thoughts...

Carl Jung speaks about Death

2012-01-28T18:50:00.000+11:00

The Zionist Imperative

2012-01-27T23:15:00.000+11:00

The Zionist Imperative

Why the Oceans matter.

2012-01-17T01:58:00.000+11:00

Antonov 225 Takeoff

2012-01-16T04:40:00.000+11:00

The Year the Arabs Discovered Palestine [Long version]

2011-12-20T06:34:00.000+11:00

The Year the Arabs Discovered Palestine [Long version]

Business Line : Today's Paper / EWORLD : Look up for inspiration

2011-11-17T19:23:00.000+11:00

Business Line : Today's Paper / EWORLD : Look up for inspiration

ISC Diary | Apple update summary

2011-11-15T06:49:00.000+11:00

ISC Diary | Apple update summary

Why Israel can't be a 'Jewish State' - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

2011-11-12T21:11:00.001+11:00

Why Israel can't be a 'Jewish State' - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

2011-11-12T21:11:00.000+11:00

Why Israel can't be a 'Jewish State' - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

The West's tragedy of capital - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

2011-11-12T21:06:00.000+11:00

The West's tragedy of capital - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Dash Berlin, Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren - Man On The Run

2011-09-24T19:49:00.000+10:00

Nitin Sawhney - Dead Man

2011-09-09T00:02:00.000+10:00

The Police - Message In A Bottle

2011-09-06T12:46:00.000+10:00

Adele - Set Fire to the Rain Lyrics

2011-08-22T06:21:00.000+10:00

Adele - Rolling In The Deep

2011-08-17T14:59:00.000+10:00

Tiësto feat. Tegan And Sara - Feel It In My Bones

2011-08-04T00:19:00.000+10:00

The Tax Burden of the Very Rich | Common Dreams

2011-07-26T01:19:00.000+10:00

The Tax Burden of the Very Rich | Common Dreams

Mental health & homelessness...

2011-07-26T00:52:00.000+10:00

Document updated 21st Nov’ 2010

STUDENT DETAILS

ACAP Student ID: 171297

Name: Rajneesh N. Shetty
Course: Bachelor’s of Applied Social Science.

ASSESSMENT DETAILS

Unit/module: Introduction to contemporary society

Educator: Phillipa Bellemore

Assessment name: Mental health and homelessness

Assessment number: 1

Term & year: Term 1

Word count: 1841 words as actual content of essay, and 2508 words in all.

For the purposes of comparing and contrasting the reporting of "mental health &
homelessness" in two or three media outlets and demonstrate how the media influences public
opinion on this topic; I have chosen to study coverage in the ABC and News Corporation.
The three most pertinent statements I made in Assignment 1 as it relates to this matter is that;

● "Contemporary healing initiatives in treating mental illness and homelessness are only
successful if holistic methods are employed".
● "The stigmatisation of mental illness in society is one of the major barriers to recovery
and treatment and traditional views will need to be challenged and tested to create a marked shift inperception".
● "The ability of a person to respond constructively to challenges in their daily lives
determines their state of mental health".

Creating awareness on this matter vide the media would definitely fall into the category of a "holistic approach". On a personal note, I would like to add that my motivations for choosing this topic is because I have been battling a mental illness myself for well over twenty years and have experienced homelessness in the context as explained in Assignment 1, being that, homelessness is not a purely housing based concept but has significant emotional, social and psychological dimensions (Somerville, 1992).

F. Grunberg and P.J. Eagle wrote that homelessness included the concept of disaffiliation from family and community” (as cited in the website for, Homeless People and Homelessness). Contemporary definitions of homelessness take into account the human need for connectedness which engenders trust and a sense of well being. I introduced Maslow's hierarchy of needs for an individual as being quite fundamental to mental health and opportunities for personal development as opposed to the other end of the spectrum, whereby the resourceful (ie. those who control the means of production) could quite easily use it for selfish personal agendas. Hence, is the media fulfilling it's obligations to act as the "social conscience" rather than present and influence the "collective consciousness" is a valid question, in my view. Does the media prejudice society around "mental illness &homelessness" or does it raise general awareness? Does or has the media attempted to potray what the patients of mental illness have to cope with ? Does the media alleviate public anxieties or does it add to it? From the material I have come across so far, I am certain that there are no easy answers to any of these questions for a variety of reasons, which I will attempt to elaborate on.

Social stratification is so entrenched in capitalistic societies that, we would like to believe that human behaviour has evolved from primitive primal tribal hordes to feudal concepts of monarchies and religion to socio-politico-economic frameworks of an acceptable nature as all of these structures have their place in the mind of a reasonable individual. Is there any rationale in attempting to "re-invent the wheel" much rather than make it better than what it currently is, is also a good question for introspection and would require expertise of varied dimensions.

In Assignment 1, I defined "mental health as a continuum, ranging from a state of optimum
health, to having an illness or disorder which affects thoughts, emotions or behaviour". I justified this further by adding that the different types of disorders, which occur to varying degrees of severity are usually found to be based in the two extremes of anxiety and depression. Both anxiety and depressive disorders are found to be prevalent amongst people who have trouble living in the “here and now” or present reality. Anxiety based disorders are usually because a person is distressed by thoughts of the future which he or she has no control over and depression is usually found in people predominantly occupied by painful thoughts and emotions of the past.

I explained the causes of mental illness as being varied and complex and could arise from
genetic predispositions to certain conditions, pre-natal trauma experienced, environmental
conditioning which usually relates to family, culture, society and education, and personality
development based on life experiences. Studies suggest that there is often a biological change
associated with mental illness, such as a change in neurotransmitter levels in the brain, or
variations in brain activity as shown by imaging techniques.

Statistics from Assignment 1:
About 20% of adult Australians, or one in five people, will experience a mental illness at some
stage in their lives. Many will live with more than one mental illness at a time, such as anxiety and depression, which commonly occur together. Each year a further 20,000 Australians are found to have a mental illness. Schizophrenia is prevalent amongst 1% of the population, whilst the numbers for depression, anxiety based disorders and psychosis stands at between 3-5%.
The 2001 population census data for homeless Australians takes into account people without
adequate shelter and the numbers indicate 99,900 houseless people (105,304 in 1996). The
common reasons cited for homelessness are; domestic and family violence (22%), eviction/previous accommodation ended (11%), relationship/family breakdown (11%), usual accommodation unavailable (11%) and financial difficulty (10%).

The ABC and News Corp. in it's recent statements and interviews with eminent people
perceived as responsible for the “state of mental health of the Country” has shed some light on
the current state of play with regards to "mental health & homelessness". Examples include,
John Mendonza's resignation due his views on the Labor Party's lack of vision under Kevin
Rudd and Julia Gillard's re-building of bridges with Mr.Mendonza due to his esteemed position
in the mental health field. All very stimulating and motivational for the mentally ill I am sure, but really, a complete waste of time in more ways than one. The Australian Government has sent troops to Iraq and Afghanisthan, and these soldiers have returned or will be returning soon, with varying degrees of exposure to a "conflict zone". Their opinions are going to matter as also their state of mental health based on how their exposure to conflict will or has affected their personal relationships. Budgetary and resource allocations will need to be made to accomodate "Federal commitments" on both sides of the fence, both long term and short term.

Differences of opinions will ensue on many matters, considering that Australia is and has been positioning itself as a "multi-cultural" society with a historical record of playing the "rescuer" (Transactional Analysis 101, Eric Berne) in many a strife torn part of the world. "Pragmatism, a laid back approach, egalitarianism, social consciousness, patience, a sense of humour and an openness to learning" are the qualities that endear Australians to the world as a "unique" lot, and there's no reason why it cannot stay that way.

On the 5th August of 2005, News Corp. in it’s “Breaking news” section announced the formation
of the MHIT (mental health intervention team) as a permanent police unit in NSW. As part of the
two year pilot program 40 Officers from the Sydney command unit were to have undertaken the
training. This seems like a positive approach and definitely seems worthwhile considering the
challenges I foresee. On the 23rd Sept 2010, ABC posted a statement at 11.07am EST, that the
Victorian Government launched a $42million strategy to tackle the causes of homelessness
over the next decade. The money is to be used to shift policy focus from response to early
intervention, which comes across as a reasonable idea, if there are sufficient skilled workers in the subject area being discussed. I have consulted with numerous professionals in the mental
health field over the years and they all agree that the “mental health field” has the highest
burn-out rate in terms of professional attrition and next only to the teaching profession. Is it
not responsible to ask why that is the case ? When I consider what mental health and medical
professionals have done for me over the years, I am often intrigued. Yes, I am better now and
not yet well enough to have a credible viewpoint on a subjective matter, hence leaving it well
alone may not be a responsible enough position for those concerned. I might need to elaborate
on this matter in Assignment 3.

Another matter which is often ignored is that of “personal privacy”. Mentally ill people usually tend to be more sensitive than most not afflicted by a condition and am told that they are also comparatively more intelligent than their surroundings. The rationale for this viewpoint is that, it is their perceptions that get in the way of their expectations of life and people in general. Does this mean that “systemic prejudices” actually exist and exhaust the mentally ill even further ?

In his study of Soren Kierkegaard, William J Tsamis in his blog states that the ethical life of
duty and commitment, the existent pursues a life of virtue and moral assent to the universal;
however, a truly earnest attempt to live such a life eventually results in the individual's
awareness of his own insufficiency and shortcomings. He realizes that his autonomous internal
volitional powers are unable to bring him to the level of an authentic ethical existence. Thus,
the existent reaches the classic point of "despair" and is again faced with the critical "choice" of "Either/Or," i.e. whether to make the transition to the next level, i.e. the religious sphere of existence. We can then thereby embark on a critical analysis of religion and perception rather than report on the representative public figures.

A little definition of media:
Media is essentially of two kinds, namely; print & electronic. Contemporary examples of print media include; books, newspapers and displays (both private and public). Electronic media is essentially of three kinds, namely; audio (eg. radio, tape recorder), video (eg. television, movies) and integrated “real time” public domain systems (eg. internet). Real time communications refer to concepts of latency, frequency, pitch, operating systems, networks, connectivity, data to information to quality paradigms, consistencies or inconsistencies, compatibilities or incompatibilities, technical issues or the lack of thereof.

Ownership of media is an interesting matter as it comprises of privately owned entities as well as entities owned by the public sector. This would essentially mean or translate into equal opportunity for all citizens. Responsible reporting however relates to matters of perception, beliefs, idealogies, jurisdiction, education, projection and agendas which are all perfectly normal democratic principles.

Conclusion :
I do not foresee finality on many matters as they relate to mental health and homelessness for
a many reasons, but fundamentally because human evolution is a process and “utopia” is an
ideal everyone strives for. Wants and desires vary, resources and access to resources vary in
the continuum, ideals vary, personal values vary, objectives vary and people change over time
in the space continuum we call our one and only planet “ the earth”.

Do we as a species have the wherewithal to fathom the future or come to precise conclusions
on the past. I guess not and hope not, because all the imperfections that exist today look
perfectly beautiful and normal in the entire scheme of things.

References
● “The Universal theory of design”, Francis J. Mott ; Edenbridge : Mark Beech, 1964.
·

“African Genesis”; A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of
Man : Robert Ardrey
·

Raimo Vayrynen, “New Directions in Conflict Theory”

Soren Kierkegaard – “Existentialism, nominalism, and the three spheres of existence".

● The Psychology of shame : Theory and treatment of shame based syndromes :
Gershan Kaufman

● I’am OK, you’re OK : Thomas Harris

● Games people play : Eric Berne

Australian Broadcasting Corporation :
“Plan to tackle homelessness”; posted on Thursday Sept 23rd, 2010 11:07 am

“Report finds urgent homeless problems”; posted on Thursday 1st July 2010 08:26am

“No room at the shelter for young homeless” ; by Bronwyn Herbert; posted on Thursday Apr
29th, 2010

“Youth mental health project launched” by David Cussons; Wednesday 27th Oct’ 2010.

“Human rights and homelessness” by Lucy Adams on 7th July 2010.

“It takes a home to combat homelessness” by Charlotte King on 15th Sept’ 2010.

“Calls for more Government action on homelessness” an ABC release posted on Friday, 5th
Sept’ 2008.

“New plan to combat homelessness”, an ABC release posted on Friday 18th Dec’ 2009 at 1:pm
AEDT

“Jean Madden delivers a message about homelessness”, by Andrew Saunders and Julia Harris
on the 8th Oct’,2010 2:59pm AEDT

“Older women forced into homelessness”; by Sue Lannin posted on Thursday 8th July, 2010 at
7:09pm AEST

“Roxon defends mental health record”; broadcast on the 22nd June 2010 and reported on by
Kerry O’Brian at 7:30pm EST

“Coalition calls in top mental health experts to brief all MPs”; reported on by Lyndall Curtis on Wednesday 17th Nov’ 2010 at 08:11am EST.

“The new age of mental health care” by Justin Huntsdale on 29th Oct’ 2010 at 9:25am AEDT

“Bad jobs affect mental health” by Katherine Nightingale on Thursday, 14th Oct’ 2010.

“Mental health : Rudd’s inaction and neglect” by Patrick McGorry on 13th May 2010.

“MP’s urged to back mental health plan” by Emma Rodgers on 17th Nov’, 2010 at 11:30am
AEDT.

News Corporation :

“PM Rudd’s top mental health advisor John Mendonza quits”, reported on by AAP at 06:42am
on 20th June 2010.
“Scheme to support mentally ill a failure, says Ombudsman”, reported on by AAP at 11:55am on
11th Nov’ 2009.
“Mentally ill of all ages need services”, reported on by Vaughan Carr of “The Australian” at 12:00
noon on 8th July 2010.
“Minds put on the line”, reported on by Madonna King of the “Courier Mail” at 11:07am on 2nd
Aug’ 2010.
“Labor called out on mental health as Coalition commits $1.5bn to the sector”, reported on by
AAP at 01:36PM on 30th June 2010.
“Gillard turns to Rudd’s mental health nemesis”, reported on by Lanai Vasek and Sid Maher of
“The Australian” at 12:00 noon on the 27th July 2010.
“Mental health promises are not bidding war”, reported on by Pat McGorry of “The Australian” at
12:00 noon on the 9th July 2009.
“Greens defend mental health approach”, reported on by AAP AT 4:25pm on the 2nd Nov’ 2010.
“Victorian Government pledges extra $42m for homeless”, reported on by AAP at 5:38pm on
23rd Sept’ 2010.
“Police to get mental health training” ; Aug 5th 2009 7:05am
The Mental Health Council of Australia (2010). Retrieved October 16th, 2010, from
http://www.mhri.edu.au/info.htm
Homeless People and homelessness (2010). Retrieved October 23rd, 2010 from
http://www.homeless.org.au/statistics/
ResponseAbility; Department Of Health and Ageing (2010). Retrieved October 18th, 2010 from
http://www.responseability.org/site/index.cfm?display=31371
Diversity Health Institute (2010). Retrieved October 23rd, 2010 from
http://www.dhi.gov.au/DHI-Home/Demographic-Data/default.aspx
Sane Australia (2010). Retrieved October 16th, 2010 from
http://www.sane.org/stigmawatch/what-is-stigma
Animal Peace (2010). Retrieved October 12th, 2010 from
http://www.animal-peace.org/
William J. Tsamis
http://fidei-defensor.blogspot.com/2006/10/soren-kierkegaard-existentialism.html?spref=fb

Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us | Video on TED.com

2011-07-22T21:20:00.000+10:00

Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us | Video on TED.com

Kevin Kelly on how technology evolves | Video on TED.com

2011-07-22T20:58:00.000+10:00

Kevin Kelly on how technology evolves | Video on TED.com

Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web | Video on TED.com

2011-07-22T20:51:00.000+10:00

Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web | Video on TED.com

miniaturisation technologies : imagine the shutter speed of this one.

2011-05-24T15:11:00.000+10:00

Saptharishi mandala

2010-11-11T14:40:00.000+11:00

In the yogic tradition (yoga meaning "union" or "non dualistic") there is mention of "seven" principles;

Raja Yoga = implies personification of the "universal truth"
Bhakthi Yoga = Faith & discipline
Karma Yoga = Action & discipline
Hatha Yoga = Willfullness & discipline
Gjnyaana Yoga = Knowledge & mindfulness (dhyaan)
Tantra Yoga (also includes Mantra Yoga) = Technique (could also include "yantras" tools)
Kundalini Yoga = Energy (creative, procreative, primal & universal)

The "saptharishi" era according to some dates back to 8576 BC. "Saptha" means "seven" and "rishi" usually means "learned, wise or enlightened one" and are usually "male" representations in Vedic tradition.

Athri, Brigu, Kutsa, Vasishta, Goutama, Kashyapa, Ãngeerasa are the Saptharishis according to some and JAMADAGNI is another rishi who is also supposed to be part of the "saptharishi mandala". As I understand it, the conflict in accomodating only seven rishis has to do with the symbolic representations of the "seven wonders of the ancient world" and Buddhism, since it's documented existence dates back to approximately 2500BC or roughly about 50 years after "Alexander the Great" invaded central India. The timing in terms of the arrival of the "great teacher" is what interests me the most, in terms of how we have "evolved or not evolved" as a species.

So the most rational accomodation would need to be "Jamadagni" instead of "Gautama the Buddha", although this may not mean that Buddhist contributions from the ruler of the "Sakya clan" is of any less importance than the commonly accepted seven. It might be relevant to point out here that ancient Hinduism over time was steeped in "class centric" dessimination of education (the "gurukula" system, where "guru" means "teacher & "kula" means "clan or tribe") and Buddhism provided an alternative, in terms of spreading the word of "soul consciousness & spiritual knowledge" vide the common man's language being Pali and not Sanskrit. Sanskrit is and was considered the language of the elite and knowledgeable and modern day "Hindi, Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Urdu etc." are diluted forms of the same with variations which depend on geography, ethnicity and social standing, generally speaking.

Sanskrit is not only considered Aryan in it's origins but also one of the only "two phonetic languages" in the world the other being "Old Deutsche" or traditional German.

"Modern Hinduism" is based on the principles of the "trinity", the representations being;

"the creator" = Brahma
"the protector" = Vishnu
"the destroyer" = Eeswara or Shiva

It's pertinent to note here that the "energy pathways" for individuals, are termed "ida", "pingala" & "shushumna" (proton, electron & neutron, scientifically speaking) and most symbolic representations of "these three" are quite similar to "Freudian snakes" although contextually speaking the eastern school of thought lacks the over emphasis on sexuality (rather tend to have esoteric viewpoints on the matter) & the representative social psychosis often found in contemporary societies both eastern & western, due to an over-indulgence in the "senses" & rather insufficient grounding in the "pragmatics" of the "nature of our being".

The "god principle" (generator, operator, destroyer of "egos" principle)in "Ancient Hinduism" however is based in "AGNI" ("fire" to represent "truth & destruction of falsity" as in, egos or most "creative cognitive constructs" which cannot stand the test of time and evolved consciousness) or according to some "SURYA" meaning the "sun" .

The recognition of the principles of "dualism" obviously existed during "Rig-vedic" times as in, with the chanting of verses during daybreak with the arising of the sun, but "darkness" was not revered until much later with symbolic representations of "Shani" (Satan), Kali and so on. Adherents of the "Judaistic faiths" might find this concept difficult to grasp, because of the clear divide between "good & evil" in Judaism, Christianity & Islam. The eastern viewpoint, on this matter is fairly matter-of-fact, in that, it states that the propensity for both "good & evil" exists in us all & a person "cannot be good" unless he or she "understands evil". In fact, Hinduism acknowledges and reveres "Shani or Satan" as the greatest teacher this "known world" has ever known...

How can "fear or hatred of evil" profess "good", is a fair question to ask in all of this soul searching, is'nt it ?

Energy...

2010-05-14T14:37:00.006+10:00

There's nothing really wrong with "Religion, Science or Spirituality" in itself, things start to go wrong when we add people to the mix...

& then there's this omnipotent argument that there "should be" or "should not be" separation between Church/Religion & State... How does a person/individual within the framework of a State or Religion avoid the existence of a personal identity? "Death" seems to be the only way to the casual observer, however, do we strive to transcend our identity in any way, shape or form? If we do attempt to transcend then "why" & "what outcomes" do we hope to achieve ?

The 3 questions of religious tradition according to Confucianism are :
1.) What is wrong with people as individuals or as a group ?
2.) What ideal state should people seek (salvation, enlightenment, moral perfection or the perfect society) ?
3.) What means should people use to tranform from a "flawed state" to a "more perfect state" ?

Does "infinity" really exist & if it does, how do we go about attempting to manifest it? If all matter is some form of "energy" which mutates, as in, transforms from one form to the other & we also say that energy can be measured...then, where's the meeting point between Science (let's hypothesise that Science defines God as "non-manifest" or "manifest" energy) & Religion ?

Article 6

2010-01-09T11:44:00.001+11:00

Sometime in 2003-04 I came across an IT Manager in an online forum who made a comment about how he might have to respond to his 5yr old when old enough to ask “where were you dad, when they took away privacy from the internet?”. That message hit home & stuck because I've got a little one of my own now and need to prepare for some difficult questions ahead.

The ubiquitous nature of the internet has tested jurisdictional laws surrounding nation states and the aftermath of 9/11 has left many questions unanswered. We live in a world today which has become smaller not only because of technology but because work ethics globally are getting increasingly diverse in their ethnicity. Multi-cultural work forces are strategic tools for big business and likely to help facilitate change in this information age of “digital democracy”. I would like to believe that avoiding diffficult issues is only going to cause more problems in the future, so here's an effort to addressing some of them.

Any breach of the Charter of the United Nations or its purposes and principles is usually a cause of concern and requires judicious introspection. Some of the issues featured in the media nowadays raise more questions than answers and the moral “blame game” is rather obvious. I tried a Google search to find answers for the following;

• Does a single Country have jurisdictional control over all IP (internet protocol) addresses the world over?
• What lessons has invocation of Article 6 post 9/11 taught us and what kind of future have we got planned ?
• Have all responsible “public opinion representatives” honestly articulated these in public forums & can they afford to given recent events?
• How does supporting “roaming users” effect jurisdictional aspects of an “electronic Government”?
• Does “violation of privacy” in a work place or outside of it mean that an evolved “digital democracy” will expel the persistent offender from its frameworks of operation?

Assimilating into a new culture or work ethic is not simple as most of us who have attempted it would know. It requires commitment & trust is a prerequisite. To expect sustainable outcomes we need to honestly review motives and actions in order to transcend both past & present with due respect for individual prerogative. Is this possible or are all “positional opinion makers” going to continue skirting the issues & sweeping it under the carpet? I'am aware that there are no easy answers, but the politics of this game must effect the reconstruction of the economy & industry by social techniques for progress.

2010: a perspective...

2010-01-02T10:49:00.005+11:00

2010 already and it does give reason to pause and consider time gone by. Apparently, an eastern school of thought suggests that the past, present & the future all exist in one dimension, as in, it all took place in an instant, like a poloroid photograph, it's just our awareness of events which gives us the linear aspect of time & sequence.

The human being is an interesting animal mostly because he/she as it appears has been tasked with the responsibility of safegaurding the habitat. So where is it appropriate to start for anyone who is conscientious enough?

"Taking care of ourselves" is a way to go and taking care of the ones we love follows. Every individual they say exists with a preference to three aspects without delving into the basis of "selfishness";
a personal life
a professional life &
a social life (interdependence)

We function to meet certain obligations,commitments and sometimes aspirations of self more than that of others. Structures & frameworks exist to facilitate a certain existence and I'am convinced that the only permanent aspect of life is "change" although I worry about it's pace, so i've decided to write in a media which I understand better than others & call it my new year's "resolve".

All of us experience change in some form and deal with it from a conditioned or educated perspective given our resources, whatever they may be.How we perceive our past is evident in our present and the "now" defines the future.

"Limited resources & unlimited wants & needs" makes us consider distribution of population and resources and I really would like to know how much we spend in $ terms to motivate and/or manage issues based in anger & fear, answers anyone???
How much of it is really valid & how much of it is based on lack of information or education? Prioritisation obviously takes precedence in the wheel we've created. World events as it appears seems cyclical although the odd precedents
or aberrations stand out which when observed, gives life as much meaning as we invest in it.

An expensive war at Iraq & Afghanistan, followed by the recession & election of the first black man as President of the US of A. We have Capitalism in the former USSR,a better unified Europe,a new Pope, fantastic real-time information exchange capability in "unified communications" and a redefined "Iron curtain" in the rise of China as a "super-power". Anyone notice a pattern here? We seem to have an attachment to "patterns" and strive for the "familiar". From a Cold-war dual super-power era we progressed to finding the EU as a possible alternative to negate the effects of a single-super power (both economic and military) scenario and now hopefully a stable 3-tier system as in the new world (eg. USA) the old world (eg.parts of Europe) and the neo-riche or tiger economies (eg. China, India & so on). Things sure have changed in the last 40yrs I've been alive.

More questions that arise are;
What are the responsibilities of the developed world and do we owe the 3rd world enough to alleviate "poverty"?
Is "upskilling" an option with requisite elementary control measures in place, if so, how do we go about reinforcing that?
Do we have sufficient case studies to qualify & quantify? I don't have the answers nor am I in a position to regulate, so decided to watch & glean from the following;
An inconvenient truth - Al Gore
Zietgiest
The Camarena Story

HAPPY 2010.

everything "meta"

2009-12-30T15:44:00.013+11:00

Disclaimer :If you view everything from a technical perspective, be aware that the use of terminology here in some places is an attempt to re-invent it's usage...

metadirectory

Sometime in late 1998 I wrote about the nature of the internet bringing issues like standards, performance and security to the fore (not that it wasn't relevant before that, it was more topical then). I asked if the “metadirectory” & it's subsequent evolution would pave the way to finding realistic answers to these concerns?

A “metadirectory” is a software tool which allows a single point of administration for multiple proprietory network operating systems, directory structures and application based directory services. Ideally, it should be able to provide flexible interoperability between diverse systems on any network. Some of the limitations or advantages of network specific directories (depending on it's use) are, their application & vendor specific functionality. This limits the user's access and reach within a network (intranet) and the internet. The metadirectory is ideally poised to facilitate interconnectivity and set standards for the evolution of the web.

The distributed nature of the internet, has encouraged diversity in terms of platforms. Thus in seeking uniformity & standards, to deliver performance in terms of true financial & business impact we have come a long way in terms of popular acceptance of Unix distribution in the form of Linux and open source projects and also Microsoft's focus on security.

Hypothetically speaking, the development & deployment of the ideal metadirectory encourage the ISP's to add services which will make the virtual market even more effective and attractive in terms of value. Addressing security & bandwidth concerns then takes on more focussed dimensions. The progression to real time response requirements (99.999%) has made standards formulation imperative in one form or the other. Growth of niche markets has aided deviation from monopolistic tendencies although centralisation and distributed miniaturisation will have to co-exist & evolve depending on budgets of the end user and of course ROI based on existing investments.

Industry leaders the likes of IBM, Microsoft, HP, Sun, Oracle & Cisco have been actively working on the metadirectory with a host of lesser known & now defunct brands. This reflects the opportunities created in terms of bridging multiple platforms either through M&A's or by further developing interoperability. The move into the era of seamless integration and OSI becoming reality is evident, as the playing field evens out with innovation and we have been reminded that size of organisations matter in the capitalistic world of business.

DEN's (directory enabled networks) could be considered the “core logic” of a “metadirectory” in a sense (although the term itself was realised later), when we say that metadata is the building block of a metadirectory just like 0's &1's are the building blocks of assembly language or machine code . None of these terms are new or novel concepts, we have just arrived at an age of better presented and marketed products & technologies and legacy skills are being replaced by bandwidth intensive GUI driven requirements. I cannot however imagine that logic would be very different, hence the relevance and importance of legacy based skills.

IDS (Internet Directory Server) enables internet, intranet and on-line service providers to offer directory based services. Examples being;

http://www.whitepages.com.au

Others include;

http://www.google.com/
http://www.metacrawler.com/
http://www.dogpile.com/
http://www.seek.com/
http://www.amazon.com/

and many more such developments.

There are slight classification differentiators in the above five examples mentioned to point out aspects of IP (as in both intellectual property & internet protocol which allows IPv6 to be elaborated on), Copyright law, on-line Privacy (which not many people believe exists) and deliberates the question as to it's relevance and subsequent utilisation and purpose. Yes, ethical and moral dilemmas do emerge, and the question as to how it can be better managed with a constructive and positive outcome as it progresses to accommodate innovation and capitalism somehow makes things interesting.

Metacrawler and Dogpile are search engines which search other search engines like Google and MSN, hence called meta-search engines although the race to outperform each other is blurring the lines of demarcation. Referencing directories of information hosted by specific organisations which could be classified into various functional identities to include Business, Government and autonomous bodies are done by search engines and by meta-search engines depending on the user's choice of engine, just like we have a preference for a particular brand of car or tea or sugar for that matter, except that we don't pay the content providers or the multifarious software tools available for free on the internet. We, as end users pay the ISP's for an internet connection and it's only fair that we expect quality and fair services as determined by the user's awareness of technology and its impact if utilised to most if not all acceptable standards.

Metadirectories reference metadata (if open to an online search (as per permissions granted by the manager/s of the information) from another virtual POP (point of presence)).The storage devices (hardware & software) which store these reference tables in clearly defined structures provided by manufacturers of hard drives, OS's (operating systems) and application software, both distributed and consolidated, are getting inexpensive and more effective in terms of capacity utilisation. Storage providers such as IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, Macintosh, EMC, Hitachi have brilliant offerings. I recall the 90's and of NCR, Netscape, SGI, Tektronix, Tandem, Zenith, and many more such players. They were the good days of hardware innovation. Mobile phones were the size of briefcases and commercialisation of military equipment was starting to get more obvious. We started to hear of AT&T in recovery from its long battle with the Federal Government as also was IBM in turnaround mode. Things are starting to look a little blurred nowadays (a sign of progress I guess..) and the people are still around with their experiences and views on the topic both subjective and objective. We might choose to rationalise to the point of profit and entrepreneurial leadership, the existence of big business and its evolution for the benefit of the future or generate a critique' on all facets and details of this framework and deal with it as cognitively as possible because an emotional viewpoint is often either misunderstood or considered a skew from a cognitive perspective. We realise that rationalisation has its limits relative to the situation.

Sometime in 2000-01 when employed by IBM, the CIO of one of the larger automobile spares manufacturer pointed out to me that the IC&T industry is at it's infancy because of the level of control “the Vendor” exerts over its channels and the rather symbiotic dependency the end customer has on the producer of the product itself. He clarified that the automobile industry has achieved a level of maturity which the IC&T industry will take at least another 50years to emulate. He essentially meant that the distributors and dealers took on a lot more responsibility for the end user than anyone in the IC&T industry does. This got me thinking on reworking this paper which I originally drafted in late 1998.

“Datawarehousing and E-commerce” has been at the forefront and we see it formulating the foundations of the new era of miniaturisation hastened by nano-technology, VVLSI (very very large scale integration) & the need for Intelligent architectural frameworks. Defining this will encompass laws that surround “Directory-enabled-networks” which will facilitate “data-information-knowledge-Intellectual property” paradigms. Prioritising qualitative information would be a a little different from collating quantitative information, however synergistic tendencies obviously emerge with the better integration of performance matrices making significant impact in the board room. A few years ago, the major challenge was making the CIO an equal member of the board room, at least in the top 500 Corporations that is perhaps no longer an issue.

Sometime in 1995, I recall reading a newspaper article which mentioned that silicon wafers on chip will reach threshold capacities at 0.16micron and beyond that at that time they had not found a suitable alloy to conduct heat on-board which would allow normal functioning of other components on the chip set. I thought for a moment sometime in 1999 that Dell has come up with an ideal solution when they used copper on their Microprocessor to insulate, although at that time I wasn't able to find out much more. More recently, when discussing the notion of the implementation of the “Marshall plan” & its possible ramification being the US involvement in Iraq & Afghanistan one of my friends mentioned to me and showed me a web clip which boasted Intel's ability to wirelessly recharge mobile phones. I was told that this was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of DoD's ability to come up with solutions based on classified “intellectual property” of functional prototypes created by people such as Nichola Tesla way back. I am not qualified enough at this stage to embark on a historical perspective of stolen careers or patents, but all the noise surrounding such controversial topics is hair raising to say the least. An expert on International “Privacy” laws as it might relate to the ubiquitous nature of the internet might be in a better position to comment.