an article by Barrie Gunter published in Aslib Proceedings Volume 61 Issue 2 (2009)
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how blogging has grown as an online phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
Examines the way that blogs have become a phenomenon that embrace private authors who go online to write personal diaries through to representatives from different types of commercial, political and voluntary organisations who utilise them for a range of information exchange, debating, promotional and support purposes.
Findings
As blogging grows as an online phenomenon its impact in areas such as news, politics, and social networking is being taken ever more seriously. While the Internet has been held up by governments as holding great economic and political promise, acting as a vehicle that can enhance public services, empower and engage citizens, and trigger new ways of doing business, the reality in terms of how it is actually applied can be poles apart from the ideal.
Originality/value
The paper provides an overview of blogging and introduces the papers in this special issue.
Friday, 21 August 2009
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
NEET Statistics Quarterly Brief
This brief sets out the latest statistics available on NEET in England from the DCSF 16-18 Participation SFR, the Labour Force Survey, and regional NEET figures and a segmentation using Connexions data.
PDF 13pp (185Kb)
Contact: Emily Uttley mailto:Emily.Uttley@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk?subject=Enquiry tel: 0114 259 3955
PDF 13pp (185Kb)
Contact: Emily Uttley mailto:Emily.Uttley@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk?subject=Enquiry tel: 0114 259 3955
How to speak English Pooperly
This is too long to be included in a list of ten non-work-related items!!
If you wish to learn how to do pooper English then you must remember
Thanks to DearWebby whose humour is always clean and often of the groany type – and who also provides ICT tips in his daily newsletter.
If you wish to learn how to do pooper English then you must remember
- Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
- Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
- And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
- It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
- Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat)
- Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
- Be more or less specific.
- Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
- Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
- No sentence fragments.
- Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
- Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
- Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
- One should never generalise.
- Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
- Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
- One-word sentences? Eliminate.
- Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
- The passive voice is to be ignored.
- Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
- Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
- Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
- Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth-shaking ideas.
- Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know”.
- If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
- Puns are for children, not groan readers.
- Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
- Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
- Who needs rhetorical questions?
- Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
And the last one - Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Thanks to DearWebby whose humour is always clean and often of the groany type – and who also provides ICT tips in his daily newsletter.
Monday, 17 August 2009
Ten trivial (i.e non-work-related) items
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
In 1797, Thomas Cadell made perhaps the greatest mistake in publishing history. One Rev. George Austen had sent him a novel by his daughter... more
Song of the Vine: A History of Wine via Librarians' Internet Index: New This Week
Website companion to a 2008-09 exhibition about the story of wine making that “celebrates the 10th anniversary of [Cornell University Library's] Eastern Wine and Grape Archive (EWGA)”. Essays and digitised materials explore the introduction of wine in America, grape cultivation, the temperance movement, Prohibition, cocktail culture, and more. Includes a few related website links. From Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
Friday fun via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Anne
The Discovery Channel has created an interactive Volcano Explorer where you can create a virtual volcano and watch it erupt.
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Seriously now, lard is good for you. After years in the shadow of cholesterol worries, it turns out that lard is not as unhealthy as you thought... more
Old technology via BBC News Technology UK Edition
Your pictures of appliances that just keep going.
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Danny Postel wants to raise his kids to be freethinkers. But what if all that freedom in their thinking results in their becoming religious?... more
Strange inventions via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Nicky
15 most bizarre patents… although I have seen the “banana protective device” on sale in the UK, so somebody obviously took it seriously. and there are more: Really useful gadgets Weird things and also: Annals of Improbable Research
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Exclamation marks used to be frowned on. But now we use them all the time! Hurrah!!! What is it about email that makes people so excited?... more
Friday fun via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Anne
The Nobel Foundation has put together this collection of educational games based on Nobel prize-winning chemistry achievements.
Four games are available: What is chirality?, Heating plastics, A future with conductive polymers, and the PCR method: a DNA copying machine.
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, many Britons thought it was the beginning of the end of their empire. Still, it took a while... more
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Disraeli, with his olive complexion and coal black eyes, was an English Jew at a time when being English and Jewish was inconceivable... more
In 1797, Thomas Cadell made perhaps the greatest mistake in publishing history. One Rev. George Austen had sent him a novel by his daughter... more
Song of the Vine: A History of Wine via Librarians' Internet Index: New This Week
Website companion to a 2008-09 exhibition about the story of wine making that “celebrates the 10th anniversary of [Cornell University Library's] Eastern Wine and Grape Archive (EWGA)”. Essays and digitised materials explore the introduction of wine in America, grape cultivation, the temperance movement, Prohibition, cocktail culture, and more. Includes a few related website links. From Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.
Friday fun via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Anne
The Discovery Channel has created an interactive Volcano Explorer where you can create a virtual volcano and watch it erupt.
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Seriously now, lard is good for you. After years in the shadow of cholesterol worries, it turns out that lard is not as unhealthy as you thought... more
Old technology via BBC News Technology UK Edition
Your pictures of appliances that just keep going.
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Danny Postel wants to raise his kids to be freethinkers. But what if all that freedom in their thinking results in their becoming religious?... more
Strange inventions via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Nicky
15 most bizarre patents… although I have seen the “banana protective device” on sale in the UK, so somebody obviously took it seriously. and there are more: Really useful gadgets Weird things and also: Annals of Improbable Research
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Exclamation marks used to be frowned on. But now we use them all the time! Hurrah!!! What is it about email that makes people so excited?... more
Friday fun via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Anne
The Nobel Foundation has put together this collection of educational games based on Nobel prize-winning chemistry achievements.
Four games are available: What is chirality?, Heating plastics, A future with conductive polymers, and the PCR method: a DNA copying machine.
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, many Britons thought it was the beginning of the end of their empire. Still, it took a while... more
via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Disraeli, with his olive complexion and coal black eyes, was an English Jew at a time when being English and Jewish was inconceivable... more
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Overeducation and the skills of UK graduates
an article by Arnaud Chevalier (Royal Holloway University of London) and Joanne Lindley (University of Sheffield) published in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) Volume 172 Issue 2 (2009)
Abstract
During the early 1990s the proportion of a cohort entering higher education in the UK doubled over a short period of time. The paper investigates the effect of the expansion on graduates’ early labour market attainment, focusing on overeducation. We define overeducation by combining occupation codes and a self-reported measure for the appropriateness of the match between qualification and the job. We therefore define three groups of graduates: matched, apparently overeducated and genuinely overeducated. This measure is well correlated with alternative definitions of overeducation. Comparing pre- and post-expansion cohorts of graduates, we find with this measure that the proportion of overeducated graduates has doubled, even though overeducation wage penalties have remained stable. We do not find that type of institution affects the probability of genuine overeducation. Apparently overeducated graduates are mostly indistinguishable from matched graduates, whereas genuinely overeducated graduates principally lack non-academic skills and suffer a large wage penalty. Individual unobserved heterogeneity differs between the three groups of graduates but controlling for it does not alter these conclusions.
Abstract
During the early 1990s the proportion of a cohort entering higher education in the UK doubled over a short period of time. The paper investigates the effect of the expansion on graduates’ early labour market attainment, focusing on overeducation. We define overeducation by combining occupation codes and a self-reported measure for the appropriateness of the match between qualification and the job. We therefore define three groups of graduates: matched, apparently overeducated and genuinely overeducated. This measure is well correlated with alternative definitions of overeducation. Comparing pre- and post-expansion cohorts of graduates, we find with this measure that the proportion of overeducated graduates has doubled, even though overeducation wage penalties have remained stable. We do not find that type of institution affects the probability of genuine overeducation. Apparently overeducated graduates are mostly indistinguishable from matched graduates, whereas genuinely overeducated graduates principally lack non-academic skills and suffer a large wage penalty. Individual unobserved heterogeneity differs between the three groups of graduates but controlling for it does not alter these conclusions.
Scale of jobs crisis for young revealed
The number of “NEETs” – young people not in employment, education or training – has jumped by more than 70 per cent since 2001 in parts of southern England, according to figures obtained by the Conservative party.
Read the full article in the FT
Read the full article in the FT
Friday, 14 August 2009
Economic impact report 2009
This research seeks to quantify the direct economic impacts of Sector Skills Council GoSkills.
It highlights the economic impact of GoSkills in the passenger transport sector and covers the impact of GoSkills as an employer.
The contribution of skills, qualifications and apprenticeships promoted by GoSkills is considered together with the benefits of improving basic skills, technical and vocational skills, public funding for sector qualifications, and the value of qualifications and apprenticeships.
The authors set out GoSkills’ strategic objectives and make recommendations to improve the effectiveness of training and skills interventions in the passenger transport sector.
Full document (PDF 24pp)
Source: Futureskills Scotland
It highlights the economic impact of GoSkills in the passenger transport sector and covers the impact of GoSkills as an employer.
The contribution of skills, qualifications and apprenticeships promoted by GoSkills is considered together with the benefits of improving basic skills, technical and vocational skills, public funding for sector qualifications, and the value of qualifications and apprenticeships.
The authors set out GoSkills’ strategic objectives and make recommendations to improve the effectiveness of training and skills interventions in the passenger transport sector.
Full document (PDF 24pp)
Source: Futureskills Scotland
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
