Angel Cabrera pushes a Hippocratic Oath for business

Nice article today in the International Herald Tribune on Angel Cabrera, a friend who, as president of the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, has been pushing an ethics oath for business school students.

The oath:

Students at Thunderbird have voted to adopt a Professional Oath of Honor, which they helped formulate. Graduating students pledge to act with honesty and integrity, oppose corruption and exploitation, and create “sustainable prosperity worldwide.”

The rationale:

If executives are to have a functioning moral compass, Cabrera said, business schools have an important role to play.

“You may be taught right and wrong at home, like not poking someone in the eye, but you certainly don’t have conversations at the dinner table about stock options and backdating them, and is that good or is that bad,” Cabrera said.

Technorati Tags: Angel Cabrera, Hippocratic oath, Thunderbird

Listening to greatest hits queen (by WinAmp Windows Plugin)

Beijing101: Beijing jazz for Daniel Pearl

Last night I attended a great jazz session at the Beijing CD Jazz Club that was part of the World Music Days in honor of murdered Wall Street reporter Daniel Pearl.

Matt Roberts, Beijinger and trombonist in the Ah-Q Jazz Arkestra, in this video describes the background of the Beijing event. More than 15 musicians and about one hundred people in the audience.

As described on the World Music Days website:

Inspired by the legacy of journalist and musician Daniel Pearl, World Music Days uses the universal language of music to spread a message of hope and unity across cultural divides. By simply including a dedication from the stage or in the program of your upcoming performance, you will reaffirm your commitment to international friendship and take a stand against the divisive forces that took Danny’s life. As a member of this global network of concerts, your music will inspire your audiences with a sense of unity and purpose.

World Music Days is an “awareness raiser,” not a fundraiser. There is no financial obligation to participate.

The Beijing CD Jazz Club is located about 300 meters south of the main entrance to the Agricultural Exhibition Hall, on the east side of the third ring road, (just by the pedestrian bridge). Telephone: 6506.8288.

Technorati Tags: Ah-Q Jazz Arkestra, Beijing, Beijing CD Jazz Club, beijing101, China, Daniel Pearl, jazz, Matt Roberts

Why Joost is Toast (Toost?)

Joost, YouTube and other web-based video services will soon run up against physical limitations of the Internet, says Carl Yang, Beijing-based executive vice-president of strategy for start-up company MPi.

Yang’s company - surprise! surprise! - offers a solution to this problem, but his argument is interesting nonetheless.

Size matters
First Yang takes the vast size difference between data and video files (something I have become very aware of as Video Blogging hogs my hard drive).

Yang reckons that once 10 percent of the Internet’s population starts using video on a regular basis, 90 percent of the Internet’s traffic will be hogged by video. This traffic jam will grind Joost and YouTube-style services to a halt.

Nodes are slow (not fiber)
The Internet traffic jam will not, however, be solved by running fiber into homes. The issue, Yang says, is the relatively slow speed of traffic through the network’s nodes. In other words, it is a structural issue.

Moore’s law does not matter
You may say: “But Moore’s law will save us by doubling the speed of the processors in those nodes every 18 months.” Moore’s law is great, but Yang counters with something called Gilder’s law that states that the capacity of fiber networks triples every nine months. (Sorry, Moore.)

The result: Video Constipation
No matter whether you offer videos off of servers (YouTube) or via peer-to-peer networks (Joost) the Internet is headed for a traffic jam.

MPi’s pitch
MPi, on the other hand, says their non-IP-based system will allow Telcos and Cable companies to offer a massive population:
- High quality videos
- Two-way interaction
- In real time

Yang’s TV Vision
Yang’s vision of television moves straight to the YouTube-style model of people broadcasting to one another, but does it in real time with high quality video. (He also includes regular broadcast-style TV along with timeshift features.)

He uses the term “Switched TV” to describe a world in which any individuals on a network can broadcast television to all other individuals.

To clarify:
Stage 1: Broadcast (1950’s model of one to many)
Stage 2: Interactive (1990’s model of individuals gaining more granular control of what they receive through interactive digital TV or Tivo-like systems.)
Stage 3: Switched TV (2000’s model/YouTube of anyone broadcasting to anyone else)

The troubles facing today’s Cable and Telco companies will only worsen unless they find ways of embracing and monetizing high quality YouTube-style model of television, Yang said.
How?
Consumers using MPi’s system need a $100 set-top box and must subscribe to a Cable or Telco company with the equipment back in a central location. One limit vis-a-vis Joost, YouTube, etc: Consumers can only interact within the network, closed-garden style. A real world test of the system will be starting soon with a Gehua, a Beijing cable company.

Money?
In addition to subscriptions from consumers, video on demand, etc… some new and interesting revenue streams include adding charges for people to set up their own broadcasts (You could broadcast to all offices of your company, for example, or to all of Beijing). They also offer a way for broadcasters to charge viewers for their videos. Billing is easy since the entire system operates within the Telco or Cable company’s proprietary system.

Dangers
The weakness of MPi’s system is, of course, that Yang’s calculus might be wrong. Joost, YouTube and friends might find that people are happy enough with low quality videos. Another danger is that Joost and friends find ways to send video over the Internet in a more efficient way that does not face these limits.

Even with these two scenarios, Yang argues that Cable companies and Telcos are better off using his system to retain and gain customers.

Technorati Tags: Carl Yang, Joost, mpi, mpi (shanghai) ltd, YouTube