Banking on Web 2.0 Approaches to Build a Sustainable Enterprise

This paper approaches the issue of sustainability in business in a less traditional manner by considering more than just the competitive advantage a company has to build in the rivalry with its competitors. Building enterprise sustainability requires a broader understanding of the interdependencies between the company and its human and natural environments. Effective stakeholder engagement is key and online openness and cooperation bring about new conditions for corporate social responsibility. The paper discusses the potential of the Web 2.0 tools for the interaction between the company and its stakeholders and the impact of those tools on the organizational culture in support of sustainability is analyzed. This is particularly relevant during the current economic crisis when most of the efforts go into cutting costs in order to survive.sustainable corporation; corporate social responsibility; organizational change; Web 2.0 culture; CSR 2.0.

The Sustainable University

The paper attempts to leverage theoretical constructs and practical ideas into conceptualizing the “sustainable university”. We propose an academic management approach that could improve the prospects for sustainability of a university’s evolution. Based on a literature review and documentary research, we researched modern trends, patterns and practices of academic management, supportive of sustainability. Like any organization, a university is a structure subjected to the pressures of change and affected by its consequences. Due to its mission and social function, a university should follow an ascending road to high performance and demonstrate staying power and lasting success. It is in this view that we investigated concepts and practices of corporate management applicable to academic management. Our paper is a first attempt to define the concept of sustainability in the academic world.sustainable academic performance; sustainable university; academic management; university branding; university organizational culture; academic leadership.

Measuring and Reporting on Sustainability Performance in the Cement Industry

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance assessment and reporting has drawn a considerable amount of attention. In this context, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has been among the first organizations to develop a framework for sustainability performance reporting, which is synonymous with reporting on CSR actions and results. Now at its 3rd edition, GRI offers a very detailed set of indicators that describe CSR performance as envisioned by the framework. Yet, GRI itself warns that its set of performance indicators is not universally applicable to companies in all industries and, in addition, certain areas of industrial activities may need additional indicators for a reliable and realistic assessment of CSR performance. The Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), a global project of a group of cement producers with worldwide presence, that are also members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), has been early to recognize the limits of GRI and develop an industry specific approach. The paper analyzes the pathway the cement industry has pursued in order to improve its performance in mitigating social and environmental impacts, and report on the results. Based on direct experience with and firsthand knowledge of the cement industry, the set of alternative performance indicators developed by CSI is presented and a parallel is drawn between that set and the general-purpose indicators developed by GRI. The approach taken by CSI to assure compliance of the quantitative data with accepted reporting principles such as accuracy, reliability, and comparability is also detailed and commented on.cement; measuring; reporting; sustainability.

Middleware-based Database Replication: The Gaps between Theory and Practice

The need for high availability and performance in data management systems has been fueling a long running interest in database replication from both academia and industry. However, academic groups often attack replication problems in isolation, overlooking the need for completeness in their solutions, while commercial teams take a holistic approach that often misses opportunities for fundamental innovation. This has created over time a gap between academic research and industrial practice. This paper aims to characterize the gap along three axes: performance, availability, and administration. We build on our own experience developing and deploying replication systems in commercial and academic settings, as well as on a large body of prior related work. We sift through representative examples from the last decade of open-source, academic, and commercial database replication systems and combine this material with case studies from real systems deployed at Fortune 500 customers. We propose two agendas, one for academic research and one for industrial R&D, which we believe can bridge the gap within 5-10 years. This way, we hope to both motivate and help researchers in making the theory and practice of middleware-based database replication more relevant to each other.Comment: 14 pages. Appears in Proc. ACM SIGMOD International Conference on Management of Data, Vancouver, Canada, June 200

Sortir de «son» territoire en périphérie parisienne : un mouvement géographique, langagier et idéologique

International audienceThis paper deals with a group rarely studied, that of « good students » of schools considered as difficult, in working-class suburbs of Paris ; our presentation focuses on students admitted to the competition for admission in « Sciences Po », a prestigious high school in Paris, according to a special procedure created as an affirmative action, in order to promote the diversification of students’ profiles.We show, through examples, how successful candidates are firstly required to form a project to go outside the territory (from suburbs to the high school in Paris) and to have a social ambition. This encourages them to bring it in line their ideology and language resources (including the "suburb" accent). The jury seems to validate this linguistic and discursive progress by deciding whether or not each candidate is admitted to a new geographical and social territory.Cet article traite d'un public peu étudié, celui des « bons élèves » d'un lycée considéré comme difficile, situé en périphérie parisienne ; notre présentation se focalise sur les élèves admis au concours de Sciences Po, grande école parisienne, selon une procédure spéciale d'admission mise en place comme action positive, pour favoriser la diversification du public. Nous montrerons, par des exemples, comment les candidats et candidates qui réussissent sont amenés à former tout d'abord un projet de sortie du territoire (du lycée de périphérie vers la grande école parisienne) et une ambition sociale. Ceci les incite à mettre en conformité leur idéologie et leurs ressources langagières (notamment l'accent « de banlieue ») avec ce projet. Le jury semble surtout valider ce mouvement langagier et discursif en décidant d'accorder ou non l'admission dans un nouveau territoire géographique et social

Making Automated Testing of Cloud Applications an Integral Component of PaaS

Traditional testing is inadequate for the complexity of modern cloud application software stacks. While the platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model has streamlined application development and deployment, its multiple abstraction layers and dependencies have made testing more difficult. We argue that a modern PaaS offering should include a facility to thoroughly and automatically test a deployed cloud application with only little developer effort. To support this vision, we propose layered parameterized tests (LPTs) -- generalized integration tests suitable for cloud applications with multiple processing layers. From LPTs, a testing facility automatically generates concrete tests using layered symbolic execution, which focuses on exercising developer-written application logic instead of PaaS library code. We present our design of an automated testing system built on these concepts and demonstrate its use for a modern PaaS

Phonétique, sociolinguistique, sociophonétique : histoires parallèles et croisements

International audienceIs it possible to provide a clear and unambiguous definition for the expanding field of sociophonetics ? Starting from this question, this article introduces the respective contributions of phonetics and sociolinguistics and the role their interactions have played inthe genesis and development of sociophonetic studies. Avenues of research that have traditionally received less attention are also highlighted. Particular attention is paid to the phonetic and/or sociolinguistic studies of French which have contributed to a description of French sound variability that incorporates social information. This introductory article brings together research from a wide range of studies on perception and social meaning of pronunciation variants in French.Est-il possible de définir de façon univoque et de circonscrire la sociophonétique, qui connait un essor important ces dernières années ? Partant de cette question, cet article introductif retrace les contributions respectives de la phonétique et de la sociolinguistique et le rôle de leurs interactions dans la genèse et le développement du domaine sociophonétique. Les directions de recherche encore peu explorées sont également mises en évidence. Une attention particulière est accordée aux études de la dimension phonique du français qui, bien qu'elles ne se soient que rarement définies comme sociophonétiques, ont peu à peu participé à l'élaboration d'une description socialement informée de la variabilité des unités sonores de cette langue, tant en ce qui concerne leur production que leur perception ou la construction de leur signification sociale