Work for PeopleSoft Campus Solutions?
"Not the Most Intuitive. Just Okay. "
I like that it is web based so I can access it from any computer.
I do not like how archaic looking it is. It looks like something from the days of Netscape in 1997. Also, it has its glitches. Sometimes, for no reason, it will just go back to a previous page and all of my unsaved data entry is gone. I wish you could see your most recently viewed accounts from a drop down menu like you can in Microsoft CRM. Also, I wish you could enter just the name of a client when looking up items on their account. Some items you can only look the client up by their Empl ID and quite often the client does not know their Empl ID. It adds another step for me and slows the transaction down when I have to look up their Empl ID first.
I have used Microsoft CRM and Campus Connect, which were a little bit more intuitive in regards to workflow queues and being able to retrieve recent records. However, Campus Connection does what I need it to. Just in a bit more cumbersome manor and a little bit more dated format. One thing I do like is that it is similar to Microsoft CRM in that it is web based so I can access it almost anywhere. I do wish it was more mobile friendly though.
I use the software on at a state university and it allows me to help students with course advisement. It is nice that I and the students I work with have access to the same software and can see the same exact thing. I like that even if I receive an email at home from a student, I can help them from home.
"Great System for personnel administration"
It is easy to use once you know how the system works. I had been using this system for more than 10 years and I do not have any complaints.
There is nothing to dislike about this system but probably companies do not get the whole package or more services like doing payroll on PeopleSoft so it is not good when payroll and the personnel administration is not the same system.
I am not sure about the price but it could not be very affordable if the company is not buying all the services or most of the services that PeopleSoft is offering. When I was at Bloomingdale's and using PeopleSoft, we did not had other services like we do have right now at Stanford and vice versa.
It is so easy to hire people in the system and keep their data information on one place.
"Not the most user friendly, but it's okay... "
I like that all the different functions can be found on one easy-to-read menu and that the menu never changes. That's important for a tool that is used several times a day!
I dislike that this product, even with the customizations for my institution isn't very intuitive. It's not easy to figure things out on your own if there's an update. The fact that my institution has to provide training sessions for simple updates is not very efficient.
It's a great product and the ability to customize is amazing. I am unfamiliar with price point or support solutions, but I expect they are pretty good.
This product allows us to keep all our student academic records and billing records in one location that is fairly easy to use. Only one universal login is needed to access multiple platforms, which is a great benefit when trying to manage several pieces of data at a time for different students or academic functions.
I teach computer science classes and PeopleSoft makes a wonderful familiar case study of everything WRONG in a product. Very helpful to be able to refer to it as an example to my students.
Where to begin? The interface has the feel of a combination Web 1.0 with 1970s bi-synch technology. The security model is extremely coarse. As a professor I can access names, birthdates, addresses, transcripts and the last 4-digits of SSNs of all 20K+ students in my university-- students whom I have nothing to do with (not in my classes, my particular campus, my discipline). Extremely inflexible. When it was introduced the entire university had to renumber its courses because it was incapable of handling alphanumeric strings to identify courses. The list goes on and on. Navigation is impossible and counter-intuitive.
This system derives from ERP solutions for very large multinational corporations. It may well be a decent solution in that area, I don't know. But it is poorly retrofitted for universities. Choose software that was designed for the universities from the ground up, even if it may not be as seemingly comprehensive.
My university has used (very inappropriately) this product for all its business and academic administration. The cost in terms of personnel exodus, overtime, middle management and administrative morale has been awful.
What I liked best about it is from a student perspective is that I can register for more than one college within the Los Angeles Community College District from one screen. Also I am able to request my transcripts from more than one college on one screen. Also, when it comes to registering for classes, I can search and save the classes I want in a shopping cart to be able to go back to when I am ready to register for my classes.
Just learning the system and it is not so cut and dry from an employee perspective. It takes a lot of training in order to become very functional in using it from an employee stand point. It is more user friendly from a student perspective than an employee standpoint.
I would recommend that you implement a complete study of everything you want your system to do prior to implementation of the software. Make sure that it can cover your exception cases prior to implementation. Make sure that everything your prior system could do, it can do that and enhance on what you are used to receiving in service and performance.
I like that you can select all students to apply a grade or an absence, etc. without having to do each student individually.
I don't like that you cannot export student grades and information into an excel spreadsheet or document that allows you to edit when necessary.
I think it is great at a university level for prompt communication with students. It is user friendly and intuitive but lacks a good way to export information rather than taking a screenshot. I really like the email feature, it is a great way to connect with students about a grade being posted, a class being cancelled or moved, and any other urgent needs.
Peoplesoft is a great grading system and efficient for adding or dropping students at a college level. Benefits include real time changes, so the student can see when you have changed a grade or absence, and it allows you to send out emails to all students or certain students.
"Peoplesoft frustrates more than it helps"
I like that there is an option to bookmark frequently visited pages, but the book marks don't dig down deep enough. For instance, I frequently need to look at the schedule of English classes. But I cannot save the search of English classes. I can just save the search page and every single time I have to re-do the search. What a waste of time.
Continuing with the schedule, in order to see how many students are registered in a section one has to click on that section which is another waste of time. Each section has a blue square meaning full and a green circle meaning not full. Why can't the number of students be shown instead or in addition? And to top it off, the number of students is shown so low that one has to scroll each time to see it.
Other problems or issues are that things change or disappear on the schedule for no apparent reason. I am focused on the schedule because that is the most bothersome part of it. Peoplesoft seems to have a mind of its own and even when humans make a change it somehow changes back or changes to something else on its own. This is our perception at least as users.
We are not really solving any problems with it. It is causing more problems than it solves. We look on it as a bother and nobody likes it.
"Works Good For What it is, Could Be Better"
PeopleSoft Campus Solutions works well as a student information system. It allows university and colleges to house information on current and prospective students, and can manage all application materials. PeopleSoft allows university administrators to build queries to run reports when need, communicate about financial aid awards, and allows staff members to monitor student progress.
Occasionally, PeopleSoft will randomly stop work, and you will lose all information you were working on, so I recommend saving your work frequently. PeopleSoft is also not the most user-friendly student information systems. The new update did improve its aesthetic appeal though.
If you need a product that allows customization based on campus needs, you should consider PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. Training on how to use various components of the system is encouraged.
PeopleSoft allows me to see if a student is enrolled at the university. It also allows the Office of the Registrar to run reports on recent graduates for my office to communicate with them about their post-graduation plans.
"PeopleSoft Campus Solutions does a lot of things ... which is a double-edged sword "
PeopleSoft can be a ane-stop shop for a whole bunch of needs, from accounting and payroll to accounts receivable and expenses.
Because you can do so much in PeopleSoft, when it goes down it can bring your whole organization to a halt.
Consider really carefully how much you want to add to it, because if or when it would go down, you will also lose access to that information.
We use it across the university for an enormous range of things, but it's most useful to me as a portal to do payroll, expense reporting and reimbursement, and track timesheet for my employees. But you can also have a wide variety of integrations with other systems.
I enjoy that it is able to cross so many different areas of one educational institution. We use it currently for finance and accounts payable, but are looking at moving towards implementing the Human Resources aspect, which would make life so much easier when verifying employees.
It is extremely hard to learn and is not an intuitive interface. Most employees here at the university have needed several months of intense training and a lot of hands-on examples before they can actually grasp how the program works. It would help if the visuals were more graphic and friendly. I know it sounds silly, but light colors and vague buttons like the little gray drop-down arrow really do make it difficult when trying to explain to someone how to go through the steps of completing a requisition, for instance. It would help if the graphics were larger and more colorful.
It is a very complex interface, but it is very much worth the time and effort learning it. Vendors also love it. It makes it easy to go from department to department in the purchasing process without having to leave your office.
We are able to process requsitions, POs, payment requests, vendor information, requester information, etc. all in one place, whereas before, we had several different systems that we had to work in between in order to achieve all of the data we needed to process business.
"Functional Solution for Human Resource Services"
I like that Oracle PeopleSoft allows consumers to be able to access their human resources account, which allows them to keep track of their hours, pay stubs, tax information, and other human resource needs.
Before a recent software update, I could only open up myHR (on the Oracle Peoplesoft platform) using Internet Explorer. Now, the software is compatible with all web browsers. For the two years before the software update, using the program was inconvenient when trying to assess the site using a computer without Internet Explorer. Also, the recent update makes assessing myHR on mobile devices easier, than they were prior to the update. Given that the update has rectified these issues, there is not anything I dislike about the program.
If the goal is to find a secure electronic means of documenting human resource materials such as pay stubs, logging hours, transmitting tax information, and the like, I would highly recommend employing Peoplesoft Campus Solutions.
The PeopleSoft Campus Solutions allows me to login to myHR from any locations, and remembers my information for ease of access. PeopleSoft also provides high security of confidential information, such as tax information.
"Best Application for Higher Education Institutions"
PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, is an end to end solution for Colleges/Universities and all Higher Education Institutions. It has the most advanced features to meet the requirements across various regions. Application is flexible enough to meet any kind of the requirement. Latest version has the features of fluid pages, mobile compatibility, self service etc., User friendly application.
At times it can be difficult to navigate within the application if you don't remember the navigation. There need to be some more work flow features to meet the requirements.
Student and the Admin staff will have the same data access. Most of the complicated reports can be generated at the click of a button. Saves time. Data in multi language helps the users to see the data in their native language.
The amount of information that can be captured about your students and organized in a manner that can assist all departments involved in making good business decisions.
Relying on Oracle system administrators to do all updates and handle any problems that may occur. Sometimes you feel a little helpless and too reliant on the vendor.
It takes A LOT to implement, but once it's in it does make life easier.
Getting off proprietary software and multiple 'ghost databases' has been the biggest benefit. When everyone works out of the same system, it's much easier to maintain control of your data.
"Well, it's better than Atari..."
I like that there are Campus records (enrollment, academics) as well as Human Resources elements within one system.
It is not easy to navigate and there isn't an effective search function.
There are probably some choices that a campus's IT department can make that would help the product's layout flow a bit better, I'm not sure. If so, be prepared to have a team spend time on this element to eliminate some employee frustration.
I use it for generating transcripts, looking up student contact info, accessing and approving payroll.
"Oracle Peoplesoft is reliable and user friendly"
The login is simple and the portal is very straightforward. The login can be tied into your organization login id if you already have one. The system is very simple with links you can click on and drop down menus.
The fonts can be improved and the drop down menu sometimes are a bit hard to find (navigation). It has a very old school feel to it. I think the way it looks can be modified.
It is a very simple system that can be easily learned by the users. Its been tested and implemented by numerous companies, universities, and government agencies.
I am using it to look up student records and to keep up with my own employee time sheets, approvals, past records and other useful information.
"Optimal system for the HR department"
This application has eased personnel management. The employee details get consolidated into one system. It facilitated working with time attendance, overtime, and all this was reflected on the payroll The system is reliable and works seamlessly on Oracle servers. The database is highly secure.
We went through a long process detailing our business requirements and then customizing the application to support these needs.
But once this stage is over, the application would payoff and facilitate all the tedious work at the HR department.
I do recommend to request a demo or have a presentation by Oracle presales consultant to match your business requirements with the application's capabilities.
This application eased the HR functions from hiring to time control, employee history and payroll.
"Data and More Data "
When I first started using this program, I was completely lost as to how to maneuver around the various layers of forms. With time everything gets easier. I have enjoyed using how much information can be stored in this program.
Sometimes the save option can be confusing. It still has some knacks that need to be refined.
Connections to all departments. Anyone can upload information to a student file. There's less need for running to various departments and handing ff completed files.
There wasn't a whole lot I liked about PeopleSoft honestly. Possibly the first layer of the user interface, but once you got deeper into, it got convoluted.
Complicated path ways and process flows that didn't make logical sense. It was also susceptible to a lot of bugs, errors, and crashing.
I would try and seek out other solutions and programs first and use this as a last resort. Things may have changed since I last used it, but it was not an impressive product.
It was a tool to organize all of our student body, enrollments, schedules, classes, statuses, etc. One benefit is some of the information and vital data was organized, but not a lot of it.
"PeopleSoft Campus Solutions UI Needs Work"
The backend has robust features and allows for plenty of customizations. It can do almost anything you would need it to after customizations. It lets you get things done as a student and can keep all of these things organized for the institution.
The problem is the UI is dated. The latest and greatest UI on 9.2 doesn't look all that great either. They are only modernizing certain parts of the application and that leaves end users with the short end of the stick. Students want a mobile first application to access in class and on the go. Giving students an experience that they will enjoy is not really possible with Campus Solutions without using a 3rd party vendor. The mobile experience needs a lot of work if you want the younger generation to enjoy using it.
I would recommend learning to navigate the product before using it. Can be confusing.
Applying for classes, picking housing, filing forms and removing holds on my accounts. Use was as a student and I had to do many things inside of the application. It lets you see everything in one place, and that is extremely beneficial for students and parents.
It is an easy to use system in which I am able to access all the programs required for me to use at my job. I love that I can organize the icons in whatever order I choose.
I would like to see a better mobile version such as an cell phone app in which I can open the site and the icons I need.
Very convenient when using it for work environments that have large quantities of employees.
Every employer at the university I work in uses PeopleSoft so it makes things easier for everyone since we are all on the same system.
I like that PeopleSoft worked with our campus to create multiple programs for our specific needs. I work the most in a program called TRAX, a financial management software.
Although the program is customizable, I wish there were customizations that individual users could make. For example, I use different facets of the program than one of my co-workers, it would be nice to be able to hide those screen options since I don't use them. I also wish that the program was more intuitive when working in the financial side, although I went through the training, I still need to rely on my training guides.
I would absolutely recommend PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. I am part of a large university and although the program takes a little getting used to, they have great software and it has made our work load more efficient, as it reduces the time it takes to process our financial matters.
As a large university, we have a lot of financial matters that need to be submitted/changed/recorded, etc. in each campus department. This program solves a lot of issues we had previously with paperwork, by allowing us to have a comprehensive electronic system, where we can submit budget changes and track financial matters.
oracle is attached to our employee accounts. so my email account and peoplesoft are right there when I log in. I use it for pretty basic functions and for the most part I find it easy to navigate. It works for what we use it for.
It may be the way we have it set up, but the font is really small. Everything is kind of on one side of the screen crammed together and the font is tiny. Everything looks really basic which is fine but it could definitely look a little more lively. And there are a lot of pathways to get to what I want. This may be the way the university has it set, but I sometimes have to click 5-6 links to view one item.
It helps when there's one person in the office who is an expert. I don't feel as though everyone needs to know every single in and out of the program. I know my basic functions and then when I need help i go to the person who knows it the best.
No business problems on my end since I'm just a user. Benefits are each employee has their own log in and our sensitive information is secure. Again we have it set so it's really easily accessible to each employee, just like an email account.
You have to memorize some of the shortcuts to access information. In addition, the graphics and modes aren't too easy or user friendly. You are not able to easily access the information that you need; for instance, if you have to see a student's application for admission and grades information, you have to complete the tasks separately and then review. There is no way to see all the information at once.
All of our personnel at the university have access to the same information at the same time; we do not have to wait for one department or individual to log out to access or make updates; those with access are able to make updates and everything is live and realtime.
"A do it all system"
I like that we can use this for our finance, human-resources, class scheduling, cashiering, and many other options.
It is sometimes difficult to maneuver around, and since it is our only interface, if it goes down it is crippling.
Take your time and learn how to navigate the system. It is difficult at times.
Uses include student records, my own her records, past records. Grades, progress toward degree, etc.
PeopleSoft Campus Solutions offers great flexibility and offering for a number of users, such as individual students, faculty, professors, and even student organizations. We used PeopleSoft in my department primarily for its Financial capabilties.
The PeopleSoft Campus Solutions is a pretty complicated product and we only used it for a specific function, so more training and educational resources would be nice.
For university administrators, I would consider assessing all the different capabilities of the software. Our department primarily used this software for a specific purpose, but it would be great to gather more value from the product.
Our university Student Affairs office utilized PeopleSoft Campus Solution to manage budgets and financial transactions involving student clubs and organizations (both graduate and undergraduate). It allowed our department to issue P-cards and monitor the financial activity of hundreds of Treasurers.
"Can be difficult to navigate... "
I use it to keep track of student information, check their classes, status, and judicial management. I appreciate that I can do all of that with 1 program. I also know that it can do tons more but what I use it for it is very helpful.
At times it can be difficult to navigate and not as user friendly as I would like. At times it feels outdated and feel that it could use a facelift.
I am not sure that I am solving any problems but I do think that there are plenty of benefits. It is a great way for my colleagues and I to share information and keep up with students on one program. For judicial management, we can keep track of student files easier. When it comes to the financial piece and checking my own budgets, I appreciate that I can see them in one area but there are a few too many steps to get to that information.
It is so user friendly. It is easy to use and easy to navigate. I used it during my college and it is always updated. Every college needs this. The system is stable and just lovely!! Would recommend it anytime. It is super awesome !
Few glitches here and there. I feel it should log you out directly. It says you are still logged in even though you have logged out. It just doesnt make sense sometimes. Also, It was down a couple of times during this semester which was a bummer, But Its okay I guess.
"Effective way to manage student information"
I like being able to customize favorites based on which functions are most often used.
I dislike that you cannot use the back arrow in the browser.
Take the time to learn all the features. The system is capable of more than you might think.
I mostly use PeopleSoft Campus Solutions to track student enrollment, academic progress, faculty advisor assignments, and class permissions.
"Overall it has what you need"
It has everything you need in terms of operating a higher education student platform.
The design has improved but it can still take some time to get used to how to maneuver the various options.
Continue to make it user friendly.
Our campus is able to perform all HR, finance, payroll matters all in one succinct system.
"Helps me login multiple college app from one id"
The peoplesoft software helps me login all my univerity apps just with a single id and password. Thus, it is very useful and easy to use. All I need to do is create a single sign in.
The most distracting thing about people soft is , the software doesnt remember my id and pasword on mobile devices.
I would strongly recommend this software to other organizations.
I am logging in multiple accounts by using this software. The software works very smooth and never have I ever been disrupted while doing some work using this software.
It is easy to use and has a simple user interface. All of the information I need is right in front of me, and with proper training on this software it is super easy to get around and find whatever you're looking for.
I find the program to lag a lot when I use it, and wait times for running inquiries are a little longer than I would like them to be.
I'm mostly using the software to run reports, input payroll and manage my own account. It is a great multi-faceted tool that I use daily at work.
"A decent system, but I prefer BANNER. "
It works great for quick searches and helping you find records the first time. It's great for locating duplicate records and for showing historical changes to records.
The interface seems quite dated in both display and features. It would be nice it default fields were easier to update. The reporting capabilities are just got as good as the Banner system.
Test both Peoplesoft and Banner before deciding.
While I am finding it helpful for day-to-day operations, I wish reporting capabilities were enhanced.
I like that it's a place for employees to have a more direct interaction with a seemingly invisible HR.
Everything else. It's not user friendly and it doesn't work half the time.
don't. There are some wonderful programs out there like stack and that hashtag one that have a better of idea of how people communicate and use their time effectively that will better organize company employees.
I tend to troubleshoot users and help them navigate the website.
"Needs more degree audit features."
Peoplesoft is relatively easy to use. The titles of each category makes it simple to find exactly what you are looking for.
There are two formats I use frequently; the advisor view and the student view. It would be extremely beneficial to have these combined into one user.
I use Peoplesoft to determine where students are in their degrees and how many classes they have until graduation.
Campus Solutions manages a great deal of information for a great deal of users, on a large scale. theres a lot going on, and its able to be customized to me the needs of our organization.
The high level of customization is a double edged sward. Sometimes we build too many complex and competing processes into the system, and it makes things faulty or not as user friendly.
"Great tool to help students navigate class schedule"
Academic requirements allow students to see everything that they need to satisfy for graduation.
I wish there was an instant tool that would allow them to see how their schedules would change if they changed their major.
Make sure you host tutorials for students as they learn to use the program. The scheduler isn't that great for students to actually use. Doesn't sync with our data.
I am helping students plan their courses as I am an academic advisor.
"Great Software for Higher Education Institutions"
I enjoy using PeopleSoft to add and track important student data, all in one software.
I think it is often hard for first time users to get the hang of it, but it is for sure useful once you understand how to navigate through various tabs. This of course may be different based on the higher education institution you work for.
Make sure to do a tutorial or ask a colleague who is an expert at it to help you understand how to navigate the software properly and efficiently.
Organize and review data without any given problem. Add notes to student cases and forward these to other departments.
"Great for bill paying and payroll"
Nothing at all. It's been a great program and is easy to use.
One program for all of our financial needs.
A hub where employees can view personal information and pay period information.
The software is usually easy to navigate for first time users and very fast. Mobile friendly as well. For students it is also very accessible to see their financial activity.
Sometimes there is a glitch in the system that doesn't allow it to login properly.
Easy access to financial activity on my account.
It has tools and queries that make it easy to pull reports and manage information. It also has functionality that allows for mass application of tools/functions.
Currently, I do not have any dislikes of this software. It does what is needed and provides us with tools necessary to do our work.
We are managing student information and registration. We are able to register multiple students at one time instead of individually.
"Practical with a few impractical qualities"
PeopleSoft allows me to interact with student data in a variety of ways- I can pull queries, I can find student profiles and access their student centers (i.e. view what the student sees).
The log out function after 20 minutes (might be specific to my institution) because PeopleSoft remembers that I was logged off and I have to delete my cache.
Make sure that you can have integration with your other systems- PeopleSoft works with SUNAPSIS and with payments from Wells Fargo.
Current student data storage. It is connected to their student portal so students can update their information and it will show in PeopleSoft for me.
"PeopleSoft, my point of view (Not, this review does not reflect the views of my employers)"
It is a great system for managing loads of data.
It is often slow, buggy, and outdated. The UI for the management system has tons of bugs and unfriendly element.
Make sure that you have the right staff to maintain the product.
Campus solutions allows users to navigate with ease and customize system to meet business needs appropriately.
I dislike that the new GUI interface for CS 9.2 does not allow me to default to the Classic View. Now requires a quick, but annoying navigation after each login.
Campus allows our institution to enroll and track enrollment of our students; it is our Student Information System (SIS).
PeopleSoft is easy to navigate, which is very important in a University setting. In some departments, high turnover rates are prevalent, so new employees are constantly having to be trained. PeopleSoft is easy to learn, which makes training of new hires painless and fast.
PeopleSoft could be updated and given a more modern look and feel.
The University I work for needs a software that simplifies processing employee actions and financials. PeopleSoft benefits both the University and the employees by making this possible with little stress involved.
I like some of the features on the degree audit like showing when a course was taken.
EVERYTHING. This is a horribly counter intuitive system that requires 10 minutes for something that used to take us 1 minute. So many clicks and so many screens. We need a centralized system with everything in one place. Not to mention all of the issues we are encountering with completely incorrect degree audits.
We needed a new student admin system. There are 0 benefits to this system.
Oracle Peoplesoft reduces the work for our global transactions. It has cut down the amount of effort to process university transactions by a great deal.
From what I've seen, the sky is the limit when it comes to PeopleSoft - but you have to understand the program to the 9th to use it to its full capabilities.
Unless you're well versed in the computer science and data behind a CRM, it can sometimes be difficult to navigate. It all depends on how YOUR version of PeopleSoft was set up.
PeopleSoft was used to look up student records for my marketing campaigns. I no longer have direct access, but work with a data expert in our office to get the reporting that I need.
"Peoplesoft is an extremely robust, customizable tool that is essential to our success."
The customization of queries per end user, and the integrations we have set up with all of our other products and services have helped tremendously in streamlining our admission process.
The user interface took a little while to get used to, but overall there are no legitimate complaints about the product.
We have streamlined our application process, our admission procedures and our decision making process, and realized how flexible the product can be to meed out integration needs with a wide variety of data sources.
Please note that mainly use Hobsons Connect CRM as a tool for our prospect/inquiry marketing while we use Peoplesoft as our Student Information System for applicants and enrolls. My time and experience with the product is limited compared to other marketing solutions.
Learning about PeopleSoft Campus Solutions?
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Hi, my goffins too has sone funny feathers on the back of her neck. They are like hard and stiff and look a little greasy. She has plucked in the past and wears a soft collar. Shes pretty clear right now but if i take off the collar she goes to town. Could this be diet? She has had every test under the sun. She eats fresh foods. Will she ever be able to go without the collar?
Well sadly it becomes such a habit that many can never break it. Birds are very hard wired and sometimes once they learn a habit, they just dont give up. Since you have had all the testing done, and nothing came back with issues,it could possibly be she might be allergic to something. Feather mutilation and plucking can be brought on by stress and stress can be caused from a multitude of things. It can be caused from being exposed to perfumes, candles, smoke, cleaning products etc, or it can be stress from lack of attention, too much time in their cage, fear of something…maybe too close to a window and they see something outside that frightened them. The possibilities are almost endless as to what the stress can be caused from. It could also be a food allergy as well. Once all medical issues have been ruled out, it is still going to be difficult to find a solid answer. Living in captivity is just harder on some than others. Most who care for birds with this issue, find that it comes and goes throughout their lives and we just try hard to do all we can to make their lives as comfortable as possible. We do all we can to try and help, and then just love them and understand they shouldnt have ever been made into pets.


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mannypacquiao
Danny Garcia & The Puerto Rican Market
By Rudy Mondragon
On March 15, 2014, Danny Garcia (27-0, 16 KOs) will take on Mauricio Herrera (20-3, 7 KOs) in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. This is a good fight for Danny Garcia for many reasons. He needs a tune up fight, which this will be. He is coming off a tough fight last Fall against Lucas Matthysse, so he needs to face someone who does not pack much of a punch. But the most important reason this is a good fight is that it is in Garcia's country of heritage, Puerto Rico.
What does history tell us? Romanticizing is something that is done in sports and is used in order to capitalize on individual athletes or sports team. In other words, idealized stories are created to cast shadows over bottom line agendas. When Fernando Valenzuela came to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the fans were told that he was the next big thing. And he was, but what gets less attention is that Fernando was the Dodgers ticket to regaining Latina/o fans. Prior to Fernandomania, Latina/o fans boycotted the Dodgers because many Latina/os were displaced from their homes in order to build Dodger Stadium over Chavez Ravine. Jackie Robinson is an amazing story about an athlete of color breaking into an all white sport. The bottom line for the Dodgers, however, was not trying to be racial justice fighters, they wanted to win a championship. This fight between Garcia and Herrera is no different. There is a goal in mind.
Danny Garcia will be fighting in Puerto Rico for the first time in his career. Why is he not fighting in his hometown of Philadelphia? Why is he not fighting in Los Angeles or Las Vegas? There is an intentionality that Golden Boy Promotions in exercising. Fighting in Puerto Rico means tapping into the boxing fan base that currently exists there. Danny has fans in the United States, but the goal of this fight is to get buy-in from the fans who live in the US unincorporated territory that is Puerto Rico.
Tito Trinidad had fans on both sides. The fans knew him and loved him. Same with Julio Cesar Chavez, Hector "Macho" Camacho, Manny Pacquiao, and many others. Fighters like Oscar De La Hoya, and in this case Danny Garcia, who are US born and bred have a hard time gaining acceptance from the fans of their country of heritage.
This fight represents an opportunity for Golden Boy Promotions and Danny Garcia to tap into a new market. This will afford them more Puerto Rican-based fans and, looking into the future, more pay-per-view sales when Danny Garcia becomes a PPV level fighter.
So in the name of Boxing and Money, tonights fight represents an opportunity to capitalize on Danny Garcia and make financial killings in the future. It does not mean that tonight won't be exciting though. Tune in tonight and also watch Daniel Ponce De Leon take on Juan Manuel Lopez.
What are your thoughts BMB Fam?
This entry was posted in The Game and tagged #BloodMoneyBoxing, #bmb, #boxing, #Camacho, #dodgers, #Fernandomania, #GarciaHerrera, #JackieRobinson, #JuanMa, #juliocesarchavez, #oscardelahoya, #poncedeleon, #rudymondragon, mannypacquiao. Bookmark the permalink.
VIDEO: Strength & Conditioning Changes in Pacquiao Camp
March 14, 2014 — Leave a comment
In a recent trip to Freddie Roach's Wild Card Gym, I was pleasantly surprised to learn of some team changes. As I was talking to some of Manny Paquiao's fans from Texas, strength and conditioning coach Cecilo Flores walked right by me. I was naturally shocked! This is the man who had been working with Robert Garcia in Oxnard, California. Shocked because I saw him in my last two trips to Garcia's gym. Is he now working for the rival gym? He sure is.
It all made sense when Cecilio broke it down. The arrival of Alex Ariza in Robert Garcia's gym meant two strength and conditioning coaches under the same roof. It was time for Cecilio to look for a new challenge and move on. Alex Ariza is the former strength and conditioning coach for Freddie Roach and some of his fighters, including Manny Pacquiao. In a funny way, it was like the gyms traded each other's strength and conditioning coaches. I'm sure it's more complex than that as context is every bit important in a situation like this.
Good for Cecilio. He is a stand up guy and a professional. He had nothing but great things to say about Robert Garcia, Garcia's Boxing Academy, Alex Ariza, and the boxers in that stable. He looked happy, excited, and motivated to work with Freddie Roach and Manny. Blood Money Boxing wishes Cecilio Flores the best of luck in preparing Manny Pacquiao for his upcoming fight and in Cecilio's future training endeavors. He even gave Blood Money Boxing a quick shout out, check it out here:
This entry was posted in The Game and tagged #bmb, #cecilioflores, #FreddieRoach, #rudymondragon, #WildCardGym, mannypacquiao. Bookmark the permalink.
Manny (2014) Official Documentary Trailer
February 4, 2014 — Video — Leave a comment
Shout out to Pound 4 Pound DVD (you can find them on Facebook) for sharing the youtube link to the trailer for "Manny." "Manny" is soon to be released at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival. The synopsis describes this documentary as the story of Manny Pacquiao and his journey from poverty to capitalistic riches, becoming 8 time boxing world champion, his political career, and his international icon status.
Many notable figures appear in the trailer, including his current trainer Freddie Roach, long-time fan Mark Wahlberg, and former strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, to name a few.
The documentary is narrated by Liam Neeson.
This entry was posted in The Game and tagged #BloodMoneyBoxing, #boxing, #Manny, #rudymondragon, mannypacquiao. Bookmark the permalink.
Floyd scared? Manny Says "Kinda"
January 10, 2014 — Video — Leave a comment
Credit goes to the Ring Magazine article (http://ringtv.craveonline.com), but this is a crazy compilation on basically what would make ALL of my 2014 be the best of all years, a fight between Manny and Floyd. We'll see, but overall, after this video, and if Floyd NEVER fights Manny, I would still tell my kids that Manny was the people's champ, period.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged #boxing, floydmayweather, mannypacquiao, superfights. Bookmark the permalink.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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By this point I think most of my readers know I love a good bargain. I don't pay full price for anything (I can count two items in the last few years I paid retail), and I always love me a good deal. This jumpsuit from would have been insanely affordable as is, but snagging it at over 50%? Yes please! It's perfect for those summer nights where you want something other than a sundress, but don't want to overheat. It also doubled perfectly as lounge wear when I got home and parked it on the couch to watch movies with Scot!
Shout out to Amanda Matthews Photography for the wonderful photos!


More of the world's in-ear headphones would be perfect if only they had better eartips. That's the little rubber or foam bits that go in your ear and, if they're a good set, keep them there even if you run or jump around. A good set of eartips will also keep outside sounds at bay and stop music from leaking out from your 'phones. Plenty of decent earbuds come with so-so tips. And, if your set is a few years older, you might have lost the tips or they simply fell apart.
Whatever the case, you need some new eartips. Comply makes a slew of foam eartip replacements, but do they work? We decided to test them on a set of headphones that didn't come with satisfactory tips: the Heartbeats by Lady Gaga. In my hands-on with these earbuds I noted that the sound quality is good – though bass-heavy – but only when the buds stayed firmly in my ear canals. This didn't happen often for whatever reason. So I tried them out with Comply's T-400 and Tx-400 Foam Tips.
I should mention first that Comply makes tips that fit on headphones from several different companies, including Monster, Skull Candy, Philips, and dozens more. The tips are designed to fit specific models from each company, so be sure you choose the correct headphone model before ordering.
The Comply tips come in packages of three or five that doubles as a resealable carrying case. The foam itself is very slightly tacky/sticky and molds to the shape of your ear canal. Once I picked the right size, I had to work at inserting them.
Here's a tip: clean your ears well before you try this. That slight tackiness doesn't play well with ear wax. Clean ears took much less effort, and I got them in pretty deep even with the awkward shape of the Heartbeats.
Once in, the Comply tips didn't move or feel like they would pop out. I danced around to some Adam Lambert and probably frightened everyone at the LAPTOP offices that day, but there was not a hint of slippage.
I also tried the tips on the Diddybeats headphones and the result was the same. My wary co-workers reported that they couldn't hear what I was listening to – which is probably why they were so alarmed by my behavior – and with the volume set to medium decibel levels, I couldn't hear them, either.
Since both of these models boast excellent audio quality to begin with, the Comply tips didn't do much to enhance it, but also didn't hinder the excellent sound. The company claims that users will be able to hear better at a lower volume with their tips and get a bass boost.
The cost of Comply Foam Tips differs depending on the style, but you can usually get a pack of 3 starting at $9.99. The most expensive set is $19.99. The company suggests replacing the tips every three months for "optimal performance".
If you're in the market for replacement eartips or just want to enhance the sound of an inexpensive pair, head over to ComplyFoam.com and see if your headphones are supported. They're worth it.


You bring up a lot of points NS, what actually is the "capacitance" of a battery? I don't know I would guess pretty big. Is Maxwell's silver hammer a yo yo trick applied to a battery or some strange manifestation of gyroscopic precession? Who knows?
Unless anyone really wants to continue I'll wrap this thread up. Nothing OU seen here. It can be demonstrated with a multimeter and five dollars of batteries and capacitors that discharging a capacitor into another obeys the theory of conservation of charge not the theory of conservation of energy. It has some utility, for instance one can now predict given two caps of known capacitance and known starting voltages of each what the idealized energy transfer efficiency will be between the two. So you can get an idealized 99.9% efficient transfer with a variety of set-ups if you plug in the parameters. 99.9 is of course less than 100.1.
Guys sorry to chime in here again but question posse here are just irresistible ...a Battery has an Inverted Dielectric and plate (Capacitor plate)material,so with that in view, one need to consider the Inductance of a Battery rather than its Capacitance.. but that poses Engineering difficulties since you Symmetrically gauge that parameter(Current to Current in a battery) so you do the next best thing by considering its Impedance with Inverted Magnitude (milli ohms) John Bedini has been telling us this ever since his class/teachings on the Battery impedance lowering trick as a guiding pointer and that is where the Over unity aspect of it is seen..be it on continuous basis or in Pulsed format...for Workable torque application in an external loads. Gray motor is nothing more than this..so here is all the answer you are looking for.. unfortunately for me, some get offended with my views and slander me with all suitable insults, but perhaps that is okay to be so..after all truth prevails despite of harsh beatings.. but some day the light glows in every body's mind and least remember me for being dead right all along !!!
Last edited by Faraday88; 06-18-2016 at 01:31 AM.
"workable torque" I like that. That's what I'm working on now. A large capacitor can take time to charge up similar to a battery but is still faster. Charge density becomes a time factor, you can head towards a tank circuit or more like battery charging. By changing my rotor to only two magnets and making it large enough to be a flywheel I believe I can get just as much torque, if not more, as I do matching the number of magnets to the number of coils. So by using a separate power source for each coil pair, I can take advantage of the time factor. Establish a equilibrium of charge and discharge among all, there may be ou in the discharge but I want to use it for an equilibrium. Electrically, it would be the same as two energizers with opposite timings, but I have five.
Go ahead and show us what exactly you have in your mind...more often than not a Demonstration is worth a million words!! as for me i'm developing the skill to interpret this Wonderful Science and Tom Bearden's writings are indispensable guiding foundation for the same!! but that does not limit me to be a Theoretical Philosopher..since Tesla himself said that an Experiment can defy an Theory!!
motorotor.jpg Technically it's 20 coils. My goofy conical coils.
the combined out put of these coils are additive and will charge a battery a lot better and faster..the challenge is: figure out the other two geometries of the coils!!
untitled.jpg There are 3 poles on the coil. Just facing a single pole of a magnet towards a coil doesn't mean only that pole is the only one involved. The magnetic potential, and the electric potential work the same way. Takes two for there to be motion, one high, one low. I can have attraction on the ends and repulsion in the middle or attraction in the middle and repulsion on the ends. It doesn't just push the magnet away or pull it in, it's more angular I guess you could say. It's only confusing if you haven't tried it. Unbalance costs, but balance is free.
Last edited by Notsure; 06-21-2016 at 06:19 AM.
Looks to me like the bridge rectifiers are a dead short across each battery.


So Thursday morning did not go as well as I had hoped for the marathon training. I overslept, by a lot. I wanted to wake up at 7:30 a.m. but instead woke up at 10:30 a.m. So then I laid in bed, wondering if I should skip today because I am a graduate student and I already have assigned reading to finish today. But then I told myself that if I really wanted to do this marathon thing, then I needed to go run. As it turns out the run went better than Monday.
Monday and Thursday I ran approximately 1.4 miles. I am trying to get back into the habit of running before I start running longer and faster distances. Anyway, before the run today I had pancakes. I made them myself (see photo above). They were thicker than normal pancakes and not shaped perfectly round… but they tasted fine. Most importantly, when I finished running today I did not feel any nausea like I did Monday. So that means pancakes will be a big part of my running diet.
Friday I will head to the gym for some basic exercises, and I will slowly work in a program to help with the marathon training. Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I rested, and Saturday and Sunday I will rest. Rest is one of the most important parts of marathon training.
By the end of this year I hope to be running 8 miles twice a week, and I think that is realistic. The longest I have run in one attempt is a little over 16 miles without stopping to walk. But that was five years ago.


text:
Экобио́ника- (от  — «дом+элемент жизни») — прикладная наука, представляющая собой один из разделов бионики
и основанная на концепции техники как части развивающейся биосферы.

В экобионике технологическое развитие человечества трактуется как необходимое условие перехода глобальных биосоциальных и социотехнических структур в ноосферные структуры. Такой переход предполагает разработку технических систем с возможностью изначального их встраивания в биосферные процессы. Исследования в этом направлении основаны на изучении фундаментальных процессов, свойственных живым системам. Прежде всего — это процессы самоорганизации и возникновения структурной информации. Такого рода исследования сконцентрировались вокруг теории нелинейных динамических систем, которая получила общее название — синергетика. По-видимому, наиболее перспективное направление дальнейшего развития техники связано с его «биологизацией». В связи с этим открываются широкие возможности как в плане разработки новых технических концепций, так и в решении глобальных проблем взаимодействия техники и биосферы.

Основные направления экобионики
Основная концепция экобионики — это создание технических систем базирующихся на фундаментальных принципах развития биологических систем. При этом предполагается не точное копирование биосистем, а использование более глубоких механизмов, лежащих в основе процессов самоорганизации биосистем различного уровня (от молекулярного до биосферного) для реализации технических решений. Прежде всего исследования касаются создания искусственных систем, лежащих в основе теории техногенеза. В связи с этим предполагается проведение исследований в двух основных направлениях, между собой тесно связанных:
 Разработка технических систем большого масштаба (предприятий, промышленных комплексов, региональных технических комплексов, техносферы в целом) в связи с их взаимодействием с биосферой,
 Создание технических систем, включая наноуровень., в основе которых лежат биологические принципы организации живой материи.

Особенности экобионики и история развития
Экобионика отличается от традиционных исследований в области бионики направленностью исследований и воссозданием эмерджентных свойств коллектива взаимодействующих технических и биологических систем. Бионика, возникшая в начале 60-х годов XX века, своим девизом избрала принцип «живые прототипы — ключ к новой технике». Казалось, достаточно использовать многие идеи и конструктивные решения, заложенные в живых системах, и можно будет создавать принципиально новые технические конструкции. Однако метод простой аналогии без разработки глубокой теоретической основы, лежащей за рамками чисто технической проблематики, не мог привести к существенным результатам. Со временем энтузиазм, связанный с традиционным бионическим подходом, постепенно стал угасать. Однако исследования в области робототехники, искусственного интеллекта, информационных технологий, теории технических систем возродили на новом уровне интерес к биоподобным техническим системам. Более того, стало очевидным, что закономерности развития современных технических систем близки к закономерностям развития биосистем. Появились такие понятия, как техноценозы, биотехноценозы, социотехноценозы и тому подобное. С другой стороны, исследования в области биологии (от молекулярной биологии до теории биосферы) дали очень много для разработки новых идей в области техники.
Другим весьма важным импульсом разработки концепции экобионики послужила опасность грядущего экологического кризиса. Одна из наиболее важных задач экобионики — разработка технических систем органически встраиваемых в биосферные (экологические) процессы. При этом предполагается разработка таких технологических процессов, которые не выводили бы из равновесия всю структуру сложных взаимосвязанных экологических процессов. Само понятие «экобионика» сформировалось в начале 90-х годов XX века. Авторами термина «Экобионика», в том смысле, который вкладывается в этот термин в данной статье, были Каганов Ю. Т. и Щелкановцев С. В. Большую роль в становлении экобионики сыграли работы Кудрина Б. И. и его последователей в разработке нового направления — технетика. В дальнейшем существенный вклад в развитие экобионики внесли работы Редько В. Г. по эволюционной кибернетике, а также работы Анохина К. В. в области исследования мозга и нейрокибернетики. В 1996 году в МГТУ им. Н. Э. Баумана был организован постоянно действующий семинар «Экобионика», где обсуждались проблемы техногенеза и его связи с экологическими проблемами, перспективы развития робототехники и искусственного интеллекта, разработки в области многоагентных систем и «искусственной жизни», искусственных неронных сетей, генетических и эволюционных алгоритмов, нечетких систем управления и принятия решений. Семинар «Экобионика» продолжает работать и в настоящее время.

Уровни разработки экобионических систем
Можно выделить 5 уровней разработки экобионических систем:
 биологический, связанный с созданием адаптационных механизмов и их поддержкой при взаимодействии человека и биологической инфраструктуры биосферы (например, создание иерархии биосферных заповедников, изолированных от техногенных источников воздействия на среду);
 биотехноценозный — создание экологически замкнутых биосферных структур, обладающих автономностью и определенными целевыми установками; каждый техноценоз должен быть хорошо согласован с деятельностью биогеоценоза в рамках которого он создается;
 техногенный — разработка технических систем, создаваемых на принципах самоорганизации; такие системы должны иметь определенные свойства живых систем, а их «жизнедеятельность» должна органично включаться в биосферные процессы;
 биосоциальный — разработка и согласование технических и социально-технических структур в единые экобиосоциальные комплексы;
 психологический — разработка теории деятельности технических систем с учётом взаимодействия коллективов людей и экобионических систем; в перспективе создание новой информационной техники повлечет за собой и создание психологических теорий, связанных с исследованием и реализацией систем искусственного интеллекта и искусственного разума.

Проблема создания экобионических систем тесно связана с проблемой взаимодействия (интерфейса) человек—машина. Эта проблема имеет много аспектов, из которых наиболее важные социальный, психологический и эргономический аспекты. Колоссальный скачок в развитии информационной техники и средств связи, а также систем управления, привел к принципиально новому взгляду на технические системы и их взаимоотношения с человеком. Технические системы приобретают характер социотехноценозов. Уже нельзя рассматривать создание технических систем вне контекста социальных и психологических проблем. Это особенно актуально в связи с катастрофической информационной активностью в семиосфере. При этом компьютерная техника играет двоякую роль, являясь и причиной, и средством укрощения информационного взрыва. Эта ситуация требует тщательного исследования социальных и психологических аспектов взаимодействия человека и информационных систем.

Особо отметим несколько направлений экобионических моделей, связанных с проблемами психологии.
 «Искусственная жизнь» — это направление, возникшее в середине 80-х годов XX века, бурно развивается, используя идеи, которые сформировались в начале 60-х годов XX века в рамках теории клеточных автоматов. Большую роль в этом направлении сыграли работы в области синергетики и теории эволюционных алгоритмов.
 «Нейроинтеллект» — направление, тесно примыкающее к предыдущему направлению и связанное с исследованиями по созданию нейроподобных вычислительных систем, обладающих способностью к самообучению и формированию совместно с человеком решений в сложных ситуациях.
 «Глобальный мозг» — направление, связанное с исследованием коллективного интеллекта человечества, объединенного с помощью информационных и сетевых (Internet) технологий в единую интеллектуальную систему.

См. также
 Бионика
 Экология
 Искусственный интеллект

Примечания

Биотехнология

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Learn the Hindi Language and Develop Your Career Today
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My husband works for a large, international corporation that offers tech support 24/7 for his computer. Beginning last Friday when his laptop began giving him fits, he contacted tech support for help. In the span of 2-1/2 days, and a dozen calls, his laptop is still not functioning correctly.
Hubby is required to use the IT services provided by his company because it is their laptop, not his personal one. He had no choice but to continue beating his head against Sheba's brick wall. But we as patients do not have to accept rude and inadequate service from physicians. If you find that you cannot communicate effectively with your doctor, then find another doctor.
Among all the education and training doctors receive, there is too often a lack of teaching communications skills. If we think about it, doctors should be the consummate customer service professionals. This is way too often not the case at all. I do not understand why medical schools don't take communications more seriously…. what profession should be able to effectively communicate to its customers/patients more than doctors?
Knowing doctors may not be good communicators, we need to do exactly as hubby did — stop their interruptions and insist on being heard. Unfortunately what Hubby learned was that this particular person has no capability of listening OR fixing his computer. That will be dealt with separately, I'm sure…. but as patients we do have options. We have the option of insisting on being heard — and we have the option of finding another doctor when we think we have not been heard.
To be clear on one distinction — we're not talking about "nice," we are talking about effective. Sheba could have been nasty, but still fixed Hubby's laptop. Instead she was nasty, and incapable of fixing the laptop. As patients, we don't need a "nice" doctor — we need one we can work with to improve our health… there's a difference between being a good communicator, and being nice.
We patients need to remember that we have no reason to be victims — not victims of bad medicine or bad communication. And that's the bottom line.


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Portfolios of the poor
Jonathan Morduch interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 18 December 2009
Jonathan Morduch of New York University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his new book, Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day – co-authored with Daryl Collins, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven – which reports on the yearlong 'financial diaries' of villagers and slum dwellers in Bangladesh, India, and South Africa. The interview was recorded in New York in August 2009.
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Microfinance and commitment contracts
Dean Karlan

Romesh Vaitilingam interviews Jonathan Morduch for Vox

August 2009

Transcription of an VoxEU audio interview [http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4419]

Romesh Vaitilingam: Welcome to VoxTalks, a series of audio interviews with leading economists from around the world. My name is Romesh Vaitilingam, and today's interview is with Jonathan Morduch, who is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at New York University.

We're meeting in August 2009, on a sweltering hot day in New York City, and we're going to talk about Jonathan's book co-authored with Daryl Collins, Stuart Rutherford and Orlando Ruthven. And the book is called Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day.

Jonathan, perhaps we can start off talking about the stories at the heart of the book, because it very much feels that that is what drives the whole thing, talking about the lives of poor people in Bangladesh and India and South Africa, and how they go about managing their money. Give us an introduction to how you went about gathering that material, that information, and why you did it.

Jonathan Morduch: The book came about through conversations with Stuart Rutherford and David Hume at Manchester about how to really capture what it is that poor households do to get by, to get through life. It was sense that we spend a lot of money and energy collecting large datasets, which are extremely useful, but which usually capture just a snapshot of a poor household's life and allow us to count the number of poor people in the world.

And we come up with these staggeringly large numbers. Two and a half billion people around the world living on under two dollars a day or about a billion living on under one dollar a day. But as economists, sociologists, political scientists, there's a lot of concern about doing something about the poor people of the world. But when it comes to it, there's very little sense of what poor people really are doing in their lives and how one might help them do what they're trying to do better.

And so what the studies really are about are just living with poor households, learning from them, visiting them every two weeks. There were two types of sites in each country, one rural, one urban, and collecting what came to be called financial diaries. It's a bit of misnomer, because no one was actually collecting or filling out diaries. Instead, the enumerators and survey collectors came along and filled in the diary information.

But the word diary does capture a kind of intimacy. The information that was being collected was on everything the households were doing, their expenses, their financial transactions. And not just things which were obvious, like a transaction with a bank, because many of the households we came to know had nothing to do with banks, but instead lending your best friend a few dollars or being a bit late on paying your rent or borrowing a little bit from the shopkeeper.

We really wanted a rich sense of households' financial lives, something that was completely absent from most of the surveys that we've been using and most of the economic profession has been using for years.

Romesh: So this does seem to feel like a different approach to economics. We have very much in the profession focused on large datasets and to go and do this kind of almost qualitative work, even with fairly substantial groups of people, is unusual. And you're saying it's only through this kind of mechanism that you can get into these peoples' financial lives and get a real understanding of them.

Jonathan: I think there are lots of different ways of kind of opening up one's mind and sort of going back to basics, and this is one particular way. I think one of the ways that I think about the power of this approach is to think of it as part of a theory generation process, rather than a theory testing process. If you want to test a theory, you really need big datasets, statistical significance, strong statistical power.

But if you really want to think about how pieces connect, how puzzles get solved by households, how they make choices, it seems like a very logical thing to do, but something we don't do enough of is just spend a lot of time with people, talking to them, asking them what they're thinking, but more importantly, really seeing what they do on a day-by-day basis.

Romesh: So one of the ideas you use as a fundamental of the book is this idea that poor people face something which you call the triple whammy. Can you explain what that idea is exactly?

Jonathan: The triple whammy is a really simple concept. Conversations about global poverty focus on the first part of what we call the triple whammy which is low incomes. There are two-and-a-half billion people living on under a dollar a day. But what we saw in peoples' lives, day-to-day and week-to-week was that that low average was only one part of the challenge. And the second leg was ups and downs, a lot of vulnerability.

So incomes would go up and down, and expenses would often kind of pop out unexpectedly, and households had to deal with them. Health crises are really a good example. And so the first part is low incomes, the second part is vulnerability, and the third is a lack of financial tools. So a different kind of poverty, maybe an institutional poverty.

And that lack of financial tools is really a key for us, because the financial tools are the tools that we in rich countries use to deal with ups and downs and also to invest. If you don't have the tools it's very hard to deal with the other two problems. But also the tools are potentially from a policy perspective one solution that can help these households do much better.

So even if you can't create new jobs and raise incomes immediately, one can think about creating better financial tools that allow households to do more with what they have, to address their vulnerability and to do better that way.

Romesh: Jonathan, what do you see as the most surprising findings that are coming out of this research?

Jonathan: I think the most fundamental, the biggest surprise, was how active peoples' financial lives are. Before we started this research, people would say, "How are you studying the financial lives of the poor? This is going to be the thinnest book ever." But in fact what we found was the opposite, that when you start to pay attention to peoples' transactions, there were a lot of small transactions which were happening constantly.

Give you an example. Stuart Rutherford met a household run by a man name Hamad and his wife Kadija. Hamad's a reserve rickshaw driver, so he's the backup driver. His wife takes in a little bit of sewing. They have a son, and she looks after the son. They live in one of the poorest slums in Dhaka, the capital of one of the poorest countries on the planet.

They are very actively maintaining a financial life though, despite the fact that their income is roughly two dollars a day on average. But that's just an average. It goes up and down, because sometimes Hamad doesn't get any jobs and you might get a lot on one day and very little for a week. So between them they have a microfinance savings account, microfinance loan. They actually had a life insurance product for a while.

So they're engaged in the formal sector or semiformal sector to some degree. But in addition to that, they're lending a little bit of money out to neighbors. They are asking neighbors to hold money for them, using a device we call a money guard. They're borrowing from a shopkeeper. They've got some rent arrears. They're sending remittances back to their village.

We saw 13 different activities that Hammed [sp] and Kotija [sp] were juggling. This really poor household, semi-literate, they're not writing any of this down, and we asked, "How do you keep track of all this? This is pretty complicated." You know, most of us just have an ATM and a single bank account. And they said, "This is really what keeps us up at night. This is what we're very focused on, and we keep it all in our heads." And that was a very common response as the researchers talked to the households.

Romesh: So is there in some way we might say that these poor people in the bottom billion are in some way more sophisticated in their financial understanding than perhaps many people in the West who don't need to worry so much about their day-to-day finances and they don't need to carry in their heads all their different insurance policies and their savings and their pension plans?

Jonathan: I wouldn't say that they're more sophisticated, but I would say that we met households who are as sophisticated as much richer households because they have to. Because when you mess up, when you fall down, the consequences can be very dire. And that really sharpens focus.

But we also saw lots of households that were making mistakes and doing things which were very costly and needless. And I think, like everybody, there are people who are disciplined and there are people who are not disciplined. And it didn't seem very correlated to their wealth.

Romesh: Perhaps we can talk about a couple of things that surprised me and I think will probably surprise a lot of readers not particularly acquainted with the developing world and the lives of poor people. The first one was this thing of having to pay to save.

We think if we put money in a savings account, it increases because we get interest paid [laughs] on it every month, every year, or whatever. And you talk about people having to pay to save.

Jonathan: Yeah, it's a great example of the ingenuity of a lot of these mechanisms. When you are poor and your income's bouncing up and down and you don't know what your needs are, being able to build up assets--even over a short term--is extremely valuable. Being able to do that in a safe, regular, disciplined way.

Some of the lessons from behavioral economics just show how hard it is to save. And so we found a lot of households who were, in one way or another, paying to save. And it could be as explicit as paying someone whose job is to be a deposit collector, who will come around to your house every day or every week as the situation is and will take a given amount, and at the end of a period will give you back your money.

Or it could be that you get together with a group of friends. There's a woman Daryl Collins got to know in South Africa, Numpsa. She's 77 years old. She's earning a government grant of about $120 a month, and from that grant she's saving about $40. She's looking after her grandchildren. She's got a lot of needs, and she's doing that.

But she does it by forming a group of friends. They get together. One of the clubs, the so-called "savings clubs, " involves the friends putting in nine dollars a month. By Christmas time they've accumulated $99, and then they split it out.

So in this case they're not actually paying to save, but they're not earning interest. And they're very happy to do this because having that what Stuart Rutherford calls a "usefully large sum" is an extremely valuable thing when you're living on a dollar a day.

Romesh: I want to hear more about this whole savings thing. What struck me particularly was in a way imagining myself in the position of some of these people and thinking, "What would I do?"

The thing that would worry me about it the most is kind of an insecurity issue, thinking about is the money going to be stolen from me when I take my pay home and try to keep it somewhere secure, under the mattress maybe?

But then if I think about lending it to somebody, about the security about getting it back--even when the fee [laughs] is taken off. That whole area of security seems really, really painful. And it's like how can financial products evolve to give people that feeling of trust?

Jonathan: Yeah, it's huge and it's difficult. Some of the most tragic cases we saw, specifically in South Africa, were situations where a savings club had formed and someone stole the money. Just stole it because it's there under the mattress--literally sometimes under the mattress. In Bangladesh we often see people hiding money at home, which might be a little bit more secure, or putting it on their bodies.

But unreliability is perhaps the foremost problem in the informal sector. Some people have been romanticizing the informal sector and the ingenuity of some of these products. We see that, too. But at the end of the day, even though there are a lot of very clever things people do together, there is a lot of risk involved. And that's where we start to think about policy implications and scope for innovation.

If a formal sector bank, which brings that kind of reliability, can learn from some of the key features of what poor households themselves are doing--for example, like creating structures where people deposit in a fixed amount every week or every month--that has a potential for being a product that households can use, that it's potentially viable commercially. And it can make a big difference in people's lives.

Romesh: Let's talk a bit more about this policy implication. How much of the new emergence of microfinance is sort of emerging bottom up, if you like, coming out of the idea that people are making at village level, community level? And how much is top down, coming from banks in the formal sector or governments proposing solutions and new financial products for the poor?

Jonathan: Yeah, it's an interesting mix, and I really came up from the bottom in many ways. But of course to make something big and global you need to have players that are big and global. So increasingly, it's come from the top down more recently.

But in the end where the user experience is--where the customers are--the products are going to work or they're not. People are going to take them up or not, and you can't have a bad product and build a revolution out of it. So I think microfinance is a great example of a powerful set of fairly decentralized innovations. There are some very different things going on in Latin America or Eastern Europe than going on in South Asia.

But one of the things that the book does is to show that there's a risk of getting boxed in by a very powerful story--a narrative around microfinance. Specifically the idea that the most desired financial product that poor households want is a loan to run a small business.

That's the story we associate with Muhammad Yunus. He's told that story to audiences around the world a million times, and it's very powerful. And it's compelling to us in the West who are looking for new innovations to help poor households.

But we did something interesting, or Stuart Rutherford did something interesting, which was to go out and do another set of financial diaries in Bangladesh, a second set, with a group of Grameen Bank borrowers. And he found that about half of the money that was being lent out in this admittedly small sample was being lent out for consumption purposes.

And if you counted in terms of households, more than half the households were using their loans for consumption purposes mostly. And it helped us see that while the rhetoric looks one way, in fact reality can look very different.

This wasn't people, I don't know, buying fancy goods or squandering it on alcohol or tobacco. Mostly it was people paying for school fees, people dealing with health problems, people trying to put food on the table, people doing sensible things with the money and thinking hard about what the best purpose was.

And I really think that's one of the most valuable things about portfolios of the poor in this book. We're trying to give a sense of what poor households themselves are doing, what they're putting at the center of their lives, how they're thinking about their economic conditions and putting that up against the rhetoric that's coming from on high.

Romesh: Yes, because I guess the discussion is often about the poor having stuff done to them. [laughs] They're the victims at the bottom of the pile, and they're the ones that are facing the incredibly high interest rates so that they might have to pay for borrowing. They're the ones that are dependent on people coming in and trying to help them. You're very much push arguing for a view in which they can take control of their lives.

Jonathan: Yeah. What we see is people doing all sorts of things because they have to. They're acting with agency. They are making good choices often, but we don't believe that at the end of the day that better financial tools are going to solve everything. Ultimately, most of the people we met want to have better jobs, and that's not going to happen through a million hundred-dollar loans.

But as part of this equation and trying to think about the needs of the world's poor, it became clear to us that some basic financial tools can make a huge difference in addressing health issues and addressing education issues and also the ups and downs of poverty.

You know, as economists we're trained to think about utility maximization rather than, say, poverty reduction. And in some way what the book is saying is let's go back to think about utility maximization because that's the way that the poor households themselves are thinking about it.

They're thinking about risk. They're thinking about insecurity. They're not thinking about some poverty line that they may or may not be above. That's some fiction that we created, this poverty line. We see people well below the poverty line who are doing a lot of saving. In many ways, that poverty line gets in the way of our really understanding the lives of poor households. We see a poverty line that's so low, we could imagine that people living underneath that line must be so poor they can only live hand-to-mouth.

But, none of the households we met were living hand-to-mouth, in a general way. Even at a dollar a day, they were putting money aside. They were intermediating in various ways. And that was a big surprise. But, it's consistent with what we see in lots of other places.

I'm not saying that there aren't people around the world who are living hand-to-mouth because they certainly are. But if you think about the great mass of people living under a dollar a day, or two dollars a day, it is not the norm to be living hand-to-mouth. And that's a really important thing to take hold of. Because certainly, the images we see in the newspaper, you know, really do suggest that when we are thinking about Africa, we're thinking about the poor parts of Asia, it's a situation of pure destitution. And I think that gets us in the way of actually seeing some very constructive ways to engage, and think about innovations, and give people better tools to do what they're currently trying to do.

Romesh: How far do you think this micro-finance movement has gone? Do you think - You say 10 years ago, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all. And yet, it's clearly there's been a lot of publicity, Nobel Prize awarded for - to Yunus and the Grameen Bank. But at the say time, you talk about just kind of the race to be the first universal service for financial products, and the race to provide that - perhaps beating the race to provide education for people, basic health care for people. Where have we got to in that race? And how close are you? Where are we making a big difference?

Jonathan: Yeah. I don't know anything about who's going to win a race or not. But, I know that micro finance is very compelling. The idea is very compelling to lots of people. And I do think that it's just going to continue to grow as it expands. And I think that expansion is going to move in the direction you're describing, which is toward thinking about providing people with general financial tools, and that's basic savings accounts, some basic insurance, and loans for general purposes, and not these kind of simple products like loans from micro enterprises.

As micro finance goes that way, the customer base gets a lot bigger. If you think about people living in cities around the world, many of them are very poor, but they don't particularly want to have a small business. Maybe a maid in a hospital, they still need financial tools. And opening things up - then just creates a much, much bigger market than you could imagine. And it reinforces these efforts, you know, to provide education and help people get better health.

These, you know, segments, like you're saying, are kind of walled-off. They're the health people. They're the education people. They're the micro finance people. But those are barriers that are really unhealthy. It's not the way that poor household, themselves, think. And, you know, the hardest thing about keeping your kid in school is that, you know, there are fees. There are events that are happening in the family that they have to address to. And, you know, they need to pull the kids out often to work. So, being able to create some stability, basic financial stability for poor households is a great complement to keeping kids in school, and with health also.

You know, health crises often are financial crises. And we see people often in the financial diaries, because we get to know them and spend so much time with them, who are putting of treatments, because they don't have the financing together. They're not buying the medicine. They're not going to the right doctors. That's - Thinking about the financial part, alongside the health part, makes a lot of sense. But, the way that we've created these silos is keeping us from doing that.

Romesh: Where did this whole research program that you've been involved in go next Jonathan. It's evolved alongside the evolution in the real world, the micro financing, the enthusiasm of the people that you talk about there. But, where do you see it going next? And, where do you see the kind of tools that you've developed going?

Jonathan: So, the research program, I think, goes in a number of different directions. One, I think that it pushes towards better theorizing, or richer theorizing. So, it compels us to go back and try to figure out how people are making cash flow decisions and how that relates to the - The new work in behavioural economics, for example, and whether this pushes beyond it. Why are people making so many small transactions so quickly? And why are they willing to pay such high prices for loans?

As you were saying, there's some really unresolved, big, theoretical questions which this work puts on the table. Research-wise, I'd love to see more work like this. And just, economist out there, who are very analytical, who have the ability to spend some time just getting to know communities, and, you know, much like ethnographers, and anthropologist, you know, then engage in the process of sense making after collecting the data.

I think it's a helpful complement. But there's no way that it replaces, really, the hard core, you know, mainstream empirical economics, which is collecting the big data sets, and testing the theories in an explicit way. I think what this work does is give us better theories to test, or alternative theories to test, and hopefully lead us to write better survey questions to really tap into what poor households lives are.

I think another thing which is very sobering here, is that we found that in Darryl Collins' work in South Africa, it took six conversations, six meetings, each two weeks apart, before she had a reasonable gauge on people's financial lives, within a six percent confidence interval. The first conversation was way off. She missed at 100 percent, really, in the big picture of what people where doing, because they just wouldn't open up about their financial lives. They didn't talk about a lot of things they were doing.

And frankly, I don't think I would either is some surveyor just came to my house one time and started asking me a battery of questions. But over time, as the researchers got to know households, and understand their choices, and that could prompt other conversations, the picture came into view. And that, irrespective of anything else going on here, the push toward better data quality and fuller data, I think is a very powerful and sobering exercise.

Romesh: Perhaps you could close just by talking a little bit about how the research program engages with policy makers or perhaps even individual decision makers. I mean, how does that have an impact on the world in terms of the kind of policy decisions that are being made in large organizations, whether in the public sector or private sector, the financial services providers and indeed, how do you feedback to the people that you've been talking to, the ground level as it were, in the countries that you're engaged in?

Jonathan: Yeah. I think there are three really important ways that this conversation is being shaped. One, we're showing the people can save. They do save. They want to save. And that is a very powerful input into a conversation which is growing to parallel with traditional micro-credit movement, but to say, let's help poor households get savings accounts. Well, a lot of people said that's a waste of time because people don't have any savings. We're showing that's not the case. And I think we're really helping, I hope, to spur that movement.

The second part is insurance. And again, we're showing that people - they're buying insurance. Kadija, described, Stewart Rutherford got to know in the slum of Dhaka. She had an insurance contract. It lapsed actually only when the agent stopped coming around. But, she was until then, making good on her contracts, and understood pretty well what the terms of that contract were.

The third bit is technology. There's great potential for mobile technologies, branchless banking, to become a force in un-banked areas. They're huge parts of the world. We estimate something over two billion adults who don't have access to formal sector banking. I think, convincing technology providers, cell phone operators, you know, from all the major players, Vodafone, AT&T, China Mobile, you know, there really is a market here and the people can seize the right tools is a powerful message. And I think the book goes some distance to show the potential for that.

Romesh: Thank you very much.

Jonathan: Thank you.

Topics: Development
Tags: development, Poverty
Related research here.
Jonathan Morduch
Professor of Public Policy and Economics at New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service