Uniting the World Through Film
In a world where people are often divided by borders, differences and conflicts, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that — to help people see themselves in others — through the power of film. Starting at 18:00 GMT on May 10, locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast in Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese and Spanish, to millions of people worldwide through the Internet, television and mobile phones. This event aims to unite people globally using digital technology delivered through old and new media.
Pangea Day resulted from the inspiration of filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, who was raised in Cairo. In 2006, she won the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Prize. Noujaim was granted $100,000, and more important, a wish to change the world. Her wish was to create a day in which the world came together through film. Pangea Day grew out of that desire.
The 24 short films to be featured during the Pangea Day event have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes.
Many of the winning films will be of special interest to the Arab and Muslim world including Jehane Noujaim’s “Mutual Recognition” and “Combatants for Peace,” Zeina Aboul Hosn’s “I Remember Lebanon,” Saleyha Ahsan’s “My Mother’s Daughter,” Ehsan Amani’s “The Slap,” Aysha Begum Miah’s “And That Is How I Wash My Hijab,” Eric Trometer’s “2 Men, 1 War, 33 Years On,” Khadija Al-Salami’s “Stranger in Her Own City,” Richard E. Robbins’ “Operation Homecoming: Road Work,” and Ronit Avni and Julia Bacha’s “Encounter Point.” The program will also include a number of speakers and musical performers. Queen Noor of Jordan, musician/activist Bob Geldof and Iranian rock phenom Hypernova are among those taking part. Learn more about the event, including how you can participate, through www.pangeaday.org
Consumer Electronics Devices Get Connected
Adoption of an Internet Protocol (IP) interface is growing across virtually all TV-oriented consumer electronics devices, according to a new whitepaper released by MultiMedia Intelligence. Manufacturers of IPTV, satellite set-top boxes, video game consoles, Blu-ray players, audio devices, digital media adapters and a new class of Internet-enabled TVs are adding an IP connection to their boxes. By 2012, MultiMedia Intelligence projects over 217 million Internet-enabled consumer electronics will be shipping annually.
However, simply integrating an IP connection into CE devices is not enough to achieve the transformational impact that this market could ultimately have. The complete ecosystem involves the underlying semiconductor technologies, the equipment, telecom operators, and compelling content and services. The whitepaper explains the connected home ecosystem, identifying how key interface technologies come together with content business models and consumer usage models. Access the report free via: http://MultiMediaIntelligence.com/index.php?option=com_content& task=view&id=71&Itemid=30.
IT Improves Bottom Line
IT excellence can drive real improvements to a company’s bottom line, according to research from The Hackett Group. Hackett’s latest “Book of Numbers” research finds that companies that are top performers in IT Business Value Management (IT BVM) also outperform their peers across a wide range of financial and profitability metrics, including net profitability, return on assets and return on equity. IT BVM represents an integrated set of management processes designed to maximize the economic value from IT capital investments and operating expenditures.
Business value creation is a key yardstick for measuring IT’s contribution to overall organizational performance. According to Hackett’s research, when compared (by industry) to typical $22.3 billion Global 1000 companies, top IT BVM performers generate $1.07 billion more operating profit on an annual basis and $645 million higher net profit. In addition, not a single company in the Hackett study was able to deliver superior financial performance without also being a top performer in IT BVM.
Hackett noted that top performers excel at all four key IT BVM process areas: business value governance; performance management; portfolio management; and IT financial management. Top performers have very different IT investment profiles than their peers. At typical companies, the largest IT investment is for “infrastructure refresh.” By contrast, top performers spend most of their capital on “innovation and improvement,” usually in the form of discretionary projects.
Top-performers in IT BVM also manage their IT project pipelines much more effectively than their peers. They weed out the least promising initiatives early on, approving and funding only half as many project proposals (40 percent vs. 88 percent for typical companies). Then, they initiate and complete a much larger percentage of the projects they approve. Finally, top IT BVM performers are nearly two times more likely to meet cost targets on IT projects as typical companies and nearly three times more likely to meet benefit targets.
According to Hackett Chief Research Officer Michel Janssen, “The IT BVM processes we’ve identified represent only 3 percent to 7 percent of the overall IT processes and resources. Yet by excelling in these areas, companies can drive dramatic bottom line benefits. Companies that accomplish this understand that the need to ‘get IT right’ is one of the critical capabilities to stay ahead of the competition.”
A Research Insight providing more details on the findings described here is available free, with registration, at www.thehackettgroup.com/studies/itbvminsight/.
