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How do the overarching digital strategies of today's 21st century enterprise relate to social business and smart mobility? It's a question I've been asked more and more frequently as these two major new trends become primary areas of focus in organizations around the world.
The reality is today that large organizations continue to struggle with how they are organizing around digital strategy in general. In this context I'm referring primarily to Web strategy — including the various aspects of a business it touches — since that's almost entirely where digital is headed as a whole. One of the aspects that stands out the most when I've worked with companies recently is that most traditional businesses often have a dramatically lower level of maturity around digital delivery of their capabilities than native Web firms. This despite it being almost twenty years since the Web arrived. It's clear there is significant impedance between the way digital business works and the way many companies still operate.
Updating Digital Strategy For Social Business and Mobile
The long-term ramifications of the Web continue to be felt by most organizations, particularly since the evolution of the Internet has not only picked up pace, it's now profoundly situated in the way society and culture works today. Businesses do increasingly feel the need to catch up and reconcile themselves with these broad changes. Conscious attempts at this include formulating a comprehensive view of what digital strategy means today and this is what we'll explore in some detail here.
Though recent global trends such as social media and next-generation mobile have both appeared over the last five years, an eternity in the online world, most businesses are still only engaging peripherally in these areas. They are the proverbial digital immigrants often significantly behind the curve compared to their Web native counterparts. While most companies have started using social media or providing mobile experiences, the efforts are often experimental and too-often poorly integrated with their older channels such as Web presence, traditional marketing, e-mail, etc. to be truly effective or transformative to their organization.
The good news is that it's abundantly clear that companies clearly perceive the need to change, even if they are experiencing continuing trouble in deciding on how best to proceed. For example, a new and more detailed breakdown of Jive's recent social business survey shows that while three quarters of senior executives believe social media is of major importance to their business right now, only 27% think it's a top strategic priority. However, as I recently explored in detail, there has already been a tectonic shift in the way the world communicates and engages. Traditional channels are declining rapidly in effectiveness, while new channels with entirely new sensibilities and modes of behavior are replacing them.
We also should not forget that the shift to social business is far more than just a channel switch for the world population. Along with it comes a global behavior change in how the people engage with each other. This discussion holds true to a lesser extent of next-gen mobility as well. More importantly, while social business and mobility are sometimes perceived separately, a recent report on mobility by Forrester's TJ Keitt, explains why they are so deeply connected and belong together, technology strategists "must now must have a mobile-first mindset when designing workplace policies."
Crafting The Big Picture
As I alluded to above, a major question I've been getting from senior executives quite consistently recently is how these changes relate to the existing digital strategies they've been crafting and refining over the years. What they really want to know is if the strategic application of social media and next-gen mobility can be smoothly incorporated or otherwise slipstreamed into what they're doing today. The short answer is that yes, there is clear overlap and connectedness in this space. But the less happy news is that that successful admission requires much deeper rethinking of the way the business operates, particularly the timeless issues of control, trust, and risk. This is part of the impedance I referred to earlier and is much harder for organizations to work through, which is why many have done so only partially. Consequently, much social business and next-gen mobility consists of "paving the cowpath" instead of getting down to the difficult yet rewarding work of transformation the organization to new modes of operation. Fortunately, part of the solution lies in clearly and explicitly connecting your digital strategy with social business and next-gen mobility instead of implementing it side-by-side or in a vacuum. Of course, it's usually easier said than done.
We should not forget that most digital strategies are reflections of the parts of the business that were involved in created them. Typically such initiatives are medium to long-term planning tools for marketing or customer relationship management (CRM) departments. Sometimes they are more B2B, Web presence, or e-commerce focused. But whatever their primary goal, the digital strategy picture of today's business landscape must be complex, nuanced, and filled with a great many (and still growing) critical activities that must be addressed to remain relevant in the marketplace.
Depicted above is an up-to-date representation of the major moving parts of a modern digital strategy, including how social business and next-gen mobility relate. It is not exhaustive but I believe it does successfully connect the main elements of Web strategy to the two major new components that most companies have now added to their operational priority lists in the last two years. Though every company's digital strategy will vary, there are typically components of social business and mobile that aren't part of a digital strategy proper yet are a pre-requisite for success. The level of appropriate cross-over is largely up to organizations to decide and prioritize for themselves. I should note that the view of digital strategy shown here holds fairly true for corporations, government, and non-government organizations and indeed, for most entities large and small. Note that this view does not include management, budgeting, policy, or governance functions, which are separate from this functional view of digital strategy.
The Elements of Digital Strategy
Exploring the visual conception of digital strategy above, here is a brief tour through the various elements and how they are connected to and reinforce each other. These explanations are neither complete or sophisticated enough to use as their own basis. For that, you'll need to delve into the subjects themselves and map your own requirements onto them. When possible, I'm provided supporting links and explanations to assist in this.
The list below travels roughly clockwise around the digital strategy visual above starting with social media marketing:
- Social Media Marketing. One of the earliest areas of focus in social business, social media marketing remains a major strategic focus in most organizations and will be for some time. Covering an enormous amount of territory, social media marketing is typically the easiest and least risky to start with and is increasingly affecting all areas of digital strategy. Consequently, social media marketing is farthest along in capability in many organization skill levels, capability development in areas such as community management, tool selection, and so on. One of the biggest challenges in this area remains the impedance between push marketing and engagement marketing. In general, simply copying push marketing techniques into social media channels doesn't work well. The best results come from strategically partnering with the marketplace to jointly co-create the the desired outcomes and network effects. Social media marketing is now near the end of its beginning, and a lot has been learned about how to unlock real ROI with it.
- Demand Generation. A relatively new aspect of digital marketing, demand generation consists of targeted digital awareness efforts to drive an understanding and interest in a product or service. Most frequently used in business to business, public sector, and longer term business-to-consumer (B2C) sales cycles, demand generation involves multiple areas of marketing. It has been described as the fusion of marketing and sales into a holistic effort using sophisticated support tools that combine data management and intelligence to reach strategic goals. Effective social business integration has also been appearing recently in demand generation platforms like Eloqua.
- Search Engine Optimization. Long a part of Web strategy, SEO is as important as ever as the proliferation of content accelerates. With pace of content creation increasing, the vast majority of it being user generated, SEO is the intentional treatment of Web markup to ensure that content, traditional and social media both, are readily discoverable. SEO is important both externally as well as internally to an organization and remains a key aspect of digital strategy, though internal implementation is typically neglected to the extent that productivity and efficiency suffers in many organizations making it difficult to locate information on intranets. SEO itself continues to evolve and expand as video, speech recognition (for audio), semantic, and social search engine optimization have entered the picture.
- Search Engine Marketing. Tightly coupled with SEO capabilities, SEM is the marketing aspect of SEO to promote Web sites and content to increase their visibility for sales and branding purposes.
- Social Networking Services (SNS) Apps. Applications embedded into social networks have become particularly significant as engagement mechanisms via the co-location of a convenient and potent user experience within the social networking experience. By tapping into users' activity streams and social graphs, social networking applications have both the immediacy and full social context of their users to create a high-impact and shared social experience. SNS apps run the gamut of purposes including informational, productivity, gaming, and marketing. Most popular in the consumer world, where market leader Facebook has hundreds of thousands of available apps, social apps are now beginning to move seriously into the enterprise as well.
- Online Advertising. While all businesses must have an online advertising strategy, I find that it is underaddressed in all but the most sophisticated Web industry firms where arbitrage and adaptive ad strategy is commonplace. For example, Amazon allows competitive ads on their own product pages, allowing them to generate revenue on the momentary visitor engagement, even if the customer decide to purchase a product elsewhere. Advertising now goes well beyond text ads into sophisticated user experiences that leverage rich media, social media, cross-platform experiences, contests, co-creation, and carefully designed demand generation funnels.
- Consumer Social Media. The early world of consumer social media consisting of blogs, wikis, and simple social networks has exploded into a sophisticated world of global social networks, mobile applications, and aggregation involving the majority of the developed world population. Social business strategy connects to this complex landscape by exploring the many motivations and options in engaging with consumer social media to create better business outcomes. I find that many strategists are still not aware that most of the world now uses social media for communication and collaboration, over virtually all other forms of human interaction. Thus, if your organization is looking at engaging the marketplace, consumer social media is at the top of the list even while legacy channels still need to exist for continuity and consistency, while they still bring value.
- Social CRM. Customer relationship management has been moving into the social sphere for several years now, though the practice is still early in the maturity stages. CRM itself covers the gamut from sales, marketing, customer services, and technical support, and each one of these aspects can benefit from social media. Pre-sales Facebook engagement, online support communities, and crowdsourced technical support are typical uses of Social CRM, with world class examples being GetSatisfaction and Fixya, respectively, have shown that CRM costs can be significant reduced while simultaneously increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Customer Communities. A while back I noted that the best customer communities were often created by customers themselves, instead of by the companies whose products or services they care about. Intentionally creating a successful community is still more of an art form than science, yet some companies have been very successful at it, most notably SAP. Customer communities, which started as little more than online discussion forums, have gone on to become a key differentiator in the way that businesses engage with the marketplace. In this new era, the traditional static corporate Web site is usually a marginalized brochure, with the more meaningful and productive aspects of customer engagement taking place in the structured and unstructured activities of online communities.
- Community Management. A vital yet growing aspect of digital strategy, community management provides the needed oversight, moderation, and support that social media needs to be successful and sustainable long-term. Often informal, and increasingly recognized as a key function, community management has been gaining respect as a indispensable capability of modern digital experiences that can assure higher levels of success.
- Affiliate Portals and Communities. These days I hear from a lot of companies that no longer have the staff to reach out to and directly support thousands of business partners and affiliates. These can be everything from supporting broker networks and franchisees to managing suppliers and licensees. Private label communities and social networks have become a prime tool in servicing these constituencies with a fraction of the staff, yet frequently lead to higher levels of awareness, engagement, service, and transaction levels than before.
- Social Supply Chains and Open APIs. While supply chain management has been one of the last bastions of traditional business to be affected by social media, that is beginning to change. The most recent significant case study is Teva Pharmaceuticals, which reported a manufacturing cycle time reduction of 40% as well as reducing supplier lead time by up to 60% by applying social software to communication challenges. The other related — and just as big — story is open supply chains, typically via open APIs and supported through developer communities, which has lead to a major shake-up in the way business partnerships are digitally delivered.
- Innovation Management and Crowdsourcing. Peer-production of ideas and work has become an increasingly popular topic as the tools and techniques have matured. Idea management tools using social collaboration, such as Spigit, and crowdsourcing platforms like Crowdspring or Mechanical Turk have led to a small and steadily growing revolution in the way business gets done. I've explored the growth of this topic in detail before, but it's clear it's just ramping up as co-creation increasingly becomes the norm in the way innovation and work output is achieved today.
- Workforce Collaboration. Also known as Enterprise 2.0, internal social media has become a very popular topic in the enterprise these days. The way social media is entering organizations varies widely and will often form an initial beachhead in social content management, enterprise social networks, even (and more recently), unified communications. While interest in social intranets in particular is currently on the upswing, the business results are in from many different surveys and case studies: Information can be found faster, knowledge is retained better, and employees are more efficient and productive when there iswidespread social collaboration.
- Web Presence. One of the earlier elements of Web strategy, Web presence now must take into account rich media, CRM, mobility, e-commerce, and more. Often Web presence is put into a silo next to, rather than integrated with, newer digital capabilities since the platforms and tools upon which it is based is either aging or technologically incapable of moving into the present. Web presence remains an important part of digital strategy, but its relevance is steadily being eroded by newer forms of engagement, particularly social media. Proactive firms will find ways to reconcile newer digital strategy elements with what's becoming a legacy channel for a growing number of organizations.
- Microsites. The darling of targeted engagement a few years back, microsites remain a popular way to narrowcast online to a target audience or community to increase relevance, deepen reach, and foster engagement. Social microsites have become the next generation of microsite and it can be argued that Facebook pages themselves have become the ultimate microsite platform.
- E-commerce. The long and steady growth of e-commerce has continued unabated and is on pace to grow into a quarter trillion dollar business in the U.S. alone by 2014. The latest developments include the "Grouponing" phenomenon of connecting discount e-commerce to local business, mobile e-commerce and payment systems, as well as social SEO (now the leader in driving inbound leads) and gaming. Doing businesses online is a booming business, but new entrants will need to use existing distribution networks to catch up while deeply incorporating mobile and social into their efforts.
- Influencer Engagement. The premise here is that it's more scalable and easier to reach influencers directly and take advantage of the audiences they've created for themselves, rather than reproduce their respective engagement level. While still an important part of any digital marketing strategy, influencer engagement remains largely a bespoke activity while the tools for doing it more scalably are still in their infancy.
- Analytics and Business Intelligence. Along with Big Data, analytics and business intelligence across the digital spectrum is one of the hot spaces in the industry right now for its promise to derive deep insights and harvest value from the endless streams of social activity taking place today. It's one of the major reasons we developed and recently launchedour Social Business Index and why other companies, such as Salesforce with their Radian6 acquisition, have been focusing their attention on it as well. The premise here is that companies that can make sense of combined behavior of their workers, customers, and partners and make meaningful use of their collective intelligence will have a real competitive advantage.
- Digital Branding. Branding remains an essential component of digital strategy, even while brands themselves are becoming ever more directly influenced by their customers. The rise in customer-driven marketing and advertising is only matched these days by related branding efforts, which despite cautionary notes to retain essential control, have already been conducted by some of the world's largest and most influential companies including Ford, Kraft, and LG.
- E-mail Campaigns. While e-mail is finally in decline in terms of usage, it remains an integral part of digital strategy for the foreseeable future. With the rise of spam and social networks, e-mail is no longer the particularly appealing channel it once was yet it's still an important touchpoint for CRM and to a lesser extent marketing.
- Location Services. Location-awareness consist of GPS, compass, RFID and other sensors in mobile devices to drive marketing, sales, CRM, and operations. Still in its early stages for most businesses, location-awareness can drive personalization, useful geographic context, analytics, and usage efficiencies in general for many kinds of applications. Digital strategies should maintain a proactive roadmap for where ambient location information can be incorporated over time to improve the digital user experience along with their supporting capabilities.
- Mobility Platform Support. Businesses are getting serious this year in adding support for iOS and Android platforms for service delivery of internal and external mobile applications. This requires application development capability and operations support as well as matching analytics, branding, advertising, and other related aspects of digital strategy.
- Mobile Content Enablement. Mobility support usually includes updating existing content and layout so that it works well with today's newer mobile devices. This can be extensively automated and is also generally less challenging than developing entirely new mobile applications, though it is also often less effective. Content enablement for mobile can involve a wide range of activities including converting Flash to HTML 5 friendly formats, reformatting and testing Web forms and applications, and wholesale stylesheet/document repository transformation so that existing information assets are readily usable in popular mobile form factors.
- Consumer and Customer Mobile Apps. The barriers to delivering high quality user experience continue to drop as the cost of high quality mobile app development falls. There is no avoiding the fact that mobile apps are becoming one of today's prime customer touchpoints. One of the single most effective ways to engage with someone under 30 is to have your app on the first or second screen of their smart mobile device. Mobile applications are on track to become one of the leading ways to engage in the digital marketplace. In my opinion, virtually all companies should be developing competency in this space and ensuring integration with the rest of their Web strategy.
- Mobile Messaging. SMS and MMS still have some life left in them and indeed remain one of the most popular communication services on the planet. However, they are threatened by new proprietary services such as Apple's recently announced iMessage service and a growing chorus of independent providers such as Pinger's popular Textfree app. Despite the technologies long history, businesses are just now beginning to build up real competency in mobile messaging for CRM and marketing (and to a lesser extent co-creation). The coming market fragmentation with major new non-carrier messaging services will likely just be a curve in the road. In general I anticipate that mobile messaging will be even more integrated into new digital touchpoints.
- Mobile Line of Business Apps. The internal business use of mobile apps is growing in leaps and bounds. Most CIOs I speak with these days are now under significant pressure to deliver existing services via iPads, tablets, and smartphones. While internal app stores are a few years away for most organizations, content and application enablement are now well under way in many companies. Digital strategies typically don't explore internal apps nearly as much as external, but that may change given the amount of audience blur developing across the channel.
- Mobile Operations. A fair amount of operational competency and infrastructure development must be brought to bear the deploy the full experience of smart mobile in the enterprise. Bandwidth management for video chat is just one example of the headaches that mobile operations makes acute. Investment in all manner of smart mobile skills is another key area required to fully capitalize on what is one of the fasted growing segments of computing today. Operational capability is needed to deliver successfully on digital strategy in a timely fashion. Planners should be aware of capability levels and should proactive pursue and support funding to develop this area of their organization.
- Mobile App Stores. App stores are positioned to be the solution delivery conduit for both external and internal mobile applications for the foreseeable future. Digital strategies should plan for this on their roadmaps. While app stores are already the primary acquisition channel today on smart mobile devices, the enterprise itself (as well as the supporting technology) has a long journey to resolve issues around data security, provisioning, and governance.
- Mobile Security. Not part of digital strategy normally, yet impactful on it, mobile security is going to be a hot topic this year and next, particularly on platforms that are less controlled such as Android. Ensuring customers and workers have a safe and effective mobile experience will be a high priority — though sometimes a significant challenge — for those delivering through digital channels in the next few years.
- Content and Document Management. Social media has had a sustained and continuing impact on content and document management, to the extent that many of the latest iterations of these tools are major social platforms in their own right (such as Drupal). While this is true to a lesser extent in the enterprise, reconciling the current proliferation of social media, content management, and document management platforms, many which also connect to the public and have digital strategy implications, is one of the bigger challenges for IT departments right now.
- Intranet Strategy. Intranet strategy, a key aspect of social business, is usually not part of digital strategy proper but ends up being intertwined in it as the boundary blur continues to grow across worker to marketplace touchpoints. I've depicted the progression of intranets as one where social media is inevitably a key aspect, de facto or otherwise. Unfortunately, I expect that there will continue to be only a mild integration between digital strategy and intranet strategy given the diversity of their stakeholders.
- Unified Communication. Social business delivery will increasingly happen in unified communications channels, even if they often aren't the monolithic software and infrastructure suites that were gaining some traction a few years ago. Unified communications is often moving inside social networks these days rather than the other way around (witness Skype integration with Facebook as just one example), though the jury is still out on IBM and Cisco's offerings which are growing increasingly strong.
- Online Video and Podcasting. Rich media remains an important and significant part of digital strategy and social media (when it's user generated.) However, the growth areas are in multipoint video chat, video archival and search, mobile video (both recorded and live broadcast), and of course, sharing capabilities. Integration of video into Web experience and applications is also increasingly popular and the case is increasingly being made that it's a productivity driver as well. Digital strategies that treat video as a driver of network effect and accumulated value growth will have the largest long-term ROI.
Those organizations that take the time to coherently plan their digital strategies, as long as they are agile and flexible in keeping them updated, revised, and connected to ground truth, will do far better than those that only adopt approaches ad hoc and hope for the best.
For most however, digital strategy planning can be one of the most rewarding and beneficial tools in helping organizations rethink what they are doing in order to adapt to the seemingly onrushing future. Without appropriate care, however, they can also be an unrealistic albatross without deep connection to internal stakeholders and change champions that are effective in turning vision into reality. I urge you to look at the recent work on emergent strategy and business architecture as well as an updated view of IT consumerization to help you in your planning and create the best result.
You may also find our new Social Business CIO Shortlist as well as the Social Business Landscape as useful cross-checking aids.


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Marion Raven Adjusting To Being Home
M2M star Marion Raven is adjusting to getting taken out of the spotlight by her Atlantic Records label. She told fans on her official message board Friday, "I'm doing better, getting used to [being] home. Nice to have time for my friends and family." As for whether she's seen the new 'Austin Powers' film, Marion said, "I haven't. I'm now back in Norway and I have to wait for months to see the new movies. I'd love to see it though. I bet Beyonce is awesome."

subset: commoncrawl


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Monday, December 03, 2007
Panda Duck From Mars
7 comments:
sou muito seu fã, seu trabalho é simplesmente belíssimo e seu traço ´lindoooooooooooooooo...ReplyDelete
Not happy with this? I love it! In fact, I think that a "panda duck from Mars" is my new favorite animal. This is great... I'd love to see the new one.ReplyDelete
Always outstanding. What I love even more than the characters sometimes is the poses themselves.ReplyDelete
I agree with some of the other commentors. What aren't you happy about? I think it's great! Show us the new one!ReplyDelete
Panda ducks are great, you should be happy with them Florian is a very clever idea. Maby you´ll be with version 1.2 ;)ReplyDelete
Also I´m with S.T. Lewis, the panda duck is my new favorite animal too.
I like this second one even more. The squatter shape and the headgun rally make it sing. Nicely done.ReplyDelete
I don't know why you aren't happy with 2005 design, cuz I think is fabulous the different details you included in it.ReplyDelete
Myabe it just need a few more color to achieve a deeper appearance.


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The Tamil National Alliance Party has said that there is no charge in witnessing before the United Nation Investigation Team about the war crime real incidents that took place during the time of war.
Testifying on War crimes before the International Community is not a violation of the Constitutional law.
The Tamil National Alliance Party has also said that the ruling party Government of Srilanka must understand, for the witnessing on the war crimes there is a provision in the Constitution bill.
The above Statements were made by the Tamil National Alliance Party Member of the Parliament M.A. Sumanthiran, while answering the question about the Testimony of the people regard to the Srilankan war crimes in front of the U.N. Investigation Team whether it is against the Constitutional law or not.
That is why we have invited the people's testimony from the beginning with regard to the war crimes at Srilanka's North East Provinces during the war time and the International violation of Human Rights committed by the army as per the commands of the ruling party government of Srilanka.
There is no crime in providing the evidence to the appropriate places. Because we have got every right to report the war crime incidents and the violation of Human Rights events that actually took place during the time of war.
The ruling party government of Srilanka is terming the war crime incident testimony as the crime against the Constitutional law, in order to prevent the evidences and witnesses to appear before the International Court.
But in the Constitution there is enough space to accommodate the testifying of the war crimes committed during the time of war.
But unfortunately, so far neither the ruling party government of Srilanka, nor the Media Spokesperson could understand this fact, but at least in the near future they should understand


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Security Council Distr.: General 6 November 2017
Resolution 2382 (2017)
Adopted by the Security Council at its 8086th meeting, on 6 November 2017
The Security Council, Recalling its primary responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security, Recalling its resolution 2185 (2014) on United Nations Policing, as well as relevant resolutions such as resolutions 1265 (1999) and 1894 (2009) on the protection of civilians, 1325 (2000) and 2242 (2015) on women, peace and security, 2086 (2013) and 2378 (2017) on peacekeeping operations, 2151 (2014) on security sector reform, 2171 (2014) on conflict prevention, 2282 (2016) on post-conflict peacebuilding, and statements of its President such as the statement of 21 February 2014 (S/PRST/2014/5) on the rule of law, as well as the statement of 14 July 1997 (S/PRST/1997/38), and the reports of the Secretary-General A/66/615 and S/2016/952 on United Nations Policing, Taking note of the Report of the Secretary-General on United Nations Policing of November 2016 and its vision for United Nations Police Components ready to effectively address the challenges of the twenty-first century, Stressing the primary responsibility of States for the prevention and resolution of conflicts, as well as for the protection of civilians and the important contribution that United Nations Policing in peacekeeping and special political missions can provide throughout the conflict cycle, where and as mandated, including through the protection of civilians, capacity-building and development efforts of host-State police services, and noting the relevance of its contribution when considering the broader reform of the peace and security pillar, Affirming that lasting peace is not achieved nor sustained by military and technical engagements alone, but through political solutions and strongly convinced that such political solutions should guide the design and deployment of United Nations peacekeeping operations, Reaffirming its commitment to upholding the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, including its commitment to and respect for the principles of political independence, sovereign equality and territorial integrity of all States in conducting all peacekeeping activities and the need for States to comply with their obligations under international law,
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Further reaffirming the basic principles of peacekeeping, including consent of the parties, impartiality, and non-use of force, except in self-defence and defence of the mandate, and recognizing that the mandate of each peacekeeping mission is specific to the need and situation of the country concerned, and that the Security Council expects full delivery of the mandates it authorizes, Welcoming the role that UN Police Components can play in facilitating the transitions from peacekeeping to development and peacebuilding, and recognizing that improved performance of United Nations Policing can contribute to successful exit strategies of peacekeeping missions and will require continued transparent and accountable efforts to strengthen United Nations Police doctrine and its implementation and defining clearer standards for personnel, equipment, operations, performance, and assistance to host-State police services, as well as increased training and capacity-building to prepare police contributing countries and ensure predictable deployment, Stressing that the successful implementation of the mandates of peacekeeping operations and special political missions requires close cooperation and use of integrated planning mechanisms between the different elements of these missions, including between police, military and civilian components, under the overall leadership of the Head of Mission, Noting the important role United Nations Policing can play, where mandated, in strengthening the rule of law and security sector reform and reaffirming the lead role of national authorities in progressing the reform of police and other law enforcement agencies as part of wider rule of law and security sector reform efforts, including in dedicating national resources towards national police and other law enforcement institutions, and monitoring the impact of police reform, and recognizing that the political leadership and political will of national authorities are critical in this regard and success necessitates national ownership, Highlighting the important role that United Nations Police Components can play in building the capacity of host-State policing and other law enforcement institutions, as mandated, in particular through building principles of community oriented policing and in addressing organized crime, particularly through support in the areas of border, immigration and maritime security and crime prevention, response and investigation, where mandated, Having considered that transnational organized crime undermines stability and further considering that transnational organized crime can benefit international terrorism, which may require strengthening or rebuilding of criminal justice systems to address relevant threats, Recalling the work conducted by the Security Council Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations, the Fourth and Fifth Committees of the General Assembly and the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, which have provided guidance to the Secretariat on United Nations policing including on a standardized approach to United Nations Policing and compliance thereto, as well as support to the United Nations Secretariat to address capacity and capability gaps, where they exist, thereby improving the performance of United Nations Policing, Noting the increasing scope and reliance on police abilities in United Nations operations and welcoming ongoing efforts to attain specialized capacities, capabilities and technologies for United Nations Police Components, further noting the Policy for Formed Police Units in United Nations Peacekeeping and encouraging Member States to contribute well-trained and appropriately vetted men and women police personnel with appropriate language skills for formed police units (FPUs) with the full complement of agreed contingent-owned equipment,
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specialized police teams (SPTs) and individual police officers, as well as civilian experts, to effectively implement mandated tasks and facilitate the conditions for transitions and exits, Noting that host-State policing institutions should be the primary link between the government, individuals and communities on security issues, reiterating that professional, effective, accountable, and accessible law enforcement, corrections, and judicial institutions are necessary to lay the foundation for sustainable peace and national development, and further noting that failure to address operational and accountability deficits in police institutions can undermine the positive gains made, and thus risks a relapse into conflict, Recognizing the indispensable role of women in United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions, including the critical role that women play in all peace and security efforts, including by providing diverse perspectives which can assist in building trust with local communities and stressing the need to increase their participation and leadership in decision-making in host-States with regard to policing and the rule of law, Welcoming the efforts to incentivize greater numbers of women in military and police deployed and appointed to senior positions in United Nations peacekeeping operations, as both IPOs and as part of SPTs and FPUs, and efforts to review the obstacles preventing women's recruitment and professional advancement; taking note in this regard of the Secretary-General's System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity which tasks relevant United Nations entities, in consultation with PoliceContributing countries, to develop a separate, dedicated strategy on this matter, Reaffirming its determination to pursue more prioritization when evaluating, mandating and reviewing United Nations peacekeeping operations, including through strengthening Triangular consultations with Troop and Police-Contributing Countries and the Secretariat, strengthening existing formal mechanisms, and underlining the shared responsibility for meaningful, inclusive, active and dynamic consultations, as well as enhancing its dialogue with host countries, with the aim of fully and successfully implementing peacekeeping mandates, Noting with appreciation the improved cooperation between the United Nations, international, regional and subregional organizations and initiatives, including through training, sharing of experience, exchange of information, thematic expertise and operational readiness as appropriate, and the establishment by the United Nations Police Components of a serious and organized crime focal point network, and further noting that these efforts can strengthen host-State police and other law enforcement agencies' capacities and capabilities to counter transnational threats, 1. Stresses that the primacy of political solutions should be the hallmark of the approach of the United Nations to the resolution of conflict and resolves to include, on a case by case basis, policing as an integral part of the mandates and decision-making structures of United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions, taking into account the need for consistent integration of police expertise within the planning of such missions, and to give clear, credible, achievable, appropriately resourced mandates for policing-related activities, and emphasizes in this context the need to ensure a United Nations system-wide approach to the rule of law; 2. Underscores the critical importance of improving accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness in the performance of United Nations peacekeeping operations and special political missions and calls on the Secretariat to continue efforts to strengthen doctrine and define clear standards for personnel,
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equipment, operations, performance, and assistance to host nation police forces for effective performance of United Nations Police in missions, as well as for preparing Police-Contributing Countries for deployment, and requests the United Nations' Secretariat to assist Member States' training activities by providing timely and complete information regarding the training needs of Police-Contributing Countries and those with the capacity to deliver such training, to ensure coherence and identify where capability gaps remain, thereby enhancing triangular cooperation; 3. Reaffirms its ongoing efforts to review peacekeeping operations to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency on the ground, and to deepen these efforts in partnership with Police Contributing Countries, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure data streams related to the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations, including peacekeeping performance data, to include police, are centralized to improve analytics and evaluation of mission operations, based on clear and well identified benchmarks; 4. Resolves to continue to promote and support the finalization and operationalization of the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping, to conduct targeted recruitment based on identified field needs and develop a measurable accountability framework for the implementation of mandates, and requests the Secretary-General to consider undertaking the following to ensure the timely completion of country-specific mandates and improve performance: (a) Strengthen the collaboration of United Nations Policing with the Peacekeeping Strategic Force Generation and Capability Planning Cell, so that police and military requirements are coordinated, force generation occurs in concert and performance data is centralized to improve performance based decision-making; (b) Provide additional guidance for relevant officials, including for Special Representatives of the Secretary-General and Special Envoys, and assist relevant senior United Nations management to understand how to deliver mandated policerelated tasks; (c) Highlight in his regular reports to the Security Council concerning specific United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions mandated by the Security Council, updates on progress in terms of gender-responsive police reform and protection activities, where mandated, including efforts to make national police services more accessible and responsive to women, in order to improve Security Council oversight of police reform and protection of civilians activities in accordance with resolutions 2122 (2013) and 2242 (2015); 5. Recognizes the role of United Nations Policing in contributing, as appropriate, to the United Nations' efforts to prevent conflicts through, inter alia, as mandated, protection of civilians, and assisting host-States with relevant capacitybuilding and calls on the Secretary-General to make sure that planning of United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions with police mandates are based on a thorough analysis of the context, capacities and needs of host-States; 6. Reaffirms that States bear the primary responsibility for protection of civilians and recognizes the important role that United Nations Police Components can play, where and as mandated, in the protection of civilians, including in preventing and addressing sexual and gender based violence, and, where applicable, conflict-related sexual violence and violations and abuses against children in the context of conflict and post-conflict situations, including, where appropriate, supporting the efforts of host-authorities to build and reform policing and law enforcement institutions so they are able to sustainably and consistently protect civilians, and in this regard:
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(a) Urges Police-Contributing Countries to ensure that all deployed IPOs, FPUs and SPTs have undergone comprehensive training, including specific training on protection of civilians, sexual and gender based violence, as well as child protection, as a key part of their predeployment training, to successfully fulfil their mandates; (b) Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that United Nations Police Components support protection of civilians activities as part of the whole of mission approach in missions with protection of civilians mandates; (c) Reiterates that the protection of children in armed conflict should be an important aspect of any comprehensive strategy to resolve conflict and build peace and of capacity-building efforts in support of host-State police, law enforcement agencies and, where appropriate, juvenile justice systems; underscoring in this regard the importance of specialized predeployment and in-mission training on mission-specific child protection and on appropriate comprehensive child-sensitive prevention and protection responses, as well as monitoring and reporting on violations and abuses committed against children, and stressing the importance of enhancing coordination between Police Components and Child Protection Advisers as well as Gender and Women Protection Advisers as outlined in all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions; 7. Requests the Secretary-General to continue and strengthen efforts to enhance measures in United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions against all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations personnel and on support to victims in cooperation with the Victims' Rights Advocate, urges all Police-Contributing Countries to ensure that all police personnel to be deployed are vetted for previous criminal acts of sexual exploitation and abuse and to deliver robust predeployment training to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, and recalls the primary responsibility of Troop-Contributing Countries to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by their personnel and of Troop- and PoliceContributing Countries to hold accountable, including through prosecution, where appropriate, their personnel for acts of sexual exploitation and abuse, taking into account due process; 8. Reaffirms the importance of national ownership and leadership in peacebuilding, whereby the responsibility for sustaining peace is broadly shared by the Government and all other national stakeholders, and recognizes that United Nations Police Components, including IPOs, FPOs and SPTs can contribute to building and sustaining peace by supporting host-State police and other law enforcement services, as mandated; 9. Recalls in this regard the importance of United Nations Policing-related support to non-United Nations security forces adhering to the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy; 10. Recognizes the importance of United Nations Policing by: (a) Reaffirming its commitment to continue to convene the annual briefing of Heads of United Nations Police Components established in resolution 2185 (2014); (b) Highlighting, where appropriate, United Nations Policing aspects in deliberations of the Security Council Working Group on Peacekeeping; (c) Encouraging the inclusion of United Nations Policing issues in briefings of the Secretary-General's Special Representatives and Special Envoys and in the reports of the Secretary-General, where appropriate;
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11. Stresses the importance of national ownership and commitment in policing and that, where appropriate, a thorough assessment of national capacity gaps in the area of police activities should inform United Nations Policing capacitybuilding activities and police development, including the composition of United Nations Police Components, and during planning, recruitment, the provision of guidance, and training; 12. Welcomes the efforts of Member States and the Secretariat to strengthen the strategic generation of both female and male police personnel with the appropriate expertise and language skills, in order to convey information and provide technical assistance in the most accessible manner to the desired audience, including through participation in the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit and engagement in the Peacekeeping Capabilities Readiness System for Rapid Deployment, and urges Police-Contributing Countries to contribute further: (a) Well-trained, equipped and performing FPUs, including rapidly deployable FPUs; (b) Highly qualified IPOs and civilian experts with specialized skill sets; (c) SPTs with proper support; (d) A substantial increase in numbers of female police across the different roles, with the aim of an overall doubling by 2020, and increasing representation in leadership positions, in line with UNSCR 2242 (2015) and the original United Nations Global Goal to reach 20 per cent female officers by 2014; (e) Police units that have completed predeployment training, with the support of the Secretariat, as appropriate, within the areas of their respective responsibilities, so that relevant mechanisms are in place to evaluate Member States' predeployment readiness; 13. Reiterates the importance of gender analysis in all police activities and mission phases and the role of Police Gender Advisers and its request to the Secretary-General to enhance coordination between Police Components and Child Protection Advisers as well as Gender and Women Protection Advisers, calls upon the United Nations Secretariat to work closely with Member States and UN-Women to overcome systemic challenges regarding the eligibility of female police for United Nations missions such as entry requirements, including by instituting special measures, or supporting women police associations, and encourages Member States to provide updates annually on these efforts, and share good practices in this regard; 14. Notes the continued efforts of the Secretary-General to enhance performance in the peace and security pillar and encourages the Secretariat to assess issues concerning the functions, structure and capacity of the Police Division in consultation with Member States; 15. Welcomes the work of the Police Division Standing Police Capacity (SPC) in providing a rapid, coherent, effective and responsive start-up and assistance capability for the Police Components of United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions as well as support to other United Nations entities through the Global Focal Point for Police, Justice and Corrections arrangement, and requests the Secretary-General to ensure the work of the SPC is better integrated into efforts of United Nations peacekeeping operations to ensure coordination and information sharing and that the SPC is used to maximum effect; 16. Requests the Secretary-General to provide a report by the end of 2018, including on:
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(a) Implications for the delivery of policing mandates stemming from any changes to the United Nations Secretariat's Peace and Security Architecture; (b) Strengthening United Nations Policing's operational and policy coherence within the United Nations system; (c) Improving United Nations capability, accountability and transparency on United Nations Policing; (d) Planning for strategic police generation gaps and key skill sets; (e) Ensuring coherence of relevant United Nations Policing initiatives, in order to improve mission transitions and timely exits; (f) Strengthening partnerships between the United Nations and international, regional and subregional organizations in accordance with Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter, in the areas of policing.
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Shagoon Maurya
Counselling Psychologist And Psychotherapist
I'm an Indian Psychologist helping Indians residing abroad via in person, online and live counselling sessions. I have helped around 1000 individuals including Asians living abroad to overpower their day to day social, emotional, and psychological challenges.
My academic background and work experience is coloured with a wide range of opportunities learning and working with diverse population. I have worked in clinical, educational, organisational and counselling settings. I highly value providing a supportive, non judgemental and collaborative Safe Space for people who are going through a rough time in their lives.
Being a Psychotherapist, I trust in an innovative yet straightforward approach to bring out certain enthusiastic, social and intellectual changes in individuals. In one sentence, empowering energy, self-care and emotional well-being is my life's enthusiasm.
My goal is to together create meaningful changes to your lives!
Professional Credentials
- Australian Counselling Association (18665)
- American Psychological Association (C2103178548)
- Counsellors Council of India (CRN5048039)
- Psychological First Aid (John Hopkins)
- International Certified Career Coach
Education Background
- PGD in Counselling & Psychotherapy – The University of Adelaide, Australia
- Masters in Psychology – The University of Delhi, India
- Bachelors (Hons) in Psychology – The University of Delhi, India
Areas Of Expertise
Over the years of practising, I know that there is no single approach or therapy is the right one for everyone, so I have been trained professionally as a Psychotherapist in the range of modalities. I use the tailor made approach to meet clients' unique needs. My goal is to provide my clients the quickest relief possible by providing them person-centred approach and integrating the various evidence based therapy approaches.
My enthusiasm is to associate with individuals from Indian social foundations and assist them with exploring their direction by beating their barriers in various parts of their lives. I help my clients, which incorporate adolescents, couples and families, to discover a solid impression of themselves and fortify their relationship elements. My specialities are:
Why Asian Psychologist (me)?
- One of the essential functions of a culture is to provide ways to relieve the suffering of its people. Since many forms of suffering, emotional distress, psychological stress are inevitably related to cultural patterns, patriarchal attitudes, the approach of healing also follow the culture's characteristic value and beliefs.
- Asian culture influences how we understand ourselves which includes overall mental health and well-being. As asians we love to live together in clusters and stay connected to our community but at times it becomes difficult when we try to be individualistic.
- Working with a psychologist who shares your identity can not only help you to combat stigma but also to build up a stronger therapeutic relationship.
- Having a culturally competent therapist will allow you to fully express your feelings and emotions as I understand your personal beliefs, values and experience better. It helps to remove assumptions and judgements which makes it easier to connect and understand the language with your therapist. It's one of the most effective and reliable ways to connect with someone who looks like you.


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In the past holidays for me have always been about exploring new places. Family holidays involved getting up and out by 10am and spending the whole day out, and I carried on that ethos into my holidays, camping trips and … Continue reading
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The ability to have a different main menu on different pages based on conditions is extremely powerful stuff. This tutorial is going to show you exactly how you can do this without an extra plugin.
If you're not a reader, we're also going to be doing some Video Tutorials in anticipation for the Online Video Courses that we'll be releasing! (Click here to vote for an Online Course you'd like to see us produce to help you).
Here's our first video filmed with our new webcam – the Logitech c920 – which explains the content of this post.
Background: Why this tutorial on how to have a different main menu on different pages?
As with all great tutorials, there needs to be a reason why someone is wanting to learn what you're writing. So I thought I would show you a great example of where this menu strategy is used excellently out IRL to get you excited.
Below is a screenshot of the top section of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's website.
Being one of the largest banks in Australia they naturally have lots of different types of customers they are optimizing their website for.
Users create complexity.
After lots and lots of research (I'm sure) the people at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (from hereon CBA) have identified that they have 3 main types of users and each expect (and need) different services and thus different information and websites pages. These 3 types of users are shown up in the menu at the top left of their website.
They are:
- Personal
- Business
- Corporate & Institutional
Most of the users are Personal, so the website loads with this type of user selected (shown above).
But if you select…say…Business, the main menu changes, as shown below.
And now the website is tailored to display information and services CBA are offering businesses.
They have a different main menu on different pages.
[clickToTweet tweet="Showing information tailored to the user on your website will make or break your website." quote="Showing information tailored to the user on your website will make or break your website."]
Why? Because it works to increase your conversion rate. Conversions = sales. We know this. Even grandma knows this.
In this tutorial we'll be recreating the below screenshot (done with the Beaver Builder Theme but you can apply this logic to any theme as I will show you below).
We are going to use the Top Menu to toggle the menu underneath.
So, if you are on the Personal page and you click Business, the menu underneath changes from Personal pages (Banking, Home Buying and Super & retiring) to Business pages (Products, Business support and tools), as shown below.
We are also going to implement the ScrollTo feature of the awesome Beaver Builder page builder for WordPress (click here to read our post on the ScrollTo feature in Beaver Builder) so that the following occurs:
- When you click from Personal to Business in the Top Menu, the menu below changes.
- If you click on one of the links in the below menu that has just changed, it will smoothly scroll to that section on that page.
Below is the final outcome of this tutorial. By learning this you'll be one more step closer to being a WordPress / Beaver Builder Master!
Let's do this!
Step 1: Create the pages that will be used to toggle the menu
The Top Menu has links to the Personal banking page and the Business banking page (see below image up in the top menu).
The only thing we need to do here is setup our pages for the smooth ScrollTo feature of the Beaver Builder page builder for WordPress (which you can read more about by clicking here).
What we need to do is give each row that we need to smoothly scroll to a unique ID.
Our Personal banking page will have three rows on the page that we need to scroll to – Banking, Home Buying and Super & Retiring. Let's give each of these rows a unique ID.
To do this, edit the Personal banking page with Beaver Builder and then hover over the row that will be scrolled to when the user clicks on Banking in the menu and click the wrench icon, like below.
Next, click on the Advanced Tab and add an ID for the row. This is shown below.
This first row on the Personal banking page is all about Banking options and this is the row that the page will scroll to when the reader clicks on the word Banking in the menu, so let's give this row the ID of Banking, as shown below.
Repeat this step for the remaining rows on the Personal banking page that users will scroll to when they click a link in the menu.
Carrying on with the example, I repeat this step and add an ID to the Home Buying and Super & Retiring rows.
Once the Personal banking page is completed, we then add ID's to the rows on the Business banking page.
By the end of this step we now how both our Personal banking and Business banking pages designed and the divs that we'll need to scroll to all have ID's on them in Beaver Builder.
Step 2: Create the menus and assign them to the appropriate menu locations
Now that we've got our two pages set up and the rows in each page have IDs we can use to ScrollTo with the ScrollTo feature in Beaver Builder, we need to create the menus.
We create the menus like we normally would by going to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Menus and creating them there.
For this tutorial, we need these three menus:
- The Top Menu that will act as our toggle for the different menus. In this example, it will have the links Personal and Business.
- The Personal Menu that contains the links for the pages on Personal banking.
- The Business Menu that contains the links for the pages on Business banking.
We create the Top Menu as per below and assign this new menu to the Top Bar Menu menu location in our theme (this is for the Beaver Builder theme, if you are using a different theme you will have to choose a menu location that is appropriate for your theme).
In this menu we add the Personal page and the Business page.
Then we create the Personal menu like below and assign the Personal menu to the Header Menu menu location.
IMPORTANT! By setting this Personal banking menu to the Header Menu (see image below) this menu will be our default menu that loads on our website. This is an important point of this tutorial. This tutorial will teach you how to change this default menu (Personal banking) to the Business banking menu when Business is clicked.
Now, because we're going to be smooth scrolling to rows on this page using the Beaver Builder page builder's built-in smooth ScrollTo, we make the URL for each link have the value of the # sign + the the ID of that row on the page.
For example, in the animation above in Step 1 we gave our first row on the Personal banking page the ID of banking so we add # + banking = #banking into the URL for this link, like below.
What this means is that when the Banking link is clicked on the Personal banking page, it will scroll to the row with the ID of banking.
Below you can see an example of how we have added #banking to the Banking link's URL.
We continue to add URLs for all the other links in the menu using this formula of # + the ID we gave each row we will need to scroll to.
Once complete, we preview the page on the front end and click through all the links to ensure they smoothly ScrollTo the row that they're support to scroll to.
The below screenshot shows that when I click on the Home Buying link it smoothly (and correctly) scrolls to the row that I gave the ID of homebuying. Also note that the URL for the Home Buying link in the Personal menu was #homebuying.
We repeat this step for the other pages in the menu. In my example, I edited the Personal banking menu and adjusted the URL's of the links in that menu to the ID's of the rows on the Personal banking page that need to be scrolledTo once clicked on.
Step 3: The Magic! Conditionally change the WordPress menu
So we've got our two pages set up (Personal and Business) and we've created all three menus (our Top Menu and then our Personal banking menu and the Business banking menu).
Now we just have to change the menu for each page so that each page shows the links appropriate to that section of the website.
Don't die on me here – we're doing this all for user experience and conversion optimization – the money maker! (let's not mention traffic just yet – that's for some later tutorials).
We know from Step 2 that because we set the Personal banking menu to be in the Header Menu location, it will be the default menu used on our website. We can check this by previewing our website and clicking around a bit, noticing that the Personal banking menu is shown all over our website.
Letl's now change the menu from the Personal banking menu to the Business banking menu when we are on the Business banking page.
Firstly, we need to get the ID for the Business menu. To do this we go to WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Menus and then we select the Business menu in the menu dropdown, as shown below.
IMPORTANT! Even if you go to your Appearance > Menus and the Business menu is showing already, still complete this step to refresh the page and regenerate the Page's URL.
Click the Select button next to the drop down and the page will reload.
We then check the URL and the ID of the Business banking menu is at the end. For me, it is ID 32. This is important for the next step.
Go to your active Theme's functions.php file using cPanel or an FTP client and add the below PHP code into your active Theme's functions.php file.
For example, if you are using our Electro CHARGE child theme you would go to /wp-content/themes/electrocharge and add the below PHP to the functions.php file in this folder.
[product_category category="child-themes"]
- We are leveraging the wp_nav_menu_args WordPress filter (read more on this here) to trigger our function.
- $args['theme_location'] == 'header' ensures we are only changing the menu that is in the Header Menu position and not other menus like our Top Menu or Footer Menu.
- is_page('1159') checks to see if it is the Business page (the ID for the Business page is 1159). If this condition is met, we then change the menu to the menu with the ID of 32 (we know the ID for our Business banking menu is 32 because of the step just above).
And that's it!
Now when we view our website everything is working as expected. The menu changes between the Personal banking and Business banking pages and the links scroll to the sections on the page when clicked.
Wrapping it up
This is an extremely valuable tutorial in my eyes because it gets your hands dirty with some PHP code and also presents the endless possibilities with WordPress. It's so extremely flexible and the functions within it allow us to better our user experience every day.
This menu method you've just learn is also great for mobile devices, especially with the Beaver Builder Theme or one of our easy-to-install Beaver Builder Child Themes.
Below you can have the Top Menu (the menu with Personal and Business) visible always on mobile devices so they aren't hidden behind a slide down menu. This is great because they act like tabs.
When we click Business in our example below, the links in the slide down menu change to the Business links. It's super cool!
Comment and share
Share this post to show that you're a master at conditionally changing the WordPress menu by clicking the Share buttons on this page.
Also, we're on social media so don't forget to follow us for more great tips, discounts and much much more.


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Dr. Kevin King, DDS
Born and raised in Muleshoe, Dr. King appreciates the panhandle and its people. Upon graduation from Muleshoe High School, Dr. King began his college career at Texas Tech University. It was there that Dr. King met his wife, Rachelle. She grew up in Tahoka, Texas and shared Dr. King's ties to the area. Dr. King graduated in 1995 with a BS in Zoology and a minor in Chemistry.
After graduation, he began work with Xcel Energy, where he worked for six years. During two of these years, he also ventured into a spraying company, and along with his wife, was employed by the Methodist Church in Muleshoe as youth director. Rachelle is a licensed secondary science teacher, and she taught junior high science in Muleshoe. After years of debating, Dr. King decided to make a career change and pursue his lifelong goal of becoming a dentist.
In 2000, Dr. King was accepted into dental school. It was a life changing experience as he and Rachelle moved their two children, Kaleb and Ashley, to San Antonio where he would attend dental school at the University of Texas Health Science Center. In May 2005, Dr. King graduated from dental school with honors in teacher training. After graduation, Dr. King joined the practice of Dr. Moore. Together they formed what is now the Dental Group of Amarillo and have built a great family of patients over the years. Dr. King likes all types of sports and recreation including golf, fly-fishing, and hunting. Dr. King also has devoted his time to the United Way of Amarillo, serving as Cabinet Chair of the Healthcare Division, and as vice-chairman of the Boy Scout's annual Good Scout Luncheon. He is a member of the Texas Dental Association, Academy of General Dentistry, and the American Dental Association. Dr. King sees all types of patients and loves working with children.


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One in five American homes 'underwater'
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
More than one in five American home mortgages are underwater.
An estimated 10.7-million households, or 22.1% of all homes with mortgages, had more debt on the properties than they were worth in the third quarter, according to Santa Ana research firm CoreLogic. This is a slight decline from the 10.9 million properties that were underwater in the second quarter.
'Although slightly down, negative equity remains very high and renders many borrowers vulnerable when negative economic shocks occur, such as job loss or illness," CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming said in a statement. "The nearly $700-billion mortgage debt overhang has touched many corners of the market, and this overhang is holding back the recovery of the housing market and broader economy.'
Nevada had the highest negative-equity percentage with 58% of mortgaged homes underwater, followed by Arizona, 47%; Florida, 44%; Michigan, 35% and Georgia, 30%. This was the first quarter that Georgia made the top five, ousting from the group California, which had been among the top spots since the firm began tracking the data in 2009.
In the Los Angeles Metro area, 353,427 homes, or 23% of all mortgaged properties, were in negative equity at the end of the third quarter, a decline from 356,677. Negative equity can decline when foreclosures increase as the repossession process extinguishes underwater loans.
Banks' foreclosure activity picks up
Many Americans say they will have to work until they're 80
Victims of improper foreclosure practices can submit claims
— Alejandro Lazo


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My guest today for a FAST FORWARD interview is author Gary Lindberg. As a writer and film producer/director, Gary has won over one hundred major national and international awards. He is the co-writer and producer of the Paramount Pictures feature film That Was Then, This Is Now starring Emilio Estevez and Morgan Freeman. His debut novel, a thriller called The Shekinah Legacy, was published in 2011. Gary is also the author of the Charlotte Ansari Thriller novels, The Shekinah Legacy and Sons of Zadok.
FAST FORWARD: Welcome, Gary, and thank you for participating in this interview. A story's protagonist often reflects an author's personality, or displays characteristics the author has chosen to explore. Can you please share with us some of the back story that defines your protagonist but isn't included in the published novels?
GARY LINDBERG: Charlotte Ansari, the protagonist of each Charlotte Ansari Thriller, is a strong-willed woman who is the product of an extremely dysfunctional family. Her mother vanished when Charlotte was seven years old and Charlotte has held her father, a defrocked priest, accountable. Her husband, a Persian Jew, had ulterior motives for marrying her and their relationship is icy. Her son has Asperger's Syndrome, a high-performing form of autism, for which she blames her poor parenting. or her genes. or both. Charlotte is the star international correspondent for a cable news channel called CCN. She is very good at her job, relentless in pursuing important stories, and (unfortunately) a mostly absentee mother.
All this information is in the first two novels of the series. My challenge with Charlotte is that she is damaged property and can be unlikeable. What has not been revealed in Charlotte's past is her absolute rejection of religion, probably due to her father's poor track record as a man of faith. It seems inevitable, then, that in a thriller this talented woman without a faith would be pulled unwillingly into a global conspiracy to find and protect relics that are of great religious significance.
FAST FORWARD: After writing the first novel in a series, it seems that subsequent novels would flow out fully formed. The author has the basics down: format for the storyline; a feel for the proper number of plot lines and chapters; techniques for creating a charismatic protagonist and supporting characters; secrets to making the antagonist likeable; and guidelines for adding conflict right up to and through the denouement. How has writing become easier for you; and what remains as difficult now as when you wrote the first novel?
GARY LINDBERG: Book one of the series, The Shekinah Legacy, took two years of research and writing. The second book, Sons of Zadok, took just seven months. This disparity is partly explained by my greater confidence as a thriller writer; Shekinah quickly became the most popular Kindle thriller on Amazon.com. But another part of the explanation is that I had previously worked out a template for the main characters and the handling of multiple plot lines and POVs as you suggested. In that regard writing the second book became much easier.
Some things, however, continue to be difficult. The books in this series are complicated, multi-layered, and filled with facts (some known, many unknown to readers) that must fit together precisely and support the story as it unfolds. As "thrillers," the stories are a bit over the top with action and consequence (I think that's what separates them from "mysteries").
The researching of the facts that build up my stories—and, I hope, make the stories credible despite their fanciful plots—continues to be challenging and time-consuming. In the second book, Sons of Zadok, I struggled for months to make a theory of Isaac Newton fit precisely the distances between two geographic locations. You see, I live in fear that some reader will look up a fact that I have used and discover that it was not a fact at all, or was distorted to suit my fictional purposes, and then tell the world that I was a fraud. So I have set the very high goal of including many facts, but not changing them for convenience. This practice seems to be appreciated by my readers.
Using so many facts and historical references without bogging down a pulse-pounding thriller, of course, is always a challenge. And so is preventing the storytelling from becoming formulaic. I have a low threshold of boredom, so I find myself continually breaking the template that I unwittingly created in the earlier book.
FAST FORWARD: To hold a reader's attention, a series protagonist must continue to grow or change in each novel. In Sue Grafton's ABC series, Kinsey Millhone does not age (much), or get married, or acquire children, but she expands her knowledge of the job, begins to carry a gun, and discovers family relatives who are woven into the storyline. Without revealing any spoilers, how has your protagonist developed or changed from Book #1?
GARY LINDBERG: The time period in which each Charlotte Ansari Thriller book takes place is very important to the stories, and so Charlotte ages and changes accordingly. For example, The Shekinah Legacy had to be set in the year 2007, and Charlotte's son had to be thirteen years old at the time, for the story to work. The second book had to be set in 2013 for astronomical reasons, and Charlotte's son had to be eighteen years old, so Charlotte is five years older than she was in book one. How had she changed in those five years after the sudden departure of her son, who had been recruited by a secret society she had been battling?
In book two, Charlotte has begun to act out her bitterness and resentment. And she has been ordered by CCN to see a psychiatrist for anger issues. She has developed shooting skills on the local firing range. And she has learned what true loneliness is—now that her son is gone, her husband has been killed, the one man she may have loved has vanished into the shadows, and she has cut off all contact with her father.
Some of Charlotte's problems are of her own making, but many have been piled on by external forces. The second book allowed me to examine how Charlotte would respond to a crisis that would reunite her with the man she loves, lead to a confrontation with her long-lost son, and demand that she seek help from her estranged father. For an author, this is the fun stuff.
FAST FORWARD: A series requires the presence of a continuing main character. Often, however, there is another recurring character. The almost infinite pairings of main characters with guy/girl Fridays or wingmen could claim its own category on Jeopardy. Who could ever forget Tom Hanks' sidekick, Wilson? Two Mystery/Suspense series authors and their interesting (equal or supporting) characters that come to mind are Tess Gerritson's Rizzoli& Isles; Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino. Is there a recurring secondary character in your series? What is the purpose/role of that character within the plot?
GARY LINDBERG: As an author, I have a self-destructive tendency to kill off interesting characters who could have developed into a "Watson." One recurring character, however, has survived the bloodletting of The Shekinah Legacy to take his position alongside Charlotte as they attempt to solve an ancient secret that has enormous potential for placing power into the wrong hands.
It is difficult to describe this "secondary" character without spoiling The Shekinah Legacy. His identity is one of the surprising reveals of that story. But his purpose in the second book is two-fold: 1) continue to evolve a personal relationship with Charlotte that readers loved; and 2) provide a specific set of skills that is required to solving the puzzle at the heart of the story. For many readers of book one, this character actually was the most likeable, even though his vocation raises many red flags. Many women readers fell in love with him. I must admit that this character has now become a co-protagonist, and in many ways has evolved even further than Charlotte. As an author it's fun thinking about the potential of a spin-off series.
FAST FORWARD: Researching a new novel takes the author on a journey to many new places, whether through books, movies, newspapers, or physical travel. What did you most enjoy about the research process of your second novel, and where did your research take you?
GARY LINDBERG: I spoke a bit about researching this series in answering an earlier question. Research has become the energy source for these stories. I don't know if I could have written these books without the Internet and Google Earth. Some of the information I needed, of course, could only be found in books that for copyright reasons are not available on the Web. Most important to my research, though, was physical travel. My wife and I have literally traveled around the world researching locations because of my obsession with naming actual streets that lead to certain buildings important to the story. And in knowing the exact travel time between two locations during rush hour in New Delhi.
I love the research part of the author's job and find that, more often than not, the research process also provides important plot points, story ideas, solutions to traps in which I have ensnared myself, and inspiration for writing.
Where can fans of your novels find you and your books on the Internet?
The first two books of the Charlotte Ansari Thriller series, and my first historical novel, can be found in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com.
Here are the URLs:
THE SHEKINAH LEGACY (A Charlotte Ansari Thriller, Book 1) http://www.amzn.com/B006IGV8I8
SONS OF ZADOK (A Charlotte Ansari Thriller, Book 2) http://www.amzn.com/B00AMSLI3I
OLLIE'S CLOUD http://www.amzn.com/B00BCCV3T2
My website/blog is at: http://www.lindbergbooks.com


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|10 October, 2019
Where Ukraine's middle class is and how it can develop
|14 July, 2015
Artem Sytnyk: "Our task is to break the stereotypes of society accustomed to living in a corrupt environment"
In an exclusive interview with The Ukrainian Week, the director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NAB) spoke about fighting corruption in the judiciary, the creation of a "corruption registry", and its regional management of anti-corruption efforts. Interviewed by Tetiana Omelchenko
|20 January, 2014
Civil Society Forum urges European Commission and European Parliament to impose sanctions against Ukrainian legislators who voted for repressive laws
"The Steering Committee of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum calls upon the European Union to cease all financial assistance to the government of Ukraine, and to impose a travel ban on all 239 Ukrainian MPs who voted on 16 January 2014 for authoritarian new laws," the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum's Statement on repressive laws in Ukraine and Azerbaijan claims.
|30 December, 2013
Gintautas Mažeikis: In Ukraine, the "small dog" of civil society has appeared next to the "big elephant" of the revolution
Gintautas Mažeikis, a Lithuanian political scientist and professor of the Kaunas University of Technology, speaks about the uniqueness of Ukraine's EuroMaidan
|31 July, 2013
John Kampfner, an external advisor on freedom of expression and culture for Google, talks about new authoritarianism and threats to online privacy
|19 July, 2013
While Kyivites were passive in opposition protests in the spring, they could well rise in the future
|10 July, 2013
Ukraine abounds in institutionalised and non-institutionalised forms of civil life organisations of various types and provenance, though most of them are either virtually active, or fictional, New Eastern Europe reports
|9 April, 2013
"Yuriy Lutsenko's pardon means very little for Ukraine's democratic process, as the current ruling powers are determined to remain in that position," writes Forbes.
|21 February, 2013
All across Europe supermarkets are clearing their shelves of burgers, frozen lasagne and meat products as millions of angry consumers voice dismay at the latest food scandal.
|24 April, 2012
A Speech by U.S. Ambassador John F. Tefft to the Students of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy School of Law on April 19, 2012
|17 April, 2012
Forming a fully-fledged civil society in Ukraine is still a challenge because the numerous existing NGOs have failed to become its foundation
|27 February, 2012
Real as opposed to "puppet" civic activism is something neither dishonest entrepreneurs, nor the government want, which is why the efforts of activists are often quashed
|23 December, 2011
The government struggles to hush NGOs that could spur society to protest
|16 December, 2011
Dietmar Stüdemann speaks about the upcoming Ukraine-EU summit in Kyiv and the need a state has for the rule of the principles of a civil society


text:
I love wearing a face mask. Of course there is the correct reason for that, which is safety. But for me it goes deeper than just safety. When you wear a face mask people often don't recognize you. And that means less awkward social interactions with people who recognize while you are in the store or grabbing a coffee.
No more walking through the grocery store and trying to avoid that person you met one time at a friend's bbq. You know the person you had that clumsy conversation with, learning about their new hobby painting seashells with stories of their kid sprinkled in the mix. So walk down a different aisle or pretend to not recognize them and hope that they can't pick you out either.
Now, I can confidently walk. Skipping the part where I thumb through my mental rolodex trying to remember the name of this person I barely know.
For all of the people who are annoyed to be wearing a mask, I can only assume they are extroverts who feel that mask wearing is impeding on their social lives.
But for those of us who are moderately to several introverted, wearing a mask can be wonderful.


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Saturday, November 3, 2018
Teddy Grimthorpe
Lanfranco Dettori
Sir Michael Stoute
THE MODERATOR: We're live in the interview room. Frankie, congratulations. Your 13th Breeders' Cup win ever today aboard Expert Eye. Take us through the trip if you would.
LANFRANCO DETTORI: In the past it was — he had difficulty in the stalls, and he used to be very rank early doors. I wanted to jump. I didn't want to set him alight, so I jumped good, he broke well, then he took a fourth step and he lost all the position, and I had to look for plan B.
Obviously I didn't want to be that far back, but my main concern at that stage, get him the wheel or something that brought me into the race, and I did. I went full ride all the way, which seems to be the place to be. In fairness, he took me really well around the turn. As we go into the straight, I asked him to pick up, and the response wasn't there for about 100 meters, I felt we were going to be a good fifth, and then he just managed to find his rhythm, and I could see the leaders stopping, and asked him for a next step, and yeah, in the last 100 yards he really got down and sprinted home. Yeah, I mean, I went from despair to joy in the space of 100 yards.
Q. Can you explain why that change came, because he looked beaten from —
LANFRANCO DETTORI: I seen the ground conditions, his wheels were spinning. It took him 100 yards to figure out how to really run. Michael said that he saw his background, so that's why, and then obviously running straight in this weather, they run at their best.
Can I go? Bye.
THE MODERATOR: Frankie, thank you, and good luck the rest of the day. Frankie has got to get prepared for…
And now with Frankie on his way back to the jockeys' room, we're pleased to be joined by the winning trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, and also Teddy Grimthorpe of Juddmonte Farms.
Congratulations. Teddy, this is Juddmonte's sixth Breeders' Cup win but the first ever in the Breeders' Cup Mile. Is it extra nice to get a new race sort of in the books for Juddmonte?
TEDDY GRIMTHORPE: It's extra nice to get a Breeders' Cup win anywhere, anytime, anyplace, believe me. It was a very special day, and I'm so thrilled for Prince Khalid.
Q. Sir Michael Stoute, Frankie was just saying there was a good part of the race where he wasn't all that hopeful that the race would end in victory. What were your thoughts watching your horse go around?
SIR MICHAEL STOUTE: Well, I'd always been a little bit concerned about the ground, you know, that it was too tacky for him, and you know, I thought going down the back, Frankie was a couple of slots further back than I would have liked, but listen, hey, it came good. He's a good horse, and the team have done a great job with him because he had a stalls problem after the Dewhurst, which continued into the spring this year. All that's over now. He's recaptured all of his vitality. I thought he was unlucky at Chantilly last time, so he's been running really, really well since Royal Ascot, his third start.
TEDDY GRIMTHORPE: Longchamp's.
THE MODERATOR: This is Breeders' Cup win No. 8 for Sir Michael Stoute, last having visited the Winner's Circle in 2016 with Queen's Trust in the Filly and Mare Turf. I think I mentioned, but if I didn't, win No. 6 for Juddmonte. They last tasted Breeders' Cup victory with Arrogate, of course, back in 2016. Questions in the room for Sir Michael Stoute and/or Teddy Grimthorpe?
Q. Michael, obviously you mentioned there the stalls problem, everything you've had with him, presumably you still feel there's a lot this horse can do in the future now that you've got him into the shape you want to get him into?
SIR MICHAEL STOUTE: Sometimes silence is golden.
Listen, he's a horse we've enjoyed, and have done such good work with him. I'm delighted that we've got him back up to this peak.
Q. Michael, what was your thought about how this race might have been different had Polydream been in it, and what were your thoughts about her being excluded from it?
SIR MICHAEL STOUTE: Um, well, obviously there are several important factors in all of this, not least the Wertheimers and Freddy Head, who invested a lot in trying to get the filly over. Equally so the vets also have their jobs, and I think it's very — it's a very tough for connections to accept some of those things. And I know where everyone has the sort of welfare of horses paramount in their mind, and that has still got to be the number one consideration, but equally so, experienced horsemen will think that the horse is fine.
Q. Any comment on how the race might have been different had Polydream might have been in it?
SIR MICHAEL STOUTE: I think he still would have won.
Q. Michael, you said that the ground was tacky. How you would explain it in English terms?
SIR MICHAEL STOUTE: Well, not as smooth as he likes. He just likes a quicker, smoother surface. As Frankie said, in the turn he didn't think he would win because he was taking time to accelerate.
Q. Teddy, can you talk about how much thought goes into bringing a horse to the Breeders' Cup for Juddmonte, and is this race something that was an 11th hour decision or something that was planned for him for many months?
TEDDY GRIMTHORPE: I think with races of this caliber, you have to have that in mind for quite a long time. I mean, the trainer, the whole schedule, the race schedule. You can't certainly wake up and think, ooh, wouldn't it be nice to go to the Breeders' Cup. And I think for the whole team, for Michael's team who were preparing him, we thought long and hard about it, especially in the summer, and of course when we look at these things in terms of what might suit, and we thought the track and the style of racing would certainly suit.
It's been on the agenda for quite a while. We had him after he was unlucky at Paris Longchamp. We thought about the QEII, and the ground really was — they'd had a lot of rain into that, and then the Breeders' Cup became even more paramount for this horse because it's so important having shown so much promise as a two year old, which he did. He was an exceptionally exciting prospect. To have that realized now is very, very important.
Q. Sir Michael, calf courses are said to have class, although that phrase is kind of intangible. It's somewhat vague. But when a horse like Expert Eye faces adversity and ground that may not be 100 percent to his liking and a start in America, the starting gate, when a horse is able to overcome all that and still win, is that what horsemen mean by class?
SIR MICHAEL STOUTE: Yes, he's got class. He's exuded class from the beginning. He had a little bit of a problem with his training and the stalls incident, but even in the Sussex he didn't get (indiscernible) the green there, the race didn't go right for him. He'd been running some very big races since the Jersey.
Q. Teddy, do you look forward to the day where everything does sort of fall into place for Expert Eye? It didn't today, and he still won. Are you still looking forward to that dream day
TEDDY GRIMTHORPE: I think this is a dream day. As his future, that will be something for Prince Khalid to think about and enjoy over the next few weeks, I'd imagine. But we're very, very delighted to be here.
THE MODERATOR: Well, we're always delighted to have Sir Michael Stoute and Juddmonte Farms and you, of course, Teddy Grimthorpe. You've added so much to the history of Breeders' Cup over the years, and this is the latest notch on your belt. Congratulations on a terrific Breeders' Cup Mile victory with Expert Eye.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports


text:
Written by Jessy Howe
Deciding to franchise is a big decision. Deciding who to franchise with is an even bigger decision. The number of people considering franchising as a viable solution to starting a business continues to increase. The foundation is built, the brand is established, you're provided valuable start-up support, and business planning sessions. Now, it's time to find out if your values align with the franchisors.
Take a moment to reflect on what is important to you in your personal life and in business. You may already have a strong established set of values you live by. Create a mission statement around these or simply write them out in a list. Challenge yourself by asking what values you would build your ideal business upon.
As you begin to researching franchising opportunities, keep this list in mind and use it to compare your values to theirs. Finding a franchisor that shares your values not only indicates the culture will be one that allows you to thrive, but assures you will be supported throughout the entire company.
At TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® we worked hard to capture the vision and focus of the company in our mission statement as it is the framework of who we are. As for our core values, they are so much more than words on paper. They are part of what each franchisee and team member embodies and believes in.
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® mission statement:
To continuously strive to exceed our customers' expectations in value and high standard of satisfaction.
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® core values:
Integrity: To always conduct oneself with honesty and fairness.
Give back to the community: To serve those in need and make our local community a better place.
THE GRANDMA RULE®: To treat everyone the way you would want your Grandma treated.
Care: To have compassion for family, customers, co-workers and community.
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Be your best and have fun: To be your best professionally and personally while enjoying life and having fun.
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If you feel like you're the perfect fit and are interested in franchising with us, visit franchise.twomenandatruck.com to learn more about available opportunities. TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® is the first and largest franchised moving company in the United States. Let us move your career forward. Consider investing in us and becoming a franchisee today!