More Extra Narrative from “Dear Readers (2017 Themes)” Post — CAFRs (like, see USDOT’s 2016 one), Federal Agency Database Functionality Issues, Smart Cities|V2V|USA, Who?What is SXSW (and, for comparison, London-based global B2B Events Organizer/Conglomerate UBM)
This page title (and a tinyurl link, only 48-characters, to match): More Extra Narrative from “Dear Readers (2017 Themes)” Post — CAFRs (like, see USDOT’s 2016 one), Federal Agency Database Functionality Issues, Smart Cities|V2V|USA, Who?What? is SXSW (and, for comparison, London-based global B2B Events Organizer/Conglomerate UBM) [or the tinyurl without the window-dressing: http://tinyurl.com/LetsReadThoseCAFRs-like-UDOTs].
This about-3,000-word text came from the bottom of the post referenced in the title. To get back there, click your heels twice and think about “Home” — or Click THIS link, which should get you back there, although at the top, not the bottom of that post. I’m no fairy godmother, or tech wizard. Use common sense and the common navigation keys I’m sure your on-line experiences have already acquainted you with if you made it this far….
Below here is the Extra Narrative + Related Images, which enables me to keep the original post to a more humane length. Admitted, this is a form of cheating — but it also works.. 🙂 🙂
The question we all should ask — and again, reviewing that CAFR material and other evidences — is, what, REALLY, are the collective government assets (include the federal, take drill-down core samples, read others who have done this extensively AND linked to the evidence — see my sticky posts for several of them), THINK about the overall situation deeply — and start to understand what is NOT being talked about when the headlines are blaring about the deficit and scarcity of federal, state, governmental, county, or metro-based resources. How often are they “almost, but not quite” actually lying — by referring to the “Budget” (not the whole) and/or specific entities (and not all entities) or by re-framing debt as all currently due when it’s only actually due in years down the road in the future.What’s really going on when excess revenues are not resulting in lower taxes the next year, but being diverted? Why are federal agencies not more up-front about their financing?
Is it really necessary to regionalize, standardize, centralize and internationally coordinate ALL forms of government and public institutions, and invite the richest private investors “in on” the ownership of things which the US Public over the years, has been funding, in part through substandard wages and living conditions, services, and coercive practices designed to bring in the revenues, then fail to distribute them evenly, or even all of them?
The USDOT, I notice, actually has a nice search-projects-financed page, and you can key in individual state names — but the search results on the page by default, or even after searching, seem a fixed set of columns — which just does NOT include the state names. I realize some projects may span more than one state, and are going to — but still, without this information, one cannot scan by projects well by state, and not all are familiar with the individual project names. Users cannot sort results by any of the column names (why not? That’s a software issue); it appears they can select across a number of fields, but not sort results. That’s a basic database function that ought to be possible on ALL public databases allowing select filters for the public. And without connections to other presentations of the same info, there is the matter of reliability of results found (as I discovered, quickly, over at HHS, the differential between a Basic and an Advanced Search on the same “specs” (same entity or same award) could vary by 50% or more, with the Basic Search reflecting far less.
Notice that the DOT’s “BUDGET” and related documents is entirely separate from the Financial Statements Link.
Something to always keep in mind regarding any entity (public or private):
http://transportation.gov/budget
=/=
(where the DOT financial reports are found, which isat this link), from which I looked at the: 2016 Agency Financial Report (this seems to be a Consolidated AFR, and is interesting reading on recent activities. Financial reports will inform people of any new bureaus or authorities created, at least related to the reporting entity.
It seems clearly written (multi-color). It acknowledges certain material weaknesses, though. Note that my next image (from 2016 Agency AFR Financial Statements Table of COntents) is NOT the complete TOC — there are a few more sections which didn’t fit in the screenprint, including references to an APR (Annual Performance Report) and other sections. The APR satisfies several legislative requirements, listed separately on p2 of the report.
This next quote is from p5, Message from the Secretary (currently Sec’y Anthony Foxx) (the 2-letter combo “fi” seems to have been missing in the copy & paste here, supply for context/I replaced the first 3 and bolded to show).
From 2016 Dept of Transportation Agency Financial Report available on its website. I’m curious how “Financial Statements’ (p.49) could be only one page…
“OVERVIEW OF THE FY 2016 FINANCIAL RESULTS
Again this year, the independent auditors tasked with reviewing our financial statements have provided an unmodified opinion. This demon-strates our successful efforts to ensure that across the Department taxpayer resources are used effectively and ef ficiently. There is, however, always room for improvement. For example, although the Department made signi cant improvements in FY 2016, control issues related to information technology (IT) systems that support the grant programs of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) continue to be a material weakness in FY 2016. In addition, the FTA had a second material weakness related to the lack of sufficient oversight of an external service provider that manages FTA’s grants management system. We take any material weakness seriously, and the Department will continue to work to remediate these issues during FY 2017. As in prior years, I can represent that the financial and performance information from our systems included in this report is substantially complete and reliable. Further, with the exceptions noted in my accompanying correspondence to the President, the Department is able to provide reasonable assurance that its internal controls and financial management systems meet the objectives of the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA).
The DOT’s financial performance in FY 2016 supported successful operations and positive achievements across our many transportation programs. In FY 2017, the Department will continue its progress, and focus on the following broad themes: enhancing and increasing safety, closing the infrastructure gap, and modernizing our transportation system.
ANTHONY R. FOXX
You would do well (regardless of where you live) to while here, read the next page 7 about recent legislation, projects, and a “Build America Bureau” created at the DOT, FAST legislation, and, for example, “Smart Cities” (which spans pp. 7 & 8).
Smart City Challenge—The Department launched the Smart City Challenge in response to DOT’s Beyond Traffic framework. The bold initiatives proposed, demonstrated that the future of transportation is not just about using technology to make our systems safer and more efficient – it’s about using these advanced tools to make life better for all people, especially those living in underserved communities.
In June 2016, DOT selected Columbus, OH, as the winner of the Department’s Smart City Challenge. As winner of the Challenge, Columbus will receive up to $40 million
AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | FISCAL YEAR 2016 (page footer, that was page) 7
MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY (cont’d.) from DOT and up to $10 million from Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc. to supplement the $90 million that the City has already raised from other private partners to carry out its plan. Using these resources, Columbus will work to reshape its transportation system to become part of a fully integrated city that harnesses the power and potential of data, technology, and creativity to reimagine how people and goods move throughout their city. While Columbus is the winner of the Challenge, we believe each city has come out of this process with a stronger sense of how to address transportation challenges with technology and innovation. The Smart City Challenge generated a significant amount of excitement and interest amongst cities. The seven finalist cities that were announced at South by Southwest (SXSW)## in March—Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco—rose to the Smart City Challenge in an extraordinary way. They presented innovative concepts, proposing to create new first of a kind corridors for autonomous vehicles to move city residents, to electrify city fleets, and to collectively equip over 13,000 buses, taxis, and cars with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication.
too bad no particular urge to explain what that was within the message (a footnote would’ve worked just find). It appears from Wikipedia definitions of these conferences, that the “V2V” as referring to Vehicle-To-Vehicle may have been borrowed from prior meanings of the acronym in association with “SXSW.” SXSW, Inc. (and there’s an LLC) are apparently conference and trade-show event organizers. I’ll let the two Wiki sites and link to the company describe it better, then return to the USDOT’s usage of “V2V” apparently referring to “Vehicle2Vehicle” including autonomous vehicles integrated with UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems)….
South by Southwest (abbreviated as SXSW) is an annual conglomerate of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987, and has continued to grow in both scope and size every year. In 2011, the conference lasted for 10 days with SXSW Interactive lasting for 5 days, Music for 6 days, and Film running concurrently for 9 days.
SXSW is run by the company SXSW, LLC which organizes conferences, trade shows, festivals, and other events.[1] In addition to the three main South by Southwest festivals, the company runs three other conferences, two in Austin: SXSWedu, a conference on educational innovation,[2] and SXSW Eco, an environmental conference;[3] and one in Las Vegas: SXSW V2V, a conference focused on innovative startups.[4]
Clicking on that:
SXSW V2V is the newest South by Southwest conference; it features a startup competition, panel discussions, and mentoring workshops for entrepreneurs. Hosted in Las Vegas, it is the first SXSW event to take place outside of Austin, Texas. It began in 2013 as an evolution of the startup competition that is held as part of the SXSW Interactive festival each spring.[1]…
The company has said variously that V2V stands for “Vision to Venture”, “Visionaries to Vegas”, and “Voice to Voice”, describing the focus of the conference on finding, financing, and developing new businesses.[2] The conference started with the recognition that the three large spring festivals that SXSW, Inc. holds in Austin were straining the hotel capacity of that city.[3]
And the right-column company link, which implies that after 3 years at Las Vegas, Las Vegas had said it could no longer continue supporting this, so they are looking at new places. Perhaps a return to Austin (as the recent DOT message implied) actually happened:
We Loved Our Three Years In Las Vegas
After three exciting years on the Vegas Strip, SXSW V2V has decided to set its sights on different destinations and new challenges. We’re taking time to consider the many vibrant tech communities around the world that offer the facilities and municipal support V2V needs to flourish. We appreciate all those who attended, presented at, and sponsored V2V and invite everyone in our loyal V2V community to stay tuned for future announcements. The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority’s early assistance was much appreciated and we regret that lack of future support makes it untenable to continue producing a Las Vegas event.
Why this also caught my attention: though I didn’t post on it, I did look at it. It would seem that the major technology media (example: the Jobin-Leeds Partnership for Democracy and Education, I was looking at under “ConnectEd” and 4th Quarter 2016 Review as I recall) had made a fortune in internet-based, that is, technology on-lines, and sold their company to another entity for a few hundred million. I followed up, and learned that after consolidation under a British-based entity, (UBM I believe it was eventually called) there was cutback and consolidation of the on-lines provided, and eventually the UBM (United or “Universal” — forget which — Business Media) had settled into producing major B2B trade events, organized regionally. This reminds me of the same idea the organizing company does that for a living…
“UBM is one of the world’s leading business-to-business (B2B) events organisers.” (UBM overview).
We create vibrant and dynamic events, enriched with digital and print media. Our events allow our customers to make connections and do business efficiently and effectively.
Our 3,500 expert staff are deeply embedded in the many specialist communities we serve, bringing both an unusual depth of understanding and real know-how. We organise hundreds of live events each year and provide a range of related market-leading digital and print marketing and media products.
Our culture of innovation and collaboration brings our people together around common interests to create value, enhancing our ability to do exactly the same for UBM customers and the communities UBM serves. So, whatever their business and wherever they operate, our customers do better business through us.
How are we organised?
UBM has three principle (sic) businesses: UBM Americas, UBM Asia and UBM EMEA who together provide high quality Events and OMS activities through regional focus, closely collaborating when brands extend globally. UBM is the largest “pure-play” exhibitions organiser in the world, No.1 International Exhibitions organiser in China, India and Malaysia (Asia) and No.1 Exhibitions organiser in the US.
I clicked on UBM Americas, saw its subject matter groupings, starting with Fashion, and clicked on the ‘IT” group, to look for its Brands in case SXSW was one of them. It wasn’t, but “InformationWeek” and others, were. Complex, vivid, and dynamic websites….Notice no particular country category “US” but the region, “UBM Americas….” — both continents, presumably….
Its history page — and I believe we should read this (other than photo credits, this is that whole page). Reading it, I am reminded that the company the Jobin-Leeds (that’s a married couple) was running and sold in 1999?) was CMP Media. You will also see in addition to the name changes that along the way it first acquired, and recently (2015) disposed of PRNewswire (a brand whose articles I end up quoting frequently, both past and more recent ones). Also be aware that the suffice “plc” means “public limited company” for certain countries, whereas the plain “Ltd.” indicates, from what I read, privately controlled — not traded on open markets, i.e., unlikely to have at-large shareholders determining company policies or boards of directors. Also, it would still appear to be based in London.
UBM: Championing business media since 1843..,
UBM was originally incorporated in 1918 as United Newspapers Limited, changing its name to United News and Media in 1995. The business kept this name until 2000 when United Business Media was formally adopted. In May 2011 UBM changed its name from United Business Media Limited to UBM plc.
[[ in other words, it finally — after over 100 years of operation — went public]]
The history of the companies that now make up UBM stretches back over 150 years to titles launched in the 19th century such as Building Magazine and Chemist & Druggist, launched in 1843 by Joseph Hansom.
Over the last thirty years, UBM has owned, bought and sold a wide range of media businesses, including broadcast television (Meridian, Anglia, HTV), market research (NOP) and newspapers (Express Newspapers). PR Newswire, established in 1954, was acquired in 1982; CMP Media was acquired in 1999 (and subsequently renamed CMP Technology); CMPMedica was formed from a series of acquisitions made during 2004 and 2005; and CMP Asia, now UBM Asia, was formally founded in 1994, although UBM had developed a substantial business in Asia over the course of the preceding decade. In 2010 UBM acquired Canon Communications LLC, the leading media business dedicated exclusively to the global advanced manufacturing sector, with a particular focus on medical devices and pharmaceutical development. Most recently in December 2014 UBM acquired Advanstar which placed UBM as the leading events business in the US.
Again, the suffix “LLC” with Canon would imply, US-based. And notice what two businesses Canon Communications, LLC was making the most money off, apparently: Medical devices and pharmaceutical (Rx, aka drug) development.
UBM plc has progressively focused on its global portfolio of industry-leading tradeshows, and in November 2014 set out its new strategy to become the world’s leading B2B events business – the ‘Events First‘ strategy. UBM is now the world’s second largest events organiser, and is well placed geographically, with relatively high exposure to the higher growth Emerging Markets and with the acquisition of Advanstar providing good exposure to the US, UBM now describes itself as a global events-led marketing and communications services business.
In December 2015 UBM announced the disposal of PRN Newswire. Completion of the disposal, which was reached on June 17th 2016, is set to increase the company’s focus on the events industry and strengthen the implementation of its ‘Events First‘ strategy.
From wiki, also check out some of the background and involvements (incl. director at Bain Capital, Rolls Royce and …) of Chairman Dame Helen Alexander. Not quoted here, see the site..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBM_plc
UBM plc is a global business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has a long history as a multinational media company. Its current main focus is on B2B events, but its principal operations have included live media and business-to-business communications, marketing services and data provision, and it principally serves the technology, healthcare, trade and transport, ingredients and fashion industries. UBM is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. <== link explains well enough…)
More from the USDOT 2016 Annual Report on the V2V communications vision is found here: Welcome to “Smart Cities” and UAS aka Unmanned Aircraft Systems…
as above, from the US DOT AFR2016, Message from Secretary (page #s about 8 – 9)
To reiterate the FamilyCourtMatters navigation system here:
This about-3,000-word text came from the bottom of the post referenced in the title. To get back there, click your heels twice and think about “Home” — or Click THIS link, which should get you back there, although at the top, not the bottom of that post. I’m no fairy godmother…
Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History 