Flowers Bloom

Pirates of Silicon Valley movie

2011-03-06T09:39:00.000-08:00

PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY: Not bad for a 12 –year old movie

I found the movie quite ugly. The movie was made 12 years ago. What do you expect? However, the main idea of the movie was quite interesting though. You will see that the ones that have control to computers are the richest in the world. What the movie foresaw is happening today. Bill Gates is the living proof. He may not be the richest but he is one of the most influential people in the world today. Even a kids and old people know about him and his Microsoft. This is what I love the most about this movie. It made me think that the director was good enough to have thought of the possibilities and made something that was most likely what is happening today which was the future that they are speaking of before. If you ask me, don’t watch the movie if you are expecting something like Tron Legacy or ironman because you will be very disappointed. But if you want to be entertained in a manner that new movies can’t do, try this one out and you will see for yourself what I am talking about.

Eagle Eye Movie

2011-03-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

EAGLE EYE: No chance of being real?

Eagle eye is such a creative movie. The story was very impressive. It will l always give you something to think about which is one thing that I like in movies. On the other hand, you will continually be guessing just to find out that you are wrong. The movie was so unpredictable that I missed the part that the actor will end up shooting in front of convention. On the other hand, this movie can happen today but I doubt if a computer as powerful that exist now. It is true that super computers nowadays can have enough processing sped to almost do anything in unison but no computer today has the power to decide on their own. If you come to think of it, the computer even controlled cameras and other things that are electronic even though there is no way for it to access them. This is very creepy especially if we think that the computer controlled a vehicle in the part where they are chased by the police. Although this movie can be possible there are some things that will make you think about its possibility to happen in real world. First, the computer is so cool. Nothing can be compared to it now and even for the next years to come. Second, you can see that the bomb used was a crystal that can explode in a certain tone which is something tat is too good to be true. That would be the best bomb if that is true. This technology may be possible but it will be in the form of a mechanical bomb that will explode given a certain pitch or any kind of signal. Lastly, I am also wondering why it is in present setting. It is quite awkward with such advancements in computer and bomb technology that other forms of technology are untouched. Even their cellular phones are just the normal ones. It should be better if some wonderful technologies were also introduced.

I, Robot movie

2011-03-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

I ROBOT: Learning for it

This movie is not only good because of its wonderful graphic effects but most importantly the lesson that you can get form it. The scene can be possible in the near future because at present robots are being used by several companies to aid them in manufacturing and even deciding with regards to their business processes. And in no time, there will be some breakthrough in robot technology that will lead us to a world where every family has a robot slave. But this is still unthinkable today because the main component that should be developed first and foremost is the brain which will control the robot. The human brain is sophisticated to even comprehend and copying the logic behind it will be a great challenge for us. It might be possible but it will take some time and I am quite sad I may not be around to witness it. Not only did the movie made some good points about the possible design and function of future robots, it also because am eye-opener to all of us that the greatest threat to man’s extinction is ourselves. We are destroying ourselves. And at some point in the movie, I find the main robot core having some point about what he calculated. The robot had his conclusion based on fact s and you can deny the fact that he is saying truths. We are destroying ourselves as of the moment but then again, there is still hope and as long as we have the right to decide on our won for the better that hope will never fade out.

Wall-E Movie

2011-03-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

WALL-E:Robot overload

This is one movie that I am very happy about after watching. This is because I can see the real world turning into this situation centuries form now. People are getting lazier and the movie might exaggerate it but it is more like a wakeup call to use that we should not always place ourselves in too much laziness as we rely on technology to help us in everything that we do. And wall-e is not a complicated robot. He have those tank like wheels that are not that hard to make with our present technology and I can say that a few years from now, men will start developing some robots that can be quite close to wall-e. However, it will take some time for people to make robots think like humans. The brain is so complicated and making a machine think like us is unthinkable. They might decide but how can they feel? Feeling is part of the brains work and even loving a certain person is a hard thing to imagine if we speak of robots doing it like we do. However, the movie entertained me a lot and that is the only thing important now.

Surrogates movie

2011-03-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

SURROGATES: Is this the possible future we might be in?

I have see Surrogates just now and I find it quite interesting not because it has an awesome cast or the lighting and other movie factors are good but mainly because of the topic which is very interesting. It is set in world where people are not physically living the world. They will just lie down and let their surrogates do the job for them. It was a good idea and if we speak of security, nothing can beat a clone that will represent you in the real world. You will be away from accidents and you do not need to worry about different kinds of sickness that you might acquire as you go along. It is more like playing an online game where you have full control of your character. However, I do not find it as a future that we will be having in the next century because first and foremost, it is not ideal. You will be very unhealthy if you will lie down for the rest of our life. How can your muscles be strengthened and how can you be in such a good shape without even moving a bit for the rest of your life? I would expect this kind of technology to happen but it will not be applied to all. Maybe these surrogates can be more useful in the military because soldiers need not to die and they will just let their surrogates face all the risks in dangerous place. These surrogates can also be handy if they can use in space and in other places that we failed to explore because of the possible dangers on it.

Why do We Need to Study Technology

2010-12-09T09:18:00.001-08:00

We are at the age were technology is the one spinning the world. All of the things that makes our lives comfortable nowadays; from the tiniest microscopic robot doctors to enormous space shuttles going to the unknown space in search for information are made through technology. Technology is science is the application of the sciences. Centuries of researches and countless ideas made every technology that we are enjoying today.

We need to study technology mainly because of the important role that it plays in our lives. Without it we would still be living in the Stone Age. Without it centuries of hard work and enormous research activities done by several intellectual men and women will be put to waste because as we all know facts and theories alone will not directly be of help to us. Technology plays a vital role in almost every aspect in the society. It gave birth to cellular phones, telephones and other ways of making communication a lot easier; thus making distance not a hindrance in business and trades. Medical milestones were also achieved through the use of technologies like powerful microscopes, scanners and robotic equipments that made procedures impossible to men not long ago doable today. The computer and its various types that are everyone’s best friend nowadays are also one of the greatest children of technology. Computers not only boosted the business process but also mobile. You can do business almost anywhere as long as you have your laptop at your side. Computers were made to be very versatile and can be of use from gaming, sports, sea navigation, simulations, and other things beyond your wildest imagination. Technology also gave breakthroughs in building and road constructions. The development of high grade cements made it possible to make skyscrapers and bridges that literally crossed oceans. To sum it all, technology is like a virus that infected our society. But unlike typical viruses, this virus is not harmful unless used in wrong ways.

It has been said by some analyst that men will destroy themselves in the future. That the genius minds behind the different technologies that we are having today will soon create a community that will destroy themselves in search for power and greed. In my opinion technology will have a great role in the continuing existence or the destruction of men. If technology will be used properly, our society will benefit from it and man will continue to exist and face the challenges that time brings but if technology will be abused then we are like making the sharpest knife just to stab our own heart.

2010-03-26T08:14:00.002-07:00

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan? note: you are required to interview an IS professional/s for your answer ...(at least 3000 words)

On this matter we interviewed Mr. Nilo Ricafort, MIS Manager in EMCOR Davao, Bajada Branch. He gave brief but precise answers. He said that these two would definitely be misconceptions about IS effects in the users’ point of view and misunderstanding between the users’ needs and the developers’ knowledge on how things must be done in standard.

Moreover, I'll discuss the two causes of frustrations:

Misconceptions about IS effects

Misconceptions arise in the part of the users because unlike the developers usually users do not have enough knowledge about how these systems are developed and what are its possible effects. And because of these misconceptions, users tend to expect more from the system and later on they will be frustrated if the effects that the system cause where less than what they have expected. On the other hand, if the systems effect will also be too good, the users will also be overwhelmed and will be start to be conscious about their capabilities to support and use a very good system which may also lead to poor performance in their case. There a re a lot of misconceptions about IS and these are some of them:

--> Implementation of IS will speed up the process

A lot of people think that if we speak of IS implementation or improvement it means a lot of process will speed up instantly. But if we come to think of it, definitely the positive effects of the said actions will not be seen or felt in an instant. And there are a lot of possible reasons behind the delay of the effects that an IS may bring upon a company. And I found this article that gave some of the examples and also discuss some ways to give it some remedy.
IT professionals face unique challenges when it comes to managing their problems. They know that when hardware/software/client interface produces problems, dynamics are set in motion that can quickly cascade into nightmare proportions:
• Pressure to immediately reestablish service to the customer
• An already existing backlog of trouble tickets
• A relentless daily flow of in-coming trouble tickets
• A reality that sees a problem quickly affect thousands of clients

--> Users are not involved in IS development

Unlike what they think, users need to be involved in the process of IS development. The IS that will be done must be incorporated with what the users are complaining about there previous system or process. With the help of the users negative or positive feedback about there experience in using their previous system, the developers will be aware on what to areas change or to improve. Moreover, I found an article discussing how the users take a vital role in IS development.
The importance of involving users of enabling technology in all phases of the development and provision of these aids has gradually been focused, and eventually become established, during the last few years. It is, however, far from self evident how to make these ideas and ambitions really come true in the hectic daily activities of Research and Resource Centre, especially when it comes to more profoundly and multiply impaired users. Thus a very small number of such users are actually involved in any long term perspective. Apart from the lingering lack of awareness of needs and possibilities several other factors can be identified, such as:
• A lack of suitable organizational and work settings, flexible enough to offer realistic conditions for multiply disabled to participate and develop together with professionals in this field.
• Lacking working life experience, social networks and self confidence, and a related need for continuous educational programs, among the potential interested users.

--> IS improvement means job loss

There a re a lot of people who thinks that a conversion from an old system to a more IT involved system would definitely mean job loss. This may be true on some cases but this happens rarely. But because of this misconception, users tend to be passive and will not likely give their full support on the development of the new IS. They tend to hinder the developers from crucial information that would build up the success of the new system. They are thinking that if the new system fails then the old system will be retained and they will still have their jobs. They do not realize that IS development does not always mean job loss. This is because it is more convenient for most of the companies to train their old employees for the new system rather than hire new ones. The reason behind this is that companies will not take the risk in giving up on their trusted and proven employees for the sake of hiring new ones that may have the qualities for the new system. Training the present employees will also be less expensive than hiring new ones. If the companies opted to hire new employees they will face the burdens of advertising, interviews and other personality checks and backfires that the new employees may bring because of their need to adopt in the working environment.

Misunderstanding between the users’ needs and the developers’ knowledge on how things must be done in standard

This problem depends on the type of software development that developers choose. I’ll give some examples about the different ways of software development and on what strategies this problem can be seen.

--> Interactive and Incremental Development

The basic idea behind iterative enhancement is to develop a software system incrementally, allowing the developer to take advantage of what was being learned during the development of earlier, incremental, deliverable versions of the system. Learning comes from both the development and use of the system, where possible key steps in the process are to start with a simple implementation of a subset of the software requirements and iteratively enhance the evolving sequence of versions until the full system is implemented. At each iteration, design modifications are made and new functional capabilities are added.

The procedure itself consists of the initialization step, the iteration step, and the Project Control List. The initialization step creates a base version of the system. The goal for this initial implementation is to create a product to which the user can react. It should offer a sampling of the key aspects of the problem and provide a solution that is simple enough to understand and implement easily. To guide the iteration process, a project control list is created that contains a record of all tasks that need to be performed. It includes such items as new features to be implemented and areas of redesign of the existing solution. The control list is constantly being revised as a result of the analysis phase.

The iteration involves the redesign and implementation of a task from the project control list, and the analysis of the current version of the system. The goal for the design and implementation of any iteration is to be simple, straightforward, and modular, supporting redesign at that stage or as a task added to the project control list. The level of design detail is not dictated by the interactive approach. In a light-weight iterative project the code may represent the major source of documentation of the system; however, in a mission-critical iterative project a forma lSoftware Design Document may be used. The analysis of iteration is based upon user feedback, and the program analysis facilities available. It involves analysis of the structure, modularity, usability, reliability, efficiency, & achievement of goals. The project control list is modified in light of the analysis results.
This method of software development also provides the user the opportunity to participate in the evaluation of the system. But then again, the process is very time consuming because of a lot of iterations and would cause backfires due to the delay in the making of the system.

--> Adaptive Software Development

Adaptive Software Development is a software development process that grew out of rapid application development work by Jim Highsmith and Sam Bayer. ASD embodies the principle that continuous adaptation of the process to the work at hand is the normal state of affairs.
ASD replaces the traditional waterfall cycle with a repeating series of speculate, collaborate, and learn cycles. This dynamic cycle provides for continuous learning and adaptation to the emergent state of the project. The characteristics of an ASD life cycle are that it is mission focused, feature based, iterative, time boxed, risk driven, and change tolerant.

The word “speculate” refers to the paradox of planning – it is more likely to assume that all stakeholders are comparably wrong for certain aspects of the project’s mission, while trying to define it. Collaboration refers to the efforts for balancing the work based on predictable parts of the environment (planning and guiding them) and adapting to the uncertain surrounding mix of changes caused by various factors – technology, requirements, stakeholders, software vendors, etc. The learning cycles, challenging all stakeholders, are based on the short iterations with design, build and testing. During these iterations the knowledge is gathered by making small mistakes based on false assumptions and correcting those mistakes, thus leading to greater experience and eventually mastery in the problem domain.

This type of software development is very good in having the users cooperate with the development process. This is because the development process will adopt on what the situation is. The users may also be a factor on these situations; thus the system development will also adapt to what the users want.

Overall this frustration depends on the method that the developer will use in software development. It is up to the developers correct planning and assessment on the companies’ situation to ensure that the product system will comply on the standards that the users and the company want.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Software_Development
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iterative_and_incremental_development

list of questions...(asSign 8)

2010-03-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

fast forward ..., you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting.

Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question. (1000 words)

Is the company ready for IS improvements or replacement?
This question for me is the most important one that must be placed into priority in the said meeting. In this question the company representatives are expected to deliver their thoughts, facts and evidences that will show if the company is ready for the said IS modification. And if we speak of the readiness of the company, we will deal on these aspects.

Funds
Accept it or not but the all IS modifications requires a lot of funds. Funds are needed to purchase of upgrade IT equipments. It is also needed in trainings if it’s necessary. The software that will be used in the IS development and usage is also not free and these software are really expensive especially if the company that is intended to use it scopes a lot of processes. Without the necessary funds to cope up with the expenses, planning to have the said IS development or modification will be a waste of time and will just cause negative backfires to the company.

Employee capabilities
The success of the IS deployment will also be determined on how the direct users of the system can use it to its fullest. Even if the software and the hardware that make up the system are considered with high standards but if the user has no capabilities in using it, the systems capabilities will also be limited. This factor can be cured if the company have enough funds to train their employees. If the employees are all equipped with enough knowledge about what they are about to do in the system, the system will be used at most.

Time
Time is also essential for a successful IS development and deployment. If the company do not have enough time for it, they better not invest for it at all. Even though the company will definitely aim for a less time in the doing the said project because time itself is vital in the operations of the company. But then again, IS development cannot be rushed, a lot of factors must be properly dealt upon to make sure that the product system will greatly fit the company and give it lots of advantages.

Acceptance
Will the company and the people that support it accept it? Even though the company will give trainings and do other necessary steps to make the transition convenient for the direct users there will still be some resistance in learning new things and exploring to areas that they are not familiar with.

Who will be involved in the IS?

It is necessary to make something like map to know who are involved in the system. We will discuss what departments, the users, and other things including computers and networks that will be possibly have something to do with the system. The said information will be important to know because the ones that are involved in the system must be properly checked if they are ready for the IS. If not, certain adjustment can be done to improve what is missing or what things that can be done to improve it.

What do the company expects to achieve or accomplish after the IS deployment or improvement?

In everything we do, it is important to know what our goals first before making some actions to do it. The said goals will become our target and will make us pointed to one road and will serve as our guide. By making these goals we will be rest assured that our future actions will be aligned to it and will make the process a lot manageable and easy.

10 years from now...

2010-03-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

Think about yourself worthy to be called as IT professional, how do you see yourself 10 years from now, what are your strategies to get there? (at least 3000 words)

I see myself ten years from now as a fully capable network administrator. I mentioned the phrase “fully capable” because nowadays I observed that there are a lot of employees whose job descriptions are for network administrators but does not function as to what he/she is supposed to do. This path is really not easy. Being a fully functioning network administrator not only requires knowledge from researches and readings but also needs vast experience in the said field. It is also a fact that this job is not in huge numbers in developing countries like ours, that’s why finding the job itself is a pain. And because the job is very limited there will be a lot of other qualified applicants like me that would be my rivals.

Considering this goal as a very big challenge for me, I have come up with these strategies to at least give me a better chance in achieving this goal.

1. Read wide arrays of related articles and books

Knowledge is not limited on the things that our professors in school teach us. Our generation is very blessed because information nowadays is in the grasp of our hands. This privilege gave each one of us the capacity to be better every day, to surpass the boundaries of distance and time, and to learn more by just sitting in front of your computer while browsing the net. Though this fact is very good to know, sad to say, the advantage that our generation is experiencing is up to us to put into good use. Even though vast significant information are in our reach, it is still worthless if we instead reach on those senseless things or not even bother to reach a hand.

Knowing this, I’ll make sure that the opportunity that the current information era is giving us will be put into good use. I will read relevant articled everyday focusing on IT related subjects. I will take advantage of different forums and activities that our college will give us and listen to the things that speakers will share. If I have some spare cash I will buy some IT related books especially those that focuses its topics on computer networking. This stage will be an information gathering one. I’ll make sure that I will meet new terms, new algorithms, new definitions and theories every day. In this manner I will be better and more knowledgeable every day. I may not feel the relevance of some readings that I may encounter for now but this will help me be familiarized in this subjects thus they will not be foreign to me as I meet them in the near future. And besides, we have a saying that prevention is better than cure. Prevention from ignorance is better than treating it in the future.

2. Grab every chance of IT and Networking experience
I have my own personal computer. And there was one time when I needed to link up with my classmates’ laptop. A beginner myself, I was quite confused on how to do things. So I browsed the internet and found a lot of ways on directly connecting two computers using a single networking cable.

The scenario that I have mentioned was a networking experience itself. Though it may not be that hard for networking professionals it’s a very healthy experience for me. These circumstances are the things that cannot be thought in school. As some say, experience is the best teacher. And in order to be thought by the best teacher, I must be open for them. I will make sure that I will grab any possible IT related experience that I can have. From upgrading/fixing my own computer to networking and diagnosing others computers.

There are a lot of things that is easier said than done. This situation is same with IT related instructions and procedures. For example, it is very easy to enumerate the steps on how to change a CPU. First, you take out the CPU fan, unbolt it if have some bolts. If the motherboard is a new version, pull the lever to unlock the metal that is enclosing the CPU. After that gently lift the CPU and replace it by the new one. Make sure that it is properly in place then lock it using the lever. Then put some thermal paste, about a pea-size. Then install the CPU fan and it’s done. Looks very easy but it will be a pain if it’s your first time to do this step. Getting the CPU fan out of the motherboard is not that easy, a lot of wires and main board parts are just beside it and you need to be careful not to bulge them or your motherboard will be broken. Applying the thermal paste is also better to be learned through experience. If the thermal paste is too much, it will overflow and penetrate to the CPU and the results will be not so good. That’s why experiencing these instructions rather than reading them will be much more significant. You may not get good results at first, but as you continue to do the process, you will have familiarity over it and assuming you have been doing this for a long time, it is expected that you have encountered almost all possible circumstance that might happen during the process. This will help you give fast and relevant solutions to them.

3. Be involved in the IT society

It is a good thing to learn by yourself but it does not mean that you will not allow others to have a share of what you have known. Sharing knowledge is a very good opportunity for development. There are a lot of IT practitioners out there that also have goals like me. Some of them are far ahead of me in terms of experience and researches. It is a good idea to learn from them. The IT society aims to further give the IT industry in our country a boost in practice and relevance. By helping them reach this goal, IT will be rampantly practiced here in the Philippines in the near future, thus, IT specialist will be very in demand. This situation will be very good for us and will give us a lot of opportunities to practice and develop our craft and earn what we sown.

4. Get a college degree

Every good job nowadays requires a college degree, how much more in the future. It is necessary for me to graduate to an IT related to be closer to my goals and give me some good credentials on the future. Studying on an IT related course will also lead me closer to experience and knowledge opportunities that will help me be competitive in the future.

5. Be employed on an IT related job

After finishing my studies, it will not be likely for me to be a network administrator right away. I need to seek for further job experience. And having an IT related job will greatly help me. It is a good thing if it has to do with computer networking, but if not, at least it has something to do with computer hardware. This is because as a competitive network administrator you must not only be good in the software end of networking, but you must also know hardware installation, maintenance, troubleshooting and repair. Having these capabilities will give me an edge in other applicants that are also interested for the job.

6. Focus on Network Administration in future studies

Unlike the first step where I gathered any possible IT facts and information, on this stage I will focus on information related to networking and administrating it. Experience will continue through my present job. On this stage I will train myself for future opportunities that my dedication to my craft will carry me. And through enough hard work and prayers I will reach my goals soon.

7. Be a network administrator

After all my hard work and struggling paid out. I am a network administrator at last. On this stage I will use all the things from experience to my researches to be a competitive network administrator. I will make sure that all those hard work will not put in to waste and give everything that I can do to give justice to my job.

8. Continue research and studies

My life doesn’t end here. After having my goal as a network administrator I will continue to grab opportunities of experience and knowledge to be closer to my dream in having the most secured and fastest network in the world.

9. Help the IT society
It’s not a bad idea to help others that have the same call like me. The world needs IT. And in order for IT to be helpful, IT needs us; a group of individuals who continue to practice and develop IT for it to suite in the needs of the people. By helping others and sharing my knowledge, this time I will be a part of their own success and give the IT industry a little hand in its endeavor.

3 changes involving IT in the next 3 years..

2010-02-11T23:08:00.000-08:00

The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially changes involving information technology. Using your crystal ball, identify and discuss three changes likely to have substantial impact on your school services in the next three years. (1500 words)

Change is very likely to happen nowadays because of a fast changing environment. Even we belong in the 3rd world country we still encounter changes through the help of new technologies introduced to us. Many institutions have change from manual operations to automated one.

I enrolled in University of Southeastern Philippines as one of the lucky students of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology in the year 2005 but I was not able to continue my 2nd year in 2nd semester in the said school. Within that period of time, I was not able to encounter many changes in terms of facilities or even the services offered by the university. But I’m not also expecting much either since it is a state university. Luckily, I was also given a chance to study again after a year. I was a bit surprised because the enrolment system is not the same anymore. It was quite difficult not just for me but also for the other schoolmates because that was the first implementation of the new enrolment system of the university. In terms of acquiring information anything about the university a new website was also introduced for the convenience of anyone. With regards of the facilities, the only change that I noticed was the new units of our laboratory room, at least. I also consider this as a change and also a hindrance when the administration produced a memo forbidding the students and faculties to use the electricity of the university. We cannot deny the fact that they cannot provide enough facilities to the students, yet they are also the ones who are inhibiting us to use ours. And I consider this as one of the hindrances of learning especially in our case. These are some of the many changes in our university for 5 years now. Some are substantial enough, and some are not.

What about the changes for the next three years? Is information technology change good? How can IT help the organization in responding to the challenges of an increasingly complex and uncertain environment? How can IT help the organization achieve the flexible organization structure? Will this change be substantial for everybody or not? Change is the only constant thing in this world. And change is really important especially if the goal will be for the good of everybody or at least, for the good of the majority, the students.

In one of the survey article in The Economist, John Browning (1990) wrote: "Information technology is no longer a business resource; it is the business environment." His statement is not far from truth. Ongoing advances in information technology (IT), alongwith increasing global competition, are adding complexity and uncertainty of several orders of magnitude to the organizational environment. There are also factors to consider in an IT change especially in our case since we are a state university.

As what I have observed, there are many researches regarding information technology that are considerable for the progress of the university. I also think that only few knew that these researches exist. The sad part is they are not implemented and only remain in papers. In recent time, we are doing our documentation for our proposed system concerning the university. And hopefully in the next school year, we will be able to produce an efficient and functional product. And if not at least it will be implemented in three years time. Personally, I am really hoping that one day this will be implemented. I am saying this because being in this field is really not an easy thing. And it will really take time doing a particular system that will only come to a useless end.

For me, one the significant change involving information technology in the next three years is to have more hardware facilities like computers that are capable of handling a multi tasking jobs. These hardware facilities should have a higher standard of specs so that it will give convenience to the users. This may sound expensive but it will be beneficial in the long run. We cannot deny the fact that not all students of the university can afford to have a personal computer and there are some that are only relying in the school facilities and services they offered just like the free access of the internet. And it is quite disturbing that the students have to “paunhunay” or really have to run so that a student can have a unit, a good unit in order to be served first. I am able to relate to this because I was also one of these students before. This change could also help the students to enhance their abilities and skills regarding graphics design, multimedia, or anything that can’t be done with the facilities that we have now because of its limited capabilities. It is also very important to have a good hardware facility because no matter how good and efficient a software product is and there is no appropriate hardware facility it will only result to a failure.

With regards to the software side, it would be extensive to have an id that has a multiple use or an all purpose school id. This id has a barcode or something that can be detected electronically. This will serve as a gate pass and because of this, man power will be lessen. Another thing is for the library, this id will also serve as a login system whenever a student wants to access the internet or borrow a book. This can also be a locator of the owner of the id. For example, if you want to know where a particular student is, you just have to input his name and the locate him. These are just some of the few functions of the all purpose school id that can be a convenient way not just to the students but also with the users.

Conclusion:
IT and New Organizational Structures of Interdependence: Benjamin and Levinson (1993) emphasized that for IT-based change to be effective, technology, business processes, and organization need to be adapted to each other. Comparing the present information revolution with the Industrial Revolution, Malone and Rockart (1993) indicated that the latest changes in IT would lead to the evolution of new technology-intensive organizational structures. They project that the advances in IT would result in dramatic decline in the costs of "coordination" which would lead to new, coordination-intensive business structures. Rockart and Short (1989) suggest that IT would enable the firms to respond to the "new and pressing competitive forces" by providing for "effective management of interdependence." Interorganizational relations that are based upon trust and conditions of unstructured authority (Litwak and Hylton, 1962) would be created using newer types of coordination mechanisms. Malone and Crowston (1991) believe that in light of these new possibilities there is need to reassess our current theories of organizations, of markets, and of management.

I merely agree about the statement above from BRINT Institute's Book on Knowledge Management because it clearly stated that in order to attain an Information Technology change the first one that should adapt and accept the change is the organization itself. It has to adapt the changes that the environment has. It has to consider the cost of the possible change. And must also consider the cause and effect of a particular change if it these changes likely to have substantial impact in our university services in the years to come.

References:
http://www.brint.com/papers/change/conclusions.htm

Google’s business model (Assignment 7)

2010-01-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions.

Questions :
Explain Google’s business model.
1. Who are their competitors?
2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?
3. How competitive are they in the market?
4. What new services do they offer?
5. What makes them so unique?
6. How competitive are they in the international market?

Google is known to be as a web search engine. And as I have searched the net, these are their competitors in this said field. I have included brief information about them that I also browsed from the internet.

Who are their competitors?
--> Ask.com

Ask.com had a personality change in 2008 as it re-focused itself on being a question-answering service. It's actually reasonably good at coming up with answers through web search and being able to gather questions and answers through its Q&A. Some semantic technology is involved that goes beyond merely matching on keywords. It has a variety of search tools that includes web search, news, images, video, blogs. Maps and directions are provided from Microsoft.

--> Yahoo.com
Yahoo! Search is one of the best for search aids. It has Search Assist at the top with related searches and suggested concepts to explore, as well as top sites from the search results in the left side panel. Yahoo signed-in account holders save page and keep notes in the new Search Pad. Search results are enhanced with deep links and thumbnails of images and videos. All in all, Yahoo is pleasant to use.

--> Cuil.com

"Cuil is an old Irish word for knowledge. For knowledge, ask Cuil"
Cuil was launched in 2008 as the world's biggest search engine. Its founders included some from Google. Its edge was going to be an ability to examine the context of words to establish their relevance to a search query. Initially it didn't do this well, but that has changed.

Today categories provide context and specifics: they are well developed and include sub-categories with examples. Scroll over the links to get previews of top results. Try this with arctic exploration. But it doesn't do well with more specific queries such as where did john franklin die.

--> Exalead.com
Exalead is a small alternative search engine. It is based in France and may have somewhat better coverage of European content. The index has been 8 billion pages for a couple of years. Most notably, Exalead has function that all other engines abandoned: accepts wildcard characters; and has a NEAR operator to require that words be within 16 words or a number you set.

With regards on how they used information technology to their advantage it is clearly seen that the backbone of the business that Google decided to enter is directly associated to information technology. This is because without a computer, without knowledgeable people browsing the internet, google will not exist at all.

They used information technology wisely. They continue to find ways to improve on giving fast and relevant response to every possible queries that a user may come about. In fact, they developed different algorithms and methods to make their answers significant and reliable.

They also did not rely only in desktop. As a respond to the rapidly developing technologies, they expand there services in cellular phones and other devices that supports internet access.

As I browsed the net for new services that they are offering aside from being a search engine, as I was not surprised seeing a lot. But these new services are mainly under a broad project that they developed which they called "Google Business Solutions".

These are the following services they marked as new:
--> Google Ad Manager
Sell, schedule, deliver, and measure your directly-sold and network-based ad inventory.

--> Google enterprise search solutions
Maximize website ROI and internal productivity with Google-powered search for your website or intranet.

--> Postini services
Protect your email infrastructure with hosted spam and virus protection, archiving, and encryption.

In my personal perspective, google is unique because of its simplicty. Simplicity in terms of its interface and the way the search engine gives its response. This is a good thing for a lot of users especially to those who are not familiar in navigating websites.

Simplicity can be clearly seen in there main page, where you will only see the google logo, a texfield for input, and some options. Unlike from other search engines that i have tried, google focuses on the relevence of their answers and not on how their sites attractive look.

Aside from that, google is also unique in terms on their business oriented services. I am not sure if they are the first in this field but i am pretty much confident that they are leading it. I can say this because I browse the internet a lot and almost every site have there ads on and there advertising power has been very powerfula and in demand nowadays.

Google is very competitive in international market. infact they rank one of highest among the different search engines available based on advancedwebranking.com and other website rankings survey that i have browsed. Because their field is directly independent to internet connectivity, they are able to reach almost every part in the world which made there company very influencial in terms of advertising and business solutions.

Reference:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/competing_with_google_search.php

steps for "critical success factors" approach

2009-12-24T07:27:00.000-08:00

Assign 6: Identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach? (at least 1,500 words)

Types of Critical Success Factor
There are four basic types of CSF's
They are:
1. Industry CSF's resulting from specific industry characteristics;
2. Strategy CSF's resulting from the chosen competitive strategy of the business;
3. Environmental CSF's resulting from economic or technological changes; and
4. Temporal CSF's resulting from internal organizational needs and changes.

Things that are measured get done more often than things that are not measured.
Each CSF should be measurable and associated with a target goal. You don't need exact measures to manage. Primary measures that should be listed include critical success levels (such as number of transactions per month) or, in cases where specific measurements are more difficult, general goals should be specified (such as moving up in an industry customer service survey).

Definitions
Critical Success Factor

>> an element of organizational activity which is central to its future success. Critical success factors may change over time, and may include items such as product quality, employee attitudes, manufacturing flexibility, and brand awareness. This can enable analysis.

>> any of the aspects of a business that are identified as vital for successful targets to be reached and maintained. Critical success factors are normally identified in such areas as production processes, employee and organization skills, functions, techniques, and technologies. The identification and strengthening of such factors may be similar.

>> is a business term for an element which is necessary for an organization or project to achieve its mission. For example, a CSF for a successful Information Technology (IT) project is user involvement.

Using the term

The term “Critical Success Factor” is used differently, due to ambiguity of the word “critical”,
back and forth translations into other languages and interpretation when analyzed in portfolios:

1. Definition 1: “critical” = important, key, determining, vital, strategic, etc.
2. Definition 2: “critical” = alarming, anxious, etc.

Step One: Establish your business’s or project’s mission and strategic goals.

Step Two: For each strategic goal, ask yourself “what area of business or project activity is essential to achieve this goal?”

MAIN ASPECTS OF Critical Success Factors and their use in analysis CSF's are tailored to a firm's or manager's particular situation as different situations (e.g. industry, division, individual) lead to different critical success factors. Rockart and Bullen presented five key sources of CSF's:

1. The industry,
2. Competitive strategy and industry position,
3. Environmental factors,
4. Temporal factors, and

5. Managerial position (if considered from an individual's point of view). Each of these factors is explained in greater detail below.

Step Three: Evaluate the list of candidate CSFs to find the absolute essential elements for achieving success - these are your Critical Success Factors. As you identify and evaluate candidate CSFs, you may uncover some new strategic objectives or more detailed objectives. So you may need to define your mission, objectives and CSFs iteratively.

Step Four: Identify how you will monitor and measure each of the CSFs.

Step Five: Communicate your CSFs along with the other important elements of your business or project’s strategy.

Step Six: Keep monitoring and reevaluating your CSFs to ensure you keep moving towards your aims. Indeed, whilst CSFs are sometimes less tangible than measurable goals, it is useful to identify as specifically as possible how you can measure or monitor each one.

Thus, this information I had gathered through my data mining about critical success factor are summarized, though it was quite ambiguous in first place to define what best approaches to identify CSF’s because there are a lot of resources and information about CSF in the internet. But the one I had given in this page identify the most simplest way about critical success factor however there would be much to define about what is critical success factor and there would be lessen if would sum it all but on the other hand CSF identify key areas of activity in which favorable results are absolutely necessary to reach goals. Where areas must be flourishing and aiming for the business success factor that would be critically directed for the success of the organization and it should be constant and carefully plan from the management and team, in addition to every single detailed should be listed and focus for it might be a factor for the success of the company.
It was quite hazy to define what best approaches to identify Critical Success Factors (CSFs) because there are lot of resources and information that are available in the books and in the internet. The data that I had given about CSFs above is one of the simplest ways. CSFs are used by organizations to give focus on a number of factors that help define its success. They help the organization and its personnel to understand the key areas in which to invest their resources and time. Ideally, these CSFs are observable in terms of the impact on the organization to allow it to have guidance and indications on its achievement of them. Other hand CSF identifies key areas of activity in which favorable results are absolutely necessary to reach goals. But these keys also have their limitation. There is a significant degree of variability that could result from the qualitative input required. Thus, there could be significant differences in what various people consider CSFs in industries and organizations to be, necessitating considerable effort and discussion in determining them.

References:
http://rapidbi.com/created/criticalsuccessfactors.html#WhatareCSFs
http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/essays-and-dissertations/critical-success-factors.php

nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan

2009-12-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

What Is a Business Plan?
A business plan is any plan that works for a business to look ahead, allocate resources, focus on key points, and prepare for problems and opportunities.
Unfortunately, many people think of business plans only for starting a new business or applying for business loans. But they are also vital for running a business, whether or not the business needs new loans or new investments. Businesses need plans to optimize growth and development according to priorities.
What’s a startup plan?
A simple startup plan includes a summary, mission statement, keys to success, market analysis, and break-even analysis. This kind of plan is good for deciding whether or not to proceed with a plan, to tell if there is a business worth pursuing, but it is not enough to run a business with.

Business planning is often conducted when:
• Starting a new venture (organization, product or service)
• Expanding a current organization, product or service
• Buying a current organization, product or service
• Working to improve the management of a current organization, product or service
There are a wide variety of formats for a business plan. The particular format and amount of content included in a plan depends on the complexity of the organization, product or service and on the demands of those who will use the business plan to make a decision, eg, an investor, funder, management, Board of Directors, etc.

Overall, the contents of a business plan typically aim to:
1. Describe the venture (new or current organization, product or service), often including its primary features, advantages and benefits
2. What the organization wants to do with it (buy it, expand it, etc.)
3. Justification that the plans are credible (eg, results of research that indicate the need for what the organization wants to do)
4. Marketing plans, including research results about how the venture will be marketed (eg, who the customers will be, any specific groups (or targets) of customers, why they need the venture (benefits they seek from the venture), how they will use the venture, what they will be willing to pay, how the venture will be advertised and promoted, etc.)
5. Staffing plans, including what expertise will be needed to build (sometimes included in business plans) and provide the venture on an ongoing basis
6. Management plans, including how the expertise will be organized, coordinated and led
7. Financial plans, including costs to build the venture (sometimes included in business plans), costs to operate the venture, expected revenue, budgets for each of the first several years into the future, when the venture might break-even (begin making more money overall than it has cost), etc.
8. Appendices (there are a wide variety of materials included in appendices, eg, description of the overall organization, its other products and/or services, its current staff, etc.)

Is there a standard business plan?

A normal business plan (one that follows the advice of business experts) includes a standard set of elements, as shown below. Plan formats and outlines vary, but generally a plan will include components such as descriptions of the company, product or service, market, forecasts, management team, and financial analysis.
Your plan will depend on your specific situation. For example, description of the management team is very important for investors while financial history is most important for banks. However, if you’re developing a plan for internal use only, you may not need to include all the background details that you already know. Make your plan match its purpose.

What is most important in a plan?
It depends on the case, but usually it’s the cash flow analysis and specific implementation details.
• Cash flow is both vital to a company and hard to follow. Cash is usually misunderstood as profits, and they are different. Profits don’t guarantee cash in the bank. Lots of profitable companies go under because of cash flow problems. It just isn’t intuitive.
• Implementation details are what make things happen. Your brilliant strategies and beautifully formatted planning documents are just theory unless you assign responsibilities, with dates and budgets, follow up with those responsible, and track results. Business plans are really about getting results and improving your company.

Business planning, also known as strategic planning or long-range planning, is a management-directed process that is intended to determine a desired future state for a business entity and to define overall strategies for accomplishing the desired state. Through planning, management decides what objectives to pursue during a future period, and what actions to undertake to achieve those objectives.
Successful business planning requires concentrated time and effort in a systematic approach that involves: assessing the present situation; anticipating future profitability and market conditions; determining objectives and goals; outlining a course of action; and analyzing the financial implications of these actions. From an array of alternatives, management distills a broad set of interrelated choices to form its long-term strategy. This strategy is implemented through the annual budgeting process, in which detailed, short-term plans are formulated to guide day-to-day activities in order to attain the company's long-term objectives and goals.
For entrepreneurs and small business owners, the first step in successful business planning involves creating a formal business plan, of the type commonly used to attract investors and secure bank loans. Careful preparation of this document forces a small business owner to examine his or her own goals as well as the market conditions in which the business operates. It also includes a detailed financial analysis, a look at current staffing levels and future needs, and information about management's expertise. "All the elements can be folded together to formulate a strategic plan that focuses on where you want your company to be in the long run, and how you plan to get there," Vince Maietta wrote in The Business Journal. "That also helps entrepreneurs focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the firm, as well as opportunities and threats."

The use of formal business planning has increased significantly over the past few decades. The increase in the use of formal long-range plans reflects a number of significant factors:
• Competitors engage in long-range planning.
• Global economic expansion is a long-range effort.
• Taxing authorities and investors require more detailed reports about future prospects and annual performance.
• Investors assess risk/reward according to long-range plans and expectations.
• Availability of computers and sophisticated mathematical models add to the potential and precision of long-range planning.
• Expenditures for research and development increased dramatically, resulting in the need for longer planning horizons and huge investments in capital equipment.
• Steady economic growth has made longer-term planning more realistic.

Why Prepare A Business Plan?

Your business plan is going to be useful in a number of ways
• First and foremost, it will define and focus your objective using appropriate information and analysis.
• You can use it as a selling tool in dealing with important relationships including your lenders, investors and banks.
• Your business plan can uncover omissions and/or weaknesses in your planning process.
• You can use the plan to solicit opinions and advice from people, including those in your intended field of business, who will freely give you invaluable advice.

Benefits of Planning
Planning provides a means for actively involving personnel from all areas of the business enterprise in the management of the organization. Company-wide participation improves the quality of the plans. Employee involvement enhances their overall understanding of the organization's objectives and goals. The employees' knowledge of the broad plan and awareness of the expected outcomes for their responsibility centers minimizes friction between departments, sections, and individuals. Involvement in planning fosters a greater personal commitment to the plan and to the organization. These positive attitudes improve overall organizational morale and loyalty.
Managerial performance also benefits from planning. Planning focuses the energies and activities of managers in the utilization of scarce resources in a competitive and demanding marketplace. Able to clearly identify goals and objectives, managers perform better, are more productive, and their operations are more profitable. In addition, planning is a mental exercise from which managers attain experience and knowledge. It prepares them for the rigors of the marketplace by forcing them to think in a future- and contingency-oriented manner.

Steps in the Planning Process
The planning process is directly related to organizational considerations, management style, maturity of the organization, and employee professionalism. These factors vary among industries and even among similar companies. Yet all management, when applying a scientific method to planning, perform similar steps. The time spent on each step will vary by company. Completion of each step, however, is prerequisite to successful planning. The main steps in the planning process are:
• Conducting a self-audit to determine capabilities and unique qualities
• Evaluating the business environment for possible risks and rewards
• Setting objectives that give direction
• Establishing goals that quantify objectives and time-frames
• Forecasting market conditions that affect goals and objectives
• Stating actions and resources needed to accomplish goals
• Evaluating proposed actions and selecting the most appropriate ones
• Instituting procedures to control the implementation and execution of the plan.

WHAT is ISP?
• ISP is the planning of information systems for an organization.
• Information system planning is assessing the information needs of an organization and defining the systems, databases and technologies that best satisfy those needs.

Why Planning is Important?
• Systematic approach in dealing with future uncertainties.
• It focuses efforts and resources on long-term, general objectives and yet provides a foundation for short-term activities
• Provides a framework for action.

ISP Key Activities
1. Describing current situation: it includes a listing of the manual and automated processes, listing of manual and automated data, technology inventory and human resources inventory.
2. Describing future situation: includes blueprints of manual and automated processes, blueprints of manual and automated data, technology blueprints and human resources blueprints.
3. Describing scheduling of the project: includes scheduling of manual and automated processes, scheduling of manual and automated data, technology of scheduling and human resources scheduling.

ISP Planning Types
• Top-Down Planning: A generic information systems planning methodology that attempts to gain a broad understanding of the information system needs of the entire organization.
• Bottom-up Planning: generic information systems planning methodology that identifies and defines IS development projects based upon solving operational business problems or taking advantages of some business opportunities.

Components of ISP
• The Process of Information Systems Planning
• Strategic Alignment of Business and IT
• Selecting Systems to Invest In
• Project Management Issues

ISP Process
• What is an Information System Plan?
• Challenges in IS Planning
• Principles for IS Planning
• Planning Role of the IS and User Departments
• Allocating Resources between New and Old Information Systems
• Project Roles of IS Professionals

Why do we need to plan for IS?
• To ensure that IS both complements and assists in the achievement of our business goals.
• To ensure that the use of scarce resources are maximized within a business.
• To maximize the benefits of changing technology.
• To take account of the different viewpoints of business professionals and IT professionals.

Who Perform ISP?
• IS Planners / System Analyst
• Variety of stakeholders (i.e. sponsor, users)
• Top management commitment à successful ISP.

Where & When ISP?
• Any organization that has interest in getting the best out of its IT investments.
• Facing problems
• Grabbing opportunities.
• Information Systems (IS) fail to satisfy huge, diverse and complicated information requirements of their users.

HOW?
• Look at business structure, function, processes, culture
• Look at existing IT
• Look at available technology.
• Carry out interviews.
• Develop policies.
• Develop application portfolio.
• Plan schedules for migration, implementation etc.

Characteristics of a Quality ISP
A quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful. These five are presented in the table that follows.

Characteristics of a Quality ISP
1. Timely
The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.
2. Useable
The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
3. Maintainable
The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.
4. Quality
While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.
5. Reproducible
The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.

Relationship between the Business Plan and the Information System Plan
Information systems planning is a major change for organizations, from planning for information systems based on users’ demands to those based on business strategy. And it changes the planning characteristics in major ways. For example, the time horizon for planning changes from 1 year to 3 years or more and development plans are driven by current and future business needs rather than incremental user needs. Increase in the time horizon is a factor which results in poor response from the top management to the strategic information systems planning process as it is difficult to hold their attention for such a long period. Other questions associated with strategic information systems planning are related to the scope of the planning study, the focus of the planning exercise – corporate organization vs. strategic business unit, number of studies and their sequence, choosing a strategic information systems planning methodology or developing one if none is suitable, targets of planning process and deliverables. On the other hand, business plan (Business Systems Planning) serves as a blueprint to guide the firm's policies and strategies, and is continually modified as conditions change and new opportunities and/or threats emerge. Its methodology combines top down planning with bottom up implementation. The methodology focuses on business processes which in turn are derived from an organization’s business mission, objectives and goals. Business processes are analyzed to determine data needs and, then, data classes. Similar data classes are combined to develop databases. The final BSP plan describes an overall information systems architecture as well as installation schedule of individual systems. Because BSP combines a top down business analysis approach with a bottom up implementation strategy, it represents an integrated methodology. It requires a firm commitment from the top management and their substantial involvement and also requires a high degree of IT experience within the BSP planning team. Because of this there is a possibility of having a problem of bridging the gap between top down planning and bottom up implementation, especially when it does not incorporate a software design methodology. Thus, business plans and IS plans written primarily for the use of the company that generally stress the benefits that will result from implementation of the plan. Business plan and IS plan generally involves planning of thinking ahead and designing future action.

Reference:
http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262
http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan/what-is-a-business-plan/33
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~nkm/sisp/CONTENTS.html
http://managementhelp.org/plan_dec/bus_plan/bus_plan.htm

organizational change (most radical type of change)

2009-12-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Assign 5: In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts? (you are expected to read an article about this question) ..

Principles of Organizational Change
Written by Jack Welch & Suzy Welch
Thursday, 15 October 2009 20:22

Change is an absolutely critical part of business. And yes, your company does need to change—preferably now and not later, when you have no other choice.
The problem is that people hate it when their bosses announce a “transformation initiative.” They run back to their cubicles and start frantically e-mailing one another, complaining that the changes are going to ruin everything.
People love familiarity and patterns. They cling to them. The phenomenon is so entrenched it can only be chalked up to human nature. But while managing change can sometimes feel like moving a mountain, it can also be incredibly rewarding, particularly when you start seeing results.
Ultimately, implementing change comes down to embracing the following four practices:
1. Attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal. Change for change’s sake is stupid and enervating. Change should be a relatively orderly process, but for that to occur, people have to understand why change is necessary and how changes will affect them. This is easier, of course, when the problems are obvious—earnings are collapsing or a competitor has dropped prices 20 percent.
But sometimes the need for change isn’t immediately apparent. Competitive threats seem to be emerging, but you don’t know for certain, and still, you have to respond. In those cases, relentless communication about the business rationale for change, reinforced with lots of data, is the best ammunition you have.
The larger your company, the more challenging it will be to communicate the need for change. In big companies, calls for change are often greeted noncommittally. After all, if the company has been through enough change programs, employees will assume you’ll go away if they just wait long enough.
Stick to your guns—your solid, persuasive business case. Over time, logic will win out.
2. Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types. Everyone in business claims to like change. To say otherwise would be career suicide. But by my estimate, less than 10 percent of all businesspeople are true change agents. Once the next group—about 70 to 80 percent of people working in business—is convinced that change is necessary, they’ll say, “OK already, get on with it.” The rest are resisters.
To make change happen, companies must actively hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it. But with everyone claiming to like change, how can you tell who is for real?
Luckily, change agents usually make themselves known. They’re typically brash, high-energy and more than a little paranoid about the future. They often invent change initiatives on their own or ask to lead them. Invariably, they are curious and forward-looking.
These people have a certain fearlessness about the unknown. If they fail, they know they can pick themselves up, dust themselves off and move on. They’re thick-skinned about risk, which allows them to make bold decisions without a lot of data.
3. Ferret out and remove the resisters, even if their performance is satisfactory. This is the hardest of the four practices to implement. It’s tough to let anyone go, but it’s particularly difficult to fire people who are not actually screwing up and may in fact be doing quite well.
But in any organization, there are people who will not accept change, no matter how sound your case is. They are so invested—emotionally, intellectually, or politically—in the status quo that they cannot see a way to improve anything. These people usually have to go.
That may sound harsh, but you’re not doing anyone a favor by keeping resisters in your organization. They foster an underground resistance and lower the morale of the people who support change. They’re wasting their own time: They’re working at a company where they don’t agree with or share in the vision, and they should be encouraged to find one where they do.
4. Look at car wrecks. Most companies capitalize on obvious opportunities. When a competitor fails, they move in on their customers. When a new technology emerges, they invest in it and create product line extensions.
But to be a real change organization, you also have to have to look at bolder, scarier, more unpredictable events, assess the opportunities they present and make the most of them. Fostering this capability takes a certain determination, but the rewards can be huge.
Take the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Currency traders certainly capitalized on this awful event; they live on exploiting change. But they’re not the only ones who should do this. GE had real success buying undervalued Thai auto loans in this period. Others prospered by buying real estate at fire sale prices.
Bankruptcies are another type of calamity that reveals all kinds of opportunities. Of course, they’re tragic to the employees. Jobs are lost, and pensions disappear into thin air. But jobs and futures can also be created from the cinders.
With all the noise out there about change, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and confused. But these are the only four practices that matter. That’s it. There’s nothing to be afraid of.

What is organizational change?
Organizational change is any action or set of actions resulting in a shift in direction or process that affects the way an organization works. Change can be deliberate and planned by leaders within the organization (i.e., shift from inpatient hospital focus to outpatient primary care model), or change can originate outside the organization (i.e., budget cut by Congress) and be beyond its control. Change may affect the strategies an organization uses to carry out its mission, the processes for implementing those strategies, the tasks and functions performed by the people in the organization, and the relationships between those people. Naturally, some changes are relatively small, while others are sweeping in scope, amounting to an organizational transformation. Change is a fact of organizational life, just as it is in human life. An organization that does not change cannot survive long Ð much less thrive Ð in an unpredictable world. Several factors may make organizational change necessary, including new competition in the marketplace or new demands by customers. These types of external forces may create expectations of improved efficiency, better service, or innovative products. When organizational change is well planned and implemented, it helps assure the organizations continued survival. It can produce many tangible benefits, including improved competitiveness, better financial performance, and higher levels of customer and employee satisfaction. These benefits may take some time to achieve; however, and the transition period that accompanies major organizational change usually is a time of upheaval and uncertainty. Not every individual in the organization will benefit personally from change; some will be casualties of change, especially if jobs are cut or realigned. But change should make the organization as a whole stronger and better equipped for the future.
Organizational change occurs when a company makes a transition from its current state to some desired future state. Managing organizational change is the process of planning and implementing change in organizations in such a way as to minimize employee resistance and cost to the organization, while also maximizing the effectiveness of the change effort.
Today's business environment requires companies to undergo changes almost constantly if they are to remain competitive. Factors such as globalization of markets and rapidly evolving technology force businesses to respond in order to survive. Such changes may be relatively minor—as in the case of installing a new software program—or quite major—as in the case of refocusing an overall marketing strategy. "Organizations must change because their environments change, " according to Thomas S. Bateman and Carl P. Zeithaml in their book Management: Function and Strategy. "Today, businesses are bombarded by incredibly high rates of change from a frustratingly large number of sources…. Insidepressures come from top managers and lower-level employees who push for change. Outside pressures come from changes in the legal, competitive, technological, and economic environments."
Organizational change initiatives often arise out of problems faced by a company. In some cases, however, companies are encouraged to change for other, more positive reasons. "Change commonly occurs because the organization experiences some difficulty, " Bateman and Zeithaml wrote. "But sometimes the most constructive change takes place not because of problems but because of opportunities." The authors used the term "performance gap" to describe the difference between a company's actual performance and the performance of which it is capable. Recognition of a performance gap often provides the impetus for change, as companies strive to improve their performance to expected levels. This sort of gap is also where many entrepreneurs find opportunities to begin new businesses.
Unfortunately, as Rick Mauer noted in an article for HR Focus, statistics show that many organizational change efforts fail. For example, 50 percent of quality improvement programs fail to meet their goals, and 30 percent of process reengineering efforts are unsuccessful. The most common reason that change efforts fail is that they encounter resistance from employees. Change appears threatening to many people, which makes it difficult to gain their support and commitment to implementing changes. Consequently, the ability to manage change effectively is a highly sought-after skill in managers. Companies need people who can contribute positively to their inevitable change efforts.

SPECTRUM OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

• AUTOMATION: Using technology to perform tasks efficiently / effectively
• RATIONALIZATION OF PROCEDURES: Streamline SOPs; eliminate bottlenecks
• BUSINESS REENGINEERING: Radical redesign of processes to improve cost, quality, service; maximize benefits of technology
• PARADIGM SHIFT: A new perspective on things.
:Is a complete mental model of how a complex system functions.

:Involves rethinking the nature of business, the organization; a complete reconception of how the system should function.

Areas of Organizational Change
Bateman and Zeithaml identified four major areas of organizational change: strategy, technology, structure, and people. All four areas are related, and companies often must institute changes in the other areas when they attempt to change one area. The first area, strategy changes, can take place on a large scale—for example, when a company shifts its resources to enter a new line of business—or on a small scale—for example, when a company makes productivity improvements in order to reduce costs. There are three basic stages for a company making a strategic change:1) realizing that the current strategy is no longer suitable for the company's situation; 2) establishing a vision for the company's future direction; and 3) implementing the change and setting up new systems to support it.
Technological changes are often introduced as components of larger strategic changes, although they sometimes take place on their own. An important aspect of changing technology is determining who in the organization will be threatened by the change. To be successful, a technology change must be incorporated into the company's overall systems, and a management structure must be created to support it. Structural changes can also occur due to strategic changes—as in the case where a company decides to acquire another business and must integrate it—as well as due to operational changes or changes in managerial style. For example, a company that wished to implement more participative decision making might need to change its hierarchical structure.
People changes can become necessary due to other changes, or sometimes companies simply seek to change workers' attitudes and behaviors in order to increase their effectiveness. "Attempting a strategic change, introducing a new technology, and other changes in the work environment may affect people's attitudes (sometimes in a negative way), " Bateman and Zeithaml wrote. "But management frequently initiates programs with a conscious goal of directly and positively changing the people themselves." In any case, people changes can be the most difficult and important part of the overall change process. The science of organization development was created to deal with changing people on the job through techniques such as education and training, team building, and career planning.

Resistance to Change
A manager trying to implement a change, no matter how small, should expect to encounter some resistance from within the organization. Resistance to change is a normal reaction from people who have become accustomed to a certain way of doing things. Of course, certain situations or tactics can increase resistance. "Individuals, groups, and organizations must be motivated to change. But if people perceive no performance gap or if they consider the gap un-important, they will not have this motivation. Moreover, they will resist changes that others try to introduce, " Bateman and Zeithaml explained.
The authors outlined a number of common reasons that people tend to resist change. These include: inertia, or the tendency of people to become comfortable with the status quo; timing, as when change efforts are introduced at a time when workers are busy or have a bad relationship with management; surprise, because people's reflex is to resist when they must deal with a sudden, radical change; or peer pressure, which may cause a group to resist due to anti-management feelings even if individual members do not oppose the change. Resistance can also grow out of people's perceptions of how the change will affect them personally. They may resist because they fear that they will lose their jobs or their status, because they do not understand the purpose of the change, or simply because they have a different perspective on the change than management.
Fortunately, Bateman and Zeithaml noted, there are a number of steps managers can take to help overcome resistance to change. One proven method is education and communication. Employees can be informed about both the nature of the change and the logic behind it before it takes place through reports, memos, group presentations, or individual discussions. Another important component of overcoming resistance is inviting employee participation and involvement in both the design and implementation phases of the change effort. "People who are involved in decisions understand them better and are more committed to them, " Bateman and Zeithaml explained. Another possible approach to managing resistance to change is through facilitation and support. Managers should be sure to provide employees with the resources they need to make the change, be supportive of their efforts, listen to their problems with empathy, and accept that their performance level may drop initially.
Some companies manage to overcome resistance to change through negotiation and rewards. They offer employees concrete incentives to ensure their cooperation. Other companies resort to manipulation, or using subtle tactics such as giving a resistance leader a prominent position in the change effort. A final option is coercion, which involves punishing people who resist or using force to ensure their cooperation. Although this method can be useful when speed is of the essence, it can have lingering negative effects on the company. Of course, no method is appropriate to every situation, and a number of different methods may be combined as needed. As Bateman and Zeithaml stated, "Effective change managers are familiar with the various approaches and capable of flexibly applying them according to the situation."

WHAT IS THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHANGE AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT ?
Organizational change is about people changing. Organizational change, then, is a highly complex process that must take into account how people respond psychologically when asked to make major changes at work. Their reactions inevitably vary. While some people embrace change, others will resist it Ð sometimes passively, giving the impression that they support it. A small number of people are energized by change, but many others feel threatened and anxious. This is particularly true if, under the change initiative, people may be transferred to new positions or work sites or even lose their jobs. The human side of change is frequently ignored or handled inadequately despite managers’ best intentions or their intellectual understanding of how difficult change is. Recognizing the pain and insecurity that change can cause in the workplace is not enough; managers must devise ways for responding effectively to these feelings. This may involve engaging employees more actively in change efforts, communicating with them more frequently and comprehensively about new developments, creating a forum for them to vent their frustrations and fears, or simply maintaining an "open door" environment, where employees can approach their managers individually to discuss concerns.

Amongst the spectrum of organizational change identified above, the most radical type of change is automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts. Yes, all of these fields can be treated as a major change in an organization. As what I have read from the article written by Jack Welch & Suzy Welch in the Principles of Organizational Change, “The problem is that people hate it when their bosses announce a “transformation initiative”.” And it is merely true; there is really a resistance in every act of change. And the vital factor of this change is people, the ones that will apply the change.

References:
http://www.zturk.com/edu/zagreb/podiplomski/slides/02-1-short-IT-strategies.pdf
http://www.answers.com/topic/managing-organizational-change
http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/publications/internal/organizational_change_primer.pdf
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/pf/17334-principles-of-organizational-change.html

steps in order to expedite the implementation of the IS Plan

2009-12-17T03:38:00.000-08:00

You were invited by the university president to prepare an IS plan for the university, discuss what are the steps in order to expedite the implementation of the IS Plan. (at least 5000 words)

An Implementation Plan is a detailed project management tool for a specific policy measure or package of measures, designed to assist agencies to manage and monitor implementation effectively. These are intended to be scalable and flexible, reflecting the degree of urgency, innovation, complexity and/or sensitivity associated with the particular policy measure. Agencies are expected to exercise judgment in this area; however, the level of detail should be sufficient to enable the agency to effectively manage the implementation of a policy measure.
Implementation plans should be:
• succinct, but not to the point that important information is buried
• jargon free – they should be capable of being understood by everyone using them
• based on a sound programme logic, presenting a clear line of sight from the original proposal and the government’s expectations, to the inputs and how they will contribute to the achievement of those expectations; the outputs to be delivered; why and how those outputs are expected to deliver the outcomes sought, and the assumptions made about those links; and how this delivery chain and its supporting assumptions will be evaluated
• clear on timeframes and project phases, especially where there are interdependencies with other programmes or measures or critical requirements such as the passage of legislation or negotiations with the States and Territories
• clear on the decision pathways forward – often both the objectives and the means to achieving those objectives are uncertain. Implementation plans need to recognise the unknowns as well as the known’s, and explain how and when the unknowns will be addressed.

We all know that planning is a critical phase in the adoption of technology initiatives that affect not just the students and the teachers but also an entire community (wikibook Technology Planning: the educator's guide - Implementation plan and timeline, 2008). November, Staudt, Costello, and Lynne (1996) contended that an effective technology plan is based on the shared vision of educators, parents, community members, and business leaders who have technological expertise. They also suggested that in order for a technology plan to be successful, it must promote meaningful learning and collaboration, provide for the needed professional development and support, and respond flexibly to change. According to Whitehead, Jensen, and Boschee (2003), most school administrators know that computers and advanced-information technologies are touching the lives of students at school and at home. They suggested the following important factors that must be addressed in a technology plan.

Guiding Questions for Implementation Plan
How Will You Use Technology to Support Yo u r Vision of Learning?
Technology lends itself well to learning and instruction (Massachusetts Software Council, 1994) because it is a powerful tool that, when properly implemented, improves student learning and achievement. However, teachers have little incentive to tackle the technical and scheduling problems associated with technology unless they have a clear idea of how it can improve teaching and learning (Means, Blando, Olson, Middleton, Morocco, Remz, & Zorfass, 1993). Exactly which educational goals a technology plan should address and attempt to accomplish must be determined before the technology plan is implemented (Holmes & Rawitsch, 1993). Technology should not drive educational decisions or learning. Rather, decision making should be based on the learning and teaching needs of the student. Technology cannot prescribe for a teacher which students should use the technology, how often it should be used, or how to integrate technology into existing instructional practices. Unless teachers start out with specific technology goals that support their vision of learning, technology will most likely be used to reinforce the status quo (Cohen, 1988; Cuban, 1986). There is evidence that when learning and technology goals are not decided upon before technology implementation, technology can become a drain on resources and add to the burdens of teachers who are already trying to do too much (Piele, 1989). This problem can be avoided by formulating a vision for learning that connects to educational goals, values, and objectives for technology use. Once the stakeholders involved understand the vision and see how technology will make their lives better, they are likely to become more open to technology planning and implementation. The following questions should be addressed when planning how to use technology to support a vision of learning.

• How will technology be used to provide and support a challenging curriculum through engaging instructional practices (e.g., collaborative learning, problem-based learning, problem solving, critical thinking, constructivist classrooms, project-based learning, and so on)?
Consider:
 Learning tasks that are authentic, challenging, and multidisciplinary
 Assessments that are performance-based, generative, seamless and ongoing, and equitable.
 Instructional models that are interactive and generative
 Learning contexts that are collaborative, knowledge building, and Empathetic.
 Grouping strategies that are flexible, equitable, and heterogeneous
 Teacher roles as facilitators, guides, colearners, and coinvestigators
 Student roles as explorers, cognitive apprentices, teachers, and producers

• What educational technology skills will be a part of your curriculum and how will teaching them to students and staff enhance and support your broader instructional goals?
• How will technology be used to support an articulated prekindergarten to adult learning program for all students?
• How will technology be used to support changes in the roles and responsibilities of students, teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and others in order to achieve your vision?
• How will technology be used to support organizational and governance structures that are consistent with your vision of learning?
• How will technology be used to support and provide meaningful professional development experiences for staff?
• How will technology be used to support your school’s accountability and assessment system?
• How will technology be used to support positive home-school-community collaborations?
• How will technology be used to support the provision of comprehensive services (e.g., school-based, school-linked health and social services)?
•
Developing a Supportive Infrastructure
The infrastructure consists of two parts: human resources—which deals with professional learning and support—and technology—which deals with hardware, software, and facilities. With technological change occurring at a rapid pace, purchasers of new technology sometimes feel hard pressed to keep up (Fine, 1991). School districts, due to limited budgets and technical expertise, have a difficult time choosing and buying technology. Often they lack adequate information about the newest technologies and how to use them; or they do not take into account the level of training and staff development needed to use the technology. The key to technology planning is to make informed decisions. Without good information about the nuts and bolts of technology (i.e., the hardware and software) planners are at a disadvantage. The best way to overcome this problem is to take a broad view of technology and educate planners and staff about current and emerging technologies and their benefits and then realize that implementing technology is not a one-time thing but an ongoing and continuous process that requires a supportive infrastructure that is flexible enough to deal with the rapid pace of technological change. The following questions should be addressed when planning for a supportive infrastructure:

Professional Development,Training,Technical Support
• How will you find out what skills your staff and students currently have and what skills they will need to fulfill your plan’s objectives?
• How will you design and implement a professional development and training strategy that meets the needs of your staff?
• How will you use technology to provide professional development, training, and ongoing technical support, and to support teachers as they integrate technology into the curriculum?
• Who will be responsible for ensuring and coordinating professional development?
• Who will be responsible for providing technical assistance and support?
• How will you build technical support capacity within your staff so that equipment will be maintained and kept reliable?
• What are your contingencies for providing just-in-time services when the technology breaks down?

Networking, Hardware, Software, Facilities
• What level of networking will be required to support your vision of learning?
• What hardware specifications are needed to support your vision of learning?
• How will you deal with obsolescence, maintenance, and amortization?
• How will you make use of existing technology?
• What software is required to support your vision of learning?
• How will software be reviewed and purchased?
• What building facilities exist or are needed, and what modifications must be made to support your vision of learning?
• How will you implement, maintain, and sustain the equipment, software, and the network for extended periods, and who will be responsible?

Garnering Public Support
Public support is essential to ensure the success and longevity of planning implementation. The following questions should be addressed when developing strategies to garner public support:

• What kinds and levels of public support are necessary to make the implementation of your technology plan successful and sustainable?
• What public relations activities will you engage in to promote the effective long-term implementation of your technology plan?
• How will you create opportunities for school staff and the community to share information in order to foster positive relationships?
• How will you garner support from community and business leadership, for example, in long-term public and private partnerships?
• How will you connect and interact with related organizations (museums, libraries, adult literacy programs, higher education, community-based organizations, and so on) to improve student learning?
• How will you leverage investments (e.g., provide training and support for parents and community members) to provide technology access and service to the wider community?
• What other human and community resources exist, including businesses and libraries, to support the plan?
• What funding policies and opportunities exist for implementing your plan?
• How and when will you report results to stakeholders?

Implementing Your Plan
Many planners believe their job is complete after a plan is written, but in actuality it has only begun. Awritten technology plan has direction and long-term technology goals. However, for each new technology introduced to an organization, there will be stages of implementation that include resource development (budget), evaluation, selection, installation, training, pilot projects, mini-implementations, and, finally, full implementation. These stages should all be reflected in a technology plan. It is also important to remember not to judge technology as ineffective when it is not implemented according to the plan (Holmes & Rawitsch, 1993). Flexibility, patience, and adaptability are essential for any kind of change process and certainly for implementing technology. The following questions should be addressed when planning the implementation of your plan:

• What is the timeline for meeting the goals of your plan?
• Who is responsible for achieving milestones on the timelines?
• What professional development strategies will you use?
• How will you provide time for ongoing staff development, including time to practice and learn new technologies?
• What is your plan for networking, acquiring hardware and software, and updating the facility?
• How will you deal with the rapid changes in technology?
• What funding is available currently?
• How will funding be provided over the life of the plan?
• How will you coordinate and leverage a variety of funding resources to support your plan?
• How will you deal with contingencies such as changes in leadership and changes in budget?
• How will you determine which program area, discipline, or staff will receive highest priorities for receiving technologies?
• Who (or what group) will be responsible for implementing the t e c h n o l o g y plan?
• What incentives and sanctions will you implement to ensure that everyone achieves a high level of technological proficiency?
• How will you ensure equity of access to technology and engaged learning experiences for all students?
• How will your instructional use of technology address district, state, and federal mandates including curriculum, special needs, minority populations, and equity issues?
• What new policies are needed to support implementation of your plan?

Evaluating the Implementation of Your Technology Plan
Technology implementation is a continuous process that adapts to the organization’s changing circumstances and includes ongoing evaluation. Effective evaluation will force planners to rethink and adapt objectives, priorities, and strategies as implementation proceeds. Continuous evaluation also facilitates making changes if aspects of the plan are not working. Evaluating the implementation of a technology plan can be conducted by various means. Simple observations, both negative and positive, that have been made by students and teachers using the technology are the most helpful. Interviews and informal meetings with both instructors and students can draw out the lessons that both groups have learned from using the technology. A simple written survey can assist in measuring the extent to which the plan has met its original objectives and expected outcomes. The following questions should be addressed when planning the evaluation of the implementation of your technology plan:

• How and when will you evaluate the impact your technology plan implementation has on student performance?
• Who will be responsible for collecting ongoing data to assess the effectiveness of the plan and its implementation?
• What windows of opportunity exist for reviewing the technology plan? (For example, the plan might be reviewed during curriculum review cycles.)
• How will accountability for implementation be assessed?
• How will you assess the level of technological proficiency gained by students, teachers, and staff?
• How will you use technology to evaluate teaching and learning?
• nWhat is the key indicator of success for each component of the plan?
• How will you analyze the effectiveness of disbursement decisions in light of implementation priorities?
• How will you analyze implementation decisions to accommodate for changes as a result of new information and technologies?
• What organizational mechanism will you create that allows changes in the implementation of the technology plan and in the plan itself?

Factors to consider
According to the OECD (2000)it is necessary to have coherent and comprehensive policies for planning and evaluation. They suggested to include the definition of clear objectives, the identification of priorities and strategies, the ability to envisage future scenarios, the design, implementation and evaluation of pilot projects. In addition, they recommended that planning must be rigorous but not inflexible, allowing refinement in the light of experience.
According to November, Staudt, Costello, and Lynne (1996), the first step in developing a technology plan is convening a 'planning committee' or team to review the school improvement plan already in place and research the district needs. They also suggested that an effective team enlists educators but also takes advantage of the expertise of community members and the input of parents and students. They proposed that the planning team becomes responsible for the development of an overall technology plan. Further, they concluded that the team members are responsible for developing a vision for the plan, determine the goals that must be met to reach it, and create steps to implement those goals.
Whitehead, Jensen, and Boschee (2003) stated that planning addresses the who, what, when, where, why, and how aspects of the project. In addition, they assured that quality leadership must prevail at all times. Furthermore, they recommended technology coordinators to envision what the completed project will look like and what it will do for teaching and learning. This underlying mental picture is necessary to provide focus for the entire enterprise. Furthermore, they also advise administrators to consider the possibility of having to modify school practices or even upgrade regulations. This may even result in an adjustment of the school's philosophy and mission statements (wikibook Technology Planning: the educator's guide - Vision, 2008) to align with the technology initiative being proposed. If necessary, the use of surveys allows administrators to probe stakeholder viewpoints. In addition, they emphasized that every person involved must know both sides of the issue. They suggested the use of research that both supports and counters the major assumptions on which the technology project is based. Furthermore, they advised administrators to consider how students and staff members would be affected by the technology changes and develop appropriate support structures like training, changes in classroom layout, inclusion into curricula, and revision of school programs.
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2004), for public education to benefit from the rapidly evolving development of information and communication technology, leaders at every level - school, district and state - must not only supervise, but provide informed, creative and ultimately transformative leadership for systemic change. They recommend districts to invest in leadership development programs to develop a new generation of tech-savvy leaders at every level. Further, they suggested to retool administrator education programs to provide training in technology decision making and organizational change. They also recommended districts to develop partnerships between schools and higher education institutions, in addition to encouraging creative technology partnerships with the business community.
Community Awareness and Support
According to Whitehead, Jensen, & Boschee (2003), community support is necessary during the planning stages of a technology initiative. They contended that neither parents nor community members are likely to be idle bystanders when costly reforms are about to change the way significant portions of children's education are delivered. For this reason, they suggested the schools and districts to evaluate community willingness to fund such initiatives in schools. Further, they proposed to show community members how teachers will adopt technology in the classroom and how it would enhance student learning and achievement. They also advised the institutions to develop guidelines for presenting information to the public under the supervision of a public relations director.
According to the OECD (2000), social participation is essential for the successful development of ICT initiatives in education, the active involvement of the private sector and the local communities being critical. They also stated that much effort has to be expended in strategies that enable communities to take advantage of the new technologies, so that local populations become fully acquainted with their potential.
Student Needs
November, Staudt, Costello, and Lynne (1996) suggested team members to generate a collective vision which supports meaningful engaged learning for all students.
Whitehead, Jensen, and Boschee (2003) suggested that in any technology initiative, the needs of the students must be placed above any other factor being considered. It is very common to see cases in which administrators and committee members make decisions about technology that really don't acknowledge the needs of the people who will use it.
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2004), there has been significant growth in organized online instruction (e-learning) and "virtual" schools, making it possible for students at all levels to receive high quality supplemental or full courses of instruction personalized to their needs. They also stated that traditional schools are turning to these services to expand opportunities and choices for students and professional development for teachers.
Teaching and Learning
According to Whitehead, Jensen, and Boschee (2003), teaching and learning must be considered simultaneously when deciding how technology will be brought into the classroom. They suggested to have a 'purpose' that reflects teaching and learning when bringing technologies into the school. In addition, they recommended to evaluate hardware purchases and coordinate them to student needs. Hence, features like user-friendliness, dependability and speed need to be taken into account. With respect to software, they advise technology coordinators to carefully determine which programs will best complement, support, and expand classroom teaching and learning. It is important to flatten the learning curve by using user-friendly applications to help ensure that programs will be used by teachers and students. With respect to the teachers, they recommended that dialogues need to be established to evaluate classroom space and decide on computer locations. In addition, they requested technology coordinators to determine the amount of use teachers make of the new technology.
November, Staudt, Costello, and Lynne (1996) recommended the technology planning team to encourage teachers to seek opportunities to work in teams in order to design technology-supported projects. They also suggested the team to develop objectives that describe appropriate technology goals for students at each grade level. They contended that instead of emphasizing higher order thinking skills, complex problem solving, and cognitive research, sometimes the technology may be used to teach merely the same old curriculum. They believe that using technology effectively in education requires shifting the focus from teaching to active learning. Further, they suggested teachers to develop proficiency in technology through not only in-service professional development activities but also through collegial support.
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2004), a perennial problem for schools, teachers and students is that textbooks are increasingly expensive, quickly outdated and physically cumbersome. They suggested that a move from reliance on textbooks to the use of multimedia or online information (digital content) offers many advantages, including cost savings, increased efficiency, improved accessibility, and enhancing learning opportunities in a format that engages today's web-savvy students. For this reason, they encouraged ubiquitous access to computers and connectivity for school children. They also requested to consider the cost and benefits of online content, aligned with rigorous state academic standards, as part of a systemic approach to creating resources for students to customize learning to their individual needs.
Staff Development
Whitehead, Jensen, & Boschee (2003) considered staff development to be one of the most important aspects of the initiative. In order to succeed in staff development efforts, they also suggested administrators to formulate detailed plans for staff development and implementation which should be developed well in advance of the actual implementation of technology in the classrooms. They recommended the appointment of the person in charge of leading staff development programs as well as evaluating each stage of the implementation based on a detailed working schedule. They emphasized the importance of pertinent staff development activities as well as in-house technical consultants who would help teachers promptly.
November, Staudt, Costello, and Lynne (1996) suggested that staff development activities should help teachers become comfortable and proficient with the technology and give them the opportunity to devise ways to use it in their classrooms. They also contended that the uniqueness of each teacher and class must be acknowledged and used to build specific teaching strategies to meet the goals outlined in the technology plan.
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2004), every teacher should have the opportunity to take online learning courses. In addition, they suggested that institutions ought to ensure that every teacher knows how to use data to personalize instruction. This is marked by the ability to interpret data to understand student progress and challenges, drive daily decisions and design instructional interventions to customize instruction for every student's unique needs.
Financial Management
is important to understand that most determinations about finance are generally dealt by the people in top management positions. Nonetheless, the impact of these decisions are critical to the success of the project. Whitehead, Jensen, & Boschee (2003) contended that it was important to determine the financial resources for in-house projects and equipment. They also suggested to itemize equipment resources owned by the school or district with the idea of reducing unnecessary duplication in new purchases. Further, they recommended the institution to appoint someone who will be responsible for handling the recommended purchases locally or from a national distribution company. They suggested that a thorough review of all costs needs to be made to ensure the technology project is affordable in all of its phases. Finally, they suggested the canvassing of civic organizations for financial or equipment support.
According to November, Staudt, Costello, and Lynne (1996), technology is changing so quickly that it is impossible to know what advances will be available in five years. They proposed that plans ought to be reviewed each year during the budget process to make sure the district is purchasing the most current equipment or to take advantage of new and lower cost technology. They also proposed the development of strategies to meet the funding challenge which also included the investigation of federal, state, and other grant opportunities and funding sources for educational technology.
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2004), educational institutions ought to consider a systemic restructuring of budgets to realize efficiencies, cost savings and reallocation. This can include reallocations in expenditures on textbooks, instructional supplies, space and computer labs. In addition, they recommended to consider leasing with 3-5 year refresh cycles. Finally, they proposed the creation of a technology innovation fund to carry funds over yearly budget cycles.
Infrastructure
Whitehead, Jensen, & Boschee (2003) related infrastructure to the basic facilities and the mechanical and electrical installations found in a school. They contended that it is important to decide how existing equipment and infrastructure can be integrated into the project. They suggested that network wiring needs to accommodate the instructional configuration required by teachers. Further, they recommend getting assistance from professionals to handle remodeling or other infrastructure necessities. People with greater experience can provide a better insight on the space and remodeling required to ready the infrastructure for implementation. Finally, they suggested technology coordinators to visit other schools to evaluate successful programs for structural adaptations that could be taken into account using unique ideas to solve local problems.
According to OECD (2000), it is essential to have a sound and adequate telecommunication and computer network infrastructure that can support and deliver diverse educational models.
Evaluation and Assessment
Whitehead, Jensen, & Boschee (2003) concluded that the work of leaders is not done when computers or other learning technologies are networked in schools and classrooms. Contrary to what is a common belief, they contended that a very important part of the work remains in the form of program evaluation and assessment. For this reason, they recommended the appointment of someone who would evaluate the overall project following a plan with dates. In addition, they suggested that an outline be presented of how changes or revisions will be handled. In order to succeed, they advised reviewers to use the most appropriate evaluation and assessment methods available for sharing information with the community. According to November, Staudt, Costello, and Lynne (1996), educators, parents, and community members are more likely to support technology if they are able to see proof of its value in helping students learn. They also contended that it is important to review and update the technology plan at least once a year to provide evaluation of its usefulness.
According to the U.S. Department of Education (2004), integrated, interoperable data systems are the key to better allocation of resources, greater management efficiency, and online and technology-based assessments of student performance that empower educators to transform teaching and personalize instruction. They also recommended the use of data from both administrative and instructional systems to understand relationships between decisions, allocation of resources and student achievement. Finally, they suggested to use assessment results to inform and differentiate instruction for every child.

Conclusions
Administrative involvement and leadership are crucial to the technology planning and implementation process. If organizational leaders do not understand and support the technology plan, it will be difficult to implement and can be either intentionally or inadvertently sabotaged. Many people perceive that without a technology champion or advocate who will take responsibility for promoting the planning process and implementing the plan, there will be no major push to make technology an integrated part of the organization. If the plan relies on only one person, however, it will almost certainly be unsuccessful. Implementation is best when tasks and duties are shared and delegated, and when individuals across the organization buy into the use of technology and the planning process. Effective implementation of technology requires a change in culture—one that encourages people to think differently about the teaching and learning processes and the possibilities for technology use. Training and positive role modeling are important for helping to facilitate the change in attitudes and culture. Also, attention to internal and external marketing (garnering support) can help to change attitudes and build enthusiasm and participation. This kind of marketing should be based upon showing how technology will enhance the organization’s purpose and goals and solve organizational and educational problems.
Flexibility is also a key ingredient of the technology planning process. Planners should set priorities, follow a timeline, and continue to evaluate progress. Yet, day-to-day demands will intervene, priorities will change, and resource availability is likely to be inconsistent. It is therefore important to be flexible, to expect the unexpected, and yet to remain committed to pushing forward the technology planning and implementation process.

Finally, while financial resources are likely to be scarce, the plan should not be budget driven. Rather, the learning vision and organizational, technological ,and educational objectives should drive the plan. Budgeting activities should complement and follow the planning process. They are more likely to be successful when an organization knows clearly where it is headed in terms of technology use and has a written plan outlining that use. The familiar maxim holds true for technology planning: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re likely to end up somewhere else” and conversely: “If you know where you’re going, you’re likely to get there much more quickly.”

References:
http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/guidepdf/guide.pdf
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Directing_Technology/Plan

(aSsigN nO.9) iNformAtiOn enviRoNment

2009-10-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the term working environment is an animation studio., Even before when I was just a kid I was always fascinated on how the animation s where made, on how the drawings move, and especially on the machines that they used to create the incredible works of art. Since I don’t even know what a computer is before and how it contributed to the animation industry, eventually I gave up with those thoughts.

In the past years of my college life and even at present, slowly, I became aware about the involvement of the computers in the development of the animation industry. The common software that the animation companies used in their products where introduced to me. Software like adobe multimedia studio, toon boom, audio converters and video edit pro are some of them. These software were not directly introduced to me and where not even brought up in class. I came up with these software when we were task to make different systems. These applications were used especially when it comes to the design part of the system. It may be not that important but still the design of the system offers some additional points.

Before I put the concentration of my topic on what my position will be most likely in this environment and on what I could contribute to its growth, let me have a little background about this working environment.

Cave paintings

The earliest examples derive from still drawings, which can be found in Palaeolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple sets of legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.

Pottery of Persia

A 5,200-year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta has five images painted along the sides. It shows phases of a goat leaping up to a tree to take a pear. However, since no equipment existed to show the images in motion, such a series of images cannot be called animation in a true sense of the word.

Egyptian murals

An Egyptian mural, approximately 4000 years old, shows wrestlers in action. Even though this may appear similar to a series of animation drawings, there was no way of viewing the images in motion. It does, however, indicate the artist's intention of depicting motion.

Zoetrope

A zoetrope is a device which creates the image of a moving picture. The earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the prolific inventor Ting Huan (丁緩). Driven by convection Ting Huan's device hung over a lamp. The rising air turned vanes at the top from which were hung translucent paper or mica panels. Pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device is spun at the right speed.

The modern zoetrope contraption was produced in 1834 by William George Horner. The device is basically a cylinder with vertical slits around the sides. Around the inside edge of the cylinder there are a series of pictures on the opposite side to the slits. As the cylinder is spun, the user then looks through the slits producing the illusion of motion. No one thought this small device would be the initial beginnings for the animation world to come. As a matter a fact, in present day beginning animation classes, the Zoetrope is still being used to illustrate early concepts of animation.

Leonardo shoulder study (ca. 1510)

Seven drawings by Leonardo da Vinci extending over two folios in the Windsor Collection, Anatomical Studies of the Muscles of the Neck, Shoulder, Chest, and Arm, show detailed drawings of the upper body (with a less-detailed facial image), illustrating the changes as the torso turns from profile to frontal position and the forearm extends.

The magic lantern

The magic lantern is the predecessor of the modern day projector. It consisted of a translucent oil painting and a simple lamp. When put together in a darkened room, the image would appear larger on a flat surface. Athanasius Kircher spoke about this originating from China in the 16th century. Some slides for the lanterns contained parts that could be mechanically actuated to present limited movement on the screen.

Thaumatrope (1824)

A thaumatrope was a simple toy used in the Victorian era. It was a small circular disk or card with two different pictures on each side that was attached to a piece of string running through the centre. When the strings were twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image. The creator of this invention may have been either John Ayrton Paris or Charles Babbage.

Phenakistoscope (1831)

A phenakistoscope disc by Eadweard Muybridge (1893).
The phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the predecessor of the zoetrope. It was invented in 1831 simultaneously by the Belgian Joseph Plateau and the Austrian Simon von Stampfer.

Praxinoscope (1877)

The praxinoscope, invented by French scientist Charles-Émile Reynaud, was a more sophisticated version of the zoetrope. It used the same basic mechanism of a strip of images placed on the inside of a spinning cylinder, but instead of viewing it through slits, it was viewed in a series of small, stationary mirrors around the inside of the cylinder, so that the animation would stay in place, and provide a clearer image and better quality. Reynaud also developed a larger version of the praxinoscope that could be projected onto a screen, called the Théâtre Optique.

Flip book (1868)

The first flip book was patented in 1868 by a John Barns Linnet. Flip books were yet another development that brought us closer to modern animation. Like the Zoetrope, the Flip Book creates the illusion of motion. A set of sequential pictures flipped at a high speed creates this effect. The Mutoscope (1894) is basically a flip book in a box with a crank handle to flip the pages.

Stop motion

Stop motion is used for many animation productions using physical objects rather than images of people, as with traditional animation. An object will be photographed, moved slightly, and then photographed again. When the pictures are played back in normal speed the object will appear to move by itself. This process is used for many productions, for example, clay animations such as Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, as well as animated movies which use poseable figures, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Sometimes even objects are used, such as with the films of Jan Švankmajer.

Stop motion animation was also commonly used for special effects work in many live-action films, such as the 1933 version of King Kong and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

CGI animation

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) changed animated films forever. The first film done completely in CGI was Toy Story, produced by Pixar. The process of CGI animation is still very tedious and similar in that sense to traditional animation, and it still adheres to many of the same principles.

A principal difference of CGI Animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modeling, almost like virtual version of stop-motion, though a form of animation that combines the two worlds can be considered to be computer aided animation but on 2D computer drawing (which can be considered close to traditional drawing and sometimes based on it).

Animated humans

Most CGI created films are based on animal characters, monsters, machines or cartoon-like humans. Animation studios are now trying to develop ways of creating realistic-looking humans. Films that have attempted this include Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001, Final Fantasy: Advent Children in 2005, The Polar Express in 2004, and Beowulf in 2007. However, due to the complexity of human body functions, emotions and interactions, this method of animation is rarely used. The more realistic a CG character becomes, the more difficult it is to create the nuances and details of a living person. The creation of hair and clothing that move convincingly with the animated human character is another area of difficulty.

Cel-shaded animation

Main article: Cel-shaded animation
A type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. Cel-shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition to computer graphics, most commonly turning up in console video games. Though the end result of cel-shading has a very simplistic feel like that of hand-drawn animation, the process is complex. The name comes from the clear sheets of acetate, called cels, that are painted on for use in traditional 2D animation. It may be considered a "2.5D" form of animation. True real-time cel-shading was first introduced in 2000 by Sega's Jet Set Radio for their Dreamcast console. Besides video games, a number of anime have also used this style of animation, such as Freedom Project in 2006.

Film animation

The history of film animation began in the 1890s with the earliest days of silent films and continues through the present day. The first animated film was created by Charles-Émile Reynaud, inventor of the praxinoscope, an animation system using loops of 12 pictures. On October 28, 1892 at Musée Grévin in Paris, France he exhibited animations consisting of loops of about 500 frames, using his Théâtre Optique system - similar in principle to a modern film projector.

The first animated work on standard picture film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) by J. Stuart Blackton. It features a cartoonist drawing faces on a chalkboard, and the faces apparently coming to life.

Fantasmagorie, by the French director Émile Cohl (also called Émile Courtet), is also noteworthy. It was screened for the first time on August 17, 1908 at Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris. Émile Courtet later went to Fort Lee, New Jersey near New York City in 1912, where he worked for French studio Éclair and spread its technique in the US.

The first puppet-animated film was The Beautiful Lukanida (1912) by the Russian-born (ethnically Polish) director Wladyslaw Starewicz (Ladislas Starevich).

The first animated feature film was El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. He also directed two other animated feature films, including 1931's Peludopolis, the first to use synchronized sound. None of these, however, survive to the present day. The earliest-surviving animated feature, which used colour-tinted scenes, is the silhouette-animated Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) directed by German Lotte Reiniger and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch. Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), often considered to be the first animated feature when in fact at least eight were previously released. However, Snow White was the first to become successful and well-known within the English-speaking world.

The first animation to use the full, three-color Technicolor method was Flowers and Trees (1932) made by Disney Studios which won an academy award for this work.

The first Japanese-made anime film was the propaganda film Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (桃太郎海の神兵) by the Japanese director Mitsuyo Seo. The film, shown in 1945, was ordered to be made to support the war by the Japanese Naval Ministry. The film's song AIEUO no Uta (アイウエオの歌) was later used in Osamu Tezuka's anime series Kimba the White Lion. Originally thought to have been destroyed during the American occupation, a negative copy survived and the film is now available in Japan on VHS.

The real deal in animation is entertainment. For years a lot of people in this field have dedicated their time and effort to develop this industry and as long as people continue to seek fun and happiness this business will eventually grow.

Base on my current learning and experiences I won’t be able to fit in to any job specification that any position in this business will require, but sooner or later if I will focus my attention in this craft I would be fitted to be a cinematic director/editor. I have a little talent in drawing but as an IT practitioner I would prefer to be in the editing department in the company. It would be very interesting to make astonishing effects that would add more life in the animation, to be the one to arrange the drawings and the scenes using an animation tool to make it more understandable and concise, to fill the drawings with colors and lighting effects that would definitely give it a boost in terms of attraction and fun for the viewers and most important of above all is to be the one to integrate the drawings with the sound effects and music. I came up to the idea that the latter is the most important one because music and audio is the soul of the animation. It gives the animation a great sense of reality and it makes it a lot more fun. The audio will also play a very important role for the animation to have a story. It will give the animation the spirit, the impact, and the ability to attract more viewers and patrons through funny and interesting dialogues
I have browsed the internet regarding the job description of this job and the qualifications that it requires. These are the results and the links to where I found these facts.

JOB DESCRIPTION: CINEMATIC DIRECTOR (38 STUDIOS)

Would you like to become part of the team that includes the creative visionaries behind Drizzt Do’Urden and Spawn? 38 Studios is currently seeking an experienced Cinematics Director to join our art department. This is a full-time time position with competitive salary, full benefits and 401k, and the chance to be part of online gaming history!

Position Responsibilities

• Creation of cinematic sequences to the highest quality standards for interactive gaming; this includes both story driven cinematics and elements of game play that require cinematic presentation.
• Overseeing all creative aspects of cinematic production, including the direction of the storyboarding process, workload estimates, blocking direction, and final cinematic presentation.
• Produce art that adheres to a unified studio art vision.
• Collaborate closely with Art Director, Animation Lead, Character Lead, Environment Lead, Design Department and Marketing Department to achieve the best possible fusion of storytelling and aesthetics.
• Establish cinematic production pipeline, protocols, and tools.
• Develop Cinematic Department staff, set and maintain schedules.
• Identify and address risks in the production pipeline.
• Work in conjunction with established pipelines and procedures for game art production, and help to identify additional processes and art tools necessary to do so efficiently.
• Promote a productive and energetic culture within the team and studio.

Knowledge, skills & ability requirements

• Knowledge:

Strong understanding of cinematic principles (camera direction, editing, lens, etc.). Knowledge and experience with a variety of 2D and 3D software packages, including expert knowledge of Photoshop, Maya, and Unreal. Skill in 3DStudio Max will be considered. Range of interests in cinematic style from live action to CG to 2D animation, etc. Must be able to demonstrate a strong, hands-on knowledge of art creation tools and production experience.

• Competencies:

Exceptional artistic abilities, ideally across a variety of media, both traditional and electronic. Animation and storyboarding skills a plus. Strong time management and organization skills with a proven ability to prioritize, solve problems, and meet deadlines. Able to collaborate with other game team leads in a deadline-driven environment. Effective self-tasker. Firm understanding of art production pipelines, ideally within a game development environment. Excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Experience:

Expected minimum 4 to 6 years of applicable industry experience with at least two completed products as an Artist and one completed product as a Lead.

LINK: http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=18621&accountno=210

Job Title : Cinematic Designer

Job Category Artists Location Dallas, Texas, Texas, United States, North America Job Description This Dallas based independent development studio has made a name for itself creating award winning, blockbuster interactive entertainment for all major platforms. By employing the industry's most talented people and using proven production methods they consistently create games that are technologically advanced, creative, and above all, fun to play. They offer excellent benefits, generous profit sharing, and the opportunity to settle in a fun, affordable city.

They are currently seeking a cinematic designer and/or director to work on an upcoming high-profile sci-fi action title currently in development.

Required Skills:

- Understanding of cinematic principles and techniques for visual storytelling
- Be passionate about games and digital media
- Be able to follow direction and work well with a team

Desired Skills:

- Film school or amateur/professional film experience
- Familiarity with cinematic cut-scene setups and animation
- Familiarity with UnrealEd, Hammer/Worldcraft, and/or Q3Radiant
- Ability to design and/or draw rough storyboards
- Professional or published work is a plus Salary $HIGH Date posted 14/09/2007 Recruiter This job is advertised on behalf of Datascope USA using their internal reference DS12119.
LINK: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/jobs/datascope-usa/texas/united-states/north-america/cinematic-designer-id13856
JOB PROFILE: CINEMATIC ARTIST
Job Category Artists
Skills Required 3D modeller, Animator, Character Artist
Location Alberta, Canada, North America
Job Description Cinematic Animators
Our Client has created some of the world's best-selling and award-winning title. They are hard at work on many projects including an epic fantasy RPG and unannounced projects including a highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game.

Their games have continually achieved critical and commercial success. All of their published titles are in the top 5% highest rated games. Today our client has more than 400 staff at its two locations and continues to grow. They have sold over 20 million games (including engine licenses) in the past ten years!

Our client is in search of Cinematic/Character Animators to enhance their animation team. Successful candidates must have at least 3 years experience in character animation for games, and a strong understanding of the fundamentals of traditional animation. Candidates must also have experience with game cinematics; creating storyboards, recording mo-cap, and putting final polish into a cinematic.

Education and Experience

- Post secondary program in computer generated animation is preferred.

- At least 3 years of experience in computer generated animation.

- 3+ years of game development experience would be an asset.

- In-depth technical knowledge of 3D Studio Max would be an asset.

- Experience with mo-cap would be an asset.

Skills / Abilities / Knowledge / Personal Suitability

- An understanding of character creation (model, texture, rig) is preferred.

- Complete knowledge of 3DSMAX's animation tools is required.

- Knowledge of Motion Builder and Motion Capture animation an asset.

- Must be able to work in team environments, and be able to share knowledge.

- Insight into animation pipeline is an asset.

- An understanding of human and animal anatomy is an asset.

- Leadership skills are an asset.

- Passion for animation and gaming is required.

- The ability to take initiative is required.

Duties

- Animate dynamic, believable and appealing characters for both in-game and cut scene environments.

- Be able to take responsibility for an animation or cinematic, seeing it through to completion, in a timely manner, to the highest quality possible.

- As a team player, you must be able to take direction, and both give and receive critiques on animation.

- Clearly communicate your progress to your supervisor, and work with that individual to achieve dynamic, believable, and appealing animation.

Portfolio Requirements

3D portfolio

- Examples of various animations applied to humanoid figures and animal figures

- Examples of cinematic work

- Character rigging examples

2D portfolio (no originals please)

- Storyboarding skills

- Figure drawing

- Color work

This industry has gone far, from the early days of black and white 2d animations to the present digital 3d high definition animations. With regards to what I can help in the development of this industry I would definitely have some great ideas in the future to further enhance my work. But at present I do not have definite suggestions but I have some ideas here that in some point could give the animation business a boost.

1. Realistic approach

Nowadays, animation with the use of the current graphic technologies that are usable, is going to the forefront of reality. I know that the current animations are almost at the verge of their goal but improvement is still possible. I do not know how to do it at present, but with the different experience and learning that I may encounter in the future maybe I will be able to develop a software that will be able to render realistic colors to the drawings and some image editing software that will fix the lines and curves that the artist may have overlooked. I will also give greater attention in the relationship of my animations scenes to its counterpart reality. With more and more developments in technology, sooner or later the concept of reality will definitely be upon the reach of the animation industry.

2. Unique Transitions

As a cinematic director it will be my job to manage and decide on how the scene transitions will work. Base on the animations that I have seen in the past years, their transitions are getting redundant. A common thing is a transition where it fades to black going to another scene or it lightens up. These transitions have been used for decades and are getting overused. Animation must evolve and must always be trendy. It must always give its viewer a new flavor. It must give them something to be excited for, something to look for, and something to make them interested, make them ask for more.

(aSsign nO.8) outSouRcing oR inSouRcing?

2009-10-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

DEFINITION OF TERMS:

OUTSOURCING

FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing

Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources[citation needed]. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour.Out sourcing in the information technology field has two meanings One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. The latter concept might not include development of new applications.

Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider. The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, CAD drafting, customer service, market research, manufacturing, designing, web development, print-to-mail, content writing, ghostwriting and engineering. Offshoring is the type of outsourcing in which the buyer organization belongs to another country.

Outsourcing and offshoring are used interchangeably in public discourse despite important technical differences. Outsourcing involves contracting with a supplier, which may or may not involve some degree of offshoring. Offshoring is the transfer of an organizational function to another country, regardless of whether the work is outsourced or stays within the same corporation/company.

With increasing globalization of outsourcing companies, the distinction between outsourcing and offshoring will become less clear over time. This is evident in the increasing presence of Indian outsourcing companies in the United States and United Kingdom. The globalization of outsourcing operating models has resulted in new terms such as nearshoring, noshoring, and rightshoring that reflect the changing mix of locations. This is seen in the opening of offices and operations centers by Indian companies in the U.S. and UK. A major job that is being outsourced is accounting. They are able to complete tax returns across seas for people in America.

Multisourcing refers to large outsourcing agreements (predominantly IT). Multisourcing is a framework to enable different parts of the client business to be sourced from different suppliers. This requires a governance model that communicates strategy, clearly defines responsibility and has end-to-end integration.

Strategic outsourcing is the organizing arrangement that emerges when firms rely on intermediate markets to provide specialized capabilities that supplement existing capabilities deployed along a firm’s value chain (see Holcomb & Hitt, 2007). Such an arrangement produces value within firms’ supply chains beyond those benefits achieved through cost economies. Intermediate markets that provide specialized capabilities emerge as different industry conditions intensify the partitioning of production. As a result of greater information standardization and simplified coordination, clear administrative demarcations emerge along a value chain. Partitioning of intermediate markets occurs as the coordination of production across a value chain is simplified and as information becomes standardized, making it easier to transfer activities across boundaries.

Due to the complexity of work definition, codifying requirements, pricing, and legal terms and conditions, clients often utilize the advisory services of outsourcing consultants (see sourcing advisory) or outsourcing intermediaries to assist in scoping, decision making, and vendor evaluation.

ACTIVITIES FOR OUTSOURCING

Research & Development

The competitive pressures on firms to bring out new products at an ever rapid pace to meet market needs are increasing. As such, the pressures on the R&D department are increasing. In order to alleviate the pressure, firms have to either increase R&D budgets or find ways to utilize the resources in a more productive way. There are situations when a firm may consider outsourcing some of its R&D work to a contract research organizations or universities. Reasons why a firm could consider outsourcing are:

* new product design does not work
* project time and cost overruns
* loss of key staff
* competitive response
* problems of quality/yield.

The key drivers for R&D outsourcing are emerging mass markets and availability of expertise in the field. In this context, the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, provide huge pools from which to find talent. Both countries produce over 200,000 engineers and science graduates each year. Moreover both countries are low cost sourcing countries. Other strategic drivers for outsourcing R&D are access to expertise and intellectual property, filling gaps in the capabilities of the R&D function, managing risk better, reducing the time to market, and focusing on the core competence or activities of the firm.

CRITICISMS OF OUTSOURCING

Quality Risks

Quality Risk is the propensity for a product or service to be defective, due to operations-related issues. Quality risk in outsourcing is driven by a list of factors. One such factor is opportunism by suppliers due to misaligned incentives between buyer and supplier, information asymmetry, high asset specificity, or high supplier switching costs. Other factors contributing to quality risk in outsourcing are poor buyer-supplier communication, lack of supplier capabilities/resources/capacity, or buyer-supplier contract enforceability. Two main concepts must be considered when considering observability as it related to quality risks in outsourcing: the concepts of testability and criticality.
Quality fade is the deliberate and secretive reduction in the quality of labor in order to widen profit margins. The downward changes in human capital are subtle but progressive, and usually unnoticeable by the out sourcer/customer. The initial interview meets requirements, however, with subsequent support, more and more of the support team are replaced with novice or less experienced workers. India IT shops will continue to reduce the quality of human capital[citation needed], under the pressure of drying up labor supply and upward trend of salary, pushing the quality limits. Such practices are hard to detect, as customers may just simply give up seeking help from the help desk. However, the overall customer satisfaction will be reduced greatly over time[citation needed]. Unless the company constantly conducts customer satisfaction surveys, they may eventually be caught in a surprise of customer churn, and when they find out the root cause, it could be too late. In such cases, it can be hard to dispute the legal contract with the India outsourcing company, as their staff are now trained in the process and the original staff made redundant. In the end, the company that outsources is worse off than before it outsourced its workforce to India.

Public opinion

There is a strong public opinion regarding outsourcing (especially when combined with offshoring) that outsourcing damages a local labor market. Outsourcing is the transfer of the delivery of services which affects both jobs and individuals. It is difficult to dispute that outsourcing has a detrimental effect on individuals who face job disruption and employment insecurity; however, its supporters believe that outsourcing should bring down prices, providing greater economic benefit to all. There are legal protections in the European Union regulations called the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). Labor laws in the United States are not as protective as those in the European Union. [21] On June 26 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much and can no longer rely on consumer spending to drive demand.

Language skills

In the area of call centers end-user-experience is deemed to be of lower quality when a service is outsourced[citation needed]. This is exacerbated when outsourcing is combined with off-shoring to regions where the first language and culture are different. The questionable quality is particularly evident when call centers that service the public are outsourced and offshored.
The public generally find linguistic features such as accents, word use and phraseology different which may make call center agents difficult to understand. The visual clues that are present in face-to-face encounters are missing from the call center interactions and this also may lead to misunderstandings and difficulties.
In addition to language and accent differences, a lack of local social and geographic knowledge is often present, leading to misunderstandings or mis-communications.

Social responsibility

Outsourcing sends jobs to the lower-income areas where work is being outsourced to, which provides jobs in these areas and has a net equalizing effect on the overall distribution of wealth. Some argue that the outsourcing of jobs (particularly off-shore) exploits the lower paid workers. A contrary view is that more people are employed and benefit from paid work. Despite this argument, domestic workers displaced by such equalization are proportionately unable to outsource their own costs of housing, food and transportation.
On the issue of high-skilled labor, such as computer programming, some argue that it is unfair to both the local and off-shore programmers to outsource the work simply because the foreign pay rate is lower. On the other hand, one can argue that paying the higher-rate for local programmers is wasteful, or charity, or simply overpayment. If the end goal of buyers is to pay less for what they buy, and for sellers it is to get a higher price for what they sell, there is nothing automatically unethical about choosing the cheaper of two products, services, or employees.
Social responsibility is also reflected in the costs of benefits provided to workers. Companies outsourcing jobs effectively transfer the cost of retirement and medical benefits to the countries where the services are outsourced. This represents a significant reduction in total cost of labor for the outsourcing company. A side effect of this trend is the reduction in salaries and benefits at home in the occupations most directly impacted by outsourcing.

Quality of service

Quality of service is measured through a service level agreement (SLA) in the outsourcing contract. In poorly defined contracts there is no measure of quality or SLA defined. Even when an SLA exists it may not be to the same level as previously enjoyed. This may be due to the process of implementing proper objective measurement and reporting which is being done for the first time. It may also be lower quality through design to match the lower price.
There are a number of stakeholders who are affected and there is no single view of quality. The CEO may view the lower quality acceptable to meet the business needs at the right price. The retained management team may view quality as slipping compared to what they previously achieved. The end consumer of the service may also receive a change in service that is within agreed SLAs but is still perceived as inadequate. The supplier may view quality in purely meeting the defined SLAs regardless of perception or ability to do better.
Quality in terms of end-user-experience is best measured through customer satisfaction questionnaires which are professionally designed to capture an unbiased view of quality. Surveys can be one of research. This allows quality to be tracked over time and also for corrective action to be identified and taken.

Staff turnover

The staff turnover of employee who originally transferred to the outsourcer is a concern for many companies. Turnover is higher under an outsourcer and key company skills may be lost with retention outside of the control of the company. In outsourcing offshore there is an issue of staff turnover in the outsourcer companies call centers. It is quite normal for such companies to replace its entire workforce each year in a call center. This inhibits the build-up of employee knowledge and keeps quality at a low level.

Company knowledge

Outsourcing could lead to communication problems with transferred employees. For example, before transfer staff have access to broadcast company e-mail informing them of new products, procedures etc. Once in the outsourcing organization the same access may not be available. Also to reduce costs, some outsource employees may not have access to e-mail, but any information which is new is delivered in team meetings.

Qualifications of outsourcers

The outsourcer may replace staff with less qualified people or with people with different non-equivalent qualifications. In the engineering discipline there has been a debate about the number of engineers being produced by the major economies of the United States, India and China. The argument centers around the definition of an engineering graduate and also disputed numbers. The closest comparable numbers of annual graduates of four-year degrees are United States (137,437) India (112,000) and China (351,537).

Failure to deliver business transformation

Business transformation has traditionally been promised by outsourcing suppliers, but they have usually failed to deliver. In a commoditised market where any half-decent service provider can do things cheaper and faster, smart vendors have promised a second wave of benefits that will improve the client’s business outcomes. According to Vinay Couto of Booz & Company “Clients always use the service provider’s ability to achieve transformation as a key selection criterion. It’s always in the top three and sometimes number one.” Often vendors have promised transformation on the basis of wider domain expertise that they didn’t really have, though Couto also says that this is often down to client’s unwillingness to invest in transformation once an outsourcing contract is in place.

INSOURCING

Insourcing is the opposite of outsourcing; that is insourcing (or contracting in) is often defined as the delegation of operations or jobs from production within a business to an internal (but 'stand-alone') entity that specializes in that operation. Insourcing is a business decision that is often made to maintain control of critical production or competencies. An alternate use of the term implies transferring jobs to within the country where the term is used, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility.

Insourcing is widely used in an area such as production to reduce costs of taxes, labor (e.g., American labor is often cheaper than European labor), transportation, etc.

Insourcing at United Parcel Service (UPS) was described in the bestselling book The World Is Flat, by Thomas Friedman.

According to PR Web, insourcing was becoming more common by 2006 as businesses had less than satisfactory experiences with outsourcing (including customer support). Many outsourcing proponents responded to a negative consumer opinion backlash resulting from outsourcing their communications management to vendors who rely on overseas operations.

To those who are concerned that nations may be losing a net amount of jobs due to outsourcing, some point out that insourcing also occurs. According to a study by Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other industrialized countries more jobs are insourced than outsourced. They found that out of all the countries in the world they studied, the U.S. and the U.K. actually have the largest net trade surpluses in business services. Countries with a net deficit in business services include Indonesia, Germany and Ireland.

Insourcing is loosely referred in call centers who are doing the work of the outsourcing companies. Companies that outsource include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Symantec, and Linksys. The callcenters and technicians that are contracted to handle the outsourced work are usually over-seas. Customers may refer to these countries as "India" technical support if they are hard to understand over telecommunications. These insourcing companies were a great way to save money for the outsourcing of work, but quality varies, and poor performance has sometimes harmed the reputations of companies who provide 24/7 customer/technical support.

The Organization for International Investment, a Washington D.C. trade association, uses the term to describe the creation of jobs through foreign direct investment within the United States.

To further have an idea about their difference and on what factors that we must consider to decide whether what to choose from either outsourcing or insourcing, I read these articles and found it full of important points.

FROM: http://www.outsource2india.com/why_india/articles/outsourcing-versus-insourcing.asp

What is best for your organization?

If your organization has a number of non-core processes which are taking plenty of time, effort and resources to perform in-house, it would be wise to outsource these non-core functions. Outsourcing in this case, would help you save on time, effort, manpower and would also aid you in making quicker deliveries to your customers.

If you require expertise services in areas which do not fall under your core competency, then outsourcing will be a good option as you can get access to expertise services. For reducing costs and making faster deliverables, outsourcing is again a good option.

If your work involves production, then it would be more ideal for your organization to opt for insourcing, as you can save on transportation costs and exercise a better control over your project.

It is not necessary to choose outsourcing over insourcing or vice versa. Your organization can outsource and insource at the same time. By outsourcing and insourcing simultaneously, you can have the best of what both offers and your business can get a competitive advantage!

FROM:http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Outsourcing-Instead-of-Insourcing?&id=2622522

Why Outsourcing Instead of Insourcing?
By Mary Thomas Platinum Quality Author

There is a big debate going on at the moment and people are constantly arguing whether or not it is better to outsource or to insource. We can mention a lot of good reasons and bad reasons for both but at the end of the day what is important stand in your own personal needs.

The biggest benefit that insourcing has stands in the fact that you get a very close contact with the person you are hiring. This can create a very good working environment but at the same time it does bring in some negative aspects that we have to think about. Unfortunately sometimes we can not find what we are looking for through insourcing. This basically means that what we want done can not be found locally. Such a fact shows us the biggest advantage why outsourcing is preferred in a comparison with insourcing: a wider set of choices. The truth is that when outsourcing we are faced with more people or companies to consider hiring. We are basically moving everything towards a much larger scale. Why outsourcing towards a single area or even country when we can think at a global scale.

If you talk to most Internet Marketers about outsourcing they will tell you that it is a must have. Most of them don't even think about insourcing when we have the possibility of outsourcing. The Internet has made it possible for a lot of people to meet. We now have a chance we never did in the past. In the past we had to invest into newspaper ads and similar actions in order to get in contact with professionals we needed. This does bring everything down in terms of time and possible success. When thinking about why outsourcing is better than insourcing we should always think about numbers. For instance, there is a huge chance that we can spare money by hiring someone from abroad that will do everything cheaper than on a local scale search. Also, the number of potential people worth hiring is much bigger. We can thus make sure at all times that we hire the best professionals we can afford.

There shouldn't be any doubt in anyone's mind that outsourcing is a lot better than insourcing. The reasons mentioned above are just the most obvious but the list can go on. In short, the most important facts we need to consider when thinking whether or not outsourcing is better than insourcing can be written with ease.

Why Outsourcing?

- It is Cheaper
- It is Better
- You can Work with More Competent People
- You can make sure you get what you are looking for
- The Quality is Better in Most Cases
- Marketing time needed to look for people is drastically reduced
- Less Risks

Based on these facts about outsourcing and insourcing, both have their own advantage and disadvantages. The thing that we must focus our attention is on what procedure will the university be well fitted to. And in my opinion, outsourcing is a bad choice for the university and I have 3 reasons that made me come up to this decision.

1. FUNDS

[justify]The university operates using government funds thus it is more likely to be unpredictable and insufficient to meet the university's demands in almost all occasions. Outsourcing will definitely meanburning funds for finding contractors and employing the outsource-rs. This could also mean that the university maybe spending double in theor employee's salary because of hiring another employee with the same capabilities as the employees that the university already have.

2. LACK OF POSSIBLE QUALIFIED OUTSOURCED EMPLOYEES

It is very evident nowadays that the quality of education in the Philippines is depreciating and it may be sad to say but fresh graduates in our field may not be competent enough to meet the demands of the university. The university may look to the veterans but it is most likely for them to seek for greater wages or you may not find a lot of experienced IT persons nowadays because most of them already ventured outside the country.

3. LACK OF BACKGROUND ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY

The system that will be developed by the outsourced persons will definitely something concerning the operations involved in the school. And provided the fact that they are outsiders, it is most likely that they will be unfamiliar with these processes and could be the cause of delay or even failure of the project.

baRriErs in tHeiR IS/IT iMpLemeNtaTioN

2009-10-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

Based on our interview and our personal observations in ouyr adopted compnay (PPA Philippine Port Authority) these are the barriers in the implementation of their system.

* Lack of personnel

*Lack or limited funds

*Outsourced system

*Lack of facilities

*Human resistance

*Gradual changes in system demands

I will explain each of them in the following paragraphs.

*Lack of personnel

In order to implement a system, a qualified owrkforce is a requirement. Especially in the hardware part of the system. In implementing it, numerous computer sets will be deployed and configured, a lot of networks will be established and the cables and wires must will be firmly and correctly be connected to their right positions. These steps will consume not only days but even months to ensure that the hardware part of the system is properly functioning. With regards to our adopted company, they extremely lack qualified personnels for this agenda. They only have 3 personnels that could handle advance IT related jobs. This is the reason why their system is not totally self operational. The system still requires them to be on guard on the possible errors and bugs. It took them a couple of months to establish the networks and other hardware requirements and it also took them more months to configure and debug their open source system for the software to adopt to the processes that their office have.

*Lack / limited funds

Their office is run by government funds. This is the sole reason why their funds are very hard to access. A personnel shared during our interview that in order to request even just a new keyboard it will take about a month of waiting. This is because the request will ne passed to numerous hands. First, in the head of their department, second, to the head of their office and third to the main office in Manila were a lot of personalities will eventually need to sign up or approve that request. This problem will eventually slow down the reaction of the system in terms of coorecting necessary bugs and errors. For example, if the system shuts down because of a hardware failure. And if the request for a new hardware will consume a lot of time, the backfire of the system being unoperational for the period of time for waiting for the new hardware will give their office a lot of problems.

*Outsourced System

What do I mean in an outsourced system?

Outsourcing is subcontracting a service such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources[citation needed]. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour. Outsourcing in the information technology field has two meanings. One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. The latter concept might not include development of new applications.

Why did the company outsourced?

• Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.
• Focus on Core Business. Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specilaised IT services companies.
• Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.
• Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.
• Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.
• Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.
• Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
• Access to talent. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.
• Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.
• Catalyst for change. An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process.
• Enhance capacity for innovation. Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.
• Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.
• Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.
• Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.
• Venture Capital. Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for startups that start businesses in their country.
• Tax Benefit. Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country.

Why outsourcing became a problem?

The mere fact that the office lacks in personnel to tend to the different problems that the system may bump into, the system is also an outsourced one making it hard for the personnel to be familiar about the flow of the system in a short span of time. The developers of the system spent time to send an on-call representative to tend to the problem if the system especially on the early days of the implementation but this cannot go on forever. The personnel in-charge in the MIS department must be able to handle the problems because it is their job to do so. And it became a barrier in the implementation because currently the personnel are still studying the flow of the system and are not yet very confident in debugging it.

*Human Resistance

What are the possible reasons of resistance?

Most people don't like change because they don't like being changed. When change comes into view, fear and resistance to change follow – often despite its obvious benefits. People fight against change because they:

• fear to lose something they value, or
• don't understand the change and its implications, or
• don't think that the change makes sense, or
• find it difficult to cope with either the level or pace of the change.

Resistance emerges when there’s a threat to something the individual values. The threat may be real or it may be just a perception. It may arise from a genuine understanding of the change or from misunderstanding, or even almost total ignorance about it.

Why this concept did became a problem in system implementation?

Upon the order of their heads to convert their manual system into an automated one, even the IT personnel in their office have some doubts and resistance. They do not want the new system because they are confident with the old system. They resist the change because they do not want to be ignorant of something. They have some doubts whether the new system could benefit them more or just burden them by trying to learn something that is out of their skills. But they are slowly adopting the system. They are beginning to realize the importance of the system because of the good things that it is slowly becoming visible because of its implementation.

*Lack of Facilities

Like all other offices that are run by the government, their office facilities are very limited. They shared to us that the personnel are the ones coping due to this lack in facilities. They tend to use softwares that require lesser computer specifications. This is because they do not have the option to request for new equipments because they know that it will take a large amount of time to wait for their request to be granted.

*Lack of Trainings

Why training is important?

Having a formal IT training plan in place can be beneficial to the organization and offer benefits to employees that competitors may not offer. Although companies may risk losing employees that have just been trained, the benefit of training these employees far outweighs this risk. When IT staff is involved in a formal training plan, individual’s skill sets improve and they can contribute more to the organization.

Employees that feel that their company is investing in them may feel more job satisfaction and increased loyalty to their organization. The benefit of training employees is mutual and can be realized for quite some time. Organizations can also offer lesser skilled workers formal training in order to benefit from their new skills. This will also allow companies to save money on salaries for higher skilled workers.

Employee Training Programs Have Some Risks

Companies often have trouble finding skilled and trained technology staff and an even harder time retaining those employees. However, while this is an opportunity for most employees, it also presents a risk when so many organizations are competing for skilled workers. These newly trained workers can easily be lured away by other organizations offering more money, benefits, flexibility or just a new work environment.
Another risk to note in providing formal IT training is in making sure organizations get a return on investment for technology expenditures. If a company invests time and money in new technology, that company would certainly need employees with the right skill set to operate the new technology. If technology systems are underutilized because of improper training, the return on investment becomes minimal. Companies not investing in this type of training will not realize that return on investment.

The Importance of IT Training Programs

Formal IT training programs cannot be ignored because the benefits outweigh the risks. Most employees do want to enhance their skills. If companies offer training, employees may view this as an added benefit from their employer. Organizations that offer formalized training and keep employees’ salaries competitive mitigate the risk of losing employees to other organizations.

LINK: http://job-satisfaction.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_benefits_of_formal_it_training

Why lack of trainings became a barrier?

The old system that our adopted company used is a manual type of system. It does not require the end users to be knowledgeable in using a computer. Upon the implementation of the system, the end-users need to be trained in using the system in a computer. The problem arise because it will definitely take time for the first-timers to learn the basics f computing and to be able to master the basic computing functions will take even more. The longer it the time it takes for the employees to be oriented with basic computer knowledge, the longer it takes for the office to have the optimal performance of the system.

*Gradual change in system demand

As the system is implemented, the change in the demand of the system is still ongoing. This became a barrier because as the demand changes the system must respond to it and if the change in demand is gradual, there will come a point where the system will not be implemented perfectly because it will tend to change over and over depending on the change in demand. That is why it is a good idea to develop a system that is capable to cope on a case to case basis in terms of the situations that may occur in the work area.

if I were hired as an IT consultant..

2009-09-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

If you were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, what would you suggest (technology, infrastructure, innovations, steps, processes, etc) in order for the internet connectivity be improved? (3000words)

If I was hired as the university IT consultant, the first thing that I would do before giving my suggestions is to observe and study the current situation of the university in terms of its budget pertaining to IT-related projects and through these assessments I could come up with more realistic suggestions.

If the university have enough budget for IT-related innovations/upgrades these will be likely my suggestions in terms in:

TECHNOLOGY

In terms of technology, the university is not far behind compared to the private colleges and other universities here in Davao. But if we talk of universities in Asia. We are hundred miles behind from them. I have researched and gathered comparison on the different technologies that our university and other universities outside the Philippines are using.

I have chosen the University of Hong Kong as to where our university will be compared to, not only because the said university is the top university in Asia for 3 years till now, but mainly because the said school boast its technologies as the best not only in Asia but in the world.

Here is the comparison:

UNIVERSITY OF HONGKONG(Computer Centre)

Computers & Connections:

-46 Core 2 Duo (2.66GHz) 3GB PCs with 19" wide screen LCD display panels & DVD +/-R/RW writer drives
-25 Core 2 Duo (2.66GHz) 2GB PCs with 19" LCD wide screen display panels & DVD +/-R/RW writer drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-21 Core 2 Quad (2.33 GHz) 4GB PCs with 19" LCD display panels & DVD+/-R/RW drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-18 ACEnet connection points for connection of notebook computers
-60 Core 2 Quad (2.33 GHz) 4GB PCs with 19" LCD display panels & DVD+/-R/RW drives
-30 Core 2 Duo (2.13GHz) 2GB PCs with 17" LCD display panels & DVD+/-R/RW drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-30 Core 2 Duo (2.13GHz) 2GB PCs with 17" LCD display panels & DVD +/-R/RW writer drives
(one PC for class instructor)
-HKU High Performance Computing Cluster
In the academic and research arena, High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities are heavily used for solving computational problems that are not flexible to be done using conventional computers due to the huge amount of CPU power, memory, network and disk space requirements.

In order to facilitate intensive computations, the Computer Centre has set up a High Performance Computing Cluster, namely hpcpower.hku.hk in October 2003. Another 64-bit Linux cluster, namely hpcpower2.hku.hk is in service to augment the existing 32-bit HPCPOWER cluster system at late 2008.
HKU Grid Facilties

* hpcpower2: 64-bit Linux cluster consists of 24 nodes -

+ each node has TWO 64-bit quad-core Intel Xeon CPUs running at 3GHz

* hpcpower: 32-bit Linux cluster consists of 178 nodes -

+ 128 nodes of dual 2.8 GHz Xeon processors, and
+ 50 nodes of dual 3.06 GHz Xeon processors

* winhpc: first Microsoft Windows based High Performance Computing Cluster in Hong Kong
* condor: Condor pool in PC laboratory

Printers

- 3 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (single side printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4515x black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 5500DTN color single laser-printer
- 1 networked Fuji Xerox black & white laser-printer (single side by default)
- 3 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4350 black & white duplex laser-printer (single side printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 4515x black & white duplex laser-printer (duplex printing by default)
- 1 networked HP LaserJet 5500DTN color single laser-printer
- 1 networked Fuji Xerox black & white laser-printer (single side by default)

Special Facilities

- Color scanner (in RR-104)
- RealVideo & VCD Production PC (in RR-104)
- DVD Production PC (in RR-104)
- Optical Mark Reading (OMR) Scanner System (in RR-104)

USEP(COMPUTER LABORATORIES)

I have been researching about the facilities that our university have for an hour and I haven't found any page that enumerates and discusses each of them one by one. Because of this, the records below are based on my observations as a current student in the university.

Computers & Connections:

-20 P4 (1.3-1.6 GHz) 256MB-512MB PCs with 15" CRT display monitors about 10 with 15" LCD display panels
-12 AMD Athlon (2.0-2.6 GHz) 512MB-1G PCs with 15" CRT display monitors
-36-64 port switch hub(networking in lab 1)

Printers

-1 Dot Matrix Printer
-1 Laser Printer(Nodal)

Special Facilities

-(none)

As you may see for yourselves our university is far behind form the later. This comparison is not meant to criticize our university but to examine on the points that our university failed to examine. If given enough budget I would definitely suggest for a total system upgrade. The processors that the computers in our computer labs have are very out dated. It would be a good thing to at least upgrade all the computers to have Dual Core Processors running with 1G memory. The display monitors can be left as it is. The important thing is that the computing power of the units will be increased so the the students could be more aware and could practice the latest software that is available these days. I would also suggest to have at least 3 more printers. As a student myself, I'm spending a lot of money in printing my proposals and other school-related papers. But if printers are available within the school, it would be very convenient for the students. It could also be a good source of funds for the university. In terms of purchasing special facilities, at this point in time, It would be very unwise for the university to purchase such advance technologies. Not only because they are very expensive, but mainly because as we look to the current course offerings of theuniversity in terms of IT-related courses, these special facilities are not of great relevance.

INFRASTRUCTURE

We may not know it but IT infrastructure is a very vital point in the success of a business or a program with a direct IT-relation. I have browsed the internet and found these interesting articles about the importance and difficulties in IT infrastructure and based on these I will derive my suggestions pertaining to the IT infrastructure of our university.

Infrastructure: IT's stepchild
By Bart Perkins
September 22, 2008 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Every enterprise needs a robust IT infrastructure in order to function effectively. Infrastructure is the foundation of corporate productivity and success. Many IT groups, however, don't have enough skilled infrastructure staffers to provide the solid foundation required. Unfortunately, qualified infrastructure people are hard to find. Here's why:

Applications are more highly valued. Most executives recognize that effective applications offer significant business value. Unfortunately, they usually assume that the underlying infrastructure is easy to construct and maintain. As a result, they often give less attention and recognition to infrastructure. (Even CIOs generally understand applications better than infrastructure.)

Infrastructure is increasingly complex. The infrastructure group now manages a number of new technologies, including virtualization, advanced networking and cloud computing. In addition, infrastructure frequently has primary responsibility for privacy, security and standards. As the biggest energy consumer, infrastructure is also responsible for "green" initiatives, such as cutting IT energy use and complying with hazardous-substances mandates. All the pieces must then be knit together efficiently. As a result, infrastructure jobs require far more technical breadth and depth than ever before.

Infrastructure is becoming more customer-focused. With the advent of software as a service, outsourcing and application software generators, IT needs fewer technical specialists. But infrastructure functions now require high levels of customer contact, because of ITIL v3's focus on customer service. Many technical staffers (often introverted, per the stereotype) are uncomfortable with this requirement.

Compensation is lower. Historically, infrastructure departments offered entry-level IT jobs to individuals without college degrees. HR justified paying them lower salaries by claiming that they had fewer technical skills than their applications counterparts. Even though most low-skill infrastructure jobs have been automated and eliminated, perceptions have been slow to change. Compensation plans have not been adjusted to reflect the higher levels of technical expertise infrastructure now requires.

Infrastructure is a thankless job. Unfortunately, many employees have a very limited understanding of infrastructure. Few people appreciate the difficulty of the preproduction testing or postproduction tuning associated with installing a new system. This lack of understanding often leaves infrastructure staffs feeling undervalued and underappreciated. When the servers are up and the network is functioning, infrastructure availability is taken for granted. But when work stops because an application is unavailable or the network goes down, all fingers point to infrastructure. Infrastructure gets attention only for failures.

Infrastructure education is insufficient. Few U.S. colleges offer IT courses covering infrastructure functions. In addition, most high school and college career counselors advise students that there are more job opportunities in applications than in infrastructure. Moreover, the head of applications is more often promoted to CIO than the head of infrastructure, so the long-term career path is not very appealing. The result is a shortage of qualified people pursuing infrastructure careers.

IT's infrastructure organization requires increasing levels of technical skills to deal with the complex and constantly shifting work environment. But lack of appreciation, lower compensation and a limited career path make it difficult to attract and retain qualified professionals. Infrastructure staffers need to be treated as invaluable employees who are critical to the success of the enterprise, because in today's IT environment, they really, really are.

As I read the article above, It is very obvious for a change in IT infrastructure to be very risky. We might be blinded on the positive effects that it may bring to our system but if a couple of mistakes may cause a disaster in the overall operation in the university. The article stated about requiring skilled IT personnel for considering IT infrastructure change. This is very true. And as I observed, our university lack these. We may have the option to hire more skilled IT practitioners but it would only mean more expenses for the university. The best thing to do in my opinion in terms of IT infrastructure in our university is to maintain it. It is not necessary to change it to a more complex one at present. The important thing is it is working without any alarming glitches. Time will come that It is necessary to upgrade or change the present structure, but as I have said today is not that time.

STEPS

*Check your web browser to see if you haven’t made it complicated and difficult for them through different network connections. For that, open up the Internet Explorer and click on “Tools” option at the top left hand. Then select “Internet Options” tab followed by “Connections.” Now click the “LAN settings” button and see if you find any check marks in any of the options listed. If you see any checkmarks, please deselect them. Then click Ok or Apply button.

*If you have come here to find a software or tool to download that will enhance your web speed, consider yourself lucky. Because there is a free tool that you can download from an entrusted source Google; it is called Google Web Accelerator. And it does speed up you surfing speed, making it seem like as if you have made your internet connection faster. It is just another internet speed booster.

*Do some basic maintenance on your PC. Run Disk Defrag, a scan disk, a virus scan, a malware scan, and clear your recycle bin. An unusually slow Internet connection experience is often the only sign that your computer is infected with viruses or other malware. Delete old files and temporary files. Never allow the free space on your C: drive to be less than 10% of the total size or twice the installed RAM (which ever is larger). A well maintained PC will operate much better than a PC that has never had any maintenance. Google or your local computer repair store should be able to help you with this if you don't know how.

*A technical strategy to boost the speed of your internet would be to either rebuild your computer’s Winsock or use Tweaktester. Winsocks or Windows Sockets is what your Windows computer use to control the input and output datas. But they can sometimes be congested ad damaged to some extent by Spywares and softwares. This happens every day using normal usage. So sometimes professionals reset it using Winsock utility softwares to rebuild them. On the other hand, Tweaktester tool works with Recieve Window of your XP operating system. By default Recieve Window is set to a value much too low for today’s modern high-speed Internet demands. So you can change this to a larger number that improves the internet performance. There is also something called OpenDNS that is widely proclaimed as a good internet speed booster

*Reset Your Home Network. Sometimes restarting your home network if you have one will drastically increase the speed of your connection.

*Optimize your cache or temporary Internet files. These files improve your Internet connection performance by not downloading the same file over and over. When a web site puts their logo graphic on every page your computer only downloads it when it changes. If you delete the temporary files it must be downloaded again. if you disable the cache, it must be downloaded every time you view a page that uses it. This can be done by opening Internet Explorer, clicking on "Tools" at the top and choosing "Internet Options". On the General tab, click the "Settings" button next to Temporary Internet Files. Set Check for newer versions to "Automatically". Set amount of disk space to use to 2% of your total disk size or 512 MB, which ever is smaller. On Firefox, click "Tools" then "Options," and go to the privacy tab. Then click on the Cache tab within this.

*Never bypass your router. Most routers include a firewall that is very difficult for hackers to defeat. If you don't need to use Wireless then hook your computer directly to your router. Routers will only slow down your connection by a few Milli-seconds. You won't notice the difference but the hackers will.

*If you are using a Wireless router, make sure it doesn't conflict with a cordless phone or wireless camera. Wireless routers come in two varieties; 802.11bg (2.4Ghz) or 802.11a (5.8Ghz) If you are using a 2.4Ghz Cordless phone and 2.4Ghz Wireless router then your Internet connection speed will slow while you use the cordless phone. The same is true of wireless security cameras. Check on your phone and camera, if it's 900Mhz then it's fine. If it says 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz then it could be the cause of your slow connection speed while they're in use.

*Call your Internet service provider (ISP). Sometimes you just have bad service. They can usually tell if your connection is substandard without having a technician come to your home. Just be nice and ask.

*Upgrade your computer. If your computer is slow, it doesn't matter how fast your Internet connection is, the whole thing will just seem slow. You can only access the Internet as fast as your PC will allow you to.

*Replace your old cable modem. Any solid-state electronics will degrade over time due to accumulated heat damage. Your broadband modem will have a harder and harder time 'concentrating' on maintaining a good connection as it gets older (signal to noise ratios will go down, and the number of resend requests for the same packet will go up). An after-market cable modem as opposed to a cable-company modem will frequently offer a better connection.

*Often your connection speed is slow because other programs are using it. To test if other programs are accessing the Internet without your knowing, Click Start, Click Run. Type "cmd" (without quotes). Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt". After a minute or so, hold down Ctrl and press C. This has created a file with a list of all programs using your Internet connection. Type activity.txt to open the file and view the program list. Ctrl Alt Delete and open up the Task Manager. Go to the process menu and delete those processes that are stealing your valuable bandwidth. (NOTE: Deleting processes may cause certain programs to not function properly)

*Call your ISP and have them verify all of your TCP/IP settings if you are concerned. Ask them to verify that your Proxy settings are correct.

* Don't expect dial up or high speed lite service to be fast. The Internet is primarily geared towards Broadband Connections. Sometimes, you have to wait a little.

*One thing you have to realize that everything has a limit, including the limited speed of your internet connection provided by your ISP (internet service provider). So we can not surpass the speed that you internet connection originally comes with it, what we can do is reach the fastest speed that is available through your ISP. Dial up (old fashioned) phone internet connection is very slow, Broadband high speed is bit faster and the fastest internet connection is provided by Cable Internet Providers, because they don’t use the phone line. So remember we are only trying to reach the top potential speed that is possible.

* Download programs that make browsing faster:
- Loband.org is a browser inside of a browser that loads web pages without the images.
- Firefox and Opera both have options to disable images.
- In Firefox, you can also use extensions such as NoScript that let you block scripts and plug-ins that would otherwise slow things down a lot.
- If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, try downloading Google Web Accelerator. It is meant to speed up broadband connections, but it can also slow your Internet connection. Try enabling it and disabling it and see when your Internet connection runs faster.
- If you are using Firefox, download the Fasterfox extension and Firetune.
- Reduce the amount of programs running that use your Internet connection (Instant Messengers, RSS Feeders, and MS Applications set to send Internet data)
- Google Accessible Is designed to search pages in order of how clean they are of junk. This will bring up pages that are usually not only easy to read, but are quick to load.

* Upgrade your RAM. This will not only improve your regular computer use, but it will affect the speed of your Internet connection because your computer works faster.

* Use the Stop button to stop loading pages once you've gotten what you want.

* Some times malware on your computer can eat up your bandwidth. Make sure you have an up-to-date malware protection program.

* Most Internet Providers have flaky DNS servers (no citation necessary, it's a given) - so, instead of using those provided by your ISP, switch your DNS servers to use those of OpenDNS. OpenDNS is far faster, and more reliable, simply using 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as your domain name servers will speed up most flaky DNS problems (may even speed up your networking since OpenDNS has large caches).

* Look into running your own local DNS server on your network. Some newer routers may include their own nameserver, otherwise, check into AnalogX.com's DNSCache program, it works great to hold commonly accessed domain names in the "cache" so that the IP addresses do not have to be looked up everytime you navigate to a new page.

*Last and most important, if your internet connection has gotten slower all of a sudden it could be due to malicious adware spware virus softwares running in your computer without your knowledge. There are lot of free anti virus scanning softwares on the web but they will charge you to repair or delete these viruses after they find them for you. So it is a better idea to buy a software to start with because the free or trial ones doesn’t work all the way. Also consider installing virus protecting softwares and leave it on all the time.

Moreover, the most common reason why internet speed slows down is a trojan attack that is why it is very advisable to have a good anti virus. As I have observed the antivirus programs that our university is using are only demo versions or for home use only. We must put into consideration the positive effects that having a good antivirus may bring to the security of the university's computers and files. I personally suggest these applications:

http://www.eset.com/
http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php
http://www.kaspersky.com/

definitions of personnel management and human resource management

2009-09-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

"Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. Human resource management is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce. "

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resource_management

Author: Armstrong, Michael (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice

The statement above states what human resource is though on a more general point of view. The difference also between the two terms was clearly stated. Here one can derive the idea that HRM/ personnel management is not only a business practice but also an academic theory that is widely used in a community to establish and manage a workforce or human resource.

“The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies. Usually small businesses (for-profit or nonprofit) have to carry out these activities themselves because they can't yet afford part- or full-time help. However, they should always ensure that employees have -- and are aware of -- personnel policies which conform to current regulations. These policies are often in the form of employee manuals, which all employees have.”

Source: (Carter McNamara, MBA, Phd)

This definition describes the functions of human resource management which would benefit the whole organization as well as the people working in it. It also states that all the employees in an organization should be aware of all the benefits, regulations or policies, and activities so that they can also return them a favor and be the best employee that they could never have.

"Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization."

Source: http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm
Author: Susan M. Heathfield

The definition stated above on Human Resource Management (HRM) is brief yet not concise. She failed to elaborate most of the important functions of HRM. The definition is just an overview of the role of HRM which is to get human resource for the company or organization.

“Human Resource Management (HRM) is a management approach that enhances your organisation's performance by optimising your employee's opportunities to be effective and productive. HRM activities include: planning, recruitment and selection, training, performance appraisal and remuneration. “

Source: http://communitydoor.qld.gov.au/management/hr/

One of the major goals of the human resource management is to effectively make use of the talents and abilities of employees. It also includes the enhancing of one’s capabilities which are related to the implementation of strategies directed towards creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Thus, the human resource management enhances organizational performance by improving employee's opportunities to be effective and productive.

"In any organization, there has to be someone concerned with the welfare and performance of persons who are a part of the operation. When an individual or a team of individuals takes on this task of seeing to programs and setting policies that impact everyone associated with the company, they are engaged in the process of personnel management, sometimes referred to as human resource management."

Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-personnel-management.htm

In the statement above, it was mentioned that the terms human resource and personnel management are the same and thus can be used interchangeably. As defined above, in handling the affairs the needs of a company on its human resource and in facing the needs of the human resource itself it is called as human resource management.

“Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.”

Source: http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm

Amongst all the definitions that I have gathered, I think that the statement above clearly states what human resource management really is. As the main core of the organization that deals with hiring and firing the people working in it and also dealing with the benefits and compensations he/she would acquire in accomplishing his/her assignments. Yet it doesn’t just stop in the organization but also through the day of their separation.

a help for the future

2009-08-30T00:06:00.000-07:00

Being one of the students of the prestige University of Southeastern Philippines is an honor. I know that this institution has a very big role in helping the students to improve their way of life and help them become what they want to be in the near future.

As an IT student, I can say that the university can help by providing enough facilities for us to enhance more of what we have learned. For instance, there are many computers in the laboratory that are not functioning well. Instead of being a help for the students, these facilities are giving problem. Another one is the room; there are only two rooms for the IC students. Aside from that fact, these two rooms don’t have the proper ventilation that is also very uncomfortable to have our classes. I am not requesting for an air conditioned room, but at least these places will be cozy enough for learning. Third one is about the recent issue of not allowing the students to use the electricity of the institution like charging of cell phones and most especially laptops. The point there is that they cannot provide the students with enough facilities and the students are doing their part about this issue, yet they have become a hindrance for their learning because of this act. These are just some of the many things that I have observed and experienced in the institution. With these experiences I am still proud and honored that I am part of this university. I have learned to become more patient, resourceful, and persevere enough because I know that even with these facts I have learned so many things and still learning things that can help me become what I want to be in the near future.

hr downsizing

2009-08-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

Downsizing

In a business enterprise, downsizing is reducing the number of employees on the operating payroll. Some users distinguish downsizing from a layoff, with downsizing intended to be a permanent downscaling and a layoff intended to be a temporary downscaling in which employees may later be rehired.
Downsizing also refers to the process of reducing costs within an organization by reducing the workforce. Re-engineering or restructuring might involve other processes, including cost cutting by changing the way in which people work, but downsizing almost always has a reduction in workforce component. Typically, executives in organizations which undergo downsizing programs emphasize the need to save money and to take the painful step of laying off employees.
There are immediate local economic effects when a company downsizes; the larger the company and the greater its relative importance to an area, the greater these effects. Initially, the short-term effects are to reduce the amount of disposable income in the local area. This has a direct effect on retailers and those providing services. Home loans may be put in jeopardy, which affects the amount of capital available to the community. If a plant is the single largest employer in a small town, closing it in the name of downsizing can ruin the town's economy

.

Downsizing to Increase Profits

A contemporary business practice is known as downsizing, or the effort by a company to reduce the size of its workforce in order to increase profitability. Such a quest for profits is often seen as detrimental to the worker, creating a new sense of insecurity, reducing decades-old relationships between worker and management, and assuring corporate profits while undercutting the ability of workers to make a living. The corporate manager in such a situation has determined that his responsibility lies with the company and not with the community, at least in some ways, and he or she may even have a rationale as to why their effort benefits the community in some way.
There are internal signals that warn of wasted effort and expense, such as slow decision making, excessive monitoring, and complaints of too many reports and meetings. If properly managed, overhead restructuring can be a positive move for the organization.

Common characteristics that improve the effectiveness of overhead programs include:
1) maintaining consistency with the firm's strategy;
2) examining functions with a plant to corporate 'vertical slice' perspective;
3) focusing on the underlying factors of cost and staffing;
4) eliminating low value work;
5) reallocating resources;
6) simplifying management processes; and
7) considering automation enhancements

Loss of Jobs

Companies refer to the process by many names: "downsizing," "rightsizing," "cutting back," "trimming the fat," "working smarter" and "re-engineering" are just a few of the ways the process is described. Regardless of what companies call the process, the end result is that employees, sometimes hundreds or thousands, lose their jobs and incomes, and entire communities are sometimes plunged into chaos as a result. For some companies, reducing their labor force by such drastic measures is a necessity if any part of the company is to survive. These companies are in severe financial straits and may not survive even after severe labor cutbacks. For other companies, such measures are undertaken in order to improve their "bottom line" and increase their attractiveness to investors, some of whom are likely to be senior managers of the corporation.

Downsizing at AT&T

When businesses face short-term downturns, they can engage in short-term austerity measures that range from hiring freezes to minimizing purchasing office supplies, and that include many measures in between. When the downturns become long-term, however, companies must engage in cost reductions that may be severe, and could make the difference between the company surviving or not. This analysis considers the issue of downsizing--laying off workers--and examines the benefits to an organization that may make downsizing a difficult, but ultimately beneficial.

There are typically three reasons that companies engage in downsizing:
• immediate financial crisis;
• short-term improvement of financial statements;
• and long-term strategic decision

Immediate financial crisis occurs when a company faces a severe financial problem, perhaps because a major customer has withdrawn business or because an anticipated contract does not come through.
In recent years, much attention has been given to downsizing, rightsizing, trimming the fat and other euphemisms for laying off workers. Generally, companies suggest that they are "forced" to lay off workers in order to cut costs and remain competitive. The financial community likes downsizing because it reduces the short term labor costs that companies must bear. Management likes downsizing for the same reason.
We will take AT &T as an example. “ In 1992, AT &T downsized to remain competitive in the global market. They released 18,000 human operators and replaced them with automated machines.”
During the 1990s, threats have emerged in AT&T's external environment in the form of likely new laws, probable competition new rivals, and rapid changes in technology (Arnst, Spiro, & Burrows, 1995). The company also faces a threat within its in its internal environment in what AT&T management view as laggard performance in comparison with the company's major competitors ("AT&T's Three-Way Split," 1995). These factors were major motivations for the company's decision to initiate a downsizing strategy. AT&T management was beginning to become aware of some of the symptoms of decline that precede the collapse of major corporate institutions (Luffman, Lea, Sanderson, & Kenny, 1996).
The performance problem by human resource management is simply poor planning. Management did not realize the potential problems that lay ahead for the company as a whole. If downsizing is not effectively planned, managed or implemented it can cause a number of consequences. The consequences up for discussion are:

1. Downsizing causes resentment and resistance in surviving employees
2. Downsizing if not handled carefully will cause financial set backs

HR management must handle employees, both survivors and former, with kid gloves. Downsizing means more than passing out pink slips. Steps must be taken to ensure that the remaining staff feels comfortable so that performance levels do not drop. It is also important to keep the loyalty of former employees simply because they now have become potential customers.
Remaining employees may show signs of inadequacy. They are faced with new responsibilities and positions. They may feel as though they are next to be fired if they can not perfectly done their job well.
Closely examine the impact that downsizing will have on the employees, on the competition, and on the costs and the future profitability of the company. Top management support, communication and commitment are critical for the successful development and implementation of the downsizing plan and for the smooth integration of HR planning into the company’s strategic and operational plans.
Reiterate communication throughout the downsizing process. Termination announcements should be made to the entire group, however no employee should be named specifically. HRM should communicate on a private and personal level each employee’s situation.
To minimize the trauma of separation, various programs to assist displaced employees should be put into place, such as counseling seminars, job search workshops, and placement services.
The performance to outcome expectancy area, an employee may have an idea of the outcome of poor task performance. They may feel that either they will be fired for doing poorly on the job. On the other hand the employee that does well at a task may expect to keep his or her job as long as they do well. Either way they are unsure of the outcome, yet they perform the task to their ability. Employees may do the task according to what they feel the outcome will be at the time. The valence level will depend on the outcome. If a survivor realizes that after a few weeks of training they can accomplish the job then their valence will be of a positive nature. A feeling of security may come over them. Losing their jobs doesn’t seem like reality anymore. Most companies just announce downsizing, they never tell you why they are downsizing. So a person my feel insecure because in his or her mind the people let go were downsized because of poor work performance. The more confident they feel on the task at hand the more confident they will feel to continue on and expect better thing from themselves. This gives motivation to keep moving. It all boils down to having the right attitude about your job once downsizing has occurred. That attitude can be influenced by what management does to enhance it.

The lack of motivation is one of the dysfunctional employee behaviors. “The expectancy theory is a process motivation theory based on the idea that work effort is directed toward behaviors that people believe will lead to desired outcomes.”5 Employees feel that their level of performance depends on their past experience. If they have never encountered a particular task before than they might experience a slight decrease in self-confidence where the task is concerned. The individual’s effort is the key element in this theory. The effort level depends on effort to performance expectancy, performance to outcome expectancy and outcome valences. Employee motivation is influenced by all three of these and if one of them weakens then motivation is weakened. In the effort to performance expectancy area, an employee may feel that even their best efforts to learn a new job, position or task, may not be good enough after downsizing. The employees have a low expectation of their own ability to do the job. In the
Affected employees are dealt with in a humane and equitable manner. Reassurance of surviving employees and control of all information is necessary to keep peace.

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/De-Ele/Downsizing-and-Rightsizing.html
http://sbaer.uca.edu/research/sbida/1994/pdf/26.pdf
http://www.humax.net/econ.html
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-downsizing.htm

areas related to ICT(sona)

2009-08-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

1. Policies were implemented promoting systematic and accelerated ICT advancement.

•Removed barriers and allow full competition in the provision of high-speed networks and connectivity. This resulted in the reduction of cost of local internet connections from PhP30 per hour in 2000 to PhP15 per hour in 2008.

•Allocated radio frequencies to allow broadband wireless access network.

•Liberalized the telecommunications environment/ industry to allow the entry of more players, ie, the telecommunication operators (TelCos). This enabled the mobile telephone industry to experience robust growth. About 62% of the total populace (or about 56 million out of the 88 million Filipinos) are now mobile telephone subscribers who are connected to 14,506 cell sites, nationwide, as of end of 2008. To date, there are 11 international gateway facility (IGF) operators who can provide international long distance calls; six (6) cellular mobile telephone system operators; 11 public trunk radio operators; 14 inter-exchange carrier licenses that service other carriers’ traffic using their own networks; and, 74 local exchange operators or those with fixed line services.

•Authorized the retail-pricing for local telephone lines by allowing local exchange carriers to design price packages.

COMMENT: The policies mentioned above greatly helped to speed-up the development of ICT in the Philippines. They allowed competition among different providers which lead to the reduction of services prices and the continuing development in their services. The liberalization of the telecommunication environment not only helped the IT industry in terms of the positive effects of business rivalries but also gave way to the founding of new companies that ventured in this field of business thus giving more spurces of advancement/ideas to imrpove the quality of ICT in the Philippines. Furthermore, it also benefits the jobless; giving them more chances to find one.

2. Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

•To lessen the impact of climate change, the President issued Executive Order 320 s. 2004, creating a National Authority for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and designating DENR as the national authority for CDM. To date, the Philippines has 20 projects registered with the United Nations CDM Executive Board in Bonn, Germany. These projects consists of renewable energy projects (wind power, hydropower, geothermal energy) and energy efficiency projects like, methane recovery for electricity generation, wastes to power generation (hog wastes, rice husks). The projects are expected to cut the emission of about 731,611 tons of carbon dioxide per year. At present, the Philippines is one of the top eight countries that have the most number of CDM projects for greenhouse gas emission reduction.

•In view of alarming developments and forecasts on global warming and climate change, especially for the Philippines which has been identified as among the most vulnerable to its effects, the President created the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change (PTFCC) thru AO 171, s. 2007, “to act with resolve and urgency in addressing the issue of climate change, mitigate its impact and adapt to its effects”.

•To rationalize and synthesize all government programs into one focused campaign that would effectively address climate change, EO 774 s. 2008 was issued, reorganizing the PTFCC with the President as Chair, and mandating the creation of 14 task groups, tasked to work from all fronts to ensure the “CPR” – conservation, protection and restoration -- of Philippine natural resources.

COMMENT: We may not find this project as something related to ICT but if we look on it closely. The IT industry is also a grate source of environmental pollution. Through this action, the government took a step in lessening the negative backfires of technology thus allowing the IT industry to further develop and boost to improve to offer us more positive effects in our society.

3. Cyber Corridor

The Cyber Corridor, which aims to create an information and technology-based knowledge economy through facilities that enhance interconnectivity and research and development initiatives, traverses all four geographic super regions from Baguio to Cebu to Davao.

•The Cyber Corridor is being developed through public and private investments in the areas of ICT, education, and training.
The pilot-testing of a major ICT project, the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) Revenue Watch Dashboard prototype system, was completed in May 2009. This web-enabled revenue monitoring tool aims to provide real time collection figures from the national level down to the Revenue District Office level.

•Aside from the priority infrastructure projects in the Cyber Corridor, the Government also pursued other Information and Communication Technology-related projects that supported the development theme of the Cyber Corridor. The Government has established public calling stations, telecenters and community e-centers to address the uneven distribution of fixed telephone lines in the regions.

•By 2008, the Administration has installed facilities to areas without communication channels yet, such as 875 telegraph stations for telegraphic transfer and social telegram; digital telephone exchanges in 103 localities; 538 public calling stations which serves people who cannot afford to subscribe telephone services and areas not covered by fixed line facilities; 1,422 Telepono sa Barangay (TSB) stations; and a Regional Government Telephone Service in Cauayan, Isabela.

COMMENT: This project is a sort of implementation of the current trends in communication technologies. This will benefit the ICT industry because this project will give us a greater view on the positive effects of advance communication technologies implemented to the different services that the government offers. Through the benefits that will be visible sooner or later, the development of ICT in the Philippines will be pushed through with more vigilance.

risks associated with business and IS/IT change

2009-08-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

Company visited: LDS ERS office

The Davao City ERS office is part of the worldwide LDS humanitarian operation that aims to help individuals become career self-reliant through employment, education and/or self-employment.

The ERS Center offers four types of services: Trainings to help individuals plan their career, find opportunities and interact with contacts; Resource information in terms of a database on job resources, small business, education and other self reliance resources including interactive meetings with resource persons; Business equipment and facilities like telephone, fax and copy machines for employment-related needs; and placement for applicants and contacts for suppliers who have established linkage with ERS.

The ERS Center is equipped with state-of-the-art communication technology that can facilitate speedy access to information. It's a one-stop shop for career planning and the best part is that the center's services and facilities are for free.

First let me explain the structure of their IS/IT as I observed...

The office have good facilities. Their computers are not that far left behind in terms technology. Their computers are all at least having a Pentium 4 1.x processor, 256 mb RAM, and 80 G hdd. Their network structure is also state of the art. Their computers are connected via wireless network and the computers in their respective offices and the computers that are freely used by the job seekers belong to this network. The way they process their transaction is quiet fast. First of all, they have a website where the job seekers can register for free of course. The registration requires the job seekers to input their credentials and other information needed for job matching. After the registration, the job seeker could gain access to the section where the job offerings are posted by the companies that are also members of the said site. Their office also do the job matching process where their staff matches the members according to their capabilities. The office also offers seminars and other job awareness activities to help them be competitive in their endeavor.

Risks in IT/IS change?:

For me, with regards to the company that we visited, IT change is a bad idea. Before considering IT change it would be a smart way to first identify it's present situation and if IT change will benefit the company. And to better study about this aspect, it's a good idea to assign a committee for this agenda that will have a purpose to:

* Better align IT services to business requirements
* Increase visibility and communication of Changes to both business and service-support staff
* Improve risk assessment
* Reduce adverse impact of Changes on the quality of services and on Service Level Agreements
* Better assess the cost of proposed Changes before they are incurred
* Make fewer Changes that must be backed-out, along with an increased ability to do this more easily when necessary
* Improve Problem and Availability Management through the use of valuable management information relating to changes accumulated through the Change Management process
* Increase productivity of users - through less disruption and higher-quality services
* Increase productivity of key personnel through less need for diversion from planned duties to implement urgent changes or back-out erroneous Changes
* Create a greater ability to accommodate a large volume of Changes
* Enhance the business perception of IT through an improved quality of service and a professional approach
* Foster and facilitate a high level of communication amongst all IT departments
* Contribute to the successful implementation of configuration management within IT
* Establish change process accountability
* Enforce best practice change management controls

With this, change in the IT structure will definitely be for the good of the company. These precautions and steps must be clearly understood and implemented because their are a lot of risk that is associated in terms in IT change. In the company that we visited, their IT structure is already providing them with the necessary benefits which greatly increased their capabilities in terms of costumer satisfaction and service. If they would insist in changing their IT structure these negative effects could be triggered.

*If the company will upgrade their hardware. These new devices may be sophisticated and thus would require the operators to learn new skills. And if any malfunction pertaining with these devices would occur, the company would be forced to hire other knowledgeable persons to fix the problem. And this would mean more expenses for the company.

*Because the technology will be new to the persons using it. The company will also be in a deciding problem where they will choose from hiring new capable employees or provide training for their old employees. But as I see it, in either option, it will mean further expenses.

*The company will also suffer from technology addiction if IT change is not properly managed. Addiction in a sense where the company will upgrade their hardware not because they need to but because they are amazed of the new technologies that are available.

But then again these risks in IT change are overwhelmed by its positive results if properly planned. These are some of IT change positive results.

Speed and Ease of Communication

Depending on your age, you might not even remember a time when you’d have to wait a few days in order to see documents or contracts. The fax machine made instant perusal of documents possible, but why waste the paper? Now a few clicks of a mouse and you can instantly share documents with a hundred people all over the world.

More “Stolen” Time

The desk of the average employee likely contains a playground of things to do other than work. The Internet is right there and his desk drawers contain an MP3 player, a cell phone and perhaps even a portable video game system. Studies about how much time employees spend not working while on the clock are surprising to many. Some studies say that employees are doing other things, such as surfing the net, for up to 4 hours a day. This is one of the downsides of small business and information technology. The internet is the most accessible temptation for many employees. Instituting rules about only using the internet for business related purposes don’t usually have a lot of impact. Open work spaces, where everyone can see what everyone else is doing is more effective, but such office arrangements are not the best option for every business.

More Opportunities to Work from Home

Thanks to information technology, many more people have the opportunity to telecommute than ever before. Telecommuting is a perk that many employees love, and if you can offer this option you may be able to lure some talented employees to your business without necessarily having to match their current salary. Super high speed internet connections and other business technologies are what allow many employees the opportunity to work from home. It’s hard to say what changes will come to small business and information technology with the next wave of technology changes, but one thing is for sure. Change is coming.

on automated election

2009-08-29T23:57:00.001-07:00

I have researched on the internet on the facts pertaining to the automation of the presidential election in 2010 and I have come up with these facts. This coming election which will be automated would cause Malacañang an P11.9 billion supplemental budget. The proposed OES-based automated election system, combined with an optical mark recognition (OMR) technology, could cost government about P8 billion for the equipment and operations. If Comelec prefers getting the OES automated election system alone, it will cost around P4 billion. It was also said that the choice of automation technology and its successful implementation is key to the credibility of the elections."
A lot of questions were raised upon the birth of this said automation. One question is, How reliable can the automation system be? A lot are saying that anything that is being done through computerized would be easier to falsify. Will the new system put an end to “dagdag bawas?” Is the software used for the system bug-free? With all these questions I guess it would be appropriate to know first how this automated system works. A lot are giving their opinion but really doesn’t have the knowledge on how it will work out.
On the election, a counting machine will be used. It is a machine that uses an optical scanning mark-sense reading. Also included in the list is Computer set which contains regular components, i.e., monitor, central processing unit or CPU, keyboard and printer. A National Ballot which will be counted by the counting machine. It will contain the name of the candidates running for a certain position. On the most basic sense, this system will use the power of the computer to automate the most time consuming part of the election which is counting the ballots. Still, voters will be required to write the names of their candidates manually on the ballot.
Many advantages also await the use of this new system. Let me enumerate them and give my comment on each advantage.
1.There will be no ballot box snatching as the ERs are transmitted electronically for canvassing
Of course no ballot box snatching will be possible since we will not anymore transport our ballot boxes. But I guess, ballot switching would still be possible. Even tough it would be that hard to do but as the famous line goes, “Pag gusto, maraming pwedeng paraan”. That is why I strongly believe that automation is not the key to a “dayaan-free” election.

2.If all precincts are connected, national results can be produced within one hour after the close of voting
I guess this is one of the reasons why a part of me will go with this automation system. The longer the time to produce the result of the election the greater chance that cheating will occur. We don’t know what will happen on the hours that we are waiting for the result since we are manually counting the ballots. It will just give those people who wants to cheat a time to carry out their plan.

3.Ballots are pre-printed and voters simply mark choices
To some this would be an advantage since voting time will be shorten for we will now simply mark the candidate that we want. But I guess this will be one of the sources of cheating for the up-coming election.

Looking on the disadvantages of the automation, the first thing that will come in our mind is the easy falsifying of data. Another thing to look into is, will the system really work? I have read in a computer magazine that even those new and expensive system encounters trouble. We can’t surely rely on a 100% performance for a system that is 1st time being implemented here in the Philippines. Maybe their are people who expects that every thing will be fine. But I’m pretty sure that they really can’t say that their will never be a problem with the new system that we are about to implement. With my experience, computers are unpredictable; we will never know when it will fail.
On the question on its reliability, for me, no one can measure it at this moment. But surely its reliability would be known after the election. This is also the reason why some people are claiming that the coming election will be a trial and error procedure for the new system. Will we allow such a thing to happen? This is a presidential election and the result of this election would surely spell where our country will be going for the next years to come. We all want an honest election; we all want a reliable result that will just show the real choice of the Filipino people.
I guess if a candidate in the election really intends to cheat, he or she will always find a way to do such a thing. Even if we automate our election, nothing would still change if people will not change. I guess our problem is not in the system. It is on the people involve on the election system. Another thing to consider here is the question is hitting our readiness for this automation. As what I have seen on the television a lot of problems are coming out inline with this new automated system. Is this really the right time for this? Will our gamble for a fast election meet our expectation for an honest and effective election? Even I can’t answer such question.
But if I will be asked if I am against this automated system, my answer would be YES. For me, our country is not yet ready for this, both the government and the people. The main thing that is important here for the next election is the fact that we want an honest election. Automation will surely not provide us with what we want, it will only give us a fast result for the election may it be reliable or full of fraud. The main factor that will play a vital role in the election is not the computers that we have and are capable to purchase and use, it will also be not in the software that will be used on the machines. The main factor ever since the election began are the people; the ones who will select the appropriate leader for this country. For the success of the election, automated or not, still lies on the hands of the Filipino people.

GREEN COMPUTING

2009-08-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

GREEN COMPUTING
The increase in U-M consumption of electricity and paper causes an increase in air pollution, solid waste, and the burning of fossil fuels. Much of the paper used by PCs is wasted. National estimates indicate that most PCs are not being used most of the time they are on. In addition, 30 - 40 percent of all PCs are left on overnight and on weekends.
On the U-M Ann Arbor campus, PC operation alone may account for at least $1.8 million in energy costs each year. This represents approximately 11 percent of the total amount spent by the U-M on electricity. It is estimated that a PC system can easily consume 300 watts of electricity per hour ‚ the same amount of energy needed to operate three 100 watt light bulbs.
The following "green computing" habits can significantly reduce the amount of electricity and environmental waste for which PCs are responsible.
Waste Minimization Procedure

Electrical Conservation Tips:
Turn the computer off overnight and on weekends;
Wait until ready to use the PC before turning it on;
If the computer is going to be inactive for more than 16 minutes, consider turning it off. After this time, the energy needed to run the computer outweighs the start-up energy;
Do not turn on the printer until ready to print, even an idle printer consumes energy;
Try to schedule computer-related activities to do them all at once, keeping the computer off at other times;
If spending a large amount of time at the computer, consider reducing the light level in your office. This may improve cathode ray tube screen visibility as well as save energy.
Paper Conservation Tips:
Use "paperless" methods of communication such as electronic mail (e-mail) and fax modems. Also, do not print out copies of e-mail messages unless necessary;
Use smaller font sizes and decrease the spacing between lines, or reformat to keep the document to as few pages as possible;
Review documents on the screen instead of printing a draft. If you must print a draft, use the blank back side of used sheets;
Use a printer that can print double-sided documents. When making copies, use double-sided copying;
The U-M buys and uses recycled-content paper when possible. Look for papers with 50 - 100 percent post-consumer waste and non-chlorine bleached. Also, recycle paper when done.
Store information on diskettes rather than in "hard copy" format. A single high-density 3.5 inch floppy disk can hold the equivalent of 750 sheets of paper, about one and a half reams. Also, be sure to reuse disks that contain outdated information.
Purchasing and Use of Equipment:
Printer toner cartridges can be refilled, rebuilt and reused. Many manufacturers will take a spent cartridge, refurbish it, refill it, and return it for about half the price of buying a new one;
Determine whether you can upgrade your existing equipment rather than purchasing new equipment;
Donate an old computer to a school or charity; if it is permanently out of order, give it to a computer recycling facility instead of discarding in a landfill;
Only buy a monitor as large as you really need; a 17 inch monitor uses 40 percent more energy than a 14-inch monitor. Also, the higher the resolution, the more energy it needs;
Consider purchasing an ink jet printer instead of a laser printer. Although they are a little slower, they use 80-90 percent less energy;
Request recycled or recyclable packaging from your vendor;
Buy soy or non-petroleum based inks. These printer inks are made from renewable resources, require fewer hazardous solvents, which translates to fewer air emissions, and in many cases produce brighter, cleaner colors;
Try to buy energy efficient products such as those bearing the Energy Star Logo. The Energy Star Program was started by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to encourage the production and use of energy-efficient equipment. In accordance with the EPA's voluntary guidelines, leading computer manufacturers are now producing equipment that can automatically power down to a "sleep mode" to save energy when not in use. They also use up to 30 percent less energy when running than conventional equipment. These added capabilities do not increase price or decrease performance.

Benefits
The production of electricity is the largest single source of air pollution, due to the burning of fossil fuels. A power plant used to generate electricity, burns oil, coal, or natural gas that emits gases such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. These gases, in turn, cause acid rain, smog and global warming. Conserving energy reduces the amount of fuel that has to be consumed, thereby reducing the amount of pollution generated. Obviously, energy-efficiency is a positive step toward reducing air pollution.
Some of the tips given above to reduce paper use and reuse of toner cartridge and diskettes will go a long way towards reducing the amount of solid waste that ultimately ends up in a landfill.
http://www.p2000.umich.edu/energy_conservation/ec7.htm

GreenVM - not only saving energy resources but human resources as well:
Craig Terrell, head of the GreenVM project (also a part of Enterprise Systems and Technical Services), like Tracy Hansen sums up his team's project nicely with an eye towards its environmentally-friendly potential: "The UNT GreenVM project aims to consolidate server resources and hardware costs into a centralized location. This means that the hardware is being used to its available capacity instead of wasting cooling and electricity as the majority of servers do. With our existing VM infrastructure, we can run between 25 to 60 virtual servers (Web, Application, File & Print, etc.) on each physical server. This method also allows us more efficient use of storage resources by utilizing a SAN (Storage Area Network) which shares a large array of drives across multiple servers."
Terrell further explains some of the technical aspects and advantages of his project: "All the virtual servers are running on clustered physical servers. If we do suffer a hardware failure, the virtual servers automatically move to another physical server with minimal down time, typically under 2 minutes or less. If we receive notification of a looming failure we can migrate the servers with zero downtime. There is no worry about setting up or maintaining any hardware. No AC issues, no power issues, no hardware failure or associated parts issues. A VM behaves like a physical server but boots much faster. You retain all control over it, just as you would if you owned the hardware, but without the hardware headaches. That does mean you will be having to patch and backup the virtual server just as you would a physical server. Physical servers can be migrated onto a virtual server, a process called P2V. This is useful if there are existing server hardware issues or the need to retire an older server without the expense of new hardware." So like many green technologies, not only are virtual servers a way to stay green but they also offer overall workflow and efficiency advantages as well.
The GreenVM project has helped the distributed computing areas on campus in freeing up many of their technical and personnel resources to concentrate on direct desktop and user services. With server management not so much a part of their jobs, staff members can really hone in on their already fine customer service. Terrell reports that over 70 VM's are in production for departments such as Facilities, Student Development, the College of Music and TAMS as well as several CITC internal projects. Terrell cites future plans and advantages as well: "The CITC VM systems are available to all departments within UNT with a nominal cost. It is typically less expensive than purchasing a server over a three-year period with the added benefits of high-availability and easier management. In order to maximize the benefit of a virtual environment, the plan is to migrate or launch new projects in VM whenever possible. The more we move to VM, the less cooling and electricity we need per server." In addition, his team is implementing full offsite DR (Disaster recovery) for major systems and projects.

http://www.unt.edu/benchmarks/archives/2009/april09/Greencomputing.htm

What is Green Computing?

Green computing is the environmentally responsible use of technology.

What can I do to “green” my technology use?
Enable power management on your computer.
Power down the computer and monitor when not in use.
Consider plugging your computer and peripherals into a power strip with an on/off switch and turn the entire power strip off when not in use.
Think before you print. Do you really need a paper copy?
Use recycled paper if possible
Use Print Preview to review your job before printing it
Print in black and white whenever possible.
Print two-sided whenever possible.
Reuse unnecessary print jobs as scratch paper.
Advertise events, parties, etc. electronically or with chalk instead of print-outs.
Recycle!
Use the recycling bins around campus to recycle paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic
Toner on campus can be brought to ISR for recycling
Beloit College computers and laptop batteries can be brought to ISR for recycling
Locations for recycling home computers can be found here
Recycle used alkaline batteries in Pearsons by the mail center or in the Library
Use email instead of faxes
If you are in the market for a new computer at home, consider buying an Energy Star compliant computer
If it’s possible, download software from the web instead of purchasing a physical installation disc

What is Power management and how does it help?
Every day energy is wasted by computers and monitors that are left on when not in use. By simply putting the hard drive and monitor to sleep after a short period of inactivity, huge energy savings can be realized. The computer should wake up with a quick click of the mouse or by pressing a key on the keyboard. In some cases, you will need to press the power button briefly to wake the computer up. Also, be sure to shut down your computer before leaving for the day and over weekends. Use this handy calculator to get an idea of how much energy and money can be saved.
Some Myths and Facts about Power Management*
Myth: Computers have a shorter life when you turn them on and off frequently.
Fact: Hard disks in PCs older than 10 years did not automatically park their heads when shut off, leading to disk damage from frequent on/off power cycling. Newer PCs are designed to handle over 40,000 on/off cycles.
Myth: Turning your computer off uses more energy than leaving it on.
Fact: The surge of power when a computer is turned off lasts a few seconds and is insignificant compared to the sustained energy used in keeping it on during periods of inactivity.
Myth: As long as the computer is off, it’s not using any power.
Fact: As long as they are plugged in, your computer and other electronic devices continue to use electricity – even when they are turned off or in standby mode. A computer uses up to 10 watts when it is turned off but still plugged in.
http://www.beloit.edu/isr/greencomputing.php

For more information about green computing, check out these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_computing
http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org
http://www.energymanagement.umich.edu/utilities/energy_management/computing/
http://ecenter.colorado.edu/energy/projects/green_computing.html
http://www.uwf.edu/helpdesk/eco/

We all know that not all people in this university have knowledge about the “green campus computing”. So, for me, the first thing to do for the University to apply these concepts about is to aware and educate the people about this. They should conduct some seminars or symposiums for the students or even the faculties to further understand this concept so that it will not be very difficult for the implementation.
Second, when the people are already aware, properly educated, and sensitive enough with regard to this matter including the causes and effects, this way they will think more before doing anything. Even this kind of action can lead to a nicer and greener environment.
To sum it up, it is not enough with the total awareness of the people, but, more importantly on the participation of the people. Not only the students, faculties, or the administration should participate but all the people that are part of the university.

These are my top 5 On Line Jobs

2009-07-11T03:02:00.000-07:00

Senior Web Designer

-design HTML prototypes, visual interfaces and interaction of Web-based applications and hand code CSS.
-A person who creates a Web site
-may use Web authoring software or an HTML editor to create the actual pages, or they may design the overall look and let a Webmaster do the actual coding.
-one with lots of programming talent
-also a web programmer

Reference: http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/job-JOL0ZLLZKKV;_ylt=ApPiueBJiaDuwDetq48RcNL6Q6IX?search_url=/job-search-l-Los_Angeles-CA-c-Internet_New_Media-m-0?offset=30

Call Center Agent

-often operated through an extensive open workspace for call centre agents, with work stations that include a computer -It can be independently operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate
computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_center

Virtual Help Desk

-it is like a call center application that allows organizations to have one point of contact through multiple channels: web, e-mail and phone, enabling cost effective management and coordination of problems as well as information requests by employees, partners and customers.
-position requires excellent communication skills, previous IT training and/or experience.
-one must be familiar with Desktop Hardware and Operating Systems such as XP, WIN2K and NT 4.0.

References: http://www.scorpiosoft.com/products/vhd_f.htm
http://www.at-homeworks.com/job_listings.htm

Interactive Production Artist

-Translate designs into optimized digital files for websites, banner ads, interstitial or micro-sites.
- Work predominantly with images and copy, but may also work with other media formats, such as animation, video and audio.
- Assist designers, senior designers and Art Director with design, HTML, Flash and other tools as needed.
- Work with Senior Designer and Designer to track, process, develop and deliver all graphical assets for a website or media campaign.
- Preserve the integrity of the design while implementing it technically.

Reference:http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/job-J665Z99QWXG;_ylt=AlkRWcyCkgtcZaWhUMnFnPj6Q6IX?search_url=/job-search-l-Los_Angeles-CA-c-Internet_New_Media-m-0

Medical Transcriptionis

-A Medical Transcriptionist takes a physician’s dictated notes and types them up to be put in the patient’s medical file.
-this job deals with the process of transcription, or converting voice-recorded reports as dictated by physicians and/or other healthcare professionals into text format.
-equires an experience in Internal Medicine and must be proficient with Window-based PC, Microsoft Word, high speed Internet and Email.

References: http://www.at-homeworks.com/job_listings.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_transcription
http://www.justonlinejobs.com/services/medical-transcription-at-home.html

Being an IT student and studying different networking and other basics on web, I preferred to become a Web Designer. It may help me sometime to develop my skills on web designing. I can apply my imaginations about designing. And I can learn and be able to apply the things I learned during college.

think of the future..

2009-07-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

IT Network Manager

Required Skills

=> Must be a Microsoft Certified Engineer with 7 to 10 years supervisory networking experience.
=> Must have experience in supporting CISCO routers, switches and CISCO IP telephone equipment.
=> Internet technology experience such as Active Directory, Exchange 2003, Internet Banking, Firewall configuration and McAfee Anti-Virus Suite and network security is required.
=> Supporting Microsoft windows server 2003, desktop windows XP and SQL2005 is also a must.
=> Additional experience in project management, and infrastructure design is critical ...

Other Nice to Have Skills

=> Displaying excellent interpersonal skills while working with non-technical employees and the ability to handle changing priorities while maximizing resources is very helpful.
=> Banking software applications support is helpful but not necessary.
=>The successful candidate must have a college degree in Information Technology or equivalent...

Job Description

=> Manager will manage and oversee Bank's network ...
=> Reviews, evaluates, recommends and administers enhancements to the Bank's current network infrastructure ...
=> Responsibilities include but are not limited to ensuring proper functioning of Bank’s Networks.
=> Installs updates as necessary, helps business operations utilize information systems to improve efficiency, keeps computer equipment, hardware, and software updated to meet organizational needs, sets up and maintains Bank’s network, Intranet, CISCO, Internet banking, systems, etc.
=> Ensures back up systems are in place and operational for all Bank systems. Oversees setting up and maintenance of all user accounts...

http://www.itjobs.com/cgibin/showjob.cgi?query=92334

Reflection..COMDDAP

2009-07-11T01:47:00.001-07:00

The journey...

It was a very hot afternoon of July 2, 2009 when I and my classmates walked from our school, University of Southeastern Philippines down to the corner of Conpinco. We sat there to wait for our other classmates to come so that we can go together, can lessen the fare, and most especially, we don't have to walk under the hotness of the sun again.When our other classmates have arrived, there were already ten of us and just enough to "pakyaw" a jeep down to our real destination for that afternoon... COMDDAP

The searching...

When I saw the Apo View Hotel where the COMDDAP was held, I felt excited. There are two main reasons why. First reason is, it was really my first time to enter the Apo View Hotel. Second is the knowledge that I can learn and get from that event. Before we were able to enter the hall, one of the personnel of the event gave us a student pass, and we I felt also a bit shy (char!) because there is a man who is also taking pictures of us at the same time.

The place was already when we went inside, and only us, Usepians are in our school uniform(gitan-aw pud mi gamai..hehe). And we are very proud of that. We started our searching from the first stall down to the last one. Every stall has different products or promotions. They are also giving leaflets and fliers about their product and the same us the visitors have also something to read and learn.

Through our searching, we also met some of our ex-classmates who transferred to other school and even just for a while, the happy memories flash back.

I learned a lot from the searching and window shopping that we did. There are lots of information also that I can get from the leaflets and fliers that I have. There was a stall there that sells motherboards and I was amazed because their products look very nice, cool, and most especially the power is very efficient. I was also amazed about the very big printer there, that was my first time seeing those huge thing in reality. There were also laptops that are free to use, and so we took the chance to try it and to scan things. There was also a stall there that are giving freebies like ball pens, sling, and many more. We were also taking pictures with some of the displays or the display alone. The searching was cool, fun, and particularly, very informative.

The learning...

The second session is supposed to start at one o'clock in the afternoon, but it started late because the first session started late also.

When the second session of the seminar started, the first topic is about the Jupiter Systems Inc. Mr. Celmer L. Santos discussed about the Dealer Management System (DMS). Dealer Management System is a 24 years old software company and a 100% Filipino owned that we can truly be proud of. It has also a hundred plus personnel and also one of the pioneer if Enterprise Resource Planning Systems in the Philippines. This Dealer Management System particularly deals about cars/vehicles. It hat a complete end-to-end solution for auto management, a vehicle management, back office operations and financial reporting. It also covers the Customer Relationship Management, Vehicle Sales and Administration, and the Service Management. The service management ha a lot of general features, these includes:

==> advance booking
==> operation maintenance
==> repair orders
==> repair estimates
==> customer service history
==> time-in/time-out
==> parts requisitioning and picking
==> service invoicing
==> warranty claims and processing
==> reports and queries

The Dealer Management System (DMS) is a very important and helpful information especially to those who are planning to buy a car. It can help them to ensure that their car are in good hands. It can secure them that they can have the right treatment for their vehicle.

Here comes the most exciting part of learning. The next topic is about the HP thin Client. But before he started the to discuss about the HP Thin Client, he told us that at the end of the topic they will be giving away flash drives and t-shirts. That is one of the reason why it is exciting.

Thin clients are computing devices that function as an access device on a network. These solid-state devices connect over a network to a server where the bulk of the processing takes place. Thin clients have no hard drive, allowing for more secure storage of data and applications on the server. In fact, keystrokes, mouse events and screen images are all that is sent between the client and server. This makes the device much more secure than a standard desktop or notebook computer.
With no hard drive, fan or other moving parts, thin clients have a much longer lifespan than standard computers and use significantly less power. Lower maintenance costs are another benefit as software application updates, virus scanning and patches can be executed on the server. Deployment costs are also reduced as thin clients can be remotely configured and do not need to be set up individually. Break-fix simply requires replacing the thin client.

Thin clients are ideal solution for today's healthcare, industrial, retail, financial and education industries offering a number of benefits to your business.

Enhanced security

Unlike a traditional desktop or notebook computer, no applications or data are stored locally on the thin client. This makes them easy to replace if lost, stolen or damaged. Thin clients are an ideal choice for businesses that are facing increased regulatory compliance laws such as HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley

Easier manageability

Thin clients are managed at the server, located within the data center. The client hardware has fewer points of failure and lacks a hard drive for storage providing protection from viruses and malware. Thin clients connect to servers via web browsers or remote desktop software. Depending on the functionality the user needs, client desktops can be very simple single-application kiosks or a flexible and familiar Windows environment.
Thin clients can be set up out of the box in less than 10 minutes allowing easy deployment to new users or remote locations. HP thin clients can be remotely configured and managed via management software included at no extra charge.

High reliability

With thin client access devices, business continuity is a given in the event of a natural disaster, as the data and applications are not resident on the client device. Because of their solid state design, thin clients have an extended product life of up to 5 years and can be cost effectively replaced if needed.
Thin clients are ideal for environments unsuited for traditional desktop computers like dusty, remote or space-constrained environments. They can be mounted invisibly behind a flat panel monitor, under the desk or just about anywhere with the optional VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association)-compatible HP Quick Release.

Increased energy efficiency

Thin clients offer significant savings in power usage over traditional desktops. This is realized not only in energy costs but reduced air-conditioning costs in some cases. With their long lifecycle thin clients allow companies to achieve energy savings targets and reduce the need for replacement equipment.

Lower total cost of ownership
The increased security, reliability and ease of management contribute to a lower total cost of ownership for your client computing devices. With a longer useful lifespan, thin clients contribute to cost savings. According to a study by Gartner (TCO Comparison of PCs with Server-Based Computing, June 2006) thin client TCO annual savings have been measured as high as:
• 79% less downtime cost per user
• 16% capital cost savings
• 34% less in maintenance
• 19% less to operate
• 48% overall lower total cost

I really learned a lot from them and just bad luck for me because I was not able to get their freebies.I was also really amazed about its features and benefits because this kind of innovation will really help especially to the bigger establishments and in the corporate world. :lol!:

aSsigNmEnt nO. 1 (LoCaL oRgaNizAtioNs)..

2009-06-29T05:10:00.000-07:00

Company Profile:

Founded on November 28, 1928, Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT) is the leading telecommunications provider in the Philippines. Through its three principal business groups - fixed line, wireless, and information and communication technology - PLDT offers the largest and most diversified range of telecommunications services across the Philippines’ most extensive fiber optic backbone and fixed line, cellular and satellite networks.

PLDT is listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE:TEL) and its American Depositary Shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:PHI). PLDT has one of the largest market capitalizations among Philippine-listed companies.

Mission Statement:

PLDT will be the preferred full service provider of voice, video and data at the most attractive levels of price, service quality, content and coverage, thereby bringing maximum benefit to the Company\'s stakeholders.

After reading articles about my subject company in terms of their developments in IT infrastructure these are the good points that I observed.

1. Online Recruitment -They use technology as a tool to widen their scope in terms of discovering future manpower assets in their company. They have there own site where interested applicants can submit online personal specifications. This may be a simple strategy but its effect to the future position holders of their company depends on it greatly. Here is the website link.

2.Online Service Application -We all know that PLDT offers a lot of services, from e-commerce to broadband internet services. And inquiring and even applying for these services are available in their main site. This is quite convenient for the people interested about their offers. And subsequently as they launched their site, a noticeable growth in sales came to place.

3. Online Security -As PLDT opened their doors to the internet world, the main concern of the users will always be security. They are offering online payments and without strong security measures this would impose a great risk. But this problem was addressed with great ease. Look at this please.

4. Fast IT development -For me, this is the best asset in their IT plan. As I read on succeeding online news, I noticed that they have system developments and upgrades every less than two months. And I\'m not referring to simple upgrades, I am pointing to Philippine-wide scope. Like recently, they are upgrading their lines through nationwide ATM(Asynchronous Transfer Mode) multi-service technology. And after reading it, I\'m amazed about the different companies that are also involved which only proves that they play a big role in local IT business.

5.Advance IT Infrasructure-As I read the articles about PLDT’s achievements and growth. I could say that they should have had a robust and adaptive IS plan for them to go this far. And I discovered in my readings that their success is mainly attributed to their constant development in terms of IT infrastructure. Let’s put it in this scenario. You want to go on a trip 30 miles away from home and you want to be there within two hours. You have your goal but you do not have a car or a motorcycle, what you have is only a bike which could barely run up to 10 km/h. With these given facts, you are left with only one possible option. And that is to commute on a bus. This scenario implies that giving a wide variety of solutions o a certain problem requires the proper elements. And in order o have the best solution you must have the best tools to start with. This means that the solution of a problem has direct relation to what you will be going o use to solve it. This is evident to the upgrades that PLDT did in the past years until now. Currently, they are upgrading their IT infrastructure, where their network cables will be upgraded to high-speed datagrade facilities that will greatly increase images, sound, video, and fie sharing throughout their network. With continuous upgrade in their infrastructure PLDT will eventually grow continuously. This is the article about their recent upgrade.

Company Profile:

The Group\'s principal activities providing telecommunication services and equipment, and developing telecommunication infrastructure. The Group\'s operations are carried out through two divisions. Wireless Communication business represents cellular telecommunications services that allow subscribers to make and receive local, domestic long distance and international long distance calls to and from any place with the coverage area. Wireline Communications represents fixed line telecommunications services, which offer subscribers, local, domestic long distance and international long distance services in addition to a number of various services such as leased lines, VSAT, telex, international-packet switching, broadband and internet services.

Mission:

Globe is one of the leading telecommunications service providers in the Philippines. The Company\'s mission is to \"enrich lives through ease and relevance\" by simplifying and removing obstacles in communication technology; that way, customers can be brought closer to what matters to them most.

In keeping with its vision to provide broadband customers with a delightful and hassle-free Internet experience, the Company\'s Globe Broadband subsidiary recently introduced Click Fix, a free and easy-to-use tool that will empower subscribers to manage their Internet connection quickly and simply.

After reading some articles, news and visiting their sites. I have observed these good points about their IS.

1.Continuous Development -I read several recent articles about Globe Telecom improving their IT infrastructure. The recent is the implementation of WiMax through their broadband services. To go with this improvement Globe had the services of Intel for hardware and technical support. The goal of this project is to improve and widen the area of subscription coverage of broadband here in the Philippines. \"The value proposition of 802.16e WiMAX is the Internet as it was meant to be: open, fast and mobile,\" said Ricky Banaag, country manager, sales and marketing, Intel Philippines. For further readings.

2.Maximizing the Benefits of IT Resources-As I observed, Globe maximized the benefits of their IT components and is very noticeable especially in their site. They have a couple of sites and is intended to cater a specific service for each. It also have the necessary components that is usually found in company sites like costumer support, how to contact them, about their company, and others.

Their site here.

a RefLectioN. .

2009-06-29T05:06:00.000-07:00

An introduction to management and how it relates to information technology gives me a thought that before we could even think of being good in managing systems and complicated relationships in IT businesses, maybe it's a good thing to start managing ourselves first. Let us think of ourselves as a system. All of us are complicated systems and unique as we are, we will need different strategies for each one of us. I myself have lots of things to do, lots of people to relate to and a lot of deadlines to catch up. And its a good thing to know that in this subject I could not only learn in terms of my career side but also in self development.

The discussion went great..

An Introduction. .

2009-06-29T05:02:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone within this forum. Im Alma D. Cabase, a 3rd year IT student. First, in terms of this subject, I

expect it to be a class without any classroom(not literary). What i mean, is that it would be a class on the outside world.

It's like we are explorers searching for the unseen and of course with constant communication with the headquarters (our

professor), for guidance. And as an explorer, I expect myself to comply with what the headquarters instruct and gather

useful experience along the way.

..

2009-06-15T01:57:00.000-07:00

PROFILE

Name: 구혜선 / Koo Hye Sun (Gu Hye Seon)
Profession: Actress and singer
Birthdate: 1984-Nov-09
Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
Height: 163cm
Weight: 42kg
Star sign: Scorpio
Blood type: A

TV SHOWS

Boys Before Flowers (KBS2, 2009)
Strongest Chil Woo (KBS2, 2008)
The King and I (SBS, 2007)
Pure 19 (KBS1, 2006)
Ballad Of Suh Dong (SBS, 2005)
Nonstop (MBC, 2005)
Drama City (KBS2, 2004|2005)

2009-06-15T01:50:00.000-07:00

The 'Iconic Love Story' for those who wish to stay young at heart forever!

"Boys over Flowers" is the highly anticipated remake of the famous Japanese comic book series. Jan-di, the Heroine, is the poor but bright girl who has a strong sense of justice and full of vitality. She transfers to an exclusive high school where only the rich go. In there, she encounters with the four rich and quirky boys and experiences love and friendship. The storyline illustrates the supreme fantasy that a drama can bring out the most. Each of us probably has an experience of admiring or dreaming of something. The drama 'Boys over Flowers' is the concentration of the admiration.

Jan Di is an average girl whose family owns a dry cleaning store located near the luxurious and well known Shin Hwa College. Jan Di meets the four richest and most spoiled boys, F4, when she delivers laundry to the school one day. After saving a boy from committing suicide, she is admitted into the school. An incident involving Jan Di's friend, Min Ji, forces her to declare war on the leader of the F4, Goo Joon Pyo.

The Korean drama is based on the Japanese manga series of the same name, which produced 36 volumes over a period of 11 years. It has already been produced as a drama series in Japan and Taiwan, where it was hugely popular. Although there was some concern as to how it would compare to previous versions, the Korean version has been eagerly anticipated. The drama surpassed expectations, featuring magnificent locations such as New Caledonia and Macao, as well as some of Korea's most beautiful destinations. The appearances of Korea's good-looking cast have been praised for staying the most faithful to the original series, and their impressive acting skills are said to give the drama great depth. has been an enormous hit since its first day. The drama has daily been the center of media attention, and parodies have even been made of the drama

Geum Jan-di is a normal schoolgirl who accidentally prevents a student from committing suicide while delivering laundry to Shinhwa High School. As a result of the incident and then due to her exceptional swimming skills, Jan-di is specially selected to join Shinhwa High School, which normally only accepts the top 1% of the richest people in Korea. The school is dominated by "F4" the four best looking, most powerful boys in the school, and when she starts Jan-di finds their red card hanging in her locker, which makes her F4's and the rest of the students' target for bullying. However, Jan-di overcomes this with her uniquely optimistic personality, and Gu Jun-pyo, the leader of F4 and also the heir to the Shinhwa business conglomerate, falls in love with her. Used to always doing as he pleases, Gu Jun-pyo begins a relationship with the pure-hearted Jan-di, but there are plenty of obstacles and misunderstandings that get in the way of their happiness.

FACTS: http://www.korean-drama-guide.com/boys-over-flower-kbs-korean-drama.html

2009-06-15T01:41:00.000-07:00

Lee Min Ho (born 22 June, 1987) is a South Korean actor who is best known for his leading role as the leader of F4 "Goo Joon Pyo" in the Korean adaptation of the popular manga series "Hana Yori Dango" entitled Boys Over Flowers / Kkot Boda Namja

His acting debut was in 2005, in MBC's Love Hymn, appearing as a minor character. His first lead role came in 2007, starring as Cha Gong Chan in SBS's Mackerel Run, an 8-part high-school drama.

However, his first big career break came when he was announced to be part of the Korean F4 on October 2, 2008. He was successful in getting the biggest role as F4's leader, Tsukasa Domyouji, from the manga Hana Yori Dango; his character was renamed Goo Joon Pyo in the Korean version, and he stars alongside the actress Koo Hye Sun, Kim Bum, T-Max's Kim Joon and SS501's Kim Hyun Joong. The drama first aired on January 5, 2009 on KBS as a Monday-Tuesday miniseries.

The role of Goo Joon Pyo catapulted him to fame, and led to many endorsements including Levi's Signature, LG Telecom, Samsung Anycall, Trugen, Market O, Cadillac CTS, Samsung, Cass Beer and Dunkin Donuts.

FACTS: http://www.squidoo.com/leeminho

2009-06-15T01:16:00.000-07:00

Kim Hyun Joong (Gim Hyeon Jung), born June 6, 1986, is a South Korean male singer and leader of boyband SS501. He portrays the role of Ji Hoo, one of the members of F4, in the drama Boys Over Flowers -- the Korean version of Hana Yori Dango.

FAST FACTS
Name: Kim Hyun Joong (Gim Hyeon Jung)
Profession: Actor, singer
Born on: June 6 1986
Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
Height: 180cm
Weight: 68kg
Blood type: B
Star sign: Gemini
Education: Hanyang Industrial High School, Kyonggi University
FACTS FROM:http://www.squidoo.com/kimhyunjoong

Boys over Flower OST

2009-06-15T01:07:00.000-07:00

..ur the best kiz..

Boys over Flower

2009-06-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

..I really don't understand what the song meant. But the tune is great and my girl love this..--posting