Google Gooses Big Media | TIME

Google Gooses Big Media | TIME:

"Now 'we've got to get used to an environment where people access our content in a variety of different ways.' Thompson sees this as an opportunity--the BBC signed a deal in early March to set up three new 'channels' on Google's YouTube site to show short video clips from its programs and share in the ad revenue YouTube generates. 'One of the things no media organization can do now is cancel the future,' he said."

Except for user volunteer contents, Google also tries to convince those big content producers to go with their distribution model.

Forgot to mention that Google has made 10.6 billion USD dollars revenue last year with 3.1 billion USD dollars after tax profit. It means Google generates 30% net profits by its business model. To give you a rough picture, Hong Hai (foxconn technology group) , the biggest company in Taiwan, makes 673 billion NTD dollars in 2005, roughly around 21 billion USD dollars. It's after tax profit is 40 billion NTD dollars, transferring to 1.25 billion USD dollars. The net profit margin is 5.9%.

台韓薪資差異及勞動市場研究

Major Ma had quoted report from the "Cheers" magazine to say that university graduate wage standard in Taiwan is only half of it in Korea. The word got spread via news media and caused some serious concerns. I was very suspicious of that information when I heard it. Here's a research report for reference to clarify some of the facts. It's a report done by STPI, a quango organization for technology policy research.

事實上，由南韓與我國的相關薪資統計去推估，南韓全體勞工平均名目月薪僅高出我國約兩成左右，況且，對照南韓官方統計數據，該媒體引用數據顯然有所偏誤。經進一步檢視，其所引用之數據在著以下幾項偏誤：一、樣本在企業規模等變項上不具代表性。二、樣本定義不同(KEF之定義為初任人員而非大學畢業社會新鮮人)。三、月薪計算基礎不同(KEF之統計包含非經常性薪資)。四、匯率換算誤差可能性。雖然該數據明顯誇大，但南韓近年薪資大幅成長，其主要原因包括：匯率變化、經濟成長率、企業規模與工會力量、員工分紅制度、工時差異、勞退新制實施、物價水準、高等教育與人力供需等因素。

The full report can be downloaded through this link.
Although the information from Cheers magazine and talk from Major Ma might be miss leading, Taiwan's economic growth is slowing down, GDP level is not high are true.

Internet as alcohol to writers

Andrew Brown goes offline: "I am coming to suspect that the internet will be to my generation of journalists, and to any younger ones, what alcohol was to our predecessors': a destroyer first of thought and then of productivity, destructive both of the capacity to reflect, and to react, blurring everything into a haze of talk and endlessly repeated variations on the same experience. Just like alcohol, and even cigarettes once were, it seems an inevitable part of the job, one of the things that distinguishes it from all others. Stories are chased and found on the net just as they once were in bars."

Historical GDP

It's an interesting project to provide on line historical GDP records for cross broader comparison. Although the records are only up to 2000, it's still interesting to play around.



I use the data to compare GDP growth patterns between Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea. It's quite amazing to see what Ireland had achieved in the past years. There are more parameters to play around if you have time.



Other interesting sources:
Historical statistics
The world fact book
GDP Rankings - Current Exchange Rate Method (Numerically by Ranking) (unfortunately, Taiwan is not on the list)
Foreign direct investment (FDI)

How a professor spends time

Going back to the university to work 8 hours a day at age of thirty something, and not being a student or professor, there's an advantage to it. You have the chance to look at the system with different perspectives, especially if you are involved in some of the tedious administration stuff. You realize the system is designed with a big flaw.

Then you start thinking, how can a system run by top scholars could have gone wrong. Until you read how Umberto Eco, the semiotic professor and famous columnist, spends his time. You see precisely where the system went wrong. They just don't spend time running universities.

I summarize it with percentages of possible working time noted in below table. The total hours available for one person a year is 8760 hours. Excluding sleeping and getting around in the city, there are about 4000 something hours possible working time. Unfortunately, they don't have time to play. (people usually assume their works are pretty much things they play).

Tasks	hours/y	% of working time
3 classes a week, 1 afternoon advising students	220	6.9%
exams	24	0.8%
examining theses	12	0.4%
faculty meetings and committees	78	2.4%
correting students' papers	235	7.4%
journal editing	50	1.6%
direct six books a year	300	9.4%
Review translation of his own work	500	15.7%
original writings	300	9.4%
weekly magazine column	156	4.9%
mails	624	19.5%
attending conference	372	11.6%
travel for conference	323	10.1%
sleep+shave, dress.. Meals	4197.5	-
2 hours for getting around the city	730	-

You can see how little time one professor can spend on faculty management and teaching students.