The Latino Landscape: A Metro Chicago Guide and Nonprofit Directory

Provides an overview of the demographics and history of the diverse groups within the Chicago area's Latino/Hispanic community, with profiles of each group, and a directory of nonprofits led by or serving Latinos/Hispanics, including program areas

Caribbean Electronic Commerce: An Exploration of Costa Rica and Venezuela

Electronic commerce can help integrate economies of developing countries into global economic flows. What is the state of ecommerce in the Latin countries of the Caribbean rim that are physically close to one of the largest markets in the world? In order to answer this question, a preliminary study of Web-based storefronts in Costa Rica and Venezuela was conducted. It was found that the storefronts rank well on a number of usability dimensions, while lacking some important characteristics such transactional capabilities. These findings could be used for estimating electronic commerce developments both in the region and in comparative terms

Searching for Non-English Web Content: An Empirical Study of the Spanish Business Intelligence Portal

As non-English-speaking online populations grow rapidly, there are increasing needs to support searching for non-English Web content. Prior research has assumed English to be the primary language for Web searching, but this is not the case for many non-English-speaking regions. For example, Latin America will have the fastest growing population in the coming decades but existing Spanish search engines lack search, browse, and analysis capabilities. In this paper, we have proposed a language-independent approach to supporting non-English Web searching. Based on the approach, we have developed the Spanish Business Intelligence Portal (SBizPort) to support searching, browsing, summarization, categorization, and visualization of Web information. Results from an empirical study involving Spanish subjects show that the portal achieved significantly better user ratings on information quality, cross-regional search capability, and overall satisfaction than the benchmark search portal. This study thus contributes to human-computer interaction research on non-English Web searching

Bridging the Gap: Training Needs Assessment of the Immigrant Workforce in Onondaga County, NY

[Excerpt] This report addresses one small facet of the skills dilemma facing Onondaga County; that is, can the growing immigrant/refugee population in Syracuse satisfy local employers’ demand for labor? With support from a grant provided by the Economic Development Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce) University Center at Cornell University, members of the ILR School’s Extension faculty interviewed employers,immigrants and other English-as-a-secondlanguage (ESL) workforce newcomers, service providers, labor unions, and government planners during the winter of 2007 to assess the training needs of the county’s immigrant and ESL workforce. Our research was facilitated and aided by the Onondaga County Office of Economic Development

THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGES ON THE ONLINE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

This paper deals with an analysis of the English language, as lingua franca of the Internet, mainly online business environment. If a business has already developed a Web site, it is important to translate the site into the target language of a particular foreign market. It sounds easy, but is a literal translation all that's required for a different culture? We shall see in the next parts of this paper. Indeed, nowadays, the whole humanity has at its disposal an exceptional, very powerful medium. The new communications technology is causing a revolution in many aspects of our lives, and its future effects are still unforeseeable English is an integral part of business communication, job opportunities and globalization. Cultural translation goes beyond mere linguistic translation, since it involves designing a Web site that is sensitive to the cultural differences, between the originated country and the target country. If you ask any search marketer what the main issue is when trying to optimize website(s) for Europe he will tell you: language.English, languages, Internet, global, business transaction, culture, e-commerce, localization

Investigating Capabilities Associated with ICT Access and Use in Latino Micro-enterprises

While the process by which Information Technology enables growth in medium and large enterprises has been wellresearched, the corresponding processes in micro-enterprises are poorly understood. In fact, such micro-enterprises lie at the heart of many economies. This insight is important as information technology enables businesses to connect with each other through knowledge networking to carry out their basic business operations. There is thus a need to build our understanding of how micro-enterprises access and use technology in order to be able to assess the benefits they derive from ICT adoption. Following an analysis of two case studies of Latino micro-enterprises using Sen’s capabilities model, this paper uncovers the ways in which Latino micro-enterprises adopt information technology to grow their businesses in terms of their means, ends and freedoms. The contribution of this paper is to what we know about how Latino micro-enterprises adopt technology. This adds to our body of knowledge on challenges facing Latino micro-enterprises in the U.S. (an important subgroup within the under-researched area of micro-enterprises) and how such businesses may adopt ICT to benefit and grow their businesses. This has implications for global development in enabling adoption by microenterprises to be investigated, and in enabling techniques to be developed and deployed to improve the ability of micro-enterprises to adopt ICT to grow their businesses in ethnically cohesive communities

“Introduction: Oceanic Archives, Indigenous Epistempologies, and Transpacific American Studies”

Excerpt from Oceanic Archives, Indigenous Epistempologies, and Transpacific American Studies, edited by Yuan Shu, Otto Heim, and Kendall Johnso

Information systems offshore outsourcing: a descriptive analysis

Purpose - The present paper has as its aim to deepen in the study of Information Systems Offshore Outsourcing, proposing three essential steps to make this decision: weighing up the advantages and risks of Offshore Outsourcing; analysing the taxonomy of this phenomenon; and determining its current geography. Design/Methodology/Approach - With that objective in mind, it was decided to base the research work on the literature about this topic and the review of reports and statistics coming from different sources (consultants, the press, public institutions, etc.). Findings - Offshore Outsourcing has grown vertiginously in recent years. Its advantages exceed even those of onshore outsourcing, though it also involves greater risks derived from the (cultural and physical) distance existing between customer and provider. Various types of services and customer-provider relationships hide under the umbrella of Offshore Outsourcing; i.e. it is not a homogeneous phenomenon. The main Offshore Outsourcing customers can be found in the USA and Europe, mainly in the UK but also in other countries such as Germany and France. As for provider firms, most of them are located in Asia −outstandingly in India but also in China and Russia. At present, there are important providers scattered in other continents as well. Originality/Value - The conclusions suggest that the range of potential Offshore Outsourcing destinations must be widened and that the search for a provider cannot be based exclusively on cost savings; other considerations such as quality, security and proximity of the provider must also be taken into consideration. That is precisely the reason why the study of new countries like Spain as Offshore Outsourcing destinations is proposed