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Local Hospitals Bioethics Committee

Local Hospital’s Bioethics Committee

Student’s Name

Institution

Local Hospital’s Bioethics Committee

The bioethics committee of the hospital is charged with the duty of supporting patients’ rights and helps them, their families and the entire health care team makes informed and sound decisions concerning health care in general. The entire members of the committee are well-trained in patient-care and medical issues and can give the management and the health-care team relevant professional advices from various points of view that can enable them articulate and arrive at the appropriate health decisions. However, the committee is not charged with the role of making decisions, but rather being a vital resource for the establishment and the clients in general.

The bioethics committee consists of doctors, social workers, nurses, patient representatives, community-and hospital-based physicians, residents and neighboring community, parents, biomedical ethicists, hospital administration, and clergy. The key roles of the committee include review and recommend guidelines of the hospital for issues regarding ethics that may arise and are related to Children care. Secondly, the committee is charged the responsibility of familiarizing the hospital staff and the entire community with issues related to ethics that are faced by families, parents and healthcare providers who are concerned with ongoing care for children who are desperately ill. Lastly, the committees have special sessions where they meet to issue necessary guidelines and serve in the capacity of sounding board for families, parents, and healthcare professionals to converse on specific ethical concerns.

When a child is admitted in the hospital, timely decisions must be in order to give appropriate medical attention. The decisions are not dependent on an individual’s discretion. Rather, the decision is arrived at by a group of people, such as the patient, her or his family, healthcare providers and physicians. Since different individuals hold different values, viewpoints, and religious beliefs that may be conflicting, arriving at a common decision regarding the best course of action for the child may be quite daunting. To ensure the committee functions as a team, a number of guidelines have been established that the members are supposed to follow strictly. These guidelines include:

The number of members in the committee must be consistent with the requirements of the hospital and not so large to an extent that it gets unwieldy. Members of the committee should be carefully selected based on their concern for the wellbeing of the infirm and the sick, their reputation among their peers and the community in general for mature judgment and integrity, and their overall interest in matters pertaining to ethics. Previous experience working as a member the establishment concerned or of a medical society committee that deals with quality assurance or ethical conduct should be taken into serious cognizance when selecting members of the committee. In addition, the members who are tasked with the duty of serving in the committee should not have other duties that not line with their responsibility as members of the medical committee.

The responsibilities of the ethical committee should be restricted to ethical matters. In the US, it is recommended that the committee adheres to the Code of Medical Ethics as a guide in making informed and professional decisions. The issues that the committee should consider deliberating on must consist of majorly ethical subjects that a bigger percentage of its members may find reasonable to discuss, or that are recommended by the hospital’s administration. The committee can also take up an issue if it is convinced beyond reasonable doubt that it meets the requirements of being discussed after an appropriate request is made by families, parents, or health care providers.

The deliberations and consequent communication of recommendations together with every step followed by the committee must agree with the ethical and institutional policies set to preserve confidentiality of information pertaining patients.

All members of the committee must be prepared to meet even on a short notice and submit their recommendations in a prompt and timely fashion in harmony with the requirements of the issues involved and situation at hand.

Since the institution is affiliated to a religious denomination, all recommendations that are made by the bioethical committee must conform to the published religious principles and tenets. When a religious belief is being taken into account in any recommendation made by the committee, the fact must be well publicized to patients, physicians, and all the other stakeholders who are concerned with the recommendations of the committee.

Whenever a patient and family seek expert recommendations from the committee, it is worth noting that the committee does neither make the ultimate decisions for them nor tell the medical practitioners how to proceed. It only serves to offer support and guidance. Apart for discussing ethical matters, the committee has also other crucial roles such as staying up-to-date on any advances in medical technology, changes in the law and relevant developments in medical bioethics. The entire team assists the rest in understanding the basic information concerning making decision in healthcare through playing a pivotal role in reviewing and then commenting on new proposed guidelines, identifying situations or issues that may require future address and ensuring existing policies are kept current.

According to the chairman, the bioethical committee has made a significant impact in solving ethical issues within the hospital. It has majorly played a vital role in educating and advising the hospital staff, patients and management. As a matter of fact, it has tremendously solved complicated and unusual ethical problems that involve the issues which affect treatment and care of outpatients and admitted patients in the hospital. The recommendations that are made by the committee impose no obligation that the institution, medical staff, the governing board, attending physicians or other concerned person must accept. Nonetheless, sound recommendations made by committed and dedicated committee are always taken into serious cognizance by the people charged with the duty of making decisions. The chairman however felt that there are also a number of issues that the committee should be charged with the obligation of handling. Such issues include: interpreting advance directives, end of life options as last option, patients who refuse beneficial treatment, negotiating alternative and complementary medicine, disclosure of mistakes, noncompliant and difficult patients, disability and ‘quality of life, and deciding whether or when to call state agencies. These are fundamental issues that affect the hospital on a daily basis and are never fully resolved since the bioethical committee does not have the mandate to deliberate on them.

On attending one of the meetings held by the committee, I confirmed the earlier words by the chairperson. Indeed, the committee is an integral component of the institution. The issues it deliberates on are very imperative for the hospital. Furthermore, the committee is made of professionals from different profession and they are well-informed on different issues and are able to arrive at the best decisions within a very short time. I further noted that there are different ways in which one can approach matters with the committee. An ethical issue can be best described sometimes when only an individual appears to speak with the committee. However, come cases may require a more informed people may come along with the concerned to appear before the committee. These can be family members, authorized representative, health care agent and a doctor. In some cases, one member of the committee can meet with a family or patient in order to discuss a concern.

References

March, C., Cano, V., Moranta, D., Llobet, E., Pérez-Gutiérrez, C., Tomás, J. M., … & Bengoechea, J. A. (2013). Role of bacterial surface structures on the interaction of Klebsiella pneumoniae with phagocytes. PloS one, 8(2), e56847.

Riesco, M. F., & Robles, V. (2013). Cryopreservation Causes Genetic and Epigenetic Changes in Zebrafish Genital Ridges. PloS one, 8(6), e67614.

Local Government Policy Analysis

Local Government Policy Analysis

(Due by Sunday, September 18, 11:59 pm)

For your first written assignment, you will apply concepts we have discussed during the first three lectures by *analyzing a policy that is currently or has been deliberated by a local government governing body (county board of supervisors, city council, special district board of directors or school district board of trustees) within the past year. To satisfy the requirements of this assignment, prepare a maximum two (2) page single-spaced analysis, **following the instructions and format exactly (see writing sample) of a policy covering the issues featured below.

Overview:

In this section, you will identify the governing body and the date the policy was or will be deliberated. Then, provide a brief description of the policy including:

What is the problem to be addressed; and

What is the event or series of events that was a catalyst for action (if known); [this is generally described in the “Background” or “Overview” section of the staff report.

Official Actors:

Identification of the official actors (i.e., local government representatives) involved in the policy.

Unofficial Actors:

Identification of the unofficial actors AKA stakeholders (other individuals/groups who are attempting to influence the outcome), their positions on the policy proposal and venues provided for these groups to influence the policy making process. Note that this does not include anyone who may potentially be impacted by the policy.

Fiscal Impact:

Budgetary impact of the proposed policy to the government agency (not to the public or specific groups)

Recommendation:

Conclude with a recommendation(s) for the actions the governing body should take (or if you agree with the decision the council/board made if it was already decided) and how you came to this conclusion.

*Note: To do well on the local government policy analysis, you will need to review policy documents that the governing body used when deliberating the item, specifically, the staff reports that are available online (not simply news articles about the item or meeting minutes). You can find these, as well as recorded videos of the public meetings, on each public agency’s website.

**Remember, this isn’t an essay, but a policy analysis (the type of document you’d write in the workplace, so the presentation of info should be succinct without extra words, transitional statements or your opinion).

Local Disaster Risk Reduction

Local Disaster Risk Reduction

Important factors to support Local Disaster Risk Reduction

Disasters occur due to other causes rather than the natural causes such social, economic, political, and cultural factors. The factors people inhabit areas and regions that are prone to natural hazards due to the different aspects of social, economic, and cultural environments. For instance, people are forced by difficult situations such as poverty to settle in hazardous areas such as flood plains and mountain slopes here floods, landslides and earthquakes are common. Other factors especially affecting the political environment are the distribution of resources such as education, health services, income, and important information. There is a lot of discrimination in many communities in the developing countries especially on the issues of welfare and social protection. Disasters occur due to both natural and human action and contribute to the major problems related to the famine, diseases such as HIV-AIDS, wars, drought and many others. The potential of various groups of people to exposure to some of the natural disasters and hazards constitutes the disaster risk that depends on the social and political systems of the community. The vulnerability of different groups to hazards exposure helps to understand disasters by looking at both the political, economic, social, and cultural systems. The important factors to support local disaster reduction in the community and places with risks of natural hazards are political, economic, social, and cultural practices.

There is a big link between poverty, vulnerability, and disasters such the poorest people are always the victim as their poverty leads to their vulnerability. Preparing those people will make them cope with disasters in case they occur. Due to climatic change it is important for countries to adopt Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR )due to the adverse effects of the occurrence. Organizations such as the Practical Action works with various communities to help them cope with the future hazards by taking measures such as disaster risk managements, and food security. The organization uses the research approach and its experience in disaster management for many years to help people cope with disasters especially in the developing countries such as South Asia, Peru, and Africa. The body also secures and sustains livelihoods in communities with high poverty levels by reducing their susceptibility to disaster. Practical Action works with the humanitarian agencies to help families, communities, and local markets to come out of the crises and cope with future disaster threats. The organization works by involving the survivors off various disasters in the decision-making and management of the resources. The world’s poorest and marginalized communities suffer from climate change compared to the well up communities. These people depend on natural resources for agriculture and other means of production.

Climate change affects the living conditions of vulnerable people especially in developing countries as a result of global warming contributed by human activities such as cultivation methods. Some cultural beliefs such as disasters are a punishment from God, or other supreme being prevents people from taking action to avoid more disasters. Organizations like the UNDP should always offer education to the vulnerable communities and change their evolutionary behaviours especially the ones touching on religious beliefs. Other factors that increase the vulnerability of communities to disasters are personality, upbringing, and level of education, peer pressure and many more. For countries to support DRR, the government should work closely with charitable organizations such as the Red Cross to reduce the influence of culture on disaster occurrences. The beliefs that it is the God’s ill for some disasters such as earthquakes and floods to happen are not healthy for DRR and DRM as people cannot engage in activities that reduce the risks of disaster occurrences.

Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) aims at identifying and reducing the risks of disaster by dealing with socio-economic vulnerabilities to the disasters. Governance is an important factor in addressing the occurrence of disasters through DRR and DRM especially in the third-world countries. The government is very important in the DRR approach to disaster management as it is one of the main actors. The government should always ensure that its citizens are safe, and there is equality in resource allocation to all communities. The government also is the main coordinator of DRR projects through the formulation of policies and programmes through legislation. The government is also mandated to ensure protection of the rights of its citizens through disaster prevention and early warnings of any impending disasters such as floods. Disaster management organisations such as UNDP and BRAC prefer working in environments where the rights of the citizens are respected and protected.

Social factors also contribute to occurrence and reoccurrence of disasters depending on the organisation of communities and the social classes. For countries to achieve Disaster Risk reduction, it must do away with social classes and bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. Some people fail to protect themselves believing that someone like the government or charitable organizations will come to their help. For example the in Kenya, people are warned to vacate the lowlands and avoid living in mountainous areas but fail to take action only to call the government when their homes floods or whenever there are landslides. The international community should always emphasize on the necessity of local ownership of the disaster risk reduction (DRR) through the local governments. Policy makers need to support the local actors to manage natural disasters by spreading awareness of the environmental risks facing the communities. The leaders and the NGOs should work with mayors and community leaders to enable active participation of the local community groups in reducing the risks due to natural disaster. Consequences and social outcomes of projects for poverty alleviation, community development, and reduction of disaster vulnerability depend on the social impact assessment.

Social factors are human populations or private actions that can affect the way of living, working, and the relation of humans to each other as the members of the society. The way a society live determines the possibility of occurrence of disasters and their management. There is a big relationship between vulnerability, disasters and hazards especially on the deep-rooted factors in different societies, which can alleviate or increase the seriousness of a disaster. Some societies or groups of people lack basic services at the household level, and others face exposure to unsafe conditions. For instance people who construct shanty houses on sloppy and hilly lands especially in urban centres increasing the risk of disasters such as floods and landslides. Disaster management through DRR should always aim at involving communities at risk in risk management and reduction of vulnerability through their projects. The civil society and the public authorities will also play an important especially in coordination and mobilization of the local communities.

Political factors may also influence the effectiveness of DRR especially in the developing countries here politicians engage in corrupt activities such as land grabbing. When leaders, politicians, and the wealthy class take all the good land, the marginalized communities end up settling in disaster-prone areas such as in the slopes and dry areas. The countries should fight corruption by the political class and allocate land and resources equality to the communities. Politics can also limit the local ownership of DRR if politics takes the centre stage during the implementation of DRR projects. There are some officials who hold positions for their interests and embezzle fund meant for disaster management and may use the resources to win votes from a few individuals. Countries need to monitor the DRR projects closely to prevent political interferences especially if they disagree with the local leaders on implementation of the DRR projects. Some political leaders will also avoid dealing with some disaster threats waiting for the next campaign period to use it a campaign tool. To avoid delays, NGOs and other international charitable organizations should monitor DRR projects and avoid political involvement of any nature. DRR is mostly part of the political debate in many countries, and its effectiveness depends on who wins the motion. Some politician’s ill use it for their political interest and limits the participation of the locals in managing disasters. Consequently, the communities do not understand their role in alleviating some disasters such as drought and famines brought about by climate changes. Some local leaders might fail to implement policies from their competitors or continue with previous projects after new elections. For DRR projects to work, politics should never play any part in the implementation of the projects dealing with disaster management and risk reduction.

Economic factors contribute to the occurrence of natural disasters and the vulnerability of some communities in depending on the distribution of the resources and agricultural activities of the country. Countries with a large wealth disparity expose the poor to deadly disasters such as landslides, as they live in areas prone to disasters. The people’s economic activities such as farming, mining, and grazing may accelerate the occurrence of natural disasters such as floods due to soil erosion. Due to the disparity in resource distribution, these people have no other option and have to cope with the frequency of the disasters as they await government intervention. DRR approach aims at bridging the gap by involving the local community in self-protection during disasters and offering permanent and long-lasting solutions to the occurrence of disasters. Understanding the economic factors in any country will assist NGOs and other organizations to manage disasters and alleviate poverty in many countries.

Conclusion

Disasters occur due to other causes rather than the natural causes such social, economic, political, and cultural factors. Disasters occur due to both natural and human action and contribute to the major problems related to the famine, diseases such as HIV-AIDS, wars, drought and many others. The world’s poorest and marginalized communities suffer from climate change compared to the well up communities. These people depend on natural resources for agriculture and other means of production. Social factors also contribute to occurrence and reoccurrence of disasters depending on the organisation of communities and the social classes. Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) aims at identifying and reducing the risks of disaster by dealing with socio-economic vulnerabilities to the disasters. The people’s economic activities such as farming, mining, and grazing may accelerate the occurrence of natural disasters such as floods due to soil erosion.

Local Computer Shop WAN Set-Up

Local Computer Shop WAN Set-Up

Report

By Your Name

Unit/Subject Name and Code

Instructor’s Name

Institution’s Name

Department Name

Date

Executive Summary

The Local Computer Shop organization, which has two offices in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne and has around thirty five employees, can choose from the wide network topologies, WAN-LAN Interconnection Equipment and various security and privacy services and mechanisms to construct their own WAN network connecting their two offices. The available topologies for the organization to choose from are; ring, bus, star, completely connected network and hybrid topologies. On the other hand, the following are the essential network equipment that they will require; repeaters, Multiplexors, Bridges, Routers and Gateways. On the issue of WAN network security and privacy, the organization has the following security and privacy measures to enable it implement its WAN network security and privacy policy; security services (system authentication, access control, data confidentiality, data integrity and non-repudiation) and security mechanisms (decipherment, digital signature, access control, data integrity, authentication exchange, traffic padding, routing control, notarization, trusted functionality security label, event detection, security audit trail and security recovery)

Introduction

The need for computer networking arises out of the desire for sharing various computing resources which are geographically scattered across several standalone workstations (and their connected peripherals) within a given organization. Apart from resource sharing, both hardware (like printers, modem, memory, file servers, processors among others) and software (like operating systems and other application software), computer networking can also achieve the following: remote login, distributed databases, file transfer, email sharing, instant messaging, news, remote processing, name services and network time (Boudec et al., N.d, p. 2). In essence, a computer network is the collection of computers (commonly known as nodes), printers and other peripherals which have been connected together with the sole aim of establishing communication among them (Bakardjieva N.d, p.2). Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) with their associated topologies are the main types of computer network (Dadarlat 2008, p. 2). The network topologies, physical representations of any given network, are subdivided into two categories; vertical (consists of hierarchical and mesh topologies) topology and horizontal (ring, tree, star and bus topologies) topology (Dadarlat 2008, p. 6). According to the requirements of any given organization, it can choose from the various types of networking options and the topology to characterize it as outlines above.

Communication Services Required to Support a WAN Connection

For communication to be established within a WAN network several factors need to be taken into consideration; an understanding of the various network types and topologies, the signal transmission medium technologies, the TCP/IP model and the various hardware and software components involved in the networking.

Types of Computer Networks

A computer network is essentially an interconnection of two or more computers (interconnected with radio waves, cables, telephone lines, infrared rays and satellites), better known as nodes in a network, with an aim of sharing computing resources, exchange files and/or enable electronic communication among them (Kaur N.d, p. 2). There are four main types of computer networks: Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN).

Personal Area Network (PAN)

This is a computer network with a reach of few meters that is used to interconnect devices such as tablets, smart phones, Personal Computers among other devices that re within the range of an individual’s body (Kaur N.d, p. 16).

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

These are computer networks covering a geographical area of a City, Municipality or town and they are generally larger than the Local Area Network (LAN) and may consist a number of Local Area Networks (LANs) resulting to a high speed of transmission like in the cable television (Singh N.d, p. 22 )

Local Area Network (LAN)

Local Area Network (LAN) is a technology that is used to connect a number of relatively close devices and in many cases within the same building (Technical tutorial 2002, p. 4). It connects personal computers, workstations, servers, printers and other peripherals within the same building or a small number of a group of buildings, office, home that are within a small geographical area (Singh N.d, p. 20).

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Wide Area Network (WAN) is a network having wide area coverage that spans countries, regions, continents and even the whole globe and it uses telephone lines, satellite communication and microwaves which are high speed communication linkage by nature (Singh N.d, p. 24). It can also be achieved through interconnecting a number of Local Area Networks (LANs) using gateways, routers, bridges to enable data sharing among them (Kaur N.d, p. 14). The internet is an example of the widely known and used type of this network (Kaur N.d, p. 14)..

Communication Network: OSI TCP/IP Model

This communication Network model was designed by the International Standards Organization and it is followed by all networks to send data (JDSU 2010, p. 2). It consists of the following layers: physical layer, data link layer, Network layer, Transport layer, Session layer, Presentation layer and Application Layer.

Physical layer

It is characterized by the commercialized bandwidth (signal rates and features) and physical media (copper, optic fiber or twisted pair coax) (JDSU 2010, p. 2)

Data Link Layer

It represents the basic data framing mechanisms where data begins (JDSU 2010, p. 2). It works in collaboration with the software in the device to enable sending and receiving of data through the network and offers mechanisms to detect errors in the network (Global Knowledge 2006, p. 6). It has the following physical layers: Bridges, Ethernet interface cards and switches for token rings (Global Knowledge 2006, p. 6).

Network layer

The network layer aids in routing data from one end to the other through the network layer protocols (Hekmat 2005. P. 16). It hides the details of the interfaces between the network and the hosts, and among hosts from the higher layer levels (Hekmat 2005. P. 17).

Transport layer

This layer offers host-to-host communication in the network which can either be reliable, best-effort, connectionless and connection-oriented communications (Global Knowledge 2006, p. 6).

Session layer

This layer provides virtual connection between nodes in the network, creates dialogue units, partitions tasks into functional groups, retransmission of undelivered data, enables synchronization of data flow, establishes acknowledgement for delivered data in any given session and it negotiates for connection parameters (Global Knowledge 2006, p. 6).

Presentation layer

This layer has the following functionalities in computer networks: it enables graphics formatting, message encryption and decryption to enable security, message compression and expansion to enable its efficient travel/transmission, content translation and translation for system-specific functionalities (Global Knowledge 2006, p. 8)

Application Layer

This layer has the following functionalities: file transfers support, network printing capability, supports electronic mail, browsing the internet through the World Wide Web and supports electronic messaging (Global Knowledge 2006, p. 10)

Types of Network Topologies

A network topology is the physical representation of how a given network type will look when implemented. The following are some of the factors to consider when choosing a given topology to represent a certain network type: the size of the network determined by the number of computers (nodes) expected to be included in the network and their Geographical distribution, the expected system performance, the total budget (estimated cost) of setting up the network, the system reliability and the nature of the communication links to be used (Singh N.d, p. 9). The following are some of the network topology types; vertical (consists of hierarchical and mesh topologies) topology and horizontal (ring, tree, star and bus topologies) topology

Star Topology

In this topology, there is a central node that performs a logical routing function that controls the communication of all the other nodes which must communicate only through the host node (Singh N.d, p. 9).

Ring Topology

In this topology, there is no host node and all the interconnected nodes have equal privileges. Each node has exactly two subordinate nodes, with which it communicates with, and once a node identifies that a message it has received was intended for it, it takes it; otherwise it passes it on to the next adjacent node (Singh N.d, p. 12).

Bus Topology

The nodes in the network are connected with a single interconnection link (transmission medium) (Singh N.d, p. 16). Once a certain node wants to communicate with another node within the network, it attaches a destination address of the receiving node and after confirming the interconnection line to be free it broadcasts the message in the line to be checked by all the nodes that it encounters in the way before delivering it to the intended addressee node which then sends an acknowledgement note to the sending node to free the communication link (Singh N.d, p. 16).

Completely connected Network Topology

Each node in the network has a direct physical link (point-to-point) to all the other nodes in the network, whereby each node sets its own communication priorities. (Singh N.d, p. 14).

Hybrid Topology

It is a type of topology that has incorporated all the properties of the above mentioned topologies; ring, star, bus and completely connected topologies

WAN-LAN Interconnection Equipment

The Wide Area Network (WAN) in most cases is achieved through interconnection of individual Local Area Networks. This is achieved through the following network components: Repeaters and Multiplexors, Bridges, Routers and Gateways.

Repeaters

They extend the physical features of the network by regenerating the network signals to cover optical distances with the same signal strength as from the start, and they operate at the physical level (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 50). In certain circumstances it enables conversion of media from fiber optic to copper and vice versa (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 50).

Multiplexors

They interleave data onto one physical link after taking its data bits from a number of nodes, and it operates at the physical layer (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 50). They are also bandwidth managers since they can administer available bandwidth on the serial link (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 52).

Bridges

Bridges are used to interconnect two Local area Networks (LANs) together, better achieved through forwarding one LAN frames forwarded from one LAN segment to another within the established network (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 52). Bridges are subdivided into two; local and remote bridges. A local bridge is the one that exists between adjacent LANs, and the remote one is that which exists between LANs which are not adjacent to each other as they have been separated by a WAN (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 52)

Routers

Routers make it possible for different sub network types to carry out their routing function by enabling their interconnection (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 52). Routers also make it possible to determine the optimal traversal path of a given data packet (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 52).

Gateways

Gateways can exist between networks, applications and Other LANs, resulting to derivation of their various names; application gateways, network gateways and LAN gateways (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 55). Network gateways can be network devices appended to communication network or existing between and within network (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 55). Application gateways can change all the application layers as needed but is itself specific to a given application (International Technical Support Organization 1994, p. 55)

WAN Network Security and Privacy Policy

Establishing an organizational Wide Area Network (WAN) security and privacy policy has the following advantages: protects the organization’s assets, it enables a given organization to comply with fiduciary responsibilities and regulatory requirements, enables an organization to gain a competitive advantage in the competitive market and finally it enables one to secure his/her job (Canavan 2001, p. 6).

In order to develop an effective Wide Area Network (WAN) security and privacy policy, the following three important factors should be taken into account; prevention (prevents are organizational data and information vulnerabilities from being exploited), detection (WAN intrusion problems should be detected in real time)and response to the WAN intrusion threat in real time (Canavan 2001, p. 10). The following are the vulnerabilities which an intruder can exploit to access the organizational resources within the WAN network; poor design, poor implementation and poor management (Canavan 2001, p. 14).

Security Services

It is the security service provided by the protocol layer that ascertains sufficient security for the communicating nodes and the data they are exchanging via the WAN network (Stallings 2011, p. 19). It is achieved through; system authentication, access control, data confidentiality, data integrity and non-repudiation.

System Authentication

It is the mechanism of ascertaining that the entity wanting to access the network resource is what it claims to be (Stallings 2011, p. 20). There are two types of authentication methods; Peer Entity Authentication ( used to provide confidence in the process of entity identification) and Data-Origin Authentication (provides assurance in a connectionless transfer that the source of received data is as claimed) (Stallings 2011, p. 20)

System Access Control

Prevention of use of a given resource by unauthorized entities; resource access control is established and only authorized individual can access it, and it determines the conditions under which access can occur, and what those allowed are privileged to a to carry out (Stallings 2011, p. 20).

Data Confidentiality

This is the process of protecting data from disclosure by unauthorized entities and it is achieved through the following ways; connection confidentiality (all user data protection on the network), connectionless confidentiality (all user data protection in a single data block), selective-field confidentiality, Traffic-Flow Confidentiality (Protection of Information likely to be have been derived from traffic flows observation) (Stallings 2011, p. 20).

Data Integrity

It is the certainty of establishing that data received through the network is exactly as sent by the authorized sender and has not been modified by means of insertion, modification, replay or deletion) achieved by; connection integrity with recovery, connection integrity without recovery, selective-field connection integrity, connectionless integrity and selective-field connectionless integrity (Stallings 2011, p. 20).

Non-Repudiation

It is the process of providing proof that a given entity had sent or received a given message in the network and in the process counteracts denial of doing so by the entity and it is achieved through Non-Repudiation of origin ( proof that a certain entity sent a given message) and Non-Repudiation of destination (proof that a given entity in the network received a certain message) (Stallings 2011, p. 20).

Security Mechanisms

Security mechanisms are those measures that have been put in place to ensure security and privacy of data is achieved in the network. It is divided into two; specific security mechanisms and pervasive security mechanisms.

Specific Security Mechanisms

These are those security measures appended into the protocol layers to provide security to specific OSI layer in the network and are achieved through; decipherment, digital signature, access control, data integrity, authentication exchange, traffic padding, routing control and notarization (Stallings 2011, p. 20).

Pervasive Security Mechanisms

These are network security and privacy measures achieved through; trusted functionality (perceived to be correct by evaluating security policies in operation), security label, event detection, security audit trail and security recovery (Stallings 2011, p. 20).

Recommendations

Firstly, it is recommended that two separate LAN networks be designed and constructed in the two buildings where the offices are located. After that, the two LANs can be connected to form a WAN. This will save the costs of employing expensive telephone lines, satellite communication and microwaves communication linkages. The most suitable topology to be emulated for this network is the bus topology. This topology can easily enable the interconnection of the two LANs by the repeaters, multiplexors, bridges, routers and gateways through their transmission medium.

Conclusion

The various network types (Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN)) are distinctively different from the types of network topologies (ring, bus, star, and hybrid). To minimize the costs of establishing a WAN network, it is recommendable to establish two separate LAN networks and then you interconnect the two LANs to form a WAN.

Appendix

Bridge

Router

Repeater

Gateway

Software

Hardware

Software

Hardware

Software

Hardware

Software

Hardware

Transmission Medium

Transmission Medium

Hardware

Software

Hardware

Software

Hardware

Software

Hardware

Software

Router

Bridge

Gateway

Repeater

References

Stallings, W 2001. Cryptography And Network Security Principles And Practice Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall

International Technical Support Organization 1994. Introduction to Networking Technologies, Document Number GG24-4338-00, Raleigh Center

Boudec, JYL, Duda, A, Toutain, L & Thiran, P N.d. Introduction to Computer

Networking, ICA, EPFL

Bakardjieva, T N.d Introduction to Computer Networking, Varna Free University “Chernorizec Hrabar”Institute of Technology

Dadarlat, V 2008. Types of Computer Networks and their Topologies, Cisco based computer Networks

Kaur, M N.d. Types of Computer Networks

Singh, P N.d. Computer Networks

Technical tutorial 2002. Introduction to Ethernet

JDSU 2010. Fundamentals of Ethernet: 10 Megabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, White Paper

Global Knowledge 2006. The OSI Model: Understanding the Seven Layers of Computer Networks

Hekmat, S 2005. Communication Networks, PragSoft Corporation

Canavan, JE 2001. Fundamentals of Network Security, Artech House, Boston, London

GFI Software 2011. Web-based security threats: how attacks have shifted and what to do about it, White Paper

Local Competition (Supor and Asd) Analysis

Local Competition (Supor / Asd) Analysis

Name

Course

Instructor

Institution

Submission Date

Company profile – Supor Co. Ltd

Company Zhejiang Supor Co., Ltd

Established 1994

Registered Capital RMB 634.98 mil

Number of Employees 11,000

Listed Location and Year Shenzhen, 2004

Main Products Kitchen Appliances, Cookware

This information is from Bloomberg, (2014, para 1).

Supor is a company that was established in the year 1994 in a place called Hangzhou, in the province of Zhejiang. In 2004, it was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and from 2006; the French firm Groupe SEB owned 71.31% of Zhejiang Supor’s equity, while Supor Group held 11.76% (ReportLinker, 2013, para, 6-7).

The company begun as a manufacturing expert in pressure cookers and later grew to become the leading homeware dealer through provision of stove top cookwares and different kinds of kitchen utensils. To enrich its product portfolio, Supor expanded to produce small electrical appliances and kitchen appliances, as well as plastic products such as beverage ware.

At the end of 2011, the cookware products the company of were revealed by the media to contain huge levels Manganese, a harmful element to human health. This issue elicited many reactions from the general public, until at the beginning of 2012 when the company alongside other government officials rubbed of the claims saying that levels of manganese were within the recommended health standards. Nevertheless, the situation increased consumers’ concerns over the safety of the company’s products, which influenced Supor’s brand reputation and, in turn, negatively impacted sales because Chinese consumers are highly cautious about safety issues (Woke, 2012, para, 1-3).

Products

Supor runs its activities in five main areas, which comprise of Hangzhou, Vietnam, Wuhan, Yuhuan, and Shaoxing. In Wuhan, the company has a production potential of up to eight million pieces of cookware, while in Shaoxing, production processes have been hampered by inadequate finances. The manufacturing capacity in Shaoxing base is projected to hit 9.25 million units in future.

Supor focuses on the production of its own brands, without manufacturing for third party brands or private label products. As well as the production of homeware products, it also produces consumer appliance.

By end of 2012, electric appliances had become major business for Supor, accounting for 55.5% of total revenue. Kitchen products accounted for 44% of Supor’s overall revenue in 2012, while rubber and plastic products accounted for 0.5% according to the company’s annual report.

Supor positions its products as mid-range, providing high-quality products in acceptable price.

RETAIL PRICE Pressure Cooker 100 – 1300 RMB

Wok 70 – 1600 RMB

Frying Pan 60 – 500 RMB

Pot 60 – 500 RMB

Operation

From 2008 to 2011 Supor’s revenue and net income maintained rapid growth. In 2012 H1, the company’s revenue was RMB 3,338 bil, down 4.04% year on year; the net income reached RMB 241.8 mil, down 4.61% y-o-y (CorporateInformation, 2014, para 1). The main reason for the decline lies in the global economic downturn and unsatisfying overseas marketing.

39052550165

Revenue analysis of Supor By Region, 2008-2012 (RMB)

By Industry, Supor gained RMB 1.837 billion from electric appliances in H1 2012, up 3.31% y-o-y. The revenue of cookwares and rubber & plastic products however witnessed a decline of 10.23% and 26.29% respectively, owing to decreasing overseas orders.

Strategic Direction

Supor continues to look forward towards adding impetus to its will continue to focus on strengthening its place in the production of homeware and more specifically kitchenware. The key aim remains to be focused on launching better quality and in the homeware category, most specifically in kitchen and kitchenware, focusing on the launch of high quality and unique products. As far as establishing a distribution network is concerned, the company hopes to stick to its latest sales chains like Suning and Gome, while at the same time, it will start to establish new online channels which will serve the ever growing curiosity for online shopping. Besides the first- and second-tier cities, Zhejiang Supor will also focus on penetrating third- and fourth-tier cities to expand its consumer base (Hansegard, 2012, para 1.). However, rumors about the company’s product quality and safety may have a negative impact on sales growth, which will also be an area of focus for cook wares.

Company Profile – ASD Co. Ltd (ASD 2007).

Company Zhejiang Aishida Electric Co. Ltd

Established 2004

Registered Capital RMB 240 mil

Number of Employees 5,600

Listed Location and Year Shenzhen, 2010

Main Products Kitchen Appliances, Cookware

Headquarter Wenling(温岭市)，Zhejiang

Stock Code 002403

This company is a nationwide cookware and automotive components manufacturing business (EC21, 2014, para, 1). It has six manufacturing bases, three oversea subsidiary companies and over 5,600 employees. For the domestic market the ASD group has more than 40 branches and offices, with a sales service network of more than 10,000 locations throughout China; while the ASD group has established a market operational system for the international market (Made in China, 2013, para 3). The products of this company are sold to countries in different countries in excess of 50 including those in South-East Asia, the greater Middle-East, Australia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Products

The company provides woks, non-stick woks, smoke-free woks, adjustable pressure cookers, cast iron woks, frying pans, pressure cookers, milk pots and soup pots, as well as kitchen electrical appliances, such as electric pressure cookers, electric rice cookers and electromagnetic cookers, among others. It provides its products under the brand name ASD.

This company prides in an R&D team of more than 500 secondary and advanced tech staff, and has established long-term cooperation relationships with many famous universities and institutions. Each year, more than 1,000 new items are expected to be developed. Currently the ASD group owns more than 70 live patents, and it is one of the drafters of Chinese national quality standards for non-stick cookware and pressure cookers (EC21 2014, para, 2).

PRICE LEVEL Pressure cooker 100 – 800 RMB

Wok 60 – 1300 RMB

Frying Pan 90 – 500 RMB

Pot 50 – 500 RMB

Operation

In 2012 H1, revenue and net income of ASD was RMB 871.9 mil and RMB 18.7 mil, down 15.01% and 44.68% y-o-y respectively. The big decrease of the company’s performance in 2012 H1 was mainly because of oversea order decreases, Chinese domestic demand decline (Chu, Girdhar, & Sood, 2013 para, 9-10 ), and slow construction of plants of the company in Wenling because of restrictions on industry upgrading and automation updating.

26924088265

Graphical analysis of income as posted by ASD, between 2008-2012 (RMB)

ASD’s business is dominated by cookers and supported by small appliances, with the former holding 91% and the later 9%. Revenue of cookers and small appliances of the company in 2012 was RMB 783.5 mil and RMB 76.4 mil, down 17.33% and up 8.53% over 2011. Order decreases from oversea markets strongly influenced revenue of its cooker business.

28575051435

Graphical analysis of revenue of ASD by product, 2008 – 2012 (RMB)

The gross margin of cookers of ASD has shown a tendency of growth, being 35.4% in 2012 H1, a growth of 6.4%, due to rising proportion of domestic sales and dropping raw material prices. However, despite the increasing revenue of small appliances, the gross margin kept declining, being 18.7% in 2012 H1 (ResearchInChina 2011).

Channel

ASD has counters in large-scale chain supermarkets and household appliance stores in first- and second-tier cities, which account for 65% of the revenue, while sales agents account for the remaining 35%. As the channel building costs and maintenance costs in supermarkets or large stores are high, ASD is planning to save only RMB 0.1 bil sales scale in those places, and give the rest to agents step by step.

For six consecutive years, products from ASD having have been toping the sales lists in many foreign hypermarkets branches based in china, which include Metro, the Wal-mart branch and Carrefour.

In third- and fourth-tier markets, ASD is short of sales outlets, and faced with problem of small market share and low brand influence. Since it cooperated with Goodaymart Electrical Appliance Service Co in 2010 H2, ASD has introduced over 300 effective outlets at Goodaymart.

Conclusion

Supor and ASD have shown all the reasons why they have established themselves as the giants the manufacturing industry in china. There are a number of factors that have enhanced the expansion of the two companies; first, ASD has been able to save a lot on maintenance and building costs in places where expenses accrued are high. This has been transferred to agents in a consistent manner. The money which is saved in this manner has been channeled towards product development. This is the reason why the company is able to produce high standard goods which easily find acceptance in local and foreign markets. The decision to deal in cookers and other small appliances seems to be advantageous to the company. These are household products that do not miss in any home. This means that the large population in china makes is a cash cow for the company.

On the other hand, Supor has also been successful in making mid range products which are highly affordable by many people. Just like ASD, they have cut their niche in kitchen ware, an essential area in any house. The company has held to the point of establishing high quality products which people can rely on amidst the presence of rival companies. In the recent past, the company has created and stuck to its vibrant sales chains in Gome and Suning. In future, the prospects of establishing on an online sales chain stands to be another milestone in the history of the company. This is because; the advent of internet has been increasing the number of consumers who troop in to make online shopping. Being worldwide, the company will manage to reach distant markets and hence increase its returns.

Bibliography

“Made in China,” (2014). Zhejiang Aishida Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd. Available at, http://www.made-in-china.com/showroom/lilytrade88/companyinfo/Zhejiang-Aishida-Electrical-Equipment-Co-Ltd-.html (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

ASD (2007). ASD Group. Available at, <http://www.chinaasd.com/english/index.asp> (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

Bloomberg, (2014). Company Profile for Zhejiang Supor Cookware Co Ltd (002032). Available at, <http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/002032:CH/profile> (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

Chu V, Girdhar A & Sood R, (2013). Business Today; Couching tiger tames the dragon. Available at, <http://www.oecd.org/daf/inv/investment-policy/oecdinvestmentpolicytools.htm> (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

CorporateInformation, (2014). Zhejiang Supor Cookware Co Ltd. Available at, <http://www.corporateinformation.com/Company-Snapshot.aspx?cusip=C1565W500> (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

EC 21, (2014). Zhejiang Taizhou AISHIDA Electrical Equipment Co.,LTD. Available at, < http://lilytrade88.en.ec21.com/company_info.jsp>

Hansegard J, (2012). The Wall Street Journal; Ikea Taking China by Storm. Available at, <http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304636404577293083481821536> (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

ReportLinker (2013). Global and China Stainless Steel Tableware and Kitchenware Industry Report, 2013-2015. Available at, < http://www.reportlinker.com/p01022385-summary/Global-and-China-Stainless-Steel-Tableware-and-Kitchenware-Industry-Report.html> (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

ResearchInChina, (2011). Global and Stainless Tableware and Kitchenware Industry Report 2012-2014. Available at <http://www.researchinchina.com/Htmls/Report/2012/6544.html> (accessed Feb 26, 2014)

Woke L, (2012). Supor suspends stock trading. Available at, < http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/hangzhou/e/2012-02/18/content_14727255.htm> (Accessed Feb 26, 2014).

Lobbying in procter & gamble IN ORGANIZATIONS

LOBBYING IN ORGANIZATIONS

Student’s Name:

Institutional Affiliation

LOBBYING IN ORGANIZATIONS

Introduction

The act of attempting to influence decisions made by government officials’ mostly regulatory agencies members, or legislators is what can be termed as lobbying. Many different types of organized groups and people that include individuals in corporations, private sector, advocacy groups, legislators or government officials participate in lobbying. The morality and ethics of lobbying can be considered dual edged in that when the implication is that the law is being corrupted by people with inordinate socioeconomic power to serve their own agendas lobbying is often spoken of with contempt. But if lobbying is simply making sure that minority interests are fairly defended against majority tyranny or other corruptions it is fully embraced, which makes it different depending on which side its being viewed from.

As a lobbyist in the American based Procter & Gamble Company that deals with cleaning agents, pet foods and personal care products. I would mainly rally against the company strategy of using animals to test their products, this strategy is wrong in both the ethical and regulatory sense as already identified through the PETA investigations on P&G subsidiary products, on the Iams pet food. By pointing out that the use of animals in the tests does not prove conclusively that when the product or substance is used on or by a human, will either be dangerous or safe. It has also been proved by experts that an estimate ninety nine percent of the tests that proved safe on animals, when applied to humans ended up being dangerous (Festing & Wilkinson, 2007).

With this mindset I would like the federal government to enforce policies that would regulate and monitor the organizations acquiring the test animals and encourage them to find alternative means of testing their safety of products for consumption and human use without using the inhumane use of animals. It’s clear that the organization is avoiding the alternatives since it prevents them from maintain a higher margin of profit , but to justify animal testing for anyone possessing empathy simply as a means of maintaining corporate profits would be difficult leaving them with no choice but to embrace the change.

I regard the lobbying practice as providing a resolution platform to provide information, solve conflicts among competing and diverse points of view, opinions and analysis to government leaders and legislators to allow for balanced and informed decision making and keeping any one group from attaining a permanent position of power through creation of a check and balance of competition among different interest groups. The legislative work also benefit from the lobbyists since they are provided with accurate assessment and reliable data of a bills effect that helps their work be more efficient. With their evident contribution and influence on the policy makers point of views it would unwise to ban lobbying, however regulations need to be put in place and enforced to avoid the lobbyists from overstepping their boundaries or grounds (Berg, 2009).For the lobbying industry to create an appropriate regulatory framework some of the changes that can be enforced include first taking serious the industries scope and size, to ensure that the economic power safe guards do not translate simply into political power, in addition it would be important to accept lobbying as an independent and fundamental part of decision making in the democracy.

Conclusion

It is common for many people’s thoughts to immediately go to political ethics presence or lack in the government whenever the word lobbying comes up. When lobbyists serve their clients ethically their main purpose is revealed. If currently enforced laws revolved around lobbyists misusing their position then perhaps, it would help to reestablish a more positive atmosphere and credibility to the lobbying industry. As with any issue or situation, when balance, integrity and ethics are applied and are present accordingly, the end results are fair generally.

Reference

Festing, S., & Wilkinson, R. (2007). The ethics of animal research. EMBO reports, 8(6), 526- 530.Berg, K. T. (2009). Finding connections between lobbying, public relations and advocacy. Public Relations Journal, 3(3), 1-19.

Lobbying In Organizations

Lobbying In Organizations

Introduction

The act of attempting to influence decisions made by government officials’ mostly regulatory agencies members, or legislators is what can be termed as lobbying. Many different types of organized groups and people that include individuals in corporations, private sector, advocacy groups, legislators or government officials participate in lobbying. The morality and ethics of lobbying can be considered dual edged in that when the implication is that the law is being corrupted by people with inordinate socioeconomic power to serve their own agendas lobbying is often spoken of with contempt. But if lobbying is simply making sure that minority interests are fairly defended against majority tyranny or other corruptions it is fully embraced, which makes it different depending on which side its being viewed from.

As a lobbyist in the American based Procter & Gamble Company that deals with cleaning agents, pet foods and personal care products. I would mainly rally against the company strategy of using animals to test their products, this strategy is wrong in both the ethical and regulatory sense as already identified through the PETA investigations on P&G subsidiary products, on the Iams pet food. By pointing out that the use of animals in the tests does not prove conclusively that when the product or substance is used on or by a human, will either be dangerous or safe. It has also been proved by experts that an estimate ninety nine percent of the tests that proved safe on animals, when applied to humans ended up being dangerous (Festing & Wilkinson, 2007).

With this mindset I would like the federal government to enforce policies that would regulate and monitor the organizations acquiring the test animals and encourage them to find alternative means of testing their safety of products for consumption and human use without using the inhumane use of animals. It’s clear that the organization is avoiding the alternatives since it prevents them from maintain a higher margin of profit , but to justify animal testing for anyone possessing empathy simply as a means of maintaining corporate profits would be difficult leaving them with no choice but to embrace the change.

I regard the lobbying practice as providing a resolution platform to provide information, solve conflicts among competing and diverse points of view, opinions and analysis to government leaders and legislators to allow for balanced and informed decision making and keeping any one group from attaining a permanent position of power through creation of a check and balance of competition among different interest groups. The legislative work also benefit from the lobbyists since they are provided with accurate assessment and reliable data of a bills effect that helps their work be more efficient. With their evident contribution and influence on the policy makers point of views it would unwise to ban lobbying, however regulations need to be put in place and enforced to avoid the lobbyists from overstepping their boundaries or grounds (Berg, 2009).

For the lobbying industry to create an appropriate regulatory framework some of the changes that can be enforced include first taking serious the industries scope and size, to ensure that the economic power safe guards do not translate simply into political power, in addition it would be important to accept lobbying as an independent and fundamental part of decision making in the democracy.

Conclusion

It is common for many people’s thoughts to immediately go to political ethics presence or lack in the government whenever the word lobbying comes up. When lobbyists serve their clients ethically their main purpose is revealed. If currently enforced laws revolved around lobbyists misusing their position then perhaps, it would help to reestablish a more positive atmosphere and credibility to the lobbying industry. As with any issue or situation, when balance, integrity and ethics are applied and are present accordingly, the end results are fair generally.

Reference

Festing, S., & Wilkinson, R. (2007). The ethics of animal research. EMBO reports, 8(6), 526- 530.

Berg, K. T. (2009). Finding connections between lobbying, public relations and advocacy. Public Relations Journal, 3(3), 1-19.

Living on the Edge of the Moment

Living on the Edge of the Moment

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Name and Code

Instructor’s Name

Due Date

Living on the Edge of the Moment

We all have that one sport that we love and must always watch or participate in. Be it boxing, basketball, football, rugby, or tennis. We have all been drunk on the exhilarating moments of the game at one time or another. Some of these sports are famous globally, while others are only popular within a country or a region, among the most popular ones being football. Football, or rather soccer, is undoubtedly the best game that has ever been. In my opinion, at least. It has the highest fan base level globally. With the biggest teams locking heads in Europe to deliver some of the best nights you will ever have stuck to a television. There are highs and lows of cause to being a football fan; sometimes your team wins, and sometimes they lose. It is part of the game. Some teams have the most prominent players, while some are not big enough to get them. And, as such, it is these big teams, in the biggest of matches, who deliver some of the most exuberant matches in football history. One such match that many people will live to tell their grandkids about was the 2017 game between Barcelona and Paris St Germain.

This game, in my opinion, got a 10/10 rating. The stage was set for Barcelona to marvel its fans after a 4-0 first leg humiliating defeat. The game was on their home ground, and they had to prove to the world that that was the toughest ground to play in Europe, considering they had not lost for many years on that ground. Camp Nou is the biggest stadium in Europe, and the Catalonians are among the loudest. On that night, it was filled, and you could feel the silence as the Barcelona faithful had no idea what to expect. Once the game kicked off, the stadium became alive, and the fans were off their feet to give the necessary boost to their team. Camp Nou provided the best landscape to stage a coup for the qualification, and once the game was set, it was always going to have a significant effect on the outcome.

The other defining moment of this match was the quickness with which the first goal came. The deficit set the mood, but that goal set the tone. As the saying goes, “the early bird catches the worm” Barcelona went to the game all warmed to shine at this moment, and a quick goal in the first five minutes was their reward. They played with pace, clinically, and without hesitation as characterized with their type of game. It was still a huge hill to climb but with it came the belief that the tie was still in their hands, that they were the masters of their fate.

As said of football, “the game is not over until you hear the final whistle”. Well, the Barcelona team played to that whistle. They were never giving up, throbbing even when it seemed impossible, giving as hard as possible. And finally, a crescendo!. A last-minute goal. Paris St Germain was in, and then they were out. As it said, “the biggest players live for the biggest moments”. It was a goal that came with the loudest noises from happiest of fans created by the best players. That final goal remains immortalized in our hearts; even in the worst of games, we still remember the last goal of that fateful day.

Football does bring us some joy in spades and sadness alike. We fall in love with it as we would the person of our dreams, suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it. We lose and then win, but we stay steadfast to the teams we love.

Living In A Digital World

Living In A Digital World

Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u 1. Introduction PAGEREF _Toc377249283 h 12. Background of digital technologies PAGEREF _Toc377249284 h 23. Digital technologies contribution to individual’s quality of living PAGEREF _Toc377249285 h 24. Benefits of digital technologies for organisations PAGEREF _Toc377249286 h 65. Advantages of digital technology to Society PAGEREF _Toc377249287 h 86. Limitation of digital technology to individuals PAGEREF _Toc377249288 h 117. Limitation of digital technology to organisations PAGEREF _Toc377249289 h 125. Limitation of digital technology to society PAGEREF _Toc377249290 h 146. Develop digital technologies to avoid disadvantages PAGEREF _Toc377249291 h 158. Conclusion and Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc377249292 h 20

1. IntroductionIn the advent of electricity invention, the world continues to experience the effect of innovators. Gadgets that make the work of people easier, easier, and efficient have had an increase in numbers. During the last 100 years, gadgets developed intended to take care of national and international security and were under the exclusive usage of the government. When technological companies began been operational this changed. More people are using the gadgets and the lives of the general populations are becoming easier while organisations are increasing their efficiency. Competitive advantage depends largely on the ability of a given organisation to take advantage of technological advancement to make the life of their clients better.

To the society, organisations, and individuals technology is a lifestyle. The fact of the matter is that while on one hand technology has many opportunities it has its demerits. On the positive side technology will save people time, save them money, increase their connectivity, increase significant value to businesses, and the improvement of a nation’s economy. On the other hand, it will increase unemployment, have negative environmental impacts, invade the privacy of individuals, facilitate insecurity, and have health complications.

This report follows the following structure. The next section discuss a general background of digital technology, section 3 explain the advantages of such technologies to an individual, organisation, and the society, section 4 will review the limitation of technologies, section 5 focus on ways of avoiding technological disadvantages, section 6 contains a personal experiment. The final section of the paper concludes with recommendations.

2. Background of digital technologiesAccording to Mitzner et al. (2010), technology is generally “any electronic or digital product or service”. Digital technology history started centuries ago, with some researchers proposing that technologies began with the creation of the Abacus. They add that the last decade has seen the most development in digital technology innovation and an increase of interest among individuals in such technology. Most people see these technologies as a way of making the world smaller and closer. For example, the ease of use of Internet, social networking websites, and Internet voice communication makes people communicate faster and effectively. On the other hand, organisations realise that these technologies are sources of maximizing profit and customers’ base.

The creation of the internet was after the development of computers, it began as a military experiment after the World War II as a source of exchanging data under the name Arpanet (Banks 2012). Although the use of such technology was exclusive to governments, today this service is having daily application among many people, as the use of Internet becomes a life style for most people from young to the relatively aged. Still, individual usage of Internet increased in last decade from 361 million users to 2.3 billion users with an increase of 528% all over the world (IWS 2011). As well, global consumer technology spending in 2012 is expected to exceed USD 1 trillion, increasing by 5% compared to the preceding year (CEA 2012). This is all because digital technologies provide suitable opportunities to individuals, organisations, and the society.

3. Digital technologies contribution to individual’s quality of livingUsing digital technologies such as computers and Internet has improved the living quality of the individuals. Atkinson and Castro (2008) proposed that the use of digital technologies by individuals participated in improvement of their education, training, health care, personal safety, and accessibility for people with disabilities, recreation and entertainment, save time, facilitate communication, and access to information

3.1 Education and Training

The use of digital technology enhances the individual ability to educate. For example, online classes (e-learning) gives busy people the opportunity to learn in any location and time. Likewise, the internet education application gives students at all levels access to new and revised information for their needs. Into the bargain, innovations such as Edline assist parents to supervise their children educational progress effectively (NY). Over 700 empirical studies in the US show that students with access to computers, learning system technologies, simulation and software that teaches high order thinking show positive gains to their achievements (Schacter 1999).

3.2 Health care

According to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care in Australia (2000), over the 20th century, the use of health-care technologies improved and the average individual life expectancy in industrialised countries has increased from around 45 to 75 years. Based on ABC news report (2010) the use of MRIs and CT scans devices tripled in the US between 1996 and 2006. According to the report, these technological medical instruments “can help doctors detect everything from kidney stones to cancer”. Hence, digital technologies have a huge contribution in maintenance of the healthcare of an individual.

3.3 Personal safety

Digital technology of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) has a major contribution in securing homes from crimes. In the United States, public CCTV associated with a 13% reduction in crime (HYPERLINK “http://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?action=runSearch&type=advanced&result=true&prevSearch=%2Bauthorsfield%3A(Ratcliffe%2C+Jerry+H.)”Ratcliffe et al. 2009). According to Tilley (1993), “car crime in general including that in car parks in particular is clearly a serious issue” and such crimes can reduce with the implementation of CCTV technology. To boot, digital technology involvements in personal safety is not exclusive to the reduction of crimes only, but also protecting the safety of the senior people in their home and elsewhere with the use of medical alert system.

3.4 Accessibility for people with disabilities

In the last decade, digital technologies providers have been considering the use of their product by people with different kind of disabilities. For instance, Apple “includes assistive technology in its products as standard features” all of Apple products includes “screen magnification and voice order, a screen-access technology” these type of features are offered to support the blind and visually impaired people (Apple n.d.). Besides, there can be the configuration of the global positioning system tool (GPS) to Personal digital assistants (Cornelius 2007) to help in the guidance for people with specific disabilities. Such as, including the verbal directions in the GPS can provide guidance help for people who have difficulties with their eyes.

3.5 Recreation and Entertainment

Digital technologies are improving the quality of entertainment; this includes the new LED high definition televisions with three dimension screens. On top, new Apple devices with 64 GB can hold up to 14,000 songs (everymac). Also, online gaming can make people at all ages to play games with people from all over the world, one player can be sitting in his home in Australia and the other player located in UK and still play the same game at the same time with extremely high resolution pictures and motions.

3.5 Save time

Digital technology contributes in saving people time. Smart phones such as iPhone, Blackberry, and Android helps individual to communicate regardless of the time or location. The use of such devices, searching information instantly instead of spending time in libraries, and searching for shops locations is possible. On the other hand, Emails allow people to communicate directly, saving users the time of writing letters and sending it through mailboxes that might take few days to get to its destination. This study indicates that all kinds of digital technologies make the life of people easier in certain ways that have a negative correlation with time saving.

3.6 Facilitate communication

In the last decade, the use of Social Networking Services has become of increasing interest among young individuals from all over the world, these networks enable individual to communicate regardless of their time zones. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace are examples of technological communications. According to a study performed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (2009, p.8), 90% of young people aged 12 to 17 years use the social networking services as compared to 51% of children aged 8 to 11 years. Collin et al. (2010) found that the benefits of the use of social networking communication include “delivering educational outcomes, facilitating supportive relationships, identity formation, and promoting a sense of belonging and self-esteem”.

3.7 Access to information

Internet allows individuals to discover about locations without having to be actually present. For instance, travellers can find all information they need about their destination, starting from flight schedules and prices, to hotels alternatives and evaluations of these accommodations, as well as recommended hot spots. In education, students and lecturers can access all kinds of information without visiting the library. In health care, patients can find lots of information about their medical condition. In the retailing industry, digital technology enables Individuals to buy anything they want over the Internet starting from grocery needs to the management of their equity shares (Atkinson & Castro 2008).

4. Benefits of digital technologies for organisationsAccording to Bonnet et al. (2012), most organisations invest “in a common set of digital technology” in order to enhance performance and functionality of their internal and external processes, expand clients base, foster customers loyalty, and maximize organisations profitability. Digital technologies not only affect businesses but also the transformation process (Baltzan et al. 2010).

4.1 Business processes and the use of digital technologies

According to Attaran (2003), advance information technology has evolved in redesigning organisation processes. It helped businesses to speed up the processes, reduce needed resources, improve productivity and efficiency, and improve their competitiveness. In addition, digital technologies create more flexible, team-oriented, coordinative, and communication based work capability to improve processes and performance. Organisation use of digital technologies may not only improve individual processes, but also may support processes combination and integration across the organization (Basu and Blanning 2003).

In 1956, IBM created the first hard drive computer under the name 305 RAMAC, it could store up to 4.4 MB of data and the company leased this storage device for USD 3,200 per month (IBM n.d.). Today, organisations can use various types of digital technologies, such as smart phones, laptops, tablets, virtual communication, and emails to achieve similar goals. As well, organisation database and warehouses has now a tremendous and flexible capability to save data with the ability to real time information.

4.2 Digital technology and business value

According to Melville et al. (2004), information technology may enable organisations to increase efficiency regardless of whether copied by competitors or not. David Sward (2006, p.7), a Senior Researcher at Intel Corporation, proposes, “IT investment alone is not a guarantee to improve productivity”. In addition to investing in IT, an enterprise must also manage the IT ecosystem and business process” this will lead to better business values. What is more, Thadani (2011) think, “Company accounts and customer records can be easily stored and accessed, and this increases the market penetration of the business”.

4.3 Digital business (e-business and e-commerce)

Internet helped organisations to communicate with their customers and suppliers not only in their location but also beyond local markets. As such, many organisations adopt e-business in order to reduce costs. E-business also allows small businesses to compete with larger businesses, reach new markets, improve marketing strategies, and increase sales (Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services 2008). The e-commerce on the other hand, enables businesses to buy and sell products over the Internet, e-commerce reference to online transactions only (our book).

4.4 E-learning

Educational and training institutions can provide their services over the Internet or by a software application. Through E-learning, there can be the deliverance of education from any location. Merits of e-learning is that it is cost effective than traditional learning, more flexible, easy to personalize to individual needs. Moreover, educational institutions return on investment for E-learning can be 50% to 60% greater compared to traditional teaching and training (Boggs 2004). A study performed by Concannon et al. (2005, p. 511) results that over 70% of the E-learning students were happy with the overall e-learning outcome.

5. Advantages of digital technology to SocietyAccording to Hearst (1999), “Society and information technology are rapidly co-evolving, and often in surprising ways”. Technologies provided many pluses to societies, and societies are dependent on technology in many aspects. Societal classifications have the basis of their efficient and effective use of different kind of technologies that facilitate and protect people’s life, rights, and wellbeing.

5.1 Economic

According to Loo and Soete (1999), “The relationship between technology and economic growth has been captured in a vast number of formal models for almost half a century”. Digital technology has been a major driver for economy growth. Kozma, (2005) research, suggests that growth an economic output can occur with an increase in digital technology input. In addition, Singapore’s per capita GDP Between 1970 and 1989 grew by 6.7% annually, and one of the main reasons of this growth is adopting technological innovation strategies.

5.2 Government

Developed countries governments have the commitment to provide the best services to the people; this can only possible through the efficient use of effective technology. According to the Australian public service commission (2002), implementing e-government ensure the there is quality and accessibility of various services offered to the citizens. Digital technology helps the government to perform their duties and responsibilities in more efficient and effective manner. In addition, digital technology helps governments to improve consistently their services and their internal procedures.

5.3 Energy

For almost a century, countries have been using different kind of non-renewable energy that includes coal, oil, and natural gas. New technologies can play a crucial role in adopting renewable energy resources such as sun, wind, and water flow (Department of Commerce 2009) while digital technology can participate in reducing the use of energy. For example, new technologies can reduce the number of travel of workers using virtual meeting applications. Telework such as the use of mobile, e-mail, instant massages, and faxes helps organisations to work in their home, which might reduce the consumption of huge amounts of energy in the work place.

5.4 Environment

There was a conduction of an international agreement conducted between industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse emissions (the Kyoto Protocol, 1997). Today, most of the developed countries are racing to reduce their carbon consumptions. This is possible through creating cleaner source of energy. Digital technology plays a vital role in calculating and tracking such pollutions (air and water) all over the world. In addition, specific complicated technologies find application in measuring and monitoring the global warming.

5.5 Public safety

Safety is a primary need for all humans (Maslow 1970, p. 18). Advanced technology helps countries to monitor all their boarders, cargo, and ports to ensure people’s safety. It is also possible to minimize, prevent, and detect crimes by the use of technology. Such as, fingerprints, images of the face, and DNA analysis, helps in detecting peoples misconduct that will have a direct relationship to the reduction of this kind of undesired behaviour. Furthermore, the National Safety Agency of Australia (2010) announced that new police cars would have “a multiple network, multi function voice and data communications system configurable to user requirements and incorporating I.P. and Wi-Fi connectivity, metro and country radio networks, Next G, and satellite applications providing a number of redundancy options”. This will help in the event connection to primary network is lost. These functions will help police enforcement in controlling and monitoring the public safety.

Another major role of technology is to maintain the public safety with the development of complex tools that monitor the activity of natural disasters such as earthquake, tornado, and volcano. The use of such technologies will enable the notification of people of such activities when there are expectations they can occur. This gives people time to move away from these disasters to ensure and maximize the safety of the public.

6. Limitation of digital technology to individualsAlthough digital technologies have many advantages to the individuals, there are many limitations associated with such benefits. For instance, digital technology makes people’s life more complex, video games and online entertainment may affect the youth academic performance. Digital technology may further result to laziness and loss of personality. A crucial disadvantage of technology is violating individual privacy as well exposing individuals’ confidential information. This study discusses only three major limitation of digital technology.

6.1 Privacy violation

Most people nowadays save their personal and confidential information on their personal computer and will post their private photos on social networking services. This new form of attitude exposes individual privacy to many people around the world. Unfortunately, social networking sites will track user’s activities for marketing purposes. Data scraping uses private information without the owners consent in order to market products based on the individuals’ interests and needs. This raises ethical issues concerning the use of some social networking services.

6.2 Health issues

Recent study by psychologist Balding (cited in the British physiological society 2012) found that there is a significant relationship between stress and the use of smart phones by individuals. Young et al. (2012) found that the way an individual sits to use tablets increases the risk of having head and neck strain. Spending many hours using online networking in addition can cause biological effects that could increase the risk of getting serious health issues such as, cancer and heart disease (BBC 2009).

6.3 Childhood

Uncontrolled digital technology has a major side effect on children’s attitude. For example, children’s who spend more time in front of the TV increases the risk of overweight. Moreover, several studies found that the effect of TV violence may cause children to accept such behaviour as a way to resolve problems and always will feel that something bad is going to happen to them (AACAP 2011). Allowing children to play games with imaginary characters may appear innocent in childhood, but it could leads to potential difficulties in their adulthood while continued playing of video games damages children’s eyes overtime. According to Buffardi and Campbell (2008) found that they is a direct relationship between the extensive use of social networking websites and Narcissistic especially for teenagers and young adults.

7. Limitation of digital technology to organisationsNowadays, digital technology plays a crucial role in all kind of businesses. Although these technologies help organisations to achieve reaching their optimal strategies, there are many disadvantages of using such technology. These limitations can sometime lead to complete business failure. Moreover, some advanced technology used in businesses could affect employees’ attitude and behaviours by an unethical use of technology by the business management.

7.1 Security issues

Data and information security are one of key success to any organisation. Currently, most organisations involve in an Internet activity that makes them exposed to hackers and all kind of viruses. However, with out proper protections, organisations display their confidential information about them business operations as well as their clients. Others can have access to the information illegally. Moreover, without appropriate safeguard of tangible and intangible assets, employees could harm the business by a mistake or purposely by steel such data and information.

7.2 Employee privacy

Day to day operation by staff use of technologies such as email and their access to Internet are subject to supervision by the management. This kind of attitude could cause unethical behaviour complications on the part of the management. Such approach may affect employees’ confidence and trust. Moreover, many organisations uses surveillance camera in order to supervise certain operations or assets. According to Kidwell and Bennett (1994) “Electronic monitoring control systems could have an important relationship to employee stress” that may affect organisation performance.

7.3 Employees’ technologytraining costs

A large potential cost to organisations is training employees to use different kinds of technology effectively and efficiently. To boot, spending organisation time in training instead of production is likely to be unprofitable in the short run. Likewise, organisations usually dedicate small amount of time in training employees, this could result to staff efficiency reduction. What is more, with the increase development of digital technology, organisations have to have constant training programs to employees. For that reason, the use of technology could be costly to some type of organisations.

7.4 Implementation Cost

The use of effective technology in organisations requires many funds. For instance, the cost of implementing different kind of software’s could result in internal and external costs in addition to the price of the software. Internal costs could include the time spent by employees in customising software’s that require participation of most employees at all levels. Besides, internal costs could also include employees training cost on how to use such softwares. On the other hand, external costs are associated with the cost of the software maintenance and support.

5. Limitation of digital technology to societyAlthough digital technology has many advantages to society, there are many limitations associated with these advantages. Technology made the way societies live easier, but limitations increase the complications. Also, depending of digital technology increase the variance between societies knowledge

5.1 Unemployment

In the unemployment literature, many researchers proposed that technology advancement has been causing many people to lose their jobs. Aghion and Howitt (1994) found that technology progress has a negative correlation with the rate of unemployment. That is why there are many risks associated with creating new technologies. In addition, major social problems have a close relation to the increase in rate of unemployment; this includes the increase of crime rates. Although, digital technology participate in protect and ease people life’s, it has an indirect side effects to the society.

5.2 Pollution

Today, digital technology is participating in reducing environmental pollution by monitoring and measuring the amount of pollution worldwide. On the other hand, manufacturing of technology is in industries or maybe worse. The matter of fact is that the main source of using digital technology by people is traditional electricity and gas. According to the World Nuclear Association (2012) over 90% of Australia, energy consumption is black coal, brown coal, and gas. Therefore, societies are consuming lots of energy in order to use the various technologies that have a direct affect on increasing the pollution.

5.3 Social isolation

Using the Internet and social networking website made people all over the world closer to each other. This statement has been under criticism by many physiologic researchers. Kraut et al. (1998) found that increased use of the Internet is negatively associated with reduced family communication and decrease size of social circles. On another study, Sanders et al. (2000) found that low Internet users, had significantly better relationships with their mothers and friend compared with high Internet users. Matters of fact, people are lazier now, and children are less involved with physical entertainment that used to be fun in the past. These activities build a healthier body and create a personality based on direct communication that this study states will have a direct positive effect to their maturity.

6. Develop digital technologies to avoid disadvantages6.1 Individuals

According to the Australian Office of the Information Commissioner (n.d.), in order to protect individual private information, individuals should enhance their online securities that includes visiting websites that have adequate privacy policies, install and use privacy enhancing software that includes firewalls, anti spam tools, cookie and web bug remover. Individuals should upload and provide information as less as possible, in addition to advertising filters.

Technology providers should be committed to educate parents to supervise their children’s use of various technologies such as entertainment games, TV, access to Internet websites, and social networking networks. As shown prior in this report, excessive use of digital technology by children has direct affect to their wellbeing and their personality. There should also be the development of technologies to minimize the health effect to the adults if used for continuous hours. In an example, laptops manufacturer could develop their products to have compulsory turn off after one hour of continued use; this will help the individuals to take a brake that might benefit their health (eyes and body) over the long run.

6.2 Organization

Information privacy and security are major issues for many organisations, especially organisations that are involved in an access use of Internet and have limited resources to protect it self from the illegal and unethical act of other users of the Internet. In order for all organisations to avoid and protect its data and information, operating systems providers such as Windows should provide a complementary effective anti-viruses software. Moreover, this study found that governments all over the world should force software companies to provide complementary anti-virus protection to all their clients free and such software should be updated continuously.

With the extensive use of digital technologies by organisations, employees’ skills and knowledge need consistent improvement. This has them meaning that organisations should have training programs to help the staff keep up with the fast technology advancement. Still, organisation management should develop their internal policies as not to violate employees’ privacy.

6.3 Society

Peoples nowadays have complete dependency on technology. It is the duty of the governments to educate the people, organisations to teach their subordinates, and parents to speak to their children about the bad side of the technology obsession. Many researchers indicate that although technology eases our life, it has other negative effects. These bad sides include major health issues such as laziness, and matters that relate to human personality.

Organisations understand that the use of technology is cost-efficient and have a negative direct relationship to recruitment. It is the duty of the government and technological firms to provide newer jobs for citizens or assist by developing their technology in a way that it does not replace human beings. Besides, technology development should be in order to safeguard the health of normal people.

7. Personal experiment

There was the carrying out of an experiment of living without the use of digital technology luxuries in this report. This study imagines that living without technology is extremely difficult in performing daily responsibilities. On the positive side, a major advantage is that there where more direct face-to-face interaction with the people as compared with the use of technology and concentration levels increase consequently.

7.1 Time of experiment

To take the maximum results for this experiment, this study was segregated into three parts. It performed the first part on Friday 4th of April 2012, by travelling in train between two areas without the use of the schedule applications of iPhone transport. Second part was conducted on Friday 11April 2012, it is based on going to a certain location in Sydney CBD with using map directions. The last part on Saturday 13 April 2012, this was turning off the mobile in a friend gathering for around three hours.

7.2 Technologies often used

I usually use my iPhone for website browsing and short reading, in addition to Internet instant messaging application. I also use MacBook laptop to search for detail information over the Internet and to prepare my study assignments. Yet, I do not enjoy reading from screens me usually print and read. Also, am not a big fan of social networking website because I do not prefer to reveal my private information to others as well as not liking the violation of others privacy. What is more, my life is not completely dependent of technology that is why I had to segregate this experiment into three parts, in order to achieve the goal of this experiment.

7.3 The most important technology

This study indicates that living without a smart phone is hard, as these mobiles put the whole world in the user’s hand. Smart phone users can do many functions in one device, they can browse the Internet, operate their email, perform International call for free, send and receive instant massages for free, download magazines, newspapers, and journals. What is more, smart phone users can use these devices as a camera, they can send and receive photos, they can use map directions in case they are cannot find their way around cities or selected locations. There are many app

Live Concert Report

Live Concert Report

Student’s Name

Institution

Jazz All-Year Round – JESSE COOK

Live Concert Report

I attended the Jazz All-Year Round – JESSE COOK concert at the Place des arts in Montreal. It was held on the 18th, September, 2012. This is one of the most memorable moments I can not forget in my life. It is very important to mention that the concert was well-organized and presented in an appealing manner to all the present fans, including me. Jazz All-Year Round – JESSE COOK concert was presented in this big hall by eight artists. There were vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers. They professionally performed their roles with the prowess that left me yearning for more.

The Jazz All-Year Round – JESSE COOK crew used a variety of instruments, including piano, trumpet, guitar, saxophone and banjo. Each of these was well-coordinated and made the songs played be quiet rhythmic and interesting throughout the whole concert. The sounds came out so clearly and it was very easy for anyone to be acquainted with the message being delivered in each of the songs. There was a free flow of tones in the songs played. These would interchangeably and rhythmically transit from high to low tones. Each of the instrumentalists was competent in doing their bit. For instance, the vocals were tactical in the use of microphone. This helped to produce a clear and audible sound projections in line with the instruments played.

Besides, the musicians were so presentable and rhythmically moved on the stage that they nearly thrilled the audience. They were dressed in a unique uniform that identified their band. This was a very well-designed fashion that conspicuously produced flamboyant colors in the beautiful laser beams in the theatre hall. This appealed to the audience which was thrilled by the presentation. Both the artists and the audience were familiar because I could notice the audience being engaged in singing part of the songs played. Surely, Jazz All-Year Round – JESSE COOK is a must watch concert for any youth willing to entertain.