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"The New Gospel Principles Manual," Liahona, Jan. 2010, 22–25
The New Gospel Principles Manual
This beautiful volume will be a great addition to any home library as well as the Church classroom.
Since 1998 the lesson manuals for Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society classes have been volumes of Teachings of Presidents of the Church (hereafter Teachings). Each manual focused on the life and teachings of one of our beloved prophets. These wonderful books create an invaluable resource for members across the world to come to know and love these great men and the marvelous doctrines they taught. Their counsel is as inspiring and pertinent today as it was when those Brethren first delivered the addresses included in those books. We hope that you continue to use the inspired literature of these faithful servants of the Lord. Their teachings are timeless.
Beginning in 2010 we will take a two-year leave from the study of manuals in this series. In their place, during the Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society classes on the second and third Sunday of each month, we will study the newly revised Gospel Principles manual. Naturally, members may wonder why the change was made and how it will affect them. The following are some questions that may come to mind and the answers.
Why the Change in Curriculum?
Since we first began using Teachings, millions of people have joined the Church. Many of them have tender testimonies and, with relatively limited experience in the Church, will benefit greatly by a focus on the fundamentals of the gospel. In addition, all Church members will benefit by a return to the basics. A careful study of core doctrines as presented in the new and improved Gospel Principles manual will help members strengthen their understanding of the fundamental teachings of the gospel.
The Teachings manuals have been a wonderful curriculum for our classes and precious additions to our personal libraries. In 2012 we will resume the study of the teachings of our great Presidents.
How Will This Affect Me?
The Gospel Principles manual will be used as the course of study for second- and third-Sunday Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society classes. It will also be used as the manual for the Gospel Principles Sunday School class for new members, investigators, and members returning to activity. Because of this, some of you may wonder if there won't be some redundancy. Of course there will! Isn't it wonderful that we can gain the added benefit of repetition. Even the Savior taught the same doctrines multiple times to reinforce concepts. Consider how often He teaches us through the scriptures to believe and be baptized (see, for example, 3 Nephi 11:23–38)!
Knowing that we need to learn principles line upon line, precept upon precept, the Lord repeats many concepts so that we do not miss them (see Isaiah 28:10, 13; 2 Nephi 28:30; D&C 98:12; 128:21). Such instruction, handled by caring teachers who take an interest in the welfare of their class members, will help increase faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In practice, however, there will be less overlap than one might think. The Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society classes typically will use the manual two weeks a month, on the second and third Sundays, just as the Teachings manuals have been used. Lessons will follow a sequential order in which we will finish the Gospel Principles manual in two years. Meanwhile, teachers preparing for the Gospel Principles Sunday School class will tailor their lessons each week to the needs of their class participants. Generally speaking, new members, investigators, and members returning to activity will participate in the Gospel Principles class for a period of time determined by them and their bishop or branch president, after which time they will attend the Gospel Doctrine Sunday School class.
As with the Teachings manuals, there will be no cost to individuals receiving these new manuals. Each ward or branch will provide the necessary manuals for its members.
In some parts of the world, the Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society classes have been using the books Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood and The Latter-day Saint Woman instead of Teachings. Published in 45 languages, the new edition of Gospel Principles will be available in some of these units during the years 2010 and 2011. Where the new manual is not available, however, the older edition of the Gospel Principles manual will still be used.
How Has the Gospel Principles Manual Changed?
Our excellent Gospel Principles manual was first published more than 30 years ago. It has enjoyed wide use in the Church as a manual for Sunday School lessons, for teaching new members about basic gospel principles, and as an important resource in the home. However, the Brethren felt we could improve upon the existing manual and breathe new life into it. The result is a beautiful volume that will be a great addition to any home library as well as the Church classroom.
The new edition has several significant features in the design and text:
1. Design
The new edition will be increased in size and have a new cover similar to the Teachings volumes. We also have updated the design of the text to make it easier to read. The visuals will be in color. All of this provides a more pleasing visual experience that will enhance personal study.
2. Text
The text has been revised to make the manual more effective for personal study, teacher preparation, and class discussions. To aid personal study, many of the quotations and source citations have been updated to link this book with the Teachings volumes that have been published previously. This will allow individuals to learn more from the prophets who are quoted in the Gospel Principles manual. The integration of these manuals will enrich study both in the classroom and at home.
3. Teaching and Learning Suggestions
In each chapter are ideas that will help teachers improve their teaching. The ideas are based on sound teaching principles from Teaching, No Greater Call, the Church's resource for teacher improvement. The ideas are intended to help teachers love those they teach, invite diligent learning, and teach the doctrine by the Spirit.
Additionally, questions that begin each section in a chapter will help foster discussion and direct class members to the content within the section. Questions that follow each section will help class members ponder, discuss, and apply what they have read.
A Timeless Book
It is our hope that the new Gospel Principles manual will take a prominent place in the homes and lives of all Latter-day Saints. The new edition will inspire teaching and enhance personal study. Brothers and sisters, by reinforcing your study of the core doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ, your testimony will grow, your happiness will increase, and you will find a greater abundance of the blessings of the Lord in your life.


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We spoke to wilderness and survival expert Ben McNutt on how to look after your leather hiking boots so they provide the best innate water-resistance nature has to offer (and all other leather goods for that matter!).
"Look after your kit, and your kit will look after you", is a saying that you rarely hear these days, even amongst seasoned outdoors folk, with today's hi-tech, time poor, synthetic loving, 'throw-away' culture. But… at last there appears to be a small resurgence for people who are moving back to a more traditional and sustainable approach to choosing their outdoor kit. Selecting natural materials over synthetics – cotton, wool and leather.
Good quality leather shoes have been around since at least 3,300BC when Ötzi the Iceman wore some to cross the Alps. His were made of very wide, waterproof bearskin soles laced to deer hide vamps and uppers, and grass insulation and lime bark bindings. We have been using unlined leather footwear for a long, long time.
Full-grain leather is naturally waterproof and breathable, especially if it is regularly nourished with natural oils. A well-designed boot with minimal stitching will breath well and shed water naturally and efficiently, but the leather needs to be cared for or it will dry and crack or the stitches will rot.
Traditional full-grain leather outdoor boots have always had a reputation to take a long time to 'break-in' and tend to be stiffer and heavier than lined boots, but barefoot minimal boots are much less restrictive and a lot more flexible, allowing you to be more nimble and to move better while wearing them.
I meticulously clean by boots with a stiff brush and tepid water and then let them dry slowly in a warm place. I then heat the boots with a hair dryer to open the pores of the leather and rub in a really good quality natural balsam that nourishes, conditions and restores the hide. The wax only contains natural ingredients like beeswax and jojoba oil, which help to naturally waterproof the leather while still allowing it to breath.
Active feet mean active brains: spark the creativity in your junior superhero! Meet the small super heroes whose feet talk to their brains!
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee has helped us fully understand the positive health benefits of going barefoot.
Cold water swimming is fast emerging on the medical radar as the 'super food' of physical activities – lowering blood pressure, boosting immunity, circulation and libido, and even mediating stress and depression.
But what the colder months?
We asked some cold-water lovers of the Swimrun World Series why and how they do it when the temperature starts to plummet…
Girls are not hard-wired by nature for pink and boys for blue. They just aren't.
Let's let pink and blue kill each other in the ring of senseless consumerism. Let's nurture a nature that is not dominated by pink and blue, and free our kids to just be kids, in any colour they want.
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Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf's U.S. Open and the Olympics, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling little city that sits around halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. – Obrey Brown
It was June 1, 1995. The place was Knoxville, Tenn.
Patrick Johnson, born in Georgia, moved to Redlands, took a football scholarship at the University of Oregon, eventually winding up playing professionally in Baltimore. All evidence pointed to a possible world-class career on the track. Here he was in Tennessee. World class speed seemed to be everywhere.
Johnson, an Oregon freshman, was competing against the likes of Ato Boldon, Obadele Thompson, Donovan Powell and Tim Harden, among others. A month earlier, Johnson had beaten Olympic legend Carl Lewis in nearby Des Moines, Iowa.
On hand was the NCAA Division 1 championships, hosted by the University of Tennessee between May 31-June 3.
As a world-class speedster, Johnson never hid from the fact that his first interest in athletics was football. I'll never forget that moment, either.
"All I wanted to do," Johnson told me during his senior year at Redlands High in 1994, "was play football. That was my goal. Man, I loved track. But football was something different. It was special."
It was one of a few chats with, perhaps, one of Redlands' most accomplished athletes.
Here he was, the reigning track & field star at Redlands in 1994 – the eventual state 100- and 200- meter champion. His times were outrageously quick – a 10.43 to win the 1994 State 100 title, while a 10.61 was quick enough to win the Southern Section Division 1 championship.
Don't forget the 200, where he turned it on three times to win titles, starting in 1993 with a 21.40 to win the Division 1 championship.
One season later, he not only re-captured the Division 1 title in 21.25, but he beat all comers at the State finals in 21.01.
He was no marginal athlete in either sport. Compared to football, where his skills could've been used in a variety of positions on the field, Johnson single-mindedly trained for football – even during spring track season.
That's the groundwork for Johnson's upcoming track career. Right?
Even the most casual observer might agree that Johnson's future seemed to be on that oval that usually surrounds any football field.
As a freshman at Oregon, Johnson beat all comers in the Pacific-10 400-meter finals – 45.38 seconds. He made the NCAA Championships in Knoxville, Tenn. that year, unable to qualify in either the 100 or the 200.
His competition was off the charts.
Guys like Bolden, of UCLA, was winning the 200 in 20.24. Johnson's prelims time was 20.82 – ninth place, one spot out of a place in the finals.
At least Johnson made the 100-finals. But his 10.32 clocking was eighth, and last, in a field headed by Kentucky's Harden (10.05). In that race was the Jamaican, Powell, whose brother, Asafa Powell, once held the world record (9.74) in the 100.
Harden was part of the Olympic silver medal 4 x 100 relay at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Boldon, an eventual four-time Olympic medal winner, had false-started in that 1995 100 semifinals, eliminating him from a possible sprint double – a controversial result, in fact.
A month, or so, before that year's NCAAs, Johnson prepped at the Drake (Iowa) Relays – on April 29, 1995. It was there that Johnson beat nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis across the line in the 100-meters. Few recall, however, the Lewis' career was coming to an end. Or that Johnson didn't even win that race.
Thomson, a sophomore at Texas-El Paso, won in 10.19. Johnson, an Oregon freshman, was next at 10.26. Lewis, the Olympic hero, was third in 10.32.
Johnson's speed was a rampant weapon on any football field.
In football at Redlands, Johnson never seemed to have that huge, stunning, break-out game that observers would recall in years to come. That never kept him from swaying from his dream.
"Ever since I was little," said Johnson, "I've thought about football."
His Redlands track records will likely stand the test of time – 10.39 in the 100, 20.79 in the 200, 43.79 in the 400 and anchoring a 4 x 400 relay (3:18.79) are numbers that just don't point a young man away from track & field.
The tipoff should have been easy to spot.
Upon Johnson's transfer to Redlands as a junior in 1992, he was declared ineligible because he did not have enough units toward graduation. In Terrier coach Jim Walker's first season, Johnson was a practice squad player from weeks one through 10. Under those conditions, it would have been easy to find something else to do.
"I remember coaching the defensive backs that season," said onetime Redlands assistant Dick Shelbourne, "the season Pat missed playing in the games because he was ineligible. He only missed two practices the whole season."
It was a sure sign to Terrier coaches that Johnson was serious about football. When the playoffs rolled around, Walker and Shelbourne worked him into their games against Capistrano Valley and Loyola – in the secondary.
That was Redlands' introduction to Johnson, who was eligible to run track later that spring. By his senior year, Walker contemplated Johnson at any one of three different offensive positions – receiver, running back or an option quarterback.
Settling on running back, Johnson's season was uneventful – 583 yards rushing, another 257 receiving, and the Terriers failed to reach the post-season.
His speed on the track lured interested parties because he played football, too. Johnson opted for the University of Oregon, where he played wide receiver.
Years later when Ducks' football coach Rich Brooks spoke about Johnson, he chuckled when we chatted. "That speed of his," he said, "could've taken him anywhere – football or track."
Let's not forget, either, that Oregon is home to Hayward Field, which is the nation's top site for track & field. It would be impossible not to feel that emotional tug. He seemed offended if anyone suggested track over football.
He'd shake his head. Mind was made up.
At Oregon from 1994-97, Johnson snagged 143 passes mostly from the likes of Ducks' QBs Tony Graziani and Akili Smith. His final collegiate game, against Air Force in the Las Vegas Bowl, Johnson took advantage of his blazing speed. Catching five passes for 169 yards, he caught two TD passes from Smith for 69 and 78 yards.
On the other hand, he remains on Oregon's all-time records list – eighth best in the 100 (that 10.26 at The Drake Relays), tied for second best in the 200 (20.39) and sixth best in the 400 (45.38) – with all electrifying marks.
Remember, this is a historic collegiate program. Ranking among the best at that school is overwhelming.
Though uniquely qualified to take on the world's best sprinters of the day – Lewis, Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene, among others, Johnson's chosen field was professional football.
The Ravens made him the 42nd selection in the draft, taken in the second round of the 1998 NFL draft.
Johnson, a two-time NCAA All-American in the 100 and 200 in his only full season of collegiate competition, was expected to win the 400 NCAA championship in 1996.
Plus, he was a staunch favorite to make the USA Olympic team that year.
Remember, The Games were scheduled for Atlanta, Ga., Johnson's home state.
It's possible Johnson might have over-trained early that season – trying too hard, perhaps. He was, apparently, in no condition to compete at the NCAAs.
Johnson took second in the Pac-10's 400-meter finals in 1996.
Those calamities added up. Johnson never stepped on Hayward Field's track again to compete.


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Better World Club has covered Bicycles with Roadside Assistance since 2003. In July of 2012, nearly nine years later, Better World Club began an innovative venture into insuring cyclists with a pilot Accident/Liability insurance program. This program has underwriters like any insurance program. It was provided to our members with Bicycle Roadside Assistance for free. The one year anniversary is coming up and we are sorry to announce that the underwriter does not wish to renew the Accident/Liability Insurance policy. The Accident/Liability Insurance policy is separate from out Bicycle Roadside Assistance program, which remains as it has for more than 10 years.
We know that, along with our Bicycle Roadside Assistance program, having BWC offer further bicycle insurance coverage is desirable to many of our cycling members. Better World Club is in talks with underwriters to maybe offer such policies to suit the needs of our members. For example, we know that many members want us to offer property insurance for bicycles.
Because the existing program is uncertain come July 4, 2013, we can no longer add the free accident/liability insurance benefit to new Bicycle memberships. The Bicycle Roadside Assistance for Bicycle Memberships remains as valuable and reliable as it was when we started.
WE NEED YOU! For our talks with our underwriters, we need more feedback from you! Our representatives have initiated talks regarding bicycle property , accident, and liability insurance. There is no guarantee as to which, if any of these policies will become available. If available, we are working to make them more affordable than you would find elsewhere as we maintain our commitment to business sustainability and personal affordability.
Take this survey to help us best serve your needs.Thank you,


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Lynda Carter on Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman: Superhero and Feminist Icon
In 1941, DC Comics (then known as All-American Publications) welcomed Wonder Woman to its ranks as a new female character destined to become a heroine in more ways than one. A new PBS documentary premiering Tuesday at 8 p.m. titled Superheroes, narrated by Sabretooth himself, Liev Schreiber, takes a look at the legacy of Wonder Woman and the many other comic-book characters who played a significant cultural and societal role throughout history.
Two clips from the film, one featuring longtime DC Comics president Jenette Kahn and the other starring Lynda Carter, star of the 1970s show Wonder Woman, discuss the superheroine and what she meant to women.
Wonder Woman, with her evil-defying bulletproof bracelets and Lasso of Truth, had a particularly strong impact on one young lady: women's right activist Gloria Steinem, who was 7 years old when the character made her first appearance.
Many years later, Gloria founded Ms. magazine, a sociopolitical periodical focusing on women's issues at the height of the feminist movement. Her choice for the publication's first feature was an easy one — "Wonder Woman for President." On Oct. 1, 2012, Ms. magazine celebrated its 40th anniversary and honored the milestone by putting Wonder Woman back on its front cover.
In this clip from Superheroes, Kahn explained why Wonder Woman was adored by so many future feminists. "She was a beautiful, compassionate woman who had tremendous strength and an ability to change the world . . . and at the same time was feminine."
Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman from 1975 to 1979 in the TV show of the same name, shared her thoughts on who the superheroine was. "She's a woman who will not be a victim . . . and she's a woman's woman. She's not trying to be after your guy. As a matter of fact, if your guy was making the wrong kind of eyes at her, she'd whoop 'im upside the head."
When did you first discover Wonder Woman, and how did she impact your life?
It seems like Wonder Woman is having her moment as of late. A proof-of-concept trailer for a yet-to-be-realized Wonder Woman feature film has hit the web and accumulated nearly three million views in just three days. The studio behind the high-production video is Rainfall Films, and many are applauding the actress's portrayal of strength and raw physicality, while others are criticizing the viral video's sexuality.
Watch the trailer after the break.


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Knowledge Management at a Turning Point
1. Introduction: Ten years of ECKM
This special issue is a selection of the best papers presented at the 10th edition of the European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM), which was held at the University of Padua on 3‑4 September 2009 and which we had the privilege to chair. Symbolically, a decade often represents a turning point for people, who are used to reflecting on their past experiences and setting future goals. The purpose of this Editorial is somewhat similar. We will base our remarks on analysis of the papers presented at ECKM, and on our additional feelings on the matter. We will also introduce the papers selected for this Special Issue.
No longer the exclusive domain of philosophical speculation, today knowledge is really referred to as an essential and concrete element of economic and social development. There is widespread recognition that knowledge is a vital resource, and the way to prosperity is increasingly considered the capability to generate and exchange knowledge. Issues such as knowledge creation, storage, and transfer have moved to the forefront of attention of corporate executives. Also, the building of "knowledge societies" and "knowledge economies" is often indicated as the deliberate goal of policy makers, and there is increasing awareness that, to keep abreast of the volatile and changing global environment, organisations, countries and regions need to develop a better understanding of how knowledge and intellectual capital can help to boost innovation, implement effective business processes, and deliver goods and services. The current economic climate, with the difficulties it brings, represents an additional motivation to invest resources in the production, management and delivery of knowledge, in the hope that this can help our societies to keep on progressing.
Consequently, Knowledge Management (KM) now has a well‑established place in the research community, as is also testified by the great number of interesting papers that are submitted every year to Journals and Conferences like ECKM. So far, the efforts made by the research community have been impressive. If one looks up into a search engine or a bibliographic databank and searches for articles related to "knowledge management", hundreds of thousands of references can be easily found.
The contribution that the research and practice of KM can give to the management of companies and institutions is increasingly important, but so are the responsibilities of researchers and practitioners growing. The results achieved in defining conceptual models and practical approaches for managing knowledge have been significant. But despite all this, many questions remain open and need clarifications, insights, and research efforts. The analysis of the papers presented at the ECKM can give us an idea of these hot issues.
1.1. Multidisciplinarity
A particular issue that KM brings about is that of its multidisciplinarity. This is both a point of strength and weakness at the same time. The point of strength is that the notion of knowledge is multifaceted and pervasive, and requires the combination of different viewpoints: the conceptual and practical analysis of the various issues associated to KM and the identification of appropriate methods for research and practice require the joint efforts of people specialising in very different areas: from economics to business management, from sociology to information technology, from psychology to policy making. But this wealth of perspectives is also a point of weakness. The interaction among so different fields is never easy, requires continuous debate and an effort of mutual adaptation. So far, the researchers and practitioners in KM have made huge efforts to combine and integrate their different perspectives, to share notions and languages, to discuss theories, methods, and findings. This has been facilitated by the organisation of Conferences like ECKM (which are, by nature, multidisciplinary) and the foundation of Journals targeted to KM (including the EJKM) that accept contributions from different areas. But there is now the need to give coherence to this increasingly articulated and complex field of study, in order to make KM an established and recognised discipline in the context of managerial sciences.
1.2. KM and other fields of study
Another important point is the increasing pervasiveness and the recurring use of topics like knowledge and knowledge management in other more established areas. The best example is probably that of innovation studies. The problem of innovation is often related to a problem of knowledge, which raises issues that are not dissimilar from those analysed in KM. The approaches adopted by researchers are of two opposite types. Some, remaining within the boundaries of their "mainstream" discipline, try to apply concepts and methods typically developed in the KM literature (such as classifications of knowledge, mechanisms and processes of KM, communities of practices and so on) to explain specific phenomena that the theories of their discipline are not able to explain (Jensen et al., 2007; Frenza & Ietto‑Gillies, 2009; Tödtling et al., 2009). Conversely, others start from KM and try to extend the focus of this area to innovation‑related problems (Swan et al., 2002; du Plessis, 2007). What we see is a sort of mutual convergence of methods and research topics, which is clearly significant for the development of our area of study, but is also challenging. The same kind of relationship with KM can be traced in other areas (from strategic management to human resources, from economic modelling to organisational studies).
1.3. Formal models
As we know, the use of formal models is often the reason for contrast between the "hard" sciences, mostly based on mathematical models, and the human and social sciences that deal with more elusive and ambiguous objects. In the case of KM, things are more complicated because this is by nature a multidisciplinary field, where researchers pick from different disciplines and areas.
So, on the one hand the formalisation of definitions, concepts and models is important because it enables us to set the foundational grounds of any discipline, and provides a rigorous common language with which researchers can communicate and interact. But on the other hand, when we talk about models in KM we need to combine different approaches that derive from various areas: linguistics, psychology, sociology, economics, mathematics, informatics, and so on. This debate about formalisation in KM is still at the beginning stage. Researchers are more involved in finding or using definitions for their specific purposes; or it happens that the formal modelling is just relegated to the technological areas.
1.4. The role of technology
The issue of technology is clearly central in KM, and pervasive. However, the views of technology are often very different. Undoubtedly, the development of KM is sometimes preceded and, therefore, driven by the technical advancements. For instance, we wouldn't have started to study the effects of social networking on knowledge sharing, if Web 2.0 applications like Facebook, Google or Twitter hadn't been invented. In some cases, the notions developed by sociology‑based or psychology‑based KM researchers have influenced technical studies (for instance, the reflections on the complex nature of human‑computer interactions). But in some other cases, the technological research poses evident constraints to KM by putting an emphasis on the "explicit" knowledge contents and their treatment. Generally speaking, we can say that there is no consensus on a common interpretative model of the role of technology in KM and vice‑versa, which sometimes raises conflicting views whose trace can often be found in the current debate.
2. The selected papers
The 10th Edition of ECKM reflected many of the aspects mentioned above. The programme included eight streams with more than 110 papers focusing on the various hot areas of KM. As happened in the previous edition, business applications were the most important field, but other emerging areas (such as KM for public policy making, and KM in Education) were well represented. There was a good balance between the technical studies (with an emphasis on the "new" semantic systems) and the sociological, organisational, and psychological research. In some cases, the presentations focused on very specific aspect (from knowledge sharing to KM measurement), which also testifies that the research has started to consider detailed problems.
It is also worth mentioning the hot themes that were treated by three keynote speakers. Irma Becerra‑Fernandez, from the Florida International University, offered a broad view of the recent trends in KM research in her speech entitled "Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning: Where Technology and Socialisation Meet", and provided an interesting view of the complex interrelation among IT, learning, and organisational aspects. The other two keynote speakers focused on technology, but with different views. In his speech entitled "Semantics in Action", Antonio Linari from the Italian company Expert System illustrated the prospects of application of advanced KM technologies and semantic tools. Frieda Brioschi, President of Wikimedia Italia, in her speech entitled "Open Knowledge Management ‑ The Wiki Way", described Wikipedia as a Knowledge Management System, and addressed the complex interconnections between the technological artefact and the social‑relational aspects.
In the rest of this section we will briefly introduce the papers selected for this Special Issue. Fifteen papers were drawn directly from the ECKM proceedings on the basis of the following criteria: the judgement of the Conference Session Chairs; our evaluation about the current degree of completeness of the paper; and the attempt to offer a complete picture of the various point of views and approaches. A last paper, which was not presented at the Conference but was selected by the EJKM Editorial Board, well fits our intentions, as the reader will see: in summary, all the papers are good examples of the current hot issues in KM, as our tentative classification attempts to highlight.
2.1. Definitions and representations of knowledge
Two papers address this basic question that has always been ‑ and still is ‑ a contentious issue. The paper "Evaluating a Living Model of Knowledge" by Paul Parboteeah, Thomas Jackson and Gillian Ragsdell proposes a fresh view and introduces a definition of knowledge based on the notion of autopoietic systems (Maturana & Varela, 1980). This notion was introduced decades ago for representing entities having characteristics that can be assimilated to living organisms, and according to the authors, this is the case of knowledge. An autopoietic perspective can help to overcome the limitations of the typical KM approaches used in KM research that implicitly adopt definitions of knowledge that focus either on "pure objectivity" or, conversely, on "pure subjectivity". In the paper, the authors also illustrate a pilot study for testing their approach: they admit that before this "biologically grounded" model of knowledge can be integrated into KM theories, there is the need to test it empirically. All this makes this research line very stimulating.
In "A Framework for Assessing Commensurability of Semantic Web Ontologies", Liam Magee deals with another recurring problem that is especially critical for the development of advanced KM technologies: the formal representation of knowledge. This issue is central for the researchers in ontologies and Semantic Web: although the advancements have been impressive in theoretical terms, when it comes to practical business applications there are still several unresolved problems. One of these is the issue of co‑ordinating disparate ontologies that refer to distinct knowledge domains, which is obviously essential for effective knowledge sharing. As the author argues, the approaches currently used are algorithmic and don't consider background elements or tacit components, which are indeed essential in many practical KM scenarios. The paper presents a framework for understanding the "tacit assumptions" behind ontologies by describing and comparing cultural information and other related elements. The author also illustrates a prototype software toolkit and the results of a pilot test of it, along with some considerations of how the framework might be further improved.
2.2. KM and learning organisations
The understanding of the effective implementation of KM in organisations is connected to a reflection on the learning processes. Indeed, the relationship between organisational learning and KM is a central issue for the researchers involved in the organisational implications of KM. Our selection proposes two papers that provide interesting perspectives on the mechanisms of organisational learning for innovation and the related implications. In their "Virtual Communities of Practice: Investigating Motivations and Constraints in the Processes of Knowledge Creation and Transfer" Ana Maria Ramalho Correia, Alice Paulos and Anabela Mesquita investigate the efficacy of an organisational approach which is typical in the KM practice but whose effective role and implementation problems still deserve investigations: the Virtual Community of Practice (CoP). CoPs are recognised as an essential method for facilitating co‑operative organizational learning and knowledge creation involving members dispersed in time and space, but their success can't be taken for granted. Starting from the consideration that not all CoPs reach the same level of success, the authors attempt to explore the reasons for this, and particularly the motivations that may push people to participate in a CoP and, conversely, the problems that may hinder an effective KM process. The findings of a case‑study are illustrated, and the authors conclude that the organisational culture and, especially, the individuals' professional and personal development are essential for their fruitful participation in a CoP, while financial rewards do not prove to be a sufficient motivational factor. Other important factors are the alignment of CoP functions with the managerial objectives, and the need for a clear justification of the time spent in working for the CoP. The case‑study, that confirms the hypotheses formulated in other works, is especially precious in that it allows focalising a number of essential issues that need to be explored. The paper "Linking Unlearning with Innovation through Organizational Memory and Technology" by Juan‑Gabriel Cegarra‑Navarro, Gabriel Cepeda‑Carrion, and Daniel Jimenez‑Jimenez also reflects on the problems that can be associated to organisational learning, and in particular the limitations of the use of knowledge memorised in organisations. Two typical distinct mechanisms of learning in an organisation are analysed: one which is based on the organizational memory and can provide tacit knowledge contents, and the other which uses information technologies and mainly focuses on explicit elements. The authors argue that both these mechanisms show the same limit: the previous memories reflect a world that is only partially understood and assimilated. By limiting an "open‑minded" perspective, this might lead individuals to wrong decisions and actions and, especially, to limited innovative potential. Therefore, they propose to consider the importance of "unlearning", seen as a process of re‑orientation of organisational values, norms and behaviours to open the way for new solutions and approaches. The nature of unlearning processes, and the way these can promote organizational innovativeness, is examined with reference to both the "organizational memory" and the "information technology memory". The authors also present the findings of a survey of 291 large Spanish companies that seem to confirm that the establishment of an "unlearning culture" can enable the company's memory to have a positive influence on innovativeness.
2.3. Knowledge networking
An emerging topic for KM research is that of knowledge networking, in other words the issue of sharing and transferring knowledge across and between organisations. Actually, the problem of sharing and transferring knowledge is often addressed in the literature, but when it comes to networked environments the recent studies highlight peculiar aspects such as the importance of structural configuration, the distribution of roles and tasks, etc.
The paper by Eli Hustad, entitled "Exploring Knowledge Work Practices and Evolution in Distributed Networks of Practice"focuses on the evolutionary patterns of the particular networking structures represented by communities of practice, seen as networks. Based on a longitudinal study conducted in a multinational company, the author specifically analyses the life cycle evolution of these structures, identifies different categories of knowledge network, and shows that these networks evolve differently over time according to their peculiar characteristics. Four distinct evolution patterns are singled out: 1) devolution and dissolution, 2) recursive patterns where new networks emerged from the mother network, 3) integration of knowledge practices through cross‑networks, and 4) innovation and expansion in scope and size. These results are particularly interesting not only for the classification proposed, but also because they challenge some typical interpretations of organisational evolution that are suggested in the literature. Especially, the author argues that the social evolution of knowledge networks can have the effect to re‑define and alter the organisational routines of a company.
Remko Helms, Renato Ignacio, Sjaak Brinkkemper and Ard Zonneveld, in their "Limitations of Network Analysis for Studying Efficiency and Effectiveness of Knowledge Sharing" address a methodological question and a practical problem at the same time: their attempt is to test a typical sociological tool – the Knowledge Network Analysis – as an approach to study the tacit dimension of knowledge sharing with the specific purpose of examining the deficiencies of networked structures. For this purpose, a case study of an international software company is proposed, and the authors compare the outcomes of the knowledge network analysis with a qualitative study based on interviews and direct observations that focuses on both the tacit and the explicit dimensions of knowledge. To analyse the qualitative data, a new model is developed, called Knowledge Sharing Environment Model (KSEM), used to examine knowledge sharing bottlenecks. The authors conclude that Knowledge Network Analysis is a powerful tool for the identification of bottlenecks, but the use of additional methods (such as the KSEM) may be needed to study the causes behind the identified bottlenecks.
2.4. KM implementation: open issues and causes of failure
Even though they adopt a different perspective, the two following papers analyse a similar topic: the possible problems that the implementation and use of KM can raise in specific situations.
In the paper "The Adoption of Knowledge Management Systems in Small Firms" Pietro Evangelista, Emilio Esposito, Vincenzo Lauro and Mario Raffa consider the critical issue of KM implementation in small businesses, where its potential benefits have not been fully exploited yet. The authors observe that the literature lacks contributions to the critical success factors for KM adoption in SMEs. They illustrate the results of an empirical investigation on a cluster of 25 high‑technology small businesses in Southern Italy, and argue that while small companies can show significant KM needs especially in terms of inter‑company collaboration, they usually adopt very simple KM systems. Also, they argue that it is important to consider that for these companies, knowledge exchanges are mainly tacit and based on personal relationships and interactions. In summary, the paper makes the point that there are some relevant factors that may motivate the adoption of KM systems by small businesses, but also significant barriers, such as the cultural barriers and the concerns for intellectual capital protection.
Alexeis Garcia‑Perez and Robert Ayres, in their "Wikifailure: the Limitations of Technology for Knowledge Sharing", investigate the possible difficulties of KM implementation in a Web2.0‑based environment. Indeed, although the modern systems of social networking are often considered to be an essential support for knowledge sharing, the technology itself may not be enough for successful KM processes. In their paper the authors illustrate an original case study of a Wiki system implemented to support a group of dispersed researchers belonging to the same organisation. The paper shows that, after a good initial success, the use of the Wiki rapidly declined. The study shows two factors that appear to be particularly significant. First, the lack of critical mass: only a small proportion of users are likely to contribute and there may be a threshold size for a community to be able to support a vibrant Wiki. Second, time is another critical issue, since the people may think they are too busy to contribute to or use the system. Although it is always difficult to generalise from a single case‑study, the paper makes interesting points that deserve further validation.
2.5. KM success factors and assessment
The following two groups of papers more directly focus on typical managerial issues. In particular, this first group considers the issue of KM assessment and of success factors evaluation. This is a recurring problem in the managerial practice, but in the case of KM there are very peculiar challenges especially due to the intangible nature of knowledge.
Franz Lehner and Nicolas Haas in their "Knowledge Management Success Factors – Proposal of an Empirical Research" start from the assumption that to measure the effectiveness of KM programmes it is first necessary to identify their possible success factors. This topic is not new in the literature, but despite the various research efforts it remains an open question. After an overview of previous works and the identification of a number of potential success factors, the authors propose an application of the Structure Equation Modelling (SEM) approach to assess KM success; the model is also based on the theory of planned behaviour and is adapted to the context of KM. The attempt is to empirically evaluate the distinct success factors already identified in previous studies. The connection with the company strategic view may represent a further development of this research.
In "Assessing the Impact of KM on Organisational Practice: Applying the MeCTIP Model to UK Organisations", Sandra Moffett and Anne Hinds analyse the critical success factors for KM especially in knowledge intensive industries, where organisations heavily rely on the competencies of staff for their competitive advantage. The paper presents the results of an empirical investigation undertaken in early 2009 with 588 UK companies, with the aim of assessing the impact of the MeCTIP (Macro environment, Culture, Technology, Information and People) model on UK companies. The key factors for successful implementation, practice and development of KM are analysed. The research, that employed the "Benchmarking KM" online survey tool, showed that five key elements (two related to the infrastructure of the organisations and three to the process orientated activities for information, technology application and human expertise) have to be considered by organisations seeking to implement successful KM programmes. These findings seem to confirm previous studies on the topic.
Geoff Turner and Clemente Minonne in their "Measuring the Effects of Knowledge Management Practices" address the issue of KM assessment by considering a foundational perspective. Based on a survey of the previous literature, the authors identify three interdependent and complementary pillars that support the concept of KM, i.e.: Organisational Learning Management (OLM), Organisational Knowledge Management (OKM) and Intellectual Capital Management (ICM). The first concerns the problem of capturing, organising and retrieving explicit knowledge and, according to the authors, has led to the simplistic misconception that KM only involves the capture of the "content of employees' minds". The last is dominated by those particularly interested in defining key performance indicators. The authors argue that it is the second pillar which is the most important (i.e. the OKM pillar), because the essential task of measurement can only be undertaken once an organisation has clearly established its strategy‑structure‑process parameters that enable it to access, create and embed the knowledge that it needs. Accordingly, the paper by Turner and Minonne looks more deeply at the OKM pillar and, more generally, it highlights the lack of a general integrative approach to enhancing organisational performance in this key strategic area.
2.6. KM in strategic planning and decision‑making
The following three papers propose another relevant issue particularly important for managers. They directly analyse the contribution of KM as a strategic resource for companies and its implications in terms of decision‑making approaches.
In "Functional concept for a Web‑Based Knowledge Impact and IC Reporting Portal" Gaby Neumann and Eduardo Tomé discuss the effective use of knowledge as a strategic resource. They illustrate a study that combines different methods and tools, and proposes a web‑based infrastructure for understanding knowledge impacts and IC markets in order to support decision‑making. This infrastructure consists of two sections: the first allows to benchmark a company's knowledge management maturity and suggests changes in the company's strategy concerning knowledge‑related activities; the second section consists of a "World Atlas on Intellectual Capital" comprising world‑wide data on constituents of the IC market (demand, supply, equilibrium, investment, need, stock, flow, and returns). Also, the paper contributes to R&D measurement and tries to develop a better understanding of the impact of KM and IC on the delivery of effective business processes and high value services.
The use of KM approaches to manage risks in decision‑making is analysed in Eduardo Rodriguez and John S. Edwards' paper "People, Technology, Processes and Risk Knowledge Sharing". They specifically deal with KM and its relationship to the perceived value of enterprise risk management, with a special emphasis on financial services. A survey of risk management employees of several organisations, concentrating on the factors affecting the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing, is proposed. The analysis considers five explanatory variables: two relating to people (organizational capacity for work coordination and perceived quality of communication among groups), one relating to processes (perceived quality of risk control) and two related to technology (web channel functionality and risk management information systems). Preliminary findings indicate that four of these five variables have a significant positive association with the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing. In particular the "people" variables appear to have the greatest influence on the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing, even in a sector that relies heavily on technology and on quantitative approaches to decision making.
The issue of formulation of knowledge‑intensive business strategies is analysed in "Knowledge‑Based Strategies for Knowledge Intensive Business Services: a Multiple Case‑study of Computer Service Companies" by Enrico Scarso and Ettore Bolisani. The models for formulating business strategies that explicitly consider knowledge as the core resource are analysed in the particular case of computer service firms. Since the activity of those companies is based on the capability to manage knowledge flows among various actors, the formulation of their business strategies requires new approaches that directly focus on cognitive processes. The study consists of an extensive survey involving the computer service companies located in Northeast of Italy. Findings allow to draw useful schemes for the identification of knowledge‑based strategies. In particular, the paper: a) analyses approaches that can be used to establish a knowledge‑based business strategy; b) uses such approaches to identify how computer service firms pursue their business strategy by means of a proper management of their knowledge assets; c) discusses the utility of the illustrated approaches, and provides some suggestions for a future research agenda.
2.7. KM in universities and education
The last two papers deal with an issue that has sometimes been considered "implicit" in KM but actually deserves a specific analysis: the problems of knowledge sharing involving education and universities. In "The Role of Multinational Corporations (MNC's) in Developing R&D in Thailand: the Knowledge Flow between MNC's and University" Lugkana Worasinchai and Aurilla Aurelie Arntzen Bechina analyse the issue of knowledge sharing between firms and Universities, which has been always considered a challenging task especially in the case of developing countries where multinational corporations play a significant role in knowledge creation, technology diffusion and R&D. Worasinchai and Arntzen Bechina present the results of an empirical study aimed at understanding knowledge flows between foreign companies and local Universities in the case of the automotive industries in Thailand. In particular the research investigates the interrelated factors (industrial characteristics, firm characteristics and business models) that can play a substantial role in the knowledge sharing mechanism.
The final paper, which was proposed by the Journal's Editorial Board, is "Organizing Customer Knowledge in Academic Libraries" by Farhad Daneshgar and Lyn Bosanquet. The paper aims to discover and demonstrate ways of organizing customer knowledge in academic libraries using a large library in Australia as a case study. A Customer Knowledge Taxonomy (CKT) has been presented for organizing the customer knowledge, providing a formal and explicit specification to deliver a shared conceptualization of customer knowledge. This taxonomy was then applied to the case study for coding and classifying the vast amounts of existing customer data. It is expected that similar organizations to that investigated will benefit from the proposed methodology for classifying the customer knowledge in academic libraries and the associated evaluation methodology for design and development of integrated KM systems, which in turn may support emerging processes within the organization.
3. Signals from the 10th ECKM: new foundations or new frontiers?
After 10 years of ECKM (and, more generally a longer time of KM) some questions arise about the future of this research field. The analysis of ECKM proceedings and particularly of the selected papers, suggested to us some general remarks.
First, there may be a sort of "identity" problem. Today, many researchers and practitioners declare they work in the field of KM. But can we say that KM is a well‑defined disciplinary area in the management sciences, with established objects, boundaries, and methods? Or is it just a different way to see topics that are also considered in other areas and fields? This suspicion comes from the fact that knowledge is a pervasive term that tends to be used substantially in all the branches of management, economics, organisation science, but also psychology, sociology, computer sciences etc. The need to "recognise the peculiarity" of researchers and managers that explicitly work in KM is not just an academic question, but is also important in practical terms, for instance for research funding or recruitment. This clearly raises a question of definition: to institutionalise KM as a discipline, the characteristics of KM, its typical research objects, methods and foundational references, should be clarified and "declared". Some recent studies (e.g. Holsapple, 2003; Edwards et al., 2003) move towards this direction, but they still appear to have an exploratory nature, and a further focalisation may be useful. On the other hand, it should be remembered that a formalisation of KM may reduce the characteristics of "openness" that this field has so far shown.
This recalls a second issue: the "method". What are the scientific approaches that are the most appropriate to study KM? And is this question relevant, or useless? As our small selection of papers clearly demonstrates, diverging methods are often used by different researchers, which clearly reflect the broad coverage of KM topics. Case‑studies and surveys are still important for those that study organisational or sociological aspects, while mathematical and logical approaches (including semantics and ontologies) are especially used by people that study computer applications applied to KM. But also special techniques (like, for instance systems modelling, computer simulation, social network analysis) are starting to appear (many examples can be found in the 10th ECKM proceedings as well). This is clearly a rich toolbox, but in our opinion, the question is not just to identify the "most appropriate" method out of these, but rather to reflect on the comparative usefulness and applicability of each of them to the various research situations and objects. This is directly connected with the particular interpretation of the notion of "knowledge" that each study adopts. Specific research on this "methodological question" may also help the new generations of KM researchers.
A third question is particularly relevant for practitioners. Is KM really becoming an established component of the managerial practice? As it has often occurred in the past, the risk is that the focalisation on knowledge just becomes the "last fad" that may be overcome once new managerial paradigms have set other priorities. Personally, we don't think this can happen: the issue of knowledge as a central resource for organisations has serious foundations. Nevertheless, the issue of "institutionalisation" is still important.
Reading once again the proceedings of ECKM and particularly the paper presented in this special issue, our impression is that time is mature for researchers and practitioners to start providing answers to the mentioned questions. So far, the literature on KM has shown two main concerns: first, to explore the potentials of this field of study, especially in conceptual terms; secondly, to find solutions to practical problems of organisations. Now that we are at a turning point, a phase of consolidation is starting. Two contrasting challenges open: on the one hand to look back to the past for setting the foundational "institutionalisation" of the discipline by defining research objects, methods, disciplinary boundaries, etc; and on the other hand to look ahead to the future, for exploring the frontiers of this field and shedding light on the real potential of KM for the future societies. Combining these two goals is no easy task. But that's the beauty of the challenge.
Ettore Bolisani and Enrico Scarso
University of Padua, Italy
du Plessis, M. (2007) "The role of knowledge management in innovation", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol 11, No 4, pp 20‑29.
Edwards, J.S., Handzic, M., Carlsson, S. & Nissen, M. (2003) "Knowledge management research & practice: visions and directions", Knowledge Management Research & Practice, Vol No 1, pp 49‑60.
Frenza, M. and Ietto‑Gillies, G. (2009) "The impact on innovation performance of different sources of knowledge: Evidence from the UK Community Innovation Survey", Research Policy, Vol 38, No 7, pp 1125‑1135.
Holsapple, C.W. (ed.) (2003) Handbook on Knowledge Management, Springer, Berlin.
Jensen, M.B., Johnson, B., Lorenz, E & Lundvall, B‑Å (2007) "Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation", Research Policy, Vol 36, No 5, pp 680‑693.
Maturana H.R. & Varela F.J. (1980), Autopoiesis and Cognition. The Realization of the Living. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Swan, J., Scarbrough, H. & Robertson, M. (2002) "The Construction of 'Communities of Practice' in the Management of Innovation", Management Learning, Vol 33, No 4, pp 477‑496.
Tödtling, F., Lehner, P. & Kaufmann, A. (2009) "Do different types of innovation rely on specific kinds of knowledge interactions?", Technovation, Vol 29, No 1, pp 59‑71.
Addendum from the Editorial Board
Last year, included in EJKM Volume 7 Issue 1 Special Issue for ECKM 2008, the paper "Dynamic Knowledge and Healthcare Knowledge Ecosystems" by Virginia Maracine and Emil Scarlat of the Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, was a result of research activity carried out under the aegis of the project "The Development of Theoretical Fundaments of Knowledge Ecosystems and Their Applications on Economy and Healthcare", funded by the Romanian Education and Research Ministry.
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Prof. W.B. Lee is Director of the Knowledge Management Research Centre of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. Lee is the editor of the Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, and International Journal of Knowledge and Systems Science. He established the Knowledge Solution Laboratory, the first of its kind in Hong Kong and has pioneered research and practice of knowledge management and knowledge audit in various organizations. Prof. Lee and his team have launched Asia's first on‑line MSc. Program in Knowledge Management. His research interest includes manufacturing systems, knowledge management, organizational learning and intellectual capital‑based management.
The 7th International Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management & Organizational Learning (ICICKM 2010) was hosted by the Knowledge Management Research Centre ,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China, the first time in Asia.
The conference is well attended by more than 100 delegates from over 30 countries and regions. This conference series is unique in the sense that it unifies all the important themes in this multidisciplinary area which can be pursued from either the knowledge management, intellectual capital management or organizational learning perspectives or any combinations of them. The relationship between these themes is important. It is only through the effective management of our knowledge assets and the continuous learning of individuals, teams and organization that we are able to build the intellectual capital which is the underlying power driving corporation's future growth.
Apart from the rich tacit knowledge exchange among delegates during the conference, the conference proceedings give a good record of papers delivered at the conference. Our thanks and appreciation go out to all those who presented papers and participated in the conference. Feedback to date from delegates and participants has been extremely positive. The support from departments within the University and our session Chairs and Keynote speakers is gratefully acknowledged. We also recognize the efforts of both the Executive and Conference Committees for their contribution to the double blind peer review process. Based on the input of the session chairs, we are able to select 10 papers of these to be published in this electronic Journal. These cover a lot of topics including KM models, strategy, innovation, organizational leaning, and intellectual capital measurement, and provide various new insights to the readers.
Grant started by asking the question if knowledge Management (KM) is just another fab. Through the lens of management fashion theory and a good review from bibliometric evidence he assures us that KM is unlike other management themes and is an enduring management activity. However, there is a potential conflict between the interests of practitioners and researchers. With different perspectives and prescriptions, Imani furthers the discussion by examining the KM strategy in 18 global companies and finds out how they are linked to the business strategy, which are either formulaic (to support routine activities) or embryonic (to address corporate strategic agenda). On the other hand, Tan and Nasurdin focus on the influence of KM effectiveness on innovation in 171 large manufacturing firms in Malaysia and find out that the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition has a positive influence on both the technological and administrative (organizational) innovation.
Another issue of concern to researchers in this conference is on how knowledge management is linked to business performance and its evaluation. These findings and observations are reinforced in a study conducted by Rabhi in Saudi Arabia on the effect of KM on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including customer satisfaction, business savings and projects completed. Tiago et al. studied the relationship between the knowledge management and eBusiness activities by applying a structural equation model in a large database of KM activities of European and American firms. In a study of performance of a Quality Assurance Department conducted by Chan in an electronic factory, the performance of the quality management processes is related to the intellectual capital involved which is captured from a knowledge audit of the plant.
De Alvarenga Neto and Vieira from their Brazil experience described the four main components of KM Model in a Brazilian research cooperation, that is, strategy, the environment (from social, information, cognitive and business), tool boxes, and tangible and intangible outputs, and concluded that for the model to be useful it should be collaboratively built among organization units instead of one from top‑down. Inter‑organizational and organizational learning has been recognized to be important for knowledge creation. Laursen, based on an empirical study of four organizational development projects at four Danish high schools revealdifferent perspectives on the projects set up by the staff and the management and how the perspectives have consequences on what is actually learned by individuals as well as the whole organization. As team learning and performance is closely related to the shared mental models of the team members, Zou and Lee explored the shared mental model of eight sigma project teams through collective sensemaking workshops conducted in an electronics factory in China. It was found that a high performance team perceived stronger interrelatedness between key teamwork concepts than average teams did. An area that has been less studied is the effect of age diversity on knowledge transfer in workplace, which roots from the retirement of baby boom generation in many mature organizations. Wang and Dong undertook a study on some basic questions in intergenerational knowledge transfer such as analysis framework and transfer mechanism from a sociological perspective.
Despite the diversity of topics they all tend to address on how KM performance is related to business goals, how the effectiveness is evaluated and how organizational learning takes place, one feature of all these papers is that they all have data to support their cases and cut across various countries and cultures. I hope this special issue serves as a timely and updated reference for the KM, IC and OL professions.
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A new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that nearly three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies used offshore tax havens in 2016.
The report says that four companies — Apple, Pfizer, Microsoft and General Electric — account for a quarter of the $2.6 trillion in accumulated profits held offshore for tax purposes.
"Tax reform should inject some common sense into our tax code, and it shouldn't balloon our deficit," Michelle Surka of the U.S. PIRG Education Fund said in a statement. "Closing tax haven loopholes would both eliminate some of the most ridiculous tax gaming and help balance our budget."
For more on Apple and how it might benefit from the GOP tax plan, see this analysis by Fortune's Shawn Tully.


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Denver7 News 5 PM | Sunday, October 25
Watch part 1 of Denver7 News 5 PM | Sunday, October 25
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If confirmed, Ret. US Army Gen. Lloyd Austin would be the first Black defense secretary for the United States.
A Canadian police officer stationed at the Vancouver airport who rejected a plan to arrest Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on the plane she arrived on two years ago, on Friday testified that at the time he told other police officers the best course was to allow border agents to interrogate Meng before arresting her. The testimony from Ross Lundie, a sergeant with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Vancouver International Airport detachment, came at the end of two weeks of witness cross-examination in Meng's U.S. extradition case. Meng, 48, was arrested on a U.S. warrant on charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's business dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break U.S. sanctions.
Alexei Navalny urged the EU to hit Russian oligarchs spending their fortunes in Europe with sanctions rather than targeting the officials responsible for his poisoning. The Kremlin critic narrowly escaped death after he was attacked with the nerve agent Novichok in August. He accused Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder. "The European Union should target the money and Russian oligarchs," Mr Navalny told the European Parliament in Brussels, "these sanctions would be very popular inside of Russia." Europe had to treat the oligarchs as "bunch of criminals temporarily in power" rather than be the playground of Mr Putin's allies, Mr Navalny said. He warned the Russian president would try to rig next year's elections. The opposition leader said the Kremlin would never take EU sanctions seriously as long as the yachts of Russia's super-rich were moored in European cities such as Barcelona and Monaco. "They just think that they are playing the European Union because they [the EU] are afraid of deploying real sanctions against real money," he said. The EU hit six senior Russian officials with sanctions in October after the chemical weapon attack on Mr Navalny, who is recovering in Germany after collapsing on a flight from the Siberian city of Tomsk. He spent three weeks in a medically induced coma. "Unfortunately I will not be the last one, who is poisoned, or killed or treated in this way," he said. Mr Navalny said the travel ban and asset freezes would make little difference to the "colonels" who carried out the attack. They rarely travel outside Russia and didn't have property or bank accounts in Europe, he said. Germany, which holds the rotating Presidency of the EU, hopes to get agreement on a "European Magnitsky Act" by the end of the year. It could enter into force in January. It would allow the EU to quickly impose sanctions on individuals suspected of human rights violations regardless of where the offence took place in the world.
French authorities have suspended police officers accused of assaulting and racially abusing a Black man in Paris, after CCTV footage of the incident was released and caused an outcry. The music producer, who has identified himself as Michel, was beaten at the entrance to his studio. French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted by France's BFM TV as being "very shocked" by the CCTV and mobile phone images, which were obtained by the LoopSider news outlet and made headline news on French channels. The officers involved were suspended pending investigation at the interior minister's request. Michel told reporters he'd been walking in the street without a face mask, against French COVID-19 rules. When he saw a police car he went into his studio to avoid getting a fine. But the police followed him inside and arrested him, violently. The video purports to show them kicking and beating him, and he says they hurled racial abuse at him too. They then leave, and throw a tear gas canister into the studio. As anger grew, French soccer stars added to the chorus of condemnation. Kylian Mbappe tweeted that the video was "intolerable" and his fellow Les Bleus striker, Antoine Griezmann wrote: "My France is hurting." The alleged attack on Michel risks inflaming racial tension, and fuelling criticism of a draft law that would limit journalists' ability to show images of French police officers at work. The prime minister's office said on Thursday (November 26) it would set up an independent commission to propose a new draft of the legislation. Some "BlackLivesMatter" protests broke out in Paris in June, a month after the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in the United States. The movement resonates in France, in particular in deprived city suburbs, where rights groups say accusations of police brutality, often against people with immigrant backgrounds, remain largely unaddressed. And Paris police were already under fire this week after social media photos and videos showed officers hitting protesters as they cleared out an illegal migrants campsite in a central Paris square.
Parts of India's southern coast were flooded Thursday after a cyclone slammed into its shores, triggering heavy rains, uprooting trees and cutting power lines. Cyclone Nivar made landfall in Puducherry, a federal territory near the southern state of Tamil Nadu, with winds of up to 130 kilometers (81 miles) per hour, according to the India Meteorological Department. In Chennai, a coastal city of about 10 million in Tamil Nadu, heavy rains flooded streets, knocked down trees and cut power for several hours.
Pair arguing about killing of top Iranian nuclear scientist
Dr. Joseph Varon, of Houston's United Memorial Medical Center, has worked 251 days in the COVID-19 ICU. He said the 'darkest days' are to come.
A recount in Wisconsin's largest county demanded by Republican President Donald Trump's election campaign ended Friday with Democratic President-elect Joe Biden gaining votes. After the recount in Milwaukee County, Biden had a net gain of 132 votes, out of nearly 460,000 cast. Overall, Biden gained 257 votes to Trump's 125.
One of the first challenges Joe Biden will face as president is how to deal with Vladimir Putin, leader of the country that Biden has labelled the biggest threat to the United States. In contrast to the impetuous and inconsistent Donald Trump, Putin is generally seen as a resolute leader, who unflaggingly pursues his country's foreign policy goals, however malign. But the cases of three Americans who are currently detained in Russia belie this image of Putin, portraying instead a leader who is dysfunctionally beholden to the interests of his security services and the corrupt clans who form his power base.The case of American investor Michael Calvey, which should be decided by a Moscow court within the next few weeks, offers a particularly striking example of how Putin has allowed a corrupted legal and financial system to undermine Russia's broader interests. Calvey, arrested along with five others in February 2019 on bogus fraud charges, founded the highly successful private equity firm Baring Vostok, which since 1994 has brought over $3.7 billion of capital into Russia. A fluent Russian-speaker with a Russian wife, Calvey always played by the rules, never criticizing Putin, and was highly respected in the Russian business community. As Leonid Bershidsky of Bloomberg News noted after the arrests: "Calvey became a legend in the Russian market, in part because of his reputed aversion to any kind of foul play and focus on industries and companies unlikely to attract the attention of Russia's authorities." Russian billionaire Leonid Boguslavsky said in an interview last week that Calvey had been his inspiration and teacher when he, Boguslavsky, was advancing his investment career in the 1990s.Americans Paul Whelan and Michael Calvey Are Not the Only 'Hostages' Held By The KremlinCalvey's downfall came as a result of a 2017 merger between Vostochny Bank, in which Baring Vostok had a majority stake, and a bank called Uniastrum, owned by an avaricious 44-year-old businessman named Artem Avetisyan, who is a Putin favorite. When Avetisyan and his partners attempted to exercise an option on 9.9 percent of Vostochny Bank's shares in 2018, Baring Vostok refused, because of evidence that assets worth billions of rubles had been withdrawn from Uniastrum Bank before the merger. Baring Vostok then filed claims of fraud against Avetisyan for 17.5 billion rubles (around $276 million) in the London International Arbitration Court.In apparent retaliation for the London lawsuit, Avetisyan's partner Sherzod Yusupov went to the FSB in February 2019 with a claim that Calvey and five associates from Baring Vostok had defrauded Vostochny Bank of 2.5 billion rubles ($38 million at the time). According to the claim, Calvey and his colleagues had repaid a bank loan for that amount with shares from a Luxembourg company called IFTG that were worth only 600,000 rubles. In fact the transaction was approved by all the bank's shareholders, including Avetisyan and Yusupov, and a September 2019 re-evaluation of the IFTG shares established their worth, with restrictions on them lifted, at more than 3 billion rubles. Significantly, officials from the Economic Security Department of the MVD (regular police) had earlier conducted an audit of the bank transactions that later formed the basis for the criminal case, but found no illegalities.After his arrest, which sent shockwaves throughout the Russian investment community, Calvey spent several weeks in Moscow's notorious Matrosskaya Tishina Prison (where Sergei Magnitsky died) before being transferred to house arrest in April 2019. Two months later, a Russian arbitration court in the Far Eastern region of Amur forced Baring Vostok to sell 10 percent of Vostochny Bank stock to Finvision, a holding company owned by Avetisyan, thus awarding him and his partner Yusupov control of the bank, which has continued to show significant losses.Calvey and his partners had come up against a powerful lobby. Avetisyan, a skilled self-promoter, heads the New Business Division of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, a Kremlin-sponsored project that puts him in regular contact with Putin, who chairs the agency's advisory board, where Avetisyan serves. Also on the board is Putin's top economic advisor, Andrei Belousov, who in June 2020 was appointed first deputy prime minister of Russia. Although he and Avetisyan are known to have a close friendship, Belousov denied reports that he was Avetisyan's go-between with Putin on the Calvey affair: "I have known Artem Avetisyan for a long time. He is my friend, we go to the mountains together…But over my long years of service, I have learned to separate personal and official relationships."Also useful for Avetisyan is his close acquaintance with Dmitry Patrushev, son of former FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev, head of Putin's National Security Council. Avetisyan served with Dmitry on the board of the Russian Agricultural Bank, which Dmitry ran prior to becoming Russian Minister of Agriculture in 2018. In addition to membership on the boards of several Russian companies, Avetisyan is a member of the FSB's Public Advisory Council, an exclusive body that presumably gives him direct access to FSB officials.As if Avetisyan's personal and business ties were not enough to promote his vendetta against Calvey and Baring Vostok, in June of this year, the media company bne Intellinews claimed to have obtained a tranche of letters that Avetisyan had sent to Putin, the FSB and the Russian Central Bank, in which he falsely accused Baring Vostok of a series of illegalities, including bribing a former chief of the Russian security services, Vadim Bakatin, a born-again Russian democrat who once served as adviser to the firm. Avetisyan did not respond to requests for comments about the letters.On Oct. 28, just after Deputy Prosecutor-General Viktor Grin approved the indictment against Calvey and his associates, Vostochny Bank and the defendants reached a settlement of their civil dispute. In exchange for a payment of 2.5 billion rubles by Baring Vostok, the bank agreed to drop the civil charges that give rise to the original criminal case. Presumably as a result of this settlement, the Supreme Court on Nov. 12, the date that the arrest orders expired, ordered the release (with some restrictions) of Calvey and the others from house arrest.Despite the hopes expressed by lawyers for Calvey, Russian legal experts doubt that the Calvey case, which is due to be heard sometime before Jan. 12, 2020, will end in an acquittal. "[Exonerating Mr. Calvey] would mean explaining to Putin the case was a mistake and nobody wants to do that," a source who was involved in the legal negotiations said earlier this fall.According to one prominent lawyer, "in Russia, procedurally agreeing to compensate for damage does not mean that the defendant has admitted guilt. But in practice, courts and investigators often perceive it this way." More likely is that the judge will consider the paid compensation as a mitigating factor and impose a more lenient sentence (the maximum being 10 years) so that with the time served, the defendants will be released.Barron's recently quoted a top Russia financial analyst on the Calvey case: "This has been one of the most damaging events in Russia's economic history and has directly led to foreign investment decisions in Russia being cancelled or suspended." Many members of the Russian business elite, including Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh and Anatoly Chubais, head of a state technology fund, have spoken out strongly in Calvey's defense. Billionaire Boguslavsky called the prosecution of Calvey and his partners "a case of blatant injustice and cruelty" that should be stopped immediately.In fact, what happened to Calvey happens to Russian businessmen on a regular basis. Just in October, Mikhail Khabarov, first deputy chairman of Trust Bank, was arrested for large-scale fraud following a complaint by a former partner. The phenomenon of "raiding" (reiderstvo)—whereby entrepreneurs are criminally charged and forced to relinquish their assets to other businessmen, with law-enforcement officers getting a cut—has become so widespread that Putin has even complained about it publicly. But he has done nothing to stop it.In contrast to Calvey, former U.S. Marines Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed face the possibility of years behind bars in Russia. Whelan, who was arrested by the FSB in his Moscow hotel room on espionage charges in December 2018, is an unlikely CIA spy. Not only was he dishonorably discharged from the Marines in 2008 for theft, he had for years openly pursued a close friendship with a Russian, Ilya Yatsenko, who worked for the FSB. (Last week, in his first interview since his arrest, Whelan insisted that his friend Yatsenko worked for the border guard, not the FSB. Whelan was apparently unaware that the Russian border guard has been an integral part of the FSB since 2003.) After accepting a thumb drive from Yatsenko that allegedly contained FSB secrets—Whelan thought it was holiday photographs—he was tried and sentenced to 16 years in a strict regime penal colony located 300 miles east of Moscow, in Mordovia, home of the former Stalinist gulag.Reed, 29, was arrested during a May 2019 visit to Moscow to see his Russian girlfriend. After Reed got uncontrollably drunk at a party, his friends called the police because they were worried about his safety. He was later accused, with no proof, of assaulting two police officers on the way to station. (It is unclear whether the police had handcuffed Reed or had a video camera in their car.) In July of this year, Reed was sentenced to nine years imprisonment—an extremely harsh sentence by any standards. The Moscow City Court is currently considering an appeal against the sentence that Reed filed in late October. Russia's aim in what appears to be blatant hostage-taking of these two Americans is apparently to get the U.S. to agree to a prisoner exchange for two Russians in U.S. prisons—the notorious arms trader Viktor Bout, currently serving a 25-year sentence for terrorism, and Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years behind bars for drug smuggling.In his recent interview with ABC from his prison camp, Whelan expressed optimism that he would soon be released as part of a swap, which his captors have suggested might happen. (This may be one reason why prison authorities allowed Whelan this unprecedented interview.) But although Trump has reportedly urged Putin to release Whelan and Reed, along with Calvey, there has been no progress. Whelan's Russian attorney, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said in October that no decisions would be made until after the U.S. elections, so clearly the Kremlin will be recalculating its position now that Biden has been elected president.Putin has pretended to remain above the fray. In a March 2020 interview with TASS, he said of the Calvey case: "We need to proceed from our country's legislation and the supremacy of Russian law… I cannot say if he is guilty or not until there is a well-founded [court decision]." But Putin is doubtless consulted before any key decisions are made. According to a top Putin aide, Calvey's French partner, Philippe Delpal, was transferred from prison to house arrest in August 2019 because of upcoming talks between Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron. And the release of Calvey and the other defendants from house arrests just days after U.S. presidential elections suggest that Putin might have been extending an olive branch to Biden.Russian Media Is Angry and Desperate Over Biden WinA source familiar with the Calvey case told me that "having Trump tweet or ask Putin for a favor would not be helpful." But Biden, who has criticized Trump for not speaking out about the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, has a more clear-eyed view of Putin. With Antony Blinken, a known advocate of a tough stance against Russia, as his secretary of state, Biden will be in a strong position to negotiate successfully with the Kremlin over the detained Americans. (Russia's Kommersant reported Tuesday that foreign policy experts in Moscow have been sending each other the link to Blinken's 2017 interview with PBS, in which he accused Putin of establishing a kleptocracy.)As former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said last April, it would set a dangerous precedent if Washington would agree to exchange either Bout or Yaroshenko for Whelan or Reed: "There's a real asymmetry swapping an innocent American for a real convicted criminal who just happens to have Russian citizenship." And such an exchange might encourage the FSB to engage in further entrapments of innocent foreigners in Russia.But the Biden administration would have other strategies available to address the three cases, including threatening the Kremlin with harsher economic sanctions. Although sanctions against Russia are often criticized for being ineffective, they have been a powerful tool when used in coordination with European allies. Also, in addition to Russian officials who are directly responsible for the Kremlin's misdeeds, sanctions could target, with travel bans and asset freezing, more of those wealthy Russian businessmen who gain financially from Putin's corrupt system. Calvey's enemy Avetisyan might be first on the list. In a 2011 interview, Avetisyan said he could not imagine living abroad because he had a strong "Russian mentality." But that has not stopped him from acquiring over 20 million Euros worth of luxury properties in Tuscany, along with an Italian residence permit.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Men plead innocence following arrest in 2017 as State Department demands release
White rice contains less fiber, protein, and other key nutrients compared to brown rice. As a result, white rice has fewer health benefits.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden, the closest he has come to conceding the Nov. 3 election, even as he repeated unfounded claims of massive voter fraud. Speaking to reporters on the Thanksgiving holiday, Republican Trump said if Democrat Biden - who is due to be sworn in on Jan. 20 - is formally declared the winner by the Electoral College, he will depart the White House.
Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation Friday into the search of a Turkish commercial freighter by the crew of a German frigate participating in a European Union mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya. Turkey has protested the incident on the Mediterranean Sea, insisting personnel from the German frigate Hamburg illegally searched the Libya-bound freighter Rosaline-A on Nov. 22.. Germany has rejected Turkey's complaints, arguing the frigate's crew acted correctly.
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -Former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said on Friday that he had been "unjustly" detained at the Central American nation's Toncontin international airport for carrying $18,000 in cash, which he said was not his. Zelaya, who led Honduras from 2006 to 2009 and was an ally of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, was deposed by the military in a June 2009 coup as he was preparing to hold a referendum on presidential re-election, which his opponents said was a ploy to stay in power.
Donald Trump admitted it was a "very hard thing to concede" electoral defeat but committed to leaving the White House if the Electoral College votes for Joe Biden, the Democrat president-elect as he attended a Thanksgiving event on Thursday. "It's going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud," Mr Trump said, refusing to say whether he would attend Mr Biden's inauguration in January. In the nearest he has come to a concession, Mr Trump said he would leave the White House if Mr Biden is certified the election winner by the Electoral College - the process by which presidents are elected - on December 14. However, Mr Trump appeared to suggest he still held hopes of retaining the presidency. Asked about his plans for his last Thanksgiving in the White House, the president told reporters that the occasion might be the "first one of a second term". The president added there were "a lot of things happening between now and January 20th [inauguration day]" and the election results have a "long way" to go. "I know one thing Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes," he said. "The only way he got 80 million votes is through massive fraud." During his annual Thanksgiving call with US troops overseas, Mr Trump also claimed the US will begin delivering Covid-19 vaccines "next week and the week after" as he insisted the country had "rounded the curve" on the pandemic. "We are rounding the curve [on the virus]. The vaccines are being delivered - literally it will start next week and the week after," he said during his address. Mr Trump suggested that medical workers, other frontline staff and elderly people would be the first to receive the vaccinations. It is unclear which vaccine Mr Trump was referencing, or whether he was referring to a specific federal government policy for a vaccine distribution. Two US companies, Moderna and Pfizer, have so far announced that their vaccines are effective at protecting people against coronavirus. Earlier this week US government officials said the administration planned to distribute around 6.4 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine to Americans as soon as the jab received emergency approval from the federal government, expected to be around mid-December. Officials say that by the end of the year they expect to have enough doses of vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna to vaccinate around 20 million people. However, it is likely to be April before the vaccines are distributed to the wider American public. In his address on Thursday, Mr Trump praised the speed with which a vaccination had been created, saying "two companies already announced [successful vaccines]" adding that several others were "coming up soon". "Some people have called it a medical miracle," the president said adding that the hunt for a vaccination "could have taken four or five years".
Tony Hsieh, the retired CEO of Las Vegas-based online shoe retailer Zappos.com who spent years working to transform the city's downtown area, has died. Hsieh was with family when he died Friday, according to a statement from DTP Companies, which he founded. Downtown Partnership spokesperson Megan Fazio said Hsieh passed away in Connecticut, KLAS-TV reported.
'This defendant terrorised an entire family by threatening to kill African American parents and their four children'
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and President Donald Trump late Friday appealed a federal judge's ruling suspending service changes and requiring aggressive steps to ensure ballot deliveries ahead of the November presidential election, the Justice Department said. The government said it was appealing U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's preliminary injunction orders issued in late September in a pair of legal challenges.
Donald Trump Jr. tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Although he is asymptomatic, the CDC recommends sick people like him isolate for 10 days.
At least three Indian soldiers were killed in a barrage of mortar shelling and gunfire by Pakistani soldiers along the highly militarized frontier in Indian-controlled Kashmir, an official said Friday. Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. Devender Anand said two soldiers were killed on Friday when Pakistani soldiers conducted an "unprovoked" violation of a 2003 cease-fire accord between the nuclear-armed countries in southern Rajouri district. An Indian army officer was killed in Pakistani shelling in neighboring Poonch district late Thursday, Anand said.