Lessons Learned from a District-Wide Implementation of a Computer Science Initiative in the the District of Columbia Public Schools

In this article, we use evidence to describe seven key lessons from a four-year district-wide computer science implementation project between Howard University and the District of Columbia Public Schools. These lessons are: (a) Get to know the school counselors (and other key personnel); (b) Expect personnel changes and strategic reorganization within school districts; (c) Be innovative to build and maintain community; (d) Be flexible when developing instruments and curricula; (e) Maintain a firm commitment to equity; (f) Develop tiered content and prepare to make philosophical adjustments; and (g) Identify markers of sustainability. We also include original curricula materials including the Computer Science Course Evaluation and the Computational Thinking Survey. The seven lessons and curricula materials provided in this study can be used to inform the development of future computer science researcher-practitioner partnerships.

The influence of the specifics of small businesses on innovation

Purpose Based on a multi-case analysis of small businesses in the metal-mechanical industry in the region of Sorocaba, State of São Paulo, Brazil, the purpose of this paper is to analyze how small businesses (in terms of the owner, business, and influences exerted by the environment) influence innovation. Design/methodology/approach Six case studies are used to analyze the Brazilian metal-mechanical industry. The data are collected through semi-structured interviews and direct observations. In addition, innovations over the previous five years are evaluated in order to establish a comparative pattern between companies. Findings This study examines how facilitating factors are related to the owners of small businesses. These factors include owners’ personal ambitions, the centralization of decisions, and their confidence in their ability to make effective decisions. Factors related to the organization that favor innovation include a simple and streamlined structure and fewer levels of bureaucracy, whereas low capital intensity limit innovation. While some factors related to the environment favor innovation, others have a limiting effect (e.g. short-term horizons and a lack of formal strategic planning). Originality/value The main contribution of this research is to show that innovation is not synonymous with financial investment. Strategic reorganization and the rationalization of productive resources through competitive priorities may lead to innovation in different spheres, helping to increase the competitiveness and strength of the national economy.

TRX, Inc.: Initial Public Offering

This case provides comprehensive coverage of a firm's decision to undertake an IPO and the process of going public. The case follows the sequence of events from the company's incorporation in 1999 through the completion of an IPO in September 2005. In addition to raising capital, the TRX IPO case also includes consideration of another motivation for going public. At the time of its incorporation in November 1999, TRX attempted to go public but in the ensuing dot-com collapse, the IPO was never completed. In response to the failed IPO, TRX president and CEO, Trip Davis, turned to strategic investors to raise $20 million in a note convertible into equity at $11 per share. Although Davis had hoped the strategic investors would provide guidance and business opportunities for TRX, they never materialized. By 2004, he had come to believe that the largest strategic investor, Sabre, Inc., was not working in TRX's best interest. Thus, the IPO is motivated by a twofold purpose: to raise money and to provide for a strategic reorganization of the firm's ownership structure.

Better Local Governance by Integrative Reorganization of State Administration and Self- Government (in Slovenia)

Rationalization and democratization of public governance and administrative organization are processes affecting all countries. The article critically evaluates the reorganization of local administration in Slovenia, aimed at increasing its effectiveness through integrative approaches at the state and local-self-government levels. Local self-government in Slovenia comprises 212 municipalities combined into 58 local state (general territorial) administrative units. Such organization is rather fragmented and weak despite several reorganization attempts since the mid-2000s. The recently planned reform for 2014 - 2015 tries to overcome the drawbacks typical of Slovenia, such as the two-tier public administration established in 1995 and the resulting economic local non-efficiency. The analysis of the Slovenian institutional landscape in local public administration can serve as a lesson since the strategic reorganization of political and administrative societal elements should - in addition to the search for local democracy - encompass administrative integration toward citizens, businesses and civil society to eventually achieve good local governance.

Strategic Reorganization in Multi-Agent Systems: Inspired by Intelligent Human Organizations

The field of organizational design in multi-agent systems is still in need of powerful tools and methods for enabling effective design, control, and transformation of organizations of different kinds. In this work, we address the problem of reorganization in a distributed problem solving model as a typical multi-agent system application. We look into adaptation of concepts and theories from social organization theory. In particular, we get insights from Schwaninger's model of Intelligent Human Organizations. To this goal, we implement and utilize a multi-level organizational control model which uses a strategic management and an operative management layer to exert organizational control and also to make interactions between these two levels of control possible. Experimental evaluations are performed using a modified model of pursuit game. The results indicate that the proposed model allows the system to stay ahead of the organizational change, resulting in performance improvements, despite the additional costs associated to reorganization.

‘Saving French West Africa’: the French army, African soldiers and military propaganda during the 1950s1

Continuities of military structures and of protagonists within these structures are a particularly important aspect of the process of transforming colonial domination into the uneven partnerships of the post-colonial period. Ruth Ginio discusses in this context the role of the so-called tirailleurs sénégalais (becoming soldats africains), West African (veteran) soldiers mobilized by the French for service during the Second World War and the wars in Indochina and Algeria. Ginio shows that the necessities of the anticolonial revolts and widespread discontent among African soldiers in the aftermath of the campaigns in Europe in 1944/45, led to a strategic reorganization of the treatment of these individuals. Notably, the author analyses the contribution of French propaganda in the context of psychological action. The French military employed audiovisual means, namely cinema, to influence the African soldiers. Another aspect of this complex relationship was the priority given to attempts at separating the African units from the local populations during the campaigns – a strategy that did not work out in all cases. By the end of the colonial period, the experience of these various methods had, as Ginio argues, qualitatively changed the attitudes of African veterans. The latter would retain a bond to the military officers of the former colonial power beyond the threshold of independence.