Tiffany: Inaugural Speech

When listening to President Obama's Inaugural Speech I was deeply moved like most were, but there were parts of the speech that stood out to me more than others. The fact that he aknowledged and reminded Americans of the past and how far we have come along, was a very important part of his speech. Many times we complain about the things that we are still struggling with as a nation, but never celebrate on how far we have come. If we would even just take the time to compare ourselves to other nations and measure the amount of progression America has made, we would be astounded. From the work of our forefathers, African-American slaves, and immigrants from all over the world, the United States has grown to be the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world. Of course we have things that need to worked on, as with any country, but look at how far we have come in comparison to other country's; in such a short amount of time. Below I have extracted a portion of the speech that moved me greatly. Please take the time to read and reflect on it.


"In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted -- for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.politics/index.html

Albania: 1/20/09 Inauguration of Barack Obama

The inauguration of our 44th president Barack Obama was unbelieveable, and an indescribable moment because America had elected the first African American president ever. A job that just the other day it was a position only held by white American men, now its like that wall came tumbling down like the Berlin Wall. After hearing and reading the inauguaration speech I got the sense that he was ready for the challenge but that we as a society have the responsibility to work proactively with him and the administration to get things done. Personally, I have never felt so empowered, like I can make a difference in my community, in my state, and in my country I'm definitely ready to act. At church , at school, and work you get a sense from people that " Yes we can", its an overwhelming feeling in my spirit.

Gabriela: American's New President [01/20/09 class]

During this week's class the most popular subject was the Presidential Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack H. Obama. Seeing how this class revolves around the impact that society has on businesses I began to search the web for the new Presidents goals. The most interesting of all of his goals is to reduce oil dependance.  Other goals include: review of decisions to block states from setting own emission targets, orders the transportations department to come up with new short-term rules on how carmakers can improve fuel efficiency, federal buildings to become more efficient, double 'green' energy from wind, sun and biofuels over the next three years (according to bbc.com) This will greatly affect the oil industry business and the power the have over many nations and will change the auto industry entirely. I hope all of this takes place because the environment has been suffering for many years. For more on the link please go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7851038.stm 

Norma Castaneda: Opinion on Obama's speech

Obama’s speech was overwhelming. What I most liked about his speech is that he always referred to America as “us”. He did not single out anybody but pleaded for unity. I believe that he sees America with a different view; he believes that if we all work together we would make this a better place. He also encouraged us that we need to work hard meaning less leisure and more work. We need to sacrifice a bit in order to get up all over again and have the stable and strong America we were. Another important point that the President made was that America is going to get out of this situation not because of the government but because of the people. I think this speech will be considered as one of the best ever.

Helicopter Parents

One of the topics mentioned during my MAN4701 class was "Helicopter Parents". Our professor advised us to read some articles to become more informed on the topic. Helicopter parents is a term used to define parents that are over-involved in their children's lives. Many times these parents don't allow their children to fail and learn on their own. The article that is linked is titled Hovering parents need to step back at college time. This article addresses issues that can arise from these over protective parents. Such protectiveness can hinder development of problem- solving skills and confidence. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/02/04/hm.helicopter.parents/index.html

Albania: January 13, 2009

Last class one of our many topics that we spoke about was technology and how it is not only affecting our society today but how much of an impact it will bring to our communities in the future. I read this article today and it was to my surprise how everything sooner or later will be through the internet even a farmers market as stated in the article I have posted from the new york times. The purpose of this organization is to provide an outlet to advertise artisan food producers and growers there products. Foodzie which is the name of the company will display the sellers products for free but will take 20 percent of the price cut from each sale. This will be a great opportunity for farmers sell there products to a broader market which is amazing to me.


January 16, 2009, 10:55 am — Updated: 9:41 pm -->
An Online Farmers Market
By Claire Cain Miller
The local food movement has been all about buying seasonal food from nearby farmers. Now, thanks to the Web, it is expanding to include far-away farmers too.
A new start-up, Foodzie, is an online farmers market where small, artisan food producers and growers can sell their products. Foodies in Florida, say, can order raw, handcrafted pepperjack cheese from Traver, Calif., or organic, fair-trade coffee truffles from Boulder, Colo.
“You get a similar experience to a farmers market, when you get the opportunity to meet farmers, but it is much more scalable and you get a better selection,” said Rob LaFave, a Foodzie co-founder. “Ninety-seven percent of the country does not have this kind of access to artisan foodmakers.”
Foodzie was started by Mr. LaFave and two of his friends, who met during college at Virginia Tech, where they would frequent farmers markets. Last year, while living in North Carolina, one of them, Emily Olson, now 24, came up with the idea. She was working as a brand manager for a gourmet grocery chain and realized that other foodies who did not work in the business had no way to discover artisan foods outside their local farmers markets. Small farmers had no way of finding or selling to far-flung customers, either.
Mr. LaFave and the third co-founder, Nik Bauman, both 25, worked in corporate sales and software development. “With business, food and computer science backgrounds, we figured we had everything we needed,” Mr. LaFave said.
The three quit their jobs, packed up and moved to Boulder, where they joined TechStars, an incubator program for tech start-ups. They opened the site to the public in December and moved to San Francisco in January.
Foodzie is a gourmet version of Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade goods that has been hugely successful, selling $12.9 million worth of products in December. Like Etsy, sellers set up virtual storefronts on the site to post their wares and tell shoppers about themselves. On Foodzie, sellers can post their goods for free and Foodzie takes a 20 percent cut of each sale.
While a 20 percent cut is high for an e-commerce site (Etsy sellers pay 20 cents to list each item and the site takes a 3.5 percent cut), it is low in the food business, Mr. LaFave said. Food retailers typically take 50 percent of the sale price and distributors take another 10 percent.
Unlike Etsy, where buyers and sellers do the entire interaction independently, Foodzie serves as a middleman. It takes the purchase information from the buyer, processes the payment and e-mails the seller a prepaid shipping label.
One seller, Seth Ellis Chocolatier in Boulder, wanted to reach customers in other states, yet could not take on the challenges of building and operating an e-commerce site and marketing the site to national customers, Ms. Olson said. “We can give them new customers who would have never known about them.”
Foodzie is adding video and other social networking features to help shoppers get to know sellers, as they do at offline farmers markets. “There’s not a great place to talk about the food and artisans they’re buying from,” Mr. LaFave said. “It’s really important to connect these people, make it easier for people to learn the story behind the food and where it comes from.”
Foodzie raised $1 million in funding in December from angel investors, led by First Round Capital and SoftTech VC, and it is considering raising a follow-on round. Though some investors who had expressed interest in the site pulled out when the economy soured, most were impressed that Foodzie, unlike many Web businesses, had a revenue model from day one, Mr. LaFave said.
Foodzie was an attractive investment, said Jeff Clavier, managing partner at SoftTech VC, because unlike many Web 2.0 social sites, “Foodzie makes money every day as people buy products. We have learned a lot from Web 2.0 about adding the involvement of users. Services built using that technology, but focusing on generating revenue by serving a certain marketplace, will be compelling in this environment.”
The site has only been live since December, and it has had 43,000 visitors in the past month. So far, 29 sellers have opened shops and 41 are in the process of opening them. The founders recently hired a fourth employee to help Ms. Olson recruit new food producers at farmers markets and food shows. The founders will not disclose the volume of sales that have been made through the site.
Mr. LaFave is convinced that the recession will not diminish people’s interest in buying locally grown and handmade food. “There is a misconception that all these foods are more expensive than mass-produced alternatives,” he said. “People are pouring their heart and soul into these products, using the highest quality, heirloom ingredients. Buyers are really supporting the local economy and small, independent food makers and growers.”

Gabriela: Relating Technology to Business in Society [01/13/09 class]

During the first meeting of the MAN4701 class we discussed the importance of technology and education for Business in Society. Without education and technology there will be no future. Here in this BBC January 15th news link we find out that an education technology trade show took place in London. Its good to know that plans are being made to provide children from "low income families a free computer and broadband access." It goes on to state that the purpose of the trade show was to "give those who work in education a taste of what the classroom of the future will look like." Some of the innovations that stood out where the: virtual school in second life, intel classmate laptop, microsoft surface, face recognition, rapman, and engaging places. I have provided the link to the article, inviting all of our readers to learn more about the subject. 

http://new.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7831827.stm

The role of Business in tomorrow's society

The role of business in today's society has changed throughout the years. It is important on helping develop countries fight scarcity, poverty, and the effects of climate. Therefore, students should come out of college well prepared in areas such as computers, and technology (which is developing more and more). This website will help you understand the role of business in today's society.
http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/PFbJgZTDrnMXtaVa3u4K/BADialogue.pdf