Monday, September 30, 2019
The Character Building through Character Education in Elementary School
Nowadays, several people need the improvement in intensity and quality of character education implementation in formal educational institutions. This claim is based on the growing social phenomenon, namely the increasing juvenile delinquency in society, such as a mass brawl and various other cases of moral decadence. Even in certain large cities, these symptoms have come to the extent that is very disturbing. As the example, several educated people doing corruption in high institutions such as in attorney.These phenomena are obviously not expected to happen in the society. Therefore, the formal education institutions which are functioned to create the younger generation is expected to increase its role in the formation of personality of students through increased intensity and quality of character education. Before we continue the discussion about the need of education nowadays, it is better to know the definition of character itself. Character is attributes or features that make up and differentiate one individual from other individuals.It is the most important essence a person can possess, as it defines who a person is and frequently measured to refer to how good a person is. On the other words, a person who shows signs of personal eminences which are suitable to what society expect, might be considered to have a good character. Character building is the way to strengthen oneââ¬â¢s character by molds oneself into a productive person within one's sphere of influence. Developing such personal qualities seems as a purpose of education. It is commonly emphasized qualities that include trustworthy, respect, and responsibility.Those pillars of character building should be learned from the early age in order to devote the strong foundation of character. In this essay, we will converge with the concept, the application, and the effect of character building in the schools. First of all, we deal with the concept of character building in the schools. Character buildi ng in school, we call this term as character education, is applied to the national curriculum method that turns around developing ââ¬Å"good characterâ⬠in students by practicing and teaching moral values and decision making.On the other word, character education is an investment system of the character values to the citizens of schools that include components of knowledge, awareness or volition, and actions to implement those values. As Theodore Roosevelt expresses that to educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace society. His statement implies that if we want to make students good at not only cognitive aspect but also have a competent in moral aspect, we should educate them in a pleasurable condition. Character education is not a ââ¬Å"quick fix.â⬠It provides long-term solutions that address moral, ethical, and academic issues of growing concern to our society and key to the safety of our schools. Character education presupposes that schools hav e the responsibility to facilitate students to encourage fundamental moral values to conduct their behavior throughout life other than help them to be smart in the lesson. According to Ramli (2003), character education has the essence and the same meaning as moral education. The goal is to establish the studentsââ¬â¢ personalities, to become a good human being, society, and citizens.This means that the teacher should facilitate to shape the character of the students in order to achieve the purpose of character education. Secondly, we cope with the application of character building in schools. Internalizing values through the curriculum in elementary school grades is one of the most workable, most used approaches. It is the most workable because we should internalize the character building from the early education, in the elementary school, in order to give strong foundations. Many schools and school systems begin with a core staff and expand gradually to include all staff.Another approach matches core values or character traits concepts to appropriate disciplines, for instance, freedom of conscience and expression with civics, and conservation with science courses. In most instances these concepts are addressed in segments of time, such as six-week units. Several elementary schools assign some time daily for values or character instructions. Schools should be used as venues to practice value or character traits. Students in all grade levels should have opportunities to practice values and character traits that range from role playing and decision making exercises to actual community service.As schools implement values and character education, the implicit curriculum should not be ignored or underestimated. The manner in which teachers and administrators relate, how teachers relate to parents and communicate with students all provide invaluable opportunities for modeling behavior based on the values and character we seek to develop in students. This modeling process should permeate the total school climate, including the way discipline is administered. Classroom management strategies, such as cooperative learning, can encourage the development of such values as trustworthiness, respect, and responsibility.Furthermore, these values will be explained below. First of all, we deal with the how to internalize to be trustworthiness. Trustworthiness has four basic values for children which are be honest, be reliable, have the courage, and be a good friend. The teachers teach the students to be honest through class management that they do not allowed to cheat from their friendsââ¬â¢ work or their own notes when taking the quiz. In addition, the teachers also give the students chances to be reliable. They are learned to keep their promises such as to collect the assignment on time.To have the courage, the student be taught to do what is right in the society based on norms and laws, even it seems difficult. For instance, when the students tak e the final examination, the teacher asks them to inform while the other students are cheating. On the other word, the teacher should internalize good condition in the classroom. Moreover, the teachers educate their students to be a good friend. The teachers can conduct the class as a group discussion and each group has a leader. Through this method, the students can learn how to cooperate and do not betray the trust in the group.Then, we contend with the second value of character building which is respect. This value has three domains which are respect for the environment, respect for others, and respect for self. The teachers educate the students to respect for the natural environment by care for and conservation of land, trees, clean air and pure water, and of all living inhabitants on the earth. This particular way can be accomplished in school day through voluntary labor service to make the school environment healthier. Furthermore, the teachers raise the students to respect fo r others.As the example, the students listen to what other students have to say when they are in the discussion. They should appreciate what their friends have done. Not only that, they also should be courteous and polite to all of the people, especially for the teachers in the school. Afterward, the students can respect themselves. They should be taught to have self control of cleanliness. They learn to have good habits of personal hygiene and grooming. As the example, they throw the trash in the dustbin. In addition, the students should respect for their physical, mental and fiscal health.They learn about the awareness of the importance and conscious activity toward maintaining fitness and exercise in the school. Lastly, responsibility is the most important value to be taught. The students are learned to take responsibility for their action. They are not allowed to make excuses or blame others. Evidence demonstrates that mostly, students still do not have enough responsibility in school environment. Students who do not finish their homework usually blame other person that actually does not include in their problem. They make a pretext of their fault because of their parents do not remind to finish the homework.It is the ironical condition. Properly, the students should make their own notes to remind them about their task in school. In this case, the teachers also have contributions to avoid this particular event. After the class ends, the teachers should form the habit of prompting the students about the homework and the next lesson in the class. By doing this method, the students learn to take care of their own business and reach the goal to get the responsibility person. Afterward, we deal with the effect of character education. Embedded in character education are guidelines for successful living.Trustworthiness, respect and responsibility navigate the students to the journey to better person. The students explore education as life and life as learning pos itive approaches for setting and achieving the goals. They also learn that living each day to its fullest means more than waiting for moments here and there. Character education presents life with context, inviting them to listen, share, explore, and reflect. Cultivating knowledge for purposeful living, students learn through literature, art, humanities and throughout the existing school curriculum the benefits and consequences of behavior.They learn the power of choice. They learn to appreciate the qualities of being human and to share their appreciation at home, in school, and in the community. Based on the above explanations, it can be affirmed that the character education efforts designed and implemented systematically to help students understand the values of human behavior associated with the Almighty God, self, fellow human beings, the environment, and nationhood embodied in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and actions based on religious norms, laws, manners, culture, an d customs. The students need standards and the skills to achieve them.They need to see themselves as students engaged in a continuing pursuit of excellence. These standards of excellence in school work and behavior will encourage students to develop qualities like perseverance and determination, and those virtues will affect every aspect of the studentsââ¬â¢ lives as they mature. Hopefully, the values, moral influences, and noteworthy characteristics we model and discuss will outlast academic facts and figures. Thus, we can leave the students a legacy that will remain constant throughout life: to know the good, love the good and do the good.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Betrayal and Manipulation in the Accidental Billionaires Essay
In the Accidental Billionaires, the motif of manipulation and betrayal is prevalent. Mark Zuckerburg is the prime embodiment of manipulation and betrayal throughout the course of the work. Another character also attributed with such qualities is Sean Parker. Mark and Sean are similar in this aspect; manipulating their own world to achieve their goals. In the first few chapters of the book, the reader is introduced to the Winklevoss twins. The twins turn to Mark to aid them in their social networking idea, the HarvardConnection. After trusting Mark with their program, Mark begins to manipulate the idea into his own. In a very subtle way, Mark delays the twins in time to sire his own program. This action reveals to the reader that Mark is a lone wolf. Mark, told to us in the book, is not interested in money. For example, ââ¬Å"â⬠¦Microsoft had offered Mark between one and two million dollars to go to work for them-and amazingly, Mark had turned them downâ⬠(Mezrich 15). This action should be noted as the aspect of working alone seems to be, to Mark, the most efficient way to achieve fame. Mark is highly influenced by Bill Gates, a man who rose out of the very same school Mark attends and manipulated his way throughout his pursuits of Microsoft, and in Markââ¬â¢s point of view, individual. With his displeasing physique and social incompetence, it is easy to see why people underestimate Mark and are taken advantage of. Another character to note is Sean Parker. Sean Parker is a foil to the protagonist, Mark. Mark pairs up with Sean after he launches ââ¬Ëthefacebookââ¬â¢. Sean has a history of manipulating his way through major companies with the agenda of getting rich only, quite the opposite of Mark. Sean is extremely energetic, whereas Mark seems to be lazy as represented by his lack variety in his attire- flipflops, jeans, etc. Sean, however, was betrayed by those companies he used to work for, but, ironically, he pursues yet another company that betrays him in the end. Betrayal, through manipulation, is in the subtitle of the book, ââ¬Å"A tale of sex, money, genius, and betrayal. â⬠Betrayal is mentioned last in this climax because that is to show the most important motif and a symbol of the bookââ¬â¢s overall structure- It goes from Eduardo and Mark seeking attention to ââ¬Ëget laidââ¬â¢, then pursue money with genius innovation of modern social networking, and finally, Markââ¬â¢s betrayal is concluded when he removes Eduardo and Sean from his life because they threatened his brainchild, Facebook. The motif of betrayal is very subtle to the reader. Even after reading the subtitle that Mezrich so blatantly states before the beginning chapter, I was manipulated into completely forgetting about betrayal and instead was focused on the pursuit to fame. Even the title fools the reader in stating the plural form of billionaire, but only one billionaire is spawned at the conclusion of the book. Just as the twins, Eduardo, and Sean, Markââ¬â¢s real agenda was cloaked to me, until it finally dawned in the closing chapters.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Poetry from Other Cultures Essay
Poets who were born in Britain donââ¬â¢t usually write about slavery or how important water is to them. Many poets who are not originally into a traditional English culture use English in many different ways. Night of the scorpion, Limbo and Sacrifice all seem like they are poems that have been written to represent beliefs or a way of life. They have all got rhythms and beats and some even use nursery rhymes or chants as a basis for the poem. Language is extremely important to some people especially poets. Sometimes you can see by looking at a poem that it is not written in Standard English. At the beginning of Night of The Scorpion, a child is talking about how it remembers the night when its mother was stung by a scorpion. The child mentions ââ¬Å"Ten hours of steady rain has driven him to crawl beneath a sack of riceâ⬠. Here, the child is describing the scorpion and the reason for its arrival. The child points out that the scorpion ââ¬Å"parted with its poisonâ⬠which literally means that the scorpion has stung someone. Throughout the poem, the scorpion is described as an evil being; ââ¬Å"The flask of diabolic tail in the dark roomâ⬠shows this. When the mother was stung, the villagers are described as ââ¬Å"swarming fliesâ⬠. This may mean they were running to help the mother or running away from the scorpion. The villagers chant the name of god to the mother, chanting the name of god in some cultures, is said to bring luck or hope to the person they are chanting for. In the poem it also states that the villagers used torches and lanterns to try and find the scorpion. As the villagers moved around with the torches and lanterns, the scorpion left shadows on the ââ¬Å"mud baked wallsâ⬠. The villagers could not find the scorpion so they started to make a ââ¬Å"clickingâ⬠noise to try and draw the scorpion towards them. In one part of the poem, it mentions that the scorpion was controlling the poison that was inside the childââ¬â¢s mother. ââ¬Å"With every movement the scorpion made, his poison moved around the mothers bloodâ⬠. The villagers seem to believe that the scorpion controls the poison that is inside the mother so they think that if they capture the scorpion, the poison inside the mother will also stop moving. They state that they want to stop the scorpion on line 18, ââ¬Å"May he sit stillâ⬠. After line 18, a series of sentences are started with the word ââ¬Å"mayâ⬠. In Standard English, this word usually introduces a polite request. The villagers all sat round whilst the mother laid there. It is described that there is a look of understanding on all of the peopleââ¬â¢s faces, which shows that they are supporting the mother, hoping she will be fine. In some cultures it is believed that if you catch the scorpion that has poisoned someone, the victim will recover. This may be why the villagers were so keen to capture the creature. The poet then describes how everyone is trying to help the childââ¬â¢s mother recover. ââ¬Å"My father, sceptic, rationalist, trying every curse and blessing, powder, mixture, herb and hybrid. He even poured a little paraffin wax upon the bitten toe and put a match to itâ⬠. ââ¬Å"I watched the flame feeding on my motherâ⬠this is one of the most effective quotes in this poem as itââ¬â¢s dramatic and metaphorical. Again, the poet describes how people are trying to help the childââ¬â¢s mother by writing; ââ¬Å"I watched a holy man perform his rites to tame the poison with an incantationâ⬠. The p poet gives the effect that the poison has been inside the mother for a long time by saying; ââ¬Å"After twenty hours, it lost its stingâ⬠The last three lines of the poem have had a large amount of thought go into them, as itââ¬â¢s unusual to normally end a poem like this. The poem Limbo, tells the story of slavery in a rhyming, rhythmic dance. It is ambiguous and complex. There are two main narratives running in parallel; the actions of the dance and the history of a people ââ¬â which is being enacted. Going down under the limbo stick is likened to the slaves going down into the hold of the ship, which carries them into slavery. In Roman Catholic tradition, Limbo is a place to which the souls of people go, if they are not good enough for heaven but not bad enough for hell, between this is Limbo. It has come to mean an unpleasant place or a state of mind or body from which it is difficult to escape. The story of slavery told in the poem is very easy to follow, yet full of detail and action. The poem has a very strong beat, suggesting the dance it describes. The rest of the poem tells a story enacted in a dance. These lines are greatly rhythmic and almost every syllable is stressed, until the very last line, where the rhythm is broken, suggesting the finish of the dance and the end of the narrative. This poem is suited to a dramatic performance ââ¬â there is the dancing under the limbo stick and the acting out the voyage into slavery. The poem can be chanted or sung with a rhythmic beat to give the best effect. The poem refers to a ââ¬Å"drummerâ⬠which may be suitable. The poem is laid out on the page in a very peculiar fashion; this is related to the poem being chant like. Parts of the poem are echoed or at least rhyming in a repetitive way to suggest that this may not be any song or dance, but one of an ââ¬Å"Africanâ⬠like culture. From the start of the poem, it seems pessimistic, but as you read on towards the end of the poem, it gradually stats to change into an optimistic look onto what will happen. ââ¬Å"The music is saving meâ⬠could mean that the songs of their cultures were what gave them hope or the fact that the drummer was beating a rhythmic beat was what got them to carry on. The first line of sacrifice is an unusual line to start with because describing a goat having a knife dragged across its neck isnââ¬â¢t the sort of image you would want to convey for the opening sentence. The personââ¬â¢s point of view throughout the poem seemed to switch between two characters, a young boy and a goat being sacrificed. ââ¬Å"Two spadefuls of dirt will cover me up foreverâ⬠& ââ¬Å"I can feel its point on my throatâ⬠. Many cultures bless their house or have some kind of ceremony once the house is built. Also, there are still some cultures today that sacrifice animals to their ââ¬Å"godsâ⬠. ââ¬Å"We stand in a tight circle around the animal to be sacrificedâ⬠this short sentence is a great example of this. It seems that the child in question seems to dislike the idea of animals being sacrificed. ââ¬Å"The heat and the smell of the blood make me dizzyâ⬠. Again, there is a whole paragraph describing just how the animal in question is sacrificed. The writer of the poem has made a strange choice by putting both children and the theme of sacrificing together, as usually a poet would not normally do this. ââ¬Å"The children are fascinated by the tableauâ⬠. Here, a drama convention is used. A tableau is a still image that can be used at the beginning, during or at the end of a piece of drama. Again, the idea of ceremonies are used; ââ¬Å"A white bearded man chants something holyâ⬠. ââ¬Å"The cameras click.â⬠This short sentence sounds wrong when put into context with the theme of the poem. The idea of people taking pictures of an animal that has just been sacrificed is disgusting. The ending of the poem is unusual because it seems that it is from the boyââ¬â¢s point of view because it describes the house as an unnecessary killing. ââ¬Å"We are not laying the foundations of a house but another dachau.â⬠A Dachau is a Nazi concentration camp where thousands of Jews were exterminated.
Friday, September 27, 2019
Attitudes 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Attitudes 2 - Essay Example Furthermore, this link is solid when attitudes are founded on individual capability and direct reflection. Attitudes are crucial to an individual`s significance system, thus as a result making some attitudes to be more significant than other. In addition, the connection between behavior and attitude is strong when the availability of people`s attitude is extraordinary. The availability of an attitude is the comfort people feel in perceiving what they think about something or their capacity to express their attitude. There are various aspects that affect availability or accessibility; these encompass anticipations, cognitive explanation, recency of activation, and regularity of stimulation. For instance, in the anticipation factor, a person is likely to think more when he or she knows he will have to assess an item in the future. Moreover, the extra task a person performs the stronger and accessible the attitude becomes concerning the cognitive expansion. Concerning regularity of activation, the more an individual thinks about something, the more accessible his or her attitude towards it will be. The attitudes are not consistent with the behavior concerning organ donation because social pressure. Thus, this can be strengt hened by the regularity activation, where the more a person thinks about donating an organ, the more likely he or she is bout to change his attitude and also sign up to be among the donors. Accordingly, it may also be solid when the likelihood of the public attractiveness is reduced. This implies that people may act in a different ways when not in public. Therefore, these are some of the examples demonstrating the inconsistence of attitudes with people`s
Thursday, September 26, 2019
The BRICS Nations in International Business Research Paper
The BRICS Nations in International Business - Research Paper Example The paper tells that the emergence and importance of the BRICS in international business is a reality that for years had been underestimated. The BRICS nations have important roles to play in international business as players and partners. It is, however, paramount that we first understand the term BRICS, before we can give a detailed description of each countryââ¬â¢s economy. The word BRICS is an acronym for the worldââ¬â¢s largest and strongest emerging economies. These countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. They are now considered as significant as other global players are and have consequently shifted economic status, from developing to emerging economies. This is because of the rapid and exponential growth that is witnessed in these economies, with statistics indicating that their contribution to the growth of the worldââ¬â¢s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being very significant. In the past decade, the BRICS contributed to more than half of the wor ldââ¬â¢s growth in GDP. The population of these economies has also been singled out as a unique feature. These economies alone constitute half, or a little under half, of the worldââ¬â¢s population. Analysts have however pointed to the fact that these economies rarely have anything in common. Their demographic compositions, governance styles, and type of economies, are all different. They may have one or two similarities in their economies but have very little in common. This is the beauty that has been associated with these economies, that despite having very little to share, they each have independently affected global business in ways that are not only noticeable but also strongly profound and significant. These impacts to international business include increased trade levels, increased funding of development or development financing, and donor funding, earlier only a preserve of the western countries. Having looked at the economies forming the BRICS in general, let us now examine them individually.
Productivity and Cost Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Productivity and Cost - Case Study Example Given this basic economics law, companies must manage their resources effectively to create a more productive environment given their resources. In this regard, I examined the strategic decision of Company ABC - one of the largest personal computers and laptop manufacturers in the world and how this strategic decision incorporate the law of diminishing marginal productivity and the relationship of productivity and cost. Recently, Company ABC revamped its compensation and benefits program for its operations people. The new compensation and benefits program affects the salaries, wages and benefits of all production people - those employees who are directly involved in the manufacture and production of the company's products. The most prominent revision in the company's compensation package is the awarding of incentive to a production team's productivity rather than on the individual team member's performance. At the end of each month, the team's actual productivity is measured and compared to the team's target productivity for the month, then the team is given a bonus based on how well they exceeded performance and then the team divides the bonus to its members. The division is equal. Say, the team bonus is for $1000 and there are 5 members in the team, then each one will get $200 as incentive bonus. By directly linking the individual employee's incentive with that individual's team's productivity performance, Company ABC virtually acknowledge that the individual has a little impact on productivity and that the team's effort has a much more significant impact. Moreover, by putting the responsibility on productivity at the team level, the company is, in a sense, giving the responsibility to the team on how to fill up slacks in the team so its productivity does not suffer. This means that whenever a team member is absent, whether on sick or vacation leave, the team is responsible in ensuring that the team's productivity does not suffer in spite of the absence. I think that the decision to link incentive and team productivity is a very clever decision. The new incentive program allows the company a chance to increase its productivity without significantly increasing the company's payroll expenses. Moreover, by putting the responsibility to monitor productivity at the team level, slackers or below average employees will be pressured by the rest of the team to contribute more into the team's productivity efforts. However, according to the law of diminishing marginal productivity, the increase in the company's productivity as a result of the revision of the company's incentive program for its production employees will eventually diminishes. Hence, a new incentive program alone is not enough to sustain the increase in productivity for a long time. Another strategic decision should accompany the revised incentive program. According to the neoclassical growth theory, the "real GDP [or gross domestic product] per person grows because technological change induces a level of saving ad investment that make capital per hour of labor grow" (CFA, 2008, p. 440). Hence, a revised incentive program and an introduction of a technological change in the company's production floor will go a long way in terms of Company ABC's productivity. Interview with several production managers and employees of Company ABC reveals that this is actually what the company did and planned from the beginning. The company introduced its new incentive pro
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Nursing Administration Philosophy Statement Essay
Nursing Administration Philosophy Statement - Essay Example I uphold the philosophy of acting in line with the highest standards of ethics, efficiency, accountability, effectiveness, and openness in pursuit of the highest standards of nursing care and leadership. The paper documents my philosophy of nursing administration, which outlines proactive leadership as an essential tool to carry out change in nursing management. Philosophy of Nursing Administration Introduction In order to elaborate on philosophy of nursing, I consider that one must settle on what philosophy means to them; philosophy represents an attitude toward life and reality that envelops peopleââ¬â¢ beliefs. This definition awards one the freedom to utilize own beliefs. Caring can be considered to form the backbone of nursing, whereby without caring, nurses cannot connect with patients, and consequently, trust cannot form between nurses and patients. Philosophy outlines vision what a nursing manager views the nursing services and what he or she believed it should be. Backgro und During my childhood, my fascination with the discipline of nursing was all about white uniforms and caps; however, this notion on nursing practice has changed over the years out of the realization that a nurse is not merely an individual in a uniform, but rather a person charged with making a difference in patientsââ¬â¢ life through caring and compassion. As a leader in women and children case management, I recognize that nurses should be recognized for their expertise and compassion in availing care to patients and communities (Carter et al., 2010). I concur that there is no other profession that avails the opportunity to implement the philosophy of caring for others into action while simultaneously availing personal and professional gratification that can be attained when one applies knowledge to enhance patient care. I practiced in an obstetric unit for three years as a labor and delivery nurse charged with the duty of caring for women during pregnancies and childbirth, wh ereby I had to assess both the mother and baby and come up with an individualized plan of care. In my practice as an obstetric nurse, I won an award recognizing my efforts developing collaborative networks with physicians. Presently, I am a case manager at the local health department charged with the duty of highlighting the clientsââ¬â¢ needs and instituting plans to meet clientsââ¬â¢ needs effectively and efficiently. Nurses have been at the front position of case management as it connects to moving patients via the hospital efficiently. Conflicts may arise between nurse case managers and other providers within the community. This necessitates that professional become educated on issues regarding case management programs, dealing with interdisciplinary teams, legal issues, and respecting patientââ¬â¢s wishes and rights (Weberg, 2010). The goal relates to ensuring that all localities have access to the care and services available to all citizens of the community. As a case manager, I encounter challenges in creating and securing sustainable funding for the programs and creating sufficient infrastructure support. Discussion (Body) Evidently, nursing leaders play a critical role in shaping the nursing profession to be highly responsive to the changing healthcare system. The state of the contemporary economic environment can be regarded as chaotic given that the external environment has
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Follow a method similar to that which we've been discussing. FLUSSER Essay
Follow a method similar to that which we've been discussing. FLUSSER - Essay Example Gestures are often recurrent by the same people and also other partakers. By starting from an inclusive viewpoint, for instance, watching a live debate on television or the succession of narration in any interaction that occurs naturally, one can easily observe that distinctive partakers are always bound to produce similar gestures and these gestures are to ensure that there is an overall collaborative consistency. These gestures are not just merely meant to produce consistency, but to develop the unity of sequences and the stories of the various actors. The analysis of gestures, in this case, will emphasize on its binding practices. The most mutual characteristic of such gestures is that they happen in activities where the partakers show an orientation in securing and developing a mutual thought. From a perspective that is narrower, it will be obvious that such gestures are part of an turn organization or turn construction and they can join various turns together. Before making an analysis of gestures, I will mention some general info regarding unity and consistency in communication. One fundamental supposition regarding unity/coherence a turns, which are adjacent to each other, will be comprehended in relation to another turn. For example, a speech is always considered to be unified even when it may not be consistent. The placement of words and a turn is important in developing an interactive coherence. The partakers in an interaction often apply precise techniques in developing consistency and cohesion. Some of the most commonly applied techniques include the applications of disjunction and pronouns. Coherence may exist in various levels. One may mention coherence at a realistic level, whereby the main idea is if the correlation of distinct interactive action is coherent and relevant. The normative coordination of the partakers to the organizational sequence is a good example whereby the partakers
Monday, September 23, 2019
HIM 330 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
HIM 330 - Essay Example necessary for requirements elicitation, based on the above stated problem, and finally, the paper will give an example of catastrophic software failure resulting from bad feasibility study. The different aspects of feasibility studies to be looked at include schedule feasibility, economic feasibility, technical feasibility and operational feasibility. Operational feasibility will be conducted by looking at whether the users like the new system, whether the users have to be trained first, whether users will be demanded to have some new ways of operating and whether customers will be comfortable with the new systems. If training will be required, it is important for the company to evaluate its cost, so that it does not become a huge economic burden. If the system will assure patients of security and privacy of their medical records, then it will be feasible. Therefore, each of these has to be evaluated. As far as the technical feasibility is concerned, the company has to evaluate whether it has enough network, software and hardware resources to establish the system. Apart from having these resources, it also has to see whether it has the necessary technical expertise. The functionality, performance and environmental consequences of the available resources also have to be evaluated. If the company will find it hard to get all these requirements, then it may not be feasible for it to go ahead with the setting up of the system. If the resources will not work well with the existing systems or if they will have environmental effects, then the project may not be feasible. Under economic feasibility, the company will be required to estimate consultation expenses, the cost of facility and the estimated cost of not putting in place the system so as to weigh whether the cost of developing it is higher than that of not developing it. If it can reduce the labor cost, then it is feasible. Last, as far as schedule feasibility, the company has to determine whether there are
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Mobil IP Essay Example for Free
Mobil IP Essay ââ¬Å"A Mobile IP address allows users to connect to the Internet without a normal static or dynamic IP address through the use of a unique mobile IP address. This unique address lets the computer connect through a network to a home IP address but still utilize and communicate with the networks protocol.â⬠What are the advantages and disadvantages of Mobile IP? Advantages: 1) Portabilityââ¬âvirtually anywhere there is access 2) Convenience sustained connection while traveling between access points 3) Scalability built for large, expansive networks so it is always easy to expand it 4) Consistency a user can maintain the same IP address across all of the subnets they travel between while the router on their home subnet intercepts and forwards all incoming information to them across the network via a network tunnel 5) Integration Mobil IP solutions do not require an additional network, but rather integrate with a current network schematic and because of the standard it has set many of the appliances have networking abilities now Disadvantages: 1) Security Data must be transformed so that authorized parties only decode it Authentication, or approving or disproving someoneââ¬â¢s identity Ensuring that data cannot be changed without having that change be detectable Proving a source sent data and the possibility of that data being denied 2) Triangle Routing à The delivering of packets as directly as possible from sending node to mobile node without passing through a home agent, this is obviously a problem since route from sender to mobile node by way of the home agent takes two sides of the triangle, rather than the third side, which is the direct path. 3) Perception of reliabilityà refers to the premise of Mobile IP connections are based on TCP surviving cell changes What are the typical installations of Mobile IP? Typical installations where you find mobile IP is for laptop or phone use though tablets and other systems are catching up. Do you think Mobile IP will increase in popularity? Why or why not? With the struggle to stay up to date and to have access to files for company use at meetings, I think it is a real deal to say that popularity will continue to rise. There are issues with the technology but look how many bugs were in Windows 95 when it hit the market and people still ate it up. ââ¬Å"A leading and award-winning developer of desktop, tablet and mobile VoIP software products and solutions, today announced that its industry-leading Bria softphone is powering Network Norways all-new Mobil IP service. As part of the Tele2 Group, Network Norway is an innovative service provider focused on enabling leading edge business solutions such as their new Mobil IP offering. Mobil IP is an SMB and enterprise focused offering that extends a customers mobile number to all devices including iOS and Android smartphones, tablets, PCs and Macs.ââ¬
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Globalisation and the Nation State
Globalisation and the Nation State Globalisation And The Changing Role Of The Nation-State Will the nation-state geo-political structure survive the onslaught of the juggernaut of globalisation? Most scholarly articles take the ââ¬Ëto be or not to beââ¬â¢ approach in addressing this question. Occasionally, some authors also take the more subtle and diplomatic approach of ââ¬Ëwhatever will be, will beââ¬â¢. However, in this essay I distance myself from popular literature in that I take a subjective yet historically sound position. The stand taken in this essay neither pleases the die-hard nation-state proponents, nor does it echo the predictions of the globalization-will-lead-to-one-nation theorists. Rather, I simply put forward historical evidence to draw our attention to two key trends: the evolution of the nation-state, and the progress/process of globalisation since antiquity. And, in the light of these historical trends I propose that the process of globalisation neither marks the end of the nation-state, nor does it strengthen its position as a constructin g unit in world geo-politics. On the contrary, current trends of globalisation clearly mark the transformation of the role of the nation-state in international relations, which can be clearly seen in the gradual shifting of sovereignty from nation-states to mega-corporate states/entities like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the World Bank. The Rise Of The Nation-State The basis of the current nation-state model of world organisation lies in the Westphalian principle of sovereignty (Croxton, 1999). However, the concept of sovereignty as the aforementioned article claims is itself not a creation of the Westphalian model. Rather, the question of sovereignty is as old as the first war ever found between human forces. Nevertheless, to put things into perspective, the evolution of governance and sovereignty can be traced in a sequential pattern starting with tribal governance and city-states leading ultimately to nation-states (Brinkman Brinkman, 2008). In fact, as Brinkman (2008) puts it, ââ¬Å"Over time the locus of sovereignty evolved along with the evolution of governance in the form of city-states, nation-states, and on to nationalism.â⬠In other words, as people began living together in growing numbers they organised themselves into small nomadic tribes whose sovereign was often the tribal leader, or the family patriarch or matriarch (whichever may be the case). Over time, these tribes settled into towns and cities. With increasing population, the sovereign authority gradually shifted from the head of the tribal family onto a ruling family, i.e. a system of monarchy. Unlike tribal leaders who were chosen from among the clan, the rulers were born into the royal family. This system was necessary to avoid bloody clashes and in-fighting among the populace. However, as time went by and knowledge became widespread, the time was ripe for the birth of the nation-state. The genesis of nationalism took place when the transference of loyalty of a given nationality became directed toward ââ¬Å"we the people, via the formation of a republican form of government (Brinkman Brinkman, 2008). The people who had given up their indiv idual sovereignty, first to the head of the family, and later to the rulers, decided to take it back in the form of democracy where the sovereignty rested with ââ¬Å"we the peopleâ⬠. The collective identity of ââ¬Å"we the peopleâ⬠manifested in the form of the nation-state. This brings us to the present times. The world is rapidly changing in many ways: technically, socially, culturally, intellectually, and so on. However, when we look at geo-political organisation of the world we can observe a trend towards a larger governing body that transcends the conventional limits of the nation-state units. The world is increasingly being controlled by mega-corporate entities like the IMF, WTO, and the World Bank. Nation-states are, either willingly or by compulsion, compromising their sovereignty in order to survive the onslaught of globalisation. So, does that mean that the nation-states are nearing their shelf-life? Did the individual-self completely and permanently sacrifice itself when humankind first decided to appoint tribal leaders? Likewise, did the ruling class become an extinct breed with the dawn of democracy and the birth of the nation-state? The answer is an emphatic no. Rather, these constructing units took on different roles in the organisation of the society as the locus of sovereignty shifted and new constructing units were formed to accommodate the growing populations and rise of civilizations. So, what does this mean for the future of the nation-state? In the last century we have seen the birth of a new political unit that transcends geographical limits: the mega-corporate state. However, for the new order to exist the old one must give up that which in the first place called it into existence: sovereignty. The sovereignty of the nation-state is in conflict with that of the megacorporate state (Brinkman Brinkman, 2008), but we can already see signs of transference of this sovereignty from the former to the latter. Once the process has been completed, the world might function with completely new dynamics, with the nation-states playing a key role in the new world-political mechanism. In other words, the nation-state would undergo a transformation in that its role in world politics would change in order to facilitate the rise of the megacorporate state. The Progress/Process Of Globalisation Having drawn our attention to the rise of the nation-state and its changing role in present times, let us now look at the cause behind the change. Globalisation, as many believe, is not a phenomena nor is it a product/consequence of the industrial revolution, technological advancements, or the enlightenment of humankind in the last couple of centuries. Rather it is a human-initiated process that began in antiquity when our species first began to spread across the face of the planet earth. Globalisation is a journey (Wolf, 2001) that began as long ago as when the first traders/merchants began setting out on adventurous journeys in search of fortunes in unchartered foreign lands, and even further back to when flourishing civilizations began forming ancient world empires. However, in order to put things into perspective and to keep the essay short and to avoid the risk of digressing, let us look at the process of globalisation in the context of the last couple of centuries. Globalisation as a process has always been at work in the march of human civilizations, however it has only been observable in recent times due to various developments that are intrinsically linked to innovation and technology. As Martin (2001) puts it, over the past five centuries technological advancements have progressively reduced the barriers to international integration. Rapid and affordable means of transportation as well as widespread communication networks offering real-time access to information have significantly and undeniably accelerated the pace of globalisation, especially over the past century. However, the globalising trends of increased trade, huge investments in foreign markets, as well as rise in immigration rates are not unprecedented. Martin (2001) compares statistics from pre-World War I period as well as from the late 1800s to that of current times to show that all these trends were almost at the same levels are they are today. Yet, there is something substant ially different going on today than a couple of centuries ago. The accelerated pace of globalisation has created the need for the birth of megacorporate entities. This is particularly true since the 1970s when nation-states around the globe began adopting liberal economic policies, and started opening up their markets to international trade and investment. The rapidly integrating world has exposed the inadequacies of the nation-state model in that the sovereignty of the nation-state is in direct conflict with the progress of the human society. This realization has initiated world leaders to afford policy changes that mark the shift of sovereignty to entities that transcend geo-political boundaries. So, is the nation-state dying? An emphatic no again. On the contrary, nation-states are evolving into more efficient geo-political units that have a greater role to play in international relations. However, the cost of international integration and progress must come at the expense of national sovereignty. The rise of the megacorporate state can be seen in the active role that its precursors like the IMF, WTO, and the World Bank play in international politics. In order to govern a world that is increasingly becoming inter-linked and inter-dependent it essential that sovereignty be shifted to a governing body that isnââ¬â¢t bound by geo-political boundaries. However, nationalism has taken deep roots in the peoples of all nations, and hence it would not be without much blood shed and war that nation-states can be destroyed to form a one-world order. Fortunately, there is an alternative to war: the megacorporate state that delegates with nation-states on not completely but only certain aspects ââ¬â the sharing of sovereign much like that in current day federal states. In other words, the world is moving to organising itself into a world federation of nation-states. Another question arises here. Is globalisation destroying the capacity of governments to form national policies? Quite the contrary. As Martin points out, ââ¬Å"Globalisation can progress only as far as national policy makers will allow.â⬠He goes on to argue the proposition that globalisation will make the nation-states unnecessary is even less credible than the idea that it makes them impotent. Martin puts forward three defences for his arguments. First, the ability of a society to take advantage of the opportunities offered by international economic integration depends on the quality of public goods, such as property rights, an honest civil service, personal security, and basic education. Removing the nation-state from the equation would necessitate the redundancy of creating an equivalent unit to fill in the vacuum left by the nation-state in the first place. Second, the nation-state offers the members of a society a sense of identity and a sense of belonging. While not ent irely impossible, finding a global-identity that is agreeable to all peoples would again be a redundant process. Rather, it is more logical and natural to develop parallel identities of belonging to a nation that is itself a part of the world. Third, international governance depends on the ability of nation-states to provide and guarantee stability. As Martin puts it, ââ¬Å"The bedrock of international order is the territorial state with its monopoly on coercive power within its jurisdiction.â⬠In simple words, the nation-state has a slightly different yet vital role to play in international governance. As Martin (2001) rightly argues, technology while pointing towards greater international integration, was in and by itself not responsible for the changing dynamics of world politics and geo-political organisation. ââ¬Å"Policy, not technology, has determined the extent and pace of international economic integration.â⬠(Wolf, 2001). Conclusion Globalisation is not necessarily an evil like some of us perceive it to be. On the contrary, it is a necessary process for the progress of human civilizations. While some of us believe that globalisation marks the end of the nation-state, I strongly believe that the nation-state will continue to play a vital role in world organisation and politics, albeit in a different role than that of a sovereign power. Nation-states are and will continue to be vital for people to be able to successfully benefit from the opportunities afforded by international integration (Wolf, 2001). I further agree with Martin (2001) in that global governance will come not at the expense of the nation-state but rather as an expression of the interests that the state embodies. I also agree that globalization is a choice and not a matter of destiny. ââ¬Å"It is a choice made to enhance a nationââ¬â¢s economic well-being.â⬠(Wolf, 2001) References Brinkman, R. L., Brinkman, J. E. (2008). Globalization and the nation-state: Dead or alive. Journal of Economic Issues, 42(2), 425-433. Croxton, D. (1999). The peace of westphalia of 1648 and the origins of sovereignty. The International History Review, 21(3), 569-591. Wolf, M. (2001). Will the nation-state survive globalization? Foreign Affairs, 80(1), 178-190. doi:http://www.foreignaffairs.com/archive
Friday, September 20, 2019
Negative Priming Experiment
Negative Priming Experiment Negative Priming: The effect of inhibitory mechanisms on the probe of a pair of trials in a Stroop style ink identification task. Abstract The investigation was based on the work of Dalrymple-Alford and Budayr (1966), who investigated the phenomenon of negative priming in relation to the Stroop task. In the original experiment by Dalrymple-Alford and Budayr (1966), it was discovered that if in a trial, the ink colour was the same as the word on the previous trial; subjects were slower to respond. This effect has been termed negative priming. The aim of this experiment was to partly replicate the work of Dalrymple-Alford and Budayr (1966), and to further investigate the phenomena of negative priming. The experimenter hypothesised that in an ink colour identification task, when the target in the probe trial matched the distractor in the prime, then reaction times would be significantly slower in comparison to conditions where the prime and probe were unrelated. To test the hypothesis, the researcher created four conditions; congruent, neutral, ignored repetition and attended repetition. The condition of interest was ignor ed repetition. Participants reaction times were recorded for the primes and probes of each condition. The effect of condition was shown to be significant using a two way repeated measures ANOVA [F(3,57) = 13.09; p = 0.001]. The significance of the results means the hypothesis was accepted, and it was concluded that negative priming is prominent in conditions where the target in the prime becomes the distractor in the probe, supporting the work of Dalrymple-Alford and Budayr (1966). Introduction Attention is a vital and complex function of cognition. One of the earliest definitions of attention came from James (1890), who defined it as ââ¬Å"the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thoughtIt implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with other.â⬠This early definition from James (1890) highlighted the issue of the selective nature of attention. This feature of attention is essential for organisms to be able to be successful in a search for a target; to select and process only the information they need. It is therefore vital that during this search there are certain mechanisms that suppress distracting information and prevent the return of attention to previously attended objects or events. The mechanism responsible for this important feature is inhibition- the suppression of unwanted or distracting information to ensure movement of attention to novel l ocations. The role of inhibition has been theorised through a variety of concepts. One such concept is Inhibition of Return (IOR). IOR was proposed as an inhibitory mechanism, which reduces the prominence of the previously inspected item in a scene. IOR was first observed by Posner and Cohen (1984) in their simple cuing experiment and refers to the relative suppression of stimuli (object and events) that had recently been the focus of attention. This inhibition of return effect is thought to make visual search more efficient as it ensures that previously examined objects are not searched again, thus facilitating the search for the target (Wright Richard, 1996). Further evidence of inhibitory mechanisms in attention comes from the visual marking mechanism; proposed by Watson and Humphreys (1997) as a goal-directed process that enhances visual search through the inhibition of ââ¬Ëold objects. When new objects are added to a visual scene, they take priority during search, because old objects are ââ¬Ëmarked for non search. Also, the discovery of the ââ¬Ëattentional blink provides some clear evidence that in tasks using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP), a method of displaying information very briefly in sequential order, perception of a target presented 200-500ms after the first target is impaired (Raymond, 1992). This attentional blink occurs because of interference caused by the presentation of stimuli after the target but before the target-identification process is complete, causing the temporary suppression of inhibitory mechanisms. In other words, inhibition of distracting stimuli does not occur, causing a failure in identif ication. Mechanisms such as IOR and visual marking are evidence for inhibitory mechanisms in selective attention, and the attentional blink demonstrates just how important these mechanisms are. This process of inhibition however, is not without consequences. It has been discovered that after a stimulus has been ââ¬Ëignored, processing of that ignored stimulus shortly afterwards is impaired. This effect has been termed negative priming (Tipper, 1985). In recent years, numerous studies have looked at negative priming as evidence of an inhibitory component within selective attention. An important study which was vital in the discovery of negative priming is the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935). The standard Stroop colour-word test involved participants being required to name the ink colour of a printed word. When the word was incongruent with the colour ink- such as the word ââ¬Ëred written in green ink- then interference occurred, resulting in slower response times and more errors in comparison to control conditions. In congruent conditions, where the colour written matched the colour of ink it was written in, reaction times were faster. The interference observed in this study can be attributed to automaticity as reading is an automatic process. According to Shiffrin and Schneiders (1977) model of automaticity, automatic processing makes no demands on attentional resources, has no capacity limitations, and is unavoidable. Automatic processing thus provides a liable explanation of why the Stroop effect occurs, as when seeing a word we unavoidably read it, causing a delay in the process of naming the ink colour of the word. Whilst investigating the effect of stimulus sequencing on Stroop interference, Dalrymple-Alford and Budayr (1966), came across what is now known as negative priming. What they found was that there was a greater delay and an increased error rate when an item appeared in the colour ink which was required to be ignored in the previous stimulus. Similar findings come from Tipper (1985), who presented participants with overlapping line drawings, in either red or green. The participants were required to identify only the red items in each set of stimuli. When the ignored drawing (green) became the required response (red) in the next set of trials, response times slowed. This suggests it is harder to identify and selectively attend to what was previously rejected. A key question in regards to selective attention and negative priming is at which point of sensory processing can incoming signals first be selected or rejected by attention- does this happen early in the process or late? Early selection models, such as Broadbents (1958) filter theory, argue that as sensory processes are limited, they require attention to initially select the stimuli that are required for further processing and discarded irrelevant stimuli. Therefore, attentional selection should occur early; implying a ââ¬Ëbottleneck in the brain protecting processing systems from being overloaded by irrelevant information. The late selection models (Deutsch Deutsch 1936) however, claim that all stimuli, both attended and unattended, can be processed automatically in parallel- thus without a need for early selection. Therefore, selection should occur late, after the semantic analysis of the stimuli. Negative priming has generally been interpreted as evidence for late selection as the phenomenon shows that distracting/ irrelevant stimuli are in fact processed at the same time as the attended stimuli, hence the interference that occurs. Negative Priming is clearly a well studied phenomenon, and there have been numerous variations on the original experiment by Dalrymple Alford and Budayr (1966). The explanations behind the effect have generally focused on the effect being caused by increased interference due to the suppression of the word during naming of the ink colour- resulting in temporary unavailability of that response (MacLeod MacDonald, 2000). The majority of evidence supports the idea that if a probe in a pair of stimuli has the same target as the prime, then reaction times will be slowed for that probe; suggesting that internal representations of the ignored object may become associated with inhibition during selection. Therefore this experiment hypothesises that, in concordance with the previous evidence, in an ink colour identification task, the probe in the ignored repetition condition will take significantly longer to identify than the prime, in comparison to other conditions. Method Design The design was repeated measures with 2 within factors; condition with 4 levels (Congruent, Neutral, Ignored Repetition and Attended Repetition) and pairing with 2 levels (prime and probe). The experiment was a part replication of the work of Dalrymple-Alford and Budayr (1966), as an investigation into negative priming. The experiment consisted of 4 conditions. Condition 1 was ââ¬ËCongruent, where the target and distractor matched in both prime and probe, for example blue in blue ink followed by red in red ink. Condition 2 was ââ¬ËNeutral, where the normal Stroop style format was used and the prime and probe bore no intentional resemblance to each other; for example blue in red ink followed by yellow in green ink. Condition 3 was ââ¬ËIgnored repetition. This condition was where negative priming was presumed to take place, as the distractor in the prime became the target in the probe, for example, blue in yellow ink followed by red in blue ink. The final condition, condition 4, was ââ¬ËAttended repetition, where the target was repeated in the probe, for example blue in red ink followed by green in red ink. For each condition, there were 30 pairs of trials (120 pairs in total, 240 individual trials). Within each pair was a prime (1) and a probe (2) The trials were split into two identical blocks. To control for order effects, the conditions were randomised such that no condition/ pair was presented in succession. This resulted in 15 pairs of each condition per block. A total of 240 responses (reaction times, in milliseconds) were collected for each participant. Participants The sample selected was a group of 20 undergraduate students at the University of Lincoln, with a mean age of 21.35 years, and a standard deviation of 6.51. This target population was relevant because it was the most easily accessible group of people of similar age and status. Participants were selected by opportunity sampling. This method was used because it is a quick, practical and efficient way of generating data through using participants available and willing at the time of the experiment. Materials In order to carry out the experiment certain materials were necessary. The researcher used a Dell Optiplex 745 computer with a monitor size 15inches, 150HP. Also used was a button box (Credus Corporations) and voice recorder (TTC Quality Electronics). The 6 colours used were randomly selected from a bag of various coloured cards. The chosen colours were then created from a standard Microsoft windows palette. These were; Blue (red: 0, green: 0, blue: 225), Green (red: 0, green: 225, blue: 0), Red (red: 225, green: 0, blue: 0), Yellow (red: 255, green: 255, blue: 0), Pink (red: 225, green: 0, blue: 225), Black (red: 0, green: 0, blue: 0). All colour words were presented in Aerial font, size 58, bold. In addition to the colour words presented, there was also a welcome message (Arial font, size 48, bold, in Black ink), and a fixation cross (Arial font, size 58, bold, in Black ink). Further necessary materials included a checklist for Type I and Type II errors. Procedure The participants were approached and asked if they would like to take part in the experiment. If they agreed they were taken to a quiet area chosen for the experiment to take part in. Then the researcher explained to the participant what they would need to do, and gave them a set of standardised instructions (appendix 1). The participants were then asked to read and sign the consent form (appendix 2) if they agreed to take part. Following this, the participants were seated in front of the computer screen and shown how to hold the microphone. They were then told there would be an initial practice run of the experiment, and asked to begin when they were ready. Following the practice run, the participant was once again asked if they were happy to continue with the experiment. If they agreed, they were instructed to begin when they were ready. During the experiment, two researchers were present at all times. The researchers each had a list of the order of trials and correct responses, as they were pseudo-randomised. One researcher marked type I errors on one sheet, and the other marked type II errors on another. Block one consisted of a series of 60 trials followed by a 30second break before the remaining 60 trials in that block. The experiment began with a welcome message which instructed the participant to press the left key on the button box when they were ready to start. After they had pressed this, a fixation cross was presented on the screen for 1500ms, followed by a blank which lasted 1000ms. Each trial was presented for 1500ms, trials were presented in pairs according to condition. Between each pair was a blank of 1000ms. After the first block of trials, the experiment closed, and one researcher started block two, which was identical to block one. Once again any and all errors were recorded. After the completion of this second final block, the experiment automatically closed. The participant was then thanked for their cooperation and given a debrief form to read (appendix 3) they were also encouraged to ask any questions, and assured that their results would remain private and anonymous. Ethical Considerations A number of ethical issues were identified in the experiment in line with British Psychology Society (BPS) guidelines. A consent form was given to participants which explained what the experiment was researching into, what they had to do during the testing and it also requested the participants age and gender. The form explained that any participant with aversion to flashing lights or rapidly presented stimuli should not continue on with the experiment, and asked participants to report if they had any back problems. Participants also had the right to withdraw themselves and their results from the experiment at any time, and this was stated in both the consent form (appendix 2) and debrief (appendix 3). After the participants had taken part in the experiment, the experimenter explained what they were investigating and the implications to the research, and answered any questions asked. It was the experimenters responsibility to make sure that participants left in the same psychological state that they started the experiment with. Participants were informed that their identity would be kept anonymous and that their results would be treated in confidence and destroyed after the experiment. To ensure protection of participants, no physical or mental harm came to them while taking part in the experiment as the consent form included a brief health check to eliminate those individuals who may be at slight risk from participating in the experiment. The room was an empty, calm setting, in order to minimise any stress to the participant, and to avoid any eye strain, a break was given, splitting the trials into two blocks. No deception took place in this experiment. An ethical approval form was completed by researchers prior to the experiment (appendix 4). Results The results were recorded and analysed for each condition in the experiment- 1 (Congruent), 2 (Neutral), 3 (Ignored Repetition) and 4 (Attended Repetition). Any errors, either cognitive (type I), or human/computer (type II), were excluded from the data. Both prime and probe trails were removed regardless of where the error occurred. Error analysis will be discussed later. A table to show a comparison of the mean and standard deviation of the difference between reaction times of prime and probe per condition Condition Mean Standard Deviation 1 (Congruent) 21.250 98.63002 2 (Neutral) 12.950 111.55149 3 (Ignored Rep) -69.350 66.52287 4 (Attended Rep) 35.450 94.73424 A table to show a comparison of mean standard deviation for reaction times of prime and probe per condition Condition Mean Standard Deviation 1 (Congruent ) Prime 1 (Congruent ) Probe 744.3 723.0 156.4 122.3 2 (Neutral) Prime 2 (Neutral) Probe 822.9 809.9 170.7 129.0 3 (Ignored Rep) Prime 3 (Ignored Rep) Probe 782.7 852.0 138.6 132.7 4 (Attended Rep) Prime 4 (Attended Rep) Probe 775.9 740.5 142.1 140.4 See appendix 5 for full SPSS data. The mean difference between prime and probe for condition 3 (Ignored Repetition) was -69.35, which was significantly greater than for any of the other conditions (21.25 for Congruent; 12.95 for Neutral, and 35.45 for Attended Repetition). It also shows that the condition with the smallest difference in reaction time between prime and probe was condition 2 (Neutral). 2 shows that for condition 3 (Ignored repetition) the mean reaction time for the prime (782.7) was smaller than the mean reaction time for the probe (852.0). This stands out when compared to all of the other conditions, where the mean reaction time for the prime was greater than for the probe. This suggests that for conditions 1 (Congruent), 2 (Neutral) and 4 (Attended Rep), the probe generated a quicker response than the prime, yet for condition 3 this effect was reversed and the probe generated a slower response. To further analyse the data, a Two-way Repeated Measures ANOVA was carried out to analyse the reaction times and look at any effect between conditions. The results of the ANOVA shows that the main effect of Condition was significant [F(3,57) = 13.09; p = 0.001]. The following bar chart ( 3) presents a visual representation of this significance and shows the variation between conditions: The second ANOVA was concerned with the difference in reaction times between prime and probe. The ANOVA showed that the main effect of Pair is not significant [F(1,19) = 0.001; p = 0.996], suggesting that the pairing did not significantly affect reaction times. Although the effect was not found to be significant, the plot below ( 4) clearly shows that condition 3 (Ignored Repetition) was the only condition where response time was slower in the probe than in the prime: Thirdly, the interaction effect between Condition and Pair was analysed. This was found to be significant [F(3,57) = 6.6; p = 0.001]. As the interaction effect between ââ¬ËPair and ââ¬ËCondition was significant, a post-hoc Bonferroni was carried out to find where the significances lay. The Bonferroni showed significant differences between the following conditions; (1) Congruent and (2) Neutral (p= 0.001) (1) Congruent and (3) Ignored Repetition (p= 0.002) (2) Neutral and (4) Attended Repetition (p= 0.001) (3) Ignored Repetition and (4) Attended Repetition (p= 0.014) Error analysis Errors were recorded per type I and II for each condition. The table below ( 5) shows the number of errors of each type that occurred in each condition. A table of sums of errors per condition and error type Condition Error Type I Error Type II 1 (Congruent) 11 26 2 (Neutral) 21 33 3 (Ignored Rep) 35 35 4 (Attended Rep) 26 24 A table to show the mean rank of errors per condition Condition Mean Rank 1 (Congruent) 2.15 2 (Neutral) 2.70 3 (Ignored Rep) 2.93 4 (Attended Rep) 2.23 The condition with the lowest number of errors was condition 1 (Congruent), with a mean of 2.15. The condition with the highest number of errors condition 3 (Ignored Repetition), with a mean of 2.93. A Friedmans test was used to analyse the errors and look for any significances in their distribution. Application of Friedmans test showed that there were no significances in the distribution of errors over the four conditions; X2=5.71; df = 3; p = 0.127. Discussion The results obtained show that the mean difference between prime and probe for condition 3 (Ignored repetition) was -69.35, which was notably greater than for any of the other conditions (21.25, 12.95 and 35.45). This suggests that something different is happening in this condition, as the difference is not only a lot greater but also in the opposite direction. The plot ( 4) shows a visual representation of this effect. From this it is possible to infer that in the Ignored repetition condition, negative priming did occur as the probe took longer to respond to than the prime in comparison with all other conditions. After carrying out a two way repeated measures ANOVA, it becomes clear that this is in fact the case. The results of the ANOVA showed that the main effect of Condition was significant [F(3,57) = 13.09; p = 0.001], and that the interaction effect between Condition and Pair was also significant [F(3,57) = 6.6; p = 0.001]. The ANOVA concerning the difference in reaction times between prime and probe showed that the main effect of Pair was not significant [F(1,19) = 0.001; p = 0.996]. Analysis of errors found them not to be significant; however the mean ranks showed that there were more errors in the ignored repetition condition (Mean rank 2.93). This is consistent with previous research; that in the ignored repetition condition, more interference occurs causing slower response times and more mistakes to be made. These findings mean that the hypothesis can be accepted: in an ink colour identification task, when the target in the probe trial matches the distractor in the prime, then reaction times will be significantly slower in comparison to conditions where the prime and probe are unrelated. Thus the experiment supports and confirms the previous research such as that of Dalrymple-Alford and Budayr (1966). The negative priming effect observed in this experiment can be explained as an inhibitory mechanism of attention. The differences in reaction times between conditions infer that for condition 3 (Ignored Repetition), at the point of the probe something different happened in than in the other conditions. In line with previous research, we can assume that due to the suppression of the word in the prime trial, when that colour word then becomes the ink colour in the probe trial, then there is a problem with retrieving that response as it had just been suppressed. One limitation of this experiment was the methodology. The design involved a set of two blocks in a Super Lab program, each containing 15 pairs of each condition, in a randomised order. Between each pair of trials was a blank screen presented for 1000msc. This quick succession of pairs means it may not have been obvious for the participants that the stimuli were in fact presented in pairs. This therefore may be able to explain why the probe condition 1 (Congruent) was fastest; when it was expected that condition 4 (Attended Repetition) would be. To overcome this limitation, future experiments could use separate blocks for each condition- thus making it more obvious that the trials were in certain pairs. In addition to the above adjustment, it would also be interesting to consider individual differences in a future extension of this experiment. There has been numerous past studies that suggest for certain individuals, the effect of negative priming is actually less robust. An example of this is Schizophrenics, who seem less able at inhibition- hence are less susceptible to negative priming (Beech et al 1989). A future investigation could build on the evidence of individual differences playing an important role in the effect of negative priming, and possibly look into more general differences such as cultural background or occupation. For example, it would be interesting to look for any differences in the effect of negative priming between people in creative careers- such as artists, compared with those in writing careers such as journalists. Would someone who is used to looking at words be more prone to negative priming than someone who would be more interested in the colour and form of the word? To summarise, this experiment has shown clear negative priming, consistent with the majority of existing studies, thus supporting the notion of inhibitory processes in attention. References Beech, A., Powell, T., McWilliam, J., Claridge, G. (1989). Evidence of reduced cognitive inhibition in schizophrenia. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 28, 109-116. Broadbent, D. E. (1958). Perception and communication. New York: Pergamon. Deutsch, J. A., Deutsch, D. (1963). Attention: some theoretical considerations. Psychological Review, 70, 80-90. Dalrymple-Alford, E.C., Budayr, B. (1966). Examination of some aspects of the Stroop color-word test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 23, 1211-1214. James, W. (1890). The Principles of Psychology. New York: Henry Holt. MacLeod, C. M., Masson, M. E. J. (2000). Repetition priming in speeded word reading: Contributions of perceptual and conceptual processing episodes. Journal of Memory and Language, 42, 208-228. Pashler, H. (1998). The psychology of attention. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Posner,M.I., Cohen, Y. (1984) . Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma D.G. Bouwhuis (Eds.), Attention and performance X: Control of language processes. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Raymond J.E., Shapiro K.L., Arnell K.M. (1992). Temporary suppression of visual processing in an RSVP task: an attentional blink?. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 18, 849-60. Shiffrin, R.M., Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending, and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84, 127-190. Stroop, J.R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643-662. Tipper, S.P. (1985). The negative priming effect: Inhibitory priming with to be ignored objects. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 37A, 571-590. Tipper, SP (2001) Does negative priming reflect inhibitory mechanisms? A review and integration of conflicting views. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 54A: 321-343. Watson, D. G., Humphreys, G. W. (1997). Visual marking: Prioritizing selection for new objects by top-down attention inhibition of old objects. Psychological Review, 104, 90-122. Wright, R.D Richard, C.M. (1996) Inhibition-of-return at multiple locations in visual space. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50, 324-327.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
The Aesthetic Pedagogy of Francis of Assisi Essay -- Francis Assisi Es
The Aesthetic Pedagogy of Francis of Assisi ABSTRACT: Despite his anti-intellectualism, Francis of Assisi was an effective teacher who intentionally illustrated the life of virtue in his own way of living. He was a teacher in the sense that the Hebrew prophets, Socrates or Gandhi were teachers. He was a performance artist for whom drama functioned pedagogically. His life was not always meant to be an example to his followers; sometimes it was a dramatic lesson, meant to be watched, not imitated. All drama is inherently a distortion of reality because it focuses the attention on one aspect of reality. Francisââ¬â¢ dramatized life distorts the importance of poverty, but this is a distortion from which we may be able to learn if we are able to imaginatively identify with Francis. For Francis, asceticism was a form of obedience, and obedience a mode of knowledge. Such ââ¬Ëpersonalized,ââ¬â¢ lived teaching is the only way in which virtue (as opposed to ethics) may be effectively taught. Francis followed the same model of p aideia as Gandhi, bringing together the physical discipline of radical asceticism with the aesthetic experience of a dramatic life in which he played the roles of troubadour and fool. Unlike most of the other Western European figures of the 12th-century who are frequent subjects of academic study, Francis of Assisi was not a scholar. He had the education appropriate to the middle-class son of a prosperous merchant, but he never taught in a university, never wrote a Summa or a Commentary on the Sentences, never spent time in libraries. For much of his lifetime, the Order of Friars Minor didnââ¬â¢t even own a Bible, let alone any other books. Brother Leo, one of Francisââ¬â¢ closest companions, wrote of him that he "did not want ... ...hton, 1923), p. 106. (6) Bonaventure, Major Life, VI. 2. (7) Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Garden City: Doubleday, 1959), pp. 17-18. (8) cited in Goffman, op. cit., pp. 19, 20. (9) Dorothy Heathcote, Collected Writings on Education and Drama (London: Hutchinson, 1984), p. 114. (10) cited in Howard Williams, Concepts of Ideology (New York; St. Martin's Press, 1988), p. 111. (11) Walter Brueggemann, The Creative Word: Canon as a Model for Biblical Education, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 91. (12) Brueggemann, op. cit., p. 104. (13) Leroy S. Rouner, "Can Virtue Be Taught in a School?," Can Virtue Be Taught?, vol. 14, Boston University Studies in Philosophy and Religion, ed. Barbara Darling-Smith, p. 142. (14) Rouner, op. cit., p.147. (15) Rouner, op. cit., p. 148. (16) Chesterton, op. cit., p. 86.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
A Comparison of Imprisonment in Yellow Wallpaper, Jane Eyre and Slave Girl :: compare and contrast essay examples
Imprisonment in Yellow Wallpaper, Jane Eyre and Slave Girl à à When I think of prisons, the first thing that comes into my mind is of course locking someone up against their will or as a punishment, because someone else has decided that this is for the best or simply wants to get someone out of the way. Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre is locked up in the attic and the woman in The Yellow Wall-paper is confined to a summer home by her husband. For both these women, the locking up serves as yet another prison: they are both already prisoners in their own bodies by their mental states. In The Yellow Wall-paper, the main character is placed in a summer home to recover from a nervous condition. Her husband John, a doctor, believes that in order to get well, she has to take a rest cure and refrain from all kinds of physical or mental exertion, and he therefore more or less locks her up in one of the larger rooms of the house where she has nothing to do but stare at the wallpaper and keep a diary. She believes to see a woman trapped behind the wallp aper and strips it off in order to set her free - this I see as how she sees herself in her confinement. Her psychological state as well as the confinement to the room, along with the gender roles and expectations of that time, all work together to make her a prisoner kept making her own decisions. The husband is the provider, the one who knows best and the one who makes the decisions and she has no way of voicing her own. She finally "escapes" her controlling husband and the room by finally descending into insanity. "'I've got out at last', said I, 'in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!'" (Gilman, p1669). Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre has, to use a slightly old-fashioned term, gone mad to such an extent that she is dangerous to both herself and to others. To get her out of the way, Mr Rochester has her locked up and he pretends that she has never existed at all. By treating her like an animal (putting her in a large cage), he creates a real (physical) prison with its locks and bars, and I believe that only makes matters worse, since there certainly was no way that she would ever recover up there.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Comparing and Contrasting PCs and mainframes Essay
Before the existence of personal computer or PC, there is minicomputer or microcomputer, the term ââ¬Å"computerâ⬠simply referred to mainframes. Mainframes and personal computers have changed drastically over the years but their core functions and systems have stayed the same. The mainframe is used to connect multiple users for large organizations, while personal computers are generally used for a single user. The more drastic changes for mainframes and personal computers have been the increase of speed, memory, and the reduction of size. Mainframes use to be the size of buildings, now they are the size of a normal Intel blade server system. Last time when you need to access the mainframe you need to use a terminal for data entry or retrieve certain data. Then, the idea came to off load some of the processing from the mainframe and place it on a personal computer. Compare A mainframe is not much difference from a personal computer. There are many similarities between mainframes and personal computers which stands to reason since one evolved from the other. Both mainframes and personal computers have one or more central processor units, a huge number of memory, one or more busses, and one or more I/O systems. Another similarity between the two is that they are both IBM-based systems and similar hardware is used to build them. They can also perform some complex calculations, applications and handle multiple programs. Another area is that both require operating system to work and also to handle and optimize all the I/O systems or modules. Differences Although they are much similarity between the mainframes and computer as mention above, the similarity stop there as they are many differences too. Mainframes cost much more in terms of thousands of dollar than a normal personal computer or server. The mainframe nowadays takes up less space and less power consumption compare to a server farm task to do the same job. As mention (Shurkin, 1996), Transaction processing jobs run constantly in real-time and must be available more than 99. 99% of the time. The reboots and lock-ups common with PCs are simply not acceptable. Thousands of individual users can log in simultaneously from a variety of sources such as computer terminals, ATM, or Internet web sites, and complete a single transaction. Time-sharing jobs can be started when needed from a computer terminal by authorized users who then use the mainframe as their own big PC. Finally, batch jobs are started automatically by the system at regular times according to a strict predetermined schedule. Batch jobs are used to do the periodic processing required on the data being received from transaction and time-sharing jobs. Closing the accounting books at month-end or copying disk files to tape for backup are examples of batch type processing. The OS or Operating System in a mainframe such as from IBM z/OS which is the successor to the IBM OS/390 can run Multiple Virtual Systems (MVS). The new IBM z/OS support WebSphereà ® Application Server on z/OS, and also the new zFS (System z File System) Direct I/O capability in z/OS. This help to enhance performance improvements to the system, and also provide an easier Parallel Sysplex functionality (IBM, September 2011). In an article by (Barnett G, 2010) stated that the mainframe is best suited for enterprise cloud computing as it is easily able to handle hundreds of complex applications or programs, and most important able to run hundreds of environment in a single physical footprint and easily deliver the 24Ãâ"7 availability that our customers demand. Conclusion (Doerbecker & Patterson, 2002), stated that the role of the mainframe has gradually changed from that of a data processor to that of a server, with the processing being done on the userââ¬â¢s PC. It has also been modified to interface to the Internet through the addition of TCP/IP protocols, Unix, and Java programming, to enable businesses to connect to their customers over that network. Once the only form of business computer available, the mainframe has survived the PC revolution and maintained an important function in commercial computing.
Monday, September 16, 2019
Corporate Entrepreneurship Essay
Background: US Broadcasting Industry: The US media industry was the second largest market around world at $255.1 billion and was forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 2.3 percent till 2017. Within the media industry, broadcasting and TV was the largest category with a market of $142.6 billion. The industry players were competing mainly with one another for viewership to drive advertising revenue which was the primary source of profits. The traditional advertising driven business model started to shift due to a few trends. First of all, there were more ways for broadcasting advertisers to reach customers. The progressive consumerization of technologies such as social media tools had contributed to this trend. Secondly, new technology products made it possible for users to skip advertising. Thirdly, the content creation was getting localized and the audience was fragmenting. Fourthly, more television advertising was purchased through consolidated conglomerates which had various resources with better insights about their target audiences. Lastly, the switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasting not only led to multicasting with more channels but also made the industry more favorable for new entrants. In general, the technologies were putting so much pressures on the traditional business of this industry. Latinos in the US: There were also unique factors for this largest minority group in US. Firstly, the Latinos were growing at 8 times the rate of the non-Latino population and contributed to nearly 17% of US total population. Other than that, the per capita income of US Latinos were higher than any of the BRIC and households and was growing at a faster rate than the number of total households in US. Thirdly, Latinos were on the path of ââ¬Å"acculturationâ⬠and they were leading dual lives. However, the Latinos formed only 6% of the total marketing pie as an audience and there did exist a huge gap. As a result, Latino market had truly become the most potential market segment for various industries. Entravision, Luminar and the Big Data: Entravision, which had 56 TV stations and 49 radio stations in most popular Latino markets across US in 2013, was the largest independent public media company focused principally on the US Latino audience. Regards all the strong corporate performances and growths, Franklin Rios and Walter Ulloa, the founding chairman of Entravision, had agreed on to set up an analytics division called Luminar in Entravision. The main objective of Luminar was to act as the first mover which would leverage Big Data analytics at Entravision to offer exceptional marketing and advertising products as well as lead Entravision to transform from a media company into an information and analytics company. Situation: Rios understood the impacts both the technological trends and the Latino demographic trends had made to the US broadcasting industry. He understood that the traditional market research tools had limitations which would not help him to further extract insights from the US Latino market and the search for alternatives led him to the Big Data. His Big Data initiative was strongly supported by Ulloa as he believed that leveraging Big Data at Entravision could not only help them to fully understand the Latino market to extract its huge potential values but also serves as a new element of corporate strategy to lead Entravision to stand out from its traditional media industry competitors. As a result, Rios and Ulloa decided to establish Luminar as the Big Data analytic division at Entravision. At the same time, Ulloaââ¬â¢s own interest in the launch of Luminar we driven by these 4 objectives: Entravision should transform from a media company into an information and analytics company. Laminar would be the centerpiece of such a transformation of Entravision. The new data driven approach of Luminar would complement the traditional survey driven approach of Entravision. Luminar would in the long run to be a new revenue stream for Entravision. As the first mover in the space without any competitor in sight, Luminar and Entravision had gained strategic advantages over their competitors. Using the Socio-technical framework to further understand Luminar and Entravisionââ¬â¢s positions under the Big Data environment, it is important to consider Entravision and Luminaries respectively and then collectively to evaluate how closely they align with each other: Entravision: Structure: A listed company, multiple broadcasting stations, with traditional corporate function units such as Finance, Marketing, R&D, Sales and etc. People: Nearly 1,000 employees, familiar with the old industry norms, believe qualitative data was more important than quantitative data. IT: Majorly TV and Radio, mobile, digital, web, other interactive media Process: All kinds of traditional ways of delivering values to customers, community involvement, local content creation. Luminar: Structure: New corporate entrepreneurship, division of Entravision, President Rios reporting directly to Ulloa, initial investments all from parent company People: Exposed to technologies and innovations, data driven, IT: Huge amount of data from various sources, Hortonworks, MapReduce, high performance data analysis platform Process: New revenue streams, data analytics, using various algorithms From the above Socio-technical framework analysis, there were huge differences between Entravision and Luminar in terms of structure, people, IT and process. Also, this distinct misalignment could seed potential roadblocks for Luminarââ¬â¢s future growth. Problems: Rios was truly facing some problems before the launch of Luminar. First of all, the growth target set by Ulloa for Luminar to generate 10% of the revenues of Entravision in 5 years was achievable but was too aggressive and pressuring. He was confident that with no competitors in the market Luminar could reach this target, however, he did need more time to sort out other problems. Secondly, unbalanced interests lead him to question about theà effectiveness of Luminarââ¬â¢s structure fit into Entravision as a fully embedded division. Moreover, there was no proper performance measurement system existing at that moment for Luminar to build up the credibility both internally and externally. Furthermore, although Luminar could approach internally or externally, there was still no clear direction for Luminar regarding how to leverage Big Data analytics at Entravision. Lastly, Rios was also worried about how he could sustain a first mover advantage for Luminar and the business model could not easily been imitated by competitors. Based on all the issues Rios were concerning, the fundamental problem should lied on that there were no internal buy-in at Entravision because people were skeptical about Luminar. Therefore, how to successfully securing internal buy-in became extremely critical to Luminarââ¬â¢s sustainable long term growth. Analysis: Obviously, for Entravision, it had stable business and constant growth for years. At the same time, the strong demographic trend of Latino group was bringing more and more opportunities for future business of Entravision. Furthermore, the traditional marketing method based on qualitative data were still believed to be reliable. As a result, there was no evidence of any burning platform at Entravision and thus no urgency for any organizational change. The socio-technical framework analysis in the situation part also shows that there were distinct misalignments between Luminar and Entravision regarding the 4 organizational aspects including structure, people, IT and processes. These misalignments indicates that it could be really hard for Entravision people to understand, accept and then support what Luminar was about to do. Securing internal buy-in Entravision was really critical to Luminar. First of all, as its entrepreneur division, Entravision would be committing funds for the laun ch of the Big Data initiative and its growth. The funds would be provided to Luminar on annual basis. Thus, if the internal buy-in was not in place, Luminarââ¬â¢s funds for growth would not be guaranteed regardless the performance of Luminar. Secondly, one of the major objectives for establishing Luminar was to make it as a central part of corporate strategy to transform Entravision from a traditional media companyà to an information and analytics company. Rios and Ulloa had to admit that this was also an attempt to change the underlying corporate culture of Entravision and culture change has been considered as the most challenging part for any organization change. Without internal buy-in, the transformation efforts would quickly fade out without changing the DNA of Entravision. Thirdly, the new data driven approach of Luminar was expected to be complemented with the traditional survey driven approach of Entravision. Without internal support from Entravision R&D department, Luminar would not be able to come up with more int egrated and systematic solutions to its customer and offer its customer with better and insightful marketing solutions to target at the US Latino group. In addition, Luminar relied strongly on the partnership with Entravision. Entravisionââ¬â¢s market experiences as well as customer relationships could provide Luminar with a very resourceful platform to start their sales. If Luminar could not secure internal buy-in from department such as Marketing, Luminar would not be able to leverage this resourceful platform to make itself as a new revenue stream for Entravision. When we look back at the minor problems in the previous section that Rios was trying to figure out, it seems that most of them were resulted from the major issue that there were no internal buy-in in place. For example, Rios was wondering what kind of structural fit Luminar should be, what caused this was exactly the different interests from internal stakeholders. If they all the internal stakeholders were supporting Luminar, the anticipated structural fit for Luminar to be a strategic division in Entravision should be the win-win solution. Other than that, Riosââ¬â¢ concern on performance milestones was also caused by the lack of internal buy-in because Rios needed to lead Luminar to achieve those milestones to establish credibility with not only with customers but also with employees of Entravision. Decision Criteria: 1: Financial stability The first criteria for evaluating the best option is financial stability. Although Luminar was different from traditional type of startup companies which were always looking for sources of funds, Luminar still facedà pressures from losing support from Ulloa and Entravision. If there was not any feasible substitution for funds available for Luminar, Luminar should try to ensure the current committed funds from Entravision. 2: Remove resistances from R&D, finance and sales department Internal resists came primarily from the three sources which are R&D, finance and sales departments. The winning option should effectively remove the roadblocks from all of these 3 departments. Luminar absolutely needed corporations from these 3 departments to support its long term growth. The R&D would be providing human and technical resources for Luminar to develop the Big Data analytic solutions. The finance department would be responsible for funding Luminar and measuring its performance. Sales department would help Luminar approach its new products and solutions to Entravisionââ¬â¢s existing customers as well as any new potential customers. 3: Sustain long term culture change This criteria requires the option to be able to sustain long term culture change inside Entravision. Basically, the option could further help the Entravision employee understand what Big Data is and what kind of benefits Big Data could bring to them. If the Entravision employees started to realize the solutions based on quantitative data is better than the traditional norms based on the qualitative data, they would start to accept Big Data and Luminar and finally start to change the culture. 4: Potence of creating business synergies and new revenue streams. This criteria is used to evaluate if the options have potential to create business synergies and new revenue streams. The Luminar was not even started so everything was still unknown. As a result, one of the easiest ways to secure internal buy-in would be showing that the option had potential to create business synergies and new revenue streams. The above 4 criteria are listed according to their priorities. Criteria 1 must be satisfied as it is critical to all new business adventure. Criteria 2 also needs to be satisfied because unable to remove those major resistances could directly result in failing the process of securingà internal buy-in. Criteria 3 also needs to be satisfied as it could further strengthen the internal buy-in by eventually encoding the data analytics into Entravisionââ¬â¢s DNA. The last criteria is also important as satisfying it could deliver Entravision with even higher level of confidence in Luminar. Options: Since Luminar was not even started, the proposed options here are basically strategic proposals that Rios could present to Ulloa and the board of directors to show how he could possibly secure the internal buy-in. 1: Luminar as an independent startup company and acts as a strategic partner with Entravision For this option, Rios would propose that Luminar to become a separate company and maintain an armââ¬â¢s-length with Entravision. As an independent startup company, Luminar would acquire its own resources such as R&D, HR, Operation, Marketing and Sales. With initial funds from Entravision, Luminar could go out and seek more venture capitals for its build up and future development. At the same time, the company can focus on its own corporate vision and objectives without worrying about any resistances from Entravision. As a strategic partner with Entravision, Luminar could still take advantage from Entravisionââ¬â¢s resourceful platform. For this option, since Luminar did not have any prototype available and with only the ideas in Riosââ¬â¢ mind, it could be really hard for Luminar to seek external venture capitals. In the meantime, securing funds from Entravision executives would also become harder as it is no longer a part of Entravision. As a result, this option has very high risk in securing the financial stability and could not satisfy the first criteria. Luminar would no longer act as a change agent in Entravision if it becomes independent. Thus this option would also not meet criteria 3. Although this option strongly satisfying criteria 2, it still can be easily opted out as it does not meet the most important criteria 1 and 3. 2: Luminar as a strategic division and focus on leveraging Big Data externally For this option, Luminar would keep the current structure fit to be a strategic division of Entravision. At the same time, Luminar wouldà focus on leveraging Big Data externally by targeting with external customers. Rios already had initiatives in mind and he planned to develop three specific products based on Big Data at Luminar. The first product would be Analytics which could interpret data to help clients target their customers better. The second product would be a service that could ââ¬Å"cookie-tizeâ⬠offline transactions data to merge with online data and altogether to enable clients to expand the scope of their digital market. The third product could improve the accuracy of social media to provide customers with more fine-grind market insights. Rios would initially use the three new products to aim at blue chip marketers and advertisers who were Entravision customers and provide them with competitive advantages. For this option, as long as Luminar could generate topline performance, Entravision would continue to invest in Luminar. As a result, this option satisfy criteria 1 as it keeps Entravision as the best investor to keep financial stability. Luminarââ¬â¢s focus on external customers might not effectively remove the resistance from its R&D department. However, by targeting at the blue chip key customers, any successful sales closure could turn the marketing team from resistance to support. Regarding the financial department, as long as the revenue starts to come in, CFO and the financial folks would start to believe in Luminar. Thus, for the second criteria, this option could partially satisfy it. For the third criteria, as most of Entravision employees were still not able to see the benefits that Big Data could bring to them and with remaining major resistance from R&D department, this option could not effectively sustain the long term culture change. For the criteria 4, this option successfully satisfy it as it would definitely create new revenue streams for Entravision. 3: Further leveraging Big Data at Entravision through internal innovations. This option is basically built on the top of option 2 and Lumina would further leveraging Big Data internally. Luminar would still focus strongly on the existing external customers and developing those 3 products for offering. Other than that, Luminar would design and develop tools and solutions specifically tailored to internal departments. For example, Luminar could develop Big Data initiatives to help finance department to tracking real time cash flows as well as forecasting budgets. For HRà department, solutions could be created for helping them in team building and performance evaluation. For sales department, Big Data could also help them in inventory management, forecasting, relationship management, closing deals and etc. Regarding the R&D department, Luminar could also offer solutions which were basically better than what they were having. Meanwhile, Luminar could work with R&D department to achieve predictive analytics in the future. For this option, it would boost the corporate performance through both internal and external initiatives. It could definitely satisfy criteria 1. For criteria 2, this option further indicates what Luminar and Big Data could bring to those 3 departments. With both the external performance and internal benefits, the 3 departments would likely to start buy-in and thus this criteria is also satisfied. For the third criteria, this option allows Lumina to distinguish most number of early adopters throughout the corporation and they could simply help with spreading the DNA out to rest of the corporation to sustain the long term culture change. For the last criteria, this option is truly able to show that Luminar would be potential to create business synergies by offering various internal initiatives and new revenue streams through those 3 mentioned products targeting external customers. By comparing all of the above options, approaching the third option seems the most favorable as it satisfy all of the four criteria. When Rios was about to propose this option to Ulloa and the board of directors, they would be confident that Luminar could successfully remove the resistances and secure sufficient internal buy-in. Plan: Short term: 6 months to 1 year For the short term, Rios should clearly propose the winning option to Ulloa and rest of the board of directors. He needed to explain the proposal with great details which would help the directors to carry forward his ideas and messages down to each department of Entravision. The next thing Rios should do was to officially establish Luminar and start seeking for the resources to build up his team. The DNA of the Entravision was not analytical, thus,à it would be better to attract resources from outside of Entravision. At the same time, Luminar should target at hiring analytic resources with strong Latino background as they know how to generate better insights from the Latino market. By end of the 6th month, Luminar should have the core team successfully built. After that, Luminar should start the data acquisition tasks. The process he envisioned involved building a database of US adults and a subset of Latino adults in US. Then, Luminar would extract data from social media tools such as blogs, tweets and YouTube. Together, this would generate, from preliminary reckoning, about 125 terabyte of living, breathing data which could be analyzed in real time. Going forward, the data would be ingested into Hortonworks along with algorithms such as MapReduce and Luminar customized ones to profile consumer types with a high degree of precision. This fundamental technical platform for Big Data analytic should be established and tested to be reliable by end of year 1. Medium term: 1 year -3 years Starting this period, Luminar should invite representatives from each internal department and work together on the development of both external customer facing products as well as the internal customer facing products. Those representatives should be people welcome to any change and they would also be responsible for acting as the change agents for their corresponding departments. Those 3 products targeting at external customers should receive higher priority. By end of mid of year 2, the prototypes of the 3 products should be ready for test. Sales team should working closely with Luminar and get involved in the product development process. The reason why promoting sales team involvement is that it would offer enough information and training for them to change their messages to pitch customers. And by end of year 2, the final delivery of these 3 products should be ready for any potential business opportunity to generating revenue. After the external products were developed, Luminar would shift their efforts to focus on developing those internal products. Those representatives from each department should be involved within the development process and feed update back to their own departments. By end of the mid of year 3, prototypes for internal products should be ready for testing and initial training. By end of the year 3, the final internal products should be in production and fullà scale of training should be in place. Organizational change effort could be started parallelly in this period with the product development. Successful transformational change must have supports from the c-level, as a result, Rios should work with Ulloa to secure buy-in within board of directors and executives to support the organization culture change. Kotterââ¬â¢s 8 steps could be used to direct the change process. By end of this period, Luminar should be able to successfully secure large scale internal buy-in and would offer them a health and sustainable environment for future growth. Long term: 3 ââ¬â 5 years In this long term period, with further adoption of internal products within various departments, analytical DNA should started to spread over through word of mouth, performance dashboards and etc. The culture change process should also benefit from the above achievement. For Luminar, its primary objectives in this term would be maintain and improve both the external and internal products. At the same time, Luminar would focus on revenue growth and work hard to achieve that 10 percent of total revenues of Entravision by end of the fifth year. If Luminar turned out to be a successful corporate entrepreneurship adventure, Entravision should make Luminar as an example in the future to leverage another corporate entrepreneurship to facing any future revolutionary industry change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)