ePUBs without requiring proficiency in HTML.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair 2012, Datamatics launched their own product for an easy PDF to e-book conversion experience with the “i-DPUB”. Even smaller providers, such as SwiftProsys and EasyPress unveiled their online platform to enable e-book conversion.

Other OPS providers need to emulate these leaders to be competitive, and ensure that they don’t lose out on this potentially lucrative revenue stream.

- Deepti Krishnan, Analyst, ValueNotes Sourcing Practice