Explain how Steinbeck describes the differences in character between Lenny and George Essay Example for Free

Explain how Steinbeck describes the differences in character between Lenny and George Essay Explain how Steinbeck describes the differences in character between Lenny and George The author, John Steinbeck described Lenny as the opposite of George. Lenny and George are good friends but mostly have nothing in common except that they both share the same dream, the American dream. Steinbeck described what the characters are wearing at the beginning of the story. Then he started describing the difference in characters between George and Lenny. George is the smart one and Lenny is the one whos childlike. Lenny always depends on George because George is the only friend hes got and George is like the only family of Lenny. At the beginning of the story, Steinbeck first described what George and Lenny are wearing at the beginning of the story as Both dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Then he started describing the difference between George and Lenny. First he defined George as small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. Then he described Lenny with no similarity to George as a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders. Steinbeck uses a simile to describe Lennie. He tells us how he walk by dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws, he described Lennie by comparing him to an animal. Steinbeck wants us to draw an image in our mind of how Lennie moves. In the next paragraph he compares Lennie to an animal again, when he drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse. The author described Lennie like an animal so that well imagine it clearly by picturing Lennie like the way an animal move. The role of George in novel is like a parent to Lennie whos a big guy but has a mind like a child. Since Lennies Aunt died, George is the one taking care of Lennie. When his Aunt Clara died, Lennie just come along with me out workin, George said to Slim. Sometimes he tells Lennie the things to do and thing hes not supposed to do. Lennie, for Gods sakes dont drink so much, George told him off like telling off a child. George acts as a parent to Lennie. Lennie imitates George sometimes. He copies George by the way he acts and the way he tells Lennie something to do, as if hes also looking after George. You drink some, George. You take a good big drink, he told George. Steinbeck told us many things that describe how childish Lennie is. For example, when Lennie found out what Lennie had in his pocket. Its only a mouse George, Lennie said nervously. He is afraid that George might take the mouse from him. Lennie love to pet animals like the way a child pets an animal, but Lennie doesnt realise his strength. He accidentally kills the animals he pets because hes stroking them to hard. George and Lennie argue sometimes. And when they did at the beginning of the story, George told Lennie about all the stuff he would do if Lennie was never with him. if I was alone I could live so easy, George described what it would be like without Lennie because George always gets in trouble because of Lennie. George said to Lennie angrily, You keep me in hot water all the time. George would like to be alone, but he doesnt know how it feels to be a loner, he imagines what it feels like to take care of nobody except himself and he wants to know how it feels without the trouble of Lennie. He also wants to know if he would be happy or he might be lonely without Lennie. This is the feeling of George that Steinbeck wants us to know. Although, George is not the only one who would like to have a feeling of being alone. Lennie is a very confused man that cannot think very well. However, Lennie sometimes feel that George hates him because George doesnt want him by his side. If you dont want me, you only jus got to say so and Ill go off in those hills right there right up in those hills and live by myself, Lennie talks like hes defending himself. Hes acting strong and hes trying to show George that he can live and he can take care by himself alone. But then George realises how mean he was when he talked about the things he would do if Lennie wasnt with him. George changed his mind in the end. Then George replies, I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebodyd shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. George replies to his thinking of living alone. George feels bad about what he said to Lennie. He is still worried about Lennie. He only imagines the bad things that might happen to Lennie if he was by himself. Steinbeck wants us to know that George dont want Lennie to go, not only because Lennie cant take care of himself alone, but its because George and Lennie are also best friends and have already known each other since childhood. Steinbeck tells us that George is the only that describes Lennie the way he is. George is the only one who knows him very well. Hell of a nice fella, but he aint bright. Ive knew him for a long time George described Lennie proudly. When he tells someone, like Slim, about Lennie, he doesnt use the word crazy to describe Lennie because he already know what ways to describe Lennie. He even tells Slim that having Lennie isnt so bad at all because they got each other to take care of. I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That aint no good. They dont have no fun. George was sincere when he was talking to Slim about them being friends. I think Steinbeck wants us to know that even though George and Lenny have nothing in common, they always had each other as friends. The author wants us to realise how strong George and Lennies bond. Their friendship cant be broken by anyone, easily. The two characters played a good role to people to show how important friends are. Even though Lennie wasnt bright, George accepted Lennie as he is because he is his friend. Both of them know that they have each other to take care of. Compare to other people who are alone, are the loneliest people. John Steinbeck described each of the character uniquely, unlike any other character in a novel. At the very beginning of the novel, Steinbeck described the surroundings of the Salinas River. He wants us to picture in our mind what the place looks like. He creates an image in our mind that relate to the senses, including sight and touch. The Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too He also uses a metaphor to describe things clearly. the golden foothill. He wants the reader to imagine what its like and because he knows that well understand what it means because its just a metaphor. The writer did all this at the beginning of the novel to make the target audience want to read this novel. And once they become really interested in reading the beginning of the story, theyll plan to read the whole book.

Brick And Mortar Travel Agency Supply Chain Information Technology Essay

Brick And Mortar Travel Agency Supply Chain Information Technology Essay Introduction At the dawn of the internet evolution in the 1990s, myriads of businesses began realizing the huge opportunities that the internet presented to them. They knew the internet could help them re-engineer processes, lower costs, increase profits, up efficiency and effectiveness simultaneously, and raise the bar of customer service, all at the same time. One industry that was quick to ride on the internet bandwagon was travel and tourism, where airline companies had been relying heavily on a network of travel agents to act as a conduit between them and the travelers. With the internet, businesses engaged in travel and tourism began to directly touch base with their clients at real-time, low costs, and with much personal touch. Thus, it can be said that these businesses transitioned from a business-to-business (B2B) brick-and-mortar model to consumers-to-business (C2B) e-commerce model. Many travel agents had to level up their operations in order to survive the shift towards C2B and away f rom B2B. Years after these brick-and-mortar travel agencies caught on the e-commerce bandwagon, however, critical issues about their optimum performance remain. This paper will therefore discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that travel agents possess in a C2B environment. It will explore which strengths must be maintained in order to survive succeeding waves of changes and remain at the crest, which weaknesses must be dealt with to stem decline, which opportunities must be tapped to grow their businesses sustainably, and which threats must be confronted to avoid being sank by competition. This paper will conclude with a set of recommendations on what can be done to leverage the internet as a powerful medium for travel and tourism businesses. Brick and Mortar Travel Agency Supply Chain Online information site wisegeek.com defined brick-and-mortar companies as those that operate out of a physical building, where owners must invest to rent an office space, purchase supplies and fixtures, and pay for expenses needed to keep the business operational (What is Bricks and Mortar?, 2010). The site said that brick-and-mortar are traditional companies that have faced fierce competition since the 1990s, when the internet started to boom, from online companies that are based on the internet and which run businesses for a fraction of the traditional costs (What is Bricks and Mortar?, 2010). The site contrasted brick-and-mortar companies with those online to illustrate the pros and cons of the two business models. Below is a tabular summary of the comparison: Comparison of Brick-and-Mortar and Online Companies Brick-and-Mortar Companies Online Companies Customer Trust Has an advantage of visibility. Clients may think that a business with investments in buildings, employees, and goods are less likely to be fly-by-night. Can face questions about integrity. Clients may think that these companies are transitory and can simply turn their backs on them by refusing to answer phone calls, e-mails, and other media for channeling complaints. Owner Risk Poses significant risk for the owners as businesses require planning, tri-media marketing, and cash-flow to pay for everyday expenses as well as capital outlay. Poses minimal risk for the owners as much of the traditional costs of running a business are not accrued. Competition High start-up costs and high turnover rates as companies struggle to stay afloat amid the competition from online as well as other brick-and-mortar companies. Low start-up costs but high turnover rates if companies cannot find their niche. To describe the processes of a brick-and-mortar company, it is necessary to look at its supply chain. Mamaghani (2009) in Impact of E-commerce on Travel and Tourism: a Historical Analysis described the roles of travel agents, clients, and airlines before the move towards the new medium of the internet. The author said that during the pre-computerized period, travel agents advised clients on travel destinations, provided marketing materials, and acted as an intermediary in the complicated process of arranging travel bookings. Because they were the proverbial middlemen, travel agents were complacent and not keen on leveling up their services to cater to all clients (Mamaghani, 2009). According to Mamaghani (2009): The travel market became segmented as travel agents increasingly targeted corporate customers. Travel agents were able to provide value-added services like negotiation of bulk fares and arranging complex itinerariesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ There were two waves of information technology that have had a major impact on the industry. The first of these is the development of the direct reservation systems, such as the American Airlines SABRE system. The second is the development of online sales channels via the Internet. Travelers Online Marketing In the article Will the Web Replace Your Travel Agent? published in the Medical Economics, author Murray (1996) said that the internet has increasingly become the better alternative to a travel agent for several reasons: web can alert people about travel and destinations that might have escaped agents radar either because they are obscure or do not offer commissions, many travel websites offer extras you wont discover elsewhere, and that the web is increasingly replacing trip marketing materials that can be updated real-time on the internet (Murray, 1996). Because of the many advantages that being online bring to a C2B company, Fred Mawer (2005) said that the people who rely on travel agents alone will soon be a minority. He said that there are specific advantages to booking travels online: financial the internet reduces overheads for companies and many charge less for online bookings, availability ability to find thousands of choices in a minute, and details good websites provide more detailed and clearer information than any other source (Mawer, 2005). Author Carl Gibeily (2002) wrote online traveling has been the only way to fly not just in the United States but also in the Middle East and other parts of the globe. Expensive Advertisement for Brick-and-Mortar Companies One of the traditional costs that brick-and-mortar companies incur is advertising. According to traveladvertising.com, an online community for travel agents, there are three categories of advertising that agents must use to reach out to their clients or potential clients. These forms of advertising include print advertising for magazines, newspapers, leaflets, poster campaigns advertising; media advertising for TV and radio; and new media advertising for the internet (traveladvertising.com, n.d.). Brick-and-mortar companies, because they do not have online presence, concentrate their resources on funding print and media advertising, thus, depriving them of the immense benefits of new media advertising. Descriptions of each category by traveladvertsiing.com are contained in a tabular summary below: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Advertising for Travel Agents Print Media New Media Targeted towards a specific readership Limited shelf life Limited exposure Costly especially when placed in premium publications that target a specific audience Targeted at a large population and wide geography Target population cannot be narrowed down as ad will be exposed to diverse people with varied income levels Costly and cannot be afforded by small-scale agents with no national or international presence Targeted at a very large population across countries Target population can be narrowed down by providing contents that are relevant to the audience Relatively inexpensive as costs include ad design, website development, and system maintenance Pros and Cons of C2B According to William Sieglein (2000), C2B businesses that allow people to shop online provides flexibility, better prices and more selections for consumers but presents a great concern for security. He said that the exchange of personal information such as credit card number, home address and phone numbers pose threats in purchasing products off the World Wide Web. As information travels through the internet, it may be intercepted, stolen and used for identity theft. To provide a secured business environment online, C2B companies must ensure that that sensitive information that consumers provide online will be powerfully protected from unauthorized parties. Companies selling products online must assure consumers that the information is stored on their secure, well-configured safe zone of their network. These zones, most often referred to as demilitarized zone, should have secured firewall configurations. Strong access controls should also be in place, and this includes user identification and authentication. Server hardening, data storage encryption, and intrusion detections must likewise be practiced persistently. What can be the repercussions of not protecting your C2B business environments? A handful of adverse effects that can impinge on the growth of a company both on the short and long term. First, reputation of the company would be dragged into the mud. Reputation is a valuable resource of online companies. If a company is deemed to be engaging in deceitful transactions or is unable to block possible deceitful transactions in its website, then consumers can easily and rather swiftly stay clear of the website. Consumers can rapidly spread news about their bad experiences with the company to thousands of other consumers and potential consumers online via social networking sites and consumer feedback mechanisms. These happenings will subsequently result in lessened patronage for the site. Second, the company can be embroiled in a lengthy dispute settlement or costly legal battle whenever complaints about the security features of its site pop up. Dispute settlement and court cases will of course drain the company of precious resources. It can also tarnish the companys name in case that the proceedings conclude that the companys systems were not fail-safe. Third, leaks in the security features of a C2B can channel confidential information to competitors, allowing them an inside look into the companys processes and giving them the chance to spoil operations to their advantage. As a consequence, companies will have to shed money to shed money to contain the damage, investigate the incident, fortify security measures, and pursue legal actions against parties found to have breached the companys protection measures. Because the internet is a public place that is easily accessible by many people, C2B companies must provide their consumers several options to protect their identity and other personal information while transacting in the companys website. According to Dholakia, Dholakia, and Mundorf (2002), consumers may control the amount of information they make public on the internet by using four strategies: identifiability, confidentiality, anonymity/pseudonimity, and secrecy. The strategies are described in detail below: 4 Consumer Strategies for Protecting Their Identities Online Accuracy of Personal Information Externalized Amount of Personal Information Externalized High Low High Identifiability Consumer is willing to disclose all personal information with accuracy. Businesses can acquire high degree identity knowledge on the consumer Anonymity/Pseudonimity Consumers disclose and fabricate all kinds of information that are supposedly about themselves on the internet Consumers are avoiding identifiability and trust is not given to the C2B website Website should not trust the information provided for by the consumer Low Confidentiality Consumer gives little personal information with high accuracy The sites brand equity, reputations of the marketer, favorable endorsements and other elements may lead the consumer to trust the website Secrecy Consumers may share very little and potentially inaccurate personal information The level of accuracy and willingness to share information online clearly pose some serious problems for C2B companies. For instance, consumers may use information of another person in entering into transactions. In this case, it is very important that C2B travel companies state in its sales terms of conditions what types of responsibilities, if any, it will own up to. C2B Case Analysis: Priceline.com Priceline.com Incorporated is a multinational company listed in NASDAQ that provides online travel services across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Africa (priceline.com, n.d.). Its main purpose is to allow clients to save on airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises than any other Internet travel service (priceline.com, n.d.). According to Chan, Lee, Dillon Chang (2001, p.10), Priceline.com introduced to the world a novel online application called the demand collection system, which allows consumers to bid for the prices of unsold airline tickets by naming the price for which they want to buy the tickets. By pioneering this consumer-oriented, dynamic, and customized pricing system, Priceline.com reinvented traditional commerce that often imposed fixed prices on consumers. The authors categorized the company as C2B in which consumer specifies the requirements to a business, which provides a product that meets these requirements. These requirements could be as simple as an acceptable price, or could involve considerable customization of an existing standard product, or creation of a new product (p. 8). The business model of Priceline.com is different from others that are into consumer-to-consumer, business-to-business, and business-to-consumer. The following is a tabular summary of various online business models (Chan, Lee, Dillon Chang, 2001, pp. 6-8). Online Business Model Matrix Business Consumer Business B2B: TPN Buyer and seller are business organizations. Can be buyer-oriented, seller-oriented or a virtual marketplace. B2C: Amazon Seller is a business organization while the buyer is a consumer. Emulates physical retailing and is often called electronic retailing. Consumer C2B: Priceline Consumer is a seller while buyer is a business organization. Consumers set out requirements to businesses, which then attempt to satisfy the requirements. C2C: eBay Seller and buyer are consumers. Virtual communities are formed where members host auctions or bid for products. Many things can be inferred from the business model of Priceline.com. First, the online travel service company performs the traditional roles of a travel agent. The huge difference between traditional travel agents and Priceline.com however is that the latter harnesses the huge potentials of the internet. Priceline.com uses the new media to deliver services in a much more efficient manner than a traditional travel agent and on a wider scale. Note that traditional agents are mere intermediaries who act as go-between, taking orders from consumers, presenting the orders to businesses, helping consumers decide on what to buy according to their budget and tastes by presenting varied options. Priceline.com does just that, yet in a much quicker manner. Second, Priceline.com empowers the consumers and allows businesses to stay in touch with consumers desires. Traditional travel agents may opt to cater to only a few groups like corporate clients that are sure to give them a steady flow of huge income. They may choose to disregard small-time infrequent travelers. With Priceline.com, however, all kinds of consumers are entertained. By specifying travel requirements and details, consumers will get a response from various travel companies that can meet the requirements and details they specified. Consumers are also empowered because they can sway businesses to provide products and services according to specifications and demands. Businesses also become in tuned with consumers demands in this type of business model. Because they learn of consumers demand real-time, they can rapidly customize products and services to respond to their markets. Third, Priceline.com presents enormous challenges in terms of technology. The company relies heavily on the internet in terms of providing services. Thus, it is imperative that it protects its systems against attacks, frauds, and phishing activities to safeguard the integrity of its operations as well as gain and keep the trust of its partners. Disruptions and downtimes caused by any technological problems will also cost Priceline.com. It should therefore continuously perform and maintain risk management programs. Review of Literature Internet The advent of online business was made possible by one medium, the internet. The development of the internet started in the 1950s when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, was asked by the Department of Defense to develop a system to allow the United States to mount a counter attack in the event of a Soviet Union nuclear first strike (Boudreaux Sloboda, 1999). By 1965, DARPA sponsored A Cooperative Net-work of Time Sharing Computers that became the predecessor of the internet. Over the years, scientists, researchers and hobbyists contributed their talents to the development of the internet to become the vast network that we have today (Boudreaux Sloboda, 1999). E-Commerce The internet has created for businesses a level-playing field where the midgets can compete with the titans, where the start-ups can flourish for a fraction of a cost to challenge the old-timers. Indeed, the internet is a grand stage for entrepreneurs to showcase their bright ideas to the business world. Joshi and Yermish (2000) mentioned five occurrences that have been shaping the Internet as a business world. These occurrences are facilitating the transition towards the new media in terms of offering and availing of products and services. The authors identified these occurrences as (1) the separation of the information about products and services from the physical products and services themselves, (2) products and services are becoming information-based, (3) internet bridges distance between consumers and business organizations, (4) internet is a medium for rapidly responding to consumers and markets, and (5) internet allows consumers to become agents of marketing (Joshi Yermish, 2000). The following is a tabular summary of descriptions for each occurrence: Occurrences that Have Made the Internet a Business World Increased Separation of the Flow of Information Information about products and services is distinct from actual products and services. Moreover, information travels to consumers and buyers faster than the provision of the physical orders themselves. Increased Focus on Information Flows Products and services are technologically intensive and may not be necessarily material objects. They may be delivered solely on the internet, from the internet or to the internet. Reduced Distance The third aspect to the new economy is the shrinking physical distances. In the new economy, proximity requirements have been almost totally removed as (in theory at least) everyone is connected with everyone else. Rapid Response Businesses are provided with real-time feedback from consumers while consumers get swift response from businesses. Rapid response allows businesses to be consumer-focused, service-oriented, and flexible as they are fed information about their performance and the competitions operations in a fast manner. Using the Customer as a Marketing Agent Because internet is a medium where consumers can provide feedback and get response real-time, consumers may act as a marketing agent for a company. They can easily talk about favorable services and positive experiences they have had with a company and then go on sharing these experiences or talking about these services online, where thousands of people may be able to chance upon their insights. Matthewson (2002, pp.45-46) sets out the steps in achieving best practices in online buying process where consumers go to the companies to buy goods and services: customer acquisition, segmentation and targeting, promotions, online ordering, order fulfillment and after-sales support, and up-sell and cross-sell. Although the internet is a powerful medium, harnessing it does not guarantee success. Brynjolfsson Urban (2001, pp. 121-122) outlined practices that can make companies lead or lag in the industry. Some of the leading practices include focusing on matching appropriate technology to business strategy and customer requirements; ensuring that appropriate technology capability and capacity were internally in place or available through partnering; building technology platforms to support Internet, intranet, and extranet applications, with a view to reinforcing, improving, or changing the value propositions of their core business; early adoption of Web technologies to achieve a comp etitive advantage; and learning the technology in the context of developing an information or marketing strategy (Brynjolfsson Urban, 2001, pp.121-122). Lagging IT practices include having the IT department responsible for e-business developments; having underfunded and undervalued IT and e-business developments; treating IT and Web-based technologies as a cost center rather than a profit center; and positioning the CIO as a specialist functional manager (pp. 121-122). Travel Agent SWOT Analysis in C2B Model In a C2B business environment, travel agents with online presence clearly possess a great deal of strengths. However, with competition from small-time and big-ticket players ever-present, travel agents must constantly be on the lookout. This is because on the online environment, other travel agents can easily duplicate their strengths, bank on their weaknesses, seize opportunities faster, and thwart threats more formidably, all in swift turn-around time. Below is a tabular analysis of the SWOT of travel agents operating in an online business environment. SWOT Analysis Internal External Maximize Strengths The strengths of a travel agent in an online C2B model include abilities to rapidly communicate with consumers, get their travel requirements, deliver these requirements to businesses, receive feedback from consumers for services and products delivered, and create possibilities for future collaborations. Opportunities The opportunities would include the chance to cater to untapped segments of both the local and global marketplace. Minimize Weaknesses The weaknesses would include the need to respond to consumers and businesses 24 hours a day and seven days a week at quick turn-around time. Threats The threats would of course include security concerns and competition from other C2B that continuously enter the industry. Conclusion Internet is a potent tool for surviving and competing in the travel industry. However, companies and agents must know how to use this medium to their advantage as the internet has its kinks that can spell big troubles. To stay afloat in the travel industry, agents and companies must bank on the strengths of the internet and develop strategic plans that would help them sustain operations both in the short and long term (Chopra. Van Mieghem, 2000).

Difference Between Data Warehousing And Data Mining Information Technology Essay

Difference Between Data Warehousing And Data Mining Information Technology Essay The information systems (IS) field is terms of key development can be called data warehousing in database environtment. Different organizations receiving different significant returns than others because its benefits are plentiful. The organization will have different types of returns in the impact of data warehousing . Each company can be tie the benefit to the way in which it conforms to the framework as it shows in the analysis . We will see how dan organization can be transformed by data warehouse, Analysis also showing the explaination of differences in impact. A large manufacturing company (LMC) involving case study of data warehousing, a financial services company (FSC) are presented and discussed within the context of the framework and the Internal Revenue Service. Keywords : Multidimensional modelling; Conceptual modelling; Time-series; Data warehouses; Data-mining Introduction Data warehouses are becoming part of the technology. Data warehouses are used to consolidate data located in disparate databases. A data warehouse stores large quantities of data by specific categories so it can be more easily retrieved, interpreted, and sorted by users. Warehouses enable executives and managers to work with vast stores of transactional or other data to respond faster to markets and make more informed business decisions. It has been predicted that every business will have a data warehouse within ten years. But merely storing data in a data warehouse does a company little good. Companies will want to learn more about that data to improve knowledge of customers and markets. The company benefits when meaningful trends and patterns are extracted from the data. Data mining, or knowledge discovery, is the computer-assisted process of digging through and analyzing enormous sets of data and then extracting the meaning of the data. Data mining tools predict behaviors and futu re trends, allowing businesses to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. Data mining tools can answer business questions that traditionally were too time consuming to resolve. They scour databases for hidden patterns, finding predictive information that experts may miss because it lies outside their expectations. Data mining derives its name from the similarities between searching for valuable information in a large database and mining a mountain for a vein of valuable ore. Both processes require either sifting through an immense amount of material, or intelligently probing it to find where the value resides. What is Data Warehousing Data warehousing is a collection of decision support technologies that enable the knowledge worker, the statistician, the business manager and theexecutive in processing the information contained in a data warehouse meaningfully and make well informed decisions based on outputs. The Data warehousing system includes backend tools for extracting, cleaning and loading data from Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) Databases and historical repositories of data. It also consists of the Data storage areacomposed of the Data warehouse, the data marts and the Data store. It also provides for tools like OLAP for organizing, partitioning and summarizing data in the data warehouse and data marts and finally contains front end tools for mining, quering, reporting on data. It is important to distinguish between a Data warehouse and Data warehousing. A Data warehouse is a component of the data warehousing system. It is a facility that provides for a consolidated, flexible and accessible collection of data for end user reporting and analysis. A data warehouse has been defined by Inmom (considered one of the founders of the Data warehouse concept) as a subject-oriented, integrated, time-varying, non-volatile collection of data that is primarily used in organizational decision making. The data in a data warehouse is categorized on the basis of the subject area and hence it is subject oriented Universal naming conventions, measurements, classifications and so on used in the data warehouse, provide an enterprise consolidated view of data and therefore it is designated as integrated. The data once loaded can only be read. Users cannot make changes to the data and this makes it non-volatile. Finally data is stored for long periods of time quantified in years and bears a time and date stamp and therefore it is described as time variant. The format of data collected are not always the same eventhough each of these systems collect data . So, the combination of all these data from all sorts sources that combined together to form a single data and the combination of database forming a single homogenous form is what we called data warehousing. The data is not only subject-oriented and integrated but also time-variant and non-volatile collection of data to support management in making decision. 1) Time-variant that In order to make the reports that go in propotional with time , the data ware house that has been changed should be tracked and recorded. 2) Non-volatile Data warehouse is never deleted, so that data is read only and static and will be used for future reporting 3) Integrated Data is consistence and is representing all operational system. Data management and data retrieval are the proess that can define data warehousing. An organizations can integrate their various databases into data warehouses using process different capabilities and culturesThe idea of maintaining central data is brought by data warehouse. Although the concept itself has been around for years, like data mining data warehousing, is a relatively new term. Data Warehouse Design There are two different ways of Data Warehouse design; Ralph Kimball and Bill Inmons model. In Inmons architecture, before data being transferred to the data marts, data from OLTP database is firstly stored in a warehouse. In Inmons model view,tThe data warehouse is a real database. Kimballs architecture using OLTP database shows that data is transferrefed directly to the data mart. Based on the picture above, a collection of integrated data marts will form the data warehouse. What is Data Mining? Data or knowledge discovery or generally called Data mining. It is the process of getting data from different resources and turn them into information that can be useful for organization One example of tools to analyze is analyzing data using data mining software. Data from many different sources and with different uses and characters will be analyze by users. So, technically, data mining the process of finding correlations of fields in large relational databases. In general, data mining is the process of making data usefull after analyze it from different kind of information environment and turn into vary kind of useful information. . Data from many different dimensions or angles can be analyzed by users and then be summarized into the relationships . On the other hand, the process of finding or different in data mining is not an easy process and do need different process and analyze. There are five major elements in data mining : Data can be presented in graph or table and other formats. Data transaction is loaded onto the data warehouse system. Data is stored and managed in a multidimensional database system. Application software can be used to analyze and intrepenting data Information professinals especially who are involve in business world can access the provided data. Continuous Innovation The technology is not new nowdays eventhough data mining is a quite new. Take this case for example, One Midwest grecory is using Oracle software to look and search about the buying patterns of local. It has been discovered that whenever men bought cigarettes on Saturdays and Thursdays, they also want to buy beer. Then it also showed that Saturday is the day when these shoppers typically did their weekly grocery. However, they only bought a few items on Saturdays. It is concluded by the retailer that the reason they purchased the beer is to have it for the weekends ahead.. Furthermore, they have to make sure that the price are full for cigarettes and beer on Thursdays. What can data mining do? Here are the focus among a costumers retail, financial, communication, and marketing organizations which are data mining that been used by a company especially for the basic data. Product, the condition of product and the day of business can be some internal factors for this. Other than that the perfomance on sales, customer rights satisfaction, also profits for organizations can also determined by companies. Finally, transactional data can be viewed with details from the summary information. The development of products and promotion is also important to appeal to specific customer segments by getting demographic data from comments or even warranty cards provided by company. In order to transform supplier relationships. Applications of Data Mining The basic of data mining has been involved in many fields such as business, scientific research, banking sector and many more . All of these fields have been using data mining. Now its use is easier compare to what it was.. These tools can be used practically to carry out complex data mining techniques and get ease with it.. In order to do improve marketing field of and organization and try to understand its clients buying patterns, Data Mining is used by businesses. Data mining is used more widely than ever before because of expanding variety of tools and softwares in new era like it is today.. Intelligence agencies like FBI and CIA also use data mining for identifying terrorisms threats or even after the incident of 9/11 in America. It is really important to uncover terrorist plots. However the people concerned as data collected for such works will invade many peoples privacy.. Banking sector also using data mining for credit card problem detection and anything relation to credit c ard crime as what is happening now days. . It is also can reduce the risk of any credit card problem among their customers, especially to identify potetntial costumers and to state wether loan can be able to approve to any customers. Steps of Data Mining From the picture, we can see the step of data mining Data Integration: All the different sources contribute data which are collected and integrated. Data Selection: We have to select data and make sure that it is usefull for data mining. Data Cleaning: The data collected may not all correct and need to be checked again before being used to avoid data errors and uncertain problem. Data Transformation: Eventhough the data has been cleaned, to have data ready for mining, we still have to do something and transform data into the right form so that mining process will not be any problem. Many techniques can be used to complete data transformation suck as like smoothing, aggregation, normalization techniques. Data Mining: Techniques like clustering and association analysis are used among the many different techniques used for data mining only when we are ready to apply data mining techniques on the data to discover the interesting patterns. Pattern Evaluation and Knowledge Presentation: Transformation, visualization, removing redundant patterns are steps from the patterns we have generated. Decisions / Use of Discovered Knowledge. In order to make use of the knowledge which acquired to take better decisions, this step helps. Difference between Data Warehousing and Data Mining Data warehousing can be define as the inntegration and combination of data from different sources and various of format into a single form or a single schema. Huge amount of data can be provided by data warehousing with a storage mechanism. Meanwhile, The Enterprise has been provided with a memory by Data Warehousing and intelligenge is provided by data mining . So, the discovery of useful patterns can be done using the of data mining techniques on the data warehouse. Data Mining Tools In order to build companys own custom mining solution, they have to purchase mining programs. This program is designed for existing software and hardware platforms and the program can be integrated into new products and systems. For example in order to give the mined data more value, the organization has to determine data mining output into another output such as ware house as a neural network which is said quite common . This is because, , the data mining tool will gather the data if the other program makes decisions based on the data that has been collected. In the market place they are a lot of data minings that come in different model and tools or tecniques. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses. A right kind of data mining is really important to any organization because if the organization buys a wrong data mining and its nothing to do with their business goal, data mining will be useless. This is a really important consider especially for organizations which are going to expand. These three categories are the classification of most data mining tools: Dashboards. Is used to monitor information in a database and is installed in computer, dashboards reflect updates onscreen and data changes always wether in charts or in tables so that the user can see how the business is performing and working. Traditional Data Mining Tools. Data mining programs will be used in organization and the effect of it will be securely seen.. In order to monitor the data and highlight trends and others capture information residing outside a database. You can even see some of thiese tools on the desktop. Text-mining Tools. The ability to work as PDF and ability to analyze data and can be used in various kind of data processing from hard text to simple words. These tools can be used to scan content. There are a lot of unstructured scanned content for example information is scattered almost randomly across the document, audio or video data or internet based data or structured for example the datas form and purpose is known, we can say database content.. A wealth of information can be provided for organizations by capturing these inputs that can be mined to discover all kinds of concepts and trends or any other data processing in another environment. The Benefits of Data mining/ Data warehouse To Organization. By using Data warehouses business executives can look at the company as a whole unit. There must be reasons on spending so much money by many corporations to implement data instead of looking at an organization in terms of the departments that it comprises. . Data warehouses also use their ability to handle a lot of tasks in an organization involving many different departments. In order to make sure that every transaction will be made in certain time frame, the good transaction system will be set up by every organization The biggest problem with report and queries is the transaction can not be made in time frame and then will be late to be compiled. On top of that and in order to overcome the problem, many companies are working to come out with a good data warehouse and hopefully can be able to settle down any problems regarding transactions. Another benefit from data warehouse is the uses of data model for any queries regarding transactions and the outcome is really convincing.. Models for queries are really important especially to come out with good reports. Eventhough transaction processing system doesnt really need this but the implementing of a good model can help the company. Anyway, wrong modeling methods can slow down the process of transactions. Eventhough transaction process has to be at speed by the server units, but at the same time, they will slow down the process of query. Queries of data can be made using data ware house and this is one of the reason why it is very efficient. Anyway, a big number of transaction system can lead to big transaction system. So, the company always has to get ready to come out with different data warehouse or even worse, different models of processing. The combination of every departments in a company is really important in order to overcome any problems regarding processing and transaction of data. The Benefits of Data Mining Data mining allows companies to exploit information and use this to obtain competitiveadvantage. Data mining helps identify trends such as: why customers buy certain products ideas for very direct marketing ideas for shelf placement training of employees vs. employee retention employee benefits vs. employee retention Conclusion In order to discover trends and patterns in temporary data, we use time-series analysis as a powerful technique . Not only their management is expensive but these data also are also low-level of abstraction. Two main problems are always been faced by most analyst. First, to clean of the huge amount of potentially-analysable data and second to correct the definition of the data-mining algorithms to be employed. Data warehouses has been proved to be a powerful repository of historical data since their appearance especially for data-mining . In addition, their modelling paradigm for example multidimensional modelling, is not any different to the problem domain. Anyway, a coherent conceptual modelling framework for data-mining assures is believed as a better and easier knowledge-discovery process on top rank of data warehouses.

2001 A Space Odyssey :: essays research papers

2001 was released in the tumultuous spring of 1968, at the same time that Americans were reeling from President Lyndon Johnson’s announcement that he would not seek reelection and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It might seem odd that so many people would get so excited about a science fiction movie in the midst of urban race riots and campus protests against the Vietnam War, but to many, 2001 had far greater importance than its sci-fi trappings. Baffling early audiences with its non-traditional structure, theme, and presentation, the film was soon embraced by many members of a younger generation entranced by its consciousness-raising message and its psychedelic special effects. Over the next 30 years, the film would not only become a part of American culture, but would eventually be hailed as a masterpiece of modern cinema. An examination of 2001’s appeal over the last three decades provides insight into the changing perceptions of a single cultural document over time. Young Baby Boomers were initially attracted to the film for very different reasons than those of audiences in the 1990s. Because 2001 is unlike many other films in that it invites its viewers to apply their own subjective interpretations, it serves particularly well as a signpost for contemporary social attitudes and trends. By examining the different ways that 2001 has been interpreted by its audience over that time, it reveals a great deal about evolving cultural attitudes toward issues such as technology, spirituality, and the commercialization of American society. 2001: A Space Odyssey was the third biggest box office hit of 1968 (after Mike Nichols’ The Graduate and William Wyler’s Funny Girl) and, upon the completion of its initial theatrical run, was one of the top twenty grossing movies of all time.[1] Over the next 30 years it would go on to gross over $56.7 million in the United States and $190.7 million worldwide.[2] Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s companion novel of the same name has sold over four million copies worldwide,[3] and his three follow-up novels to the story have all spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. One of these sequels was turned into a moderately successful film, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, released nearly 15 years after 2001. Audiences, critics, and filmmakers consistently rank the film among the 100 best ever made. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert has stated that if asked which films would still be familiar to audiences 200 years from now, he would select 2001, The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, and Star Wars as his first choices.

Tienanmen Square: Where was the Violence? :: essays research papers

Were civilian casualties more extensive inside or outside of Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989? A) Plan of Investigation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The bloodshed at Tiananmen Square in Beijing shocked the world. As a result of large-scale Chinese cover-up the public knew little about the deaths that occurred on the morning of June 4th 1989. The aim of this investigation is to find out where the casualties were most extensive. The information needed to answer this question would not be provided for 11 years after which documents began to surface helping explain the unknown tragedy. U.S. government documents surrounding the event were finally declassified. But even more importantly a collection of Chinese documents known as The Tiananmen Papers were leaked out of China. The research for this investigation comes from these two sets of documents. By analyzing both the US and China accounts, similarities and inconstancies will be identified and examined in an effort to find the most plausible answer. B) Summary of Evidence 1. On the Brink On the night of June 3rd, 1989 the communist nation China was on the brink of collapse. For months the capital city was saturated with millions of pro-democracy demonstrators. Students, intellectuals, and civilians had set up their democratic stronghold in the symbolic center of the country, Tiananmen Square. The overwhelming animosity against the communist party had shut down the nation, and embarrassed its leaders. The senior members of the Chinese politburo demanded that this uprising be subdued and disbanded. After months of fruitless efforts to resolve the matter peacefully the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was dispatched to clear Tiananmen Square and to put an end to the ever expanding trouble. The soldiers were instructed to be extremely disciplined, opening fire as the last resort (Liang, 370.) Additionally no bloodshed would be allowed in the Square itself because of its important symbolism. 2. To the Square The United States first received news about the violence in Beijing in a message from the US embassy in Beijing on the night of June 3rd 1989. The document reported that the PLA was using violent force to remove protestors as they moved on Tiananmen Square. Chinese tanks, APCs, trucks, and soldiers had met sizable civilian resistance. Thousands of protestors blockaded the PLA pelting the army with rocks, bottles, and molotov cocktails (Evans, Document 12.) Some proceeded to overturn and destroy military vehicles. Soldiers using automatic weapons fired into the mass of protestors. Demonstrators fell back slowly, continuing to fight for seven hours.

Importance in policy developments

AbstractionThe construct of hazard has assumed extreme importance in policy developments is several subjects. There is a broad scope of literature on hazard in several Fieldss runing from scientific disciplines to humanistic disciplines. This construct means different things to different people depending on how it is perceived. Risk perceptual experience is a consequence of several factors and this has deductions for policy development. This paper attempts to specify the significance of hazard and its building in some contexts. It besides explores a few instance surveies on how human perceptual experience, prejudice, communicating and civilization can hold impacts on the effectivity of hazard direction.IntroductionIn the last two decennaries, public concern about the construct of hazard of has been given extended media coverage with frequent contentions. Every twenty-four hours we are warned about unseeable jeopardies, clime alteration, diseases and toxic waste etc. We worry about da ngers in the workplace, in our places and even about the nutrient we eat. Most human existences engage in several signifiers of unsafe ventures and this fact has prompted research workers to try happen out how people understand hazard. Everyone seeks to pull off hazard because we do non cognize for certain what the result of events will be ( Adams 1995 ) This merely means that in any given state of affairs, an inauspicious result may or may non go on and causative factors skew the chances of diverse results ( Graham and Rhomberg 1996 ) Based on this, hazard appraisal has become a moneymaking subject affecting a web of complex and controversial procedures of measuring uncertainnesss, pass oning information about possible hazards and developing controls or extenuation steps. The rating of hazard requires interpretative opinion in the face of technological and scientific and societal contentions. The construct of & A ; lsquo ; hazard ‘ has become important to the field of policy development within several subjects such as Agriculture, Medicine, Business and Natural Hazards etc. Broad footings like hazard direction presume an appreciable degree of apprehension of the construct of hazard and how it can be measured. I t besides assumes some degree of understanding on how it should be managed. These decisions are based on bold premises. There exists huge literature on hazard covering a broad scope of Fieldss in both scientific disciplines and humanistic disciplines. All these angles can and make lend to a better apprehension of how hazard is constructed, perceived and managed by experts. This paper attempts to research the assorted definitions of the significance of hazard, and how hazard is constructed and used in some context in order to hold a better apprehension of how human perceptual experience, prejudice, heuristics, communicating and civilization impact on the effectivity of hazard direction. Hazard is a really wide construct so and its enormousness should non be underestimated. Hazard touches on the most profound facets of Psychology, Mathematics, Statistics and History. Literature on hazard is monumental and each brings up new countries of involvement ( Bernstein 1996 ) The designation of cardinal issues relevant to policy shapers and interest holders interested in issues associating to put on the line analyses and hazard direction is really of import. Effective hazard direction requires appraisal of inherently unsure events and fortunes, typically turn toing two dimensions: how probably the uncertainness is to happen ( chance ) , and what the consequence would be if it happened ( impact ) . While unambiguous models can be developed for impact appraisal, chance appraisal is frequently less clear. This is peculiarly true for undertakings where informations on hazard chance from old undertakings is either non available or non relevant. The credibleness and value of the hazard procedure is enhanced if informations are collected with attention, taking the clip and utilizing the tools that are needed decently to develop information based on judgemental inputs. Conversely, the procedure is undermined when chance appraisal appears to be entirely subjective. It is hence of import to be able to measure chance with some grade of assurance.DEFINITIONS AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF RISKHazard is a normally used term. It has been technically and convent ionally defined as a combination of the chance, or frequence, of happening of a defined jeopardy and the magnitude of the effects, should that jeopardy or event occur. This definition attempts to inquire how frequently a peculiar potentially harmful event is traveling to happen and the effects of the happening ( Harding 1998: 167 ) This definitions appears rather simple. However, the definition of the construct of hazard has been and is still contested. In recent old ages, the construct of hazard has assumed more importance than was antecedently the instance. Hazard has been defined in figure of ways but is frequently seen as the likeliness that a individual will see the consequence of danger ( Short Junior 1984 ) Economists view hazard as a manifestation of lower incomes or higher outgo that expected. This can be a consequence of several factors. For illustration, the sudden hiking in the monetary values of natural stuffs used for production, the backsliding of a deadline for the building of a new installation, breaks in the procedure of production, the loss of cardinal forces, the alteration of a political government or even natural catastrophes etc ( Luhmann 1996: 3 ) Hazard is besides seen as the combination of the likeliness of an happening of a risky event or exposure and the strength or badness of the impact that can be caused by the event or exposure ( OHSAS 18001 2007 ) . That is Risk = ( Probability of event happening ) ten ( Impact of event happening ) . This attack to the construct of hazard has become common today in Fieldss like atomic power and the chemical industry. The term & A ; lsquo ; Risk Society ‘ was proposed by Ulrich Beck in 1992, in placing a signifier of catastrophe hazard associated with industrialisation and utmost extremely improbable, risky events. This place assumes that we are in a state of affairs of really low chance of earnestly awful events. ( Douglas and Wildavsky 1982: 39 ) . This conceptual displacement it peculiarly important because it has deductions for policy shapers if the more negative perceptual experiences of the term hazard, assume widespread social position. Another angle of perceptual experience sees risk as being a map of the chance of the specified natural jeopardy event and the exposure of cultural entities ( Chapman 1994 ) . It has besides been seen in industry as being equal to the merchandise of frequence and effects. This definition suggests an outlook of system failure. Risk direction on the other manus is about guaranting that events that happen frequently must hold low effects, or events that have serious effects must be rare. ( Ballad 1992: 100 ) This attack is consistent with the construct of a preset degree of hazard which can be managed. The assorted positions and perceptual experiences of hazard lend acceptance to the fact that hazard is non something that can be subjected to objective quantification or a individual definition, but is instead socially constructed. It can be referred to as a human construct borne as a consequence of the demand to understand and get by with the dangers and uncertainnesss of life. Although these dangers are existent, there is no such thing as existent or nonsubjective hazard. For illustration the atomic applied scientists risk estimation of a atomic accident is likely based on theoretical theoretical accounts with subjective construction and inputs based on sheer premise. There are several angles from which hazard can be viewed. Let us see an attack that considers a three tier system of identifying, measuring and incorporating hazard. This method assumes that hazards exist out at that place and are to be found and dealt with. Management of hazard here involves taking the right stairss and theory helps in this way. This can be said to be the hypotheses behind both traditional and the more recent critical literature and it believes that the designation of possible hazards is the critical first measure in pull offing them. ( Smith et all 2001 ) Another school of idea believes this nonsubjective construct of hazard is erroneous and is endangering in its rigidness. This nonsubjective position of hazard supposes that hazard can be wholly controlled. It besides suggests that on completion of the digest of the list of hazards, the theoretical undertaking is complete and the direction facet is following in line. The combination of these factors leads to the creative activity of a false sense of security that may take to redundancy of the portion of directors which in itself constitutes an even bigger hazard. The societal school of idea believes hazard is socially constructed depending on societal understandings and on different perceptual experiences. It should nevertheless be ascribed to peculiar scenes or state of affairss to do it existent. Sociological literature sees hazard as a construct developed through human actions and that there are dangers that could be avoided. Hazards are consequences of actions that are neither necessary nor impossible ; they are contingent and depend on human actions. ( Thompson 1985 ) All constructs of hazard have a common factor, which is a differentiation between world and possibility. The nature of hazard becomes clearer when one differentiates it from related constructs of uncertainness, danger and opportunity. Uncertainty refers to the deficiency of cognition of the hereafter, merely put, it is unknown. Uncertainty is closely related to hazard and theories ‘ associating to behaviour, uncertainness in psychological footings is seen to be a critical spell between of human response in state of affairss of unknown results. Uncertainty is psychologically constructed and it exists merely in the head of a individual whose cognition is uncomplete. Afterall, if cognition was complete so there would be no uncertainnesss. The contrast between danger and hazard is based on the fact that danger is seen to be out of the control of the determination shaper while hazard can be affected to an extent. A clear differentiation is that hazard refers to action while dangers are nonsubjective entities beyond human control. ( Somen 1993: 130 ) Opportunity is seen as portion of hazard and can stand for potentially positive developments. This merely means hazard is taken with the cognition that the consequences could convey about possible benefits or losingss. The rating of the construct of hazard and the ensuing action depend on the perceptual experience of hazard. ( Lytinen et all 1998: 235 ) The degree of control that the determination shaper appears to hold about the result of an event is one factor that influences hazard perceptual experience. The more control he appears to hold, the less terrible the hazard is perceived to be. If hazards depend on perceptual experience, so they become subjective and so they become hard to exteriorize. ( Beck 1986: 103 ) The fact that we do non cognize what the hereafter holds weakens the constitution of a complete list of factors. A important displacement in the societal building of hazard is the fact that chance is now seen as portion of the construct of hazard. Some definitions discuss menaces and losingss while others that represent this displacement include chances in their definitions. ( Smith et all 2001 ) Based on these, hazard can merely be spoken of with mention to peculiar scenes. They can non be absolute but curious to peculiar scenes or state of affairss.RISK PERCEPTION AND MANAGEMENTThere has been a big sum of research carried out on the perceptual experience of hazard by worlds, how they live with it and pull off it. The angel of hazard perceptual experience finally determines the method of direction. This merely means hazard will be managed based on the position from which it is viewed. Hazard perceptual experience refers to the subjective opinions that people make about the features and badness of hazard. It is largely used in mention to natural jeopardies, environment and wellness. The major theories developed in the country of hazard perceptual experience are the psychological or heuristics, sociological and cultural attacks. The survey of hazard perceptual experience was borne out of the fact that experts and laic people likewise disagreed on how hazardous engineerings and natural jeopardies truly were. Risk perceptual experience appeared on the phase of policy development as a really of import construct in the 1960 ‘s. It was implicated as a chief determiner of public resistance to engineering, most notably to atomic engineering. This resistance was borne out of fright of dangers to the environment every bit good as catastrophes that the creative activity of radioactive barrens could convey approximately, but other early illustrations can be given every bit good ( Martin, 1989 ) . In Sweden and Norway, Parliamentarians now devote about three times every bit much attending to put on the line issues as they did in the first half of the 60 ‘s, as reflected in their submitted private measures. Several efforts were made to manage the hard state of affairs that the unexpected public resistance to the new engineering had caused. ( Sowby 1965 ) proposed that comparings should be made between different sorts of perceived hazard. His thought was that the hazard involved with, smoke, driving a auto or utilizing public agencies of conveyance was far higher than that of exposure to atomic accidents. This nevertheless had really small consequence in doing people accept atomic engineering hazard. A deeper probe of hazard perceptual experience revealed that people were willing to accept hazard to the extent that they were tied to benefits ( Starr 1969 ) . This attack gave rise to involvement in & A ; lsquo ; Risk Management ‘ and an waking up of involvements in how people perceive, tolerate and accept hazard. Risk perceptual experience now became an obstruction to determination devising, because people came to believe hazards existed where they truly did non. This was the positi on of the experts and the dissension between the populace and adept perceptual experience of hazard is the root cause of the jobs that have plagued hazard direction. Several bookmans have attempted to analyze hazard perceptual experience in greater item. In the 1970 ‘s, a group of psychologists became interested in happening out how people reacted with respects to put on the line. They carried out experimental surveies of chancing and in this field an effort was made to specify hazard as an abstract construct and to mensurate it by agencies of a psychological graduated table ( Lopez 1995 ) . This attack says something about how people react to lotteries but small or nil about inquiry of hazard policy that was the chief concern of determination shapers. Risk Management can be considered to be the designation, appraisal and prioritization of hazard followed by co-ordinated and economical application of resources to minimise, proctor and command the chance and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximise the realisation of chances ( Douglas Hubbard 2009 ) Hazards can come uncertainness originating from assorted beginnings such as undertaking failures, recognition hazard, natural causes or catastrophes, accidents etc. Risk direction has besides been defined as the civilization, procedures and constructions that are directed towards the effectual direction of possible chances and possible inauspicious effects ( Standards Australia 1994: 4 ) . Several hazard direction criterions have been developed including the Project Management Institute, National Institute of Science and Technology, ISO criterions etc. These criterions vary widely harmonizing to the whether the hazard direction method relates to project direction, security, industrial procedures, fiscal portfolios, public wellness etc. Risk direction schemes include turning away of hazard, reassigning hazard, cut downing the negative impacts of hazard and accepting all or some of the impacts of a peculiar hazard. In an ideal hazard direction procedure, a prioritization procedure is carried in which the hazards with the highest impact and chance of happening are dealt with first while those with a lower chance of happening are dealt with afterwards. Practically, this can be really hard to transport out. Balancing hazards of high and low chances of happening can be really tasking and is frequently mishandled. Intangible hazard direction on the other manus identifies risks with really high chances of happening but have non been identified due to a deficiency of cognition by the directors or determination shapers. In a state of affairs where insufficient cognition is applied to a state of affairs another type of hazard referred to as & A ; lsquo ; cognition hazard ‘ is borne. This state of affairs proves fatal to put on the line direction attempts. Another type of hazard arises as a consequence of uneffective coaction between directors and or determination shapers and is referred to as & A ; lsquo ; relationship hazard ‘ Certain facets of criterions developed for hazard direction have come under unfavorable judgments because they are believed to hold no mensurable effects on hazard even though there has been a pronounced addition in assurance in determinations. Risk direction is seen as a critical portion of effectual direction. However, due to the deficiency of communicating and corporation between practicians in assorted Fieldss, a common apprehension of this construct is nonexistent. This has lead to a multi dimensional apprehension of the construct ( Kloman 1996 ) . This poses a large job for the development, constitution and acceptance of hazard direction as it is a really wide topic with several diverse subjects and subjects ( Lipworth 1996 ) . The development of a hazard direction frame work in isolation is likely to be uneffective unless determination shapers are committed to the integrating of the model to all concern activities and maps. This is done through the acceptance essentials elements like construction, scheme and civilization ( Smallman 1996 ) . This construction provides a general and consistent model for any organisation to develop a hazard direction map. The AS/NZS hazard direction frame work is a good illustration of such a models It is really of import here to advert that attention should be taken in the acceptance of a peculiar hazard appraisal or direction attack. Standardization should non direct or order peculiar methods as this would be unwanted, unrealistic and finally hamper wider credence ( Kloman 2000 ) . Several factors can straight impact on the effectivity of the procedure of hazard direction. The most outstanding of these factors are civilization, which to a great extent shapes perceptual experience and prejudice, heuristics and communicating. Culture is a wide term with a broad scope of definitions. However for the intent of this paper, we will specify civilization as the entirety of the ways of life of a people. With respects to an administration, civilization can be seen as a construct that describes the shared corporate values within an administration which influences the attitudes and behaviors of its members. Safety civilization is a portion of the overall civilization of the administration and is seen as impacting attitudes and beliefs of members in footings of wellness and safety public presentation ( Cooper 2000 ) . From several surveies, it has emerged that direction was the cardinal influence of an administration ‘s safety civilization. It was found that employees ‘ perceptual experience of direction concern towards safety, production and planning was the most utile agencies of mensurating an administration ‘s safety clime. This depends mostly on the interaction between direction and employees ( Thompson 1998 ) . A good illustration of how safety civilization can impact on effectual direction of hazard can be seen in the atomic power works detonation that occurred in Chernobyl, Soviet Union in April, 1986. This event demonstrated the ruinous hazards involved in the most advanced engineerings of all time created by worlds. Harmonizing to probes carried out, it was discovered that the detonation was as a consequence of human action ( Reason 1987 ) . A hapless safety civilization was prevalent at the works and this was reflective of the Soviet society at big. Both the Chernobyl works and its institutional context operated a civilization that had become unsighted towards the jeopardies inherent in atomic engineering. Communication with mention to put on the line refers to a procedure of sharing and interchanging information about sensed hazards between assorted cognition holders, determination shapers including research workers, technicians, directors, members of the populace, governments, media and involvement groups. The exchanged information can associate o the being, nature, signifier, likeliness, chance, badness and steps of response or other facets of hazard. Risk communicating is largely required when determination shapers do non keep all the information about the hazard in inquiry in order to do informed determinations. The motive for hazard communicating may change. It may be that determination shapers require more information in order to do determinations or that the public being cognizant of the hazard pro actively engage determination shapers in an attempt to acquire more information on doing informed determinations. There is an pressing demand to understand how members of the public perceive hazard in order to efficaciously pass on information refering to hazard. In the instance of terrorist act for case, communicating is really of import because any major information must be accompanied by instructions which must be followed by the generalization of the populace. Public hazard perceptual experience is greatly influenced by trust and as such credibleness is possibly the most important factor of hazard communicating ( Heldring 2004 ) . Trust is even more of import when communicating information about jeopardies or hazards that the percipient has really small cognition about. Possibly one of the greatest challenges confronting hazard communicators is integrating or showing the uncertainness in hazard estimations. Hazard comparings are typically given as point estimations, with really small or no indicant of variableness or uncertainness involved in the estimations of hazard. Harmonizing to most risk communicating counsel, hazard messages should non minimise uncertainness or information spreads, and countries of dissension among experts should be mentioned. The degree of assurance in hazard estimations should besides be discussed ( NRC 1989 ) . In the instance of the September 11 bombardments for illustration, unequal communicating may hold been the most powerful individual factor responsible for this incident. American security bureaus fed the populace with what they felt they needed to cognize alternatively of really affecting them in the determination devising procedure. In most instances, information passed to the populace may hold been manipulated to warrant determinations made by authorities and security bureaus. Naturally, this may hold built up misgiving in public perceptual experience about the existent presence of the hazard of terrorist act.Hazard REGISTERA hazard registry is a tool used within hazard direction for undertaking planning and hazard appraisal in the designation, analyses and direction of hazards. It contains information on identified and collected undertaking hazards identified by the undertaking squad in the appraisal of sensed hazards. It comprises a broad scope of contents and recommendations hav e been made by different professional organic structures such as Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK ) amongst others. Individual administrations besides provide their ain tools used as hazard registries because it is developed in relation to a specific activity or program. Typically, a hazard registry comprises, a hazard description, the impact should it happen, the chance of its happening, inside informations of planned response, extenuation steps or stairss taken in progress to cut down chance and or impact should the event occur and the ranking of hazards harmonizing to perceived precedence. There is nevertheless no standard list of constituents to be included in a hazard registry as contents can depend on the program of the squad, administration or individuals involved. It is recommended that a hazard registry be reviewed on a regular footing most particularly when come oning to the following phase of the hazard appraisal undertaking. The creative activity, care and use of a hazard registry are advantageous to project direction. A & A ; lsquo ; hazard evaluation matrix provides ‘ a speedy overview of hazard appraisal information derived from a hazard registry. An illustration of a hazard registry used by my group for a hazard appraisal undertaking is attached. The affiliated registry was developed by my group in the appraisal undertaking carried out to describe sphere specific edifice jeopardies, menaces and hazards in relation to the Lanchester library of Coventry University. The assessment attack used was considered equal based on the fact that group members agreed on both the contents of the hazard registry and on sensed hazards in different section associating to the edifice. It must be mentioned nevertheless that different hazard appraisal attacks work good in different state of affairss. Each of these attacks has its strengths and failings. This fluctuation displays the broad assortment of sentiments on hazard appraisal. There is a broad assortment of hazard hiting systems from qualitative to quantitative which efficaciously address a assortment of hazard appraisal attacks. There is nevertheless no indicant that one hazard appraisal attack is better than the other.DecisionRisk direction can no longer be viewed as an independent tool associating merely to fiscal or concern activities. It is most valuable when applied across several disciplined in a holistic mode. Bringing together all hazard appraisal attacks with common foreparts and using them in a robust mode. Institutions and administrations manage their personal businesss on a day-to-day footing and hazard direction is frequently seen as non adding value. Its application is now deriving more evidenc es as administrations now identify a sense of intent by doing usage of hazard appraisals. This has lead to its acceptance in the internal control systems of such administration and has greatly assisted direction in informed determination devising, improved communications and better apprehension of the hazards in and controls in their concern. The existent challenge nevertheless, lies in the integrating of the hazard profile into the strategic and be aftering corporate rhythm of these administrations.MentionsAuditor General Victoria ( 2003 ) & A ; lsquo ; Managing Risk across the Public Sector ‘ . Government Printer, Melbourne. Kloman, H.F. ( 1996 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk direction criterions ‘ . Risk Management Reports [ online ] 23, ( 2 ) Available from[ 10 January 2010 ] Kloman, H.F. ( 1996 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk direction: approach of age ‘ . Risk Management Reports [ online ] 23, ( 3 ) Available from[ 10 January 2010 ] Lipworth, S. ( 1996 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk direction at the bosom of good corporate administration ‘ . Executive Accountant 23, ( 4 ) 7-8 McNamee, D. , Selim, G. ( 1999 ) & A ; lsquo ; The following measure in hazard direction ‘ . The Internal Auditor 56, ( 3 ) 35-8 Standards Australia ( 1999 ) & A ; lsquo ; Standards Australia AS/NZS 4360 Risk Management ‘ Standards Australia, Sydney. Sj & A ; ouml ; berg, L. ( 2000 ) & A ; lsquo ; Factors in hazard perceptual experience ‘ . Hazard Analysis 20, ( 1 ) 1-12. Lyytinen, K. , Mathiassen, L. , Ropponen, J. ( 1998 ) & A ; lsquo ; Attention Shaping and Software Risk- A Categorical Analysis of Four Classical Risk Management Approaches ‘ . Information Systems Research 9, ( 3 ) 233 – 254 Smith H. A. , McKeen J. D. , Staples D. S. ( 2001 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risk Management in Information Systems, Problems and Potentials ‘ . Communicationss of the Association for Information Systems, 7. Beck, U. ( 1992 ) Hazard society: towards a new modernness Theory, civilization & A ; society. London: Sage. Bernstein, P.L. ( 1996 ) Against the Supreme beings: The singular narrative of hazard. John Wiley: New York. Thompson, Paul B. ( 1985 ) & A ; lsquo ; Risking or Bing Willing: Hamlet and the DC-10 ‘ . The Journal of Value Inquiry 19, 301- 310 Douglas, M. , Wildavsky, A. ( 1982 ) Hazard and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers. University of California Press: Berkley Harding, R. ( 1998 ) Environmental decision-making: the functions of scientists, applied scientists and the populace. The Federation Press: Sydney Wikipedia ( 2008 ) Risk Register [ online ] available from[ June 2008 ]

Information Subsystems for E-Commerce in the Supply Chain of Amazon.com

Ecommerce – has brought about a huge revolution in the global business by incorporating both the use of Internet-based computing and information systems to work out every small business processes. Businesses use the facility of internet to efficiently drive their supply chain management systems, trading with partners, giving back fast response to customer query and to over come resource shortages as well. This paper examines the importance of information based – ecommerce supply chain systems, in the online store likes–Amazon.com.There are four main vital issues that need to be addressed with the aim of the study – information collection, planning, systematized workflow, and modern updated business models. ECommerce business solutions provide the benefits of supply chain with reduction in costs, flexibility, and faster response times. However, the beginning of the ecommerce era, has led along a number of critical issues that determine the success of an eco mmerce business online.The e-supply chains of the online ecommerce websites, which are loaded with information systems have covered every part on the World Wide Web and there are loads of applications that are running with the help of this technology. The organization of an e- supply chain needs a global supply chain transparency, which in turn can only be achieved through incorporation of the various sub-information systems that are present within the ecommerce supply chain.This visibility or transparency can only be achieved if all the parts of the supply chain management system of an eCommerce site come on a common platform to share knowledge and real time information with the help of systems or electronic markets that collect and supply data bases about the transactions. The e-supply chain can be automated and well planned in order to deliver more productivity and increase the response of the eCommerce system. Some of the solutions that have been devised and also used up in the present are examples of electronic marketplaces like e-bay, amazon. com, mutual exchanges and Business to Business process controllers.There are various example of applications and other processes that are used up to form the backbone of any information system for an e-commerce trade, like CPFR, VMI and make to order. This paper is an attempt to decompose the typical nature of an e-supply chain in terms of information systems for an online store – Amanzon. com. In the beginning, we start with the nature of supply chains and later, we will look into the emerging trends with Ammazon. com, which have suitably been adapted to its eCommerce supply chains.Basics of a Supply chain1. PlanningThis is the premeditated segment of Supply chain management. This is the first step of SCM, in which a strategy is prepared for the efficient management of all the resources that are needed in meeting the market demands, less costs, high quality and value to the customer. The business plans are d eveloped in co-ordination with the suppliers who will be a part of the manufacturing process of new products.2. Resource allocationAfter a plan of action has been created, the next step of a Supply chain management is to select the suppliers who will deliver the goods and services. A number of issues arise here – pricing, time of delivery, payment procedures, monitoring, inventory of goods, shipment, verification, authorization and improving the two party relationships. These actions put together, give way to a well managed supply chain.3. Production and commercializationThis is the industrialized manufacturing step included within a supply chain. Most often this is the most complex step that needs first-rate handling at all levels.It consists of scheduling the activities, which form the various stages of production, testing, packaging and the final preparation of a product. The production stage is the most metric-intensive part of the supply chain as it can give vital data a nalysis for measuring the quality levels, cost of production, worker productivity. According to According to Lambert and Cooper (2000), the mangers who are in charge of the product development and commercialization cycle of the product must:synchronize with customer relationship management to recognize client-articulated needs.decide on resources and dealers in combination with procurement.Develop a manufacture technology in developing a proper flow to manufacture and incorporate the best supply chain flow for the product/market combination.4. TransportationThis stage of the supply chain is also referred to as Logistics by many experts. This stage is concerned with the movement of the final finished product to the customer. In physical terms, the customer is the final destination of the product, which is in turn linked through a marketing channel.This stage includes the co-ordination of order receipts, warehousing management, selecting transport carriers, shipment, and distribution of the product to customers and setting up an invoicing system to receive payments.5. Rate of ReturnThis stage concerns with the analysis of the whole activity that has been carried out as different parts of the Supply Chain. Every activity is broken down into sub activities so that the investment and rate of return per activity is calculated. This also consists of creating a network for receiving feedbacks from customers.Therefore as suggested above, any traditional supply chain consists of many stages that include the participation of one or more companies. Any supply chain includes more than one company tied up together in a series of supplier-customer relationships. These relationships define all the activities from the purchase of raw materials to the delivery of finished goods to the end client. The raw materials enter into a manufacturing process and are transformed into finished goods, which are supplied at the distribution centers. The finished goods are then supplied to cu stomers through the market.Supply chain and information Systems Successful trade thrives on information. Any industry that cannot boast of a strong information system for the Supply chain Management will never render the desired results. The importance of an efficient information system and how it works to improve the performance of ecommerce sites, its various applications, thereby giving a substantial improve in rate of return and saving money by utilization of specific applications in receiving, production tracking, quality control, and transport operations.To gain competitive advantage, e-companies have been using a number of schemes to increase their source of information and visibility into their tasks, many of them turned to enterprise resource planning or ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain and various other management softwares. Definitely, these softwares and their respective applications can be highly effective, but their efficiency is hampered when the data they require is not timely collected and presented before them.That is why the most important concern is providing cost-efficient and effective tools for providing accurate and on time data to enterprise applications to gain advantage. Supply Chain Management and information systems deals with the flow of goods from the firm, along with the facilities, to the final destination – customer. In this new era of intense competition, supply chain efficacies and its efficient implementation are not only necessary, but also the requirements for survival for any industry.A proper performance based supply chain management contributes to higher revenue, low operation cost, better warehousing management, order tracking and processing, packaging, and added satisfaction for the customers. Supply chain management has been engaged in organizations round the world, performing critical tasks. In addition, the rising global economy and the world-wide establishment of e-commerce also sh arpened the premeditated significance of supply chain management and has twisted the old methods so that they take advantage by benefiting from supply chain strategy and planning as a competitive tool.By the integration of supply chain, with customer relationship plans and an effective financial management, it has become easier for any firm to stay in firm control of business activities and generate the results that are aimed for. However, according to the study made, there has been a significant record about the optimal productivity that could have been achieved as compared to what the organizations are achieving at the moment. There are some serious problems that have come to the surface or were known to be existing since a long time, within the Supply Chain Management systems.For example, a problem with the Distribution network in Amazon has been cited at many instances, a many distribution centers, causing difficulties with suppliers, production facilities, and distribution outl ets. At the same time, the inefficient data distribution has been identified as a cause that leads to loss of integration of various processes within the Supply chain and causes the inability to predict demands, forecasts, inventory and transportations needs.The issue of a proper and well defined distribution strategy has also been acknowledged lately by the experts which discusses the option of centralized and decentralized distribution strategies, shipment etc. Due to these and many other factors, it has become vital, that the present practices of Supply chain and information chain management be revised and studied in depth to render the process to become more effective and profitable for the online business sites.The use of Information technology has become unavoidable for imparting solutions for a variety of supply chain management and design problems. These IT skills must work in unison to develop the Business to Business and Business to Customer needs. Various IT solutions tha t have been developed today, implement solutions for e-collaboration, faster response methods, jointly managed warehousing facilities and transportation. One of the most common IT applications within a supply chain is that of bar codes which makes data collection accurate and fast.Most of the enterprises apply the bar code shipping labels or RFID application on their finished goods that are about to leave the company premises. But with changing trends, mangers have learned that if the use of bar codes is pushed back into the production system, then it provides tremendous labor and material savings. These changes lead to less time delays and this times saved can easily be converted into financial benefits and increased productivity.Similarly, the use of Direct Store Delivery (DSD) and other route accounting operations when combined with mobile printing applications saves a lot of time and reduces the cost by a remarkable amount and in turn increases the return on Investment. Likewise , there are a number of IT applications that can benefit eCommerce sites to develop its information system so as to meet the customer requirements. Business information, production reports, warehousing data, inventory problems can be supported with the help of better managed supply chain management solutions coupled with some of these IT solutions.