Ethic fail?

Have we let business get away with not having any ethics?

In recent unit of study, we briefly covered business ethics. While the module itself was brief, it did raise a question or two with me.

A set reading for the module discussed the corporation as an individual, looking at the corporation as a "moral agent in its own right", and it was this concept that really set me thinking.

Over the last few years, it seems the concept of being an "ethical company" or "good corporate citizen" has become for many corporations a key deliverable, a measure of success. We now see Corporate Responsibility Reports, internal campaigns to make staff feel good about how the company operates and external feel good campaigns to tell the world how good a corporate citizen the company ABC really is.

Another area we can see big business selling out the dream is with the recent momentum behind claims of green credentials and being environmentally friendly. Again we hear the green mantra yet time and time again it seems like so much hollow rhetoric.

Have we then let the corporations hi-jack the concept of ethics and being green, and turn it into yet another cheap marketing ploy?


Sources
What is a corporation? and The Corporation as an Individual, In Boylan, M. (Ed.). (2001). Business ethics. (pp40-42) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Neglected

Ah my poor little blog, it seems so neglected. Time seems to keep slipping away from me, work, school, wife all have priority over posting to The End Run. Going to have to find some time this weekend to make amends.

Sounds in the cloud

Ok, so thanks to @rivastarr on Twitter I found this amazing site tonight which just blew me away.

Soundcloud is a music discover/sharing/distribution site centred around the EDM (Electronic Dance Music) scene. Essentially the site lets artists upload tracks for users to listen to and in some cases, download for their own use. Artists can also submit tracks to labels for A&R or labels can upload tracks to distribute to their promo lists for DJ's to play around the globe.

Users can also comment on the uploaded files, follow favourite artists and labels, all while participating in the sites community. While it caters to a very specialist market, Soundcloud showcases an innovative new way to utilise the Internet to collaborate, promote and distribute music.

I know I may be a bit slow with jumping onto this one, but to say I'm absolutely blown away by this is an understatement. Check it out.

Twitter Follow

I love Twitter, but like most when they first encounter the application, I had no idea what it could possibly be useful for. Now after using it regularly for the last 3 months (I have had an account for over 18 months) I kinda know what I am now doing.

Like most people I find it useful for keeping up with my friends and fellow students at Curtin University. I follow industry figures, companies updating product information, and news providers helping me keep up o date with the world. All up, I now find Twitter a useful tool in my day to day arsenal of keeping me connected with the world.

Yet one thing still puzzles me about Twitter: The random follow. Nearly everyday I get random follows from people I haven't followed or even know. Don't get me wrong, I like having a few followers, but I'm still trying to work out why they would follow me!

I'm nobody special, I tweet mostly about my life, the good things, the bad things, the mundane. Yet here they are people I don't know, following my life. Then it struck me Twitter is like a virtual Truman Show, it allows people to peer inside someone else's reality, albeit in brief 140 character chunks. Twitter is the Big Brother of the digital generation, a real life reality show where we are the stars.

So is this desire to peer into anothers world driven by a sense of voyeurism or a feeling of insignificance within our own lives? Maybe following someone random is just a way to escape from our everyday world for just a moment.

Here's a thought

I heard recently on the news that with the economic downturn upon us, universities are seeing an increase in enrolments. If this is the case, does it mean that this pain society goes through as a result of the downturn, has the benefit where as: society becomes better educated, thus allowing for the new generation to take advantage of when things do turn good?

@roadrider57 is OK!

I had an interesting experience on Twitter today.

An interesting news day
As you may all ready be aware, comedian Robin Williams had been hospitalised today complaining of shortness of breath. As I returned to my desk from a break one of my work colleagues mentioned this to me, at the time I didn't think much of it other than, "I hope he's OK".

Then, within a minute, a tweet cam through from Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstong) saying he had spoken to Robin Williams (@roadrider57) and he was well all things considered, in fact as Lance puts it; "He's doing fine and was in good spirits. Guy can't quite (sic) cracking jokes. Killer spirit."

While this tweet wasn't directed just to me, the intimate nature gave me an insight into something which made me feel part of a circle of trust. While your pondering what that really means, just think about exactly how far that insight can really go: Lance has over 230,000 followers on Twitter. I think this highlights not only the amazing speed that Twitter has in communicating recent news, but the intimate nature which this communication can take.

Is it not just celebrity voyeurism?
Does this example finally prove that technology has the power to bring people closer together, or is it just another example of celebrity voyeurism? For me I have found this has been a very real and positive example of technology allowing a more human side of a news story to be told, which in turn allows us all to come closer together.

What do you think?

Little fluffy clouds

I have talked about the Cloud and my moves towards it in my studies through Net11, and to date, I actually have made some major moves towards the Cloud.

What's in my Cloud so far?
All my email is now through Gmail, I utilise both Delicious and Diigo for bookmarking and referencing (although not exclusively yet). I have also set up a Pro Flickr account to move all our photos online for sharing (and another means of backup). You can see from this, I have made a reasonable effort to move towards the Cloud. Now though I'm ready to make my next big step: moving to Google Docs.

What's my next step then?
This is actually something that I have been mulling over now for a few months now. The thought has sat patiently at the back of my mind, occasionally whispering a few words here or there, pushing me towards this point. So now after much discussion with my wife, we have decided to move our writing needs to Google Docs. The plan is to do it slowly, weening our house of each component of Microsoft's Office suite, one at a time (kind of like a 12 step program for Wordaholics).

First I plan to upload key documents to get a feel of what I am doing. I will then start creating new documents solely in Google Docs. From there I will start to move spreadsheets online, and possibly PDF's (although that is more for backup purposes). The plan is to have everything online and Microsoft Office off my machine by the end of my current Study Period for uni.

But why do it?
My wife thinks I'm crazy, I tried out Google Docs nearly a year ago, at that time I came to the conclusion that I still needed Word on my machine. Now though I'm not so sure. I don't use most of the advanced features of Word and after using the latest 2007 version on my work machine, I like Word even less.

Now through school for this study period, I am required to keep an ongoing Portfolio in electronic format. So what better time than now to commit myself to researching and experimenting with something new. All ready I am discovering some features which I missed last time around such as linking into your blog account and making posts from Google Docs.

Ok then, lets get under way. This should be fun.

Some helpful hints for moving into the cloud

1. If you haven't all ready grab yourself a Google Docs (or similar) account.
2. Move some of your documents online to get a feel of the service.
3. For Mac users check out GDocs Uploader for drag and drop uploading to Google Docs.
4. Install Google Gears for offline work on you documents.

A New blogining

I've just completed my first Curtin unit, Net11, on my way to a BA in Internet Communication. As part of that unit I caught a small case of the blogs (sounds icky).

Net11 was an amazing unit and I took away a hell of a lot, yet now after two units of study (Net11 adn SSK12) a familiar message of "take time to reflect" has come up. So while it is still fresh in my mind, before I get lost in Net12, I'm starting a new blog to try and do exactly that.

It's not just for uni study, but I'm sure that will feature heavily. It's more about a more public place to capture thoughts ideas and the like. Possibly share some stoopid and not so stoopid things that I find on the Internet and probably some updates on my day to day life.

This is not a serious piece of work by any means, but who knows, maybe I'll write something which makes sense. If so, and you are keen, feel free to join in the conversation and leave a comment.