The Use of Social Media by UK Local Resilience Forums

The potential uses of social media in the field of emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR) are varied and interesting. The UK government have produced guidance documents for its use in the UK EPRR field but evidence of use is poorly documented and appears sporadic. This paper presents the results of a survey of Local Resilience Forums (LRF) in the UK on their use and engagement with social media. The findings suggest that the level of application of social media strategies as emergency planning or response tools varied significantly between the LRFs. While over 90percent of respondents claimed that their LRF used social media as part of their strategy, most of this use was reactive or passive, rather than proactive and systematic. The various strategies employed seem to be linked most strongly to local expertise and the existence of social media ‘champions’ rather than to the directives and guidance emerging from government

PEDESTRIANISATION IN PLYMOUTH: THE EFFECT ON CAR USERS' ACCESSIBILITY TO AND WITHIN THE TRAFFIC FREE ZONE

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/1905 on 28.02.2017 by CS (TIS)When pedestrianisation was introduced in Plymouth, in February 1987,, there were two important physical changes to the city centre; environment changes and accessibility changes. Environmentally, the city centre was improved aesthetically and also in terms of safety for pedestrians,, less congestion, and ease of movement within the traffic free zone. The process of pedestrianisation initially reduced the accessibility of the city centre, particularly for car users, because the scheme removed nearly all the on-street parking meters together with two small short stay car parks. This caused a temporary reduction in car parking facilities, and the replacement facilities, completed in late 1988, were located at longer walking distances from the shops. Car users' access to the car parks and from the car parks to the shops was therefore changed. Previous experience in other cities has shown that accessibility to newly pedestrianised areas is of paramount importance and in Plymouth this was particularly evident when car users' accessibility problem became the most controversial aspect of the scheme. Conventional methods of appraising the success or otherwise of pedestrianisation schemes have tended to concentrate on commercial indicators such as trade turnover or on the acceptance of the scheme measured by studying peoples'attitudes and opinions. This research develops a conceptual and operational model that looks predominantly at the behaviour of the city centre users and which focuses on the particular problem experienced in the city, namely the changes in accessibility for the car user. The methodology examines the car users' travel, parking and shopping behaviour at three stages of the city centre's development; before pedestrianisation was introduced, during it s construction and after it s completion. The research was therefore able to discover how people adapted their behaviour in response to the changes in the city. The research found that many car users adopted a more leisurely approach to visiting the city centre, reflecting it s new image of a recreational as well as a retail shopping centre. Attitudes towards pedestrianisation also changed significantly during the survey period, and were found to be strongly related to respondents' experiences and perceptions of the parking facilities

WAAA! The conception and rapid development of a wearable for good technology

Worldwide, 1 million babies die on the day they are born and one-third of all births take place without the assistance of a skilled healthcare worker (UNICEF 2018 We Care Solar 2014. “Annual Report 2014.” Accessed 28 February 2018. https://wecaresolar.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2014-annual-report_we-care-solar.pdf [Google Scholar] ). This case study describes the conception and development of a Wearable, Anytime, Anywhere, APGAR (WAAA!) designed to address neonatal mortality. WAAA! was originally conceived as a part of a 6 h academic innovation challenge. The event brought together impromptu teams with the brief to develop an innovation that would address maternal and/or infant wellbeing. The WAAA! team synthesized their disciplinary expertise in design, business, engineering, computer gaming and public health to conceive a soft patch surveillance system that specifically monitored APGAR signs. The WAAA! team became a finalist in UNICEF’s Wearables for Good challenge. A 2-week development and mentoring programme in conjunction with Philips, IDEO, ARM and Apple advanced the raw idea into a comprehensive system, service and product solution consisting of APGAR education materials, a gateway communication unit and two-part wearable

Barriers to rural women entrepreneurs in Oman

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the barriers confronted by rural women entrepreneurs in Oman. The study focusses on women living in rural and mountain areas who aspire to move beyond their traditional family roles. It identifies several problems including accessing funding for new ventures and innovative activities, a lack of skills-based training and limited family support. Design/methodology/approach: Based on 57 responses to a semi-structured questionnaire, and face to face qualitative interviews with ten women entrepreneurs. Quantitative responses are evaluated and ranked in terms of their mean score, standard deviation and the intensity of each factor shaping rural women entrepreneurship. Five qualitative cases are presented. Findings: Although Oman is arguably one of the more progressive Arab countries regarding gender equality and women empowerment, the findings exhibit socio-cultural concerns which hamper women entrepreneurial venture creations and their subsequent success. The findings of the research are discussed using the three dimensions of entrepreneurship identified by Wenneker and Thurik (1999). The three dimensions are: conditions leading to entrepreneurship, characteristics of entrepreneurship and outcomes of entrepreneurship. Practical implications: Suggests that Omani policymakers should consider how women entrepreneurs can be better supported so that they can diversify household income by starting new ventures while simultaneously contributing to the socio-economic development of the region. A number of suggestions on how this can be achieved are presented. Originality/value: Research on rural women entrepreneurship in the context of an Arab country is scarce and the study can provide an overview of the obstacles and the support required for the development of the rural women entrepreneurship in this region

Housing Conditions in Palestinian Refugee Camps, Jordan

This paper evaluates the quality of housing in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan. More than two million registered refugees live in Jordan, most of whom living in thirteen refugee camps established in the late 1960s following the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1967. Many of these camps are characterized by poor living conditions and associated health, social and environmental problems. However, there is scant empirical evidence regarding the quality of the housing in these camps. This paper addresses this gap by reporting on the findings of a questionnaire survey of 382 household units in Baqa’a Camp, the largest of the camps. The quantitative survey was triangulated by a series of extensive fieldwork visits to the area. Findings reveal that the housing in the camp is generally substandard. Poor structure and maintenance are key problems and this paper identifies and discusses various challenges, political and practical, that stand in the way of housing improvements. The paper concludes by suggesting that new models of ownership and responsibility need to be forged between the stakeholders in order to break the current stalemate of inaction

The Arabic Culture of Jordan and its impacts on a wider Jordanian adoption of business continuity management

Culture is important to individuals and societies, as well as organisations. Failing to address cultural aspects will hinder the wider adoption and development of business continuity management (BCM) and will subsequently increase the vulnerabilities of organisations to crises, disasters and business interruptions. Three main issues are discussed in this paper. The first is the background to culture and the characteristics of the Jordanian culture. Secondly, the influence of the Arab culture on the wider adoption and development of BCM in Jordan is considered. Thirdly, the paper looks at potential factors that underpin the role of culture in the BCM process in Jordan. These issues are significant, as they represent the characteristics and influence of the Arab culture. This paper contributes to the understanding of the significance of culture in the adoption and development of BCM for organisations operating in Jordan and in the Arab world more generally. It also highlights current cultural changes and trends taking place in the Arab world in a time of huge political instability in the Middle East and Arab countries

Cross-benchmarking international competitiveness and performance in human language technologies

Competitive success as a nation requires balancing commercial innovativeness and social welfare, which results in a sound basis for socio-economic development. All potential resources – including entrepreneurial activity and innovations – can be utilized as promoters of competitiveness and welfare. Thus, useful lessons for general national competitiveness can be learned from benchmarking individual innovations and perhaps even more so, from those less glamorized technologies such as human language technologies (HLT). Finnish researchers are considered to be at the leading edge of developments in a number of ICT fields. The main responsibility for the utilization of knowledge is seen, necessarily, to rest with the public sector, while the legislative framework is considered to favour entrepreneurship and innovation. Aims to discuss the issues. Design/methodology/approach – National competitiveness and HLT benchmarking pose a number of interesting questions and issues both macro and micro levels. For example: the extent to which benchmark performance in HLT is consistent with national competitiveness; link between robustness of research effort in any particular language community and effectiveness of technology transfer to market; and fostering and funding of entrepreneurial activity in HLT in the successful (benchmarked) countries and the fit with national vision and innovation policy. For the first two areas, relationships between HLT benchmark and comparative national competitiveness of top countries are examined through comparison of their respective primitive dimensions. Data sources include official and quasi-official public documents. The final stage is explored using a case study approach and comparative assessment against extant entrepreneurship literature. Findings – There appears to be no direct link between robustness of the HLT research effort in any particular language community and actual effectiveness of technology transfer to market. None the less, success in the Finnish HLT benchmark appears to correlate with the country's international competitiveness standing and “social innovation policy” paradigm. Its knowledge society model has clearly resulted in a sound basis for its socio-economic development, where all potential resources – including its entrepreneurial base – and innovations, can be utilized as promoters of competitiveness and welfare. Within this entrepreneurial base, HLT SMEs tend to seek scale economies through internationalise at the early stages of development. Originality/value – The paper shows that Finland is well placed to meet the challenges and to capitalise on the economic and social opportunities, given its strength in ICT/HLT innovation policy country's open self-criticism of the latte

Car club development: the role of local champions

This paper considers the importance of local champions for the successful initiation and development of car clubs. The parallels between car club champions and other environmental champions are explored and the roles such individuals have within companies and communities are investigated. The paper highlights how important it is for car club champions to be embedded within the community so that their role as ‘agents of change’ can be maximised. In order to achieve such change champions need to be able to tap into social capital and use and develop social networks within their community. Champions also need to be sensitive to the heterogeneous nature of many communities and should be ready to adjust their message according to their audience. This paper also considers the impact champions have on the characteristics of resulting car clubs and looks at their continuing role once a car club has been established. The policy implications of our findings are then explored