The Trail Of Tears Essays - Cherokee Nation, Cherokee, John Ross

The Trail of Tears "We are now about to take our leave and kind farewell to our native land, the country that Great Spirit gave our Fathers, we are on the eve of leaving that country that gave us birth? it is with sorrow we are forced by the white man to quit the scenes of our childhood?we bid farewell to it and all we hold dear." This is the way that Cherokee Vice Chief Charles Hicks described, in 1838, the emotions that must have been felt after the mistreatment and the abuse that was wrought upon the Cherokee Indians. It was a trail of blood, a trail of death, but ultimately it was known as the "Trail of Tears". In this history of the Cherokee Nation we are trying, but without success, to be as unbiased as possible. It's the War of 1812. Andrew Jackson is mounting up forces against the Pro-British faction of the Creek Indians. The United States appealed for Cherokee support for aid in war against Tukumsa and another Indian known as Red Sticks. The Cherokee Nation replied with six to eight hundred of their best warriors. It was this war were the Indians fought side by side with Jackson. After a treaty in 1814 was forced on the Creek Indians, the Cherokees filed claims for there lose. There was no promise that their claims would be acknowledged. This would bring on the biggest betrayal on the Cherokee Indians, Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson demanded the session of twenty-three million acres of land to the United States. The Cherokee Nation, however, owned Four million acres of this land. The Cherokees protested again to Indian agent Jonathan Meigs in the War Department. Once again their former ally called these claims "Cherokee intrigue". Andrew Jackson then suggested with troops already in the field that this would be the perfect time to remove Cherokees as well as Creeks out of Tennessee. The Indian Removal Act was introduced by Andrew Jackson and was passed by Congress in 1830. This act was to force the Indians west of the Mississippi River. This was largely carried out by General Winfield Scott and his army of approximantly seven thousand troops, in May of 1838. When the army arrived in New Echota Georgia thousand of Cherokee Indians would be rounded up with dragnets and penned up in wooden stockades. By June 5, 1838 it was estimated that only 200 Cherokee had escaped. There were between fifteen to se venteen thousand Cherokee held in these crude jails, where they would await their long brutal journey west. This route from Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and finally ending in Oklahoma, would later be referred by Cherokees as Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi, or "the trail on which they Cried". The journey on which the Indians traveled would bring many deaths due to starvation, droughts and disease. There were two main ways of travel, by land and river. River travel was difficult if not impossible because low river levels due to the drought. All in all it took 645 wagons, 5000 horses and oxen and river vessels used primarily for the ill. Grant Foreman, Dean of Indian Historians, recorded this appalling period. He stated that the weather was extremely hot, there was a drought, and water was scarce and there were suffocating clouds of dust mixed with the oxygen. He also stated that at least three but, up to five people died per day on the trail. By the end of June 1838 two to three hundred Indians were sick. On June 17, 1838 General Charles Floyd of the Georgia militia wrote to Governor Gilmen of New Echota that they were convinced that there were no longer any Cherokee in Georgia. This would hold true that they succeeded in removing the Cherokee from the state, but not compl etely from the east. This would bring on a great supporter of the Cherokee people, a white man by the name of John Ross. John Ross campaigned heavily for the Cherokees. Ross was part of the immigration management committee. Ross persuaded General Scott to approve a budget for the captive Indians of Seventeen cents per Indian per day. This was double the amount figured by congress. This money was

The eNotes Blog How to Mark National PunctuationDay

How to Mark National PunctuationDay Attention, grammarphiles: today is National Punctuation Day! Commemorated every September 24th, National Punctuation Day is the only holiday in existence to celebrate the wonderful, squiggly world of punctuation marks. In a world where punctuation is rapidly in decline, thanks to texting and trendy writers (ahem, ee cummings and James Frey), this day serves to remind us that a semicolon is not a surgical procedure, nor is an ellipsis the moment when the moon moves in front of the sun. Wondering how you can mark this happy day? Unfortunately, NPD isnt a public holiday (yet). However, there are a few of ways to show your appreciation for all things punctuation-y. The organizers behind National Punctuation Day hold an annual competition. This year, in honor of the 2012 presidential election, they ask their constituents to elect one punctuation mark as president: The rules: Write one paragraph with a maximum of three sentences using the following 13 punctuation marks to explain which should be â€Å"presidential,† and why: apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, and semicolon. You may use a punctuation mark more than once, and there is no word limit. Multiple entries are permitted. So much for my dark horse vote for the interpunct. Its uses are gravely underrated, if you ask me. Cast your ballot for one of the other hopefuls by visiting the National Punctuation Day website  and submitting your thoughts. The New Yorkers Questioningly column is also partnering with NPD for its latest competition. In its post Punctuation Nation, Questioningly asks its readers to devise a brand new punctuation mark. The constraints are that it must be made from a combination of two already existing punctuation marks, like the interrobang, for instance (?! or sometimes †½). The column suggests, maybe there should be a ,? mark, which indicates slowness and confusion, or a /\, which indicates disingenuous differentiation between two otherwise similar elements. (What?!) Anyway, you get it. To enter, tweet your suggestion, followed by the hashtag #tnyquestion. You can view all of the current submissions to the contest here. And if both of those competitions fail you, what else is there to do but sulk at home and bake food in the shape of punctuation marks, right? Yup, National Punctuation Day has a recipe for that. Bonus Fun: Havent had your fill yet? What a punc you are. This puzzle should set you straight Insert the proper punctuation in this sentence necessary to make it correct: James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher Got it yet? Check your answer here. (No peeking!)

Lilis Love Triangle essays

Lili's Love Triangle essays Narrator: They started off as 5 college buddies, who went their separate ways after college. Shaft played by Keith is married to Lili who is played by Linh. Tony who is played by Colin is going out with Lauren played by Fern, and Kenny, Tonys brother, played by Lam who proceeds with school to his Ph.D in medicine and this story will be narrated by me, Nancy. Well two years later Shaft becomes a gangster, because of a drug addiction. Lili is cheating on Shaft with Tony, Kenny is diagnosed with a heart disease, and Tony and Lauren had broken up, but Lauren still loves him. This scene starts in the hospital where Tony and Lili visits Kenny. Kenny: I hope so. Well I gotta get some rest, so close the door on your way out. Tony: Do you wanna stay over tonight? ll just have to call my husband and tell him Im going to stay at my sisters house. Narrator: Later that night, Lauren goes to Lili and Shafts house. Shaft: (Answers the door) Lauren! What a surprise! How you been? Lauren: Oh Im fine Shaft. Is Lili here? Shaft: No, shes at her sisters....did you need to talk to her? Lauren: Actually, I came to see you. Shaft: (Questioned) Really?!? What did you need? t really know how to tell this-but Lili is cheating on you... with Tony. I saw them going into his apartment. Shaft: (angrily) I think you should leave now! Shaft: Just leave! I'll handle it myself. Narrator: Lauren leaves, Shaft stays up until Lili comes home. Narrator: Now its morning at Tonys apartment. Lili is getting ready to leave. Lili: I gotta get home, before (says sarcastically) my darling husband says something. ...

Get the Facts of the Burj Khalifa

Get the Facts of the Burj Khalifa At 828 meters in length (2,717 feet) and 164 floors, Burj Dubai/Burj Khalifa was the tallest building in the world as of January 2010. Taipei 101, the Taipei Financial Center in the Taiwanese capital, was from 2004 to 2010 the worlds tallest skyscraper, at 509.2 meters, or 1,671 ft. The Burj easily exceeds that height. Before their destruction in 2001, the World Trade Centers Twin Towers in Manhattan were 417 meters (1,368 ft) and 415 meters (1,362 ft) tall. Burj Dubai/Burj Khalifa was dedicated on Jan. 4, 2010.Cost of the Burj: $1.5 billion, part of downtown Dubais $20 billion redevelopment program.The name of the tower was changed from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa at the last minute in honor of Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi, and in recognition of Abu Dhabi providing Dubai $10 billion in December 2009 to bail out Dubais bankrupt sovereign wealth fund.Construction began on Sept. 21, 2004.More than 12,000 people will occupy the buildings 6 million square feet. Residential apartments number 1,044.Special amenities include a 15,000 square foot fitness facility, a cigar club, the highest mosque in the world (on the 158th floor), the highest observation deck in the world (on the 124th floor) and the highest swimming pool in the world (on the 76th floor), as well as the first Armani Hotel in the world.The Burj is expected to consume 946,000 liters (or 250,000 gallons) of water a day.Electricity consumption is expected to peak at 50 MVA or the equivalent of 500,000 100-watt bulbs burning simultaneously. The Burj has 54 elevators. They can speed up to 65km an hour (40 mph)The equivalent of 100,000 elephants worth of concrete was used during construction.31,400 metric tons of steel rebar used in the structure.28,261 glass cladding panels cover the exterior of the tower, each panel cut by hand and installed by Chinese cladding specialists.12,000 workers were employed at the site at peak construction. Three workers died while working on the site.The number of underground parking spaces at the Burj: 3,000.The lead contractor was South Korea-based Samsung, along with Belgiums Besix and the UAEs Arabtec.The building was designed by Chicagos Skidmore, Owings Merrill and developed by Dubais Emaar Properties.The buildings structural engineer is William F. Baker, who on July 11, 2009, became the first American to win the Fritz Leonhardt Prize For Achievement In Structural Engineering.

Multinational Business in the Chinese Economy Research Paper - 1

Multinational Business in the Chinese Economy - Research Paper Example The persistence poverty level, especially in Northern Shaanxi and other parts of China, is due to economic disparities. The income disparity has been the key issues in China; thus, here is the need to widen the geographical income gaps, avoid industrial clusters and improve infrastructures, which are barriers to economic growth in the interior geographical locations of China. Dimensions of Distance The distance matters for multinational business because of varied issues. First, the cultural distance is one of the matters for successful business performance and economic growth of China. Differences in language are one of the cultural issues impacting the economic and geographical locations of the multinational companies. The language barrier is still a problem for companies carrying out business activities overseas. This is because the Chinese have their language, which they use in the country, and it is difficult for foreigners to understand. Moreover, different ethnicities and poor social network communication are attributes of cultural distance. Lack of effective and well-developed social networks may hinder the successful business performance of multinational companies. China has many industries, some of which are multinational companies located within the economy. However, due to poor infrastructure development, especially roads and the communication network, many of them are unable to meet their demanding goals because of lack of connective ethnic or social networks. Ghemawat argues that an economy’s cultural attributes such as ethnicity, social norms, different languages or national identity on consumer products matter a lot in business activities.  This is because religious beliefs, ethnicity, language or social norms are capable of creating distance between two economies (Ghemawat 140). Secondly, the administration distance is another matter for multinational business. Historical and political organizations being shared by more than one country may create an impact on multinational business. Ghemawat points out that government policies, political hostility, lack of shared or political connections and institution weakness are among the attributes creating administrative distance (140). These attributes may impact the effective business performance of multinational companies. China is one of the emerging economies that have made efforts to improve the economic growth. However, an administrative distance is still a matter towards becoming a fully developed nation. For instance, individual government policies including environmental, trade and other policies create a barrier for successful multinational business. Thirdly, geographical distances matter for multinational business. This is through creating barriers towards successful business performance because of increased transportation costs, bulk ratio issues and losses encountered in the transportation of fragile or perishable commodities in a long distance. Geographical d istance is not a matter of how far is the place in terms of miles or kilometers – other attributes contribute to geographical distance. These include the physical scene of the nation, topography, access to waterways as well as transportation and communication infrastructures. These are among the attributes that have impacted the effective business performance of the multinational business in the Chinese economy.

Kinesiology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Kinesiology - Research Paper Example Once the cause is identified, the bad feelings associated with emotional stress can be eliminated. An approach approved to the management of emotional stress is kinesiology. Through the technique of Emotional Stress Relief (ESR), a victim of emotional stress can quickly achieve calmness, clearly thinking and effective functioning in stressful, traumatic or high-pressure situations (Hoffman, 2008). If applied with the guidance of a health care professional, Emotional Stress Relief (ESR) is an effective kinesiology technique to achieve calmness, clear thinking and optimal functioning in an emotionally stressed person. This paper discusses the effective use of ESR to manage the signs and symptoms of emotional stress, including fight and flight responses to situations, paralysis responses, fear, and uncontrolled anger. If applied with professional guidance, ESR has numerous benefits for emotionally stressed persons. The benefits of ESR to the reader are numerous. Mainly, ESR releases muscle tension, increases flexibility, and improves the energy levels, accompanied by simple pain relief (Wilmore et al., 2006). ESR has also been proved to result in improved posture and breathing as well as the relaxation of muscles such as jaw muscles. By extension, the relaxation of muscles may help in attainment of migraine relief. Overall, ESR has the potential to improve and maintain an individual’s health in general. Importantly, ESR improves self-esteem and confidence and reduces mood swings. Besides, the technique stabilizes emotions, making it an effective stress management method. It also improves the diet to help a tress person’s food intake meet the body’s unique needs. The kinesiology approach to stress management entails the use of body muscles and movements (Wolf et al., 2006). It focuses on addressing emotional stress as a whole-body phenomenon. Kinesiology has the advantage o f being versatile, thus universally applicable. In

Equity and Trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Equity and Trusts - Essay Example 500 or part of it. The equitibility of the words â€Å"†¦ I regard the money in the account as much yours as mine† by Brian shall be construed with reference to the conduct of parties. A trust is a binding agreement between a testator and the trustee for the benefit of the beneficiary. Accordingly, for there to exist a valid trust, three certainties must be present. The â€Å"certainty of words† which reveals the intention of the testator, certainty of â€Å"subject matter† (property bequeathed) which in this case is the money and the â€Å"certainty of objects† (the intended beneficiary) as upheld byâ€Å"Lord Langdale MR† as he was then in â€Å"Knight V Knight (1840).† Besides, Lindley L J in â€Å"Re Hamilton [1895]†stated that the intention of the testator in every wording or disposition should as a rule of prudent practice is construed on the merits of each case. Whereas the current case presents quite a problematic and conf licting loyalty in the application of equity and trust, it can be regarded as a constructive trust. According to Lord Denning in â€Å"Hussey v Palmer (1972)† this is a trust imposed upon by the Court whenever justice, conscience or good objective judgment demands it to be vested in the beneficiary. From conduct of parties, Brian had the intention to create a valid constructive trust. ... It’s also correct that Premafacie, the words themselves are not sufficient enough to create a valid trust but coupled with Brian’s conduct, there is a manifestation of that intention by his assurance to Amanda. For example, in the case of Paul v Constance (1977), money was placed into the account â€Å"sole name of Constance.† As it were assurances were made to Mr. Paul that the money in the account was jointly owned. Paul argued that based on that construction, it was sufficient that the wording created a joint ownership of the account. It was held that the conduct of the parties created an intention of joint ownership. Similarly in â€Å"Re Vandervell’s Trust (No 2) (1974)†, the money in the settlement was used in purchasing shares. This was done in exercise of a prevailing option for the intended beneficiary. The Court held that the conduct of these parties where upon they used the money to pay dividends into the intended settlement was sufficien t evidence of the intention to create a valid trust although no specific words were used. Therefore, in the current case, although it’s difficult to state the words in the phrase â€Å"†¦ I regard the money in the account as much yours as mine† as sufficient to create a valid trust, it’s also correct from the above case law that this wording coupled with the conduct of Brian created a valid constructive trust as sufficient certainty for that requisite intention . I advise Amanda to institute an equitable claim on the above basis because equity â€Å"looks at the intent rather than the form.† It’s the spirit behind the conduct of the parties which is important rather than the form of the statement. She will first seek an injunction to maintain the statusquo until the Court decides discretionary

Water Management in Yellow River Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Water Management in Yellow River - Essay Example The water resources in China are inefficiently used, over-allocated and coarsely polluted by industrial and human waste to the extent of killing sections of large rivers like the Yellow River (Ma, 1999). In addition, there is vast over-pumping and unsustainable consumption of groundwater resources; lakes are covered in pools of waste; numerous aquatic species have been extinct, with a host of other adverse direct impacts on the health of the ecosystem and humans widespread in the country. China is home to sixteen of the twenty most polluted cities worldwide; ensuring that all major watersheds of the nation suffer from extensive pollution. Desertification, as a result of too much ground and surface water withdrawal, is increasingly dominating the Northern region of China; a region hugely dependent on the Yellow River (Ma, 1999). The social issue facing the region involves handling of the disposal of wastes by local residents as well local industries. The densely populated regions resu lt in mass production of waste products which are inappropriately dumped into the river. These problems not only pose a huge threat to the political stability of the country but it is also a huge threat to the country’s economic development. The government is spending substantial amounts of money on health care issues as a result of major disease outbreaks in the heavily polluted areas of the country (Boyle, 2007). According to Eng and Ma (2006), major companies are calling off their business ventures due to water concerns as well as augmenting internal conflicts over the quality and allocation of water resources. These events have resulted in new political pressures on the regional and central governments to tighten their fight with the current water management problems. A 2005 Chinese Government report revealed that fifty thousand environmentally related protests occurred, most of which revolved around

Negligence in Sports Injuries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Negligence in Sports Injuries - Essay Example Where sporting events are concerned, the finding of negligence is complicated by the volenti non fit injuria principle, whereby the underlying premise is that those who participate in sports knowing the risks that may exist5, are in effect, consenting to a breach of duty of care and hence negligence claims may not hold good6. For example, in the case of Woolridge v Sumner7 where a spectator was injured, it was held to be the result of an error of judgment rather than negligence. It was also held that liability could be established only when it could be shown that there had been a reckless disregard for the safety of the spectator/s. The notion of "reckless disregard" as laid out by Lord Diplock is inherently based upon the premise that a player acts negligently when he foresees risks and yet proceeds with his actions despite the risk. Reckless disregard thus involves a breach of not only the duty of care owed to prevent a claim of negligence, but also a duty of skill. Thus, in the case of Woolridge, for example, Lord Diplock clarified that when a participant was aware of his lack of skill to perform a sporting feat and the risk his lack of skill might pose to spectators, he would be guilty of negligence to the spectator, if he still goes ahead and performs the act in question8. As a result, while negligence implies the owing of a duty of care, reckless disregard implies the owing of a duty of care and a duty of skill. Reckless disregard is in essence, negligence applied within a sporting context, with a higher threshold to allow for the inherent risks in sports which players voluntarily assume under the volenti fit non injura principle. Reed, in analyzing the judgment rendered in the case of R v Barnes9 has explained how, within the context of sports, reckless disregard occurs when a player inflicts harm or injury maliciously10. A defendant who is "reckless" is one who is able to foresee that there is a risk for bodily harm occurring through his actions and yet, chooses to ignore the risk and continue with the offending act. "Recklessness implies a greater degree of culpability or wrongdoing than negligence" because recklessness amounts to willfully exposing another person to harm and causing injury, rather than it occurring as a result of

Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Research Essay Example for Free

Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative Research Essay Quantitative research – is a formal, objective, systematic research which bases on precise figures. While conducting such kind of research, an investigator collects and analyzes data and statistics. The main purposes of applying quantitative method of research are: description of variables; examination of relationship among variables; determination of cause-and-effect interactions between variables (Burns Grove,2005). Qualitative research – in contrast to quantitative, is a kind of research which mainly concentrates on observations, questionnaires, reports and other ways of subjective investigations. The key features of qualitative research are: focus on meanings, perspectives and understandings; emphasis on process; inductive analysis, and grounded theory (Woods, 2006). The basic differences between quantitative and qualitative research lie in methods and instruments they apply, types of data they collect and generate, in their main perspectives. The instruments used in quantitative research are strict about extracting information and dividing it into categories. Quantitative methods are highly structured and include various surveys, questionnaires, and structured observations. In qualitative research, more flexible and frequentative instruments are applied. Qualitative methods, unlike quantitative ones, are semi-structured. To these methods belong interview, focus group, questionnaire, and participant observation. Quantitative research, in contrast to qualitative, operates with numerical data. Qualitative research, as a rule, uses textual data (Mack, Woodsong, et al., 2005). The most important feature which differentiates one research from another is flexibility. Usually, the procedure of quantitative research is prescribed in advance. Therefore, it excludes any unforeseen changes during the process of research. For instance, the questions in quantitative research are well thought-out, concrete, and closed. Moreover, the order of questions is also fixed. In such a way, quantitative research, due to its inflexibility, makes meaningful contribution to common investigation. The stages of qualitative research may be changed during the research procedure. The questions in qualitative research are mostly open. It enables the participants to give more reasonable answers and sometimes, even to go into detail. Therefore, spontaneity became a distinctive feature of qualitative research, which made the process of research less formal (Mack, Woodsong, et al., 2005). References Burns, N., Grove, S.K. (2005). The practice of nursing research: conduct, critique, and utilization (5th Ed.). St. Louis, Elsevier Saunders. Retrieved from http://www.researchproposalsforhealthprofessionals.com/definition_of_quantitative_resea.htm Mack, N., Woodsong, C., MacQueen, M. K., Guest, G., Namey, E. (2005). Qualitative research methods: A data collector’s field guide. Retrieved from http://www.fhi360.org/nr/rdonlyres/emgox4xpcoyrysqspsgy5ww6mq7v4e44etd6toiejyxalhbmk5sdnef7fqlr3q6hlwa2ttj5524xbn/datacollectorguideenrh.pdf Woods, P. (2006). Qualitative research. Retrieved from http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/qualitative%20methods%202/qualrshm.htm

Competition vs Collaboration

Competition vs Collaboration Competition versus Collaboration Studying so much about collaboration within and outside the organization made me curious about the competition element. So I tried to find out where does the competition lies when we are talking about Collaboration.Christiansen (2000) says that for creativity and innovation, it is important to consider whether collaboration or competition is valuable. Although there are some downsides with collaboration like: collaborative group working independently, resistance dispute, ownership problems, Time pressure in members and their activities, etc.. Despite having such downsides competition is beaten by collaboration. Furthermore, competition among individuals within an organization, in idea generation, forces people to shutdown. Who wins and who looses is based on the rules of the game which includes individuals competencies and other factors. Whereas in the innovation-process, creativity nourishes with new ideas from a variety of sources. In competition individuals hold back information. Furthermore, the individual might not have a clear picture about the problem in-hand or reduce creative thinking or might not give enough time to think about the solution. Thus, increasing the possibility that the outcome is not a best solution or a best idea. Whereas in collaboration, individuals will be synergistically working together towards their objective. Collaboration is an important part of the innovation stages of selecting the ideas, development and commercializing an idea. In case where competition is outside the organization Nagel (2001) says that Wealth is created by competition and innovation plays a centre role in competition. And innovation is a key which comprises collaboration among competitors. Innovative companies collaborate externally though joint ventures, alliances or less structured forms of networking. Some innovative companies value internal and external competition, not being cut-throat competition with high secrecy or fierce, only to stimulate higher performance in competing projects where the losing teams are happy to support the winning team on their way forward. In such a company, with a positive competitive culture, to lose is not equal to losing face or missing out on the next potential promotion. In companies that believe in collaboration, people cannot help but to collaborate (Mayle 2006).This concept can be seen apprentin the Ripple Effect (IDEO 2009) project model from IDEO where different organizations collaborate to provide inspiration, deign and business support to entrepreneurs in development of new offering. I have attached a video below showing how companies are collaborating to provide clean drinking water for the poor The Ripple Effect in India, by IDEO and Acumen Fund from IDEO on Vimeo. Reference: Christiansen J. A., 2000 Competitive Innovation Management: Techniques to Improve Innovation Performance, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan IDEO 2009, Ripple Effect: Access to safe drinking water for Acumen fund and The Bill Melinda Gates foundation [Online], Available:http://www.ideo.com/work/item/ripple-effect-access-to-safe-drinking-water/ Mayle D. 2006, Managing innovation and change, Publisher: SAGE Nagel S. 2001, Handbook of Policy Creativity: Creativity at the cutting edge Publisher: Nova Publishers, Social Media and Networks In the last few years, the number of users accessing the internet is expanding and an exponential rate. Users looking for any kind of information are searching the internet. Organizations are shifting or starting businesses online spending a lot of many to get traffic to their site. But with the hype of internet and web 2.0, these companies are using the internet to market and advertise their products and services through social media channels like facebook, twitter, youtube etc. It is the most low cost promotion method available today. Now a day marketers are using social media as their primary advertising platform as it is able to capture mass audiences. Its somewhat similar to TV advertising . In our business plan this social media and networks is playing an important part in advertisement. Companies are more concerned about their social graph ranks about products and services then how Google ranks them. The social media channels are creating content for the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to work for the companies social media strategy. The content creation strategy should be aligned with the social media strategy to drive users towards taking action ( PR News 2009) There are three kinds of people who doubt the efficiency of social media. * Who are unaware about social media. * Who are interested in it but do not have knowledge to use it * Who doubts the social media strategy could benefit the business or their website(Jue et al. 2009) Social media should be included in the brand strategy because it will help consumers in the adoption process, laid out by Rogers (1962), which are (1) awareness, (2) interest, (3) evaluation, (4) trial, and (5) adoption, by spreading the awareness of the brand and answering the questions about the benefits the brand will provide. Social media will communicate the brand at all emotional levels. Furthermore, feedback will help in improving and evolving the brand. Bauknecht (2005) says people are believing and trusting more on peer recommendations than an advertisement. According to Warner (2008) social media networking might be just waste of time because the amounts of time individuals are spending on it. According to a survey, there is an estimated cost of  £6.5 billion per annum for loss in productivity and high bandwidth usage Britains social media fanatics spent like 12 hours per week on social media websites wasting value time. Young generations are also spending so much time on it. It was already hard to get the video game generation to focus on their studies. Lets see how much time it takes to spend on social media I am not a blogger or a social media fan. I did not have a Facebook account. I belonged to the category who doubted that social media could not benefit the business as advertising does. Now for me realizing the potential of social media was a huge eye-opener. I cant imagine how I could be ignoring it even after noticing all the online websites and other friends are on some kind of social media. However, after attending the Presentation of Chris Ramsbottom, former student of LUMS, and listening to his experiences regarding convincing the top managed about the importance of social media made me realize that I am not the only one. Now I have almost all the major social media channels and to expand my knowledge further regarding social media, I just got a book The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success 2009 by Lon Safko, David Brake and a digital copy of Social Media Marketing for Dummies 2009 by Shiv Singh. Also an iPhone to keep in touch with the social media networks However, it is important to understand how to utilize social media effectively by clarifying what actually is required from the social media either increasing sales or brand awareness of products or services. It will avoid wasting valuable time. Reference: Bauknecht K., Prà ¶ll B. and Werthner H. 2005, E-commerce and web technologies: 6th international conference, EC-Web Publisher: Springer Science Business Perez S. 2008, Real People Dont Have Time for Social Media [online], Available: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/real_people_dont_have_time_for_social_media.php PR News 2009, SEO SEM 3.0: Demystifying Social Media Optimization to Bring Consumers to You, PR News, April 27, http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/ (accessed December 13, 2009). Jue A.L. , Marr J.A. and Kassotakis M.E. 2009, Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance , Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Rogers, Everett M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovations. Glencoe: Free Press. Warner B. 2008, Times Online : Is social networking a waste of time[Online], Available: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3536749.ec Mass Production I have been absent from the working log for quite sometime. Was really busy in group meetings, presentations and assignments etc. just finished my toughest assignment for SAP which is due day after tomorrow. Im relaxed now and having a cup of tea and startedwriting my learning log again Mass Production Honestly when I saw the week 6 questions I thought mass production will be boring and just time consuming, there would be nothing interesting about it except the word mass production but after seeing a clip of Charlie Chaplin at the time of lecture actually started my interest. I was fascinated to find out how industrial revolution began and how change actually happened. Most of the people live their lives and dont bother to look at the history like how we, as people, got to current situation. How we, as people progressed. It made me feel proud how we as human beings progressed through passage of time. The Industrial Revolution consisted a period from 18th to the 19th century where changes on manufacturing, transport and agriculture had an enormous effect on social, cultural and economic conditions first starting in UK. UK is the place, in the 18 century, where first manufacturing operations were specifically designed to reduce production costs by specialized labour and the use of machines appeared (britannica.com). Then afterwards spread to Europe, North America, and eventually the world. It was interesting to read about Model T a model of car produced by the Ford Motor Company between 1909-27, first car to be successfully mass-produced on an assembly line. I was a little bit curious what is the significance of the letter T. Just noticed it is 20th letter of the alphabet. So Model T is THE MODEL OF THE 20TH CENTURY. (Babylon dictionary) The main characteristics of MODEL T is the Standardization which lead to economies of scale during production, Division of Task which led to higher productivity. Specialism which lead to easy training of new workers in different departments Payment procedure, more parts produced the more money earned, led to overcoming the problem of high labour turnover Concentration where specialist making the decision instead of Workers Interest to read more about Model T and suggestion from Mary on The limits of Fordism led me to a paper onThe Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations 2004 by Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova, who states that in the manufacturing industry there are 3 functions Design Manufacture process of turning inputs into outputs co-ordination management The larger the firms became, under Fordism production, the more co-ordination was required; the faster technology and products changed and the pace of change was steadily accelerating, the more design was required. It is to be noted that Fordist production methods was actually derived from the transformation of previous organization of production notably Taylorism. It was actually Taylor in his Bethlehem Steel plant where craftsmen were subordinated directly to engineers who allocated tasks to workers. Fordism production, in Kaplinskys words, had distinct spheres. Photobucket Mass production system of Fordism was marvellously efficient and the model can be valued by the concept of transformation mechanisation which has 3 stages referred by Coombs (1983). Stage 1: The dedicated machine tool, lower labour cost and higher production Stage 2: The assembly line of continuous flow mechanical moving of materials between different stages of transformation. What Fordism lacked was the 3rd stage i.e. Control mechanisation which is the substitution of machines for the human brain in the direction and supervision of the productive process.What was needed, for control mechanisation, was machine intelligence and that was the next techno-economic paradigm development of ICT. Later on flexible form of mechanisation was made possible by Computer-aided manufacturing. Computer aided manufacturing which later on joined with computer aided design. The use of ICT in the process of coordination was increasingly recognized which led the development and diffusion of internet. Coming from a family business of clothes manufacturing, for me I understood perfectly about the boredom the workers experience for constant doing the repetitive work in mass production.Even after the policy of wages were based according to the amount of output a worker does i.e. wages paid for each item of work they do, the motivation increases but eventually comes down and the element of boredom re-appears. By looking at the theory of the law of Diminishing Marginal Productivity of labour (sometimes called the law of diminishing returns). It states that the increase in output due to units increase in labour working hours will eventually decline.(Jacques, Ian 2006) Which means if a worker is working 10 hours in a day ,His efficiency in the 1st hour will be higher than the 2nd hour. 2nd hour skill of production is more than the 3rd hour. In his last hour that is in the 10th hour his efficiency will be very very low .It may be zero or negative. Which was apparent in the case of Charlie Chaplin in the MODERN TIMES movie clip, that was seen in the class, when he lost his mind after repetitive working of loooooog hours and his productivity became negative In the book Mathematics for Economics and Business by Jacques, Ian gives an exmple: In the simplest case output, Q, is assumed to be a function of labour, L, and capital, K. Moreover, in the short run the input K can be assumed to be fixed, so Q is then only a function of one input L. (This is not a valid assumption in the long run and in general Q must be regarded as a function of at least two inputs. Methods for handling this situation are considered in the next chapter.) The variable L is usually measured in terms of the number of workers or possibly in terms of the number of worker hours. We define the marginal product of labour,MPL, by dQ = MPL dL Between 0 and L0 the curve bends upwards, becoming progressively steeper, and so the slope function, MPL, increases. Mathematically, this means that the slope of MPL is positive: that is, d(MPL ) > 0 dQ Now MPL is itself the derivative of Q with respect to L, so we can use the notation for the second derivative and write this as d2Q - > 0 dL2 Similarly, if L exceeds the threshold value of L0, then Figure 4.17 shows that the product curve bends downwards and the slope decreases. In this region, the slope of the slope function is negative, so that d2Q dL2 The law of diminishing returns states that this must happen eventually: that is, d2Q dL2 for sufficiently large L. Conclusion: To increase the productivity of a labourer and to reduce the cost of production. Reducing working hours of a shift is necessary. References: Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova 2004, The Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations www.giovannavertova.it/WP06.pdf britannica.com http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/368270/mass-production Babylon dictionary http://dictionary.babylon.com Jacques, Ian 2006, Mathematics for Economics and Business, Pearson Education UK, p. 268-271 http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/Browse/open.aspID=60204loc=Cover Kaplinsky (1984) Fordial Organisation Of Factory Production, p. 24 Perez Coombs. (1983). Structural Change and Assimilation of New Technologies in the Economic and Social Systems, Futures, 15(5): 357-375. disruptive technology It is a term which Christensen described as a new technology in this book the innovators dilemma by categorizing new technology into 2 categories: Sustaining technology incrementing improvements in an existing established technology Disruptive technology new technology, may not be perfect but appealing to a limited audience. Has initially little value and does not create attention among the dominate players in the industry. Disruptive technology usually targets new areas within the current industry with a new approach and could dominate an existing market. I will give 2 examples of disruptive technologies. Firstly, in my technology module, I found cloud computing a very disruptive technology. Its potential value cannot be ignored or denied. There were number of phases involved in the evolution of cloud computing, which include application service provision (ASP) and Software as a Service (SaaS) (Velte et al. 2009). In 2006, Amazon launched a commercial web service called Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) allowing small companies and individuals to renting I.T. infrastructure and computing power to run their own computer applications (LaMonica 2006). Cloud computing service is risk free and Easy to use. One does not have to buy anything or invest hugely into it. The technology is flexible; adjusting to the companys requirements and also easily scalable; fulfilling the needs of the companys growing demands. Just imagine in an industry where customers, had to pay upfront for a technology for which they may get 20-30% use, could use this cloud computing technology model and pay only for what is used and when it is used. It can be seen that the barriers to the entry of customers, around cost and complexity, are going to come down so dramatically that the cloud is going to open up much more usages of IT for small medium businesses. Emerging markets can be seen in countries, where just the cost and complexity have been barriers. Developing countries like Brazil rushing, China, India and beyond are going to end up using the technology in ways they have never been able to use it before and in ways we have never seen before. The second disruptive technology I found was the Google announcement of Google Navigation Map product for FREE, which was one of the innovation searches in our workshops. This product is used by connecting to the internet to Google cloud computing technology providing all the services of a traditional Sat. Nav and much more. By looking at the stock market of Garmin, one of the leading companies of navigation system providers in the GPS industry, we could actually see the market reaction to such a disruptive technology in just a couple of days from announcement, last year, in October 2009. TomTom and other companies are also affected. This product is targeted to price sensitive customers with offering excellent features and capabilities for FREE. With good understanding of the term disruptive innovation and disruptive technology, broadered my view of anticipating whether any new technology, i came accross, will prove disruptive or not. References: * Christensen C.M. 1997, The innovators dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail, Publisher: Harvard Business Press * Gurley B., Google Redefines Disruption: The Less Than Free Business Model [Online],Available: http://abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disruption-the-%E2%80%9Cless-than-free%E2%80%9D-business-model/ [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * LaMonica M. 2006, Amazon servers, starting at 10 cents an hour [Online], Available: http://news.cnet.com/Amazon-servers,-starting-at-10-cents-an-hour/2100-1038_3-6109202.html [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * Velte T., Velte A. and Elsenpeter R. 2009, Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach, Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional disruptive innovation The term Disruptive innovation is thought up by Clayton Christensen, who describes the term as a process by which a product or service application starts from the bottom of the market and manoeuvres up in the market displacing established competitors. (christensen, 2009) I read an interesting book The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work by Scott. It describes the disruptive innovation theory: the market consists of customers some of which are at a high end, very demanding, and willing to buy high-performance, expensive products. While others are low end and satisfied with simple and inexpensive products. Customers lives are not changing as fast as most organization or companies are innovating. These fast innovating companies end up producing goods, sustaining innovations, that are too good, too expensive and sometimes too inconvenient for many customers. The disconnect between the capabilities of a product and the customers ability to use them opens up an opportunity for innovators who brings to a market a disruptive innovation that is simple, convenient, accessible and affordable. Thus, changing the game of the market. The disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into two types: new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. The new-market disruptive innovation, which succeeds because they bring previous non-consumers into the market, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Disruptive innovations can be generally be divided into new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption (i.e., consumers who would not have used the products already on the market), whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Low-end disruption has occurred repeatedly in retailing. Disruptive innovation will result in major changes, but they dont often rely on technological breakthroughs. In fact, many times the technologies are quite trivial. Its the Business Model the way a company organises and acts that drives disruptions. Taking the example of Wal-Mart, who opened their first discount retailer in 1962, they didnt start to sell goods that are different from their competitors, they created a new way to organize and act that allowed them to make money at low price points. So its not often the technology but is the businesses model. I read about many other models that shows the difference between disruption and sustaining innovation like the personal computer, eBay online model etc. the most interesting one is from the video games industries. Contrast the Sony PlayStation 3 product with the Nintendos Wii product. The PS3 is a technological marvel. The best game play you can find, great graphics, the blue ray disks in the player. It is aimed at the heart core gamers, the most demanding consumers in the games industry. Now Nintendo has innovated in a very different way. Instead of introducing games with better graphics Nintendo made it simpler, made it more accessible. The big innovation is the controller. Nintendo is consciously targeting the non-gamer and by doing so it has greatly expanded the market for the video games by reaching people that Sony wouldnt even think about targeting. Not winning it by doing it better but by winning it by doing it differently. (Ali Farhoomand, 2009) In the EBIN 504 innovation module understanding of the concept of disruptive innovation helped me understand more how to look at the market or industry to Spot Disruptive Innovation Opportunities which had helped me in my EBIN 503: Business Planning Module where we had a workshop for idea generation for starting a business. I also in thebook The innovators guide to growth I learned that, firstly we had to look for a market or industry where there is some kind of constraint that inhibits consumption where there is something that makes it difficult for people to solve problems in their life. Sometimes they dont have skills, sometimes they dont have money, and sometimes they cant access the solution and sometimes its just takes too long. Finding one of those barriers to consumption and see how you can obliterate it. Secondly we had to identify where people have important and unsatisfied jobs to be done. Where are problems that a customer faces that they cant adequately solve today. If we can find that frustrated customer and ease their pain we often times have the ticket to disruptive innovation. Then after we have looked for the constraint innovation and targeted that job to be done, then we think thought about how we can play the innovation game differently. With better understanding of the concept of di sruptive innovation theory, I understood its not about doing it better, its about making it simpler, cheaper, more accessible, more affordable. That is what disruption is all about. (Scott D. Anthony, 2008) References Ali Farhoomand, H. J. (2009) Nintendos Disruptive Strategy: Implications for the Video Game Industry. Feb 10, 2009, Harvard business publishing. http://harvardbusiness.org/product/nintendo-s-disruptive-strategy-implications-for-th/an/HKU814-PDF-ENG Christensen, C. (2009) Disruptive Innovation. http://www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html John Bessant, J. T. (2007) Innovation and entrepreneurship John Wiley and Sons, p. 229-34, 247 Scott D. Anthony, M. W. J., Joseph V. Sinfield, Elizabeth J. Altman (2008) The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work, Harvard Business Press PLATFORM INNOVATION Platform in simple words means pictures of major subsystems and interfaces between these subsystems. The platform innovation is defined as one that leads to the practical application of fundamental innovations. Such innovations normally are launching pads for a new industry I read a journal Platform-Innovation drive enterprise growth. It was very fascinating to see how Platform thinking for physical products played an important role in the companys transformation of its traditional mainframe business to a Web server business. Also product platforms require accurate operational definition without which its difficult to achieve progress, but many organizations are lacking in applying this definition. New product strategy must be remodeled to capture the degree to which common architectures and subsystems will be leveraged across existing and new market applications, as well as the timing of product introductions. (Marc H Meyer ad el. 2001) In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module I have learned that the Internet has evolved from web 1.0 to and Web 2.0 to become an increasingly important platform not just for economic development, communication, educational purposes, and as an area for entertainment, but also as a place for those who wish to express their opinions and ideas freely and is now considered web as a platform which doesnt have a hard boundary Figure 1 shows a meme map of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at OReilly Media. Its very much a work in progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate out from the Web 2.0 core. (Tim OReilly 2005) from the above figureabovewe can have an idea of Web as a platform.Web 2.0 can be conceived as blocks of principles and practices that are interconnected system of sites, where software and web applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon the desktop. The uniqueness of web 2.0 is customers are building your business for you. (Tim OReilly 2005) Everything is platform in web 2.0 era. I found this comic very interesting. In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module and EBIN-503 Business Planning Finance Planning we are going to plan to have an open API (application programming interface) as part of our e-business. Open API is a platform innovation concept, where other developers uses Open API to come up with a new combination for an innovation, which leads to more innovation. Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface that a software program implements in order to allow other software to interact with it; much in the same way that software might implement a user interface in order to allow humans to interact with it. (Wikipedia cited: on Nov 2009).For example In September 2009 programmableweb.com announced that ithad 16 new Mashups in their Mashup Directory and 28 different APIs were used to build them in different combination (programmableweb.com 2009). At the website link provided below in the reference shows a list of API used in different meshups An an exampleof a web ping.fm (http://ping.fm/)It is a web application for Managing Social Networks. It is linked with 46 social websites like Twitter, Facebook, myspace,blogger, beboetc. You can create an account with ping.fm and link it to any social websitefrom the list of 46. And if you want to post something like any news or update you can just post once on ping.fm and it will posted to you all the LINKED services you added to your ping.fm account. Now pink.fm provides OPEN API. Byusing their opi functionality any web-developer or business organization can build their business In our business plan, we will be having an OPEN DATA API and TRANSACTION API in our eBusiness as a open platform for other developers build or develop their web-application or software , hence building their business using our platform or in other words building our business for us Reference: Make platform innovation drive enterprise growth By Marc H Meyer, Paul C Mugge, Publication title: Research Technology Management. Arlington: Jan/Feb 2001. Vol. 44, Iss. 1; pg. 25, 15 pgs Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface#cite_note-0 John Musser 2009 28 APIs Used This Week: Open Government, Wikipedia, New York Times, and Football Nerds http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/04/28-apis-used-this-week-open-government-wikipedia-new-york-times-and-football-nerds/ Realinnovation- 2008 http://www.realinnovation.com/dictionary/Platform_Innovation-312.htm dilbert.com 2007 http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2007-09-09/ Tim OReilly Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software 2005 http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html understanding Dominant Design Dominant Design a product configuration which endures; a particular combination of product features which appears to satisfy the market and survives, without major change, for some time. (Don Bradmore 2004) Often in dominant design route there are many competitors involved each one introducing many products with special features but the firm that are able to imitate the dominant design survive while those that cannot fail. The design typically remains a standard product model for many years during which firms compete on lowering costs through process innovations. In the technology industry number of alternative design are often introduced by firms e.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple Inc. Mac OS and IBM OS2). Updated designs are introduced later incorporating incremental improvements. After sometime the architecture that becomes most accepted as the industry standard may emerge e.g. Microsoft Windows. Dominant designs might not be better than other designs in the market place; however they fulfil the key requirements. Many technologies, currently in use, struggled with similar competing products before gaining the dominant design. According to Markides and Geroski (2005) until the standard is emerging consumers are affected by issues Competition vs Collaboration Competition vs Collaboration Competition versus Collaboration Studying so much about collaboration within and outside the organization made me curious about the competition element. So I tried to find out where does the competition lies when we are talking about Collaboration.Christiansen (2000) says that for creativity and innovation, it is important to consider whether collaboration or competition is valuable. Although there are some downsides with collaboration like: collaborative group working independently, resistance dispute, ownership problems, Time pressure in members and their activities, etc.. Despite having such downsides competition is beaten by collaboration. Furthermore, competition among individuals within an organization, in idea generation, forces people to shutdown. Who wins and who looses is based on the rules of the game which includes individuals competencies and other factors. Whereas in the innovation-process, creativity nourishes with new ideas from a variety of sources. In competition individuals hold back information. Furthermore, the individual might not have a clear picture about the problem in-hand or reduce creative thinking or might not give enough time to think about the solution. Thus, increasing the possibility that the outcome is not a best solution or a best idea. Whereas in collaboration, individuals will be synergistically working together towards their objective. Collaboration is an important part of the innovation stages of selecting the ideas, development and commercializing an idea. In case where competition is outside the organization Nagel (2001) says that Wealth is created by competition and innovation plays a centre role in competition. And innovation is a key which comprises collaboration among competitors. Innovative companies collaborate externally though joint ventures, alliances or less structured forms of networking. Some innovative companies value internal and external competition, not being cut-throat competition with high secrecy or fierce, only to stimulate higher performance in competing projects where the losing teams are happy to support the winning team on their way forward. In such a company, with a positive competitive culture, to lose is not equal to losing face or missing out on the next potential promotion. In companies that believe in collaboration, people cannot help but to collaborate (Mayle 2006).This concept can be seen apprentin the Ripple Effect (IDEO 2009) project model from IDEO where different organizations collaborate to provide inspiration, deign and business support to entrepreneurs in development of new offering. I have attached a video below showing how companies are collaborating to provide clean drinking water for the poor The Ripple Effect in India, by IDEO and Acumen Fund from IDEO on Vimeo. Reference: Christiansen J. A., 2000 Competitive Innovation Management: Techniques to Improve Innovation Performance, Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan IDEO 2009, Ripple Effect: Access to safe drinking water for Acumen fund and The Bill Melinda Gates foundation [Online], Available:http://www.ideo.com/work/item/ripple-effect-access-to-safe-drinking-water/ Mayle D. 2006, Managing innovation and change, Publisher: SAGE Nagel S. 2001, Handbook of Policy Creativity: Creativity at the cutting edge Publisher: Nova Publishers, Social Media and Networks In the last few years, the number of users accessing the internet is expanding and an exponential rate. Users looking for any kind of information are searching the internet. Organizations are shifting or starting businesses online spending a lot of many to get traffic to their site. But with the hype of internet and web 2.0, these companies are using the internet to market and advertise their products and services through social media channels like facebook, twitter, youtube etc. It is the most low cost promotion method available today. Now a day marketers are using social media as their primary advertising platform as it is able to capture mass audiences. Its somewhat similar to TV advertising . In our business plan this social media and networks is playing an important part in advertisement. Companies are more concerned about their social graph ranks about products and services then how Google ranks them. The social media channels are creating content for the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) to work for the companies social media strategy. The content creation strategy should be aligned with the social media strategy to drive users towards taking action ( PR News 2009) There are three kinds of people who doubt the efficiency of social media. * Who are unaware about social media. * Who are interested in it but do not have knowledge to use it * Who doubts the social media strategy could benefit the business or their website(Jue et al. 2009) Social media should be included in the brand strategy because it will help consumers in the adoption process, laid out by Rogers (1962), which are (1) awareness, (2) interest, (3) evaluation, (4) trial, and (5) adoption, by spreading the awareness of the brand and answering the questions about the benefits the brand will provide. Social media will communicate the brand at all emotional levels. Furthermore, feedback will help in improving and evolving the brand. Bauknecht (2005) says people are believing and trusting more on peer recommendations than an advertisement. According to Warner (2008) social media networking might be just waste of time because the amounts of time individuals are spending on it. According to a survey, there is an estimated cost of  £6.5 billion per annum for loss in productivity and high bandwidth usage Britains social media fanatics spent like 12 hours per week on social media websites wasting value time. Young generations are also spending so much time on it. It was already hard to get the video game generation to focus on their studies. Lets see how much time it takes to spend on social media I am not a blogger or a social media fan. I did not have a Facebook account. I belonged to the category who doubted that social media could not benefit the business as advertising does. Now for me realizing the potential of social media was a huge eye-opener. I cant imagine how I could be ignoring it even after noticing all the online websites and other friends are on some kind of social media. However, after attending the Presentation of Chris Ramsbottom, former student of LUMS, and listening to his experiences regarding convincing the top managed about the importance of social media made me realize that I am not the only one. Now I have almost all the major social media channels and to expand my knowledge further regarding social media, I just got a book The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success 2009 by Lon Safko, David Brake and a digital copy of Social Media Marketing for Dummies 2009 by Shiv Singh. Also an iPhone to keep in touch with the social media networks However, it is important to understand how to utilize social media effectively by clarifying what actually is required from the social media either increasing sales or brand awareness of products or services. It will avoid wasting valuable time. Reference: Bauknecht K., Prà ¶ll B. and Werthner H. 2005, E-commerce and web technologies: 6th international conference, EC-Web Publisher: Springer Science Business Perez S. 2008, Real People Dont Have Time for Social Media [online], Available: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/real_people_dont_have_time_for_social_media.php PR News 2009, SEO SEM 3.0: Demystifying Social Media Optimization to Bring Consumers to You, PR News, April 27, http://www.proquest.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/ (accessed December 13, 2009). Jue A.L. , Marr J.A. and Kassotakis M.E. 2009, Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance , Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Rogers, Everett M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovations. Glencoe: Free Press. Warner B. 2008, Times Online : Is social networking a waste of time[Online], Available: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3536749.ec Mass Production I have been absent from the working log for quite sometime. Was really busy in group meetings, presentations and assignments etc. just finished my toughest assignment for SAP which is due day after tomorrow. Im relaxed now and having a cup of tea and startedwriting my learning log again Mass Production Honestly when I saw the week 6 questions I thought mass production will be boring and just time consuming, there would be nothing interesting about it except the word mass production but after seeing a clip of Charlie Chaplin at the time of lecture actually started my interest. I was fascinated to find out how industrial revolution began and how change actually happened. Most of the people live their lives and dont bother to look at the history like how we, as people, got to current situation. How we, as people progressed. It made me feel proud how we as human beings progressed through passage of time. The Industrial Revolution consisted a period from 18th to the 19th century where changes on manufacturing, transport and agriculture had an enormous effect on social, cultural and economic conditions first starting in UK. UK is the place, in the 18 century, where first manufacturing operations were specifically designed to reduce production costs by specialized labour and the use of machines appeared (britannica.com). Then afterwards spread to Europe, North America, and eventually the world. It was interesting to read about Model T a model of car produced by the Ford Motor Company between 1909-27, first car to be successfully mass-produced on an assembly line. I was a little bit curious what is the significance of the letter T. Just noticed it is 20th letter of the alphabet. So Model T is THE MODEL OF THE 20TH CENTURY. (Babylon dictionary) The main characteristics of MODEL T is the Standardization which lead to economies of scale during production, Division of Task which led to higher productivity. Specialism which lead to easy training of new workers in different departments Payment procedure, more parts produced the more money earned, led to overcoming the problem of high labour turnover Concentration where specialist making the decision instead of Workers Interest to read more about Model T and suggestion from Mary on The limits of Fordism led me to a paper onThe Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations 2004 by Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova, who states that in the manufacturing industry there are 3 functions Design Manufacture process of turning inputs into outputs co-ordination management The larger the firms became, under Fordism production, the more co-ordination was required; the faster technology and products changed and the pace of change was steadily accelerating, the more design was required. It is to be noted that Fordist production methods was actually derived from the transformation of previous organization of production notably Taylorism. It was actually Taylor in his Bethlehem Steel plant where craftsmen were subordinated directly to engineers who allocated tasks to workers. Fordism production, in Kaplinskys words, had distinct spheres. Photobucket Mass production system of Fordism was marvellously efficient and the model can be valued by the concept of transformation mechanisation which has 3 stages referred by Coombs (1983). Stage 1: The dedicated machine tool, lower labour cost and higher production Stage 2: The assembly line of continuous flow mechanical moving of materials between different stages of transformation. What Fordism lacked was the 3rd stage i.e. Control mechanisation which is the substitution of machines for the human brain in the direction and supervision of the productive process.What was needed, for control mechanisation, was machine intelligence and that was the next techno-economic paradigm development of ICT. Later on flexible form of mechanisation was made possible by Computer-aided manufacturing. Computer aided manufacturing which later on joined with computer aided design. The use of ICT in the process of coordination was increasingly recognized which led the development and diffusion of internet. Coming from a family business of clothes manufacturing, for me I understood perfectly about the boredom the workers experience for constant doing the repetitive work in mass production.Even after the policy of wages were based according to the amount of output a worker does i.e. wages paid for each item of work they do, the motivation increases but eventually comes down and the element of boredom re-appears. By looking at the theory of the law of Diminishing Marginal Productivity of labour (sometimes called the law of diminishing returns). It states that the increase in output due to units increase in labour working hours will eventually decline.(Jacques, Ian 2006) Which means if a worker is working 10 hours in a day ,His efficiency in the 1st hour will be higher than the 2nd hour. 2nd hour skill of production is more than the 3rd hour. In his last hour that is in the 10th hour his efficiency will be very very low .It may be zero or negative. Which was apparent in the case of Charlie Chaplin in the MODERN TIMES movie clip, that was seen in the class, when he lost his mind after repetitive working of loooooog hours and his productivity became negative In the book Mathematics for Economics and Business by Jacques, Ian gives an exmple: In the simplest case output, Q, is assumed to be a function of labour, L, and capital, K. Moreover, in the short run the input K can be assumed to be fixed, so Q is then only a function of one input L. (This is not a valid assumption in the long run and in general Q must be regarded as a function of at least two inputs. Methods for handling this situation are considered in the next chapter.) The variable L is usually measured in terms of the number of workers or possibly in terms of the number of worker hours. We define the marginal product of labour,MPL, by dQ = MPL dL Between 0 and L0 the curve bends upwards, becoming progressively steeper, and so the slope function, MPL, increases. Mathematically, this means that the slope of MPL is positive: that is, d(MPL ) > 0 dQ Now MPL is itself the derivative of Q with respect to L, so we can use the notation for the second derivative and write this as d2Q - > 0 dL2 Similarly, if L exceeds the threshold value of L0, then Figure 4.17 shows that the product curve bends downwards and the slope decreases. In this region, the slope of the slope function is negative, so that d2Q dL2 The law of diminishing returns states that this must happen eventually: that is, d2Q dL2 for sufficiently large L. Conclusion: To increase the productivity of a labourer and to reduce the cost of production. Reducing working hours of a shift is necessary. References: Andrew Tylecote and Giovanna Vertova 2004, The Rise and Decline of Fordism and the Sea-Change in the Technological Advantage of Nations www.giovannavertova.it/WP06.pdf britannica.com http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/368270/mass-production Babylon dictionary http://dictionary.babylon.com Jacques, Ian 2006, Mathematics for Economics and Business, Pearson Education UK, p. 268-271 http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/Browse/open.aspID=60204loc=Cover Kaplinsky (1984) Fordial Organisation Of Factory Production, p. 24 Perez Coombs. (1983). Structural Change and Assimilation of New Technologies in the Economic and Social Systems, Futures, 15(5): 357-375. disruptive technology It is a term which Christensen described as a new technology in this book the innovators dilemma by categorizing new technology into 2 categories: Sustaining technology incrementing improvements in an existing established technology Disruptive technology new technology, may not be perfect but appealing to a limited audience. Has initially little value and does not create attention among the dominate players in the industry. Disruptive technology usually targets new areas within the current industry with a new approach and could dominate an existing market. I will give 2 examples of disruptive technologies. Firstly, in my technology module, I found cloud computing a very disruptive technology. Its potential value cannot be ignored or denied. There were number of phases involved in the evolution of cloud computing, which include application service provision (ASP) and Software as a Service (SaaS) (Velte et al. 2009). In 2006, Amazon launched a commercial web service called Elastic Compute cloud (EC2) allowing small companies and individuals to renting I.T. infrastructure and computing power to run their own computer applications (LaMonica 2006). Cloud computing service is risk free and Easy to use. One does not have to buy anything or invest hugely into it. The technology is flexible; adjusting to the companys requirements and also easily scalable; fulfilling the needs of the companys growing demands. Just imagine in an industry where customers, had to pay upfront for a technology for which they may get 20-30% use, could use this cloud computing technology model and pay only for what is used and when it is used. It can be seen that the barriers to the entry of customers, around cost and complexity, are going to come down so dramatically that the cloud is going to open up much more usages of IT for small medium businesses. Emerging markets can be seen in countries, where just the cost and complexity have been barriers. Developing countries like Brazil rushing, China, India and beyond are going to end up using the technology in ways they have never been able to use it before and in ways we have never seen before. The second disruptive technology I found was the Google announcement of Google Navigation Map product for FREE, which was one of the innovation searches in our workshops. This product is used by connecting to the internet to Google cloud computing technology providing all the services of a traditional Sat. Nav and much more. By looking at the stock market of Garmin, one of the leading companies of navigation system providers in the GPS industry, we could actually see the market reaction to such a disruptive technology in just a couple of days from announcement, last year, in October 2009. TomTom and other companies are also affected. This product is targeted to price sensitive customers with offering excellent features and capabilities for FREE. With good understanding of the term disruptive innovation and disruptive technology, broadered my view of anticipating whether any new technology, i came accross, will prove disruptive or not. References: * Christensen C.M. 1997, The innovators dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail, Publisher: Harvard Business Press * Gurley B., Google Redefines Disruption: The Less Than Free Business Model [Online],Available: http://abovethecrowd.com/2009/10/29/google-redefines-disruption-the-%E2%80%9Cless-than-free%E2%80%9D-business-model/ [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * LaMonica M. 2006, Amazon servers, starting at 10 cents an hour [Online], Available: http://news.cnet.com/Amazon-servers,-starting-at-10-cents-an-hour/2100-1038_3-6109202.html [Accessed December 1, 2009 ] * Velte T., Velte A. and Elsenpeter R. 2009, Cloud Computing: A Practical Approach, Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional disruptive innovation The term Disruptive innovation is thought up by Clayton Christensen, who describes the term as a process by which a product or service application starts from the bottom of the market and manoeuvres up in the market displacing established competitors. (christensen, 2009) I read an interesting book The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work by Scott. It describes the disruptive innovation theory: the market consists of customers some of which are at a high end, very demanding, and willing to buy high-performance, expensive products. While others are low end and satisfied with simple and inexpensive products. Customers lives are not changing as fast as most organization or companies are innovating. These fast innovating companies end up producing goods, sustaining innovations, that are too good, too expensive and sometimes too inconvenient for many customers. The disconnect between the capabilities of a product and the customers ability to use them opens up an opportunity for innovators who brings to a market a disruptive innovation that is simple, convenient, accessible and affordable. Thus, changing the game of the market. The disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into two types: new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. The new-market disruptive innovation, which succeeds because they bring previous non-consumers into the market, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Disruptive innovations can be generally be divided into new-market and low-end disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption (i.e., consumers who would not have used the products already on the market), whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers for whom price is more important than quality. Low-end disruption has occurred repeatedly in retailing. Disruptive innovation will result in major changes, but they dont often rely on technological breakthroughs. In fact, many times the technologies are quite trivial. Its the Business Model the way a company organises and acts that drives disruptions. Taking the example of Wal-Mart, who opened their first discount retailer in 1962, they didnt start to sell goods that are different from their competitors, they created a new way to organize and act that allowed them to make money at low price points. So its not often the technology but is the businesses model. I read about many other models that shows the difference between disruption and sustaining innovation like the personal computer, eBay online model etc. the most interesting one is from the video games industries. Contrast the Sony PlayStation 3 product with the Nintendos Wii product. The PS3 is a technological marvel. The best game play you can find, great graphics, the blue ray disks in the player. It is aimed at the heart core gamers, the most demanding consumers in the games industry. Now Nintendo has innovated in a very different way. Instead of introducing games with better graphics Nintendo made it simpler, made it more accessible. The big innovation is the controller. Nintendo is consciously targeting the non-gamer and by doing so it has greatly expanded the market for the video games by reaching people that Sony wouldnt even think about targeting. Not winning it by doing it better but by winning it by doing it differently. (Ali Farhoomand, 2009) In the EBIN 504 innovation module understanding of the concept of disruptive innovation helped me understand more how to look at the market or industry to Spot Disruptive Innovation Opportunities which had helped me in my EBIN 503: Business Planning Module where we had a workshop for idea generation for starting a business. I also in thebook The innovators guide to growth I learned that, firstly we had to look for a market or industry where there is some kind of constraint that inhibits consumption where there is something that makes it difficult for people to solve problems in their life. Sometimes they dont have skills, sometimes they dont have money, and sometimes they cant access the solution and sometimes its just takes too long. Finding one of those barriers to consumption and see how you can obliterate it. Secondly we had to identify where people have important and unsatisfied jobs to be done. Where are problems that a customer faces that they cant adequately solve today. If we can find that frustrated customer and ease their pain we often times have the ticket to disruptive innovation. Then after we have looked for the constraint innovation and targeted that job to be done, then we think thought about how we can play the innovation game differently. With better understanding of the concept of di sruptive innovation theory, I understood its not about doing it better, its about making it simpler, cheaper, more accessible, more affordable. That is what disruption is all about. (Scott D. Anthony, 2008) References Ali Farhoomand, H. J. (2009) Nintendos Disruptive Strategy: Implications for the Video Game Industry. Feb 10, 2009, Harvard business publishing. http://harvardbusiness.org/product/nintendo-s-disruptive-strategy-implications-for-th/an/HKU814-PDF-ENG Christensen, C. (2009) Disruptive Innovation. http://www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html John Bessant, J. T. (2007) Innovation and entrepreneurship John Wiley and Sons, p. 229-34, 247 Scott D. Anthony, M. W. J., Joseph V. Sinfield, Elizabeth J. Altman (2008) The innovators guide to growth: putting disruptive innovation to work, Harvard Business Press PLATFORM INNOVATION Platform in simple words means pictures of major subsystems and interfaces between these subsystems. The platform innovation is defined as one that leads to the practical application of fundamental innovations. Such innovations normally are launching pads for a new industry I read a journal Platform-Innovation drive enterprise growth. It was very fascinating to see how Platform thinking for physical products played an important role in the companys transformation of its traditional mainframe business to a Web server business. Also product platforms require accurate operational definition without which its difficult to achieve progress, but many organizations are lacking in applying this definition. New product strategy must be remodeled to capture the degree to which common architectures and subsystems will be leveraged across existing and new market applications, as well as the timing of product introductions. (Marc H Meyer ad el. 2001) In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module I have learned that the Internet has evolved from web 1.0 to and Web 2.0 to become an increasingly important platform not just for economic development, communication, educational purposes, and as an area for entertainment, but also as a place for those who wish to express their opinions and ideas freely and is now considered web as a platform which doesnt have a hard boundary Figure 1 shows a meme map of Web 2.0 that was developed at a brainstorming session during FOO Camp, a conference at OReilly Media. Its very much a work in progress, but shows the many ideas that radiate out from the Web 2.0 core. (Tim OReilly 2005) from the above figureabovewe can have an idea of Web as a platform.Web 2.0 can be conceived as blocks of principles and practices that are interconnected system of sites, where software and web applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon the desktop. The uniqueness of web 2.0 is customers are building your business for you. (Tim OReilly 2005) Everything is platform in web 2.0 era. I found this comic very interesting. In the EBIN-521 e-Technology module and EBIN-503 Business Planning Finance Planning we are going to plan to have an open API (application programming interface) as part of our e-business. Open API is a platform innovation concept, where other developers uses Open API to come up with a new combination for an innovation, which leads to more innovation. Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface that a software program implements in order to allow other software to interact with it; much in the same way that software might implement a user interface in order to allow humans to interact with it. (Wikipedia cited: on Nov 2009).For example In September 2009 programmableweb.com announced that ithad 16 new Mashups in their Mashup Directory and 28 different APIs were used to build them in different combination (programmableweb.com 2009). At the website link provided below in the reference shows a list of API used in different meshups An an exampleof a web ping.fm (http://ping.fm/)It is a web application for Managing Social Networks. It is linked with 46 social websites like Twitter, Facebook, myspace,blogger, beboetc. You can create an account with ping.fm and link it to any social websitefrom the list of 46. And if you want to post something like any news or update you can just post once on ping.fm and it will posted to you all the LINKED services you added to your ping.fm account. Now pink.fm provides OPEN API. Byusing their opi functionality any web-developer or business organization can build their business In our business plan, we will be having an OPEN DATA API and TRANSACTION API in our eBusiness as a open platform for other developers build or develop their web-application or software , hence building their business using our platform or in other words building our business for us Reference: Make platform innovation drive enterprise growth By Marc H Meyer, Paul C Mugge, Publication title: Research Technology Management. Arlington: Jan/Feb 2001. Vol. 44, Iss. 1; pg. 25, 15 pgs Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface#cite_note-0 John Musser 2009 28 APIs Used This Week: Open Government, Wikipedia, New York Times, and Football Nerds http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/04/28-apis-used-this-week-open-government-wikipedia-new-york-times-and-football-nerds/ Realinnovation- 2008 http://www.realinnovation.com/dictionary/Platform_Innovation-312.htm dilbert.com 2007 http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2007-09-09/ Tim OReilly Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software 2005 http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html understanding Dominant Design Dominant Design a product configuration which endures; a particular combination of product features which appears to satisfy the market and survives, without major change, for some time. (Don Bradmore 2004) Often in dominant design route there are many competitors involved each one introducing many products with special features but the firm that are able to imitate the dominant design survive while those that cannot fail. The design typically remains a standard product model for many years during which firms compete on lowering costs through process innovations. In the technology industry number of alternative design are often introduced by firms e.g. Microsoft Windows, Apple Inc. Mac OS and IBM OS2). Updated designs are introduced later incorporating incremental improvements. After sometime the architecture that becomes most accepted as the industry standard may emerge e.g. Microsoft Windows. Dominant designs might not be better than other designs in the market place; however they fulfil the key requirements. Many technologies, currently in use, struggled with similar competing products before gaining the dominant design. According to Markides and Geroski (2005) until the standard is emerging consumers are affected by issues

Personal Narrative: I am Blind Essay -- essays research papers

I am blind. But I was not always blind. I once experienced the majesty of a sunrise in late August and the awe of the deep blue sea as the sun glistens from it. Now I have only my memories to comfort me. So they sent me here, a field trip, a good experience they say, to help me cope. They sent me to a deaf school for the day, unknowing of how awkward it is for me. They gave me a buddy, but for what? We can?t communicate through speech or sign language. ? You?ll figure it out,? they say. So now I sit here, alone and desolate in darkness, hoping for the occasional memory to write upon the blank screen of my vision and bring life to this seemingly dead place. And so I sit. The chair is hard and cold as stone, like a cement chair in a jail cell. It is firm, but not strong, it squeaks and wobbles around like a fish out of water. I reach down to make sure all four legs are there. Yes, there?s four, four cold smooth spears symbolizing my demise. Spears ready to leap forward and devour me if I make the slightest wrong or sudden move. I stretch out my arms, trying to find my surroundings. To the left, nothing but air. To the right, another spear, but not like the others this spears lies on its side like the rails in my bathroom. My hand follows the cold rod. It hits something leaving a sting and cracking my thumb as it crushes against my hand. This must be the desk. I glide my hand along the smooth surface felling all the little bumps of eraser left behind. I feel along the sides and touch the rigid edges where pens have been dug in deep like sharp wounds giving the desk a unique personality. As my fingertips reach the center, I re alize just how close the desk is, only about five inches away from my rapidly beatin... ... down the hall and I encounter a revelation of thought. We are going outside. I run faster now and burst through the front doors into the great heaven. I can smell fresh cut grass on the horizon and the soft warm rays of the sun finally beam down on my face. I breath the fresh cool air and listen. My bird has come back again and sings over the crackling flames and sirens of the trucks. It sings because it is free, it sings a victory praise for me because now I am free. I sit down on the wet grass and what I understand to be my buddy takes my hand. On my hand she spells out two letters. Two letters that say everything. She spells out ?O? ?K? and I cry because I know that no matter what happens or how much I have to suffer, in the end it?s okay because I am alive and I am free. So I am still blind, but now I am blind and loving it!

Affirmative Action Essay -- essays papers

Affirmative Action Few social policy issues have served as a better gauge of racial and ethnic divisions among the American people than affirmative action. Affirmative action is a term referring to laws and social policies intended to alleviate discrimination that limits opportunities for a variety of groups in various social institutions. Supporters and opponents of affirmative action are passionate about their beliefs, and attack the opposing viewpoints relentlessly. Advocates believe it overcomes discrimination, gives qualified minorities a chance to compete on equal footing with whites, and provides them with the same opportunities. Opponents charge that affirmative action places unskilled minorities in positions they are not qualified for and violates the Fourteenth Amendment. Since its inception, the definition of affirmative action has been ever-changing. Prohibiting discrimination in hiring, expanding the applicant pool to include more minorities, compensating for past grievances, and s etting quotas have all been part of the definition. In theory affirmative action helps integrate minorities better into society and puts them on equal footing with whites; however, in reality affirmative action is widening the racial gap in America and therefore should be discontinued. When the Civil Rights Law passed, minorities, especially African-Americans, believed that they should receive retribution for the years of discrimination that they endured. The government responded by passing laws to aide them in attaining better employment as reprieve for the previous two hundred years of suffering. To many, these laws made sense. After all, the white race was partly responsible for their enslavement. However, the individual w... ... Am I being picked for my writing ability, or to fulfill a quota† (Chinea-Varela 342). Minorities like Migdia want to be treated as equals, not incompetents. Affirmative Action was an essential part of the desegregation that occurred thirty years ago, but it has become outdated and is no longer part of the solution. It was a temporary plan to improve the conditions for minorities, but it is now more of a hindrance than a help to them. Affirmative action lowers standards, causes unqualified workers to be hired, places a stigma on minorities, lowers their confidence, and gives them the opportunity and encouragement to idle. Affirmative action has not fulfilled its goal of assisting lower income minorities with a history of discrimination, but instead has been exploited by middle-class minorities, the lower income groups still remaining uneducated and unsuccessful.

Chapter 1 The Riddle House

The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it â€Å"the Riddle House,† even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there. It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied. The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was â€Å"creepy.† Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there, something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was quite sure what the truth was anymore. Every version of the tale, however, started in the same place: Fifty years before, at daybreak on a fine summer's morning when the Riddle House had still been well kept and impressive, a maid had entered the drawing room to find all three Riddles dead. The maid had run screaming down the hill into the village and roused as many people as she could. â€Å"Lying there with their eyes wide open! Cold as ice! Still in their dinner things!† The police were summoned, and the whole of Little Hangleton had seethed with shocked curiosity and ill-disguised excitement. Nobody wasted their breath pretending to feel very sad about the Riddles, for they had been most unpopular. Elderly Mr. and Mrs. Riddle had been rich, snobbish, and rude, and their grown-up son, Tom, had been, if anything, worse. All the villagers cared about was the identity of their murderer – for plainly, three apparently healthy people did not all drop dead of natural causes on the same night. The Hanged Man, the village pub, did a roaring trade that night; the whole village seemed to have turned out to discuss the murders. They were rewarded for leaving their firesides when the Riddles' cook arrived dramatically in their midst and announced to the suddenly silent pub that a man called Frank Bryce had just been arrested. â€Å"Frank!† cried several people. â€Å"Never!† Frank Bryce was the Riddles' gardener. He lived alone in a run-down cottage on the grounds of the Riddle House. Frank had come back from the war with a very stiff leg and a great dislike of crowds and loud noises, and had been working for the Riddles ever since. There was a rush to buy the cook drinks and hear more details. â€Å"Always thought he was odd,† she told the eagerly listening villagers, after her fourth sherry. â€Å"Unfriendly, like. I'm sure if I've offered him a cuppa once, I've offered it a hundred times. Never wanted to mix, he didn't.† â€Å"Ah, now,† said a woman at the bar, â€Å"he had a hard war, Frank. He likes the quiet life. That's no reason to -â€Å" â€Å"Who else had a key to the back door, then?† barked the cook. â€Å"There's been a spare key hanging in the gardener's cottage far back as I can remember! Nobody forced the door last night! No broken windows! All Frank had to do was creep up to the big house while we was all sleeping†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The villagers exchanged dark looks. â€Å"I always thought that he had a nasty look about him, right enough,† grunted a man at the bar. â€Å"War turned him funny, if you ask me,† said the landlord. â€Å"Told you I wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of Frank, didn't I, Dot?† said an excited woman in the corner. â€Å"Horrible temper,† said Dot, nodding fervently. â€Å"I remember, when he was a kid†¦Ã¢â‚¬  By the following morning, hardly anyone in Little Hangleton doubted that Frank Bryce had killed the Riddles. But over in the neighboring town of Great Hangleton, in the dark and dingy police station, Frank was stubbornly repeating, again and again, that he was innocent, and that the only person he had seen near the house on the day of the Riddles' deaths had been a teenage boy, a stranger, dark-haired and pale. Nobody else in the village had seen any such boy, and the police were quite sure Frank had invented him. Then, just when things were looking very serious for Frank, the report on the Riddles' bodies came back and changed everything. The police had never read an odder report. A team of doctors had examined the bodies and had concluded that none of the Riddles had been poisoned, stabbed, shot, strangles, suffocated, or (as far as they could tell) harmed at all. In fact (the report continued, in a tone of unmistakable bewilderment), the Riddles all appeared to be in perfect health – apart from the fact that they were all dead. The doctors did note (as though determined to find something wrong with the bodies) that each of the Riddles had a look of terror upon his or her face – but as the frustrated police said, whoever heard of three people being frightened to death? As there was no proof that the Riddles had been murdered at all, the police were forced to let Frank go. The Riddles were buried in the Little Hangleton churchyard, and their graves remained objects of curiosity for a while. To everyone's surprise, and amid a cloud of suspicion, Frank Bryce returned to his cottage on the grounds of the Riddle House. â€Å"As far as I'm concerned, he killed them, and I don't care what the police say,† said Dot in the Hanged Man. â€Å"And if he had any decency, he'd leave here, knowing as how we knows he did it.† But Frank did not leave. He stayed to tend the garden for the next family who lived in the Riddle House, and then the next – for neither family stayed long. Perhaps it was partly because of Frank that the new owners said there was a nasty feeling about the place, which, in the absence of inhabitants, started to fall into disrepair. The wealthy man who owned the Riddle House these days neither lived there nor put it to any use; they said in the village that he kept it for â€Å"tax reasons,† though nobody was very clear what these might be. The wealthy owner continued to pay Frank to do the gardening, however. Frank was nearing his seventy-seventh birthday now, very deaf, his bad leg stiffer than ever, but could be seen pottering around the flower beds in fine weather, even though the weeds were starting to creep up on him, try as he might to suppress them. Weeds were not the only things Frank had to contend with either. Boys from the village made a habit of throwing stones through the windows of the Riddle House. They rode their bicycles over the lawns Frank worked so hard to keep smooth. Once or twice, they broke into the old house for a dare. They knew that old Frank's devotion to the house and the grounds amounted almost to an obsession, and it amused them to see him limping across the garden, brandishing his stick and yelling croakily at them. Frank, for his part, believed the boys tormented him because they, like their parents and grandparents, though him a murderer. So when Frank awoke one night in August and saw something very odd up at the old house, he merely assumed that the boys had gone one step further in their attempts to punish him. It was Frank's bad leg that woke him; it was paining him worse than ever in his old age. He got up and limped downstairs into the kitchen with the idea of refilling his hot-water bottle to ease the stiffness in his knee. Standing at the sink, filling the kettle, he looked up at the Riddle House and saw lights glimmering in its upper windows. Frank knew at once what was going on. The boys had broken into the house again, and judging by the flickering quality of the light, they had started a fire. Frank had no telephone, in any case, he had deeply mistrusted the police ever since they had taken him in for questioning about the Riddles' deaths. He put down the kettle at once, hurried back upstairs as fast as his bad leg would allow, and was soon back in his kitchen, fully dressed and removing a rusty old key from its hook by the door. He picked up his walking stick, which was propped against the wall, and set off into the night. The front door of the Riddle House bore no sign of being forced, nor did any of the windows. Frank limped around to the back of the house until he reached a door almost completely hidden by ivy, took out the old key, put it into the lock, and opened the door noiselessly. He let himself into the cavernous kitchen. Frank had not entered it for many years; nevertheless, although it was very dark, he remembered where the door into the hall was, and he groped his way towards it, his nostrils full of the smell of decay, ears pricked for any sound of footsteps or voices from overhead. He reached the hall, which was a little lighter owing to the large mullioned windows on either side of the front door, and started to climb the stairs, blessing the dust that lay thick upon the stone, because it muffled the sound of his feet and stick. On the landing, Frank turned right, and saw at once where the intruders were: At the every end of the passage a door stood ajar, and a flickering light shone through the gap, casting a long sliver of gold across the black floor. Frank edged closer and closer, he was able to see a narrow slice of the room beyond. The fire, he now saw, had been lit in the grate. This surprised him. Then he stopped moving and listened intently, for a man's voice spoke within the room; it sounded timid and fearful. â€Å"There is a little more in the bottle, My Lord, if you are still hungry.† â€Å"Later,† said a second voice. This too belonged to a man – but it was strangely high-pitched, and cold as a sudden blast of icy wind. Something about that voice made the sparse hairs on the back of Frank's neck stand up. â€Å"Move me closer to the fire, Wormtail.† Frank turned his right ear toward the door, the better to hear. There came the clink of a bottle being put down upon some hard surface, and then the dull scraping noise of a heavy chair being dragged across the floor. Frank caught a glimpse of a small man, his back to the door, pushing the chair into place. He was wearing a long black cloak, and there was a bald patch at the back of his head. Then he went out of sight again. â€Å"Where is Nagini?† said the cold voice. â€Å"I – I don't know, My Lord,† said the first voice nervously. â€Å"She set out to explore the house, I think†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"You will milk her before we retire, Wormtail,† said the second voice. â€Å"I will need feeding in the night. The journey has tired me greatly.† Brow furrowed, Frank inclined his good ear still closer to the door, listening very hard. There was a pause, and then the man called Wormtail spoke again. â€Å"My Lord, may I ask how long we are going to stay here?† â€Å"A week,† said the cold voice. â€Å"Perhaps longer. The place is moderately comfortable, and the plan cannot proceed yet. It would be foolish to act before the Quidditch World Cup is over.† Frank inserted a gnarled finger into his ear and rotated it. Owing, no doubt, to a buildup of earwax, he had heard the word â€Å"Quidditch,† which was not a word at all. â€Å"The – the Quidditch World Cup, My Lord?† said Wormtail. (Frank dug his finger still more vigorously into his ear.) â€Å"Forgive me, but – I do not understand – why should we wait until the World Cup is over?† â€Å"Because, fool, at this very moment wizards are pouring into the country from all over the world, and every meddler from the Ministry of Magic will be on duty, on the watch for signs of unusual activity, checking and double-checking identities. They will be obsessed with security, lest the Muggles notice anything. So we wait.† Frank stopped trying to clear out his ear. He had distinctly heard the words â€Å"Ministry of Magic,† â€Å"wizards,† and â€Å"Muggles.† Plainly, each of these expressions meant something secret, and Frank could think of only two sorts of people who would speak in code: spies and criminals. Frank tightened his hold on his walking stick once more, and listened more closely still. â€Å"Your Lordship is still determined, then?† Wormtail said quietly. â€Å"Certainly I am determined, Wormtail.† There was a note of menace in the cold voice now. A slight pause followed – and the Wormtail spoke, the words tumbling from him in a rush, as though he was forcing himself to say this before he lost his nerve. â€Å"It could be done without Harry Potter, My Lord.† Another pause, more protracted, and then – â€Å"Without Harry Potter?† breathed the second voice softly. â€Å"I see†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"My Lord, I do not say this out of concern for the boy!† said Wormtail, his voice rising squeakily. â€Å"The boy is nothing to me, nothing at all! It is merely that if we were to use another witch or wizard – any wizard – the thing could be done so much more quickly! If you allowed me to leave you for a short while – you know that I can disguise myself most effectively – I could be back here in as little as two days with a suitable person -â€Å" â€Å"I could use another wizard,† said the cold voice softly, â€Å"that is true†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"My Lord, it makes sense,† said Wormtail, sounding thoroughly relieved now. â€Å"Laying hands on Harry Potter would be so difficult, he is so well protected -â€Å" â€Å"And so you volunteer to go and fetch me a substitute? I wonder†¦perhaps the task of nursing me has become wearisome for you, Wormtail? Could this suggestion of abandoning the plan be nothing more than an attempt to desert me?† â€Å"My Lord! I – I have no wish to leave you, none at all -â€Å" â€Å"Do not lie to me!† hissed the second voice. â€Å"I can always tell, Wormtail! You are regretting that you ever returned to me. I revolt you. I see you flinch when you look at me, feel you shudder when you touch me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No! My devotion to Your Lordship -â€Å" â€Å"Your devotion is nothing more than cowardice. You would not be here if you had anywhere else to go. How am I to survive without you, when I need feeding every few hours? Who is to milk Nagini?† â€Å"But you seem so much stronger, My Lord -â€Å" â€Å"Liar,† breathed the second voice. â€Å"I am no stronger, and a few days alone would be enough to rob me of the little health I have regained under your clumsy care. Silence!† Wormtail, who had been sputtering incoherently, fell silent at once. For a few seconds, Frank could hear nothing but the fire crackling. The second man spoke once more, in a whisper that was almost a hiss. â€Å"I have my reasons for using the boy, as I have already explained to you, and I will use no other. I have waited thirteen years. A few more months will make no difference. As for the protection surrounding the boy, I believe my plan will be effective. All that is needed is a little courage from you, Wormtail – courage you will find, unless you wish to feel the full extent of Lord Voldermort's wrath -â€Å" â€Å"My Lord, I must speak!† said Wormtail, panic in his voice now. â€Å"All through our journey I have gone over the plan in my head – My Lord, Bertha Jorkin's disappearance will not go unnoticed for long, and if we proceed, if I murder -â€Å" â€Å"If?† whispered the second voice. â€Å"If? If you follow the plan, Wormtail, the Ministry need never know that anyone else has died. You will do it quietly and without fuss; I only wish that I could do it myself, but in my present condition†¦Come, Wormtail, one more death and our path to Harry Potter is clear. I am not asking you to do it alone. By that time, my faithful servant will have rejoined us -â€Å" â€Å"I am a faithful servant,† said Wormtail, the merest trace of sullenness in his voice. â€Å"Wormtail, I need somebody with brains, somebody whose loyalty has never wavered, and you, unfortunately, fulfill neither requirement.† â€Å"I found you,† said Wormtail, and there was definitely a sulky edge to his voice now. â€Å"I was the one who found you. I brought you Bertha Jorkins.† â€Å"That is true,† said the second man, sounding amused. â€Å"A stroke of brilliance I would not have thought possible from you, Wormtail – though, if truth be told, you were not aware how useful she would be when you caught her, were you?† â€Å"I – I thought she might be useful, My Lord -â€Å" â€Å"Liar,† said the second voice again, the cruel amusement more pronounced than ever. â€Å"However, I do not deny that her information was invaluable. Without it, I could never have formed our plan, and for that, you will have your reward, Wormtail. I will allow you to perform an essential task for me, one that many of my followers would give their right hands to perform†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"R-really, My Lord? What -?† Wormtail sounded terrified again. â€Å"Ah, Wormtail, you don't want me to spoil the surprise? Your part will come at the very end†¦but I promise you, you will have the honor of being just as useful as Bertha Jorkins.† â€Å"You†¦you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Wormtail's voice suddenly sounded hoarse, as though his mouth had gone very dry. â€Å"You†¦are going†¦to kill me too?† â€Å"Wormtail, Wormtail,† said the cold voice silkily, â€Å"why would I kill you? I killed Bertha because I had to. She was fit for nothing after my questioning, quite useless. In any case, awkward questions would have been asked if she had gone back to the Ministry with the news that she had met you on her holidays. Wizards who are supposed to be dead would do well not to run into Ministry of Magic witches at wayside inns†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Wormtail muttered something so quietly that Frank could not hear it, but it made the second man laugh – an entirely mirthless laugh, cold as his speech. â€Å"We could have modified her memory? But Memory Charms can be broken by a powerful wizard, as I proved when I questioned her. It would be an insult to her memory not to use the information I extracted from her, Wormtail.† Out in the corridor, Frank suddenly became aware that the hand gripping his walking stick was slippery with sweat. The man with the cold voice had killed a woman. He was talking about it without any kind of remorse – with amusement. He was dangerous – a madman. And he was planning more murders – this boy, Harry Potter, whoever he was – was in danger – Frank knew what he must do. Now, if ever, was the time to go to the police. He would creep out of the house and head straight for the telephone box in the village†¦but the cold voice was speaking again, and Frank remained where he was, frozen to the spot, listening with all his might. â€Å"One more murder†¦my faithful servant at Hogwarts†¦Harry Potter is as good as mine, Wormtail. It is decided. There will be no more argument. But quiet†¦I think I hear Nagini†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And the second man's voice changed. He started making noises such as Frank had never heard before; he was hissing and spitting without drawing breath. Frank thought he must be having some sort of fit or seizure. And then Frank heard movement behind him in the dark passageway. He turned to look, and found himself paralyzed with fright. Something was slithering toward him along the dark corridor floor, and as it drew nearer to the sliver of firelight, he realized with a thrill of terror that it was a gigantic snake, at least twelve feet long. Horrified, transfixed, Frank stared as its undulating body cut a wide, curving track through the thick dust on the floor, coming closer and closer – What was he to do? The only means of escape was into the room where the two men sat plotting murder, yet if he stayed where he was the snake would surely kill him – But before he had made his decision, the snake was level with him, and then, incredibly, miraculously, it was passing; it was following the spitting, hissing noises made by the cold voice beyond the door, and in seconds, the tip of its diamond-patterned tail had vanished through the gap. There was sweat on Frank's forehead now, and the hand on the walking stick was trembling. Inside the room, the cold voice was continuing to hiss, and Frank was visited by a strange idea, an impossible idea†¦This man could talk to snakes. Frank didn't understand what was going on. He wanted more than anything to be back in his bed with his hot-water bottle. The problem was that his legs didn't seem to want to move. As he stood there shaking and trying to master himself, the cold voice switched abruptly to English again. â€Å"Nagini has interesting news, Wormtail,† it said. â€Å"In-indeed, My Lord?† said Wormtail. â€Å"Indeed, yes,† said the voice, â€Å"According to Nagini, there is an old Muggle standing right outside this room, listening to every word we say.† Frank didn't have a chance to hide himself. There were footsteps and then the door of the room was flung wide open. A short, balding man with graying hair, a pointed nose, and small, watery eyes stood before Frank, a mixture of fear and alarm in his face. â€Å"Invite him inside, Wormtail. Where are your manners?† The cold voice was coming from the ancient armchair before the fire, but Frank couldn't see the speaker. the snake, on the other hand, was curled up on the rotting hearth rug, like some horrible travesty of a pet dog. Wormtail beckoned Frank into the room. Though still deeply shaken, Frank took a firmer grip on his walking stick and limped over the threshold. The fire was the only source of light in the room; it cast long, spidery shadows upon the walls. Frank stared at the back of the armchair; the man inside it seemed to be even smaller than his servant, for Frank couldn't even see the back of his head. â€Å"You heard everything, Muggle?† said the cold voice. â€Å"What's that you're calling me?† said Frank defiantly, for now that he was inside the room, now that the time had come for some sort of action, he felt braver; it had always been so in the war. â€Å"I am calling you a Muggle,† said the voice coolly. â€Å"It means that you are not a wizard.† â€Å"I don't know what you mean by wizard,† said Frank, his voice growing steadier. â€Å"All I know is I've heard enough to interest the police tonight, I have. You've done murder and you're planning more! And I'll tell you this too,† he added, on a sudden inspiration, â€Å"my wife knows I'm up here, and if I don't come back -â€Å" â€Å"You have no wife,† said the cold voice, very quietly. â€Å"Nobody knows you are here. You told nobody that you were coming. Do not lie to Lord Voldemort, Muggle, for he knows†¦he always knows†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Is that right?† said Frank roughly. â€Å"Lord, is it? Well, I don't think much of your manners, My Lord. Turn 'round and face me like a man, why don't you?† â€Å"But I am not a man, Muggle,† said the cold voice, barely audible now over the crackling of the flames. â€Å"I am much, much more than a man. However†¦why not? I will face you†¦Wormtail, come turn my chair around.† The servant gave a whimper. â€Å"You heard me, Wormtail.† Slowly, with his face screwed up, as though he would rather have done anything than approach his master and the hearth rug where the snake lay, the small man walked forward and began to turn the chair. The snake lifted its ugly triangular head and hissed slightly as the legs of the chair snagged on its rug. And then the chair was facing Frank, and he saw what was sitting in it. His walking stick fell to the floor with a clatter. He opened his mouth and let out a scream. He was screaming so loudly that he never heard the words the thing in the chair spoke as it raised a wand. There was a flash of green light, a rushing sound, and Frank Bryce crumpled. He was dead before he hit the floor. Two hundred miles away, the boy called Harry Potter woke with a start.