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The Journey from Bone to Silicon

4/26/2018

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People have been counting what’s around them for a very long time. 

20,000 years ago Paleolithic humans had the Ishango Bone. Today Amazon Web Services is pitching to help the Pentagon track their possessions with cloud computing worth billions. That’s quite a journey for accountability.

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The evolution of counting hardware from bone to silicon is astounding.

The Ishango bone is possibly the world’s oldest counting tool. It was found in the 1960s in the Congo, near the border of Uganda. 

And at the other extreme, we all know how the rise of cloud computing is changing our lives. Online accounting services are just a fraction of it.

But the history of accounting over those twenty millennia is more than a story of updated hardware. The greater story is how humans invented a system of tracking not just objects, but the rights to those objects.  

That is what makes the difference between simple tallying and accounting. Accounting tracks not only what objects of value you have, but also who has claims on them. 

Tallying is “What". Accounting is both "What" and "Whose." This duality of having and claiming is what gives a balance sheet its two sides.  

The next stage of the journey is solving how to take care of what we all share, like the oceans and the atmosphere.

Peter

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The Ishango bone on exhibition at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
By Ben2 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3166443


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Teaching Computer Skills Without A Computer

4/19/2018

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It’s heartbreaking to see how resource challenged some children are. That’s what I felt when I saw the pictures of a teacher drawing a computer onto a blackboard with chalk.

But then I delighted at the brilliance of Richard Appiah Akoto, a middle school teacher in rural Ghana. He is surely a master of priceless skills such as improvisation and creative thinking.

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Richard Appiah Akoto drawing a Windows computer screen on a blackboard
In a series of three photographs which became an Internet sensation, the 33 year-old Mr. Akoto is seen teaching his class how to use Microsoft Word on a blackboard, as his students copy his handiwork into their paper notebooks.

Why,  you might ask, would you bother teaching computer skills to students with no computers? The answer is, in order to advance to high school the pupils must pass an exam that includes Information and Communication Technology. 

My business partner, Mark Robilliard, has always reminded me not to get too caught up in our shiny teaching props, designed as they are by a top U.S. design agency and manufactured on high tech equipment.  

Channeling the spirit that Mr Akoto would endorse, Mark keeps me grounded when he says, “We have to be able to teach the principles of finance with a stick in a paddock.” 

Do what it takes. Keep it simple. Make it all about the learner. 

That’s what I take from those wonderful photos of the indomitable Mr Akoto.

Peter

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Closeup of Mr. Akoto drawing a Microsoft Word window on his chalkboard
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Democratizing Education

4/12/2018

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Mr. Harold O. Levy is a former chancellor of the New York City public schools.

He wrote a powerful piece in the NY Times last week saying that the gap between the numbers of rich and poor college graduates is growing.

He also wrote that he is dying of A.L.S.

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Photo by Faustin Tuyambaze on Unsplash

With his illness lending the article extra gravitas, Mr Levy details a difficult problem and the many factors contributing to the worsening inequality.

In a group of 38 selected U.S. colleges, including five in the Ivy League, more students came from families in the top 1 percent of the income scale than from the entire bottom 60 percent.

Mr Levy and a journalist colleague prescribe many necessary, and difficult, fixes. For example, ending admission preference for the children of alumni. 

At Color Accounting we believe we are pushing in the direction of educational equality.  

We are committed to democratizing accounting literacy by making the skill easy and accessible to all. We advocate for the adoption of new and innovative teaching approaches. The fewer people who need to rewrite failed exams, pay for expensive tutoring - and who aim lower in their careers than they should - the better. 

We are convinced that making accounting easy to learn is a step toward making education available to all who want it and deserve it. 

Here’s to you, Mr Levy. Godspeed on your journey. 

Peter

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Join Us in London for CIPD

4/5/2018

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As part of our mission to bring accounting literacy to everyone on the planet, our team attends and exhibits at L&D conferences around the globe.

Few are larger or more influential than the CIPD Learning and Development Show, coming to London April 25-26. The theme for this year's event is: "Drive Performance Through L&D".

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Founded in 1913, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is a professional association for human resource management professionals, headquartered in Wimbledon.

This year's L&D event will feature 50 expert speakers, including Pash Reddy, Head of Learning and Development for Deloitte, and over 160 exhibitors, including us, Color Accounting International.

CIPD is always a great place to network with thousands of other HR professionals, and to discover new developments in L&D.

Please let us know if you'll be there, and let's make a time to meet at our booth, #391.

Attend the Conference On Us!
We have one free ticket to the conference (a $435 value). If you are planning on being in London and would like to attend the educational seminars, reply to this email to learn if it is still available.

Would love to see you in London on the 25th and 26th.

Peter

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