Italo Calvino’s “Nonexistent Knight” Essay

The central characters introduced in Italo Calvinos novella, The Nonexistent Knight, are curiously diverse, yet each readily identifiable as each are driven or defined by particular quirks. In Agilulf Emo Bertrandin of the Guildivern and of the Others of Corbentraz and Sura, Knight of Selimpia Citeriore and Fez we see order and willpower, in Raimbaut of Roussillon theres passion, in the periwinkle female knight Bradamante is desire and pride, in Torrismund a need to belong, and in Gurdiloo nothing, naught but empty thoughts being filled and then emptied on whim. I find, however, that our narrator (and proclaimed writer of this knightly tale), Sister Theodora, personifies a certain idea of her own, she is wishful thinking and the story she weaves (and claims to have been a part of) is wish fulfilment; I posit that this story of hers is all the end result of a restless imagination at work and she is not Bradamante, Bradamante is Sister Theodoras insert of herself into her story world. Our first order of business is clarifying just what I have in mind when mentioning a self-insert, or anything of the like. There is a trend among the more enthusiastic fans of various media (especially television, books, comics, and video games) to expand the world of whichever specific title about which they are so passionate, usually fleshing out such worlds through acts of writing their own spins on what happened before, during or after the existing story; this is generally dubbed fanfiction and this is where the term self-insert has been coined, though such a device is not exclusive to derivative works, nor is it as recent a phenomenon. Put simply, a self-insert is a character placed within the context of a story that is meant to represent the writer as he or she is or to represent the writer as he or she would like to see himself/herself, something akin to an author surrogate. As Ive written, this technique is hardly a new one, writers as far back as Dante Alighieri have been placing themselves into their stories, but the name for it in terms of wish fulfilment storytelling is rather new. That aside, from the start of the novella, there has been what I had initially thought to be intentional comedic discrepancies by a neutral third person perspective in the manner Charlemagnes military operated. Chapter one introduces the paladins of Charlemagne as the emperor himself reviews the  company in a lax fashion, chapter two sees the invisible knight, Agilulf, directs young Raimbaut to the Superintendency of Duels, Feuds, and Besmirched Honor (a comically bureaucratic system for conducting vengeance) when the boy asks how he should go about avenging his fallen father (14). Further on, when Torrismund announces that the young woman Agilulf had rescued from rape was not a virgin, a peculiar chivalric practice is addressed: to rescue a noble-birthed virgins chastity was immediate access to knighthood, but to rescue a noblewoman whose maidenhood was no longer in tact would only earn an inflated pay (78). Historically, the process of becoming a knight was a long one beginning quite early in youth and required a young man to undergo many stages in his training; he would begin as early as 6 years of age as a page (a waiter or personal servant of a noble) and learn basics in courtesy, polished manners, hunting, weapons, and much more. By fourteen at the earliest, the boy would then become a squire and would be taken under the guidance of (while serving) a knight, and once the squire had honed his skills and learned his lessons well, he would then be dubbed a knight (medieval-life.net). Once the erroneous explanation of knighting is given, however, we already know something integral to the story: in chapter four, the perspective shifts from third person to first as a narrator of sorts reveals herself as Sister Theodora, the writer of this tale, and from there the discrepancies begin to make sense; the tale is written by a cloistered nun, how is she to understand military procedure?Beyond just the absurdities behind some of the happenings in Charlemagnes assembly of paladins, the title character, Agilulf, is an oddity all his own. He is a knight who does not exist in any physical form but is a thought, or rather, he is thought itself and this disembodied voice and willpower occupy a pristine white suit of armor while in service for the emperor. While we cannot truly prove that a thought cannot be a living form of its own walking about the earth unseen, to portray such an idea as possible is quite a fantastical move and as such lends to the fairytale quality of this narrative. So we have in the character of Agilulf, a heavy element of fantasy, from his lack of physical existence to his perfection in all he does. Now we come to a definite head-turner in the tale, the proud and beautiful princess-turned-knight, Bradamante. Bradamantes case isnt one like that of Jeanne dArc where she is a woman secretly and merely playing the role of a man, Bradamante is very openly female and is pined after by the paladins of the order. Her sexual exploits are not secret, nor is her nearly impossible true desire in a man and shes a master in combat and weaponry; all around, Bradamante stands out blatantly as a woman during a medieval time. While orders of female knights were not entirely unheard of, such occurrences were rare. The Order of the Hatchet is the only female order about which a great deal of information is known, and of the few instances when women were permitted knighthood, this order was the only one whose women saw the combat privileges that male knights received. The Order of the Hatchet was formed in Catalonia by the count of Barcelona in recognition of the women who fought in defense of their town while under attack from the Moors. These women received other knightly privileges besides combat, they received tax exemption and also had precedence over men in public gatherings (hereldica.org), though nothing else was heard of this order beyond the original members, so presumably the order died with the original members. Regardless of this miniscule instance of female knights, this order was formed in the 1100s, while Bradamante would have been in the military sometime in between 768 and 814 AD, as this was the time of Charlemagnes rule over the Franks making her existence as a knight in real-world possibilities sketchy at best. It is through the character of Bradamante, however, that my assertion comes together; Sister Theodoras tale is just that, a mere tale and not factual recordings as she had seen it. By the time we have reached the novellas end at chapter twelve, a complicated journey has reached its end as each character (sans Bradamante and Raimbaut) finds their own resolution. Bradamante has captured the attention and heart of young Raimbaut, but does not return the sentiments, rather she travels the land over in a rather desperate attempt to locate the only man who has ever won her difficult-to-please heart, Agilulf. Bradamante disappears for year upon learning of Agilulfs collapse and finding Raimbaut in the vanished knights white armor, and Raimbaut pursues her but what has become of the female  knight? Sister Theodora employs a twist in her tale when she reveals herself to be none other than the proud Bradamante, hiding in the abbey for years in mourning for Agilulf and now desiring the love o f Raimbaut, who she frantically writes is waiting for her outside the convent. It is here that I feel Bradamantes role as Sister Theodoras self-insert comes into full play. Theodora says early in the novella that writing is her penance, now at the end she says this tale that has been her task to write was one she experienced for herself and that she still has had many other adventures for which punishment she was tasked to record. Im certain, however, that the writing punishment for Sister Theodora is along the lines of the philosophy that idle hands are the devils work. No doubt, she has a colourful imagination and is more than likely prone to daydream, and this coupled with the lack of proper military procedure and Theodoras claim as being the talented, fierce, beautiful, and loved princess-come-knight, Bradamante, leaves no doubt in my mind that the story of the Nonexistent Knight told from her narrative was pure fabrication on the good Sisters behalf. Works Cited Calvino, Italo. The Nonexistent Knight. Harcourt Brace. 1962†³Medieval Life.† 2000. 13 Nov. 2007.. Veld, Franà §oise. Women Knights. 21 Oct. 2005. 13 Nov. 2007.

Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary

In 1823, President James Monroe called for an end to European intervention in North and South America by introducing the Monroe Doctrine. This meant that Europe was unable to further colonize in the Western Hemisphere. In response, America agreed not to interfere with European relations. Almost a century later in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt presented the Roosevelt Corollary, which was an extension to the Monroe Doctrine. This extension gave the United States the right to intervene in countries south of the United States if necessary. Roosevelt’s philosophy, â€Å"speak softly but carry a big stick,† was used to justify America’s actions during this time. It was evident that through America’s actions concerning Latin America, the Latin American nations were able to keep stable, independent political and social structures, as well as maintain prosperous economies. In any case where negative influences come into play in any of the Latin American nations, America was obligated to force those negative influences out. For example, if one Latin American nation was subject to invasion by another country, the United States had the power to intervene. Basically, the United States acted as the â€Å"big stick† in Latin American affairs in the â€Å"speak softly but carry a big stick† saying. This â€Å"big stick† was the force that stood behind Latin America and intimidated European nations if any disruption of Latin American affairs occurred. The idea for the Roosevelt Corollary was put into effect during the Venezuela Crisis of 1902. During this event, Venezuela had not paid its dues to Germany and Great Britain; and as a result, both countries sent warships to Venezuela in order to force Venezuela to make its payment. The enforcement of the Roosevelt Corollary would allow for the United States to take part in this affair and force the warships to depart, ultimately protecting Venezuela. The first instance in which this policy was actually used was when the Dominican Republic was subject to invasion by European debt collectors in 1905. As a result, the United States invaded the nation and maintained rule until the issue was compromised. Here, the United Stated guaranteed the succession of the Dominican Republic and assumed responsibility for customs house collections by using 55% of receipts to pay obligations and using the rest to satisfy the government’s needs. If the United States had not intervened in the situation between the Dominican Republic and Europe, the country was susceptible to invasion and could’ve eventually failed. Luckily, the United Stated guaranteed the continuation of Dominican Republic as a nation by providing the country with sufficient security until the issue with Europe had diminished. This event stands as an example of the justification of the Roosevelt Corollary and how it was used to expand the purpose of the Monroe Doctrine. The Roosevelt Corollary was exposed in 1904 to justify America’s intervention in Latin American conflicts with European nations. In protecting the Latin America nations, the United States essentially had the right to control what went on in those countries. This policy was distributed through various Latin American conflicts, such as events that occurred in the Dominican Republic. Evidently, America’s actions had been quite beneficial to the Latin American nations. Therefore, the Roosevelt Corollary should solely be seen as an extension to the Monroe Doctrine rather than something that had altered the initial objectives of President Monroe.

Cloud Computing Industry Analysis

Report – 2012 Cloud Computing Industry Analysis Submitted ByRomi Narang (197) Suryadeep Gumber(212) Rajesh Anuragi (196) Smith Rakesh (194) Neha Chavan(221) Neha Agrawal (224) Chandrika Gailot(229) 1/10/2012 Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Cloud Computing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 3 WHAT ARE THE NECESSITIES OF CLOUD COMPUTING? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 What are the needs of PaaS, IaaS, SaaS (Cloud Families)? †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6 Pricing Models †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 9 PESTLE Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 11 Technological Infrastructure required for Cloud Computing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 17 Cloud Computing – Drivers Vs Inhibitors †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 8 Global cloud computing market size& Future growth †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 22 CLOUD COMPUTING AFFECTING FIRM BOUNDARY †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 25 Web 2. 0 and Cloud Computing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 31 Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 35 1. Cloud ComputingCloud computing refers t o the provision of computing resources like computing power, applications, computing infrastructure and business processes in manner that is scalable as per requirement and can be shared in order to gain economies of scale. These provisions are delivered as a service over the internet (or any other electronic network) and the service can be accessed by the end users via a computing device. The data and application related information relevant to the end users business/personal needs is stored on remote servers.The term ‘cloud’ is used for the abstraction of the complex network infrastructure that is used for providing the service. [1] Figure 1. Logical Diagram for Cloud Computing: [2] Office building analogy for cloud[4] A more effective way to explain the concept of cloud computing is to compare it with an office building. An office building can accommodate multiple companies belonging to different types of industries. Although some companies can go for privately manag ed maintenance/servicing of their own office, it will be extremely economical and cost effective for all companies to go for shared services that are used by all.These will mostly comprise of some essential and fundamental utility services. Likewise, Cloud computing enables sharing of the computing resources, management of which by a single company could be taxing and uneconomical. The flexibility, immediate availability and cost effectiveness of the maintenance, hardware and platform development offered by cloud computing can be compared with the electricity coming out of every wall of an office building, the underlying technical aspects being abstracted from the user. Figure 2: Cloud computing compared to shared office space[4]Players in the Cloud computing world: [1] Vendors: Provide applications and enabling technology, infrastructure, hardware, and integration. Partners: Collaborate with the vendors and provide support services to customers. Business Leaders: Either use or eval uate various types of cloud computing offerings. Types of Cloud computing services:[3] Private Cloud: The cloud is owned by a particular customer with the required infrastructure and technology residing either on-site or off-site. This type of service is costly but provides better security.Public Cloud: The cloud is owned by a large organization or company specializing in cloud computing services. The cloud can be rented for use to anyone willing to pay for it. It is the cheapest type of cloud computing service but because of its public nature it is deemed to be less secure. Hybrid Cloud: It consists of multiple private and public clouds. 2. WHAT ARE THE NECESSITIES OF CLOUD COMPUTING? 1. Information Technology penetrated in day to day life very fast With the starting of Internet era, most of the people and majority companies in the world became dependent on the services you could get to with a click of the mouse.The best example may be the free email (Gmail/Yahoo mail), the chat te chnology (Yahoo Messenger), Social Networking websites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter). One can’t imagine life without them. That’s where the cloud was born. You need cloud data centers to run that stuff. 2. Cheaper source of Technology One may look for quality or ease of access but in the end the main thing that’s at the top of everybody’s mind is the economy. Cloud data centers are fundamentally different because they are built for very large user numbers and for a particular focus. Traditional data centers cannot compete on cost.In fact it’s no competition on the cost front. 3. Go Green In the scenario where environment is one of the biggest concerns, cloud computing seems as a perfect option as there is no paper etc required. The data is saved over internet as digital signals. Nowadays digitization of everything is becoming a trend among all top multinational companies. 4. The never ending and always expanding data The data is ever increasing and it probably always will. It seems to grow at about 60% a year and it doesn’t pause for breath. It won’t stop, even if you cry at it.But like old email, you never access most of the data and at the same time you also don’t want to delete it. So saving it all in the cloud makes sense clearly. 5. Unlimited Access This is almost impossible to stop users accessing anything they want on the Internet. One may be able to blacklist some web sites (adult sites etc) but one can’t want to prevent users from finding useful capabilities on the Internet. And those are cloud apps by any definition. There’s a wealth of it and it’s a boon to us. 6. No need for continuous software development Cloud computing is the best way of software development.There was always two types of software development; the mission critical stuff that gives us business traction, and the rest. We need not to worry for it. It’s the competition that drives the software developm ent and thus making it cost effective. 7. Emergence of cloud computing as an ecosystem The cloud computing has created an environment and hence various companies and developers create applications that support this environment, just like Google which is no more a website but an ecosystem. [4] 3. What are the needs of PaaS, IaaS, SaaS (Cloud Families)? PaaS: What is it? [5]The way of renting hardware, operating systems, storage and network capacity over the Internet is called PaaS(Platform as a Service). It allows the customer to rent virtualized servers and associated services for running existing applications or developing and testing new ones. Features:[8] 1. All the services needed in the process of making an application like developing, testing, deploying, hosting and maintaining applications is integrated into the same platform. 2. It is very user friendly as different user interfaces can be easily created using various web tools available in PaaS. . Various users can simultane ously use the same application process because of it’s â€Å"tenant architecture† feature. 4. It is used for billing and subscription management. 5. Integration can be done via common standards with web services and databases. 6. It has built in feature to handle load balancing and failover. Revenue: Figure 3[9] Players: Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Rightscale, Wipro, Adobe, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Sales Force, Google, VirtuStream, NetMagic. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Telecommunications industry can use PaaS.With the advent of 3G and popularity of Mobile VAS, PaaS products like Flypp that enable telcos with faster go-to market applications and reduce risk and operational overheads are predicted to see increased adoption. SaaS: What it is? [5] The model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet is known as SaaS (Software as a Service) Features[8] 1. 2. 3. 4. It is used in commercial applications for accessing web It has a central hub for software management It uses the star network model for oftware delivery It has a feature called â€Å"application programming interface† which is used to link different softwares 5. Time to time upgradation of software and recovery of system patches is not required to be monitored by the SaaS users. Revenue Figure 4[9] Players: IBM, Microsoft, Synage, Wipro, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Salesforce, Google, VirtuStream, NetMagic. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Healthcare industry can use SaaS. With medical tourism flourishing, India is slowly becoming a haven for healthcare services.Healthcare industry is also advancing its IT platforms to touch the global standards. This industry’s key worry of system consolidation can be addressed by SaaS solutions. Iaas: What it is? [7] A model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and netwo rking components is called IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it. The client has no obligations and he only pays on a per-use basis. Features:[8] 1.Dynamic scaling can be done 2. It allows access to multiple users on single hardware 3. It is based on the model of utility pricing and hence has a variable cost 4. Resources are distributed as a service. Revenue Figure 5[10] Players: Amazon, Go Grid, Wolf Frameowrks, Microsoft, Rightscale, Wipro, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Google, IBM, Net Magic, Reliance Data Centre. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Government and public sector can use IaaS. With current e-governance initiatives driving on a PPP model, immense investments are being made on the IT infrastructure front.For projects like Aadhaar, the UIDAI is contemplating on the adoption of a cost-effective cloud based model that can provide effective and scalable processing of large databas es. 4. Pricing Models Elastic pricing or Pay-as-you-Use model Elastic pricing model is a model that incurs less wastage and lower costs as under this system customers are charged based as per their usage and consumption of a service. As the users are keenly aware of the cost of doing business and consuming a resource (since it’s coming from their pockets) therefore the awareness of cost and selective usage is quite prominent.When to use it? 1. When there is Unpredictability of resources . 2. When there is limitation of budget. Fixed or Subscription based pricing The simplest pricing option where the customer organization is billed on a fixed monthly basis is known as fixed pricing. The consumer is billed the same amount every month without consideration for actual usage. When to use it? 1. When requirements are well defined. 2. When more control over the budget is required. 3. When it is required to use the cloud for a longer periods. Spot pricing for cloud It is a new concep t in cloud computing, where market forces will decide the pot pricing model i. e. , when the demand of computing and storage resources is higher than the price of services will be higher and vice-versa. Cloud chargeback Customers are charged on the basis of usage. Benefits of this model are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Resource utilization can become more visible. Forecasting, budgeting and capacity planning can be facilitated. It encourages the use of new emerging technologies. It facilitates justification and allocation of cost to their stakeholders and business units. Adoption of cloud computing models in India Findings on the basis of survey done by E&Y recently: 1. 2. 3. 4.Annual contract based modelling is mostly opted by large enterprises. Resource based usage model is adopted by SMB segment in majority. Potential customers are not satisfied with single pricing model. Pricing structures offered by vendors should be easy to understand, transparent and cost efficient. Figure 6 [61] 5. PESTLE A nalysis Figure 7 Political Regulations Even with Internet’s rise to the Horizon, it took many years for policy makers to set up common norms and procedures regarding the internet’s usage. With the current popularity of cloud computing policy makers are more proactive in addressing technological changes.Regulations are still at a very nascent stage for Cloud computing: There are various government policies involved in that need to be incorporated by vendors to successfully implement cloud. There are various issues like security, privacy, location and ownership of data, that hinder the growth of cloud computing. Some vendors like Amazon Web Services have addressed certain issues by deploying local infrastructure in main markets (US and EU). [12] Government projects Cloud computing has the potential to provide good level government service deliveries to the people despite the government agencies suffering from resource constraints.US government has an estimate to spend al most USD 20 billion on cloud computing related products. Figure 8[13] The federal government has a complete cloud related strategy that can be described below. ? Develop a decision framework that can be used to migrate services to cloud ? Find the services that can be migrated to Cloud and their time frames ? Calculate the resources required to move the services to cloud. Figure 9[13] Economic Various multinational companies have reduced their IT spending in lieu of the economic slowdown that has hit the economy hard. JP Morgan recently cut their IT spending. 14] Cloud computing helps cut costs in following ways ? By lowering opportunity cost of running technology. When it comes to technology only 20% of the time and effort goes into running technology which is where all the value lies. By using Cloud computing the 80-20 can be reversed as time required to manage the OS and hardware gets considerably reduced. ? Capital expenditure shifts to operating expenditure. Figure 10[15] ? Ren ewed focus on core activities With the movement from traditional operation to cloud, A company gets a lot of time focus on its core activities. Recently, Netflix moved on to the Amazon Cloud service (AWS EC2).Social Figure 11[18] Internet has been the most disruptive social phenomenon of the past couple of decades and has found its use in both professional and personal activities. The number of internet users is close to 2. 23 billion[18] and growing. Figure 12[12] Internet users Since cloud being an internet based technology its adoption has a greater probability. The future generation will no doubt be connected through the internet for both personal and professional lives. Social media has grown from strength to strength and now even companies are focused towards the use of social networking to find opportunities for their growth.Technical Technology has taken great strides over the last 2 decades and IT infrastructure and service sharing has become a great source of growth for so me companies. With high speed of internet, low connectivity issues, higher security standards and modularization of environments, it has become easier to implement cloud. Figure 13[12] IBM IT Transformation Roadmap The IBM IT transformation road map suggests how the IT has transformed over the years and it is headed straight towards the adoption of cloud computing on a major level. LEGAL There is currently no legal framework designed for the adoption on cloud computing.There are local regulations on free flow of information between countries. Figure 14[16] There are a few questions that are raised by the law structure when cloud is being implemented. 1. Who is the controller? 2. Which law is applicable 3. Transfer outside the country? The future of legal policies appear uncertain and they can easily keep a lid on growth of cloud computing Environmental IT contributes 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions in the world which is the same as the Airline industry[12]. Other than CO2 emi ssion IT produces 2 million tones of electric waste as well.Cloud Computing is one of the ways to reduce the environmental impact of IT industry. Most of the electric waste would become obsolete with the evolution of cloud computing. Figure 15[17] Total PESTLE Impact Diagram Figure 16[12] 6. Technological Infrastructure required for Cloud Computing Following Infrastructure is needed for Cloud computing: 1) 2) 3) 4) Computing Infrastructure Network Infrastructure Storage Infrastructure Linking Infrastructure a. Linking to Network b. Linking to Storage Depending upon the service required (IaaS or PaaS or SaaS), these infrastructure elements can be owned by the client or the Cloud service provider.As per the CIO. com article are as follows: [1] , there are seven important aspects of any cloud infrastructure, these 1) Heterogeneous System Support Other than leveraging the latest software and hardware systems, the cloud infrastructure should also be compatible with the legacy and traditi onal systems of the organization and should also support the existing infrastructure. 2) Service Management In order to make the cloud offering successful, the cloud service should be able to provide proper resource (e. g. CPU cycle or storage etc) guarantees, transparent metering rules of the service and proper billing cycles.Also, the service should be able to be managed and deployed easily and quickly. 3) Dynamic Workload and Resource Management For providing truly on demand and virtualized services, it is important for any cloud infrastructure to manage the resources and workload as per the required service level agreement to the consumer. And hence in case of peak load, prioritize resources in order to be highly efficient and performance driven. 4) Reliability, Availability and Security Reliability, Availability and Security are important aspects of any service, whether it is provided through cloud or through the traditional model.Hence any cloud infrastructure should provide a smooth transition to the cloud service without compromising on any of these aspects of the system. 5) Integration with Data Management tools It is possible that cloud computing management solutions do not fully take the place of the traditional systems and data centers. Hence the cloud infrastructure should be able to integrate with these out of the box systems and data centers to provide a hassle free service to the clients. 6) Visibility and Reporting An important feature of the cloud service is the ‘pay as per-use’ facility.Hence to fully achieve this objective, the cloud infrastructure should support detailed levels of visibility and reporting regarding the usage, service level agreements, compliances, system and network performances, billing schedules etc. 7) Administrator, Developer and End User Interface Most Cloud infrastructures provide user interfaces and portals to hide the cloud service complexities from the end user and in a way also provide the ability to manage these cloud services in a simple yet comprehensive way. [19] 7. Cloud Computing – Drivers Vs Inhibitors Inhibitors for Cloud ComputingA report published by IBM [20] (IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010) based on the survey conducted on 110 Cloud implementation Projects, revealed that the major concerns for implementing Cloud were issues involving security, lack of perceived value proposition by the customers, lack of standardization and lack of funding for implementation. Some of the other factors include- complexity concerns, lack of skills, concerns about reliability and availability of cloud, technical immaturity etc. Figure 17 Source: IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010 [20]Security [20] Security is one of the major concerns specially in public cloud implementations. Most customers are worried about the privacy and integrity of their data. The concerns may increase even more if the cloud is sh ared among other customers, who may be your competitors. Hence according to the IBM survey most companies are interested in implementing the private cloud (instead of going for the public Cloud). Standardization [20] As Cloud Computing is an emerging technology, the processes and implementations are not yet standardized.Each of the Cloud implementers provides their own solutions. There are no industry wide standards yet developed for Cloud computing. Hence this lack of hardware requirements, software, operating system and processes act as an inhibitor for implementing cloud. Value Proposition [20] Implementation of Cloud is much easier if value which it provides in terms of meeting the business requirements and cost benefits can be explained to the customer. Hence lack of tools and models that assist the customers to calculate the return on investment and value proposition pose a deterrent in cloud implementation.Complexity and Integration [20] Most customers today run a host of app lications including numerous legacy tools. Customers are looking integrated solution for all their applications from the cloud providers. Hence the doubts over integrating all solutions and also reducing complexity are one of the concerns of the customers in implementing cloud. According to Keane White paper [21] on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Clear thinking about its risks, benefits and success factors† impediments to cloud Adoption are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Security Privacy / Compliance Immaturity of vendors / Offerings Risk Mitigation Legacy ApplicationsDrivers for Cloud Computing BENEFITS [20] The study conducted by IBM based on 110 Cloud implementations revealed following results: ? ? ? Around 80% of clients acknowledge benefits in sharing of IT resources through highly virtualized infrastructure by implementing cloud. Around 60% achieved ease-of-use through self service with rapid delivery. Taking about public clouds specifically ? ? ? Ease-of-use is 85% (as com pared to 60% overall by both public and private cloud users) 68% benefit from pay-as-you-go Charging model 63% benefit from Internet / Web based CloudFigure 18 Source: IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010 [20] According to Keane White paper [21] on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Clear thinking about its risks, benefits and success factors† benefits of Cloud solution are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Cost Capability / Scalability More Green Organization Agility Collaboration Focus According Deloitte report on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective† [22] Figure 19 Source: Deloitte Report on Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective [22]Deloitte’s perspective on perceived and real impact of cloud Inhibitors [22] Figure 20 Source: Deloitte Report on Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective [22] 8. Global cloud computing market size& Future growth According to the report called â€Å"Sizing the Cloud† of independent research firm Forrester Research the global cloud computing market would fetch the $241 billion by 2020[1] as compared to $40. 7 billion in 2010. It could be possible cause of rapidly growing of cloud computing services.Figure 21 According to this report, Software-as-a-service(SaaS) would have a significant share in the total revenue. This segment would offer more opportunity growth than any other segments. The SaaS would have the leading position in the Cloud Computing market by holding the $92. 8 billion by 2016[23]. According to IDC by 2015[24] nearly 24% of the software purchaseswould be service enabled software. SaaS delivery will have the share of around 13. 1% of worldwide software revenue and 14. 4% for applications. Global Corporate Mobile SaaS Market will be at $1. billion in 2011 and will grow to $3. 7 billion by 2016 with Compound annual growt h rate of 25. 8% according to latest Strategy Analytics Wireless Enterprise Strategies. It will be possible by integration of business application on smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices[25]. Deloitte has estimated that cloud based usage will replace 2. 34% of IT spending in 2014 and further it will rise to 14. 49% in 2020[26]. Figure 22[26] Cisco’s Global Cloud Index forecasted that the transition of workloads from traditional data centres to cloud data centres will exceed in 2014.This year would be the crucial year when workloads through cloud data centres (51%) would be higher than the traditional data centres (49%) for the first time. If this trend would be continued then cloud workloads would be dominating to the traditional work load by 2015. The Compound annual growth rate expected to be at 22% during 2010-15[27]. Fig 23[27] According to Gartner, Insurance industry would have a higher rate of cloud adoption (34%) compared to their enterprise counterparts (27 %) in the Small & Medium Business (SMB) category. Fig 24[28] Complete analysis of Cloud Computing in Asia [8]Fig 25[30] Indian Market In terms of market size, Indian market holds only $990 million compared to global market $ 109 billion7. It is predicted that India would be having market of $3-4 billion by 20157according to Zinnov Management Consulting. On the other hand Nasscom and Deloitte consulting estimated that Indian market would be worth of $16 billion by 20207. It is also estimated that India would have a huge potential growth in future cause of millions of Small & Medium Business who are not able to afford to invest in the expensive business software solutions.Vishnu Bhatt, head of cloud services at Infosys says that, â€Å"About 60 per cent of enterprise workloads will be on the cloud in five years, from the current nonexistent levels†. Four different types of market opportunity are there in the India. Roughly 25 per cent of the Indian market is in â€Å"private c loud† business cause of security reasons. Other three opportunities lies in the â€Å"public cloud† as Saas, PaaS, & in Iaas. Independent software vendors (ISVs) like†Infosys, Wipro etc. † are the middle players who serve to small clients from the big players like Microsoft and Salesforce.The entire cost is borne by the end users, on an average the ISVs make around 20-30 per cent of the total revenue. Around 3000 ISVs are there in India and nearly 1000 of them have tied up with the Microsoft and Salesforce. So we can say Indian cloud market mostly depend on the ISVs[29]. 9. CLOUD COMPUTING AFFECTING FIRM BOUNDARY Start-ups Cloud computing reduces initial investments of the start-ups by reducing capital investment in a data center. In cloud computing the infrastructure for data storage is provided by the cloud providers which help start-ups in reducing their investment.Cloud computing does not eliminate the development cost but helps start-up companies to foc us on their core competency without hiring people with expertise. Cloud computing also helps different software companies (start-ups) to expand their offering by partnerships with big firms (exa-IBM). [32, 33] Due to this lowered capital cost the companies were able to prove their products on less initial capital. . In 2011, 1339 companies received a total of US $5. 8bn in first-time financing (an increase of 7% in capital raised and an inc of 19. % in deal numbers, compared with the same period in 2010). The data shows that Venture capitals are taking interest in investing on these small amounts since the risk is low. This helps the entrepreneurs in cracking more deals as supported by data. [34] SMB’s Cloud computing will help SME’s in modeling their business. Since it is cost effective, now companies are targeting these small and medium size businesses. These firms were not able to implement ERP due to high cost and lack of IT infrastructure. Now due to cost cut of t he infrastructure they can use cloud for their business. iON will enhance India’s global competitiveness by giving 35 million Indian SMBs access to world-class, simple-to-use and scalable technology tools. SMBs can use the power of iON to build their business advantage and compete on the global stage,† said N Chandrasekaran, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS, and chief architect, iON, in a statement. [35] The table below shows the share of small & medium businesses in different countries. In India Tata Consultancy Service is targeting $1 billion revenue from these small and medium businesses firm [36] over five years.Figure 26[37] A survey taken from Zoomerang (in April 2011) for small and medium businesses has shown that 77% of the small and medium businesses are not using cloud computing for their businesses and 52% of them will use cost effective IT management and maintenance sources. Figure 27 [39] A report published by Microsoft has shown that ther e is high potential for cloud adoption in SMBs. As per the report the number of companies with between 11 and 25 employees will potentially double till next wave.In 101 – 250 employee segment 33% companies will adopt cloud in the next wave. [38] Figure 28[38] Cost effectiveness of cloud computing will help startups and SMB’s in adopting it ,which in turn will help them in making their process efficient and as the result â€Å"SMBs will be able to challenge big businesses†. [40] Venture Capital Investment The diagram below shows the growth of public cloud and its comparison with the overall IT. The public cloud services are growing strongly with a rate of 18%, which is a positive sign for the companies providing cloud services. 42] This growth is also attracting the Venture Capitalist. Currently, not much of the investment is done on this sector and there is a strong chance of investment. [43] Figure 29[42] Venture capital is also affected by government regulatio ns. A report published by Josh Learner shows the impact of copyright policy changes on Venture capital investment in cloud computing companies. The data provided in the table in Appendix A has shown the investment of venture [41] capital quarter wise for cloud service firms in U. S. A. Figure 30[41]The figure below shows the ratio of investment in cloud computing companies to investment in all IT companies. A drastic change can be seen in the graph after the copyright policy changes. [10] Figure 31[41] A survey taken in 2012 by Deloitte regarding global trends in venture capital shows the confidence level of investors of different countries in different industries. The first graph shows the confidence level of venture capital investment sector wise and the second graph shows the confidence level of respondent’s country in cloud computing. 44] Figure 32[44] Figure 33[44] According to the article of NASSCOM Deloitte â€Å"Deconstructing the cloud – The new growth fronti er for Indian IT – BPO sector† cloud computing will affect by making (below points are directly taken from the article) [40] Lines blur between consumer and enterprise IT – Initially innovation was driven by enterprises but now trends have been changed and innovations are driven by customer segment also e. g. blogging, social networking and cloud is fast helping merge this divide between consumer and enterprise. IT drives arket-facing differentiation for businesses – Cloud will be a net positive impact on existing service lines while opening up new â€Å"product† opportunities Cloud have a net positive impact on existing service line revenues, though traditional IS outsourcing and testing service providers will have to re-invent existing models Uptake will vary across industries because of different drivers and barriers Cloud will alter the industry landscape – commoditization of IT through cloud computing will reduce entry barrier bringing s ome new breed competitors.Partnerships and alliances will be key to succeed in the Cloud ecosystem [40] 10. Web 2. 0 and Cloud Computing Web 2. 0 and Cloud computing have changed the way we develop, deploy and use computer applications. The World Wide Web had seen a transition from traditional publishing model to the new collaborative information creation model. [45] Web 2. 0 uses network as a platform for sharing information, creating content, & making a virtual community, in contrast to the websites where users can simply read the text (passive viewing of content). Web 2. includes some of the most widely known and used applications blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, wikis, Twitter, web applications etc. [46] Figure 34: Web 1. 0 & web 2. 0 Structure [47] Cloud computing services in nature are Web applications which deliver desirable computing services on demand. It is thus a natural technical evolution that the Cloud computing acquires the Web 2. 0 technique. [50] Cloud compu ting defines the way the applications are deployed. It offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).As per the requirement of resources, the processing power and memory gets allocated in an elastic manner. [45] The cloud is often misinterpreted as a combination of clusters and grids. However, in reality, clouds are next-generation data centres which are dynamically provisioned as per the user demand used for personalized resource collection for fulfilling specific user needs and accessible through â€Å"Web 2. 0† technologies. [51] Web 2. 0 and Implications on cloud computing Web 2. 0 contributes to the front end of the business, cloud computing contributes to the back end of the business.Combining both, web 2. 0 & cloud computing, both front end as well as some of the back end of the business can be outsourced. The work can be performed from anywhere, teams may not be at the same location thus collaborating the inf ormation using, web 2. 0 tools, cloud, mobile technologies. This is the concept of virtualized organizations. [53] Statistical Support David Osimo shows how web 2. 0 applications have grown masively. He uses the data from Technorati, Wikipedia, Myspace, Youtube and Nielsen-Netratings for analysis.His findings can be seen in Figure 2.. [10] Figure 35: Growth of Web 2. 0 applications [54] Cloud computing is addressing two different market needs [50] 1. Large scale web applications (‘web 2. 0 markets’) – scale-out cloud E. g. Google Traditional data centre computing (‘enterprise market’) – server clouds E. g. Microsoft 2. Figure 36: Evolution of World Wide Web [48] Cloud computing is integral to web 2. 0. It brings all sorts of user data along with operating system online and enables content sharing platform making the use of storage devices unnecessary.Web 2. 0 provides the collaborative functionality that helps in sharing documents and making c hanges on a real time basis regardless of their locations. This along with cloud computing allows for online storage of data avoiding the use of hardware, data centres as well as software replaced by online web applications like Google documents. There can be two kinds of customers for cloud [49] Those that need to scale up (achieve higher scale) at low costs 2. Those that want to eliminate data centre model and choose pay-as-you-go model 1.Many technologies like grid computing, peer to peer computing contribute directly to cloud. Thus, web 2. 0 provides users the capabilities of easy sharing and accessibility of data with anyone, from anywhere. Applications like Google doc, face book are managed by cloud storing huge amount of user data at one place and making it readily available to everyone anytime. These applications are one type of services, software as a service. Users have their own hardware at place, and use their own platform to run these cloud applications. The software re sources like application servers, database servers, IDE etc. re not required. Other kind of services include application as a service where users have their own hardware at place and rent platforms from cloud to develop customized software. Finally infrastructure as a service means the complete virtualization of business with storage at cloud. Hardware and computing also need not be performed at the site but takes place in cloud. Resources like storage, computing power are not required. [52] With the advent of web 2. 0, cloud computing got a boost as people could create and access any amount of information without having to worry about its storage.Google is the best example. It provides many services and applications like, Google doc, spreadsheet, YouTube all of which are cloud based and help sharing information on a real time basis. The real time sharing of knowledge is what is made possible though combination of the two. Cloud is incorporated in the next version of web 2. 0 retain ing the features of web 2. 0 and adding new ‘elasticity’ to the whole application or business deployment. 11. Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis Threat of new entrants ? ? ? ? Low barriers to entry Relatively lower development costs Low fixed costs Huge potential marketBargaining power of suppliers: ? ? High for few big players. Can depend on the type of service provided. Bargaining power of buyers: Existing competitive landscape ? ? Intense rivalry. Presence of big, small & niche players. ? ? Dependent on the size of the buyers. SMEs’ power can increase with standardization of offerings. Threat of substitutes: ? Mild threat from open source computing Figure 38 1. Existing competitive landscape: The Cloud computing market comprises of both small and big players causing intense rivalry.But there is a large variety in the type of products and services required by customers and so there is room for big, small and niche players. There are the big players providing end -to-end services like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft etc, pure players like Salesforce and niche players like Dell-BOOMI (specializes in Cloud Integration), Rackspace (leader in managed hosting services) and small players like Zenith. [55][56] 2. Suppliers’ bargaining power: Since there is a huge potential for demand from SMEs and few big players like Google, Amazon and IBM, the bargaining power of suppliers is quite high.Bargaining power could vary according to the type of service provided. E. g. In case of an IaaS service, switching cost for customers might not be very high since the offering is largely undifferentiated, but same cannot be said for a SaaS offering. Also there are is no clear rule of law for regulation of the data stored on the cloud. Data stored on the cloud could be subject to less stringent action by the regulatory authority than that stored on a personal computer. This could make the switching costs for the customers quite high. [57][58] 3.Buyer’s bargain ing power: Bargaining power of buyers can be said to be dependent on the size of the buyer’s business. In case of SMEs, the bargaining power can be said to be low since many of the suppliers in the cloud computing market are large corporations. Whereas the buyer’s bargaining power can substantially dominate the supplier if the buyer itself is a large organization. The bargaining power of SMEs can increase if with the standardization of the services which will be facilitated with establishing proper regulatory compliances. [57] 4. Threat of new entrants:With the huge potential market among the SMEs, it is expected that many new entrants from the SME segment itself will enter the Cloud computing market with low cost offerings. This expectation lies on the fact of low fixed costs, relatively lower costs of developing a product and low barriers to entry. [57][59][60] 5. Threat of substitutes: Open source computing can be considered as a substitute for Cloud computing servi ces. But it can be expected that the SMEs will prefer Cloud computing over open source due to higher switching costs in case of open source and lower costs of cloud computing services. [57]References Online: 1. Hurwitz et al. , (2010) Cloud Computing for Dummies [online]. Wiley Publishing Inc. NJ. http://books. google. co. in/books? id=_TvnVbFSYsQC&lpg=PP1&ots=u7GJ5I6STG&dq=cloud% 20computing&pg=PT10#v=onepage&q=cloud%20computing&f=false http://www. google. co. in/url? source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://files. messe. de/007/medi a/04bilder/aufloesungsunabhaengig/2011_3/cb11bielastischrechnen. jpg&sa=X&ei=jqxJULO WHsHrrQeVuoDICA&ved=0CAkQ8wc4kgI&usg=AFQjCNFaG0Yc_Ym8Uya7F3ei130cbaQbVQ 2. Jamsa, K. Cloud Computing: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Virtualization, Business Models, Mobile, Security and More [online].Jones & Barlette Learning, Wall Street, Burlington. http://books. google. co. in/books? id=msFk8DPZ7noC&lpg=PP1&ots=oW3KUl1HDm&dq=clou d%20computing&pg=PR2#v=onepage&q=cloud%20computing&f=fa lse 4. Trends and technologies in the CRM world. [online] http://www. allthingscrm. com/cloudcomputing/the-importance-of-cloud-computing. html (Accessed 5 September 2012) 3. 5. Search Cloud Computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. techtarget. com/definition/Platform-as-a-Service-PaaS (Accessed 5 September 2012) 6. Search cloud computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. echtarget. com/definition/Software-as-a-Service (Accessed 5 September 2012) 7. Search cloud computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. techtarget. com/definition/Infrastructure-as-a-Service-IaaS (Accessed 5 September 2012) 8. Ben, K. (2012) ‘understanding the cloud computing stack: Saas,IaaS,PaaS’ *online+ http://www. rackspace. com/knowledge_center/whitepaper/understanding-the-cloudcomputing-stack-saas-paas-iaas (Accessed 5 September 2012) 9. Deloitte,(2009) Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective. [online]https://www. deloitte. om/assets/D comGlobal/Local%20Assets/Documents/ TMT/cloud_-_market_overview_and_perspective. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 10. Morgan Stanley,(2011) Cloud Computing takes off. [online] http://www. morganstanley. com/views/perspectives/cloud_computing. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 11. Frost& Sullivan, Cloud Computing Services. [online] http://corporate. sify. com/uploads/CloudServices-F-S. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 12. Callewaert, Robinson and Blatman, 2010 Market overview and Perspective: Cloud computing. Deloitte. https://www. deloitte. com/assets/DcomGlobal/Local%20Assets/Documents/TMT/cloud

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Aboriginal Women and Lesbians - Essay Example Aboriginal women are not given much protection by the law. The number of aboriginal women in prisons is higher than that of men, which shows discrimination against them. When Europeans arrived, aboriginal women were even deprived of their right to vote. European economic and cultural development proved to be catastrophic for them, since they were enjoying equal rights as men before the Europeans arrived. Their children were sent to residential schools at very early ages, to return after many years or never to return. Likewise, lesbians have been facing discrimination in Canada since a long time ago. They have been treated as psychologically ill persons, and are often subjected to electroshock therapies. They have not been allowed to get admitted to armed forces, and have been facing sexism at workplaces and public places. They have also been victims of anti-lesbian violence and discriminatory Canadian laws. For example, before 1969, lesbianism was considered as a crime in Canada, and was offensive enough to lead to imprisonment. Aboriginal resisted the deprivation of their right to vote, enter into business contracts, and own property. They struggled hard in the twentieth century to make themselves recognized as legal citizens of Canada. Due to their struggles, only some decades ago, law recognized them as legal persons and lifted precincts upon their right to vote, enter into contracts, and own property. They fought for their equitable position at the constitutional table. Similarly, today Canada has many national laws that protect the rights of lesbians, and imposes fines and punishments on those who do or provoke anti-lesbian hatred at workplaces or public places. For example, the Canadian Human Rights Act was designed after lesbians raised their voices against discrimination against them. This law â€Å"forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation by federally-regulated employers, landlords and services† (Sexuality Information and Education Cou ncil of the United States, 1999, para.6). To conclude, aboriginal women and lesbians have been raising their voices against the marginalization that they have to face due to hatred of the society. Many laws have passed, and many associations are working, to protect their rights, but still their suffering has not completely ended, and they are considered as mentally ill and inferior persons of the society. 2. Feminism has seen four waves since feminists, and women themselves, have started raising their voices against gender discrimination they suffer from at homes and at workplaces (Rebick, 2005). This essay tends to focus on the thesis statement that the third and fourth waves of feminism differ from the first and second waves in terms of activism and understanding relations among women, by giving a brief introduction of the four waves. The first wave of feminism arose in the nineteenth century when an organized feminist movement started in Britain in the 1850s. Although many femini sts, like Mary Wollstonecraft, had already debated on the topic of female social inequality, yet there was a need for an organized movement. First wave feminists promoted their idea of giving equal rights to women in education, employment, and decisions about marriage. However, they focused only on the problems they had experienced, and not on the problems of working women. Second wave arose in the late twentieth century when feminist activities increased. Women started to contend against discrimination, in which they were given second class status. This wave focused mainly on working class of women, which was obvious from the 1968 strike of working women at the Ford car plant, protesting for equal pay. Women also started understanding their

An Unequal Division of Labour in the Medical Profession Essay

An Unequal Division of Labour in the Medical Profession - Essay Example An important goal for medical education today is professional development including gender equality and awareness of gender issues. Medical school is the breeding background for not only medical knowledge but also for professional development and careers, including equal opportunities and gender equality. In order to understand how unequal the division of labour in the medical profession actually is and the process of how it has changed from the past to the present, the following points must be considered: Historically both the gendered role of nursing and the sex of nurses were almost exclusively female. More than half of the people involved in health care have always been women. Historically, women were considered healers, and it was they who gave almost all the medical help that was available until two centuries ago. It may well be said that most practical medicines were in the hands of women in the past times. Even though women were more often than not completely ignored when applying for admittance to medical schools, it was almost solely women, who gathered herbs and infused them into vegetable remedies, bathed the arthritic and manipulated their joints, and looked after pregnant women and delivered their babies. â€Å"However in classical Egypt for many centuries women had a significant role as physicians, notably in the medical schools at Heliopolis and Sais.† (Carr, n.d.). During the dark ages, the best-known woman was Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179), who apparently had visions explained to her in Latin by a voice from heaven, and concluded by writing two medical manuscripts on plant animal and mineral medicines, and on physiology and the nature of the disease. Women were also involved in folk, alternative, and commercial medicine at this time, although many notable women who specialized in these areas are hard to classify.

Fermentation Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fermentation - Lab Report Example Maltose is a disaccharide which is composed of two units of glucose joined with an ÃŽ ±(1→4) bond. The enzyme maltase splits the maltose into simple glucose molecules which are further transformed by yeast into carbon dioxide and water. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is common yeast normally used in the baking and brewing industry due to the ability of this organism to ferment carbohydrates such as glucose and maltose to produce alcohol. This organism has been used since the ancient times. S. cerevisiae can be differentiated from other yeasts based on its growth characteristics and the physiological trait of fermenting individual sugars (US environmental protection agency n.p). In this experiment, the dependent variables were the concentrations of maltose while the independent variables were the temperature and yeast concentrations. The aim of this experiment was to determine the effect of maltose on the production of carbon dioxide during fermentation. The hypotheses formulated included: Four different flasks were each labelled in triplicates according to the concentrations of maltose used in the experiment. They were labelled as different concentrations of 10% maltose solution 5ml, 10ml, 15ml and water in triplicates. The corresponding concentrations of the maltose were then added to the flasks and mixed with yeast suspension, mixed and incubated. The respirometer was then prepared to take 3ml of the different solutions and 1ml of air. The syringes containing the solution were attached to a 1ml pipette and a droplet of water allowed into the pipette. This allowed for the carbon dioxide produced in the fermentation process to cause a rise in the water droplet which was measured after an interval of 10 minutes. The means of the data obtained from the readings were compared using students paired samples t-test. The results obtained indicated that the concentrations of carbon dioxide produced generally increased depending on the amount of time. Comparison of the

Education Sector & Collective Bargaining Research Paper

Education Sector & Collective Bargaining - Research Paper Example Furthermore, as move towards the statistics provided for the grade 8 and grade 12 students, a visible trend appears. All others states, which prohibit collective bargaining, remain at the bottom but Virginia also keep falling down in the ranking (English, 2011). According to the researches regarding the salaries of teachers, especially in the public schools, most teachers are paid with single salary schedule. Regardless of which grade and subject they teach the criteria for determining their salary remains the same, which depends heavily on their degrees, qualification, and their years of service. There are almost no schools or teachers with bargain on other factors such as difficulty of the job, working with at risk children, working conditions, previous performance, or time required by the children, researches required, and others (English, 2011). The concept of merit based pay is still far way in education sector, however, in other sectors, merit based pay is an existing and growi ng phenomenon (Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). Nevertheless, as one move up the hierarchy of education undergraduate, masters level education and so on, the power to bargaining the salary with experience and educational qualification increases. There are fewer teachers for higher education, thus they are able to exercise significant power over the bargaining power duties (Moo, 1999; Imber & Geel, 2010). Collective bargaining in various industries and professions involving measures such as strikes and walkouts; however, they cannot be applied in the same way in the educational sector. This is true because professions of doctors, teachers, and law enforcement... As the report stresses it is interesting to note the impact of collective bargaining power on educational levels and performance of students. According to the recent statistics provided by â€Å"National Assessment of Educational Progress of the 52 American Jurisdictions†, Virginia is only American, which prohibits collective bargaining in education sector and still ranks at the seventh position when it comes to assessment of grade 4th students in reading. Furthermore, out of the top 30 states in this list, Virginia is the only one to prohibit collective bargaining. This paper declares that most teachers are paid with single salary schedule. Regardless of which grade and subject they teach the criteria for determining their salary remains the same, which depends heavily on their degrees, qualification, and their years of service. There are almost no schools or teachers with bargain on other factors such as difficulty of the job, working with at risk children, working conditions, previous performance, or time required by the children, researches required, and others. The concept of merit based pay is still far way in education sector, however, in other sectors, merit based pay is an existing and growing phenomenon. Collective bargaining in various industries and professions involving measures such as strikes and walkouts; however, they cannot be applied in the same way in the educational sector. This is true because professions of doctors, teachers, and law enforcement agencies provided important and urgent services to the society.

Corporate risk management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate risk management - Essay Example Each region or country has their own rules and regulations to be followed. There are many additional features like giving financial protection against theft of the vehicle or possible damage to the vehicle. It is illegal for any person to run their vehicle in the road without any motor insurance. Most of the jurisdiction are applied both to the drivers well as to the car, though degree of severity varies. There are many countries where there is a scheme like â€Å"pay-as-you-drive†. Here the driver has to pay the premiums through the gasoline tax that he uses. Using this both the problem get solved, one like charging the uninsured motorists and another is to charge them based on the number of miles. This increases the efficiency of the insurance through streamline collection. But associated with it is the risk of insurance companies charging higher premiums than others. But being a compulsory thing, the motor man sometimes faces the risk of paying higher insurance in cases if he doesn’t get any options. Discussion The manager here owns a fleet of motor vehicles. The problem here is that the motor insurer has given them a premium quotation which appears to be high to them. Hence the manger has to look for alternative course of action. The manager must look for other motor insurance provide. The manager must know what the options available to him in the market are, like he can go to any brokerage house where there is a number of insurance provider tied up with them. Manager must understand the features offered by the insurance provider (Frenkel, Dufey, Hommel and Rudolf, 2005, p. 543). There are several basic features which he needs to look at. Like the Liability Only Policy. This type of insurance policy covers the liabilities of insure towards third parties only. It is mandatory for the each and every vehicle which runs in any the public place as per the Motor Vehicles Act of any country. Next important step is the Package Policy. This states that for any loss or any damage to the vehicle insured it will be covered subject to the terms and conditions to the policy. The manager must understand that premiums are calculated on various factors like type, usage, model, place of registration, past claims of history etc. of the vehicle under consideration. Hence the approach should be known to him (Vinnem, 2007, p. 32). He must understand that while buying a fresh new insurance during the renewal he can go for other companies who provide the insurance. The manager must also know that if the premium is charged too high he can go to the insurance provider and ask for the exact details of the components where the money is being charged high. He must mention whether the vehicle runs on Gas or on Petrol because each of them will have a different cost attached to it (Khatta, 2008, p. 241). Hence the manager should understand the fact that there is a risk of moving from one insurer to another new insurer. For any new client the motor car insurance provider will check what is the vehicles damage, what is the cc of the car and accordingly quote the premium. But it might happen that government may increase tax rate which is applicable to the motor insurance. And as a result the premium may again rise (Merkin and Smith, 2004, p. 387). Hence the manger has to consult many insurance providers at the same time and assess the risk by discussing with them. There are many steps to assess the risk. First step is to identify hazard, here the managers must know

Compare and contract the views of society presented in Equus and the Essay

Compare and contract the views of society presented in Equus and the time machine - Essay Example This will be illustrated by excerpts from H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine and Peter Shaffer’s Equus. This essay will focus on two aspects of social conformity namely; normalcy and entropy. The works of both writers portray a vision of a troubled future if man continues to dwell within the societal confines that propagate passivity while ignoring pressing issues such as social class splits and individual passion. Normalcy refers to what the society considers the right aspects of behavior. Passivity means inactive or submission to the will of others. In Equus, Dysart is considered normal as he rarely strays outside of societal boundaries. He is married, has no children, and has a good education and profession that places him in a high social class. However, he feels that his life is dull with no spiritual communication. His marriage lacks intimacy as illustrated by his admission that he has not kissed his wife for six years. Disillusioned with modern civilization and unhapp y with his role in it, he turns to Greek civilization for spiritual comfort. This highlights the internal conflict that most people have. In conforming to society’s belief of what is considered normal, one loses their individualism and passion, causing misery in their lives. In contrast, his patient, Alan, seems full of passion and vigor. Alan goes against the societal indoctrination to conceive the idea of a god that differs from the traditional Christianity. This is propagated by the conflicting views on religion of his parents. His mother is a staunch Christian who read him the bible daily and taught him that the sexual act was dirty. His father was an atheist and a strict disciplinarian that could not even allow him to watch television because he believes that it takes away one’s intelligence and concentration. Both parents are products of social norm, which requires them to exist in a world without passion and worship. As a result, Alan conceives a horse god, Equu s, with which he freely expresses his passionate worship and sexuality. He compares the horsegod to Jesus when he says, â€Å"I see you, I will save you.† (66). This adoration hits its climax when he blinds six horses. As a result, he is declared unbalanced and in pain and sent to Dysart to heal his mind. This violence brings out the conflict between the two myths: the pagan worship he created, and the Christian one he inherited which saddled him with guilt and shame concerning his sexuality. The eyes are symbolic of society’s checks on its members, constantly judging and punishing. By striking the eyes, Alan fights the society that has oppressed him. Thus, society forces blind obedience and individuals are forced to suppress their desires. Even though most people are aware of this consequence and are dissatisfied with their miserable existence, they lack the commitment to change their lives. Dysart feels that by removing one’s uniqueness he is destroying part o f their personality, but ultimately strips Alan of what he desires most. Normalcy and passivity are also evident in The Time Machine. The social disparity between the leisurely wealthy upper class and the working class was considered normal, especially in the Victorian England. The rich exploited the workers for profits to finance their passive lifestyle as portrayed by the laziness in the dinner guests in chapter one, who meet to dine and chat. The time traveler belongs to the upper class. This passivity is also evident among the Eloi (upper

Physical Exercise and GPA Essay Example for Free

Physical Exercise and GPA Essay Physical education connotes many different things to people. To some it is a subject area which focuses on physical training. Conventionally, this has meant promoting activities which lead to anatomical and physiological development (Sansone, 2000). The notion of PT and calls to improve the physical condition of our nations youth in order to provide a strong base for the military have also been consistent with this idea (Ennis, 2001). Others have had a more expansive view of physical education and portrayed the area as education through the physical, rather than of the physical (Pringle, 2000). Such a notion suggests that involvement in a variety of sports and games provides participants not only with opportunities to develop physical prowess, but to learn important social values while developing desirable personal traits. A third major thrust that has affected the meaning attributed to the concept is associated with its recreational function (Ruth, 2006). The basis of this theme is that people perform optimally when they have periodic diversions from their normal work world, and that involvement in physical activity can provide necessary relief and renewal. Closely affiliated with this idea is that physical recreation provides a wholesome and constructive use of ones free time (Lee2002). Despite such grandiose themes, Duda (2001) has argued that within the larger context of higher education classes focusing on the acquisition of skilled movements and play are viewed as nonintellectual, nonacademic, nonessential, and nonartistic (p. 433). As a result of such perceptions he believes that physical education is relegated to a peripheral role in the academy, and its practitioners pay a price for its marginal status in their daily lives. Furthermore, Duda suggests that a large part of physical education failing to gain acceptance in higher education is a consequence of the static criteria used to assess academic value in general. According to his analysis value of a curricular offering is typically based on such things as the intellectual challenge of material, the extent to which subject matter is categorized as academic rather than motoric, the usefulness of learning various skills, and the cultural significance of an area of study. His recommendation for redressing physical educations plight is to convince those using such criteria to assess worth in broader, and less dualistic ways. Hence the types of challenges presented in physical skill acquisition situations might be understood as important stimuli for developing human capacities that complement those capacities acquired from more conventional intellectual pursuits. While the idea of rethinking criteria that should be used for judging academic value may be laudable, how this might come about is difficult to conceive. An alternative and, yet, much simpler approach for improving the viability of physical education classes in higher education is to improve the quality of student outcomes. In essence, it may be that the inclusion of physical education in higher education is not contested on philosophical grounds, but on operational ones. As Duda (2001) conveys performance classes are elective, not required. Skill instructors are rarely hired as tenure track faculty. Credit toward graduation may not be given for such classes, and grading is often pass/fail. Passing marks are virtually assured with a good attendance record (p. 437). If such a profile is accurate, it is difficult to understand how student achievement can be significant or the entire enterprise viewed as essential to the general curriculum. Indeed, such a profile connotes that the physical education curriculum is soft, and that whether or not students acquire certain information and/or master specific skills is ambiguous. Considering physical educations past philosophical themes and its current trends of providing opportunities for students to: (a) recreate, (b) build and maintain health through exercise, (c) learn how to compete and cooperate, and (d) develop specific sport skills and levels of fitness, instructors often have difficulty in identifying and utilizing meaningful grading criteria. This has been attributed to both philosophical (Midgley, 2001) and managerial (Pringle, 2000) concerns. Indeed, as observed by Church (2001) many physical educators compute grades based on student behaviours which are unrelated to performance or knowledge objectives, such as dress, participation, and discipline. Interestingly, Ennis (2001) found that in colleges and universities virtually all grading in physical education is left to the discretion of the instructor, including selection of criteria and instruments to be used to assess student achievement. They also reported a trend toward less testing of all types. Consequently, it is not surprising that with so many ideas about what is to be accomplished, and so little control over how this should be done, it is difficult, if not impossible to determine the value of physical activity courses in the general curriculum. Indeed, it is one thing to provide sound philosophical arguments for why a particular discipline belongs in the curriculum, and quite another to operationalize the philosophy so that its essence is actualized. Recent studies suggest the importance of objective assessment not only as a device to promote the legitimacy of physical education in an academic setting, but as a tool to promote learning. For example, Pringle (2000) showed that student achievement in table tennis classes reflected the focus of evaluation. Students graded totally on physical skills performed most skilfully at the end of a class performed most skilfully, while those graded on attendance and participation had lower performance scores but the highest attendance rates. As well, Lee (2002), demonstrated how the proper use of evaluation and grading tools promotes on task behaviour and superior skill development in volleyball. Chen (2001), using a riflery task, also demonstrated that grading based on task competence was superior to grading based merely on participation when skill development was examined. Hidi (2000) further argues that the appropriate use of grading can promote positive attitudes towards a course, develop a students sense of confidence, and lead to substantial achievement. The reason why a rift exists between using grading as an integral part of the learning process, and using it only to fulfil administrative requirements seemingly is a complex problem that involves philosophical, technical, and practical issues (Duda, 2001). Yet, in a time when accountability is expected, and when cost cutting is widespread, empirical evidence for the integrity of a program is imperative. What and how we grade conveys a great deal about who we are, what we do, what we can accomplish, how we are viewed by others outside of our field, and whether physical education is considered as essential to the mission of education. Hence, the purpose of the present investigation was to acquire empirical descriptive data about grading of physical education in higher education. In light of our fields history of divergent philosophical views, ambitious, and often ambiguous goals, and its defensive position in higher education (Duda, 2001), an examination of what and how we grade would seemingly shed light on where we are as a discipline. Furthermore, such an investigation might help identify important issues that need to be addressed and resolved if we are to gain the degree of acceptance the field has so desperately sought over the years. Method Instrument To acquire information about college physical education programs a questionnaire was developed which, in addition to requesting information about an institutions profile (e. g. , public-private, size, approximate percentage of students enrolled in physical education, etc. , asked a series of questions about its physical education activity program. These included: (a) whether students received academic credit which counted in a students GPA, (b) the number and duration of class meetings, (c) how important various factors such as skill development, effort, and attendance were in computing a grade, (d) whether the department had a policy on grading, (e) the approximate percentage breakdown of grades awarded (e. g. , As, Bs, Cs, etc. ), and (f) whether the issue of grading had been considered by the department in the past five years. Prior to mailing the survey, questions were pilot tested on a group of five senior collegiate faculty members in a department of exercise and sport studies. These individuals each had taught undergraduate and graduate theory courses as well as a variety of undergraduate physical activity classes at a number of colleges and universities. They were quite knowledgeable about different types of service programs (e. g. , credit, required, no credit non-required) and how they typically operated. Furthermore, they were apprised of the questionnaires intent, and were asked to provide feedback on the clarity of questions as well as the instruments overall format. Based on feedback from this group, questions were reworded, added and deleted. In addition, the sequence of questions was revised for the purpose of providing a more coherent structure. The final version of the survey contained eight questions, some of which had subparts. As well, pilot testing demonstrated that a respondent could complete the questionnaire in approximately ten minutes. Coding of Data As surveys were returned data were coded into an Excel Spreadsheet by two trained assistants, and then analyzed using Exels statistical functions. It is noteworthy to report that during the data reduction process it became evident, as conveyed by a number of respondents, that quantitative data which were requested from a number of questions did not exist Consequently, many respondents either did not answer such items or acknowledged that they merely volunteered their own perceived best guess, or a numerical range within which they believed the actual value requested would occur. Hence, a decision was made to code and analyze all data acknowledging that, for the most part, they only reflect respondents best estimates, rather than hard numbers. Furthermore, where a range was given, the midpoint was used in further analyses. In passing, the observation that certain types of data were not acquired or readily available may in itself be an important finding since a departments viability may depend on such information. Items falling into this category included such things as: (a) the number of students taking physical education classes in a semester, (b) the typical grade distribution (e. g. , % As, % Bs, etc. ), (c) the factors utilized to compute course grades, and (d) whether an institutional limit existed for the number of physical education courses that could be taken by a student for academic credit. Results Sample Within a thirty day period of mailing surveys 556 (44%) responses were received. Table 1 shows a break down of respondents by institution type and size. Because of financial limitations, further attempts to obtain data from nonrespondents were not attempted. Of the 556 respondents, 78 (14%) indicated that they did not have, or no longer had a physical education activity program. This was somewhat of a surprising finding, especially so because many conveyed that their institutions program had been recently eliminated. Whether a trend toward program elimination actually existed is of significant import to our profession and deserves immediate attention. Schools which indicated that they did not offer physical education classes were removed from further analysis, leaving 478 institutions in the database. Is Academic Credit Given for Physical Education Activity Courses? An important question posed by this investigator was whether institutions grant academic credit which counts in a students GPA for taking physical education activity courses. Presumably, this would indicate whether classes were viewed as a meaningful part of the institutions general curriculum. It was found that 335 (72. %) of respondents reported that academic credit which is computed in a students GPA was awarded for physical education activity courses. Table 2 reveals that Public State Universities and Colleges were somewhat more likely to award academic credit than Private Universities and Colleges. Furthermore, while a few institutions had a unique formula for computing the amount of credit earned in a class, nearly all institutions granted one credit per course. A follow-up question probed how much of such credit may be counted in a students total academic program. Although there seemed to be a great deal of uncertainty regarding the answer to this question, many respondents indicated that their institution had not set a limit or did not have a policy (only 65% of respondents who count physical education credit in the GPA responded). Those that were clear on this issue indicated that a limit did exist, and that the median value across institutions and within school categories was four credits. A subsequent question probed what the course time commitment was for earning credit. Across institutional types classes typically met for the length of a semester (14-15weeks), and for two contact hours a week. How are Grades Computed? A number of questions regarding how grades were computed followed. An initial issue was whether or not the department had a policy on grading. The idea here was to get a sense of whether faculty members agreed on how such things as skill, knowledge, and class participation should be weighed in determining a students performance. In regard to this question, 80% of respondents indicated that their departments did not have a formal grading policy. Nonetheless, many individuals conveyed that students were administered tests of skill and knowledge, but that course instructors ultimately determined assessment tools, how various components were weighed, and the course grade computed. Because most departments did not have a formal grading policy, the next set of questions should be interpreted as only giving a general sense of how grades are computed from a respondents general perceptions. This question probed whether grades were competency based (i. e. students are assessed on the absolute level of performance attained), or norm based (i. e. , students are graded in relation to other students in the class). Results showed that most respondents (60. 6%) thought that grading at their institution was competency based, although a fair number reported that they thought their grading system was more norm based (23. 3%). The remaining 16. 1% either were unsure or did not respond to this item. Another question related to this issue was wh ether the amount learned was considered to be as important as the level of performance attained. Interestingly, 72% of respondents believed that instructors at their institutions weighed the amount learned as being equivalent to the proficiency attained, while 21% did not see these of equal importance. The remaining 7% were missing or undecided. In light of the previous data indicating a bias toward competency based grading, the response to this question is surprising since the amount learned would only be of importance if it correlated highly with proficiency attained. This may or may not be the case, but needs further investigation. Another way of probing the importance of factors employed in computing a grade was to ask respondents about how important they believed a subset of factors were in arriving at a grade. They rated the factors of (a) effort, (b) attendance, (c) attitude, (d) amount learned and (e) level of performance on a five-point scale anchored by the terms very important(5). Overall, attendance (1. 3) and amount learned (1. 4) had the lowest median values (i. e. , highest perceived weighting). The level of performance attained (1. ), and effort expended (1. 8) followed closely, while attitude (2. 3) appeared lowest in importance. It should be noted that all of these criteria tended to fall between the very important and uncertain end of the continuum. With the exception of performance attainment, it is not clear why the other factors identified were viewed as important in grading, if grading is competency based. For that matter, these criteria would also be somewhat problematic for a norm referenc ed standard which focuses on relative competency attainments. Respondents were also asked to estimate the percentage distribution of grades in physical education at their institution. Overall, as were perceived to be the most prevalent grade and were awarded to 51% of students. Bs were the next most prevalent grade awarded to 31% of students with Cs following at 14%. Ds and Fs were infrequently given with a combined percentage of 7%. Has the Issue of Grading been Considered in the Past Five Years? A final question asked whether the issue of grading had been considered by a department in the past five years. Although 51% had not discussed this issue, 47% had done so. The questionnaire requested respondents who answered this question in the affirmative to comment on what issues were discussed by their departments. Clearly, the topic of whether to change from a letter grade system to a pass-fail system was the most widely discussed issue. Related to this was the subject of grade inflation and the idea that moving to a pass-fail system may reduce pressure from various constituencies (e. g. , administrators, faculty, regents) to reduce the number of high grades awarded. There were also numerous comments about criteria to be used in grading, consistency in grading across sections of a course, and among different courses. Several respondents also commented on the conflict between trying to encourage lifelong participation m activities and the negative connotations of having to grade based on an individuals proficiency. From the nature and number of comments collated, it was evident that departments have grappled with this issue, but remain in a quandary about an ideal solution.

All Roads lead to China and its economy

All Roads lead to China and its economy The article â€Å"All Roads lead to China† dated 5th December 2009 in The Star Bizweek focuses on Chinas rise as an economic powerhouse, with the stage set to become the largest economy of the world. Continuous rapid economic development till date has placed China right at the heels of United States and Japan. After a market-orientated reform programme in 1970s, China turned into the centre of attraction for foreign investments from all over the world. The nations importance in the global economy is evident with its government policies and local companies actions being closely monitored. The staggering population in China of 1.3 billion provides an attractive customer base besides serving as a cheap labour force. In line with a boom in the manufacturing sector, Chinas demand for raw materials also propels correspondingly. This has not only transformed the way in which commodities are traded, but also led China to indulge in the acquisition of foreign assets and the formation of alliances with resource-rich countries. Despite of downbeats ranging from the low quality of goods produced to the accusation and allegation aimed towards China, the China economy is still going strong with corporations envisioning to compete against other established international players. The introduction of the market-orientated reform programme in 1970s do clearly seems to be a masterful move which has resulted in China enjoying rapid yet encouraging economic developments over the years. In addition, with a much improved and predictable legal system in practice, the republic seems to have strummed the right note in the global economy game, with investments pouring in from different parts of the world. It is indeed amazing to think how the China economy has managed to emerge as one of the dominant force in such short time span. With such thriving potential and capacity of the China economy, no wonder it is by no boast to claim that any business considering itself to be a global player has to enter the China market, as stated in the article. The major advantage that China enjoys and has successfully utilized over the years is the huge population which provides a cheap, appealing labour force for industries, particularly the manufacturing sector. Though China is not able to match with tech-savvy nations such Japan, they have understood the population advantage which they gain over other countries and thus embark on a labour-intensive-centered economy development. On top of that, a competitive surrounding too serves as a catalyst in Chinas economic development. Low wage may seem to be a fair reason to explain Chinas competitiveness, but Kwan (2002) pointed out that the productivity of Chinese workers also has to be taken into account as a factor in Chinas competitiveness. He explains that though China pays low wage for their workers like how Bangladesh and Somalia pay their respective workers, the relatively high productivity of Chinese workers has placed their competitiveness on par with United States. This indicates why till date, there has yet to be any countries able to match up with the cost advantage of companies based or branched in China. Amidst of the advantage discussed above, there are several setbacks occurring concurrently with Chinas economic progress. The first revolves around Chinas very own legal system. Though Chinas legal system has been more consistent and predictable with businesses enjoying a smoother entrance into the republics market, it still has its flaws and could still prove to be an obstacle for companies venturing into China. Recently, BBC (2010) reported a conflict between Google and the Chinese government with the former threatening to pull out of the nation due to cyber attacks and tight surveillance by the Chinese government to limit freedom of speech in the internet. With China continuously imposing tight regulatory and censorship rules over the internet while Google holding firm to its stand of prioritizing moral concerns ahead of businesses, the conflict has demonstrated that Chinas restricted openness will to certain extent hold back the republics potential to expand its economy. Additionally, there is also the factor of quality that China has to seriously look into. The recent years have saw Chinas exports raising safety concerns all around the world. The people worldwide are basically getting cheap goods at the expense of their health and safety. At the same time, the reliability and durability of China-made products have also raised concerns and dissatisfactions from the outside world. From toothpaste to pet food to toys recalled over the years, the quality control in China seemingly to have deteriorated from bad to worse. Of all the quality flops, the most serious case saw tens of thousands hospitalized due to melamine-contaminated dairy products. The scandal not only tarnished the nations image, but it has also puts Chinas credibility and ethical responsibility into question. Moving on, Chinas domination in the global economy will soon be severely tested with the issue of inflation surfacing in line with the prosperous developments. According to Peoples Daily Online (2010), experts have been predicting inflation in 2010 and the challenge lies ahead for Chinas economy to ‘prevent inflation and to control the inflationary expectations. With increased demand for commodities due to rising consumption power, inflation do seem inevitable for China and it would be interesting to see how the Chinese government will deal with this upcoming obstacle. Although Chinas economy has progressed immensely for the past 30 years, there are certain areas that still can be further improved to allow further expansion of the promising market. In the legal matters prospect, China could have given its legal system a thorough review to widen its doors to companies such as Google to encourage more potential investments. On the other hand, China can address to the problem of low quality goods by tightening the quality control regulation to regain consumers confidence towards China-made products. If the relevant problems have been attended and rectified accordingly, it is only a matter of time before China replaces United States at the top of the rankings. References BBC (2010) Google ‘may pull out of China after Gmail cyber attack [Online], Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8455712.stm [accessed 11 January 2010] Kwan, C.H. (2002) The Myth of China Competitiveness, [Online], Available: http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/miyakodayori/047.html [accessed 11 January 2010] Peoples Daily Online (2010) Experts: Preventing inflation is the biggest challenges for Chinas economy in 2010 [Online], Available: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90778/90862/6871595.html [accessed 11 January 2010] Bibliography ICIS.com (2007) China product quality under spotlight [Online], Available: http://www.icis.com/Articles/2007/08/06/9049799/china-product-quality-under-spotlight.html [accessed 11 January 2010]