As a senior partner in a marketing consultancy,short business report Assignment

As a senior partner in a marketing consultancy,short business report advising this client - Assignment Example The  troupe  of non-marketing  will have an influence on the marketing executives of the company and in their victory  to maintain good and long term  relationships  with old and new customers. The market environment for an organization or  business  is consist of the  macro environment  that includes external issues of the company or business like political, social, legal aspect with nation and local market and in other hand the  micro environment  which includes the internal issues of company like strength, weakness and opportunities of the company or business which influence in running an organization and its functional departments like finance, production, marketing etc. It will assist the Samsung Company to determine the external and internal forces that influence the company’s potential to fulfill the desire needs of their customers. The Samsung company will able to know that how to change their decisions regarding the economic factors and demographic, so they can implement better marketing strategy to engage more their customers. It also aids the company to analyze the current trend of the market and the requirement of the population of the market via technological and other natural’s factors. Through the help of marketing environment the Samsung company will able to deal with political and legal factors of nations. The marketing environment can be done through with the help of PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis. PESTLE analysis aids the Samsung to know about of external force which may influence on their work, whereas SWOT analysis will aids to indentify the internal factors and capacity of the Samsung Company. Through this analysis the Samsung Company will capable to know the political, economical, social, technological, legal and environmental forces, these are external factors. In other hand, strength,

An evaluation of contemporary leadership and governance challenges Research Paper - 1

An evaluation of contemporary leadership and governance challenges among universities in Africa - Research Paper Example By identifying and evaluating the major challenges that face leaders in African universities, it is possible to provide research based solutions to these problems, which in turn will enhance effective leadership strategies as the path for development in these countries. Objectives of the study Main Objectives To evaluate the challenges that are facing the leaders in African Universities in their administrative role. To investigate poor leadership qualities within the administrative bodies of the university. Specific Objectives To identify, through data collection, the major challenges that leaders in African Universities have to confront in their day to day duties. To identify weaknesses that exist within the university leadership and governance that has contributed to the problem of poor leadership. To analyse the results of the survey in to establish the common leadership problems among the African universities. To recommend possible solutions to the problems that are threatening l eadership and governance in African Universities. ... world countries and the path to rise to international heights has become rough, making these countries remain stagnated in terms of growth and development. This has generated a lot of attention among many researchers to investigate the barriers that have kept the pace of growth in these countries slow and unyielding (Task Force on Higher Education and Society, 2000). A research by Petlane (2009) indicated that one of the major challenges in these countries is the poor leadership and governance in this country that has failed to drive the country to economic success. The findings of this research have triggered significant research to investigate the challenges that University leaders have faced in implementing development goals in the country. A recent research conducted by Kuada (2010) was meant to investigate on the knowledge gaps that exist within African leaders that have undermined the development of third world countries. The findings of this research indicate that the weakness of African leaders emanates from the shortage of development skills and knowledge that exist within them. Other researchers have identified the need shortage of technological knowledge among the leaders which is a necessity in a technologically growing environment. Previous research by Hall and Symes (2005) provided that the only way to enhance development in African countries is by maintaining effective leadership in tertiary institutions and impacting leadership mentorship in upcoming professionals. Although researchers have reached a concession that the reason why African countries have failed to shine in the global scope is because of the many challenges that confront leaders in these countries, researchers have failed to identify the specific challenges that face leaders especially

Implementing Technology in Mental Health Practice

Implementing Technology in Mental Health Practice Introduction People wish to live a meaningful life even while suffering from mental health problems. Adam Clifford, a clinical nurse specialist at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, wrote Using Video Technology to Manage Mental Health for Learning Disability Practice, he states that forty percent of the population has additional mental health problems. Majority of this forty percent is embarrassed or uncomfortable in accessing mental health care (2014). In A Rural Youth Consumer Perspective of Technology to Enhance Face-to-Face Mental Health Services from Journal Of Child & Family Studies written by Simone Orlowski who is affiliated with Flinders Human Behavior & Health Research Unit at Flinders University, explains that mental health treatment that is aimed towards anxiety and depression is based on four main functions; information provision, screening, assessment, and monitoring (Lawn, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. 2016). Implementing technology in health c are services can offer advantages and disadvantages for people with mental health issues. Technology will positively impact mental health care services, by making it more accessible for people with limited financial flexibility and transportation, young adults with mental illnesses will feel more comfortable seeking help or advice, and it will give a better and more accurate experience for both the patient and professional. Limited financial flexibility and availability of transport: Mental health care support is a vital aid which is not accessible to some people because of financial costs and transportation needs. The promise and the reality: a mental health workforce perspective on technology-enhanced youth mental health service delivery, an article written by Simone Orlowski from BMC Health Services Research, states thattechnology will make mental health services more accessible for young adults who have limited financial flexibility or do not have means of transport (2016). The combination of limited financial and transportation aid gives restricted opportunities for mental health care services not located at home. Recent developments from using online resources and mobile technologies to support mental health care has shown improvement for people with restricted financial and transportation support. Turvey, C. L, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Carver College of Medicine wrote Recent developments in the use of online resources and mobile technologies to support mental health care for the International Review Of Psychiatry, he suggests house based health-related mobile applications and web-based electronic mental health problems as solutions for people who have limited transportation and financials (Roberts, L. J. 2015). Young adults feel uncomfortable seeking help or advice: 20% of young Australians between the ages of fifteen to nineteen suffer from the symptoms of mental illness and 60% of those teens are uncomfortable seeking help or advice for their mental illness (Orlowski. S, 2016). A Rural Youth Consumer Perspective of Technology to Enhance Face-to-Face Mental Health Services written by Sharon Lawn, the director of the Flinders Human Behaviour and Health Research Unit at Flinders University, expresses that the increase in percentage of teens who feel uncomfortable asking for help decreases engagement for youth towards mental health services, technology can increase engagement by using similar methods used in teen’s day to day life (Journal Of Child & Family Studies. Orlowski, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. 2016). Young adults constantly use their cellphones and always have them by their side, Turvey from The International Review of Psychiatry states the proposition given for mobile apps in mental health is based on the ideal that they will always be with the patient. If the mobile device with the app is with them all the time it can help promote their clinical goals for example a person with a chronic psychotic disorder would get a notification at medication time. Mild to moderate depression and anxiety can be treated through another method of self-guided or professional facilitated therapies that are delivered via internet. Lastly, the part that would appeal most to young adults is that patients can use these applications and programs in private with no interactions with professionals (Turvey, C. L., Roberts, L. J. 2015). Better experience for patient and the professional Implementing technology can improve the experience for both the patient and professional. Technology can give a more accurate treatment without completely replacing face to face interactions. It can be implemented through predictive analytics, increased consumer input, self-management, and inclusive stakeholder communication, these reasons for implementing technology into mental health services are under researched (Orlowski, S., Lawn, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. 2016). Extra sensory perception an article from Scientific American written by Gershon Dublon, a Ph.D. student at the M.I.T. media lab and Joseph A. Paradiso, an associate professor of media arts and sciences at the Media Lab from the stimulus packet helps piece together how technology will help mental health care services. Different sensors described by Dublon and Paradiso will change how comfortable patients feel in an environment or how professionals can give the patient a better experience. Temperature sensors can determine the temperature and relative humidity in the room as measure by dense sensor network. Sound sensors will help a patient recognize the movement and sound in a room, so it can be adjusted to their preference. Overall, the temperature and sound sensors will give the professional and patient better control of the environment. The data collected by these sensors can be used as references in the future to experience data from the past in multiple perspectives. Guarav Singh, head of the department of psychiatry at the Medical College Hospital and Research Center in Uttar Pradesh, India, wrote Use of Mobile Phone Technology to Improve follow-up at a Community Mental Health Clinic: A Randomized Control Trial published by Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, in this article he emits the fact that missed appointments are common in outpatient care for mental health-care services. Even with the need of further treatment 16-60% will not follow up with their appointments. The suggested method for improving follow up in outpatient care is through short message service (SMS) and voice calls via telephone. Counter-argument The mental health workforce fears that technology will have a negative effect on their services believes that it will disclose privacy and confidentiality from issues within the technology programs (Orlowski, S., Lawn, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. 2016). Technology is believed to increase the workload for professionals and uphold disengagement from face-to-face therapy. Relating to the idea of face-to-face therapy, in The Historian as Participant from The Historian and the World of the Twentieth Century written by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual, eyewitness history is considered valuable for historians. In this situation eyewitness history and face-to-face therapy hold a connection in the importance of how eyewitnesses can more accurately identify critical factors in the process of these events. Eyewitness history holds a different perspective to history, it shows the way people think and feel. When implementing technology into mental health care services and decreasing the amount of face-to-face contact, the input of emotions given by the professional is eliminated. Solution The implementation of technology can be approached from different angles such as implementation programs for mental health care services. Simone Orlowski states that most technology solutions include mental health self-help programs which are more independent for the participant. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy interventions (iCBT’s) which treats mild to moderate mental health problems such as depression and anxiety or mobile apps for self-management and self-treatment which will help limit interactions with health professionals to little or none. People with more severe cases of mental problems will struggle with self-help programs and will need to consult with professionals. Telepscychiatry which is meant for more severe cases that would require input from professionals via video conferences. Telepscychiatry can allow patients with limited financial abilities and limited technology availability to obtain therapy affordable to them (Lawn, S., Matthews, B., Venning, A., Wyld, K., Jones, G., & Bidargaddi, N. 2016). People in programs like Telepscychiatry are limited to the variety of mental health professionals available for face-to-face therapy. Mobile apps are one of the aforementioned solutions for mental health care services. The functions supported by mobile apps, online health programs, or personal health records overlap in information and abilities. The three technological programs give standard mental health scales or electronic messages reminders to promote health behavior. Mobile apps are the preferred program which offer functions such as targeted educational content, structured mental health assessments, symptom or behavior logs, and context sensing or unobtrusive monitoring (Turvey, C. L., & Roberts, L. J. 2015). Conclusion Technology will improve mental health care services for young adults who feel uncomfortable seeking help, people with constrained financial and transporting utilities, and it will improve the course of treatment for both patient and professional.The mental health workforce is opposed to the implementation of technology because complications in patient confidentiality and privacy. Technology self-help programs via internet and mobile apps will be available for people suffering from depression, anxiety, and other conditions. Telepscychiatry will be available for people who cannot benefit from self-help programs. The limitations to these solutions are the level the patients conditions and the decreased expertise of professionals that only work with face-to-face patients. The implementation of these programs with their limitations will improve mental health care services, but not completely rewire how it works. References Clifford, A. (2014). Using video technology to manage mental health. Learning Disability Practice, 17(7), 24-28. Dublon, G., & Paradiso, J. A. (2014, July). Extra sensory perception. Scientific American, 38-41. Orlowski, S., Lawn, S., Matthews, B., Venning, A., Wyld, K., Jones, G., & Bidargaddi, N.   (2016). The promise and the reality: a mental health workforce perspective on technology-enhanced youth mental health service delivery. BMC Health Services Research, 161-12. doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1790-y Orlowski, S., Lawn, S., Antezana, G., Venning, A., Winsall, M., Bidargaddi, N., & Matthews, B. (2016). A Rural Youth Consumer Perspective of Technology to Enhance Face-to-Face Mental Health Services. Journal Of Child & Family Studies, 25(10), 3066-3075. doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0472-z Schlesinger, A., Jr. (1971). The historian as participant. In J. Grenville (Author), The historian and the world of the twentieth century (Spring ed., Vol. 100, pp. 339-358). Singh, G., Manjunatha, N., Rao, S., Shashidhara, H. N., Moirangthem, S., Madegowda, R.   K., & Varghese, M. (2017). Use of Mobile Phone Technology to Improve follow-up at a Community Mental Health Clinic: A Randomized Control Trial. Indian Journal Of Psychological Medicine, 39(3), 276-280. doi:10.4103/0253-7176.207325 Turvey, C. L., & Roberts, L. J. (2015). Recent developments in the use of online resources and mobile technologies to support mental health care. International Review of Psychiatry, 27(6), 547-557. doi:10.3109/09540261.2015.1087975

Forensic Psychology Essay -- Papers

Forensic Psychology 1). Forensic Psychology is the application of the theories of psychology to law and the legal system. Issues of violence and its impact on individuals and/or groups delineate the main and central concerns in Forensics within the adult, juvenile, civil, and family domains. Forensic psychologists provide advice to legislators, judges, correctional officers, lawyers, and the police. They are called upon, for example, to serve as an expert witness, diagnose and treat incarcerated and probationed offenders, and screen and evaluate personnel in the law enforcement and judicial systems. Forensics encompasses a wide range of academic orientation. Synonyms for Forensic psychologists include criminal psychologist, correctional psychologists, police psychologists, and social-legal psychologists. However, Forensics is considered a single discipline. Just as one social psychologist may focus on group behavior while another may focus on interpersonal interaction, Forensic Psychology is best consi dered as a large all-encompassing field, for which correctional, police, and legal psychology are all sub-disciplines. 2). Erich Fromm defines benign aggression as a brief reaction to protect us from danger. In contrast, malignant aggression is hurting others purely for the sadistic pleasure. Fromm believes people feel helplessly compelled to conform to the rules of society, at work, and to authority everywhere. This lack of freedom to make decisions and the inability to find meaning and love in one's life causes resentment and sometimes malignant, sadistic aggression. How and where does this hostility show itself? Some people get pleasure from hurting, killing, and destroying; Hitler was a prime example: he killed 15 to 20... ...de where fires are set in or around the home and result in attention from family, friends, and neighbors. The instrumental person's act is usually characterized by a desire to resolve interpersonal conflict by setting fire to a building in a retaliative way, external to the arsonist. This offence often involves prior threats to the victim plus a specific behavioral trigger just prior to the attack. The expressive arsonist's object of target is on very public buildings affording as much public attention as possible and thus increases psychological relief for the fire setter. Emotionally charged 'non-specific' triggers are common prior to the event. These offenders will often return to the scene and observe and participate in the response. The Instrumental object of the instrumental fire setter is generally a means of achieving some criminal goal such as theft.

Knowledge Management Conocophillips Essay

We express our deep gratitude to Mr. Gurparkash Singh for his constant support, guidance and motivation which helped us immensely in completing this project. The project provided us with an opportunity to understand the fundamentals of Knowledge Management in a better manner and its application in corporate world. The insistence on taking up a project on application of Knowledge Management in energy based firm and promoting it with latest technologies used by them to get a competitive advantage. ABSTRACT We have ConocoPhillips as our project firm of Knowledge Management. We learnt a lot about the importance of Knowledge sharing in today’s firms. The company continues to make tremendous progress toward its vision of creating a work place where employees continually deliver additional value through global collaboration and expertise sharing. At ConocoPhillips, support for sharing comes from the executive level and cascades downward and outward throughout the U.S.’s 6th largest global firm. The following report describe the approach, knowledge initiatives and use of lessons learned that have propelled ConocoPhillips’ current knowledge sharing and learning platform forward. At the end of this document, we have provided metrics that demonstrate the robust growth of Knowledge Sharing at ConocoPhillips COMPANY PROFILE ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States. It is the world’s largest independent pure-play exploration & production company and is also one of the Fortune 500 companies. ConocoPhillips was created through the merger of Conoco Inc. and the Phillips Petroleum Company on August 30, 2002 and was the fifth largest integrated oil company until spinning off its downstream assets to Phillips 66 ConocoPhillips focuses solely on exploring for, developing and producing oil and natural gas globally. The company manages its operations through six operating segments, which are defined by geographic region: Alaska, Lower 48  and Latin America, Canada, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East, and Other International. It currently owns 8.4% of the shares of the consortium exploiting Kashagan oil field however the company seeks to reduce its non-core assets in order to use the cash for debt reduction, fund its capital program, and dividend payments. On October 3, 2012, the Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister told reporters that ConocoPhillips has informed Kazkahstan of their intention to sell their shares. In November 26, in its biggest acquisition ever, ONGC Videsh agreed to buy ConocoPhillips’ 8.4% stake in the Kashagan oilfield for about US $5 billion. The stake buy is subject to approval of governments of Kazakhstan and India and also to other partners in the Caspian Sea field waiv ing their pre-emption rights. Need of knowledge Management Smart managers intuitively understand the importance of the problems that knowledge management efforts are often designed to address: sprinkled across most organizations are people doing similar kinds of work, but they often remain unaware of one another’s expertise, successes, and failures. Some of this lack of awareness is the result of waves of downsizing, reorganizations, leadership changes, and new acquisitions. But even in the best-managed large organizations, employees who could benefit from one another’s experiences are often isolated by formal structures and mechanisms that subdivide work into different reporting channels and focus employees on local rather than global goals. To serve customers well and remain in business companies must: reduce their cycle times, operate with minimum fixed assets and overhead (people, inventory and facilities), shorten product development time, improve customer service, empower employees, innovate and deliver high quality produ cts enhance and adoption, capture information, create knowledge, share and learn. Effective knowledge management should dramatically reduce costs. Most individuals, teams and organizations are today continually ‘reinventing the wheel’. This is often because they simply do not know that what they are trying to do have already been done by elsewhere. They do not know what is already known, or they do not know where to access the knowledge. Continually reinventing the wheel is such a costly and inefficient activity, whereas a more systematic reuse of knowledge will show substantial cost benefits immediately But as well as  reducing costs, effective knowledge management should also dramatically increase our speed of response as a direct result of better knowledge access and application. Effective knowledge management, using more collective and systematic processes, will also reduce our tendency to ‘repeat the same mistakes’. This is, again, extremely costly and inefficient. Effective knowledge management, therefore, can dramatically improve quality of products and/or services. Better knowing the stakeholder needs, customer needs, employee needs, industry needs, for example, has an obvious immediate effect on the relationship management. The Knowledge Economy is the next booming economy in a world of recession. More individuals, teams, organizations and inter-organizational networks will be restructuring and renewing themselves with the primary purpose of profitably trading their knowledge to add even higher value, predominantly on the World Wide Web. Already we see more enlightened organizations developing and applying the knowledge they have about their industry, customers, partners and stakeholders, as their prime strategic asset, and at the highest point in the value chain. And many are becoming less involved, and more open to profitably outsourcing the other business operations. Around the world we hear automobile companies talking far more about their critical and key knowledge areas of design, knowledge of manufacturing , knowledge of distribution, knowledge of service and support etc as their ‘crown jewels’ or ‘master recipe’. Based on applying this key knowledge they then outsource the other business components. We hear the same from the aerospace industry, the oil and gas industry, the information technology industry, the food and agricultural industry, the healthcare industry, in fact most, if not all, industries. None of this is possible without a continual focus on the creation, updating, availability, quality and use of knowledge by all employees and teams, at work and in the marketplace. CORE CONCERN AT CONOCOPHILLIPS Baby boomers nearing retirement age pose a challenge to sustaining effective networks. At ConocoPhillips. nearly 20 percent of the employee base is eligible for retirement. In the coming years, another nearly 20 percent will qualify for retirement. These highly experienced employees possess valuable business knowledge and often serve as subject matter experts or network  leaders. It is vital to capture their knowledge and experience so that it can be reused across the enterprise and accelerate learning. Losing core team network members presents another challenge to networks of excellence. The project management network, for example, frequently redeploys and reassigns network leaders and core team members in the organization. High leadership turnover rates can lead to network disengagement and a loss of expertise. The knowledge-sharing team works closely with networks that experience changes in leadership to overcome obstacles and find ways to sustain continuous leadership â€Å"Networks of Excellence† (NoEs) Due to all these needs ConocoPhillips came with the concept of NOE’s. These internal communities of practice intended to encourage knowledge sharing. Articulating roles and responsibilities, attending to the network’s daily operations, and working to institute a culture that supports the exchange of knowledge are all crucial, but at ConocoPhillips, the foundational principle of network building is this: a Network of Excellence must demonstrate its ability to contribute significant value, either in cost savings or in revenue generation. In 2004, ConocoPhillips launched a large initiative to create internal communities of practice that would enhance knowledge sharing within the firm. For this international integrated energy company with thousands of job sites (often quite remote) spread across 30 countries, the challenge of sharing knowledge was very real—and the potential payoff was large. Facing fierce competition on all fronts, ConocoPhillips knew that to continue on its success trajectory, it needed to rapidly and effectively harness the knowledge of its highly skilled but geographically distributed workforce. Instead of assuming that technology either was the solution or was irrelevant when creating online communities, senior managers understood that effective global communities required new processes, roles, cultures, and technologies. They also recognized that each had to be focused on solving difficult business year challenges. With more than 10,000 employees participating in about 100 of what ConocoPhillips calls â€Å"Networks of Excellence† (NoEs) and a growth rate of about 10 new networks per year, the company has developed a set of valuable principles for identifying, nurturing, and enabling these topic-focused communities. A culture of knowledge sharing has emerged in which network members take responsibility  for helping their globally distributed colleagues—even if they meet face to face only once or twice a month. Network Formation at ConocoPhillips Ensuring that each new network has the greatest chance to succeed is a process that begins long before the network is formed. Many authors and consultants stress the informal nature of such communities, arguing that any attempt to systematize them will crush them. ConocoPhillips found the exact opposite—that without clear and explicit links to the organization and its business purpose, networks often evolve in ways that fail to contribute to business goals. The company adheres to two fundamental principles in this regard. First, no network is created without a clear and detailed business case that specifies the value proposition to the company and is agreed on by network leaders and members. Insisting on a business case prior to the creation of a network goes against the typical â€Å"let a thousand flowers bloom† approach that is often promoted. But in many cases, uncontrolled growth of new networks saps employees’ attention and engagement, leading to neglect an d network failure. Setting a high bar at the outset means that every potential new network must have a strong business justification, which signals to potential leaders and members that the result will not be something that consumes their time without producing real business value. Today, more than 120 networks exist across the organization. Networks align with business functions to assist in the achievement of functional excellence. The portals are open, in that both contract and full-time employees have access to most network activity. Given that between 70 percent and 80 percent of organizational learning occurs informally and outside the classroom, networks support informal learning among members. Networks exist across all technical disciplines, and most arc supported by functional excellence teams. Functional excellence teams include line managers from business units and assets who are accountable for networks. Functional excellence teams provide structure, governance, and leadership required for effective networks of excellence. The knowledge-sharing leadership team (i.e., not the core group) includes representatives from various business streams across the organization who help set direction and strategy. The knowledge-sharing leadership team also provides support for reward and recognition programs organization-wide. The enterprise  knowledge-sharing team oversees network activities. Promoting Knowledge Sharing at ConocoPhillips INTERACTIVE SESSIONS They reorganized and the solid state of their knowledge assets will help with this effort. More than 70% of their good ideas have come from their employees. Good things happen when employees talk to each other. TOP LEVEL PARTICIPATION The most successful KM efforts have senior sponsor of rank and respect in the organization. Most KM groups are placed too far down the hierarchy to be effective. Their KM effort started when a senior executive felt they were re-inventing things too much. The focus was always connecting people more than collecting documents. They grew by sharing success stories. Sharing these success stories was connected to their variable compensation plan and this really triggered response. ARCHIMEDES AWARDS In 2005, ConocoPhillips introduced its Archimedes Awards to recognize business units and regions for the four primary types of behaviors that an effective knowledge sharing-enabled culture requires. The awards, known informally as the 4G’s, symbolize: * giving, * grabbing and * gathering knowledge, * Along with spilling one’s â€Å"guts† to prevent others from having to repeat painful lessons learned. They have documented over 9 billion dollars in gains through the program. These awards are given to the business units or regions that have successfully created a collaborative work force through giving, taking and applying, and sharing knowledge. Network of the Year award On an individual basis, ConocoPhillips also recognizes the most outstanding networks through the Network of the Year award. Three networks are nominated quarterly by the global governing body of high-level program sponsors, based upon several criteria of collaboration and networking  performance. Four networks are yearly selected as Networks of the Year. Being nominated is considered a high honor within the company. The awards have become highly respected symbols of global collaboration. HALL OF HONORS Regions and certain functions have created their own rewards to recognize people at a local level. For example, the North Sea Business Unit and the Operations Excellence function let people recognize their peers for outstanding efforts that promote knowledge and collaboration. As further evidence of the strength of the Archimedes Network of the Year award, in 2011, ConocoPhillips introduced the Hall of Honors to recognize networks which have produced superior results year over year. Networks which have won the title of Network of the Year three or more times are named into the Hall of Honors and retain the honor for three years. Afterwards, they are eligible again to compete for Network of the Year. The Hall of Honors represents a significant milestone in the growth and maturity of the ConocoPhillips Knowledge Sharing program and enables the recognition of more noteworthy networks. KNOWLEDGE PROMOTION TOOLS ConocoPhillips has three main tools: Ask and Discuss, Knowledge Library, and One Wiki . Ask and Discuss: component has led to 100,000 exchanges. They don’t believe in formal lessons learned. It takes too much time. Informal connections work better. The formal lessons learned become out of date very quickly and talking with people gives the most current ideas. People want to help each other but they also want answers quickly. Knowledge libraries: and Discussion forums are embedded in each community portal. Network portals are accessed frequently; for example, ConocoPhillips recorded more than 1.3 million hits monthly on its family of SharePoint-based network portal sites during a six-month period between April and October 2009 Within each community, the Ask and Discuss forum is a place to post questions and initiate discussions. The organization tracks the number of questions posted, the number of replies, and the number of readers per question or discussion. Data show that an average of 20 people read a single reply. In other words, for just five replies, about 100 people read the responses and absorb the information contained therein. Content that complements Ask and  Discuss forums is stored in the network’s knowledge library. This content is reviewed and analyzed by subject matter experts and then posted to the library using a taxonomy developed by the knowledge-sharing team and corroborated by network leaders. Knowledge library content is quality controlled; only the most valuable knowledge is retained in the library The wiki : is the first place to look for content. All of their success stories have an economic impact. One had 87 million dollars of benefits. Sharing this is important. Giving credit to the employees is critical. Getting middle managers on board was done through conveying business value of knowledge sharing. Documented success stories, best practices and lessons learned in the form of closed discussions play a large role in providing context to Wiki articles. OneWiki has been deployed across the company and involves many networks, teams and work groups. Even at this early stage, OneWiki is proving to be a natural place to capture the insight and wisdom that accepted knowledge (lessons learned and best practices) has become. Further, the Wiki concept is familiar to people and encourages them to find and keep accumulated knowledge up† to†date. Internally branding the wiki as â€Å"OneWiki† has sent an important message that this is the one and only place for contextual, encyclopedic knowledge in ConocoPhillips. To introduce OneWiki to the enterprise, the global KS Team created a set of high†end computer†based training modules. The team meets regularly with individuals deemed content moderators to ensure they are aware of the governing standards. Closed discussions: enabling portal discussions as a way to capture and transfer lessons learned is a cornerstone of the ConocoPhillips Knowledge Sharing strategy. The sharing of discussions across sister networks yields even greater value for the company. But the latest, most exciting KS initiative is rapidly positioning ConocoPhillips to gain significant value by integrating Web 2.0 technology with the Knowledge Sharing platform. The two†pronged approach consists of Closed Discussion Items and Wiki technology and processes. Four years ago, the KS Team recognized the potential of lost knowledge retention opportunities when valuable knowledge from online discussions eventually aged on network portals. Many discussions contain detailed analysis and background information that represent an extensive body of knowledge from experienced network members. To recapture the benefit of such knowledge and provide it a  Ã¢â‚¬Å"second life,† the team actively researched the discussions that had reached closure and were deemed to have yielded a successful result. The KS team created a process and policy to encourage network leaders to officially ‘close’ those discussions. These were then turned into searchable lessons learned documents that were added to the network’s knowledge library for members and others to search and browse. This approach has proven to be a more useful and efficient means of capturing,storing, accessing and re†using intellectual capital than more traditional and costly methods MEMBER ENGAGEMENT When ConocoPhillips first began launching networks, business units perceived them as a corporate initiative that was being added to normal workloads (i.e., above the flow of work). Membership engagement has helped change that perception and is one of the building blocks required for successful networks of excellence. Creating connections between similar networks increases engagement and allows the organization to leverage knowledge more effectively. Sister networks are linked by business objectives and functions. One network currently has 16 sister networks. Network members can post Ask and Discuss questions to related networks to engage a broader audience in finding a solution. Only meaningful, out-of-the-ordinary questions approved by the network leader are posted to sister network sites. The goal is to further engage similar networks and let others know of network issues and activities. METHODS OF PROMOTING MEMBER ENGAGEMENT Network leaders are constantly aware of the need to promote engagement and increase membership. One method for promoting engagement is to transition members from e-mail to the know ledge portal to more effectively drive use of the Ask and Discuss forums. When a leader receives an e-mail message, for example, he or she may suggest that the member post the question on the network portal: this action will encourage users to become more active in the network by visiting the site rather than posting a question to a single resource. Network leaders also drive network participation by posting new announcements, events, and discussion items in the portal keeping the network fresh helps sustain members’ interest. Another strategy for member engagement involves incorporating network use into day-to- day job  responsibilities. Deliberately designing the network through business planning makes activities more relevant to individuals; the intersection between network activities and daily business functions is expanding. The goal is to link part of an individual’s performance expectations to network participation, which boosts engagement as well as know ledge sharing. CHALLENGE WITH THE NOE’S All 120-plus networks arc global, and this can present some challenges. The knowledge-sharing team works with the network leaders and network core teams to address these challenges as they arise. One such challenge is the cultural differences among various regions with regard to sharing knowledge. Whereas most Westerners are fairly comfortable with posting questions and comments to ask and discuss forums, engaging members in the Asia-Pacific region can be more difficult because employees from these cultures arc less comfortable singling out individuals. Core team members in these regions work diligently to build network participation. Time zones present another challenge for global networks. Virtual meetings are scheduled in the early morning or the evening to accommodate different parts of the world and can be repeated at 12-hour intervals if needed. Roles Several hundred employees across ConocoPhillips work on knowledge-sharing activities, most of them part-time. As mentioned, the core knowledge-sharing team supports network activities, and six full-time resources help manage networks. Each network is supported by a network sponsor and leader, a core team, network members, and subject matter experts. Network Sponsors A network sponsor provides overall guidance and visibility for the network. Sponsors are influential senior-level managers from organization-wide business streams. They secure funding and help set direction and strategy with community leaders. A network sponsor also helps create and refine the network’s business case and verify buy- in with business unit leaders. He or she supports the network through executive briefings and communication with stakeholders. Sponsors appoint, coach, and support network leaders, including linking their performance to career progression. In addition, sponsors ensure that network members’ community activities are recognized  and rewarded within their business units and globally. Network Leaders Networks of excellence are supported by network leaders who are selected by sponsors or business-unit leaders. These individuals are responsible for ensuring that core team members, subject matter experts, and other network members understand the purpose of the community and their roles and responsibilities. They work closely with the network sponsors to ensure that the focus of the network reflects business unit needs. Network leaders also seek feedback from core team members about network activity, communicate the value of participation, and solicit business unit feedback. In addition to checking the community portal for submissions and pushing new content to members and subject matter experts, leaders: * Facilitate responses for portal-based questions in a timely manner * Direct Ask and Discuss questions to the appropriate subject matter expert or member * Encourage the regular use of content with questions Leaders help train members on how to use the tools and resources available in the community. They also acknowledge member participation with awards, recognition, and performance feedback. The time spent on leadership activities varies by network. One individual may manage three networks and spend approximately 33 percent of his or her time doing this. Others may spend 20 percent of their time on managing one network, depending on other business demands. The role is integrated with job responsibilities; it is not an additional role that leaders are expected to assume on top of their day-to-day functions. â€Å"They don’t put on another hat and slop doing their other jobs,† said Miriam Fjellaker, network specialist. â€Å"The role is integrated and helps them improve their other job functions.† Core Team Members Core team members check the portal site daily for new submissions and developments and respond to Ask and Discuss questions. They also set up alerts for members on key content areas. Core team members also: * Work with network leaders and sponsors to make sure the needs and issues of the local business unit are adequately reflected within the scope and activities of the global network * Push e-mail threads to the portal as much as  possible * Communicate community activities to the business units * Empower and encourage members to use networks as part of their daily work processes Network Members Network members are encouraged to select and join the networks that relate to their work. They are also encouraged to share knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned in the network portal and leverage network relationships to ask questions, get answers, and learn with global colleagues. Subject Matter Experts Subject matter experts share knowledge, best practices, and lessons learned in the network portal. They also work with the community and other subject matter experts to develop and agree on best practices. Being responsive is important, subject matter experts are encouraged to respond to Ask and Discuss questions related to their areas of expertise as quickly as possible they are expected to use their expertise to move others forward. Subject matter experts also provide input to the network leader and core team regarding how their areas of expertise should be addressed in the network’s business case and other projects and initiatives Technology for Networks SharePoint is used across the enterprise to post questions and promote knowledge sharing. A dedicated team creates and manages portal sites and networks. All networks are standardized and have the same look and feel. Cultural Enablers for Sustaining Networks Networks at ConocoPhillips vary in size, scope, and function. The goal, said Smith, is to uncover the unique personality of each network and promote a culture that works. â€Å"You can’t click your heels and change the culture; leaders have to make it happen.† The community leader is expected to brainstorm ways to shape the culture and increase engagement Pushing alerts and responding to Ask and Discuss questions are important and help promote a culture that is conducive to sharing knowledge. Knowledge sharing is indirectly linked to ConocoPhillips’s performance and incentive compensation structure. This link serves as a strong motivator for employees to  participate in knowledge sharing, and it demonstrates the organizational commitment to networks of excellence. Reward and recognition programs are designed to increase network participation. Specifically, a reward and recognition structure helps motivate employees to participate in networks and promotes a know ledge-sharing culture Training is another cultural enabler. ConocoPhillips has a number of training efforts that explain network functionality and potential. Training The Network University is the training vehicle that supports ConocoPhillips’s network activities from launch to deployment Network University provides access to documents, presentations, and role descriptions that help form and maintain networks. Quick links from the KM home page provide overviews for new and experienced members. Users can also download a FAQ on networks or link to established sites. The organization uses Network University to train network leaders. It provides detailed descriptions of roles and expectations related to network leadership. The more than 150 network leaders frequently go to the site for guidance on how to maintain networks at ConocoPhillips. In addition, less experienced network leaders are often paired with experienced leaders for mentoring purposes. New hires receive training on networks during the onboarding process. A 90-minute segment shows how to map to networks and how networks tap in to expertise across the organization to better share knowledge. Communication Communicating the value and purpose of networks of excellence is critical to sustaining engagement and attracting new members. According to Ranta, â€Å"We realized we had to get out there and tell our story if we wanted networks to succeed.† The organization continues to increase communication efforts designed to spread the word on the value of networks. Network leaders and sponsors frequently communicate success stories to network members. External validation is promoted across the organization. For example, a number of corporate magazine articles showcase the success of networks at ConocoPhillips. The organization publicizes these articles to show the value of network activity. In 2009, ConocoPhillips was named a North American Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE), and this award was also communicated  across the organization. Communication is so important to the overall success of ConocoPhillips’s knowledge- sharing program that one of its full-time knowledge-sharing team members, Yvonne Myles, is the designated communications adviser. This individual supports the communication efforts of the networks of excellence along with communication initiatives that promote networks to the larger organization and externally. Each network uses a portal to communicate activities and news. In addition to linking to key news and discussions, portals showcase award recipients and network leaders. Participation Recognition Motivating employees to participate in networks of excellence is critical. Global and local rewards programs recognize members for network participation. For example, the prestigious Archimedes Award is presented to the top networks and success stories each year and recognizes regions for their knowledge-sharing behaviors. ConocoPhillips also collects collaboration success stories to highlight the business value of networks. To date, there are thousands of success stories that provide optimal business solutions. The stories are quality controlled and stored in the knowledge repository for future access. Regional areas sometimes create their own awards. Other recognition programs are supported by peers and implemented across networks Peers may also nominate members for awards through the network portal. Online submission is quick and easy. Members are nominated for excellence in contributions, Ask and Discuss forum participation, and engaging others in trusted relationships. Some networks of excellence have an award for outstanding discussions. Winners are celebrated on the network home page. KNOWLEDGE ONLINE Knowledge OnLine is a centralized digital hub for all knowledge sharing activities, resources, and intellectual property’. It is accessed through the corporate portal. Within Knowledge OnLine, subject matter experts and community members maintain profiles that showcase their expertise. Each profile includes a member picture and incorporates technical background and project industry experience. Members attach current resumes to their profiles. They ask their experts to perform a search on their expertise to make sure they show up in the search results and it helps them to show their  expertise Global excellence leaders develop and maintain functional networks (i.e., communities) that cross all business groups. They provide leadership for their respective knowledge communities. Specifically, global excellence leaders are responsible for best-practice approvals, reference systems, and career paths for the organization, including training, required readings, and unique tools for that discipline. An additional responsibility is career development. The role is prestigious; after serving as global excellence leaders, many individuals become executives. Communities are supported by leaders, knowledge managers, a global core KM team, and subject matter experts. A centralized KM team oversees community activities and works closely with leaders, knowledge managers, and subject matter experts across the enterprise Strategy for Sustaining Effective Networks of Excellence ConocoPhillip’s KM program replicates its community, content, discussions, and profiling approaches across its 42 functional and four corporate communities. It implies a global mind-set, with consistency of purpose and practice regardless of topic or geography. It implies designing KM so that each employee can tap in to the knowledge of the organization as a whole in order to respond to a client’s needs. It also implies access to content and people from anywhere clients or employees need help to solve a problem or enhance their skill. Knowledge communities are used to drive organizational transformation. In fact, communities are often created to fill a business need or knowledge gap and then decommissioned when they are no longer relevant. A work-share community, for example, addressed practices and procedures that were required to work in New Delhi and Manila. Now these practices are embedded into daily work processes and incorporated into standard operating procedures , and the community no longer exists. Similarly, a next-generation community is currently in place to explore future technology solutions. However, when next-generation technology is implemented and begins to become the de facto way to work, this community’s content will be migrated into appropriate mainstream communities for long-term stewardship. Communities also provide work process innovation. For example, practice and procedure updates are managed and implemented in communities. A subject matter expert uses a discussion forum to collect suggestions or ideas to improve a procedure document. Using feedback from  community members, the subject matter expert will update a policy or procedure and review changes. This process helps gain buy-in for policy and procedure changes, as well as global buy-in for the practice. The approach also has an associated cost benefit. In the past, they had large budgets for this process. Today, they have set a goal of updating or reviewing one-third of the practices using a fraction of the old budget. Communities also support more distributed project execution at Fluor. The organization uses a project activity model to illustrate activities and provide project management guidance. Using the community framework, members are able to update a map and provide color-coded areas of responsibility for more effective project execution. Communities can add training materials on how to complete project activities, along with templates and descriptions. Another work process improvement is linked to the organizational communication strategy. The old practice was to disseminate information about communities through the organizational hierarchy. However, not everyone saw those communications. Now communities send newsletters to the entire community membership. As a result, messages have a broader readership (greater penetration), which ultimately helps attract new members. Each message is sent as an e-mail with a link to the latest newsletter. This draws in employees who perhaps are not familiar with the system, thereby potentially recruiting new members. Employees frequently reply to messages and are encouraged to join a particular community as part of a routine follow – up. Knowledge Loss Risk Assessment Communities help in the identification of knowledge gaps or knowledge at risk—that is, knowledge that might be lost if the individual who possesses it retires from the organization. Fluor uses a knowledge-loss risk assessment process to determine the impact of retirement and resource gaps. The assessments also effectively communicate the potential impact of knowledge loss. Adapted from the Tennessee Valley Authority model, the formula multiplies the retirement factor (how soon) against the position risk factor (uniqueness of the individual’s knowledge) to determine the total attrition factor. This process helps integrate knowledge sharing with human capital management by identifying when subject matter expertise is at  risk and when the organization should identify a successor or protà ©gà © for a subject matter expert. Measuring Networks of Excellence ConocoPhillips’s knowledge-sharing team employs both objective and subjective tools to evaluate the health of the organization’s networks, identify where weaknesses exist, and prescribe ways for network leaders to improve their networks. Measuring the business impact of networks is a regular activity for the knowledge-sharing team and network leaders. Assessing Networks for Value: Success Stories ConocoPhillips believes that â€Å"you manage what you measure.† Keeping detailed records of business impact has served to galvanize sponsorship and attract and sustain membership to networks. One way the organization assesses business value is through validated success stories. Stories are submitted by employees and document cost savings, reduced cycle times, safety and environmental improvements, and other tangible business benefits. A story may also identify a critical business or technical issue that was solved using the community. Each year, the organization collects success story nominations and selects the best examples of collaboration. Supervisors, regional representatives and the knowledge sharing leadership team review and validate each story, adding a value statement to provide quick snapshot of the business value provided. Once success stories are approved, they are posted to the knowledge library where they can be accessed by other networks. BIBLIOGRAPHY www.conocophillips.com/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConocoPhillips www.apqc.org www.ibforum.com www.aiim.org www.hrcommunication.com www.zoominfo.com

Poetry Analysis Essay

Irony is a crucial literary device in the dramatic monologue My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. Actually, one of the most important things that can be said about Robert Browning is that he is a perfect ironist, and that irony is an important part of My Last Duchess. In, My Last Duchess, the Duke is projecting one image of himself, yet, through the ironic structure of the poem and the distance it imposes, his image is revealed to readers in a way that contradicts the Duke’s self-image. The Duke proposes an image of himself as gorgeous, wise, with nice attitudes and manners, an expert, a complete man. However, readers of the poem deduce a jealous or crazy psychopath, eaten out with insecurity. In the poem the warmth and sophistication of the Duke’s monolog draw the reader sympathetically into his world. Readers become actively involved in the egoism, haughtiness, and generosity of a proud Renaissance Duke. However, the irony of the poem every minute undermines this way of regarding situation, and awakens readers’ critical abilities. While the Duke describes how he murdered his first duchess quietly because she failed to focus her whole existence on him, readers see his unreasonableness; while he describes his generosity to his first wife, readers see his selfish desire to control another person within the confines of his own pleasures. According to the Duke his first wife was too easily made happy, too freewill, lacking in aristocratic haughtiness or composure: Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough For calling up that spot of joy. She had A heart how shall I say? too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. She enjoyed many aspects of her life at court, and (as the Duke asserts) failed absolutely to focus her attention on him sufficiently. The Duke stresses that she should have been focused on him, and on the importance of his aristocratic descent – his ‘nine-hundred-years-old name’. Still, however much the Duke knows about himself, the reader who listens to him knows more, and the dramatic irony—the difference between the character’s and the reader’s knowledge—runs against him and in reader’s favor. It is the reader who sees how horrible is his haughtiness and brutality. The Duke does not see this himself. He sees himself as a generous and noble expert of art. As the reader decodes the irony, the Duke appears as a madman who reduces people to objects. When the wife of the Duke failed to be a good wife, the Duke did not let himself go below his dignity to reason with her, or explain how her behavior irritated him. He simply had her calmly executed, and began to think about a second marriage. After he has euphemistically told the envoy how he ‘gave commands’, i.e. gave orders for her murder, he points to the portrait and says: â€Å"There she stands, As if alive.† The irony is unexpected and horrible. Browning’s poetic monologue is full of irony. The Duke discloses far more than he really says about himself. Throughout the whole monologue, the Duke speaks in a calm, firm, ironical tone. The line ‘The depth and passion of its earnest glance’ is spoken in intense irony. Only once or twice the reader sees the teeth of this monster flash, showing his horrible heart. When he speaks of the ‘officious fool’ who brought the cherries, and when he states ‘all smiles stopped together’; then the envoy looks at him with fear in his eyes, but the Duke’s face instantly resumes its mask of stone. Browning’s character in the poem is projecting one image of himself, but the ironic structure of the poem reveals to readers completely opposite image. Works Cited Browning, Robert. The Poems. Ed. John Pettigrew and Thomas J. Collins. New Haven: Yale UP, 1981.

Free Essays on Law School

Law School – Journey of a Lifetime Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the practice of law is learning to be a lawyer. Virtually every new lawyer today is a graduate of law school, a much dreaded, but fulfilling journey to practicing law. Modern law schools differ greatly from their earlier counterpart, in that many more requirements and responsibilities exist. In colonial times, students pursuing a career in law would enter institutions for instruction of the law, and would automatically become qualified to practice law in the courts after a few years of study. Today, however, becoming a lawyer takes much more training, rigorous work and effort, and many years of studying in order to take a bar exam of which passage represents qualification. There is much more consideration concerning who is admitted, what kind of curriculums are taught, how exams are offered, what kinds affiliation exist, how much law schools differ from one another, and what it ultimately takes to be fully competent as a practicing attorney. What does it take to get into law school? Requirements for admission to any law school, whether Ivy League or otherwise, are extensive and seemingly difficult to obtain. Almost all law schools in the United States require a four-year college degree. Ivy League schools especially prefer college graduates from prestigious universities. Nonetheless, any law school will be more interested in applicants who rank in the top percentile of their class and present an outstanding grade-point average. Another major aspect considered of law school applicants is their score on the Law School Aptitude Test – â€Å"a half-day standardized test designed to measure the ability to understand and reason with a variety of verbal and quantitative materials† (Neubauer, 125). The raw score of the LSAT is on a scale ranging from 120 to 180. The LSAT consists of five multiple-choice sections with a total of about 101 questions. These sections... Free Essays on Law School Free Essays on Law School Law School – Journey of a Lifetime Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the practice of law is learning to be a lawyer. Virtually every new lawyer today is a graduate of law school, a much dreaded, but fulfilling journey to practicing law. Modern law schools differ greatly from their earlier counterpart, in that many more requirements and responsibilities exist. In colonial times, students pursuing a career in law would enter institutions for instruction of the law, and would automatically become qualified to practice law in the courts after a few years of study. Today, however, becoming a lawyer takes much more training, rigorous work and effort, and many years of studying in order to take a bar exam of which passage represents qualification. There is much more consideration concerning who is admitted, what kind of curriculums are taught, how exams are offered, what kinds affiliation exist, how much law schools differ from one another, and what it ultimately takes to be fully competent as a practicing attorney. What does it take to get into law school? Requirements for admission to any law school, whether Ivy League or otherwise, are extensive and seemingly difficult to obtain. Almost all law schools in the United States require a four-year college degree. Ivy League schools especially prefer college graduates from prestigious universities. Nonetheless, any law school will be more interested in applicants who rank in the top percentile of their class and present an outstanding grade-point average. Another major aspect considered of law school applicants is their score on the Law School Aptitude Test – â€Å"a half-day standardized test designed to measure the ability to understand and reason with a variety of verbal and quantitative materials† (Neubauer, 125). The raw score of the LSAT is on a scale ranging from 120 to 180. The LSAT consists of five multiple-choice sections with a total of about 101 questions. These sections...

Runaways Caught in the Rye Lost in the System essays

Runaways Caught in the Rye Lost in the System essays The novel by J.D. Salinger The Catcher in the Rye portrays a disaffected youth named Holden Caulfield whom has recently been expelled from his preparatory school for his poor academic performance. Caulfield has also failed to socially thrive within the narrow confines of his school. Thus, Caulfield must return home to his parent's apartment, but not before he essentially runs amuck for several days in New York City, living in a transient fashion. However, he is not relegated to the street. Caulfield is of an affluent Manhattan family, as his status in preparatory school attests to. His adventures revolve around him attending swanky nightclubs and staying overnight in motels and talkingand just talkingto prostitutes. Eventually, Caulfield must return home, mainly because he desires see his beloved younger sister Phoebe, before he is shipped off to a mental institution, a status he notes at the beginning and the end of the In some ways, however, Caulfield is not so different from many young runaways today of very different socioeconomic status. Although he is from a wealthy family, he feels a strong sense of moral and social alienation from his parents as well as the peer groups of his generation that he is exposed to. He frequently dissociates from his outer lying problems, such as the fact that he is flunking out of school, rather than attempts to actively engage with them. Holden prefers to live in a world of his own internal creation, rather than the real world' in a strategy that is anything but psychologically and socially healthy. Although heterosexualmany young runaways are gay, lesbian, or transgenderHolden's assurance in his sexuality seems confused. This is evident of his contempt and conflict his more conventionally sexed and confident male roommates. His behavior towards the pr...

Typing Spanish Diacritical Marks on Windows Keyboards

Typing Spanish Diacritical Marks on Windows Keyboards You can type in Spanish on Microsoft Windows machines- complete with accented letters and inverted punctuation- even if youre using a keyboard that shows English characters only. There are essentially three approaches to typing Spanish in Windows. First, use the international keyboard configuration that is part of Windows, best for if you frequently type in Spanish. Alternatively, you can use built in character maps. Finally, you can use some awkward key combinations if you have only the occasional need, if youre at an Internet cafà ©, or if youre borrowing someone elses machine. Tips If you often type in Spanish in Microsoft Windows, you should  install the international keyboard software that is part of Windows and use the right Alt key for the Spanish symbols.If the keyboard software isnt available, you can use the character map app to individually select the letters and special characters you need.The numeric keypad on a full-size keyboard can also be used for Spanish characters using Alt codes. Configuring the International Keyboard Windows XP: From the main Start menu, go to the Control Panel and click on the Regional and Language Options icon. Select the Languages tab and click the Details... button. Under Installed Services click Add... Find the United States-International option and select it. In the pull-down menu, select United States-International as the default language. Click OK to exit the menu system and finalize the installation.Windows Vista: The method is very similar to that for Windows XP. From the Control Panel, select Clock, Language and Region. Under Regional and Language Options, pick Change keyboard or other input method. Select the General tab. Under Installed Services click Add... Find the United States-International option and select it. In the pull-down menu, select United States-International as the default language. Click OK to exit the menu system and finalize the installation.Windows 8 and 8.1: The method is similar to that for earlier versions of Windows. From the Control Panel, sel ect Language. Under Change your language preferences, click on Options to the right of the already installed language, which will probably be English (United States) if youre from the U.S. Under Input method, click on Add an input method. Select United States-International. This will add the international keyboard to a menu located at the lower right of the screen. You can use the mouse to choose between it and the standard English keyboard. You can also switch keyboards by pressing the Windows key and the space bar simultaneously. Windows 10: From the Ask me anything search box in the lower left, type Control (without the quotes) and launch the Control Panel. Under Clock, Language, and Region, select Change input methods. Under Change your language preferences, you will likely see English (United States) as your current option. (If not, adjust the following steps accordingly.) Click on Options to the right of the language name. Click on Add an input method and choose United States-International.  This will add the international keyboard to a menu  located at the lower right of the screen. You can use the mouse to choose between it and the standard English keyboard. You can also switch keyboards by pressing the Windows key and the space bar simultaneously. International Symbols on the Right Alt Key The easier  of the two available ways of using the international keyboard involves pressing the right Alt key (the key labeled Alt or sometimes AltGr on the right side of the keyboard, usually to the right of the space bar) and then another key simultaneously. To add the accents to the vowels, press the right Alt key at the same time as the vowel. For example, to type , press the right Alt key and the A at the same time. If youre capitalizing to make , youll have to press three keys simultaneously- A, right Alt, and shift. The method is the same for the à ±, n with the tilde. Press the right Alt and the n at the same time. To capitalize it, also press the shift key. To type the à ¼, youll need to press right Alt and the Y key. The inverted question mark ( ¿) and inverted exclamation point ( ¡) are done similarly. Press right Alt and the 1 key (which also is used for the exclamation point) for the inverted exclamation point. For the inverted question mark, press right Alt and /, the question mark key, at the same time. The only other special character used in Spanish but not English are the angular quotation marks ( « and  »). To make those, press the right Alt key and either bracket key [ or ] to the right of the P simultaneously. Special Characters Using Sticky Keys The sticky keys method can be used to make accented vowels, too. To make an accented vowel, press , the single-quote key (usually to the right of ; the semicolon), and then release it and type the vowel. To make à ¼, press the shift and quote keys (as if you were making , a double quote) and then, after releasing, type the u. Because of the stickiness of the quote key, when you type a quote mark, initially nothing will appear on your screen until you type the next character. If you type anything other than a vowel (which will show up accented), the quote mark will appear followed by the character you just typed. To type a quote mark, youll need to press the quote key twice. Note that some word processors or other software may not let you use the key combinations of the international keyboard because they are reserved for other uses. Typing Spanish Without Reconfiguring the Keyboard If you have a full-size keyboard, Windows has two ways to type almost any character, as long as it exists in the font you are using. You can type in Spanish this way without having to set up the international software, although both options are cumbersome. If youre using a laptop, you may be limited to the first method below. Character Map: Access character map, access the start menu and type charmap in the search box. Then select the charmap program in the search results. If character map is available in the regular menu system, you can also select it that way. From there, click on the character you want, then click Select, then Copy. Place your cursor in your document by clicking where you wish the character to appear, and then paste the character into your text by pressing CtrlV, or right clicking and selecting Paste from the menu.Numeric Keypad: Windows allows the user to type any available character, including diacritical marks, by holding down one of the Alt keys while typing in a numeric code on the numeric keypad, if one is available. For example, to type the em dash (- ), hold down Alt while typing 0151 on the numeric keypad. Alt codes only work on the numeric keypad, not with the number row above the letters. Character Alt Code 0225 0193 à © 0233 É 0201 à ­ 0237 à  0205 à ± 0241 Ñ 0209 à ³ 0243 Ó 0211 à º 0250 Ú 0218 à ¼ 0252 ÃÅ" 0220  ¿ 0191  ¡ 0161  « 0171  » 0187 - 0151

Should pledge of allegiance be said in US schools Research Paper

Should pledge of allegiance be said in US schools - Research Paper Example In addition, all religious head wear or dresses should be removed. The pledge has often been recited in numerous private organizations, meetings and sometimes in schools. Debates have been carried out arguing about the later and whether or not the place should be compulsory for school pupils to recite. There have been several points made for and against this action. However, the author believes that the pledge should be recited in public schools as it is a historical reminder of what the United States of America is about. The pledge of allegiance helps build patriotism in the young generation in addition to giving them pride about their nationality (Lavcock, 155).America is a very prosperous state which many countries try to emulate and numerous individuals constantly change their citizenship to become American. Therefore, customs of the country should be kept as they keep the heritage of the country alive. If the pledge was to be abolished, the same procedure might occur for other c ustoms in the country which would mean that America would lose some of the traditions and values which it was built upon (Lavcock, 155). However, many people argue against this point as they believe that since the pledge has been altered many times, four to be exact, it no longer possesses its original meaning and value and some of alterations are not entirely patriotic and are concerned with giving grace to God. This religious aspect is very sensitive as the number of non-Christians or nonbelievers is constantly increasing. Therefore, the phrase one nation under God may not be suitable for some citizens as they do not carry this belief and forcing them to repeat these words would be a violation of Basic rights (Donavan, 12-13). In addition, the paper specifies on reciting the pledge in public schools which are mainly comprised of young individual. If these individuals see their rights being violated and are forced to do something which that customs and families not believe in, they are likely to lose faith in the system and doubt that they even have rights to begin with (Lavcock, 155). The argument against making the pledge of allegiance compulsory in public schools is also based on the fact that reciting a few lines or text does not resemble patriotism, one attribute that is mostly associated with the pledge (Monroe, 55). In fact, constant repeating of these lines can make them lose their value and meaning to these pupils, therefore having a reverse effect than their intended purpose. The pledge becomes just a bunch of lyrics coming out of the children’s mouths habitually (Monroe, 55). However, some people still believe many people died for this flag and they should be shown respect for their services to the great American nation. They also believe that the phrase under God should also be compulsory as despite what religion or belief one possesses whether he or she is a Muslim, Buddhist or Christian at the end of the day every individual is American a nd should unite on this basis (Donavan, 12-13). However on the same point, other individuals believe that forcing people to say the pledge is not paying tribute to war heroes and other individuals tied for the country. This is based on the fact that these individuals fought and died for the country to become a free and sovereign state with equal rights and not to become a compulsory and authoritative dictatorship

Bullying in schools Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bullying in schools - Research Paper Example Some well-meaning ‘experts’ believe bullying is a normal part of social development and actually aids children in coping with overbearing, dominating types throughout their lives. I believe that bullying is a serious problem and not one to be tolerated. The outcomes of bullying can be very severe; from depression to suicide regardless of which role was played. Thankfully, because bullying behavior typically occurs on a recurrent basis, it can also often be identified and prevented easier and earlier than more deviant behavior in later years, perhaps with the result of a reduction in criminal behavior among adults. Studies looking into the naturalistic behavior of children on the playground indicate that those children who experience low acceptance levels among their peers tend to become bullies. Therefore, it becomes important for teachers to recognize the social structures developing in their classroom to be in better position to head off any dangerous behavior before i t gets out of hand. Intervention strategies can then be used to assist at risk children in learning how best to handle difficult social situations. Field studies have identified several groups with higher risk of bullying behavior as either the aggressor or the victim, which can help teachers in determining when and what form of intervention is appropriate. Barbarin, Oscar A. (November-December 1999). â€Å"Social Risks and Psychological Adjustment: A Comparison of African American and South African Children.† Child Development. Vol. 70, N. 6, pp. 1348-1359. Oscar A. Barbarin, PhD earned his degree in clinical psychology at Rutgers University and finished post-doctoral work in social psychology at Stanford. He is President of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, a Fellow in the American Psychological Association, a Senior Investigator for the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina and was named the L. Richardson and Emily Preyer

Analzying group process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analzying group process - Essay Example The group was trying to reach to a consensus which would be accepted by all the group members. At the beginning, all of them stated with their own desirousness. After a while, instead of thinking about one’s own choice, they shifted their focus to a particular solution which may serve or fulfill all members’ requirement. Ultimately the group was trying to come up with a particular solution as per the demand and requirement of the group. All the members did not perform at par. Few of them had excellent command over language and had guts to establish their view over other participants. From the beginning of the discussion, it has been noticed that Nelson and Kathrin had leadership quality. As both of them clearly stated their views and they also provided opportunities to Perez to give his verdict who did not properly participate because of shyness. Apart from these, three other participants were good as per the communication level but Megan and Allen always tried to suppress other to make their statement more prominent. This attitude brought in inconsistency with in the discussion. Regarding Davis, though he is not able to show the leadership attitude but he has followed all such techniques through which flow of the communication has not been affected. At the middle of the discussion, Megan added one topic which was a bit relevant with the topic. That is the education system of developing countries. But later on she began to emphasis on that topic only which made the discussion out of track and interrupted in the flow of the communication. Next, Kathrin takes the responsibility to get back to the actual track by avoiding that topic and gain the attention of the other members towards the actual topic. During the discussion Davis, Nelson and Kathrin addressed few of the past statistics related to the courses and the current education system which made the discussion more

Coca-Cola Company Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6750 words

Coca-Cola Company - Assignment Example The company produces ready to drink juices and teas in over 100 flavors. There has been a visible decline in the consumption of carbonated drinks as a result of the rising health concerns. Carbonated drinks make up a significant portion of Coca-Cola's sales. This is a good opportunity to increase sales of the non-carbonated drinks by entering into newer untapped markets. This document serves as a marketing plan for Minute Maid healthy beverages for the subsequent 12 month period. 2. Situation Analysis 2.1 SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis is used to determine the internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization and the external opportunities and threats. The SWOT Analysis for Minute Maid is as follows: Strengths Weaknesses Strong brand with world wide recognition Strong supply chain Established distribution channels Excellent financial performance Quick response to market need Partnerships and licenses with other brands Standing out against competition in the saturated market More customer loyalty to the core the Coca-cola products Dormant market demand for soft drinks Opportunities Threats Changing consumer trends towards soft drinks Entering new market segments Developing further partnerships with other brands Competition Health concerns Risk of cannibalization Table 2.1 SWOT Analysis 2.2 FEPSOS Analysis Marketing Functions Marketing functions for Minute Maid include its strong branded high quality products which are designed around customer needs. The products are priced to deliver value and quality to the customers in monetary and non- monetary terms. The products are backed by and effective, extensive and result oriented marketing mix. Minute Maid also has a... Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest manufacturer, marketer and distributor of carbonated soft drinks and other beverages. The company was established in 1886 and has been successfully operating business over a span 123 years. Coca-Cola has established its presence in more than 200 countries and has 92,400 employees across the globe. The company boasts a product portfolio of over 3000 beverages and has a world wide market share of 47.2% with sales of 4107.1 million cases (1). There has been a visible decline in the consumption of carbonated drinks as a result of the rising health concerns. Carbonated drinks make up a significant portion of Coca-Cola's sales. This is a good opportunity to increase sales of the non-carbonated drinks by entering into newer untapped markets. Marketing functions for Minute Maid include its strong branded high quality products which are designed around customer needs. The products are priced to deliver value and quality to the customers in monetary and non- monetary terms. The products are backed by and effective, extensive and result oriented marketing mix. Minute Maid also has a strong distribution network which delivers its goods to the customers where and when they are needed. Porter's Five Forces Model can be used to analyze th

Hajj Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hajj - Essay Example The Hajj is believed to have originated from the Prophet Abraham, and serves as a penance, intense sanctity, dedication, and ultimate clemency for sins. According to the Koran, Ibrahim, Arabic for Abraham, was instructed by Allah to take Hagar his wife and their child Ishmael to Arabia from Palestine, to protect them from the jealousy of Ibrahim’s first wife, Sarah (Kamil N.p). Faced with famishment and thirst, Muslims believe that Hagar prayed to Allah in the desert to which Ishmael struck the ground with his foot causing a spring of water to form. The spring is known as the Zamzam well and the water that is believed to have saved Hagar and Ishmael’s life is called the Zamzam water, where after Hajj, the Hajjis take home a permitted amount of the Zamzam. The Koran later says Ibrahim built a shrine at the well, a stone structure; cube also known as the Kaaba, which is designed to be the gathering site for all believers. Therefore, each year during the month of Dhul Hijjah, the 12th month of the Muslim calendar, between the 8th and the 13th dates, believers or pilgrims perform the Hajj (Kamil N.p). One must first enter into a purity state, ihram where men don two white sheets wrapped around the body. After which the pilgrim proceeds to Mecca to await the start of Hajj. On the 7th of Dhul Hajjah, pilgrims are reminded of their duties and the rituals commence on the 8th. The pilgrim then goes to the valley of Arafat to stand in the open praising Allah. It is believed that the Prophet Muhammad delivered his last sermon at mount Arafat, and it also symbolizes judgment day, standing in the midday sun of Arabia at the valley. Next is returning to another valley, Mina valley, where pilgrims throw stones at pillars called Jamraat, a symbolic ritual symbolizing the stoning of Satan prior to which one has to collect 49 or 70 small pebbles. A sacrifice called Qurbani is made in which a lamb or sheep is slaughtered, and the meat is distributed to the poor. That is

Service Quality of Sports Centre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Service Quality of Sports Centre - Essay Example The interview focused n 5 different factors of service quality level which are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. In order to capture how the five different factors measure up, 21 different types of questions are generated. These questions are marked using the Likert Scale. Then depending upon the relative importance of the five dimensions, the preset 21 questions are rearranged and marked and weighted accordingly. In order to produce better statistical report, the sample composition is analyzed. In order to analyze the composition of the sample, descriptive statistics like bar diagram, cross tabulation, pie charts and correlation statistics are applied (Bailey and Pearson, 2003). These tests are applied on demographic characteristics of the respondents or the fixed factors of the respondents. The next section of the analysis reflects upon the assessment of the importance of each dimension of service quality as perceived by the customers. In order to analy ze two types of tests are conducted, one is the factor analysis or the factor reduction method and the other one is the descriptive statistics analysis (Baroudi, 2003). ...The next step of analysis involves testing the various aspects of service performance. The various aspects are measured on two different ways. One involves the direct recordings on the Likert scale and the other on is the derived rating after adjusting the readings according to the relative importance or weight (Bentier and Bonett, 2008). These two types of readings are tested using the principal component analysis. In the last stage cross tabulations are done. This cross tabulation indicates the level up to which the satisfactions vary according to the characteristics of the user. 1. Sample composition The sample composition is analyzed by using cross tabs and simple pie charts, bar diagram and correlation statistics. The pie charts are used to show the composition of the male and female and the composition of th e type of people from each subject area. Fig 1: Male and female composition Source: author’s source It is evident from the diagram that the study included more number of males and the number of females. The male percentage is 75%, while the female percentage is 25%. The next analysis is the examination of the crosstabs between frequency of use and gender. Fig 2: Bar Chart Source: author’s source The users among male students show higher frequency than the users among female. There is one very important point in this analysis. The number of non users in male is significantly more than the number of users among male. Among male most of them used the sports centre twice a month, while users among females most of them used it only once.

Hajj Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hajj - Essay Example The Hajj is believed to have originated from the Prophet Abraham, and serves as a penance, intense sanctity, dedication, and ultimate clemency for sins. According to the Koran, Ibrahim, Arabic for Abraham, was instructed by Allah to take Hagar his wife and their child Ishmael to Arabia from Palestine, to protect them from the jealousy of Ibrahim’s first wife, Sarah (Kamil N.p). Faced with famishment and thirst, Muslims believe that Hagar prayed to Allah in the desert to which Ishmael struck the ground with his foot causing a spring of water to form. The spring is known as the Zamzam well and the water that is believed to have saved Hagar and Ishmael’s life is called the Zamzam water, where after Hajj, the Hajjis take home a permitted amount of the Zamzam. The Koran later says Ibrahim built a shrine at the well, a stone structure; cube also known as the Kaaba, which is designed to be the gathering site for all believers. Therefore, each year during the month of Dhul Hijjah, the 12th month of the Muslim calendar, between the 8th and the 13th dates, believers or pilgrims perform the Hajj (Kamil N.p). One must first enter into a purity state, ihram where men don two white sheets wrapped around the body. After which the pilgrim proceeds to Mecca to await the start of Hajj. On the 7th of Dhul Hajjah, pilgrims are reminded of their duties and the rituals commence on the 8th. The pilgrim then goes to the valley of Arafat to stand in the open praising Allah. It is believed that the Prophet Muhammad delivered his last sermon at mount Arafat, and it also symbolizes judgment day, standing in the midday sun of Arabia at the valley. Next is returning to another valley, Mina valley, where pilgrims throw stones at pillars called Jamraat, a symbolic ritual symbolizing the stoning of Satan prior to which one has to collect 49 or 70 small pebbles. A sacrifice called Qurbani is made in which a lamb or sheep is slaughtered, and the meat is distributed to the poor. That is

How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety Through Yoga Essay Example for Free

How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety Through Yoga Essay Stress is an inevitable part of life. Our jobs, families and friends are constant potential sources of stress in our lives. People are constantly on the search for ways to deal with their stress. Yoga has been proven as a means of dealing with stress so in this essay I will discuss how yoga has been used to deal with stress and anxiety. By definition, Yoga is; â€Å"a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation†. I feel that it is a very calming and soothing form of exercise that also manages to improve health, flexibility and thought-processing skills. When people are stressed or suffering from anxiety, they tend to think less logically, sleep less, eat unhealthily and practice less exercise. However, dealing with ones stress is the best idea in improving ones lifestyle so, yoga is a practical solution for these issues. Specifically, yoga is more than just stretching. It loosens up the tense muscles in the body (due to the vast amounts of stretching) especially (the high stress areas); the neck, the shoulders and the back. It combines a loosening the muscles with regular deep breathing and relaxation of the mind. When practicing yoga, one must always â€Å"stay in the moment†, it is one of the key phrases of the activity. When people are stressed they constantly think of their next upcoming deadlines rather than focusing on the now. Yoga manages to relax the person by allowing you to think solely on the moment. When in a yoga pose you only think of the current pose and how it should match your breathing, thinking and balance. You cant think of your pose if youre thinking of your problems therefore, the poses are designed to make you think about the moment so you can successfully accomplish them. In doing so, you become so involved in your pose that you forget about the issues which caused you stress in the first place. Also, yoga emphasizes slow deep breathing which, in itself, is a means of dealing with anxiety therefore already helping the person to relax. This means that one of the core features of yoga is already a means of solving anxiety. Breathing is the key to yoga stress management. Instructors encourage people to focus on their breathing because it allows you to focus on something other than your stress. Listening to your own breath makes your problems seem further away because you pay more attention to your core self rather than your external issues. Every yoga class ends with a corpse pose. This pose is designed for deep relaxation. After undergoing several challenging poses that really stretch out the tense muscles, the corpse pose (or â€Å"playing dead†) allows your body to re-adjust whilst also relaxing the mind. Whilst â€Å"playing dead† I tend to not think about anything and just flow with the music like â€Å"a pebble flowing in the river†. This is possibly the most relaxing phase of yoga because of motionlessness of the body after an intense session. This phase can be so relaxing that many people even tend to fall asleep. This is clearly a sign that yoga works because, stressed people do not sleep easily. As college students, yoga can be very useful at peak times such as; before class, before a test or before going to bed. Before a test you can easily do some neck and shoulder rolls and relieve yourself. Before bed, if you have a lot of things on your mind, you can do a few stretches (maintaing them for 3 to 4 full breaths) and thus relax yourself enough to sleep comfortably without any impending thoughts. In conclusion, I feel that yoga is very useful for stress and anxiety relief. In my personal experience, yoga has helped me become a less stressed and thus more comfortable person because I have found an escape as a college student from the, occasionally, mundane and monotonous routine.

Implementation Of Steganography For Audio File Format Computer Science Essay

Implementation Of Steganography For Audio File Format Computer Science Essay Abstract The project entitled Audio Steganography is the application developed to embed an audio file in another audio signal. It is concerned with embedding information in an innocuous cover Speech in a secure and robust manner. This system makes the Files more secure by using the concepts Steganography and Cryptography. Steganography, poor cousin of Cryptography is the art of hiding messages inside other messages such that the very existence of the message is unknown to third party. The goal of cryptography is to make data unreadable by a third party, the goal of Steganography is to hide the data from a third party Through the use of advanced computer software, authors of images and software can place a hidden trademark in their product, allowing them to keep a check on piracy. This is commonly known as watermarking. Hiding serial numbers or a set of characters that distinguishes an object from a similar object is known as finger printing. Together, these two are intended to fight piracy. The latter is used to detect copyright violators and the former is used to prosecute them. But these are only examples of the much wider field of Steganography. The cover data should not be significantly degraded by the embedded data, and the embedded data should be as imperceptible as possible. The embedded data should be as immune as possible to modifications from intelligent attacks or anticipated manipulations. Thus it is necessary that the hidden message should be encrypted. 1. Introduction 1.1Synopsis 2 .System configuration 2.1 Software requirements 2.2 Hardware requirements 3. System Analysis 3.1 Feasibility study 3.2 Existing system 3.3 Proposed system 3.4 Analysis report 4. System design 4.1 System description 4.2 Functional requirements 5. UML Diagrams 6. Implementation 7. Testing and Debugging 8. Output Screens 9. Conclusion 10. Bibliography Introduction 1. Introduction Synopsis Encryption of data plays a vital role in the real time environment to keep the data out of reach of unauthorized people, such that it is not altered and tampered and sending the in audio format is most secured way to transfer the data through the network. The Audio Steganography is software, which tries to alter the originality of the file into some encrypted form and embed the file into an audio file. Then the users can easily and securely carry the compressed data wherever he wants. The major task of the Audio Steganography is to provide the user the flexibility of passing the information implementing the encryption standards as per the specification and algorithms proposed and store the information in a form that is unreadable. The Application should have a reversal process as of which should be in a position to de embed the data file from audio file and decrypt the data to its original format upon the proper request by the user. While the Encryption and Decryption is done the app lication should confirm the standards of authentication and authorization of the user. The Entire application should strive to achieve a user friendly Graphical User Interface, which need to be in a self-learning mode for the end user. The System Should provide all the functional standards of proper navigation with in the environment, which makes it possible for the users to have a smooth flow while working under the environment. The Overall system should provide proper menu based navigation for easier navigation and operation. The Application should be designed in such a way that, as soon as it starts create a Buffer and associate this buffer to some homogeneous data environment, the application should ask the user for the Encryption Key details and should start its functionality upon the logistics that are provided with in this key. The key should be designed in such a way that it prevents the unauthorized persons from stealing the information at any point of time. This is some part of securing the data from third party people. And the other way of securing the data is using Steganography in which embedding the encrypted file in to a audio file. If any one track that file they only see the audio file not the data. The application of De-embedding, Decryption and de compress should be a reverse process at the other end and should be translated only when the receiver of the data applies the proper reversal key. The Decryption process should have a log-based methodology that will take care of any errors that may be encountered while the system is under utilization and should record all those events, which are above the general standards of security. This system basically uses the Blowfish encryption algorithm to encrypt the passwords. This algorithm is a 64-bit block cipher with a variable length key. This algorithm has been used because it requires less memory. It uses only simple operations, therefore it is easy to implement. 1) Blowfish Algorithm Implementation Module 2) Steganography Module 3) Compression Module 4) GUI Module System Configuration 2. System Configuration 2.1 Software Requirements: Operating System Windows NT/2000 (Client/Server). 2.2 Hardware Requirements: Software requirements Front-end: Java J2SDK 1.5, Swings. System Configuration Pentium III Processor with 700 MHz Clock Speed 256 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD, 32 Bit PCI Ethernet Card. System Analysis Feasibility Study Fact Finding Techniques In this system we are going to develop a facility to a user that he will not face any difficulty at the time of usage like data missing, one way contacts, one view contacts. As we are developing this system with an encoding technique of images the user will not be bothered on which camera support is using, as well in sound. As we are maintaining one technique of speed controlling the frame relay will not be a problem for the user like over speed display, hanged display. 3.1 Feasibility Study A feasibility study is a high-level capsule version of the entire System analysis and Design Process. The study begins by classifying the problem definition. Feasibility is to determine if its worth doing. Once an acceptance problem definition has been generated, the analyst develops a logical model of the system. A search for alternatives is analyzed carefully. There are 3 parts in feasibility study. 3.1.1 Operational Feasibility: Question that going to be asked are Will the system be used if it developed and implemented. If there was sufficient support for the project from the management and from the users. Have the users been involved in planning and development of the Project. Will the system produce poorer result in any respect or area? This system can be implemented in the organization because there is adequate support from management and users. Being developed in Java so that the necessary operations are carried out automatically. 3.1.2 Technical feasibility Does the necessary technology exist to do what is been suggested Does the proposed equipment have the technical capacity for using the new system? Are there technical guarantees of accuracy, reliability and data security? The project is developed on Pentium IV with 256 MB RAM. The environment required in the development of system is any windows platform The observer pattern along with factory pattern will update the results eventually The language used in the development is JAVA 1.5 Windows Environment 3.1.3 Financial and Economical Feasibility The system developed and installed will be good benefit to the organization. The system will be developed and operated in the existing hardware and software infrastructure. So there is no need of additional hardware and software for the system. Existing and Proposed System 3.2 Existing System In the traditional architecture there existed only the server and the client. In most cases the server was only a data base server that can only offer data. Therefore majority of the business logic i.e., validations etc. had to be placed on the clients system. This makes maintenance expensive. Such clients are called as fat clients. This also means that every client has to be trained as to how to use the application and even the security in the communication is also the factor to be considered. Since the actual processing of the data takes place on the remote client the data has to be transported over the network, which requires a secured format of the transfer method. How to conduct transactions is to be controlled by the client and advanced techniques implementing the cryptographic standards in the executing the data transfer transactions. Present day transactions are considered to be un-trusted in terms of security, i.e. they are relatively easy to be hacked. And also we have to consider the transfer the large amount of data through the network will give errors while transferring. Nevertheless, sensitive data transfer is to be carried out even if there is lack of an alternative. Network security in the existing system is the motivation factor for a new system with higher-level security standards for the information exchange. 3.3 Proposed System The proposed system should have the following features. The transactions should take place in a secured format between various clients in the network. It provides flexibility to the user to transfer the data through the network very easily by compressing the large amount of file. It should also identify the user and provide the communication according to the prescribed level of security with transfer of the file requested and run the required process at the server if necessary. In this system the data will be send through the network as a audio file. The user who received the file will do the operations like de embedding, decryption, and decompress in their level of hierarchy etc. Analysis Report 3.4 System Analysis People for long time have tried to sort out the problems faced in the general digital communication system but as these problems exist even now, a secured and easy transfer system evolved and came to be known as the Encryption and Decryption of the data and converting the file to audio format to be transferred using the cryptographic standards and Steganography. The advantages of this Audio Steganography are: High level Security Cost effective transfer In this fast growing world where every individual free to access the information on the network and even the people are technically sound enough in hacking the information from the network for various reasons. The organizations have the process of information transfer in and out of their network at various levels, which need the process to be in a secured format for the organizational benefits. If the organizations have the Audio Steganography System, then each employee can send the information to any other registered employee and thus can establish communication. The audio file that the employee sends reaches the destinations within no time in an audio file format where the end user need to de embed the file, decrypt it and de compress and use for the purpose. The various branches of the organization can be connected to a single host server and then an employee of one branch can send files to the employee of another branch through the server but in a secured format. System Design 4. System Design The System Design includes the maintenance of the secure file transfer service with a prescribed encryption format and split at the interested level of encryption, and embed process and the receiving service at the other end with de-embed and decryption process. The design also includes the provision of facility to the user to manipulate the concerned information according to his personal use and communication process. The design also needs to provide the communication channel to the user to communicate with other registered users through the mailing services in a reliable and secured format. Authorization and authentication services are preferred most for this purpose. The System Design includes the maintenance authorization services, File and directory services with a prescribed encryption format at the interested level of encryption and the receiving service at the other end with decryption process. The design also includes the provision of facility to the user to manipulate the concerned information according to his personal use. The design of Audio Steganography system, basically involve the interface architecture, Security services, and communication system. In the interface design we involve with the design of the user interface with GUI standards and a proper navigation system where the user need to enter into the flow of transactions authorization services are check and further access is provided into the system. Then the user needs to select into the operations provided through the GUI where compression, encryption, embedding, de-embedding, Decryption, Decompressing and sending of the file, General information and exit are provided. Here the Encryption and decryption and services are provided connecting to the security services module where the encryption and decryption are carried out using the cryptographic standards implementing the Blowfish algorithm. After the compression process is completed the user is selecting the file for encryption. After encryption of the file is completed the user is to select the file for embedding it to the audio file and sending through the network to the desired user by specifying the targeted users system IP address in the panel designed. Then the system gets connected to the targeted user and delivers the file in audio format after which the user working with the Audio Steganography software should go for the option De-Embed Files and decrypt the file by selecting the file path by which the file gets decrypted and decompress the file and is viewed on the system. 4.1 System Description The Audio Steganography system is designed basically in four different modules they are GUI module, Compression Module, Security System module, Steganography Module, Connection Manager Module. GUI Module basically deals with the design of the interface which include the service of providing the user with the flexibility of accessing the file system and selecting the required file for the transfer. It should also provide the system to collect the information from the user to check the authorization in providing the access to the file system. The interface is also to consider the design, which include the services of sending and receiving of the files with encryption and decryption standards. The Compression module basically deals with the compress and decompresses the file, which is used to send the file very easily which reduces the uploading time. Security implementation module considers the implementation of the encryptions and decryption standards in transfer the files from one system to another in a distributed environment. The system design, even need to support the user to select the level of encryption he/she needs to perform depending upon the file to be transferred. The basic algorithm used in this purpose is the Blowfish where the user can enter the key depending upon level encryption he is interested. The Connection Manager deals with the architecture, which supports the system to identify the end users for the communication and establish the communication. Connection and disconnection of the communication channel between the users for the access of file system and file transfer services. The Connection Manager receives the IP address to be connected and the file to be sent then establishes the connection and transfers the file. Functional Requirements: The Modules of the system are: 1) Blowfish Algorithm Implementation Module 2) Steganography Module 3) Compression Module 4) GUI Module Blowfish Algorithm: Blowfish is a block cipher that encrypts data in 8-byte blocks. The algorithm consists of two parts: a key-expansion part and a data-encryption part. Key expansion converts a variable-length key of at most 56 bytes (448 bits) into several sub key arrays totaling 4168 bytes. Blowfish has 16 rounds. Each round consists of a key-dependent permutation, and a key- and data-dependent substitution. All operations are XORs and additions on 32-bit words. The only additional operations are four indexed array data lookups per round. Sub keys: Blowfish uses a large number of sub keys. These keys must be precomputed before any data encryption or decryption. The P-array consists of 18 32-bit sub keys: P1, P2,, P18. There are also four 32-bit S-boxes with 256 entries each: S1,0, S1,1,, S1,255; S2,0, S2,1,..,, S2,255; S3,0, S3,1,, S3,255; S4,0, S4,1,..,, S4,255. Encryption and Decryption: Blowfish has 16 rounds. The input is a 64-bit data element, x. Divide x into two 32-bit halves: XL, xR. Then, for i = 1 to 16: XL = XL XOR Pi xR = F (XL) XOR xR Swap XL and xR After the sixteenth round, swap xL and xR again to undo the last swap. Then, xR = xR XOR P17 and XL = XL XOR P18. Finally, recombine xL and xR to get the cipher text. Function F looks like this: Divide XL into four eight-bit quarters: a, b, c, and d. Then, F (xL) = ((S1, a + S2, b mod 232) XOR S3, c) + S4, d mod 232. Decryption is exactly the same as encryption, except that P1, P2, P18 are used in the reverse order. Generating the Sub keys: The sub keys are calculated using the Blowfish algorithm: 1. Initialize first the P-array and then the four S-boxes, in order, with a fixed string. This string consists of the hexadecimal digits of pi (less the initial 3): P1 = 0x243f6a88, P2 = 0x85a308d3, P3 = 0x13198a2e, P4 = 0x03707344, etc. 2. XOR P1 with the first 32 bits of the key, XOR P2 with the second 32-bits of the key, and so on for all bits of the key (possibly up to P14). Repeatedly cycle through the key bits until the entire P-array has been XORed with key bits. (For every short key, there is at least one equivalent longer key; for example, if A is a 64-bit key, then AA, AAA, etc., are equivalent keys.) 3. Encrypt the all-zero string with the Blowfish algorithm, using the sub keys described in steps (1) and (2). 4. Replace P1 and P2 with the output of step (3). 5. Encrypt the output of step (3) using the Blowfish algorithm with the modified sub keys. 6. Replace P3 and P4 with the output of step (5). 7. Continue the process, replacing all entries of the P array, and then all four S-boxes in order, with the output of the continuously changing Blowfish algorithm. In total, 521 iterations are required to generate all required sub keys. Applications can store the sub keys rather than execute this derivation process multiple times. Steganography: Steganography is art of hiding information in ways that prevent the detection of hidden messages. Steganography derived from Greek, literally means Covered Writing. It includes a vast array of secret communications methods that conceal the messages very existence. Theses methods are including invisible inks, microdots, character arrangement, digital signature, and covert channels and spread spectrum communications. In this technology, the end user identifies an audio file, which is going to act as the carrier of data. The data file is also selected and then to achieve greater speed of transmission the data file and audio file are sent. Prior to this the data is embedded into the audio and then sent. The image if hacked or interpreted by a third party user will open up in any audio player but not displaying the data. This protects the data from being invisible and hence is secure during transmission. The user in the receiving end uses another piece of code to retrieve the data from the audio file. The module deals with identifying the hidden data in the audio file. The module receives the audio file that is then browsed to remove the associated data. The data is then removed from the audio file. Compression and Decompression: Compression reduces the average code length used to represent the symbols of an alphabet. Symbols of the source alphabet, which occur frequently, are assigned with short length codes. The general strategy is to allow the code length to vary from character to character and to ensure that the frequently occurring character has shorter codes. We use utility package for compression. This technique maps arbitrary input into printable character output. The form of encoding has the following relevant characteristics. The range of the function is a character set that is universally re-presentable at all sites, not a specific binary encoding of that character set. Thus, the characters themselves can be encoded into whatever form is needed by a specific system. For instance, the character E is represented in ASCII system as a hexadecimal 45 and in EDCDIC- based system as hexadecimal- c5. The character set consists of 65 printable characters, one of which is used for padding. With 2^6 = 64 available characters, each character can be used to represent 6 bits of input. No control characters are included in the set. Thus, the message encoded in Radix-64 can traverse mail-handling system. That scans the data stream for control characters. The hyphen character - is not included. Graphical User Interface: This project is developed using graphics in java swings. The options available are displayed in a menu format, like in an online editor. Clicking on any particular menu item through mouse or through keyboard a dropdown menu is displayed, listing all the options available under that menu item and the user can select the needed actions according to their wish. UML Diagrams Use case Diagram Sender: Receiver: Use case Description: Use case name Compress Participating actors Sender Flow of events The user selected file will be compressed Entry Condition User must select the file. Exit condition Successful or Un Successful Compression of file. Quality Requirements Display proper error messages while compression. Use case name De Compress Participating actors Receiver Flow of events The user selected file will be de compressed Entry Condition User must select the file. Exit condition Successful or Un Successful De-Compression of file. Quality Requirements Display proper error messages while de-compression. Use case name Encrypt Participating actors Sender Flow of events The user-selected file will be encrypted with a given key. Entry Condition User must select the file and must give the key for encryption. Exit condition Successful or Un Successful Encryption of file. Quality Requirements Display proper error messages while Encryption. Use case name Decrypt Participating actors Receiver Flow of events The user-selected file will be decrypted with a proper key. Entry Condition User must select the file and must give the key for decryption. Exit condition Successful or Un Successful Decryption of file. QualityRequirements Display proper error messages while Decryption. Use case name Embed Participating actors Sender Flow of events The user-selected encrypted file will be embedding with selected audio file. Entry Condition User must select the one encrypted file and one audio file for embedding. Exit condition Successful or Un Successful Embedding process. Quality Requirements Display proper error messages while Embedding two files. Use case name De-Embed Participating actors Receiver Flow of events The user-selected audio file will be de-embedding to encrypted file. Entry Condition User must select the audio file for de-embedding. Exit condition Successful or Un Successful De-embedding of file. Quality Requirements Display proper error messages while De-embedding. Use case name Send File Participating actors Sender Flow of events The user-selected file will be send to the given host. Entry Condition User must select the file to send and must know the IP address of the destination host. Exit condition Successful or Un Successful sending of file to the destination host. Quality Requirements Display proper error messages while Sending the file. Class Diagram: Sequence Diagrams Sender: Receiver: Activity Diagram for Compression, Encryption, Embedding Sending Encryption System Sender Activity Diagram for De-Embed, Decrypt Decompress Receiver Decryption System Software Overview FEATURES OF THE LANGUAGE USED About Java Initially the language was called as oak but it was renamed as Java in 1995. The primary motivation of this language was the need for a platform-independent (i.e., architecture neutral) language that could be used to create software to be embedded in various consumer electronic devices. Java is a programmers language. Java is cohesive and consistent. Except for those constraints imposed by the Internet environment, Java gives the programmer, full control. Finally, Java is to Internet programming where C was to system programming. Applications and Applets An application is a program that runs on our Computer under the operating system of that computer. It is more or less like one creating using C or C++. Javas ability to create Applets makes it important. An Applet is an application designed, to be transmitted over the Internet and executed by a Java -compatible web browser. An applet is actually a tiny Java program, dynamically downloaded across the network, just like an image. But the difference is, it is an intelligent program, not just a media file. It can react to the user input and dynamically change. FEATURES OF JAVA Security Every time you that you download a normal program, you are risking a viral infection. Prior to Java, most users did not download executable programs frequently, and those who did scanned them for viruses prior to execution. Most users still worried about the possibility of infecting their systems with a virus. In addition, another type of malicious program exists that must be guarded against. This type of program can gather private information, such as credit card numbers, bank account balances, and passwords. Java answers both of these concerns by providing a firewall between a networked application and your computer. When you use a Java-compatible Web browser, you can safely download Java applets without fear of virus infection or malicious intent. Portability For programs to be dynamically downloaded to all the various types of platforms connected to the Internet, some means of generating portable executable code is needed .As you will see, the same mechanism that helps ensure security also helps create portability. Indeed, Javas solution to these two problems is both elegant and efficient. The Byte code The key that allows the Java to solve the security and portability problem is that the output of Java compiler is Byte code. Byte code is a highly optimized set of instructions designed to execute by the Java run-time system, which is called the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). That is, in its standard form, the JVM is an interpreter for byte code. Translating a Java program into byte code helps makes it much easier to run a program in a wide variety of environments. The reason is, Once the run-time package exists for a given system, any Java program can run on it. Although Java was designed for interpretation, there is technically nothing about Java that prevents on-the-fly compilation of byte code into native code. Sun has just completed its Just In Time (JIT) compiler for byte code. When the JIT compiler is a part of JVM, it compiles byte code into executable code in real time, on a piece-by-piece, demand basis. It is not possible to compile an entire Java program into executable code all at once, because Java performs various run-time checks that can be done only at run time. The JIT compiles code, as it is needed, during execution. Java Virtual Machine (JVM) Beyond the language, there is the Java virtual machine. The Java virtual machine is an important element of the Java technology. The virtual machine can be embedded within a web browser or an operating system. Once a piece of Java code is loaded onto a machine, it is verified. As part of the loading process, a class loader is invoked and does byte code verification makes sure that the code thats has been generated by the compiler will not corrupt the machine that its loaded on. Byte code verification takes place at the end of the compilation process to make sure that is all accurate and correct. So byte code verification is integral to the compiling and executing of Java code. Javac Java Virtual Machine Java byte code Java Source .Java .Class The above picture shows the development process a typical Java programming uses to produce byte codes and executes them. The first box indicates that the Java source code is located in a. Java file that is processed with a Java compiler called JAVA. The Java compiler produces a file called a. class file, which contains the byte code. The class file is then loaded across the network or loaded locally on your machine into the execution environment is the Java virtual machine, which interprets and executes the byte code. Java Architecture Java architecture provides a portable, robust, high performing environment for development. Java provides portability by compiling the byte codes for the Java Virtual Machine, which is then interpreted on each platform by the run-time environment. Java is a dynamic system, able to load code when needed from a machine in the same room or across the planet. Compilation of Code When you compile the code, the Java compiler creates machine code (called byte code) for a hypothetical machine called Java Virtual Machi