The Continuity Product

Dr Rebecca Dalli Gonzi
Dr Rebecca Dalli Gonzi

Individuals crave security, stability, continuity, and the option to create change. How? By retaining project progress. Your Continuity Product can make this happen. Your policy, concept, or idea is for the benefit of humanity, not just your lifetime. Even though Steve Jobs has passed away, your iPhone still blinks. A continuity mind frame is what lies behind successful enterprise. A continuity product is packaged in four parts: one, your team is indifferent to pressure; two, you are not in recovery mode, you take action; three, key resources are always ready; four, Big Data will manage your stats and your impacts. 

Think Critically, Think Malta

Dr Mario Aquilina
Dr Mario Aquilina

Let us strengthen Malta’s democratic system by thinking critically. We need to learn how to avoid blindly accepting or rejecting ideas and opinion based on our political affiliations or unquestioned, long-held beliefs. Let us actively go against the dualistic thinking that dominates local public debate. Let us, for example, phase out media outlets financed by political parties; amend the constitution to facilitate the entry of a third political party to parliament; and put critical thinking at the centre of our educational system by strengthening subjects that enhance it (literary and rhetorical analysis, logic, philosophy and the scientific method).

Elective student stipends

My 100 word idea to change Malta
By Dr James Corby

The University of Malta is central to our knowledge economy, and yet it is chronically underfunded. The University performs well despite underfunding, so imagine the heights that could be scaled with more adequate support.
My idea? Scrap the scandalously outmoded stipends system. Instead, make student financial support entirely elective (students decide whether they want support); money is then given to students as an interest-free loan, which they only start to repay once they have graduated and are earning more than a minimum threshold salary. The money saved would be directed into research, postgraduate and postdoctoral initiatives, and infrastructure and technology.

PLAS

Think breadth: broadening your knowledge, pursuing your passion and acquiring useful transferable skills.

Think opportunity: studying at your own pace while juggling many commitments. An opportunity to continue your education or improve your career prospects.

Think flexibility: designing your own programme of studies by choosing any and as many short courses as you wish from a wide variety of fields. You can take just one or several classes, but you can also build up a diploma or a degree, with no time limits.

The University of Malta’s Programme in the Liberal Arts and Sciences (PLAS). Think about it. Visit www.um.edu.mt/clas 

Algae Farm

Alexander Hili

What is Malta’s most abundant resource? The sea and sun. Till now very few uses have been found for such resources due to the lack of applications in conventional industries. However, what would happen if we became unconventional?

Think Algae farms. Malta and Gozo could be using the warm waters around them to produce a cheap, healthy food. With copious sunlight prevalent throughout the year, local sushi bars could serve sushi wrapped in local nori. Malta could export to large profitable markets overseas. The farms could provide a large influx of work and increase cash flow to the Maltese Islands.

FundMalta

Prof. Gordon Calleja

Picture a Maltese crowdfunding website dedicated specifically to locally based creatives. It would be supported and promoted by government entities to the Maltese public, based locally and abroad. For this to work the public sector plays a crucial role in promoting the site and educating the public on how crowdfunding works. 

The site creates a platform for followers of local creatives to contribute towards performances and products made by artists they love. Unlike sites like Kickstarter, products that can be digitally distributed or ordered will remain on the site doubling as a digital distribution platform for locally made works. 

This article forms part of The Gaming Issue.