fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Embrace Change with Curiosity (and DON’T follow that hat!) | four4soaring
By: John Johnson
Tags: Change, Curious George, Covid 19, Change Management, Changing Careers

In these troubling times many of us have experienced change or loss.

While the sting of those losses, some professional, too many personal and all deeply impactful, remains with us, we find ourselves facing the winds of change, off balance and chasing who we used to be. In the aftermath, many of us find ourselves wearing a new hat or potentially multiple hats in whatever new paradigm we land in. This is probably exciting for some and scary for others. My bet is the majority of us feel both ways!

That is normal, that is OK.

I want to take us on a bit of whimsy just for today, as I am hoping that it is helpful.

Curious George of book and cartoon fame has a best friend. This man is called “The Man in The Yellow Hat”

That hat and his yellow outfit are a distinctive part of his identity.

That’s why the theme of one of the Curious George books is called “Curious George in Follow that Hat” (Rey and Rey). Curious George and his friend, The Man, are hanging out in the park one day and The Man decides to take a nap.

Suddenly Curious George sees the Yellow Hat scurrying away seemingly on its own.

It goes down the street, it lands on a street vendor’s head, and has several other adventures until George finally grabs it from the limb of a tall tree.

Spoiler alert: (don’t read any further if you plan on getting this book 🙂 )

When he discovers the hat on the tree limb, just before he snatches it up, he discovers it is chattering?

There was a squirrel under the hat the whole time!

In the story, George returns the hat to The Man and they whimsically live happily ever after.

The Man’s identity is intact and ready for the next book.

…but what if George never chased that hat? Would the man, George grew to love over the many decades, have truly been any different, just because he lost his hat or had to change hats, or wear more than one?

No, I suspect The Man, would go on saving George from his antics.

I suspect that if George had never spent the energy chasing that hat, and whether The Man ended up in a replacement yellow hat, with no hat, wearing two hats or sporting three, The Man was still the very same Man that he always was underneath.

I am willing to bet, that with or without your hat, you are too.

I am thankful for that and I’m glad that we get to go forward into the undiscovered country, together.
Assessing the Requirements Changes
By: Erivan Ramos
Tags: Business Analyst, Change, Babok, Change Management, Business Analysis

Assessing the Requirements Changes

Photo by bonneval on Unsplash

Changes are common in requirements and Business Analysts need to be in alert for whatever change happens during all requirements life cycle. This includes assessing the impact of requirements changes on a project, cooperating with impact analysis and impact solution. These are the main elements to be considered when assessing requirements changes, as defined by the BABOK® Guide version 3, at “Requirements Life Cycle Management”:

Assessment Formality

The Business Analyst needs to define what is the formality of the change assessment process, and it can be impacted by factors such as:

Available information — Sometimes the change formality needs to be more rigid because of contractual clauses, sometimes because the change may involve certain risks. Depending on how much is known about the change for the initiative, it is possible to define how it should be assessed. Try to understand the risks of changes based on the methodology adopted for the development of the initiative, as well as how much it can be impacted by the organization’s processes or an existing contract.

The importance of the change — It is important to identify how much the change is important for the initiative. For example, on initiatives based on an agile methodology, is know that “Quick responding to change is more important than following a plan.” So in these cases, is required less formality in the assessment than on a waterfall methodology.

Governance process rules — You should understand what is determined by the existing governance structure for a change be made, items such as how long it takes, who should approve and how much it costs need to be taken in consideration.

Carefully evaluate what each project requires and what approach you should take.

Impact Analysis

Depending on the change formality defined, less or more will need to be documented by an Impact Analysis. The Business Analyst needs to evaluate the change against the following items:

Benefit — Once the change is accepted, what is the impact of the benefits?

Cost—Take into considerations all costs related to the change. Is it a worthy investment?

Impact — How (and how much) the stakeholders will be impacted (positively and negatively)?

Schedule — How much the change will impact the schedule? is it acceptable?

Urgency — What is the importance of applying the change?

Impact Resolution

The Business Analyst needs to engage the key stakeholders and present the change impact analysis, including:

What will need to be approved?

What will need to be denied or deferred?

What will be documented and communicated to other stakeholders?

Because the many project areas are interconnected, any requirement change of the different areas must be assessed by the Business Analyst. When the above elements are considered when assessing changes in requirements, the need for change and the decision on the change will be clear to all project stakeholders, as well as the responsibility and duly documented actions.
Change management software solutions
By: Steve Miller
Tags: Change Management Process, Change Management, Change Management System

Plan, implement and evaluate all changes with few easy staeps solution developed by qualityze known to be Change management software. It can be integrated to every industry that can be lifescience, automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, oil and gas, hospitality and many more.
Change Management In The Time Of COVID
By: Jennifer L. Schenker
Tags: Covid 19, Change Management, Deep Dives

Companies around the world have struggled with how to manage employees remotely during the pandemic but Corinne Saunders’ task was especially daunting. Saunders, the new director general of EMEA for Lionbridge Technologies, an American company that provides translation, localization and interpretation services, did not even have a chance to meet most of her team members before the first lockdown went into effect. Her journey and insights into how to manage a team remotely during COVID-19 could prove helpful to other companies struggling with the change management needed when a workforce goes digital.

This article is part of The Innovator’s premium content offer and available only to The Innovator’s Radar subscribers.

If you are already a Radar subscriber click here to sign into your account.

For a free trial Radar Subscription click here.
Overcome the #1 Agility Killer
Tags: Agile Transformation, Change Management, Agile, Agility

Written by LeadingAgile

Agile in general, and Scrum specifically, is predicated on the idea that each team has everything they need to deliver an increment of value. But unless you’re a small team or a new startup, that’s usually the furthest from the truth.

When a team doesn’t have everything it needs to deliver an increment of value, that’s a dependency. And dependencies come in many forms.

Scrum assumes you have no dependencies. But the reality is, if you’re a large enterprise trying to become Agile at scale, you’re typically up against a host of more complicated ones.

In large enterprises, we’re not only talking about dependencies between the team and external entities but also between teams that need each other to deliver an end-to-end increment of working, tested product.

These kinds of dependencies don’t just go away overnight.

You can’t simply wish them away or pretend they don’t exist.

They are real, and they are in your way. And as long as you have them-Agility will be impossible.

How you choose to deal with your dependencies is critical to Agile’s effectiveness in your organization. But you really only have two choices. You either have to break the dependencies, or you have to manage them.

Which is the right way to go for your organization?

To take a deeper dive into how to overcome dependencies and decide the best way to overcome yours, check out this recent blog by our CEO, Mike Cottmeyer: Encapsulation vs. Orchestration: Dependencies in Agile.
Cultura e innovación: no sos vos, soy yo…
By: Diego Pons
Tags: Innovation, Culture Change, Change Management, Innovación Organizacional, Innovation Management

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
An Agile Approach to Personal Development w/ Mike Cottmeyer
Tags: Agile Transformation, Change Management, Agile

An Agile Approach to Personal Development w/ Mike Cottmeyer LeadingAgile ·Dec 3, 2020

Recorded By Dave Prior

Dave Prior sits down for a conversation with LeadingAgile CEO Mike Cottmeyer and they explore Mike’s Agile approach to personal development and dig into the details of how and why his approach to growth and development has evolved over time.

https://soundcloud.com/leadingagile/an-agile-approach-to-personal-development-w-mike-cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo

Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you’re interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/
My Definition of BRANDING
By: Christos D. Katsanos, Ultra Life Artist
Tags: Branding, Culture Transformation, Change Management

Too many people so few ideas. So we repeat ourselves!

I talk all my life about Brands and Branding and I define myself as a Brand Strategist.

I have been asked many times to give the definition of Branding. I tried very hard to give an answer based on the people I had in front of me.

Lately I watched an interview of my beloved Seth Godin, where his definition of Marketing is so close to my definition of Branding. So I paraphrased his words, and here we are:

“My definition of Branding doesn’t match what some people’s definition on Branding is.

I do NOT define Branding as hype, advertising, promotion, scamming, selfish narcissistic short term thinking,

which is what a lot of people think of when they do Branding or when they are Branders.

I define Branding as anything we do that changes the CULTURE for the BETTER.

if you are willing to take responsibility for the work you’re doing and you are bringing something to the world then you’re a Brander, because if you do it better it’s gonna work better then if you don’t.

And so yeah I have written some papers and participated in some successful products & ideas but almost none of them belong in the “Branding section” because they’re about things like CULTURE or technology or how we organized to move forward.

So have I been a Brander my whole life?

I think everyone has but I think I’ve been more intentional about it from a really young age

not because I was born with it (non of us where born able to walk or talk)

but because I decided it was important and I practiced it.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

If you’re interested in Seth’s interview please click here
Food for Agile Thought #270
By: Stefan Wolpers
Tags: Agile, Innovation, Product Management, Change Management, Scrum

Hello from Berlin!

Welcome to the 270th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 28,431 peers.

tion, and creating value, and we analyze prerequisites of successful agile transformations at an organizational level.

We then learn about a developer’s perspective on what it takes to build a successful product development team. Also, we explore a handy tool for ordering Product Backlogs beyond the usual suspects like Cost of Delay, Kano model, or RICE, and we ask: “What else about product [management] is as ‘simple as it sounds’ but needs to be learned? Why do we fall into these traps?”

📺 Lastly, the recording of the 28th Hands-on Agile meetup on the Scrum Guide 2020’s eight remarkable changes is available.

Learn more: Food for Agile Thought #270: Productive Uncertainty, Conway’s Law and Org Design for Success, Agile’s Intangibles, WSJF Prioritization.

Best,

Stefan

PS: Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #269?
Agile’s Intangibles, Productive Uncertainty — Food for Agile Thought #270
By: Stefan Wolpers
Tags: Agile, Innovation, Product Management, Change Management, Scrum

TL; DR: Agile’s Intangibles, Productive Uncertainty — Food for Agile Thought #270

Welcome to the 270th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 28,431 peers. This week, we cover Agile’s intangibles; we delve into innovation, risk mitigation, and creating value, and we analyze prerequisites of successful agile transformations at an organizational level.

We then learn about a developer’s perspective on what it takes to build a successful product development team. Also, we explore a handy tool for ordering Product Backlogs beyond the usual suspects like Cost of Delay, Kano model, or RICE, and we ask: “What else about product [management] is as ‘simple as it sounds’ but needs to be learned? Why do we fall into these traps?”

📺 Lastly, the recording of the 28th Hands-on Agile meetup on the Scrum Guide 2020’s eight remarkable changes is available.

Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #269?

🗞 Do you want to get this article in your inbox? You can sign up here and join 28k other subscribers.
Hablemos de Transformación Digital en medio de una coyuntura global sin precedentes
By: Cris Vindas
Tags: Change Management, Leadership, Transformation, Digitial

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Adoption Threshold — understanding change
By: Vadim Feldman
Tags: Change Management, Assessment, Adoption, Complexity Of Change

The Adoption Threshold¹ Level describes a groups’ inclination to adopt a new behaviour. Certain groups will have a low adoption threshold for a specific change, are inclined to make the change and will adopt directly and in other groups the resistance is higher and people won’t change until they see the new behaviour from most people around them.

To determine the Adoption Threshold Level, you need to capture peoples’ inclination towards the new behaviours in relation to their preferences for the current.

On a group level, the threshold value represents how many persons need to adopt the behaviour before organic adoption takes place. It measures how difficult the change is. In the example above, 6 out of 10 needs to adopt before organic adoption takes place.

Curious of what the Adoption Threshold is for your group? Visit sensemake.se to get in touch.
How to know if changes are successfully implemented or not?
By: Syed Waqar Hussain
Tags: Measurement, Leaders, Change Management, Project Management, Changemaker

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

Every leader is a change manager (until your organization is matured and hiring the dedicated change managers) and responsible to plan, execute, and monitor the changes either in the project or operations. For implementing the changes, there is a number of frameworks available like PMP by PMI. But what about evaluating the performance of made changes after implementation? Are they working effectively as a plan? Are they producing expected results? Are they bringing the value for what they were implemented?

These questions actually open the need for a constant process in an organization to evaluate the change activities, especially when they are part of the business unit and no longer comes under the change manager's responsibilties.

Some organizations over the globe have dedicated Program Managers ensuring the benefits or results against projects but most of the organizations still ask Project Managers or HODs to ensure that delivered results are running as expected. Whatever the strategy in your organization is, following is a best practice I adapt to gauge if changes are implemented successfully or not.

Collecting evidence against your changes

If you created a deliverable for a large audience such as a newsletter for a million subscribers or an option to pay taxes online for a whole city, you can always collect evidence from the stakeholders. You can always go to your stakeholders and collect the evidence from them and decide either the change you made is running well or need further modifications.

Formal Surveys

You can go for structured & formal surveys. It will help you to understand what actions people are taking engaging with the changes you made. It can easily identify the gaps in your changes either it is related to the behavior or technical part of the deliverable.

P.S — designing a survey is an art. It is not like a quick poll that can maximum provide the temperature check not a detailed analysis of the implemented changes.

Focus Groups

If the audience is small or controllable, you can go for the focus groups or scheduled meetings with them. You will be able to hear them face to face and can get the right feedback. However, there are changes to have shy people (not able to express their feedback rightly) in the meeting. So you need to make the group carefully to get authentic feedback.

I hope, the above options to evaluate the success of the implemented changes will be useful for you. Do drop your feedback in the comments section below. Clap if you feel that this article created an impact in your life. Thanks for reading me out. Be awesome.
Empathy = จุดเริ่มต้นของการเปลี่ยนแปลง
Tags: Design Thinking, Transformation, Empathy, Change Management, Infrastructure

in The New York Times
Change is the only constant in times of uncertainty
Tags: Agility, Workplace, Storytelling, Change Management, Neuroscience

Story written for and posted on Continuous Improvement Projects Ltd website on Nov 24 2020

Most of us would be prompted to think there is a mistake in the above sentence. Indeed, how could CHANGE possibly be A CONSTANT when by definition it means ‘make (someone or something) different; alter or modify’?

Add to the mix the notion of UNCERTAINTY and no wonder this sentence could read as a mistake if you only scan over it.

However, if you actually stop, reflect and think about it you realise that the only way to adapt to uncertainty IS indeed to change.

This can only be possible if we decide to change at an individual level and this is when it gets complicated but also really interesting.

Our reptilian brain is not comfortable with change. Its primal role is ensuring our survival! The very idea of change is enough to put us in the Freeze/Flee/Fight mode. Our challenge, therefore, translates into facing and transcending our inner fears, anxiety and vulnerability.

It takes a lot of dedication, determination, willpower and love to be able to acknowledge these feelings, converse with them, lean into them and not fight them so we can feel strong and confident enough to step out of our comfort zone, set up goals and intentions and ultimately TAKE ACTION!

So change is tough! We clearly don’t like it, our colleagues, friends and family don’t like it (resistance to change often comes from those around us) and our societal and corporate worlds may not be ready for it.

We are indeed being told that AGILITY and MOBILITY are key to succeed in these times of uncertainty. But are organisations ready to embrace change? These changes need to translate beyond updates to job descriptions; it requires thinking outside the box, being collaborative and experimental, challenging the status quo, redefining the modus vivendi, investing in tools and processes, and acting as pioneers within your industry. In short, organisations need to be ready to TAKE A CHANCE on people, on projects, on change.

This is not easy as change also means ‘replacing (something) with something else that is newer or better‘! NO pressure whatsoever!

But if we don’t try ‘IT’, if we don’t plan for ‘IT’, if we don’t give ‘IT’ a chance we may pass by wonderful encounters and realisations! We can do better than that! We owe ourselves and the world more than that!

So, let’s turn the global circumstances, traumas or limited beliefs into FUEL and TAKE ACTION TO MAKE A CHANGE!

And remember that NOTHING CHANGES UNTIL SOMETHING CHANGES!
How To Make 100 💰 In 2 Days
Tags: People, Marketing, Money, Change Management, Business

How much will I get paid?

It depends on how your video is used. Typically if your video sells you'll earn around £25-100, however, if it is really popular it is possible to earn over £1000.

There are several ways your video might be

used:

Direct sale: A website wants to use your video for a set period of time, depending on where it is placed and how long they want to use it, you could earn anything from £25 to £1500.

For example, if it is placed on Facebook, payments are typically around £25 (note: Facebook payments aren't based on views as brands/ companies aren't making money through advertising on Facebook).

Our most common direct sales include The Sun, The Dodo, National Geographic, and Associated Newspapers Ltd (The Daily Mail).

Ad / Revenue share: A website may use your video and pop advertising around it to generate money. Newsflare will share the amount of money generated with you.

Depending on how popular your video is and how long it's in demand you could earn £5-200 per month. once your balance is more than £10 we'll attempt to make payment to your PayPal account.

used:

Direct sale: A website wants to use your video for a set period of time, depending on where it is placed and how long they want to use it, you could earn anything from £25 to £1500.

For example, if it is placed on Facebook, payments are typically around £25 (note: Facebook payments aren't based on views as brands/ companies aren't making money through advertising on Facebook).

Our most common direct sales include The Sun, The Dodo, National Geographic, and Associated Newspapers Ltd (The Daily Mail).

Ad / Revenue share: A website may use your video and pop advertising around it to generate money. Newsflare will share the amount of money generated with you.

Depending on how popular your video is and how long it's in demand you could earn £5-200 per month. once your balance is more than £10 we'll attempt to make payment to your PayPal account.
Audit Conundrum | Shaping Audit for the Future
By: Chetan Mathur
Tags: Audit, Ideas, Change Management, Independent Auditor

As an independent non-executive director or as a Board member, I am constantly asked about my views on the question “what ails audit and what should be the role of audit in future?”.

Much has been written and a lot has been discussed and here is my two-cent bit. I must add that many of thoughts and ideas written in this article have come out the readings and the hearing that I have done in past few years. These have then been massaged by my own personal experiences and then distilled.

A statutory audit does not replace a system of good internal control or internal audit. Many issues emanate when we start believing that audit is the panacea for all internal control problems or when we believe that audit is merely a compliance requirement. Both these instances cause distrust and scepticism in the relationship. Of course, there is the other extreme where companies and management rely on auditors for non-audit work. The MCA (Ministry of Company Affairs) hasidentified many important issues in this relationship. Between the management and the auditors, we must figure a way of addressing them rather than getting laws and rules imposed which unfortunately is one size fits all. The shoe pinches!!!

Auditors in India should uphold and comply with auditing standards. In my interaction as a member of the review board of audited financials of public companies in India, I found that many auditors lacked training and demonstrated a lack of independence.

The auditor must evolve and keep up with technology and make changes to their processes so that they address the nuances of “agile” corporations and new ways of working like GBS (global business services).

I would like to statutory audit to help the Management and the Board add the ESG goals. Role in Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) refers to the three central factors in measuring the sustainability and societal impact of an investment in a company or business. These criteria help to better determine the future financial performance of companies (return and risk).

So in summary we need better-trained auditors who are independent, understand the business, show agility in adopting technology and are happy to partner in implementing the new expectations like ESG!
Interested in Regeneration? — Part 3
By: Sidney Cano
Tags: Regenerative Economy, Change Management, Regeneration, Regenerative Business, Business Development

Let´s set us for a meaningful and deep change process… This calls us to engage in a developmental path: to evolve our capacity to contribute to vitality, viability and evolution of a Living Systems.

When you allow change at the level of personal experience, you become a better instrument for Change in the systems in which you’re embedded. (As my friend Ana Gabriela Robles and I stated in a playful, but meaningful way: It is not about you, but it is always personal (doing personal inner-work). You allow yourself to embrace change and uncertainty as a characteristic part of your way of working, enabling you to increase your ability to respond to what´s required of you to make real transformative contributions to Life on the Planet.

It is all about how you choose to put in practice a new way of living, rather than intellectualizing techniques, methods, or models.

Deep change requires more than knowledge. It takes ongoing inner work to build the capability to evolve oneself and engage in and with life differently.

Are you still interested in this new way of living?

If you are interested in shifting to living from this paradigm, I would recommend that you read Carol´s book The Regenerative Life[1]. However, deep change does not happen while reading and absorbing “ideas”, nor by trying to understand others’ experiences.

If you are serious about working at the Regenerative level, it is my strong advice that you engage in one of our developmental communities — english & spanish — (change agents, CEO´s thinking development, regenerative entrepreneurs communities, regenerative business development, shifting to regenerative effect level of investment, and more). Want to know more about these communities? Please feel free to reach out HERE and ask about them.

I thank my dearest friends: Carol Sanford, Ben Haggard, and Tim Murphy for everything I continue to learn in this Regenerative way of living I have chosen and the potential effects of transformation we are able to experience while working on manifesting an Economy for Life. Also, my deep appreciation to Raul De Villafranca and Delfin Montañana for inviting me to work this way in the first place.

[1] 2020. Sanford. The regenerative life. https://carolsanford.com/the-regenerative-life/
TRANSFORMATION QUALITY MANAGEMENT: Standards and Leading Practices
By: Kent Lefner
Tags: Change Management, Transformation, Project Management

Transformation Quality Management is not a new concept. But it is constantly changing and maintaining awareness of leading practices and standards is essential to an ability to sustain the value created from change.

There are many statistics that have been shared to describe the current state of value creation from business projects. It is fair to say that business performance is mixed when it comes to not only effectively changing but also maintaining that value over time.

Sandcastle Change believes that seven distinct factors influence project value creation. The more maturity a company has across those seven factors, the more likely they are to realize the value they want from project investments. The seven factors are:

1. Transformation Quality Management

2. Benefits Management

3. Governance

4. Strategy

5. Solution

6. Plan / Baseline

7. Skills / Assets

There are two dimensions to Transformation Quality Management and this brief focuses on one of them: Standards and Leading Practices. We want to see three things in this factor:

· Leading practices have been purposefully included in standards to be observed during program execution

a. A mature transformation ability is hallmarked by the intentional application of leading practices. Leadership should purposefully design/adapt leading practices to their organization with the purpose of elevating operational maturity and accelerating to value.

· Specific value driving leading practices are included in program/project management processes and tools

a. Higher forms of transformation maturity will come from the application of frameworks such as PMBOX (PMI), ADKAR (PROSCI), Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering, CMMI (ISACA), Governance, Risk, and Controls by COSO. There are many others (such as Agile) but those are a good starting point.

· Assurance and validation processes and resources have been established, communicated, and are actively executed

a. It is one thing to apply leading practices with the intent of elevating change maturity and quite another to get value from those practices. That value creation comes from taking actions that make sure the practices are properly applied over time. Just as with Risk and Control design for projects, we apply Risk and Control concepts to frameworks. Our goal is to ensure that it is designed and operated effectively and we do that through prevention or detection methods as we do with any form of control.

Sandcastle Change uses the Transformation Readiness Framework to drive institutional maturity around a company’s ability to effectively introduce change. To learn more, visit www.sandcastlechange.com.
(K)eine Kindheit unter Besatzung — Spotlight, 04.12.2020
By: Occupied News
Tags: War Crimes, Palestine, Childhood, Palästina, Occupation

There's no childhood in occupied Palestine

Decades of occupation, unrest and blockade have taken a heavy toll on the children of Palestine and in particular the…
4 Websites to Hire Palestinian Talent
Tags: Palestine, Diaspora, Freelancing, Entrepreneurship

One of the major hurdle faced by Palestinians is unemployement. In the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, scores of educated youngsters find themselves jobless right out of university. However, Palestine is emerging as a dynamic hub for tech talent, as Palestinian universities usher in a new generation of connected and ambitious Palestinian youth.

This article will highlight three websites on which you can hire Palestinian tech talent. Palestinians diasporas worldwide are constantly searching for ways to help back home; a great way to do that is by empowering talented Palestinians by making them a part of your business ventures. Make no mistake, this isn’t a charitable move. It’s a way to hire excellent tech talent for your business while promoting efficient diaspora engagement.

Bethlehem, Palestine

We have already talked about Gaza Sky Geeks on numerous occasions, but they are worthy of the praise. GZK is a start-up incubator/outsourcing hub in the Gaza Strip. They take in and train young talented Gazaouis through their Code Academy, which provides soon-to-be developers with over 1,000 hours in training.

Not only that, but future developers are also trained specifically for the intricaties related to remote work. All developers are proficient in English, and have training in businesse related matters. As GZK states, “our developers are remote-first, resilient, and ready”.

GZK’s developers pride themselves on always being up to date on the latest technologies/programming languages. Their coders operate in a variety of fields which include the many listed below.

Gaza Sky Geeks’ talent is trusted by many top-notch companies, ranging from Google to Zain.

By hiring with GZK, not only are you getting access to some of the most talented minds on the markets; you are also contributing to the emergence of Gaza’s promising tech sector, boosting the economy and allowing Gazouis to showcase the full breadth of their talent.
Arabic maps of “the Land of Israel”. WTF?
By: Zachary J. Foster
Tags: Palestine, Israel, History, Maps

Some of the earliest Arabic printed maps of Palestine were actually maps of “Israel.”

Let’s start with a series of maps that appeared in “An Atlas of the Bible,” (Atlas al-Kitab al-Muqaddas), published by one of Europe’s most important 19th century map publishers, W. & A.K. Johnston, based in London and Edinburgh. Have a look at the following map, titled “The Two Kingdoms of Judah and Israel”:

History is, how do I say this academically, weird!

Ancient history had not yet been hijacked by propagandists. The Biblical history of the ancient Israelites was as much a part of Christian and Muslim Arab history as it was Jewish Zionist history, or so most Palestinians thought well into the 20th century.

Remember, in the 19th century, European and American historians spent 90% of their mental energy writing ancient and Biblical history, and 10% on all other periods. History writing, in other words, was another way of saying using archaeological and historical evidence to fill in the gaps in the Biblical narratives. And this belief made its way into Arabic books and atlases until at least the 1940s.

The next map under review is titled, “The Holy Land, According to the Divisions among the Twelve Tribes of Israel”:

Although the book was publishing anonymously, I think the British missionaries who established the St. Georges School in Jerusalem in 1899 published it. Confession: I’m guessing and someone should actually look into that.

But I think that’s a reasonably good guess because the atlas was published in the UK anonymously, which suggests its authors wanted to remain nameless (think missionaries). Second, the British missionaries were obsessed with teaching Biblical history and geography, and so they would have wanted an Atlas just like this one to use in their classrooms. Third, the only extant copy I am aware of can be found in the AP collection held at the Israeli National Library. This means Zionist forces took it from the private home of a Palestinian during the 1948 — and a huge percentage of those books were taken from the wealthy Palestinians who lived in Jerusalem outside of the walls of Old City, in places like Katamon, Shaykh Jarah and elsewhere — exactly the kind of people who sent their kids to the St. Georges School.

Some of these 19th century Arabic Bible maps also labeled the region Palestine, such as the following, map titled “Palestine During the Times of Jesus”, which also depicts the Roman provinces of Judea, Idumea, Phonecia, Syria, the Upper Galilee and more.

This next map depicts the “United Kingdom of Saul, David and Solomon.” Notice the area the Philistines along the Gaza coastal strip, as well as Judea, Israel, and Aram or Syria.

This final map depicts the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Land of Canaan.

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Weihnachten in Palästina — Ein Spotlight
By: Occupied News
Tags: Christmas, Palestine, Weihnachten, Palästina, Occupation

'The bells would ring': How Palestinians celebrated Christmas before life under occupation

Perched next to a large and brightly lit Christmas tree at the home of one of her children, Victoria Baseer surveys an…
The Resilience of Palestines are Always Seen Even in the Midst Catastrophe
By: Krish Mathew
Tags: Resilience, Midst, Palestine, Catastrophe

The Resilience of Palestines are Always Seen Even in the Midst Catastrophe Krish Mathew ·Dec 11, 2020

I want to share something significant with what I read today. I observed that the anniversary of any disaster or misery in Palestinian history is remembered every day. The substance of being Palestinian has been misery, bringing us together and defining someone as a nation. This chronology may be seen by some as a way to represent the substance of the Palestinian tragedy.

Looking at it, the real tragedy is how simple it is for the Palestinians to attack themselves, gravitate to discord and competition, and dilute their moral strength. The Palestinian battle, commemorated at the worst of these dates, is characterized by tragedies today. Every single day of each year.
The virtual world is my new domain
By: البرنامج الإنمائي
Tags: Covid 19, Palestine, Coronavirus

“E-learning is an opportunity rather than a challenge. As a visually impaired person, I have started to move away from Braille language and use new digital tools such as NVDA, the NonVisual Desktop Access, which is now my eyes to the world of knowledge,” said Haneen Sabbah, a 22-year-old from Jabalia camp in Gaza.

Haneen lives in one of the highest populated camps north of the Gaza Strip with her eight family members. She is a very determined young woman, studying English Literature at the Islamic University in Gaza.

“I graduated from high school with an honours degree and a 94% score. I wanted to follow my passion and beat the stereotype of the visually impaired studying Arabic, Islamic Studies or History in Gaza. I had a dream to work in Academia and serve my community, particularly youth, while working on development interventions. I wanted to go into a challenging field where I can show my skills. For me, the English Language is the window where I can see the external world, get to know more about other cultures, societies, people with different perspectives. I still dream of pursuing my Masters and PhD as soon as I complete my university studies,” Haneen explained.

Haneen started her last fourth year academic semester in 2020. But, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, Gaza was no different. Movement restrictions were applied and universities had to shut their doors.

“All of sudden, I felt that my journey was hampered,” Haneen points out. “I had to stay at home. An experience that is new to me, after four years of being hyperactive, challenging my advancement, especially as being the only visually impaired person in my college”. The University Haneen is enrolled in has a Braille language lab, but she had to pay for having the materials readable in Braille language. “I was able to continue my studies at university because of Al Fakhoora. The also covered the transfer of all my education materials to Braille. I could not have been able to afford the cost nor continue my education without Al Fakhoora’s support”.
How Qatari Money Encourages Anti-Israel Sentiment
By: Desert Talks
Tags: Palestine, Qatar Foundation, Qatar, Israel, Anti Semitism

In October, the Department of Education publicized a report based on its investigation into undisclosed donations from Qatar to Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, Yale, and several other universities. The federal government was in part motivated to pay attention to these irregularities by research conducted by the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy (ISGAP), which had set out to trace the sources of campus anti-Israel activism. ISGAP’s director, Charles Small, writes:

Between 1986 and 2018, Middle Eastern countries donated more than $6.6 billion to U.S. universities, but reported less than $3.6 billion to the federal government as required by law. Of the roughly $5 billion donated by Qatar to various institutions, less than $2 billion was reported properly. . . .

The bulk of Middle Eastern donations coming into the United States emanates from Qatari donors (75 percent), while the Qatar Foundation accounts for virtually all of the donations from Qatar. These funds have a significant impact on universities, especially with regard to attitudes toward Israel. ISGAP’s research identified a direct correlation between the funding of universities by Qatar and the Gulf states and the active presence at those universities of groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which foster an aggressive anti-Semitic atmosphere on campus.

In addition, the ISGAP project assessment found a correlation between funding and the ideological bent of scholarship, including anti-Israel and anti-Zionist sentiment, at departments and institutes at some of America’s leading universities, publishing houses, and academic professional associations. There is also a disturbing connection between this funding and the silencing of institutes and publications that are critical of the prevailing ideology.

Qatar has long been an important source of funds for the Palestinian terror organization Hamas and has forged relationships with Islamist groups ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Taliban.
Jordan request Israel to stop undermining peace opportunities with Palestine
By: Ajay Vaseegaran
Tags: Jordan, Israel, Palestine

Jordan request Israel to stop undermining peace opportunities with Palestine Ajay Vaseegaran ·Dec 4, 2020

Israel ought to stop partaking in activities that undermine peace with Palestine, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi same, reiterating the importance of the two-state resolution in maintaining harmony within the region.

Safadi, who was meeting his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi at the Hussein Bridge Border crossing on Thursday, said the Judaic country should stop provocations in the Al-Aqsa house of prayer in Jerusalem, which it should honor its commitments, state press agency Petra reported.

Jordan can continue its role to safeguard the holy sites in Jerusalem, he added.

Other problems were additionally mentioned throughout the meeting, as well as permitting Jordan to provide further electricity to the Palestinian National Authority, yet as easing restrictions on Jordanian exports to the West Bank.
I don’t call myself polarised, but you can’t choose to return onto every fence.
By: Lau Fowl
Tags: Conflict, Polarization, Travel, Palestine, Israel

Shuhada Street

They call it a platitude. Stories about the struggle for the coastal region of the Levant have lost their poignance. We have been hearing about the Palestinian conflict since before the BBC televised news, so reports on it have become thin and few to avoid derivation. But after half a century’s worth of stories, as much as we’d like to forget it the reality is just as bleak as the streets they describe.

Like a peninsula in the long shadow of an Israeli settlement is a motherless family clinging to their home in the old city of Hebron. Almost all other life in the market area has disappeared, leaving an air of eviction and dust. All we see looking across the street are mangled razor wire fences and boarded-up stalls, concrete barriers and shielding mesh sagging overhead, full of litter and rocks from the overlooking settlement. Mesh does not stop liquids.

The remarried widower describes the necessity of leaving one person at home 24/7 for years, in fear of the pitiless eviction that his neighbours have suffered. The members of the family that do leave the house encounter the indignity of living in the fading beacon that suggests that life was not always this desolate. As they make their way across the once bustling market towards the new town, they now hear only the conversation of flapping tarpaulin.

On a hot summer day, alone in the house and with a blockage of water, the man’s first wife climbed onto the roof with her unborn child to investigate the water tank and were shot from a rifle bullet. Incredibly, the child survived.

Later on, I find a provoking moment watching a boy and his horse. Over the wall, just a few streets away from where the mother had been shot, I see a Jewish boy abandon a hosepipe running fresh water for his steed, spilling out of the bucket and onto the grassy floor of his family garden. I’m sure the boy had no knowledge of the woman or her family but the image seems to mock the Mother’s final act.

It symbolised the sense of community felt between the local Palestinians and the settlers. The stark outline of normality the two children knew because of the side of a fence on which they’d been born.

Heroclitus said no man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man. My experience had forced me down from, and onto one side of, a fence that I would not be able to cross again.

Reconciling the feeling of comfort, helplessness and ignorance has been one of the more difficult parts of returning home. The people of Palestine have been compartmentalised by Israel for decades, and I could mentally feel myself doing the same in order to overcome the feeling of powerlessness.

I was shameful to be uninformed about the events that defined 3 million people’s lives and the lives of their parents and their grandparents; history in which my home country heavily features. I was led to Palestine by the desire to discover other people’s experiences, and in doing so I left with a new sense of my own ignorance.
The LIDN Weekly Roundup #70
By: London International Development Network
Tags: Lgbtq Rights, Poverty, Palestine, Statelessness, Costa Rica

Photo by Samuel Charron on Unsplash

2020 might have felt a year of unremitting awfulness, but there have been some bright spots amongst the gloom. The recent Institute of Development Studies Annual Lecture from IDS alumni and now President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada is one such moment. A wonderfully personal exploration from a ‘reluctant frontman’ of the interconnectedness of issues such as climate change and social inequality with the Covid-19 pandemic, the lecture ends on a note of hope for the future.

Recently released, and winning superlative reviews, Mira L. Siegelberg’s book ‘Statelessness: A Modern History’ looks unmissable. Siegelberg examines how the legal category of ‘statelessness’ (a person who does not have a nationality of any country) has fundamentally altered the relationship between states and their citizens since the early part of the twentieth century.

Global Health Film has been highlighting classic movies from their back catalogue all Summer. This coming Sunday their ‘Global Health Film Festival’ will instead host the brand new documentary by the acclaimed director of ‘How to Survive a Plague’, David France. ‘Welcome to Chechnya’ is reputed to be a harrowing look at the work of Chechnyan activists who face immense risks in attempting to rescue LGBTQ+ victims from government efforts to detain, torture, and execute them. The director is speaking in a panel discussion afterwards.

Jack Shenker authored a poignant and highly recommended article for The Guardian last month; the story of the reunion between a photographer and the family whose life of poverty he famously documented in the early 90s. Shenker’s account of their lives in the intervening years is compassionate journalism at its best.

Finally, in honour of the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (Sunday 29 November), watch Rafeef Ziadah’s stirring poem ‘We Teach Life, Sir’. A future of justice, equality, and self-determination for all is possible - if we fight for it.