Learning & the Arts-Integrate the Arts, Deepen the Learning

The following information is used for educational purposes only.



Integrate the Arts, Deepen the Learning


Critical thinking, risk taking, and collaboration -- along with academics and discipline -- are just some of the areas where Bates Middle school educators report big improvements since integrating the arts across all subject areas.


08/29/12























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Arts Integration: Fundamentals for Getting Started


Becoming an arts-integrated school doesn't happen overnight, but there are ways to enhance the process. Two veterans of successful transitions share tips from their experiences.

By Mariko Nobori

A former principal of arts-integrated schools, John Ceschini (right) now spreads the word about the positive impact of arts integration, such as the improvements in academics and behavior seen at Bates Middle School (left).

Credit: Zachary Fink


Arts integration (AI) is an approach to teaching that interweaves arts education with standard curriculum to help create a richer context for learning and can deepen student engagement. Educators at Wiley H. Bates Middle School in Annapolis, Maryland, where all teachers have been trained in and are committed to using AI, credit the strategy for successfully turning their school around.

Here are some tips from two veterans of successful AI transformations.

For the Administrators

Principal John Ceschini successfully transformed two Maryland schools with arts integration. Since then, he’s served as the executive director of the Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance (AEMS).
•Culture: Ceschini believes one of the most important things for an administrator is the right attitude. The leadership must decide that the arts are essential for all children and be willing to make funding, scheduling, and hiring decisions accordingly.
•Funding: “I’m not talking about a great deal of money,” says Ceschini, “because it’s a mind-set that you’re changing more than anything else. But administrators have to put some funding into the arts because teachers understand that if leaders put up the money, that means the program is important.” In the case of Bates, the district applied for and received a four-year grant to help them get arts integration started. The bulk of the grant money has gone to professional development. Because the arts have helped build community awareness about the school through public performances and school- and community-based projects, donor campaigns for musical instruments and art supplies have been successful.
•Schedule: Time must be built into the schedule to accommodate both PD and collaborative planning time (PDF). At Bates, one hour every day is earmarked for collaborative planning, and they have PD sessions every other Thursday, at least one of which each month is about the arts.
•Hiring: Most teachers will not have had experience teaching with AI, so you will need to hire people willing to take on the challenge of integrating the arts in their lessons and learn to maximize art’s potential to engage their students. “At first I was not sure about it,” says Bates Middle School math teacher Laura Casciato. “Now, with the practice and training I have had, I look at my pacing guide and think, ‘Oh, I can develop a dance to show that.’”

For the Teachers

Pat Klos was the dedicated arts-integration specialist at Bates Middle School and recently was appointed the arts-integration specialist for the county, where she will work with multiple schools. Her primary goal is to provide the resources and support teachers need to grow their repertoire of arts-integrated lessons and techniques. She brings in teaching artists and visiting artists, develops and leads PD sessions, and collaborates with teachers to create integrated lesson plans. Here is some of her advice on how to help teachers be successful with arts integration.
•Professional development serves many purposes: It enables teachers to learn the fundamentals of various art forms (PDF); it teaches them how to develop integrated lessons; and it provides them with the opportunity to experience art for themselves. The biggest resistance that Klos has encountered from teachers is that they think they’re not artistic. But with PD they realize the arts are for anyone, and they come to better understand the experiences they’re giving their students.
•Use AI intentionally. At Bates, every teacher is required to use AI in some shape or form, although not every lesson needs to be, nor should be, taught with AI. Klos uses two main criteria for implementing AI: •Look for a natural fit with the content. Don’t try to shoehorn it in or it can make the concepts more confusing. “The idea behind arts integration,” says Klos, “is that it opens a new door to understanding so it has to connect with the content standard for it to make sense.”
•Identify where the students are struggling. AI can be an effective way to differentiate instruction and break through with hard-to-reach kids. It provides a context that will help students build connections and gives them triggers for remembering the content later. At Bates, teachers use formative and summative assessments to find the areas where kids are struggling and then target these standards with arts-integrated lessons. They track the standards (PDF) that are taught with AI and have seen clear improvements in comprehension and retention.

•Collaborate and brainstorm. Brainstorming is one of the best ways to develop arts-integrated lessons. Bouncing ideas off each other within and across subjects and disciplines helps develop deeper lessons, the goal of the daily hour of collaborative planning time at Bates. As lessons get classroom-tested and refined, you can build a repertoire of vetted lessons on a shared drive.
•Leverage community resources. You can bring in teaching artists and trainers from arts programs or partner with community art organizations, or teachers can enroll in PD programs such as Changing Education Through the Arts from The Kennedy Center. At Bates, getting involved with the community has resulted in greater support from the community in return, including donations of time and resources.

(See our Resources and Downloads and our Pinterest board for other arts-integration PD presentations and arts-integrated lesson plans)


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How the Arts Unlock the Door to Learning


Student achievement was down. Teachers were demoralized. Until a bold strategy -- integrating the arts into curricula -- helped students embrace their learning and retain their knowledge. Today the faculty, staff, and students of Maryland's Bates Middle School are crafting a whole new vision of school transformation.

By Mariko Nobori

Students at Bates Middle School learn about art concepts such as photo composition (above) that are integrated into other curricula like math.


Credit: Zachary Fink





What do Mars and modern dance have to do with each other? How do you connect fractions with Andy Warhol? At Wiley H. Bates Middle School, in Annapolis, Maryland, the answer is arts integration. Every teacher there is committed to weaving the arts and standard curricula together to create a richer and more lasting learning experience for their students.


Arts integration goes beyond including art projects in class; it is a teaching strategy that seamlessly merges arts standards with core curricula to build connections and provide engaging context. For example, in a science classroom you might see students choreographing a dance using locomotor and nonlocomotor movements to demonstrate their understanding of rotation versus revolution of the planets (PDF). In a math class, you might see students learning fractions by examining composition in Warhol's Campbell's soup paintings.



What we also saw in these classrooms were students who were enthusiastically participating in the learning process, and having fun. It's not revelatory to say that the arts can engage kids. But that that engagement can also be leveraged to boost academic growth and improve discipline seems like a secret that really needs to be revealed. When you see how the kids embrace these lessons, hear them tell how art helps them remember concepts better, and learn about the improvements teachers have noted in student understanding and retention, it makes you wonder why more schools aren't integrating the arts in every class.

A Whole-School Reform


Bates decided to become a fully arts-integrated school in 2007 as the primary initiative in a whole-school reform effort. Other initiatives in their school improvement plan (PDF) included Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), an operational framework for implementing practices and interventions to improve academic and behavioral outcomes, and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), a college readiness system with research-based methods for elementary through postsecondary students. Their principal at the time, Diane Bragdon, had brought the school back from the brink of failure and now was ready to aim its trajectory squarely toward greater success. Bragdon got the support of Anne Arundel County Public Schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell, long a proponent of schools of choice, who knew well the impact arts integration had had in other Maryland schools. The district applied for a four-year grant called Supporting Arts Integrated Learning for Student Success (SAILSS) from the U.S. Department of Education and was one of 15 districts and schools to receive it.

Since they started implementing arts integration schoolwide in 2009, Bates has seen a 23 percent drop in the average number of referrals and suspensions per student. The school’s percentage of students proficient or advanced in math has grown four times more than the state's over the same period, and five times more in reading. Not all lessons are taught with arts integration, but Bates takes pains to diligently track those that have been in a regular log (PDF), and they report substantial improvements in student comprehension and retention.

Why Does Arts Integration Work?

Why does it work? Arts integration uses teaching practices that have been shown in brain-based research to improve comprehension and long-term retention. For example, when students create stories, pictures, or other nonverbal expressions of the content they are learning -- a process researchers call elaboration -- they are also helping to better embed the information. In one eighth-grade math class, students prepared for a test on linear equations by creating photo stories of the steps involved. This required that teacher Laura Casciato spend nearly a full class period teaching about basic principles of design (PDF). She explained the trade-off: "It was an easy decision to spend time on the art because we know that they retain that information better. They're going to look at that test and say, 'Oh yeah, I remember that information from my photo.'"

As with any new initiative, there are a number of factors that must be in place for it to succeed. With arts integration, high-quality professional development is essential. Teachers don't need to be "artistic" to be able to use arts integration; they just need to learn some of the fundamentals so they will be better able to think of ways to merge art concepts with other content. For example, knowing the basic elements of design, such as emphasis, balance, contrast, and repetition, enabled Casciato to teach her students how to create more informative photo compositions to illustrate each step in solving a linear equation (PDF).



Bates used the bulk of their grant money for professional development, which they started in the 2007-08 school year. They have PD Thursdays every other week, and at least one per month is on arts integration. Last year (2011-12) was the final year of their grant funding. Teachers report they are now well versed in arts standards and know how to create arts-integrated lessons. Many now train their colleagues and new teachers entering the school.

Beyond engagement and retention, adults and students at Bates cite numerous other benefits of arts integration: It encourages healthy risk taking, helps kids recognize new skills in themselves and others, provides a way to differentiate instruction, builds collaboration among both students and teachers, bridges differences, and draws in parents and the community. Plus it's just plain fun.

Lastly, there's equity. If we agree that the arts can provide all kinds of benefits for kids, from intellectual to creative to social-emotional, then shouldn't all kids have the opportunity to learn about and experience them? But far too few schools have either the funding or the bureaucratic support to make this a priority, a lack often born out of fear of sacrificing academic achievement. What Bates and many other arts-integrated schools across the country are showing is that by creating a richer, more memorable learning experience through the arts, they unleash not only a rising tide of academic achievement but they lay the foundation for what it means to be a truly creative community.





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Education Trends

The Social and Emotional Benefits of Being Weirdly Creative

August 29, 2012







By focusing on the shapes and sounds of Balinese musical instruments (above), Bates Middle School students learn about radius and diameter. Test scores show knowledge retention improving; students say they enjoy learning and feel connected socially. Credit: Zachary Fink

The boy is small in stature, bespectacled, and unnaturally articulate for a sixth grader. I have heard from his teachers and principal at Annapolis, Maryland's Wiley H. Bates Middle School about the academic benefits of arts integration, how various forms of artistic expression (PDF) are employed to learn math and science as well as language arts. I have also learned about the virtues of a critical-thinking technique known as Artful Thinking, developed by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, that deepens students' intellectual understanding generally by deepening their understanding of the multiple layers of artistic expression.

Now I am keen to discover more about the social and emotional aspects of this learning strategy. Are relationships between students positively affected by arts integration? What about the rapport between kids and teachers? My young source holds forth with disarming confidence, especially about some of the toughest social and emotional issues middle school students face: fitting in with your peers, being different without becoming isolated, how to navigate the gauntlet of critics, teasers, and bullies that line the rocky path to high school.

I probe for more details. (Full disclosure: I, too, was a little guy, often defending myself against the big boys whenever they set out to prove their physical dominance. So I find my source's calm, rational discourse a bit too good to be true.) What I learn from him starts to soften me up.

I'll paraphrase his remarks: Expressing yourself creatively in front of an entire class, especially when you are not good at art, is the great equalizer. At first you feel pretty weird, especially singing and dancing. Because you've never done anything like this before, and you're not sure you want to work with other students this way. You think maybe someone will make fun of you. But because everybody has to sing and dance and do the art, everyone is in the same boat. It's harder to put someone down if you're the same as him.



So you have to keep doing the art day after day. You have to dance the motions of the planets or sing their name in a song or take a photo of a jungle gym exhibiting the properties of an isosceles triangle. And somehow, through all these awkward displays of creativity, the social playing field levels, and you actually start to have fun, and you begin to make friends with kids you might never have even spoken to, because they're having fun, too.



Even Too-Cool-for-School Kids Can't Resist

I get the point, and I am impressed with his how-a-negative-becomes-a-positive analysis. Still, I want to see this contagious classroom creativity in the flesh. I am escorted to Mrs. Dunn's seventh-grade math class. Here students are investigating the geometric properties of circular shapes, in this case, the circular shapes of traditional Balinese percussion instruments. As round cymbals and drums of various sizes are distributed to the students, I size up the class. A not untypical cast of characters, all shapes, sizes, and colors. One group catches my eye: three boys wearing similar athletic-style jerseys. Tallish, physically fit, and chuckling with each other, they are clearly content with themselves. Asked by the teacher to observe something about the circular instruments, each obliges haltingly. Two of the three are only moderately helpful in group efforts to choreograph a dance to illustrate the circle properties. But when the entire class commences to play the instruments and dance around in concentric circles, I am astonished.

First of all, it's true: Everyone looks pretty weird, especially my boys in the jerseys. And it only gets weirder as the tempo picks up. Unexpectedly, I actually find myself choking up. Virtually every kid is smiling, if not laughing out loud. Heads, tails, and torsos are wagging in all directions. A blissful oneness seems to reign across all the social divides, and even the three musketeers seem dead ringers for the goofy, upbeat little preschoolers I am sure they once were. When asked after the dance about circular geometry, the quick, animated responses from every corner of the classroom leave no doubt that learning is happening.

Almost without exception, teachers at Bates are enthused about arts integration as a method for making learning a deeper experience for students and faculty. They are quick to add that the program has not brought an end to classroom disruptions, the need to keep kids on task, or the occasional disciplinary referral or suspension. But it has rolled back the need to police kids. And it has opened up new vistas of social and emotional connection between students and adults. As one science teacher reports, "With the vast majority of my students, I am truly facilitating big chunks of their learning by focusing them on diverse artistic expressions of their knowledge. They do the expressing, not me. And because I am not commanding them, I think they like me better. I know I like me better."




Source: www.edutopia.org

The Paradox of Happiness, by John Tarrant

The following information is used for educational purposes only.




The Paradox of Happiness

By John Tarrant

Real happiness is what we all want, but none of our strategies for finding it seem to work. Maybe it's the search for happiness that makes us unhappy. John Tarrant has some thoughts on why the Buddha smiles.


Everyone knows happiness is A Good Thing, more desirable than say, vacuum cleaners or eye shadow, and right up there with fame, fortune and the love of beautiful women (or men). The founding fathers of the United States offered happiness as part of the mission statement for a people coming together as a nation, encouraging them to pursue—and perhaps to go so far as to chase, harry, hunt down, subdue and corral—happiness. Even the Dalai Lama has said that happiness is the point of Buddhism.

At the same time, happiness is, as quarry, elusive. Happiness is a unicorn. Everyone wants to find it, yet, just when you are hoping for its company, it has a way of disappearing into the leafy shade of its forest. Then the family barbecue or job interview or visit to the hospital just has to stumble along with ordinary human skills and no special blessing.

While a lot of time is spent pursuing happiness, the evidence is compelling that if you plunge toward this unicorn directly, you will miss it by miles, and therefore won't receive its famous kindnesses. Doesn't everyone know this already? Yes. Does that stop anybody from chasing happiness? No.

Mostly, if a method for achieving happiness is not successful, people think something like, She should have loved me more. Or, I wasn't trying hard enough. Or, I wasn't holding my mouth right. Or, If only I had bought a different car. Whether the needle on the blame meter points to yourself or to others, that particular machine will always seem to be malfunctioning, since it never gives a diagnosis that is useful for fixing the problem. You try to do the method better, rather than looking at whether the method works. So let's look at the method.


The Approach Direct

The direct approach to happiness is splendid in its simplicity. It comes down to a bold slogan: Get the Loot. This is the basic happiness-is-a-warm-gun or diamonds-are-a-girl's-best-friend tactic. There is an endless quest to store happiness in objects from which it will seep out like golden light in the winter of any sadness that may come upon you. Variant and popular forms of Get the Loot are: Get the Girl and Get the Prince. More subtle variations are Get the Spiritual Transformation and Get the Psychological Adjustment to a Difficult Childhood—"I'll take a nice enlightenment to go with my espresso please."

The obvious problem with the Get-the-Loot approach is that loot doesn't last. My really cool linen jacket from last year looks, well, so last year, and my nice, new Volvo has become my mechanic's friend. It doesn't seem that happiness can be stored in any stable way—it's even worse than electricity in this regard. You might try to make things last a little longer. You could buy an extremely reliable car. You might extract a promise that your partner will always love you, but would you believe such a promise? Aren't there some Monday mornings when you don't love even your dog? And if you did believe such a promise, would it work? Would you really get happiness?


The Approach Indirect

The ancient authorities, including the Buddha, are convinced that you cannot just waltz right up to the unicorn of happiness. The unicorn disappears if you even look straight at it. You have to take an interest in the rosebushes or the child playing with dolls, and then you might see the unicorn out of the corner of your eye. At first nearly everyone thinks you can just pretend an interest in the rosebushes or the child, but you can’t fake out the unicorn. Pretending an interest in the rosebushes happens when you say to yourself, "I'm meditating to get healthy, to grow kinder, to get enlightened, to pick stocks better and be happy." Though some of these purposes might be noble, this approach doesn't work; you can't manipulate yourself into changing any more than you can manipulate other people into changing. A unicorn is like a human being in that relations with it are fatally compromised by coercion and demands. You can't make a unicorn come to you; it has to want to.


The Approach Without Guile

A spiritual practice is different from many human endeavors in that it does not have a pre-designed goal. You have to just do the spiritual practice without guile and be a courteous host to whatever comes. That's when unicorns appear. The nakedness of this practice makes you unicorn-prone. The unicorn of happiness is not elusive because it is an illusion. It is real. It just inhabits a different dimension from getting and losing and good and evil and pleasure and loss, which are the places we usually look for it.

The legend of the unicorn says that it is attracted to virgins; indeed, virgins are its only known weakness. Before you despair, it might be interesting to take this bit about virgins as an image of what goes on in the mind. The virginal mind is innocent in the positive sense. The innocent mind is not thinking about itself and what it can get. It isn't thinking, "How do I look as unicorn bait?" "No unicorn could ever be interested in me." "I'll be famous if I catch a unicorn." "How do I construct the best unicorn-catching machine?"

Instead, the innocent mind is just hanging out, living its life. It attracts the unicorn because it is like the unicorn, who is also just hanging out, living its life. The innocent mind is the meditation mind, the mind before the world was built and populated with stories about what to think and do. It is sometimes called beginner's mind. It exists before enlightenment and before theology and theology's argument with human desire. The innocent mind is not spending all its time scheming to get others to do what it wants or policing its own impulses. It's open to something new, something that it hasn't thought of. It's the person at the party who doesn't network or try to impress you.

In the legend, the unicorn has another property: its horn stops the action of poisons. This image refers not just to the openness of the meditation mind but also to the way it actively undermines unhappiness and delusion.

The Chinese unicorn is sighted even more rarely than the European one. It is said to have appeared at the time of Confucius' birth and to have a taste for wisdom. One sage had the interesting thought that if a unicorn is so seldom seen, you might not know for certain what it looked like. It might be capable of changing shape. In fact you might meet one and not realize it. How can you be sure that a unicorn is not present on a given occasion? You might be sitting with the unicorn of happiness at this very moment and not know it. Perhaps when you are unhappy, you are just not paying attention.


Security & Insecurity

The strategy of Running Straight at the Unicorn and Getting the Loot has another serious drawback, which is that it is asking for too little. When you are unhappy, you look for a remedy that is in the range of what you already know. Yet what you already know might be precisely what is obscuring your vision of the unicorn. There is a Hindu story about a person who prayed to see Krishna. She meditated hard and it so happened that the blue god was meandering along the woodland path and noticed her. He bent over and tapped her on the shoulder. She did not open her eyes. "Please don't distract me," she said, "I am meditating with a sacred goal in mind." "Oh, O.K. then," thought Krishna, "I wouldn't want to interfere with that," and wandered on down the path.

This is a version of the map-and-territory problem. When you rely on what you know you are always relying on a map which, as soon as it is drawn, has begun to diverge from the territory it intended to describe, which is life. You make adjustments to fit the map, you stand on your head to fit the map. Yet happiness adheres to the territory. Happiness is rooted in what we do not know; otherwise everyone would already be happy. No one knows what a unicorn is before they meet one, and no one can know what their life will look like after they have met one. The unicorn won't change the stuff in your life; it will change you.

If the unicorn is pursued through the getting of things and experiences, the basic idea is that something from outside will make you happy. Then the hidden assumption is that what is inside is pretty pathetic or at least not worth considering in the happiness stakes. Yet what is inside is the only source of happiness.

The big secret is that the unicorn already lives inside you. If the unicorn is already here, the unicorn comes. If it is not here, it will never come. Zen teachers sometimes carry a carved stick as an accoutrement, an indicator that they are important in case no one otherwise notices. One old teacher said, "If you have a stick, I'll give you a stick. If you don't have a stick, I'll take it away."

The desire for loot is usually in some way a hunger for security. A dedicated collector learns quickly that another pair of shoes or another epiphany will not be the final and necessary contribution to happiness. This is why collecting has a melancholy, poignant air. The quest for security is doomed, and its failure is what makes it interesting. It's like taking certain drugs, say, or skipping classes at university or gambling in casinos—it's so bad for you that it feels cool; it gives you a sense of wealth since you are squandering life as if you were immortal. Seeking security is a rebellion against the unpredictability of reality and also against its demanding fascination.

The deep reason things coming in from the outside are not ultimately consoling is that there is a bigger question going on— security for whom, happiness for whom? You might have an idea about who you are, and the security is a support structure for that idea. Security is always for an idea that you are “a someone.” Yet it is hard to prove that you really are “a someone.” If you check your thoughts out, they come and go, they change radically overnight or according to the state of your digestion, and you may find that you often don't even believe them. If you look, you can't find who is thinking your thoughts.

Bodhidharma, who brought Zen to China from India, is meditating when a student says to him, "My mind is not at peace. Please put it to rest."

Bodhidharma says, "Bring me your mind and I will set it to rest."

"But I've searched for my mind and can't find it."

"There, I have put it to rest."

Being unable to find your mind when you look for it might be thought of as a moment of massive uncertainty, yet this is exactly what frees you. Uncertainty makes happiness possible because it stops certainty from interrupting happiness. Happiness is the natural state of things; the unicorn is already here.


Nothing Is Too Good For Little Me

When the mind and heart are at rest, they are not important or unimportant, secure or insecure, and this natural state is happiness. Security, on the other hand, is the cause of unhappiness. It is in the service of a character called "Me," as in "What about Me?" who is always worried what will happen to her. There is "Poor Little Me" and "Nothing Is Too Good For Little Me," and both are based on the longing for security.

When I was three or four I had an imaginary playmate who was the foreman on an imaginary construction site. His name was Bill and I'd ring him up on an imaginary phone next to the black wall phone in the front hall. I used to give him orders. I'd say, "Bring the bulldozer." We would also have conversations at lunchtime. "Another bloody jam sandwich," I would complain to him enthusiastically, flinging it over my shoulder. Having a self is a bit like keeping Bill with you for the rest of your life, and setting your life up to assure him that he is real.

"Little Me" is a hypothesis to explain where thoughts come from. Yet no one knows where thoughts come from. Sometimes they don't even seem to belong to anyone. The next line of the poem just arrives, the way the next moment of the world does. This is good news for you because it leaves the door open for the unicorn, who also appears out of nowhere, but bad news for Little Me, who likes you to think that she is the source of your thoughts and therefore essential.

So many of your thoughts are for the sake of preserving Little Me. When you were a child she entered your employ as a governess who promised to be a help. As you grew she became your faithful retainer, general secretary and assistant. Yet her main purpose seems to be to make herself feel secure. She exists to make sure that she continues to exist. An idea is trying to maintain itself, a phantom who asks that you serve her. Yet security for Little Me is not security for you. She is so fascinating to herself that she is uninterested in other people, including you. You have to run around and Get the Loot to assuage this phantom's anxiety. You have to build pyramids because she is frightened of dying. The Sufis have a story about a donkey who persuades his rider to carry him. Little Me is like that donkey. She did seem to be a help at first, but pretty soon she started impersonating you and writing checks.

Little Me fields all your calls. Meanwhile she gives you the sort of plausible and utterly useless advice that Polonius offered Hamlet. The advice is useless because it is not about you, it's just designed to hold your attention on her.

There is nothing truly wrong with Little Me other than that she, or he, doesn't exist. The secret to happiness is that Little Me is not necessary. When you discover this you may find it a great relief.

This is why happiness is simpler than suffering, which is always working so hard. The unicorn of happiness is allergic to advice and Little Me's complicated schemes are not interesting to her. She is a free wanderer with no fixed destination or shape; her hooves are in the Tao.


Trying Too Hard Is Always a Good Idea

When I first took up meditation I struggled a lot. I really, really, really wanted an experience of enlightenment, so I dashed straight at the unicorn of happiness. When I sat, I was consumed by physical pain, and so naturally I sat up all night. I experimented with breathing in special ways. Basically I tried to concentrate and stay alive for the next five minutes of sitting. Condemning my own states of mind—"This is not a unicorn, and neither is this"—was a lonely path and my own lack of inner kindness wore me down. Perhaps it was a way to convince myself that I was worthy of a visit from the unicorn. Yet all that effort was for the sake of an idea—wisdom will be hard for me, it will take a long time and I will have to suffer to earn it—and this idea was just a prejudice: Little Me's opinion.

When you think that you need something to navigate by, you might cling to a bad or unverifiable idea, which might take you in some other direction than the one you hoped to go in. I was willing to change everything about my life except my ideas. In this way spiritual work which can look so sincere and revolutionary can become at bottom just another quest for security. You could make an argument that shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue is more spiritually sincere. I thought that the unicorn would appear and show me something completely surprising, and at the same time it would say to me, "Yes, John, that's the way to meditate, steady as she goes, you're getting it now. And as a reward, I'll share a few additional secrets with you."

This is the poignant situation of the one who sets off to seek wisdom. I thought happiness would change my world completely and at the same time it would still be my world. In this way, I thought that happiness would confirm my map of the world. Actually, happiness does the opposite: it steals your map so that you can't use it any more. And when there is nothing to navigate by, you are in Unicorn World.


In a certain kind of Zen training, the opening in which you see through your illusions is called kensho, which means, more or less, seeing your true nature. At the zendo where I practiced in the early days, we had a little kensho factory and would encourage each other to sit unmoving through pain. The meditation hall was very noisy, leaders would be yelling, and the sound of the Zen stick whacking people would cut through the air. It was either surprisingly interesting or seemed like a medieval hell, according to your point of view. For me it was both.

When I began to teach, I did more or less the same thing as I’d been taught. The method was tuned toward the direction whence unicorns were expected to appear. I noticed, though, that unicorns did not seem to come from such places, and when, on occasion, they did appear, they seemed indifferent to our methods. People didn't seem to have spiritual openings when the system was tight and pure. The openings came when the system broke down.

Perhaps people wore out and couldn't try any harder and then just felt their lives for a while and were amazed at the spaciousness that opened inside and out. Perhaps their minds escaped their control moves and they saw something—say a tree—as if for the first time. Looking at a tree with such purity they might have noticed a kinship with the tree and have been grateful to be alive, a gratitude that seemed irreversible. The unicorn does not come from the direction you might be expecting it to.

After a while, I began to change my teaching method. Mainly this meant not chasing the unicorn directly and, instead, being interested in what showed up in people's psyches. Then unhappiness became interesting rather than evidence of failure; unhappiness itself became a gate to happiness.

Here's an example. Year after year, on the last day of a retreat, a man fell into despair believing that he had missed another opportunity for enlightenment. It was as if it was his job to sit around and be the one who failed. His mood was compounded when others seemed to be glowing and illuminated. His inner narrative went something like, "I haven't accomplished anything or made myself admirable to myself or others. I've worked so hard, yet I'm really not sincere enough."

This is the sort of thing only a sincere person would think. But he was bereft. Then one time, mysteriously, a Patsy Cline song arrived in his mind and just stayed. "I fall to pieces" repeated itself over and over like a koan or a mantra. This didn't seem orthodox to him, but there was nothing he could do about it. Gradually he began to notice that falling to pieces could be a positive thing. The mind's prison could fall to pieces. He was amused and touched, and a thoughtless compassion for life began to grow in him, a glimpse of a luminous animal moving through the trees. Things didn't go further for the moment and when the retreat ended the old blues came back.

"I feel so discouraged," he thought. "I just feel so discouraged." This phrase began repeating itself also, many times. "I feel so discouraged."His internal voice grew more and more depressed, and then a change occurred. Gradually the voice became energetic. "I feel so discouraged," grew louder. He began to have fun with it. He was shouting to himself, "I feel so discouraged!" as if in triumph, and laughing. "And what's wrong with that?" he thought, embracing his one life. Even discouragement became funny and marvelous. How good to be alive and discouraged. That was his moment of spiritual transformation.

So what is the take-away point about the unicorn?

Everyone wants to use happiness as a fix for problems, yet happiness is its own, very big thing, and it is selling happiness short to make it a fix for problems. To be happy is to experience life not as a series of struggles but as a gift, one that has no known limit. This doesn't mean ignoring your difficulties: it means not assuming that they are what you think they are. If you throw away everything you believe about your difficulties you will notice that many of them disappear and the rest become interesting.

When you get the hang of being more interested in life than in agreeing with your thoughts, then you will get the life you get. And you will be able to have as much happiness as you want with almost no effort whatsoever. When you stop believing your thoughts, you look around just for you, just because it is interesting to look around. Some people call that enlightenment. But you won't call it that. You'll be too interested in the new view. And you'll notice that wherever you look there will be nothing but those damned unicorns.


John Tarrant is the author of The Light Inside the Dark: Zen, Soul, and the Spiritual Life (HarperCollins) and the director of Pacific Zen Institute, which conducts retreats devoted to koans, inquiry and the arts.


The Paradox of Happiness, John Tarrant, Shambhala Sun, January 2004.


Source: www.shambhalasun.com

INTDGN-An Appetite for Experimentation

The following information is used for educational purposes only.



An Appetite For Experimentation

An Australian and a Scot found themselves, three years ago, trying to get a design firm off the ground in, of all places, Dubayy, where global attention was focused on the imploding construction boom.

By Deborah Wilk -- Interior Design, March 1, 2012

Photography by Carlos De La Rua.



An Australian and a Scot found themselves, three years ago, trying to get a design firm off the ground in, of all places, Dubayy, where global attention was focused on the imploding construction boom. It seemed like a good idea, needless to say, to pursue work outside the United Arab Emirates. Luckily for Marcos Cain and Karen Hays, founders and directors of Stickman Tribe, they soon landed a commission for a restaurant at a mixed-use property in Shanghai. The market-style eatery-graced with the unusual name the Cook, the Meet, the Brew-now functions as the axis of the entire Kerry Parkside complex, containing a hotel, a shopping mall, and an office and apartment tower.



"When you're working in a large development, it's important to appreciate all the different elements and recognize how to tie them together," Cain says. He definitely has an edge in this particular area, especially in light of how he handled additional factors. Peak hours for travelers, shoppers, executives, and residents vary considerably, for ex­ample, and the 9,000-square-foot venue needed to respond to all four. Then there was the client's interest in offering local and imported fresh food in both casual and formal settings. Cain says he saw that brief as an opportunity for a "flirtation between process and produce."



The resulting concept, serving up crafted quality without the pretension, is manifested by the restaurant's award-winning artisanal brewery, which can make 48,000 gallons a year-in full view of patrons. Australian masters crafting pilsner at the behest of a Middle East-based designer, for a restaurant in China? That's one global gastro pub.



© 2012 Sandow Media LLC. All rights reserved.


Source: www.interiordesign.net

INTDGN-Video Interview & more

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Showroom interview: Davis Furniture


Interior Design's Mark Strauss talks to Wolfgang Mezger, designer at Davis Furniture, during NeoCon 2012 about the High Point, NC-based company's latest products and overall direction going forward.



Video Sponsored by Davis Furniture
Video shot and edited by OnAirr Productions
















































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Source: www.davisfurniture.com

GRALBUS-Apple vs. Samsung: The Clash of the Smartphones

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Apple vs. Samsung: The Clash of the Smartphones


August 13, 2012


This month in San Jose, Calif., the two biggest smartphone companies in the world, Apple and Samsung Electronics, entered into a head-to-head intellectual property rights lawsuit. According to a recent article by Steve Lohr of The New York Times, “Apple asserts that Samsung made ‘a deliberate decision to copy’ the iPhone and iPad.” On the other side of the legal battle, Samsung contends that Apple has infringed on Samsung’s own cell phone technology patents.


“Undertaking any litigation against competitors can be costly and risky. There can also be significant costs to a firm’s reputation if it’s seen as a patent bully rather than an innovator.”

Protecting Original Ideas

Apple argues that Samsung has plagiarized Apple’s designs for the iPhone and iPad – i.e., copied them without permission and sold them as original Samsung work. You may be familiar with the term plagiarism from your own schoolwork. For example, when you write a paper for American History, you do not have to footnote the date of the Revolutionary War because that is a known fact. However, if you read that American military tactics were why the U.S. defeated Britain and if you include this argument in your paper, you need to properly cite your source because it is someone else’s idea – his or her intellectual property — and not your own. If you fail to give credit to others when you use their ideas, you are plagiarizing and will most likely fail your assignment (or worse) if caught.

Intellectual property refers to an original idea that is owned by its creator. Just like with physical property (a car or computer), theft of intellectual property is illegal. Outside of the classroom, ideas (like touch-screen technology) can be protected by patents, which are issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A patent forbids anyone but the inventor from making, using, selling or importing an invention for a limited time, usually 20 years. There are three types of patents: utility patents for machines and useful processes, plant patents for the discovery and reproduction of new plant species, and design patents that protect original designs. Apple argues that Samsung has infringed on – plagiarized — many of its design patents by using elements of the iPhone and iPad in the Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Apple is asking for $2.525 billion from Samsung for damages, while Samsung wants 2.4% of each Apple sale where its own patents have been breached by Apple. Apple’s patent war has been going on for the last two years, mainly against Google’s Android products, including the Samsung Galaxy. The Wall Street Journal suggests that this legal war is actually a proxy war for Apple vs. Google, a long-brewing tension expressed by Steve Jobs himself. Before his passing, the Apple godfather claimed he would “go thermonuclear war” over Google’s supposed iPhone “theft.”

Much of this debate stems around smartphone design. Apple claims that Samsung copied the iPhone’s rounded edges, clear flat surface and touch-screen technology in the Samsung Galaxy. Samsung, however, asserts that Apple copied the original iPhone design from Sony. If Apple wins this lawsuit, Jobs’s already dominant company will have a monopoly on smartphone and tablet production.

Although patents were meant to protect designers and promote creativity — people could not simply copy others’ work but had to design new products themselves — today’s technology patents may actually hinder innovation, some experts say. According to Kevin Werbach, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, “For a long time, major technology companies saw patents as purely defensive assets, to prevent others from suing them. They generally didn’t use patents as an offensive weapon against competitors. In recent years, companies such as Apple, as well as a new generation of patent-holding companies, have taken a more aggressive stance with their patent portfolios. Companies are now willing to use patents not just to generate licensing revenues, but to [restrict] their competitors.”

Patrick Houston, in an opinion article for InformationWeek, predicts a lose-lose outcome for this Apple/Samsung showdown. Houston believes that patents are bad for the free market overall because they grant monopolies to big companies, and younger companies are unable to compete. He points out that the sheer number of software patents — since the 1990s, 200,000 software patents have been filed — makes it nearly impossible to develop new products. Investors are hesitant to back technology startups because they want full security that new products do not infringe on existing patents. At the same time, younger companies may not have the resources to test the originality of their products, and therefore cannot gain more capital to develop and grow — a Catch-22.

A Patent Bully or Innovator?

Also, patent litigation is an expensive endeavor. Senior lawyers for both Apple and Samsung earn upwards of $500 per hour, according to the Daily Mail. Yet both sides think this war is worth the financial cost. As Werbach notes, “Undertaking any litigation against competitors can be costly and risky. There can also be significant costs to a firm’s reputation if it’s seen as a patent bully rather than an innovator. Yahoo filed a major patent lawsuit against Facebook, for example, which provoked tremendous criticism. Yahoo settled the case when a new CEO took over and made the decision that the harm outweighed the potential benefits. Today’s patent system, however, creates very powerful opportunities to block competitors from the marketplace in certain industries. So it’s understandable why some firms decide to sue.”

This much-publicized trial will set precedent for all upcoming technology trials in the future, and if Apple wins, the company will control the smartphone and tablet market. The focus moving forward, however, will not be Samsung vs. Apple or even Google vs. Apple. Instead, such lawsuits will force us to re-examine our patent system. Werbach argues that we should not throw out patents altogether: “We need legal mechanisms to protect inventors. Unfortunately, the patent system has not kept up with the changes in the technology industry.” He stresses that technology will continue making great strides forward with or without patents. The goal will be to find a balance between protecting inventors without hindering innovation.

Questions

What is intellectual property and why is it important in the corporate world?

How might technology patents hinder innovation?

Why is the Apple-Samsung patent war so important to the future of the tech industry?

Can you think of other high-profile patent lawsuits?



Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu

GRALBUS-Is Netflix in Trouble?

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Is Netflix in Trouble?



May 4, 2012


You’ve got to appreciate the candor of some high school students. Let’s face it, when it comes to technology, they love what they love. Take, for instance, Chris Knieste, a junior at Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills, N.Y. When his school paper, The Roundup, asked him recently to comment on his feelings about Netflix, he said, “Netflix? It’s one of the most worthwhile uses of my parents’ money ever.”


“Going forward, the key to Netflix’s success will be to win back customer confidence. Investor confidence and Wall Street will follow.”
‘Nuff said.

Or is it? It seems the streaming media and DVD rental provider has seen better days. A Forbes.com article published this week asks, “Is Netflix about to be a has-been? Suddenly, problems seem overwhelming.”

Content Partners, Competitors, Customers

Netflix is facing renewed scrutiny over its business model after announcing poor first-quarter results last week. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company reported a $4.6 million loss in the quarter ending March 31, compared with a profit of $60.2 million in the year-earlier quarter. Its revenues, meanwhile, grew 21% from $718.6 million to $869.8 million. Following the news, the firm’s stock price has fallen. This week, Viacom CEO Phillippe Dauman indicated that Netflix will still carry content from Viacom’s Epix cable channel, but not necessarily on an exclusive basis, which caused shares to drop again.

Clearly, Netflix has yet to recover from its recent 60% price increase and failed attempt last September to spin off its DVD delivery business. The company’s U.S. customer base has eroded from 24.6 million last June to 23.4 million currently. (It also operates in Canada.)

Netflix’s problem is threefold: content partners, competitors and customers, according to Wharton operations and information management professor Kartik Hosanagar. “First, it was obvious that Netflix’s original margins were not sustainable in the long run,” he says. “Netflix secured some of its early [content] licenses at very low costs, and it was clear that the content owners would seek more the next time around.” That explains why the company’s costs have gone up over the last year — and the situation is unlikely to get better, he adds.

Increased competition is Netflix’s second hurdle, says Hosanagar. He points to the likes of Hulu and Amazon and also to streaming services being introduced by cable-TV firms like Comcast. “This competition will only get worse in the next 12 to 24 months.”

Customer loyalty represents Netflix’s third problem, he notes. “Customers used to be Netflix’s biggest strength.” But the past year “hasn’t been great for Netflix” because of several missteps — the most important of which were the debacle with pricing and the spinoff plans, he adds.

Netflix’s solutions lie in continuing to grow its customer base and “up-selling existing customers” — or launching higher-value offerings — to address the partner and competitor issues, Hosanagar says. “Going forward, the key to Netflix’s success will be to win back customer confidence. Investor confidence and Wall Street will follow.”

Filmmaker James Kerwin took a dour view of the business model behind Netflix’s streaming business in an interview with Knowledge@Wharton in January 2011, soon after Netflix announced its offering of streaming movies and videos. The company’s model is not economically sustainable, he noted, because studios will find that streaming rights cannibalize their DVD sales. He also warned that fee increases were inevitable: “Netflix is going to have to jack up the rates that their customers pay and/or they are going to have to limit the number of videos that a customer can stream per month — because the studios are going to start demanding higher rates. Otherwise, this is just going to implode.”

A Whole Lot of Hype?

According to Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Warbach, much of the criticism of Netflix “is overblown, just as the company was over-hyped earlier.” Netflix is still fundamentally well-positioned to exploit the ongoing transformation of video, he says. “Ultimately, Netflix will have to provide value-add, whether in its recommendations, knowledge of its users or ability to function as an independent ‘honest broker’ unaffiliated with all the other industry segments involved,” he notes. “The basic function of getting any content users want to any platform, whenever users want it, will become the table stakes.”

Technology companies, including Netflix, are increasingly adopting the concept of customer lifetime value (CLV), Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader noted in a recent Knowledge@Wharton article. CLV is a marketing formula based on the idea that firms should spend money up front, and sacrifice initial profits, to gain customers whose loyalty and increased business will reap rewards over the long term. According to Fader, following a CLV model can keep companies from panicking when making big strategic decisions. An example he offers is Netflix’s move to raise subscription prices as its business focus shifted from offering DVDs by mail to the streaming model. In Fader’s view, Netflix was smart in the way it split its business and pricing, but not so in the way it announced those changes.

Still, for Netflix, such “screw-ups are a blip,” he said. “Dropped subscriptions are likely to be picked up again because Netflix really doesn’t have a comparable competitor.” Will that change as companies like Hulu, HBO, Amazon.com, Google and other start-ups are working on competing services? Netflix fan Rohan Savargaonkar, a sophomore at Half Hollow Hills High School West, certainly hopes not. As he told The Roundup: “I love it, and I’m addicted.”



Questions

What decisions did Netflix make in recent months that caused increased scrutiny – and possibly, net losses.

What are Netflix’s primary challenges?

What is customer lifetime value (CLV), and how does it relate to Netflix’s business model?



Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu

World Water Day: Innovative Thinking for a Most Precious Resource

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World Water Day: Innovative Thinking for a Most Precious Resource



March 25, 2012




World Water Day is held annually on March 22 to focus attention on the importance of freshwater resources. Issues like water scarcity, which plagues many underdeveloped nations, lead to famine and disease. Many nonprofit organizations and companies are working to make sure that people around the world have access to clean water in their daily lives. Countries like the U.S., which have more developed water infrastructures, also wrestle with efficiency and quality issues.


“There are great examples of very successful water businesses, but in terms of innovative entrepreneurial businesses, we’re trying to bridge a gap.”
Businesses see opportunity in these problems. Entrepreneurs and investors have been attracted to the water industry in recent years to help find and finance solutions for the most pressing water issues in the U.S. and around the world.

A nonprofit organization in San Francisco, Calif., called Imagine H2O encourages entrepreneurs to turn water challenges into business opportunities. It launched a prize competition three years ago to inspire innovative technology solutions to water issues. Imagine H2O offers funding and incubation to help support the most innovative new start-up companies. Kate Gasner, Imagine H2O’s prize manager, spoke to Knowledge@Wharton High School about the organization’s mission and the critical ways that water and business intersect.

Knowledge@Wharton High School: What are the key water issues facing the world today?

Kate Gasner: The big issues around water are scarcity and quality. There’s also a big distinction between the problems that are faced by countries with an existing infrastructure and those that are developing water infrastructure. Imagine H2O has focused thus far on areas where the infrastructure is already in place [but where] the operational components of the water system need improving. World Water Day often focuses on the other end of the spectrum, which is the public health perspective – access to clean water, availability of water. Water encapsulates so many different scenarios. One is that you don’t have enough water to get through the day or grow enough crops. That requires a very different solution than a huge metropolitan city that has enough water, but is not doing enough with it in terms of efficiency, treatment or proper disposal. The companies that Imagine H2O has worked with have been focused on developed countries with infrastructure or industry that requires advanced technological approaches. In the future, we may focus on the other piece of puzzle, which is giving everyone access to enough water.

KWHS: How did Imagine H2O acknowledge World Water Day?

Gasner: In order to celebrate World Water Day, we thought it would be best to highlight the business innovations and the businesses that are focused on solving the problems around water. One of our biggest events of the year is the Water Entrepreneurs Showcase, which we had on Tuesday night. We convened over 200 people in the water industry — including entrepreneurs, investors, experts and students. We announced the winners of our prize. We got a robust group of startups that are doing a variety of cool things in the water space. This year we were focused on wastewater – water that has been somehow contaminated agriculturally, industrially or through municipal waste. [Our big winner] was Bilexys of Brisbane, Australia, [which has a technology that converts wastewater to valuable chemicals].

KWHS: Where do water and business intersect?

Gasner: Water is a mission-critical resource for everything. It’s very hard to appreciate that there is so much water involved in the products that we purchase and in our day-to-day operations. When it comes to industry, agriculture and residences, water is a basic and fundamental component. The water and the business world haven’t overlapped very much so far. There are great examples of very successful water businesses, but in terms of innovative entrepreneurial businesses, we’re trying to bridge a gap.

KWHS: What is the so-called blue tech economy?

Gasner: It’s easy to miss that there is a huge industry around water, in terms of the infrastructure required both in the municipal setting – the miles of pipes and the facilities needed to transport and treat water – in addition to the industrial setting [where products are made]. The food and beverage industry requires a lot of water processing. Energy production also requires a lot of water processing. When I hear blue tech economy, I think of how we are bringing technologies to all [this infrastructure] and these industries that are water-dependent.

KWHS: What is an example of an entrepreneurial venture working on innovative water technologies?

Gasner: One of our first winners was WaterSmart Software. It offers a software platform for the water conservation programs of utility companies. The software ties into the billing system and visualizes water savings for utility customers. Customers can log in and see how much they are saving and how they compare to their neighbors. It’s a user-friendly platform to track water use. Utilities are really interested in it because their conservation [efforts] require consumer education. The people we honor are really good business people and that also makes them good water stewards [good resource managers].

KWHS: How can young people get involved in water-related issues?

Gasner: Awareness is key. The accessibility we have in this country to water insulates us completely from the issues at hand. The fact that we so easily turn on the tap and have so few restrictions or financial consequences for using a ton of water shelters us from the problems [of scarcity]. Keeping an eye out for business solutions is really important. In my education, environmental problems were couched in the handicapped arena where you needed a lot of regulation to make a difference in resource management. That’s not the case. We’re seeing businesses that are very successful because they have an innovative platform, a good strategy and great team, like any other startup. To treat the water industry as a viable business place is going to be really important. It does a lot of good for the world and saves a resource that is incredibly important.



Questions

What are the critical water issues facing the world today in both developed and underdeveloped countries?

Explain some ways that business and industry are water-dependent.

Why is a company like WaterSmart Software so important to the marketplace?


Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu

TECH-Silicon Valley: The Land of Tech Pioneers and Heroes

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Silicon Valley: The Land of Tech Pioneers and Heroes


March 18, 2012




Sammi Veronie, a senior at Show Low High School in Arizona, has always been an idea person. In order to remember the things that inspired her, she would write thoughts into a notebook or shoot and store inspirational images on her phone.


“Silicon Valley is very forgiving of entrepreneurs and startups not achieving the success they were originally looking for -- provided they learn from it. ”
Six months ago, Veronie, 17, discovered a new way to remember her muses. After seeing the site, Pinterest, show up on her Google image search results, she requested an invitation to join. Pinterest is an online board that allows users to store, organize and share images and ideas. Veronie was instantly hooked.

She uses the site regularly, collecting things such as gift ideas, craft projects, recipes and hairstyles to try. To help organize the creative brainstorm, individual categories are separated onto their own pin-boards and like-minded pictures are ‘pinned’ accordingly. “I love Pinterest so much I’ve even started future boards — for example, a wedding and a future children board — so everything I like is all in one spot for years down the road when they’ll come in handy,” she says.

A ‘Valley’ of Semiconductors

Started by a small team in Palo Alto, Calif., Pinterest is a relatively new company that has catapulted into the public eye. The site reported 11 million U.S. unique visitors in January 2012, according to digital marketing intelligence firm comScore, which only began monitoring Pinterest activity in May 2011, when the number of unique visitors edged above 400,000.

It is another success story to come out of Silicon Valley, a region in northern California – some 40 miles south of San Francisco — known for its technology entrepreneurs. Even before the Internet was a household name, the term Silicon Valley was coined as a tribute to the semiconductor industry that was thriving in California’s Santa Clara Valley. Silicon refers to the material used to make commercially available semiconductors, which conduct electricity and are the foundation of modern electronics, including computers and telephones.

Today, bolstered by eager investors, a strong network of educational institutions and the close locale of thousands of high-technology companies, Silicon Valley has expanded its reputation and influence as a hotbed of technology innovation. Residents run the gamut, from the semiconductor innovators who inspired the name, to software companies, to Internet sites. “The Valley” is a Who’s Who of tech success, including the birthplace and current headquarters of Facebook in Palo Alto, the humble beginnings of Apple in Steve Jobs’s garage in Los Altos and now the headquarters in Cupertino, and the home base of visionary Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors, maker of premium electric vehicles, also in Palo Alto. Not impressed? The list also includes eBay, Google, Yahoo and Zynga.

Perhaps as important as the region’s emphasis on technology is its culture of entrepreneurialism. In Silicon Valley, “entrepreneurs are seen as pioneers and heroes, which is different than many other regions around the world,” says Chris Gill, CEO of SVForum, a nonprofit organization in Redwood City, Calif., that seeks to inspire and support technologists and entrepreneurs through education, networking opportunities and funding.

Gill, who says that “most start-up businesses fail,” believes Silicon Valley is “very forgiving of entrepreneurs and startups not achieving the success they were originally looking for — provided they learn from it.” The business culture within the region encourages new ventures, and since many more people these days are trying to start businesses, inevitably it will “result in more successes,” he adds.

Silicon Valley companies that succeed share some common traits, says Gill. “The hunger and passion of the team seems to be more important than almost anything else, with the possible exception of market timing and luck.”

“The Valley” is also known for its large number of younger workers, which contributes to a relaxed, t-shirt, flip-flop-wearing vibe. This is demonstrated clearly by the median age of employees at top technology companies. According to Payscale.com, the median age of Apple employees is 33, while 26 is the average age of workers at Facebook. Of the top nine companies listed in the survey, seven had a median age of under 40.

Omar Seyal, 31, is a technology entrepreneur operating in Silicon Valley. Nine months ago he co-founded Tagstand, a company that provides Near Field Communication (NFC) tags, labels and stickers. NFC is an emerging technology that allows the exchange of data through a simple tap and not a swipe. An example of an NFC application is touching an NFC-enabled smart phone to an advertisement label in order to retrieve further information.

Seyal was fortunate to get into Y Combinator, a well-respected business incubator in Mountain View, Calif., that is specifically designed to support the development of digital entrepreneurs. Y Combinator is one of many Silicon Valley-focused venture capital firms, which provide money and support to promising start-ups, often for a stake in the companies in which they invest. Founded by Paul Graham, Y Combinator mass-produces start-ups, funding between 40 and 60 ideas every six months, including such successes as Dropbox, Justin.tv and Airbnb. The program provided start-up money and required Seyal to attend a three-month boot camp in the summer of 2011. “They work with you and give you prototype deadlines. They have weekly meetings with you, and then the last deadline is ‘Demo Day’, where you bring your vision to life before a crowd of investors,” says Seyal.

‘It’s Never Too Early’


Silicon Valley has played an instrumental role in the fledging company, adds Seyal. Being located in Silicon Valley is helpful “because so many people are in the same boat with you.” Aside from the camaraderie and immersion in an environment that encourages entrepreneurs, the region has other advantages. “People take you more seriously when you are in Silicon Valley. I think it’s necessary to be where your customers are.”

Seyal started his first company shortly after college and began developing his technology skills while in high school. For high school students who think they may have the next great technology idea, Seyal says, “Do it. That’s literally my advice. If someone thinks they have a great idea, they should start working on it. They should start using their skills. It’s never too early.”



Source: www.kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu

HHRR-Managing Emotions in the Workplace: Do Positive and Negative Attitudes Drive Performance?/Interviewing Tips

The following information is used for educational purposes only.

Managing Emotions in the Workplace: Do Positive and Negative Attitudes Drive Performance?


April 18, 2007 in Knowledge@Wharton



You know the type: coworkers who never have anything positive to say, whether at the weekly staff meeting or in the cafeteria line. They can suck the energy from a brainstorming session with a few choice comments. Their bad mood frequently puts others in one, too. Their negativity can contaminate even good news. "We engage in emotional contagion," says Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace. "Emotions travel from person to person like a virus."

Barsade is the co-author of a new paper titled, "Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?" ("Affect" is another word for "emotion" in organizational behavior studies.) The answer: Employees' moods, emotions, and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership.

"The state of the literature shows that affect matters because people are not isolated 'emotional islands.' Rather, they bring all of themselves to work, including their traits, moods and emotions, and their affective experiences and expressions influence others," according to the paper, co-authored by Donald Gibson of Fairfield University's Dolan School of Business.

An "affective revolution" has occurred over the last 30 years as academics and managers alike have come to realize that employees' emotions are integral to what happens in an organization, says Barsade, who has been doing research in the area of emotions and work dynamics for 15 years. "Everybody brings their emotions to work. You bring your brain to work. You bring your emotions to work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as emotion conductors."

In the paper, Barsade and Gibson consider three different types of feelings:



•Discrete, short-lived emotions, such as joy, anger, fear and disgust.
•Moods, which are longer-lasting feelings and not necessarily tied to a particular cause. A person is in a cheerful mood, for instance, or feeling down.
•Dispositional, or personality, traits, which define a person's overall approach to life. "She's always so cheerful," or "He's always looking at the negative."

All three types of feelings can be contagious, and emotions don't have to be grand and obvious to have an impact. Subtle displays of emotion, such as a quick frown, can have an effect as well, Barsade says. She offers this example: "Say your boss is generally in very good humor, but you see him one day at a meeting and his eyes flash at you. Even if they don't glare at you for the rest of the meeting, his eyes have enunciated some valuable information that is going to have you concerned and worried and off center for the rest of the meeting."

Barsade suggests that while some people are better than others at controlling their emotions, that doesn't mean their coworkers aren't picking up on their moods. "You may not think you are showing emotion, but there's a good chance you are in your facial expression or body language. Emotions we don't even realize we are feeling can influence our thoughts and behaviors."

The researchers' paper discusses a concept known as "emotional labor," in which employees regulate their public displays of emotion to comply with certain expectations. Part of this is "surface acting," in which, for instance, the tired and stressed airline customer service agent forces himself to smile and be friendly with angry customers who have lost their luggage. That compares to "deep acting," in which employees exhibit emotions they have worked on feeling. In that scenario, the stressed-out airline worker sympathizes with the customer and shows emotions that suggest empathy. The second approach may be healthier, Barsade says, because it causes less stress and burnout, particularly emotional exhaustion from having to regulate one's emotions and "play a role."

But is there a downside to being too authentic? If the company is losing money and experiencing the effects of downsizing, should the manager, feeling stressed and overwhelmed, convey his despair to his workers? Or should the manager try to appear cheerful and act as if nothing is wrong? Barsade says it's possible for the manager to convey emotions that are both authentic and positive, saying something like, "I know you're worried. Things aren't looking good, but you know, we have a way out of this and we can work [on it] together." The employees will appreciate the honesty and take comfort in the optimism, she says.

Emotions as Valuable Data


Emotional intelligence -- buzz words already familiar in psychology and education -- is now talked about in business circles as well, Barsade says. Business schools are teaching executives how to be emotionally intelligent, and how to manage the emotions of their employees.

"The idea behind emotional intelligence in the workplace is that it is a skill through which employees treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation," according to the authors. "Let's say a sales manager has come up with an amazing idea that will increase corporate revenues by up to 200%, but knows his boss tends to be irritable and short-tempered in the morning. Having emotional intelligence means that the manager will first recognize and consider this emotional fact about his boss. Despite the stunning nature of his idea -- and his own excitement -- he will regulate his own emotions, curb his enthusiasm and wait until the afternoon to approach his boss."

Barsade says research suggests that positive people tend to do better in the workplace, and it isn't just because people like them more than naysayers. "Positive people cognitively process more efficiently and more appropriately. If you're in a negative mood, a fair amount of processing is going to that mood. When you're in a positive mood, you're more open to taking in information and handling it effectively."

While you can't necessarily change your coworkers, people can take steps to avoid catching a negative mood, according to Barsade. They can tell themselves before attending a staff meeting that they are not going to be bothered by the person who shoots down everyone's ideas, or that they are not going to let that person become the focus of their attention at the meeting (reducing the possibility for contagion). Or they can change their office routine. Barsade gave the example of a manager who was dragged down at the start of every day when passing by the desk of an employee who either grunted or gave no acknowledgement. The manager took control and simply started following a different route through the office.


Barsade's research has taken her into a variety of workplaces, most recently long-term care facilities. Her research found that in facilities where the employees report having a positive workplace culture -- she calls it a "culture of love" -- the residents end up faring better than residents in facilities with a less compassionate and caring work culture. The residents reported experiencing less pain, made fewer trips to the emergency room, and were more likely to report being satisfied and in a positive mood.

Overconfidence Online

E-mail, instant messaging and video conferencing have introduced new challenges to the workplace, Barsade adds. E-mails and instant messages can be misunderstood because they are devoid of facial expressions, intonation and body language -- cues that help convey emotions. Some people, she says, work hard at making their emails neutral, with the downside of sometimes sounding curt. On the other hand, while some writers may add a smattering of exclamation points, question marks and capital letters in an attempt to convey more emotion, this can also be a dangerous route, particularly when attempting humor or sarcasm to drive home a point.

"How can emotions be best conveyed via these media?" the paper asks. "What is the effect of conveying emotionally charged messages via text, when these messages are more likely to be misconstrued? How must we re-think emotional contagion and other social processes in an organizational world in which many meetings take place online?"

The paper cites a study showing that people tend to be overconfident about their ability to convey the emotion they wish in an e-mail, particularly when they are trying to be funny or sarcastic. "Video conferencing, also increasing in its use, has more cues, but it is also not yet the same as interacting face to face, particularly in group situations. Given that these technologies continue to grow as a primary means of communication within the business world, it is crucial that we understand how the interpretation and communication of affect occurs in these contexts," the paper says.

Workplaces need to get smart about the best use of e-mail, Barsade states. Her advice is that "if something is important, and you know that the emotional context is going to be an issue, then pick up the phone; don't just rely on e-mails." And even the phone may not be good enough. "Sometimes, if it is really important, you just have to fly to where they are and meet them face-to-face to get the message across."







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Interviewing Tips



What is an interview?

 An interview is a conversation between you and a potential employer. Ideally, it will be a mutually informative dialogue within which each of you benefits from learning about the other.

 The candidate uses the interview as an opportunity to share information about her/his background and qualifications, to express interest in the hiring organization, and to pose questions to the interviewer.

 The interviewer uses the conversation to promote the hiring organization and to determine if a good match exists between the candidate and the position..
What to expect during an interview?

 The invitation to interview means that, in general, you are qualified for the job; however, the employer wants to determine if you are the best qualified candidate to serve the firm's interests. This determination is made strongly on the basis of your enthusiasm and honesty. The more interest, enthusiasm and motivation you display in an interview, the better your chances are for moving forward in the process.

 Regardless of industry, most employers are interested in the following:

o Communication (written and verbal) Skills
o Interpersonal and Teamwork Skills
o Leadership Qualities/Potential
o Knowledge of the industry
o Organizational Skills
o Analytical and Problem-Solving Ability
o Maturity

 How you present yourself is just as important as what you say. Nonverbal communication can give as much information, if not more, than words. Be conscious of slouching back in a chair (boredom?), twiddling your thumbs (nervousness?), and crossing your arms (hostility?). If you are asked a particularly tough question, maintain your composure and take extra time to think before replying. Be sure to maintain good eye contact, which conveys confidence and honesty.

 During the interview, be sure to listen carefully to the interviewer and answer the question that is asked. Don’t be afraid to ask for an explanation if you don't understand the question. It is fine to take a few moments to think before answering difficult questions, so don't rush into your answer until you are ready.


How to Prepare:


Know Yourself

 First, it is important to know yourself and your career objectives. Employers are not interested in students with undefined career goals; they aim to fill jobs with qualified candidates who have some sense of direction and know how their skills support their job objectives. Even if you don't know exactly what you want to do, you have to be able to confidently tell an employer why you are interested in this particular job at this time.

 Think about your own abilities and experience in relation to an employer's needs. Be able to discuss why you want to work in this type of industry, division, and/or company. Identify your strengths in relation to each job for which you interview.

 Review your resume for experiences - whether they are related to education, work, or activities - that you can use as examples to support your skills. Anything on the resume is fair game, so also be prepared to describe or explain any item on it.

Know the Organization and the Industry

 Know the organization, the industry and the position. Spend time reviewing organization homepages, familiarizing yourself with the organization’s divisions, mission statements, and the like.

 You are not expected to be an expert in the particular field, but you should have enough knowledge to formulate meaningful questions to present to the interviewer. You can usually get an overview of the organization, its products and/or services, its philosophy and new developments, from its website or annual report.

Know What to Ask

 Be certain to prepare questions to ask the interviewer. You want to evaluate the organization and the opportunities provided by this position in order to determine whether or not you are even interested. In addition, the questions you ask convey interest and enthusiasm; if you fail to ask anything of the interviewer, s/he might assume you aren't particularly interested in the job or the organization.

Practice!

 Interviewing is a skill that improves with practice. Get together with friends and take turns asking each other questions, then providing feedback on strategies for improving your answers (as well as your delivery).


Commonly Asked Interview Questions*

 Tell me about yourself?
 Why should I hire you?
 How did you learn about our organization?
 What do you know about our organization?
 Where do you see yourself in five years?
 What was the worst thing that happened to you on a summer job?
 I see you received a very low grade in XXXX. Why?
 What contributions could you make to our organization?
 What do you expect from a job with us?
 What is your greatest asset? Liability?
 If you were an interviewer, what do you think the three most important criteria would be for hiring someone for this position?
 Do you like working with people?
 How would you handle an irate client if the complaint were against the organization's policy?
 Why are you interested in this field of work?
 Do you have any questions?
 What was your best subject in school? Worst?
 Why do you want to work for us?
 What are your future educational plans?
 If we hired you, what is the top position you see yourself holding?
 What is the lowest salary you would consider?
 Is there anything that could potentially interfere with your performance?
 Tell me about your experience on a part-time job.
 Of what accomplishment are you most proud? Least proud?
 What's your grade point average?


www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/resumes.html

LAW-TED Talks-Larry Lessig: Laws that choke creativity

The following information is used for educational purposes only.





Transcript:

(Applause)I want to talk to you a little bit about user-generated content.I'm going to tell you three stories on the way to one argumentthat's going to tell you a little bitabout how we open user-generated content up for business.So, here's the first story.

1906. This man, John Philip Sousa, traveled to this place,the United States Capitol, to talk about this technology,what he called the, quote, "talking machines."Sousa was not a fan of the talking machines.This is what he had to say."These talking machines are going to ruin artistic developmentof music in this country.When I was a boy, in front of every house in the summer evenings,you would find young people togethersinging the songs of the day, or the old songs.Today, you hear these infernal machines going night and day.We will not have a vocal chord left," Sousa said."The vocal chords will be eliminated by a process of evolutionas was the tail of man when he came from the ape."

Now, this is the picture I want you to focus on.This is a picture of culture.We could describe it using modern computer terminologyas a kind of read-write culture.It's a culture where people participate in the creationand the re-creation of their culture. In that sense, it's read-write.Sousa's fear was that we would lose that capacitybecause of these, quote, "infernal machines." They would take it away.And in its place, we'd have the opposite of read-write culture,what we could call read-only culture.Culture where creativity was consumedbut the consumer is not a creator.A culture which is top-down, owned,where the vocal chords of the millions have been lost.

Now, as you look back at the twentieth century,at least in what we think of as the, quote, "developed world" --hard not to conclude that Sousa was right.Never before in the history of human culturehad it been as professionalized, never before as concentrated.Never before has creativity of the millionsbeen as effectively displaced,and displaced because of these, quote, "infernal machines."The twentieth century was that centurywhere, at least for those places we know the best,culture moved from this read-write to read-only existence.

So, second. Land is a kind of property --it is property. It's protected by law.As Lord Blackstone described it, land is protected by trespass law,for most of the history of trespass law,by presuming it protects the land all the way down belowand to an indefinite extent upward.Now, that was a pretty good systemfor most of the history of the regulation of land,until this technology came along, and people began to wonder,were these instruments trespassersas they flew over land without clearing the rightsof the farms below as they traveled across the country?Well, in 1945, Supreme Court got a chance to address that question.

Two farmers, Thomas Lee and Tinie Causby, who raised chickens,had a significant complaint because of these technologies.The complaint was that theirchickens followed the pattern of the airplanesand flew themselves into the walls of the barnwhen the airplanes flew over the land.And so they appealed to Lord Blackstoneto say these airplanes were trespassing.Since time immemorial, the law had said,you can't fly over the land without permission of the landowner,so this flight must stop.Well, the Supreme Court considered this 100-years traditionand said, in an opinion written by Justice Douglas,that the Causbys must lose.The Supreme Court said the doctrine protecting landall the way to the sky has no place in the modern world,otherwise every transcontinental flight wouldsubject the operator to countless trespass suits.Common sense, a rare idea in the law, but here it was. Common sense --(Laughter) --Revolts at the idea. Common sense.

Finally. Before the Internet, the last great terrorto rain down on the content industrywas a terror created by this technology. Broadcasting:a new way to spread content,and therefore a new battle over the controlof the businesses that would spread content.Now, at that time, the entity,the legal cartel, that controlled the performance rightsfor most of the music that would be broadcastusing these technologies was ASCAP.They had an exclusive license on the most popular content,and they exercised it in a way that tried to demonstrateto the broadcasters who really was in charge.So, between 1931 and 1939, they raised rates by some 448 percent,until the broadcasters finally got togetherand said, okay, enough of this.And in 1939, a lawyer, Sydney Kaye, started somethingcalled Broadcast Music Inc. We know it as BMI.And BMI was much more democratic in the artthat it would include within its repertoire,including African American music for the first time in the repertoire.But most important was that BMI took public domain worksand made arrangements of them, which they gave away for freeto their subscribers. So that in 1940,when ASCAP threatened to double their rates,the majority of broadcasters switched to BMI.Now, ASCAP said they didn't care.The people will revolt, they predicted, because the very best musicwas no longer available, because they had shiftedto the second best public domain provided by BMI.Well, they didn't revolt, and in 1941, ASCAP cracked.And the important point to recognizeis that even though these broadcasterswere broadcasting something you would call second best,that competition was enough to break, at that time,this legal cartel over access to music.

Okay. Three stories. Here's the argument.In my view, the most significant thing to recognizeabout what this Internet is doingis its opportunity to revive the read-write culturethat Sousa romanticized.Digital technology is the opportunityfor the revival of these vocal chordsthat he spoke so passionately to Congress about.User-generated content, spreading in businessesin extraordinarily valuable ways like these,celebrating amateur culture.By which I don't mean amateurish culture,I mean culture where people producefor the love of what they're doing and not for the money.I mean the culture that your kids are producing all the time.For when you think of what Sousa romanticizedin the young people together, singing the songs of the day,of the old songs, you should recognizewhat your kids are doing right now.Taking the songs of the day and the old songsand remixing them to make them something different.It's how they understand access to this culture.So, let's have some very few examplesto get a sense of what I'm talking about here.

Here's something called Anime Music Video, first example,taking anime captured from televisionre-edited to music tracks.(Music)This one you should be -- confidence. Jesus survives. Don't worry.(Music)(Laughter)And this is the best.(Music)My love ...There's only you in my life ...The only thing that's bright ...My first love ...You're every breath that I take ...You're every step I make ...And I ....I want to share all my love with you ...No one else will do ...And your eyes ...They tell me how much you care ...(Music)So, this is remix, right?(Applause)And it's important to emphasize that what this is notis not what we call, quote, "piracy."I'm not talking about nor justifyingpeople taking other people's content in wholesaleand distributing it without the permission of the copyright owner.I'm talking about people taking and recreatingusing other people's content, using digital technologiesto say things differently.Now, the importance of thisis not the technique that you've seen here.Because, of course, every technique that you've seen hereis something that television and film producershave been able to do for the last 50 years.The importance is that that technique has been democratized.It is now anybody with access to a $1,500 computerwho can take sounds and images from the culture around usand use it to say things differently.These tools of creativity have become tools of speech.It is a literacy for this generation. This is how our kids speak.It is how our kids think. It is what your kids areas they increasingly understand digital technologiesand their relationship to themselves.

Now, in response to this new use of culture using digital technologies,the law has not greeted this Sousa revivalwith very much common sense.Instead, the architecture of copyright lawand the architecture of digital technologies,as they interact, have produced the presumptionthat these activities are illegal.Because if copyright law at its core regulates something called copies,then in the digital world the one fact we can't escapeis that every single use of culture produces a copy.Every single use therefore requires permission;without permission, you are a trespasser.You're a trespasser with about as much senseas these people were trespassers.Common sense here, though, has not yet revoltedin response to this response that the law has offeredto these forms of creativity.Instead, what we've seenis something much worse than a revolt.There's a growing extremism that comes from both sidesin this debate, in response to this conflictbetween the law and the use of these technologies.

One side builds new technologies, such as one recently announcedthat will enable themto automatically take down from sites like YouTubeany content that has any copyrighted content in it,whether or not there's a judgment of fair usethat might be applied to the use of that content.And on the other side, among our kids,there's a growing copyright abolitionism,a generation that rejects the very notionof what copyright is supposed to do, rejects copyrightand believes that the law is nothing more than an assto be ignored and to be fought at every opportunity possible.The extremism on one side begets extremism on the other,a fact we should have learned many, many times over,and both extremes in this debate are just wrong.Now, the balance that I try to fight for,I, as any good liberal, try to fight for firstby looking to the government. Total mistake, right?(Laughter)

Looked first to the courts and the legislatures to try to get themto do something to make the system make more sense.It failed partly because the courts are too passive,partly because the legislatures are corrupted,by which I don't mean that there's briberyoperating to stop real change,but more the economy of influence that governs how Congress functionsmeans that policymakers here will not understand thisuntil it's too late to fix it.So, we need something different, we need a different kind of solution.And the solution here, in my view, is a private solution,a solution that looks to legalize what it is to be young again,and to realize the economic potential of that,and that's where the story of BMI becomes relevant.Because, as BMI demonstrated, competition herecan achieve some form of balance. The same thing can happen now.We don't have a public domain to draw upon now,so instead what we need is two types of changes.

First, that artists and creators embrace the idea,choose that their work be made available more freely.So, for example, they can say their work is available freelyfor non-commercial, this amateur-type of use,but not freely for any commercial use.And second, we need the businessesthat are building out this read-write cultureto embrace this opportunity expressly, to enable it,so that this ecology of free content, or freer content,can grow on a neutral platformwhere they both exist simultaneously,so that more-free can compete with less-free,and the opportunity to develop the creativity in that competitioncan teach one the lessons of the other.

Now, I would talk about one particular such planthat I know something about,but I don't want to violate TED's first commandment of selling,so I'm not going to talk about this at all.I'm instead just going to remind you of the point that BMI teaches us.That artist choice is the key for new technologyhaving an opportunity to be open for business,and we need to build artist choice hereif these new technologies are to have that opportunity.But let me end with something I think much more important --much more important than business.It's the point about how this connects to our kids.We have to recognize they're different from us. This is us, right?(Laughter)We made mixed tapes; they remix music.We watched TV; they make TV.

It is technology that has made them different,and as we see what this technology can do,we need to recognize you can't killthe instinct the technology produces. We can only criminalize it.We can't stop our kids from using it.We can only drive it underground.We can't make our kids passive again.We can only make them, quote, "pirates." And is that good?We live in this weird time. It's kind of age of prohibitions,where in many areas of our life,we live life constantly against the law.Ordinary people live life against the law,and that's what I -- we are doing to our kids.They live life knowing they live it against the law.That realization is extraordinarily corrosive,extraordinarily corrupting.And in a democracy, we ought to be able to do better.Do better, at least for them, if not for opening for business.Thank you very much.(Applause)