Journey by Dmitri Dawkins

Slash Roots 2012: Developing The Caribbean

// January 23rd, 2012 // No Comments » // Technology

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World Bank Open Data evangelist, Dr Tariq Khokhar will deliver the keynote address at the Opening Plenary of the Mona School of Business-hosted SlashRoots-Caribbean Open Data Conference, which is being presented under the theme, “Developing the Caribbean.” Describing his interests as being “where technology, transparency, poverty
and data meet”, Dr. Khokhar will speak on the topic: “Open Data: The New Revolution”. The Conference which takes place January 26-27, in the Faculty of Law building at the Mona campus, opens on the first day of the University of the West Indies’ “Research Day.”

As a co-organizer I invite you to attend the conference for the keynote address and more. Please see below:

Agenda for Jamaica: http://developingcaribbean.org/jamaica-agenda/

Event Registration: http://developingthecaribbean.eventbrite.com/

Talent or Hard Work?

// November 30th, 2011 // No Comments » // Life

Recently I got an email with this article and comments. I thought it would be interesting to share and get the views of others:

I read this interesting study on whether talent or hard work counts for the most in achieving success. of course, hard work won out over talent. Here are some excerpts:

People of great accomplishment tend to be highly intelligent. Yet, the view that creative geniuses accomplish more on account of their inherent ability does not stand up. When intellectually gifted children were followed up in middle age, their creative achievements were astonishingly small according to a celebrated study by Lewis Terman. High intelligence may be necessary for creative accomplishment but it is clearly not sufficient. Achievement in most creative fields calls for a lot of work and effort. Mastery requires many years of single-minded pursuit. Music and performance arts are something of an exception where child stars emerge much more quickly thanks, presumably, to specialized talents with which they may indeed be born given that musical ability runs in families. For most other endeavors, achievement is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

The concept of genius is nothing but comforting fiction. For it helps explain why most of us do not achieve at the highest level in our chosen field: we are not geniuses. The trouble is that there is little compelling evidence in psychology for any such latent superiority. The concept of the genius may be comforting to the rest of us. Yet, it remains a fiction. 

But the following excerpts on IQ and financial success were also very interesting:

An interesting article by the economist Garett Jones of George Mason University on “National IQ and National Productivity,” essentially shows that a nation’s intelligence level is associated with a number of important economic outcomes. (Me: hence what is happening in Ja. with our educational abyss within the general population.) In the article, Jones stresses that “policymakers should include measures of national average IQ when reporting a nation’s level of human development” as at present no nation appears to do so. He also points out that one way of raising a nation’s IQ level is to allow smarter immigrants into the country. (Me: This is not a new concept, for years company’s have sought the brightest employees that they can get to increase their growth and profitability. Look at Apple. Or even IBM, worldwide as here in Ja., which has kept IBM relevant.)

Now psychologists Heiner Rindermann of Chemnitz University of Technology and James Thompson of University College London have published a paper in the journal Psychological Science on the concept of “Cognitive Capitalism: The Effect of Cognitive Ability on Wealth, as Mediated Through Scientific Achievement and Economic Freedom.” The authors examined cognitive ability datasets from over 90 countries to show that average IQ is essentially the decisive factor of human capital and that it is really the top 5% of a country’s population – or the smart fraction - that largely impacts a nation’s wealth. The authors write that “Cognitive ability influences wealth through its effects on high achievement …” (Me: that is high achievers are generally smarter people. As the first paragraph says: People of great accomplishment tend to be highly intelligent.)

Dr. Rindermann told me that because the modern cognitive demands of work and everyday life are growing, essentially “wealth has become cognitive wealth,” and in particular “high ability wealth” or the smart fraction of the population is what matters.  It is the absolute ability level of this fraction of the population that makes the difference (to a country’s wealth).

The article then goes on to speak of China — with a larger ‘smart fraction’ of people — as compared to the USA and the inevitable outcome.

Do you agree?

12 Dozen places to educate yourself online

// November 10th, 2011 // No Comments » // Cool Stuff, Life

Just a quick post sharing a link my friend @skreech2 sent me recently.

http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/11/15/12-dozen-places-to-self-educate-yourself-online/

It features 12 dozen places to educate yourself online. Personally I am a fine of MIT’s Open Courseware, but the link lists several other sources covering:

• Science and health
• Business and money
• History and world culture
• Law
• Computer science and engineering
• Mathematics
• English and communication
• Foreign and sign languages
• Plus More

Hope you enjoy!

A Campaign Like No Other – Developing Jamaica through Social Media

// October 10th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Social Media Marketing, Technology, Vision 2030 Campaign

Recently I blogged about a recent discussion about Information Communication and Technology development in Jamaica. I found the discussion so remarkable, that there were so many people who were passionate about the cause. The fact is, just talking about it doesn’t help we need greater awareness and action. The more people who know about the plan, the more people discuss it creating a ripple effect for the cause across society. The aim is to create awareness via social media, have it spread to standard social interactions and media to create change. Once the campaign reaches the decision makers: politicans, business leaders, voters, customers, people can demand and expect change. If people don’t know the possibilities or plans in place how can they be executed? This is way bigger than the government, this is about the way society operates. Society needs to adjust their views to the economy, environment, government, ICT use, media etc. The only reason why people settle for the current state of Jamaica, is because they think they cannot change it. One can change it, when we all work together!

Vision 2030 Campaign

The first stage is to create awareness. This is a call to all the bloggers, twitter users, Facebook users. Share the Vision 2030 campaign online and talk about it with your friends, family and coworkers in person. There is no need to re-invent the wheel, many of your suggestions are already outlined in the National Development Plan prepared by the Planning Institute of Jamaica. You can view the development plan at the following locations:

On this blog: http://dmitridawkins.com/2010/10/jamaicas-vision-2030-national-development-plan/

On Scribd : http://www.scribd.com/doc/39056939/Vision-2030-Jamaica-NDP-Full

On Jamaica’s Vision 2030 website: http://www.vision2030.gov.jm/NationalDevelopmentPlan/tabid/73/Default.aspx

Ask your online social community to at least read the outline, send links to it as an email to all of your address book. The aim is that people can make decisions in accordance with the 2030 plan. This is not just a government venture, as individuals we all need to promote the development of our country. Share the link once a week, or even just once a month. It will help.

Corporate and Organisation Support

Every business and organisation has a core and followers. We need to spread the Vision 2030 plan to all involved, not just creating awareness but also making decisions according to it’s contents. Let employees and members know that they are responsible for executing the plan, that they each need to be a leader of change.

Greater Social Responsibility

As leaders of change for our nation, we need to hold companies and the government responsible for not following the plan. If a company’s business practices are not in line with the plan then support a competitor who is. If a government office or official is making decisions contrary to the plan then petition them, “loud it up”, or don’t re-elect them based on their policies. The only person in control is you.

Remember this is a people driven change, it starts with you, read the relevant sections to you and decide how you can make changes in your home and office. For this to work it has to be an effort from all involved.

I will write another post about this soon, please subscribe to my blog or just keep checking this category : http://dmitridawkins.com/category/making-jamaica-a-developed-country-by-2030/ for information related to the campaign.

This is a call to action for YOU to make a difference.

Thank you,

Dmitri Dawkins and future generations.

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Brands, People and Social Media

// September 27th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Technology

More and more brands are jumping on to Social Media. Overall this has been received very well in Jamaica and the rest of the world. The idea of a brand using Social Media is to be interactive with customers, get better feedback and to be real time As brands log on to the web I think they should also help promote the medium they are using for their new campaigns.

In a developing country like Jamaica or other Caribbean Countries, it is essential to also promote social networks in order to increase the user base. After-all the more people using these social media networks is the larger your user-base to interact with. As more brands come on board the ratio of brands to people will become distorted, making the opt-in nature of social media feel more like advertising. The point of social media is to interact with friends to share content. Brands are supposed to follow this trend by providing content for fans to interact with. By advertising social media more people will sign up, enhancing the networking aspect of social media. The more people use social media is the greater the opportunity for brands to interact with customers, whether existing or prospective.

I think brands should develop programs to help increase internet and social media use in Jamaica, thereby increasing literacy and reducing the barrier of computer illiteracy. A person may not be willing to take a computer class, but by using Facebook or Twitter more often they can develop typing and communication skills. Other benefits of increased internet usage are more exposure to world culture, new technology, business opportunities, better English skills and more. I don’t see any negative factors compared to the current trend of education in the majority of Jamaican schools. Exposure is key, let’s get more people exposed in order to help boost business, the economy and education.

How can a brand help? Sponsor wifi for a rural community, computers at a local school, computer literacy classes at community centers, help to get more internet kiosks around the island. Brands can also help sponsor free internet access at local restaurants and cafe’s, as well as giving away old internet capable PC’s from the office to staff or members of the public. Additionally we can lobby the Government to make IT mandatory in high schools. This is not an overnight project, it will take years to develop. However the return on investment will be huge, never before has technology been so influential, people will only use it more as time progresses. Let’s not leave Jamaica and the Caribbean behind, let’s get ahead of the curve. Act now.

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