The document discusses accountability and community economic development (CED) in Canada. It summarizes that CED organizations face challenges balancing local responsiveness with funder accountability demands. Specifically, it examines how the Canadian government's conflicting models of new public management (control/efficiency) and governance (collaboration) create tensions for CED organizations. Through a case study of a Nova Scotia CED agency, it explores how strict funder accountability has led to shifting priorities, stifled innovation, and challenges with performance measurement for community organizations. The document argues government needs approaches to accountability that do not circumvent local governance of CED activities.
Icwsm10 S MateiVisible Effort: A Social Entropy Methodology for Managing Com...guest803e6d
A theoretically-grounded learning feedback tool suite, the Visible Effort (VE) Mediawiki extension, is proposed for optimizing online group learning activities by measuring the amount of equality and the emergence of social structure in groups that participate in Computer-Mediated Collaboration (CMC). Building on social entropy theory, drawn from Shannon’s Mathematical Theory of Communication, VE captures levels of CMC unevenness and group structure and visualizes them on wiki Web pages through background colors, charts, and tabular data. Visual information provides users entropic feedback on how balanced and equitable collaboration is within their online group are, while helping them to maintain it within optimal levels. Finally, we present the theoretical and practical implications of VE and the measures behind it, as well as illustrate VE’s capabilities by describing a quasi-experimental teaching activity (use scenario) in tandem with a detailed discussion of theoretical justification, methodological underpinning, and technological capabilities of the approach.
New coworking study debunks misconceptions - Greetly digital receptionistGreetly
A new coworking research report has some interesting implications for operators of coworking spaces in other communities — especially in the ways that it undercuts some popular conceptions and misconceptions about coworking clientele.
Outlines on environmental philosophy part 8Steven Ghezzo
A study on the environmental issue from historical, anthropological, social, psychological, philosophical, economic, political and juridical perspectives
International Journal of Engineering Research and Development (IJERD)IJERD Editor
journal publishing, how to publish research paper, Call For research paper, international journal, publishing a paper, IJERD, journal of science and technology, how to get a research paper published, publishing a paper, publishing of journal, publishing of research paper, reserach and review articles, IJERD Journal, How to publish your research paper, publish research paper, open access engineering journal, Engineering journal, Mathemetics journal, Physics journal, Chemistry journal, Computer Engineering, Computer Science journal, how to submit your paper, peer reviw journal, indexed journal, reserach and review articles, engineering journal, www.ijerd.com, research journals,
yahoo journals, bing journals, International Journal of Engineering Research and Development, google journals, hard copy of journal
Icwsm10 S MateiVisible Effort: A Social Entropy Methodology for Managing Com...guest803e6d
A theoretically-grounded learning feedback tool suite, the Visible Effort (VE) Mediawiki extension, is proposed for optimizing online group learning activities by measuring the amount of equality and the emergence of social structure in groups that participate in Computer-Mediated Collaboration (CMC). Building on social entropy theory, drawn from Shannon’s Mathematical Theory of Communication, VE captures levels of CMC unevenness and group structure and visualizes them on wiki Web pages through background colors, charts, and tabular data. Visual information provides users entropic feedback on how balanced and equitable collaboration is within their online group are, while helping them to maintain it within optimal levels. Finally, we present the theoretical and practical implications of VE and the measures behind it, as well as illustrate VE’s capabilities by describing a quasi-experimental teaching activity (use scenario) in tandem with a detailed discussion of theoretical justification, methodological underpinning, and technological capabilities of the approach.
New coworking study debunks misconceptions - Greetly digital receptionistGreetly
A new coworking research report has some interesting implications for operators of coworking spaces in other communities — especially in the ways that it undercuts some popular conceptions and misconceptions about coworking clientele.
Outlines on environmental philosophy part 8Steven Ghezzo
A study on the environmental issue from historical, anthropological, social, psychological, philosophical, economic, political and juridical perspectives
International Journal of Engineering Research and Development (IJERD)IJERD Editor
journal publishing, how to publish research paper, Call For research paper, international journal, publishing a paper, IJERD, journal of science and technology, how to get a research paper published, publishing a paper, publishing of journal, publishing of research paper, reserach and review articles, IJERD Journal, How to publish your research paper, publish research paper, open access engineering journal, Engineering journal, Mathemetics journal, Physics journal, Chemistry journal, Computer Engineering, Computer Science journal, how to submit your paper, peer reviw journal, indexed journal, reserach and review articles, engineering journal, www.ijerd.com, research journals,
yahoo journals, bing journals, International Journal of Engineering Research and Development, google journals, hard copy of journal
New Report Exposes Chinas Malign Influence And Corrosion Of Democracy Worldwi...MYO AUNG Myanmar
https://www.iri.org/resource/new-report-exposes-chinas-malign-influence-and-corrosion-democracy-worldwide IRI (INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE) is the premier international democracy-development organization https://youtu.be/XhBUbbQyhxE New Report Exposes China's Malign Influence and Corrosion of Democracy Worldwide You are hereHome > New Report Exposes China's Malign Influence and Corrosion of Democracy Worldwide CHINESE MALIGN INFLUENCEAND THE CORROSION OF DEMOCRACY An Assessment of Chinese Interference in Thirteen Key Countries The report, entitled "Chinese Malign Influence and the Corrosion of Democracy," brings together research by experts from 12 vulnerable democracies — Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Ecuador, Zambia, Mongolia, Hungary, The Gambia, Myanmar, Malaysia and the Maldives — and provides local perspectives on how China is impacting the politics and economics of these countries. https://www.iri.org/country/asia/details INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE info@iri.org
Yes Virginia! A Profile In Excellence White PaperJon Hansen
Who Can Benefit from this Paper?
This thought provoking white paper is an essential resource tool for public sector organizations that are already in the midst of an established program, or ones who are contemplating a change. Although they do not operate within the same framework of a public or government entity, private sector companies can also gain important insight as the paper’s principles are universal in their applicability.
Utilizing an advanced research methodology, the primary objective of this paper is to provide policy-makers (and those affected by government policy) with a multi-dimensional “objective lens” through which they will be able to view the veracity of both existing as well as contemplated initiatives. The resulting insights will empower program champions to take the necessary steps to deliver tangible and sustainable results.
The Canadian socio-economy has been experiencing difficulties since the early 1970s. Neither the New Public Management nor the Program Review experiments of the 1990s succeeded in generating effective repairs. After a long episode in the application of redistribution to assuage those hurt by the governance failures, new forms of organization and mechanisms of coordination are beginning to provide bottom up alternatives to government.
New Report Exposes Chinas Malign Influence And Corrosion Of Democracy Worldwi...MYO AUNG Myanmar
https://www.iri.org/resource/new-report-exposes-chinas-malign-influence-and-corrosion-democracy-worldwide IRI (INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE) is the premier international democracy-development organization https://youtu.be/XhBUbbQyhxE New Report Exposes China's Malign Influence and Corrosion of Democracy Worldwide You are hereHome > New Report Exposes China's Malign Influence and Corrosion of Democracy Worldwide CHINESE MALIGN INFLUENCEAND THE CORROSION OF DEMOCRACY An Assessment of Chinese Interference in Thirteen Key Countries The report, entitled "Chinese Malign Influence and the Corrosion of Democracy," brings together research by experts from 12 vulnerable democracies — Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Ecuador, Zambia, Mongolia, Hungary, The Gambia, Myanmar, Malaysia and the Maldives — and provides local perspectives on how China is impacting the politics and economics of these countries. https://www.iri.org/country/asia/details INTERNATIONAL REPUBLICAN INSTITUTE info@iri.org
Yes Virginia! A Profile In Excellence White PaperJon Hansen
Who Can Benefit from this Paper?
This thought provoking white paper is an essential resource tool for public sector organizations that are already in the midst of an established program, or ones who are contemplating a change. Although they do not operate within the same framework of a public or government entity, private sector companies can also gain important insight as the paper’s principles are universal in their applicability.
Utilizing an advanced research methodology, the primary objective of this paper is to provide policy-makers (and those affected by government policy) with a multi-dimensional “objective lens” through which they will be able to view the veracity of both existing as well as contemplated initiatives. The resulting insights will empower program champions to take the necessary steps to deliver tangible and sustainable results.
The Canadian socio-economy has been experiencing difficulties since the early 1970s. Neither the New Public Management nor the Program Review experiments of the 1990s succeeded in generating effective repairs. After a long episode in the application of redistribution to assuage those hurt by the governance failures, new forms of organization and mechanisms of coordination are beginning to provide bottom up alternatives to government.
Using an Agroenterprise: Learning Alliances for Inclusive Value Chain SupportBASIS AMA Innovation Lab
A presentation by Shaun Ferris from the 2009 BASIS Conference on "Escaping Poverty Traps: Connecting the Chronically Poor to the Economic Growth Agenda."
Discussion 1Supportive Living Retirement Arrangement [WLO 4] [CVinaOconner450
Discussion 1
Supportive Living Retirement Arrangement [WLO: 4] [CLOs: 2, 4, 8]
Based on the assigned readings and additional research, select one supportive living retirement arrangement and critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses as to how effective the arrangement facilitates optimal functioning (cognitive, physical, psychological) and independence for older adults. Identify any modifications or changes you believe may address weaknesses of the arrangement or enhance its overall effectiveness. Respond by Day 3. Post should be at least 300 words.
Week 5 - Journal
Reflection Journal
[WLO: 3] [CLOs: 2, 4, 7, 8]
Reflect on how personal values affect aging, death and dying, sexual intimacy, productivity, and lifestyle choices.
The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the how personal values affect perceptions of aging, death and dying, and sexual intimacy and lifestyle practices in the older adult years. For this assignment, you will write a reflection journal in which you apply the concepts you learned this week in the readings and share your own reflections as to how your personal values influence your perceptions and beliefs about at least two of these domains. Although this is a personal reflection, you must incorporate at least two citations of scholarly sources to support your entry.
Required Resources
Text
Bengtson, V. L., Gans, D., Putney, N. M., & Silverstein, M. (Eds.). (2016).
Handbook of theories of aging (3rd ed.). Springer.
· Chapter 27: Successful Aging
· Chapter 28: Coping, Optimal Aging, and Resilience in Sociocultural Context
· Chapter 29: Religion, Spirituality, and Aging
Articles
Fredriksen-Goldsen, K. I., & Muraco, A. (2010). Aging and sexual orientation: A 25-year review of the literature.
Research on Aging, 32(3), 372-413. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027509360355
Jopp, D., & Smith, J. (2006). Resources and life-management strategies as determinants of successful aging: on the protective effect of selection, optimization, and compensation. Psychology and Aging, 21(2), 253- 265. https://doi.org/
North, M. S., & Fiske, S. T. (2013). Act your (old) age prescriptive, ageist biases over succession, consumption, and identity.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(6), 720-734. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213480043
Zhang, Y. B., Harwood, J., Williams, A., Ylänne-McEwen, V., Wadleigh, P. M., & Thimm, C. (2006). The portrayal of older adults in advertising: A cross-national review.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 25(3), 264-282. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X06289479
Multimedia
TED. (2012, April 19).
Laura Carstensen: Older people are happier (Links to an external site.) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gkdzkVbuVA
· In the 20th century we added an unprecedented number of years to our lifespans, but is the quality of life as good? Surprisingly ...
In order for the internet to play a greater role as an instrument for social and personal empowerment, we need to understand what the everyday life of an individual belonging to a minority or marginalized community encompasses. Such an approach calls for closer examination of the practices, system of relations and context of particular minority and marginalized users in order to figure out what is meaningful to them and how they use (or do not use) different forms of the internet for meeting their objectives. There is a need to acknowledge the multiple conceptualizations and forms of internet use as disadvantaged users apply these differently for meeting specific agendas.
This article presented three projects working with minority and marginalized users. In the context of future research on internet use, three broad sets of variables are closely connected and require careful attention:
• The type of marginalized group;
• The goals, expectations and identification of what particular marginalized users consider to be meaningful in their everyday life; and
• The selected method of research.
1235 Street PlaceSeattle, WA 98105March 5, 2017Ms. Jane .docxmoggdede
1235 Street Place
Seattle, WA 98105
March 5, 2017
Ms. Jane Doe
Engineering Review Committee
Engineering Consulting Company
249 Avenue Way
Seattle, WA 98104
Dear Ms. Doe,
Attached is our report, Public-Private Partnerships in U.S. Infrastructure Construction. The report is intended to inform you and the committee about the ethical concerns with public-private partnerships for infrastructure construction. Public-private partnerships are a recent method of funding public construction projects. Because of their relative newness, it is important to understand the challenges and risks involved, and know how to take steps to mitigate ethical concerns.
This report will give a background of public-private partnerships, and how they are being used to solve funding challenges in US infrastructure construction. Then it will go over ethical concerns, and potential solutions. Finally, we will discuss a recommended course of action. From our research, we found that when developing contracts for public-private partnerships, it is important to pay attention to factors such as the concession period and the organization of the project. Doing so can help address ethical concerns with these projects, and make it overall more efficient.
We hope that you find the attached report informative. If you have any further questions or concerns, we can be reached at [phone number]
Sincerely,
Joseph ShinAnna Tsai
Sam TarafderRandy Wenan
Public-Private Partnerships in U.S. Infrastructure Construction
Team J.A.R.S.
ENGR 231 G
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4
BACKGROUND……………………..5
ETHICAL CONCERNS6
RECOMMENDED COURSES OF ACTION7
Determining An Accurate Concession Period7
Establishing A Legitimate PPP Program Organization7
Developing Project Portfolios8
Other methods for receiving funds8
CONCLUSION9
REFERENCES10
INTRODUCTION
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the U. S. infrastructure receives just “a single grade above failure” (Halsey, 2013). A report has even calculated a cost of “$661 million” to repair just one bridge in Washington, D. C. Another report has also indicated the U. S. interstate system celebrating its 60th anniversary just last year, leaving its people with “many roads and bridges (are) in need of repair or expansion” (Lieb, 2016). In addition to that, some cities have even considered private equity firms “to manage their waterworks” (Ivory, 2016). As a result, the U.S. government is desperately in need of funds to help repair its current infrastructure. One of the increasingly popular ways is utilizing public-private partnerships to help fund those projects. Therefore, we would like to inform you about the ethical issues presented as a result. This paper will give you a background about the issue, the ethical concerns, and recommended actions that could help eliminate those issues. BACKGROUND
American infrastructure including roadways, highways, and bridges, ...
Collaborating for Equity and Justice: Moving Beyond Collective ImpactJim Bloyd, DrPH, MPH
By ARTHUR T. HIMMELMAN, BILL BERKOWITZ, BRIAN D. CHRISTENS, FRANCES DUNN BUTTERFOSS, KIEN S. LEE, LINDA BOWEN, MEREDITH MINKLER, SUSAN M. WOLFE, TOM WOLFF AND VINCENT T. FRANCISCO | January 9, 2017 Non-Profit Quarterly
The United States has historically struggled with how to treat all its citizens equitably and fairly while wealth and power are concentrated in a very small segment of our society. Now, in the face of growing public awareness and outcry about the centuries-long injustices experienced by African Americans, Native Americans, new immigrants, and other marginalized groups, we believe that our nation urgently needs collaborative multisector approaches toward equity and justice. For maximum effectiveness, these approaches must include and prioritize leadership by those most affected by injustice and inequity in order to effect structural and systemic changes that can support and sustain inclusive and healthy communities. Traditional community organizing and working for policy change will supplement the collaborative approach. We believe that efforts that do not start with treating community leaders and residents as equal partners cannot later be reengineered to meaningfully share power. In short, coalitions and collaborations need a new way of engaging with communities that leads to transformative changes in power, equity, and justice.
Enhancing transparency and accountability mechanisms that directly empower citizens to better participate in decision-making processes of government and international donors is an imperative to achieving better and more sustainable development results on the ground. This paper analyzes the emerging Open Development Paradigm and investigates to what extent such a new approach towards citizen-centered development can make development programs more effective, responsive and inclusive. It provides concrete case studies of open governance programs that enhance the transparency and accountability of development agencies and foster the collaboration among all development actors in order to achieve better development outcomes and enhance the well-being of the poor.
Finding a Foothold: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek SustainabilityKnight Foundation
A new report offers an in-depth view into the nonprofit news industry, revealing the significant progress that news organizations have made toward sustainability and the challenges they still face. The report, “Finding a Foothold: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek Sustainability,” provides data and analysis on 18 nonprofit news organizations between 2010 and 2012.
A follow-up to the 2011 Knight study, “Getting Local: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek Sustainability,” the new report takes a deeper look, expanding the number of nonprofit sites included in the research. It also broadens the focus of the study from just local, to state and national organizations. Find out more at www.knightfoundation.org/features/nonprofitnews.
Balancing the Four Es; or Can We Achieve Equity for Socia.docxjoney4
Balancing the Four Es; or Can We Achieve Equity for Social Equity in Public
Administration?
Author(s): Kristen Norman-Major
Source: Journal of Public Affairs Education, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring 2011), pp. 233-252
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23036113
Accessed: 25-05-2020 01:51 UTC
REFERENCES
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Balancing the Four Es;
or Can We Achieve Equity for
Social Equity in Public Administration?
Abstract
Although social equity was brought to the table in the New Public Administration
of the 1960s and named the fourth pillar of public administration by the National
Academy of Public Administration near the turn of this century, it still struggles
to find its place as an equal among the traditional public administration values
of economy efficiency, and effectiveness. The question to be addressed here is,
"How do we elevate social equity to equal playing status with the other pillars of
public administration?" In addressing this question, three key areas are examined:
definitions, measures, and curriculum. By examining how we currently define,
measure, and teach about the values of public administration, including social
equity, this paper provides ideas for "imagining and improving the future" so
that social equity becomes an equal among its peers and becomes a standard
of practice as opposed to a stand of courage among public administrators and
policy makers.
In 1968, a group of young public administration scholars gathered in
Minnowbrook, New York, to discuss a new direction for the study and practice
of public administration. Rejecting the traditional ideas of a politics-administration
dichotomy and public administration practiced by neutral competents, these
young scholars argued that public administration by its nature cannot be neutral;
it must consider the values of American society, including responsiveness, public
participation in decision making, social equity, citizen choice, and administrative
responsibility (Wooldridge & Gooden ...
Regional Differences in Innovation and Economic PerformanceRyan MacNeil
My paper from the 2011 Atlantic Schools of Business conference:
Innovation is a key mechanism for improving economic productivity. The literature suggests approaches to innovation are socially embedded, and protean industrial cultures outperform autarkic ones. This study reports on differences in innovation culture across Canada’s provincial ICT industries, and the impact of those differences on employment growth and decline.
Slides on the strategic plan I prepared for/with the Nova Scotia Association of Regional Development Authorities. For the full plan, contact the fine folks at www.nsarda.ca
Developing SMEs’ Capacity to Engage Human and Financial CapitalRyan MacNeil
Presentation with Simeon Roberts to the conference, "Re-Imagining the Atlantic Canadian Economy: Dynamics and Trajectories of Human and Financial Resources" at Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB, June 7 - 9, 2007.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Welocme to ViralQR, your best QR code generator.ViralQR
Welcome to ViralQR, your best QR code generator available on the market!
At ViralQR, we design static and dynamic QR codes. Our mission is to make business operations easier and customer engagement more powerful through the use of QR technology. Be it a small-scale business or a huge enterprise, our easy-to-use platform provides multiple choices that can be tailored according to your company's branding and marketing strategies.
Our Vision
We are here to make the process of creating QR codes easy and smooth, thus enhancing customer interaction and making business more fluid. We very strongly believe in the ability of QR codes to change the world for businesses in their interaction with customers and are set on making that technology accessible and usable far and wide.
Our Achievements
Ever since its inception, we have successfully served many clients by offering QR codes in their marketing, service delivery, and collection of feedback across various industries. Our platform has been recognized for its ease of use and amazing features, which helped a business to make QR codes.
Our Services
At ViralQR, here is a comprehensive suite of services that caters to your very needs:
Static QR Codes: Create free static QR codes. These QR codes are able to store significant information such as URLs, vCards, plain text, emails and SMS, Wi-Fi credentials, and Bitcoin addresses.
Dynamic QR codes: These also have all the advanced features but are subscription-based. They can directly link to PDF files, images, micro-landing pages, social accounts, review forms, business pages, and applications. In addition, they can be branded with CTAs, frames, patterns, colors, and logos to enhance your branding.
Pricing and Packages
Additionally, there is a 14-day free offer to ViralQR, which is an exceptional opportunity for new users to take a feel of this platform. One can easily subscribe from there and experience the full dynamic of using QR codes. The subscription plans are not only meant for business; they are priced very flexibly so that literally every business could afford to benefit from our service.
Why choose us?
ViralQR will provide services for marketing, advertising, catering, retail, and the like. The QR codes can be posted on fliers, packaging, merchandise, and banners, as well as to substitute for cash and cards in a restaurant or coffee shop. With QR codes integrated into your business, improve customer engagement and streamline operations.
Comprehensive Analytics
Subscribers of ViralQR receive detailed analytics and tracking tools in light of having a view of the core values of QR code performance. Our analytics dashboard shows aggregate views and unique views, as well as detailed information about each impression, including time, device, browser, and estimated location by city and country.
So, thank you for choosing ViralQR; we have an offer of nothing but the best in terms of QR code services to meet business diversity!
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and Sales
Accountability CED: The Funder-Governed NGO
1. Canadian Research Alliance for Community
Innovation and Networking (CRACIN)
Alliance Canadienne de Recherche pour le
Réseautage etl'Innovation Communautaires
Accountability and Community Economic
Development: The Funder-Governed NGO
Ryan MacNeil
Graduate Student Researcher
Canadian Research Alliance for
Community Innovation and Networking
April 2005
CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
www.cracin.ca
2. About CRACIN
The Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking
(CRACIN) is a three-year partnership between community informatics researchers,
community networking practitioners and federal government policy specialists, funded by
a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). CRACIN
brings together researchers and practitioners from across Canada, and internationally, to
undertake case studies and thematic research on enabling the uses of new information and
communication technologies (ICTs) by communities and through community-based
organizations, and to investigate Canada’s national programs and policies for promoting
the development and public accessibility of digitally enabled activities and services.
CRACIN Working Paper Series Editor: Graham Longford, University of Toronto
Suggested citation:
MacNeil, R. 2005. Accountability and Community Economic Development:The Funder-
Governed NGO Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and
Networking/Alliance canadienne de recherche pour le réseautage et l'innovation
communautaires, CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3.
For further information or to order hard copies of CRACIN materials, contact:
Project Administrator
Faculty of Information Studies
University of Toronto
140 St. George Street, Rm 652
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G6
Phone: (416) 978-4662
Fax: (416) 971-1399
Email: cracin@fis.utoronto.ca
Web: www.cracin.ca
3. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
Accountability and Community Economic
Development: The Funder-Governed NGO
MacNeil, R.
Accountability and Community Economic Development
Over the years, Making Waves, Canada’s Community Economic Development
(CED) magazine, has dedicated many of its pages to a debate about how to best manage
and account for CED activities. Authors have written on best practices (Day, 2003),
“incrementality” (Cabaj, 2000) and social accounting (Perryman, 2004). The magazine
has also looked at specific examples of performance management in practice, including a
recent article (Brydon and Cabaj, 2003) on the system used by Waterloo, Ontario’s
“Opportunities 2000” poverty reduction initiative. Each article has been an attempt to
demonstrate that nebulous CED activities must find suitable accountability mechanisms.
Community economic development is difficult to define since it takes various forms
based on local community needs. It is generally a very dynamic process directed by
skilled facilitators who can tailor their intervention while it is being delivered. In this
environment there is a cultural and political resistance to bureaucratic performance
controls. This resistance recently manifested itself in Making Waves’ fiery piece on
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) titled, “Public Institution?
Or Public Nuisance?” (Lewis, 2005).
In this article, Lewis (2005, p. 2) documents the community sector’s frustration
with a once cooperative government department that has “morphed into a platoon of
unhappy project officers and local managers encumbered and incapacitated by an
increasingly centralized, restrictive, procedure-dominated system.” He attributes this new
culture of control to the “Billion Dollar Boondoggle” that hung over the department for
most of 2000. An internal audit of several project files had revealed inadequate
documentation and missing data (Phillips and Levasseur, 2004, p. 455). This had not
been a financial audit and the Auditor General later found that the unaccounted for funds
were actually quite small. Nonetheless, the public embarrassment motivated a tightening
of accountability mechanisms. David Good (2003, p. 127) argues, “It is probably not an
exaggeration to say that HRDC put into place one of the most extensive and elaborate
project review and monitoring systems ever before implemented in the federal
government.” Good describes a project lifecycle that now involves twenty-four separate
forms and 1800 information fields (Ibid.). Lewis (2005) presents his own example of a
community worker whose nine-month-old project file is now 1500 pages and 12 inches
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4. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
high. Other stories demonstrate that HRSDC’s new rules are resulting in costly paper-
pushing, stressful project delays, less effective project design, disincentives for
innovation and general “nitpicking” (Ibid.). Phillips and Levasseur (2004, p. 455) explain
that these were the outcomes of a short-sighted disaster response. HRDC quickly
tightened its mechanisms, “rather than carefully balancing any adverse impacts on the
contracting agencies” (Ibid.).
Accountability is not an inappropriate goal. The resistance detailed above stems
from government’s inappropriate accountability mechanisms. Many nonprofits and CED
organizations are limited in their ability to respond. As Gary Perryman says in his review
(Perryman, 2004) of the book What Counts (Quarter, Mook and Richmond, 2003):
Many nonprofits are struggling to survive and sustain themselves. They are
already over-pressured by various private and public funders to implement such
so-called accountability tolls as accreditation, balanced report cards, and
outcome-based performance evaluations. They have to respond to new forms of
allocating funds such as tendering, contribution agreements, and performance-
based contracting. They are supposed to spend time collaborating and building
partnerships, or struggling with funders’ overwhelming desires to micro-manage.
(Perryman, 2004, 13).
If this were merely an issue of organizational capacity, certainly government could cover
the additional training and administrative costs. However, there is evidence that this new
accountability regime does more than impose additional costs. It may go so far as to
define what and how community action takes place.
This paper considers whether or not the new accountability regime is able to
redefine the work of community organizations. After defining the role of the nonprofit
sector and CED organizations, discussion turns to the theoretical roots of this
accountability regime. It is argued to be the product of a government working
simultaneously under two conflicting administrative models: new public management
and social governance. The impact of these accountability mechanisms is examined
through the case of a CED agency in Nova Scotia which has struggled in its response to
funders’ pressures. Three themes from the literature are explored: shifting priorities,
stifling innovation, and stumbling through issues of performance measurement. The case
illustrates that government can have a profound unintentional impact on community
economic development. The closing discussion seeks to understand how government
might achieve accountability without circumventing local governance.
The Role of CED Organizations
Nonprofits, and particularly CED organizations, play a uniquely important role in
Canadian society. According to pure economic theory, the nonprofit sector exists as a
make-shift patch to repair market failure, government failure or both (Mitchell, Longo
and Vodden, 2001, p. 149). Many nonprofit scholars disagree with this residual
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5. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
definition. Phillips (1995) argues that nonprofits serve the distinct roles of representation,
citizen engagement and service delivery. Salamon (1995) suggests viewing the
nonprofit/voluntary sector as the primary response to market failure and government as a
subsequent response to the failure of voluntary action. But often it is government that
enables the nonprofit sector by providing resources. Phillips (2003) argues that this is
because government recognizes the responsiveness of nonprofits. “Often, community
organizations have better ways of doing things, at a scale and with greater attention to
local differences than governments can manage” (Ibid., p. 25). Community economic
development encompasses much of this local action. CED organizations include
“cooperatives and credit unions, registered societies, informal community groups,
roundtables, and development corporations run by community boards” (Mitchell et al,
2001, p. 151). By definition, CED organizations undertake a balancing act. They make
purposeful interventions to address market failure and “the repercussions…of corporate
decisions made in the best interests of owners and shareholders rather than the
communities where [firms] operate” (Ibid.). Meanwhile, they recognize the importance of
the private sector and often use market-based tools or enter into partnerships with the
private sector. In a similar vein, CED organizations respond to failures of public policy
but are partners with government. This unique relationship with the public and private
sectors means that CED organizations (and nonprofits in general) are a function of both
but an element of neither.
A Conflict of Administrative Models
As a function of government, CED organizations are affected by its policies and
practices. Clearly, organizations receiving funds from HRSDC are feeling the pressure of
this new accountability regime. But the regime extends beyond crisis-afflicted HRSDC.
Indeed, the “Billion Dollar Boondoggle” was only an event, experienced by a
philosophically-challenged government. The Canadian government is still struggling to
be more business-like in response to the new public management movement. Meanwhile,
it is exploring a new governance role with the nonprofit sector. Phillips and Levasseur
(2004, p. 452) explain:
In Canada, as elsewhere, the process of governing is in transition from “new
public management” (NPM), which relied heavily on contracting-out, market-
based policy tools and government control, to a model of horizontal
“governance,” which depends on collaboration with non-governmental actors, a
wide-variety of policy tools, and works mainly through networks rather than
hierarchies.
This conflict of administrative models creates friction between strict accountability
contracts and collaborative governance. Phillips and Levasseur (Ibid.) argue that the
state’s relationship with the nonprofit sector is where these two public administration
models collide.
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6. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
New Public Management
The emphasis of new public management is on “reducing the size and scope of
governance” (Mitchell et al, 2001, p. 152). Governments have therefore increasingly
downloaded service delivery onto the nonprofit sector. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s,
the federal government significantly increased its use of contracting, “as a means of
cutting the costs of public services, reducing the size of the state, avoiding public-sector
unions, improving efficiency, and enabling governments to manage to results for better
customer service” (Phillips and Levasseur, 2004, p. 454). In this process, the mechanism
for funding the nonprofit sector switched from unconditional grants to project-based
“contribution agreement” funding (Phillips 2003, p. 452). Therefore part of the
accountability regime was inherent in new public management. However, Phillips and
Levasseur argue that, in response to the HRDC crisis, “Canada went further than most
countries under NPM and imposed very stringent approval and reporting requirements”
(Phillips and Levasseur, 2004, p. 452). Today’s accountability regime is therefore the
legacy of an exaggerated new public management model.
David Osborne and Ted Gaebler’s book, Reinventing Government (1993), is seen
as a seminal work on NPM. It called for a shift from bureaucracy to entrepreneurship.
They say,
Most entrepreneurial governments…prefer market mechanisms to bureaucratic
mechanisms. And they focus not simply on providing public services, but on
catalyzing all sectors – public, private, and voluntary – into action to solve their
community’s problems. [Emphasis in Original.] (Ibid., pp. 19-20).
Noted political scientist and economic development scholar, Donald Savoie, is critical of
Osborne and Gaebler’s NPM. He says that NPM considers private sector management
practices to be superior and thus it proposes that either government services be contracted
out or private sector management techniques be imposed on government. The flaw in this
logic is that “private sector management practices rarely apply to government operations”
(Savoie, 1995, p. 114). Savoie explains that,
…in business it does not much matter if you get it wrong 10 percent of the time as
long as you turn a profit at the end of the year. In government, it does not much
matter if you get it right 90 percent of the time because the focus will be on the 10
percent of the time you get it wrong. (Ibid., p. 155).
Inwood (1999, p. 69) agrees: “it would appear that proponents of the NPM have forgotten
Wallace Sayre’s law that public and private administration are fundamentally alike in all
unimportant respects.” Since the nonprofit sector is a function of both the private and
public sectors, but an element of neither, its administration is also fundamentally unique.
It is plausible that neither public nor private administration is applicable to the nonprofit
sector.
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7. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
Governance
While new restrictive accountability mechanisms were being imposed,
government embarked on a new process of collaboration with the nonprofit sector. Thus
far the collaboration has resulted in an “Accord Between the Government of Canada and
the Voluntary Sector” and “Codes of Good Practice” on policy dialogue and funding.
Phillips and Levasseur (2004, pp. 452-453) argue “these ‘governance contracts’ could be
seen as a manifestation of the transition to horizontal governance.” A governance model
involves developing a guiding, non-controlling relationship with other levels of
government, the private and nonprofit sectors (Phillips, 2003, p. 25). Stoker (1998, p. 18)
frames his discussion of governance around five key propositions:
“ 1.) Governance refers to a set of institutions and actors that are drawn from and
beyond government;
2.) Governance identifies the blurring of boundaries and responsibilities for
tackling social and economic issues;
3.) Governance identifies the power dependence involved in the relationships
between institutions involved in the collective actions;
4.) Governance is about autonomous self-governing networks of actors; and
5.) Governance recognizes the capacity to get things done which does not rest
on the power of government to command or use its authority. It sees
government as able to use new tools and techniques to steer and guide. ”
Clearly the nonprofit sector stands to benefit from the shift to a governance relationship.
Indeed, many of the recommendations and commitments from the Voluntary Sector
Initiative (1999 and 2002) address improvements to the current accountability regime.
However the transition to a governance model does not promise to be smooth.
Contradictions
Although the Government of Canada may be moving toward a model of
horizontal governance, new public management is leaving a contracting culture in its
wake. These two administrative models are pulling the government in different
directions. It is trying to be a collaborator while maintaining tight control through
performance contracting (Phillips and Levasseur, 2004, p. 453). Phillips and Graham
(2000, p. 185) argue, “The joint rise of accountability and collaboration has created many
contradictions for voluntary organizations: in particular, to become at once more risk-
taking and more rule-following.” In their study of nonprofits in Manitoba, Brown and
Troutt (2003) found evidence that, even when government did not require extensive
accountability mechanisms, nonprofits would implement control systems. They
concluded that “because accountability is a shared objective, it is not in itself a source of
tension between agencies and government” (Brown and Troutt, 2003, p. 208). Instead,
the tension stems from government’s cumbersome and restrictive mechanisms for
accountability. Nonprofits recognize the objective of accountability, but their priority is
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8. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
responsiveness to the community. The legacy of new public management is a
contractually restricted nonprofit sector at a time when government sees benefit in a more
collaborative relationship.
The Impact of the Accountability Regime
A good deal of research has been conducted on the impact of this accountability
regime on the nonprofit sector. Kathy Brock and Keith Banting at the Queen’s University
School of Policy Studies have edited a number of books on the nonprofit sector (Banting,
2000; Brock, 2002 and 2003; Brock and Banting, 2001 and 2003). A variety of
challenges are documented in these and other works. Little of the research explicitly
addresses community economic development organizations or community economic
development activities. However, three broad themes emerge in both the general
literature on nonprofits and the CED agency case study. The accountability regime has
left the Western Valley Development Agency with shifting priorities, stifled innovation,
and stumbling through issues of performance measurement.
The Case Study
Ten years ago, the seven municipalities in Annapolis and Digby counties1, Nova
Scotia, came together, in partnership with the provincial and federal governments, and
created a new organization called the Western Valley Development Authority (now
Agency). The closure of CFB Cornwallis in 1994 had been devastating to the regional
economy. Seven hundred jobs were lost, the tax base was devastated, and retailers,
contractors and suppliers of goods and services were all severely impacted. Meanwhile,
Ground fish stocks had collapsed, leaving a significant portion of the fisheries sector in
crisis. In response, Annapolis and Digby counties were the first in the province to create a
Regional Development Authority. Nova Scotia’s program of 13 RDAs was based on the
community economic development model, and grounded in the philosophy of the
Antigonish movement. As a result, the WVDA has a broad, holistic mission:
Building on our diverse cultural heritage, the Western Valley Development
Authority (WVDA) will work with the community to create a vital, prosperous,
and self-reliant region where the people have ample opportunity for a full and
satisfying life (WVDA, “Building Tomorrow”, 1999, p. 4).
The WVDA is seen by many third-party observers as a dynamic innovator in the
world of community economic development. The United Nations’ Educational Scientific
and Cultural Organization2 and Centre for Human Settlements3 have each recognized the
1
The Town of Annapolis Royal, Municipality of Annapolis County, Town of Bridgetown, Town of
Digby, Municipality of the District of Digby, Municipality of the District of Clare and Town of Middleton.
2
In 1998, UNESCO named the Digby region an international model of development processes (www.wvda.com).
-8-
9. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
Western Valley’s conscientious economic development activities. The WVDA has
received two awards for sustainable development from the Province of Nova Scotia4. The
Economic Developers’ Association of Canada has bestowed the WVDA with 4 awards:
two of which were for creating innovative community partnerships, one for facilitating a
common community vision through research and one for community marketing5. Most
recently, the Intelligent Communities forum has named the Western Valley region to its
list of the top seven Intelligent Communities in the world (2003). These awards and
citations underscore the WVDA’s role as a values-driven, innovative facilitator of
community economic development. But the hype around the WVDA’s activities has
overshadowed a gradual change in the organization’s operations brought on by pressure
from funding partners.
Shifting Priorities
The literature suggests that the priorities of nonprofit organizations can be fatally
tied to government funding priorities, target areas and mechanisms. The first implication
here is that many nonprofits will reposition themselves to take advantage of the latest
buzz word or programming area. This happens as government moves through fads like
“Connecting Canadians”, the “Innovation Strategy” and its most recent focus on the
“Social Economy”. Brown and Troutt (2003, p. 201) found that in Manitoba, “Several
organizations noted that they respond to political shifts and changes in program funding
by repositioning themselves to suit the new priorities.” This can happen even when the
organizations’ missions are only indirectly related to the new priorities. As a result, the
organizations best able to position themselves successfully attract new project money.
This was certainly the case with the WVDA and its information and communication
technology projects.
Much of the WVDA’s activity over the past five years has been in the realm of
information and communication technology development. ICT projects had been
proposed throughout the agency’s first five years, but few materialized. They did not
become a priority until the federal government made funding available under the
“Connecting Canadians” agenda. Since then, the organization has been involved in
supporting the formation of some 35 Community Access Program sites, the creation of 3
digital collections websites, the delivery of a VolNet program to support technology
adoption in voluntary organizations, creation of a virtual community resource centre, and
most recently the introduction of an e-business support program. The most significant
project funding ever received by the WVDA was $4.5 million for one of twelve national
Smart Community Demonstration Projects.
3
Also in 1998, the UN Centre for Human Settlements called the WVDA one of the 100 Best Practices in the
World for improving living conditions (www.wvda.com).
4
The Province of Nova Scotia awarded the WVDA its highest prize for sustainable development in 1999. The
Government of Nova Scotia also presented the WVDA with the Bay of Fundy Partnership Award for
environmental stewardship in 2001 (www.wvda.com).
5
In 1999, the EDAC and Royal Bank called the WVDA's forestry program (including an industry advisory
group) the best economic development program in Canada. In 2000, the EDAC named the WVDA's "Building
Tomorrow -- Vision 2000" best research paper in the country. In 2001, the WVDA again received the Royal Bank
sponsored Best Economic Development Program Award for the West Nova Agro Commodities Grain & Forage
Centre. And, in 2002, the WVDA won an EDAC Marketing Award for the Acadie 2003-2005 logo
(www.wvda.com).
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10. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
$6,000,000
$5,000,000
$4,000,000
$3,000,000
$2,000,000
$1,000,000
$-
2001 2002 2003 2004
Smart Community Other
Figure 1. Smart Community Spending versus the WVDA’s Other Spending (Source: Compiled by R. MacNeil
from WVDA Annual Audited Financial Statements)
Given the focus the Smart Community Demonstration Project brought to ICT
development in the Western Valley, it is not surprising that there has been concern for the
WVDA’s broader mandate. Shortly after being awarded the project, the community
raised the possibility that it could distract the organization from its other activities. In its
2000 evaluation of the WVDA, Praxis Research and Consulting (2000, p. 22) found that
staying focused on its broad mandate would be one of the WVDA’s key challenges: “the
challenge will be to maintain the community and business focus, and to ensure the
WVDA continues to be a community-based, grass-roots organization.” This finding
stems from comments made by key informants, like the one below:
[The] WVDA has to be careful not to get overwhelmed with [the] Smart
Community Project, they have to be careful with their internal synergy so they
can focus on mandate and other projects (Praxis, 2000, p. 9).
Concern that the WVDA could become an information technology development
group was partly founded: including in-kind contributions, Smart Community expenses
would account for 68% of WVDA’s total spending between April 1, 2000 and March 31,
2004 (See Figure 1). The WVDA had seen considerable success in all sectors of the
economy, and now information technology was appearing to consume nearly three-
quarters of its attention. In the Smart Community Project’s first year (also the first year of
another major project, Learn$ave), the organization’s revenues increased 587.2% and
expenses increased 586.7%. This overwhelming increase in resources and responsibilities
(mostly in the area of ICT development) had many of Praxis’ key respondents jittery.
The concern that information technology, and particularly the Smart Community
Project, would consume the WVDA’s attention was partly propelled by the agency’s
communications efforts. In the year 2000, nearly half (49%) of the WVDA’s earned
- 10 -
11. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
media related to its information technology projects.6 And this public relations penchant
extended into the electronic newsletter the agency started the following year. On average,
forty-eight percent of articles appearing in Western Valley E-News between October 2001
and June 2004 related to ICT projects. At points the proportion of ICT content in the
WVDA’s newsletter reached 73%, closely matching the proportion of its ICT spending.7
Clearly, the majority of the WVDA’s activity over the period related to the Smart
Community Project, and this was reflected in the public eye.
However, it cannot be said that information and communications technologies
have permanently become a univocal distraction in the WVDA’s development efforts.
Concerns that these technologies would distract the WVDA may have been realized, but
only for a brief period. The resources provided by Industry Canada temporarily filtered
much of the agency’s development work through this strategic tool. They temporarily
predisposed the agency’s toolkit. Now that the three-year funding for the Smart
Community Project has drawn to a close, the WVDA’s activities have returned to a more
balanced state. The agency continues to use ICTs, but only in 28% of planned activities
for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.8 The current business plans give the sense that ICTs are
used where appropriate and helpful. Clearly, government funding priorities can sway the
activities of nonprofit organizations. The WVDA was able to revert to a more balanced
state, but not all organizations can necessarily recover from a dramatic shift in priorities.
Nor do all communities need their CED organizations focused on ICT development for
four years.
Clearly the attention given to a local/organizational priority can vary with how
well it suits government priorities. But the literature also illustrates that when a local
priority does not match a government priority it may not be funded at all. Diochon (2003,
p. 268) tells of cases where residents of Isle Madame, Nova Scotia, had to abandon
“viable projects” because the projects were ineligible for government funding. It may
also be that the mechanics of the government funding program are sufficient to
undermine local action. This is often the case when long term sustainability is an issue:
Organizations have determined that it is sometimes better to leave a community
need unattended than to set up a system to help people with a particular need and
then have to eliminate the system when the project funding ends” (Brown and
Troutt, 2003, p. 192).
In the case of the WVDA a major government program was designed in a way that
conflicted with local priorities.
The WVDA uses its core funding ($375,000) to secure additional project funding
each year. In 2003-2004, the agency secured $2.5 million in additional funding ($1.6
million was for the Smart Community Project from Industry Canada and in-kind
partners). The government departments and agencies that are providing these funds have
project-specific requirements for eligible expenses, in-kind contributions, performance
6
Compiled by R. MacNeil from WVDA Media Clippings Archive.
7
Compiled by R. MacNeil from WVDA E-News Archive.
8
Compiled by R. MacNeil from WVDA Business Plan 2004-2005, pp. 20-66.
- 11 -
12. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
measurement, and the involvement of specialized partners (ie. public-private
partnerships). The WVDA must conform to these requirements to obtain project funding.
Each time this happens the agency becomes accountable to another political master.
Unfortunately the priorities of external funding programs do not always match local
priorities. For example, when the WVDA approached Industry Canada to secure funding
for broadband infrastructure it was told to first forge a partnership with the local
incumbent telecommunications provider. But, Project Manager Leslee Fredericks
explains,
Essentially, we would have been providing a one-time subsidy to allow the carrier
to extend its reach further into the outlying communities. Once the project
funding was depleted, the traditional business model would apply, with the same
monthly rates and fees that residents and businesses couldn't afford in the first
place (Canada, 2004a).
The WVDA declined to apply for funding under Industry Canada’s Broadband for Rural
and Northern Development (BRAND) program because the result would not have
benefited the Western Valley community. Instead, the FundyWeb Broadband Board was
formed and financing was found elsewhere. But while the WVDA was able to identify
and address its concerns with the BRAND program it continues to be at risk of changing
government priorities. A mismatch of priorities between the WVDA and non-core
funding partners could result in either a lack of financing for local priorities or an
adjustment of local priorities to fit external funding requirements. Unfortunately external
resources can often determine which local priorities move forward.
Stifling Innovation
The second major theme in the literature is that the government’s accountability
regime is “stifling innovation, risk-taking and creativity” (Phillips and Levasseur, 2004,
p. 458). This is happening in two ways. First, it happens through direct contractual
requirements. Deliverables and anticipated outcomes must be specified in advance and
codified in contribution agreements. Second, it can happen indirectly through a risk-
averse environment that does not accommodate failure. Phillips and Levasseur (Ibid, p.
459) explain,
There was also a sense that innovative problem-solving during the course of a
project was not particularly welcome, because a new innovation might not pass an
audit if it has not been in the original proposal. Therefore, when innovation does
take place it has to be disguised rather than shared.
As will be described below, this was the case with the WVDA’s Smart Community
Project.
It is important to step back to the broadband example for a moment. To get
around the fact that the local telecommunications provider would not engage as a partner,
the WVDA devised the FundyWeb Broadband Board. But rather than recognize this
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13. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
innovative approach to community infrastructure development, Industry Canada ordered
a thorough third-party project review (Boudreau, 2002). The review compared project
progress with the original objectives established over two years prior. After the review
concluded that partnership with the telecommunications provider was inappropriate and
this community-owned fibre optic network was an appropriate step, Industry Canada
agreed to the new project direction. This was not the only funder-imposed limit on the
WVDA’s innovation.
Unfortunately the WVDA had considerable difficulty with private sector partners
and suppliers during the Smart Community Demonstration Project. A number of project
documents note differences between the public and private interest and issues with
quality and performance. Industry Canada’s profile of the Western Valley Smart
Community Demonstration Project notes that changes “in the Internet industry began to
expose flaws in the prevalent business model for online services -- a model that
anticipated significant revenues from advertising and transaction fees” (Canada, 2004b).
Declining costs had made personal computers and Internet connectivity more accessible
in the home. The project’s public access kiosks were not going to generate the high-
volume traffic that would support their business model. “The partner’s business model,
and a lack of concern over community content, was not going to meet the original
objectives and the partnership was dissolved” (Canada, 2004b).
Funding programs like Smart Communities push nonprofits to partner with the
private sector, but in the case of the WVDA nothing was done to equip the organization
for the challenges of managing those partnerships. The WVDA had difficulty enforcing
performance and quality through its partnership agreements. Nonprofit-private
partnerships can be bad for business too, particularly in the information technology
sector. Rapidly changing technology drives a rapidly changing market. However, long-
term projects like the three-year Western Valley Smart Community Demonstration
Project have relatively inflexible predetermined deliverables. Businesses that would
otherwise respond to market changes by adjusting their business model mid-project are
stuck working toward redundant deliverables. This presents significant problems for
government intervention in ICT development, given Moore’s law (the doubling of
transistors every two years). Logically, stronger, more detailed partnership contracts
would improve accountability. But how can a business innovate and maintain its market
orientation under strict contractual requirements? How can long-term community ICT
projects achieve public accountability without tight contracts, and sustainability without
market-driven private sector partners? This challenge will be taken up in the conclusion
of this paper. But what is evident from the WVDA case is that funding agreements which
require private sector collaboration and also stifle innovation pack a doubly negative
punch. In part this is because, as Phillips and Graham (2000, p. 177) say, “forced,
imposed or token collaborations seldom work.”
Stumbling through Measurement
The introductory section of this paper noted the preoccupation of CED
practitioners, the national CED magazine, and the nonprofit sector in general, with issues
of impact and performance measurement. Measurement of CED outcomes is said to be a
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14. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
challenge because of the inherent lengthy time horizons and indirect causality. But there
is no lack of motivation toward outcome measurement in the nonprofit sector. The
practicalities are the impediment (Panel, 1999, p. 39):
The prospect of outcome-based measurement is much more difficult for small
organizations, lacking in human and financial resources, than larger organizations,
and for some types of programs, notably those whose effects are long term in
nature, no matter the size of the organization.
Phillips and Levasseur’s respondents concurred, citing a lack of expertise, time and
resources as the obstacles (2004, p. 462). Many of these respondents also felt that “such
measurement cannot be effectively done on projects that are aimed at long-term change
but funded on short-term horizons” (Ibid.). Brown and Troutt observed that, in response
to pressures from funders, organizations develop systems “to produce efficiently the
myriad of datasets required by funders” (2003, p. 197). This case study cannot speak to
the degree of expertise and resources applied to the measurement challenge at the
WVDA. But the challenges faced by the WVDA are similar to those identified in the
literature and the progression from ad hoc compliance to an integrated data system is
evident.
The WVDA has taken an ad hoc approach to performance management over its
history. Over the past decade it has been challenging to link the agency’s activities with
specific economic improvements. In 2000, Praxis Research and Consulting was hired to
produce the agency’s only formal evaluation. The process was participatory, but had been
required by the provincial government. The final report noted, “…it is difficult to
attribute specific economic outcomes to the activities of this or any RDA” (2000, p. 2).
Instead, Praxis relied on the views of “knowledgeable people in the region” (Ibid.). Since
the Praxis report, the WVDA has produced project reports and evaluations but no
additional evaluation of the entire organization. For example, performance scorecards
were produced for the Smart Community project at the end of 3 out of 12 fiscal quarters.
Scorecards have not been introduced for any other projects at the WVDA. Also, an
extensive management information system was used for the WVDA’s “Learn$ave”
project (one of ten national individual development account pilot projects). For the first
three years of the Learn$ave project the WVDA used this system separately from other
project reporting. The agency’s ad hoc performance management is now giving way to
more formal techniques.
In the summer of 2004 the organization began an ISO 9001:2000 accreditation
process in association with the province’s other RDAs. To manage the paperwork
associated with ISO, and to begin producing all funder reports from a common dataset,
the WVDA decided to design, construct and implement a custom performance
management database. This system is a self-initiated response to the frequent and
complex data requests from the WVDA’s numerous funders and partners. In the near
future all of the WVDA’s activities will be tracked through a system of work orders that
will compare planned performance with actual performance. There is academic evidence
that ISO 9001 can improve performance quality in small and medium businesses
(Hamilton, 1998). But some academics are critical of ISO. Some say that it adds
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15. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
“superfluous bureaucracy…to the system of doing business” (Ibid, p. 16). One critic,
John Seddon, downplays any financial benefits and says that the system only reinforces
organizational hierarchy and control (Ibid.). This disadvantage counters the culture of
empowerment in many innovative organizations. But Hamilton notes that SMEs that can
humanize the ISO process are able to maintain empowerment. This will be a challenge
for the WVDA.
It would appear that the organization has selected a performance management
system that is not entirely compatible with its culture and structure. But the logic is that
this system has already been successfully implemented by other RDAs in the province.
The WVDA seems willing to try ISO 9001 (and the accompanying database) to
coordinate its reporting function and to reduce its accountability costs. Unfortunately it is
not clear whether the agency has accumulated the capacity to undertake this project. It is
possible that the system will be overly focused on short-term deliverables and concrete
action just as the funders have been. If the performance system is improperly designed it
may direct the WVDA toward improper goals. After some time has passed it will be
interesting to examine the impact of this system.
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16. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
Lessons
The Government of Canada rightly expects that nonprofits will respond to
community needs like the private sector responds to markets. But at the same time
nonprofits are expected to be accountable and bureaucratic like government. Part of the
problem is that the government is experiencing its own identity crisis in the new public
management-social governance contradiction. The resulting accountability regime is able
to influence the work of community organizations like the WVDA, albeit unintentionally.
Government funding priorities can sway the activities of nonprofit organizations and a
mismatch of priorities can result in either a lack of financing for local priorities or an
adjustment of local priorities to fit external funding requirements. The structure of
funding programs can stifle innovation, and this is particularly worrisome for all players
when nonprofits are required to work with the private sector. Finally, nonprofit
organizations appear to stumble through performance measurement because their efforts
are difficult to evaluate and because they do not have the capacity to do it properly. The
WVDA has shown a great deal of organizational resilience, but this may not be the case
with all nonprofits.
Government can respond to these challenges by supporting capacity development
and self-regulation. Phillips and Graham (2000, p.183) conclude that greater innovation
and accountability will occur when government is able to step beyond simply making and
monitoring grants and begin “helping to build capacity by contributing to overhead,
lending expertise to voluntary organizations to engage in strategic planning and problem
solving, and providing assistance with research for performance measurement.” The
Panel on Accountability and Governance in the Voluntary sector concurs. Because of the
resources required to produce outcome-based assessments, the Panel recommends that
“funders and governments, which may be mandating or promoting such assessment,
provide the requisite capacity and resources” (Panel, 2000, p. 39). But as Phillips and
Levasseur (2004, pp. 468-469) argue, government cannot narrowly focus on improving
the current instruments:
The need is not simply to recalibrate accountability requirements on contribution
agreements or contracts so that they are less onerous on voluntary organizations
but to establish funding instruments that are better suited to a model of horizontal
governance.
The new department of Social Development Canada has proposed the creation of an
interdepartmental task force on funding instruments (Ibid.) and the Canadian CED
Network has begun discussing these challenges with HRSDC (Lewis, 2005, p. 6). There
seems to be a growing consensus that “regulation by one partner or by an external actor is
not the most useful vehicle for accountability” (Phillips and Graham, 2000, p. 183).
Phillips (2003, p. 45) argues that accountability in the nonprofit sector already involves a
high degree of self-regulation by boards, members, beneficiaries, umbrella organizations
and professional associations. A horizontal governance model does not neglect
accountability to funders, but it does recognize all of these other accountabilities. The
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17. MacNeil: Accountability and CED
ultimate benefit of a horizontal governance approach might be the recognition that the
nonprofit sector is unique and therefore requires its own administrative model and
accountability system.
Addendum: Following the submission of this article, the Western Valley Development
Agency announced it would cease operations effective August 26, 2005. By July 1, the
Municipality of the District of Clare, the Municipality of the District of Digby and the
Municipality of Annapolis County had all withdrawn their funding and the Board of
Directors had initiated steps toward dissolution of the agency.
Ryan MacNeil is Development Officer / Business Specialist with the Hants Regional
Development Authority in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He was employed in a variety of
positions with the Western Valley Development Agency from 1997 – 2000 and is
currently a candidate for the Masters of Applied Environmental Studies in Local
Economic Development at the University of Waterloo. Comments may be addressed to
rmacneil@enterprisecentre.info.
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18. CRACIN Working Paper No. 2005-3
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