Ugandan Jewish coffee seller J.J. Keki, left, leader
of Uganda's Abayudaya Jewish community, with his son and two colleagues. Photo
by Laura Wetzler.
By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is Everybody’s Bach:
ELoyalty Corporation, an enterprise CRM
consulting company, has posted a net
loss of $2.9 million for the period ended July 2, 2005.
For the second quarter of 2005, eLoyalty reported total
revenue of $19.6 million, an increase of 8 percent over the comparable period
last year, but a net loss of $2.9 million, “which is unfavorable by $2.5
million,” according to company officials’ rather elegant phrasing, “when
compared to the second quarter of 2004.”
The net loss available to common shareholders was $0.52 a
share, compared to a net loss of $0.13 a share in the second quarter of 2004.
ELoyalty realized non-GAAP “Adjusted Earnings” measure loss of $0.2 million for
the second quarter of 2005.
In addition, the company recorded a restructuring charge of
$0.5 million in the second quarter of 2005. The charge was for severance and
other expenses primarily related to the elimination of two Vice President
positions and a small number of other personnel reductions.
…
Finally, someone putting technology to good use.
“Have you ever had the experience where you call someone up
and they don’t seem to be paying attention to you? “ asks Anmol Madan in the
abstract for a project he leads at the MIT Media Lab. If so, you
might need the Jerk-O-Meter.
As described by graduate researcher Madan, it’s “a real-time speech feature analysis
application that runs on your VoIP phone or cell phone that remedies
precisely that experience.”
The Jerk-O-Meter uses “speech features for activity and
stress (and soon empathy) to measure if you are ‘being a jerk’ on the phone,”
the abstract claims. “The phone displays messages in case you are, and can also
be set up to inform the person on the other end of the line that you’re
extremely busy.”
The current version of the application runs in Linux on the
Zaurus VoIP phone.
The Associated Press
reports that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are “developing
software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to
rate people – on a scale of 0 to 100 percent – on how engaged they are in a
conversation.”
Madan says the tool might assist telephone sales: “Think of
a situation where you could actually prevent an argument,” he tells the AP. “Just
having this device can make people more attentive because they know they’re
being monitored.”
The software measures levels of stress and empathy in a
person’s voice, keeps track of how often someone is speaking and pops up
warning messages such as “Don’t be a jerk!” or “Be a little nicer.” Or you
could win the “Wow, you’re a smooth talker” commendation.
First CoffeeSM frankly sees this as a boon to politicians such as Hillary Clinton,
who invest great deals of time, effort and money in trying to be appealing and
humanly likeable to Earthlings. Delivering their stump speeches in front of the
Jerk-O-Meter is one way of learning to imitate the way flesh and blood human
beings who believe what they’re saying sound like.
…
Siemens Venture Capital GmbH, a subsidiary
of Siemens AG, is announcing a strategic
investment in Dune Networks, a provider of merchant silicon for traffic
management and scalable switching fabrics.
“To enable the emerging converged network, carrier-class
equipment needs to be flexible and able to guarantee bandwidth not only per
subscriber but also per each subscriber-application,” said Gerd Goette,
Investment Partner at Siemens Venture Capital, adding that Dune’s traffic
management technology “together with its scalable fabric” has let Siemens “develop
a product portfolio, around a single technology, which addresses the service
provider’s traffic management requirements in the Metro, Core and Edge markets.”
…
A tip of the coffee pot to David Gardner, named TyMetrix’s Chief Technology Officer.
TyMetrix, a CT Corporation company and Wolters Kluwer business does web-based
e-billing and matter management solutions for corporate law departments, claims
organizations, law firms, and other legal support vendors.
Gardner is responsible for product development, security,
quality assurance, and all technology platforms and infrastructure that support
TyMetrix engagements. Prior to joining TyMetrix, he spent 12 years with Pitney
Bowes.
…
Vodafone New Zealand is announcing the launch
of 3G enabled services. From this week on, Vodafone customers can access
what company officials are calling “the latest mobile services that this new
technology makes possible, such as simultaneous voice and data sessions, for
example video calling.”
Vodafone New Zealand Director of Technology Jeni Mundy says
the launch of 3G enabled services is “a huge milestone” for Vodafone’s 1.9
million customers and the New Zealand mobile market.
Mundy said Vodafone was bringing “the world’s most popular
mobile technology,” 3GSM, to its New Zealand customers to “ensure that they
have the best and most advanced technology available with advantages such as an
extensive roaming footprint.”
Nokia is
providing the complete 3G core and radio networks, supplying, deploying and
testing the equipment in the field. It’s also providing 3G network management,
monitoring and maintenance services in an arrangement known as Managed
Services, which means it’ll run the network to Vodafone’s specifications
allowing them to move away from day-to-day operations of their networks.
Vodafone New Zealand Ltd is part of Vodafone Group Plc, which
has more than 165 million proportionate customers worldwide.
As at June 2005 Vodafone New Zealand has more than 1.9
million customers.
What’s a “proportionate” customer?
…
According to JTA
News (“Global News Service Of the Jewish People”), the recent release of Mirembe
Kawomera, or “Delicious Peace,” a Fair Trade – and kosher – coffee
is produced by a new cooperative of
Jewish, Muslim and Christian coffee farmers from the Mbale region of Uganda.
“We think this coalition is unique in all of Africa,” says
coffee farmer J. J. Keki, leader of the 700-member Abayudaya Ugandan Jewish
community that is at the core of the project.
Laura Wetzler, the Uganda coordinator for Kulanu, a
Washington-based Jewish charity that promotes community-empowerment projects
around the world contacted fair trade Thanksgiving Coffee Co.’s head Paul
Katzeff and told him of the cooperative of 400 coffee farmers organized by
Keki, “who was going door-to-door asking his Muslim and Christian neighbors to
join the Abayudaya Jews to improve their general lot.”
The Abayudaya are descendants of a Ugandan general who
adopted Judaism in the early 20th century, according to JTA: “Nearing
extinction during the reign of the dictator Idi Amin, the community revitalized
itself in the 1980s and drew the interest of Kulanu, which sent a delegation in
1995 along with a Conservative rabbi, who formally converted the community.”
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