Here Be Dragons free essay sample

They constantly come across what to Western eyes look like exotic corporate species and new, unfamiliar kinds of business which raise profound questions about the evolution of companies and business models. Most emerging countries have a penchant for highly diversified conglomerates. Indias Tata Group, which accounts for almost 6% of the countrys GDP, has subsidiaries in carmaking, agricultural chemicals, hotels, telecommunications and consulting. Reliance Industries range sprawls from petrol products and clothes to fresh food. But such diversification is not confined to giant organisations. China is full of small and medium-sized companies that have fingers in many pies, taking advantage of opportunities as they arise. Many emerging countries also rely heavily on state-owned enterprises. These organisations are peculiar hybrids that have never been seen before; the closest relatives are the European trading companies of the 16th-19th centuries, such as Britains East India Company. They are not old-fashioned nationalised companies run by the government and designed to control chunks of the national economy, but nor are they classic private-sector companies that sink or swim. We will write a custom essay sample on Here Be Dragons or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Instead they are amphibious creatures that flit between sea and land, borrowing money from governments at subsidised rates one moment, plunging into the global market the next. China and Russia are the main exponents. Thousands of Chinese companies have convoluted ties to central or local government. Russia has created a large class of state companies that enjoy various legal privileges. But countries in Latin America and the Middle East are jumping onto the hybrid bandwagon. Hybrid organisations are particularly prominent in the energy sector. The worlds 13 largest oil companies, as measured by reserves, are all controlled by governments, and three-quarters of the worlds crude-oil reserves are in the hands of state-backed companies. Many of Chinas best high-tech companies, such as China Telecom and Lenovo, are also state-backed. But such organisations are active in lots of other areas too. Like the developing worlds private giants, they are often diversified. Adapt and survive In their different ways both of these corporate forms are creative responses to their circumstances, much like the exotic ocean creatures that the Challengers crew dredged up from the depths. Diversified conglomerates can adapt to environments rife with political and financial risks. Tarun Khanna, of the Harvard Business School, argues that they are also good at dealing with shortages of vital resources such as capital and talent. The Tata Group can use capital from established businesses to support growth in new ones, and has the resources to attract and train the best people. It can also use its brand name to sell all sorts of products. Indians who have grown up enjoying Tata tea might be more inclined to buy the latest Tata electric car. State-owned companies also draw on long traditions. Authoritarian governments can use them to direct economic activity (and also to preserve their economic power). Local entrepreneurs can use them to seize business opportunities. And even Western multinationals can use them to gain access to difficult markets. Looked at one way, a huge organisation such as China Mobile is a throwback to an earlier era; looked at another way, it is an attempt by those in charge to embrace a more dynamic economyan evolutionary change. How are these companies likely to fare as they compete in a global marketplace? Most Westerners have little time for diversified conglomerates; they expect a conglomerate discount when they buy such shares on the stockmarket, and regard them as a primitive corporate form that will tend to disappear as local stockmarkets improve and investors rather than companies get to do the diversifying. But the inefficiency of capital markets is only one of the reasons for diversification. Two of the otherstalent shortages and brand-buildingare likely to be around for a long time yet. Conglomerates may have an enduring advantage in attracting and training talent in rapidly growing markets, and in building brands in regions where brand recognition is low and potential consumers are numbered in their billions rather than millions. The Tata Group reckons that its brand is worth about 100 billion rupees ($2. 2 billion). The case for state-owned companies is less robust. Hybrid companies are inherently confused organisations: unclear whether they are responsible to the state or the marketplace, and buffeted by contradictory pressures. They are subject to political meddling, often called upon to save strategic jobs and regularly used to oil the state patronage machine. Outsiders often find it hard to know whether to treat them as a business or an arm of government. And the OECD says that state-owned enterprises have significantly lower levels of productivity than private firms. But the road to real privatisation will be a long one, and the recent financial meltdown has hardly made emerging-market governments more favourably disposed towards the Anglo-Saxon model. It would be foolish for Western companies to dismiss these new corporate life forms as evolutionary dead ends, but there is little scope for emulating them. The same is not true of many of the business models that the emerging world has come up with. They are not only important innovations in their own right but have serious implications for the way that Western companies run their affairs. Learning from the masters Three of them are particularly powerful. The first concerns rethinking economies of scale, which usually involves scaling up. Companies reduce unit costs by centralising their manufacturing and producing long runs of standardised items. But centralised production adds expensive layers of bureaucracy, and is it hard to make it work in emerging markets where populations are often widely scattered and distribution systems abysmal. The Boston Consulting Group notes that a growing number of entrepreneurs in the emerging world are replacing scaling up with scaling out, which means involving a wider range of people in the process of production and distribution, something that has been made much easier by mobile phones and the internet. The most successful examples of this are clinics on wheels, but there are plenty of others. Nutriset, a French manufacturer of fortified food for malnourished children, has outsourced production to local franchises in Africa. The company maintains quality control and the franchises are close enough to the children to make distribution quick and easy. Kenyas Child and Family Wellness Shops offer shares in the company to the nurses who operate the clinics, which encourages them to serve more children and helps stem the brain drain from rural areas. A second business model takes an equally contrarian approach to production. John Hagel and John Seely Brown, who run Deloittes Centre for Edge Innovation, argue that Western companies have spent the past century perfecting push models of production that allocate resources to areas of expected demand. But in emerging markets, particularly those where the Chinese have a strong influence, a very different pull model often prevails, designed to help companies mobilise resources when the need arises. Hong Kongs Li Fung or Chinas Chingquing Lifan Group can use their huge supply chains to produce fashion items or motorcycles in response to demand. Taiwans Quanta and Compel can produce cheap computers and digital cameras for a fashion-conscious digital marketplace. These pull models fundamentally change the nature of companies. Instead of fixed armies looking for opportunities, firms become loose networks that are forever reconfiguring themselves in response to a rapidly shifting landscape. Such models are not peculiar to emerging markets: Dell builds computers to its Western customers specifications, and Western management gurus have been advocating networks for decades. But according to Messrs Hagel and Seely Brown they are far more widespread in emerging countries. The developing worlds most innovative business model may be the application of mass-production techniques to sophisticated services. This started with Indias outsourcing firms, which demonstrated that economies of scale and scope could be reaped from services that used to be highly fragmented and geographically rooted. These outsourcers are still expanding and moving upmarket. Indian consultancies are now challenging Western ones in complex services, not just dealing with customer complaints. Emerging-market entrepreneurs want to apply these techniques beyond IT and the back office. For example, they see a huge market for legal services requiring a high level of expertise. Dr Shetty is only one of many Indians who are applying Henry Fords principles to health care. LifeSpring has reduced the cost of giving birth in a private hospital to $40 by looking after many more mothers. Aravind, the worlds biggest eye-hospital chain, performs some 200,000 eye operations a year. It takes the assembly-line principle literally: four operating tables are laid side by side and two doctors operate on adjacent tables. When the first operation is done, the second patient is already in place.

Joseph Winters and the Fire Escape Ladder

Joseph Winters and the Fire Escape Ladder On May 7, 1878, the fire escape ladder was patented by Joseph Winters. Joseph Winters invented a wagon-mounted fire escape ladder for the city of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. A historic marker was placed in 2005 at the Junior Hose and Truck Company #2 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania noting Winters patents for the fire escape ladder and hose conductor and his work on the Underground Railway. It lists his dates of birth and death as 1816-1916. Life of Joseph Winters There are at least three different, widely varying birth years given for Joseph Winters, from 1816 to 1830 by various sources. His mother was Shawnee and his father, James, was a black brickmaker who worked at Harpers Ferry to build the federal gun factory and arsenal. The familys tradition said that his father was also descended Powhatan chief  Opechancanough. Joseph was raised by his grandmother Betsy Cross in Waterford, Virginia, where she was known as the Indian Doctor woman, a herbalist and healer. His later knowledge of nature may have stemmed from this time. At that time there were free black families in the area and Quakers who were active abolitionists. Winters used the nickname Indian Dick in his publications. Joseph also later worked at Harpers Ferry sanding brick molds before the family moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In Chambersburg, he was active in the Underground Railroad, helping enslaved people escape to freedom. In Winters  autobiography, he claimed to have arranged the meeting between Frederick Douglass and abolitionist John Brown at the quarry in Chambersburg before the historic Harpers Ferry raid. Douglasss autobiography credits a different person, local barber Henry Watson. Winters wrote a song, Ten Days After the Battle of Gettysburg, and also used that as the title for his lost autobiography. He also wrote a campaign song for presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, who lost to William McKinley. He was noted for hunting, fishing, and fly-tying. He engaged in oil prospecting in the Chambersburg area but his wells only hit the water. He died in 1916 and is buried in Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Chambersburg. Fire Ladder Inventions of Joseph Winters Buildings were being built taller and taller in American cities in the late 19th century. Fire crews at that time carried ladders on their horse-drawn fire engines. These were usually normal ladders, and they couldnt be too long or the engine wouldnt be able to turn corners into narrow streets or alleys. These ladders were used to evacuate residents from burning buildings as well as to give the firemen and their hoses access. Winters thought it would be smarter to have the ladder mounted on the fire engine and be articulated so it could be raised up from the wagon itself. He made this folding design for the city of Chambersburg and received a patent for it. He later patented improvements to this design. In 1882 he patented a fire escape that could be attached to buildings. He reportedly received much praise but little money for his inventions. Fire Ladder Patents US patent #203,517 Improvement in fire-escape ladders, granted on May 7, 1878.US patent #214,224 Improvement in fire-escape ladders, granted on April 8, 1879.US patent #258186 Fire escape, granted on May 16, 1882.

Choose a federal law Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Choose a federal law - Research Paper Example This policy paper will identify the history of the Act; trace its implementation, its impact on business and society as well as its strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, the paper will provide some recommendations for future policy makers. The legislation which came to force in 2002, has 11 major elements. The key provisions that this paper will analyze their implementation include Sarbanes-Oxley Sections 302, 303, 401, 404, 802, 906 and 1106. Sarbanes- Oxley was named after its sponsors Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley who were US Senators and Representative respectively. With the implementation of SOX, it became mandatory for top managements to personally certify the accuracy of the information that is provided by their organizations. Between 2000 and 2002, large corporate frauds occurred in various firms due to variety of complex factors. In addition to Worldcom, and Enron as noted earlier, other frauds included Adelphia, Tyco International, and Peregrine Systems. Apart from the conflict of interest that emanated from the frauds, they also resulted into problems during the incentive compensations practices. Through the analysis of the infamous frauds, the pioneers attained the ground for the introduction of the bill leading to the passage of SOX in 2002. According to Senator Paul Sarbanes, the market had problems that resulted to loss of hundreds and trillions of billions in dollars. Some of the notable issues that led to the mega frauds included lack of independence for the auditors, inadequate accountant’s oversight, conflict of interest on the part of stock analysts, weak corporate government procedures, ineffective disclosure procedures and providing low funds to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Before the introduction of SOX, auditing firms which are noted as watchdogs for the investors did not perform auditing or any consulting

Visit to Zilver Seafood Restaurant Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Visit to Zilver Seafood Restaurant - Assignment Example The reasons why customers visit restaurants are varied. Some customers go to a restaurant to satiate hunger, while others visit the restaurant simply to catch up with a friend and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. Whatever be the objective of the visit, there lies a common thread; the thread of expectations. Irrespective of the purpose of the visit, all customers want to be treated nicely at the restaurant and expect their order to be served promptly. It is important to remember that elements of hospitality and swiftness in serve revolve around the core service which is critical to success. In the case of restaurants, the quality of the food is the core. Thus the minimum expectation of each customer is that the food should be delicious. Whatever add-ons come along are welcome for e.g. a good ambiance would make the experience at the restaurant all the more pleasurable. Keeping in view the aforesaid discussion, the assignment of visiting a restaurant of choice was carried out. This report pe ns down my findings at the Zilver Seafood Restaurant. ... There is no doubt in the fact that the quality of the core service is important; however, the manner in which this service is rendered is equally important. It can be safely stated that restaurants, by virtue of their nature of the business, not only sell cooked food to customers but pass on a full-fledged eating experience to their customers. A lot of factors clubbed together, make this experience either a memorable one or a nightmarish one for the customer. Other experiences like ‘average’, ‘just OK’ etc. may lie on the continuum. The quality of food, speed of service, attitude of staff, and overall ambiance of the restaurant are just a few of the numerous factors that contribute to making a restaurant fall either in the ‘special’ or in the ‘me-too’ category. A logical corollary of this aspect is that these very factors enable the customer to judge the restaurant. An inherent characteristic of services is its inseparability i.e. t he service cannot be separated from the service provider. Services are also perishable and are therefore produced and consumed instantaneously. Inseparability and perishability of services bring into play human involvement. In case of restaurants, the parties involved are the host (provider of food) and the guest (customer). The human involvement adds to the complexity of any given situation. It may also lead to variability in the service rendered. Different customers may have different needs and motivations. The mood of the customer at a given time may impact his own experience as well as that of the fellow customers.

Professional and Personal Growth-Reflective Report Assignment

Professional and Personal Growth-Reflective Report - Assignment Example However, managing people is a very challenging undertaking to most managers today. This is particularly so managers who lacks effective leadership skills. Effective management of people also requires fostering collaboration within the organization. Collaboration within the organization is important since it helps in building effective teams. However, I knew very little regarding the importance of effective management of people and fostering collaboration until I learned about leadership content of the course. When learning about leadership in an organization, I came to realize that an effective leader is one who knows how to manage his people. Salacuse (2006) attributed this to the fact that employees are one of the most important assets of an organization. As such, an effective leader must adopt an effective leadership style that inspires his followers towards the attainment of the organizational goals. The content of leadership also brought me to the aspect of collaborative leaders hip style that leaders might adopt as way of fostering teamwork in an organization. In this regard, the content demonstrated the importance of collaboration between managers and employees in an organization. Managers can build effective teams by adopting a collaborative leadership approach. My improved understanding of managing people and fostering collaboration through leadership has had a positive impact on the value that I will bring to my role within an organization. ... This follows my improved understanding that collaborative leadership motivates employees to work hard towards the attainment of organizational goals. 2. Week 3 Sentence Global warming is one of the major environmental problems facing the world today. Pollutants from companies have been cited as one of the major causes of environmental degradation in the world today. As such, I inspire to make the world better by minimizing the level of emissions and promoting responsible disposal of waste products in the organization where I work. Minimizing the level of emission will help mitigate the global warming problem that continues to impact negatively on the world. At the same time, promoting responsible disposal of waste products will help create a society that is not only clean, but also healthy to people. To become a manager who ensures that the organization I work for protects the environment through responsible disposal of waste product and minimization of pollution, I intend to sensiti ze the employees and colleagues in the organization on the need to protect the environment from pollution. Doing so will make other managers in the organization, as well as employees understand why protecting the environment is important to the community around and the world at large. To ensure that my relationship with my spouse and family become an enduring source of happiness, I intend to respect family values. This begins by showing love and respect to my spouse and family. At the same time, I will ensure that there is effective communication between them and myself. Maintaining effective communication will help solve grievances that may threaten the relationship and happiness. Maintaining faithfulness with my spouse will also be important for building trust, which

Scientific perspectives on positivism and hermeneutics

Scientific perspectives on positivism and hermeneutics The purpose of this chapter is to describe the method that how the work will be carried out and what approach we have chosen. The aim of this research design is to answer the main questions. We would also present the overview of the choice of methods used for data collection, analysis and the results of the data. Research perspective There are two main scientific perspectives, positivism and hermeneutics. (Ann Lind, 2005), since we want to create comprehension knowledge, a hermeneutic perspective is best for our research. The aim of the hermeneutic analysis is trying to make sense of the whole, and the relationship between people, the organization, and information technology (Michael D. Myers, 1997). Hermeneutics has been defined as the theory of the operation of understanding in relation to the interpretation of text (David L. Rennie, 2006). The text could be any sacred and legal document. Hermeneutics dealt with two aspects of interpretation which will be encountered again: first, the problems of analyzing texts in a way that looked beyond the surface features (e.g. of a parable), and second, the problems of verifying the analysis so produced (Wallace, Ross, Davie, 2003). We can say that the hermeneutics deals with the interpretation of any aspect of the technology. Hermeneutics opens the path of protecting the social sciences from the violation of the methodology of the natural sciences, but the main concerns are always the similar as those acknowledged previously: i.e. to what degree are readings to be ordered and to what level are they objectively accurate or subjectively factual to the reader? (Wallace, Ross, Davie, 2003) The hermeneutics deals with the difficulties of the text interpretation, analysis of the text and the verification of that analysis. The qualitative study produces some kind of text from the interviews or observation, the produced text needs to be interpretive because Texts are not just more or less meaningful, they are also more or less useful. (Wallace, Ross, Davie, 2003). It will show the objectivity of the text, we think that the hermeneutic approach with qualitative research is better approach to choose. The qualitative research gives chance to the interviewee or respondents to answer in their own opinion and not forcing them to select or answer from preset answers Every research design has some positive aspects in it beside with some negative sides. It is not possible to say that any research design a perfect design. There are mainly two research designs which are the source of the todays research, one is qualitative research and other is quantitative research. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior.(Wikipedia, 2010) and The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to phenomena.(Wikipedia, 2010) The qualitative research contains the study that consists of: to find the answers of questions by predefined set of measures produces answer that might not be resolute in advance and gathering of the proofs. The Qualitative research shares the characteristics which are described and it helps to recognize any given research problem or subject. Qualitative research is especially efficient in obtaining culturally specific information about the values, opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations. The qualitative research provides textual metaphors of, how the researcher experience a given research problem. There are three qualitative research methods which are: participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. The participant observation depends on the observation of the participant to be observed, in-depth interviews depend on the collection of data from the individual personally, and focus groups depend on collection of data from the group of partic ulars. (Mack, Namey, 2005) The quantitative approach, on the other hand, has more benefit of generating data that is open to the statistical analysis, and something that is predominantly imperative in a safety context. The quantitative research approach is most of the time is in simpler form, the representation of the data in quantitative structure (e.g. graphs or charts) then the disordered layout of the text in qualitative data. (Wallace, Ross, Davie, 2003) In this research we have use qualitative research methods with hermeneutic approach, our research design will show how this work will be applied, and why we have chosen the approach that we are going to work with. The research design will be helpful to answer the research question, we will use the procedure of the observations and the interviews in this regard. We will try to explore that what are the requirements of a user (visually impaired people) and how the ticketing machine could be provided by the interface that could be usable for the user. This approach will be relying on the conclusion and results that we gather from the interviews and the observation. We will try to broaden our perspective at the start of the work, because it could be very helpful at the point, when we will be collecting data. We will analyze that how a ticket machine system interfaces have an effect on a user who is in need of it. Comparison of quantitative and qualitative research approaches Quantitative Qualitative General framework Seek to confirm hypotheses about phenomena Instruments use more rigid style of eliciting and categorizing responses to questions Use highly structured methods such as questionnaires, surveys, and structured observation Seek to explore phenomena Instruments use more flexible, iterative style of eliciting and categorizing responses to questions Use semi-structured methods such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation Analytical objectives To quantify variation To predict causal relationships To describe characteristics of a population To describe variation To describe and explain relationships To describe individual experiences To describe group norms Question format Closed-ended Open-ended Data format Numerical (obtained by assigning numerical values to responses) Textual (obtained from audiotapes, videotapes, and field notes) Flexibility in study design Study design is stable from beginning to end Participant responses do not influence or determine how and which questions researchers ask next Study design is subject to statistical assumptions and conditions Some aspects of the study are flexible (for example, the addition, exclusion, or wording of particular interview questions) Participant responses affect how and which questions researchers ask next Study design is iterative, that is, data collection and research questions are adjusted according to what is learned Research strategy We need to look at the existing method and practices, perhaps to develop and improve them. Once a particular project is underway, we may need to collect information to monitor the program and review its effectiveness. Is it meeting its target? Is it satisfying its customers? (Paul Nichols, 2006). The research strategy we will follow during the research is consisting of the collection of the information through the interviews and the observations then we will review the effectiveness of the data and try to answer the questions that Nichols asked. There are two types of research strategy approaches. Exploratory research Descriptive research Exploratory research An explorative study is conducted when the researcher would like to follow a new interest or when the subject area in itself is relatively new and unexplored. The aim for such a study may be to create a better understanding, to test the feasibility of further research or to develop a method for further research.(Ann Lind, 2005) Explorative studies are most important when moving into new territories where they almost always can create new knowledge of the research area. (Babbie, 1995) Descriptive Research Descriptive research is also called Statistical Research. The main goal of this type of research is to describe the data and characteristics about what is being studied. The idea behind this type of research is to study frequencies, averages, and other statistical calculations. Although this research is highly accurate, it does not gather the causes behind a situation. (Anto, 2007) We have chosen the exploratory approach as our research strategy, because we want to follow a new knowledge. This area has been unexplored and is a new one, this area need to be of better understanding for the further exploration in the area. The interviews and the observations are also fits well with exploratory approach, because they will create better understanding of the problem and towards the solution of the problem. By the application of the exploratory method, will help us to get better understanding and make the interface of the ticket machine system better and usable. By descriptive, we will be able to easily get our principles from theories now days for a design principle of a ticket machine system and the features of visually impaired people. Once the phase of interviews and the observations will be finished, we will try to build a prototype that will help to book tickets for the visually impaired people for the experimental purpose. Our effort would be to get a better understanding of how users perceive the interface of the ticket machine system and how we can make more improvement in the interface to be useable for the visually impaired people. To come up with better design of the machine to investigate further on to make it more reliable for users. If we noticed and observed that today the system called as self-service systems, always need to be improved and need some kind of updating and upgrading in it to make the performances better, improved and more users friendly. The role of theoretical study The role of the theoretical study is to explore the literature related to the material which is relevant about the research topic. According to Oates (2006, page 72) the aim is to gather and present evidence to support your claim that you have created some new knowledge. The theoretical study is used to identify the theorys key points and suggest theories that they might explain the data that, the researcher has collected from the field of study. The theoretical study provides the base for any kind of research. The theoretical study is based on the literature resources like books, journals articles, conference papers and catalogues. In theoretical part we will make a base for the empirical survey, which will later on be implemented. We have inquired the different ways for the conducting of interviews. We have to keep in mind that what is considerable to think about and what we should do to attain, validity and consistency when we carry out the theoretical study. We have read various theories about the usability, ticket machine system, human-computer interaction, and user interface and design principles. The role of Empirical study According to Oates, (2006, page 2-3) the research within information system has a long tradition of carrying out field research (often called empirical research) in order to find out what happen, when information system are requested, developed and used by the people. The empirical researchs outcome can be utilized as the verification to sustain the valuable development and usage of any information system. When the product is actually implemented in the real world the empirical study can be helpful to find out what happen actually, and if we want to develop the system in a desire efficient way, there should be evidence of empirical study to support the research, the theoretical study will also be enhanced with the help of empirical study. (Oates, 2006) Our intention is to acquire an enhanced understanding of how the user recognize interface in the ticket machine system and what measurements we can take to make the interface of a ticket machine system better for the handicapped (visually impaired). This can be done with the help of the empirical study because the role of the empirical study is to verify the results of the theoretical study. Data collection procedures For the solution of the problem of design issues of the ticketing machine system for the visual impaired people, we will use the interviews and the observations. During the interviews, we will ask the questions from different visually impaired people about their thinking of such kind of system. The interviews from the normal human beings, who travel regularly, will help us to sort out the availabilities and problems of the current ticketing machine, and to get the idea how they think about the current system to improve to make usable for the visually impaired people. During the observations, we will analyze and argue the different responses given by the interviewer and will try to reach some results. Theoretical study Our theoretical groundwork is based on articles, books and literature review as well as material which is relevant to our study in our problem area. The literature review is done by searching for these keywords, usability, interface, human computer interface, information service and user interfaces etc. Theoretical sources The theoretical source is a tool of qualitative research, for the theoretical source of the empirical studies, we have selected to go through the comprehensive study of literature that is related to our research, which is compose of the journals, books and articles in the research area. We will make analysis of the problem by making predictions, understanding and explaining the matter. Our theoretical groundwork is comprised of articles, books, internet and literature review as well as material that is relevant to our study in our problem area. The literature review is done by searching for these keywords: usability, interface, human computer interface, information service, user interfaces etc. For these keywords we will definitely consider that the authors are more trustworthy than others. In our theoretical study, this thing will be posed with the web sites, books, articles and journals because this will provide quality in our data. Empiric Survey The empirical study is related to balance with what the theory says, here the theory is initial point and the preparation of questions related to interviews is based on it. The empirical study will have observations and interviews will be conducted at different places. We will also try to collect the data by the interviews from the blind or visually impaired people would be the source of direct quotations from them and also yields their pervious experiences, pervious knowledge, feelings and opinion about the ticketing machine or booking system (Michael Quinn). The observation will provide the handicap peoples behaviour, activities actions and their interpersonal interaction with other assistive technologies they have used. The analysis of data from written documents consists of the analysis of articles, journals and books related to the blind people or people with visual impairment and booking systems. Empirical sources The empirical source will be composed of a number of interviews and observations, which will be conducted randomly from normal user on the spot after or before buying ticket form ticket reservation machine, and from the blind or visually impaired people, from Eye center Boras. According to Briony J Oates (2006, page-202, 203), to observe mean to watch and to pay attention to. Observing is something most of us do a lot most of the time: seeing, hearing, noting, analyzing, formal theories, making inferences, imposing meaning. He further says that, for data generation methods the researchers use observations to find out what people actually do, rather than what they say they do when questioned. Most of the time the observation contains looking and watching, but it can involve the senses other than sight: hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. Briony J Oates presents many different kind of observations that could be for the observations, out of which we will use three kind of observations that includes, short duration observation, record keeping by using simple notes and may be camera as well(if required) and third one is that no feedback is given to the observed people. The people observed would be only the people with the visually impairment disabilities. (Oates, 2006) Highly systematic observations of pre-defined types of events Observations of anything and everything Narrow concentration on particular type of event Broad focus Observation takes no part in the proceedings Observer participates fully in the proceedings Facts of Observations taking place is known to all Fact of observation taking place is known to none except the researcher No explanation, or false explanation, given for presence of observer-researcher Full explanation given for the presence of the observer-researcher Short duration-could be as little as 5 minutes Long duration-possibly years Record-Keeping uses only note taking Record-keeping uses technology (e. g audio tape, camera, stop watch, two way mirror, computer program) No feedback given afterwards to the observed Full feedback given afterwards to the observed FIGURE 2.1: Different Kind of Observation (Briony j Oates, 2006) We will try to observe and describe the interaction between the handicap people and the ticketing machine or the booking system, and the data and the information which obtained by the means of observations and experiences. We start with a theory as starting point then we will formulate interviews which will base on that theory. Interviews are defined as a particular type of conversation between people. Usually one person has the purpose of undertaking the interview: they want to gain information from the other(s) ( Briony j Oates, 2006). The purpose of interviews would be to produce useful information for the research. In interviews we will try to do the things that Oates suggested (page-187) like gain detailed information, explore emotions, experiences or feeling that cannot easily be observed and investigate sensitive issues or privileged information, that respondent might not willing to write about on paper for a researcher that they have not met. We will use unstructured interviews; we will start by introducing topic to the interviewee and allow them to develop their own ideas about the topic let the interviewees to speak their mind. The criteria for the selection of the sources of the interviewer or the person to be observed will be the amount and type of the information required for the empirical study. For example if we want the user requirement we will interview from the users (visually impaired people) and if we need to know that how the ticket machine works normally or for the normal people we will interview general public for that. For the study of a group of individuals, (visually impaired people) we will be visiting various people with visual impairment disabilities at the handicaps care center in Boras for interviews and observations. The selection criteria for the interview and the observation will depend on the information and data required for the empirical study i.e. the user (visually impaired people) and the regular traveler. Most part of our observation will be undergo when we will be conducting interviews, because the visually impairment people might not be able to give us a long time for observation. There are very less chances that we found these people personally interacting with ticketing machine as we can find normal people interacting. Data analysis procedures At this stage of inspection, we will analyze the data we received from our observations and interviews, and then revise them and compare them between real findings and experience. The evaluation method means to produce a high-quality with the help of evaluation, so we can authenticate all the gathered data in order to get new information. It should be done sooner than we begin with our conclusions. Interviews will be arranged for the users, who are using the ticket machine systems in association with the observations and unexpectedly different question would be asked from them. We can give the idea of the problem in the users mind. In this way we will easily reach to our goal of what we need and what are problems in the interface, which might create more problems for the user (visually impaired). Then make a comparison of interviews with various users viewpoints, what hurdles they could face during interaction with such interface. At the end we will review of all data that we have collected through the interviews and compare them with our theory. Strategies for validating findings According to Collin Robson (2004) evaluation refer to as assessing the value (or worth or merit) of something. The something focused on here is some kind of innovation, or intervention, project, or service. It involves people in one or more ways, perhaps as the provider of the service, or in setting up and running the intervention, almost inevitably as participants in the innovation or project and as client of the service (Collin Robson, 2004). The evaluation method is used to produce a good grade of the research, which should be of great importance that we evaluated for the quality of the research, So we will able to validate all the material that we collected. There are many methods for the qualitative research as: (Kaplan, Maxwell, 2005) -Validity -data quality -feedback We will also use these evaluation methods in our research, according to Bonnie Kaplan and Joseph A. Maxwell (page-14) validity in qualitative research addresses the necessarily subjective nature of data collection and analysis. Because the researcher is the instrument for collection and analyzing data, the study is subjective in the sense of being different for different researchers. Different researchers may approach the same research question by collecting different data or by interpreting the same data different ways. We will compare the results of interviews and observations taken from different people. (Kaplan, Maxwell, 2005) Data quality will reveals us that the data we collected is in detailed and varied enough that it will provide a comprehensive and showing a complete picture of, what is going on and what processes are involved. Data quality will help us to deeply see the whole process and developing some results. This is the single most important way of ruling out the possibility of misinterpreting the meaning of what participants say and do, or what the researcher have observed (Kaplan, Maxwell, 2005). The feedback will imply the gathering the response about the conclusions from participants. We will try to check that our interpretation makes sense to the visually impaired people; this thing will help us in collecting additional important data if required. We want to keep the structure of the research flexible and feasible, which would provide easiness and comfort to the reader. We will have empirical aid because of interviews and observations that we would conduct from handicap people and the machine ticket purchasers. The aim is to create consistency in the research so that it becomes easy to see that how the different parts to the research fit together. On the basis of these two different observations and interview types, we will try to join the results from both scenarios and evaluate the results and try to provide a clear picture of the problem area, that we are studying, from which the future readers can identify and relate their study. Result presentation method After analyzing all the observations, interviews and the literature, the research results of our thesis would be presented in the form of mainly prototype to certain extent, along with the small amount of data, model and diagrams as well. We will illustrate our results in form of prototype for the use of handicaps with visually impaired people.

Professional Sports - NBA Should Enforce a Hard Salary Cap Essay exampl

The NBA Should Enforce a Hard Salary Cap      Ã‚   How many of you sports fans out there are sick of paying twenty-five dollars for a lousy seat at an NBA game? How many of you are sick of seeing the same teams in the finals every year? I'm sure there are thousands of you out there that feel this way, as do I. The way we can fix these problems is to demand that the NBA enforce a hard salary cap. A hard salary cap would lower ticket prices, allow for more teams to be more competitive and eliminate the possibility of any future lockouts. If the three things listed above aren't met, it's hard to say if the NBA will survive at all. I want to see the NBA survive, but not in the way things are being run now. A hard salary cap is the only way the fans and the players can coexist.    A hard salary cap will lower ticket prices. I, among many of friends am a die-hard NBA fan, but we can only afford to attend one or two games a year. The average ticket price in the NBA is twenty-five dollars and that doesn't include a pair of binoculars, which you'll need if you're sitting in a twenty-five-dollar seat. That can give you an idea of how much a court side seat might cost you. Some people wonder why tickets are so much. Maybe Mike Kahn, who is the CBS Sportsline Executive Editor, can tell us why ticket prices are so high. In one of his articles he notes. Players' salaries are escalating faster than revenue and it would be foolish not to throw a lid on it. Tickets are already out of sight for a middle class family. ( 2 ) That means to me that players are demanding more and more money and ticket prices have to go up to compensate for higher salaries. I n the Tampa Tribune, Bill Fay, a sports writer for the paper noted. Most of the teams h... ...salary cap will provide an answer for some of the most serious problems facing the NBA. It will lower ticket prices, allow more teams to be more competitive and eliminate the any future lockouts. If these problems can be fixed by enforcing a hard salary cap, I don't see why it shouldn't be done. The NBA should enforce a hard salary cap.    Works Cited Fay, Bill " Owners Need To Be Restrained", Tampa Tribune 5 July 1998, 1-2 Kahn, Mike," Latest News Could Stall Negotiations", October, 1998, n. pag. Online. World Wide Web <wysiwyg://71/http://cbs.sportsline.../page/cyberspy/oct98/spy101998.htm> Nov. 14, 98 Anonymous." Labor Issues", The Salt Lake Tribune 30 June 1998,1 MacMullan, Jackie," Lockout Limbo", July 1998, n. pag. Online. World Wide Web <http:www.cnnsi.com/features/1998/weekly/980720/nbalock_intro.html> Nov. 14,1998 Professional Sports - NBA Should Enforce a Hard Salary Cap Essay exampl The NBA Should Enforce a Hard Salary Cap      Ã‚   How many of you sports fans out there are sick of paying twenty-five dollars for a lousy seat at an NBA game? How many of you are sick of seeing the same teams in the finals every year? I'm sure there are thousands of you out there that feel this way, as do I. The way we can fix these problems is to demand that the NBA enforce a hard salary cap. A hard salary cap would lower ticket prices, allow for more teams to be more competitive and eliminate the possibility of any future lockouts. If the three things listed above aren't met, it's hard to say if the NBA will survive at all. I want to see the NBA survive, but not in the way things are being run now. A hard salary cap is the only way the fans and the players can coexist.    A hard salary cap will lower ticket prices. I, among many of friends am a die-hard NBA fan, but we can only afford to attend one or two games a year. The average ticket price in the NBA is twenty-five dollars and that doesn't include a pair of binoculars, which you'll need if you're sitting in a twenty-five-dollar seat. That can give you an idea of how much a court side seat might cost you. Some people wonder why tickets are so much. Maybe Mike Kahn, who is the CBS Sportsline Executive Editor, can tell us why ticket prices are so high. In one of his articles he notes. Players' salaries are escalating faster than revenue and it would be foolish not to throw a lid on it. Tickets are already out of sight for a middle class family. ( 2 ) That means to me that players are demanding more and more money and ticket prices have to go up to compensate for higher salaries. I n the Tampa Tribune, Bill Fay, a sports writer for the paper noted. Most of the teams h... ...salary cap will provide an answer for some of the most serious problems facing the NBA. It will lower ticket prices, allow more teams to be more competitive and eliminate the any future lockouts. If these problems can be fixed by enforcing a hard salary cap, I don't see why it shouldn't be done. The NBA should enforce a hard salary cap.    Works Cited Fay, Bill " Owners Need To Be Restrained", Tampa Tribune 5 July 1998, 1-2 Kahn, Mike," Latest News Could Stall Negotiations", October, 1998, n. pag. Online. World Wide Web <wysiwyg://71/http://cbs.sportsline.../page/cyberspy/oct98/spy101998.htm> Nov. 14, 98 Anonymous." Labor Issues", The Salt Lake Tribune 30 June 1998,1 MacMullan, Jackie," Lockout Limbo", July 1998, n. pag. Online. World Wide Web <http:www.cnnsi.com/features/1998/weekly/980720/nbalock_intro.html> Nov. 14,1998