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Manis culionensis
|Scope: Global
Language: English
|Scientific Name:
|Manis culionensis (de Elera, 1915)
Common Name(s):
|Taxonomic Notes:
|Manis culionensis was recognized as a distinct species from Manis javanica by Feiler (1998), a determination that was supported by a study of discrete morphological characters by Gaubert and Antunes (2005).
|Red List Category & Criteria:
|Endangered A2d+3d+4d ver 3.1
|Year Published:
|Date Assessed:
|Lagrada, L., Schoppe, S. & Challender, D.
|Duckworth, J.W.
|Martelli, P., Martelli, K., Khan, S. & Oi Ching, O.
This species is listed as Endangered A2d+3d+4d due to suspected populations declines of >50% over a period of 21 years (three generations, generation length estimated at seven years), based on potential levels of exploitation for trade, including national and international trade, and which is exacerbated by subsistence hunting and habitat loss and alteration. However, further research is required into the population status of this species and its threats.
|Previously published Red List assessments:
|Range Description:
This species is endemic to the Philippines, where it is found in the Palawan faunal region. It is known from mainland Palawan and adjacent islands; Busuanga Island (including the municipalities of Calauit and Coron), Coron Island, Culion Island (Heaney et al. 1998), and Dumaran Island (Widmann et al. 2004). It has also been introduced to Apulit Island (Schlitter 2005) while recent interview surveys by Schoppe in 2013 (unpublished) suggest it also occurs on Balabac Island (S. Schoppe pers. comms. 2013). It is considered to be more abundant in the northern and central parts of Palawan Island and much rarer in the south (Schoppe and Cruz 2009). This species was described as uncommon by Heaney et al. (1998) and though local informants considered it fairly common, as reported by Esselstyn in 2004, it is subject to heavy hunting. It is found in primary and secondary lowland forest (Allen 1910, Hoogstraal 1951, Sanborn 1952, Taylor 1934, Heaney et al. 1998), lowland grassland/forest mosaic (Esselstyn et al. 2004), including near human habitation, providing there is suitable vegetative cover i.e. abundant trees and logs (Schoppe and Cruz 2009).
|Countries occurrence:
|Additional data:
|Range Map:
|Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.
|There is very little information available on populations of any species of Asian Pangolin. This species is infrequently observed due, partly to its increasing rarity, but also because of its elusive, solitary and nocturnal habits, and there is a lack of research on population densities or abundance (WCMC et al. 1999, CITES 2000, Hoogstraal 1951, Esselstyn et al. 2004). It is suspected it is more common in northern and central Palawan and relatively rare in the south (Schoppe and Cruz 2009). According to local hunters, populations are declining as a result of hunting both for subsistence use, and increasingly international trade, and which is exacerbated by habitat loss (S. Schoppe pers comms. 2012, Lagrada 2012).
|Current Population Trend:
|Additional data:
|Habitat and Ecology:
|This species is found in lowland primary and secondary forests, grassland/secondary growth mosaics, mixed mosaics of agricultural lands and scrubland adjacent to secondary forests (Esselstyn et al. 2004, Heaney et al. 1998). The upper elevational limit recorded by Lagrada (2012) is 2,015 m asl. As with other pangolins, this species feeds on termites and ants. An affinity of the Philippine Pangolin to fig trees (Ficus spp.) has been reported, probably because these trees provide tree hollows and attract ants, primary prey species (Schoppe and Cruz 2009).
|Continuing decline in area, extent and/or quality of habitat:
|Generation Length (years):
|Movement patterns:
|Not a Migrant
|Use and Trade:
|This species is hunted at a local, subsistence level for consumption of its meat, but also for trade at a national level (blood, meat, skins and scales) and internationally (whole animal, meat, scales and skin) (Cruz et al. 2007, Esselstyn et al. 2004, Schoppe and Cruz 2009). It is traded for food and traditional medicine on Palawan and from Palawan to Manila. For example, ethnic Taiwanese people drink its blood in wine and believe the meat has medicinal values (Schoppe and Cruz 2009). While Manis culionensis has been reported in international trade historically, since the last assessment in 2008, there is evidence of a tangible illicit international trade involving this species, both directly to China for use in traditional medicines, and to Sabah (Kudat, Sandakan), East Malaysia and Peninsular Malaysia (Schoppe and Cruz 2009, Pantel and Anak 2010).
|Major Threat(s):
This species is threatened by local hunting for its meat, scales and skin, the latter being used to treat asthma (Esselstyn et al. 2004), and international trade, which involves meat, scales, skins and whole animals (Schoppe and Cruz 2009, Challender et al. in prep). Deforestation and loss of suitable habitat also pose an additional threat. There is evidence that this species can be found for sale in Puerto Princesa, and reports that it is hunted on Palawan, for example, in logged lowland forest in Taytay (Esselstyn et al. 2004). Esselstyn et al. (2004) report it was described by locals as fairly common in c. 2004, though subject to moderately heavy hunting pressure, while Heaney et al. (1998) reported in the late 1990s that it was subject to heavy hunting pressure. It is reported as rare in Southern Palawan, namely Rizal, Quezon and Bataraza (Schoppe and Cruz 2009), Brookes Point (Lagrada 2012), and Balabac (Schoppe unpubl. data).
The scales are also presumably in trade for Traditional Chinese Medicine, as part of the shift to market economies among the Tagbanua and other ethnic groups on Palawan (Lacerna and Widmann 1999, Esselstyn et al. 2004). Evidence from the last seven years also demonstrates there is a tangible illicit international trade involving Manis culionensis, the full extent of which is unknown (Cruz et al. 2007, Schoppe and Cruz 2009, Pantel and Anak 2010, Challender et al. in prep). However, catch per unit effort has decreased based on hunters from Brookes Point (Lagrada 2012), but an increase in the number of confiscations and number of confiscated animals from 1999 to 2012 indicate either an increase in demand and/or trade or improved law enforcement (KFI, 2013). Between 1999 and 2009 only 47 animals were seized according to KFI (2013), but between 2010 and 2012, confiscations involved 369 animals. Currently scales are sold at USD250 (PHP10,000) per kilogram and meat at USD15/kg (PHP600.00). An increase in price and a shift from meat/live to scales was noticeable from 2006-2013 (Schoppe unpubl. data).
|Conservation Actions:
|This species is listed in CITES Appendix II and zero export quotas for wild-caught animals traded for primarily commercial purposes were established in 2000 (CoP11). It is classified as 'Endangered' under the Philippine Wildlife Act 9147 (2001), which bans the collection of any form of wildlife in the Province of Palawan without a permit. The entirety of this province was declared a game refuge and bird sanctuary in 1969 (Proclamations 219 and 530-B). However, further research is needed into populations of this species and the magnitude and types of threats it faces.
|Lagrada, L., Schoppe, S. & Challender, D. 2014. Manis culionensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014: e.T136497A45223365. . Downloaded on 25 September 2018.
|To make use of this information, please check the <Terms of Use>.
|If you see any errors or have any questions or suggestions on what is shown on this page, please provide us with feedback so that we can correct or extend the information provided


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On today's show, I will revisit some of my favorite interviews from the past 12 months in 2017. We first start with an interview with Victoria Hsu, the president of the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCPR) who shares with us her views on same sex marriage in Taiwan.
Other interviews include:
1. Russia representative
2. UK representative
3. India representative
4. South Africa representative
5. Brazilian representative
6. Cedric Alviani, Taipei Bureau Director of Reporters Without Borders
7. Germany representative
2018-03-25 01:00:00
The theme country for the 2018 Taipei International Book Exhibition was Israel. What was unique was that the public in Taiwan was able to experience Israel with all five senses. Mr.Asher Yarden, Israel's representative in Taiwan said it was an interactive exhibition and the public could see the portrayal of a book with the height of 9 by 9 meters followed by hearing the band performing Israeli music while sipping Israeli wine and non-alcoholic malt as well as enjoying Israeli delicious food.More
2018-03-18 01:00:00
A magnitude 6 earthquake hit Hualien, eastern Taiwan on February 6 and left 17 dead and more than 280 injured. One hotel and another mixed-use high rise partially collapsed. The first floor of the mixed-use building was a restaurant and its second and third floors were used as a hotel. Many say the greatest problem many buildings in Taiwan face is severe irregularities such as weak floors, mixed-use high rises, store owners would cut crucial beams or corners to have more open space.
Let's hear more from Prof.Lee Hong-yuan, a professor of civil engineering at National Taiwan University. Prof.Lee served as the Minister of the Interior from 2012 to 2014.
2018-03-11 01:00:00
The ambassador of Solomon Islands, Amb.Joseph Pius Waleanisia said there are many exchanges going on between Taiwan and the Solomon Islands and he said Taiwan Youth Ambassador Exchange program is instrumental in promoting culture and friendship between Taiwan and the Solomon Islands. The young people from Taiwan visit the Solomon Islands for a week, participate in cultural activities and interact with local students. The ambassador said he hopes to see that happen more.
Amb.Joseph Pius Waleanisia said the Solomon Islands will continue to support Taiwan's participation in the international organizations as Taiwan and the Solomon Islands share a common concern with world leaders on climate change and other issues such as health and aviation.
2018-03-04 01:00:00
The ambassador of Solomon Islands, Amb.Joseph Pius Waleanisia said Taiwan Technical Mission has helped with the agricultural development in the south Pacific country. The ambassador said that he should correct the statement reported in some media that the Solomon Islands imports 90% of its food adding that his country only imports a fair amount of considerable for consumption. Apart from agriculture, Taiwan Technical Mission has helped with pig farming and provided training to help pig farmers.
2018-02-25 01:00:00
Amb.Joseph Pius Waleanisia said that Taiwan and the Solomon Islands have had strong relationship over the last few decades adding that the indigenous people of Taiwan and the Solomon Islands share the same Austronesian culture. Ambassador Joseph Pius Waleanisia said that the Solomon Islands has seen an increase in the scope of the assistance from Taiwan Technical Mission and medical teams. On today's program, the ambassador of the Solomon Islands, Amb.Joseph Pius Waleanisia will share with us his views on the cooperation between Taiwan and the Solomon Islands ranging from agriculture to medical cooperation.
2018-02-18 01:00:00
Palau is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean and has become a popular tourist destination for Taiwanese in recent years. Palau is famous for its pristine white sand beach with crystal clear waters and picturesque nature. Rock Islands in Palau's Southern Lagoon has been inscribed on the World Heritage List and it has around 400 mushroom-shaped limestone islands surrounded by coral reefs. Taiwan's China Airlines has direct from Taipei to Koror, Palau.
Beijing in late November last year issued a ban on Chinese tourist groups visiting Palau, which some call it a measure to punish Palau for its relationship with Taiwan. But Ambassador Dilmei Louisa Olkeriil, the ambassador of Palau said she did not understand why that piece of news was widely reported in Taiwan as she mentioned that a couple of years ago, Palau also restricted the number of Chinese tourists to Palau as the government of Palau does not wish to see the environment being threatened as too much human activity will increase pollutants. Palau began the fight to protect the environment in 2015 and a new initiative has been taken by Palau to protect the environment, that is "passport pledge" that visitors must sign before entering Palau.More
2018-02-11 01:00:00
In July 2017, Palau Ministry of Health and Taiwan's Eda Hospital/I-Shou University signed an MOU in support of a joint medical internship program that allows students from Palau who are going to graduate from I-Shou University to complete internships at Belau National University in Palau. Ambassador Dilmei Louisa Olkeriil, the ambassador of Palau said Taiwan has sent medical teams to Palau as well. Palau has had close cooperation with some hospitals in Taiwan including ShinKong Memorial Hospital and Taiwan Adventist Hospital in Taipei and Eda Hospital in Kaohsiung, the south of Taiwan.
Ambassador Dilmei Louisa Olkeriil said she hopes in the future, more doctors from Palau will be able to practice in Taiwan as Taiwan gets more and more patients from Palau now. 95% of the people of Palau who need medical transfer would now choose Taiwan instead of the Philippines as the medical cost in Taiwan is lower and that Taiwan has excellent medical services. Taiwanese hospitals have become Palauan's first choice of referral just by word of mouth. And to provide assistance, the government of Palau has two medical referral coordinators posted in Taiwan to help patients with visa, dependents' accommodation, translation and other related services.More
2018-02-04 01:00:00
Palau is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean and has had diplomatic ties with Taiwan since 1999. Taiwan Technical Mission has been posted in Palau more than 30 years even long before the establishment of the diplomatic relations. Taiwan Technical Mission has helped the farmers in Palau develop some fruits and vegetables. Ambassador Dilmei Louisa Olkeriil, the ambassador of Palau said now farmers form Palau-Taiwan Farmers' Association, an organization dedicated to promoting the livelihoods of the farmers with the aim to reduce dependence on food imports.
Even though Palau has not been that much affected by the climate change, some of the low-lying islands have suffered flood as waters have risen in some islands where they have to build seawalls. Palau is made up of around 340 small islands. Ambassador Dilmei Louisa Olkeriil said the government has been developing green energy and researching the potential of wind energy, ocean thermal energy conversion, wave energy and energy storage technologies. Taiwan has helped build solar power panels.
2018-01-28 01:00:00
Malaysia's Head of Mission in Taiwan, Datuk Adeline Leong said she hopes to bring Taiwan and Malaysia together by getting more friendship pacts signed between cities in both Taiwan and Malaysia. Another important task is that she said the government can do so much but other NGOs such as Rotary Club, Lions Club, etc. can do their part citing the example that members of two Rotary sister-clubs of Taiwan and Malaysia have visited each other for the last 27 years.
To tap potential-laden Muslim markets, Taiwan has recently aimed to create a halal industry and Taiwan Halal Center was established in April 2017 by TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council). Datuk Adeline Leong said Malaysia tops the world's largest producer and exporter of multi-billion dollar halal food products. Taiwan can learn from Malaysia in the area the certification of halal food and products.
2018-01-21 01:00:00
Malaysia's Head of Mission in Taiwan, Datuk Adeline Leong said more than 1700 Taiwanese entrepreneurs invest in Malaysia and Malaysia also has investment in Taiwan, for example Phison Electronics Corp., a multi-million dollar company in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan that employs 700 engineers with master's degrees and 70 of them are Malaysian. All Cosmos Biotech is a Malaysian company manufacturing bio-organic and bio-chemical fertilizers in Malaysia was officially listed on the stock exchange in Taiwan in June of 2017.
In the area of education, in the last decade, the number of Malaysian students studying in Taiwan has grown four times from around 4,000 students 10 years ago to 16,000 today. Datuk Adeline Leong said it dates back to the 70s when Chinese Malaysian students started to study in Taiwan and now the Federation of Alumni Association of Taiwan Universities in Malaysia has 60 thousand members and every year professors from Taiwan visit Malaysia to see their students.
2018-01-14 01:00:00
The Malaysian representative in Taiwan (Head of Mission in Taiwan), Datuk Adeline Leong said that 2017 was a good year and her office had achieved many goals because of Taiwan's New Southbound Policy. She said the Policy has helped improve the relationship between countries in the south of Taiwan and Taiwan itself. Taiwan's New Southbound Policy has not only helped achieve targets in trade, investment and education but the scope has expanded to the fields of agriculture, biotechnology, medicine, ICT and smart city.
Datuk Adeline Leong said Taiwan is Malaysia's sixth largest trading partner and the total trade amounted to USD$15 billion. Taiwanese tourist arrivals to Malaysia have increased by 21.6% with around 300 thousand Taiwanese visitors and the number of Malaysia's tourists to Taiwan has increased by 9.9% with around 450,000 Malaysians visiting Taiwan.
2017-12-31 01:00:00
The COP 23 meeting in Bonn,Germany concluded in November and the Ambassador of Kiribati, Ambassador Teekoa Iuta said she has talked to Kiribati delegation and they looked at the conference positively. Most countries take the issue seriously judging from the fact that Fiji, being a small country affected by climate change, was given the chair and that was a sign forward adding that big countries show support for a small country like Fiji to take leadership in the conference.
The Ambassador of Kiribati, Ambassador Teekoa Iuta added that the most important task for Kiribati is to ensure water and food security. Even without the issue of climate change, Kiribati has faced the problem of fresh water supply. But climate change makes the situation worse as it has eroded Kiribati's land and caused salt water to penetrate into fresh water resources. Diseases such as diarrhea, cold and other health issues are prevalent and the government of Kiribati has continuously tackled this issue in order to improve the health of the people.More

subset: commoncrawl


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Ryan wrote:KylePK wrote:How come I can't consciously deal in such great detail? Its really frustrating.
Because the conscious mind isn't very good at creating on the same scale as the subconscious.My friend induced his first lucid dream by creating a city in his mind, with all the detail and complexity he wanted. I can't do this, my conscious mind can't seem to handle it.
He visualized a city in his mind. This is relatively the same as creating it in a dream via your subconscious... it's just not as visual.
You can do this too with a bit of practice. It's really not hard.
Each time I try I am at a loss of detail, I have to recall places I have been or seen, and I can't collectively visualize the city. Its like piece by piece, but I can't seem to retain everything together. I look at a picture of a city but I can't seem to recreate even a fraction of its grandeur, its detail, complexity and size, let alone hold it all together once I did visualize it. I think you may overestimate how 'easy' it is lol.


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This listing is for a digital pdf file of a 4"x9" menu design perfect for weddings, showers, birthdays, fancy dinner parties, etc. No items will be shipped to you. Just print, assemble and enjoy! Print as many as you need and save money. Menus print two to an 8.5" x 11" sheet.
Please leave in the NOTES TO SELLER:
* Color Choice - See Photo 4 or provide CMYK colors
* menu text - or email it to lovelylittleparty [!at] gmail.com
Print these at home or at your local printer. You will need one sheet of cardstock for every two menus.
See photo 5 for Lovely Little Party's print pricing. Pricing includes the design fee.
How to order professional printing.
1. Purchase this listing as your down payment. When you include all your information in the notes to seller, specify the printed quantity you would like to order.
2. Lovely Little Party will then send you a listing for the remaining print balance. Remaining balance must be paid before menu's are printed.
Please note: you will need Adobe reader to open this file which you can download free at adobe.com. File will be sent to email address on Etsy account within 3 days.
** I CAN CREATE ANY OTHER ITEMS TO MATCH THIS THEME ** Please inquire.
Any questions, please send a message through etsy or send email to lovelylittleparty{at}gmail.com.
PLEASE NOTE: This file is for personal use only. You may not forward, share, sell or distribute the file. It is for non-commercial use only. Lovely Little Party retains all rights.
Due to variances in monitors and printers, colors may vary slightly.
I accept Paypal, Credit Cards and Etsy gift cards at this time. All payments must be made before any design work begins or before any orders are sent via email.
Due to the volume of orders and the time that goes into them, no work will be performed on any design (including custom designs) until the payment or a deposit has been made. Therefore, we can not show you a proof of something before you purchase it.
All printable orders will be sent via email within 3 full days of order placement excluding Sundays and holidays. If for some reason you do not see your order, please check your spam folder as sometimes large file downloads will end up there. If you do not see your order in spam, please email me directly at lovelylittleparty [!at] gmail.com
Just contact me within: 7 days of delivery
Ship items back to me within: 21 days of delivery
But please contact me if you have any problems with your order.
Because of the nature of these items, unless they arrive damaged or defective, I can't accept returns for:
** Printable Orders**
Due to the nature of digital files and the design work involved, no refunds will be issued once an order has been sent to your email inbox.
**Printed Orders**
There will be absolutely NO REFUNDS for color variance on print orders. Please understand that there is no way to guarantee that the color onscreen looks exactly the same on paper. There is a light source on computer screens making colors appear illuminated. Professionally printed items typically have a slightly darker, richer color.
If you have any concerns or issues with your order, please email me directly at lovelylittleparty [!at] gmail.com. Your satisfaction is very important.
Thick white cardstock (110 lb) or Heavy weight premium photo paper in a soft/semi gloss or matte finish. For home printing, I recommend Georgia Pacific brand 110lb cardstock sold at any Walmart.
If you do not want to print at home, I recommend Office Max or Office Depot for printing. If you plan to take to Kinko's, please email me for a copyright release form as they might question the printing of your design with the copyright slogan on it.
Please send any invitation photographs to Lovelylittleparty [!at] gmail.com after order placement in a high-resolution (300 dpi) format straight from your camera. No cell phone photos, please.} Please make sure if you are sending professional photos that the photographer has given you permission.
Printed colors may vary from one computer monitor to another, one printer to another and even with different types of paper. Lovely Little Party is not responsible for the resulting color variations. If your color is looking dull, you might want to replace your ink cartridge. This usually helps.
If you have any additional questions, need suggestions, etc please email me anytime at lovelylittleparty [!at] gmail.com. Thank you! Blair
Nov 7, 2016
Oct 8, 2015
Jul 16, 2015
It was a beautiful menu. Blair did such a great job with the layout and answering my questions. I definitely recommend this menu & lovelylittleparty.
Jun 23, 2015
These were perfect! I saved a ton of money and they came out beautifully! Already recommended this shop to friends who are getting married next year!
Jun 9, 2015
Turned out perfect! Quick turn-around time and great communication! Thank you! I would work with you again! :)


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This blog requires a long, tall cup of coffee: Go get one, put your feet up, and plow on through. ARM TechCon 2014 took place this week at the Santa Clara Convention Center, and as an indication of what the industry feels is important right now, the following is a complex snapshot of press releases issued by various TechCon exhibitors highlighting their progress in the days leading up to and including the show. Listed first are the three main ARM press releases, then the other exhibitors are showcased.
By the way, the answer to what the industry thinks is important today? If the following is any indication, it's IoT all the way down, with a dollop of FinFET and low-power thrown in for good measure. And if you don't know IoT means Internet of Things, you haven't been listening – particularly as Freescale says in their Press Release: "Analyst research firm Gartner estimates that the IoT will include 26 billion units installed by 2020, and by that time, IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services."
Another possible conclusion from the following: If you're still holding out hope the Design Automation Conference is anchor tenant of the conference year, you should let that go. The amount of news these companies are releasing around ARM TechCon far out weighs what they're releasing around DAC.
** ARM announced on October 1st "two new physical IP implementation solutions for its silicon partners to help simplify the path to implementation for their FinFET physical designs. ARM Artisan Power Grid Architect will reduce overall design time by creating optimal SoC power grid layouts, while ARM Artisan Signoff Architect increases accuracy and precision in managing on-chip variation over existing methodologies. These new physical IP implementation solutions strengthen the commitment from ARM to enable delivery of real silicon with the speed consumers are demanding."
** ARM announced on October 1st, mbed OS, a free operating system for ARM Cortex-M processor based devices that consolidates the fundamental building blocks of the IoT in one integrated set of software components; mbed Device Server, a licensable software product that provides the required server-side technologies to connect and manage devices in a secure way, that also provides a bridge between the protocols designed for use on IoT devices and the APIs that are used by web developers; and mbed.org, the focus point for a community of more than 70,000 developers around mbed. The website provides a comprehensive database of hardware development kits, a repository for reusable software components, reference applications, documentation and web-based development tools.
** ARM and TSMC announced on October 2nd a new multi-year agreement that will deliver up ARMv8-A processor IP optimized for TSMC 10FinFET process technology. Per the Press Release: "Because of the success in scaling from 20SoC to 16FinFET, ARM and TSMC have decided to collaborate again for 10FinFET. This early path-finding work will provide valuable learning to enable physical design IP and methodologies in support of customers to tape-out 10FinFET designs as early as Q4 2015."


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The Girls of Summers
What Harvard's president and his critics got wrong.
For another take on the Summers story, click here.
For more than a month, critics have accused Harvard President Larry Summers of using genetics to explain away sexism in society and academia. They've demanded that he release transcripts of the remarks in question, delivered at an academic conference on Jan. 14. On Thursday, facing calls for his resignation, Summers released the transcript. It shows his critics misconstrued or misrepresented him on numerous points. It also shows what he got wrong and why.
Let's start with his caveats, which eyewitness accounts omitted.
1. He reaffirmed the need to address discrimination. The transcript shows him affirming Harvard's commitment to "the crucial objective of diversity" and urging his audience to address factors that cause women to drop out of academic career paths. Women are among the groups "significantly underrepresented" in an advanced field, he said, and their absence "contributes to a shortage of role models for others."
2. He questioned the rationality of work expectations that discriminate against women. Earlier accounts suggested that when Summers cited very long work hours as a standard women were less likely to accept, he was justifying that standard and its discriminatory result. The transcript shows him making the opposite point: "Is our society right to expect that level of effort from people who hold the most prominent jobs? Is our society right to have familial arrangements in which women are asked to make that choice and asked more to make that choice than men?"He worried about employers' defiance of "legitimate family desires" and suggested that they offer "different compensation packages that will attract the people who would otherwise have enormous difficulty with child care," as well as "extending tenure clocks" and considering other "family benefits."
3. When he said discrimination was the least of three factors in women's underrepresentation, he was talking about discrimination in academic hiring, not discrimination earlier in life. The transcript shows him describing the third factor as "different socialization and patterns of discrimination in a search"—i.e., the search for a new faculty hire. Earlier accounts suggested he blew off discrimination as a factor on the grounds that there weren't enough qualified women to hire in the first place. But the transcript shows him drawing a different conclusion from the inadequate pool of female candidates: He and his audience should be "thinking about this as a national problem rather than an individual institutional problem."
4. When he spoke of differences between male and female test scores, he was confining his analysis to a tiny subset. "If one is talking about physicists at a top 25 research university," he argued, the population in question was "in the one-in-5,000, one-in-10,000 class. Even small differences in the standard deviation will translate into very large differences in the available pool." Summers explicitly said he wasn't talking about a difference in average scores.
5. He rejected socialization as the sole factor—not as one factor—in test score differences. Summers said there was "reasonably strong evidence" of differences "that are not easy to attribute to socialization." Afterward, when a critic suggested that the evidence supported an alternative explanation based on socialization, Summers replied, "I don't presume to have proved any view that I expressed here. But if you think there is proof for an alternative theory, I'd want you to be hesitant about that."
6. His story about his daughters was grossly misrepresented. Numerous reports of Summers' remarks noted damningly that he had mentioned his daughters as evidence of innate gender differences. And indeed he did cite "my experience with my two-and-a-half-year-old twin daughters who were not given dolls and who were given trucks, and found themselves saying to each other, 'Look, Daddy Truck is carrying the baby truck.'" But not one report mentioned that this was a minor anecdote appended to a more serious case study: the Israeli kibbutz movement, which, according to Summers, "started with an absolute commitment … that everybody was going to do the same jobs: Sometimes the women were going to fix the tractors, and the men were going to work in the nurseries." Despite this sex-neutral commitment, he said, individual choices "in a hundred different kibbutzes … all moved in the same direction"—toward traditional gender roles. Summers' point wasn't that nature accounted for everything, but that attempts to erase it as a factor had failed. The kibbutzim were the evidence; his daughters were an afterthought.
In short, Summers got a bum rap. So, was his analysis of biological and cultural factors sound? The transcript answers that question, too. The answer is no. Summers grossly overreached the evidence, and he made a couple of glaring logical blunders.
Summers proposed "that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination." In other words, biology outweighs environment. No evidence he presented justifies this hypothesis. So how did he reach it?
First, he rashly extrapolated from the limits of socialization in one area to the limits of socialization in another. "Most of what we've learned from empirical psychology in the last 15 years has been that people naturally attribute things to socialization that are in fact not attributable to socialization," he said. "We've been astounded by the results of separated twins studies. The confident assertions that autism was a reflection of parental characteristics … have now been proven to be wrong." For this reason, he was "hesitant about assigning too much weight" to the idea that girls and boys are socialized differently.
In the Q&A, a questioner pointed out that the environmental differences affecting identical twins (which are always of the same sex) are nothing like the environmental differences affecting boys and girls. Summers replied,
The field of behavioral genetics had a revolution in the last 15 years, and the principal thrust of that revolution was the discovery that a large number of things that people thought were due to socialization weren't, and were in fact due to more intrinsic human nature. And that set of discoveries, it seemed to me, ought to influence the way one thought about other areas where there was a perception of the importance of socialization. I wasn't at all trying to connect those studies to the particular experiences of women and minorities who were thinking about academic careers.
Any Harvard student who gave this answer on an exam would be flunked. If you aren't claiming that a highly abstract resemblance to another subject has any bearing on this one—and you present no evidence to justify the cross-application—you have no business bringing it up.
Second, Summers confused two different causal conflicts. In the course of arguing that socialization was a less persuasive explanation for differential outcomes than biology was, he observed, "When there were no girls majoring in chemistry, when there were no girls majoring in biology, it was much easier to blame parental socialization. Then, as we are increasingly finding today, the problem is what's happening when people are 20, or when people are 25, in terms of their patterns with which they drop out." In other words, even after we've substantially canceled out differences in socialization by getting women to major successfully in sciences, they still drop out of the academic race. Well, yes. But that doesn't show that the alternative factor is biology. It just shows that there's an alternative factor—and Summers had already mentioned two other alternative factors that would more plausibly affect 25-year-old women: bias against women and bias against people who bear and raise children. The limits of egalitarian socialization in controlling a woman's career prove nothing about the limits of sexist socialization in shaping a girl.
At one point, Summers acknowledged, "It's pointed out by one of the papers at this conference that these tests are not a very good measure and are not highly predictive" of academic success. "And that's absolutely right," said Summers. "But I don't think that resolves the issue at all. Because if … there are some systematic differences in variability in different populations, then whatever the set of attributes are that are precisely defined to correlate with being an aeronautical engineer at MIT or being a chemist at Berkeley, those are probably different in their standard deviations as well."
What? This is pure abstract inference at an absurd level. It's also incoherent. You can't presume that men and women differ in the second respect while inferring this presumption from a likeness to their difference in the first. Either you presume similarities, or you presume differences.
Why did Summers make these mistakes? The transcript suggests two conflicting reasons. One is that he's stubborn and argumentative. He repeatedly deflected cultural explanations by saying things like, "No doubt there is some truth in that," "This kind of taste does go on," and "Yeah, look, anything could be social"—and then minimizing these explanations. The consistent tone of his remarks was "Yeah, but …" There are two possible explanations for that tone in this context. One is that he's a sexist. The other is that once he offers a hypothesis, he'd rather defend and extend it than listen objectively to the alternatives. He's got an open mind but not an open heart.
I suspect this, rather than sexism, is the root of Summers' errors, because a sexist wouldn't have said what he said while displaying a second intellectual flaw evident in the transcript. Again and again, Summers warned his listeners to be skeptical of what they'd prefer to believe. We all want to believe socialization explains differences in male and female outcomes, he observed. Therefore, he reasoned, we should distrust that hypothesis and look for evidence to the contrary. He was so busy being skeptical of the popular explanation that he forgot to be skeptical of the unpopular one. He overstated the case for innate sex differences not because he wanted to believe it, but because he didn't.
If you think this explanation is too kind to Summers, ask yourself why he told the story about his daughters. An old-fashioned sexist wouldn't have told that story, because he wouldn't have been surprised at his daughter's maternal behavior—never mind that he wouldn't have given her a truck in the first place. Summers brought up the incident not because it would rock the academic world—it didn't—but because it rocked him. As he put it, the incident "tells me something." He wasn't speaking as the president of Harvard or even as a scholar. He was speaking as a modern dad who thought he could overcome nature and discovered he couldn't.
When we talk about gender or any other controversial topic, we "have to be willing to ask the question in ways that could face any possible answer that came out," Summers implored his audience. What brave and wise counsel. Now he just needs to follow it.


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This report is based on the activities of the Digital Communities program, a network of public- and private-sector IT professionals who are working to improve local governments' delivery of public service through the use of digital technology. The program — a partnership between Government Technology and e.Republic's Center for Digital Government — consists of task forces that meet online and in person to exchange information on important issues facing local government IT professionals.
More than 1,000 government and industry members participate in Digital Communities task forces focused on digital infrastructure, law enforcement and big city/county leadership. The Digital Communities program also conducts the annual Digital Cities and Digital Counties surveys, which track technology trends and identify and promote best practices in local government.
Digital Communities quarterly reports appear in Government Technology magazine in March, June, September and December.
How does a CIO respond to a recession and continue to deliver IT services to a city or county and its residents? A spectrum of choices — ranging from staff cuts and service reductions to exploring new service delivery ideas — have been employed recently by CIOs under severe economic duress. Some IT directors were reluctantly forced by economics to change long-established procedures, while others eagerly seized the opportunity to explore new approaches. A few found that they could ride out the storm with minor adjustments. In any case, when economics closed one door, each faced a multiplicity of factors and each reached a decision point as to what to do, which new door to open. Harold Tuck, for example, former CIO of San Diego County, could be said to be in the "ride it out with minor adjustments" category. The county enjoyed a successful IT outsourcing agreement that was, as Tuck said, "recession proof," in that it was a contractual agreement. When the prime vendor decided to depart, a partner took over and things continued with a few tweaks, assisted by Tuck, the vendor, the county's solid financial situation and its long-serving supervisors. What decision points does he think are most critical in sourcing decisions? "Organizations need to be really honest about what their core competencies are," Tuck said, "what they do well and what they don't do well. Technology obviously changes rapidly, new applications come out, and if you lose a key developer to a company, do you have the bench to replace that person? Do you have the ability to pay market rates for the positions that you have? And if the answers to those questions are no, then you need to strongly consider outsourcing." CIOs across the nation are asking these same questions. One concept that has taken on new importance in this environment is strategic sourcing. Strategic sourcing is not a new concept, but it has surfaced again, endowed with new life and new possibilities by advancing technologies like cloud computing, shared services, virtualization and the introduction of mobile devices. Fundamentally strategic sourcing involves calculating the most effective and efficient way to obtain needed products and services — and it's prompting local government leaders to push the boundaries of procurement and public service. Ron Puccinelli, CIO of Concord, Calif., saw his IT organization decimated by the recession, looked at his depleted bench and saw the writing on the wall. "Trying to build every single thing is no longer physically possible," he said. "Things are too complex and moving too fast." Joe Marcella, CIO of Las Vegas, added political considerations and flexibility as key factors in sourcing. "I need to hold dear anything that is strategic or core competency within my own organization," he said, "because you have the political piece of it, the policymakers, and sometimes those things are specific to them. Also the delivery to citizens, if I need to control that, then it probably better be close at hand. And if it has to be flexible, we don't want a contract around it that requires a change order. But if it's a utility, if it's nonstrategic, if it's like 'doors on Fords' and I can do it for the same price, somebody else can manage that." Phil Bertolini, deputy county executive and CIO of Oakland County, Mich., is a good example of the "eager to explore new ideas" category, and is one of the innovators behind an initiative to bring counties together in shared services offerings over a government-to-government cloud. But when it comes to outsourcing IT, he said maturity is key. "The mature IT organization utilizes sourcing as a tool. So for example, we selectively source out our help desk. We bring contractual people in and they handle that for us. Why is that? It is a very 'routinized' function. You can get those kinds of assets — whether they be from a contract house or from someone who does service center or help desk work — they are easy to find and they are lower cost. We also outsource about 30 percent of our development needs, and we do that mostly through supplemental staffing. We bring in contractual staff that has certain skill sets, and then we try to do knowledge transfer to our existing resources." In making decisions spurred by a recession, it should come as no surprise that the cost of alternatives would be fundamental to any choice. Harris County, Texas, CIO Bruce High implemented the county's Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) program about two years ago and applies it to all enterprise IT projects. "It was designed to make people more aware of what they are stepping off into," said High. "You get a full picture of what it's going to cost to maintain. "It's really just an Excel spreadsheet with a lot of tabs," High said. "It asks the questions they wouldn't have thought of when talking to the vendor, such as: 'Do I need somebody to support this thing? Do I need 18 servers, and does that mean 18 licenses? Do they sell production and backup servers?'" Harris County has even turned down some available grants once the specifics were run through the TCO process. "It wasn't worth it because the hit of 10 to 12 percent maintenance fees that will be coming out of your operational budget is not going to be sustained by grants," said High. "It gives the decision-makers good information to make sound decisions." Rather than slowing down the procurement process, TCO actually expedites it, High said. The process is fairly simple, he added, and there have been few complaints from users, who appreciate getting some real data on actual costs, and all the questions are asked up front, so they don't have to go back to the vendor for more information midway through the process. The county provides a template that has premade formulas for the calculations. And on items that aren't covered by an algorithm, IT staff will help out as needed. High's advice is to try to think of everything before you commit. Like those maintenance fees and support agreements. "You may not be thinking, 'OK, that's 15 percent of $2 million, so I have $300,000 next year that's going to come out of the operational budget.' Well, forget it. I'm not going to lay off three people to do this." And finally, according to Accenture's Jim Bard, decisions need to be made collaboratively from the start. "When analyzing cloud-based computing or solutions," he said, "it's important for the CIO and procurement group to collaborate early in the process, to define the requirements of the organization, and develop the right acquisition and procurement strategy that will bring the best value to the organization. Having procurement get involved early is key in these complex services that cloud computing represents."
Build, Buy, Rent or Share?
Strategic sourcing is not cookie cutter — there are no simple recipes for success. Decisions evolve from an analysis of the goals and mandates of the jurisdiction, available resources, unavoidable restrictions, risks, insight and a knowledge of what will give and what won't when give is all that's left. Concord and Las Vegas have taken different directions, applied different strategies and found |different ways to keep the wheels turning during tough economic times. Two strategies they have in common, however, are greater use of outsourcing and shared services.
Concord, Calif. Don't tell Concord, Calif., CIO Ron Puccinelli that the recession is over. His options have been slashed along with his budget. In the past 36 months, he's had a 42 percent reduction in staff and a tripling of demand. He can't offer new hires a competitive salary. But as Puccinelli says, it's not a problem because he can't hire anyway. Squeezed between numerous rocks and hard places, he's playing defense, supporting 500 to 900 city staff members with his own department of 12, and outsourcing everything he can. Two years ago, Puccinelli started moving systems out of the city to other locations where he didn't have to build, maintain and own the servers and applications. "We're calling it the cloud," he said, "and we have a half-dozen applications out there now. We started with non-mission-critical ones to see if this was going to work." The city went live in July with its first mission-critical cloud application, an Accela Automation land management and permitting system. "Accela provides software as a service in a class one facility," Puccinelli said. "They provide disaster recovery and business continuity so I don't have to back that data up. I don't have to worry about hot site/cold site, they do security but I am responsible so I have to check and make sure they are actually doing it." The city also just finished the first year of a completely contracted help desk services support system. Puccinelli said that approach is more cost-effective than retaining staff members who have the skill set to handle break/fix issues. He has more than 200 applications to support, but has no staff members dedicated to any specific application, and has only one dedicated server technician. "As our systems come up for upgrades or replacement, we do a serious look at do we do it ourselves or put it out somewhere else? It comes down to what's the risk and can I live with it, and what's the value? Then we make that decision, and we put the controls in the contract — who owns the data, what's our exit strategy, who owns the security responsibility, how do we check and verify? We try to cover all the bases. In some cases, you can ask for it, but they may or may not say yes." Puccinelli cannot match salaries with nearby Silicon Valley, even if he could hire. By using contract workers, he can bring in experts to work on specific systems like UNIX or Windows for only the time frame that they need to complete a project or solve an issue. "You pay a little bit more to do that, but you have the flexibility to get the skills you need when you need them." Puccinelli said that as the economy recovers, he won't go back to the old ways of doing things. "Requirements change month to month," he said, "and to have staff members sitting in classes learning new skills would not be a good use of their time." With flexible staffing, he can pick and choose the most highly skilled contract support. Concord also is increasing its shared services activities. "I provide radio and telephone service for the entire government agency of a neighboring city, and I do all the police technology support — the radios, the computers in the cars and on officers' desks, network infrastructure, email, voicemail, all their applications, all their records systems, everything." A two-county interoperable radio system is under way, the city's first big shared system that is not city-owned. Puccinelli's concerns align with many other jurisdictions that are treading economic waters or simply looking for better ways to do things. "IT organizations have a choice to make: We can deliver the value to the organization and source it strategically so we have some influence and make sure it's done correctly — with the right security, the right value, the right process and controls — or we get left out of the loop."
Las Vegas "At budget time every year, I'll take a look at all of our systems," said Las Vegas CIO Joe Marcella, "as well as every time we bring up a new system, I try to figure out whether I'm going to build it, buy it, rent it or share it." For Marcella, the decision to share systems has been working. Several jurisdictions — Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson and Clark County — built a government cloud for a multijurisdictional business licensing system and are looking at other potential applications. The collaborative agreement allows for additional participants and proportional payments for buy-in. "Sharing has become very very interesting," said Marcella. He added that shared systems are going to have to become more pervasive in government. If jurisdictions don't start these projects and initiatives on their own, they are going to be mandated to do so — which was the case for these Nevada local governments. The principal partners had to develop an agreement to build the system, and each had to maintain individual proprietary systems. "We all have separate business licensing systems, but they are all now coordinated and linked for data elements that are necessary for the multijurisdictional licenses. That means that if someone is a contractor and wants to go to the county and that's their principal residence, they can still do business in North Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Henderson, simply by going to the county and signing up for it." Wireless Pooling Saves Texas County $95,000 per Year Bexar County has moved from separate wireless accounts with individual plans to one main wireless pooled account. Pooling is the process of purchasing a monthly set of minutes per unit and sharing those minutes across county departments, resulting in a reduced net cost per minute. The county analyzed this option and discovered that it was less expensive to do than an employee allowance plan.
The pooled county account includes 404 cellphones with 100 pool minutes/100 free texts ($23.80 per month) and 334 smartphones with 300 pool minutes/unlimited data and text ($51.74 per month). Both have 5,000 night and weekend minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes. By pooling the wireless minutes countywide, we leverage spending and reduce costs. The minutes are reviewed monthly to assure we are optimizing the amount of minutes, adjusting for additional savings.
The combining of the accounts — from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint — into pooling also standardized the wireless plans and monthly billing. Formerly there were separate plans for high-end users versus lower plans for others, causing confusion on auditing, budgeting and payment processing. It also improves the inventory of the phones and the processing of chargebacks and payments. We are currently incurring a savings of $85,000 for the year.
At this time we are working with our wireless vendor to set up the county's two aircard accounts into one and pool them. Out of 684 individual aircard plans, 110 of those would be reduced from the higher-cost unlimited plan to the $37.99 per month plan, sharing 5 GB of data each. This is more than enough and would cover those high-end users and save on overages. We are projecting to have a savings of $10,000 for the year. Thus, through pooling we will save $85,000 for the cellphones plus another $10,000 for the aircards.
— Catherine Maras, CIO of Bexar County, Texas
There were three main benefits, said Marcella. "It causes us to all be collaborative, it facilitates a Nevada Revised Statute ... and it creates a government cloud, which allows anyone to sign on, sign off, be a part or be absent."
Some of the groundwork for the business license application was laid several years ago. Las Vegas, the Metropolitan Police Department, Clark County and the state of Nevada all participated in a project called Nevada Shared Information Technology Services (NSITS). Then-Gov. Jim Gibbons said NSITS provided "a governance model for the operation of a collaborative, cross-jurisdictional information technology infrastructure."
Marcella also hosts all of southern Nevada's animal shelter system on the Las Vegas government cloud. "I own the software, I license use to the other jurisdictions, and everybody signs up to use it. I host it, and it's a nonprofit that runs the center. So you can see all the components there, which is typically difficult to do contractually into an operating agreement, and also host it in a single site."
He also hosts MyNevada, a Web portal for questions on obtaining services that provides aggregate data from multiple jurisdictions.
Two Takes on Outsourcing
Outsourcing all or part of a jurisdiction's IT operations has been an option for some time now, and San Diego County has been doing it successfully since 1999. The outsourcing contract is credited by the county CIO as staving off recession-induced budget cuts to IT, as it is a contracted relationship that can't be touched.
Minneapolis has a long outsourcing track record as well, but according to the city's CIO, the contractual relationship there shifted budget cuts to a dwindling city IT organization, and more cuts are pending. Here's a closer look at the impact of large-scale outsourcing in both jurisdictions.
San Diego County San Diego County is the poster child for IT outsourcing. Since 1999, the county has successfully transitioned through three vendor regimes, picking up lessons learned along the way. In 1999, the county first contracted with CSC. In 2005, the county partnered with Northrop Grumman, and that transitioned to the third contract with Hewlett-Packard in May 2011. Through all those transitions, said former CIO Harold Tuck, the county improved its contracting, its ability to write terms and conditions, and its stability. "Some aspects of the contract certainly didn't work in the beginning," Tuck said. "We had a fair number of contractual disputes when I walked in on April 1, 2008. We had millions of dollars in dispute. We were disputing service delivery, projects not being on time, being over budget, we had unmet service-level agreements and penalties imposed." And there was some confusion among staff as to areas of responsibility. Now, there are only a few thousand dollars in dispute, and Tuck reorganized and created self-directed teams that raised morale and helped build a better working relationship with Northrop Grumman that carried over to the most recent arrangement with Hewlett-Packard. The 90-day transition from Northrop Grumman to HP went smoothly, said Cathy Varner, the San Diego County program manager for HP Enterprise Services. A large portion of the Northrop staff was retained, and the company already had a major role in the contract. "We were a subcontractor and had what we believe are the core components. HP had the data centers, the help desk, we managed those portions of the contract, as well as on the application side, we managed Health and Human Services, which is the largest of the five business units." San Diego County's IT crew consists of 16 staff members in the County Technology Office including the CIO, an enterprise architect, a county information security officer, a communications person, administrative assistant, assistant CIO, staff that do service management for infrastructure and applications, staff to manage the contract, and staff members that liaise with county government's five business units. Under the county's General Management System, five business group IT managers have a dotted-line reporting relationship to the CIO, which brings the total to 21. "And we have departmental IT coordinators who work for the larger county departments," said Tuck. "They have a reporting relationship to their department head and to the group IT managers, and they represent approximately 40 people. So that's about 61 people total." The outsourcing agreement doesn't cover the sheriff's or district attorney's offices except for telephones, so about 60 internal people handle those functions for 13,500 county employees. "The rest of the IT delivery is done through Hewlett-Packard and AT&T, which has a subcontract with HP," said Tuck, adding that the contract with HP is worth about $127 million per year. Tuck credits some of the county's success to stable personnel who have been involved with source selection and contract management since 1999. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors, for example, has retained the same members since the 1990s. A governance structure, called the General Management System, has been tweaked and improved over the years. Tuck also touts the IT Innovation Council that brings in Fortune 500 companies to meet with the county's front-line employees. What began as a utility, said Tuck — simply managing a contract — evolved into what he calls a "transformative state" with HP. Tuck said outsourcing has served the county well during the economic downturn, even though it was not done originally to save money, but instead to focus on the county's strengths. "We invested over $100 million because we sold our landfill and invested that money in outsourcing and in our infrastructure. In 2007 and 2008, to the present time you have the horrific economic downturn, and organizations are asked to make budget cuts. I haven't been asked to do that because we have a contractual obligation with Hewlett-Packard. None of my colleagues can make that claim." In contrast, the economic environment forced many local governments to delay replacing and upgrading software and it also left them, in many cases, more than one version behind vendors' current operating systems. And in the worst-case scenarios, jurisdictions laid off employees as a cost-cutting measure. "My colleagues are consolidating and virtualizing servers," Tuck said, "they have fewer physical servers in their data centers, they have more real estate available yet they still have the utility costs, and other costs responsible for running a data center, so they will want to do shared services to fill up their space because smaller organizations have the same concerns. So now outsourcing comes into play, and you have to consider it." So why aren't other jurisdictions doing San-Diego-style outsourcing? Tuck said the city of San Diego and Orange County, Calif., have RFPs out, and others are considering it, but he suggested that putting members of public-sector unions into the private sector requires strong political backing that may be beyond the abilities of many jurisdictions. HP's Varner said many jurisdictions lack a strong governance model, which she sees as essential to outsourcing success. She added that other municipalities sometimes allow departments to opt in or out, which defeats the enterprise view, scalability and ultimate success. "With the right governance model and commitment for success, county government can achieve the cost savings that San Diego County has achieved, and large or small, the formula can be replicated." HP provides help desk, workplace services (desktop, phones and network), and applications hosted in two U.S.-based remote data centers, as well as the development and maintenance of the applications."We do storage" Varner said, "and right now we're involved in a transformation project with the county, which is developing their cloud strategy, their mobility strategy and doing their applications rationalization." Varner said San Diego County wanted to know the total cost of ownership for some of the applications as well as an overall view of its portfolio of more than 520 apps, including who uses them and how old they are. "It was interesting to see how many apps were over a million users, obviously those were the public safety ones, versus two or three apps that were highly specialized. "We were able to show them that if you touch this app, it impacts this upstream or downstream and also where they should be putting some of their investment dollars because some of these applications are going to be retired, some need to be maintained, and some need to be replaced." In addition, she said, redundant functions like departmental case management systems were located and the county shown how consolidation could save money and create more of an enterprise view. The county's agreement with Hewlett-Packard runs until January 2018.
Minneapolis When Minneapolis' outsourcing contract with Unisys smacked into the recession, it did not allow needed flexibility, said CIO Otto Doll. Doll, formerly South Dakota's CIO, said the contract was first inked in 2003 and runs until 2015. While cuts came to Doll's in-house staff and operations, the outsourcing contract was untouchable and that has been a source of frustration. "My salary, staff salary, money for new ventures, you keep eating away at that and you are left with fixed costs and they may come back and say you need to cut more. And then what do you do? I'm faced with that right now. We've been given direction to cut more for fiscal year 2013, so I'm looking at this. … I'm against cutting staff further, I do have a few outs in the Unisys contract, but it's minimal." Doll said the cuts began before he started working for Minneapolis. In the years preceding his arrival, cut after cut was made not only in the IT department, but also across the city government. The outsourcing contract was renegotiated in 2008 and 2010 to help with the financial strain. "But ultimately it's a difficult thing to open up the contract because then you invariably have to extend it," he said. And now, nearly a decade after the contract began, the city must make a strategic decision. "In 10 years, what worked and what hasn't, and can we structure this so that it will work better for the next number of years? I'd love to run everything under the cloud, but technically you can't do that. Nobody has a solution that can support that, and even if they did, we start learning how they architect and implement these clouds, and guess what? It's not something where I can just move something from one cloud to another — a piece of cake, very little cost to do that — because if it was, it would make the cloud a commodity, and that's a much different game. I'm not saying it won't ultimately move to that model, but right now there are things that lock you into a cloud and cost you some serious money to move from one area to another." The city's agreement with Unisys is very comprehensive. "The PC that I use," Doll said, "the servers that our applications run on, storage — you name it — it's actually all leased by the city through Unisys. They do all of the operations, their guys support us from the desktop to the data center and they do a certain degree of networking." Unisys also handles the service desk. Doll's staff handles telephones and some user-perspective administration of major systems like enterprise resource planning. Doll's group does application development and maintains some older information systems built in house. "I have some architects, some contract specialists, system architects to data architects, we have our own project managers, I have my own security officer, interagency coordinator, a couple of networking guys but more at the architecture side." Doll has 57 positions total for the whole IT organization. "We're very close to having the entire IT shop outsourced." "If we're going to do an RFP and be running come January 2016, we have to start it now," Doll said.
New Methods Hit Old Restrictions
While strategic sourcing expands the spectrum of choices, some new options collide with restrictions based on old ways of doing things. Software as a service, for example, is obtained from the cloud by subscription. But while software purchase as a capital expenditure is a well traveled path, subscriptions are not. And governments attempting to share services that run on proprietary software encounter licensing restrictions. And since many governments perform similar functions, some are offering a government cloud approach to service delivery that public officials find more comfortable for critical applications or sensitive data. But government clouds encounter both subscription and licensing obstacles.
A year ago, Government Technology published an article about the need for more flexibility in software licenses, shared hosting, concurrent licensing, etc. Those discussions continue, with some signs of improvement. However, many CIOs we recently talked to continued to cite licensing issues as an impediment to options ranging from virtualization to shared services.
The issue resurfaced, for example, most recently at a meeting of CIOs in San Diego, hosted by Tuck. When asked if changes are needed in software licensing, Tuck said, "The answer is a resounding yes. In a shared service model, you would want to have an enterprise agreement for all the customers you are providing services to. In other words, a regional agreement. But how you get hardware and software vendors at the table willing to do that is the difficult question."
In addition to the need for regional licensing agreements, there is confusion associated with sorting out the licensing legalese of this uncharted territory.
Oakland County, Mich., CIO Phil Bertolini, for example, is aggressively pushing the envelope and is afflicted with both licensing issues. Oakland County's G2G Cloud Solutions could expand shared services beyond the county or even across the country. For applications developed in-house — such as the county's online payments solution — county borders are not a problem, and subscribers can come from anywhere. But with anything that runs on proprietary software, he said, once outside county borders, the game changes, the rules are convoluted and the legal hurdles can bring things to a halt.
"Their licensing for governments today forces me into a box," he said. "It says I can only provide the technologies for my county entities — my county departments and divisions. So if I'm providing certain things to my local governments, that could impact my licensing model. And a lot of us are doing that now."
Understandably, vendors see governments providing services based on the vendors' proprietary software as possible competitors. Bertolini said vendors categorize him as a service provider, and he understands their point of view, but he would like clarification on licensing agreements. A jurisdiction's legal team can stop an initiative if the licensing agreement isn't clearly spelled out. "It's so convoluted on when you move from one license to another," said Bertolini. "Is it an enterprise license? Is it a provider license? Then if I need one or the other, what do I have to do to procure that? And if I procure that, does it give me unlimited ability to provide? There are all these things that are up in the air."
Microsoft's Stuart McKee — a member of San Diego County's Innovation Council — said that from Microsoft's perspective, software licensing is a "very small portion of the overall costs," compared to the infrastructure portion of providing a shared service. "If one entity has a piece of software and they spin up a cloud-enabled service, and the other entity is using it, I don't think it necessarily requires the other entity to pay for it twice." McKee said that if subscribers are using client software to access the application, there could be licensing costs.
McKee said that when he was CIO of Washington state many years ago, he did compete with the private sector in some respects, and confusion may come from government's practice of budgeting for capital systems.
"Historically, with a Microsoft purchase, you buy bits and binaries and you got CDs and licenses and installed them on servers, and you used a capital budget to do that. In the cloud, you are buying a subscription. I've been in a lot of conversations where there's a bunch of enthusiasm and 'we're going to the cloud, and this is exciting' and then they get down to 'how do we buy this?' They've never bought subscriptions before and so how do you categorize that? How do you deal with that; what are the terms and conditions?
"We've done a lot of stuff around things like license mobility," McKee said. "Customers that currently have agreements with us … it allows them license mobility. They'll take their licenses from on-premises into the cloud and back. We don't believe it's all or nothing."
Former Montgomery County, Md., CIO Steve Emanuel — now CIO of New Jersey — said the computing paradigm has changed in the past three years from per seat, server or CPU to software as a service or infrastructure as a service, and those models move away from physical boundaries. He likens the state providing services to a county or city in the same way that he'd offer vacant office space with some fees for heat and light. "We have to figure out how we can demonstrate that they don't need to build the same house or the same building right next to us when they've got space in ours. It's that whole sharing concept."
Neither Bertolini nor Emanuel said they have a solution to licensing, just that they need to partner with vendors so they can hash out the issue.
But there are signs of positive change. Las Vegas' Marcella said the city uses Chameleon software for the animal shelter system, which it hosts for other jurisdictions. "Chameleon allows for either a government-hosted site, or they will host the application, so they are used to having multiple jurisdictions and having their system being able to partition and manage it." In addition, he said, the city has a memorandum of understanding for its Esri GIS with multiple layers managed by numerous jurisdictions, which is a vendor-recommended model.
Emanuel said the shared environment took some vendors by surprise. "We've seen it with Oracle. We definitely saw it with Microsoft, because Microsoft's license mobility is a response to that." And the changes go beyond just premises and cloud. "It could be someone else's premises, and it could be multiple clouds. If we're going to build in total flexibility as the Internet and the cloud are supposed to provide, who cares where they get their service and data as long as it's the current data and good service?" He said vendors must deal with not only open source software but also with cloud email providers. Emanuel added that it's refreshing to see Microsoft's licensing mobility option.
"We've been doing network-enabled services for quite a long time," McKee said. "And that's all the cloud is — it is just our ability to connect. But the difference with some of these cloud offerings is that we're moving from products to services." McKee said cloud is being promoted as a commodity or utility by vendors and experts. "But you're not just buying software, you're buying a service. So the quality of the service is what matters."
McKee said the bigger question, which he doesn't have any answer for, is about projects on a national scale. "Generally speaking, within a state, there's a lot of jurisdictional law in place that addresses that." One successful national example, he said, is the Washington State Digital Archives, which for years has provided infrastructure to other governments around the country.
"Sharing services is not just about technology — it's sharing a police force, library systems, networks," Emanuel said. "That's the only way government can make some significant reductions in infrastructure without cutting services. And they're looking to technology to do that. The licensing model is just one small piece of it."
Doll said he encountered licensing issues with virtualization. "We share resources with Unisys. Our storage is not on dedicated boxes, our data can be right next to some other client's data, so when you share the processors, you will run into the same challenge as when you went to the virtualized arena."
Due to the pricing structure, Doll said Minneapolis had to cut back on virtualization because it led to an increase in licensing. However, he added that licensing isn't the only challenge — security, availability and accessibility to information, as well as having the facilities to handle required audits are all concerns.
But the news isn't all bad. Local governments are stepping up to the plate and handling the tough economic times as best as they can.
"I think we in government are hitting it out of the ballpark, with the innovative thinking about how we deliver services, and really putting us ahead of the private-sector organizations that don't yet have to think this way," Emanuel said.
This story could be one of IT organizations hammered into defeat by relentless budget cuts and insurmountable obstacles, but it's not. At a time when cities have actually gone bankrupt, and federal, state and local governments have suffered cut after cut to keep afloat in a sea of deep red ink, we found few pleased about the situation, but none defeated.
Local government CIOs and IT staff have — in spite of all opportunity to do otherwise — managed to keep the lights on and servers humming, providing information and services to the enterprise and public. The depth of their resilience, their ability to innovate, source strategically and quickly grasp and employ the latest technical advancements speak well of them and of America's cities and counties. The future, with many obstacles kicked aside by a recovering economy, looks very bright.


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-Cardigan with pockets
-Various pronged studs and screw-on studs
-Wooden pencil
Decide on a design before you start, or design as you go like we did. Place a prong-backed stud at the top of the pocket, and press the prongs through the fabric.
Turn the pocket down so you can see the prongs poking through. Use the metal back of the pencil to press the prongs inward and hold the stud in place.
Separate the pieces of a screw-on stud. Thread the back piece through the pocket from the back to the front.
Twist the stud piece onto the screw back, and tighten with the screwdriver.
Repeat with all different studs, mixing up the order as you move across the pocket. Repeat on the second pocket.


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The biggest advantage you'll find here is small.
Small classes. Small town. Big opportunities. With a student-faculty ratio of 12-to-1, Washington College is the kind of place where your professors will help you chart your personal academic journey. With more than 40 majors and academic programs to choose from, you can shape a course of study that fits your intellectual interests and career aspirations.
Majors and Programs
Minors, Concentrations, and Areas of Emphasis
Our Top 3 Questions
Can I sit in on a class during my campus visit?
Definitely! Just let your admissions counselor know what kind of coursework you are considering, and we'll do our best to take you to a class in progress.
Who will be my academic advisor?
Every year members of the faculty take a group of new students as their academic advisees. Students stay with their first-year advisor until they declare a major and are assigned a new advisor in their major program.
When do I declare a major?
Normally, students declare a major before the end of the sophomore year, in time for advising for the following fall semester.


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To reduce concentrations of chemical contaminants that can damage air quality, human health, productivity, and the environment.
This credit includes requirements for product manufacturing as well as project teams. It covers volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in the indoor air and the VOC content of materials, as well as the testing methods by which indoor VOC emissions are determined. Different materials must meet different requirements to be considered compliant for this credit. The building interior and exterior are organized in seven categories, each with different thresholds of compliance. The building interior is defined as everything within the waterproofing membrane. The building exterior is defined as everything outside and inclusive of the primary and secondary weatherproofing system, such as waterproofing membranes and air- and water-resistive barrier materials.
Option 1. Product Category Calculations
Achieve the threshold level of compliance with emissions and content standards for the number of product categories listed in Table 2.
Table 1. Thresholds of compliance with emissions and content standards for 7 categories of materials
|Emissions and content requirements
|Interior paints and coatings applied on site
|At least 90%, by volume, for emissions; 100% for VOC content
|Interior adhesives and sealants applied on site (including flooring adhesive)
|At least 90%, by volume, for emissions; 100% for VOC content
|General Emissions Evaluation
|Composite wood
|100% not covered by other categories
|Composite Wood Evaluation
|Ceilings, walls, thermal, and acoustic insulation
|Furniture (include in calculations if part of scope of work)
|At least 90%, by cost
|Furniture Evaluation
|Healthcare and Schools Projects only: Exterior applied products
|At least 90%, by volume
|Exterior Applied Products
Table 2. Points for number of compliant categories of products
|Compliant categories
|NC, CS, NC Retail, DC, WDC, NC Hos projects without furniture
|NC, CS, NC Retail, DC, WDC, NC Hos projects with furniture, CI, CI Retail, CI Hos
|Schools, HC without furniture
|Schools, HC with furniture
Option 2. Budget Calculation Method
If some products in a category do not meet the criteria, project teams may use the budget calculation method (Table 3).
Table 3. Points for percentage compliance, under budget calculation method
|Percentage of total
|≥ 50% and < 70%
|≥ 70% and < 90%
|≥ 90%
The budget method organizes the building interior into six assemblies:
- flooring;
- ceilings;
- walls;
- thermal and acoustic insulation;
- furniture; and
- exterior applied products.
Include furniture in the calculations if it is part of the scope of work. Walls, ceilings, and flooring are defined as building interior products; each layer of the assembly, including paints, coatings, adhesives, and sealants, must be evaluated for compliance. Insulation is tracked separately.
Determine the total percentage of compliant materials according to Equation 1.
Equation 1. Total percentage compliance
|Total % compliant for projects without furniture =
|(% compliant walls + % compliant ceilings + % compliant flooring + % compliant insulation)
|Total % compliant for projects with furniture =
|(% compliant walls + % compliant ceilings + % compliant flooring + % compliant insulation) + (% compliant furniture)
Equation 2. System percentage compliant
Flooring, walls, ceilings, insulation % compliant =
(compliant surface area of layer 1 + compliant surface area of layer 2 + compliant surface area of layer 3 + …)
total surface area of layer 1 + total surface area of layer 2 + total surface area of layer 3 + …)
Equation 3. Furniture systems compliant, using ANSI/BIFMA evaluation
|Flooring, walls, ceilings, insulation % compliant =
|(compliant surface area of layer 1 + compliant surface area of layer 2 + compliant surface area of layer 3 + …)
total surface area of layer 1 + total surface area of layer 2 + total surface area of layer 3 + …)
Equation 3. Furniture systems compliant, using ANSI/BIFMA evaluation
|% compliant for furniture =
|0.5 x cost compliant with §7.6.1 of ANSI/BIFMA e3-2011 + cost compliant with §7.6.2 of ANSI/BIFMA e3-2011
total furniture cost
Calculate surface area of assembly layers based on the manufacturer's documentation for application.
If 90% of an assembly meets the criteria, the system counts as 100% compliant. If less than 50% of a assembly meets the criteria, the assembly counts as 0% compliant.
Manufacturers' claims. Both first-party and third-party statements of product compliance must follow the guidelines in CDPH SM V1.1–2010, Section 8. Organizations that certify manufacturers' claims must be accredited under ISO Guide 65.
Laboratory requirements. Laboratories that conduct the tests specified in this credit must be accredited under ISO/IEC 17025 for the test methods they use.
Emissions and Content Requirements
To demonstrate compliance, a product or layer must meet all of the following requirements, as applicable.
Inherently nonemitting sources. Products that are inherently nonemitting sources of VOCs (stone, ceramic, powder-coated metals, plated or anodized metal, glass, concrete, clay brick, and unfinished or untreated solid wood) are considered fully compliant without any VOC emissions testing if they do not include integral organic-based surface coatings, binders, or sealants.
General emissions evaluation. Building products must be tested and determined compliant in accordance with California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Standard Method v1.1–2010, using the applicable exposure scenario. The default scenario is the private office scenario. The manufacturer's or third-party certification must state the exposure scenario used to determine compliance. Claims of compliance for wet-applied products must state the amount applied in mass per surface area.
Manufacturers' claims of compliance with the above requirements must also state the range of total VOCs after 14 days (336 hours), measured as specified in the CDPH Standard Method v1.1:
- 0.5 mg/m3 or less;
- between 0.5 and 5.0 mg/m3; or
- 5.0 mg/m3 or more.
Projects outside the U.S. may use products tested and deemed compliant in accordance with either (1) the CDPH standard method (2010) or (2) the German AgBB Testing and Evaluation Scheme (2010). Test products either with (1) the CDPH Standard Method (2010), (2) the German AgBB Testing and Evaluation Scheme (2010), (3) ISO 16000-3: 2010, ISO 16000-6: 2011, ISO 16000-9: 2006, ISO 16000-11:2006 either in conjunction with AgBB, or with French legislation on VOC emission class labeling, or (4) the DIBt testing method (2010). If the applied testing method does not specify testing details for a product group for which the CDPH standard method does provide details, use the specifications in the CDPH standard method. U.S. projects must follow the CDPH standard method.
Additional VOC content requirements for wet-applied products. In addition to meeting the general requirements for VOC emissions (above), on-site wet-applied products must not contain excessive levels of VOCs, for the health of the installers and other tradesworkers who are exposed to these products. To demonstrate compliance, a product or layer must meet the following requirements, as applicable. Disclosure of VOC content must be made by the manufacturer. Any testing must follow the test method specified in the applicable regulation.
- All paints and coatings wet-applied on site must meet the applicable VOC limits of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) 2007, Suggested Control Measure (SCM) for Architectural Coatings, or the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Rule 1113, effective June 3, 2011.
- All adhesives and sealants wet-applied on site must meet the applicable chemical content requirements of SCAQMD Rule 1168, July 1, 2005, Adhesive and Sealant Applications, as analyzed by the methods specified in Rule 1168. The provisions of SCAQMD Rule 1168 do not apply to adhesives and sealants subject to state or federal consumer product VOC regulations.
- For projects outside the U.S., all paints, coatings, adhesives, and sealants wet-applied on site must either meet the technical requirements of the above regulations, or comply with applicable national VOC control regulations, such as the European Decopaint Directive (2004/42/EC), the Canadian VOC Concentration Limits for Architectural Coatings, or the Hong Kong Air Pollution Control (VOC) Regulation.
- If the applicable regulation requires subtraction of exempt compounds, any content of intentionally added exempt compounds larger than 1% weight by mass (total exempt compounds) must be disclosed.
- If a product cannot reasonably be tested as specified above, testing of VOC content must comply with ASTM D2369-10; ISO 11890, part 1; ASTM D6886-03; or ISO 11890-2.
- For projects in North America, methylene chloride and perchloroethylene may not be intentionally added in paints, coatings, adhesives, or sealants.
Composite Wood Evaluation. Composite wood, as defined by the California Air Resources Board, Airborne Toxic Measure to Reduce Formaldehyde Emissions from Composite Wood Products Regulation, must be documented to have low formaldehyde emissions that meet the California Air Resources Board ATCM for formaldehyde requirements for ultra-low-emitting formaldehyde (ULEF) resins or no added formaldehyde resins. For projects outside the U.S., composite wood must be documented not to exceed a concentration limit of 0.05 ppm of formaldehyde (0.06 mg/m2-h when expressed as emission rate) as tested following either EN-717-1:2004, following ISO 16000-3: 2010, ISO 16000-6: 2011, ISO 16000-9: 2006, ISO 16000-11:2006, or following CEN/TS 16516: 2013 either in conjunction with AgBB or with Belgian or French legislation on VOC emission class labeling.
Salvaged and reused architectural millwork more than one year old at the time of occupancy is considered compliant, provided it meets the requirements for any site-applied paints, coatings, adhesives, and sealants.
Furniture evaluation. New furniture and furnishing items must be tested in accordance with ANSI/BIFMA Standard Method M7.1–2011. Comply with ANSI/BIFMA e3-2011 Furniture Sustainability Standard, Sections 7.6.1 (for half credit, by cost) OR 7.6.2 (for full credit, by cost), using either the concentration modeling approach or the emissions factor approach. Model the test results using the open plan, private office, or seating scenario in ANSI/BIFMA M7.1, as appropriate. USGBC-approved equivalent testing methodologies and contaminant thresholds are also acceptable. For classroom furniture, use the standard school classroom model in CDPH Standard Method v1.1. Documentation submitted for furniture must indicate the modeling scenario used to determine compliance.
Salvaged and reused furniture more than one year old at the time of use is considered compliant, provided it meets the requirements for any site-applied paints, coatings, adhesives, and sealants.
Additional insulation requirements. Batt insulation products may contain no added formaldehyde, including urea formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde, and urea-extended phenol formaldehyde.
Exterior applied products. Adhesives, sealants, coatings, roofing, and waterproofing materials applied on site must meet the VOC limits of California Air Resources Board (CARB) 2007 Suggested Control Measure (SCM) for Architectural Coatings, and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), Rule 1168, effective July 1, 2005. Small containers of adhesives and sealants subject to state or federal consumer product VOC regulations are exempt.
Projects outside North America may use either the jurisdictional VOC content requirements or comply with the European Decopaint Directive (2004/42/EC, to be updated to most current version when available) Phase II, for water-borne coatings, as analyzed according to ISO 11890 parts 1 and 2, instead of the CARB and SCAQMD regulatory standards.
Two materials are prohibited and do not count toward total percentage compliance: hot-mopped asphalt for roofing, and coal tar sealants for parking lots and other paved surfaces.
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Last weekend we kicked off the Christmas season with a little holiday celebration. Our good friends came over for dinner. We lit our first fire in the fireplace, and cooked up a whole bunch of our favorite treats including a delicious treat with peppermint. One of the things we made was this awesome peppermint pudding pie. Even in winter my daughter is a chilled dessert fanatic and I knew it would the perfect dessert to serve after dinner.
To make this amazing frozen concoction I started with this Peppermint Pie recipe as my base. We swapped out pistachio pudding for vanilla and kept the rest the same. It was such a simple and fun dessert to make together. The hard part was not eating some of the filling as we swiped it into the cookie crust!
Since we are all about making cooking fun during the holiday season I let my daughter have fun with the sprinkles on top. At one point I was a tad concerned it might end up being more like a pile of sprinkles with some pie underneath, but she managed to keep it relatively balanced. We made the pie in the afternoon and popped it in the freezer to harden before dinner. For dessert we served it up to our guests with a fresh dollop of whipped cream and got excited for the holidays to begin!
Frozen Peppermint Pudding Pie
Prep Time: 10 minutes • Cook Time: 6 hours • Serves: 10 to 12
1 6oz. chocolate cookie crust
1 ½ cups fat free milk
1 package JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
½ tsp. peppermint extract
2 cups COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
Christmas colored sprinkles
COMBINE the milk, pudding, and extract in a small bowl and whisk well. Then, whisk the mixture into the COOL WHIP.
POUR the mixture into the cookie crust and top with sprinkles.
FREEZE the pie for at least 6 hours.
For more recipes and ideas, visit my blog at www.thenaptimechef.com.
Stick to your smart eating plan with Grasshopper Pudding Pie! Our fluffy and minty Grasshopper Pudding Pie is a sensible, easy-to-make and delicious treat.
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Article by Kraft TasteMaker Kelsey Banfield. For more recipes and ideas, visit her blog at The Naptime Chef.
Please keep in mind that the bloggers opinions, advice and recipes are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Kraft Foods.
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