Blog dedicado a la formación en todos sus ámbitos: presencial, online, a distancia
Hola:
Una infografía que dice que los mexicanos usan Internet y Redes Sociales para buscar empleo. Vía
Un saludo
Los mexicanos usan Internet y Redes Sociales para buscar empleo
A site called “The Connectivist” tries to argue that U.S. broadband isn’t really as bad as it might look, but the site’s motives are questionable, since it’s a “partner” of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
This morning, I received a PR pitch for a site I’d never heard of, dubbed “The Connectivist.” More precisely, the pitch was to get me interested in the Connectivist’s infographic on just how darn good American broadband is, or rather, how much it’s improving.
The e-mail from the site’s shill admits (though the site itself leaves this out) that on a national level, the U.S. still comes up short of many other nations, but assures me that “if you compare relative geographical size to something more comparable, like individual states, then the story about how bad our internet speeds can be looks a bit different.”
Thus, the Connectivist tries to paint a rosy portrait of U.S. broadband by comparig America’s fastest states with the national rankings, presumably based on the misguided math that (1 U.S. State) = (1 Country Elsewhere in the World).
By that logic, the mysterious Connectivist — you’ll notice that no one actually takes a byline on this particular story — argues that if you broke out the highest-performing states and put them in the international list, they would occupy four of the top 10 spots, and 10 of the top 20.
But when you compare the 10 countries and 10 states (or rather, 9 states plus D.C.) to each other, it’s not an apples to apples comparison.
The populations of those nations range from around 2 million for Latvia all the way to more than 126 million for Japan. Taking out the two extremes, that still comes out to an average population of around 17.4 million.
But the U.S. locations injected into this list only have an average of around 4.3 million people, only a quarter of the number of people in the average for the 10 non-U.S. countries.
So this idea that you can simply compare America’s fastest states with the world’s fastest countries is utter nonsense.
The only way to do a true apples to apples comparison would be to look at the data for areas with similar conditions, including population size and area, which the Connectivist doesn’t do.
The site simply glosses over the fact that while broadband in the U.S. is improving, it’s still not a world leader in deploying high-speed Internet access to its citizens.
Even though nearly three-quarters of the U.S. has access to what the FCC currently defines as “broadband,” meaning at least 4Mbps downstream, that’s still not a high enough percentage to get it into the top 10 globally. In fact, that percentage barely puts the U.S. in the 40 of all nations.
Likewise, only 39% of Americans have access to 10 Mbps service, which is what many people now consider the minimum acceptable standard for broadband. That ranks higher, putting the U.S. within the top 15 worldwide, but still pales in comparison to world leaders like Sweden (56%), the Netherlands (52%), and Romania (50%).
Why is all of this not-as-impressive information omitted from the infographic that the Connectivist was so eager to share?
Maybe it has something to do with an organization you won’t see mentioned on the Connectivist until you get to its “About” page, where it just happens to mention that “The Connectivist is an online magazine created in partnership with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.”
For those unfamiliar with the NCTA, it’s an industry group, currently headed by former FCC Chair Michael “Yes, my dad was Colin” Powell, that hates you but wants you to keep paying your cable and phone bills. It’s also an organization that loves to inform the public through campaigns that it tries its best to keep its name out of.
For instance, it’s behind other groups like Broadband for America, which pretends to be a coalition of companies — including, inexplicably, an Ohio tile company, some defunct Belgian business, and a bed and breakfast — that care about broadband access but which is just a front for the NCTA, which provides most of the group’s funding, to push its anti-net neutrality agenda.
More recently, the NCTA was identified as the cash-addled brains behind a hipster-themed guerrilla marketing campaign for something called Onward Internet, to try get the youngsters in their corner in the NCTA’s fight to screw consumers.
This year, the hottest costumes weren’t hard to predict, at least not if you have any contact with children under age ten or so. NPR interviewed a costume shop owner in New York City who has a six-year-old son, so he knew to stock up on costumes of characters from the Disney animated film “Frozen.” While those costumes are very specific (and licensed by Disney) he points out that you can’t go wrong with generic princesses, along with witches, wizards, vampires, and superheroes.
Last year, the nightmare scenario for costume shop owners happened: a hot costume struck at the last minute. The drama series “Breaking Bad” ended in September, and people still remembered it fondly and wanted to dress up as characters from that show a month later. The costume shop owner in New York City assembled his own costumes at the last minute with parts from different suppliers, but still sold out.
Pirates, Princesses, Witches And Vampires: Stocking Costumes Is Serious Business [NPR]
Hola:
Una infografía sobre Linkedin inMail patrocinados. Vía
Un saludo
Linkedin inMail patrocinados
Hola:
Una infografía con 40 logos de marcas con mensajes ocultos. Vía
Un saludo
40 logos de marcas con mensajes ocultos
Some 2,000 mini-creamer containers distributed in Switzerland mistakenly contained images of Hitler and Mussolini.
Most consumers wouldn’t dream of coming face-to-printed face with Adolf Hitler or Benito Mussolini while preparing their coffee. For people in Switzerland that scenario is all too possible after a company behind mini-creamers printed photos of the former dictators on a number of containers.
The New York Times reports that Migros, a Swiss retailer, apologized for what it calls an “unforgivable incident” and withdrew nearly 2,000 containers of creamer from more than 100 cafes in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.
A spokesperson for the company tells the Times that they were horrified by the failure of international controls to detect the images.
The issue came to the company’s attention after a customer drinking coffee at a train station saw the label and sent a photo to a local newspaper.
Mini-cream containers have somewhat of a cult collectible following in Switzerland, with makers continually finding new ways to promote the products.
The spokesperson tells the Times that the mistake occurred when an outside company asked one of Migros’ subsidiaries to create a series of 55 coffee cream containers based on vintage cigar labels.
The outside company, which was not named by Migros, supplied the subsidiary with the designs, two of which featured Hitler and Mussolini.
“I can’t tell you how these labels got past our controls,” the spokesman for the company says. “Usually the labels have pleasant images like trains, landscapes and dogs — nothing polemic that can pose a problem.”
This isn’t the first time products with potentially offensive photos from Nazi-era Germany have made headlines this year.
Just last week, Sears apologized for allowing a third-party ventured to sell a men’s “Thai silver Swastika ring” on its marketplace.
In August, Zara pulled a shipment of blue and white striped pajama tops after consumers complained the clothing looked too much like the outfits Nazis forced Jewish concentration camp prisoners to wear during the Holocaust.
Walmart, Amazon, and Sears pulled a poster featuring a concentration camp sign from their online marketplaces in early July. The photo includes a gate with a phrase that translates to “work makes you free.”
For Swiss, a Distasteful Jolt With Coffee: Hitler Creamer [The New York Times]
Hola:
Una infografía sobre el poder de la influencia de los clientes. Vía
Un saludo
El poder de la influencia de los clientes
Hola:
Una presentación sobre Networking: Una nueva dimensión para la empresa.
Un saludo
