Powered two wheelers in a changing world : challenges and opportunities

Powered two wheelers (PTWs) come in diverse forms and are used for a range of purposes in very different parts of the world. In many parts of the world, the forms and uses of PTWs are changing, influenced by social, economic and demographic changes. Most of the challenges associated with PTWs relate to safety, while the majority of the opportunities relate to mobility. The challenges for improving safety relate to the PTW user, other road users, the road environment, the vehicle, data and research, and socio-political dimensions. The relative importance of particular challenges varies between developed and developing countries, and among developing countries according to whether PTWs are largely used for recreation or for transport. PTWs present a range of psychological, transport, economic and environmental opportunities to individuals and societies. The fun and excitement of riding PTWs is a major motivator for their purchase and use for recreational purposes, both off-road and on-road. The transport and economic advantages to the individual also need to be considered. At a societal level, research has examined the potential for increasing PTW volumes to reduce fossil fuel use and traffic congestion in busy cities. The future of PTWs may differ greatly between countries and environmental and technological changes are leading to an evolution in the form of PTWs to encompass new modes of personal transportation.

The first global entertainment company : explaining Pathe's dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathe towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50-70%. Pathe was the first global entertainment company. This paper analyses its rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, which provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance and in this case the film industry. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathe "fits" the expected theoretical model of a dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality-based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best performing firms to consistently outperform rivals.

Catch me if you can : the effective service of bankruptcy documents in a changing world

This article discusses some recent judicial decisions to assist legal practitioners to overcome some of the problems encountered when serving Bankruptcy Notices and Creditor’s Petitions. Some of the issues covered in the discussion are: What the valid last-known address of the debtor can be, whether a Bankruptcy Notice can be validly served by email on a debtor who is located outside Australia, whether service of a Bankruptcy Notice is valid when the debtor is outside Australia when service on the debtor occurs in Australia, whether the creditor’s failure to obtain leave for service of a Bankruptcy Notice can be excused, what can be done regarding personal service of a Creditor’s Petition when a debtor is outside Australia and whether the Court can set aside a sequestration order. The article goes on to place the issues in the context of broader bankruptcy policies noting that effective service of bankruptcy documents is challenging in a world where mobility of debtors is global and new modes of communication ever changing.

Attack of the creationist reverberators! Or: the end of the world (as we know it)

This special issue of Popular Communication examines the impact of the global financial crisis and recession on differnt aspects of global and regional media and the cultural industries, changing practices of media production, as well as media consumption, and the interplay of economic challenges and technological change.

Engaging marketing students : student operated businesses in a simulated world

Engaged students are committed and more likely to continue their university studies. Subsequently, they are less resource intensive from a university’s perspective. This article details an experiential second-year marketing course that requires students to develop real products and services to sell on two organized market days. In the course, students participate as both consumers and marketers in a simulated world. The current article explores the effectiveness of this experiential assessment in terms of its ability to engage students. Comparing student engagement to a traditional lecture course and National Survey of Student Engagement benchmarks, the results suggest that the use of a simulated marketplace is capable of engaging students. Specifically, the assessment reported encourages more active learning and collaboration, is more academically challenging, and permits more student–faculty interaction than a traditional lecture-based course. The course structure outlined in this article permits the dynamics of a live marketing environment to be introduced into the classroom. The authors provide practical advice for educators seeking to design and implement engaging pedagogy.

International journalism and democracy : civic engagement models from around the world

"International Journalism and Democracy" explores a new form of journalism that has been dubbed ‘deliberative journalism’. As the name suggests, these forms of journalism support deliberation — the processes in which citizens recognize and discuss the issues that affect their communities, appraise the potential responses to those issues, and make decisions about whether and how to take action. Authors from across the globe identify the types of journalism that assist deliberative politics in different cultural and political contexts. Case studies from 15 nations spotlight different approaches to deliberative journalism, including strategies that have been sometimes been labeled as public or civic journalism, peace journalism, development journalism, citizen journalism, the street press, community journalism, social entrepreneurism, or other names. Countries that are studied in-depth include the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Colombia and Puerto Rico. Each of the approaches that are described offers a distinctive potential to support deliberative democracy. However, the book does not present any of these models or case studies as examples of categorical success. Instead, it explores different elements of the nature, strengths, limitations and challenges of each approach, as well as issues affecting their longer-term sustainability and effectiveness. The book also describes the underlying principles of deliberation, the media’s potential role in deliberation from a theoretical and practical perspective, and ongoing issues for deliberative media practitioners.

Creative industry and world city construction : Beijing as a creative world city

The study of the creative industries is not much more than a decade old. What makes it fascinating is that it is dealing with a rapidly evolving process, where a good deal of Schumpeterian ‘creative destruction’ – of old industries, business models, and some familiar cultural and creative pursuits – can already be observed. What happens next – and who will be the winner – is hard to predict. Furthermore, the creative industries encompass both large-scale ‘industry’ (media, publishing, digital applications) and individual creative talent; both economic and cultural values, and both global reach and local context. Thus, the challenge is to integrate ‘top-down’ policy and planning with ‘bottom-up’ experimentation and innovation. There is always the promise that this new creative ecology will provide some novel answers to problems of wealth-creation for emergent economies, new solutions to problems of intellectual emancipation for individuals, and sustainable development for that most intense incubator of creative ideas, the city.

Digital storytelling around the world

‘Digital storytelling’ is a workshop-based practice in which ‘ordinary’ people are taught to use digital media to create short audio-video stories, usually about their own lives. The idea is that this puts the universal human delight in narrative and self expression into the hands of everyone in the digital age; and potentially brings individual experience, ideas, creativity and imagination to the attention of the whole world. It gives a voice to the myriad tales of everyday life as experienced by ordinary people in their own terms. Despite its use of the latest technologies, its purpose is simple and human.

Becoming “Librarian 2.0” : the skills, knowledge, and attributes required by library and information science professionals in a Web 2.0 world (and beyond)

In 2005, Stephen Abram, vice president of Innovation at SirsiDynix, challenged library and information science (LIS) professionals to start becoming “librarian 2.0.” In the last few years, discussion and debate about the “core competencies” needed by librarian 2.0 have appeared in the “biblioblogosphere” (blogs written by LIS professionals). However, beyond these informal blog discussions few systematic and empirically based studies have taken place. This article will discuss a research project that fills this gap. Funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, the project identifies the key skills, knowledge, and attributes required by “librarian 2.0.” Eighty-one members of the Australian LIS profession participated in a series of focus groups. Eight themes emerged as being critical to “librarian 2.0”: technology, communication, teamwork, user focus, business savvy, evidence based practice, learning and education, and personal traits. This article will provide a detailed discussion on each of these themes. The study’s findings also suggest that “librarian 2.0” is a state of mind, and that the Australian LIS profession is undergoing a significant shift in “attitude.”

Early relational reasoning and the novice programmer : swapping as the “hello world” of relational reasoning

We report on a longitudinal research study of the development of novice programmers in their first semester of programming. In the third week, almost half of our sample of students could not answer an explain-in-plain-English question, for code consisting of just three assignment statements, which swapped the values in two variables. We regard code that swaps the values of two variables as the simplest case of where a programming student can manifest a SOLO relational response. Our results demonstrate that the problems many students face with understanding code can begin very early, on relatively trivial code. However, using traditional programming exercises, these problems often go undetected until late in the semester. New approaches are required to detect and fix these problems earlier.

Sapporo World Window : urban interaction through public and private screens

This paper introduces Sapporo World Window, a screen-based application that is currently under development for the new underway passage at the centre of Sapporo City. There are ten large public screens installed in the space, displaying user-generated videos about various aspects of the city and a real-time map that visualises users’ interaction with the city. The application aims to engage the general public by functioning as a unique ‘point of connection’ for socio-cultural and technological interactions, making the space a lively social place where people can have meaningful experiences of interacting with people and places of Sapporo through mobile phones (keitai) and the public screens in the space. This paper first outlines the contextual background and key concept for the application’s design. Then the paper discusses the user interaction processes, technical specifications, and interface design, followed by the conclusions and outlook.

Project-based IHRM : the emerging approach for the post-GFC world?

This paper reviews some past emphases in IHRM, and recommends that IHR teachers and practitioners consider using project management methodologies to tighten the focus of our diverse activities.

Tips for generating a media release and media coverage : how the media ate up my research on Aussie horror movies

The focus of this paper is preparing research for dissemination by mainstream print, broadcast, and online media. While the rise of the blogosphere and social media is proving an effective way of reaching niche audiences, my own research reached such an audience through traditional media. The first major study of Australian horror cinema, my PhD thesis A Dark New World: Anatomy of Australian Horror Films, generated strong interest from horror movie fans, film scholars, and filmmakers. I worked closely with the Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) public relations unit to write two separate media releases circulated on October 13, 2008 and October 14, 2009. This chapter reflects upon the process of working with the media and provides tips for reaching audiences, particularly in terms of strategically planning outcomes. It delves into the background of my study which would later influence my approach to the media, the process of drafting media releases, and key outcomes and benefits from popularising research. A key lesson from this experience is that redeveloping research for the media requires a sharp writing style, letting go of academic justification, catchy quotes, and an ability to distil complex details into easy-to-understand concepts. Although my study received strong media coverage, and I have since become a media commentator, my experiences also revealed a number of pitfalls that are likely to arise for other researchers keen on targeting media coverage.

Providing a law degree for the “real world” : perspective of an Australian law school

The Queensland University of Technology badges itself as “a university for the real world”. For the last decade the Law Faculty has aimed to provide its students with a ‘real world’ degree, that is, a practical law degree. This has seen skills such as research, advocacy and negotiation incorporated into the undergraduate degree under a University Teaching & Learning grant, a project that gained international recognition and praise. In 2007–2008 the Law Faculty undertook another curriculum review of its undergraduate law degree. As a result of the two year review, QUT’s undergraduate lawdegree has fewer core units, a focus on first year student transition, scaffolding of law graduate capabilities throughout the degree,work integrated learning and transition to the workplace. The revised degree commenced implementation in 2009. This paper focuses on the “real world” approach to the degree achieved through the first year programme, embedding and scaffolding law graduate capabilities through authentic and valid assessment and work integrated learning.