Ozzie, Baseball and the World of Social Media

Major League Baseball now has to deal with wonderful world of social media. One of their managers, the White Sox’s Ozzie Guillen was tossed out of a recent baseball game for arguing with an umpire, and then went into the clubhouse and tweeted about it. Ozzie, who is no novice when it comes to getting thrown out of games, is cutting new social media ground for the business of baseball.

Baseball is a wonderful lesson for all of us…it was once America’s game, but thanks to incredibly long games, World Series games that start and end way too late at night, and a season that keeps starting earlier and ending later in the year(can you say baseball games in November?)…they’ve lost key fans to football. Of course if I was in charge of any of the four big-time sports in the US (baseball, football, basketball and hockey) I’d be terrified of the future. If you want to have some fun, ask someone who is in the age range of 16-25 how many complete games of any of those four sports have they watched recently. The answer will be very low (maybe zero) and very different from what the response would have been twenty years ago. These sports need to find a way to engage the younger audience, because without it, 20 years from now there will be half filled stadiums ...and the only games being broadcast on TV will be video games.

Important Bird Areas and more

The ever-so-fleeting greens of early spring along a property boundary at West Campus.

This time of year, we used to say "our breeding birds are coming back"... our birds. Now we call them neotropical migrants, an acknowledgement that warblers, tanagers, orioles, birds of prey, shorebirds and many others are of course, not our birds, but denizens of the greater planet.
Removing personal ownership from the picture, however intangible it was, opens up new and improved ways of thinking about wildlife conservation. In the Americas, habitat preservation efforts now exist from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.

From Alaska's Attu Island at the tip of the Aleutian chain to Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Highlands National Park to Brazil's protected coastal areas in its eastern state of Pernambuco and south to Argentina's Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, the entire American continent, east to west, north to south, is dotted with IBA's. Important Bird Areas.

To quote directly from BirdLife International's web page: "IBAs are priority areas for the conservation of globally threatened, range restricted and congregatory birds." In addition to this worldwide scope, there are numerous local programs which raise awareness of the shared nature of habitat protection along migratory routes.

Rio de Rapaces (River of Raptors) in Veracruz Mexico is now celebrating 25 years of raptor study. Shorebird Sister Schools, a program developed by educators throughout the Americas in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is another longstanding organization dedicated to migratory bird awareness. Also read Connecticut Audubon's recent blog post about one individual shorebird, Hope, a Whimbrel.

The Smithsonian Institution's Migratory Bird Center, among many others, has raised awareness of the importance of protecting tropical habitats through its championing of shade-grown coffee plantations.

And now back to Connecticut. Thanks to scientists and citizens throughout the state, we can boast twenty seven of our own Important Bird Areas - protected for very specific reasons, as per IBA protocol. Frequently cited are the following: Connecticut endangered and threatened species; rare, unique or representative habitat; exceptional concentrations of migratory landbirds.

The nearest one is right here in West Haven, at Sandy Point. It's a tiny piece of land that somebody cared about because it was important habitat for a few rare birds. I don't know about you, but I think that's what it's all about - thinking globally and acting locally.
Now, the fishermen who go for blues in New Haven harbor rub shoulders with the birders who go for Piping Plovers and Least Terns.
Yeah, that's what it's all about.

New bird on campus!!

This is our enterprising Song Sparrow, who, when finding the feeder empty, eats from the suet cake above.

West Campus bird list for the week of April 18 to 21:

Double-crested Cormorant (red is returning migrants) This one was a fly-over
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Harrier - a fly-over
American Kestrel - a female alone Monday through Wednesday, then a male joined her on Thursday, and they've been hanging out in the vicinity of the nest box - How cool is THAT??!! - we'll keep our fingers crossed

Ring-billed Gull
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker - investigating last years' nest cavity

American Crow
Fish Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin - gathering nesting material
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Dark-eyed Junco (blue is departing migrants)

Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Red-winged Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinus - a new species for West Campus!! Lynn found it in a mixed group of blackbirds and starlings - follow the link to read all about this not-so-common species of blackbird

Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

So, as you can see, we came crashing through the 30-species goal this week, with a total of 38.

Ralph Martire Slide Show 4-14-11

To view Ralph Martire's power point slides go to our wiki, by clicking here. His main point was that the problem with the $79 billion deficit in our pension fund is a revenue, not a spending problem. There is little fat to cut out of our state budget. The only way to solve the deficit problem is to bring Illinois up to speed in tax revenue. For more, see the website of Ralph's organization, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability www.ctbaonline.org

Party Like It's Well...You Know

With apologies to Mr. Prince, apparently on the left coast they are getting ready to party like it’s 1999. Again. Or as it was once put, “it’s déjà vu all over again.” Take a look at the article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Monica Langley, In Silicon Valley, Investors Are Jockeying Like It’s 1999.

While the article was right on target, I’m wondering why as a country we seem to be so inclined to go overboard on things. Think the last tech bubble when an investor honestly told me that “the old rules of investment didn’t apply anymore.” Or think of the recent housing bubble when everyone had to own two or three homes and TV shows were all over the “flippers.” Or the derivatives mess a few years previous. Hopefully this incarnation of growth in tech will be something different than the disaster it was the last couple times around and if not, there will be a couple of sock puppets around for people to buy and for those of us in colleges to talk about.

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN 2011

Sebanyak kurang lebih 50 anak jalanan di sekitar Semarang berkumpul di Rumah Singgah Satoe Atap pada Jumat,15 April 2011 lalu. Meskipun di sore itu sempat dilanda hujan deras namun tidak menyurutkan semangat mereka untuk menyambut kami,para volunteer kegiatan Books For Children yang terdiri dari anggota CCC (Communication Care Center) sebuah BSO (Badan Semi Otonom) dari Himpunan Mahasiswa Jurusan (HMJ) Ilmu Komunikasi FISIP Undip. Bertempat di Jalan Onta Raya no.6 Tanggul Indah,Banjir Kanal Timur,Rumah Singgah Satoe Atap tersebut menjadi ‘rumah kedua’ bagi anak-anak jalanan yang ada di sekitar Semarang,Satoe Atap merupakan salah satu bentuk kepedulian komunitas kumpulan mahasiswa yang kemudian membangun rumah singgah Satoe Atap untuk dijadikan sebagai tempat edukasi dan berbagi cerita satu sama lain.
Setelah selama kurang lebih 2 minggu sebelumnya tim volunteer mengumpulkan buku pelajaran dan buku bacaan untuk anak-anak yang masih layak untuk diberikan kepada anak-anak yang ada di Rumah Singgah Satoe Atap. Selain memberikan bantuan berupa beberapa buku dan keperluan belajar mengajar,Books For Children tahun ini berkesempatan juga untuk memberikan pelajaran melipat origami berbentuk burung. Dengan didampingi oleh para volunteer,semua anak-anak sangat antusias untuk mengikutinya. Anak-anak yang berada di rumah singgah tesebut berkisar antara 4-9 tahun dan semuanya berasal dari keluarga dengan keadaan ekonomi yang belom layak dan mencukupi sehari-hari mereka. Setelah pelajaran melipat origami anak-anak menuliskan harapan dan cita-cita mereka di sepucuk kertas yang kemudian ditempelkan pada salah satu sisi balon untuk kemudian diterbangkan ke langit,hal itu bertujuan untuk memotivasi mereka agar tidak takut untuk mempunyai mimpi dan harapan, supaya kedepannya mereka dapat lebih giat lagi dalam belajar dan meraih cita-cita yang dimiliki. Di akhir acara sebagai penutup para volunteer membagikan bingkisan yang berisi buku,alat tulis,susu,dan beberapa makanan ringan. Melihat keceriaan dan antusiasme mereka sore itu melengkapi kebahagiaan kami. Sebagai ketua penyelenggara dari acara ini,Irsya merasa anak-anak jalanan yang berada di Semarang belum mendapatkan perhatian yang layak dari pemerintah,ia mengaku bahwa dengan adanya kerjasama antara komunitas Satoe Atap dengan HMJ Ilmu Komunikasi ini dapat sangat berguna untuk menyalurkan bantuan baik secara material maupun moral kepada mereka yang sangat membutuhkan,seperti yang ada di Rumah Singgah Satoe Atap tersebut. Semoga kegiatan Books For Children yang sudah berjalan turun temurun ini dapat terus terlaksana setiap tahunnya.

Scott Adams on Getting an Education in Entrepreneurship

When I saw in the Friday Wall Street Journal that Scott Adams of Dilbert fame was writing about entrepreneurship, I didn’t know whether to cheer or run and hide. Given the treatment he’s given to corporate America, I was wondering if he would turn his talents next on us. But my fears were unfounded, so when you get the chance, take a look at the article, How to Get a Real Education. In the article, he gives some lessons that he’s learned along the way. From the article:

Combine Skills. The first thing you should learn in a course on entrepreneurship is how to make yourself valuable. It's unlikely that any average student can develop a world-class skill in one particular area. But it's easy to learn how to do several different things fairly well. I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The "Dilbert" comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That's how value is created.

Fail Forward. If you're taking risks, and you probably should, you can find yourself failing 90% of the time. The trick is to get paid while you're doing the failing and to use the experience to gain skills that will be useful later. I failed at my first career in banking. I failed at my second career with the phone company. But you'd be surprised at how many of the skills I learned in those careers can be applied to almost any field, including cartooning. Students should be taught that failure is a process, not an obstacle.

Find the Action. In my senior year of college I asked my adviser how I should pursue my goal of being a banker. He told me to figure out where the most innovation in banking was happening and to move there. And so I did. Banking didn't work out for me, but the advice still holds: Move to where the action is. Distance is your enemy.

Attract Luck. You can't manage luck directly, but you can manage your career in a way that makes it easier for luck to find you. To succeed, first you must do something. And if that doesn't work, which can be 90% of the time, do something else. Luck finds the doers. Readers of the Journal will find this point obvious. It's not obvious to a teenager.

Conquer Fear. I took classes in public speaking in college and a few more during my corporate days. That training was marginally useful for learning how to mask nervousness in public. Then I took the Dale Carnegie course. It was life-changing. The Dale Carnegie method ignores speaking technique entirely and trains you instead to enjoy the experience of speaking to a crowd. Once you become relaxed in front of people, technique comes automatically. Over the years, I've given speeches to hundreds of audiences and enjoyed every minute on stage. But this isn't a plug for Dale Carnegie. The point is that people can be trained to replace fear and shyness with enthusiasm. Every entrepreneur can use that skill.

Write Simply. I took a two-day class in business writing that taught me how to write direct sentences and to avoid extra words. Simplicity makes ideas powerful. Want examples? Read anything by Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett.

Learn Persuasion. Students of entrepreneurship should learn the art of persuasion in all its forms, including psychology, sales, marketing, negotiating, statistics and even design. Usually those skills are sprinkled across several disciplines. For entrepreneurs, it makes sense to teach them as a package.

Delighting Your Customer

Alec Stern, one of the founders of Constant Contact, the email marketing company for small businesses, is on campus today and speaking in three different entrepreneurship classes. Having just had lunch with Alec and after sitting in on his first class of the day, I know that our students are having a wonderful experience. Some of the lessons learned that he pointed out: 1. Think of the “why” of your business, rather than just the “what.” He specifically mentioned the Simon Sinek TED talks lecture on that topic. 2. Keep your business within the guardrails. When you’re growing your business, you’ll find people and money sources who are interested in moving your business…think of what’s important to your business and stay focused on it. 3. Delight the customer…Constant Contact’s attrition rate is amazingly small, even though many of their competitors are giving away something that CC charges for. They keep these customers because they are so good on customer service and by helping the entrepreneur learn how to really use their product. Plus, you can actually…and this is just amazing…talk to a real customer service person when you need help. New customers get a phone call from CC within the first 48 hours after signing up to make sure they really know how to take advantage of the full suite of product. 4. Give back. I was particularly pleased to hear Alec talk to our students about the importance of giving back to your school, your community and your country.

A Decline in Startups and Jobs

Here is an interesting post that has been getting some traffic today based on a paper that was written by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The paper discusses a real decline in start-ups which began right before the economic troubles started, making an argument that the high US unemployment rate is related to this lack of new ventures. The post from the NY Times is called A Decline in American Entrepreneurship by Catherine Rampell. From the post: American workers weren’t the only ones sacrificed by the Great Recession. Start-ups suffered, too. A new paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland tracks various measures of entrepreneurship over the last few years. It found that the number of businesses with employees — one indicator of entrepreneurial activity, like self-employment — took a nosedive. The population-adjusted number of businesses began falling even before the recession officially began in December 2007. But once the downturn hit, the number of businesses began falling precipitously. Some of that decline was because of business failures. But it was primarily tied to the lack of new business formation. The report’s author, Scott Shane, writes: 68,490 more businesses closed in 2009 than in 2007, an 11.6 percent increase in the business closure rate. But in 2009, 115,795 fewer employer businesses were founded than in 2007, a 17.3 percent decline in firm formation. The financial crisis held back new business formation in many other countries, too, as documented by this paper presented last fall at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Given these findings, it is perhaps no wonder that the job market is still so poor. Young businesses (not small businesses, despite what politicians may tell you) are the biggest engines of job growth. With so few businesses forming, hiring is staying very depressed. And the main problem in the job market is not layoffs — which are at a record low — but new hiring.