Initiative to Help Nonprofits
Google is backing a worldwide initiative to help nonprofit organizations illustrate and seek additional support for their work. Google Earth Outreach enables any nonprofit organization to quickly and easily create compelling stories through Google Earth layers. The program includes comprehensive online guides, video tutorials and case studies about using Google Earth specifically targeted to the needs of nonprofit organizations. In addition, there are online forums connecting new participants to Global Awareness partners and experienced programmers who can assist in developing Keyhole Markup Language (KML) layers for Google Earth. These forums, actively moderated by Google Earth Outreach staff, serve to foster discussion and cooperation among organizations and the broader Google Earth community.
Organizations can also now apply online for Google Earth Pro grants — a $400 value. Grantees will receive additional technical support from Google. Participating organizations may be highlighted in the Google Earth Outreach Showcase, an online gallery of the most compelling new layers, and a subset of those will be featured in the Global Awareness folder in Google Earth on a rotating basis. More details about Google Earth Outreach are available at http://earth.google.com/outreach.
Google has also introduced three new Global Awareness layers for Google Earth:
• Global Heritage Fund (GHF): The GHF Global Awareness layer explores cultural heritage sites around the world that GHF is working to preserve for future generations. From ancient Mayan Mirador pyramids buried in Guatemalan forests threatened by clear cutting to the crumbling Lijiang Ancient Town in China, GHF takes users to these endangered archaeological treasures of human civilization and details the efforts to save them in partnership with local governments and resources.
• Earthwatch Expeditions: The Earthwatch Global Awareness layer enables users to virtually visit more than 100 volunteer Earthwatch expeditions in Google Earth — from recording the activities of lemurs in Madagascar to determining the impact of climate change on gray whale populations in Mexico and Canada. Enthusiasts and would-be volunteers can explore scientific field research projects in progress around the world and learn how they can help collect field data in the areas of rainforest ecology, wildlife conservation, marine science, archaeology and more.
• Fair Trade Certified: The TransFair USA layer introduces users to the over 70 Fair Trade Co-Ops located throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa. Fair trade is an innovative market-based approach to sustainable development that helps family farmers in developing countries gain direct access to markets and develop the business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace.
User Generated Content Drives Revenue
The days of giant media conglomerates controlling the creation, distribution and monetization of content are fading. An explosion of user-generated content is reshaping the media landscape, shattering the status quo and creating new opportunities for marketers. Research and Markets report, “User-Generated Content: Will Web 2.0 Pay Its Way?” shows that such content is indeed a revenue earner.
The User-Generated Content report analyzes the fast-changing new world of content ownership and distribution, where for the first time everyday people determine exactly what is created and consumed — not marketers or publishers. Led by the companies that started the revolution — YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Photobucket and others — Research and Markets estimates that US user-generated content sites will earn $4.3 billion in ad revenues in 2011, up from $1 billion in 2007.
Mobile Telecom in a Disaster
MTC has released a benchmark report, “Mobility: A Nation Under Siege,” analyzing the vital role played by mobile telecommunications in assisting disaster recovery within Lebanon during the Israeli-Lebanese conflict in July 2006. The report contains unique insights into the reliability of telecoms infrastructure throughout the conflict and examines the reasons why mobile communications played a pivotal role in ensuring that families stayed in touch, the population received food and medical supplies to the correct locations and emergency services could effectively plan their disaster response procedures.
“Mobility: A Nation Under Siege” is made up of three different sections. The first is an analysis of data of the conflict extracted from MTC’s local operation — MTC Touch. Economists Diane Coyle and Philip Thornton conducted the analysis of this data. The second section is a report focusing on 800 people in Lebanon conducted by international research firm Nielsen. The third section is a look into how MTC Touch was capable of keeping its operations running throughout the war, even though missiles directly targeted some of its infrastructure. Download the report from: www.mtctelecom.com/mobility/.
Does IT Matter?
“Does IT Matter?” While considerable differences of opinion about this issue exist among many business leaders, new research finds a conclusive answer. The best companies clearly use information technology (IT) as a strategic enabler to create competitive advantage, according to the latest “Book of Numbers” findings from The Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm.
Author and former Harvard Business Review Executive Editor Nicholas Carr sparked intense debate among executives with his 2004 book challenging the conventional wisdom that IT is a strategic business tool. His recommendation, among others, was that IT has become a ubiquitous commodity, and should best be treated as basic business infrastructure. He suggested that IT has little ability to drive competitive advantage, and companies should remain late adopters, minimizing investments in technology. The greatest IT risk companies face, he said, is overspending.
But The Hackett Group’s research, which is based on an analysis of its extensive knowledge repository of benchmark data from over 2,100 companies worldwide, finds that world-class IT organizations — those which achieve peak efficiency and effectiveness in Hackett’s IT benchmark studies — spend seven percent more per end-user on IT operations than typical companies. For a typical Fortune 500 company with a world-class IT function, this translates into increased IT spending of $29 million per year relative to their peers.
This investment more than pays for itself by enabling reduced cost and improved performance in finance, procurement, human resources (HR), and other areas of back-office operations. Hackett’s research found that world-class Fortune 500 companies run these functions at lower operational costs of $134 million/year ($7.1 million per billion of revenue) compared to typical companies, and process automation and IT enablement play a very significant role in realizing these lower non-IT back-office costs. In addition to this efficiency impact of IT, a direct correlation was found between performance of the IT function and effectiveness in finance, procurement and HR. To read Hackett’s Research Insight, which provides more details on this research, click to www.thehackettgroup.com/insights/roi/.
