Director of IBM University Programs (IBM UP) since 2009, Jim founded IBM's first Service Research group in 2003 at the Almaden Research Center with a focus on STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) for Service Sector innovations. He led this group to attain ten times return on investment with four IBM outstanding and eleven accomplishment awards over seven years. Working with service research pioneers from many academic disciplines, Jim advocates for Service Science, Management, Engineering, and Design (SSMED) as an integrative extended-STEM framework for global competency development, economic growth, and advancement of science. In 2000, Jim became the founding CTO of IBM’s first Venture Capital Relations group in Silicon Valley. In the mid 1990’s, he lead Apple Computer’s Learning Technologies group, where he was awarded DEST (Distinguished Engineer Scientist and Technologist) Jim received a Ph.D. in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence from Yale University and a B.S. in Physics from MIT.
Greg Van Kirk has developed the MicroConsignment model—a sustainable, replicable means of delivering health-related goods and services to remote Guatemalan and Ecuadoran villages using entrepreneurship; empowering the villagers to help themselves.
Mary Ellen Bates, president and founder of Bates Information Services is one of the nation's leading experts in customized information research (also known as information brokering) and effective, thorough, and no-nonsense training for corporate researchers and knowledge workers. She also provides detailed consulting and hands-on business coaching for professionals seeking to enter the field of information brokering.
Bates' impressive credentials include a diverse array of research commissions, ranging from assessing the outlook for the pre-fab housing industry in Europe and Japan to studying recent high-tech developments in the grocery industry, and more. She also has written or co-written six books and close to 300 by-lined articles and white papers on various aspects of research and information gathering. In addition, Ms. Bates is a skilled and lively speaker, with more than 250 speaking engagements to her credit since 1993.
In her spare time, Bates is an amateur photographer and a dedicated marathon runner. In the past 10 years, she has completed 15 marathons, and continues to hone her skills in the training and strategy work required for long-distance running.
Phi Beta Iota: MEB as some call her, is a SUPER-SEARCHER, along with Reva Bausch, now retired, perhaps the absolute best in the USA–it would be fun to see her and Arno Reuser having a duel, but more likely they would just be ga-ga with one another's skills. She pioneered cost-effective citation analysis using the DIALOG File 7 (Social Science Citation Index) and a program she personally constructed that OSS.Net, Inc. used to idnetify the top people in the world across a very wide variety of threat and policy domains. She is unique, and we are are over-joyed to know, still going strong.
Phi Beta Iota: We are deeply inpressed by this individual, who crosses harnesses Collective Intelligence to achieve Commercial Value in both Cultural and Earth contexts. His idea is infinitely scalable, infinitely valuable, and applicable to every single product and service on the planet, ultimately to included planned giving at the item level.
Phi Beta Iota: Government is broken. Ron Paul has that exactly right. It is broken for two reasons: first because over time those spending the money have grown distant from those providing the money, the individual taxpayers, AND from reality. The second reason it is broken is because knowledge itself has become fragmented, and “systems thinking” has fallen by the wayside.
Below are three quotes from a tremendous reference of lasting value to every citizen and policymaker.
ONE: Reformations and transformations are not the same thing. Reformations are concerned with changing the means systems employ to pursue their objectives. Transformations involve changes in the objectives they pursue.
TWO: The righter we do the wrong thing, the wronger we become. When we make a mistake doing the wrong thing and correct it, we become wronger. When we make a mistake doing the right thing and correct it, we become righter. Therefore, it is better to do the right thing wrong than the wrong thing right. This is very significant because almost every problem confronting our society is a result of the fact that our public policy makers are doing the wrong things and are trying to do them righter.
Stephen E. Arnold is an independent consultant. He's the author of The Google Legacy: How Search Became the New Application Platform, the first three editions of the Enterprise Search Report, and Google Version 2.0: The Calculating Predator. His work has been distributed by Bear Stearns and Outsell Inc. This information is based on research for this forthcoming study, Beyond Search: What to Do When Your Search System Doesn't Work, Gilbane Group, 2008. His Web site is www.arnoldit.com.
abette Bensoussan is Managing Director of The MindShifts Group, a company specialising in competitive intelligence, strategic planning and strategic marketing projects in the Australasia region. Babette is widely recognised and sought after for her international expertise in competitive analysis, and has provided mentoring and training to executives and organizations to assist with the delivery of the highest level of knowledge and implementation of competitive intelligence.
Recognised internationally in 2006 by being given the highest and most prestigious U.S. award in the field of Competitive Intelligence – the SCIP Meritorious Award, Babette is the first Australian and first female international recipient to be honoured with this award.
