Road Rage Free Essay Example, 1000 words

When we take into consideration the perspective of the Irish society with regards to road rage, we find out that the situation within the country is not at all different to what is rampant throughout the world. This means that road rage is a common phenomenon which is experienced by drivers around Ireland. The most common occurrence of road rage is within towns and this follows closely to a road and even in some cases includes motorways as well, where strict measures are in place to avoid the very same. All said and done, within the European nations, road rage has remained as a constant stigma of tension and worry as far as the government agencies and police authorities are concerned and without a change in the make up (thinking) of the drivers, there seems to be no way to look forward. Road rage are more common within South England, where the stats show a 29% happening while 18% is the figure provided for the same cases within North of England. Eastern England has a statistic of 15 % but since we are discussing the Irish perspective, we find that the figure for this country stands at 3% which is something that can be written home about. We will write a custom essay sample on Road Rage or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The figures for Wales and Scotland are at 5% and 6% respectively which suggests that road rage within Ireland is at the minimal possible level. Nonetheless measures are being taken with the passage of time to educate the drivers and indeed the general public with respect to their road responsibilities and to treat each and every pedestrian and/or driver with sheer respect and nothing else. One of the most important reasons that has been given for having road rage on the part of the drivers is that they were mentally disturbed or in agony due to family problems and the like. This means that road rage accounts itself more than half of its share on the family issues. These issues need to remain within homes and not publicly made a mess out of, at least on the roads in front of Tom, Dick and Harry. Research into road rage has suggested that United Kingdom is the worst affected by this violent behavior and thus it needs to get its act right if it wants to come down the research listings. ‘White Van Man’ has been indicted 13% of all the road rage incidents that have happened within the UK. Three in five of the offenders on the road felt pretty fine with their attitude on the road and stated that since it was the mistake of the victim in the first place, the same deserved to receive it for his/her own betterment. This means that more than anything else, there ne eds to be an attitude of empathy before a person vehemently demonstrates road rage and brings his/her own personality and eventually the actions under question.

Racism In Desirees Baby - 1272 Words

Kate Chopin’s short story â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† is about racism. Desiree, the main character who does not know her own identity at the beginning, is given a French name that means to be desired. Not only she is desired by her adoptive parents: Madame and Monsieur Valmonde, but also desired by her slave-owning husband Armand Aubigny. Investigating the symbolic spaces and objects associated with Desiree and Armand leads to a comparison of lightness and darkness in the story. The theme of the short story is that racism is one of the fundamental causes of destruction in society, is explored by comparison of lightness and darkness in the story. The first important detail of setting is the ‘quote’ where Desiree was found, on the boundaries of the†¦show more content†¦First, Desiree was found in the front of Valmonde’s plantation â€Å"lying asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar.† (57) In the first quote, the words such as lying asleep at the stone pillar suggests that she finds comfort and safety beside the gate, similarly to the feeling of home. The stone pillars also suggest strength and support. These words imply that the Valmonde family is her pillar which will be essential to her first eighteen years of life at the plantation. The second time Desiree was discovered in front of the plantation by Armand, â€Å"she stood one day against the stone pillar in whose shadow she had lain asleep.† (57) The difference between the first and second quote is that Desiree stands by the stone pillars and instead of being asleep she seems to be ready to leave the Valmonde family behind. Stone pillars are mentioned again when Armand falls in love with Desiree and this represents that Desiree’s new pillar is Armand. Armand marries Desiree to demonstrate his obligation to marry someone who is white to maintain his position of authority in society. Armand’s presence in La Blanche’s cabin suggests that Armand has a sexual relationship with other women other than Desiree. La Blanche’s is a slave that works on Armand’s plantation and take cares of children. She differs from other slaves on the plantation due to her skin colour which is described by her name, La Blanche. La Blanche means the colour white inShow MoreRelatedRacial And Sexual Discrimination Throughout Desiree s Baby And Society1408 Words   |  6 PagesRacial and Sexual Discrimination Throughout Desiree’s Baby and Society It was a very tough life for many women and blacks during the 19th Century because of the domination of the white men. Their social and economic lives showed the hardships they faced and was a constant reminder of the domination. The social ideology present in â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† was a powerful and dangerous force that showed no mercy to any character. A woman with small children who lost her husband would find no support or comfortRead MoreAn Analysis Of Kate Chopin s Desiree s Baby 1705 Words   |  7 PagesThe Outlook of Racism in the 19th Century Written prior to the Civil War and published in 1893, Kate Chopin’s work â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† is a short story about miscegenation within a French family living in Louisiana in the late nineteenth century. Miscegenation is defined as the mixture of different racial groups, through marriage or cohabitation, between a white race and a member of another race. Chopin writes this piece of realistic fiction which exposes the issues of society that would not be facedRead MoreKate Chopin s Desiree s Baby878 Words   |  4 PagesKate Chopin’s â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby† Many of Kate Chopin’s short stories deal with women in search of love, self-knowledge, and a sense of belonging, however, in â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby† we see a much more apparent theme of miscegeny, slavery, and racism. In her critical essay on â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby,† Rena Korb asserts that â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby† mainly focusses on a woman seeking only a place of belonging. Upon reading â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby† one could come to the conclusion that this story is much more concerned with expressingRead MoreThe Story Of An Hour By Kate Chopin1540 Words   |  7 PagesIn â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† Desiree is an orphaned woman who married her loving husband, Armand, and they are very much in love. In Kate Chopin’s short story is says, â€Å"He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana? (24-26). When t hey finally have a baby, they notice that the child is showing marks that he is a mix of two races. The husband blames the wife because of her unknown past and sends her and the baby awayRead MoreDescrimination of Women Essay938 Words   |  4 Pagesconsidered superior, so men were more important and valuable in the society than women. The stories Desiree’s baby and Trespass are focused the racism and discrimination by men on women. There we can see the both male demonism and racism which are very extremely harass women’s feelings. The both stories â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† and â€Å"Trespass† shows the relationship between men and women in different ways. Desirees Baby is the unfortunate story of a young woman who falls victim to both social and racial inequalityRead MoreDesiree s Baby : Irony1392 Words   |  6 PagesGreta Scalco Scalco 1 Dr. Sabrina Boyer ENG 131- FON01 12/11/2016 Irony in â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† Irony existed in real life from immemorial time and will continue to be, therefore, the authors of literary works will continue in the future to use this literary technique in their work to highlight the truths of human society, and readers will continue to be interested in such works in the future. Irony is a comment used to transmit disappointmentRead More Symbolism in Desirees Baby by Kate Chopin Essay944 Words   |  4 PagesSymbolism in Desirees Baby by Kate Chopin Desirees Baby is Kate Chopins most well-known short story and most anthologized piece of work. The story takes place in southern Louisiana and her writing reflects her Creole-French descent. Chopin begins the story with a descriptive quote, when she reached LAbri she shuddered at the first sight of it, as she always did. It was a sad looking place...Big solemn oaks grew close to it and their thick leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it likeRead MoreAn Analysis Of Armand Aubigny s Desiree s Baby 1538 Words   |  7 PagesArmand Aubigny’s Pride in â€Å"Desiree’s Baby† by Kate Chopin Through history, we have always yearned independence and equality as human beings. Undoubtedly, Kate Chopin is an extraordinary example She has landed a commendable place among American writers worthy of recognition. Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850, Kate was raised by strong women who taught her the value of an education. Her family gave her a revolutionary vision and a feminist personality, but it was her talented and passionate skillsRead MoreDesirees Baby by Kate Chopin Essay1239 Words   |  5 PagesImagine finding out that your entire life was a lie, and that every single thing you knew about your identity and your family was completely false! Armand Aubigny, one of the main characters in Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin, experiences this exact dilemma throughout this short story. Desiree’s Baby is a story about a young man and woman, who fall in love, but Desiree, who does not know her birth parents, is considered nameless. When she and Armand have a child, the y are both very surprised becauseRead MoreThe Concept Of Race In Dà ©sirà ©es Baby By Kate Chopin762 Words   |  4 Pages In her short story named â€Å"Dà ©sirà ©e’s Baby†, Kate Chopin gives readers an inside view of the concept of race in the pre-Civil War era of Louisiana. Chopin’s protagonist, Dà ©sirà ©e, clashes with societal standards because of her mixed-race child and unknown racial origins. Race becomes a major conflict throughout the story and drives Dà ©sirà ©e’s husband to blame her for the child. The ironic ending of the story not only gives a surprising twist but also makes a stand against the concept of biological

Lord Of The Flies Symbolism Essay Research free essay sample

Lord Of The Flies Symbolism Essay, Research Paper Symbolism in Lord of the Fliess The narrative, Lord of the Flies, has many interesting symbols associating grownup society to pull the leg of lasting on an island. Many of the characters and points in this novel such as Jack or the conch can be interpreted on a macroscopic graduated table but the most of import being this ; a microcosm of kids on an island makes a great symbolic message about human nature, society and how grown-ups unrecorded and govern # 8211 ; and how they can non. When you consider the clip period this book was written, you can see where Golding got some of his inspiration. Europe was still retrieving after WW2 and the writer likely wanted to notice on the political convulsion during the 50s. The island is a microcosm of the universe during this clip, and its cicatrix represents human devastation once the childs were dropped or # 8220 ; reborn # 8221 ; on the island. If we look at the book as a political statement we can already feel leaders and followings. Obviously, Ralph, described as a good-looking, trusting on common sense type of regular chap, is the sympathetic, just, and even admired, democratic leader. He has a few loyal advisers and following. Piggy, a smart chubby male child, represents the scientific community and logical thought, with spectacless that represent lucidity, civilisation and the power to acquire back. He is basically Ralph # 8217 ; s method of regulating. Sam `n Eric, the twin laborers, stuck with Ralph until the terminal and did a batch of concerted activities for Ralph. They were the hut builders, fire stamps and wood gatherers. The small 1s besides liked Ralph. They were the citizens and at times were happy but easy grew discontent as Eden became snake pit. Throughout the narrative the small 1s didn # 8217 ; t do much but in the beginning they did vote Ralph in and fundamentally brought him into power. Because the people elected Ralph, he hence is a true democratic swayer. He passes the conch typifying ord er about, lets others talk, follows regulations and does non mean to interrupt them himself. There # 8217 ; s problem implementing the Torahs merely like our democracies, today. However, we are still nonparasitic citizens, much like the childs under Ralph # 8217 ; s reign. Jack and Roger are the complete antonym. Jack represents the savageness and hatred in all of us. Get downing out as a choirboy, he easy evolves into the hunting # 8220 ; Chief # 8221 ; of the resistance party. Methods used by Hitler were besides used by Jack. Entire control such as binding and strapping Wilfred and propaganda like utilizing the animal to animate fright and showing himself as the lone protection is used in his dictatorial regulation. He overthrows Ralph with merriment, and so returns to utilize musculus once he had friends like Roger. Roger is his right manus adult male but is even worse. He starts out throwing stones, moves on to tormenting hogs and in the terminal he deliberately kills Piggy. He was a panic while tormenting with Sam n # 8217 ; Eric and the executioner when he killed Piggy. He is what Jack uses to govern, much like Hitler # 8217 ; s personal guard and is even more utmost and totalitarian than Jack. Jack and Roger # 8217 ; s lift to pow er mirror existent life events. Ralph giving Jack control of the choir near the beginning of the book is brooding on many of the European dictator’s rise to power during WW2. Weak leaders of the Western universe did non implement the Treaty of Versailles nor did they defy the appropriations done by Hitler before the war. Cipher opposed him till it was excessively tardily much like this novel. Ralph tried, and their ain small â€Å"war† broke out when the fire was stolen and continued until Ralph was saved by opportunity when the naval forces came, similar to the United States switching the balance near the terminal of the war. Simon is the primary spiritual and good figure because of his religious and prophetic ways. Never violent and reasonably much alone is what he # 8217 ; s like throughout the narrative. He says to Ralph, # 8220 ; All the same. You # 8217 ; ll acquire back all right. I think so, anyway. # 8221 ; He hangs out in a tranquil topographic point in the book and dramas with a lizard at that place in the film, it was a soft scene and he is depicted as a little, frail character. These qualities make him guiltless and pure but he was besides the first to calculate out what the animal truly was. Shy and embarrassed he hides the fact that the animal may truly be their interior frights, which is precisely what the animal represented. The animal turned out to be nil more than a dead parachuter, who is freed by Simon, which in bend, frees the other male childs # 8217 ; frights. He besides experienced a # 8220 ; vision # 8221 ; like Moses while sitting following to the hog caput besides know as the Lord of the Fliess, something that inspires fright and exploits the insecurities that the male childs hold. This is a batch like the Devil people during the Middle Ages were so afraid of. To Simon, it represents danger and a bad portents because he falls victim to it while running off. The animal says, # 8220 ; -Or else, we shall make you. See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Do you. See? # 8221 ; The hog caput was right ; Simon is killed by the whole group of dancing male childs. The hogs themselves may stand for some kind of grownup or feminine function because of the absence of females on this island. The hogs are the beginning of diversion, nutrient and comfort for Jack # 8217 ; s group. The linguistic communication besides suggests it, in Chapter Eight the group was # 8220 ; # 8230 ; fulfilled upon her. # 8221 ; They were besides # 8220 ; # 8230 ; wedded to her in lecherousness # 8230 ; # 8221 ; Painted, runing # 8220 ; female parents # 8221 ; and nameless, Tells us they # 8217 ; re traveling off from society, traveling back to a crude province. The hogs though triggered this behaviour. Lord of the Flies is filled with symbolism and can be expressed in political footings or in a spiritual sense. There are many messages between the lines but the last 1 may be the most of import. The stoping takes them back to adult society and the existent universe. The boys halt and allow the officer take attention of concern # 8230 ; but he does non. The grownup merely turns his dorsum and lets the male childs pull together, abandoning them. # 8220 ; The officer, surrounded by these noises, was moved and a small abashed. He turned off to give them clip to draw themselves together ; and waited, leting his eyes to rest on the spare patrol car in the distance. # 8221 ; Bibliography Lord of the Fliess

Personal Selling Essay Example

Personal Selling Paper In the past few tutorials we saw how marketers can use advertising, sales promotion and public relations to reach a large number of customers. While these methods of promotion offer many advantages, they each share one major disadvantage: they are a non-personal form of communication. And whether a company is in retailing or manufacturing, sells goods or services, is a large multinational or a local startup, is out to make a profit or is a non-profit, in all probability at some point they will need to rely on personal contact with customers. In other words, they will need to promote using personal selling. Unfortunately, personal selling is widely misunderstood. For instance, many customers think salespeople possess traits that include being manipulative, arrogant, aggressive and greedy. While many marketers believe salespeople are only out to make a quick sale intended to increase their income and that they often do this by making unscrupulous deals undermining the marketer’s attempt to build strong brands. While there certainly are some salespeople that fit these descriptions, today the most successful salespeople are those who work hard to understand their customers’ needs with the ultimate goal of ensuring that customer’s needs are satisfied at a high level. And, more importantly, personal selling holds a key role in the promotional activities of a large number of organizations. In fact, in the business market where one company sells products to another company, money spent to support the selling function far exceeds spending on advertising. We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Selling specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Selling specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Selling specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In this part of our highly detailed Principles of Marketing Tutorials, we begin a two-part look at personal selling. We will continue our coverage of personal selling in the next tutorial when we discuss the selling process used to obtain a customer order. What is Personal Selling? Personal selling is a promotional method in which one party (e. g. , salesperson) uses skills and techniques for building personal relationships with another party (e. g. , those involved in a purchase decision) that results in both parties obtaining value. In most cases the value for the salesperson is realized through the financial rewards of the sale while the customer’s value is realized from the benefits obtained by consuming the product. However, getting a customer to purchase a product is not always the objective of personal selling. For instance, selling may be used for the purpose of simply delivering information. Because selling involves personal contact, this promotional method often occurs through face-to-face meetings or via a telephone conversation, though newer technologies allow contact to take place over the Internet including using video conferencing or text messaging (e. . , online chat). Among marketing jobs, more are employed in sales positions than any other marketing-related occupation. In the U. S. alone, the U. S. Department of Labor estimates that over 14 million or about 11% of the overall labor force are directly involved in selling and sales-related positions. Worldwide this figure may be closer to 10 0 million. Yet these figures vastly under-estimate the number of people who are actively engaged in some aspect of selling as part of their normal job responsibilities. While millions of people can easily be seen as holding sales jobs, the promotional techniques used in selling are also part of the day-to-day activities of many who are usually not directly associated with selling. For instance, top corporate executives whose job title is CEO or COO are continually selling their company to major customers, stock investors, government officials and many other stakeholders. The techniques they employ to gain benefits for their company are the same used by the front-line salesperson to sell to a small customer. Consequently, our discussion of the promotional value of personal selling has implications beyond marketing and sales departments. Advantages of Personal Selling One key advantage personal selling has over other promotional methods is that it is a two-way form of communication. In selling situations the message sender (e. g. , salesperson) can adjust the message as they gain feedback from message receivers (e. g. , customer). So if a customer does not understand the initial message (e. . , doesn’t fully understand how the product works) the salesperson can make adjustments to address questions or concerns. Many non-personal forms of promotion, such as a radio advertisement, are inflexible, at least in the short-term, and cannot be easily adjusted to address audience questions. The interactive nature of personal selling also makes it the most effective promotional method for building relationships with customers, particularly in the business-to-business market. This is especially important for companies that either sell expensive products or sell lower cost but high volume products (i. e. , buyer must purchase in large quantities) that rely heavily on customers making repeat purchases. Because such purchases may take a considerable amount of time to complete and may involve the input of many people at the purchasing company (i. e. , buying center), sales success often requires the marketer develop and maintain strong relationships with members of the purchasing company. Finally, personal selling is the most practical promotional option for reaching customers who are not easily reached through other methods. The best example is in selling to the business market where, compared to the consumer market, advertising, public relations and sales promotions are often not well received. Disadvantages of Personal Selling Possibly the biggest disadvantage of selling is the degree to which this promotional method is misunderstood. Most people have had some bad experiences with salespeople who they perceived were overly aggressive or even downright annoying. While there are certainly many salespeople who fall into this category, the truth is salespeople are most successful when they focus their efforts on satisfying customers over the long term and not focusing own their own selfish interests. A second disadvantage of personal selling is the high cost in maintaining this type of promotional effort. Costs incurred in personal selling include: †¢ High cost-per-action (CPA) – As noted in the Promotion Decisions tutorial, CPA can be an important measure of the success of promotion spending. Since personal selling involves person-to-person contact, the money spent to support a sales staff (i. e. , sales force) can be steep. For instance, in some industries it costs well over (US) $300 each time a salesperson contacts a potential customer. This cost is incurred whether a sale is made or not! These costs include compensation (e. g. , salary, commission, bonus), providing sales support materials, allowances for entertainment spending, office supplies, telecommunication and much more. With such high cost for maintaining a sales force, selling is often not a practical option for selling products that do ot generate a large amount of revenue. †¢ Training Costs – Most forms of personal selling require the sales staff be extensively trained on product knowledge, industry information and selling skills. For companies that require their salespeople attend formal training programs, the cost of training can be quite high and include such expenses as travel, hotel, meals, and training equipment while also paying the trainees’ salaries while they attend. A third disadvantage is that personal selling is not for everyone. Job turnover in sales is often much higher than other marketing positions. For companies that assign salespeople to handle certain customer groups (e. g. , geographic territory), turnover may leave a company without representation in a customer group for an extended period of time while the company recruits and trains a replacement. Objectives of Personal Selling Personal selling is used to meet the five objectives of promotion in the following ways: †¢ Building Product Awareness – A common task of salespeople, especially when selling in business markets, is to educate customers on new product offerings. In fact, salespeople serve a major role at industry trades shows (see the Sales Promotion tutorial) where they discuss products with show attendees. But building awareness using personal selling is also important in consumer markets. As we will discuss, the advent of controlled word-of-mouth marketing is leading to personal selling becoming a useful mechanism for introducing consumers to new products. †¢ Creating Interest – The fact that personal selling involves person-to-person communication makes it a natural method for getting customers to experience a product for the first time. In fact, creating interest goes hand-in-hand with building product awareness as sales professionals can often accomplish both objectives during the first encounter with a potential customer. †¢ Providing Information – When salespeople engage customers a large part of the conversation focuses on product information. Marketing organizations provide their sales staff with large amounts of sales support including brochures, research reports, computer programs and many other forms of informational material. †¢ Stimulating Demand – By far, the most important objective of personal selling is to convince customers to make a purchase. In The Selling Process tutorial we will see how salespeople accomplish this when we offer detailed coverage of the selling process used to gain customer orders. †¢ Reinforcing the Brand – Most personal selling is intended to build long-term relationships with customers. A strong relationship can only be built over time and requires regular communication with a customer. Meeting with customers on a regular basis allows salespeople to repeatedly discuss their company’s products and by doing so helps strengthen customers’ knowledge of what the company has to offer. Types of Selling Roles As we noted above, worldwide millions of people have careers that fit in the personal selling category. However, the actual functions carried out by someone in sales may be quite different. In general there are four major types of selling roles: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Order Getters Order Takers Order Influencers Sales Support The objectives of each role are often very different and within each role there are serveral subclassifications. A detailed discussion of each role can be found in the Types of Selling Roles tutorial. Trends in Selling While the basic premise of personal selling, building relationships, has not changed much in the last 50 years, there are a number of developments that are impacting this method of promotion including: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Controlled Word of Mouth Customer Information Sharing Mobile and Web Computing Electronic Sales Presentations Electronic Sales Training Use of Customer Teams Selling Trends: Controlled Word of Mouth One of the most influential forms of promotion occurs when one person speaks highly of a product to someone else, particularly if the message sender is considered an unbiased source of information. Until recently, marketers have had little control over person-to-person promotion that did not involve salespeople (i. e. , biased source). However, marketers are beginning to experiment with new methods of promotion that strategically takes advantage of the benefits offered by word-of-mouth promotion. Unlike salespeople who attempt to obtain an order from customers, controlled word-of-mouth promotion uses real people to help spread information about a product but do not directly elicit customer orders. With controlled word-of-mouth promotion a marketer hires individuals to spread positive information about a product but in a way that does not make it obvious to others that they are being paid to do so. The technique is especially useful when building awareness of new products and this approach has been dubbed â€Å"buzz† marketing as a way to describe its objective of building a high level of awareness for a product. For example, a brewer may form a team of word-of-mouth marketers who visit local taverns and night spots. As part of their job these marketers may talk up a new beer sold by the brewer and even purchase the product for some customers. But in the course of doing so they do not directly disclose that they are being compensated by the brewer for their efforts. Controlled word-of-mouth has received a great deal of publicity though much of it has focused on potential ethical concerns. Some have expressed concern that paying people to act as if they are interested in a product without any indication of their relationship with the product breaches ethical standards. As more companies explore controlled word-of-mouth marketing it is expect to become an even more scrutinized form of personal selling. Selling Trends: Customer Information Sharing Possibly the most dramatic change to occur in how salespeople function on a day-to-day basis involves the integration of customer relationship management (CRM) systems into the selling arena. CRM is the name given to both the technology and the philosophy that drives companies to gain a better understanding of their customers with the goal of building stronger long-term relationships. The essential requirement for an effective CRM system is the need for all customer contact points (e. g. , salespeople, customer service, websites) to gather information so that this can be shared with others in the company. But CRM has faced some rough times within the sales force for the exact reason it is important: salespeople must share their information. Salespeople have historically been very good at developing relationships and learning about customers, but often loath sharing this since, in effect, information is what makes them important. In the minds of some salespeople, letting go of the information reduces their importance to the company. For example, some salespeople feel that sharing all they know about a customer will make them expendable as a salesperson since a company can simply insert someone new into their spot at anytime. While the attitude toward CRM has made its implementation difficult in many companies, salespeople should understand that it is not going away. CRM and information sharing has proven to be critical for maintaining strong customer relations and salespeople must learn to adapt to it. Selling Trends: Mobile and Web Computing The move to an information sharing approach is most effective when salespeople have access to information sharing features when they need it most. Mobile technologies, such as wireless internet (WiFi) and cellular Internet access, allow salespeople to retrieve needed information at any time. For example, if a salesperson takes a customer to lunch, the salesperson can quickly access company material to respond to questions such as how long it may take to receive product if an order is placed. Additionally, there is a growing trend to make key business applications available through a browser rather than having programs loaded on a salesperson’s computer. This allows for the application to be accessed from anywhere at anytime. For example, many companies have moved to web-based CRM systems where simply having Internet access allows salespeople to enter and retrieve information. Also, many new office productivity applications, such as word processing and spreadsheets, are now becoming web-accessible. New generation cellphones or smartphones along with other handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), lighten the burden of carrying laptop computers. But because these handheld devices are web-enabled they provide access to much of the same information as a standard computer. While the computing power of handheld devices is still underpowered compared to conventional computers, the move to web-based computing may some day make the handheld the main instrument for inputting and outputting information. Selling Trends: Electronic Sales Presentations Technology is also playing a major role in how sales professionals reach prospects and existing customers. While audio/video conferencing has been available for many years using high-end telecommunication hookups, it has only been within the last few years that improvements in Internet access speeds, computing power and meeting software have made this method for reaching customers a practical alternative to face-to-face sales meetings. These options include: †¢ Online Video Conferencing – Online conferencing essentially acts in the same way as telecommunications videoconferencing, with one big exception; it is delivered over the Internet. Anyone who has an Internet connection knows that trying to deliver video over the Internet can be a trying experience as video often appears to be slow, jittery and sometimes not even recognizable. But these problems are quickly disappearing and while real time Internet video conferencing (i. e. , television quality video and audio) is still not routinely accessible to most salespeople, this is expected to change. †¢ Web/Phone Conferencing – To offset the problems associated with Internet delivery of real time audio and video, many companies deliver sales presentations using a combination of web and elecommunications. The most widely used services use the Internet, to deliver visual material (typically a slide presentation) and telecommunications, to allow for voice conversation. The process has a salesperson arrange for a conferencing time with a prospect who enters the conference by: 1) using their web browser to gain access to the visual presentation and 2) using their telephone to call into an audio conference. Splitting the visual and audio feeds allows for smoother presentations since the conference participants’ computers need only process the visual material. It should be noted, that while audio access is now being carried out over telephone connections, the emergence of telephone over the Internet (i. e. , VOIP voice over Internet Protocol) may soon help resolve some of the problems that have been encountered when delivering both. †¢ Online Text Chat Online chat allows for real time communication between multiple participants using text messaging. While this form of buyer-seller communication may not be very effective at getting customers to agree to make a purchase, it has proven very effective in building initial product nterest. For example, potential customers visiting a website may use the chat feature to ask a few questions about the company’s products. Engaging a customer this way can then lead to the customer agreeing to receive a phone call from a salesperson to further discuss the product. Selling Trends: Electronic Sales Training Developing the skills and techniques needed to be successful at selling requires an extensive commitment by the individual seller and the sellers company to sales training. Sales training is the hallmark of professional selling. If there is one thing that separates the truly successful salesperson from those who are not, it is the amount of training and preparation they engage in. Most organizations that employ a sales force offer new salespeople an extensive formal training program often held at dedicated training facilities. These training programs can range from a few days to many months depending on the industry. But once a salesperson has made the move to the field, training does not stop. Those involved in selling must continue to stay abreast of their products, customers, markets and competitors. While many companies may continue to employ the same methods used when they first trained their salespeople, a large number of firms are finding that ongoing training can be just as effective using electronic options such as delivering training over the Internet, through downloadable computer programs or through interactive CDs or DVDs. While feedback using electronic means is not as personal as it might be with in-person training, sophisticated electronic training programs are effective in educating and testing trainee’s knowledge. Also, a live trainer can be contacted very quickly via e-mail, online chat or by a phone call if a question does arise. Using electronic delivery, the cost to the company for adding or updating training material is inexpensive and quick compared to the cost and time needed to produce and ship paper-based materials. Additionally, the use of RSS feeds or email enables salespeople to be quickly notified when new training material is available. This is useful when the sales force must be made aware of a recent change that will impact how products are promoted such as a price change, new information to be used as comparison to competitor’s products, a potential problem that has arisen when installing or using a product or some other adjustment. Selling Trends: Use of Customer Teams As we noted in our discussion of technical specialists, salespeople may require the assistance of others in their organization to effectively deal with prospects. In fact, many companies are moving away from the traditional sale force arrangement, where a single salesperson handles nearly all communication with an account, in favor of a team approach where multiple people are involved. Teams consist of individuals from several functional areas such as marketing, manufacturing, distribution, and customer service. In some configurations all members share bonuses if the team meets sales goals. Clearly to be effective a team approach requires the implementation of customer relationship management systems that we discussed earlier. (From http://www. nowthis. com/principles-of-marketingtutorials/personal-selling/selling-trends-use-of-customer-teams/) (From http://www. udel. edu/alex/chapt20. html) Scope and Importance of Personal Selling In the US, 14 million people are employed in sales positions, according to the department of labor. Sales personnel include stockbrokers, manufacturing sales representatives, real estate brokers etc. Most students i n this class will have been employed as a sales person. Nature of Personal Selling Gives marketers: †¢ The greatest freedom to adjust a message to satisfy customers informational needs, dynamic. Most precision, enabling marketers to focus on most promising leads. vs. advertising, publicity and sales promotion †¢ Give more information †¢ Two way flow of information, interactivity. †¢ Discover the strengths and weaknesses of new products and pass this information on to the marketing department. †¢ Highest cost. Businesses spend more on personal selling than on any other form of promotional mix. †¢ Goals range from †¢ finding prospects †¢ convincing prospects to buy †¢ keeping customers satisfiedhelp them pass the word along. Types of Sales Persons †¢ Order Takers Seek repeat sales, make certain that customers have sufficient product quantities where and when they need it. Do not require extensive sales effort. Arrange displays, restocks them, answer phone calls. Low compensation, little training required. High turnover of personnel. 2 types: †¢ Inside Order Takers receive orders by mail/phone, sales person in a retail store. †¢ Field Order Takers travel to customers. Use laptop computers to improve tracking of inventory and orders etc. †¢ Order Getters Sell to new customers and increase sales to present customers, sometimes called creative selling. Generate customer leads, provide information, persuading customers and closing sales. Required for high priced, complex and/or new products. High pressure, requires expensive, time consuming training. †¢ Support Personnel Facilitate the selling function. Primarily business to business products. †¢ Missionary Salespeople Distribute information regarding new goods or services, describes attributes and leaves materials, does not close sales. Assist producers customers in selling to their own customers. IE call on retailers and persuade them to carry the product. Pharmaceuticals may go to doctors offices and persuade them to carry their products. Trade Salespeople May perform order taking function as well. Spend much time helping customers, especially retail stores, to promote the product. Restock the shelves, set up displays. Technical Salespersons Offer technical assistance to current customers. Usually trained engineers etc. †¢ Service Salespeople interacts with custome rs after sale is complete. Team selling entire team of selling professionals in selling to and servicing major customers, especially when specialized knowledge is needed to satisfy different interests in customers buying centers. Elements of the Personal Selling Process No 2 salespersons use exactly the same sales method, but it is generally a seven step process: †¢ Prospecting and Evaluating Seek names of prospects through sales records, referrals etc. , also responses to advertisements. Need to evaluate if the person is able (Undergraduate degree to attend a graduate program), willing and authorized to buy. Blind prospecting-rely on phone directory etc. †¢ Preapproach (Preparing) Review key decision makers esp. for business to business, but also family †¢ assess credit histories †¢ prepare sales presentations †¢ identify product needs. Helps present the presentation to meet the prospects needs. †¢ Approaching the Customer Manner in which the sales person contacts the potential customer. First impression of the sales person is Lasting and therefore important. Strive to develop a relationship rather than just push the product. Can be based on referrals, cold calling or repeat contact. †¢ Making the Presentation Need to attract and hold the prospects Attention to stimulate Interest and stir up Desire in the product so the potential customer takes the appropriate Action. AIDA Try to get the prospect to touch, hold or try the product. Must be able to change the presentation to meet the prospect needs. Three types of presentations: †¢ Stimulus Response Format: Appropriate stimulus will initiate a buy decision, use one appeal after another hoping to hit the right button Counter Clerk @ McDonalds Would you like fries with your burger? †¢ Formula Selling Format: (Canned Sales Presentation) memorized, repetitive, given to all customers interested in a specific product. Good for inexperienced sales people. Better with heavily advertised items that are presold. Telemarketing a credit card!! †¢ Need Satisfaction Format: Based on the principal that each customer has a different set of needs/desires. , therefore the sales presentation should be adapted to the individual customers needs, this is a key advantage of personal selling vs. advertising. Sales person asks questions first, then makes the presentation accordingly. Need to do homework, listen well and allow customers to talk etc. Must answer two types of questions: †¢ for more information †¢ overcome objections. Overcoming Objections Seek out objections and address them. Anticipate and counter them before the prospect can raise them. Try to avoid bringing up objections that the prospect would not have raised. Price objection is the most common Need to provide customers with reasons for the $s, build up the value before price is mentioned Must be convinced of price in own mind before you can sell to customer. Get budget info. on buyer before you try to sell, and must know what they want, must sell service on top of product augmented productto create value!! Must know value of product, provide warranties etc.!! †¢ Closing Ask prospect to buy product/products. Use trial closes, IE ask about financial terms, preferred method of delivery. 20% sales people generally close 80% sales. , Avon, over 1/2 US $1. 4 bn business from 17% of 415,000 SRs. Need to be prepared to close at any time. The following are popular closing techniques: †¢ Trial Close (Minor decision close) †¢ Assumptive close (Implied consent close) †¢ Urgency close †¢ Ask for the sale close If prospect says no, they may just need more reasons to buy!! †¢ Following Up Must follow up sale, determine if the order was delivered on time, installation OK etc. Also helps determine the prospects future needs. Accomplishes four objectives: †¢ customer gain short term satisfaction †¢ referrals are stimulated †¢ in the long run, repurchase †¢ prevent cognitive dissonance Old school, sell and leave!! Quickly before customer changes her mind!! Now: †¢ Stay a few minutes after salereinforce, make them feel good, made wise choice, leave small gift (with co. name on it!! ), call office at any time etc!! †¢ Follow up, reinforce, know birthdays, new year etc, friendly correspondence relationship building!! Handout Toyota Calling In Japans Car Market Half of cars are sold door-to-door. This is shrinking due to environmental changes. Toyota has more than 100,000 door-to-door sales people. Developing Long-term relationships is key, Keiretsu, do business with only those you know and trust. Face-to-face meetings before business to establish trust, the approach stage. Follow up is key to relationship: After sales: †¢ call inquiring on cars immediate performance †¢ hand written greeting cards †¢ written invitations for low cost oil changes Prospecting includes: †¢ Driving schools for people to obtain licenses = prospects †¢ Also referrals from existing customers is very important †¢ Curtesy calls to clients who referred new customers. Timing of presentation: †¢ To housewife in the middle of the day †¢ Just before 3 year Shaken, following 2 years At first I had no intention of buying a new car, but Mr. Saito is very good at proposing reasons why I should change = $1,600 shaken. Management of Salesforce Sales force is directly responsible for generating sales revenue. Eight general management areas: †¢ Establish Salesforce objectives Similar to other promotional objectives Demand oriented or image oriented. Major objective is persuasion, converting consumer interest into sales. Sales objectives; expected to accomplish within a certain period of time. Give direction and purpose and act as a standard for evaluation. Set for total salesforce and each individual salesperson. Can be $s, units sold, market share to achieve, for individual salespersons, also include ave. order size, ave. # of sales/time period, and ratio orders/calls. †¢ Organizing the Salesforce †¢ In-house vs. independent agents (manufacturers sales agents). †¢ Organize by: †¢ Geography (simplest, but not suitable if product(s) are complex or customers require specialized knowledge) †¢ Customer: Different buyers have different needs †¢ Product: Specific knowledge re: products is needed †¢ Size. Marginal analysis, or determine how many sales calls/year are needed for an organization to effectively serve its customers and divide this total by the average # of sales calls that a person makes annually. Also use subjective judgement. MBNA estimates how many calls to expect, one year in advance, and then determines the size of the salesforce at any given time. †¢ Recruiting and Selecting Salespeople Need to establish a set of required qualifications before beginning to recruit. Prepare a job description that lists specific tasks the salesperson should perform and analyze traits of the successful salespeople within the organization. May use assessment centersintense training environment that places candidates in realistic problem settings in which they give priorities to their activities, make and act on decisions. Recruitment should be a continual activity aimed at reaching the best applicants. Applicants that most match the demographics of the target market. Changing demographics, may be wise to hire hispanic sales people if your territory is in Florida!! †¢ Training Sales Personnel Use formal programs, or Informal on-the-job training. Can be complex or simple. Training should focus on: the company †¢ products †¢ selling techniques. Aimed at new hires and experienced personnel. Can be held in the field, educational institutions or company facilities. Oldsmobile spent $25 million last year to teach its dealers how to better treat its customers. †¢ Compensating Sales People To attract, motivate and retain sales people, that facilitate and encourage good treatment of the customers. Need to understand personalities of sales people. Strive for proper balance of freedom, income and incentives. Need to determine the best level of compensation required, and the best method of calculating it. Straight salary †¢ straight commission (selling insurance)single percentage of sales or sliding rate †¢ Combination plan †¢ Motivating Sales People Need a systematic approach, must also satisfy non-financial needs: †¢ Job security †¢ Working Conditions †¢ Opportunities to succeed Sales contests increase sales. Symbolic awardsplaques, rings etc. Can also use negative motivational methods for under performers. Due to burn outeven the best need motivating!! Ongoing process keep reps. hungry Need a motivational program. Spend time with reps, personal attention!! Take interest in them and the sales goals †¢ Compensation packet that rewards quality salesmanship and extra effort †¢ Recognition of extra effort of sales force †¢ Make sure SR feel important †¢ Keep SR informed of company activities †¢ Make certain reps. believe in the company †¢ Goals must be realistic and achievable and changeable †¢ Determine what they want and give it to them †¢ Controlling and Evaluating Salesforce performance Rely on information from call reports, customer feedback and invoices. Performance is determined by objectives. May compare with predetermined performance standards or with other sales people working under similar conditions. Handout Avon. $4 billion business, relied solely on personal selling until recently, environmental changes have changed this no longer is the wife expected to be at home model is dual income earning parents with children in day care. Need to develop more efficient ways to reach customers. Salespeople earn pure commission, 10% 50% for top sellers (over $32,750) Strategies tried: †¢ Avon Select. Direct mail catalog and toll free number, attract those that didnt know an Avon Lady, or didnt want to deal with one. Also used national TV and print campaign in conjunction. Problems = †¢ Salesperson creates confidence in the brand, delivering much more than advertising is able to do. When you take away the selling relationship, youre left with a brand thats relatively naked. †¢ Key is not to undercut the field salesforce, similar to dual distribution creating channel conflict. Mary Kay Corp has also tried this strategy but differently and more successfully: †¢ Catalogs carry different merchandise †¢ Forward commission to sales rep. in customers area Never have a grey area regarding competing with sales force. Other demotivational concerns: †¢ Restructured commissions †¢ Dropped awards, trips and other incentives †¢ Leadership Program. A Multi-level marketing (MLM) concept. Rewarded for products sold as well as people you recruit as a sales rep. by getting some of their commission and a portion of the commission of reps. they recruit etc. Created a hard sell envir onment and was consequently scrapped. To remotivate: New CEO †¢ Reinstate Birthday presents †¢ Anniversary plates †¢ Annual Pins †¢ Phone Blitzs to indicate appreciation Gifts [and recognition] are part of the magic

5 Top Tips on Travel Writing

5 Top Tips on Travel Writing 5 Top Tips on Travel Writing Travel writing is one of the most popular types of non-fiction. And if you’re someone with a love of both literature and globetrotting, travel writing offers a fantastic opportunity to combine the two! Here, then, are a few top tips for budding travel writers to help get you started. 1. Read Other Travel Writing The best starting point if you’re new to travel writing is to read other authors. There are many types and styles of travel writing out there. So we suggest reading a little bit of everything, from blog posts to book-length travelogues, to find inspiration if you’re not already sure what to write. 2. Picking a Subject To stand out from the crowd, your travel writing needs to offer something unique. Part of this will be your written voice, but what you are writing about is equally important, so you’ll want to pick a great destination to focus on. Finding somewhere interesting that nobody has written about before is the dream, so you might want to look beyond the famous beaten track for strange or unusual attractions. Alternatively, if you are writing about a familiar place, look for an angle that nobody has used before. It helps if you do more than just lie on the beach, too. 3. Paint a Picture Your writing should conjure an image of the places you describe, so use sensory language wherever possible. If you can communicate some of the views, sounds and smells you’ve experienced, your reader will feel more like they’ve been there. Rich, descriptive writing is therefore crucial. Of course, a literal picture can help as well, so don’t forget to pack a camera! 4. Tell a Story Travel writing is about more than just facts. It’s about your experience of a place or journey. As such, you need to take your reader on a journey, too! One tip in this respect is remembering that the best travel writing is more than just descriptive. It may also have: Characters (e.g., people you meet along the way or travel companions) Themes (e.g., issues or events that recur throughout your journey) A plot (e.g., your goal, such as visiting every museum in Cumbria) Make sure not to miss the Derwent Pencil Museum, especially if you like big pencils.(Photo: Stinglehammer/wikimedia) Keep in mind that travel writing is creative writing, even if it is non-fiction. You may even want to twist the facts to tell a better story. Or go full Hunter S. Thompson and blur the lines between fact and fiction entirely. We wouldnt suggest taking as many drugs as he did, though. 5. The Benefits of Fact Checking Assuming you’re not fictionalizing your journey too much, you may want to do some fact checking on things you’ve learned when you get home. For instance, before repeating what that odd man in the plaza told you about Piacenza being founded by a champion chicken farmer as a luxury resort for poultry, get online and do some reading. You can still include the anecdote if it turns out to be untrue. You just don’t have to present it as a fact. And if you handle the fact checking, we’ll be happy to help with the proofreading once you have a first draft ready!

How to Get a Job in Another State

How to Get a Job in Another State Maybe your partner or your spouse is being transferred. Maybe you’re just graduating from a far-off college and want to live and work closer to home. Or maybe you just need a change of scenery. For most people, the most stressful and important part about moving is finding employment in a new city. Unless you work remotely, this can be tricky. Here are 6 ways you can make potential employers confident in hiring you as an out-of-state applicant.1. Ditch your home address.At best, your home address is irrelevant to your qualifications for the job. At worst, it could turn off hiring managers who don’t want to pay relocation expenses, or aren’t sure about your commitment or ability to move and start in a timely fashion.If you absolutely need a home address, you can get yourself a local mailbox that will forward to you through Mailboxes, Etc. If your phone number is holding you back, you can get a Google phone number with the area code of your target state.2. Do your r esearch.The more you know about the place you want to go the better. What are the major industries? What does the job market look like? Figure out through the Chambers of Commerce and the state or city’s Office of Economic Development which jobs are hot and therefore easier to land. If you don’t know where exactly you want to move, research instead what states and cities are best for the field you want to work in. Finally, see if it feels like a place where you would really want to live.Check out the following:Top 5 Jobs in the WestTop 5 Jobs in the NortheastTop 5 Jobs in the SouthwestTop 5 Jobs in the MidwestTop 5 Jobs in the Southeast3. Grow your network.Tap into your existing network to mine for contacts who might be able to help you get your foot in the door somewhere else- particularly your alumni network. Ask for email introductions to local companies or contacts. Visit if you can. No matter what, start building your own network there through social media sites a nd LinkedIn. Join a local meet-up or LinkedIn group for updates.4. Take care of your own moving logistics.To avoid missing out on opportunities with companies that don’t want to pay to help you move, there are ways to let them know you’re willing to handle the move logistics and expenses yourself. A line in your cover letter addressing the issue works. You could always make it clear that you are already living in the city, staying with a friend or subletting, pending your job search.If you can be there physically, it’s never inappropriate to mention when you’ll be there and available for an interview. Employers will be much more eager to hire you if they don’t have to pay for relocation.5. Be smart about money.Figure out the logistics of your financial situation in your new state before you get there. Bone up on the relative cost-of-living, the average salary range for your industry and role, how far your money will go when you live there, and how much you require. Figure out your target state’s tax code to assess your liabilities.6. Assure them you  will be moving.Remember, no potential employer wants to hear you waffling. Be willing to talk about it- and when you do, be honest. Don’t make promises to interview if you cannot make it. Ask instead for a Skype interview, if possible. But do make sure to make it clear that you are moving, not just that you’re considering it. Make them know you’re as safe a bet as someone already living down the street.

Western Civilization. History and Background of Evolution Research Paper

Western Civilization. History and Background of Evolution - Research Paper Example Darwin always had an interest in nature from his early childhood years. In the years between 1823 and 1913, Russell Wallace too discovered this idea of natural choice (Kemp, p.12). Darwin’s book â€Å"The origin of species† introduced the scientific theory that stated that the people did evolve through the ages through a process of natural choice. Background of evolution In the year 1859, Charles Darwin wrote a book with the title ‘The Origin of Species’. In this book, the author stated that all the living things in the universe live in a complex web of survival where all the things have connections to one another. The source also states that hereditary disparities begin occurring in all the living creatures and this make all the species to begin reproducing in extra ordinary ways. The book describes the key to evolution as the ability to make natural choices implying that the fittest will survive through any situation. In the year 1871, Charles Darwin wrot e a book on the origin of human nature according to the issue of sex. The author attributed the way man looks and acts to the appearance and actions of chimpanzees. He says that if man looks and acts like chimpanzees then he must have come from where they live. In the year 1863, Thomas Huxley came up with evidence as to the segment of man in the natural world (Kemp, p.43). He claims that the chimpanzees and man are close and act similarly thereby implying that they come from the same ancestors. Another author by the name of Ernest Hagkel came up with the missing connection theory that suggests that man must have come from something. In the year 1924 Dr. Raymond Dart, an Australian from the University of Oxford went to South Africa to become a teacher. He described the evolution process as consisting of five stages. This are the stages one to five of the evolution process. The first stage analyses the characteristics of the fossil and dates it to be as old as 2.5 million to six milli on years old. The killer ape theory of Darwin however suggests that apes only grow to four feet and do not live past the age of four years. In an effort to verify this claims, Louis and Mary Leakey carried out archaeological discoveries in Tanzania in the year 1931. They managed to find a complete skull of a sixteen year old at The Old Dubi George. Stage two of the evolution process states man is to live for a period of twenty five years and grow to five feet tall with a brain capacity greater than 700CC. They referred to this creature as the homo habilis since they had 100 teeth and a big toe. The creatures features were almost similar to the man of today. Stage three of the evolution process makes the discovery of a creature they call Java with a brain capacity of 1,000CC, is six feet tall and can live up to 35 years of age (Kemp, p.76). It has the ability to stand straight and can also speak. They can also build better tools, start fires and raise families. The name that the crea ture gets is the name homo erectus. Stage four describes the discovery of a creature living in the Neanderthal valley in Germany and France. It has a brain capacity of 1,500 CC, teeth that are identical to those of man and stands at five feet tall. They adapt to their harsh environments by growing body hairs and having thicker bones. Stage five of this process dates back to the period between 1868 and 1928 and states that the man did live about seventeen million years ago. They described the species as having a brain similar to that of the modern man, wearing clothes and building settlements (Kemp, p.94). 2) History of Ancient Egypt from 10,000 BC to the end of the 2nd intermediate period The pre historic Egypt had a cover of ice measuring two blocks in the northern and central areas. The ice did melt down by the year

Ebola Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Ebola - Essay Example As explained by the Infectious Disease expert at Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Rupa Patel, â€Å"The local entities must first take time to understand the disease and how it is transmitted by using resources put out by agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Doctors Without Borders† (Olcott para 5). Even though there are a number of cultural and environmental aspects that are beyond the control of national governments, steps must still be carried out to guarantee that the frequency or rate of contact with the infected is lessened. National governments and nongovernmental organizations must continue to distribute information about Ebola so that the public can consult healthcare professionals. Going to medical specialists early can stop the spread of Ebola. Promoting good hygiene and sanitation is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of the virus to the community (CDC para 5-8). Due to the severity of the epidemic, national or local leaders must implement an awareness-oriented program as they deal with this alarming

Educational Policies of Nigeria and South Korea Essay Example for Free

Educational Policies of Nigeria and South Korea Essay Education has been the corner stone of the success of every economy. In terms of those countries which have been colonized and have adopted a government that was highly repressive in nature, one could significantly argue that such would post an effect to how education was being delivered, the degree of excellence of the aforementioned, the demands of the market and the availability of jobs, and finally its effects to the economy. This paper focuses on the educational history and policies of Nigeria and South Korea in relation to the British military government of the Nigerians and the Japanese occupation and the American military government of the South Koreans. These policies and norms are then significantly related to their employment systems and its effect on their economy. The objectives of this essay are the following: 1. To establish a brief account of the educational policies and norms of Nigeria and South Korean and significantly identify its relationship to the military government. 2. To significantly identify the effects of the educational policies and norms in relation to the availability of jobs to the citizens and consequently the continuous demands of the market for such jobs; and finally 3. To know the effects of educational excellence, jobs availability and demands to the sustainable development of an economy. Review of Related Literature Education and Military Government in Nigeria One of the major constitutional changes that happened to the government of Nigeria was in 1953, a few years after the World War II. Such a change took effect through the London Conference attended by both Nigerian and Colonial officials which places the country under the rule of a Governor General, having the aforementioned the leader of the three principle regions of the country. Such a change of the name of positions was a way for the British regime to increase the autonomous powers of the country thereby making education vested at the local level, which is in accordance with the aim of unifying the region (Patterson, 1955, p. 94). Education, other than representation and taxation was one of the autonomous areas of governance that is designated to the central government. As such it is with this respect that the government had ordered that the youth of Nigeria regardless of any region should be given sound and uniform standards of performance (p. 95). The objective of this educational policy is to have the youth fully prepared on their primary and secondary education so as to enable them to take higher education both inside and outside of the country. Within the new constitution, 34 subjects or areas of concern were given to the federal government to oversee. In addition with this, 14 subject areas were also created and delegated to the federal government to be administered to individual regions. Consequently, it has also been perceived that the successful implementation of these subjects could only happen if the individuals administering these areas were competent enough, hence resulting to the very high standards were implemented by the government in terms of employee recruitment (p. 5). Such a drive for the development of skills for the Nigerian youth resulted to the perceived shortness in terms of trained senior administrators and other technicians for various government and technical posts for the country. The federal government perceived that the shortage could only be remedied through higher education and long experience of the youth. At the end of 1953, it has been perceived that 5,000 senior service positions were available in which 3,300 of them were taken by overseas personnels or the expatriates. Only 800 positions are given to Nigerians, and there were still 900 positions more that were vacant (World Bank, 1955, p. 23). The drive of the British Government to improve the education in Nigeria resulted to the establishment of a program for development for African Territories under the British Crown. The program which was called the Colonial Development and Welfare Schemes was inaugurated in 1945 in which required the British Government to contribute 23,000,000 pounds sterling for ten years that would enable the country to develop and another loan of 26-500,000 pounds sterling that would be used to fund a number of projects including education and other research facilities (Patterson, 1955, p. 97). The result of such an effort on the end of the British Government paved the way for a consuming ambition among young Nigerians to be associated with the Government and take a number of white collar jobs (p. 8). Technical Education in Nigeria Technical education is placed as one of the major projects of the Ten-Year Plan for Development and Welfare for the post-war Nigeria. Institutions that would cater to technical skills, trade, and handicrafts were created after the Second World War. For instance, the Technical Institute of Yaba, the first center that was created outside Lagos offered three full-time and two part-time programs and special short courses. These skills were those relating to junior and senior technical and also teacher training. For a four-year education, the country had been offering instructions in wood working, drafting, sub-professional engineering, commerce and printing to those students who have completed eight years of primary education and have already passed a special entrance examination. The senior technical course offered by the institute focused on courses in electrical, mathematical and civil engineering, architectural assistance and economics. Consequently, there were also teacher-training programs which offer a two-year course to prepare teachers for handicraft centers and secondary school craft courses (World Bank, 1955, p. 582-583). On the other hand, the Trade Centers at Yaba aimed to produce skilled craftsmen by offering courses which range from two to five years. The students primarily learned on an apprenticeship basis after which they have already familiarized themselves with the tools of the trade and have learned to do simple tasks; consequently academic instructions were given to the students averages one day every week. After the students have already gained the skills that are necessary, they were contacted by the trade center to go to large cities in order to work. Part of the educational system was also the refusal to accept new students until a new class graduates. As such, the intake and output for some courses happened only once in every five years. For the first five years of the operation of the Yaba Centre, there were only 85 students who had graduated while 18 were dismissed and 13 of them resigned (p. 84). The Weakness of the Nigerian Education One major weaknesses of the Nigerian education was the inclination to have all areas of the Government to have properly staffed and well-trained individuals; as such resulting in having schools to have its own standards and specializations and independence from other educational efforts. Such an act resulted at times to the replication of jobs or over specialization on some skills, which were often criticized to prevent holistic development. It has been argued by some scholars that schools that were operated by the departments of governments had the inclination to emphasize subjects that were too technical up to the extent of neglecting certain subjects such as English, Mathematics and the Social Sciences. As such, some students after graduating from departmental schools normally look for jobs that they believed will be necessary for their employment rather than their abilities and interests (Patterson, 1955, p. 7-98). In effect of this, the inclination towards education had been something that was relative to that of available employment. Outside the market, it had been perceived that education had no value and in the long run, had stimulated little demand to the public. It is with this respect that competition among available jobs had been perceived to be very keen wherein the colonial Nigeria has clustered to commercial areas within the region (Davis and Kalu-Nwiwu, 2001, p. 1). It could also be significantly noted that education for women during the post-war Nigeria had also been problematic as although there were already several domestic science centers that were established, very few of them remained in actual operation. As such, the education of women had been lagging in the country. The education that was provided to women were those solely with regard to food preparation, sewing, cleaning, general sanitation and elementary skills in nursing (World Bank, 1955, p. 588).

rescued :: essays research papers

Introduction Jacques Nasser was born in Lebanon in 1949, but grew up in Australia. He joined Ford's Australian operation as a financial analyst before he was barely 20, eager to see the world. In 1973, he came to the United States to join Ford's North American Truck Operations and the company's finance staff. Nasser jumped at the opportunity to travel around the world by accepting International assignments, which others avoided to places like Thailand, The Philippines, Venezuela and Argentina. He moved back to the United States after being promoted to the key position of President of Ford Automotive Operations and finally in 1999, he became Ford's CEO. Jacques Nasser has been portrayed as a man that possesses good and Impeccable leadership qualities. Before Nasser came on board of Ford's Motor Co., Ford had been a company that efficiently made cars, and in recent years at least, earned solid profits. Nasser has plans to take Ford to the forefront of the Motor industry and transform it into a nimble, flexible organization and better attuned to the International automobile Industry he sees emerging. From the very time Nasser joined Ford, he had displayed hardworking abilities, being from a modest and often intolerant surroundings as a Lebanese born immigrant in Anglo-dominated Australia. Jacques Nasser in his quest to make ford a front-runner in the motor Industry exhibited several signs of leadership, which has made the company progress. Jacques, in addition to having a profile that includes speaking fluent English, Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese (which are all qualities that a person involved in global operations of a business should possess), also speaks the most important language that any auto executive can understand: the language of a passion for cars that is respected by both consumers and enthusiasts alike, as reported in the Detroit News. As President and Chief executive officer of Ford Motor Company, Nasser has all of the credentials that point to a natural rise to top level management of a global automaker while continuing to embrace the equities that helped him to his ascension. As a true car lover, Jacques usually drives Ford's cars and other competitor's cars to know their various mechanisms, how they run and any other way it could be improved. Other executives are known to be usually driven around by personal chauffeurs, while Nasser derives joy from driving himself to wherever he is going with his sport cars. In the Management textbook by Griffin, hundreds of studies have been

Artificial Intelligence in Missile Technology

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN MISSILE TECHNOLOGY K. Manasa B-Tech III/IV Branch: EEE Shadan College of Engg & Tech, Peerancheru, Hyderabad-08. konda_sowmya @yahoo. com Abstract: The development, strength, economy and progress depends on the status of the Defence, This paper deals with various generations of computer where the fifth generation computers use Artificial Intelligence. A few applications of Artificial Intelligence used in various technologies have also been discussed. The main focus of paper is on chaser missiles, which implements the missile technology using Artificial Intelligence. The Anupama processor designed in India can be used in chasers. This shows the development of Artificial Intelligence in Indian defence systems. The On-Board Computer department of RCI and ASL of DRDO are working on similar missile technology mostly on the guidance systems for Agni, Trishul, Akash and NAG along with which even the Chaser using the AI technology may replace the existing guidance system of the missiles. Keywords: IC, VLSI, Turing test, Chasers, OBCS, Seeker, IGMDP, DRDO, BDL, Anupama Processor, Deep Blue, Seed AI. 1. Introduction: Artificial Intelligence is a branch of Science that deals with helping machines finding solutions to complex problems in a more human-like fashion. It is intelligence exhibited by any manufactured system, which is often used in works of science fiction. The term is often applied to general-purpose computers and also in the field of scientific investigation into the theory and practical application. This generally involves borrowing characteristics from human intelligence, and applying them as algorithms in a computer friendly way. For more complex problems, things get more difficult. Unlike humans, computers have trouble understanding in specific situations and adapting to new situations. Artificial Intelligence aims to improve machine behavior in tackling such complex tasks. A more or less flexible or efficient approach can be taken depending on the requirements established, which influences how artificial the intelligent behavior appears. From AI we can learn something about how to make machines solve problems by observing other people or just by observing our own methods. On the other hand, most work in AI involves studying the problems the world presents to intelligence rather than studying people or animals. . Various Generations of a Computer: With the advent of computers there has been a vast proliferation in them. A computer is truly an amazing machine as it performs various functionalities. For generations, it has been the constant endeavor of man to get the better of his adversary by inventing more and more potent computers. Till today we got five gener ations of computers. The 1st generation computers used vacuum tubes. These computers occupied large space, liberated a large amount of heat and also lead to many uncontrolled operations. The 2nd generation computers used enormous number of transistors. After some years these transistors were fabricated on a single chip called ICs. Computers using these were called the 3rd generation computers. With the advancement of technology in VLSI, a large number of ICs were integrated on a single chip made of silicon, which is further used by the 4th generation computers. An attempt is being made to apply artificial intelligence on these computers, which constitutes the 5th generation computers. These computers are expected to be faster results and thus may influence international policies, strategy and tactics to an enormous extent. 3. Is AI different from Human Intelligence? Alan Turing's article â€Å"Computing Machinery and Intelligence† discussed some conditions where a machine can be used in an intelligent fashion. He argued that if a machine can perform successfully as a human can do, then the observer will certainly consider it as an intelligent device. This test called Turing test would satisfy many people but not all the philosophers. The observer can be able to interact with the machine but can’t differentiate it from the actual human works (actions & voices) while interacting and thus it camouflages the observer. The Turing test is a one-sided test. A machine that passes this test should certainly be considered as intelligent, irrespective of having knowledge about human. There are many adversaries about this fact, that an excellent discussion on the Turing test is not supportive, with restrictions on the observer's knowledge of AI and the subject matter of questioning. It turns out that some people are easily misinterpreted that, a rather dumb program is intelligent. When we set out to design an AI program, we should attempt to specify as well as possible the criteria for success for that particular program functioning in its restricted domain. . 1 Hardware for AI: In order to use AI in any system a few hardware specifications are required. The minimum requirements include a computing system containing an IC built processor, a control unit, memory devices, and a converter for external interfaces, floating-point unit, input-output ports and timers. These components work relatively with the computing system as per the AI oriented software. 4. 2 Software for AI Software is the intelligence that runs the hardware in a computer. Basically AI is in form of information fed to the processor through a programming language. The parameters acts as input that results into desired output. A fifth generation language use AI to create software based on our description of what the software should do. 5. Missile Technology and AI: Missile: It is an object or weapon that is fired, thrown, dropped, or projected at a target. Missiles play major role in warfare. The earlier versions of missiles were simple in design and operation. When the fighter plane first came into use the missiles used were of simple nature that involved only target mode and firing angle. The present day missiles are much complicated. The concept of employment of these missiles has also undergone a drastic change. Chasers: It is a type of missile that may be designed to chase the target until it hits or causes damage to the target. The Chaser contains an OBCS in its control unit, which contains AI as a backup, which will guide itself during its trajectory. Chaser continuously emits either Laser light, Infrared rays or Radio waves continuously from its IR Dome. When the enemy unit comes in its path a part of these waves reflect back giving a signal to the Chaser. Then this missile automatically changes its position so as to knock down the enemy. [pic] [pic] [pic] Working: The main purpose of an OBCS is to obtain guidance and control. The OBCS mainly contains an IC built processor, a control unit, memory devices like flash memory, SRAM, NVRAM, communication devices like UART and a converter for external interfaces. It is the seeker that actually applies AI. Before missile is launched the target is fed to the OBC in the form of a signal or image, which is basically intelligence. The seeker continuously scans the image target and gives signal to the OBCS. The input is in the form of co-ordinates that allows the chaser to change the position of radar and direction of missile by changing the position of the fins, nozzle and wings such that the target is always at its center of view. This is done by the control unit by varying the altitudes of the missile i. e. Roll, Yaw and Pitch thus guiding the missile towards its target. [pic] The missile control operation follows a closed loop system. Characteristics: The following are the characteristics to be possessed by a Chaser: †¢ The chaser should be faster than sharp enemy. It should take the shortest path to reach the enemy. †¢ The Propellant composition should be such that it is able to effectively engage the target. †¢ The longitudinal, lateral and vertical axis of missile must be varied in a smooth fashion when enemy tries to dive or jump suddenly. Future Trends: With the application of AI the missiles may be capable of automatic target recognition and even be able to tell the condition of the terrain. It may be able to identify tanks and trucks as friendly or enemy vehicles. The missile, while in flight may have the ability to prioritize target on battlefield. If the missile thinks that it should go after a high priority target rather than trying to kill its original target, it will do so. Software programme will be so advanced that mission options will be decided by brains built into the missiles with the help of embedded real time computers. The ongoing developments and changes in this field may however cannot be forecasted. 6. Development of AI in India: India launched its missile development programme through IGMDP under the aegis of DRDO, the premier defence research agency. Under this programme five missile systems are currently under different stages of development and production. BDL, Hyderabad has also been established as a premier production agency for all missile systems. The following missiles form part of IGMDP: Prithvi – Introduced in 1996 Trishul – under development AKASH – under development NAG – under development AGNI – under development The most recent attempt made for the development of AI based technology in India is the design of Anupama Processor. It has been designed at Anurag Research Institute, Hyderabad. Anupama was first used in Mission Control system mounted on under water self propelled missile, Torpedo. It is a 32-bit processor based on RISC architecture. It mainly contains a 32-bit floating-point unit, 32-bit parallel input-output port and two 16-bit timers. It has a non-multiplexed bus structure with 32 data lines and 32 address lines. A bus interface unit supports Synchronous, Asynchronous and Burst data transverse. It also supports dynamic bus sizing. The same can also be used in OBCS of chasers. 7. Other Applications: 7. 1 Robotics: Robots are typically used to do tasks that are too dull, dirty, or dangerous for humans. Industrial robots used in manufacturing lines used to be the most common form of robots. Other applications of Robotics include toxic waste cleanup, underwater and space exploration, surgery, mining, search and rescue, and mine finding. Robots are also finding their way into entertainment and home health care. 7. 2 Medicine: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine allow computers to process and analyze three-dimensional images of the heart in much the same way an experienced human operator would. The program applies artificial intelligence techniques to the measurement of parameters critical to understanding the state and behavior of the human heart. This automated approach allows information to be obtained very quickly that is quantitatively accurate and does not suffer from intra-observer or inter-observer variability. The software and algorithms developed by the AIM program are widely considered to represent the gold standard in nuclear cardiology. 7. 3 Banking: AI systems are used to detect fraud and expenditure financial transactions, with daily transaction volumes in billions. These systems first use learning algorithms to construct profiles of consumer usage patterns, and then use the resulting profiles to detect unusual patterns and take appropriate action. Ex: To disable the credit card. 7. 4 Data Processing: Data Mining, the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases, is a powerful new technology with great potential to help companies focus on most important information in the data warehouses. Data mining tools predict future trends and behaviors, allowing business to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. It answers business questions that traditionally were too time consuming to resolve. The past history in the form of records is taken as a backup, which is fed in the form of intelligence for data processing. 7. 5 Game playing: The AI based machines can be applied for playing games mainly through brute force computation using the entire game play as a backup in the form of AI. Advantage of using this type of machine is the players can have a practice session where they will have a tough opponent (machine) and then in a real match the players will not face much difficulty. Ex: Deep Blue computer for chess. 7. 6 Speech Recognition: The areas where continous interaction is required between the user and computer, the need not go for the commands using input devices. He can just dictate the commands while the system accepts it in the form of speech signal and achieves the task to be performed. Ex: In a highly protected zone where the security levels must be maintained high can make use of speech recognition system, where the password can be broken only by a particular official. 7. 7 Computer Vision: The human eye as well as TV cameras capture objects and give it as an input to the main system. But here the input given is two-dimensional; some programs may run with this input while the computers require partial three-dimensional information that can be possible by computer vision. Ex: The images taken from satellites can be of three-dimensional type. 7. 8 Machine Translation: It is a form of translation where a computer program analyses text in one language i. e. , â€Å"Source text† and attempts to produce another language called â€Å"Target text† without human intervention. Ex: In the fields having highly limited ranges of vocabulary and simple sentence structure like weather reports, machine translation can deliver useful results. 7. 9 Handwriting Recognition: Several attempts were made to produce ink pens that include digital components such that a person write on a paper and have the resulting text stored digitally. So the user need not write once in a paper and then enter it again as input in computer, thus saving time. 8. Friendly AI: Friendliness theory is a proposed solution to the dangers believed to stem from smarter-than-human artificial intelligence. According to the theory, the goals of future AIs will be more arbitrary and alien than commonly depicted in science fiction and earlier futurist speculation, in which AIs are often anthropomorphized and assumed to share universal human desires. Because AI is not guaranteed to see the â€Å"obvious† aspects of morality and goals that humans see so effortlessly, the theory goes, AIs with intelligences greater than our own may concern themselves with endeavors that humans would see as pointless or even laughably bizarre. One example is that of an AI initially designed to manufacture paperclips, which, upon becoming superhumanly intelligent, tries to develop molecular nanotechnology because it wants to convert all matter in the solar system into paperclips. Friendliness theory stresses less the danger of superhuman AIs that actively seek to harm humans, but more of AIs that are disastrously indifferent to them if steps are not taken to specifically design them to be benevolent. Doing so effectively is the primary goal of Friendly AI. This belief that human goals are so arbitrary derives heavily from modern advances in evolutionary psychology. Friendliness theory claims that most AI speculation is clouded by analogies between AIs and humans, and assumptions that all possible minds must exhibit characteristics that are actually psychological adaptations that exist in humans (and other animals) only because they were once beneficial and perpetuated by natural selection. Many supporters of FAI speculate that AI able to alter and improve itself, seed AI, is likely to create a huge power disparity between it and less intelligent human minds, that its ability to reprogram itself would very quickly outpace human ability to exercise any meaningful control over it. While many doubt such scenarios are likely, if they were to occur, it would be important for AI to act benevolently towards humans. One of the most recent significant advancements in Friendliness theory is the collective volition model. More concretely, the collective volition of humanity is the actions we would collectively take if we knew more, thought faster, etc Friendly AI should initially seek to determine the collective volition of humanity, with which it can then alter its goals accordingly. 9. Conclusion: Artificial intelligence has to be applied to the machines where the human involvement is not applicable. Keeping this in point of view, we have seen ample applications in real life so as to enhance the life of the human. These machines are very well suited for real time systems because of their fast response and computational efforts. In future people will witness a radical change in the cyber environment in the form of artificial intelligent oriented technologies. The country’s economical development depends on the strength of Defence. The chaser missile mentioned in this paper uses this reliable technology playing a prominent role in fortifying the defence. Further research on the lines of missile technology using AI may fetch more advanced and better technology in designing the missiles. From past so many years India was depending on other countries for its requirements in Defence. Now with this India will be self-dependant. Regarding the usage of AI even today there are so many comments on the threat towards humans from this intelligent so called machines. For this the friendly AI mentioned in this paper can be an answer. Finally we would like to conclude that the applications of Artificial Intelligence might be applied in real life making it no longer a fiction. 10. Acronyms: AI: Artificial Intelligence. IC: Integrated circuit. VLSI: Very Large Scale Integration. OBCS: Onboard Computer System SRAM: Static Random Access Memory NVRAM: Non Volatile RAM UART: Universal asynchronous receiver transmitter RISC: Reduced Instruction Set Computing IGMDP: Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme. DRDO: Defence Research and Development Organisation. BDL: Bharat Dynamics Limited. RCI: Research Center Imarat ASL: Advanced Systems Lab 11. References: †¢ â€Å"Computing Machinery & Artificial Intelligence† 3rd edition, by Alan Turing. †¢ Research paper on â€Å"Machine Intelligence† by Sankar Kumar Paul, Indian Stastical Institute, Kolkata. †¢ â€Å"Super Intelligent Machines† by Bill Hibbard. †¢ â€Å"Artificial Intelligence† 2nd edition 2004, by Elaine. Rich and Kevin Knight. †¢ â€Å"Applications of AI† by Richardson, IEEE paper, September 2004.

Human Computer Interaction and User Interface Design Essay

The two interfaces chosen for this project are two book selling sites – LinkedIn. com and Orkut. com. The two websites are social networking sites. While Orkut. com brings together friends and is more personal in nature, LinkedIn. com is more professional. Social networking sites being highly popular, I chose to select these interfaces for comparison. LinkedIn has over 40 million professionals using it to: †¢ â€Å"Exchange information, ideas and opportunities† †¢ Connect or re-connect with and stay informed about their contacts and industry †¢ Find inside connections to find a new job or business opportunity †¢ Find the people and knowledge required †¢ Have a controlled online professional identity Orkut, on the other hand, lets you connect with people you already know in your personal life (friends and family) while at the same time allowing you to make new friends through friends of friends and communities. It allows sharing of videos, pictures as well as your passions with friends and communities. 2. Norman’s principles for good design Norman has suggested the following principles to ensure that a website has a good design: †¢ Visibility–The designer should ensure that the state of the possible actions can be easily understood by the user. †¢ Conceptual model–All operations should be consistent in nature and the user should be able to easily understand how the site works and what options are available to the user. †¢ Mappings–The user should be able to easily map actions with their results such as between controls and possible actions that can be taken on a control or between the system state and visible indicators like change of color or image. †¢ Feedback–Users should continuously get feedback on the results of their actions helping them understand whether they have taken the right step or not. 3. User Interface overview 3. 1. LinkedIn LinkedIn requires your name and email address to open an account post which you need to provide your current employment details. These two pages are simple, similar to the Google search page look. Once the registration is completed, LinkedIn takes you to your LinkedIn page. The homepage is divided into two sections – the top section that consists of main links to search people, jobs, answers and companies with comparatively big bold letters and is separated from the bottom section by a blue line. On the right corner, quick links to the account and its settings, help language and the option to sign out are available. The top section has blue font with a white background all through. This section also consists of a search option to search people, job, companies, etc. using a drop down box. The search option automatically changes to reflect the section it is in i. e. it says â€Å"Search People† when in the Contacts page and â€Å"Search Groups† when in the Groups page. The bottom section has a grey background and is divided into three parts. Each section individually has a white background and the sections are floating in the grey background. The bottom section represents the main work area consisting of the details regarding the user profile, contacts and groups. The left hand side frame provides options personal to the user which includes viewing various lists such as groups joined, profile, contacts, inbox, and applications that help improve user experience with LinkedIn. These links are provided with images as well. These links further provide links to options available such as My Groups, Groups Directory and Create a Group for the Groups menu. The submenus are not visible but can be seen on clicking the menu item or clicking on the + symbol on the right side. The submenus can be collapsed by clicking the – symbol that now appears instead of the + symbol. The link for the current page is highlighted with a blue background. In Home page, the words Home have a blue background unlike the others with white background. At the end of the menu, there is a button to add new connections. The button is of green color and attracts the attention towards it. Below this section is another small section that is an assessment of profile completeness along with a photo and name. The profile completeness is expressed in words as well as a status bar is shown that reflects the actual status. The name draws the attention with its bold font along with the status bar. The right side section consists of several modules – the main module being the â€Å"Build your network† in a green colored box that provides different options to find your contacts. The options include searching using web email contacts, address book contacts, or using email addresses. For web email contacts, again several options are provided as radio buttons. Since each of these options require different inputs, selecting one shows a box with an arrow pointing towards the option selected and the inputs required are within this box. All buttons on the page have a light orange color which changes to blue on moving the mouse over it. All links within this module also have an icon associated with it. In the extreme right, there are several modules one below the other starting with ads by LinkedIn Members. The remaining modules include featured application on LinkedIn, Reading List by Amazon, Events, Answers and Jobs. The headings in these modules are in white color on blue background. Text within these modules is in black color whereas links have blue color. Important words like subheadings, Member names, event names, etc. are appropriate made bold to highlight them. The events are represented with the date put in a box with grey background and the month above it in smaller font with orange background. Each module heading also consists of an edit link and an ‘X’ to remove the module. At the end of these modules is the option to add other applications as required. Here again a plus symbol is used to indicate the adding of a new application. The arrow at the end can be clicked to show a list of applications available to be added but the arrow is too small and can be easily missed. These modules can be customized as required, adding, editing or moving them around to suit an individual’s preferences and needs. At the bottom, there is a tip available in a box. More tips can be seen with the help of arrows. Here arrows that are commonly used to move to next or previous tip are used. Clicking on Profile or Edit My Profile or + symbol next to Profile brings one to the Edit My Profile page. The Profile text in the menu now has a blue background indicating the current page. The centre module that consisted of Build your Network is now replaced with the profile details with a heading Profile in navy blue background and two tabs – Edit My Profile and View My Profile. The current tab is in white background whereas the inactive tabs are in grey background with text in blue. The module background is now blue with different subsections in white background. At the top the main details about the user is provided i. e. name, current position and company, location and industry. The last two details are shown in grey color. The links are maintained in blue color, headings and subheadings in bold blue and a + symbol to indicate adding detail in any subsection. An Edit link within square brackets follows all text that can be edited. On the extreme right, a profile completeness status bar is shown but also lists tips on how one could complete the profile along with how much percentage difference it makes to the profile completeness status bar. This module is very helpful, especially for someone new to social networking sites. Clicking on View My Profile tab shows the profile with the same details except that there are no Edit links or + symbols to add further details. The status bar is not seen in this view. Clicking on Contacts section leads to three tabbed page – Connections, Imported Contacts and Network Statistics. The connections are shown listed alphabetically. On the left side, the alphabets are listed and can be clicked to jump to the connections with names starting with that alphabet. Brief details about each connection is provided including email, current position and company and also includes a circle that indicates the number of connections that person has, indicating the network you could be having. The Groups link leads you to the Groups page with four tabs – My Groups, Following, Groups Directory and Create a Group. The list of Groups is presented in a clean manner with an icon representing the group, quick links to discussions, news, updates, members, settings, etc. At the bottom of the list, there is an option to change the order of the groups and how many groups can be displayed at any one time. The order can be changed by writing the numbers or using arrows. On the right side of the list, two blue-colored boxes provide you information on Groups Directory along with a button to find a group as well as option to create your own group. The buttons change color when a mouse moves over. While there are many more functionalities available, the user interface remains the same: 1. Blue color for all links 2. Bold for all headings and subheadings 3. Icons/images to represent major menus or data 4. Tabs for sub menu information 5. Links provided to ease selection 6. Provision to add, remove, edit, or move extra modules around to ease access and utility. 7. Feedback to the user in terms of background color change for links and button color change for buttons 3. 2. Orkut To log into Orkut, one needs to have a Google Account. The page for creating Google Account is simple – a form with a blue border requesting for information like name, email and password with a line marking the end of this subsection. The next subsection begins with a word verification and terms of services provided in a blue scrollable box with grey background. The button for accepting the terms is simple and consists of full text â€Å"I accept. Create my account. † rather than simply saying â€Å"Accept† which makes it clear for new-to-internet users. The login page is simple with two main sections – the top section consisting of all the details and the empty bottom section with bluish grey background. The major left part of the top section consists of orkut selling points with magenta color highlighting the main words. The empty white space surrounding the text gives it a simple, non-cluttered and pleasing look. The top menu bar in dark blue color remains accessible across all pages. Below this is a section with various modules in white background floating in a light blue background. On the extreme left is the menu starting with photo, name, status and other details of the user. Below it is the menu leading to various pages such as profile, scrapbook, etc. Each of these menu items also have an associated icon that is easy to relate to the name of the menu. This is followed by Apps and other menu items. The profile, menus, apps and other menus are separated by a blue line. All text is also in blue. It is noteworthy that all the menu names are in lower caps. Below this module, there is a module to invite friends using their email address or more. All through the page, all links are in blue and when a mouse moves over a link, there is no change in background color or image except an underline below the text. Friend suggestions is another good option since it not only provides you potential friend list, but also shows photos so that one can confirm if he/she is the same person one knows. It also provides quick links to view the profile or add as a friend. An X at the top of the photo can be used to remove it from the list quickly and arrows can be used to navigate through the list. The arrows change to light grey color when one can’t go further on either side. Below this is Updates from my friends section that provides a list of updates on the friend profile. On the extreme right is the â€Å"my friends† section with a count of total friends. It lists around 9 friends along with their photos and there is a link to view all friends, manage them, or find more friends. It also allows for searching friends. To meet the space crunch issue, the text box for searching itself has the caption rather than placing it outside. On clicking inside the text box, the caption clears and the user can add their text to search. Once the profile is filled up and many friends added, the home page can seem cluttered with a lot of information. This is followed by advertisement which is followed by â€Å"my communities†. The layout of this is similar to â€Å"my friends†. Clicking the profile link shows the profile details. Three tabs – social, professional, and personal are provided to add details about different areas of the user. The social tab is further divided into sections separated by a broad white area which also consists of an edit button. Alternate coloring pattern is used to make it easy to read each line and each detail of the profile. â€Å"My scrapbook† page provides all scraps from friends. By default, one can view 10 scraps on one page but a drop down box provides other options as well. Navigation links to move to first, last, next and previous pages are also provided as links. Each scrap is in its own blue box with photo of friend provided along with friend’s name and message. Options to reply and delete the message are also available. Once a conversation has been done through more than one response exchanged, there is a new link â€Å"View this conversation†. Clicking this link grays out the page and opens a new box consisting of the conversation details along with provision to delete. Again, the background is white with each scrap in a light blue colored box. To close the conversation box, an image with an X is provided as well as a close link. A new scrap can be typed in easily through a text box. Again there is no title or caption for the box but the same is seen as content in grey color within the text box. The scrap can also be written in different languages which can be conveniently chosen from the drop down list. Adding a community and managing it is similar in working to adding and managing friends in Orkut. 4. User survey 4. 1. Task description The users are required to do the following: 1. Register themselves 2. Sign In 3. Enter their profile details 4. Search for a friend/professional known to them 5. Add to friend list 6. Search for a community 7. Add themselves to that community 8. Sign out 4. 2. Success criteria The user should be able to create a profile, add contact(s) and join a community/group. 4. 3. User Profile User 1 is an active internet user and has prior online social networking experience. User 2 is new to computers and internet, this being amongst his first experience with social networking. User 3 uses internet mostly for surfing and finding information and has not been a member of any social networking site yet although understands the common functionalities of such websites such as registering, logging in to the site, searching, etc. 4. 4. User experience Due to his prior experience using social networking sites, user 1 had no problem registering for either of them, adding contacts, searching and registering for a group. User 1 found both sites equally easy to register, add contacts and join community; however, he was impressed by the ability to add, remove, edit and move modules in LinkedIn and was looking for similar options in Orkut. Also, searching friends in Orkut listed several names and finding the right one was difficult. While user 2 was able to create the profile and add contacts, the user sometimes felt lost in Orkut once the contacts were added and found it difficult to get back to home page. User 2 also found it difficult to easily search the friend and wished there was an easy way like LinkedIn. User 3 was also able to register easily, add contacts and join communities/groups. User 3 was not concerned about the difficulties in searching friends or professionals and looked at this as an opportunity to make new friends. 5. Suggestions Once a user becomes an active user or has many friends/professional contacts, the information shown on home page can be too much. Suggestion is to show the information partly and provide a link to further information or simply provide links to go to information. By making certain information like school or college details mandatory, orkut can help ease the search process that currently requires searching a friend from a list of hundreds with the same name.