Latest Story
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A War on Charity
John.Humphreys | April 8, 2009Proposed new rules will likely lead to a less efficient and effective allocation of philanthropy.
Having launched wars on unemployment, drugs, inflation, whalers, disadvantage, downloads, pokies, doping in sport, bankers salaries, greed, neo-liberalism and most other things… Kevin Rudd is looking to extend his targets to include charity.
Rudd’s war on charity is a strange one. The government’s plan is to over-regulate charitable funds (called "Prescribed Private Funds" or PPFs) and require them to distribute 15% of their assets every year. This will lead many PPFs to close down and it will deter people from setting them up in the first place.
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Connecting Social Innovators
msweeks@cisco.com | April 7, 2009ASIX is creating a network of networks to help Australian social innovators communicate and collaborate.
What do The Big Issue, GAP, Open Universities Australia, NSW Rural Fire Service, and Work Ventures all have in common? They are all examples of social innovation.
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UncategorisedOpen Forum’s new feature
editor | April 4, 2009As part of ongoing site improvements, we now have a Comment Alert System. Update your user profile to receive email notifications when somebody responds to one of your blogs or comments.
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We Can All Fund Quality Journalism
sally.rose | April 4, 2009Buyers beware, lest by the time we’re sick of bingeing on trash the alternatives are scarce.
Are Australian newspapers dying? If so, are they taking quality journalism down with them? Does it matter? Are government subsidies or philanthropy the answer?
Nutritionists draw a food pyramid to illustrate a balanced diet. We all know what our ideal diet should look like. Yet our society has an obesity epidemic because as a mass we swallow too much cheap, convenient, seductively marketed junk. It’s bad for our health and it makes it difficult for smaller producers of quality healthy food to survive.
Our consumption of media is much the same. When we prefer to read about a reality TV star over the results of a parliamentary inquiry, we choose to finance a particular type of media product. Even when we are consuming it for free, we are part of the financial transaction.
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Advocating a Financial Markets Risk Index
patrickcallioni | April 3, 2009We need to adopt a standards based approach to regulating our financial markets.
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Are quality newspapers disappearing – and if they are, does it matter?
MikeM | April 2, 2009It is a disturbing prospect, but prognosis may not be as bad as it seems.
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Online Networking for Business Value
iggypintado | April 2, 2009Don’t waste time online, plan to make the most of your connections.
By now, you’ve either been invited, have signed up or are passively or actively using an online networking site such as Linkedin or even Facebook. Like many people, you’re wondering how to benefit from spending time on these online tools beyond finding former colleagues, posting comments and occasionally seeing what the kids are up to.
The main benefit of participating in online networking is that you gain access to communities which were traditionally closed to you. Social media sites create interconnected webs of individuals, meaning that millions of people of relevance are now just a few clicks away from receiving an electronic message from anyone within the network; possibly you.
As an avid and active user of online networking, I’ve developed some guidance for professionals to get the most out of the experience. Here are the 4 Ps according to Iggy!
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Crisis Needn’t Spell Disaster
Peter Fritz | April 1, 2009Losing your job can precipitate a personal crisis, but it is possible to turn it into a career opportunity.
In the months since November ‘08 many international companies have downsized their Australian offices, typically to consolidate their local operations with larger Asian headquarters. As a result of this trend I personally know of a number of excellent people who now find themselves in the unexpected situation of looking for work.
Australian subsidiaries of these multinational corporations are loosing their best senior executives, and when the business climate improves, their local experience will be sorely missed. It’s uncertain how many of them will still be available when that time comes. The best of them will have found better solutions to their problems by then.
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Uncategorised
Open Forum in Canberra
editor | April 1, 2009Check out our Blogger-in Chief, Sally Rose, presenting at Microsoft Australia's second annual Politics & Technology Forum: Campaigning Online in Parliament House, Canberra, to an audience of 150 parliamentarians, bureaucrats, bloggers and party officials. »»
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Reversing the Model
Mark.Croxford | March 31, 2009Sometimes working backwards is the best way to move ahead.
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Sneezing Giants
patrickcallioni | March 29, 2009Borders offer little to no protection in an economic crisis, we need a global risk management strategy.
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Learning & Change
Danny.Almagor | March 26, 2009I’ve seen complex water systems that stopped working because the community had no-one locally who understood the design.
At Engineers Without Borders (EWB) our strategy to affect change through appropriate and sustainable development is twofold: to work with communities, and promote learning and change in our own community.
In my last blog, The Four Cs, I talked about working with communities, and here I’d like to talk about one of the ways we’re promoting learning and change.
I’ve heard about expensive fridges, donated to communities for storing vaccines, being used as bookshelves because they didn’t run on the local electricity voltage. A very expensive bookshelf by anyone’s standards.
