Are we preparing our students for a globalized job market?

More and more discussion are held (outside this blog...) about outsourcing, offshoring, nearshoring and so on - but has our education system taken this into account? On the policy level, this might be the case - but in practice? Looking at curriculum frameworks in both, Higher Education as well as vocational training there is more talk than implementation...
A critical analysis on IT curricula and some potential solutions here: A paper on a global technology competency framework. It is a basis for discussion, e.g., in the IS community, not a proposal - suggestions and ideas are more than welcome!

Culture Profiles

A recent article about Culture Profiles to facilitate knowledge exchange in a global environment: Some ideas on how to facilitate the process of cultural awareness - it's about pretty simple stuff: getting to know about others, reflecting your own cultural background and showing it on the web and in networks...Feedback more than welcome!

Please note, this is a draft version!

Downlad the paper

Web 2.0 - is it truly global?

The next generation of internet applications is discussed widely - in friends networks, in business networks, for enterprises - but this collaboration does not seem to be truly global...
Wikipedia is mainly English speaking, other networks also are mainly in English and otherwise country-specific...so where are the good examples of truly global networks and maybe even collaborative networks? Which are the aspects which make a global web 2.0 environment successful - still looking for good practises and samples!!!

World Telecom and Information Society Day

Well, there seem to be days for everything whether it is mothers day, valentines day or world standards day...but this one seems to be of particular interest:
Ban Ki-Moon has addressed the issue of access to information globally: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=26751&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

His address includes the necessity for inclusion and access - and he specifically addresses researchers to achieve progress in this. My personal opinion is that the variety of global open education projects will definitely contribute towards better accessibility - but there is a need of harmonization and federation of existing offers...well, I will keep posting on global education & knowledge matters...just a good example for accessible open resources: The Global Learning Objects Brokered Exchange (GLOBE) - here is an article on interoperability for repositories: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january08/ceri/01ceri.html

More to follow...

WSIS Follow Up

"Real" global activities on the information society are rather rare these days. In many cases, the Western world initiates events which are supposed to be "global" with a lack of input from developing countries...however, there are some events which should be observed quite closely-

WSIS Follow Up: The 2nd World Summit on the Information Society was held in Tunis in 2005 - it was quite an impressive event, bringing together stakeholders across the globe. But does it really have an impact? Well, the decision of the summit which cause most attention was about the internet domain administration but there are a number of activities which deserve some attention.

Especially the fields "access to information and knowledge" and "e-learning" are quite interesting - I recommend to check the activities on http://www.itu.int/wsis/follow-up/index.html
At least this might be helpful to see how other countries deal with information and corresponding systems as well as policies.

Lets see what is next on the agenda....

Global Reports and public perception

In a recent discussion with several colleagues, we have discussed how to explore a "new country", meaning that you start to work together with other people in a project / team / collarboration. Well, this is not exact research but those were some of the strategies:

• I ask people who have already been there
• I check travel guides and cultural guides
• I just browse the internet for information sources
• I consult experts and consultants
• I hire an expert
• I will find out once I get there
• No strategy

Well, is this enough to be prepared? How do we get "the right information"? One strategy we discussed in particular was browsing comparisons and global reports - and this seems to determine the main attitudes and perceptions about a country.
Just some examples:
World Economic Forum: The Global IT Report or the Global Competitiveness Report
OECD: Education at a glance and the PISA studies
Other Sources like the often discussed E-Learning Readiness Ranking (2003).

Well, those reports and indicators were mainly written for strategic or political decision, so how can they influence personal views on a country or even influence people's perception. They reduce information and aggregate into indicators. This might be correct for the purpose of decision making but it is quite confusing for individuals buildung their perception and opinions on countries about it. However, it is rather obvious that many views are built in today's world on reduced information, on stereotypes and on information which does not fit the purpose.

So, what is the conclusion? I do not suggest to NOT read those reports any more ;-) but I am strongly suggesting to not build an opinion based on those items of information. Unfortunately, there are very few sources which help us to identify issues which influence our project work and cooperations.

So where to find the "Global Cooperation Guide"? Where to find the "Global Cooperation Readiness Report"? Well, if they exist, let me know...I guess that those dimensions (which are the main drivers for individuals and organisations) will have to be developed more and more in the future. Interstingly, reports like the above mentioned competitiveness and IT reports neglect those factors (e.g., how are individuals capable of acting in a global workplace? how do organisations act in the global marketplace). And guidelines published (e.g. the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises) are quite insufficient and do not help organisations and people to get prepared.
From my point of view, these aspects determine the success or failure of organisations and individuals. So, those reports will have to carefully check the methodology and take those factors and interrelations into account!

So, if you find reliable sources for a "cooperation readiness report", please let us know...

My official homepage

After settling in Jyväskylä, I have finally set up my homepage, including the "more serious" stuff like teaching, publications and research competencies.


And here it is: http://users.jyu.fi/~japawlow/

Awareness tools for global teams

Awareness seems to be one of the crucial factors to coordinate global teams - I have just come across a series of tools which seem promising in this context. Anita Sarma from the University of California is working on a variety of those tools, for example world view: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~asarma/research.shtml#world

How can those tools help? One assumption is that once you are aware where your colleauges are and what they are doing, you might perform better...I am quite convinced that awareness tools can support coordination and communication but I think that one aspect is ignored: CULTURE again...it is obviously helpful to visualize locations and work items but it should be connected to the meaning of location and work items - how do people handle tasks, what are the differences in working culture? In my opinion, those tools will create much more impact once they include cultural factors!

Global Text - Initiative for Development

Quite an interesting initiative is global text, developing text books and teaching materials for developing countries: http://www.globaltext.org/
Well, the approach is very pragmatic and useful and highly ambitious (look at the potential topics and you'll find something where you can contribute) - I would just expect to be more flexible in the sense of cross-publishing...I still believe that (electronic) learning objects and books can co-exist...

Open Content on Global Information Systems

Quite a few materials are available as Open Content (you can use it as long as you cite & inform me):
www.slideshare.net/jan.pawlowski
and some more (also the same like above) here: www.slidestar.de/

GLIS Blog - Research News on Global Information Systems

Well, why starting another blog on information systems - well, I started this blog to provide some information for colleagues and students regarding Global Information Systems. Anyway, there are not too many reliable sources of information on the topic...so, let's see how this works out...

well, as a starting point on culture I can always recommend http://www.engrish.com/

On the first site, this might look funny but there are many things to consider when looking at it...why do we make fun of language issues? Why is English the lingua franca in many communities? How can we express ourself in business, education and leisure? Well, more on this to come soon...