Mainstream

美國為了加強飛行安全，即將在全美19個機場，加裝一台3D安檢機器，登機旅客經過這種機器掃描，身上如果有武器立刻看得一清二楚，不過問題是，所有男女老少只要經過這台安檢儀器，就像是身上衣服被脫光了一樣，裡面穿什麼內衣，通通會被看到，有人認為一點隱私權都沒有，這些影片還有可能外流。

（中央社記者蔡筱穎巴黎12日專電）歐洲理事會今天宣布，葡萄牙的基馬拉斯和斯洛維尼亞的馬里波是歐洲2012年文化首都；法國的馬賽普羅旺斯和斯洛伐克的柯西契，則是2013年的歐洲文化首都。

歐洲聯盟負責教育、培訓、文化和青年的專員JanFigel表示，為期一年的歐洲文化首都將對地方發展創造極大的潛力。而有關2013年歐洲文化首都的遴選過程，是一個新的兩輪競賽方式，形成強有力的競爭和突出公共利益的局面。

歐洲文化首都的產生對文化和社會經濟有重大影響並有利於旅遊業，整個文化首都的活動將持續一年，是相當大的挑戰，因此歐盟委員會有成立監測和諮詢系統，旨在幫助城市的籌備工作。

立陶宛首都維爾紐斯（Vilnius）以及奧地利的林茲（Linz）是今年的歐洲文化首都，德國的艾森（Essen）、匈牙利的貝契（Pecs）以及土耳其的伊斯坦堡（Istanbul）是2010年的歐洲文化首都，芬蘭的土爾庫（Turku）和愛沙尼亞首都塔林（Tallinn）則為2011年的歐洲文化首都。

8:44 AM Friday March 6, 2009
by Alexandra Samuel

Travel budgets are under serious pressure right now. Trips that were once approved via rubber stamp now must pass through the Politburo Standing Committee to get a green light.

Thankfully, a host of social media tools can help you get the most out of every business trip you take and more clearly show ROI. They've certainly helped me get the most out of every hour I'm on the road. I run my own shop so getting approval isn't an issue for me, but using these tools to fill my travel time wisely means that I can travel less, spend more time with my family, and reduce the total carbon footprint of my flying. Best of all, packing a lot into each trip means that I return home with fresh knowledge, relationships and inspiration.

Here are 10 ways social media can help you travel less but do more:

1. Have network, will travel. Nurture a national or international network of contacts in the cities you visit on a recurring basis. Commit 15 minutes a day to instant business trips: Use Twitter to respond to an update from a former co-worker. Find an old colleague on Facebook and drop a short note to connect. Build and maintain your long-distance relationships and they'll be ready when you need them.

2. Do your homework. Set up your computer with an RSS reader that works offline (thanks to Google Gears, that now includes Google Reader). Fill up your reader with content from the sites of companies you'll be meeting on the road. Set your reader to offline mode, and use your flight time to catch up on background research.

3. Meet and greet. Check for topical events in the city you're visiting, before you commit to travel dates. Eventful and upcoming.org list conferences and professional gatherings in many cities.

4. Fill your dance card. Use LinkedIn, a professional networking site, to expand your network when you're in a new city. Use advanced search to set the location you're traveling to, and browse search results for current or prospective contacts. You can also search your destination city for fellow alumni and introduce yourself; many people are delighted to hear from alums of their alma mater.

5. Connect with fellow travelers. Don't limit your networking to people who live near your destination. Use TripIt or Dopplr to track your travel details and share them with friends and colleagues. When you're traveling to the same city as a fellow contact, these services will alert you to your chance to connect.

6. Grab that bulkhead. Use Seat Guru, which offers a map of airplane interiors on a huge range of models and carriers, to find the best seat on your flight. When you choose your seat using online check-in, aim for one with extra legroom (so you arrive well-rested) or an electrical outlet (so you can work in flight).

7. Pack your minutes. Use Google Maps to plot out your prospective meetings so that you can visualize all your meeting locations, and then schedule your appointments to minimize travel time and maximize meeting time. Either print out directions to carry with you, or use a GPS system to plot your routes on the fly; you'll find you can schedule more appointments when you don't need to allow extra time for getting lost.

8. Stay in touch. Use PhoneTag or another voicemail-to-email transcription service. When you're on the road, it can be hard to find a quiet place to listen to messages. With PhoneTag you can get notifications and messages via e-mail (great for iPhone or Blackberry users) or via SMS (for everybody else). If you're trying to juggle scheduling on the fly or worried about missing a call with someone you're supposed to meet with, transcription will make your travel much, much easier.

Mar. 17, 2009

A growing number of major global companies are investing substantial resources to manage their reputation risk and have increased their efforts to do so over the last three years, according to a new report from The Conference Board, the global business research and membership organization.

"Safeguarding reputation is even more critical today because companies have developed successful ways to make reputation risk management part of their overall risk management," says Ellen Hexter, Director, Enterprise Risk Management at The Conference Board and co-author of the report with Sandy Bayer, President of Bayer Consulting. "In addition, different stakeholder groups are becoming more sophisticated in how they drive corporate reputations. Critics on the Internet can now transmit their opinions and complaints around the world with ease. Most importantly, consumers have high expectations that companies will not only produce quality products and services, but also will act ethically in their creation and distribution."

The report defines reputation as how a company is perceived by each of its stakeholder groups and reputation risk as the risk that an event will negatively influence stakeholder perceptions. Many reputation risks are the secondary result of other, more traditionally recognized risks. For example, if a manufacturer produces an unsafe product, it may lose customers and is likely to suffer financial costs due to a product recall, both of which impact reputation. Reputations may be damaged for any number of reasons, including that stakeholders perceive a company to be unethical.

"Although reputation is the quintessential intangible asset, a strong corporate reputation yields concrete benefits - higher market value, stronger sales, and an increased ability to hire the best and the brightest," says Bayer.

The report is based on the findings of The Conference Board Reputation Risk Research Working Group and a survey of 148 risk management executives of major corporations. More than three quarters of the respondents to the survey said their companies are making a substantial effort to manage reputation risk (82 percent) and they have increased focus in this area over the last three years (81 percent).

Other key findings of the study:

1. Reputation risk should be managed throughout the organization. Although communication is of critical importance in responding to a risk event, a company's reputation should be considered during the preparation and execution of strategy and new projects, which hasn't been the case in most companies. 
2. Reputation risk is often not incorporated into risk management. Only 49 percent of executives surveyed said that the management of reputation risk was highly integrated with their enterprise risk management (ERM) function or another risk oversight program. 
3. Assessing reputation risks is a top challenge. Fifty-nine percent indicated that assessing the perceptions and concerns of stakeholders was an extremely or very significant issue, making it the highest-ranked challenge. 
4. Media monitoring has become more sophisticated. Today, there are tools to assess whether coverage is positive, neutral or negative; the credibility of publications; the prominence of coverage, etc.
5. Efforts are being made to quantify the value of reputation. A select group of companies is making progress in this area by working with specialist consulting firms to quantify the impact of reputation on share price. 
6. Social media are gaining influence, but most companies are ignoring them. Although consumers and investors are increasingly gathering information from blogs, online forums, and social networking sites, only 34 percent of the survey respondents said they extensively monitor such sites, and only 10 percent actively participated in them.

商業周刊1115期

G20高峰會直擊  文/單小懿、楊少強

英倫‧21世紀關鍵會議

 春寒料峭，我們飛越九千八百公里，抵達昔日的日不落帝國。走進百年歷史的金融城（the city），我們站在全世界最早的央行——英格蘭銀行前。路上的人們，步伐依舊急促，身著長風衣、撐著黑傘。然而，英國國力不再，人們嘆息：「去年英鎊還是全球最強勢的貨幣之一，現在卻沒人要。」大家陸續丟了工作，工作完也早早收班回家，酒吧裡的人少了，笑容消失了。二十國領袖，是否真能拋棄成見，為全世界找到出路？（文/郭奕伶）

苦日子，還要持續多久？四月二日，可能就是這個問題的歷史轉捩點。這一天，全球前二十大經濟體（G20，group of 20）的領袖齊聚倫敦，舉辦首度正式高峰會，為全世界找出路。為了全程記錄這個史上最大規模的高峰會，我們也飛越九千八百公里，提早一週飛抵倫敦。走在千年古城倫敦的街道上，大笨鐘、西敏寺前，盡是趁英鎊重貶而來撿便宜的各國遊客。但倫敦城的上空，一股山雨欲來的緊張氣氛卻急遽上升。

一場史上最大規模高峰會　總統多、示威多，倫敦如戒嚴

場景轉到三月三十一日晚上，「不羈者（Renegade）即將降落！」當這個極機密情報傳到塔台，倫敦東北方的史丹斯德（Stansted） 機場，戒備狀態立即升至最高點。這裡距白金漢宮僅四十八公里，在第二次世界大戰期間，是英國皇家空軍的基地，也是全世界歷史最悠久的空軍機場，更是最會處理劫機事件的機場，過去十一年，成功處理了四件劫機事件。「不羈者」，是美國總統歐巴馬（Barack Obama）的化名。「不羈者」一落地，迅速的，歐巴馬在大批維安人員的戒護下，迅速登上「海軍陸戰隊一號」（Marine One）直升機，直奔美國駐英大使官邸。

為確保安全，美方事前三度到倫敦勘查地形。歐巴馬此行，陣仗之大，包括五百名隨行人員。其中，二十八歲的瑞吉‧勒夫（Reggie Love），是他的專屬行程規畫師，除了每天安排行程、準備隨身用品外，他每天還幫歐巴馬從網路上下載所需新聞到iPod上，以備三天高峰會所需。 歐巴馬到達的隔天，四月一日，中國國家主席胡錦濤，也帶著中方所宣稱「高規格、高質量」的代表團，飛抵倫敦。

飛機一落地，胡錦濤立刻展開與其他元首的會談，行程滿檔。為了保護這位世界最大外匯存底國家領導人，三月初，中國的特遣小組即進入倫敦蒐集資料。這是世界第一強權美國新總統歐巴馬上任後，首次與全球最有影響力的領袖晤面，更是他與胡錦濤的首度見面。此外，二十國元首的專機、專車也陸續抵達倫敦，而來自全球二千二百名的採訪記者，也將在此全面展開新聞追擊大戰。

千年古城倫敦，此刻有著世界上的「三個最多」：總統最多、記者最多、示威者最多。

搭上地鐵，我們到了倫敦東部的ExCel展覽中心，此次高峰會的舉行地點。泰晤士河畔，春寒料峭。這個展場面積廣達九萬平方公尺，約是台北世貿中心一館加三館的三倍大，前方的廣場，可供直升機臨時升降，而緊鄰的泰晤士河，則是維安最佳屏障。

這裡，遙望著世界遺產格林威治村，新舊秩序的更迭，僅隔五百公尺。而現場即將展開「紅色警戒」：武裝警察進駐，海陸空交通全面封鎖，保全人員呼籲居民盡量不要外出，出入要帶證件，商家停止營業，會場淨空。我們走訪ExCel中心旁的精品旅館問道，「四月第一週還有房間嗎？」飯店服務生神秘的說，「抱歉，全都滿了，沒有房間。」