Ict in the Film Industry Essay Example

Ict in the Film Industry Essay ICT AND FILM INDUSTRY Digital innovation in the previous decade has completely changed the film business. Concentrating on the significant methods of film having and the effect that innovation had on every one of the territories, this examination would see ongoing changes in the pre-creation part of film making, besides we will attempt to know the new instruments, gear and storerooms being utilized by current movie producers and makers. Film appropriation and the antagonistic effects that innovation has had on the film business, significantly on the ill-conceived deal and theft of copyrighted material is investigated. Post-theater film circulation and the progressive advancement advances in the business are investigated to take a gander at the constant changes in training and exercise of experts in the film business. PC created illustrations and the developing effect ICT has made in the business is secured and the eventual fate of the film business is anticipated. ICT played a ton of positive job in various part of the present reality. It has contacted the clinical ventures, instructive division, administrative area and even the film or film businesses. This paper talk on how ICT have decidedly affected the film/film industry today. On the off chance that we as a whole recall our young age, we most likely think about the 1700s, 1800s, or 1900s when the film we watch are for the most part tapes or simple, and presumably not tough, with the assistance of ICT today we can see changes in the video innovation in the current world. As upheaval proceeds in the film ventures the effects of ICT have made the accompanying changes; Technological devices have changed the content composing systems by utilizing the web, utilizing advanced altering devices. We will compose a custom article test on Ict in the Film Industry explicitly for you for just $16.38 $13.9/page Request now We will compose a custom exposition test on Ict in the Film Industry explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer We will compose a custom exposition test on Ict in the Film Industry explicitly for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Recruit Writer The web is likewise been utilized by scriptwriters to advance their contents to makers, executives and potential cast relates in other to be inspected by each characters either by peer audit in a method of online gatherings. There has been a vital increment in the previous decade in the utilization of computerized camcorders for film with low spending arranging alongside superior quality video which is set to contend and go past the standard 35mm film both in quality and adaptability (culkin Randle 2003). The after creation period of film making has perhaps been the most significant affected by the new mechanical tendency. The presentation of non-straight innovation has utilized film altered physically wasteful and tedious. This methodology includes fixing and assembling movie in a virtual screen where the executives, makers, and editors see the yield of the film on screen. (culkin randle 2003. p. 8) The entire course of film making has been totally innovation driven, everything from the circulation to the projection of film to crowds (purchasers). Be that as it may, the nonappearance of business understandings among merchants and exhibitors of the movies has hindered the transformation to advanced innovations. For example, just 170 films the world over have changed over what exactly is perceived as top of the line advanced (culkin Randle 2003). Net revenues for the studios are conspicuously diminishing, presently being out casted or dwarfed by the game business. So satellite conveyance have as of late made its first usage in video form industry and reports has demonstrated that upon full execution of film circulation, it can spare the film business of cost of $700 million every year. (markman). A significant issue the film business has been looking for as far back as years since the presentation of innovation in the business is the robbery and copyright issue. Thus copyrighted motion pictures have been effectively reasonable more than the first film created for dispersion. For film and music content, these lead to many claims against shared systems and people as result for taking and circulation of these motion pictures and music materials. This will consistently be one of the significant enterprises gives the business would need to look since people in general (shoppers) approaches this ease copyrighted material (peer-2-friend and DVD journalists). By the by, the film business has tried to diminish the danger of theft of motion pictures by wrinkling the (CSS) known as substance scrambling framework in which just credible DVD or VCD items which contain a specific decoding calculation can play the specific film. A similar innovation additionally has the ability to adjust the video and sound on the DVD/CD so just a DVD with a similar decoding calculation can play the film consummately. The CSS innovation is additionally intended to keep clients from direct duplicating of information from DVDs. However, not long after the CSS innovation was presented, Norwegian youngsters figured out a DVD innovation by breaking the code that contain the unscrambling calculation and transferred decoding programming for clients around the globe to utilize. These implies that the film business would need to continue refreshing and furthermore find and choice to this challenges (markman). The post-theater showcase accounts generally for seventy five percent of movie’s salary during its lifetime. The head of these are ideo rental shops which represents almost 50% of all benefits (). The DVD has totally carried another measurement to the business, turning into the quickest developing client gadgets thing ever (culkin Randle 2003). DVD’s have obviously expanded film studio’s pay when it chose to give film substance to the home customers with staggering picture and sound quality which doesn't destroyed like the old VHS tapes (markman). Another and quickly creating region in th e dissemination procedures of film enterprises is â€Å"Movie on demand†. This is where shoppers download their craving film over the web as opposed to going down to their neighborhood video store or film house. The upside of this innovation is that essentially decrease or no-charges are expected to get to the film and the bother if any when heading out to the video rental store or film house (culkin Randle 2003). Quick changes in the film business as of late have constrained numerous experts around the globe in sound and realistic ventures to obtain new and specific aptitudes. This is a continuous improvement in many ventures. A model is that the after creation enterprises are relied upon to have persistent updates of hardware and programming which will prompt consistent re-preparing of representatives/teams which in turns increment creation costs (culkin Randle 2003). Future conveyances may include permitting editors in various nations to editors in different nations to alter film by simply accessing digitized media on a server without really leaving the solace of their home. Satellite dispersions to films are at the vanguard of future film flows and disseminations. George Lucas, the executive of star wars is anticipating utilizing satellite innovation to extend the remainder of the scene in films. This procedure of carefully conveyance of the film through information projectors is known as E-Cinema ( Randle 2003). It isn't costly and unquestionably adaptable as far as dissemination power; by the by Cinemas who wish to execute this new innovation would need to secure significant costs when changing over to advanced projection. This innovation is a lot of still in the advancement level and the effect isn't generally observed at this point ( Randle 2003). Gregory Huang article named â€Å"the new face of the film industry† examines the advancement in PC enlivened designs in past years. Ongoing blockbuster motion pictures like Spiderman 3 are genuine instances of how far PC illustrations have come as of late. The film business have gone to a phase in which each and every occasion in film causing procedure to can be PC created . In past years, the innovation delineations of countenances have not looked genuine when considered a to be nearer as it is simpler to make non-human articles like dinosaurs genuine, also, enhancements in rendering human body or skin, lighting or obscuring advanced scenes and analyzing human characters or entertainers are presently permitting liveliness specialists to oversee and assume responsibility for each sing development of pixels in an enlivened configuration (skin). Huang (2004) reports that a normal spending plan for a smash hit film cost roughly $150 million where it is extraordinary to see over half of subsidizing apportioned to simply the PC created impact which in turns raise income to about normal of $700 million every year. At any rate we can say that there is no region inside the film business that has not been affected by innovation over the previous years. The significant effects for pre-creation stage have been centered around the improvement of content composing devices just as the expansion utilization of web to circulate content to editors, executives and other significant gatherings inside the business. For the most part gear costs have radically expanded definitely diminished simultaneously quality and adaptability of items has expanded. The restriction of non-direct innovation has everything except made hand altered or physically altered motion pictures a wiped out and quick track the entire movie altering process (culkin Randle 2003). The significant drawback which has expanded worries around film ventures the world over is that it has gotten incredibly simple for shoppers around the globe to duplicate copyrighted film material and this continue creating issues in the businesses till date. At long last we can say that the progression in innovation would just keep on acquiring improvement the film businesses around the worl

Hackers vs. Crackers Essay -- Internet Cyberspace Web Online

Programmers versus Wafers Presentation At the point when you hear the word programmer, you presumably think about a geeky, high schooler matured kid sitting behind a PC with vile designs for his assault coursing through the keystrokes of his fingers. You presumably think about a techno-criminal ruining sites, closing down PC frameworks, taking cash or secret data essentially a danger to society. Be that as it may, these depictions may portray another person enterely. Numerous in the PC people group battle that this criminal portrayal characterizes saltines. Programmers, then again, are really individuals who appreciate figuring out how PC frameworks work, and bettering themselves and the PC people group with the data that they gain from their learning. So if there are non-criminal (programmers) and criminal programmers (wafers), is it reasonable for name the two programmers and wafers as programmers? It is imperative to address this inquiry on the grounds that the character of a culture in our general public the programmer culture-is being tested. It is being characterized as fortunate or unfortunate. This positive or negative status influences the manner in which Americans utilize the Internet, the manner in which the administration controls or doesn't control the Internet, and the manner in which innovation will develop later on. A few people say that there is no distinction among programmers and wafers; they are the two crooks. Others state that there are significant contrasts among programmers and wafers. This paper tends to whether programmers and saltines truly are two separate personalities and whether it is directly for society to characterize the two programmers and wafers as programmers. This paper talks about . The individuals who accept programmers and saltines are two unique gatherings of individuals and ought to be treated all things considered. . The individuals who accept there is no differe... ...r Credit. Digital Daily June 8, 1999. February 28, 2000. http://www.time.com/time/advanced/day by day/o,2822,26529,00.htm Taylor, Paul. A Sociology of Hackers. The University of East London, United Kingdom. February 16, 2000. http://www.job.am/inet98/2d/2d_1.htm Denning, Dorothy E.. Concerning Hackers Who Break Into Computer Systems. thirteenth National Computer Security Conference October 1-4, 1990. February 22, 2000. http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6095/articles/denning_defense_hackers.txt Vatis, Michael A. Cybercrime, Transnational Crime, and Intellectual Property Theft. Before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee March 24, 1998. Walk 1, 2000. http://www.fbi.gov/search?NS-search-page=document&NS-rel-doc-name=/pressrm/congress/congress98/vatis.htm&NS-query=hacker&NS-search-type=NS-boolean-query&NS-collection=FBI_Web_Site&NS-docs-found=34&NS-doc-number=1

A Complete Guide on How to Start a Scholarship Essay

A Complete Guide on How to Start a Scholarship Essay Although beginning to write a scholarship essay may be a hard task, it will be easier if you take several important aspects into account. To create a compelling scholarship essay, you have to know your potential audience, make a list of your achievements, know why you are original personality and make notes about your purposes. This article will be your writing scholarship essay guide and provide tips to start your scholarship essay. Follow the instructions The first thing you should know about how to start a scholarship essay, is that you should carefully follow the instructions of the question in the application. Often the instructions can help to understand the question better. It is important because not following them may create a wrong impression about you, telling the committee that you are not able to do what you are asked to. Learn about the potential audience When you are preparing to write a scholarship essay, think of who will be your audience. What mission does the company want to complete? Does the studentship have a particular objective? Learning about the purposes and values of the company will provide you with the possibility to make a good paper. Consider if you are a suitable candidature for the scholarship and will the company fulfill its goal if they award you. If the answer is no, then you should probably search for a studentship that corresponds your skills and purposes. Besides, you must have a full understanding of the directions on the studentship application. Make a list of achievements Concerning scholarship essay introduction writing it should be mentioned that there must be a list of achievements in the introduction. It may seem a little uncomfortable but emphasizing your achievements in the paper is important. Even if you were taught not to boast, in this case it can work. The committee who decides who will get the studentship is likely to give it to the person who deserves it in their opinion, so you should persuade them that you are definitely the one who deserves it. Consider the jobs and projects you have participated in and the awards you have got. Although there is no need to write about everything, creating a list will be a good start for the paper. Try to stand out Once you have made a list of achievements, think of why you are an original personality. It may become the hardest point of beginning an essay but it is the most significant one. It is important to show that you stand out of all other people who want to get this studentship. Look through the list of achievements you have made and think which one makes you proud most. You may also consider the difficulty you faced and the way you overcame it. Remember that every person has uniqueness in him, and if you know yours you will get more chances to have the scholarship. Consider your objectives The committee that decides who will get the studentship apparently wants to know that the person will spend it properly. This means that you must state your objectives clearly to persuade the committee to help you. Tell about the reasons why you wish to attend a particular college. What knowledge do you want to get while studying there? Think of your objectives concerning your future job and how this educational institution can help you to fulfill them. Tell how your purposes correspond to the mission of the company. These aspects will help you to create a compelling work and will get you closer to winning a studentship. The last important thing you should remember before you start writing a studentship essay, it should be honest and sincere.

Factors Influencing The International Students - 1338 Words

Factors influencing the international students to choose the United States as their higher study destination Prejin Kumar Pradeep Kumar Husson University Abstract The United States hosts more of the world’s 4.5 million global mobile college and university students than any other country in the world, with almost double the number hosted by the United Kingdom, the second leading host country. However, little research has done on various components that influenced a student to choose a country for higher education. In this investigation, I consider a survey approach on students in selected countries about their preferred study destinations, their reasons for studying internationally, their main sources of information on overseas study and their opinions of the U.S. as a potential study destination compared to other key host destinations. Specifically, the quality of education and research opportunities are the two major factors that students consider before choosing the United States as their study destination. Keywords : university students, study destination, higher education International students and American education Introduction Ever since the first universities were established several centuries ago, they have attracted many students from different countries. During the middle of the twentieth century, the results of globalization encouragedShow MoreRelatedFactors Influencing International Students Choice Of An Educational Destination9131 Words   |  37 Pages Factors Influencing International Students’ Choice of an Educational Destination – A case study of the University of Birmingham (UoB) Researcher: Van Hai Nguyen Supervisor: Professor Jo Andrews Programme: MSc International Business Academic year: 2014/2015 Student ID: 1504119 Word count: 11,460 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the MSc in International Business (2014/2015)â€Æ' Acknowledgement I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor Professor Jo AndrewsRead MoreFactors Influencing International Fashion Retailers816 Words   |  4 Pages Paper Critique: Factors influencing international fashion retailers entry mode choice. Lu, Y., Karpova, E. and Fiore, A. (2011) Factors influencing international fashion retailers entry mode choice, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 15(1), pp. 58-75. doi: 10.1108/13612021111112340. Summary: The aim of the paper is to provide a theory†based framework that informs a fashion retailer s entry mode choice into a foreign market. The author highlights theRead MoreInternal And External Contextual Factors869 Words   |  4 Pagesexternal contextual factors are the crucial factors to impel the curriculum development process. To review the literature, keywords included ‘future of nursing education’, ‘future trend of nursing’, and ‘trend of nursing curriculum’ were used. In addition, the searching in CINAHL Complete, EBSCOhost databases, and Google scholar limited the full-text studies that published between 2008 and 2015. Based on the literature review, this paper will present and discuss factors influencing the future trendsRead MoreLiterature Review : an Investigation Into the Push and Pull Factors That Influenced Students’ Decision to Study at Glasgow University2301 Words   |  10 Pagespush and pull factors that influen ced students’ decision to study at Glasgow University LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction The student intake at the University of Glasgow has increased from 23,310 to 26,550 from 2006-2011 (HESA, 2011), indicating a positively inclined student decision to study at the university. The decision making process is a complex process made by the student intentionally or unintentionally (Moogan and Baron, 2003). This process is stimulated by â€Å"Push† factors related to homeRead MoreEducation Satisfaction of Oversea Student Critical Review1198 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction The economy of China has undergone a significant development since joining the World Trade Organisational on December 11, 2001. A vast number of students are able to study abroad, because their families’ income continues increasing. Under this background, Qinggang Wang (2011), who was an associate professor, studied a project â€Å"Chinese students’ satisfaction of the study abroad experience†, with his partner Ross Taplin (2011) who was an accredited statistician and Alistair M. Brown (2011) whoRead MoreInternational Study Destinations : A Case Study Of Fdi Of Foreign Students1800 Words   |  8 Pages International Study Destinations: A case study of inflow of foreign students in China Rupesh Regmi*, Zhang Zhuo College of Economics and Management Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China Email: regmi@nuaa.edu.cn Abstract The Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, with the main aim of promoting economic and cultural ties between China and countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, apart from cooperation in infrastructureRead MoreBenefits Of Innovative Business Models And Strategic Plans Must Support The Mission Of The Institution? Essay927 Words   |  4 PagesMore and more institutions are operating programs and campuses in overseas locations. What are the advantages/ disadvantages of such endeavors, particularly in relation to the mission of the institution?† The international program is rooted in the U.S. institution s stated mission and purposes and reflects special social, religious, and ethical elements of that mission (New England Association of Schools and Colleges 2003). The surge with colleges and universities in the U.S. operating overseasRead MorePROPOSAL TO REDUCE UNHEALTHY EATING HABIT AMONG STUDENTS AT MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND758 Words   |  4 Pagesunhealthy eating habits among MUN students through investigating the reasons that lead to unhealthy eating habits and showing the harms that are caused by unhealthy diets to make students aware of their food and health choices. Suggestions will be made for students to manage the menu and evaluate balanced nutrition. Historical Background Students at Memorial University are facing great pressure from school and work. A healthy eating habit can help students to balance nutrition, keep healthyRead MoreAnalysis Of Schulich School Of Business Essay1702 Words   |  7 Pagesschools across the countries. Schulich creates an environment that helps students to build profound business skills, as well as to establish strong personal connections for the future. The prominent professors, and the consolidated program of Schulich guide students to be competitive in the real business world. Managing Contemporary Enterprise, also known as MGMT 1000, is a course taught by Dr. Jean Adams that help students to be better leader of our society. The two main points discussed alongRead MoreThe Effect Of Leadership And Teachers On Students Achievement1278 Words   |  6 Pages Abstract Each school in Australia strives to create an environment in which all students have equal access to quality education which can enable them to become successful contributors to society. This paper aims to examine the research on the effect of leadership and teachers on student achievement. It will examine the research on leadership styles and the effects that leadership has on teachers and student achievement. Introduction Australia, like most developed nations, has seen dramatic educational

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings And Still I Rise By Maya...

Poems of Color The poems â€Å" I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings† and â€Å"Still I Rise† by Maya Angelou are both poems that speak on the issues of the mistreatment of African Americans, and how these challenges were created simply by the color of one’s skin and overcome. While the poems â€Å"Mother To Son† and â€Å" Dreams† by Langston Hughes refer to the hopes of African Americans for a better standard of living, and the consequences of departing from these dreams of bettering themselves. This comparison of these four poems is important because all four aim to better society for African Americans, and inform the population struggles that they maybe be able to relate, and provide them with the inspiration to keep pushing forward. These poems explain why the desire for equality was so important to African americans at this time, and what they had to go through to get it. I believe that these poems are all used as methods of expression, information , as well as rebellion against the racial in injustice that was suffered for so long. â€Å"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings† depicts two birds which are used as metaphors to express the state in which the two classes of people live. In one description the poem describes the standard of living of a bird of privilege which alludes to the lives of whites. Then it describes caged birds whom of which are crying out for freedom, and are meant to represent African Americans during this time. It describes the feeling of being trapped and calling out forShow MoreRelatedMaya Angelou1001 Words   |  5 PagesMaya Angelou You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness. But still, like air, Ill rise. Have you ever been so influenced by such a small amount of powerful words? This brilliant quote extracted from Maya Angelous own poem, Still I Rise, basically brings out the spirit and nature of each of her publications. Maya Angelous works of poetry are seen as inspiration for those who have been discriminated for their public appearances. AsRead MoreAnalysis Of Maya Angelou s Caged Bird 1835 Words   |  8 PagesApril 4, 2016 Women’s Power Because I live in a community with a majority black population, it is very easy to know all of the famous African American people. Growing up with my grandparents, I always heard a lot about the loving Dr. Maya Angelou. She was a tremendous figure in their lives and a phenomenal woman. One day my family was sitting outside, and my mom was reading a book with a lot of famous poems. The one she read aloud was Maya Angelou’s poem â€Å"Caged Bird.† She was so emotional reading thisRead MoreEssay Personal Perseverance in the Works of Maya Angelou1313 Words   |  6 PagesPerseverance in the Works of Maya Angelou      Ã‚  Ã‚   Internationally respected brilliant poet, historian, and author Maya Angelou says in all my work I try to tell the human truth-what it is like to be human...what makes us stumble and fumbleand fall and somehow miraculously rise and go on from the darkness and into the light (Ebony 96). This theme is consistently exemplified throughout Angelous greatly acclaimed autobiographical worksand poems such as I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together inRead MoreEssay about The Writings of Maya Angelou 1920 Words   |  8 PagesMaya Angelou is an author and poet who has risen to fame for her emotionally filled novels and her deep, heartfelt poetry. Her novels mainly focus on her life and humanity with special emphasis on her ideas of what it means to live. The way she utilizes many different styles to grab and keep readers’ attention through something as simple as an autobiography is astounding. This command of the English language and the grace with which she w rites allows for a pleasant reading experience. Her styleRead More Maya Angelou as a Caged Bird Essay1153 Words   |  5 PagesMaya Angelou as a Caged Bird    The graduation scene from I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings illustrates how, living in the midst of racism and unequal access to opportunity, Maya Angelou was able to surmount the obstacles that stood in her way of intellectual develop and find higher ground.   One of the largest factors responsible for Angelous academic success was her dedication to and capacity for hard work, My work alone has awarded me a top place...No absences, no tardinesses, and my academicRead More`` Speak, By The Maya Angelou1137 Words   |  5 Pageswriter, the late Maya Angelou. This statement also aligns to a 1999 contemporary classic novel, Speak, where a young freshman, Melinda Sordino, faces isolation and depression to an event that occurred over the summer, one that only she knows about. In the novel, Melinda hangs up a poster of Maya Angelou in her make-shift janitor’s closet hangout. Laurie Halse Anderson uses Maya Angelou as a figure for Melinda to learn and change by in the novel Speak. Me linda could learn from Angelou that she can standRead MoreSojourner Truth And Maya Angelou Essay1505 Words   |  7 Pagescenturies, Maya Angelou and Sojourner Truth led parallel fights for African American equality. Despite living in different time periods, both of these women laid the groundwork for activists to come. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797, she later escaped which led her to become an abolitionist to fight for the freedom of others. Maya Angelou was born almost 150 years later in 1928, and faced much of the same hate-fuelled racism. Living in the south during the Civil Rights Era pushed Angelou toRead MoreI Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou Essay2303 Words   |  10 Pagescolour, descent, nationality or ethnic origin. And it still is happening today. One of the quotes that Maya Angelou spoke about goes â€Å"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.† In two of the poems written by Maya Angelou ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,’ which inspired millions of readers helped tackle difficulties related to themes such as racism, sexual abuse, equality. â€Å"Still I Rise† explores the idea of racial discrimination alongRead MoreMaya Angelou Research Notes1165 Words   |  5 PagesMaya Angelou Research Notes First source: Maya Angelou. Poetry Foundation, 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. †¢ Childhood: o Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri. o During her childhood, she lived in Stamps, Arkansas with her grandmother and her brother. o Angelou was sexually assaulted by her mothers boyfriend when she was seven years old. o Angelou’s uncles killed him when they found out about the assault. Although she was the victim of a heinous crime, Maya Angelou felt responsible for hisRead MorePoetry Is The Spontaneous Overflow Of Powerful Feelings1752 Words   |  8 Pages1928, the African American poet Maya Angelou was brought into a white male dominated world made to abnegate her existence as anything of value. At the age of eight, she became victim to the social hierarchy which saw her raped. Too traumatised to speak out, Maya shared her distraught with her brother which soon resulted in the death of her rapist. It was at this stage of her life that Maya realized the power of her words and as a result became mute for 5 years. Maya later found herself within degrading

Lab Report Proving that energy is conserved within a system Free Essays

This Is defined by Hooker’s Law shown below. F ? -xx The law of conservation of energy is that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another. This means that the total amount of energy in an isolated system is constant over time. We will write a custom essay sample on Lab Report: Proving that energy is conserved within a system or any similar topic only for you Order Now This means that the only thing that can happen to energy in a closed system is that it can change from one form to another. In this experiment energy changes from elastic potential energy to kinetic energy to gravitational potential energy. Some energy is also lost due to friction which creates heat and sound during the experiment. Initial = Final Eek + Pep gravitational I + Pep spring + E thermal I = Kef+ Pep gravitational f + Pep bring f + E thermal f + Neon- conservative This equation clearly shows the energy transfer during the experiment Including the energy lost In non-conservative forms such as heat and sound. Basic energy formulae were also used In this experiment In order to calculate energy as it changes form. Eek- move Pep gravitational MGM very important as it is used a wide variety of physical applications. It is especially relevant and applicable in situations which there is little to no friction, such as in astrophysics. Energy and applied forces can be calculated in order to accurately determine values seen in the equations above. Method: The equipment was set up as indicated in figurer . The track was placed at such a gradient where the cart would not reach the top of the track or come to close to the censor after pushed by the compressed spring. It should also be noted that the gradient of the slope remained constant throughout both experiments. The readings were zeroed and data was then collected by the censors and graphed on the program Logger Pro. Figure 1: Experimental setup For the first experiment, the cart was released from different heights on the ramp ND measurements of the force and compression of the spring were taken in order to be able to calculate the spring constant. For the second experiment the spring on the cart was compressed and the cart is placed then released using a hard object such as a ruler. The spring then pushed the cart up the track and the censors took the reading of the force, displacement, velocity and acceleration needed in order to calculate the energy as it changed form in the system. Results: Measurements for finding the spring constant of the spring x = displacement of spring from equilibrium position. F = force applied by the spring on the cart. K = the spring constant of the spring. Table 1 : Measured displacement of the spring and force applied by the spring and the calculated spring constant results. The uncertainties for the displacement and the force were chosen because of the accuracy of the censors and the ruler respectively. The uncertainty of the spring constant was calculated by halving the range of the results. Measurements for finding the total energy during the second experiment Value Symbol Result Initial Compression of Spring 0. 033 Ð’Â ± 0. 001 m SF 0. 018Ð’Â ±0. 001 m Velocity as cart leaves spring I 0. 75Ð’Â ±0. 05 runs-l Velocity Just before collision if 0. 69 Ð’Â ± 0. 05 runs-l Max distance traveled Adam 0. 661 Ð’Â ± 0. 005 m Position at random point DRP 0. 198Ð’Â ±0. 005 m Velocity at random point Table 2: Velocity and distance measurements taken by the censors in order to prove conservation of energy. The uncertainties for the each of the results were chosen because of the accuracy of the censors respectively. Analysis: Finding the spring constant of the spring To find the spring constant we use Hooker’s Law (F = -xx). The negative sign shows that the spring is being compressed and can be ignored in this case. For the first value: x = 0. 010Ð’Â ±0. 001 m and 5. 7 Ð’Â ± 0. 3 = 570 ram-I This process was then repeated for each data value and then the average of the results was found to be 598 Nm-l. The uncertainty for the spring constant was calculated by halving the range of the values which was found to be Ð’Â ± 28. 5 Nm-l . This gives the final value for the spring constant of the spring to be 598 Ð’Â ± 28. 5 Nm-l . Conservation of Energy Graph 1, 2,3: These graphs shows the carts velocity and position and well as the force exerted in the spring by the cart as it moves up and down the slanted track. Using he results found in Table 2, the elastic potential energy, gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy can be calculated at six points during the experiment. These points are; before the spring is released, Just after the cart loses contact, at the during the first collision, and at some point between the release and collision points above. Before the spring is released all the energy is stored as elastic potential energy in the spring. This can be easily calculated using the spring constant and the displacement of the spring. K = experimentally measured spring constant = 598 Nm-l . = initial compression of the spring = 0. 33 m Just after the cart loses contact with the spring, we can assume that all of the elastic potential energy has been converted into purely kinetic energy. Kinetic energy can be calculated using the mass and velocity of the cart. M = mass of cart = 0. 521 keg v = velocity as cart leaves spring = 0. 75 ms-l At the top of the slope the cart has stopped as the energy has been converted into purely gravitational potential energy. This can be calculated using the mass and height of the cart as well as gravity. G = acceleration due to gravity = 9. 81 ms-2 = maximum height = 0. 036 m The maximum height of the cart was found by first calculating the angle of the slop using trigonometry. = 3. 130 This angle was then used with the maximum distance traveled value to calculate the maximum height. Just before the spring hits the bottom again the energy is again kinetic. This can again be calculated using the mass and velocity of the cart. At a chosen point part way up the slope the total energy will be the kinetic energy at that point plus the potential energy at the point. How to cite Lab Report: Proving that energy is conserved within a system, Papers

Interview Reflection for Becoming a Social Worker- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theInterview Reflection for Becoming a Social Worker. Answer: As I think about the interview, as an interviewer I need to reflect back and i feel how the client might have felt in my position. Being a social worker there are some ethics I need to follow and I try to understand how the interview should be conducted. I try to find the various incidents, which point out my various drawbacks in conducting the interview, their causes and my efforts to overcome them. I think I used correct body language and had a confident body posture in the interview. The body language was not nervous or uninterested in any way. I was very polite during communication and interacting with him. On the other hand, there were a number of mistakes, which I committed. Firstly, I was not maintaining eye contact throughout the conversation, as I am not habituated to keep eye contacts according to the African culture I belong to. I did not communicate properly as I kept stuttering and laughed at situations where I was not supposed to laugh. I did a mistake by taking note during the interview, as it would portray that I do not have a strong memory and situational analysis skills. I was having trouble communicating, as I could not find proper vocabulary to express what I was saying. I think I did not collect proper background information on the client. The personal comment on the clients remark of leaving the job was mistake on my part. The clients response was extremely important in the interview. Firstly, my personal comment to his idea of quitting the job might not go well with him because in a formal communication one should not pass judgmental comments. I would rather stick to my job role of assessing the skills of the client and not be over friendly with the client. Secondly, I should not pass comments on colour in the interview as it affects the comfort level of the client and poses me as unfair and biased. My comment on trying to contact the supervisor was also discomforting for the client. I was taken aback by the quickness of the interview. I was a surprised by my own issues that I forgot the whole scenario I was in and took the situation too professional. In the given time, I forgot that I was a social worker so I overdid the role and become the social worker. When the scenario was presented, I became too related to the scenario and started over doing the job role forgetting that it was just a presented scenario to test analytical skills of the interviewee. I think I was wrong in passing comment about the personal decision of the interviewee. It was none of my business to comment on their personal decisions of the interviewee quitting the organization. The interviewee may take my remark that he is not a tall dark man to be afraid off negatively as it was against social justice and cohesion to be promoted by a social worker (CODE OF ETHICS, 2010). If I am given another chance, I would like to alter and avoid some things. First, of all I would improve my communication and vocabulary skills so that I can communicate effectively with the interviewer. The basic issue because of which I cannot get my idea through is my lack in vocabulary and my habit of stuttering. I would also like to control my stuttering and using fillers so that I can communicate my ideas properly. I would like to improve my knowledge of the field I am supposed to work in which will help me to present my ideas and information in a better way to the client. I would like to refrain from making any personal comments even if there is any initiation of personal communication from the interviewee I will try to answer them as formally as possible. I would also keep in mind not to take notes while a scenario is being presented to me, as this would portray a flaw in my skills. I would like not to use witty comments and jokes when I am a part of the formal communication process as I did in the supervisors case. I would like to keep my body language same as it was comforting and presented me in a decent position with the interviewee because as a social worker i should have a respectful and calm approach. Based on the Skill test interview I have faced there are a number of fields I would like to work on. They include the different part of my knowledge, interpersonal skills and overall personality. I will try to maintain eye contact with the interviewee and will practice to do so as it is necessary for an interviewer. I have to improve my interpersonal skills and body language while interacting with people so that I come around as confident. I have to work on my nervousness and interact with people to improve my communications skill. I need to develop my vocabulary so that I do not stutter or stammer during the interaction and which presents me as under confident. Moreover, I have to work on controlling my laughter and informal behaviour while interacting with the interview as it is against the professional integrity in a formal environment. I would like to run a proper background check and collect all information for better decision-making (Cree, 2013). I would also like to work on th e habit of being restless when being nervous so that I am taken as confident. I would like to develop my remembrance and recollection skills so that I do not have to resort to taking notes when data or situation is presented to me for analysis. I would also like to be more polite in the approach and control my responses to be friendlier so that I am not perceived and overpowering. I shall practice to be calm and do the task assigned to me rather than overdoing my job. I will perform my tasks sticking to the job role. References Cree, V. (Ed.). (2013). Becoming a social worker: Global narratives. New York, Routledge. CODE OF ETHICS. (2010).Aasw.asn.au. Retrieved 13 November 2017, from https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/1201

Moral Crusade or Personal Vendetta Essay Example

Moral Crusade or Personal Vendetta Essay Abigail is not the only opportunist in Salem. The Putnams, whose daughter was one of the young women dancing in the woods, also seize the opportunity. Thomas Putnam is a greedy landowner in Salem. He systematically accuses his neighbours of witchcraft so that he might purchase their land after they hang. Like Abigail, there is a hidden agenda guiding Thomas Putnam, namely his greed for land. He too will stop at nothing to satisfy his greed. Miller has incorporated this into the play as The Royal Charter was revoked in 1692 and land ownership deeds became invalid creating a crisis of property rights. Individuals no longer felt secure with their landholdings thus feuds broke out regarding property rights and deeds of ownership. Ann Putnam also used the witchcraft trials for her own means. Mrs Putnam believes that a witch is responsible for the deaths of her seven infant children. She is resentful of Rebecca Nurse who has a large family and who has a reputation for good Christian deeds. Reverend Parris is the minister of the Christian puritan society in Salem. At the start of the play he discovers the girls dancing in the woods. One of the girls is his daughter, Betty, who falls ill after the event, and Abigail is his niece. We will write a custom essay sample on Moral Crusade or Personal Vendetta specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Moral Crusade or Personal Vendetta specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Moral Crusade or Personal Vendetta specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Therefore, Reverend Parris is terrified of the consequences of their actions. This is more so as he feels that he is unpopular with many of the congregation I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character. Parris has used his sermons to demand money and possessions and thus divided the village. He believes people are plotting against him and a faction plans to force him to leave Salem so he attempts to strengthen his authority through the witch trials thereby using them for his own means. After Parris receives a death threat, and hears of a rebellion against the court in Andover, where there have been similar witch trials, Parris fears that the hanging of two such upstanding citizens as Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor will incite a rebellion in Salem, similar to the one in Andover. The reason he gives is that postponement now speaks of floundering on my part. He is not so much concerned about the lives of those condemned as about his own reputations. To determine if witchcraft is to blame for Bettys illness, Parris summons Hale, a Reverend from the Boston area. Unlike most of the other characters, Reverend Hale has nothing to gain from the trials and executions. He is a well meaning scholar with a reputation for knowledge and expertise symbolised by the many books he carries on entering the play. He also feels he can put the people of Salem at ease regarding their concerns about witchcraft. He does this by exhorting Tituba, the black slave, and the other girls to confess and denounce others to save themselves. When he succeeds he cries, glory to God, it is broken, they are free! Reverend Hale is on a moral crusade, striving for justice unlike many of the other characters. He is impressed by Elizabeth Proctors strong Christian faith. He is critical of John Proctors poor record of attendance at church and is dismayed at finding that John Proctor cannot remember the Ten Commandments. Ironically, the only of the Ten Commandments that he cannot name is, Thou shalt not commit adultery. Although Hale remains determined not to declare witchcraft unless he can prove it, he is taken in by the expectations of the people of Salem and begins by taking their evidence at face value. Later on, however, he attempts to correct his shortcomings when he realizes that Abigail is a fraud. Hale then devotes himself to attempting to persuade the other prisoners to confess in order to avoid executions. However, he does not realise that lies would only reinforce the slanders the court has already committed. Hales faith is severely tested in the play but although he questions his own faith he does not abandon religion altogether. The other character in the play who does not use the trials for his gain is the Deputy Governor, Danforth, who represents the authority of church and state. Danforth refuses to admit possibilities outside the strict confines of the church and he applies the law with a rigid harshness. Although he may be viewed as a villainous character who does not want to open his mind to the reality of the court being duped by a group of teenage girls after signing so many death warrants, he may also be viewed as someone on a moral crusade which results in his ruthless character. Although not on a moral crusade themselves, characters such as Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor are morally upright within the community. They are honest and will not confess to witchcraft as they would be confessing to something they had not done. Rebecca Nurse serves as a symbol of goodness and reason. Her character is impeccable, and her reputation flawless. At the outset she dismisses the behaviour of the young girls as part of their adolescence. She makes it quite clear that any searching for the devil based on the behaviour of the girls is, in itself, evil. Elizabeth and Rebecca Nurse show courage and calmness amidst the climate of fear and hysteria. The character analysis of the main people and their motives in the witch hunt trials shows Millers ability to create complex characters. Although Miller wrote a historical play set in the Puritan period, by inference, the McCarthy period, it is essentially a play about people and the human condition. Miller is adept at removing the outer covering of his characters to expose the inner workings as in a crucible. However, the historical setting of the play has affected style of language and the way the play has been written. He comments, No one can really know what their lives were like, neither can anyone know exactly how they spoke. Miller does not claim to have written a historically accurate play but he uses expressions which may have been used by the Puritan community. These include the use of Goody instead of Mrs; Id admire to know, instead of Id like very much to know, and open with me, instead of tell me the truth. Miller also makes some grammatical changes from modern usage; the verb to be is often changed; it were for it was and it be for it is. The tense of a verb is sometimes changed She gives instead of She gave. Furthermore, the West Indian slave, Tituba, is given her own dialect Devil, him be a pleasure, man in Barbados, him be singin and dancin Miller also drops the g at the end of words such as goin, beatin to denote a dialect. To add to the Puritanical setting Miller makes references to events in the Bible. Reverend Hale trying to persuade Elizabeth to confess says I have gone this three month like our Lord into the wilderness. Earlier, speaking of Abigail, Elizabeth Proctor says, where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel. Thus, without claiming to be totally accurate, Arthur Miller has created the impression of a rural, deeply religious society. As well as the language, rooms are sparsely furnished and severe Puritan costumes are used. This creates an austere tone. Moreover, even more important than the language and setting, Miller makes some of the characters morally vocal. People had principles and lived and died by them. Faith, conduct and society pervaded their lives. This is demonstrated particularly by the character of Goody Nurse and also John Procter who works hard to build a defence for those accused and finally decides to die rather than lose his good name by admitting to witchcraft. Miller uses the historical setting as an opportunity to express the dramatic use of hysteria. The general hysteria that spreads through the community of Salem after the first mention of witchcraft is used to induce an atmosphere of anxiety and guilt which brings out superstitious fears. The witchcraft is both caused and fuelled by fear and it is this fear that is the motivating force that leads neighbour to accuse neighbour and generates hysteria. The most powerful and dramatic of these is the girls hysteria when they pretend to be possessed. The climax to this hysteria appears at the end of Act III in the court when reverend Hale feels anguished at the way the witch hunt is being carried out. Despite John Proctors admission of adultery and his wifes lying to deny it, Reverend Hale is prepared to defend them and starts accusing Abigail of falsehood and pretence. This is a dangerous moment for Abigail and the other girls. She starts looking up at the ceiling and screams at a yellow bird which she says is Mary, trying to scratch her face. The other girls gape at the ceiling, seeing the bird, they start repeating every word that Mary says. This has a terrifying hypnotic effect on Mary, and also the audience. The action at the end of this scene is a demonstration of the power of hysteria to paralyse thought. This is one of the dramatic climaxes of the play. The important technique of delaying is used to great effect. To build up a climax, hints, clues and suggestions must be given earlier in the play, many of them left purposely unanswered so that the audience is kept wondering. An example of the way Miller develops climax within an act is Elizabeths fears at the beginning of Act Two; Marys reporting, later in the act, that Elizabeths name had been mentioned in court; Hales questioning of John and Elizabeth until she denies the existence of witches; Giless report that his wife and Rebecca Nurse had been arrested; and the climax to the act, Elizabeth being arrested herself. Millers use of lighting adds another dimension to the symbolism of the novel. The play begins in Act One with the morning sunlight, which streams through the leaded panes of the narrow window. There is a candle which still burns. The atmosphere is dim and dark to signify ignorance and evil. In Act Two, the door opening on the fields outside, must give a feeling of light and space and the stage direction to Act Three, which is the General Court indicates there is sunlight pouring through two high windows. This shows some goodness and truth trying to vanquish ignorance and evil. Act four opens in darkness but for the moonlight seeping through the bars of the cell; but by the end of the act, when Elizabeth grips the bars of the window, the new sun is pouring in upon her face. The word new in this last stage direction is a clue to the effect Miller wants the lighting to create. The narrow minded community cannot shut out the sun and moon. The new sunlight and gentle moonlight are symbols of an unconfined world outside and are emblems of hope in a world gone mad. The light which is a symbol of truth and hope floods in at the end because Proctor chooses to go to his death rather than sign a false confession. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller has created a work set in a historical period of Puritan Culture. He has used themes and events concerning witchcraft, superstition, the devil and fear, which were largely true in colonist America in the 1690s. He has also drawn parallels with the Puritan culture and that of the McCarthy trial during the 1950s. Miller has done this though narrative techniques which contain long comments on the background and on the characters which are given details by use of language, tone and setting. Therefore, this detailed characterisation makes The Crucible much more than a play in two parallel historical settings. It transcends historical backgrounds. Miller has produced a play which explores repression, resolution, fear and the response to it by the human conscience. It is a play in which private grudges and feuding erupts into controversies that overwhelm an entire community. The problems of a single man, according to Miller, are not enough to contain the truth of the human situation. Proctors conscience is the focus of the play. The initial situation of the play is well devised to prevent the social forces that later provide the major conflict for Proctor as he becomes aware of the witch hunts and reveals his temper, his strengths and weaknesses. At times it seems that evil may win over blind justice. Proctor is a proud and strong man whose one mistake causes his own downfall. The relentless forces of evil in this melodrama are inevitable. The balance between order and freedom, which once existed, as displayed by the character of Proctor is being destroyed. Social and personal conflicts are dramatised in his destruction. This is done by fraud and a self-imposed hypnotism on the part of a society in panic. The climax suggests a symbolic end of an era, the waste of human lives and the confused state of a mankind whose personal disaster shatters the balance of the world. Order to this shattered state is restored by the hero making a personal sacrifice. Some of the characters in The Crucible respond by behaving as though they are on a moral crusade and morally upright characters like Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor end up facing dilemmas of conscience and in conflict with authority. They would rather die than lose their good name by signing to witchcraft. However, a majority and insecurity are driven by fear to manipulate the situation for their own purposes and misinterpret events for their own end, until finally the situation and the events are out of control. An atmosphere of hysterical suspicion is created which drives people. Miller has created this. Miller has created this atmosphere in The Crucible by the use of technical features such as characterisation, language, stage directions and lighting.

Free Essays on Same Sex Adoption

Same-Sex Partner Adoptions Children are precious gifts who deserve to be nurtured and loved. There are thousands of children that are born everyday, and parents and family abandon some of them. However, there are plenty of couples who would love to make these children an addition to their families. Traditionally, a husband and wife adopt children. Today this traditional couple has expanded to include couples of the same sex. Same sex couples are often looked down upon; according to societal views, same sex couples are â€Å"morally wrong.† The issue should be focused on the best adoptive parents for the child. Sexual orientation should not affect whether or not a person should be a parent because homosexual individuals are able to provide everything that heterosexual couples can provide for a child. Studies have suggested that same sex parents are often bad parents. This study refers only to the atmosphere of growing up in a same sex household. What does good parenting really mean? Good parenting is giving the child love: nurturing and providing the child with the necessities that are needed for life such as food, water, clothing, and a safe residence. Good parenting does not include anything about a parent’s sexual preferences. Society and some laws base their decisions on the gender of the adoptive couples. Homosexual individuals are able to adopt, but a same sex couple is unable to adopt a child. This idea is ridiculous because most people would assume that two parents are better than one good parent. I believe children in same sex families have the same opportunity to develop as children with heterosexual parents. The fact that parents happen to be homosexual has no adverse effects on the development of a child. Studies have shown that in some instances same sex adoptions increase a child’s emotional and financial security. According to a few articles, same sex parenting has an affects on the child’s peer relations, s... Free Essays on Same Sex Adoption Free Essays on Same Sex Adoption Same-Sex Partner Adoptions Children are precious gifts who deserve to be nurtured and loved. There are thousands of children that are born everyday, and parents and family abandon some of them. However, there are plenty of couples who would love to make these children an addition to their families. Traditionally, a husband and wife adopt children. Today this traditional couple has expanded to include couples of the same sex. Same sex couples are often looked down upon; according to societal views, same sex couples are â€Å"morally wrong.† The issue should be focused on the best adoptive parents for the child. Sexual orientation should not affect whether or not a person should be a parent because homosexual individuals are able to provide everything that heterosexual couples can provide for a child. Studies have suggested that same sex parents are often bad parents. This study refers only to the atmosphere of growing up in a same sex household. What does good parenting really mean? Good parenting is giving the child love: nurturing and providing the child with the necessities that are needed for life such as food, water, clothing, and a safe residence. Good parenting does not include anything about a parent’s sexual preferences. Society and some laws base their decisions on the gender of the adoptive couples. Homosexual individuals are able to adopt, but a same sex couple is unable to adopt a child. This idea is ridiculous because most people would assume that two parents are better than one good parent. I believe children in same sex families have the same opportunity to develop as children with heterosexual parents. The fact that parents happen to be homosexual has no adverse effects on the development of a child. Studies have shown that in some instances same sex adoptions increase a child’s emotional and financial security. According to a few articles, same sex parenting has an affects on the child’s peer relations, s...

Poverty and Economic Devastation in Jamaica Essay

Poverty and Economic Devastation in Jamaica - Essay Example This essay analyzes not only positive changes that independence gave to Jamaican people, but also the negative role of multinational corporations, that was foreseen as early as 1776 by the father of Economics, Adam Smith. In his ground-breaking book, â€Å"Wealth of Nations† that was discussed in the essay and set the foundation for the field of modern Economics, Smith wrote that corporations would eventually work to cleverly escape the laws that govern the market, they would narrow the competition, raise their profits and try to meddle with setting of prices and control of trade. Such negative role of the corporation in the country's history happened in Jamaica as well. amaica’s problems began in 1962 when it secured independence from England. This essay focuses on effects of struggling economy that is characterized by chronic debts, illiteracy, and an ancient medical system. The researcher describes that the country badly needed finance to address its problems and app roached private banks, but only got the cold shoulder treatment. The researcher also describes Jamaican government policies on social topics and refers to cultural features of modern Jamaica and it's citizens through examples such as movies, books on the topic of economic devastation and poverty in the country. The Rastafari movement, that emerged as a platform to fight local poverty and disenchantment also is mentioned in the essay. In conclusion, the researcher hopes that proper boost in tourism can generate much needed revenue to Jamaica and its beleaguered citizens.

Research on Ford Manufacturing Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

On Ford Manufacturing - Research Paper Example Effective employee management is the most critical factor for organization’s success. This paper evaluates some findings at the multinational automobile giant, Ford Motor Company, in terms of employee performance and team structures. In this process, an attempt is made to understand the relation that exists between the two, if any. A short research will be conducted based on literature on Ford Motor Co and a case will be built to identify what could be the potential obstacles towards better performance and employee motivation. Further, this paper tries to establish that conflicts among teams members and between teams can affect performance at individual, team and organizational levels. These conflicts can also affect employee motivation and performance, which can be restored with effective leadership and appropriate organizational practices. 1.1 The Ford Motor Company: Ford Motor Company is an automobile producer, founded by Henry Ford in 1903 and has multinational presence. The automotive operations at Ford involve designing, developing, manufacturing, sales and servicing of cars, trucks and other automotive parts. Ford Motor Co revolutionized its operations and business by making ‘quality’ its main focus and adopted Total Quality Management approach to improve quality as well as reduce costs and wastage. The company has its presence all over the world, with its main manufacturing units based in many parts of the US, some parts of Europe and Asia Pacific (Ford Motor Co., n.d). Ford Motor Co is known for the concept of Fordism, which Siegel (1988) explains as the systematic control of all stages of accumulation from producing raw materials through marketing (cited in Jessop & Sum, 2006; p.59). This management concept yielded huge success to Ford during early 20th century. With changing markets, capitalistic structures and advent of other mass production techniques, Fordism was transformed from an

A Critique of Data warehousing in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

A Critique of Data warehousing in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems INTRODUCTION General Background There are different ways in which companies have collected and accessed the data in order to support and enhance the business. Since 1990s, with the emergence of the concept of business data warehouse, companies have been instituting data warehousing for data mining, data analysis, reporting and other business intelligence purpose (Matthias et al., 2003). Bill Inmon in 1990, defined data warehousing as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a subject-oriented, integrated, non-volatile, and time-variant collection of data in support of managements decisions. He also stated that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“data warehouse contains a very useful source of data for the explorer and data miner. The data found in the data warehouse is cleansed, integrated, organized. And the data is historicalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Inmon W. H, 2002). Data warehouse is also defined as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“architecture used to maintain critical historical data that has been extracted from operational data storage and transformed into formats acce ssible to the organizations analytical communityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Anne Marie, 2009). In the same decade, with the success of Material Requirements Planning 2 (MRP II) and its evolution to Enterprise resource planning (ERP), various companies implemented ERP software as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“integrated suitesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  that automate core corporate activities and helps the corporate managers to coordinate the common functions of an enterprise (Gibson et al., 1999). ERP can be defined as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“techniques and concepts for integrated management of business as a whole from the viewpoint of the effective use of management resources to improve the efficiency of enterprise management. ERP packages are integrated (covering all business functions) software packages that support these ERP conceptsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Alexis Leon, 2008). For every critical business decision taken, information is the foundation. To facilitate this, all functional areas of the organization are integrated using ERP (Chou, 2005). Most ERP vendors have an integrated business suite containing busi ness intelligence (BI) tools to access their data modules directly. However, data warehousing in ERP system is a complicated task that requires the use of various types of inputs like the historical data, and the information that are external to the ERP system (Peng and Nunes, 2008; Chaudhuri et al., 1997). Although ERP systems can integrate all business transaction data into their master databases for organizational planning, it may not be a solution for data analysis and decision support process. Selection of ERP, implementation and integration with BI is the costly and risky processes in the companys life span (Baki et al, 2005). This paper reviews the value of data warehousing in ERP systems. It identifies the power and the capabilities ERP and Data Warehousing. And, reviews the claims made by ERP vendors about their integrated BI solution. The conclusion is provided in the last section. Research Objectives The paper presents the study of features and claims by ERP vendors on its ERPs efficiency of the data warehousing in ERP system. This study attempts to critically review and question the claims by ERP vendors on their efficiency of Data warehousing in ERP systems. Research objective is also to identify those issues that occur in Data warehousing in ERP systems, and then map them in the research framework, perhaps with more detail related to the dimensions that are found. The issues are defined with the viewpoints of vendors and consultants. This paper will provide an overview of the issues and challenges that the intersection of these two IS concepts are creating. Research Design An overview of the importance of the information technology sector and a synopsis on enterprise resource planning systems are presented first, followed by a discussion on the research problem and the academic and practical motivations for undertaking the present study. The study is a review of literature, and claims made by prominent ERP vendors on the data warehousing in ERP system. Critical Literature Review The research design of this study consists of theoretical risk ontology through a critical literature review. A critical literature review was conducted by first searching for the appropriate literature. Initial phase of the literature research attempted to search and retrieve the secondary literature sources like journals, books and newspapers that are directly related to data warehousing in ERP, and data mining. In this process it was identified that current research studies on data warehousing in ERP system focus mainly on ERP selection, implementation, integration with data warehouse, and business intelligence (Chou et al, 2005; Shehab et al, 2004; Davenport, 1998; Themistocleous et al, 2006). The process involved a search of prominent Publisher of journals in information services like ACM Portal, Emerald, Wiley Interscience and Web search engine Google Scholar and IEE Explore. Journals and databases were searched by generating key words and search terms with initial reading and brainstorming. I decided to focus my study on articles that discuss the ERP and particularly the integration with BI. This paper presents the critical literature review about the data warehousing in ERP systems. ERP SYSTEMS Definition of ERP ERP system is a software package that integrates the flow information through the company, including financial, accounting, human resources, supply chain, and customer information. Yen et al (2002) defined ERP system as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a business management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, marketing and manufacturingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . An integrated ERP system can cover wide range of functionalities like reporting, planning, budgeting, forecasting, strategy management, scorecards, and risk management (SAP, 2009) and integrate them into one unified database. It automates core corporate activities by incorporating best practices to facilitate rapid decision making, cost reduction, and greater managerial control (Holland et al, 1999). For example, functional modules such as manufacturing, warehouse management, human resources, finance, customer relations management, supply chain management were all once stand alone software applications, typically having its own database and network (tech-faq, 2009). Best practices are incorporated as a result of the long development history of the ERPs. ERP market is led by companies like SAP AG, Oracle Corporation, Sage Group, Microsoft Corporation and Infor Global Solutions (Wikipedia, 2009). Importance of ERP An important reason for implementing ERP is that, it can help companies re-engineer their business process and compete in the market. Davenport (1998) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“for managers who have struggled, at great expense and with great frustration, with incompatible information systems and inconsistent operating practices, the promise of an off-the-shelf solution to the problem of business integration is enticingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Following are the benefits of ERP systems over the distributed stand alone departmental systems (Yen et al, 2002): * Business process automation a unified enterprise view of the business that encompasses all functions and departments. Improvement in the supply chain via the use of e-communication and E-commerce. * Timely access to management information an enterprise database where all business transactions are entered, recorded, processed, monitored and reported There are many reasons why organizations find ERP system very attractive. The primary reasons focus on the frustrations in using the existing stand alone systems. Convincing reasons for a purchasing ERP system may include (Chen, 2001): * Efficiency of the current system Inability of the existing stand alone systems to support organizational needs * Failure in the distributed system The use of multiple points of input using multiple application which leads in duplicated effort of capturing and storing the data in existing system * Maintenance overhead in the current system The requirement of extensive resources (man and machine) for maintenance and support of the system. * Competition Competition in the global market and the desire to reengineer its business process * Company growth The growth of the enterprise and subsequent incompatibility of several legacy information system * E-commerce Inability of employees to respond easily to questions or information requested by key customer or suppliers ERP systems provide a common platform and business practices across the enterprise that allows the real-time access. According to Davenport (1998), ERP solutions are designed to solve the fragmentation of information in large business organisations, and integrate all the information flowing within a company. ERP failures ERP system implementation can either reap huge benefits for successful companies or it can be disastrous for organizations that fail to manage the implementation process (Holland et al, 1999). The selection and acquisition of ERP software is a risky and challenging task. And a wrong purchase may adversely affect the organization. Themistocleous states many reason for the failure of ERP system. For example, * Resistance from the employs against the change in the system * Differences between organisations and consultants as a result of cost overruns and projects delays. * Non-flexibility in ERP software forces organisation to abandon their way of doing business * Conflict with the business strategy of the organization Selecting ERP and implementation In-house software system development is generally expensive, time consuming and often covered by uncertainties and integration of various incompatible software systems may not function well with each other. If different software packages are being used, data may not be consistent. On the other hand purchasing off-the-shelf ERP software packages can solve problem. Holland et al (1999) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the companies are radically changing their information technology strategies by purchasing pre-packaged software instead of developing IT systems in-houseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . There are different strategic approaches to ERP software implementation. It can be implemented with either a minimum deviation from the standard settings that the ERP vendor provides or with the customization of a system to suit local requirements (tech-faq, 2009). As discussed by Yusuf et al (2004) in the case study about the implementation of ERP in Rolls-Royce in partnership with Electronic Data Services (EDS), ERP implementation is a complicated task. The project implementation problems faced while implementing are * Cultural Problems Some of the functions and processes of the new system did not receive full appreciation from the employee. So, the implementation team had to resolve this by illustrating the improvements made to the company as a whole. Also extensive trainings were provided to the employees of Rolls-Royce. * Business Problems Because of the rigidity in the business structure of SAP R/3 ERP, employees of Rolls-Royce adjusted their working practices in order to fit SAP. * Technical Problems As the system required the retrieval of old data from legacy system which were in de-normalized form, Rolls-Royce had to run legacy system in parallel with the ERP until the expensive process of extracting the old data from legacy system was normalized, screened and stored in a sensible data format in the new database. Implementation of ERP and planning of the resources required to run the enterprise is not the end of the road for ERP. Organization will realize the full potential of ERP when it is used and properly managed (Yusuf et al, 2004). One of the main difficulties experienced by ERP implementations have been the costly development of additional software to summarize and retrieve the information for generating the reports (Themistocleous et al, 2001). A company that plans to invest into ERP needs to have a good strategy and a clear idea about the cost of ERP system. Implementation slowdowns the routine works within an organization. Customization is costly and time consuming (Yen et al, 2002). As outlined by Peng and Nunes (2009), reasons like insufficient user training, loss of in-house IT experts, bankruptcy of system vendor and barriers like inefficient communication between functional divisions can cause ERP post implementation failures Analytical and forecasting functions of ERP: Business managers will have different information needs for planning and decision making (Peng and Nunes, 2009). Decision support system can reduce the time, cost and improve efficiencies. Analytical and forecasting functions are the skills, processes used to support decision making and forecasting. Analytical and forecasting features of ERP can be accessed by managers using an interface such as web-based or graphical interface via the internet or intranet (Marnewick, 2005). If an organization does not take advantage of decision support systems, it cannot take complete advantage of the data and may lose its competitive edge. Most ERP systems today have highly integrated databases and business intelligence (BI) tools to access their data modules directly (Chou, 2005). ERP vendors, data warehousers, and third-party tool vendors have numerous products and solutions for using the ERP data. There are 3 major solutions for ERP data (searchSAP, 2009): 1. Solutions from third-party vendors that analyze data within ERP systems 2. ERP-based solutions that analyze data within ERP systems 3. ERP-based solutions that build data warehouses outside their ERP systems An ERP-based data warehouse is a classical, external data warehouse or data mart built with tools offered by an ERP vendor (Russom, 2007). ERP reports are generated using the existing ERP schema as the foundation for building the standard reports. Integrated business intelligence system pulls the data from ERP systems to a data warehouse and enables to perform data analysis and deliver superior reporting for making timely and accurate decision (Chou et al, 2005). Closer integration of corporate wide data warehousing data with ERP data potentially enhances companies return on their ERP and data warehouse investments (Wiley, 2009). ERP contains a set of analytical tools to facilitate sales planning. Yen et al (2002) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“many companies deploy data warehouses for facilitating the data analysis in ERP. They will buy packaged analytic applications that include a data warehouse, analytical tools, and predefined data models to accelerate the data analysis in ERPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . But, in spite of deploying ERP and an integrated data warehousing and BI, there is no guarantee that the forecast generated is up to the accuracy. As discussed by Peng and Nunes, one of the reasons for inaccurate forecasting is due to inherent difficulties in predicting the fluid market. This results in significant impact in companies. ERP systems are usually designed to record business transactions data, make changes to existing data, reconcile data, keep track of business transactions, run predefined business reports, and manage business transactions. In contrast, analytical systems are designed to examine large volumes of data and then to generate essential information for decision-making. There are five major software vendors offering ERP solutions to business worldwide. According to reports from Gartner Dataquest, quoted by destinationcrm (destinationcrm, 2006) SAP is the market share leader in ERP, followed by Oracle, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics and SSA Global Technologies. DATA WAREHOUSING AND DATA MINING Data Warehousing Bill Inmon (2002) says that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“data warehouse contains a very useful source of data for the explorer and data miner. The data found in the data warehouse is cleansed, integrated, organized. And the data is historicalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . To help managers and decision makers retrieve information they need from tremendous amount of data reside in database, many enterprises have built system environments focusing on data warehousing technology, deployed that as an integral part of a decision support systems (DSS). Data warehouse is responsible for providing information needed for supporting executive decision making. As a result, data warehousing technology has been integrated into ERP systems (Zhang et al, 2006). Yusuf et al (2004) defines Data warehouse as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“an integrated collection of data. The data is stored centrally and is extracted from operational, historical and external databasesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Data warehouses are used for decision support. Historical, summarized and consolidated data is more important than detailed, individual records. Data Mining Data mining is the study and extraction of patterns from a large set of data. It can be defined as the process of analyzing data from different viewpoints and summarizing it into useful information for planning and increase revenue. It allows users to analyze data from many different dimensions or angles, categorize it, and summarize the relationships identified (Anderson, 2009). Data mining can also be defined as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go beyond simple analysisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Oracle, 2009). Data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to slice the data and evaluate the probability of future events. The key properties of data mining are (thearling, 2009): 1. Automatic discovery of patterns 2. Prediction of likely outcomes 3. Creation of actionable information Data Mining is widely used in applications such as product analysis, demand and supply analysis, understanding consumer research marketing, investment trend in stocks real estates, telecommunications, e-commerce and so on (Chou et al, 2005). However, a database which is new and which has only a current piece of information is not suitable for data mining as it can never detect trends and long term patterns of behaviour. Historical data is very essential for data mining as historical data contains valuable chunk of information hidden in it. Mature data is crucial for understanding the seasonality of business and the larger cycles of business to which every corporation is subject (Inmon, 1996). Data mining uses data from data source in order to provide users with meaningful indicators. Data from ERP systems is used as data source. Modern ERP systems provide advanced BI tools out of the box, avoiding the hassle of connecting a stand-alone BI system, and lowering the cost which is a critical capability to consider ERP for midsize companies, with limited staff and resources to maintain multiple systems (Newcomer, 2009). After implementing the ERP system in organizations, they tend to concentrate more on the return on investment (ROI). Chou et al (2005) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“In order to justify their return-on-investment (ROI), more and more organizations are turning to BI tools that make data collected by ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), and other data-intensive applications meaningfulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Since a BI system includes technologies for reporting, analysis, and sharing information, many ERP vendors have integrated these solutions with ERP systems to truly maximize the ROI of ERP. The integration of BI and ERP systems can strengthen corporate decision-making capability through utilizing the analytical capability of BI system and data managerial capability of ERP system (Chou et al, 2005). Business Intelligence (BI) can help in competition analysis, market research, economical trends, consume behaviour, industry research, and geographical information analysis and so on. Business Intelligence using data mining helps in decision-making (Naxton, 2006). ERP VENDOR CLAIMS Modern ERP systems may provide advanced BI tools, avoiding the hassle of connecting a stand-alone BI system, and lowering the cost. Integrated business intelligence contains a broad category of analytical applications that help companies in making decision based on the data in their ERP systems (Moller, 2005). Oracle and SAP are currently the only major ERP vendors with such offerings. Analytical applications can be broadly classified as follows: Financial Analytics Financial analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project (Wikipedia, 2009). It is concerned with optimising the profitability of the business. When used effectively it can provide a competitive differentiator. Financial analytics helps the business focus on the most important customers and the most profitable products and services (Brook, 2009). It helps them to (Schroeck, 2001): * Understand the overall performance of the organization * Identify ways to measure and maximize the value of intangible assets (eg. Services) * Effectively manage enterprise-wide investments and reduce operating costs * Forecast variations in the marketplace, * Optimize the capabilities of information systems, and * Business processes improvement. Integrated analytics allow organizations with an ERP infrastructure to facilitate reporting and tools required for decision-makers. Oracle E-Business Suit (EBS) is one suite of applications that contains ERP and integrated BI. Oracle says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Oracle Financial Analytics helps front-line managers improve financial performance with complete, up-to-the-minute information on their departments expenses and revenue contributionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . SAP Business Suite is a range of software modules with an integrated Business Intelligence. SAP states that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“SAP ERP provides powerful analytic software that enables powerful financial analysis to help you analyze your business, develop business plans and budgets, and track performance during execution.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (SAP AG, 2009). Few of the features and functions that support financial analytics as stated by SAP are * Financial and management reporting Providing a set of tools to meet the financial and management reporting needs. * Planning, budgeting, and forecasting Support traditional budgeting, rolling forecasts, and collaborative planning, such as cost center planning. * Working capital and cash flow management Optimize cash flow, including cash flow calculations and middle- and long-term planning. Sales Analytics Sales analytics is a procedure involving the gathering, classifying, comparing, and studying of company sales data. It may simply involve the comparison of total company sales in two different time periods. Or it may entail subjecting thousands of component sales (or sales-related) s to a variety of comparisons, like comparison with s for earlier periods of time (Wikipedia, 2009). SAP says that the SAP sales analytic help the organization to obtain the data necessary to proactively address trends and measure success and revenue shortfalls. Oracle states that analytics solutions provided by its E-business suite dramatically improve the effectiveness of sales people by providing real-time, actionable insight into every sales opportunity at the point of customer contact. With more accurate sales forecasts and enhanced identification of potential problems and opportunities, Oracle Sales Analytics helps close business faster and increase overall sales revenue. It lists the following benefits: * Resource allocation Identifying critical opportunities so that executives can assign the appropriate resources to increase the chance of winning * Sales forecasts Analyzing pipeline opportunities to determine actions required to meet sales targets. Provide the information about sales documents, such as opportunities, sales orders and sales contracts. Thus, help in future revenue forecasting. Integrated sales planning and analysis enables sales managers to understand the financial status and overall effectiveness of the sales organization quickly and easily. These scenarios help users obtain the data necessary to proactively address trends, measure customer retention and revenue shortfalls, and assess future opportunities (SAP, 2009). Operational Analytics Operational analytics is a process that facilitates delivery of the in-depth and focused analysis of the performance of each key operational area of the business. Operational Analytics try to provide comprehensive and focused analysis of every aspect of the operational area of a company (Information Management, 2007). Oracle says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Oracles Business Intelligence Suite delivers real-time operational analytics that enable you to make better business decisions fasterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Operational analytics is also a part of SAP business suite. SAP says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“SAP ERP provides features and functions for operational analysis to help you optimize the entire supply chain, improve revenues, and increase customer satisfactionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Few of the features and functions that support financial analytics as stated by SAP are: * Manufacturing reporting Provides various standard reports and analyses detailing production-related information. * Customer service analysis Used for monitoring financial trends, costs, and revenues per customer, as well as service contracts and operations. * Sales planning Used for opportunity planning and analysis and partner planning. * Sales analysis Provides an accurate overview of current sales performance and an overview of sales force effectiveness. Workforce Analytics Workforce Analytics is a powerful decision-making platform using business intelligence tools that offer to the management at every level the right and timely information at point of decision making process for a better visibility and accountability in regards to workforce-related issues (Information Management, 2007). Workforce Analytics is used by HR professionals, and line managers. It provides an analysis option that gives real-time insight into your workforce. They can identify trends at an early stage and make well-informed decisions, enabling you to manage your human capital more effectively, predict human-capital investment demands, and track workforce costs and the ROI associated with HR projects (Wikipedia, 2009). The focus is to analyse current and historical employee data to identify key relationships among variables and use this to provide insight into the workforce they need for the future. Oracle says that Oracle workforce analytics in the e-business suite à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“provides the strategy management and performance tracking needed to measure the effectiveness of HR initiatives. It helps to evaluate and communicate company performance, staffing, turnover, HR readiness, compensation, and competencies.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Managers need information that will help guide your strategic decisions. Implementing an Enterprise Resource System (ERP) that integrates all the information and processes into one coherent environment is a first and major step towards improved decision-making. But capturing and processing data is not sufficient to give the insight into the business that decision makers need today. Only when coupled with a business intelligence system can your ERP software enable users analyse and act on that data quickly and effectively. IT industrial leader, Microsoft quotes that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Forecaster for Microsoft Dynamics ERP helps you manage financial performance through accurate budgeting and planningà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Microsoft, 2009). A CRITIQUE OF VENDOR CLAIMS Data Warehousing In todays ever-competitive business climate, the ability to understand business conditions and gain timely insight into business performance is essential for survival. Business users have long faced the challenge of being unable to easily analyze business data in their enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment. Oftentimes, the reporting tools available are too complex for business users to utilize effectively, and IT experts do not have the business background to sufficiently understand business users analytical needs. The delay in IT departments turnaround time can quickly render information irrelevant and outdated by the time it is available to business users. ERPs serve as transaction engines in many organizations. It provides mission-critical operational workflow but do not support decision support systems (DSS) directly (Inmon, 2000). Therefore, the need to source a data warehouse from the ERP system and other legacy systems is obvious. Many organisations are now discovering that the solution to leveraging investment decisions in and retrieving useful data from, an ERP system is to undertake a Data Warehousing initiative in conjunction with the implemented ERP system. But, the harsh reality of ERP systems implementation, to the expense of those organisations that invested resources in the initiative, is that ERP only gets data into the system, it does not prepare data for use and analysis (Inmon, 2000). ERP systems lack certain functionality and reporting capabilities. It has been realised that ERP systems are good for storing, accessing and executing data used in daily transactions, but it is not good at providing the information needed for long term planning and decision making (Radding, 2000) as ERP systems are not designed to know how the data is to be used once it is gathered (Inmon, 2000). Consequently, in the post-implementation phase organisations are often dismayed to find that they havent improved their an alytical and decision support capabilities (Inmon, 2000; Radding, 2000) as ERP systems do not provide an environment for decision support activities such as analysing historical trends, drawing conclusions, scenario building and planning. Business Intelligence using Data Warehouse built on ERP System Analytical and forecasting features are provided by the business intelligence tools that are linked to the data warehouse. Some of the common functions of Business Intelligence technologies are reporting, analytics, data mining and benchmarking (Wikipedia, 2009). Integration of ERP and BI can provide a consolidated analysis of the data and user-friendly reporting capabilities and help users make and correct decisions and gain advantages over their competitors. Financial analytics, sales analytics, operational analytics and workforce analytical, may provide the facility to analyze relationships and understand trends that ultimately support business decision. However, few of the challenges faced by data warehousing in ERP systems are in its capability of providing a valuable and accurate reporting service, data analysis and forecasting. Chou et al says (2005) says à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Organizations recognize the wealth of information within ERP systems, the challenge lies in the ways of min ing themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . The lack of historical transaction data in the database containing the data from ERP is the most significant obstacle in successfully implementing a BI on ERP system. One of the key elements in accurate forecasting like trend reporting is the need for historical data. Most of the ERP vendors claim that the reports and forecasts generated by ERP or a BI that is integrated with ERP environment are of high accuracy. Zhang et al (2006) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“although ERP system is powerful, a serious challenge is how to make use of previous experiences and knowledge to support managerial decision makingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Still the research has to be carried out to know the accuracy of the reports as ERP system does not contain the historical data in the enterprises data warehouse. Traditionally, the enterprise data warehouse needs historical data. When a large amount of historical data starts to stack up in the ERP environment, the ERP environment is usually purged, or the data is archived to a remote storage facility. When an enterprise data warehouse needs to go back in time and bring in historical data that has not been previously colle

My Cultural Identity

Defining my own cultural identity by Stefanie A–ttl Culture is one of the most difficult concepts in the human social sciences and there are many different ways of defining it. It is often argued that culture is a learned behaviour pattern shared by a specific group of people. Culture is about shared meanings, and language is the privileged medium in which meaning is produced and exchanged. People sharing one culture interpret the world in roughly the same way. Defining my own cultural identity seems to me quite difficult. I actually have to admit that I am not quite sure which culture I belong to.I was born in Austria but my father comes from South Tyrol, the northern part of Italy, where Italian and German are spoken. Therefore I have Italian nationality but I have only some basic knowledge concerning the language. Although I live in Austria, there are still some traditions and cultural aspects in my family that are not Austrian. Not only is there some Italian influence, but also Canadian due to the fact that my motheraâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s stepmother is British but emigrated to Canada. I havenaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t got Canadian nationality, but I was brought up bilingually (German/English).Furthermore I spent half a year living in Chile and therefore I was influenced by the Chilean way of life. Understandably I sometimes get quite confused about which culture I really belong to. There are several parameters for defining oneaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s culture, such as nationality, language, the country you live in, gender, social class, occupation, interests, educational levelaâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦. But the question is, which of these parameters is to be considered the most important. I have Italian nationality, but due to the fact that I donaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t really know the language I donaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t really feel Italian or aâ‚ ¬? Southern Tyrolianaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢.And although I am not Canadian by citizenship I sometimes feel more at home there because of the language. Still, con cerning some traditional aspects, I am more familiar with the aâ‚ ¬? South Tyrolianaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ ones but I donaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t really feel that I belong there because I donaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t know Italian nor do I really speak German with a aâ‚ ¬? South Tyrolianaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ accent. I believe that not knowing the language could be seen as a barrier keeping me from really experiencing Italian culture. I strongly believe that one can somehow adopt a culture by learning specific behaviour patterns, values, moralities or more precisely, a certain way of life.I experienced this while living in Chile and I can say for sure that it was far more difficult to adjust to a new way of living and learn how to react in certain situations than learning the foreign language. Despite all these influences of different cultures, I still feel very Austrian due to the fact of actually living in this country. The parameters which I believe to be very important in order to define your culture are first of all the is the country you live in because your culture depends very much on what is happening around you.The second important aspect is language through which thoughts, ideas and feelings of a certain culture are represented. The least important thing in my opinion is the nationality because I believe this to be a very official way of defining your culture. But, as I already mentioned, I sometimes donaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t really know which culture I really belong to. I believe I am a mixture of all of them. Understanding home by Michael Pelitz â€Å"the night is your friend, your only friend the center stage, a moonscape as you walk. alk your head is a thread; your head’s a thread the eye of the needle becomes indistinct we’re just a sadder song away we’re just a sadder song away the mountaintops, the rainbow drops the fires from the temples and palaises. hurray the hierarchy that swallows me the pavement emptied out by night we’re just a sadder son g away we’re just a sadder song away we’re off to understanding home we’re off to understanding home we’re off to understanding home we’re just a sadder song away†Just as I reached Radetzkyplatz, passing by the Hotel Garni Lind, aâ‚ ¬? Understanding Homeaâ‚ ¬? ept rotating in my disc player. aâ‚ ¬? aâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦The center stage, a moonscape as you walkaâ‚ ¬?. The display warns: aâ‚ ¬? BATTERY LOWaâ‚ ¬? , but Alexaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ apartment is right across the square, so I decided not to worry about it. I suddenly remembered a letter I read on the internet, written by an Austrian social worker after his return from his social service year at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Detroit: aâ‚ ¬? When being abroadaâ‚ ¬? , he wrote, aâ‚ ¬? you become a true patriotaâ‚ ¬?! He stayed in the U. S. during the international crusade against the Austrian government in 2001.I started to remember all these artists who cancelled their concerts in Austria, and every single e-mail I had to send to my American friends, explaining aâ‚ ¬? the situationaâ‚ ¬?. And I had to think about all these desperate and aggressive anti-Moslem e-mails my mum received from a friend of hers who lives in Virginia, fearing that her son might not return from Iraq safely. I glanced over my shoulder to check on the traffic lights. Red. Suddenly I was confused, even a bit aggressive. I felt terribly blank despite the music, or maybe, because of the music. The whole world (including me) seems to be talking about sending, I thought!Sending e-mails, sending troops, sending messages, sending money, sending support, sending social workers. Mobility is the keyword of our times. Nobody seems to be talking about the sense of belonging. aâ‚ ¬? You become a true patriotaâ‚ ¬? , returns to my mind. I thought of how much I detest the concept of patriotism. To me, patriotism leads to flag-waving, flag-waving gives beautiful pictures, beaut iful picture are very likely to be shown in the news, satellites enable worldwide broadcasts within milliseconds, and the media have an incredible manipulating impact.I know the concept underlying the word aâ‚ ¬? patriotismaâ‚ ¬? is not that easy, but I am sure that patriotism is a great source of misunderstandings. The next moment I pictured myself at the soccer stadium singing the national anthem. Again, it leaves me confused. I felt exhausted. It has been a long day. An estimated 750 metres, the way from the U4-metrostation LandstraAYer HauptstraAYe to here, lay behind me. Another two and a half miles to the 23 rd district, where Iaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve parked my car, 102 kilometres to MA? zzuschlag, my hometown, an additional 87 kilometres to Graz, the city where I live, and yet another 8944 km to Portland/Oregon, the place where I spent the most wonderful year imaginable, describe my route. I think about my travels, the times I was sent, the times I mobilized. The batteries ra n out on the final lines of the song.I would have loved to listen to the outro and the repetition of the chorus. I pushed the doorbell and heard the buzzing of reality. Maybe all of this is not as contradictory as I thought. Maybe the understanding of our cultural identity needs to aâ‚ ¬? travel lightaâ‚ ¬? in order to find its way back home. And in its backpack it carries all the concepts we fear, detest or treasures so much. aâ‚ ¬? Weaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re off to understanding homeaâ‚ ¬? , I repeated, as suddenly the front door opened and I entered the building. Cultural Identity by Ana Flac A couple of years ago I found myself wandering between cultures, customs and different traditions. At the beginning of this â€Å"cultural voyage† I was torn between contradictions which forced me to ask myself: Who am I? What makes me a Croatian? Six years ago a specific incident happened in Osijek which triggered off these thoughts .Morete mi reci da ide vlak za Cakovec? (Could you tell me when the next train goes to Cakovec? ), I asked a railway man as I was on my way home, after I had taken my entrance exam at Osijek University in 1998. The friendly man smiled and begged my pardon. He did not quite understand me. At this point I realized that I was no longer in my home town in Medjimurje and that all the competence I had in speaking my dialect which I’m so proud of could constitute a burden rather than a merit. This was the first time I perceived myself as being different from other people in Croatia.Some of my fellow students in Osijek rejected their dialect but I was proud of it and it made me somehow stand out from the crowd so I could be easily identified by it. I realized that my Medjimurian dialect was a part of my cultural identity. As time passed by I got to know many different people from the Slavonic region, their customs and their way of living. Since this region was greatly affected by the war, a very critical attitude towards Serbs h ad developed there. Most of the inhabitants often expressed their fury mostly against Serbs and emphasized Pan-Croatian nationalism.I noticed I wasn’t prepared to emphasize a Pan-Croatian position and I didn’t want to perceive the whole Serbian nation so destructively. I just couldn’t identify myself with all this Pan-Croatian nationalism and I mainly disagreed with people who had this kind of attitude. I kept my distance and withdrew into my regional cultural frames. After having spent two years in Osijek, I continued my studies in a completely different country, in Austria. I was very much excited about the new faces and new culture I was about to meet. And then one day I encountered a girl on the campus and we started talking.I found the conversation quite neat. Apart from other things, she wanted to know where I come from so I told her I was from Croatia. Ah, aus Kroatien.. those were the next words she said. They sounded strange, as if she got the whole pic ture of me when she found out about my origin. At this moment I realized there was not only no place left for my Medjimurian identity, which I am extremely proud of, but there was also hardly even any left for my Croatian identity. I was differentiated from other students by labels such as another ex-Yugoslavian or inhabitant of the Balkans.For the first time in my life I felt ashamed of my nationality. And from that moment on I was somehow torn between my Medjimurian pride and the feeling of shame for who I was in Austria. I was trapped in some generalized prejudices about myself that I did not want to have anything to do with. My identity was on the verge of being formed by some stereotypic views which I could not accept. But inspite of all these confrontations and contradictions I had to face and which scared me and disoriented me at first, they were also the one that gave me strength and motivated me to figure out who I really am.My Cultural Identity by Camilla Leimisch If someo ne asked me if I was proud to be Austrian or Finnish, I would not answer aâ‚ ¬? Yesaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ right away. Iaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve always felt that proud was not the appropriate word to describe my feelings towards the country where I was born or the country where I grew up, because I find it hard to be proud of something that I did not decide or that I did not achieve on my own. But I do not want to be misunderstood: I am proud of my parents to whom I owe my bilingualism and who introduced me to both cultures right from the start (Finnish from my mother and Austrian from my father).I am also happy to have kept this bilingualism and I consider myself lucky to have two native countries. Although I was born in Finland and I was only two years old when my family moved to Austria, I have never considered Finland to be my second home country, in the sense of second best. This is because I have a family there, too, and I spend every summer in Finland. This is also because my mother took care that I did not forget my Finnish roots in Austria, so I could develop feelings of the same value for both of the countries, as well as an understanding of cultural awareness that is closely connected to the feeling of home.As I see it, not only my nationality is an important part of my cultural identity, but also what I have done and what I am doing in my country and in its society. Austria is the country where I live and study. As my main subject is music, and Austria is a country of great musicians, music has become a big part not only of my personal but also of my cultural identity. I also appreciate Austrian folk music which I consider a very relevant and unique cultural tradition in the country. With Finland, itaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s different. Iaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢d rather identify myself with Finnish people than with Austrian people.It is not easy to explain why. All I can say is that Finnish people are very attached to nature, and that I often share their moments of melancholy wh ich are even more intense when they are far away from their own country. Iaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve already said that I am happy about my bilingualism. In fact, language is an important parameter for defining my cultural identity, because other people also define or identify you by the way you speak. Certainly you become most aware of your language when you find yourself in a foreign country where no-one speaks your language.What Iaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve noticed is that if you are among people who do not only speak differently, but also behave differently and look different from you, you suddenly distinguish yourself culturally from the others, and your cultural identity becomes much more evident. The frequently asked question about whether I feel more Austrian or more Finnish is not easy to answer. I am not 100% Austrian and not 100% Finnish. But I think that this diversity which has shaped my personality is also the key to my cultural identity.