Posts

Seth Godin on business ethics: It comes down to this: only people can have ethics. Ethics, as in, doing the right thing for the community even though it might not benefit you or your company financially. Pointing to the numbers (or to the boss) is an easy refuge for someone who would like to duck the issue, but the fork in the road is really clear. You either do work you are proud of, or you work to make the maximum amount of money. Read more...

Fair use of copyright, from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s ruling in Authors Guild vs Google Books: The ultimate goal of copyright is to expand public knowledge and understanding, which copyright seeks to achieve by giving potential creators exclusive control over copying of their works, thus giving them a financial incentive to create informative, intellectually enriching works for public consumption. This objective is clearly reflected in the Constitution’s empowerment of Congress “To promote the Progress of Science… by securing for limited Times to Authors… the exclusive Right to their respective Writings. Read more...

Sobre el uso razonable o legítimo del copyright, de la sentencia de la Corte (Norteamericana) de Apelaciones del Segundo Circuito en el caso Authors Guild vs Google Books: La finalidad última del copyright es expandir el conocimiento y entendimiento público, cosa que el copyright intenta otorgando a autores potenciales control exclusivo sobre la reproducción de sus trabajos, dándoles así un incentivo financiero para crear obras informativas e intelectualmente enriquecedoras para el consumo del público. Read more...

Great piece by Seth Godin about Infrastructure. The ignored secret behind successful organizations (and nations) is infrastructure. Not the content of what’s happening, but the things that allow that content to turn into something productive. (…) Here’s something that’s unavoidably true: Investing in infrastructure always pays off. Always. Not just most of the time, but every single time. Sometimes the payoff takes longer than we’d like, sometimes there may be more efficient ways to get the same result, but every time we spend time and money on the four things [Transportation, Expectation, Education, Civility], we’re surprised at how much of a difference it makes. Read more...

Working from home and working remotely have been getting more attention from companies in the past years, as can be seen from articles published in business magazines like Harvard Business Review and Forbes1. Among others benefits of having remote workers, executives mention the posibility to seek for talent globally, regardless of location; improvement in retention rates; increase in productivity; and reduced office space costs2. Another interesting question is why do employees want to work from home. Read more...