5 years, 12 months ago-
Here we are! Ready to start the selection of Pavia University attendees to SVST, August 2018.
The conference program you have to attend in Pavia University will be ready from March 2018, second Semester, coordinated by Prof Roberta Rabellotti
Hello Guys!!
I’m Stefania and I’m a student of Innovation Management at the University of Trento, and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa.
I did the tour in August and was one of the most exciting experiences of my life! I can’t wait to share with you my experience and to give you some tips and tricks about San Francisco and the Silicon Valley!But now it’s your time.. let’s start!
Here we have an article about diversity.. but there are also other topics that you can use to tell us something interesting! Like education, internet access and also what the Government do to foster the job demand..
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/silicon-valleys-top-firms-are-embracing-diversity
Read it and share with us your ideas! But don’t forget to introduce yourself!
I hope to hear something from you!
hello to you all !
I’m Luca I’m a student of political science in Pavia and last year I graduated in business administration at the University of Molise.
I read the article and I found the topic very current and interesting; the thing that struck me most was that change, besides starting from local politics, starts above all from private companies that in some way try to eradicate prejudices through work.
We are in the twenty-first century but apparently the inequality is closer than we can imagine; Silicon Valley is focusing on technology to reduce discrimination against women and disadvantaged people (a very nice Facebook initiative that focuses on the diversity of workers, in order to create a real social network within the company same); but the active companies as we read from the article are fortunately many.
Even some cities like New York, New Orleans and Austin are focusing on technology and on the internet in particular, as it has now become an essential and indispensable factor allowing considerably to reduce distances.
Another problem arises – ‘’ but graduation rates are not moving fast enough to keep up with economic demand in the united states’’- how can we develop technology if we do not have people available and qualified to do so? A brief solution was given by the bootcamps, but obviously they have a cost that not everyone can afford, maybe with the help of scholarships some less fortunate people can look at the world of work and change their social status, effectively reducing their inequality.
I think there are many alternatives to improve these conditions, but how can we really solve the problem?
I believe that a univocal solution is impossible, we must try to combine more factors or more ideas so that we can arrive at a correct and far-sighted solution.
I do not want to bore you too much, I found Plato’s sentence very interesting and I want to share it with you …” Every problem has three solutions: my solution, your solution and the right solution. ”
I wish you a good day,
Luca
Hi everyone!
I’m Arianna, I graduated in “Comunication, Innovation and Multimedia” in February 2018 (yep, not so long ago!) and I’m currently enrolled at the first year of the master’s degree in “Economy, Politics and International Institutions” in Pavia.
I love to travel and try new experiences, thanks to an european project called “Progetto Leonardo” in 2011 I had the great opportunity to live in Wales for a month, improve my english and live outside my country for a while, that experience was so formative that it gave me the strength to move in London in 2012 right after my Hig school diploma. In 2014, I decided to come back and start my university career in Pavia and here I am now!
Regarding the article, @lucadonatone already pointed out that inequality is closer than we can even imagine, I totally agree with him and really apreciated the #YesWeCode initiative, it’s social commitment in the tech sector really makes it possible to include people from underrapresented backgrounds to succed!
All the examples were great: HP, Google and Salesforce did amazing steps forward inclusion and diversity, but the thig I enjoyed the most while reading the article is the Maxine Williams’s statement: “If we don’t get it right, we risk losing relevance in an incredibly diverse world.” That, in my opinion, really shows a big change in the way people (and companies) think about diversity and inclusion, not just as a “social” matter but more as a “general matter” that affect the economic and also the qualitative level of any company.The New York City goal to fight Digital divide is great! The access to the IT should be guaranteed to every citizen in order to improve the “everyday life”, starting from the possibility to easily communicate with others and to reach information trough the internet.
Regarding the economic problem of the bootcamp I still find myself in agreement with Luca: “the help of scholarships some less fortunate people can look at the world of work and change their social status, effectively reducing their inequality.” Scholarships could be a very good example of help for those who cannot affort the cost of the bootcamp, especially if offered by well established companies in the tech sector.
For anyone who is interested in learning a bit more about the #YesWeCode initiative, here’s the link to the official website, which I found very interesting!
Have a nice week end!!
Goodmorning everyone,
I’m traveling this morning to reach my parents during this Easter break.
Thanks Arianna for the suggestion, in fact during the trip I’m browsing on the site indicated by you; I wanted to tell you that I am very happy that many thoughts are shared and that the point of view is very similar.
Taking advantage of the time available I saw that the YESWECODE initiative is not the only one; the company that manages this initiative is also involved in other projects such as # CUT50, #GREENFORALL and #LOVEARMY; they are all social initiatives that seek to reduce poverty and discrimination in any sector and way.
I would like to focus on the first, # CUT50, this seeks to increase the displacement of prisons and to provide ex-prisoners with a better and more ambitious future.
Normally all the people who have committed crimes, and then afterwards ended up in jail, have a stain on them that they will wear on for the whole duration of their life; this is almost always due to the prejudice we have against these people, without knowing their stories.
Not everyone is bad, we have to consider especially why that person was in that situation. Can we judge a person just because he stole food to feed? I do not believe; we can not compare an apple thief to a murderer.
Once you step inside a prison, your dress is stained , this stain most likely will not allow you to integrate into society, will not allow you to find a job because your criminal record is marked.I want to give an example, a person stoled because he did not have a job and he committed the crime to support his family; once out of jail, not finding a job, what do you think he will do? he will steal again out of necessity!
Integrating these people and making them participate is the only way to fight crime; we must not give him the opportunity to fall into temptation.
here’s the link to the official website,
I wish you a good sunday.
@lucadonatone Thanks for starting the discussion! I have spended some time looking for more informations about the prison system of the US and I think that # CUT50 is a very ambitious initiative, especially in America, where the number of prisoners is the highest in the world (2.4 million people) representing 5% of the world population and 25% of the American population!
According to an article by The Economist: “America locks up too many people for too many things. The number of federal laws has risen from 3,000 in the early 1980s to over 4,450 by 2008. Many of these have poor intent requirements, meaning people are being locked up not to keep the rest of society safe, but for technical violations of laws they they may not have known existed.” Taking as an example the case of 71 thousand underage detainees of which 11 thousand only for technical violations of the terms of conditional release and not for new crimes. Especially for young people those problems with the prison system can deeply affect the entire life of an individual: “Incarcerated children are less likely to graduate high-school and more likely to spend time in prison as adults. If America is interested in reducing its prison population, locking up fewer juveniles for silly reasons would be a good place to start.”
In addition, according to the Pew center there is a huge gap between white and black people in prison: “in 2016, blacks represented 12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison population. Whites accounted for 64% of adults but 30% of prisoners. And while Hispanics represented 16% of the adult population, they accounted for 23% of inmates.”
Here the articles if you want to take a look!!
> https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/03/americas-prison-population
In my opinion, an adeguate education systems, with special attention to the quality of education and inclusion, especially in disadvantaged areas – for example those with high rates of residents in jail – could, with the aim of creating more opportunities and therefore different alternatives to crime do much for those people and might save them by offering different choiches. Providing training and rehabilitation programs (for example art workshops, education and training programs) to ensure social reintegration of prisoners once they are released from prison could be a great example of what I mean.
Given the high incarceration numbers for minor offenses, I think it is also necessary to make important changes to the American prison system, which # Cut50 is trying to do, their program is admirable, their legislative campaigns (#JusticeReformNOW, #California and #FeesAndFine) are a great example of what people can do to help others and make a change.
I have found an interesting article from La Repubblica about the point of view of the economist Peter Temin concerning the inequality that afflicts the US society focusing on the educational system.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Have a nice day!
@lucadonatone Thanks for starting the discussion! I have spended some time looking for more informations about the prison system of the US and I think that # CUT50 is a very ambitious initiative, especially in America, where the number of prisoners is the highest in the world (2.4 million people) representing 5% of the world population and 25% of the American population!
According to an article by The Economist: “America locks up too many people for too many things. The number of federal laws has risen from 3,000 in the early 1980s to over 4,450 by 2008. Many of these have poor intent requirements, meaning people are being locked up not to keep the rest of society safe, but for technical violations of laws they they may not have known existed.” Taking as an example the case of 71 thousand underage detainees of which 11 thousand only for technical violations of the terms of conditional release and not for new crimes. Especially for young people those problems with the prison system can deeply affect the entire life of an individual: “Incarcerated children are less likely to graduate high-school and more likely to spend time in prison as adults. If America is interested in reducing its prison population, locking up fewer juveniles for silly reasons would be a good place to start.”
In addition, according to the Pew center there is a huge gap between white and black people in prison: “in 2016, blacks represented 12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison population. Whites accounted for 64% of adults but 30% of prisoners. And while Hispanics represented 16% of the adult population, they accounted for 23% of inmates.”
Here the articles if you want to take a look!!
>> https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/03/americas-prison-population
In my opinion, an adeguate education systems, with special attention to the quality of education and inclusion, especially in disadvantaged areas – for example those with high rates of residents in jail – could, with the aim of creating more opportunities and therefore different alternatives to crime do much for those people and might save them by offering different choiches. Providing training and rehabilitation programs (for example art workshops, education and training programs) to ensure social reintegration of prisoners once they are released from prison could be a great example of what I mean.
Given the high incarceration numbers for minor offenses, I think it is also necessary to make important changes to the American prison system, which # Cut50 is trying to do, their program is admirable, their legislative campaigns (#JusticeReformNOW, #California and #FeesAndFine) are a great example of what people can do to help others and make a change.
>>https://www.cut50.org/legislation
I have found an interesting article from La Repubblica about the point of view of the economist Peter Temin concerning the inequality that afflicts the US society focusing on the educational system. >> http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2017/12/30/news/_meno_carceri_e_piu_scuole_per_i_poveri_solo_cosi_gli_usa_torneranno_una_societa_equa_ma_servono_20_anni-185359254/?refresh_ce
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Hope to hear from you soon!
Have a nice day!
Hi Arianna,
I read the articles you sent me, especially that of Temin has caught my attention;His proposals include:
– less investment in prisons;– more investments in public schools (starting from primary schools);
– more investments in transport, so poor people can leave the ghetto;
– the creation of public agencies that promote mobility and social growth;
– the diffusion of a culture of equality to support the poor .
From my point of view, Temin, tries to solve the problem thanks to a series of initiatives dedicated to supporting those people; more emphasis is placed on the education and dissemination of agencies that support suitable alternatives to people’s growth.
This problem, I believe, is closer than we think; the simplest case comes to mind, the Camorra. The country borders with the Molise, and I have had the opportunity to go to Naples and neighboring villages.For some people the Camorra is a way of life, it’s a beautiful and desirable future because it offers respect and money.
Compared to previous answers, it is obvious that the Camorra proliferates in historical centers and in outlying areas .
It seems that there is no alternative of growth, many people aspire to play the role of “boss”, because it is important for their way of thinking.Only in Naples there are 42 clans and in provinces 47; the criminal debut takes place among teenagers. Many of them leave school at an early age to join the clans.
Here the articles if you want to take a look!
Very interesting the article I read on the internet about a teacher (Carla Melazzini) who began to do his job, facing the most needy people; Carla has changed her way of teaching, she tried to base the conversation first of all on listening and then on dialogue. Sometimes the teacher transforms her into a student, where she learns from her scholars undestanding their problems.
I think listening is the most powerful weapon to change people and make them more important,we must not attack but understand!
Here the link,
http://www.centrostudisao.org/2013/12/09/combattere-la-camorra-con-la-scuola/
Hope to hear from you soon,
Good Evening!
Super Arianna! happy you finally succeeded to join 🙂 super Yeswecode! Oakland I take the contact to visit them in Tour…Oakland! more to come 🙂
Hi everyone
I’m Ivo and like Luca and Arianna I’m enrolled at the first year of the master’s degree in “Economy, politics and international institutions”.
I’ve just finished to read the article and apologize me if I’m late and I’m bringing back this discussion.
Probably is because me and Luca come from an ecomonic degree, but also me, after reading the article, the first thing that came into my mind was realizing that the vast majority of the investment in education are private or even made by a direct grant from the bigger corporations and firms leader in the tecnology field (such as facebook and HP inc).Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing that some firms need so many employees that they directly invest locally, consequently enrich the enviromment and finally develope the communities from the bottom. But there is a negative side: a private company looks at the future with the mere eyes of the profit, not beacuse is good or evil, simply because is it’s task. This is why the scolarship, for examples, are obviusly a good idea but will be hard to implement in a country where the most of the college’s students are willing to make ten thousands dollars of debt in order to study, so it wouldn’t be weird if a private company doesn’t take charge of it.
All of this creates an environment that enforces the status quo. Only who can afford these investments will probably have a job in one of the most growing sector, consequently he will have more opportunities than others, and from more oportunities comes differents results.
All the efforts of this companies are surely beautiful and great, but what if someone after Maxine Williams has a different point of view? What if this lack of the State stops to be fulled by some enlightened chief?
And at least, are we ready to delegate the moral sides and the wellfare of the population to some few private companies?
I hope I made myself clear and not too dispersive.
See you at the next answer,
Best regards
IvoHi Ivo welcome on the forum,
I agree with you on some aspects; it is true that in most cases companies look at their profit, but I do not think that in all cases it is so.
I do not believe that companies want to take the place of local politics, rather ,they can bridge the gap left by national authorithies; it would be very nice if the biggest companies also collaborate with local politics to grow the nation.
The Investment in education, reduce unemployment, because the vacancies will be filled by the same people on which the company has invested. This will also allow to integrate those people who have difficulty in everyday life.
I suppose that many companies do these humanitarian projects for prestige and advertising; but some, are driven by positive initiatives; for example the Bill & Melissa Foundation.
I took this example, because Bill Gates (second richest man on earth), in my opinion, is a person who has achieved everything from the working and personal point of view,so I do not think his work is opportunistic.
Its foundation is very active in the field of global health, global development, global growth and global policy.Here the link,
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-DoI do not want to have negative attitude, but if the strong does not help the weak, then it’s over. Unfortunately, local politics in any country can not fulfill all their duties, so these initiatives are very important, because they allow people to understand that mutual aid leads to development.
Best Regards,
Luca
Hi everyone! 🙂
I find myself a bit more in agreement with Luca but also with Ivo in some points.
It is true that the major goal of any company is the profit (it will always be) but, when there is a huge gap between the demand and the supply of work in a specific sector (the tech one in this case) and the national authority does not “set in” properly with investments or other policies in order to meet the work demand, I think someone should take action and if not the government, why not a big company?
Another important thing to consider is that the educational system in the US is very different from the Italian one we are used to and it is also hard to fully understand in such little time; I’ve been reading about it for a reasonable amount of time and still don’t totally understandi it.
While looking for more info on the educational system in the US I came across a very interesting (also upsetting) article by The New York Times: It tells the story of Angelica Gonzales and Melissa O’Neils, both from the lower class with low income, the two girls enrolled at university and after 4 years none of them finished her studies and they both have $ 105,000 in debt (thanks to their “loans of honor”).
Here a graph to make it a bit more clear:
Here the article (it is a bit long but definately worth it, there is also a 6 mins video if you like) : https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html
I linked the articla because I really think that the situation is extremely complex and it is hard for me to take a position about it, private investments could make a difference if well created.
For a company, investing on education ( obviously related to the professional figures the company needs the most) could be a great action, economically speaking it coul be a good investment: you give the tools to became a professional to someone that might couldn’t without your help, reduce unemployment, raise loyality from costumers and employee. Actions like that could really improve the company’s image and, yes, raise the profit and also do something good for you and others “two sides of the same coin!”
@lucadonatone I know the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and totally admire them and what they do! one of their goal, in the education field is : “Significantly increase the number of black, Latino, and low-income students who earn a diploma, enroll in a postsecondary institution, and are on track in their first year to obtain a credential with labor-market value.”Here’s the program ! https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/US-Program/K-12-Education
@paolomarenco Yes! I finally joined the forum! Oakland? It would be great to visit the Dream Corps and get to know better their initiatives!Best wishes to everybody!!!
Hi Arianna,
I had the opportunity to read the link you sent me.
The first thing I noticed was that the characters we talk about came from poor families. As we know, the colleges are sustainable only for those wealthy and lucky families, while for the remaining ones, the only form of financing is work and bank debt.“In placing their hopes in education, the Galveston teenagers followed a tradition as old as the country itself. But if only the prosperous become educated — and only the educated prosper — the schoolhouse risks becoming just another place where the fortunate preserve their edge.”
So the school becomes just a meeting point for a few close friends. People who can not afford it are automatically out.
Also looking at the statistics we can see how the racial differences are the background to this scenario.“The racial gaps are quite big, but the income gaps are bigger,” Professor Reardon said.”
This leads to an uneven income distribution where wealthy people have become richer, while poor people have become poorer.
“One explanation is simply that the rich have clearly gotten richer. A generation ago, families at the 90th percentile had five times the income of those at the 10th percentile. Now they have 10 times as much.”
Reading the article I noticed that, not only income is the cause of evil; indeed, the stories of the girls represented, all have one point in common: they did not have support from their families; I am not referring only to the economic aspect, but above all to the family aspect. Children often grow up without reference points and this leads to confusion, trying to find some guides in their boyfriends.
“In addition, upper-income parents, especially fathers, have increased their child-rearing time, while the presence of fathers in low-income homes has declined. Miss G. said there is a reason the triplets relied so heavily on boyfriends: “Their fathers weren’t there.”
I would like to make a purely personal reflection; I searched on internet the American unemployment rate, and I found that it is very low around 4.4%. This is a positive fact, but if it should go down it would be negative, as it could cause problems to the economy.
Here I attach the link,If all people could graduate, do you think the unemployment rate would be so low? Let’s say there are 10 jobs and we have 20 graduates, the unemployment rate would remain constant at 4.4%?
I suppose there are political directives that perhaps have opted to make university education only for a few close friends. This is absolutely unjust, I am aware of it, but I think it is really difficult to find a solution that can satisfy everyone.
I looked for why colleges are so expensive, compared to European ones, and I noticed that most of the expenses are for administrative reasons.here the link,
the article in question deals with the cost of American colleges, which in most cases the fee exceeds $ 40,000 annually; Also, takes as an example the University of Helsinki that is a tuition-free school, and relies heavily on core funding from its government to operate.
Falling towards the college, the biggest cost they have to bear is the administrative one, but despite the fees increase and the salaries of the employees do not grow in parallel. The devotion to the goal of “getting a college education” has led students (and their families) to willingly pay ever higher and higher tuitions, for educations that are no greater in quality or value than the education their parents’ or grandparents’ generation paid for.“Students and faculty have the most powerful weapons available at their disposal: to put their hands in their pockets and simply do nothing”
I wish you a good day,
Luca
Goodmorning everyone,
I would like to share my feelings about the Tuesday meeting with Mr. Chiabrera, which in my opinion was very interesting and current.
The first thing that struck me was the description of his work experience in America, where very often being the best does not mean being untouchable. I think the workplace can make people understand how a nation thinks, how people think and organize their life, their lifestyle; switching from flexible working hours (Usa) to tight schedule (Asia).
He also explained how sometimes strategies in the technology sector are often aggressive, where big fish tries to eat small fish, trying to minimize competitiveness and not to affect the monopoly.
The aim is therefore to acquire the direct competitor and to steal his know-how in order to capture all the ideas that the company has developed; if you can not buy the company, then you try to take the best employees by weakening the competitor.
The company must not only invest money in development, but must manage its business cycle, if the cycle is not followed and directed to perfection, then this can lead to the failure of the entire company.
I took as a reference “the history of Samsung”, born in 1938 as a food exporter, for then to become one of the largest technology companies in 1969.
Here the link,
As Mr. Chiabrera said yesterday, companies that start from one sector and then get to another are many nowadays. Some of the best enterprises knowned come to mind, such as Google and Amazon; Google born as a search engine, now it is investing in the production of phones and chromebooks; Amazon, on the other hand, is investing thanks to Prime on the market of movies and TV series, recently launched “Alexa”, a voice assistant. So they try to open their horizons once they become monopolists in their market.
The technology, despite the huge investments it needs, is attracting more and more the attention of the great world giants. Those who invest in research and innovation projects are able to be more competitive on the market and to increase turnover in period of crisis. So they try to open their horizons once they become monopolists.
We are not just talking about overseas companies , indeed the big European companies are investing in Silicon Valley to accelerate innovation; with the creation of its own observation point in the Valley; the European companies aim to interpret the main international technology trends, scouting technologies, investing in advanced startups, creating strategic partnerships with them. All this has been possible thanks to MIND THE BRIDGE which is the “bridge” between Europe and USA.
The necessity for a structured presence also arises from the attempt to be part of that dense network of relationships, at the base of the success of Silicon Valley, an objective that is difficult to achieve by remaining observers outside the Ocean.
Here the links,
I would like to know your ideas, have a nice day.
Luca
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