MAY 29, 2009

5 Forces Summary 5/29/09

This week’s 5 Forces Summary touches on topics ranging from one of the deadliest diseases in the world - diabetes, a new office for the White House, unemployment issues in Spain, a new study that links liver disease to pollution, and a new technology that improves electronic publishing by adding computer-readable labels to content.

Enjoy your weekends!

• Globalization
  Diabetes and Asia via FitSugar
  A study in the Journal of American Medicine Association highlights how in Asia the age range of people affected by diabetes is significantly younger than the West. In western countries the disease affects people between the ages of 60 to 79 years, but in Asia the age range is 20 to 59 years.
• Innovation
  White House Creates Office Of Innovation via NPR
  The Obama administration has created the new post of White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
• Im(migration)
  Immigration Policy a Casualty of Unemployment in Spain via World Politics Review
  The majority of those affected by layoffs in Spain are temporary and self-employed workers, 800,000 of whom lost their jobs in the first quarter of 2009. Many of these jobs losses involve immigrants and the construction sector. A contributing factor is Spain’s famously lenient immigration policy.
• Saturation
  Pollution may contribute to rise in liver disease via Reuters
  Pollutants may be contributing to a sharp increase in the number of cases of liver disease. As many as a third of U.S. adults showed signs of having liver disease not caused by normal triggers such as alcohol abuse and viral hepatitis.
• Personalization
  Semantic technology gains publishing foothold via CNET
  OpenCalais, a Thomson Reuters project to improve electronic publishing by adding computer-readable labels to content, has attracted the attention of several media publishing organizations, including CNET.