The Hindu Business Line : Empowerment, by way of communication

Society creates a norm and the norm excludes disabled people. Sounds harsh, but that’s the title of an essay by Malini Chib included in Inclusive Education Across Cultures: Crossing boundaries, sharing ideas, edited by Mithu Alur and Vianne Timmons ( www.sagepublications.com).

“I am a special school survivor; much of my early life was spent in treatment. It started at the age of two when I attended the first centre in Chelsea, which had the unfortunate name of Cheyne Centre for Sick Children,” Chib reminisces.

A graduate in History (Honours) from Bombay University, with an advanced Diploma in Publishing from Brookes University, Oxford, a Masters Degree in Women’s Studies from the Institute of Education, University of London, and a second Masters in Information Technology (IT) from the University of Central London, Chib is Founder Chairperson of ADAPT (Able Disabled All People Together), a rights group for the disabled people.

Education means empowerment, she avers. “Empowerment means talking and connecting with others, and one aspect of empowerment is communication. Empowerment means asking for help when you need it.” Looking back, she realises that not being able to communicate was a very profound and sad experience. “Communication falls into the same category as food, drink and shelter — it is essential for life, and without it life becomes worthless,” reads a quote of Anne McDonald cited in the book.

To Chib, computers have helped improve communication. “I can talk to anyone I like through e-mail, without using speech. Also, I can text-message people, which helps me in quick communication with people who I don’t know very well. I also feel that if one doesn’t have the power of an appropriate means of communication, then one can become a zombie.”

How can disabled people be a part of society? Through employment, the author says. She concedes, however, that despite her IT degree, she still finds it difficult to convince people that she can contribute as well as they can, if given a chance. “Disabled people should work alongside professionals to confront the barriers they face. Some professionals disregard disabled people’s voices and just promote themselves on the bandwagon of inclusion. That is why most disabled people stay away from professionals.”

Professionals will be a failure in their work of inclusion if disabled people are ultimately not included and there is a scramble for every space, Chib rues. “I have now been doing freelance research, and I have been consulting with an American company on Internet research work. I have also been involved in lecturing all over India. However, what continues to make me feel an outsider is that disabled people continue to be excluded from society.”

Important messages.

Innovation and creativity

It is not as if innovation has suddenly become important; it was always a success differentiator, reveal some of the stories included in Leadership: Lessons from the ancient world, by Arthur Cotterell, Roger Lowe and Ian Shaw ( www.wiley.com). For instance, Zhu Geliang (pronounced ‘Zoo-gee-lee-ang’), a distinguished mathematician and inventor, was renowned for his ability to solve apparently insoluble problems, nearly two thousand years ago in China, the authors recount. “One of Zhu Geliang’s inventions, the wheelbarrow, was used for transporting military supplies. Its large central wheel permitted one man to wheel a heavy load over otherwise impassable tracks.”

Another story is about how in 222 AD, when the king of Shu chose to ignore Zhu Geliang’s advice and launch an ill-prepared attack on Wu, the resourceful minister devised a scheme which baffled the advancing enemy. “On the line of the inevitable retreat of the Shu army, Zhu Geliang built a marvellous city in the form of a maze. When the victorious forces of Wu reached this incredible construction, they turned back rather than risk disaster in exploring its layout.”

How to encourage creativity and ingenuity in businesses? The authors recommend the use of processes such as mind mapping, creative brain showers, and flow diagrams. Words extolling creativity in the workplace are never enough unless they are reinforced by senior manager behaviour, they note. “This means allocated resources, supporting time away for thinking, and allowing people to take risks.”

The opposite is the case of organisations which fail to innovate and fall behind when business conditions change. In non-innovating organisations you always find an environment of risk aversion, where sticking your head above the parapet becomes a dangerous pastime, the authors describe. “So often here you encounter an overbearing bullying senior management team which is forever connected to a traditional business model.”

Imperative read.

Gateway protocols

BGP is not the name of a political party, but Border Gateway Protocol, a solution for routing between autonomous systems (that is, networks under different administrative controls), introduces Kevin Wallace in Routing Video Mentor ( www.ciscopress.com). “BGP is commonly used to route between Internet service providers (ISPs), and if a corporate network connects to more than one ISP (for redundancy purposes as an example), that corporate network might also benefit by running BGP on its Internet router and peering with each of its service providers. Such a configuration is called multihome BGP.”

BGP is considered to be an exterior gateway protocol (EGP), whereas interior gateway protocols (IGPs), such as OSPF and EIGRP, are used for routing traffic within an autonomous system, explains Wallace. Non-techies may tend to be burping at that alphabet soup, but the avid ones may gulp the ‘RIP’ discussion in the initial chapters. RIP? Yes, routing information protocol!

Hands-on companion.

Incident response

Forensics — a word with origin in Latin ‘forensis’ that pertains to ‘a forum, place of assembly’ — is the application of scientific knowledge to legal problems. As applied to computers, it commonly refers to investigation and analysis of computer systems for suspected violation of laws, or for compliance with organisational policies. Also, computer forensics is deployed for investigating computer systems that have been remotely attacked, and this is often referred to as incident response, say Gregory White and Wm. Arthur Conklin in All-in-One CompTIA Security+: Exam guide, second edition ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com).

“When an incident occurs, you will need to collect data and information to facilitate your investigation. If someone is committing a crime or intentionally violating a company policy, he or she will likely try to hide his/her tracks. Therefore, you should collect as much information as soon as you can,” the book instructs.

In today’s highly networked world, evidence can be found not only on the workstation or laptop computer, but also on company-owned file servers, security appliances, and servers located with the Internet service provider (ISP), the authors elaborate.

A subject of debate can be whether a computer involved in an incident should be turned off and disconnected from the network. “Some state that the plug should be pulled in order to freeze the current state of the computer. However, this results in the loss of any data associated with an attack in progress from the machine. Any data in the RAM (random access memory) will also be lost. Further, it may corrupt the computer’s file system and could call into question the validity of your findings…”

Recommended addition to the security professionals’ shelf.

Tailpiece

“Twitter has become such a craze within our office…”

“That people have stopped talking over the phone?”

“Yes, and everyone is reporting almost everything, including…”