Function proposal Essay Example for Free

Function proposal Essay Thank you for your enquiry to hold a private function at aqua dining. A dinner is on a Sunday night only from 6.30pm11.30pm. We cater for both a 3 course sit down style or cocktail style event. The sit down menu allows your guests on the day or night to choose their meal from 3 entrà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½es, mains and desserts. Both styles of functions can cater for all dietary needs whether they are vegan, vegetarian, coeliac, an allergy to seafood or just plain eaters. The current menus and beverage package are attached. The beverages, which are included within the package price, are served through out the duration of the function. To ensure the use of fresh seasonal produce the menus are subject to change. We have a list of preferred suppliers which can assist you in organising AV, flowers, chair covers, music and photography. We can set up your specific requirements for your use during your function at no additional cost. The price for a sit down function for 50 guests is $3700 $5500 (inclusive of room hire and beverage) with additional guests being $100 each. The price for a cocktail style event for 50 guests is $2500 $3350(inclusive of room hire and beverage) with additional guests being $80 each. Childrens meals (12 years and under) and service meals are $40 each. To make a booking we require a deposit of $1500 with the balance due 14 days prior to your function. A tentative booking will not be held without a deposit. Payments can be made by cheque, cash or credit card (credit card payments incur a 23% fee). Please note that this price is for functions held during 2008. The prices may be subject to change in 2009. Bookings cancelled within 3 months of the booking date incur loss of full deposit. The deposit less 10% will be refunded if the booking is cancelled 3 months or more prior to the booking date. If the booking is transferred more than a month prior to the date 10% of the deposit is withheld. If the transfer is less then a month prior to the booking 50% of the deposit is withheld. For further information or to make a booking contact our function manager Jo Beshara on 02 9999 1234 or email [emailprotected] Regards Meredith Armstrong General Manager 1. Venue Room Options and Cost (include GST) Corporate functions are welcome to create a room plan suited to your specific requirements. Patrons are of course encouraged to come down regularly and get a feel for the room prior to the event. The followings are suitable room for 50 guests. All packages include venue hire, in house tables chairs, table linen, glasses, crockery, cutlery and background music. If you want to discuss more how we can help make your event perfect, please call our Functions Coordinator Room One The Chandler Room With its ceiling mounted projector, hot red lounges and access to the roof top Zen garden, The Media Room is available for that event when you want it a little more casual and intimate. It is also the perfect room for sit down dinner of up to 50 people. * Room Hire $350 * Function Duration area reserved till midnight. After midnight the area will be open to the public * Room Facilities direct access to designated smoking area, bar area, male/female bathrooms, projector, audio visual, built in screen, built in microphones, speaker system dance floor if required * View river View Room Two The Grange Room The Green Room is a smaller more intimate boardroom with its floor to ceiling windows boasting expansive views that can be used for smaller parties, intimate dining of up to 50 people or corporately for meetings. * Room Hire $250 * Function Duration area reserved till midnight. After midnight the area will be open to the public * Room Facilities male/female bathrooms, bar area, audio visual, wall screen dance floor if required * View garden View 2. Floor Plan Banquet style is most suited for fund raising function. A large conference can be arranged in smaller groups seated around round or rectangular tables where group and workshop activities can be performed through the conference. The banquet style also encourages attendees to network with their immediate group at the conference. Room One The Chandler Room 1,200 sq. ft, 30 x 40, not include foyer area (A) (B) Room Two The Grange Room 1,100 sq. ft., 22 x 50, not include foyer area (A) (B) 3. Menu Suggestions and Cost 3.1 Set Menu Options (include GST) The following is a sample of a set dinner menu available for fund raising functions. Costs may vary depending on the type of menu selected. Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Vegetarian Options are also available on request. All Set Menus are subject to availability of the freshest seasonal produce and may change if not available. Set Menu One $34.95 per person Please choose from one of the following Entrà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e * Spicy marinated calamari rings, lightly crumbed served on a salad of roquette leaves, spanish onion parmesan cheese accompanied with lemon citrus caper aioli * Grilled Turkish bread brushed with garlic olive oil, served with a selection of inhouse dips Main * Grilled Atlantic salmon on wild mushroom soba noodle salad, topped with wasabi hollandaise sauce, served with lemon * Oven-baked chicken supreme filled with semi-dried tomato basil cream cheese topped with tomato avocado salsa, served with petit salad chips Set Menu Two $44.95 per person Please choose from one of the following Entrà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e * Spicy marinated calamari rings, lightly crumbed served on a salad of roquette leaves, spanish onion parmesan cheese accompanied with lemon citrus caper aioli * Grilled Turkish bread brushed with garlic olive oil and served with a selection of inhouse dips Main * Grilled Atlantic salmon on wild mushroom soba noodle salad, topped with wasabi hollandaise sauce, served with lemon * Oven-baked chicken supreme filled with semi-dried tomato basil cream cheese topped with tomato avocado salsa served with petit salad and chips * Eye fillet served with caesar salad chips with your choice of sauces Dessert * Flourless chocolate cake with double cream strawberries * Sticky date pudding with rum raisin ice cream * Pavlova with fresh fruit, chantilly cream and passion fruit pulp Set Menu Three $54.95 per person Served alternatively Entrà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e * Spicy marinated calamari rings, lightly crumbed served on a salad of roquette leaves, spanish onion parmesan cheese accompanied with lemon and citrus caper aioli * Tapas plate for one with roasted marinated vegetables, smoked salmon, marinated mussels fingers if Turkish bread European delicacies served with a selection of dips spreads * Plate of 6 natural oysters served on rock salt with lemon to taste Main * Grilled Atlantic salmon on wild mushroom soba noodle salad, topped with wasabi hollandaise sauce, served with lemon * Oven-baked chicken supreme filled with semi-dried tomato basil cream * Cheese topped with tomato avocado salsa ,served with petit salad chips * Fillet mignon grilled to a smoky flavour, served with caesar salad chips with your choice of sauces Dessert * Flourless chocolate cake with double cream strawberries * Sticky date pudding with rum raisin ice cream * Pavlova with fresh fruit, chantilly cream and passion fruit Pulp Vegetarian Options available with all Set Menus Entrà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½e * Pesto bocconcini pizza bread * Chickpea battered vegetables served with accompanying dipping sauces Main * Slow roasted pumpkin baby spinach salad with pine nuts, artichoke hearts roasted capsicum with balsamic dressing * Flat field mushrooms topped with pesto, fetta cheese, semi-dried tomato basil, served with petit salad chickpea vegetable stack Note: All appropriate staffing is also included in the package price. 3.2 Cocktail Style Options (include GST) The following is a sample of cocktail style menu available for fund raising functions. Costs may vary depending on what you selected for canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s. Gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian options are also available on request. Please inform us first. All dishes are subject to availability of the freshest seasonal produce and may change if not available. Cocktail Style One $35 per person Your selection of 3 hot 3 cold canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s Cocktail Style Two $42 per person Your selection of 4 hot 4 cold canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s Cocktail Style Three $48 per person Your selection of 5 hot 5 cold canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s + 1 substantial item Cold Canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s * Caramelised apple blue cheese crustini * Rare roast beef horseradish en croute * Smoked salmon wasabi cream cup * Chicken smokey paprika mayo fingers * Roasted eggplant fetta cigars * Greek spanokopita * Turkish bread with dhakka virgin olive oil * Sesame, shallot lime seared prawn in a spoon Hot Canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s * Thai chicken filo wrap * Long prawn wonton * Fetta roast pumpkin pie * Buttermilk chive pancakes * Indian vegetable Pakoras * Double smoked bacon cheese quiche * Tandoori chicken goujons * Breaded Italian style whiting fillets Substantial items (served in noodle boxes) Cold * Chicken caeser salad * Grilled Mediterranean vegetable salad Hot * Chicken harissa, pappadum fruit chutney * Singapore noodles Asian greens 4. Beverage Suggestions and Cost 4.1 Beverage Packages (include GST) For the duration of your 5 hours function unlimited consumption, these are different great option for a beverage that gives your guests to test two types of wines and non-alcohol drinks (juice, soft drink, coffee tea). Also, our staff will refresh your drinks if your guests desire. You may like to continue with waiter service of drinks or we can arrange a bar area for later. Our drinks are as follows. Please choose 1 white 1 red wine from each beverage packages. Standard Beverage Package $35 per person * Stephen John N.V. Blanc de Blanc, Clare Valley SA * Willow Bridge Chardonnay, Geographe WA * Willow Bridge Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, Geographe WA * Willow Bridge Cabernet Merlot, Geographe WA * Willow Bridge Shiraz, Geographe WA * Hahn Premium Light, XXXX Gold, Tooheys Extra Dry + soft drink juice Deluxe Beverage Package $50 per person * Miceili Methode Champenoise, Mornington Peninsula VIC * Shottesbrooke Sauvignon Blanc, McLaren Vale SA * Shottesbrooke Chardonnay, McLaren Vale SA * Shottesbrooke Cabernet, McLaren Vale SA * Shottesbrooke Merlot, McLaren Vale SA * Hahn Premium Light, XXXX Gold, Tooheys Extra Dry + soft drink juice Note: To upgrade beers to Crown Lager Coronas add an extra $8.00pp. All appropriate staffing is also included in the package price. 4.2 Cocktails List (include GST) Cocktails are an additional price per guest as they are not included in the beverage package. Please choose a maximum of 2 cocktails to be served to your guests. In addition, fruit juices, coffee, tea, soft drinks and sparkling water will be available. Bellini Cocktails $10 per person * Peach Bellini * Lychee Bellini * Apricot Bellini Fresh fruit puree, Fruit liquor, Prosecco Long Cocktails $12 per person * Long Island Ice Tea Gin, Vodka, White rum, Cointreau, Tequila, Cola * Aqua Ice Tea Gin, Vodka, White rum, Cointreau, Blue curacao, Lemonade * Lynchburg Lemonade Jack Daniels, Lemon juice, Sugar, Lemonade Sour Cocktails $12 per person * Vodka Sours Fresh Lime, Sugar, Vodka * Whiskey Sours Fresh Lime, Sugar, Whiskey * Pisco Sours Fresh Lime, Sugar, Pisco Note: All appropriate staffing is also included in the package price. 5. Running Sheet Timing details is a very important aspect of running a function. Determining the appropriate times for the different stages of the function will ensure the food and beverage and technical arrangements can be timed and coordinated to coincide with the function timing requirements. Set menu function: Guests Arrival 6:30pm Pre-dinner Drinks 6:45pm Seated for dinner 7:05pm Entrà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½es Served 7:15pm Speeches Presentations 7:50pm Mains Served 8:30pm Entertainments 9:30pm Desserts/Drinks 10:00pm Coffee 10:30pm Departure 11:30pm Cocktail function: Guests Arrival 6:30pm Pre-drinks 6:50pm Seated for dinner 7:10pm Cold canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s Served 7:20pm Speeches Presentations 7:50pm Hot canapà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s Served 8:30pm Entertainments (DJ,dance) 9:30pm Departure 11:30pm Note: The drinks provide through whole cocktail function. 6. Preferred suppliers à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Event Services Andrew Dudley 0422 206 353 www.eggnspoon.com.au à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Music Entertainment Bethanie Tobin 02 9419 4200 www.nhmentertainment.com.au à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Flowers and Table decorations Ria Gradon 0403 798 598 www.pollenflowers.net à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Chair covers Edna Reed 02 9871 1599 [emailprotected] à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Photography Graham Monroe 02 9960 4600

Challenges for SMEs in Vietnam and Korea

Challenges for SMEs in Vietnam and Korea Recommendations for the government/policy makers Properly aware and assess the roles of SMEs and start-up firms in the national economy system The Korean government soon realized the roles of SMEs, especially start-up firms in economic reform after the financial crisis is 1997. They published some Law and Regulations on SMEs support since the end of the Korean War, some of which are the SMEs Bank Law (July 1961) and the SMEs Cooperation Law (December 1961). In addition, the governmental institutions and banks to support SMEs were born really soon, they were able to merge into a comprehensive and trustworthy â€Å"system† to maintain the health of SMEs. This reflects the early awareness of the Korean government in the roles of SMEs. In Vietnam, the roles of new enterprises need to be further considered. Besides the measures to enhance the performance of state-owned enterprises, we need to have intensive measures to support SMEs, especially start-up firms because they are the strategic instrument in economic growth. Obviously, when joining WTO – an international playground, SMEs in Vietnam in its current state w ill find it hard to compete.. To fully aware of the condition as well as roles of these enterprises, we need to conduct surveys and researches to find out at which proportion SMEs have contributed to the country’s GDP and other growth indexes. Further, we based on these indexes to evaluate the potential and at what extent the establishment of new firms can reinforce the growth rate of the economy as a whole. Create a suitable environment for SMEs and start-up firms Since the very beginning state of economic reform, regulations concerning SMEs and start-ups activities were clearly and specifically declared. They were also improved through times to adapt to the economic and social conditions of each time phase. Besides the synchronized legal environment, they also own a set of solutions for SMEs: since they start the business till dismissal. The Korean government always tries to create favorable business environment for the growth of start-up firms and SMEs. To minimize the gap between chaebol firms and start-up firms, the government established many institutions and associations to support start-ups firms, namely SMBA, SMBC, KOTEC†¦ as well as provide guarantee for these firms to receive funds from commercial banks with preferential interest rates. When SMEs encounter hardship during operation, the government also comes up with business incubators to help them overcome problems by legal consulting, opening fairs, malls to increase the chanc e of trading and finding business partners. For any nation in the world, favorable business environment is the basic factor, not only for SMEs, but also for big corporations to grow. Vietnam is no exception. Nowadays in Vietnam, the business environment is thriving more than ever before. Business law, finance law, credit monetary trading, labor situation have been improved a lot with the foundation, adjustment, supplement of the Business Code 2005, Investment Code 2005, State Bank Code and Credit Institutions Code 2003†¦ These Codes basically have no discrimination among different business sectors. Moreover, we also have other regulations concerning the operation of SMEs, namely Official Letter No. 681/CP-KTN on June, 26th 1998 by the Government Office on strategies orientation and SMEs development policies, Decree No. 90/2001/ND-CP on November, 23rd 2001 on support SMEs. These regulations only emphasize on the most basic matters and have yet compete or consistent. Also, the management level is still not flexible in apply ing those regulations, leading to redundancy in procedures and confusion in dealing with the legal system. Discrimination between big corporations and SMEs is another factor with negative impact on the business environment. Although the policies of the government clearly state that all business sectors needed to be equally treated, there still exists discrimination from some government officials in bank loans, access to preferential policies, land use, information access on exporting market, staff training Moreover, the social environment also has trong impact on business operation of highly sensitive firms like start-ups and SMEs. That is because there still exists some obsolete prejudice on these firms such as counterfeited goods, smuggling or commercial fraud. Support start-up firms in terms of financing It is safe to say that funds is the most severe problem for entrepreneurs when starting their own business. There are already countless enterprises each year failing to come alive or going bankrupt since the very beginning of operation due to lack of capital. Therefore, support from the government is highly essential for SMEs, especially start-up firms. These support can be implemented by a number of ways, suggested as below: Develop finance investment firms and establish credit guarantee funds It is clear that we soon need to establish credit guarantee funds for SMEs and start-up firms, for them to access to finance when they do not have enough resources for mortgage, pledge, or lend from banks and credit unions as raised in Decree 90/2001. The credit guarantee funds like KCGF, KOTEC and SMBC in Korea are able to guarantee start-up firms for short-term, mid-term and long-term loans for the feasible ideas and business projects. At the same time, they share risks with credit institutions in case of default risk from SMEs The lessons from Korea and other developed countries like America, Taiwan show that credit guarantee is considered one of the most effective measures to improve the capital of an enterprise, and Vietnamese enterprises are no exception Loosen the lending requirements Our government should adjust policies on mortgages for loans. Currently, most start-up firms find it hard to access to commercial bank funds because they own no or little assets. In addition, the requirements on mortgage is too high to meet. One example is most commercial banks use land use right as mortgage, which is quite impossible to afford for these types of firms. The recommendation for this is, in some specific cases, banks can assess the potential and value of feasible business projects to minimize their risks. Banks in Vietnam can learn from KOTEC in Korea, where they have a set of technical and commercial criteria to rate a firm before providing funds. Firms guaranteed by KOTEC also have higher chance to survive in the long run, which means their assessment is highly effective and we can learn a lot from their system. Besides, venture investment funds should be encouraged to grow, especially foreign investment funds. Expand forms of financial lease Expanding forms of financial lease is a useful solution for firms to overcome their own problems on financing for technology. Financial lease is an intermediate form of long-term credit, where those demanding funds do not receive cash to purchase equipment and asset but directly receive the demanded asset. The leasee periodically pays fee and buys the whole asset after a specific amount of time. However, in Vietnam, both the government and enterprises have yet aware the strength of this form, so it has not been fully developed. According to the studies â€Å"SMEs development process† of the Development Loan Program for SMEs in Vietnam, there currently exists many obstacles in developing financial lease: (i) lack of legal procedures, regulations and policies for this matter. The funds of the leasors are also very limited due to the strict regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam, (ii) the enterprises are still short in full knowledge and awareness of this practice’s adva ntages, (iii) lack of complete agreement between the leasors and the government as the base to develop policies on this. Towards the current state as mentioned above, the government needs to look into and adjust the regulations to ensure a competitive yet favorable business environment for the financial lease corporations, which can solve the financing problem for SMEs. Develop other financial services Commercialize the debt market: Currently, corporations have increasingly appropriate funds of others, making lots of SMEs fall into the â€Å"artificial funds shortage† situation. Sometimes, commercial banks have to hold loans but cannot receive principal before maturity date. Commercializing debts will help SMEs escape from the pressure of variable capital, for instance, through discounting financial instruments like negotiable certificate of deposit. In many other countries in the world, this practice is quite popular but it is fairly new for enterprises in Vietnam Boost the performance of financial institutions: we can do this by increasing the equity of credit institutions, creating capacity to improve performance and adapt to risks. Simultaneously, they can completely handle overdue debts by developing mortgage handling enterprises and buying back mortgages, collateral from commercial banks. This research applies a remote-monitored system towards the financial markets on the basis of international standards. Encourage the growth of financial consulting services, accounting, auditing and related services for financial problems of SMEs Preferential tax, charges policy The government can also establish more preferential policies for SMEs on credit, tax in a simple way. We should also avoid excessive yet inefficient tax policies, which leads to difficulties in manage and implement those policies. Recommendations for start-up firms/SMEs Build their own finance capabilities Besides the government policies and support on finance, start-up firms also need to take advantage of this opportunity or else it will go to waste. Currently, the roles of SMEs and start-up firms are gradually realized by the government and the society. The social development strategy nowadays also pays special attention to SMEs. Therefore, those firms need to take good advantage of these chances. In the meantime, start-up firms can have easy access to the credit funds from banks, financial institutions, financial lease firms The enterprises can also increase their funds by seizing investment opportunities from other sources. Through the foundation of feasible and persuasive business plans, firms can entirely raise funds from venture investment funds or crowd-funding. By cooperating with other firms, SMEs can enhance their manufacturing process by solving the obstacles together with each other, best exploiting their capacity and cooperation, developing the domestic and foreign business network, as well as jointly combating the competitive pressure from big corporations. Raise their management capacity SMEs need to have their own business strategies to enhance the human resources and management capacity in a global economic context. One of the weaknesses of SMEs in Vietnam is the human resources problems. They lack properly trained labor to meet the requirements of technology application, foreign language, business knowledge, Internet access†¦ The business management system is pretty obsolete and incomprehensive. Therefore, business owner and the management level need to apply modern management system, focusing on knowledge on market, the legal system, technology application and building their own business culture and ethics: honest about the products, fair competition, compliance with the law, responsible for the customers and the society, and build trust with the customers. For the labor force, we need to have scheme to train them properly with the most update techniques and information possible. The enterprises also need plans to attract highly-trained employees by their salary, bonus, allowance, promotion†¦ policies. Besides, strong business culture is also necessary to establish and develop. Actively access technology Firms on their own should actively seek new opportunities to get access to new technology and equipment. Then, they can flexibly apply technology transfer to create more added value. Also, focusing on developing technology infrastructure to apply e-commerce business is popular in the recent years. On material, one way to exploit this is to make full use of the global sources of material, another is to consider using existing materials, which means diversity and stability sources of materials for manufacturing. On technology, SMEs need to go in full swing and use their existing dynamic spirit to grasp and seize rare opportunities on technology. One huge obstacle for enterprises in this matter is limited capital, however, as mentioned, SMEs have many ways out. They can use the government support, cooperate with other larger firms, transfer from foreign enterprises, participate in science fairs†¦ In specific, SMEs need to construct and develop their own information infrastructure to push information technology application and apply e-commerce. Investing in these is proved to cost reasonably but bring high efficiency. It can saves energy and cost for an enterprise, which lifts the management efficiency but at the same time, it can quickly grasp and exploit the market’s information, helping the business activities more professional and flexible. Focus on market research, export promotion, brand and image building Focusing in market research Start-up firms and SMEs need to vigorously improve on market research after Vietnam has joined WTO. Only thorough and detailed market research brings a well-rounded business plan. In the context where resources and capabilities is limited, they need to cooperate with the authority and government in pushing e-commerce, searching for market information through the Internet, as well as joining in knowledge sharing in different prestigious association. Enhance brand investment Almost SMEs in Vietnam are not fully aware of the importance of brand building and protection. In the next few year, when we penetrate more into the global economy, this can be a huge risks as there will certainly be many more conflict and disputes on brand. Therefore, SMEs need to have their own strategy for brand right now. Those enterprises need to have well-rounded knowledge about brand. Training for staff to aware of the importance of brand and reputation is vital. In the global context as it is today, when the brand of SMEs in Vietnam have yet owned a strong position in the domestic and international market, support from the government and other large corporations in brand building in of great importance. Ignoring this stage in the business plan means they actively put themselves in difficult situation later. Their competitors may use this to destroy the company. Actively apply international standards in business activities As analyzed, one of the biggest challenges for SMEs in Vietnam to penetrate into the international market is the international trade standards. Every countries and trade organizations in the world have their own set of regulations concerning the products’ standards. During the integration process, it is compulsory that start-up firms and SMEs in Vietnam should compel with these regulations. The lessons from Korea shows that, applying international standards in manufacturing and trading helps raise the export volume of SMEs in this countries. Therefore, it is essential for enterprises to actively apply these standards in their business activities. Depending on the requirements, the selected countries’ rules and the firm’s capacity, the firms can freely choose the standards like TQM, ISO 9000, HACCP, GMP, ISO 14000, SA 8000†¦ Besides, we need to understand and adapt to standards in hygiene, safety, rules on packing and marking†¦ These international standards can be an obstacle for SMEs in Vietnam in the short run but they will definitely bring practical value for them, helping them to strongly thrive in this most stable way.

Computer Ethics And Impact Of Society Information Technology Essay

Computer Ethics And Impact Of Society Information Technology Essay This report is a study of computer ethics and its relevance to todays society .We live in the age of super computers where everything comes to us in our finger tips. Children get exposure to Internet much before they start their formal education. Computers are electronics devices invented by humans for the convenience and welfare of themselves which does not have any kind of thought process internally about the ethical behaviours. The dos and donts in the information technology and Internet are unknown to many computer users. As new evolving technologies come in and these technologies pays way to create challenges in the areas of privacy and security of people around the world. Ethics refers to code of principles by which people live .Computer Ethics is the branch of information technology which deals with the nature and computer technology and the end users and their varying characters. It sets a certain standards or rules for the will be smooth sailing. Some common computer ethics are intellectual property rights copyrighted electronic content, privacy concerns, by which how computers affect society. It involves social issues, such as access rights, working place monitoring, censorship and junk mail; professional issues such as professional responsibility and code of conduct; legal issues such as legal obligations, data protection, and computer misuse and software piracy. The computer ethics field consists of the problems with computer software and hardware malfunctions by the misuse by humans. Our society depends on the computer and its network to leverage the business and social life, hence both social and personal ethicals issues exists . Without computers and its networks most of the industries will not survive in todays work and will come to a halt. Most of the electronic communications do not guarantee any security and privacy. This report is a journey through the history of computer ethics the pioneers and their perceptions and slants on computer ethic s. Later on walks through the influence of computer ethics at work and the various factors that affects to determine the ethical behaviours. (Bynum, 2008) 2. HISTORY OF COMPUTER ETHICS 1940s As the technology evolves, the studies related to this field evolved as well. The introduction of computer ethics as a study came in the year 1940. Norbert Weiner was known as the father of computer ethics. In 1940s, Norbert Weiner who was an American mathematician and professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the Cybernetics during Second World War. 1950s In 1950 Weiner publishes his second book The Human Use of Human Beings [Page 16 of second edition of 1954] When I communicate with a person, I impart a message to him and when he communicates back with me he returns a related message which contains information primarily accessible to him and not to me. When I control the action of another person I communicate a message to him and although this message is in the imperative mood, the technique of communication does not differ from that of a message of fact It is the thesis of this book that society can only be understood through a study of the messages and the communication facilities which belong to it; and that in the future development of these messages and communication facilities, messages between man and machines, between machines and man, and between machine and machine, are destined to play an ever increasing part. 1960s Later in 1960 Don B. Parker, an Information Security Researcher and Consultant -associated with the ACM(Association of computer machinery) started watching the unethical usage of computer and information technology by computer professionals (Parker, 1999) (Bowling Green State University., 2001) In 1966 a professor from MIT Joseph Weizenbaum wrote ELIZA A Computer Program for the Study of Natural Language Communication between Man and Machine. The first computer crime was in the year 1966 in the United States, a computer engineer manipulated the programs of a banks computer system to prevent the banking account being used flag as overdrawn. In 1966 the Freedom of information Act (FOIA) was the first computer law legal right to access the governments information 1970s 1970s were the time period where the computers revolutionized and Walter Manner who is a Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Project at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio introduced the term Computer Ethics . Manner offered the university students a course on an experimental Course on the subject at Old Dominion University. During the late 1970s through the mid of 1980s, being a lecturer Mr,Maner was much interest in university-level Computer ethics courses. He offered a variety of workshops and lectures at Computer science conferences and philosophy conferences across America. In 1978 he also self-published and disseminated his Starter Kit in Computer Ethics, Which contained curriculum materials and pedagogical advice for university? Teachers to develop computer ethics courses. In 1976 Joseph Weizenbaum published a 300 page book, Computer Power and Human Reason which set the benchmark in computer ethics as a field and is still considered as the classic in computer ethics In 1976: Abbe Mowshowitz published an article, titled: On approaches to the study of social issues in computing. It identifies and analyzes technical and non-technical biases in research on social issues in computing. Five positions-technicism, progressive individualism, elitism, pluralism, and radical criticism-which reflect major streams of contemporary social thought are examined- The ACM digital library, volume 24, issues 3, March 1981 In 1979 Terrell Ward Bynum s Professor of Philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University 1980s In 1985 James H Moor who is a professor of Dartmouth College in Intellectual and Moral Philosophy published an influential article entitled What is computer ethics. In the same year followed by moor, Deborah Johnson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute published Computer Ethics This is referred as the first textbook on computer ethics. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act ECPA of 1986 which prohibits the lawful access and disclosure of the law prevents government entities from requiring disclosure of electronic communications from a provider without proper procedure. (AOL Legal Department, 2003) 1990s Donald William gotterbarn in 1991 his paper work Computer Ethics: Responsibility Regained. explained computer ethics as a branch of professional ethics concerned with standards of good practice (Gotterbarn) (computerethics.org, 2000) In October 1992 the executive council of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) voted to adopt the revised the ACM Code. It is also called Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice ACM code of Ethics and Professional Conduct consisting of 24 imperatives formulated as statements of personal responsibility, identifies the elements of such a commitment [http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_ACM_code] In 1995, Dr,Simon Rogerson professor of computing at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK created the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR) to organize the first computer ethics conference in Europe, which was named as ETHICOMP95.lateron Rogerson added computer ethics to the curriculum of De Montfort. In 1995 Gordian Kocikowska, predicted on computer ethics giving a statement computer ethics eventually will evolve into global ethics in her article The computer revolution and the problem of global ethics In 1999 Deborah Johnson stood opposite to the statements of Gorniak and told computer ethics will not revolution rather than ethical thinking and analysis, computer ethics is the same ethics with a twist in the flavour. (Comphist, 2004) (Bynum, 2008) VIEWS OF PIONEERS Norbert Wiener Norbert Weiner in his book Cybernetics or control and communication in the animal and the machine in 1948, Cybernetics is formally defined as the science of control and communication in animals, men and machines. It extracts, from whatever context, that which is concerned with information processing and control. His essential goal of cybernetics is to understand and define the functions and processes of systems that have goals. Weiner said that the human nervous system can be compared to It is enough to say here that when we desire a motion to follow a given pattern the difference between this pattern and the actually performed motion is used as a new input to cause the part regulated in such a way to bring its in a state of what is known as ataxia.An ataxia of this type is familiar in the form of syphilis of the central nervous system known ad tabes dorsalis where the kinetic sense conveyed by the spinal nerves is more or less destroyed [page 7 and 8]. Amount of information in a sy stem is the measure of its degree of organization, so entropy of s system is a measure of its degree of disorganization. And one is simply negative the other.study of Maxwell demon [Page 11]. Donn B Parker In an interview with Donn told that he has interviewed more than 200 cyber criminals to understand the motive to get into computer crimes which shows the evidences of common behavioural psychological patterns. Computer criminals universally fear unpredictable circumstances, environments and events that could cause their crime to fail. Unpredictable systems would create an atmosphere of uncertainty (Bowling Green State University., 2001) Parker describes the scenario methodology in computer ethics, a need to identify the participant in the scenario. Sorting the act and non-act classifying as ethical or non-ethical or not in the category Deborah Johnson Deborah has a different view on computer ethics. She said pose new versions of standard moral problems and moral dilemmas, exacerbating the old problems, and forcing us to apply ordinary moral norms in uncharted realms, even though she do not agree with computer creating new moral problems James H Moor As per Moor in his article What is computer ethics ? defined ethics due to policy vacuum and conceptual muddles with regards to social and ethical use of computers and technology. Computers provide new capabilities and new choices for action. His advices to analyse the framework which results in policy for that action. He also added that computers are logically malleable which can be moulded to do any kind of activities Donald Gotterbarn According to Gotterbarn computer ethics should be considered as branch of professional ethics with focus on standards of good practices for computer professionals whom all are engaged in the design and development of in the everyday activities will add value to their professional value. Co-ordinating with ACM he released code of ethics for computer professionals. (Gotterbarn) (Bynum, 2008) 4. COMPUTER ETHICS IN SOCIETY Computers and human life are inter-related , we relish it in many areas of our day to day life in traffic signals, banking system, tax, and police. People blame on computers for cash machine crashes traffic signal failures where human designed these softwares and networks. the dilemma are the blunders associated with computers like ozone layer remained undetected due to programming error Y2K problem was not detected till we approached 2000.If we dig into the actual history of the computer ethics it started with the use of first computer. Computer and information technology is not limited as it is spreads with branches like a banyan tree; information technology has its branches in all the fields of Industry medical, automotive like that the list is not closed. Internet which is a by-product of ICT is revolutionary link to all these branches. We connect officially as corporate, be in touch with our loved ones, search engines, mail, instant messengers. As a medium of storage of critical to personal data, everything are on fingertip irrespective of the physical location as we can say the information technology moves with us and is available in the same or expected form on the web. (Herold, 2006) (Bynum, 2008) 4.1 COMPUTER CRIMES Most of the cyber criminals are anti-social element who gets motivated by the prior worst personal experience resulting in the crimes. Computer crimes can result in financial loss, information loss. Some major computer crimes in info space and as listed below which affects both work and personal life. (Herold, 2006) Hacking Virus Fraud Identity theft Denial Of Services DoS Child pornography IRC crime Software piracy Hacking Computer hacking has become a status among many youngster.. Hackers are tend to have better understanding of coding and break into computers and are aware of bypassing the security or can remain undiscovered in the network for a certain time without leaving footprints for the forensics by wiping out the log files. When we talk about the evil we should see the other side of the coin the virtuous which is ethical hacking .Ethical hacking is meant for attacking the computer system or network with the full permission of the sole. The most common ethical hacking technique is penetration test by inducing the code to the system and to be aware of the vulnerabilities by negligence as the hackers look for loop holes and create back door. Many corporate create their own IT security policies to secure their network. Virus Computer viruses are in the top most list of threat faced by the Information world. Computer program created to do nasty works inside which enters into a computer by mean of downloading softwares or mp3 files which calls them as Free softwares. Worm is much similar to the virus which gets replicated by human intervention; until and unless provoked remain quiet in the corner of the system. Trojan horses are interested in creating a back-door for the intruders in a compromised machine. Deploying a powerful anti-virus with the latest released virus definitions can help us in leading a peaceful life (Williams, 2003) Identity theft Financial identity theft is the widely asserted crime happening in the Internet. These intruders get into the system pretending the account holder of the bank by inputting false identity. A criminal identity thief uses the personal information including the national insurance number and social security number to do crime and leave it as the proof of identity. Medical identity theft is done by using another persons identity to obtain medical care or drugs where law restricts to purchase drugs. Computer security is the ultimate solution for identity theft by sanitizing the obsolete data in system and spam mails by installing anti-virus software which has powerful tools to protect online transactions. Most of the nations have law in place against these kind of identity thefts which includes heavy financial fine and imprisonment Denial of Services-DoS Denial of service wont affect neither the system security or destruct information loss any files make financial theft but can affect the targeted business by putting on fire ranging from second to days by making unavailability of a critical server, email or website which provides service as business . A buffer overflow with a prior assumption that of the weakness of programming or architecture of the applications used are the famous denial of service attacks that bench marked the history so far. Disabling the ICMP traffic in the firewall can prevent the ping of death. Implementing strong encryption techniques and deploying domain naming service. To overcome DoS attacks are by knowing the infrastructure and regular testing for complexity, keeping spam filters will limit mailbox getting flooded, if the business demands buying a space in the cloud or by keeping dramatically huge processor power and server volume will help to prevent such kind of issues. Pornography Pornography refers to any kind of image displaying a person who is being engaged in explicit sexual activity. In countries like Spain child pornography is a criminal offense if conventional pornography was in the paper based hard copy or video tape as technology advanced the Internet based pornography is image files or video files and on-line buffering. Severely punishing these criminals and these punishments to be brought to the notice of general public for their awareness that it will their experience if they do so. Association of sites advocating child protection ASACP was found in 1996 is meant for reporting child abuses in the society anonymously aiming to catch hold of the pornographers, they have a fully functional hot line and website asacp.org where people are report the crime . The RTA certificate helps children from accessing pornographic websites which is available Internet wide free of cost. (Barrons Educational Series, Inc, 1999) IRC Crimes Many people lose their privacy when then enter the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) rooms. The chat rooms become the playground of cyber criminals, hackers and terrorists. Verbal IRC crimes are where people get abused verbally in the chat rooms. The second category is clone attack where randomly synchronized codes are generated on behalf of usernames by robots to generate a random character which gets multiplied by the per-written code result in flooding and the chat server gets freezes due to Denial of service. Criminals use Cyber stalking to harass women and celebrities. IRC crimes can be stopped by simply ignoring or banning the user id which almost all chat sites allow. Salami Attack All these times we were talking about a crime which is relevant only to single attack , now lets talk about a series of tiny attacks which is categorized as salami slicing in computer cyber terms. The attacker steals a comparatively small amount of money from the account and the actual account holder will assume that it might be a service charge of any bank transactions or transaction which they might have done during shopping and wont be bothered to scrutinise the actual fact. such attacks will be done will multiple users which is like an atomic reaction. Botnet A bot is defined as zombie army which is an interconnected network of computers on the Internet with malicious infected software robots. The zombies army can be controlled only by the owner of the respective program. Botnet which is a malware can result in Denial of service attack. Criminals use this technique to utilize the shared processing power and memory Gradually the users system will face slow down .The solution to overcome the botnet is to install antivirus which can detect the malwares .(Parker, 1999) 4.2 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Intellectual property commonly referred as IP in short is associated with creativity of an artistic work, or invention of technologies. Computer professionals and students are committed not to copy other works to part of their work without their consent. Taking the credit of innovative work might not be technically a crime under law but it is unethical. According to Richard stallman the founder and pioneer of Free software , software it should not lie with certain limited people . His version is no one has the monopoly to own, it should be open to all it being claimed as information. The statement of Deborah Johnson is that softwares and applications are the outcomes of a group of professionals effort leveraged by their skill set. I would stand aside Johnson as this an industry which is the bread giving one, but outdated softwares can be release for public use and for students and financially backward people where the light of information world dint fall. Intellectual property is cat egorized into two by world intellectual property society as copyright and patent 4.2.1 Piracy Software piracy is the most controversial talk in the information space, if we never pay for free-ware used, the sharewares has to be payed depending on the usage entitled by the owner. Piracy lies somewhere in the middle where the customer need to be pay relatively small amount which is common in Asian countries. Piracy has spread to video industry as well by where the storage discs of newly released albums and movies are available in market for cheaper price .(Williams, 2003) 4.2.2 Open-source Vs Closed-source. Open-source applications are those applications available free of cost Closed-source applications are available in the market like windows operating system. Open-source softwares can be downloaded free of cost and can be manipulated using the source code. As the word refers closed source softwares are closed in many ways, so we can expect more security from them. It will not be easier for a hacker to create a threat in closed source. For an open source application the source is readily available to the end user, he can experiment the possible vulnerabilities and can create a threat from that. 4.2.3 Plagiarism Students are liable to stick on to plagiarism. Copying a colleagues crucial information is equivalent to theft. Plagiarism is a kind of cheating, school going kids do it by literally downloading and later amend it by changing the overall look by adding font colours. Arranging the referred website and book in a systematic way will help the student falling into plagiarism. Consolidating this data into bibliography will help the student in the safer side. (Bynum, 2008) (Williams, 2003) 4.3 PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY Spoofing Spoofing is the process of doing any kind of on-line data transfer where the origin of the data will be IP- spoofing and email spoofing the subcategories of spoofing . IP-Spoofing is the technique used to hide ones ip address and leverage other persons ip address to do some malpractices. In email spoofing the usually terrorists use this to send threatening email to home affairs department. Man in the middle attack is the by-product of spoofing where a person does the crime pretending the online transaction is done by the poor chap who owns the on-line account by network address translation on a cloud computing . Many corporate have security policies implemented to defend against these attacks Phishing Phishing is the tactics of sending fake emails giving an impression to the end user who receives the email mentioning he is receiving it on behalf of a well reputed organization most of the times from the billing or financial department claiming asking for the credit card details .Phishing sets either an upsetting message or an offer message which enables a psychological reaction in human Phishing scams are dramatically increasing now a day. To overcome in case of any discrepancies the link needs to be avoided and intimating the concerned person may be a good approach. Password protection Passwords are the keys to get into our privacy .Every individual have a bunch of passwords and most of them are identical for our own convenience. .If we are in a business critical position of a corporate or reputed brand. We should adhere to not sharing the passwords even with our friends; need to keep the passwords changed in a time interval of three months .need to make sure we are using complex passwords which contains alphanumeric characters as well. (Bynum, 2008) SOCIAL NETWORKING AND BLOGS Social networking in a spanning innovation of the present world. It is one among the innovations of the decade which if used in a supposed manner common population can make use of it .The advantage of social networking is wherever we go around the world we can be in touch with our loved ones and friends. Social networking can let a business man know the response of his products instantly from the blogs. As mentioned early when new invention is born with twin brother which is a crime . He looks identical twin until being as a crime. Social networking is an unavoidable part of our social life. We are kept updated by the blogs and status updates which is advantageous in many ways for a person who dont look at newspaper , improving his vocabulary, culture and will let him know what is happening around and most of them comes free of cost. An individual can upload a fake profile which can misguide many youngsters. Most of the social networking websites are privately owned and they dont rea lly look into the verification of the information provided in the user profile which might result in the misuse of profile for anti-social activities which can a celebrity or a religiously known influential person. (Barrons Educational Series, Inc, 1999) 5. COMPUTER ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY Computer professionals work on many technologies in different domains. They work on different programming languages and evolving technology platforms. They are spread around the world contributing their inventions. The computer professionals are not limited to computer scientists or software engineers. The chain will be incomplete without system analysts, warehouse professionals hardware designers, networking professionals, database administrators and IT managers. The basics of ethics should start from each computer professional .there would not be no one to monitor at work. Computer ethics should be self driven. The computer professionals should voluntary test and validate the errors without leaving any loopholes when the applications are build. There is a saying Engineers build the world where the same engineers destruct the world too. This is complementary as the engineers invented concrete mixing machines and cranes whereas the same engineers invented the bulldozer. It is the sam e case of computer industry where the softwares engineers develop softwares and the same software engineers create viruses. Usage of computer or network without the owners permission physically or virtually and damaging data is unethical and is certainly a crime. This crime can be monitored upto an extend by intrusion detection systems IDS. IDS is capable of monitoring the computers and its network in an organization. The IDSs are configured in such a way that whenever a deviation from standard policies it will trigger an alert to the system administrator. The computer professionals are obliged to certain responsibility, a software developer who develops is responsible to point out the drawbacks to the society during the primitive stage of the development. The professional should we educated towards the legal responsibilities of the applications as it could become a harm to the evolving technologies . According to me the legal and moral responsibility is mutual and the professional should look into the future inflictions. This lies on the shoulder of every member in the team. The members should report any kind of issues to their supervisors. Few disasters in the past which reminds us about the importance of ethics ; 1985 Therac- 25 radiation machine fail 1983 World war 3 Due to bug the soviet intelligence applications 1987 Wall street crash known as Black Monday 1990 ATT network collapse 1995 Airane explosion 1999 Siemens passport bug 2000 I love you virus, 2004 UK child support agency bug These events in the past reminds us the importance of the software testers were morally liable to the fix could have away because of negligence. Assuming the context of software development for a medical ACM Code The association for computing machinery ACM released the code of ethics and professional conduct which is set as a benchmark for computer ethics so far. It is a 24 which talks about the contributing to the society without harming giving credit to intellectual property with respect to privacy and honours confidentiality. Professional responsibilities striving to achieve quality and dignity in work and product. Maintaining competence with respect to the law pertaining professional work. Providing professional review and comprehensive evaluation. We should honour the contract and responsibilities assigned to us. Should improve public understanding. One should access the computer resource when they are supposed to do so. In 1992 Dr.Ramon C Barquin discussed the role of computer ethics through Computer ethics institute and is being used by reputed institutions and organisation which is quoted as below: 5.1 Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics 1. THOU SHALT NOT USE A COMPUTER TO HARM OTHER PEOPLE. 2. THOU SHALT NOT INTERFERE WITH OTHER PEOPLES COMPUTER WORK. 3. THOU SHALT NOT SNOOP AROUND IN OTHER PEOPLES COMPUTER FILES. 4. THOU SHALT NOT USE A COMPUTER TO STEAL. 5. THOU SHALT NOT USE A COMPUTER TO BEAR FALSE WITNESS. 6. THOU SHALT NOT COPY OR USE PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE FOR WHICH YOU HAVE NOT PAID. 7. THOU SHALT NOT USE OTHER PEOPLES COMPUTER RESOURCES WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION OR PROPER COMPENSATION. 8. THOU SHALT NOT APPROPRIATE OTHER PEOPLES INTELLECTUAL OUTPUT. 9. THOU SHALT THINK ABOUT THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE PROGRAM YOU ARE WRITING OR THE SYSTEM YOU ARE DESIGNING. 10. THOU SHALT ALWAYS USE A COMPUTER IN WAYS THAT INSURE CONSIDERATION AND RESPECT FOR YOUR FELLOW HUMANS. (Herold, 2006) 6. CONCLUSION Most of the crimes are happening due to underlying vulnerabilities in the system which remains undetected due to ignorance. All the computer relevant evils cannot be sanitized. By applying hot fixes and patches these security concerns could be covered .Privacy can be recalled by adhering by not sharing passwords with friends .A sophisticated intrusion prevention system in place will hinder many intruders and safeguards the system and network. A frequent auditing in the IT infrastructure and review can help in planning and implementing security systems. According to me the best thing is to be in touch with computer professionals and joining their communities and having an eye on the blogs can help us to get rid of the computer. Individuals are the basic building blocks of the society. So the decision making factor should start from the soul of each and every computer user. A focus on the information system failure and research on them could lime light on the computer ethics. Computer ethics need to be a part of the curriculum for students as they get exposure to information world and might get misleaded without guidance. If the communities are doing good it will for sure make a good impact in the progress of a good nation and in turn a good world. To attain this we should respect others privacy, the use of any software should not harm anyone else and end-users should be willing to pay closed source applications and contribute for sharewares .If we come across any discrepancies use our internal sense to relish need to keep the legal people informed about the issue. Employees should adhere to the organizations policies. Honesty and Integrity can strive to ethics. (Tom Forester, 2001) (Stamatellos)

Chef :: essays research papers

Chef This epic tale of love and deception takes us back in time to the year nineteen hundred and eighty seven. Early one morning in London, England, we find ourselves in the kitchen of Chef. This sweet mouthwatering scent of Salisbury steak fills the room. This was to be the finest steak Chef had ever prepared. He planned to enter a contest with this masterpiece, the prize being a cruise to Greenland. To Chef, this was the land of paradise. He would be the only man there to seduce and womanize the native females. The oven bell rang. The Salisbury steak was done to perfection. He rushed it to his finest Tupperware to the judges mouths. They chewed and gagged, but due to lack of contestants he won. He now had earned his passage to Greenland, and broke out in song. Time passed and the day of the cruise had arrived. It was time to board the ship. Dressed in his finest crushed velvet robe and lucky Chef’s hat, he set off. As the ship set away the Chef wandering the decks, taking in all of the sights and sounds. There on the main deck, he found his favorite spot. Shedding his robe, he stood in his fluorescent pink G-string. He approached a beautiful women sunning herself. He seductively blurted out “Woman your body is screaming for the oily touch of my strong black hands.'; At that moment she bursts into tears. He asked, “What’s wrong baby?'; She then explained to him that her name was Cartman, Mrs. Cartman. She had been forced into engagement with not only Mr. Garrison but Mr. Hat as well. The sorrow this caused her was too great, so she planned to end her life. The Chef then uttered back to her “Woman that would be a crime to ugly up a fine body like yours, let me take your picture and send to a fine quality, readin g periodical.'; Surprised at the offer she accepted. The Chef then escorted her to a more proper setting of his room. As he properly positioned her upon the couch, the Chef realized that he had no camera. Thinking quickly, he remembered the colored pencil he had in pocket. He knew it would be perfect, but still he asked, “Would mind if I traced the curves of your body with my dark colored pencil.'; She replied with an exciting giggle.

My Philosophy of Education Essay -- Philosophy of Education Teaching T

My Philosophy of Education TEACHER ROLES: I believe that the teacher of elementary students has many roles. I will sometimes be a facilitator-guide, sometimes a supportive, nurturing mother-like figure, and sometimes a sage who imparts knowledge. I will encourage my students to become more self-aware and self-managing. I believe that elementary school teachers must focus significant classroom time on the acquisition of social and community skills such as mutual respect, cooperation, friendship-building skills, and kindness. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT: In order to be prepared for our rapidly changing, global society, children must begin early to learn how to think critically and to question. I will plan a curriculum which demands my students to analyze and to judge, especially in the disciplines of writing, social studies, and science. MOTIVATION: I believe that teaching and learning are creative and very social. In order for classroom learning to take place at all, there must exist in the community a sense of order and rules. In order for order to exist, students must learn to become self-managers. I will need to convince my students that it is in their best interest to behave appropriately. I will need to convince them that good things will immediately happen to them if they make good behavior choices. In addition to motivation toward good behavior, I will often need to help motivate my students in their pursuit of learning. Providing motivation and persuasion are crit...

Quantitative Methods for Business Essay

Quantitative techniques are mathematical and reproducible. Regression analysis is an example of one such technique. Statistical analysis is also an example of a quantitative technique. Quantitative techniques are applied for business analysis to optimize decision making IE profit maximization and cost minimization. It covers linear programming models and other special algorithms, inventory and production models. Albert Humphrey, a management consultant who specialized in organizational management, devised the SWOT analysis technique at Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s. Today, not only large corporations but also nonprofit and government agencies employ SWOT analysis. An enhanced method, known as the Six Forces Model, further helps to quantify competition, buyers and suppliers. Identify strengths and weaknesses to assess whether the desired end state is possible. If it is not, revise your objective to reflect an attainable goal. Use SWOT analysis in strategic planning, crisis management and feasibility studies. Apply SWOT analysis techniques in academic environments for developmental studies. Use SWOT analysis to figure out how to exploit each strong point and minimize each disadvantage. SWOT analysis techniques facilitate decision making by classifying and categorizing factors that influence the outcome of activities. Identifying the strengths or weaknesses of your product, price, place of sale and promotion strategy in concert with listing economic, technological and legal factors help you identify your competitive position. Quantitative data help you to justify how important each activity is to your company (http://rapidbi. wordpress. com/2008/12/29/history-of-the-swot-analysis/). SWOT analysis is typically identified as one of two types: planning or marketing. Corporate planning involves setting objectives, assessing abilities, analyzing current strategies, developing new strategies or preparing for different scenarios that might require intervention. This type of SWOT analysis is typically conducted by project-management teams. Marketing analysis, on the hand, involves conducting research to gather opinions, for example, through surveys. These are usually completed by customers or potential clients. The quantifiable results can reveal trends or validate hypotheses you have about how to market your product. Form a cross-functional team to conduct your planning SWOT analysis. Diverse viewpoints produce the best results and prevent closed thinking. Resist the temptation to abandon your objectives as unattainable without close scrutiny. Think creatively to use the data your analysis produces. Match strengths to opportunities when conducting a marketing SWOT analysis. Find innovative ways to convert threats and weaknesses into strengths. Use SWOT analysis to find new markets while avoiding markets for which your company is ill-suited (http://www. ehow. com/about_54926434_sstrength-weakness-quantitative-technique. html). The use of quantitative and qualitative methods in evaluating and planning business related functions is paramount to business success. Good ideas and hard work are often irreplaceable, but proper application of pertinent analytical techniques can help assure that your company is successful by any measure. Both quantitative and qualitative tools are available to even the smallest of businesses, ranging from straightforward techniques such as break-even analysis and SWOT analysis. Quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to phenomena. The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships. Quantitative Approach provides us the mathematical & statistical, tools & techniques to optimize the managerial decision making in the areas of planning and control. Such as budgeting, scheduling, quality control etc. Quantitative Courses help you get a job. Because usually you start at lower levels of management, where there aren’t many strategic decisions you make. Your intuition is not trusted upon and you must back your decisions with numbers (cook them up if you can’t find them. That’s what my internship experience says, but do not quote me on that). So, they want quantitative skills in you. However, as discussed widely across the world, obsession with quantitative stuff can be disastrous. They are only tools and do not substitute managerial judgment. And as you rise in the hierarchy, you intuition and qualitative judgment start getting valued. Qualitative skills are not just a good-to-have asset then, but absolute requirement. Because for taking higher level decisions, you may not always have the kind of precise framework you have for lower level jobs. But most important thing about quantitative courses, while you are a student, is that they can be learnt. Learnt irrespective of several things going wrong like having an incompetent instructor! Even if you do not have much aptitude, by working hard you can extract something from these courses. Qualitative courses on the other hand pose several problems in learning. Irrespective of the presence of several much touted pedagogical tools and techniques, they depend heavily on the quality of the instructor, aptitude of the student and the chemistry between the two. An inarticulate instructor may still manage to teach you a quantitative course, but for a qualitative one it is disastrous. Well, one big problem with qualitative courses is that by the time you shall be allowed to use them in an organization, you would have forgotten them all. Many students wonder if they’ll ever really need to know how to use the quadratic equation or find the volume of a cone. Not realizing how useful math can be, some choose to only fulfill the minimum requirements that their high schools requires. Those at College Board also emphasize how math can help you prepare for a career. The skills that you learn in math courses may be applicable down the line, even if you are not studying to become an engineer or an accountant. Many entry-level jobs require employees to have some math knowledge. Even understanding the basic math functions can be advantageous. Mathematical courses can prove powerful support for business decisions. In their later business careers, this will motivate them to consult with mathematicians and employ effective quantitative methods. Mathematics provides many important tools for economics and other business fields. The recognition of its importance by many students each year will certainly strengthen the position of mathematics in our society. Why do business consultants and directors need to know math? Business is all about selling a product or service to make money. All transactions within a business have to be recorded in the Company accounts and quite often involve very large sums of money. http://johnsonsr. spps. org/Why_is_math_important. html). So for example, you need to be able to estimate the effect of changing numbers in the accounts when trying to work out your expected performance for next year. Also businesses rely heavily on using percentages, in particular anyone who works as a sales person will need to be quick at mental arithmetic, approximation and in working out percentages, The more percentage discount you give a customer when you sell them a product, the less profit your company will make, so it really does pay to know your math (Brechner). One area where quantitative techniques are applied in business is in the area of finances. Some of the models that financial managers and analysts use are return on investment, decision trees and net present value. Financial analysts determine how much profit a particular product brings in versus the costs of producing that product. They run regressions and analyses to note trends over time and determine how much to invest in a particular business line. Financial analysts also use quantitative methods to determine productivity and whether or not to hire, retain or lay off workers. They use quantitative data to manage risk and create investment vehicles. Advertisers use quantitative data to determine how many viewers or readers will see a particular advertisement in a particular medium. They use data from rating services to find out how many people click on a certain website or watch a particular television show at any time. Advertisers also use quantitative data to do pre- and post-testing of advertisements. Advertisers use surveys to test ad recall in viewers, and ttitudes about proposed advertisements, among other things. Companies make heavy use of statistics to determine how to market their products, which markets their products and services will do best in and which consumers will buy their products. There are thousands of companies in the United States that gather and analyze data about consumer interests, desires, likes, dislikes, motivations and concerns. Marketers use this data to focus sponsorships, direct mail campaigns and position their companies in the general culture. Marketers also use data from UPC codes at stores (often in combination with shopper discount cards) to determine who is buying their products, how often and where. This also gives them important information to use in making decisions about stocking, delivery and promotions. Insurance companies have a multitude of applications for quantitative data. Although many of these applications could transfer to other businesses, insurance companies have dozens of statisticians or actuaries on staff. Therefore, they have the manpower and know-how to analyze mountains of data. For example, insurance companies gather data about each salesperson in each line of business. They then analyze the data to see if there are similarities in the top salespeople so they can recommend improvements to those not doing so well. They also see which lines of business produce profit and which should be closed down because they are unprofitable. Insurance company actuaries also analyze data on accidents, fires, floods and other mishaps that require them to pay out money and use these analyses to set insurance rates for their customers.

Guide to registration on the childcare register Essay

The parents of Anjum a little girl who is new to your setting moved to England only 3 months ago. Yours is the first setting that they have used for 18 month old Anjum. They have very little understanding of the legislation covering home based childcare or the role of the regulatory body. QUESTION 1 †¢Consider 4 pieces of legislation that are important for home based childcarers and how you would outline these to Anjum’s parents? There are over 20 pieces legislation currently used to protect children and their parents whilst using home based care settings. I have outlined 4 pieces of legislation that I believe are important to home –based childcarers. Children Act 2004 This act sets out the processes for integrating services to children in England and Wales, requiring local authorities and their partners to co-operate in promoting the welfare and wellbeing of children. It created the post of Children’s Commissioner for England and introduced the requirement for local authorities to have a director of children’s services. The Introduction of The Children Act was the first time that a UK law had acknowledged that children had rights. It Places responsibility on home based child carers to help a child meet the following five priority outcomes: Be healthy Stay safe – Enjoy and achieve – Make a positive contribution – Achieve economic wellbeing – Childcare Act 2006 The Childcare Act 2006 is a pioneering piece of legislation. It is the first ever act to be exclusively concerned with early years and childcare. The act has helped to transform childcare and early years services in England. Measures in the act formalise the important strategic role local authorities play through a set of new duties. These duties will require authorities to: †¢Improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for all pre-school children and reduce inequalities in these outcomes †¢Secure sufficient childcare for working parents †¢Provide a better parental information service †¢The act also reforms and simplifies early years regulation and inspection arrangements, providing for a new integrated education and care quality framework for pre-school children and also for the new Ofsted Childcare Register. The Childcare 2006 Act has four parts: 1. Provision of Childcare This requires local authorities to assess the need for child care and ensure sufficient provisions are made for working parents. The child care must meet the needs of all types of families especially those with lower income and disabled and those with special needs. 2. Information, Advice and Training Local authorities must also provide training and advice to persons who wish to be providers of child care. 3. Introduction of The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) This is an education framework introduced to all providers of care for 0 -8 years. Its aims are to support and teach providers in delivery of early education to babies and children. This act also introduced free nursery hours for children aged 3 and upwards. 4. Reform of the Regulation and Inspection of Childcare This part focuses on raising quality and standards of pre-school care and education and requires all providers of childcare aged 0 -8 years to be registered on the Early Years register and be monitored by the regulatory  body (UK regulatory body) OFSTED (unless exceptionally exempt). Evidence must be shown that these child care providers are continually working in line with the EYFS. The Childcare Act is of vital importance as it requires by law, those providing care to babies and children 0-8 to maintain constant high standards and that sufficient safe guards are in place and also education and development opportunities are easily obtainable for both the children being cared for, but also for the child care provider. This Childcare act has had a highly positive effect on the childcare offered throughout communities, ensuring that suitable care is within everyone’s reach regardless of their socially economic situation, the depth of their child’s needs or their cultural and racial backgrounds. The act has successfully endeavoured to eradicate childcare providers offering substandard care and learning opportunities to those they are accountable for. This of course has had an excellent impact on all children who have care provided for them outside of the family unit. Equality Act 2010 This is a relatively new legislation which replaces various discrimination acts and puts them under one heading and makes them easier to understand. The Equality Act legally protects people from discrimination in the work place and wider society. Legally people are protected if they are discriminated for their gender, race, religion, disability, breastfeeding mothers are now also covered by the law and women who are being paid less than a man doing the same job. These are just a small example of the people and situations that are covered by this law since 2010 as there are many more illustrations, the list is non exhaustive as practically anyone can be discriminated against for a multitude of reasons. The Equality Act is there to protect everyone whether in employment or not. It is there to ensure we are all on an equal footing and that everyone regardless of their social status, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, mental health or intellectual acuity is treated with due respect and presented with equal opportunities. Data Protection Act (1998) The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) is an act defining the ways in which  information about people may be legally used and handled. The main intent is to protect individuals against misuse or abuse of information about them. There are six main parts that outline the basic rights of individuals and how information about them is handled. The law states that all information written or spoken must be processed fairly and lawfully, be obtained for lawful purposes and in a manner compatible with the given purpose, it must be relevant and not excessive, current and accurate, not be shared with any other party unless written permission is given and be protected against loss or damage. This is a fact/Info sheet to be given and discussed to with Anjum’s parents to go through the 4 legislations that I have highlighted as important to home base childcarer’s service. LEGISLATION There are over 20 pieces of legislation I follow as a childminder. Below I have listed 4 that underpin and important for home based childcarers. 1. Children Act 2004 – identifies the needs of the child is paramount. Here are the 5 EVERY CHILD MATTERS priority outcomes. Be healthy – Stay safe – Enjoy and achieve – Make a positive contribution – Achieve economic wellbeing – 2. Children Act 2006 – Measures in the act formalise the important strategic role local authorities play through a set of new duties. These duties require authorities to: †¢Improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for all pre-school children and reduce inequalities in these outcomes †¢Secure sufficient childcare for working parents †¢Provide a better parental information service †¢The act also reforms and simplifies early years regulation and inspection arrangements, providing for a new integrated education and care quality  framework for pre-school children and also for the new Ofsted Childcare Register 3. EQUALITY ACT 2010 .The Equality Act legally protects people from discrimination in the work place and wider society. Legally people are protected if they are discriminated for their gender, race, religion or disability. 4. DATA PROTECTION 1998 .The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) is an act defining the ways in which information about people may be legally used and handled. QUESTION 2 †¢How would you go about outlining the 4 different roles of the regulatory body to Anjum’s parents? As a childminder it is important that all new parents considering placing their child in my care have a clear understanding of the regulatory body Ofsted and their roles. I would provide this information by the production and display an information sheet outlining Ofsted’s roles. In addition I would provide new parents with my recent OFSTED report and website address for OFSTED. It is important to be able to provide varying types of media to enable all new parents with all level of communication and language or cultural needs to understand the information provided. This may be in the form of different media formats including information sheets in different languages if required. OFSTED As a childminder I am registered and monitored by the regulatory body OFSTED. There are four main roles that the regulatory body OFSTED have to carry out to regulate child carer’s in order to ensure that all children receive the  best possible care away from their homes. childcare providers. ï  ®register the childcare provider, or suspend or cancel their registration ï  ®inspect the childcare, usually without arranging this beforehand (an unannounced visit) Investgation  take enforcement action against the provider in serious cases. REGISTRATION All carers MUST be registered by OFSTED, it is an offence to work with children and not be registered. (Carers exempt from being registered are those who care for children for less than two hours a day and under six separate occasions a year) A provider registered by OFSTED has to ensure all staff or people over 16 living with you at the premises or a regular visitor must obtain an enhanced CRB check, so that any criminal convictions are disclosed that make the person unsuitable to work with children. INSPECTION Inspection by an officer from OFSTED provides an evaluation of how you run your child care setting and is designed to help improve its quality and standards in the care, safety, learning and developmental progress of the children and their learning goals set out by EYFS. INVESTIGATION An investigation is carried out in cases where negative information is received regarding a particular setting to establish whether a registered provider is still meeting and complying with requirements of OFSTED registration. ENFORCEMENT If OFSTED registration standards are not met or severe misconduct is practiced OFSTED can take action against you and your business concluding in being struck off the register preventing them from legally working with children. In severe cases legal action can be taken. Bibliography I used information from the following sources: Websites 1. www.ofsted.gov.uk 2. www.legislation.gov.uk 3. Guide to registration on the childcare register, OFSTED word document 4. Children Act 2004 , Wikipedia.org 5. Childcare Act 2006. Wikipedia.org