The Modern Human Resources Department - 1361 Words

This article discusses the foundations of the modern human resources department and covers the three historical periods of development to where modern human resources has evolved. There are three main historical periods that are discussed including - pre-industrial, bureaucratic, and high performance. All three of these periods have played a vital role in the field of Human Resources. The pre-industrial period ended with the revolutionary war. This time period saw a lack of human resource management due to â€Å"inequality, inflexibility and misalignment that would be unimaginable today.† Slavery and indentured servitude were common throughout the American colonies and the only means to learn a trade were through apprenticeships which†¦show more content†¦During this period there was growth in support for free market ideology and a balance begin in managerial structuring. This article is an interview with a single-person Human Resource Manager and the purpose is to highlight the relationship between a person’s professional brand and what affect the position can have on a person’s whole life and the Human Resources has played in it. The article utilizes the â€Å"seven images of self-identity† theory from Alvesson (2010) and hopes to show how a person deals with the stresses of career/life balance and how constant changes effect both. The author used this structure to look at the interpretation of the subject’s life through each of these seven images. The author utilizes in depth interviews with the subject Betty, a 30-year old married human resources professional with no children that works in the technology industry, to map the self-identity of the subject and how they struggle to find themselves both personally and professionally. The article discusses the feelings that Betty experiences and the difficulties she has to es tablish her personal and professional self and the challenges that exist as she continues to deal with the stresses and self-doubt associated with her professional life. The author also theorizes that Betty, as a part of the working middle-class, has certain ideals and looks to find a balance

Interview a Professor Free Essays

If freshmen can make a personal connection with Just one faculty member, their chances for success at JUS are vastly improved. Therefore, this professor interview is designed to get you talking to one of your professors outside the classroom. Make the interview into a conversation. We will write a custom essay sample on Interview a Professor or any similar topic only for you Order Now If you see this as a quick item of busy work, you will not really get to know the professor. Don’t go in, ask the questions, and keep your head down the entire time scribbling notes Instead, really listen to the professors responses and ask follow up questions that interest you. Remember, the goal of the roofless interview is to get to know one of your professors, not to write down his or her exact words. Don’t worry about taking down every word your professor says instead, take some notes on key ideas. If you truly listen to the professors responses, you’ll remember all you need to write up the interview questions afterwards. To free you up even more to listen and interact with your professor, you might consider recording the conversation with a device like your cell phone and then transcribing the interview later. However, before recording, always ask the professors permission iris Believe it or not, but professors were once students too, so take the time to really get to know this professor and what insight he or she can give that might help guide you through your own college experience. This should be a professor who you interact with in some way (advisor, class Instructor, faculty advisor of an organization, etc. ). This assignment should be completed In a face-etc;-face meeting Interview Questions 1. Name of professor. 2. What Is the name of the department In which the professor teaches 3. What courses does the professor teach 4. What Is the professors favorite course to teach 5. What Is the reason the professor chose this area In which to major 6. What degrees did the professor earn From what schools 7. How has higher education changed since the professor was In college 8. What are the professors Interests, hobbles, recreational actively, etc. 9. What Is the professors favorite book, TV program, movie, etc. 10. What Is the professors Idea of an Ideal student Why 11. What kind of student was the professor 12. How to cite Interview a Professor, Papers

Leadership Responsibility to Prepare the Self †Free Samples

Question: Explain your rationale for the necessity to accept responsibility to prepare the self, using the insights from the existing developmental pathways available to you for enhancing your global leadership skills. Answer: Introduction Leadership development is essential in todays business world to lead an organization towards success through various challenges (Nemerowicz Rossi, 2014). Leadership development activities help to perform effectively within a competitive, complex, and diverse workplace (Harvard Business Review, 2007). However, it is also significant for the professionals to understand leadership responsibility to prepare the self (McKinsey Company, 2012). Rationale for accepting and acting on the responsibility One of the aspects of the rationale is that an individual will be efficient and effective to lead an organization towards success related to the achievements of strategic goals and initiatives if the individual is already prepared for the leadership roles and responsibilities (Harvard Business Review, 2008). Another key constituent of the rationale for preparing the self in respect to enhancing global leadership skills is that an individual with greater leadership abilities and capabilities can influence other individuals/subordinates more effectively (Caligiuri Tarique, 2012). This the thing that all companies must look at in order to make certain changes. Developmental Architectures and Paths The existing leadership developmental architectures and pathways for enhancing global leadership skills are essential for any ineffective leaders to gain knowledge and wisdom regarding the effective ways to influence other for pursuing organizational goals more effectively (Lawrence, 2015). Such development paths are also useful for the leaders to help to transform their subordinates more effective and efficient (Nemerowicz Rossi, 2014). Global Leadership Program (Deep Self-Awareness and Growth) Current Global Leadership Development Program Ford ("Leadership Development - Sustainability Report 2013/14 - Ford Motor Company", 2016) Self-awareness and growth are two key aspects or qualities of a successful leader. The leaders should have the ability to recognize their potentials and capabilities, compared to others (Ford et al. 2012). The leaders should also have the knowledge about their limitations. Successful leaders always have the ability to utilize minimum resources for generating a maximum outcome. Self-awareness helps to understate self-needs, desires, failings, habits, and various other factors (Daft, 2014). In the new era context, adapting to changes is one of the essential leadership qualities. Therefore, the leaders with greater self-awareness have the better adaptability to change (Dubrin, 2015). Growth is essential for any individual professional. Growth is necessary to justify, whether n individual is going towards the right direction. Personal growth often leads to leadership growth. Leadership growth depends on various factors such as the ability to engage with others, ability to achieve desired results, ability to develop coalitions, system transformation and self-lead (Hackman Johnson, 2013). The current global leadership development program involves self-insight, developing others, team effectiveness, building relationships, operating in a global environment and creating a leadership environment (Ford, 2016). Employee development is the key purpose of the leadership development program of Ford Motor Company. The key objectives include creating a workforce that involves skilled and motivated employees. The company is largely investing for the employees for enhancing their leadership skills, to contribute towards both organization goals and employee career goals. The competency framework of Ford concentrates developing a culture of continuous improvement, where the employees are paying a significant towards their self-development and organizational success. Therefore, the global leadership program at Ford is effective, regarding fostering deep self-awareness and growth (Ford et al. 2012). Global Leadership Program (Cultural Intelligence and Nonlinear System Thinking) Most of the organizations throughout the world have concentrated expanding their business globally (Ciulla, 2014). Cultural intelligence helps global expansions in various ways. The business environment in todays world has become highly complex, dynamic, and competitive. Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is the ability to perform effectively within different cultural contexts (Lawrence, 2015). Cultural intelligence can easily be enhanced by developing self-awareness, adapting to change and by effective communication. The global leadership program of Ford encourages their employees to concentrate on all these aspects (Gardner, 2008). Effective interactions influence leadership. Tt is essential for the leaders to concentrate on interaction dynamics or possibly nonlinear system thinking, which enables the leaders to solve any problem or issues with new ideas and innovations, to perform within the complexity contexts (McKinsey Company, 2012). The leadership program of Ford encourages promoting creativity and innovation among their employees. Competitive, Complex, and Diverse Workplace Gardner's five minds in prospective leaders include the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind and the ethical mind, which are essential for leaders to perform within a competitive, complex, and diverse workplace. The leadership program clearly concentrated to deliver world-class learning and development excellence. The program also supports developing a wider range of skills (Gardner, 2008). In the recent era, information is everything, and the leaders should have broader information to make effective decisions. The programs also encourage creativity and innovation, which support the creating mind. The program is also effective, as it also suggests maintaining effective co-ordination with the subordinates (Gardner, 2008). The program also concentrates on ethics, which is one of the key aspects in todays business world, where many organizations have been facing various ethical issues that hampered their business and reputation (Ciulla, 2014). Enhancing the Growth of Others The key aim of the leadership program is to create a culture of continuous improvement. The leaders will not only be able to enhance their effectiveness, but also to enhance the growth of other positively, as the ultimate objective is to achieve success for the organization (Dubrin, 2015). The leadership program offers various learning and development resources, which are useful for aligning the key competencies with the organization for supporting the functional area (Ford et al. 2012). Such resources provided by the program will help to foster functional and technical excellence. The leaders will also be encouraged towards teamwork and organizational values. Teamwork, shared values, effective communication, and collaboration, are the key aspects for the leaders in the current era to enhance the growth of others (Ciulla, 2014). Conclusion The current study concludes that the global leadership development program of Ford is effective for fostering the cultural intelligence, nonlinear system thinking, deep self-awareness, and growth. The leadership development program is also useful for enhancing the growth of others. Reference List Gardner, H., (2008). Five Minds fort he Future. Nemerowicz, G. Rossi, E. eds., (2014).Education for leadership social responsibility. Routledge. Harvard Business Review. (2007). Maximizing Your Return on People. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2007/03/maximizing-your-return-on-people [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016]. Harvard Business Review. (2008). Where Will We Find Tomorrows Leaders?. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2008/01/where-will-we-find-tomorrows-leaders [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016]. McKinsey Company. (2012). Developing global leaders. [online] Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/developing-global-leaders [Accessed 16 Mar. 2016]. Caligiuri, P. Tarique, I., (2012). Dynamic cross-cultural competencies global leadership effectiveness.Journal of World Business,47(4), pp.612-622. Lawrence, T., (2015). Global leadership communication: A strategic proposal. Leadership Development - Sustainability Report 2013/14 - Ford Motor Company. (2016). Corporate.ford.com. Retrieved 17 March 2016, from https://corporate.ford.com/microsites/sustainability-report-2013-14/people-workplace-employees-leadership.html Ford, J., Cunliffe, A. L., Raelin, J. A., Crevani, L., Lindgren, M., Packendorff, J., Harding, N. (2012). Critical approaches to leadership learning and development. In2012 Academy of Management meeting. Ford, J. (2016). GENDERED RELATIONSHIPS AND THE PROBLEM OF DIVERSITY IN LEADERSHIP-AS-PRACTICE.Leadership-as-Practice: Theory and Application, 223. Daft, R. (2014).The leadership experience. Cengage Learning. Dubrin, A. (2015).Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Nelson Education. Ciulla, J. B. (Ed.). (2014).Ethics, the heart of leadership. ABC-CLIO. Hackman, M. Z., Johnson, C. E. (2013).Leadership: A communication perspective. Waveland Press.

Union Budget Review free essay sample

Indian corporations that rarely ventured out of India suddenly started investing all over the world and even in some industrialized countries. The globalization of India has given rise to new opportunities but it has also brought with it new challenges and responsibilities. Every time there is a major financial crisis anywhere in the world, there is need to take brace position. And, in turn, the rise and fall of India’s growth rate has an impact on global growth and there is need for India to take this responsibility seriously. The brewing trouble of Euro-zone Debt Crisis is posing a threat to global economical growth and seriously questioning the recovery strategies of various developng economies around the globe. APPROACH TO THE BUDGET For Indian economy, recovery was interrupted 2011-2012 year mainly due to intensification of debt crises in Euro zone, political turmoil in Middle East, rise in crude oil price and earthquake in Japan. We will write a custom essay sample on Union Budget Review or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page GDP is estimated to grow by 6. 9 per cent in 2011-12, after having grown at 8. 4 per cent in preceding two years. India however remains front runner in economic growth in any cross-country comparison. One side, the approach of the last rear budget was mainly to sustain the economic growth, on the flip side the monetary policy was tight and aimed at taming domestic inflationary pressure. Growth moderated and fiscal balance deteriorated due to tight monetary policy and expanded outlays. Indicators suggest that economy is turning around as core sectors and manufacturing show signs of recovery. At this juncture, for the 2012-2013 budget it is prudent to embrace hard decision to improve macroeconomic environment and strengthen domestic growth drivers. If India can build on its economic strength, it can be a source of stability for world economy and a safe destination for restless global capital. â€Å"Effective Revenue Deficit† and â€Å"Medium Term Expenditure Framework† statement are two important features of amendment to FRBM Act in the direction of expenditure reforms. * Effective Revenue Deficit is the difference between revenue deficit and grants for creation of capital assets. This will help in reducing consumptive component of revenue deficit and create space for increased capital spending. Some subsidies, while being inevitable, may become undesirable if they compromise the macroeconomic fundamentals of economy. Endeavour to scale up and roll out Aadhaar enabled payments for various government schemes to ensure that fruits of subsidy reach the needy sections   Early Enactment of DTC Code. GST network to be set up as a National Information Utility and to become operational by August 2012. At least 51 per cent ownership and management control to remain with Government.Proposal for FDI in multi-brand retail up to 51 per cent. * Various steps proposed to be taken for deepening the reforms in the Capital markets, including simplifying process of IPOs, allowing QFIs to access Indian Bond Market etc. * Various Legislative Reforms like The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill and The Insurance Law (Amendment) Bill are initiated. More sectors added as eligible sectors for Viability Gap Funding under the scheme â€Å"Support to PPP in infrastructure†. * National Manufacturing Policy announced with the objective of raising, within a decade, the share of manufacturing in GDP to 25 per cent and creating of 10 crore jobs Transport: Roads and Civil Aviation * Direct import of Aviation Turbine Fuel permitted for Indian Carriers as actual users. * ECB to be permitted for working capital requirement of airline industry for a period of one year, subject to a total ceiling of US $ 1 billion.

Free Essays on The Cost Of Freedom

The Cost of Freedom Freedom stands where anything falls. It stands because of the price paid for it. Christ paid for freedom: America’s fathers paid for freedom: firefighters and police officers paid for freedom on September eleventh. The cost of freedom is in the life of the free. To put a price on freedom is to put a price on spilled blood. Working miracles and teaching the masses, Christ lived daily to serve. His life became the epitome of perfection, and He knew there was a price being paid. To give generations an access into Heaven, Christ insisted on His life fulfilling the price. He was brutally tortured, made to bear a cross, and then hang on it, all for freedom. Blood was shed. In the late seventeen hundreds, newborn America realized the cost of freedom. Fifty-six delegates to the Second Continental Congress drew up a document that would forego over two hundred years of freedom to come. Each delegate knew full well the consequences of treachery, which would be death, should their ordeal fail. All signed. During the war, estates were burned, fortunes were lost, death ran among them †¦ freely. Blood was shed. The sky shone grey, another day brought people to work and school. As the clock reached ten AM, a hijacked plane struck the north tower of the Twin Towers in New York. Within minutes, New York fire and rescue teams rushed into the burning stories to help salvage what life remained. Police officers on the street assisted citizens away from the burning building. Moments later, the second tower was struck, killing more innocence. The towers collapsed. Over one hundred fifty of the nations finest civil service members became trapped inside, along with possibly thousands of New York citizens. Blood was shed. Blood must be shed to pay the cost of freedom. The cost of freedom has not, and will never, change. The past is filled with those who paid the price of freedom, and today, those who enjoy th... Free Essays on The Cost Of Freedom Free Essays on The Cost Of Freedom The Cost of Freedom Freedom stands where anything falls. It stands because of the price paid for it. Christ paid for freedom: America’s fathers paid for freedom: firefighters and police officers paid for freedom on September eleventh. The cost of freedom is in the life of the free. To put a price on freedom is to put a price on spilled blood. Working miracles and teaching the masses, Christ lived daily to serve. His life became the epitome of perfection, and He knew there was a price being paid. To give generations an access into Heaven, Christ insisted on His life fulfilling the price. He was brutally tortured, made to bear a cross, and then hang on it, all for freedom. Blood was shed. In the late seventeen hundreds, newborn America realized the cost of freedom. Fifty-six delegates to the Second Continental Congress drew up a document that would forego over two hundred years of freedom to come. Each delegate knew full well the consequences of treachery, which would be death, should their ordeal fail. All signed. During the war, estates were burned, fortunes were lost, death ran among them †¦ freely. Blood was shed. The sky shone grey, another day brought people to work and school. As the clock reached ten AM, a hijacked plane struck the north tower of the Twin Towers in New York. Within minutes, New York fire and rescue teams rushed into the burning stories to help salvage what life remained. Police officers on the street assisted citizens away from the burning building. Moments later, the second tower was struck, killing more innocence. The towers collapsed. Over one hundred fifty of the nations finest civil service members became trapped inside, along with possibly thousands of New York citizens. Blood was shed. Blood must be shed to pay the cost of freedom. The cost of freedom has not, and will never, change. The past is filled with those who paid the price of freedom, and today, those who enjoy th...

Francis Lewis Cardozo

Francis Lewis Cardozo Overview When Francis Lewis Cardozo was elected as South Carolina’s secretary of state in 1868, he became the first African-American to be elected to hold a political position in the state. His work as a clergyman, educator and politician allowed him to fight for the rights of African-Americans during the Reconstruction period.    Key Accomplishments Established Avery Normal Institute, one of the first free secondary schools for African-Americans.Early advocate for school integration in the South.First African-American to hold a statewide office in the United States. Famous Family Members Cardozo’s granddaughter is Eslanda Goode Robeson. Robeson was an actress, anthropologist, writer and civil rights activist. She was married to Paul Robeson.   A distant relative of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo. Early Life and Education Cardozo was born on February 1, 1836, in Charleston. His mother, Lydia Weston was a free African-American woman. His father, Isaac Cardozo, was Portuguese man. After attending schools established for freed blacks, Cardozo worked as a carpenter and shipbuilder. In 1858, Cardozo began attending the University of Glasgow  before becoming a seminarian in Edinburgh and London. Cardozo was ordained a Presbyterian minister and upon his return to the United States, he began working as a pastor. By 1864, Cardozo was working as a pastor at the Temple Street Congregational Church in New Haven, Conn. The following year, Cardozo began working as an agent of the American Missionary Association. His brother, Thomas, had already served as superintendent for the organization’s school and soon Cardozo followed in his footsteps. As superintendent, Cardozo reestablished the school as the Avery Normal Institute. The Avery Normal Institute was a free secondary school for African-Americans. The school’s primary focus was to train educators. Today, Avery Normal Institute is part of the College of Charleston. Politics In 1868, Cardozo served as a delegate at the South Carolina constitutional convention. Serving as the chair of the education committee, Cardozo lobbied for integrated public schools. That same year, Cardozo was elected as secretary of state and became the first African-American to hold such a position. Through his influence, Cardozo was instrumental in reforming the South Carolina Land Commission by distributing land to former enslaved African-Americans. In 1872, Cardozo was elected as state treasurer. However, legislators decided to impeach Cardozo for his refusal to cooperate with corrupt politicians in 1874. Cardozo was reelected to this position twice. Resignation and Conspiracy Charges When federal troops were withdrawn from Southern states in 1877 and the Democrats regained control of state government, Cardozo was pushed to resign from office. That same year Cardozo was prosecuted for conspiracy. Although evidence found was not conclusive, Cardozo was still found guilty. He served almost a year in prison. Two years later, Governor William Dunlap Simpson pardoned Cardozo. Following the pardon, Cardozo relocated to Washington DC where he held a position with the Treasury Department. Educator In 1884, Cardozo became the principal of the Colored Preparatory High School in Washington DC. Under Cardozo’s tutelage, the school instituted a business curriculum and became one of the most outstanding schools for African-American students. Cardozo retired in 1896. Personal Life While serving as pastor of Temple Street Congregational Church, Cardozo married Catherine Rowena Howell. The couple had six children. Death Cardozo died in 1903 in Washington DC. Legacy Cardozo Senior High School in the northwest section of Washington DC is named in Cardozo’s honor.

Psychology Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Psychology Project - Essay Example There have been many studies done in order to determine these. The first article was entitled â€Å"Further Refining the Stress-Coping Model of Alcohol Awareness†. In this article, it was shown that coping measures as far as alcohol consumption and stress differ in regards to the type of stress that is encountered. It was hypothesized based on previous experimentation that men are more likely to encounter heavy drinking as a coping mechanism than females due to their limited coping abilities. There have also been inconsistencies in trying to diagnose whether specific people are more prone to this kind of coping measure than others. The first deals with the variability, which is experienced across the board when people deal with stress. This being that coping measures are not just maladaptive or adaptive, but each are tailored to deal with a certain type of stressor. The second is that there has not been substantial evidence and consistency in showing that gender factors play a role in coping and drinking. The experimental design for this study was a short-term design, which was based on self-reporting measures. In particular, three variables were hypothesized that could take into account for gender differences. The first is coping using the support of others. It has been shown that students that are experiencing a stressor in regards to a relationship or social situation are less likely to turn to alcohol if their coping mechanisms are more guided towards the support of others. In particular, it has been shown in women that experience an interpersonal stressor that they are less likely to drink as a coping measure due to greater social support seeking. The second hypothesis shows that the more in control of the external stressors that a person is experiencing, the less likely they are to turn to alcohol as a coping measure. The third hypothesis is based on previous research which states that men are more likely to use active seeking coping strategies and women are more likely to seek social supporting strategies for coping. Thus the use of alcohol was found to be higher in males than in females. The population had a sample size of 83 participants from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. These participants were tested using many different types of surveys and testing batteries. They were prescreened with the Michigan Alcohol Screening Tests and the College Students’ Recent Life Experiences test. These stressful factors were then broken down into four core areas: life management, social relationships, school, and general social adjustment. Then, they returned for three weeks and were asked how many times they engaged in heavy drinking, which was defined as five or more alcoholic drinks. The final survey that had to take was the COPE to assess their skills in active coping, avoidant coping, and social support seeking coping. The statistics were analyzed using mixed modeling interactions and this took into account correlation coefficients and t-test values. Men that had higher scores in active coping and social support seeking coping were less likely to engage in dangerous activities involving alcohol. If men using avoidant coping measures, they were more likely to engage in the use of alcohol. For women, the same statistical data was also recorded. There is some validity to the measures that were

Research design and data analysis, discussions and recommendations Paper

Design and data analysis, discussions and recommendations - Research Paper Example Likewise, the findings indicate there is no significant difference between the customers’ rank and the dependent variables (food quality, hotel staff service quality, and room quality). Management should accept the two null hypothesis statements. 1. Ramada took several steps to define the research questions. First, the researchers focused on different services offered by the company. The first group of services focused on customer’s criticism of the menu variety. Next, the questions veered towards the customer’s valued received in exchange for the amount paid. Third, the question veered towards determining if the customers’ liked the service promptness. Fourth, the question zeroed in on Ramada’s service quality. Fifth, the service focused on the resort’s food quality. Last, the questions veered towards the beverage quality served in the Ramada resorts. Further, management has to answer some questions. The questions focused on the hiring of the right resort employees. Next, management had to answer questions pertaining to the enhancement of the current training of employees. Training is one of management’s secret ingredients to increasing the current and future customers’ loyalty. Management must answer queries in the area of increasing the current motivation practices. Motivation increases the customer’s eagerness to return to Reamada resorts. Management must ensure all questions are answered by espousing the importance of hiring and training employees who will pamper each clients from check-in to check-out. The process was appropriate. Focusing on hiring the best employees will ensure better customer service. Training the best employees will ensure higher quality service quality. Motivation will ensure employees will continue to excel in all their individual tasks and responsibilities. 2. The secondary data played a vital part in the exploring part of the research (Craig 25). The

How Fidel Castro is a Revolutionary Essay Example for Free

How Fidel Castro is a Revolutionary Essay Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Those were the words of William Shakespeare in â€Å"Twelfth Night†. Some men are born and die without been sung. Their impact is not felt and they die to be forgotten by men. On the other hand, some leave their prints on the sand of time, their names and memories warm in the hearts of men. Such men are rare and are called legend, their names remembered by generations to come. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is such a man. There comes a time in any nation when history is made. When the government of any given state fails in its responsibility, then there is need for a change. At such times, the people naturally desire a change because their trust and hopes have been drained. The people clamor for a new government, a fresh vision and seek a new hope. The question that raises concern in the minds of the people of such state is who will bear the touch? Who will lead the struggle against oppression? Who is the fearless man that will fight for what he wholly believes in? In South Africa, it was Mandela, in India it was Gandhi, in America, it was Martin Luther and in Cuba it was Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. One thing is peculiar of these people They were all great revolutionary leaders in their countries. Who then is a revolutionary? A revolutionary is a person who promotes or actively engages in a form of revolution. Revolutionaries are often of the idea that a change is needed and that such changes might not come without forcing it out. The use of violence is acceptable once the desired result is achieved. A revolutionary believes and seeks to uphold certain ideals or ideology. If history is to be written, the archives of Cuba will not fail to recognize Fidel Castro. For one thing, he is arguably the most prolific leader that the country has produced. He is not just a leader but he was the one that spearheaded the revolution in the nation of Cuba. His impact on the nation of Cuba can not be overemphasized. Today, one can hardly talk about the nation of Cuba without mentioning the name Fidel Castro. The question is how did this man, born like you and I were, create a niche for himself. How did he become a revolutionary leader? What exploits did he perform that made his name indelible in the annals of history? Lawyer, Cuban Revolutionary, political leader, and the former President of Cuba, Fidel Castro was born on August 13, 1926 on Cuba’s North coast to Don Angel and Linda Castro. His parents were immigrants from Spain who had come to fight the United States during the Spanish- American war of 1898. He was trained under the Jesuit priests who instilled discipline, dedication and assertiveness into him. His interests were in issues that had to do with politics and government. He immersed himself in the polemical climate of Cuban politics, nationalism, anti-imperialism, and socialism. As a student of Havana University, he was elected the president of The Law Student’s Association. He had his degree in law at the University of Havana in 1950. In 1951 he became a leader in the emergent populist political movement led by the Partido del Pueblo Cubano. The group was known in Cuba as Ortodoxos, an anti-Communist nationalist group promising major social, economic and political reforms, and expecting to gain the presidency through electoral politics. He had planned to contest for a position in the congress but his plan was foiled when Fulgencio Batista usurped the constitutional government. When this happened, Castro and some of his folks who had the mind of contesting in the elections before the government was taken started planning a means of overthrowing the government. Later in 1952, Fidel Castro plotted his own quixotic revolt, this he did by leading 130 followers to attack the Moncada army barracks in Santiago on July 26, and 1953. The attack was a poorly planned fiasco in which the rebels tried to bluff their way in. They intended to overpower the 1,000-man garrison, seize some weapons, and then hand them out to crowds of supporters who never rallied to their cause. In 1955, he was granted political amnesty and he later left Cuba for Mexico where he began to train an expeditionary force. He later formed a guerilla force that aimed at a revolution that was filled with promises of land reforms, jobs and equity for all. This made the militants grow by the day. The people of Cuba began to see a new hope and a new dawn. They will give anything they can to stop the dictatorial rule of Fulgencio Batista. In 1956, Castro launched the revolution with the help of the 82 man strong guerrilla. Unfortunately, they were ambushed by the Cuban Army and were almost killed by the invasion. At the end of the day, only Castro and eleven of his men managed to escape from the hands of the Cuban Army. At this point, it was apparent that there was no man power to win this revolution. Therefore, Castro began a massive campaign where he sought to win the peasants to his side. After two years of confrontation, the revolution turned out to be a victory as he has already won most of the peasants to his side. This victory is so significant because Fidel Castro’s Guerrilla will be the first to will a military in Latin America. This proved him to be a great political strategist. On the 1st of January 1959, the Cuban revolution began with him being at the center of it. Many people joined this revolution for different reasons. It was believed that Fidel Castro will return the country to a constitutional rule, and the reaffirmation of civil and political rights. For others, who envisioned a major re-structuring of the society, the issue was social justice. These people placed their future into the arms of Fidel Castro and so it was easy for him to establish himself as the sole leader of the intended government. However, once he got to power, Castro steered his country towards communism and collective ownership of properties. He believed and practiced communism in its possible way. This made the landowners and the American nation furious. Apparently, Batista had previously developed relations with America. This came to an abrupt end at the advent of Castro’s communism. All privately owned businesses, both the ones owned by Cubans and/or the one owned by internationals were taken over by the government. Prior to this time, the America was almost in total control of the industries in Cuba. They made money from the Cubans without fuss. The standard of living of the average Cuban citizen was greatly altered. The major idea of communism is that the working class should be in charge of the government. At this point, privately owned property was regarded as illegal. Castro was of the idea that the money of the country should be distributed equally to all citizens, according to their needs. Also, the government controls the lifestyle of its citizens. Education is also an integral part of the new Cuba’s Communist government. As Castro had hoped for, these changes did have impressive short-term effects for Cuba. Serious illness and economic hardship were almost nonexistent and Cuba had the greatest number of teachers and doctors in that area of the Caribbean. It was a new dawn for Cuba as people seemed to be looking toward a better and more relying future with Castro in charge. However, these benefits did not come without a price. For instance, in order to protect the new forms of communism, Castro eliminated elections and freedom of the press, imprisoned political opponents, and made religion a thing to be ashamed of. Castro then began to act like his counterparts who were leaders of communist countries, doing things such as putting industry under government management, claiming the property of people not born in Cuba, creating communities for agriculture, and establishing laws to help laborers and peasants . Cuba’s new form of government not only affected its people, but also affected its own relationships with other governments around the world. International reactions varied from country to country about the communism in Cuba. Many of Cuba’s newly enforced laws and government created barriers with neighboring Latin American nations and in 1962 Cuba was dismissed from the Organization of American States. Because of the United States’ opposition of Communist governments, they were quickly on bad terms with Castro and Cuba. The United States government was led even further in their decision to end any relation they have with Cuba after the Cuban government seized all land owned by Americans Not all nations were in opposition to Cuba’s change of government. As a matter of fact, Cuba enjoyed a cordial relationship with The Soviet Union. The Soviet government, which was also Communist, assisted Cuba by offering financial aid, trade and the overdue payment of Cubas debts. Apart from these, Cuba was also accepted into the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) in an agreement signed in 1972 with the Soviet Union. Through his long rule as the Leader of Cuba, there have been several attempts made by the US to assassinate him. All these efforts have proved abortive as he has tactfully eluded them. In 1961-63 alone, the CIA recorded hundreds of violent sabotage operations, including several assassination attempts that relied on everything from exploding cigars to bacteria-infected handkerchiefs and aerosol sprays laced with LSD. According to Mr. Castros security services, the CIA and Cuban exiles in Miami hatched no fewer than 638 plots to kill him. All these plots have proved abortive. Fidel Castro is a legend. He has lived a life of impact and we are learning about him today. Whatever the view might be, one thing is certain; Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a revolutionary – one that will not be forgotten generations to come. Reference: †¢ Buckman, Robert T. World Today Series- Latin America 2000. Harpers Ferry, WV: Stryker-Post Publishers, 2000. †¢ Fidel Castro Cuban Leader. Newsmaker Profiles. Internet. 28 November 2000 http://www. cnn. com/recources/newsmakers/world/namerica/castro. html †¢ Kolb, Richard K. Cold War Along the cactus Curtain. VFW Magazine Jan 1999. SIRS. 18 October 2000 †¢ History of Cuba. Internet. 14 November 2001 http://www. emayzyme. com/lectures/HISTOR~/. htm †¢ Horne, Jed. Fidel’s Cuba: Revolution Running on Empty. Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation 14 March 1993. SIRS Knowledge Source. 30 October 2001. †¢ Jervis, Rick. Cuba. Scholastic Update 23 February 1998. EBSCOHost. 14 November 2001. †¢ Fidel Castro. Anti Essays. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from the World Wide Web: http://www. antiessays. com/free-essays/699. html †¢ Fidel Castro. BigNerds. com. Retrieved March 26, 2008, from the World Wide Web: http://www. bignerds. com/show. php? eid=699 †¢ Situation and Prospects in Cuba. (1963, June 14). (Item No. CC03127). Retrieved May 8, 2002, from Digital National Security Archives database. †¢ Chapo, Richard. (2006, October 28). Ten Interesting Tidbits About Cuba. EzineArticles. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from http://ezinearticles. com/? Ten-Interesting-Tidbits-About-Cubaid=341249 †¢ Intelligence. (2008). In Encyclop? dia Britannica. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from Encyclop? dia Britannica Online: http://www. britannica. com/eb/article-233697 †¢ Rodriguez III, Alejandro. (2008, February 19). Fidel Castro Cubas Leader Steps Down Changes Nothing. EzineArticles. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from http://ezinearticles. com/? Fidel-CastroCubas-Leader-Steps-Down-Changes-Nothingid=996440 †¢ Castro, Raul. (2008). In Encyclop? dia Britannica. Retrieved March 25, 2008, from Encyclop? dia Britannica Online: http://www. britannica. com/eb/article-9439238 †¢ http://www. marxists. org/history/cuba/archive/castro/ †¢ http://www. heritage. org/Research/LatinAmerica/wm1188. cfm †¢ http://www. cnn. com/2008/WORLD/americas/02/24/cuba. nextpresident/

Chester Himes’ If He Hollers Let Him Go and God’s Little Acre by Erskin

Chester Himes’ If He Hollers Let Him Go and God’s Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell It has long been contested that works of great Literature have certain qualities and that they belong to an exclusive canon of works. Value is placed upon them for a number of reasons, including their reflection of cultural or social movements, the special meaning they possess, and even their use of specific narrative elements. Up until recently, scholars and intellectuals would never dream of examining works of lower caliber with any hopes of discovering value or merit. A new movement within intellectual circles, however, has shifted focus onto so-called low-brow novels like Chester Himes’ If He Hollers Let Him Go and God’s Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell. Surprisingly enough, the works of Himes and Caldwell can be held up to the same tests as more canonical works through their appeal to ideological remnants of Romanticism and the Enlightenment, their use of literary devices to create meaning, and the narratives’ use of these devises to enhance the elements of enjoyment and pleasure in reading. According to the history books, the era of Romanticism and the subsequent Enlightenment have long since past, but their far-reaching effects are still evident in literature written in the 20th century. The importance of human merit and worth rooted in Romantic thought has transcended the bounds of time and manifested itself in the novels of Caldwell and Himes through a preoccupation with what it means to be human. In God’s Little Acre, not only are readers prone to question whether or not the Walden family is subhuman because of their problematic behaviors, but the character of Buck remarks that â€Å"God put us in the bodies of animals and ... ...e insight to life or contain certain meanings that the reader must reconstruct in order to evaluate the text fully. Other novels are considered to be noteworthy because they exist within a specific literary movement, or because they reflect cultural change. However much one might argue that Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre and Chester Himes’ If He Hollers Let Him Go belong at the bottom of the literary ‘stack,’ they nevertheless employ the same concepts and exhibit the same characteristics that turn many other novels into works of ideal greatness. Works Cited Brooks, Peter. Reading for the Plot: Design & Intention in Narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1984. Erskine, Caldwell. God’s Little Acre. New York, NY: New American Library, Inc., 1933. Himes, Chester. If He Hollers Let Him Go. New York, NY: New American Library, Inc., 1945.

Greek conception of woman, citizen and family Essay

The Greek tragedy ‘Medea’ by Euripides examines the Greek conception of woman, the foreign, family and citizenship. He emphasize on the subjugation and the oppressive condition of women in general in Greece. Thus he reveals the existence of ancient cultures (other than Greece) that were more generous in their treatment of women. Medea is also in some respect, different from general Greek women. She is clever and resourceful and also has the courage in her endeavor to take revenge on Jason for his wrong deeds. Also, through the character of Medea, Euripides exposes the bankruptcy of popular Greek ideas of heroism. My granting a woman the qualities that were considered heroic, he questions the sacred ideas of heroism. The element of the foreign in the play comprises of the foreign, the exotic, the unknown and the feared. He also showed that the foreign is not external to Greek and there is much for the Greeks to know about themselves. Medea represents the foreign, the attractive and the priceless possession of Jason. The foreign also represented the adventure undertaken by the Greek heroes. The foreign also symbolized danger and which could lead to chaos. Medea, a foreigner and an outsider to the normal order is free to behave without restrain or morality. Thus she manages to commit the dreadful crime of murdering her own children. Through the elements of the foreign, uncivilized and barbaric, Euripides questions the concepts and definitions of civilizations, primitiveness, ethics and morality. Whereas Jason seeks power, Medea, the foreigner longs for love and caring. Greek valued family and the exile from his was horrible to the ancient Greek. A person’s city-state was his home and protector and to wonder without friend and shelter was thought as a fate as horrible as death. Medea exiles herself because of her love and passion for her husband. Her position in Corinth is double grave as she is both married to be exiled from family and also as she herself has broke connections with her family to be with Jason. Also, she is a foreigner who will remain a barbarian in the eyes of the Greeks. However, Madea forces Jason into exile by wiping off his entire family. Greek law forbade Greek men to marry any other than Greek women. Also the children of Greek man and foreign woman were not considered as official citizens of Greece. Similarly, the children of Jason and Medea were not official citizens of Corinth, but Creusa and Jason’s offspring would fully enjoy the benefits of Corinthian citizenship. So Jason is justified in his argument that to gain power and position and to protect and their position, he married into the royal family. Thus these elements of the foreign, plight of Greek woman, citizenship and family combine to propel the action of the tragic play ‘Medea’. In the Greek tragedy ‘Medea, Euripides elaborates on the status of woman in Greek society. The Greek women in general had few rights. According to the men, the purpose of women in Greek society was to engage themselves in household duties like cooking and cleaning and giving birth and taking care of children. They did not have the right to vote or own property. They could not go outside without an escort. They had to be represented by men in all legal proceedings. Greek women only under exceptional conditions could obtain a divorce, but any Athenian man could get rid of his wife by simply publicly renouncing his marriage. Marriages were arranged by the parents without any participation of the daughter; thus Medea’s flight with Jason was scandalous. If the family was wealthy, the daughter came with a substantial dowry. After marriage, the woman served her husband the entire life by caring for the children and slaves, the legal property of her husband. They were not given any education and lived in separate quarters, away from their husbands. The ideal woman â€Å"spoken little as possible among men, whether for good or for ill†. Greek women never experienced independence during their lives and in some respect they were just like slaves. Medea accurately describes the conditions of married life for women when she says how a woman has to adjust to the new rules and customs of the new home and work hard to understand her husband and consequently live in peace. However if the marriage does not work, then death is the only solution for the woman. When Jason decides to terminate his marriage with Medea and marry the princess of Corinth, Jason cast aside Medea as if they were never married. This type of action was accepted by Greek standards, which reveals the subordinate status of woman who did not have any say in these matters. Even though some actions of Medea are not similar to that of average Greek women, she posses certain attitudes and emotions which are common among women. Medea in her first speech to the Chorus (when she comes out of her house) expresses the plight of women in society: â€Å"For a divorce loses women all respect, yet we can’t refuse to take a husband†, (Euripides, lines 271-272). She further adds that when a man gets tired of the company at home, he can seek relief outside the home, but a woman have to always look at one man. It is likely that this attitude was shared by most Greek women as evident from the reaction of the Chorus Leader who sympathize with her: â€Å"I’m not surprised you grieve at these events†, (Euripides, Line 310). The nurse reveals the fact that Medea out of her love and deep passion for Jason has retrieved the Golden Fleece for him and defied her household. In return, she is deserted by Jason who betrayed her by breaking the vows of marriage and now â€Å"She calls out to the gods to witness/ how Jason is repaying her favours†, (Euripides, lines 30-31). However, her situation worsens further when Creon informs her that he is forcing her into exile. The Chorus identifies with the pitiable condition of Medea. It recognizes the heroic traits of Medea and admires her as an avenger for all women. Chorus soothes Medea’ sorrow by saying that God will be with her in her endeavor. Thus the chorus believes her cause is good and worthy of God’s support. Medea as a victim of ill fate is supported by the Chorus. Even though the Chorus makes this statement before finding out Medea’ brutal scheme, it should be noted that the Chorus reaffirms its support for Medea after she reveals her plan. After the monologue of Medea, where she reveal her plan and think of ways to implement it, the chorus delivers an ode on the oppression of women: â€Å"The waters in the sacred rivers/are flowing in reverse. /And all well-ordered things/are once more turning on themselves. / Men’s plans are now deceitful,/their firm trust in the gods is gone†¦. /Honour’s coming to the female sex. /slander will no longer injure women, (Euripides, Lines 487-496). Through this ode, the chorus condemns the oppression of women and encourages Medea to carry out her plan. It views her plan as a rare opportunity for women to avenge all the wrongs done by men on them and to turn the hierarchy around, putting the men at the mercy of women. In the play it is evident that the Chorus support Medea in her endeavor to avength the betrayal of Jason till the section where she thinks of ways and machinery to make her plot successful. But the Chorus withdraws their support the point where Medea reveals her plan to murder her own sons. After the verbal fight between Jason and Medea, the Chorus asks for moderation: â€Å"I pray that moderation,/the gods’ most beautiful gift,/will always guide me†, (Euripides, Lines 756-758). After they come to know Medea’s plan to kill her children, they try their best make her understand her folly in her taking such an action and they urge her not to commit such a crime : â€Å"I want to help you,/holding to the standards of human law†, (Euripides, Lines 963-964). Euripides by examining the treatment of women in the play ‘Medea’, points at the injustices of his society. He recognized the fact that the subordinate position of women to their male counterpart is impossible to extricate from the core of social order in Greece. The typical explanation offered by the admirers of Greece is that all ancient societies were sexist and dependent on slave labor. This generality is untrue as there were many societies who were more generous in their treatment of women than the Greeks and many societies functioned in the ancient times, without slave labor. Euripides who was aware of these hypocrisies, often pointed out how Greek society attempt to excuse the injustices perpetrated by them. Jason tells Medea that no Greek women would have done as she has done. In this respect, the Chorus should be considered who stood by mutely and allowed the slaughter to take place. However, Medea shows some heroic qualities that were not common among Greek women. Medea is clever, resourceful and has the courage to stand against Jason and take revenge for his betrayal. She does not stay long inside her home as a subjugating housewife lamenting and shedding tears for wrongs incurred on her. She comes out her hearth and faces the Chorus and Creon. She acts like a man and plots and execute her plan. Euripides goes farther, through the character of Medea, he exposes the bankruptcy of popular Greek ideas of heroism. Medea has many traits that would be admirable, if only she were a man. She is ruthless, brilliant, cunning, and powerful. But she is in a weak position: she is not a ruler or a warrior of any battlefield. Euripides gives the qualities that are considered heroic, in a woman and thus reduces the scale. He makes the playing field one of marriage and spurned love. The fine Homeric speeches of warriors on the verge of combat are reduced to the bickering of an enraged wife and a petty husband. Euripides in this play, questions our sacred ideas about heroism. Consider, for example, the character of Agamemnon as portrayed by Aeschylus in the Oresteia. Agamemnon also kills his own child; and although he is not admired for this act, after his death Aeschylus grants him his due of a great man and hero. The reaction of the audience to Medea’s infanticide is that of horror. Euripides gives unlimited self-absorption and ruthlessness to a woman and thus exposes the true worth of these traits. The audience becomes aware of the double standards that we use for heroes and heroines. In Greek mythology Medea was princess of colchis and the granddaughter of Helios the sun God. She had affinities with magic and was the priestess of Hecate. Medea helped Jason to steal the Golden Fleece from her father and even dismember her brother to delay the pursuers of her lover. Also, she turned the daughter of Pelias into murderers to win back his rightful place in Iolcus, In return, Jason betrayed her trust and re-married into the royal family. The fact that Medea is a foreigner is emphasized from the beginning. The Nurse, in the opening lines, tells the audience that Medea hails from a distant and exotic land. Certain points should be remembered while reflecting on this aspect of the play. The foreigner or the Others is a complex and multifaceted concept: it comprises of the foreign, the exotic, the unknown and the feared. The foreign is also essential for self-definition of the Greeks. The Greeks ascribe certain traits to barbarians in opposition to certain traits about themselves. Barbarians are savage but Greeks are not. Barbarians are superstitious while Greeks are rational. But Euripides through the play undermines these easy binaries. He shows that (the foreigner) is not something external to Greek. Also, there is much for the Greeks to understand about themselves Moreover, the (the foreign, the exotic, the terrifying) is an essential for adventure. Jason’s quest, and also the quests of other Greek heroes, would not be possible without their visit to strange and fearsome lands. Medea’s foreignness may be the reason behind Jason’s attraction for her. Although we cannot be sure if Jason was really attracted to her or used her for his own ends or both. May be Jason was drawn to her by her uniqueness. The play stresses on the fact that Medea is different from Greek women. Jason’s marriage to Medea can be seen as an attempt on his part to bring the adventure home. Medea describes herself as â€Å"something he won in a foreign land†. The marriage can also be seen as Jason’s attempt to subordinate the foreign to the Greek, woman to man. In Medea, the foreign lead to chaos. Medea as a foreigner is also terribly free. As she is an outsider to normal order, she behaves without restraint or morality. Her genius is thus used for personal revenge. She sends gifts of a finely woven robe and a tiara of twisted gold smeared with deadly poison and succeeds in killing both Creon and his daughter. Next she murders her two sons to teach Jason a lesson that the oppressed can also take actions against the oppressors. Medea as a foreigner comes from a tribal nativity, where sophistication is not the normal thing. She does not know how to â€Å"well behave† and speak â€Å"with a soft tongue†. Her culture and race is primitive and for this she is often blames by Jason. However, while Jason seeks power, Medea longs for love and caring. She leaves behind her culture, native land, parent, and the family as a sacrifice to marry Jason. So the ‘uncivilized ’Medea cannot accept nor understand Jason’s argument in favor of his second marriage and Jason posses all the skills required to argue in his favor. This raises several questions regarding the concepts and definitions of civilizations, primitiveness, ethics and morality Another factor is the Greek conception of family and the separation or exile from them. Modern audiences can find it difficult to understand how important family and how horrible exile was for the ancient Greek. A person’s native land was his home and protector and to wander without friends or shelter, was thought of as a fate horrible as death. The chorus chants: â€Å"there’s no affliction worse/ than losing one’s own country†, (Euripides, Lines 774-775). Medea made herself as exile for the sake of her husband. Medea tells about her plight to the Chorus: â€Å"you have a city, /you have your father’s house, enjoy your life/with friends for company. But I’m alone. /I have no city, and I’m being abused/by my own husband. — I have no mother, brother, or relation,/to shelter with in this extremity†, (Euripides, Lines 291-299). Additionally by her overzealous advocacy of her husband’s interest, she made their family exiles in Corinth. Due to her actions in Iolcus, Jason is unable to return home and so their position is vulnerable. Jason who is the hero of the Golden Fleece (of course with the help of Medea) became a wanderer. He is very shrewd and calculative in his decision to marry into the royal family. The Tutor points out in the beginning of the play that men always act for their own interest: â€Å"What mortal man is not? Don’t you know yet/all men love themselves more than their neighbours†, (Euripides, Lines 107-108). Thus the character of Jason is revealed as an opportunist, a selfish man and the anti-hero who manipulates others for his own ends. Euripides in his play ‘Medea’, links the elements of exile and the lower position of women by emphasizing on the circumstances that women faced after marriage. She has to leave her home and family and live among strangers. In this respect, Medea reminds us of the conditions of exile. However, her position is doubly grave, as she is an exile in this sense as well as in the sense that she herself has broke all connections with her family. Also, she is a foreigner and will remain a barbarian in the eyes of the Greeks. Greeks valued their family and the close blood relationship they share with the family members. Also they had certain expectation from their family. Similarly I the play, Jason want his sons to grow up and become leaders in Corinth along their new brother, the sons he wishes to beget from his new bride. He also wants his sons to mature into young men and win victory over his enemies. On the other hand, Medea has few expectations as well. In return for her pains of child birth and the hardship she faced in raising them, she hoped that they will look after her in old age and prepare the corpse with their own hands as all parents’ wishes. However, she sacrifices her expectations and also separates Jason from his family by killing her two sons and Jason’ new bride. She takes her revenge on Jason by poisoning the royal bride and thus depriving Jason of his wife and the children he wished to beget from her, his family. Also she kills her sons and prevents the fulfilling last hope of Jason, his wish to unite with his family, his sons. She also deprives him of the burial rights of his sons. Instead she performs the rights. In this way, Jason is exiles from his family as Medea was exile from her native land and family. Medea lost her family after she married Jason, in similar way, Jason losses his family at the end of the play. Another element emphasized in the play is the Greek conception of citizenship. Greek law forbade Greek men to marry no other than Greek women. However, it was common practice among Greek men to keep foreign concubines who were often more educated than the Greek women in general. But the children born from these unions were not considered as official citizens of Greece. Similarly, the children of Jason and Medea were not official citizens of Corinth, whereas Creusa and Jason’s offspring would fully enjoy the benefits of Corinthian citizenship. Jason may be a shrewd and manipulative man and it is also true that he betrays Medea by breakings the vows of marriage and re-marrying into the royal family. However, the fact remains that Jason was a wonderer and he wanted to gain power and position by creating a relationship with the royal family. Moreover, he was aware of the fact that his children were deprived of the benefits of Corinthian citizenship. As he mentions to Medea, it may be true that he married Creon’s daughter not because he felt attracted towards her as a woman but rather to protect Medea and their children. Also that he wanted to serve their own interest by having children (royal princes) from his royal bride and thus securing their position in Corinth and giving their children similar power. The Greek conception of woman, the foreign, citizenship and family as examined in the play help in the progress of the tragic action. Medea represents the suppressed and oppressive condition of Greek woman who is cheated by her husband. The foreign element in her character, the exotic, the dangerous and the barbarian instigate her take revenge against Jason. Jason’s argument in favor of his action is the power and position he wants to achieve for himself and for Medea and their children. He is aware that his and Medea’s children will be deprived of the benefits of Corinthian citizenship. Her separation or exile from family because of Jason infuriates her further and she in turn separates Jason from his family. Work Citation: â€Å"Analysis of Medea as a Tragic Character†. 8 December 2002. Michael Kliegl. 9 July 2008 â€Å"The Concept of Citizenship†. 9 July 2008 â€Å"Euripides by Medea†. 9 July 2008 â€Å"Medea (Criticism). Carole L. Hamilton. 9 July 2008 â€Å"Major Themes†. 9 July 2008 â€Å"Medea (Indian adaptation of the greek classic†. 9 July 2008 â€Å"Summary and Analysis of Lines 1- 356†. 9 July 2008

David Hume and Naturalism

David Hume is a naturalist, which means he believes our thoughts are not based on reason at all, but are based in nature. Hume suggests that nature is all we need to justify our beliefs. This means that we make conclusions about things around us based on habits and patterns. Hume suggests that experiences explain justifications and notions far greater than any rationalization. A part of Hume’s theory lies in the sentiment of feeling. â€Å"It must be excited by nature†¦ [and] whenever any object is presented to the memory or senses, it immediately, by the force of custom, carries the imagination to conceive that object†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Hume p. 1). This means that a feeling occurs when the senses bring an object to the imagination.Nature creates being according to Hume’s naturalist ideas. According to Hume’s naturalism philosophy, humans and other animals experience nature and create feelings in very similar manners, and from similar causes. Hume emphasizes th at both humans and other animals make predictions and explanations about the world, and all of this is because of experiencing nature. Discipline and education are the core of learning for animals. Animals, therefore, are not guided in these inferences by reasoning: Neither are children: Neither are the generality of mankind, in their ordinary actions and conclusions: Neither are philosophers themselves, who, in all the active parts of life, are, in the main, the same with the vulgar, and are governed by the same maxims† (Hume p. 70). Hume suggests that when animals or humans are experiencing a new situation it is actually a combination of past events they are already familiar with. Hume suggests that reasoning and argumentation cannot be trusted (Hume p. 71).Therefore, it is the senses of all beings observing nature that create emotions, thoughts, and experiences. It is also expressed in Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding that animals have knowledge not only from observation, but also a lot from â€Å"the original hand of nature† (Hume p. 72). This could mean that animals have certain instincts given by nature that can not be controlled. Hume was in all senses a naturalist. Nature holds all answers according to Hume, and neither humans nor other animals hold the ability to create arguments and ideas without nature.

Cloud Computing Industry Analysis Essays

Cloud Computing Industry Analysis Essays Cloud Computing Industry Analysis Essay Cloud Computing Industry Analysis Essay Report 2012 Cloud Computing Industry Analysis Submitted ByRomi Narang (197) Suryadeep Gumber(212) Rajesh Anuragi (196) Smith Rakesh (194) Neha Chavan(221) Neha Agrawal (224) Chandrika Gailot(229) 1/10/2012 Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Cloud Computing . 3 WHAT ARE THE NECESSITIES OF CLOUD COMPUTING? . 5 What are the needs of PaaS, IaaS, SaaS (Cloud Families)? . 6 Pricing Models .. 9 PESTLE Analysis . 11 Technological Infrastructure required for Cloud Computing 17 Cloud Computing Drivers Vs Inhibitors . 8 Global cloud computing market size Future growth . 22 CLOUD COMPUTING AFFECTING FIRM BOUNDARY .. 25 Web 2. 0 and Cloud Computing 31 Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis .. 35 1. Cloud Computing Cloud computing refers to the provision of computing resources like computing power, applications, computing infrastructure and business processes in manner that is scalable as per requirement and can be shared in order to gain economies of scale. These provisions are delivered as a service over the internet (or any other electronic network) and the service can be accessed by the end users via a computing device. The data and application related information relevant to the end users business/personal needs is stored on remote servers. The term ‘cloud’ is used for the abstraction of the complex network infrastructure that is used for providing the service. [1] Figure 1. Logical Diagram for Cloud Computing: [2] Office building analogy for cloud[4] A more effective way to explain the concept of cloud computing is to compare it with an office building. An office building can accommodate multiple companies belonging to different types of industries. Although some companies can go for privately managed maintenance/servicing of their own office, it will be extremely economical and cost effective for all companies to go for shared services that are used by all. These will mostly comprise of some essential and fundamental utility services. Likewise, Cloud computing enables sharing of the computing resources, management of which by a single company could be taxing and uneconomical. The flexibility, immediate availability and cost effectiveness of the maintenance, hardware and platform development offered by cloud computing can be compared with the electricity coming out of every wall of an office building, the underlying technical aspects being abstracted from the user. Figure 2: Cloud computing compared to shared office space[4] Players in the Cloud computing world: [1] Vendors: Provide applications and enabling technology, infrastructure, hardware, and integration. Partners: Collaborate with the vendors and provide support services to customers. Business Leaders: Either use or evaluate various types of cloud computing offerings. Types of Cloud computing services:[3] Private Cloud: The cloud is owned by a particular customer with the required infrastructure and technology residing either on-site or off-site. This type of service is costly but provides better security. Public Cloud: The cloud is owned by a large organization or company specializing in cloud computing services. The cloud can be rented for use to anyone willing to pay for it. It is the cheapest type of cloud computing service but because of its public nature it is deemed to be less secure. Hybrid Cloud: It consists of multiple private and public clouds. 2. WHAT ARE THE NECESSITIES OF CLOUD COMPUTING? 1. Information Technology penetrated in day to day life very fast With the starting of Internet era, most of the people and majority companies in the world became dependent on the services you could get to with a click of the mouse. The best example may be the free email (Gmail/Yahoo mail), the chat technology (Yahoo Messenger), Social Networking websites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter). One can’t imagine life without them. That’s where the cloud was born. You need cloud data centers to run that stuff. 2. Cheaper source of Technology One may look for quality or ease of access but in the end the main thing that’s at the top of everybody’s mind is the economy. Cloud data centers are fundamentally different because they are built for very large user numbers and for a particular focus. Traditional data centers cannot compete on cost. In fact it’s no competition on the cost front. 3. Go Green In the scenario where environment is one of the biggest concerns, cloud computing seems as a perfect option as there is no paper etc required. The data is saved over internet as digital signals. Nowadays digitization of everything is becoming a trend among all top multinational companies. 4. The never ending and always expanding data The data is ever increasing and it probably always will. It seems to grow at about 60% a year and it doesn’t pause for breath. It won’t stop, even if you cry at it. But like old email, you never access most of the data and at the same time you also don’t want to delete it. So saving it all in the cloud makes sense clearly. 5. Unlimited Access This is almost impossible to stop users accessing anything they want on the Internet. One may be able to blacklist some web sites (adult sites etc) but one can’t want to prevent users from finding useful capabilities on the Internet. And those are cloud apps by any definition. There’s a wealth of it and it’s a boon to us. 6. No need for continuous software development Cloud computing is the best way of software development. There was always two types of software development; the mission critical stuff that gives us business traction, and the rest. We need not to worry for it. It’s the competition that drives the software development and thus making it cost effective. 7. Emergence of cloud computing as an ecosystem The cloud computing has created an environment and hence various companies and developers create applications that support this environment, just like Google which is no more a website but an ecosystem. [4] 3. What are the needs of PaaS, IaaS, SaaS (Cloud Families)? PaaS: What is it? [5] The way of renting hardware, operating systems, storage and network capacity over the Internet is called PaaS(Platform as a Service). It allows the customer to rent virtualized servers and associated services for running existing applications or developing and testing new ones. Features:[8] 1. All the services needed in the process of making an application like developing, testing, deploying, hosting and maintaining applications is integrated into the same platform. 2. It is very user friendly as different user interfaces can be easily created using various web tools available in PaaS. . Various users can simultaneously use the same application process because of it’s â€Å"tenant architecture† feature. 4. It is used for billing and subscription management. 5. Integration can be done via common standards with web services and databases. 6. It has built in feature to handle load balancing and failover. Revenue: Figure 3[9] Players: Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Rightscale, Wip ro, Adobe, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Sales Force, Google, VirtuStream, NetMagic. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Telecommunications industry can use PaaS. With the advent of 3G and popularity of Mobile VAS, PaaS products like Flypp that enable telcos with faster go-to market applications and reduce risk and operational overheads are predicted to see increased adoption. SaaS: What it is? [5] The model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet is known as SaaS (Software as a Service) Features[8] 1. 2. 3. 4. It is used in commercial applications for accessing web It has a central hub for software management It uses the star network model for oftware delivery It has a feature called â€Å"application programming interface† which is used to link different softwares 5. Time to time upgradation of software and recovery of system patches is not required to be monitored by the SaaS users. Revenue Figure 4[9] Players: IBM, Microsoft, Synage, Wipro, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Salesforce, Google, VirtuStream, NetMagic. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Healthcare industry can use SaaS. With medical tourism flourishing, India is slowly becoming a haven for healthcare services. Healthcare industry is also advancing its IT platforms to touch the global standards. This industry’s key worry of system consolidation can be addressed by SaaS solutions. Iaas: What it is? [7] A model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components is called IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it. The client has no obligations and he only pays on a per-use basis. Features:[8] 1. Dynamic scaling can be done 2. It allows access to multiple users on single hardware 3. It is based on the model of utility pricing and hence has a variable cost 4. Resources are distributed as a service. Revenue Figure 5[10] Players: Amazon, Go Grid, Wolf Frameowrks, Microsoft, Rightscale, Wipro, Oracle, Vmware, TCS, Google, IBM, Net Magic, Reliance Data Centre. Which industry can use it and why? [11] Government and public sector can use IaaS. With current e-governance initiatives driving on a PPP model, immense investments are being made on the IT infrastructure front. For projects like Aadhaar, the UIDAI is contemplating on the adoption of a cost-effective cloud based model that can provide effective and scalable processing of large databases. 4. Pricing Models Elastic pricing or Pay-as-you-Use model Elastic pricing model is a model that incurs less wastage and lower costs as under this system customers are charged based as per their usage and consumption of a service. As the users are keenly aware of the cost of doing business and consuming a resource (since it’s coming from their pockets) therefore the awareness of cost and selective usage is quite prominent. When to use it? 1. When there is Unpredictability of resources . 2. When there is limitation of budget. Fixed or Subscription based pricing The simplest pricing option where the customer organization is billed on a fixed monthly basis is known as fixed pricing. The consumer is billed the same amount every month without consideration for actual usage. When to use it? 1. When requirements are well defined. 2. When more control over the budget is required. 3. When it is required to use the cloud for a longer periods. Spot pricing for cloud It is a new concept in cloud computing, where market forces will decide the pot pricing model i. e. , when the demand of computing and storage resources is higher than the price of services will be higher and vice-versa. Cloud chargeback Customers are charged on the basis of usage. Benefits of this model are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Resource utilization can become more visible. Forecasting, budgeting and capacity planning can be facilitated. It encourages the use of new emerging technologies. It facilitates justification and allocation of cost to their stakeholders and business units. Adoption of cloud computing models in India Findings on the basis of survey done by EY recently: 1. 2. 3. 4. Annual contract based modelling is mostly opted by large enterprises. Resource based usage model is adopted by SMB segment in majority. Potential customers are not satisfied with single pricing model. Pricing structures offered by vendors should be easy to understand, transparent and cost efficient. Figure 6 [61] 5. PESTLE Analysis Figure 7 Political Regulations Even with Internet’s rise to the Horizon, it took many years for policy makers to set up common norms and procedures regarding the internet’s usage. With the current popularity of cloud computing policy makers are more proactive in addressing technological changes. Regulations are still at a very nascent stage for Cloud computing: There are various government policies involved in that need to be incorporated by vendors to successfully implement cloud. There are various issues like security, privacy, location and ownership of data, that hinder the growth of cloud computing. Some vendors like Amazon Web Services have addressed certain issues by deploying local infrastructure in main markets (US and EU). [12] Government projects Cloud computing has the potential to provide good level government service deliveries to the people despite the government agencies suffering from resource constraints. US government has an estimate to spend almost USD 20 billion on cloud computing related products. Figure 8[13] The federal government has a complete cloud related strategy that can be described below. ? Develop a decision framework that can be used to migrate services to cloud ? Find the services that can be migrated to Cloud and their time frames ? Calculate the resources required to move the services to cloud. Figure 9[13] Economic Various multinational companies have reduced their IT spending in lieu of the economic slowdown that has hit the economy hard. JP Morgan recently cut their IT spending. 14] Cloud computing helps cut costs in following ways ? By lowering opportunity cost of running technology. When it comes to technology only 20% of the time and effort goes into running technology which is where all the value lies. By using Cloud computing the 80-20 can be reversed as time required to manage the OS and hardware gets considerably reduced. ? Capital expenditure shifts to op erating expenditure. Figure 10[15] ? Renewed focus on core activities With the movement from traditional operation to cloud, A company gets a lot of time focus on its core activities. Recently, Netflix moved on to the Amazon Cloud service (AWS EC2). Social Figure 11[18] Internet has been the most disruptive social phenomenon of the past couple of decades and has found its use in both professional and personal activities. The number of internet users is close to 2. 23 billion[18] and growing. Figure 12[12] Internet users Since cloud being an internet based technology its adoption has a greater probability. The future generation will no doubt be connected through the internet for both personal and professional lives. Social media has grown from strength to strength and now even companies are focused towards the use of social networking to find opportunities for their growth. Technical Technology has taken great strides over the last 2 decades and IT infrastructure and service sharing has become a great source of growth for some companies. With high speed of internet, low connectivity issues, higher security standards and modularization of environments, it has become easier to implement cloud. Figure 13[12] IBM IT Transformation Roadmap The IBM IT transformation road map suggests how the IT has transformed over the years and it is headed straight towards the adoption of cloud computing on a major level. LEGAL There is currently no legal framework designed for the adoption on cloud computing. There are local regulations on free flow of information between countries. Figure 14[16] There are a few questions that are raised by the law structure when cloud is being implemented. 1. Who is the controller? 2. Which law is applicable 3. Transfer outside the country? The future of legal policies appear uncertain and they can easily keep a lid on growth of cloud computing Environmental IT contributes 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions in the world which is the same as the Airline industry[12]. Other than CO2 emission IT produces 2 million tones of electric waste as well. Cloud Computing is one of the ways to reduce the environmental impact of IT industry. Most of the electric waste would become obsolete with the evolution of cloud computing. Figure 15[17] Total PESTLE Impact Diagram Figure 16[12] 6. Technological Infrastructure required for Cloud Computing Following Infrastructure is needed for Cloud computing: 1) 2) 3) 4) Computing Infrastructure Network Infrastructure Storage Infrastructure Linking Infrastructure a. Linking to Network b. Linking to Storage Depending upon the service required (IaaS or PaaS or SaaS), these infrastructure elements can be owned by the client or the Cloud service provider. As per the CIO. com article are as follows: [1] , there are seven important aspects of any cloud infrastructure, these 1) Heterogeneous System Support Other than leveraging the latest software and hardware systems, the cloud infrastructure should also be compatible with the legacy and traditional systems of the organization and should also support the existing infrastructure. 2) Service Management In order to make the cloud offering successful, the cloud service should be able to provide proper resource (e. g. CPU cycle or storage etc) guarantees, transparent metering rules of the service and proper billing cycles. Also, the service should be able to be managed and deployed easily and quickly. 3) Dynamic Workload and Resource Management For providing truly on demand and virtualized services, it is important for any cloud infrastructure to manage the resources and workload as per the required service level agreement to the consumer. And hence in case of peak load, prioritize resources in order to be highly efficient and performance driven. 4) Reliability, Availability and Security Reliability, Availability and Security are important aspects of any service, whether it is provided through cloud or through the traditional model. Hence any cloud infrastructure should provide a smooth transition to the cloud service without compromising on any of these aspects of the system. 5) Integration with Data Management tools It is possible that cloud computing management solutions do not fully take the place of the traditional systems and data centers. Hence the cloud infrastructure should be able to integrate with these out of the box systems and data centers to provide a hassle free service to the clients. 6) Visibility and Reporting An important feature of the cloud service is the ‘pay as per-use’ facility. Hence to fully achieve this objective, the cloud infrastructure should support detailed levels of visibility and reporting regarding the usage, service level agreements, compliances, system and network performances, billing schedules etc. 7) Administrator, Developer and End User Interface Most Cloud infrastructures provide user interfaces and portals to hide the cloud service complexities from the end user and in a way also provide the ability to manage these cloud services in a simple yet comprehensive way. [19] 7. Cloud Computing Drivers Vs Inhibitors Inhibitors for Cloud Computing A report published by IBM [20] (IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010) based on the survey conducted on 110 Cloud implementation Projects, revealed that the major concerns for implementing Cloud were issues involving security, lack of perceived value proposition by the customers, lack of standardization and lack of funding for implementation. Some of the other factors include- complexity concerns, lack of skills, concerns about reliability and availability of cloud, technical immaturity etc. Figure 17 Source: IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010 [20] Security [20] Security is one of the major concerns specially in public cloud implementations. Most customers are worried about the privacy and integrity of their data. The concerns may increase even more if the cloud is shared among other customers, who may be your competitors. Hence according to the IBM survey most companies are interested in implementing the private cloud (instead of going for the public Cloud). Standardization [20] As Cloud Computing is an emerging technology, the processes and implementations are not yet standardized. Each of the Cloud implementers provides their own solutions. There are no industry wide standards yet developed for Cloud computing. Hence this lack of hardware requirements, software, operating system and processes act as an inhibitor for implementing cloud. Value Proposition [20] Implementation of Cloud is much easier if value which it provides in terms of meeting the business requirements and cost benefits can be explained to the customer. Hence lack of tools and models that assist the customers to calculate the return on investment and value proposition pose a deterrent in cloud implementation. Complexity and Integration [20] Most customers today run a host of applications including numerous legacy tools. Customers are looking integrated solution for all their applications from the cloud providers. Hence the doubts over integrating all solutions and also reducing complexity are one of the concerns of the customers in implementing cloud. According to Keane White paper [21] on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Clear thinking about its risks, benefits and success factors† impediments to cloud Adoption are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Security Privacy / Compliance Immaturity of vendors / Offerings Risk Mitigation Legacy Applications Drivers for Cloud Computing BENEFITS [20] The study conducted by IBM based on 110 Cloud implementations revealed following results: ? ? ? Around 80% of clients acknowledge benefits in sharing of IT resources through highly virtualized infrastructure by implementing cloud. Around 60% achieved ease-of-use through self service with rapid delivery. Taking about public clouds specifically ? ? ? Ease-of-use is 85% (as compared to 60% overall by both public and private cloud users) 68% benefit from pay-as-you-go Charging model 63% benefit from Internet / Web based Cloud Figure 18 Source: IBM Academy of Technology, Thought Leadership White Paper, October 2010 [20] According to Keane White paper [21] on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Clear thinking about its risks, benefits and success factors† benefits of Cloud solution are as follows: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Cost Capability / Scalability More Green Organization Agility Collaboration Focus According Deloitte report on â€Å"Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective† [22] Figure 19 Source: Deloitte Report on Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective [22] Deloitte’s perspective on perceived and real impact of cloud Inhibitors [22] Figure 20 Source: Deloitte Report on Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective [22] 8. Global cloud computing market size Future growth According to the report called â€Å"Sizing the Cloud† of independent research firm Forrester Research the global cloud computing market would fetch the $241 billion by 2020[1] as compared to $40. 7 billion in 2010. It could be possible cause of rapidly growing of cloud computing services. Figure 21 According to this report, Software-as-a-service(SaaS) would have a significant share in the total revenue. This segment would offer more opportunity growth than any other segments. The SaaS would have the leading position in the Cloud Computing market by holding the $92. 8 billion by 2016[23]. According to IDC by 2015[24] nearly 24% of the software purchaseswould be service enabled software. SaaS delivery will have the share of around 13. 1% of worldwide software revenue and 14. 4% for applications. Global Corporate Mobile SaaS Market will be at $1. billion in 2011 and will grow to $3. 7 billion by 2016 with Compound annual growth rate of 25. 8% according to latest Strategy Analytics Wireless Enterprise Strategies. It will be possible by integration of business application on smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices[25]. Deloitte has estimated that cloud based usage will replace 2. 34% of IT spending in 2014 and further it will rise to 14. 49% in 2020[26]. Figure 22[ 26] Cisco’s Global Cloud Index forecasted that the transition of workloads from traditional data centres to cloud data centres will exceed in 2014. This year would be the crucial year when workloads through cloud data centres (51%) would be higher than the traditional data centres (49%) for the first time. If this trend would be continued then cloud workloads would be dominating to the traditional work load by 2015. The Compound annual growth rate expected to be at 22% during 2010-15[27]. Fig 23[27] According to Gartner, Insurance industry would have a higher rate of cloud adoption (34%) compared to their enterprise counterparts (27%) in the Small Medium Business (SMB) category. Fig 24[28] Complete analysis of Cloud Computing in Asia [8] Fig 25[30] Indian Market In terms of market size, Indian market holds only $990 million compared to global market $ 109 billion7. It is predicted that India would be having market of $3-4 billion by 20157according to Zinnov Management Consulting. On the other hand Nasscom and Deloitte consulting estimated that Indian market would be worth of $16 billion by 20207. It is also estimated that India would have a huge potential growth in future cause of millions of Small Medium Business who are not able to afford to invest in the expensive business software solutions. Vishnu Bhatt, head of cloud services at Infosys says that, â€Å"About 60 per cent of enterprise workloads will be on the cloud in five years, from the current nonexistent levels†. Four different types of market opportunity are there in the India. Roughly 25 per cent of the Indian market is in â€Å"private cloud† business cause of security reasons. Other three opportunities lies in the â€Å"public cloud† as Saas, PaaS, in Iaas. Independent software vendors (ISVs) like†Infosys, Wipro etc. † are the middle players who serve to small clients from the big players like Microsoft and Salesforce. The entire cost is borne by the end users, on an average the ISVs make around 20-30 per cent of the total revenue. Around 3000 ISVs are there in India and nearly 1000 of them have tied up with the Microsoft and Salesforce. So we can say Indian cloud market mostly depend on the ISVs[29]. 9. CLOUD COMPUTING AFFECTING FIRM BOUNDARY Start-ups Cloud computing reduces initial investments of the start-ups by reducing capital investment in a data center. In cloud computing the infrastructure for data storage is provided by the cloud providers which help start-ups in reducing their investment. Cloud computing does not eliminate the development cost but helps start-up companies to focus on their core competency without hiring people with expertise. Cloud computing also helps different software companies (start-ups) to expand their offering by partnerships with big firms (exa-IBM). [32, 33] Due to this lowered capital cost the companies were able to prove their products on less initial capital. . In 2011, 1339 companies received a total of US $5. 8bn in first-time financing (an increase of 7% in capital raised and an inc of 19. % in deal numbers, compared with the same period in 2010). The data shows that Venture capitals are taking interest in investing on these small amounts since the risk is low. This helps the entrepreneurs in cracking more deals as supported by data. [34] SMB’s Cloud computing will help SME’s in modeling their business. Since it is cost effective, now companies are targeting these small and medium size businesses. These firms were not able to implement ERP due to high cost and lack of IT infrastructure. Now due to cost cut of the infrastructure they can use cloud for their business. iON will enhance India’s global competitiveness by giving 35 million Indian SMBs access to world-class, simple-to-use and scalable technology tools. SMBs can use the power of iON to build their business advantage and compete on the global stage,† said N Chandrasekaran, chief executive officer and managing director, TCS, and chief architect, iON, in a statement. [35] The table below shows the share of small medium businesses in different countries. In India Tata Consultancy Service is targeting $1 billion revenue from these small and medium businesses firm [36] over five years. Figure 26[37] A survey taken from Zoomerang (in April 2011) for small and medium businesses has shown that 77% of the small and medium businesses are not using cloud computing for their businesses and 52% of them will use cost effective IT management and maintenance sources. Figure 27 [39] A report published by Microsoft has shown that there is high potential for cloud adoption in SMBs. As per the report the number of companies with between 11 and 25 employees will potentially double till next wave. In 101 – 250 employee segment 33% companies will adopt cloud in the next wave. [38] Figure 28[38] Cost effectiveness of cloud computing will help startups and SMB’s in adopting it ,which in turn will help them in making their process efficient and as the result â€Å"SMBs will be able to challenge big businesses†. [40] Venture Capital Investment The diagram below shows the growth of public cloud and its comparison with the overall IT. The public cloud services are growing strongly with a rate of 18%, which is a positive sign for the companies providing cloud services. 42] This growth is also attracting the Venture Capitalist. Currently, not much of the investment is done on this sector and there is a strong chance of investment. [43] Figure 29[42] Venture capital is also affected by government regulations. A report published by Josh Learner shows the impact of copyright policy changes on Venture capital investment in cloud computing companies. The data provided i n the table in Appendix A has shown the investment of venture [41] capital quarter wise for cloud service firms in U. S. A. Figure 30[41] The figure below shows the ratio of investment in cloud computing companies to investment in all IT companies. A drastic change can be seen in the graph after the copyright policy changes. [10] Figure 31[41] A survey taken in 2012 by Deloitte regarding global trends in venture capital shows the confidence level of investors of different countries in different industries. The first graph shows the confidence level of venture capital investment sector wise and the second graph shows the confidence level of respondent’s country in cloud computing. 44] Figure 32[44] Figure 33[44] According to the article of NASSCOM Deloitte â€Å"Deconstructing the cloud The new growth frontier for Indian IT – BPO sector† cloud computing will affect by making (below points are directly taken from the article) [40] Lines blur between consumer and enterprise IT – Initially innovation was driven by enterprises but now trends have been changed and innovations are driven by custom er segment also e. g. blogging, social networking and cloud is fast helping merge this divide between consumer and enterprise. IT drives arket-facing differentiation for businesses Cloud will be a net positive impact on existing service lines while opening up new â€Å"product† opportunities Cloud have a net positive impact on existing service line revenues, though traditional IS outsourcing and testing service providers will have to re-invent existing models Uptake will vary across industries because of different drivers and barriers Cloud will alter the industry landscape commoditization of IT through cloud computing will reduce entry barrier bringing some new breed competitors. Partnerships and alliances will be key to succeed in the Cloud ecosystem [40] 10. Web 2. 0 and Cloud Computing Web 2. 0 and Cloud computing have changed the way we develop, deploy and use computer applications. The World Wide Web had seen a transition from traditional publishing model to the new collaborative information creation model. [45] Web 2. 0 uses network as a platform for sharing information, creating content, making a virtual community, in contrast to the websites where users can simply read the text (passive viewing of content). Web 2. includes some of the most widely known and used applications blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, wikis, Twitter, web applications etc. [46] Figure 34: Web 1. 0 web 2. 0 Structure [47] Cloud computing services in nature are Web applications which deliver desirable computing services on demand. It is thus a natural technical evolution that the Cloud computing acquires the Web 2. 0 technique. [50] Cloud computing defines the way the appl ications are deployed. It offers infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS). As per the requirement of resources, the processing power and memory gets allocated in an elastic manner. [45] The cloud is often misinterpreted as a combination of clusters and grids. However, in reality, clouds are next-generation data centres which are dynamically provisioned as per the user demand used for personalized resource collection for fulfilling specific user needs and accessible through â€Å"Web 2. 0† technologies. [51] Web 2. 0 and Implications on cloud computing Web 2. 0 contributes to the front end of the business, cloud computing contributes to the back end of the business. Combining both, web 2. 0 cloud computing, both front end as well as some of the back end of the business can be outsourced. The work can be performed from anywhere, teams may not be at the same location thus collaborating the information using, web 2. 0 tools, cloud, mobile technologies. This is the concept of virtualized organizations. [53] Statistical Support David Osimo shows how web 2. 0 applications have grown masively. He uses the data from Technorati, Wikipedia, Myspace, Youtube and Nielsen-Netratings for analysis. His findings can be seen in Figure 2.. [10] Figure 35: Growth of Web 2. 0 applications [54] Cloud computing is addressing two different market needs [50] 1. Large scale web applications (‘web 2. 0 markets’) – scale-out cloud E. g. Google Traditional data centre computing (‘enterprise market’) server clouds E. g. Microsoft 2. Figure 36: Evolution of World Wide Web [48] Cloud computing is integral to web 2. 0. It brings all sorts of user data along with operating system online and enables content sharing platform making the use of storage devices unnecessary. Web 2. 0 provides the collaborative functionality that helps in sharing documents and making changes on a real time basis regardless of their locations. This along with cloud computing allows for online storage of data avoiding the use of hardware, data centres as well as software replaced by online web applications like Google documents. There can be two kinds of customers for cloud [49] Those that need to scale up (achieve higher scale) at low costs 2. Those that want to eliminate data centre model and choose pay-as-you-go model 1. Many technologies like grid computing, peer to peer computing contribute directly to cloud. Thus, web 2. 0 provides users the capabilities of easy sharing and accessibility of data with anyone, from anywhere. Applications like Google doc, face book are managed by cloud storing huge amount of user data at one place and making it readily available to everyone anytime. These applications are one type of services, software as a service. Users have their own hardware at place, and use their own platform to run these cloud applications. The software resources like application servers, database servers, IDE etc. re not required. Other kind of services include application as a service where users have their own hardware at place and rent platforms from cloud to develop customized software. Finally infrastructure as a service means the complete virtualization of business with storage at cloud. Hardware and computing also need not be performed at the site but takes place in cloud. Resources li ke storage, computing power are not required. [52] With the advent of web 2. 0, cloud computing got a boost as people could create and access any amount of information without having to worry about its storage. Google is the best example. It provides many services and applications like, Google doc, spreadsheet, YouTube all of which are cloud based and help sharing information on a real time basis. The real time sharing of knowledge is what is made possible though combination of the two. Cloud is incorporated in the next version of web 2. 0 retaining the features of web 2. 0 and adding new ‘elasticity’ to the whole application or business deployment. 11. Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis Threat of new entrants ? ? ? ? Low barriers to entry Relatively lower development costs Low fixed costs Huge potential market Bargaining power of suppliers: ? ? High for few big players. Can depend on the type of service provided. Bargaining power of buyers: Existing competitive landscape ? ? Intense rivalry. Presence of big, small niche players. ? ? Dependent on the size of the buyers. SMEs’ power can increase with standardization of offerings. Threat of substitutes: ? Mild threat from open source computing Figure 38 1. Existing competitive landscape: The Cloud computing market comprises of both small and big players causing intense rivalry. But there is a large variety in the type of products and services required by customers and so there is room for big, small and niche players. There are the big players providing end-to-end services like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft etc, pure players like Salesforce and niche players like Dell-BOOMI (specializes in Cloud Integration), Rackspace (leader in managed hosting services) and small players like Zenith. [55][56] 2. Suppliers’ bargaining power: Since there is a huge potential for demand from SMEs and few big players like Google, Amazon and IBM, the bargaining power of suppliers is quite high. Bargaining power could vary according to the type of service provided. E. g. In case of an IaaS service, switching cost for customers might not be very high since the offering is largely undifferentiated, but same cannot be said for a SaaS offering. Also there are is no clear rule of law for regulation of the data stored on the cloud. Data stored on the cloud could be subject to less stringent action by the regulatory authority than that stored on a personal computer. This could make the switching costs for the customers quite high. [57][58] 3. Buyer’s bargaining power: Bargaining power of buyers can be said to be dependent on the size of the buyer’s business. In case of SMEs, the bargaining power can be said to be low since many of the suppliers in the cloud computing market are large corporations. Whereas the buyer’s bargaining power can substantially dominate the supplier if the buyer itself is a large organization. The bargaining power of SMEs can increase if with the standardization of the services which will be facilitated with establishing proper regulatory compliances. [57] 4. Threat of new entrants: With the huge potential market among the SMEs, it is expected that many new entrants from the SME segment itself will enter the Cloud computing market with low cost offerings. This expectation lies on the fact of low fixed costs, relatively lower costs of developing a product and low barriers to entry. [57][59][60] 5. Threat of substitutes: Open source computing can be considered as a substitute for Cloud computing services. But it can be expected that the SMEs will prefer Cloud computing over open source due to higher switching costs in case of open source and lower costs of cloud computing services. [57] References Online: 1. Hurwitz et al. , (2010) Cloud Computing for Dummies [online]. Wiley Publishing Inc. NJ. http://books. google. co. in/books? id=_TvnVbFSYsQClpg=PP1ots=u7GJ5I6STGdq=cloud% 20computingpg=PT10#v=onepageq=cloud%20computingf=false google. co. in/url? source=imglandingct=imgq=http://files. messe. de/007/medi a/04bilder/aufloesungsunabhaengig/2011_3/cb11bielastischrechnen. jpgsa=Xei=jqxJULO WHsHrrQeVuoDICAved=0CAkQ8wc4kgIusg=AFQjCNFaG0Yc_Ym8Uya7F3ei130cbaQbVQ 2. Jamsa, K. Cloud Computing: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Virtualization, Business Models, Mobile, Security and More [online]. Jones Barlette Learning, Wall Street, Burlington. http://books. google. co. in/books? id=msFk8DPZ7noClpg=PP1ots=oW3KUl1HDmdq=clou d%20computingpg=PR2#v=onepageq=cloud%20computingf=false 4. Trends and technologies in the CRM world. [online] allthingscrm. com/cloudcomputing/the-importance-of-cloud-computing. html (Accessed 5 September 2012) 3. 5. Search Cloud Computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. techtarget. com/definition/Platform-as-a-Service-PaaS (Accessed 5 September 2012) 6. Search cloud computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. echtarget. com/definition/Software-as-a-Service (Accessed 5 September 2012) 7. Search cloud computing. [online] http://searchcloudcomputing. techtarget. com/definition/Infrastructure-as-a-Service-IaaS (Accessed 5 September 2012) 8. Ben, K. (2012) ‘understanding the cloud computing stack: Saas,IaaS,PaaS’ *online+ rackspace. com/knowledge_center/whitepaper/understanding-the-cloudcomputing-stack-saas-paas-iaas (Accessed 5 Sep tember 2012) 9. Deloitte,(2009) Cloud Computing – Forecasting Change – Market overview and Perspective. [online]https://www. deloitte. om/assets/DcomGlobal/Local%20Assets/Documents/ TMT/cloud_-_market_overview_and_perspective. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 10. Morgan Stanley,(2011) Cloud Computing takes off. [online] morganstanley. com/views/perspectives/cloud_computing. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 11. Frost Sullivan, Cloud Computing Services. [online] http://corporate. sify. com/uploads/CloudServices-F-S. pdf (Accessed 6 September 2012) 12. Callewaert, Robinson and Blatman, 2010 Market overview and Perspective: Cloud computing. Deloitte. https://www. deloitte. com/assets/DcomGlobal/Local%20Assets/Documents/TMT/cloud