A bell system view of videotex

Within the last few years videotex has attracted considerable attention. Unfortunately, but as frequently is the case with novel services that are still evolving, a precise definition of videotex is somewhat difficult to obtain. To some people the term videotex applies to a wide variety of time-shared computer services for the home and business market, while to others, the term videotex is very specific perhaps best exemplified by the UK Prestel service. In its most narrow and specific meaning, videotex is a subset of online, time-shared computer services. It utilizes the home TV set for display to access a large, central database of frames of general information in colour with graphics. The database is organized in a tree fashion, and the main target is the home market.     

The public service potential of videotex and teletext

There are many public service applications for videotext such as closed captioning, librabry resources, educational aids, and dissemination of agricultural, community, and government information. Because videotext developed in a commercial environment, these applications have not yet been fully realized. However, a number of small scale experiments are being conducted in several countries. The author reviews the most noteworthy of these experiments. He also raises a number of policy questions concerning future use of vodeotext for public service.     

The videotex marketplace: A theory of evolution

Prospects for videotex in general and for business videotex applications in particular, are still highly controversial and speculative. There is growing agreement, however, that the future of videotex as a mass medium may hinge on its initial acceptance as a business tool. The authors present their views on the factors that will influence the use of videotex in business; how it may evolve as a business tool; and how its early impact in the business environment may eventually be the cause of its acceptance as a mass consumer medium.     

The Green thumb videotex experiment: Evaluation and policy implications

The authors report on an evaluation of Green Thumb, a videotex experiment carried out by the Cooperative Extension Service and the US Department of Agriculture. Green Thumb provided marketing, weather and other information to 200 farm families in Kentucky. The experiment was a successful demonstration of the concept of providing farming information via new communication technologies, but the specific configuration and organizational arrangements will have to be improved in future systems. Policy issues concerning the role of USDA in future agricultural systems are discussed.     

油气田与风光电力融合发展研究

随着风电和光伏发电成本竞争力越来越强,国家财政补贴退坡、平价上网推进力度也逐步加大,在光伏发电建设管理方面开始实行光伏发电补贴竞价政策。油气田企业自备电网可以通过市场化交易,就近消纳分布式光伏发电和风电,条件非常便利,具有降低用电价格的潜力,同时"绿证"和碳减排指标的降本成效显著。油气田开发过程中推广网电钻井和压裂,油藏在开采后期实施二氧化碳驱、减氧空气驱等三次采油措施,开发利用油区地热资源,以及利用枯竭油气藏埋藏二氧化碳,都将新增大量用电需求。油气田企业依托自备电网、油区道路、土地和市场等优势,发展风光发电业务潜力巨大。在油区部署煤炭地下气化业务的综合优势突出,有望在枯竭油气田基础上开创一项"清洁电力+煤炭地下气化+二氧化碳埋藏"绿色产业,实现油、气、煤化石能源与清洁能源融合发展,促进传统油气田企业向清洁能源生产企业的转型发展。     

Predicting Failure of Savings & Loan Associations

Early-warning systems are intended to provide regulators with identification of problem institutions sooner than is possible with the present system of call reports and periodic on-site examinations. Given an earlier indication of potential problems, resources can be focused on those institutions most in need of monitoring, thus potentially reducing both the number of failures and FSLIC financial assistance in the remaining failures. While some early-warning systems were developed in the mid-1970s for use by commercial bank regulators, very little attention has been focused on developing similar systems for the thrift industry. To address this issue, multiple discriminant analysis was used to develop an early-warning system for savings and loan associations in the Boston district of the Federal Home Loan Bank system. The results suggest that use of this model would have given signals of impending trouble well before the actual failure occurred. Consequently, an early-warning system could provide information to regulators sooner, permitting scarce resources to be allocated more effectively. In addition, earlier intervention could reduce the amount of FSLIC financial assistance required. By intervening earlier, FSLIC may be able to arrest the failure-promoting activities in which the association is engaged.     

The economics of industrial R & D

The relationship between research and commercial operation is examined in terms of production using a simple Cobb-Douglas production function, where output is expressed in terms of inputs of labour, capital and‘technical progress’. The model was tested in a single company environment by multiple regression analysis of output as the dependent variable on various measures of research, labour and capital. The results of the regression analysis are in full agreement with the model as outlined and the assumption that output is dependent simultaneously on labour, capital and the cumulative research investment.     

Ten years of R & D Management-some major themes: the role of communication in R & D

Fifteen papers on the role of interpersonal communication in R & D appearing in the first ten volumes of R & D Management are reviewed. The conclusions reached by the various contributors on three major themes are compared. The themes are: the relation of communication to performance, the effect of physical separation on communication rate, and the role of communication stars in information transfer. A clear division of opinion emerges on the extent to which managers can impose or create effective communication patterns as distinct from merely being able to stimulate those that already exist. Differences in experimental approach and the existence of methodological gaps prevent any judgment being made between the two viewpoints based only on the evidence in the papers under review.     

Productivity Levels & Productivity Change Under Unionism

This paper examines how unions affect the rate of productivity change. The direction of union impact cannot be predicted from economic theory. Firms may select either more productive technologies to offset higher union wages or less productive technologies to keep union wage demands in line. Evidence from manufacturing indicates that unions have not affected productivity growth; in construction, productivity growth has been much slower where there is a high initial level of unionization or where unionization is growing.     

Assessment of profiles in R & D: a tool for analysis and development of R & D potential

A study sponsored by the State Committee for Science and Technical Progress of Bulgaria aimed at providing a theoretically sound and easy to apply method for the needs of R & D management on government, organization and team levels, to be used in assessing and managing both present and future R & D potential.
The method draws inferences about R & D potential from the accumulated experience and performance of the researchers, analysed along research topics. A specific 'man-topic unit of analysis helps identify individual researchers, teams and projects' profiles and also helps translate the specific characteristics of R & D work and the requirements for R & D internal effectiveness into the language of R & D management.     

Creativity and organization in pharmaceuticals R & D

This paper reviews the results of a study carried out in conjunction with the Chemical and Allied Products Industry Training Board to link internal environmental factors of an organization to measures of creativity in R & D in the pharmaceutical industry. The methods adopted have been described and the preliminary results of the pilot study carried out in one organization in order to develop, refine and test methodology. It is hoped in the future that the techniques developed will be extended to provide comparisons in other organizations in the pharmaceutical industry in order to draw firm conclusions. The paper also sets the study in the context of a brief historical review of other studies in this field. It is concluded that the investigation has evolved a methodology capable of identifying and measuring some facilitatory and inhibitory influences on creativity in an R & D environment, allowing comparisons to be drawn between environmental influences in different parts of the same organization.     

Italian Textile Machinery Workshop in Hangzhou & Wuxi

The Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT) and the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) will hold two technical workshops on Italian textile machinery for the production of technical     

Knowledge centres: A technology & engineering hybrid

A Knowledge Centre is defined as a group of experts in a specific field, with some designated equipment and software.
Such groups were recognized for the first time (in a given matrix organization) as the real carriers of the accumulated knowledge of science and technology disciplines.
To be reckoned as a knowledge centre (K.C.), the group has to be ready to participate in development projects, as well as to lead research for improved technologies and advance knowledge in its field.
It was found that by nurturing knowledge centres, the organization has succeeded in per-forming an interdisciplinary R&D while at the same time maintaining and advancing a strong technology base. The K.C. has some distinctive lifecycle phases. Consequently, the organization applies different considerations and different planning and control methods for each phase. An emerging K.C. needs sensitive care and support. A mature K.C. calls for firm guidance and control, a declining K.C. should be directed to another field, or be dismantled.
This report also describes some of the procedures employed by the organization to maintain and control its K.C.s, and a management attempt to use them as a tool for managing the advancement of technology within the organization. The authors predict that a system of K.C.s may be defined and serve other R&D laboratories in a similar way. This thesis has to be verified by additional studies. Some additional areas for further research are identified, too.     

Applications of computers in R & D management

R & D Managers use computers extensively in solving technical problems. This paper examines the use they make of computers in solving Management problems. Applications of computers to various aspects of R & D programme formulation, project planning, technical information storage and retrieval, management information systems, and computer-aided training have been investigated by many companies and, in some cases, have been implemented. Some of the techniques have become well established but others are still at a development stage. No attempt has been made to evaluate the techniques described.
This topic was the subject of a study by a Working Group of the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA), and a report 'Computers as Aids to R & D Management' was distributed to members of the Association. EIRMA has now agreed to release information contained in that report and this paper is based on that information updated by the author, who was Chairman of the EIRMA Working Group.