For Mozilla and Google, Group Hugs Get Tricky

Noah Berger for The New York Times

Published: July 25, 2009
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.

Software engineers at Mozilla's headquarters in Silicon Valley. A huge success story in open-sources software, Mozilla must now try to stay relevant in a world of many browser alternatives.

Noah Berger for The New York Times

John Lily, left, and Mitchell Baker of Mozilla. Its Firefox browser now faces competition from three giant companies. BOXES lined the cubicles and hallways in the offices of Mozilla on a recent afternoon, and its chief executive, John Lilly, seemed a bit disoriented as he looked for a place to sit. Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser, had just moved from one end of this city to the other, mainly to gain more space for its growing work force. Yet it was hard not to read symbolism into the move. Mozilla’s old offices were next door to Google’s sprawling headquarters. For several years, Google has been Mozilla’s biggest ally and patron. But in September, it also became Mozilla’s competitor when it unveiled its own Web browser, Chrome. So it seemed only natural for Mozilla to move out from under Google’s shadow. “We’ve learned how to compete with Microsoft and Apple,” says Mr. Lilly, a soft-spoken, earnest 38-year-old. “Google is a giant, of course, and competing with them means we are competing with another giant, which is a little tiring.” Those big companies weren’t giving much thought to browsers when Firefox was released in 2004, and neither were most ordinary Web users. A browser was just a window onto the Web, and people used whatever was already installed on a computer. Usually that meant Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.Since then, Firefox has captured nearly a quarter of the browser market by focusing on speed, security and innovation. Its success is all the more remarkable because it was built and marketed by a far-flung community of programmers, testers and fans — mostly volunteers — coordinated by a nonprofit foundation. It is a shining example of the potential of open-source software, which anyone can modify and improve, and its ascent is one of Silicon Valley’s most unusual success stories. In short, Mozilla showed the world that browsers matter. Now the challenge is to keep proving that Mozilla matters.The rise of Firefox unleashed a new wave of innovation and competition among browser makers. Microsoft and Apple, which makes the Safari browser, have narrowed the gap with recent upgrades. That makes it less likely that people will take the trouble to seek out and install Firefox.

At the same time, the Web has been migrating from PCs to powerful mobile phones like the iPhone. Firefox won’t have a mobile version ready until later this year. And then there is Google. After introducing Chrome, a lightning-fast browser designed to run increasingly complex Web applications, Google upped the ante. This month it said it would put Chrome at the center of a new operating system — the software that handles the most basic functions of a PC. “Google, Apple and Microsoft can all throw a lot of resources toward improving their browsers. Mozilla, not so much,” says Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. “When it was them against Microsoft, it wasn’t such a big problem. Now that there are other alternatives, it becomes harder for them to retain relevance.”

DESPITE Mozilla’s mighty and increasingly competitive rivals, the spread of Firefox has continued unabated. Nearly 300 million people around the world use it, making Firefox not only the most successful open-source consumer product, but also one of the most successful software programs ever. To a large extent, that success sprang from a disparate community that coalesced around Firefox and was harnessed by Mitchell Baker, Mr. Lilly’s predecessor. Ms. Baker, whom Mr. Lilly calls the “conscience” of Mozilla, remains its chairwoman and is actively involved in managing it.

Ms. Baker, 52, seems to embody Mozilla’s anticorporate ethos. Unlike the clean-cut Mr. Lilly, Ms. Baker has a decidedly counterculture look. Her hair, dyed a reddish color, is closely cropped on one side only, and she is prone to wearing sandals with hiking socks. She organized a recent meeting of nonprofit groups at Mozilla that ended with what she called a “psychic group hug” — not a literal embrace, but a chance for everyone there to describe in one word how they were feeling. For Mozilla and its millions of fans, Firefox is not just cool software but also a cause: to ensure that no company, whether Microsoft, Google or anyone else, can tilt the Web to its advantage by tweaking its browser to favor its products or applications. Microsoft appeared ready to use that tactic after its browser vanquished Netscape’s.

Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: July 25, 2009

A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.

Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a “cockroach” stage of machine intelligence.

While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” they said there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.

The researchers — leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California — generally discounted the possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either already here or will be soon.

They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals could exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were developed. What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smart phones?

The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service robots in the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by Willow Garage in Silicon Valley proved it could navigate the real world.

A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb. 25, is to be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the meeting for the first time with other scientists this month and in interviews.

The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In 1975, the world’s leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.

The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.

Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.

The idea of an “intelligence explosion” in which smart machines would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the “human era will be ended.” He called this shift the Singularity.

This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation.

“Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Dr. Horvitz said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”

The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured imaginations in Silicon Valley. This summer an organization called the Singularity University began offering courses to prepare a “cadre” to shape the advances and help society cope with the ramifications.

“My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort of statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati and people very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines,” Dr. Horvitz said.

The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of “the loss of human control of computer-based intelligences.” It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?

Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a high-security laboratory.

The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.

“If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.,” he said, referring to genetically modified foods, “then it is very difficult. It’s too complex, and people talk right past each other.”

Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his thinking. “I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions,” he said. But, he added, “The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our personal lives.”

Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, “Oh no, sorry to hear that.”

A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion. “That’s a great idea,” Dr. Horvitz said he was told. “I have no time for that.”

Ken Conley/Willow Garage

MICE Management

MICE Definition:
M = Meetings A meeting is arranged by individuals or an organisation.

I = Incentive Travel A trip arranged by a company for an employee or individual as a reward for his or her satisfactory performance. As such it is a managerial motivational tool.

C = Conventions / Conferences A meeting of people in the same profession to exchange information. The term used is dependant on the country however the countries use the terms fluidly and are not confined to the use of one term only. Congress is used in USA, Convention in Asia and Conference in Europe and the Pacific. Generally the terms “Congress” and “Convention” indicate larger and more complex arrangements and numbers of participants than “Conference”.

E = (1) Exhibition / (2) Event (1) A show of goods and / or services for sale to target groups and interested persons and open to the public. There are two types of exhibitions: (2) An occasion where like minded people gather to participate in their combined interest. Often has an international involvement and often repeated annually, or within a 4 year time span. Generally large numbers are involved however a new event may commence with small numbers, growing as it’s popularity and reputation increase.

Questions:
1- why is MICE closely related to the tourism industry ?
2- What have been observed as the shortcomings in the meeting industry today ?
3- Why MICE visitors are considered to be "quality visitors" ?
4- What is PCO ?
5- What is DMO? What can a DMO provide as services for meeting planners and visitors ?
6- What should be a planner's concern for an outdoor event ?

Answers:

1- MICE closely related to the tourism industry because, it is a significant market segment for tourism and hosopitality industry in many destinations worldwide. And also part of the business tourism, more stable with arrangement booked well in advance. MICE foreign visitors spend higher than general visitors 3-4 times on average. MICE also help to promote the tourist attraction within the country, especaily create more jobs for the local people, and also revenue to the accomodation industry like hotel, restaurant, resort, spa and also help to inhance the destinations.

2- The shortcomings in the meeting industry today such as
* Limited market intelligence, lack of reliable statistics and regular research to provide a base of intelligence and information on trends and on the size and value of the industry.
* Non-standardized terminology, lake of an accepted and properly defined terminology such as business tourism (in Europe), business event (in Australia). "MEEC", "MICE" , "MC&IT". Also, Convention, Conference, Congress, and Meeting. And an on-line initiative : APEX by CIC to make further progress in standardizing and providing a common source for industry definitions.
* Underdeveloped educational framework : Formal training and educational courses are needed. For many of these working in the industry, it is a 2nd or 3rd career. They have come into conference work from other disciplines, e.g. hotel & catering, travel, sales & marketing, public administration.


3- MICE visitor are considered as a "qality visitors". Because, rely on similar infrastructure and support service. There are six major segments such as Lodging, F&B, Transportation, Attractions, Entertainment, and Shopping.


4- PCO is a Profesional Convention/Congress Organizer. is a focused and dedicated group of experienced managers who will deliver the best possible forum of international standards anywhere in the world, with emphasis on quality sales, marketing, and management.


5- DMO is a Destination Marketing Organizations, is a not-for-profit organization supported by government budget allocations private memberships, transient room taxes (in USA) or a combination of these three primary responsibility :
- To encourage groups to hold meetings. convensions and trade shows in the city or area if represents.
- To assist those groups with their meetings and meeting preparations.
- To encourge tourists to visit and enjoy the historic, cultural, and recreational oppornities and destination offers.

*The DMO can do for the meeting planners such as :
+ To encourage group to hold meetings in the city and assists groups with meeting preparations.
+ To provide promotional meterials to encourage attendance and establish room blocks.


6- The planner should concern about : the weather, the space, security, and the number of the participant for the outdoor events.

Global efforts to mitigate

By William Yeatman

July 16, 2009

Global efforts to mitigate

climate change are resulting in the most ineffectual diplomacy since U.S.

Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand tried to end all war with international law-eleven years before Hitler launched World War II.

The fecklessness of climate diplomacy was on full display last week at the Group of Eight summit of industrialized countries in Italy, where the international community simultaneously vowed to limit global warming and disavowed the necessary action to do so.

During the summit, U.S. President Barack Obama convened a Major Economies Meeting of 17 countries responsible for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Together, these countries agreed that they "ought" to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown labeled this "historic" and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called it an "important step." A more apt description of the temperature target is "impossible." Here's why.

As a recent study in the scientific journal Nature notes, global greenhouse gas emissions must fall more than 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 in order to have a 75 percent chance of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius. According to research compiled by the United States Climate Change Science Program (now the Global Change Research Program), a clearinghouse for global warming science conducted by federal agencies, reducing global emissions by 50 percent below 2000 levels by 2050 would require developing countries to reduce per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 62 percent below business as usual, even if developed countries somehow cut greenhouse gases by 100 percent.

Yet the G8 pledged to reduce emissions "only" 80 percent-from an undefined baseline-by 2050. And before the ink was dry on the summit's climate communiqué, Russian and Canadian officials publically questioned the feasibility of the 80 percent emissions cuts for their countries. Developing countries rejected any limits altogether, refusing to commit to expensive emissions cuts that could jeopardize their number-one priority: poverty reduction.

Clearly, the emissions calculus to reach the 2 degree Celsius target doesn't add up. There are three possible scenarios to bridge this gap between rhetoric and reality.

The first is for everyone to quit. Developing countries have a sovereign right not to act on climate change, and their rapidly growing economies will account for the preponderance of future growth in global emissions, which gives developed countries little reason to limit emissions themselves. As Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told The New York Times, it makes little sense for the G8 to commit to stringent emissions reductions if "five billion people continue to behave as they have always behaved."

The second scenario is for developed countries to pay trillions of dollars to finance a green energy revolution in developing countries. But this is politically unthinkable: Can anyone sanely imagine the U.S. Congress appropriating hundreds of billions of dollars for China, an economic competitor?The final possibility is for developed countries to compel developing countries to reduce emissions by taxing the carbon content of their exports. Countries like China depend on export-driven economic growth, so a carbon tariff would surely get their attention, but in a very bad way-retaliation in kind would be almost assured. That would launch a global trade tariff war of the sort that exacerbated the Great Depression. That is the last thing the ailing global economy needs.Of all three prospects, the smart money is on global inaction. "Doing something" about global warming doesn't come cheap-the International Energy Agency estimates it would cost $45 trillion to halve emissions by 2050-and there is no precedent for international burden sharing of this magnitude for anything short of a world war. Thus, history implies that a global response to global warming is impossible. Current climate diplomacy certainly suggests as much.That's not a cause for despair. There is ample evidence that the benefits of economic growth unhindered by costly emissions controls surpass the deleterious effects of global warming. According to World Bank estimates, nearly 2 billion people in developing countries rely on dung, wood and charcoal to heat their homes and cook their food. For the impoverished, a coal-fired power plant giving them access to affordable energy would be a blessing. We can afford to let the climate be.

William Yeatman is an energy policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.Sources: Click Here

UN Youth Delegates

Thailand, Tanawat Phaovibul & Roazita Ma

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished delegates, my fellow youth delegates, ladies and gentlemen, as this is the second year that Thailand has sent its youth delegates, we feel proud. We feel proud that our country has taken the initiative to promote the development of youth, and we are honoured of having the opportunity to voice the ideas on behalf of the Thai youths today. My colleague and I would like to share with you our thoughts and visions on the subjects of education and youth development, as Member States are striving towards “Education for All” Policy during this UN Literacy Decade. We are happy to see that our Government has created the Fifth National Youth Plan and the Long-Term Strategy (2002-2011) in accordance with the UN framework on “A World Fit for Children”. The Plan covers many important areas such as the role of family and the impact from HIV/AIDS on children. Progress is also being made on the right to education in Thailand and is notable that the number of children starting primary school has increased sharply since 2000, there are more girls in school than ever before and spending on education has risen. Thailand also contributes this matter by providing a 12-years free compulsory education for all and has achieved an MDG goal in eliminating gender inequality at both primary and secondary education level. Even displaced and stateless children are being provided with greater access to education and skills to empower them and give them a chance to lead better lives. All this progress helps us to move closer to fulfilling the goals of Education for All by 2015. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that not only full access to education must be achieved, but the quality of the education system in developing countries must be improved as well. This includes the need to move away from rote learning and towards the teaching style that can stimulate our creativity and stem our fears from being innovative. Research must be translated into Development. In addition, I believe that environment protection and the effects of global warming should be integrated into core curriculum subjects. Recognising the importance of soil, water, forest and human developments, His Majesty the King of Thailand has bestowed the “Sufficiency Economy” concept that has placed emphasis on self-reliance, moderation, teamwork and the appropriate use of knowledge and technology. This philosophy is being embraced by the Thai youths, and it is very timely as we are facing with the issue of scarce natural resources, which could possibly lead to international conflicts in the future. As it promotes non-exploitation, the philosophy is very much in line with the promotion of human rights. Moreover, the major concern that has emerged in recent years is rising consumerism among Thai youths. Therefore, the philosophy is taken up in schools across the country, where students have organized plastic recycling projects, and tree plantations. I believe that my generation must learn more on how to conserve finite resources especially in recycling during this era of food and energy crises. To this, thanks to UNESCO, a schools action pack on the ozone is being launched so that students can learn the damage to the ozone layer and how we can find practical solutions. It is also pleasing to see that the theme of this year’s International Youth Day is “Youth and Climate Change”. Global warming caused by human activity hampers poverty eradication efforts and make the MDGs more difficult to achieve. Therefore, at the juncture of the mid-term review of the MDGs, we encourage Member States to do everything to “Protect the Earth for Children” as laid down in the “World Fit For Children” outcome document in 2002. Mr. Chairman, We are pleased to see that Member States have embraced the principles of the best interests of the child, non-discrimination and the right of the child to participate and be listened to. I would like to tell you that Royal Thai Government has included representatives of the National Youth Council in Thailand to be the Member of the National Committee on the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). This is so that the report has taken account the real needs and the real issues that the children encountered. I encourage other Member States to consider including representative of the children community, in addition to NGOs, in the production of the CRC reports. The Royal Thai Government attaches importance to all Thai youths even though we are a country that comprises various multi-religious groups. Interfaith youth camps, notably the recent ASEM Interfaith Youth Camp has been organized by the Royal Thai Government in order so that youths holding different faiths from different nations can befriend and empathize with each other. Moreover, the right to practice local culture and the right to manage local resources is accorded to all people of Thailand, in line with the Durban Programme of Action which urges states to guarantee the rights of all persons belonging to different faiths and religions. I believe if youths from different cultures and religious backgrounds are treated with respect and non-discrimination, tolerance and understanding will at the end be achieved. As the next generation of workers, parents and leaders, we represent the future. Our decisions at this stage in life can have large impact on economic development and poverty reduction since we determine how national human capital is deployed. Youths in the world today are facing a host of unprecedented opportunities and risks. Member States must establish stronger institutional arrangements for youths to develop policies that respond effectively to the country’s youth challenges, expanding opportunities and building the capabilities of its young people while discouraging negative risk-taking behaviours that may prevent them from reaching their full potential. Thank you.

http://www.voanews.com

Solar Eclipse Starts in Asia

By VOA News 21 July 2009
Solar eclipse in China, 22 Jul 2009Millions of people across Asia are witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime event - the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century.The eclipse was first seen in parts of India and China as dawn broke.Astronomers say the sun will be completely obscured by the moon for about six minutes and 39 seconds at the peak of the eclipse.People are using special solar viewing glasses and gathering in wide open spaces to view the historic event. An eclipse is an astronomical phenomenon when the moon passes between the sun and Earth. It is not a rare event, but experts say the Earth will not experience an eclipse this long again until 2132.The eclipse will pass over India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Burma, China, Japan, Indonesia and the Marshall Islands

What is Social Marketing?

by Nedra Kline Weinreich

The health communications field has been rapidly changing over the past two decades. It has evolved from a one-dimensional reliance on public service announcements to a more sophisticated approach which draws from successful techniques used by commercial marketers, termed "social marketing." Rather than dictating the way that information is to be conveyed from the top-down, public health professionals are learning to listen to the needs and desires of the target audience themselves, and building the program from there. This focus on the "consumer" involves in-depth research and constant re-evaluation of every aspect of the program. In fact, research and evaluation together form the very cornerstone of the social marketing process.
Social marketing was "born" as a discipline in the 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to "sell" ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler and Andreasen define social marketing as "differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society." This technique has been used extensively in international health programs, especially for contraceptives and oral rehydration therapy (ORT), and is being used with more frequency in the United States for such diverse topics as drug abuse, heart disease and organ donation.
Like commercial marketing, the primary focus is on the consumer--on learning what people want and need rather than trying to persuade them to buy what we happen to be producing. Marketing talks to the consumer, not about the product. The planning process takes this consumer focus into account by addressing the elements of the "marketing mix." This refers to decisions about 1) the conception of a Product, 2) Price, 3) distribution (Place), and 4) Promotion. These are often called the "Four Ps" of marketing. Social marketing also adds a few more "P's." At the end is an example of the marketing mix.
Product
The social marketing "product" is not necessarily a physical offering. A continuum of products exists, ranging from tangible, physical products (e.g., condoms), to services (e.g., medical exams), practices (e.g., breastfeeding, ORT or eating a heart-healthy diet) and finally, more intangible ideas (e.g., environmental protection). In order to have a viable product, people must first perceive that they have a genuine problem, and that the product offering is a good solution for that problem. The role of research here is to discover the consumers' perceptions of the problem and the product, and to determine how important they feel it is to take action against the problem.
Price
"Price" refers to what the consumer must do in order to obtain the social marketing product. This cost may be monetary, or it may instead require the consumer to give up intangibles, such as time or effort, or to risk embarrassment and disapproval. If the costs outweigh the benefits for an individual, the perceived value of the offering will be low and it will be unlikely to be adopted. However, if the benefits are perceived as greater than their costs, chances of trial and adoption of the product is much greater.
In setting the price, particularly for a physical product, such as contraceptives, there are many issues to consider. If the product is priced too low, or provided free of charge, the consumer may perceive it as being low in quality. On the other hand, if the price is too high, some will not be able to afford it. Social marketers must balance these considerations, and often end up charging at least a nominal fee to increase perceptions of quality and to confer a sense of "dignity" to the transaction. These perceptions of costs and benefits can be determined through research, and used in positioning the product.
Place
"Place" describes the way that the product reaches the consumer. For a tangible product, this refers to the distribution system--including the warehouse, trucks, sales force, retail outlets where it is sold, or places where it is given out for free. For an intangible product, place is less clear-cut, but refers to decisions about the channels through which consumers are reached with information or training. This may include doctors' offices, shopping malls, mass media vehicles or in-home demonstrations. Another element of place is deciding how to ensure accessibility of the offering and quality of the service delivery. By determining the activities and habits of the target audience, as well as their experience and satisfaction with the existing delivery system, researchers can pinpoint the most ideal means of distribution for the offering.
Promotion
Finally, the last "P" is promotion. Because of its visibility, this element is often mistakenly thought of as comprising the whole of social marketing. However, as can be seen by the previous discussion, it is only one piece. Promotion consists of the integrated use of advertising, public relations, promotions, media advocacy, personal selling and entertainment vehicles. The focus is on creating and sustaining demand for the product. Public service announcements or paid ads are one way, but there are other methods such as coupons, media events, editorials, "Tupperware"-style parties or in-store displays. Research is crucial to determine the most effective and efficient vehicles to reach the target audience and increase demand. The primary research findings themselves can also be used to gain publicity for the program at media events and in news stories.
Additional Social Marketing "P's"
Publics--Social marketers often have many different audiences that their program has to address in order to be successful. "Publics" refers to both the external and internal groups involved in the program. External publics include the target audience, secondary audiences, policymakers, and gatekeepers, while the internal publics are those who are involved in some way with either approval or implementation of the program.
Partnership--Social and health issues are often so complex that one agency can't make a dent by itself. You need to team up with other organizations in the community to really be effective. You need to figure out which organizations have similar goals to yours--not necessarily the same goals--and identify ways you can work together.
Policy--Social marketing programs can do well in motivating individual behavior change, but that is difficult to sustain unless the environment they're in supports that change for the long run. Often, policy change is needed, and media advocacy programs can be an effective complement to a social marketing program.
Purse Strings--Most organizations that develop social marketing programs operate through funds provided by sources such as foundations, governmental grants or donations. This adds another dimension to the strategy development-namely, where will you get the money to create your program?Example of a Marketing Mix Strategy
As an example, the marketing mix strategy for a breast cancer screening campaign for older women might include the following elements:
The product could be any of these three behaviors: getting an annual mammogram, seeing a physician each year for a breast exam and performing monthly breast self-exams.
The price of engaging in these behaviors includes the monetary costs of the mammogram and exam, potential discomfort and/or embarrassment, time and even the possibility of actually finding a lump.
The place that these medical and educational services are offered might be a mobile van, local hospitals, clinics and worksites, depending upon the needs of the target audience.
Promotion could be done through public service announcements, billboards, mass mailings, media events and community outreach.
The "publics" you might need to address include your target audience (let's say low-income women age 40 to 65), the people who influence their decisions like their husbands or physicians, policymakers, public service directors at local radio stations, as well as your board of directors and office staff.
Partnerships could be cultivated with local or national women's groups, corporate sponsors, medical organizations, service clubs or media outlets.
The policy aspects of the campaign might focus on increasing access to mammograms through lower costs, requiring insurance and Medicaid coverage of mammograms or increasing federal funding for breast cancer research.
The purse strings, or where the funding will come from, may be governmental grants, such as from the National Cancer Institute or the local health department, foundation grants or an organization like the American Cancer Society.
Each element of the marketing mix should be taken into consideration as the program is developed, for they are the core of the marketing effort. Research is used to elucidate and shape the final product, price, place, promotion and related decisions.

1.1 Hofstede's five Cultural Dimensions

1 National cultures
1.1 Hofstede's five Cultural Dimensions
A series of perspectives that we might use to achieve a different insight into business was introduced by Morgan (1986) in his book entitledImages of an Organization. One of these was the business as a culture, a type of micro-society where people work and ‘live’ together on a daily basis, with certain rules and understandings about what is acceptable and what is not. The idea of a business having a culture was developed from the work of Hofstede on national cultures (1980). His research focused on ways of measuring national culture and how these ‘measures’ might work differently in different contexts. The cultural values that are important in a national culture, he suggested, could be reflected in the way businesses within that country are operated and organised.
Hofstede's five dimensions (he developed four in 1980, then added a fifth in 1991) were:
Power distance This concerns the extent to which less powerful members of organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. National cultures that demonstrated what Hofstede called a ‘low power distance’ are ones in which there is a concern to minimise inequalities. Hofstede included Sweden and New Zealand as examples of this. In general, Hofstede found that Latin American and Latin European (France and Spain) countries had higher power distance scores. The less powerful in these societies tend to look to those with power to make decisions, and inequalities within society are more acceptable. This is represented by a tendency for the centralisation of power and the subordination of those with less power within businesses.
Individualism/collectivism In an individualistic society, people are expected to look after themselves and their families. In the case of business this is reflected in, for example, employment contracts based on hiring and firing. Two examples of countries with high scores on this dimension were Australia and Canada. In more collective societies, people are more concerned for others and the culture is based around more cohesive groups, such as the family, which offer protection in exchange for loyalty. This tendency is reflected in businesses as well as elsewhere in society. Hofstede cited Ecuador and Indonesia as examples of more collective societies.
Masculinity/femininity This refers to the degree to which gender roles are distinct and adhered to within a society. In high femininity societies, social gender roles overlap, with both men and women valuing ‘feminine’ qualities such as modesty, intuition and quality of life above the more traditionally ‘masculine’ qualities of aggression and competition. Hofstede's research suggested that Denmark and the Netherlands were more feminine cultures, while many other Western countries exhibited more masculine values. The USA was ranked fifteenth out of 53 nations on this masculinity score. Japan, the UK and West Germany also scored highly on masculine values.
Uncertainty avoidance This concerns the extent to which the members of a society feel threatened by uncertain and unknown situations. Hofstede suggested that Jamaica and Singapore were relatively low uncertainty avoidance cultures, where precision and punctuality are less important, innovation is encouraged and people are motivated by being esteemed by, or belonging to, others above other things. High uncertainty avoidance scores mean that there is a fear of ambiguous situations, a preference for being busy and being precise and punctual. Relatively high scores on this dimension were found for Latin American and Latin European countries, Japan and South Korea.
Confucian/dynamism This refers to the extent to which long-termism or short-termism appears to be the dominant approach. Long-termism stresses perseverance and being sparing with resources. Short-termism, in Hofstede's analysis, involves a greater emphasis on quick results. Hofstede found that the USA tended towards short-termism, while the Netherlands was the most long-termist European nation, ranked tenth out of 23 countries surveyed.
These differences between national cultures are based in deep-rooted values and so are largely implicit rather than openly acknowledged. They create all sorts of problems for employees in multinational companies who go to work abroad, or for representatives doing business with suppliers or customers in other countries. We can use the simple activity below to explore some of these differences.