Sunday, January 26, 2020

Comparison of Privacy and Communication on Social Networking

Comparison of Privacy and Communication on Social Networking I propose to conduct a research on the topic- A cross-cultural comparison of privacy and communication on Social Networking Sites between India and United Kingdom. Abstract My research will try to examine the cross cultural differences in the context of sharing personal information on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) and the various aspects of online privacy between the college students in India and the United Kingdom. To begin with, the research will require the students to complete a paper based survey with a variety of questions regarding their attitudes towards sharing personal information on social networks and privacy. It will also seek to better understand the behavioural issues by studying their communication pattern. The emphasis of this research will remain on identifying the commonalities and differences in the communication patterns and attitudes towards privacy between the Indian and UK students by conducting an empirical research. Literature Framework We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. While we use the term social network site to describe this phenomenon, the term social networking sites also appears in public discourse, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. We chose not to employ the term networking for two reasons: emphasis and scope. Networking emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC). What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between latent ties (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily networking or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them social network sites. Social Networking Sites (SNS) have achieved phenomenal success since the launch of sixdegrees.com in 1997. Original sites such as Friendster, Lunarstorm and MiGente, are now all dwarfed by the phenomenally successful Myspace1, and Facebook2. A useful historical record of the development of Social Networking sites was made by Boyd and Ellison in 20073, although more work is needed to understand the gratifications delivered how users derive a sense of identity and the cross cultural implications to users. The goal of this short paper is to weave digitization, identity and community into an analysis that is both historically rigorous and conscious of contemporary innovations. Launch Dates of Major Social Networking Sites (SNSs) Source: Social Media Graphics Among undergraduate college students, the three most visited social networking websites are Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster, with one study reporting Facebook use as the most popular at 90% (Stutzman, 2006) while another study reports Facebook use as most popular with 78.8% who à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"sometimes or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"often use Facebook (Hargittai, 2007). Undergraduate students using Facebook averaged 10à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"30 min daily use for the time categories and averaged 150à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"200 friends for the friend categories (Ellison, Steinfield, Lampe, 2006). Students and alumni use Facebook to communicate, connect and remain in contact with others (Acquisti Gross, 2006; Charnigo Barnett-Ellis, 2007; Ellison et al., 2006). There are conflicting reports whether Facebook is used for dating with one study that reports such use (Charnigo Barnett-Ellis, 2007), while another study reports that students do not use Facebook for that purpose (Acqu isti Gross, 2006). Also, undergraduate students typically use Facebook for fun and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"killing time rather than gathering information (Ellison et al., 2006). Although Facebook is very popular among students, others have profiles on it too. Over the past decade, the communication uses of the Internet have become a very important part of young peoples lives (e.g., Gemmill Peterson, 2006; Jones, 2002; Lenhart Madden, 2007; Subrahmanyam Greenfield, 2008). Social networking sites are the latest online communication tool that allows users to create a public or semi-public profile, create and view their own as well as other users online social networks (Boyd Ellison, 2007a), and interact with people in their networks. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook have over 100 million users between them, many of them adolescents and emerging adults. Although research on young peoples use of social networking sites is emerging (e.g., Boyd Ellison, 2007b; Ellison, Steinfield, Lampe, 2007; Valkenburg, Peter, Schouten, 2006), questions remain regarding exactly what young people do on these sites, whom they interact with on them, and how their social networking site use relates to their other online (such as instant messaging) and off line activities. Furthermore, because of the potential to interact with known others as well as meet and befriend strangers on these sites, it is important to study the nature of their online social networks in order to get an understanding of how such online communication relates to young peoples development. The goals of the present study were to explore emerging adults use of social networking sites for communication and examine the relation between their online and offline social networks. Given the vast array of information that can be shared and the number of users, concerns regarding security and privacy issues are a recurring issue (Acoca, 2008). Some concerns involve potential threats to personal safety from the abundance of information that is assumed to be available and accessible about an individual on their online profile. Specifically, there are concerns regarding identity theft if users provide too much information (e.g., birth date, address, phone, full name etc.). In addition, there are concerns for personal safety for vulnerable users who could be stalked, or otherwise threatened. A less commonly considered threat is the possibility of social risk as a function of self-identification with minority or stigmatized groups. Although some of these concerns have surfaced in the popular media (e.g., news.cnet.com), there is little empirical investigation documenting how much and what kind of information is present in personal FACEBOOKà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ profiles to determine the potential for threats of any type, nor is there any information regarding how users differ in the information disclosed in their profiles to provide clues as to who is most likely to be at risk. India is ranked fourth in the world in terms of the Internet users. It had a total population of 1,147,995,898 people by the year 2008, out of which 81,000,000 people were using the Internet which makes 7.1% of the total population of Internet users (Internet World Stats, 2009). Social networking is catching on fast. About 56 percent users do both social and professional networking on the Web, while 29 percent do only social networking (Madhavan, 2007). There are about 10 million people who are on social networking sites. What started with the popularity of Orkut in India has now become a cultural revolution. Even most of the schools going teens have an account on some social networking site (Java, 2007). Out of the total social networking users in India, only 1 mn to 2 mn (only 10% to 20%) are on Indian social networking sites. According to a recent report by comScore, Inc. (Mishra, 2009), visits to the social networking sites have increased by 51 percent from the last year. The stu dy also found that global social networking brands continued to gain prominence in India during the last year, with Orkut, Facebook, hi5, LinkedIn and MySpace each witnessing significant increases in visitation. Orkut reigned as the most visited social networking site in December 2008 with more than 12.8 million visitors, an increase of 81 percent from the previous year. Facebook, the second most popular social networking site, had 4 million visitors, up by 150 percent since last year. To make its position strong in the Indian social networking market, Facebook has launched an Indian interface which helps local users to connect with their friends in 6 different languages e Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Bengali. This move allows users to choose any of the six languages and use it as per their convenience by selecting the language tab. MySpace also promotes a lot of India specific content like promoting musical talent and even taking their talent abroad thereby upliftin g the Indian culture. It is followed by local social networking site Bharatstudent.com with 3.3 million visitors (up 88 percent) and hi5.com with 2 million visitors (up 182 percent). Other popular networking sites in India featured in the list in descending order are ibibo, MySpace, LinkedIn, BigAdda and Fropper. Top Social Networking Sites in India by Unique Visitors December 2008 vs. December 2007 Total India e Age 15+, Home/Work Locations (excluding visits from cyber cafes, mobile phones and PDAs) Source: comScore World Metrix Users Demography for the United Kingdom Source: Socialbakers (2010) User age distribution on Facebook in United Kingdom Source: Socialbakers (2010) Male/Female User Ratio on Facebook in United Kingdom Source: Socialbakers (2010) Age Growth on Facebook in United Kingdom Source: Socialbakers (2010) Top 10 Countries on Facebook Source: Socialbakers (2010) Research Strategy The process will be initiated by the collection of social network data through a survey of Indian and UK college students. The population sample chosen for this research purpose will be a specific number of college going students in India and UK (to be decided at a later time). The sample will be restricted to a few hundred students from each country so as to make it easier to do a survey research. The student will be encouraged to participate and share their views on the subject of content sharing and privacy. The information provided by them will solely be used for the educational research purpose. The survey employed in this study will be based on a popular survey used previously by Pew Internet and American Life Project among American teenagers. The survey used in this research may differ in some ways to adjust the variations from previous similar researches. A copy of the original survey questions is available to consult on the Pew Internet and American Life Project website. The responses in the original survey were categorical, thus quantitative analysis will require performing chi-square (à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2) test. Collection of data The primary data for this research will be collected by conducting a survey based on numerous questions that will seek to answer the questions based on information sharing and the degree of privacy maintained by students in their social profiles. The type of information sought is presented in the next section in the form of tables. However the level of information has been limited and the original research is expected to be more comprehensive in nature and may include more variables and situations. Other secondary data presented in the research will be collected from various social networking sites, social networking research services, network usage statistics, sharing and privacy reports published by various organizations. Research Methodology The purpose of this research determines its methodology. It will be a comparative study of Indian and UK college students attitudes and behaviour towards communication patterns and controlling privacy on Social Networking Sites (SNSs). Research Questions How do the students in India and UK differ in reference to privacy on Social Networking Sites? How do the students in India and UK differ in reference to communication patterns on Social Networking Sites? The college students in India and UK will be contacted through friend lists of my own friends on prominent SNSs. I will encourage my friends to persuade their friends on SNSs. Later on I will segregate the lists of Indian and UK college students for the purpose of comparison. I am expecting a response rate of nearly 60-70 percent. The results will be formatted according to the following tables. Table 1. Public Nature of Social Network Site Profile Degree to which your online social profile is public India N= X United Kingdom N= Y Visible to everyone Visible to friends of friends Visible only to friends Table 2: Attitude towards sharing personal information on SNSs Is it alright to share the following information on social sites? India United Kingdom à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 N df p State in which you live City in which you live College name IM Screen Names Birth date Family members names Relationship (s) Email address (es) Links to other personal blogs or websites Mobile Number Table 3: Types of information shared on SNSs Would you share the following detail on your social profile? India United Kingdom à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 N df p Surname Photos of yourself Photos of your friends Photos of family members City name High School name Email addresses MP3 files Video content Events list Birthdays Table 4: Response to contacting by strangers How would you normally respond to a strangers friend request? India United Kingdom Completely ignore Respond positively Decline the request Block the user Block and report the user to avoid further contact Table 5: Communication patterns on SNSs Do you usually do the following? India United Kingdom à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡2 N df p Post messages on friends wall or comment on their posts Send private messages to someone on your friend list Send private messages to someone not on your friend list Poke your friends Poke your friends friends

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Mind on Fire Critical Thinking Exercise

Mind on Fire Critical Thinking Exercise Harmonizing to Brown and Adler, the manner pupils learn has changed. Describe what Learning 2.0 is and how we can utilize Web 2.0 resources to back up acquisition. Learning 2.0 helps teachers to learn pupils through independent assignments and coaction it besides motivates and gives pupils a higher degree of thought. Web 2.0 tools allow pedagogues and pupils to larn new ways to portion common involvement, such as pictures, podcasts, synergistic postings, sketchs, and portion them online with others. Teachers can utilize web 2.0 resources to better acquisition by leting pupils to portion thoughts, create web logs, and fitting people with common involvement through societal media. This method of instruction creates a new manner of larning in today’s universe of technological instruction that supports all acquisition and coaction attempts. Harmonizing to Brown & A ; Adler, ( 2008 ) , the manner pupils learn has changed with the accent being on societal concept of instruction frailty single perusal and through on-line resources and coaction. As stated by Pestek, Kadic-Maglajlic & A ; NoA?ica, ( 2012 ) pupils have embraced Web 2.0 and actively utilize it in everyday ‘ life by altering the manner they communicate within and outside of school, through many Web 2.0 applications. These applications are emerging with educational possible thanks to alone chances of Web 2.0 for betterment of instruction tools in pattern, coaction, communicating, single look, and literacy. Web 2.0 tools offer ways to personalise categories and demonstrate instructional presence. Some of the more widely recognized tools include web logs, wikis, RSS feeds, picture and exposure sharing, embodiments, microblogging, societal bookmarking, and societal media. This coevals of free, easy accessible Web-based tools allows users to entree every bit good as create and contribute information to sites. In an on-line schoolroom scene, Web 2.0 tools enable teachers to interact with pupils in a assortment of advanced ways. Rather than passively sing information, pupils collaborate and learn as a schoolroom community harmonizing to Tunks, ( 2012 ) . Describe the perfect storm of chance that Brown and Adler province is brewing and how it can transform instruction into an unfastened, participatory ecosystem. Provide specific illustrations from the article to back up your averments. The perfect storm that Brown and Adler province is brewing in the educational universe is based on the whole entree of information that is now available on the cyberspace. There is an overpowering sum of information available online to pupils that can be used in the preparation and educational. Many new ides in engineering has open in today’s society. The universe has made assorted constructing blocks to steer us in a new transmutation of engineering tools to our advantage. We are so fortunate to hold entree to all the new engineering that is offered to supply and back up acquisition. The usage of the cyberspace has provided many new ways to portion and communicate globally. The latest development of the Internet, the so called Web 2.0, has blurred the line between manufacturers and consumers of content and has shifted attending from entree to information toward entree to other people. New sorts of on-line resources such as societal networking sites, web logs, wikis, and pract ical communities have allowed people with common involvements to run into, portion thoughts, and collaborate in advanced ways. Indeed, the Web 2.0 is making a new sort of participatory medium that is ideal for back uping multiple manners of larning as stated by Brown & A ; Adler, ( 2008 ) . As stated by London, ( 2013 ) Web 2.0 engineerings can advance productive acquisition procedures in which squad members are unfastened to new thoughts, explore new ways of interacting, and use their acquisition. Web 2.0 engineerings can advance productive acquisition procedures in which squad members are unfastened to new thoughts, explore new ways of interacting, and use their acquisition. Define and depict societal acquisition and discourse some of the Web 2.0 tools from the article that support societal acquisition. Describe a societal acquisition activity utilizing a Web 2.0 tools mentioned in the article that you might utilize in pattern. Support your pick with commendations from the article. Social acquisition is being involved with others in society to portion and larn new thoughts. Social larning usually occurs through societal interactions, observation of behaviour, and communicating. Many people assume that societal acquisition occurs within a societal circumstance and considers that people learn from one another, including such constructs as experimental acquisition, reproduction, and representation. As stated by Brown & A ; Adler, ( 2008 ) what do we intend by â€Å"social learning† ? Possibly the simplest manner to explicate this construct is to observe that societal acquisition is based on the premiss that our apprehension of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, particularly with others, around jobs or actions. The focal point is non so much on what we are larning but on how we are larning. Students, who studied in groups, even merely one time a hebdomad, were more engaged in their surv eies, were better prepared for category, and learned significantly more than pupils who worked on their ain. A societal acquisition activity utilizing a Web 2.0 tool that was discussed in the the article that I would integrate in my schoolroom would be blogging. I teach a preschool and kindergartens, their age scope from five to six old ages old. I besides work with pupils up to the 6th class in the afternoon. My occupation is funded through United Way. For the New Year we got twenty five new computing machines and a computing machine room to work in. This is the 2nd hebdomad I’ve gotten a opportunity to travel in talk and show how to put up the web log with the pupils. After making some research on blogging I ran across a web site called Kidblog.org for pupils. I haven’t started working with them yet. I’m still waiting on two more permission faux pass t be signed and returned with parents permission to acquire on-line. Kidblog.org is free, easy to put up, and safe for pupils to utilize. The childs are so aroused and seem to be motivated about it. I plan on allowing the pupils work in groups of two. Then each pupil can work on their ain diaries and book reappraisals on the books we check out of all time Tuesday during our field trip to the library. Hopefully all goes good and by Spring interruption we should be join forcesing with other categories and the pupils can show what they have learned. Harmonizing to Choi, Gale & A ; Kariv, ( 2012 ) persons populating in society are bound together by a societal web and, in many societal and economic state of affairss, persons learn by detecting the behaviour of others in their local environment. This procedure is called societal acquisition.Learning in uncomplete webs, where different persons have different information, is particularly ambitious: because of the deficiency of common cognition persons must pull illations about the actions others have observed, every bit good as about their private information. Mentions Choi, S. , Gale, D. , & A ; Kariv, S. ( 2012 ) . Social acquisition in webs: a Quantal Response Equilibrium analysis of experimental informations.Review Of Economic Design,16( 2/3 ) , 135-157. doi:10.1007/s10058-012-0122-x London, M. ( 2013 ) . Generative squad acquisition in Web 2.0 environments.Journal Of Management Development,32( 1 ) , 73-95. doi:10.1108/02621711311287035Brown, J. S. & A ; Adler, R. P. ( 2008, January/February ) . Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0. EDUCAUSE Review. hypertext transfer protocol: //net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0811.pdfPESTEK, A. , KADIC-MAGLAJLIC, S. , & A ; NOA?ICA, M. ( 2012 ) . IMPLICATIONS OF WEB 2.0 USAGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION. International Journal Of Management Cases, 14 ( 1 ) , 3-12.Tunks, K. W. ( 2012 ) . An Introduction and Guide to Enhancing Online Instruction with Web 2.0 Tools.Journal Of Educators Online,9( 2 ) ,

Friday, January 10, 2020

Cost Pools and Cost Objects

Topic 6: Management Accounting and Cost Case: Shelter Partnership a. My main learning outcomes from Topic 6 and the Case Study; 1)Firstly, I realize management accounting has much to offer. Somehow I can handle physics but not accounting. Now thanks to this course I can appreciate and make sense of it. The bit that really caught my attention was seeing how management accounting can be really useful for business planning, cost management, budgeting and performance measurement. It offers critical and more objective inputs for decision making. On my part, I would say this is one of my most important learning outcomes as it changed my personal view and outlook of accounting. 2)I have learnt that a good costing system is needed to get a better grip on the â€Å"actual† cost of my products and services. Gaining a better understanding of the Cost Pools (and the types of cost) and how these costs are allocated to the Cost Objects is a good starting point. 3)I realize that it is very important to identify and define the Cost Objects properly from the start. While I may like to define the Cost Objects narrowly, it should only be done to the extent it is economically viable. )I recognize that there are a number of ways to allocate indirect costs (from the Cost Pools) to the Cost Objects and these can cause distortion. It is therefore imperative to establish a meaningful and acceptable way of allocating such cost to better reflect the true cost. This leads to my next learning outcome. 5)Stephen Covey’s â€Å"begin wi th the end in mind† rings true here. If I had wanted to measure and analyze the Cost Objects by products, services and countries(Multinational Company), both the Cost Objects and the way cost is allocated needs to be defined early. In this case, a deeper engagement between my Marketing Department and the Finance Department is necessary to fine tune the costing system. 6)When looking at the cost numbers, it is imperative for me to consider and discern the context and assumptions used in arriving at the numbers since these are not â€Å"standardized†. b. Applying the learning outcomes to my own organization. 1)I work in a large IT company and my portfolio includes Marketing, Consulting and Strategic Account (Client) Management. In the area of Account Management, the company had recently implemented a system to track the profitability of each Client. In the case of revenues, it is a relatively simple process. However, getting a truer picture of the cost of providing professional services to each of our clients is a major challenge. In a sense, our client account is a â€Å"Cost Object†. 2)In a typical project undertaken for our client, professional services are provided by dynamically formed teams made up of Project Managers, Business Consultants, Senior Project Leads, Business Analysts, Programmers and Testers. Presently we are allocating cost to each of our clients according to the numbers of professional man-days consumed by the clients based on a â€Å"blended† man-day rate. The following is a simplified illustration of how cost is allocated. 3)We have room for significant improvements in the way we allocate cost. a. Labor cost which is a direct cost becomes a little complicated due to the project nature of the service. But since our systems captures the actual time-sheet for each employee according to projects, we should be able to eventually allocate labor cost directly to the Client, â€Å"Cost Objects† and give a truer reflection of cost. . Secondly, we should explore for more appropriate ways for allocating indirect cost such as travel & ticketing administrations and office space which is presently added into the blended rate. Since administration for travel and ticketing only applies to overseas projects, In-Country projects should not be â€Å"burdened† with t hese costs. Similarly, office space is only applicable for projects running out of our own premises and should not be loaded to projects undertaken at specific clients’ premises. At any one time around 50% of our staff is based outside of our office. )We found the shortcomings in cost allocation affects our decisions on pricing, discounts, expense provision, use of resources (especially when contending for resources), budgeting and business planning. 5)We have some multi-nationals clients, and I am curious about the effect of establishing overlapping â€Å"Cost Objects† to present a group/enterprise level view in addition to the present individual client level view. In our case, we have local offices in a number of countries and resource sharing is quite extensive, however no cost transfer has been allocated to the individual client account.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

How to Use Est-ce Que to Ask Questions in French

Est-ce que  (pronounced  es keu) is a French expression that is useful for asking a question. Literally translated, this phrase means is it that..., although in conversation it rarely is interpreted that way. Instead, it is a convenience of everyday French, an interrogatory phrase that easily turns a statement into a question. It is a slightly informal construction; the more formal or polite way to ask questions is with inversion, which involves inverting the normal pronoun/noun verb order. But in everyday spoken French, est-ce que is far more common because it does the inverting for you: Est-ce que is the inversion of cest que. (Note that a hyphen is required between ce and est when they  are inverted to est-ce.) The word order of the original sentence stays exactly the same; you just add the already inverted phrase est-ce que to the front of the sentence. This simple structure works best for yes/no questions. For example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Tu travailles. / Est-ce que tu travailles?   You work. / Do you work?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Paulette la trouvà ©. / Est-ce que Paulette la trouvà ©?   Paulette found it. / Did Paulette find it?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Vous navez pas faim. / Est-ce que vous navez pas faim?   You arent hungry. / Arent you hungry? OR Are you not hungry? Note that que must contract when it follows a word beginning with a vowel:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Elle est arrivà ©e. / Est-ce quelle est arrivà ©e?   She has arrived. / Has she arrived?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il y a des problà ¨mes. / Est-ce quil y a des problà ¨mes?   There are problems. / Are there problems?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anny vient avec nous. / Est-ce quAnny vient avec nous?   Anny is coming with us. Is Anny coming with us? To ask questions that ask for information like who, what, where, when, why and how, place an interrogative pronoun, adverb or adjective before est-ce que. For example: Qui est-ce que vous avez vu?   Whom did you see?​Quand est-ce que tu vas partir?   When are you going to leave?​Quel livre est-ce quil veut?   Which book does he want? Remember that est-ce que is the inversion of cest que, meaning literally, It is that. Thats why a hyphen is required between est and ce: cest ce est which are inverted to est-ce. Depending on their place in the sentence, the variations  quest-ce qui and qui est-ce qui  are also useful, but understanding them requires further discussion of  interrogative pronouns. For now, heres a summary. SUMMARY OF FRENCH INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS Subject of question Object of question After preposition People quiqui est-ce qui quiqui est-ce que qui Things quest-ce qui quequest-ce que quoi Additional Resources Asking questions in FrenchFrench interrogativesExpressions with à ªtreMost common French phrases