Rafael Maranon's Blog

MIT Problem-Solvers in The Horn of Africa by Theodore Golfinopoulos

admin — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:50:34 +0000

Aug 21, 2011

Problem-Solvers: The Horn of Africa Needs You

Right now, there is a famine in East Africa, and especially in the Horn of Africa, a region of the world covering territory in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia. Conditions in Somalia are particularly dire. It is a fact that many thousands of people have died of starvation, with children comprising a large fraction of the grim toll. International aid organizations are working heroically to combat the famine, while refugees exhibit heroism and resilience in their flight toward help. But the present surge in international aid is a short-term response to a long-term problem in a region which has seen terrible famines before. The drought, which has precipitated this most recent episode, is not the only enemy. Indeed, the refugee camps set up in Kenya, Ethiopia, and elsewhere, now overflowing, were already filled even before the current crisis. There are basic challenges in the Horn of Africa, related to infrastructure, education, health, and regional politics, which must be addressed if a lasting solution is to be found. Here at MIT, we pride ourselves on being problem-solvers. No doubt readers of this blog are also problem solvers, probably with an idealistic bent. For those who are interested in turning empathy into action, here is a bit more information about the situation, since the first step in treating the disease is identifying the cause: A recent article from the BBC reporting from a refugee camp in Kenya: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14481103 An excellent interview with Harvard Professor Robert Paarlberg describing the decline in US contribution to long-term development projects in Africa, and particularly in the Horn of Africa http://www.npr.org/2011/08/14/139620268/helping-africa-grow-its-own-food-a-declining-effort MIT students interesting in learning techniques to contribute to development efforts in the region might find helpful courses offered by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (Course 11), including 11.701: Introduction to International Development and Planning (OCW: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/urban-studies-and-planning/11-701-introduction-to-international-development-planning-fall-2010/index.htm). Another excellent academic resource at MIT is D-Lab - read more about the wonderful work done by this group, and ways to get involved, at their website here: http://d-lab.mit.edu/ And for those interested in contributing to (or seeking employment with) aid organizations: 1. Mercy Corps is one organization which addresses both short- and long-term issues, particularly those relevant to small-scale farmers in the region. Here is a description of some of their work: http://www.mercycorps.org/countries/ethiopia http://www.mercycorps.org/hornofafricahungercrisis http://www.mercycorps.org/countries/somalia 2. Another group is ACDI/VOCA (Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance) - they list their projects in Africa here http://www.acdivoca.org/852571DC00681414/ID/ourwork_africa There are many other excellent institutions seeking to help people in the Horn succeed - if you would like to write about them, please add a comment below. I’d also like to plug the excellent work of a graduate student currently in Norway, on the subject of machine translation of the Somali language - check out his blog herehttp://donchaknow.com/blog/tags/somali/ (If you’re interested in contributing to machine translation efforts, then drop a line via a comment below.) This blog has a small voice, but it joins a large chorus shouting for responsible action. Remembering, of course, as the cliche goes, actions speak louder than words.

ShareThis

Social Games – Zynga in Facebook and Sega in Video Arcade

admin — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:50:08 +0000

I have recently made a brief immersion into the social games developed by Zynga. FarmVille and Cityville are the most popular one. More than 60 millions of Facebook's users play this game everyday around the world.

I have to admit that last week was my first time playing Farmville. I have been among the first four millions Facebook lead users when I joined in August 2005 while attending Rowan University, NJ. Also I have contributed to increase adoption of Facebook among my network in Europe (the German copy StudiVZ never convinced me, and the Spanish Tuenti did not allow me to interact to my international network of friends). However, I am asking myself: why a $800M company like Zynga that has been running since January 2007 and has engaged almost a 10% of the Facebook population did not engaged me as well? I consider myself a videogame person, and social as well. In fact, I grew up in my hometown in south Spain, playing at home in the early 80's the Pong Console and later the Atari 2006 Jr, and also socializing with school friends while competing to get the battle records in Arcade games such as Green Beret, Tetris, Golden Axe, Kung-Fu Master, OutRun, Double Dragon, etc. Although we also played with traditional social games such as table football, spinning top and pinball, my generation was in loved with the new video interaction. Most probably this lack of adoption of new social games in certain demographic groups is because companies on this industry underestimate the power of social technology to change human behavior. I would pay more than $50 a month if a company provides me with a social game that help me to improve my Russian, German and Chinese languages skills. If, beside allowing me to interact with other people having fun and updated information about my network, those social educational games help me to improve my health habits (see Dailyfeat or Medhelp) or professional growth, I will pay even more (or maybe my employer will pay for it!)

Technology has changed the way we socialize, and now that Facebook is on its way to be soon bigger than Boeing, it is time to consider this kind of human interaction very seriously. Society has already changed the way indiduals have fun by using social technologies. How much time we are going to wait to prepare our educational systems and organizations in order to change the way we learn and work? If during the 20th century technology assisted our muscles (energy, transportation and architecture are already achieved challenges), I am convinced that during the 21st century technology will assist mainly our brain: Social Technology for collaboration has already taken off!

... I forgot to mention that the arcade game City Connection changed completely my life when I was 7 years old: since then I always wanted to travel around the world and learn about great cities, people and cultures! Enjoy recalling those video games that shaped our life... and think about what kind of tools need the kids of today

City Connection: Tetris: GREEN BERET: Golden Axe: Kung-Fu Master: Double Dragon: OutRun: Atari's Home Pong console:

ShareThis

SDMs launch MIT Social Media Club

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:23:17 +0000

By Rafael Marañón-Abreu, SDM’10, and Azamat Abdymomunov, SDM’10. This article was published in the MIT SDM Pulse, Spring 2011 Editor’s note: Rafael Marañón-Abreu and Azamat Abdymomunov founded the MIT Social Media Club in September 2010. As of this writing, the club has 70 active members, including MIT students, faculty, and staff MIT’s System Design and Management Program (SDM) has not only provided the advantages that we expected from a world-class program in engineering and management—it has also given us the opportunity tlearn about emerging technologies that can help people, corporations, and government work more effectively. Within this realm, social media stood out for us as an area worth further exploration. We cofounded the MIT Social Media Club to build connections with others at SDM and across the Institute and work collectively to understand the newest channels of communication—from communities such as Facebook and LinkedIn to blogs, Twitter feeds, and YouTube. As mid-career professionals returning to university, we believed that it was important to investigate social media and understand how to put them to work for individuals and organizations. We were surprised to learn that there was no social media club at MIT, so we decided to start one. We believed this could help us maximize our education and share past and present thoughts and experiences, while visualizing and creating our individual futures and simultaneously giving back to SDM and the MIT communities. Founding the MIT Social Media Club was hard work, but applying many of the concepts we learned in our SDM courses helped us to execute this exciting startup. For example, our lessons from classes in system architecture, systems thinking, technology strategy, and project management helped us to look at how social media functions in the contemporary environment. We discovered that social media is not only useful for job hunting, but can help us better understand the dynamics among talented people in an organization, as well as how learning teams are constituted and flourish. We believe it can offer a competitive advantage in global business, help governments reinvent themselves, and help academics expand and evolve their capacity for teaching and research. In the MIT Social Media Club, we encourage our members—including PhD, master’s, and Sloan students, as well as others at MIT—to understand and get handson experience using social media tools and to explore how they can be used to close the gap between an organization’s senior leaders, front-line employees, partner companies, customers, and other stakeholders. In the same way, social media can be used to build bridges between faculty members and students, and among researchers from different universities and countries. Already we have come up with a couple of frameworks that we used in teaching an Independent Activities Period course this past January, ESD.942 Social Media: Trust, Information Seeking & Systems Innovation in the Digital Age. This class was sponsored by Dr. Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, who led the first multidisciplinary research program created to understand the behavior of the 45+ population, including how the older population makes decisions using social media. Although still very new, the MIT Social Media Club has held several successful events, including workshops on how to increase your digital footprint and how to use social media in a job search. This spring we’re planning a series of social media research tours, which will allow club members to visit different departments and labs at MIT and elsewhere to explore how social media are being used in the workplace. We would like to extend an invitation to SDM industry partners to get involved. For more information, visit the MIT Social Media Club online at socialmedia.mit.edu

ShareThis

Verizon and Coca-Cola Perspectives on Enterprise Transformation

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:33:00 +0000

Warning: getimagesize(http://incose.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Enterprise-Transformation-MIT.png) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found in /home/cartaya/rafamara.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/rss-image-feed/image-rss.php on line 185

Warning: Division by zero in /home/cartaya/rafamara.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/rss-image-feed/image-rss.php on line 187

Warning: Division by zero in /home/cartaya/rafamara.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/rss-image-feed/image-rss.php on line 197

This morning the MIT’s Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development (CTPID),in collaboration with the new Journal of Enterprise Transformation (JET), featured enterprise transformation thought leaders who shared their insights on leading and sustaining transformation efforts. Keynote speakers Prof. Michael D. Oliff, Author of the Transformation In The Age of Turbulence, and Mr. Anthony J. (Tony) DiMaso, Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Development at Verizon, addressed a multidisciplinary audience at MIT’s Sloan School of Management on the topic of Enterprise Transformation. Dr. Oliff delighted us with a very passionate speech on the importance of fostering a corporate “stretch culture” that supports taking big steps in culture change and business process improvement while maintaining a sense of customer satisfaction. Next, Mr. Dimaso provided deep insight into Verizon’s corporate strategy for growth through value creation in the fast changing and highly competitive wireless market environment served by the Telecom industry. The dynamics associate with organic growth and talent management as part of the transformation process, sounds as an interesting topic that Mr. Dimaso pointed out during his participation on this event. During the panel discussion, moderated by John S. Carroll, Co-Director Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI), we were inspired by Mr. John Oehlke, Vice President of Business Transformation at Coca-Cola North America. Mr. Oehlke related an early goal of Coca-Cola company, to keep Coke “within an arm’s reach of desire.” While expanding internationally in early of 20th century, Coca-Cola company strove to allow US troops to keep enjoying the soda while on missions abroad. Now, in order to keep on the leadership of the market, the company experienced important transformation while maintaining that same core mission of easy access to their myriad product line. However, in my opinion, the same value persists of delighting their customers, whether with Coke or with bottled water. Providing academic insights to the panel, Prof. Deborah Nightingale, Director Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development (CTPID) at MIT, spoke on the utility that a framework based on -ilities (very similar to the one we study in our course 16.855/ESD.38 Enterprise Architecting) brings to execution of concept generation and selection of the potential change targets in a enterprise transformation process. All of which begins with corporate strategy in a transformation in order to avoid diminishing return. Keeping customers satisfaction high while their values are constantly changing is a challenge for many organizations. The ability to architect the change by having a proper assessment of the current view, by projecting the desired goal and evaluating potential options is something that corporations must practice in order to keep their business units constantly learning. I am very interested to keep learning about how Enterprise Architecture can enable companies to capitalize on opportunities during recession. Definitely I am still exploring how system dynamics and a better understanding of social media tools empowers employees, customers, and transformation leaders to facilitate the enterprise transformation. - Thanks to Victor Piper for the edition of this blog post. Check Victor's blog for his comments about the event. MIT Tech TV MIT Tech TV

Moderator:

Prof. John Carroll Co-Director Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI)

Panelists:

Anthony J. (Tony) DiMaso Vice President Corporate Strategy & Development Verizon

John Oehlke Vice President Business Transformation Coca-Cola North America

Prof. Michael D. Oliff Author Transformation In The Age of Turbulence

Prof. Deborah Nightingale Director Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development (CTPID)

Date: Thursday, March 10, 2011 Time: 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Loca on: E51-‐325

ShareThis

Workshop: Your very own MIT domain blog

admin — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:42:39 +0000

Set up your MIT domain blog and configure WordPress blog. Learn blogging best practice Thank you very much all of you for attending today our Workshop: Your very own MIT domain blog. Congratulations to all of you: Today MIT has more than 25 new bloggers sharing owns experiences! Special thanks to Victor Piper, new Chair of the Industrial Relations Committee (IRC) at the System Design and Management (SDM) Program at MIT for taking the lead to organize the event. Thank also to the MIT Social Media club for the co-sponsorship of the workshop. Thank to Ali Almossawi and Braulio Fernandes for their valuable help assisting participants. As promised, find here the link to today's workshop Presentation (pdf) and also Screenshot for blog installation at MIT Server.

MIT Tech TV I am very concern that some of you did not finalize the installation because some possible conflicts in the MIT server due to many request at the same time, but I hope you could follow the steps and finalize at home. In order to assist you with the completion of the installation and also to follow up our workshop using social media I have created a Facebook group. Please join us, and post your new blog URL so we can all add to our blogroll, and also start reading and learning from your blog posts! ------------

Event: Workshop: Your very own MIT domain blog

When: Friday, February 18 · 4:00pm - 5:00pm Where: MIT 1-390 Consider this very worthwhile investment in knowledge, network, and brand building. Bring your computer and MIT certificate installed IMPORTANT - For planning purposes if you will attend on Friday please signup here Event co-sponsored by SDM IRC and Social Media Club

ShareThis