Barbara J Alder

ZOOM

May 18, 2021 Barbara J Alder

Here we are at the end of our blog through the alphabet, and what better term to represent the letter “Z” than this now-ubiquitous online platform. It has allowed for everything from school continuation to board meetings while keeping us safe and quarantined. I started out the 2020 shutdown with voice-only conference calls, but apparently that was too 20^th century. We transitioned to Zoom and other Zoom-like platforms such as GoToMeeting, Google meetup and so on, but Zoom seemed to be the predominant choice. The pandemic was certainly an unexpected boon for that once-small company.

So many tech firms, both large and small, found growth opportunities during the past 15 or so months. Other firms learned how to use these tech capabilities to their advantage to stay afloat until the world began to return to some semblance of normalcy. For example, Amazon’s business grew like gangbusters even though it was already a behemoth. Small retail entrepreneurs learning to use ecommerce sales and delivery platforms when their brick-and-mortar storefronts closed down had a much greater chance to not only survive but also thrive by getting their product lines in front of an even greater customer base.

Here at home, grocery and food delivery services allowed family members to remain safely quarantined while still conveniently receiving needed items—both necessities and a luxury now and then. Instacart, GrubHub, DoorDash, and others became household names right along with Amazon. They along with many others contributed to the gig economy, helping perhaps millions of displaced workers replace lost income. In the years to come, economists will sort it all out, the shift likely showing up in the textbooks where it will be studied for decades. What I know now is that there has been a seismic shift in how people earn, purchase, and interact and communicate in those processes. And technology platforms are at the core. As so many have observed these trends were already underway. The pandemic served to accelerate them at an incredible rate. What we will need to watch now is which of these changes will remain and which will not.

But back to Zoom et al for a moment. I heard an interesting discussion among some venture capitalists not long ago. If you are aware of what goes on in that world here in the Midwest, especially Indiana, you know that startups and scaleups here struggle to be on even footing with the coasts, Chicago and Texas. Taken to the next step, women and founders of color here have an even more difficult time finding funders. However, virtual pitch meetings can tend to level the playing field. When nobody is getting on a plane to go across the country—or California or New York—for in-person meetings, then hearing the pitch on your laptop screen is a great equalizer. Perhaps getting on a plane will no longer be required for pitching to a VC. Time will tell, and those who have perfected life in the world of the pandemic may stand a better chance of coming out ahead.

Yes, we all know that face-to-face is better. However, if we have learned anything from 2020 and early 2021, it is that there are reasonable alternatives. If we use them well, we can prevail. Set your objectives, find your alternative tools and practice using them until you become masterful. Observe how others use them and learn. Keep the ones that serve you well.

IN CLOSING

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your comments and connections, both virtual and in person as my world is beginning to open up Until next time . . . . stay safe and healthy and remember, this too shall pass. Next up—a summary review of A to Z.

economic development

YOUTH

April 23, 2021April 26, 2021 Barbara J Alder

Here we are almost at the end of this journey through the alphabet. The topic for the letter Y, “YOUTH,” is a celebration and representation of several organizations and events both current and in recent years that I have worked with to support the young people in our state. After all, they do represent our future and their success is crucial.

Many of the not-for-profit organizations with which I have been affiliated in the past decade or so have been focused on providing educational services for K-12 students, often in STEM disciplines. One that I spent six years on the board of directors and recently ended my last term is TechPoint Foundation for Youth. Headquartered in Indianapolis, it has programs that serve students across the entire state. The largest program, VEX Robotics, began as then-Mayor Greg Ballard’s city-wide initiative and grew across the state when TPF4Y took over as both operational and fiscal manager of the competition several years ago. Now grown to the largest Statewide VEX competition in the nation, it serves elementary, middle and high school students competing annually in venues like Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center.

Other TPF4Y programming teaches coding both in the classrooms and outside, provides grants for STEM projects to teachers across the state each year, and offers programming for science and math pentathlons. During the challenging year of 2020, TPF4Y has successfully pivoted from in-person activities to many online activities to aid students, parents and teachers navigate the transition to online and hybrid learning. Going forward, this may prove helpful to serving those in more remote and rural areas that have been underserved.

Perhaps the most exciting and most recent news out of TPF4Y, underscoring how important their reach is to the youth of Indiana, is the announcement that the Indianapolis Colts have announced as partnership with the organization. By donating $30,000 to kickstart the spring fundraising drive, the Colts organization has helped to spread this STEM Programming even further around the city and state.

Another organization that I worked with in the past to support K-12 STEM programming was Women & Hi Tech. Although much of the programming focused on collegiate and professionals, the programming for K-12 girls was held at two main venues. The first, begun several years ago, was an annual event in partnership with Conner Prairie in Hamilton County. Held on a Saturday in the spring, Passport to High Tech offered young people the opportunity for hands-on activities provided by STEM employers, educators, and others. Typically staffed by female scientists, employees, educators, researchers, and students, young girls had the opportunity to learn from role models who “looked like them.” Here’s hoping that this event will return post-COVID, as it was very well received by parents, students and the professional volunteers.

An annual program, modelled after Passport to High Tech but offered to inner city Indianapolis middle school girls, was Ignite Your Superpower. By bussing students to a college campus to have a similar experience, these students also got to see a college campus—something that the vast majority of them had never done. Another program put on hiatus by COVID, the future of this event is not known at this time, but again it was well received by students, school personnel and professional volunteers.

IN CLOSING

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your comments and connections, both virtual and in person in the not too distant future. Until next time . . . . stay safe and healthy and remember, this too shall pass. Next up—Z and the end of this journey through the alphabet. Not sure where we will go next, so feel free to make suggestions.

economic development

XENON

March 23, 2021 Barbara J Alder

Looking for a topic that begins with the letter X wasn’t as easy as some of the other letters of the alphabet. I wanted to return to a more STEM-related topic, but X-ray was too easy. Xylophone, with a look at sound waves was a possibility, but that just didn’t interest me enough. Then I thought of the periodic table of elements and the chemical xenon came to mind. It was a lock when I began a re-read of Michael Chrichton’s 2010 novel Prey. Xenon is mentioned a couple of times in it, so that was my sign.

I enjoy novels steeped in scientific concepts, different than science fiction, although that can be fun as well. I read Jurrasic Park, another one of Michael Chrichton’s novels, written 20 years before Prey, and couldn’t imagine how the extensive explanation of frog DNA playing into filling the gaps in dino DNA would translate to the big screen blockbuster in 1993. But translate it did, although a Washington Post reviewer described the film as a “dumbed-down” version of the novel even though Chrichton was given screenwriting credit. But I digress.

The element xenon, symbol Xe and atomic number 54, is a colorless, dense, odorless noble gas. It is found in Earth’s atmosphere in trace amounts. As a bit of history, Scottish chemist William Ramsay and English chemist Morris Travers discovered xenon in 1898, shortly after they discovered the elements krypton and neon. Ramsay named the element xenon from the Greek word meaning foreigner, stranger, or guest. Coincidentally, name lists say that my name, Barbara, means “strange” or “foreign” in Greek. Had I known this before I began my research into this entry, I would have considered it another sign.

Xenon is a gas at room temperature. It glows blue when electricity is applied, much like neon gas glows in lights. Unlike neon, xenon lights can be used to kill bacteria. While xenon, atomic number 54, is inert, its radioactive form xenon-135 is a radioactive isotope produced as a fission product of uranium. With a half-life of just over nine hours, xenon-135 is the most powerful known neutron-absorbing nuclear poison. Back to Michael Chrichton, it was actually radioactive xenon-135 that got one of the mentions in his novel Prey.

Interestingly, xenon is used in headlights of some newer vehicles as it is said to provide brighter, whiter light than halogen lights. It is also more efficient and longer lasting. On the negative side, xenon lights are more expensive and can cause glare for oncoming drivers. Research shows that the 1991 BMW 7-series was the first to have xenon headlights as standard. Since then, many models have replaced xenon with LED, reducing glare.

Another light application, ultraviolet light, is being touted as killing coronavirus. Some devices using various technologies of this type are described as xenon gas lights, with some even robotic in nature. While there are many companies selling different lights or are willing to come to your site to do disinfection with their devices, not all claims should be believed.

And speaking of sales, like just about anything, xenon gas is for sale on ebay. You can find small sample sizes ($10.99 for a tiny ampoule) to a 50-liter cylinder ($2000.00 plus $75.00 to ship). Just out of curiosity, I put xenon gas in the search bar for Amazon, another of my go-to online shopping choices. It pulled up sample, tank, liter, bottle, cartridge, ampoule, and several other options. I hope these are all for legitimate uses!

So that’s your chemistry lesson for today. I hope you have learned something. I certainly did, doing the research. And now back to Michael Chrichton. I recommend his novels for those who enjoy science and technology mixed with intrigue and mystery.

IN CLOSING

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your comments and connections, both virtual and in person in the not too distant future. Until next time . . . . stay safe and healthy and remember, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. Next up—“YOUTH.”

economic development

W for WORK FROM HOME (WFH)

February 9, 2021 Barbara J Alder

It’s a big deal when something is given its own acronym, not just on social media but for use in traditional media as well. I got my first taste of WFH back when it was called “telecommuting.” I lived and worked in northern Virginia (the suburbs of Washington, D.C.) from 2004 to 2006 in a corporate job, and the bureaucracy was such that to have these arrangements approved required quite the stack of paperwork. I had to describe what tasks I would do from home, what sort of workstation setup I had, how I would communicate with colleagues, and so on. Once all that was documented, on the requisite Verizon forms of course, I had to get it approved by my immediate supervisor. From there, I have no idea where it went in the corporate machine. It took several weeks to work its way back to me, stamped as “APPROVED.”

After that one day, Tuesdays if memory serves, it was a little easier to get the second day of the week added (Thursdays). There was no flexibility to swap days, however, and if you had to come to the office for an in-person meeting on one of your “telecommuting” days, you didn’t get to make it up on another day. And unlike now, there was no such thing as hybrid or virtual meetings. Sometimes you could participate by being put on the speakerphone in the conference room, but depending on the host, that might not be acceptable. I learned quickly what I could get by with and what I couldn’t.

You might wonder why I moved to northern Virginia only to “telecommute” 40% of the time. It was very expensive to live there, much more so than the DFW area where I had been for almost a decade. Two factors led to submitting this request, the main one being the growing length of my commute. When I first arrived, the commute from my home in Centreville, VA, to my office in Arlington took about 40 minutes each way. Not that much more than the 30 minutes or so for my commute when I lived in Texas, so it was tolerable. But as the area continued to grow, so did my commute time. By the time I left, up to two hours each way wasn’t unheard of.

Fast forward to 2020, and WFH quickly became a requirement for many workers when their physical workplaces closed down but actual tasks could still be performed remotely. Technology (hardware, software and broadband) was the key to making this happen. Those organizations that had robust and well-documented disaster recovery plans in place pre-COVID were often some of the most successful at quick transitions in this regard. If you think about it, working from another location after a natural disaster isn’t that different in terms of work transition than what we experienced during 2020—except for those who also had family members schooling at home.

So many trends were accelerated in 2020, focused on work locations and how we use our homes. You may have repurposed a room as an office as I did after closing down an office and moving my computer equipment home or you may have actually moved to another house. In many markets the residential real estate market took a nice bump. Those who didn’t move to a new house may have done some renovations and remodeling to better suit their needs. That was what I did. On the other hand, the commercial market is in a bit of a slump. That commercial slump is a combination of the retail downturn (except for ecommerce) and the WFH trend. Some of us working remotely may never return to a bricks-and-mortar office outside our homes. Organizations are going to like the expense reductions and may be reluctant to ramp back up with that spending again.

As we begin to approach normalcy later in the year, we will begin to see which of these accelerated trends will continue and which may reverse a bit. We will also see some pent-up demand that will drive economic growth in areas that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. You have your list, I have mine. Some things don’t cost money like time spent with family and friends. Others are travel, restaurant meals, movies, concerts and those things we have missed. The people who make their living in these ways will be happy to see us return.

IN CLOSING

economic development

VACCINES vs. VACCINATIONS

February 3, 2021 Barbara J Alder

There’s a big difference between having a vaccine ready to go and getting people vaccinated. These days, the talk about “shots in arms” has been the big thing. Yes, the science to develop, test and prepare the vaccines (much of which had taken place long before any of us ever heard of a coronavirus) was the crucial first step. However, as we keep hearing, until enough of us get vaccinated to stop the spread, we will not move beyond the current public health crisis or have any chance to get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Those of us of a certain age may remember our history of the polio vaccination push when we were very young. I don’t remember getting the actual shot, but I do remember a small dimpled scar on my upper left arm that my mother told me was from a vaccination. Maybe polio, maybe smallpox. Either way, it has long since disappeared. She also says she remembers when she and Dad went in to the doctor’s office to get their polio vaccinations. I also remember studying Jonas Salk in school and seeing pictures of rows of the big iron lungs in my schoolbooks when we learned about what he had saved us from. I suppose years from now, students will see pictures of ventilators and people walking around in masks when they study this time in our history. But this time it wasn’t one scientist, it was many across the globe coming together to save us.

So what’s my thinking on vaccines vs. vaccinations? Well, like so many things it’s the tool vs. the successful application of the tool that makes the difference. Looking back to the work of Jonas Salk, we wouldn’t have seen a successful eradication of polio, also caused by a virus, if his discovery had sat on a shelf. We had to deploy a successful broad vaccination strategy. I remember two people in my neighborhood who had polio, one the older brother of my best friend and one the mother of my brother’s classmate. My friend’s brother lived next door and fell ill at a time that I can remember. Fortunately, he recovered. The mother across the street had already recovered when the family moved in. We knew her ill effects were the result of this dreaded disease. These experiences are memories from more than 55 years ago, so it’s obvious what an effect they had on me.

Fast forward to today, and I got my COVID vaccination last night. First one in a two-shot series, the second scheduled in four weeks. While I was waiting for my age group to be called, last week I got two other vaccinations recommended for my age group—pneumonia and shingles. While my doctor said it was fine to get both on the same day—I have two arms, after all—in retrospect, I don’t recommend it! The experience was far worse in terms of side effects than the Moderna vaccination. But it’s behind me and far better than either of the ailments intended to protect me against.

One final thought before closing. There is so much information, both positive and negative, out there now about the various COVID-19 vaccines both available and not yet available. Your friends have opinions, people in the media have opinions, and I also have my opinions. Here’s a bit of free advice for you. Most of your friends are not scientists or medical professionals, nor do they know your complete medical history. It’s interesting to know what your friends are doing and what their experiences have been, but it’s likely irrelevant to your final decision. Make your decision based on sound advice from your medical team, and definitely not on what you get from social media. Your medical team knows you and your needs best. Don’t let your friends or strangers on the internet, no matter how well-meaning, convince you otherwise.

IN CLOSING