Lists & Rankings: Customer Service Champs 2008
Source: BusinessWeek
Archive for February, 2008
Lists & Rankings: Customer Service Champs 2008 (Annual Ranking)
Thursday, February 28th, 2008Statistics: Nearly Half of Preschoolers Receive Child Care from Relatives
Thursday, February 28th, 2008Nearly Half of Preschoolers Receive Child Care from Relatives
From the summary
Relatives regularly provide child care to almost half of the more than 19 million preschoolers, according to tabulations released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Fathers and grandparents were the primary relative child care providers.
The series of tables, Who’s Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 2005, showed that among the 11.3 million children younger than 5 whose mothers were employed, 30 percent were cared for on a regular basis by a grandparent during their mother’s working hours. A slightly greater percentage spent time in an organized care facility, such as a day care center, nursery or preschool. Meanwhile, 25 percent received care from their fathers, 3 percent from siblings and 8 percent from other relatives when mothers went to work.
Source: U.S. Census
Statistics: Foreclosure Activity Increases 8 Percent In January
Thursday, February 28th, 2008Statistics: Foreclosure Activity Increases 8 Percent In January
From the announcement:
RealtyTrac today released its January 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report™, which shows foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 233,001 properties during the month, an increase of 8 percent from the previous month and an increase of nearly 57 percent from January 2007
Source: RealtyTrac
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Fast Facts: Irish-American Heritage Month (March) and St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) 2008
Thursday, February 28th, 2008Another “Fast Facts” from the U.S. Census. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find.
+ 36 million
Number of U.S. residents who claim Irish ancestry. This number is almost nine times the population of Ireland itself (slightly more than 4 million). Irish is the nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry, trailing only German.
+ 31%
Percentage of people of Irish ancestry, 25 or older, who had a bachelor’s degree or more education. In addition, 91 percent of Irish-Americans in this age group had at least a high school diploma. For the nation as a whole, the corresponding rates were 27 percent and 84 percent.
+ $22.9 billion
The value of U.S. imports from Ireland for January to September 2007. Meanwhile, the United States exported $6.6 billion worth of goods to Ireland.
+ 9
Number of places in the United States that share the name of Ireland’s capital, Dublin. Since Census 2000, Dublin, Calif., has surpassed Dublin, Ohio, as the most populous of these places (41,840 compared with 36,565, respectively, as of July 1, 2006). If you’re still not into the spirit of St. Paddy’s Day, then you might consider paying a visit to Emerald Isle, N.C., with 3,716 residents.
Source: U.S. Census
Lists & Rankings: America’s 50 Best Hospitals
Thursday, February 28th, 2008America’s 50 Best Hospitals (PDF; 200 KB)
From press release (PDF; 28 KB):
HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization, today identified America’s 50 Best Hospitals, an elite class of top-performing facilities. The HealthGrades America’s 50 Best Hospital designation represents the healthcare industry’s only quality ranking based solely on objective clinical outcomes among U.S. hospitals.
To identify the 2008 designees, HealthGrades researchers analyzed approximately 100 million hospitalization records from nearly 5,000 hospitals, from the years 1999 to 2006. To be listed among America’s 50 Best Hospitals, facilities must have demonstrated clinical outcomes among the top five percent in the nation, not just in one medical specialty, but aggregated across 27 different procedures and diagnoses, and must have maintained this superior level of care during all years studied. These hospitals were found to have an average 27 percent lower mortality rate, on average, than all other U.S. hospitals.
Source: HealthGrades
Hat tip: PW
E-Government Survey 2008
Thursday, February 28th, 2008E-Government Survey 2008
Annotation via UN Pulse:
The Department of Economic and Social Affairs has issued the 2008 UN E-Government Survey: From E-Government to Connected Governance (full text, pdf, 1.46 MB). The report assesses the e-government readiness of the 192 UN Member States based on website assessment, telecommunication infrastructure, and human resource endowment. The Data Center provides statistics in to search and download.
Source: UN Pulse
Legal Consequences of Co-Blogging
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Legal Consequences of Co-Blogging
The decision to blog collaboratively can have significant legal consequences for the co-bloggers. In part 1 of a two-part series, Eric Goldman examines how current legal doctrines relevant to co-blogging can lead to unexpected (and possibly unwanted) results.
Bloggers often work collaboratively with other bloggers, a phenomenon I call “co-blogging.” The decision to co-blog may seem casual, but it can have significant and unexpected legal consequences for the co-bloggers. This series looks at some of these consequences under partnership law, employment law, and copyright law, explaining how each of these legal doctrines can lead to counterintuitive results. Part 2 of this series discusses some recommendations to mitigate the harshness of these results.
Source: InformIT
Information Isn’t Reserved for Books
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Information Isn’t Reserved for Books
by Carolyn Feibel
From the article:
But research librarians say their powers have been unfairly dismissed in the online age. Not only can they outsmart Google’s dead ends and weaknesses, librarians say, but they can help people surf faster and smarter by showing them hidden databases and tricks.
“It’s one of the most misrepresented professions,” said Saima Kadir, a reference librarian with the Houston Public Library.
In an age of clickable gratification, when books, articles and data are moving online, some people wonder whether librarians are relevant, said Leslie Burger, the immediate past-president of the American Library Association. But Burger said they are more necessary than ever.
She said librarians are subject to outdated stereotypes: “fusty, bookish, sensible shoes, eyeglasses and not particularly friendly. We’re really the polar opposite of that right now.”
Source: Houston Chronicle, Thanks to D.D. for the news tip.
Note: After reading this article, it makes stories like this one potentially even sadder.
An Open Approach to Search (Yahoo); Searching right to left (Google)
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Google is now the Default Search Option in Opera
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Google is now the default search option in Opera
From the announcement:
Opera today made Google the default search engine in Opera’s mobile Web browsers. Now anyone using Opera Mobile or Opera Mini can access Google’s powerful mobile search directly from the browser start page, meaning they’ll be able to quickly and easily get the information they need, whenever and wherever they need it.
“Google and Opera have established a valuable relationship over the years and we look forward to continued collaboration on mobile products,” said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. “With 2008 poised to be the year the mobile Web goes mainstream, Google and Opera are extending this collaboration to give our users immediate access to the quality and convenience of Google’s search results. We’re excited to extend this productive relationship and we hope that the nearly 100 million people using our mobile products will agree.”
Source: Opera
Mutimap Adds Updated Maps of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Mutimap Adds Updated Maps of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand
Source: Multimap Blog
Briefs: One Millionth Show Posts to JamBase.com, Database of Live Music Show Listings
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Citation Briefs: U.S. Institutions with Highest Concentrations in Library & Information Science, 2002-06; Science in Russia, 2002-06; Journals Ranked by Impact: Economics
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008UK: MySociety tests FoI website
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008A charity is testing a website which automates the submitting, tracking and publishing requests made under the Freedom of Information Act
Source: Kable’s
CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources) Issues #61 is Now Online
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008+ Mass Deacidification Revisited by James Neal, Connie Brooks, Paula DeStefano, Alice Prochaska, and Hans Rütimann
+ CLIR Fellows Share Experiences as “Hybrid” Professionals by Elliott Shore
+ Blue Ribbon Task Force Members Named
+ Real-World Approaches to Redesigning Work in Libraries by David Greenebaum
+ Frye Institute Participants Named
Source: Council on Library and Information Resources
Fulfilling the Promise of Open Content
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Fulfilling the Promise of Open Content
The concept of aggregating, sharing, and collaboratively enriching free educational materials over the Internet has been emerging over the past several years. The movement has been led by faculty members and content specialists who believe that making lesson plans, training modules and full courses freely available can help improve teaching and make educational resources more dynamic through a cross-pollination of ideas and expertise. The Hewlett Foundation-funded OpenCourseWare initiative and the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education’s OER Commons offer a glimpse of the potential for open content in higher education.
Unfortunately, the movement to use open educational resources in higher education hasn’t yet realized the full impact that its founders anticipated. Open content is still in its infancy and faces some technical and cultural challenges that affect its widespread adoption.
Source: inside Higher Ed
Ethanol Industry Outlook 2008…and other full-text reports on DocuTicker
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Posted 26 February 2008 on DocuTicker:
+ Ethanol Industry Outlook 2008 (Renewable Fuels Association)
+ Violence in Iraq (Center for Strategic & International Studies)
+ Disaster Figures for 2007: Asia continues to be hit hardest by disasters (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters)
