Ernest Renan (1823-1892) was a French philosopher, historian, and scholar of religion. He is best known for his work on nationalism and the relationship between language, culture, and identity. The language of technology– and the catalog of codes, standards, guidelines, recommended practices and government regulations rest upon a common understanding of how things can and should work separately. The essay is widely cited:
In our domain we routinely see technical agreement and disagreement among stakeholders resolved, or left unresolved because of definitions — even when discussion is conducted in English. We keep the topic of language (Tamil (மொழி) — since it is one of the most widely spoken languages on earth) on our aperiodic Language colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Paris and came from a prominent lineage, with his father serving as a royalist prefect under the Bourbon restoration.
In 1831, at the age of twenty-five, Alexis de Tocqueville made his fateful journey to America, where he observed the thrilling reality of a functioning democracy. From that moment onward, the French aristocrat would dedicate his life as a writer and politician to ending despotism in his country and bringing it into a new age.
Quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America”:
“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
“Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
“In democratic ages, human beings rarely sacrifice themselves for one another voluntarily; they almost always do so because they are impelled to by some power outside themselves.”
“Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed and founder of order.”
“The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.”
“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”
“The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.”
“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.”
“The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.”
“Americans combine the notions of Christian morality and of liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.”
“In the United States, the most enlightened are the most religious; and the most religious are the most enlightened.”
Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations… Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.”
We do not advocate in this standard but we track it along with about 20 of the 21,000 ISO standards. We mention it now because in tracking live public consultation notices we see opportunities that may interest other parts of the education industry — notably academic units and business schools; as well as the many technology transfer units in many research universities charged with generating licensing revenue. The landing page for the US TAG is linked below:
You are encouraged to communicate directly with Dr. Brett Trusko, President and CEO, International Association of Innovation Professionals, 4422 Castlewood Street, Suite 200, Sugar Land, TX 77479; phone: 925.858.0905; e-mail: brett@iaoip.org. We also refer this standard to the standing agenda of our Global and Human Resource teleconferences. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [17-303]
Category: Academics, International
Contact: Mike Anthony (mike@standardsmichigan.com), Christine Fischer (chrisfis@umich.edu)
Recent communication from International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP) indicates that it continues to welcome participation from the US education industry. There are many academic programs and faculty devoted to international studies and innovation that could offer students a front-row seat for the development of international technology policy.
We are happy to explain the opportunity to faculty and staff any day during our daily 11 AM online meetings. You may also communicate directly with Dr. Brett Trusko, President and CEO, International Association of Innovation Professionals, 4422 Castlewood Street, Suite 200, Sugar Land, TX 77479; phone: 925.858.0905; e-mail: brett@iaoip.org
The education industry — notably the academic segment of the higher education industry — is notably absent in US leadership positions in international standards. We have been in this space as a user interest for a long time (See ABOUT) and the shortage of education industry engagement (especially the user-interest) has not gone is unnoticed or written about.* While the majority of the 1800-odd colleges and universities have academic programs that claim leadership in international and/or innovation studies, only Georgia Tech and the University of Texas Medical Branch are US TAG administrators for the American National Standards Institute; the US member body to the Geneva Secretariats.
Université de Genève
Comments are due May 14th. To obtain a copy of the TAG application or to offer comments, please contact: Dr. Brett Trusko, President and CEO, International Association of Innovation Professionals, 4422 Castlewood Street, Suite 200, Sugar Land, TX 77479; phone: 925.858.0905; e-mail: brett@iaoip.org by May 14, 2018 (please copy jthompso@ansi.org).
Issue: [17-303]
Category: Academics, International
Contact: Mike Anthony (mike@standardsmichigan.com), Christine Fischer (chrisfis@umich.edu)
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has been informed that the American Society for Quality (ASQ), the current ANSI-accredited U.S. Technical Advisory Group Administrator (U.S. TAG) for the work of Technical Committee 279 of the International Organization for Standardization wishes to relinquish their role as U.S. TAG Administrator. The global Secretariat for TC 279 is the AFNOR Group — the national standardization body for France. The participating nations are shown in the map below:
(Click on Image for more information)
ISO/TC 279 operates under the following scope: Standardization of terminology tools and methods and interactions between relevant parties to enable innovation. From its Executive Summary:
“Yes we can innovate through standardisation. Standardization does not mean cloning. Standards on innovation management will allow organisations to share their best practices in innovation management. This will facilitate collaboration and also develop the capability to innovate and to bring innovations successfully to market. Today we face new challenges never met before by mankind: guaranteeing the sustainability of our activities in keeping our Earth habitable. Sustainable development (economic, ecologic, social sustainability) cannot be considered as ‘nice to have’, it is essential. It has to be viewed as a source of innovations, economic development and competiveness. It impacts innovation management and has to be taken into account at an early stage. Innovation is a key to global competitiveness and human or technological progress over the coming decades. Management Standards on innovation will break down the existing cultural, structural or organisational obstacles among/between organisations. These standards will provide best practices to support implementation of innovation policies as well in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as in worldwide groups including public institutions, universities, research centres or non-profit organisations. (Note in ISO, SME can mean Subject Matter Expert)
To achieve this goal the work will focus on a management system for innovation. To define this management system, experts will address: terminology, tools and methods such as but not limited to open innovation, design innovation, strategic intelligence, creativity management and also self-assessment of innovation management. Expectations for these standards are so high that there is no time to reinvent the wheel. TC 279 has to benefit from the previous work, including existing innovation literature, existing innovation standards, case studies, academic works, reports…) Summoning up the innovation community is a key factor. To make more and more stakeholders aware of this initiative communications action (communication kits, presence on social networks, press releases, events…) needs a special care.”
Organizations interested in serving as the U.S. TAG Administrator or participating on a U.S. TAG should contact ANSI’s ISO Team (isot@ansi.org)
Issue: [17-303]
Category: Academics, International
Contact: Mike Anthony (mike@standardsmichigan.com), Christine Fischer (chrisfis@umich.edu)
At the 1853 New York World’s Fair Elisha Otis amazed a crowd when he ordered the only rope holding the platform on which he was standing cut by an axeman. The platform fell only a few inches before coming to a halt; thus proving the safety locking mechanism he had invented will work. These elevators quickly became the type in most common usage and made vertical living possible.
Most large research universities have 100 – 1000 elevators that are highly regulated, maintained by highly regulated service personnel and inspected by highly trained conformance operatives; thus our primary interest in state-specific regulations. We have a secondary interest in innovation in the technology generally. Many sustainability goals urged in academic circles — which include greater population density in smaller areas — are challenged by mobility issues.
From the project prospectus:
“…The main feature of these products is that they are an integral part of industrial, residential or public buildings. Consequently, they should be adaptable to the technical and architectural constraints of such buildings. They must also meet the capacity requirements imposed by the intended use of the building. These products are considered as means of transport and therefore represent an essential component of the functional life of the buildings in which they are installed. Contrary to most public means of transport, they are intended for free use and operation by their passengers, which makes the integration of safety an essential concern…”
We maintain the work products of this committee on the standing agendas of our Mechanical, Elevator and Global colloquia; open to everyone. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting.
Michigan Stadium — the largest collegiate stadium in the world — has 19 elevators.
Université de Toulouse, Laplace, UMR 5213 (CNRS, INPT, UPS), 118 rte de Narbonne, Toulouse, France
Abstract: With the advent of Solid State Lighting came a renewed interest in the study of flicker. Potential effects include brightness enhancement, but also discomfort, ocular fatigue, phantom and stroboscopic effects. Both IEEE and IEC developed new metrics, but at the time of writing no firm consensus has been reached. Yet previous lamp studies in the Laplace laboratory showed that various flicker phenomenon are present on different lamps, but this feature is not documented. This paper focus on flicker changes w.r.t. applied voltage. The Indonesian power grid network is indeed characterized by large voltage variations; our purpose is to detect which lamps may exhibit too elevated flicker levels during out of nominal excursion and map such behavior with other electrical characteristics.
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New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
