All posts tagged business

Where’d Everybody Go?

As a quick followup to the Apple/Nike piece, consider Nick Bilton’s recent blog post over at the New York Times.  It is entitled “Disruptions: Too Much Silence on Working Conditions.”  In the wake of Apple’s troubles with worker issues at Foxconn plants, he notes the continuing silence of  other tech companies that use Foxconn to manufacture their products.

In the last week I have asked Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Microsoft and others about their reports on labor conditions. Most responded with a boilerplate public relations message. Some didn’t even respond.

(more…)

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in justice, labor rights
Tagged , , ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 18, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/18/everybody-pile-on/

Apple’s “Nike Moment”

In their April 13-26 edition, the National Catholic Reporter published a piece that I wrote on the explosion of press about labor rights issues at the manufacturing facilities of Foxconn, the company that makes many of Apple’s most popular devices.  The article compares Apple with Nike, which has had its share of labor problems starting in the 1990s.

As a brand, [Nike] evoked the best in American culture: commitment, achievement, competitiveness, cool, and a sense of fair play. But as tales of their rights abuses spread, Nike became a cultural symbol of everything that was wrong with capitalism and globalization.

Unlike Nike, though, Apple seems to have made it out of the controversy unscathed.  But how?  The piece reflects on some of the dynamics involved in the case, as well as some of the long term implications.

2 Comments
by Jim Caccamo on April 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in justice, labor rights
Tagged ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 18, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/18/apples-nike-moment/

Privacy Is About More Than Just Fear

Last week, Josh Constine over at Tech Crunch wrote an interesting piece on online data security. It is a worthwhile read (even if a bit flawed).  His thesis was that innovation is being hampered by public over-reaction to potential problems with the security of private data at social networking sites and in apps. Constine seems frustrated that Despite their own research that showed little danger of data compromise on Facebook apps, The Wall Street Journal still wrote “a hit piece” that warned people about privacy dangers at the site. Privacy concerns are, it seems, a fiction foisted upon an ignorant public by an corrupt media.

(more…)

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 15, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in fortitude, human development
Tagged , , ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 15, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/15/privacy-is-about-more-than-fear/

Paying (for) Attention

This past week, three stories about advertising caught my eye.

1) Ad Age ran a story on an Innerscope Research study for Time Warner about media device use during non-working hours. Setting aside all of the questionable aspects of the report and study (using the thoroughly debunked category of “digital natives,” referring to people as consumers, and the reliability of a study with a sample size of 30), the study confirmed what we already know from experience: younger people tend to switch between media devices more than older people: 30 times per hour vs. 17. I can’t stop changing the channel on the one device (tv); kids change channels between devices. The big takeaway was that you have to advertise in creative and emotionally engaging ways if you want to be noticed.

2) Yet it may not be as simple as all that. VatorNews reported on a Nielson survey of “28,000 online consumers in 56 countries throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America.”

(more…)

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in communication, prudence, trust
Tagged , ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 13, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/13/paying-for-attention/

Technical Fix to a Social Problem

Why is it that when your cellphone is stolen, someone can just register it with a new account and start using it? In order to get service, you have to provide a service provider with the electronic serial number of the phone. So, they already have massive databases of valid serial numbers. Why not just have an something in the database record that records that the phone has been reported as stolen? That way, it can’t be reactivated, rendering it useless to steal? Technically speaking, it’s a pretty easy thing. But it would be a great thing for cell phone owners.

(more…)

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 11, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in prudence
Tagged , , ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 11, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/11/technical-solution-to-a-tech-problem/

Who pays the cost of shipping?

It’s Good Friday today, the day that Christians mark (“celebrate” seems wrong, somehow) the suffering and death of Jesus. Whether or not you think Jesus is the savior, it makes for a good time to reflect on who ends up suffering for things they never did wrong.

This morning, the Catholic Moral Theology blog published a piece I wrote on the lives of warehouse workers. Over the past year, there have been some great investigative pieces by journalists on conditions for workers in warehouses for online shopping companies. The most recent, “I Was A Warehouse Wage Slave” by Mother Jones’s labor rights reporter Mac McClelland, is a great, but sad, read. It is a must for anyone who buys stuff online a lot.

(more…)

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in justice, labor rights
Tagged , ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 6, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/06/who-pays-the-cost-of-shipping/

Newer Posts »