Recently in Miscellaneous Category

Thanks to Cassie Schreiner for passing this along.

We are on spring break this week, so my blogging will be a bit lighter than usual.  Taking some time with family, including a trip down to Miami.  And of course, I will be playing a little golf, as well!

When I first started blogging over six years ago we had to come up with a name and a look for the blog.  I have never been particularly creative when it comes to coming up with names and such, so left this to the support people here at Belmont.

The golfing theme they thought touched on my personal side -- after all, blogging is supposed to be a more personal medium.

While I love to golf, the theme became to seem rather old and not so relevant.  So I decided to let my students take a crack at a new design.

We had several really great submissions from across our campus, but this one by John Price was voted the winner by a panel of faculty, staff and blog readers. 

Hope all of you like the new look.

I have given up on making predictions.

But I do want to share some inklings I have about our future.

The growing rift in the US between free market capitalists and the energized and emboldened socialists will deepen in 2010.  As we move toward the fall election I have a feeling that things will reach a fevered pitch.  I worry about the post-election reactions no matter which way it goes.  Property rights, tax policies, socialization of fundamental parts of our economy, and liberty will frame our debate over the coming months and maybe even for several years to come.

I also have an inkling that we are seeing the building blocks of the "next big thing" taking shape.  It has something to do with technological convergence that is finally beginning to emerge along with the explosion of apps and cloud and/or virtual computing.  Throw the rapidly falling cost and increasing capacity of wireless and we have an interesting brew, indeed.  I think this will all be aided by the weak economic climate.  Low cost communication and entertainment will be rewarded by the market (if we still have one), as folks are looking for value and efficiency in their lives.

The state of education is moving toward a sea change of epic proportion.  The failure of public education, the empowerment of information through technology, shifts in demographics, and the likelihood of a very long down period in the economy will begin to turn education on its ear.  It could be a very interesting ride for those of us in higher education.

I have other inklings, but it is time to get back to work helping Mrs. C. get ready for our annual News Year Eve Bash.

Until next year, then, here is my Annual New Year Blessing to Entrepreneurs (with apologies to those in Ireland, to whom this may sound vaguely familiar):

May the market rise up to meet you.

May cash flow always be at your back.

May customers shine warm upon your face,

and opportunities fall frequently upon your venture.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Here's to another trip around the sun! Happy New Year!

 

A CHRISTMAS PRAYER
by Marty Robbins

Dear Lord I want to thank you
for what You've done for me
For all these many blessings
In a world that's caught in grief and misery
No matter where I wander
I 'm always in Your site
and so my thanks to You, My Lord
upon this Christmas Night

If all my prayers aren't answered
then Lord, I understand
There's others more deserving
Others Lord who need a helping hand
I pray you'll guide and keep me
Ever near the light
And so My Deepest Thanks My Lord
Upon this Christmas Night.

I will be spending the next week with family as we celebrate Christmas. 

Have a blessed and Merry Christmas.

 

I would like to be the first to welcome the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) to Belmont University.  We will be hosting USASBE here at Belmont through early 2011.

We are delighted to have USASBE on our campus.

A big congratulations to Becky Gann, who will serve as the USASBE Interim Executive Director.  Becky has served as the Program Coordinator for our Center for Entrepreneurship since I arrived here almost six years ago.  I will miss Becky's steady hand running our co-curricular programming in the Center.

Thank you Becky for all you have done for our students!!

I have been a long-time supporter of Junior Achievement.  A group of small business owners has put together a fundraising event in which they will be peddling their bicycles from Nashville to Memphis.  Read more about it here.

The Kauffman Foundation has published the results from the economics blogger forum I participated in at their headquarters in Kansas City a few weeks ago.

Some of the highlights of the report:

• Two-thirds of the respondents reported that President Obama's top economic priority should be fixing banks
• 38 of the 39 respondents rated innovation as "very important" to the health of the U.S. economy
• 60 percent of respondents consider a continued credit freeze will be likely to cause a major slowdown in technological innovation
• 23 of the 39 respondents reported that government red tape is the biggest barrier to starting a new business
• The majority of respondents reported that keeping health benefits and lower and simpler taxes would encourage more people to start businesses in America
• Nearly 75 percent of respondents reported that small startup firms are very important to economic growth

You can read the survey and summary here.

Are you a little wary about setting up a Facebook page?  I have been for any number of reasons.  First and foremost, as a professor I have been concerned about boundaries with my students.

However, after numerous requests from alumni to use it and after talking with a few of my fellow bloggers last week in Kansas City, I decided it was time to connect my blog with Facebook and Twitter.

You can now get alerts via Facebook and Twitter for this site. 

At Twitter my user name is cornwallj

At Facebook you can find me as Jeffrey Cornwall

I only use Facebook and Twitter as a feed source and do not use them as a forum for discussions.  I have an RSS feed set up to make it easier for those of you who prefer to get alerts about posts using these sites.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about in this post, not to worry.  I don't understand it either.  I am not known as the Luddite Blogger for nothing!