MULTINATIONAL CORP-EVOL & CUR ISSUE Movie Review - 2

MULTINATIONAL CORP-EVOL & CUR ISSUE - Movie Review Example As the financial crisis got worse, the Federal Reserve took unusual and unparalleled actions to re-establish financial stability. Unemployment rate continued to rise until mid-2003, as the United States economy was rebounding from a small recession in 2001. The Federal Reserve was worried that the economy would slide into recession so they kept the federal funds rate very low. The rate reached 1 percent by mid-2003 (Labonte and Makinen 9). As the economy began to expand and prices began to increase, the federal funds rate was increased to 5.25 percent by mid-2006. According to Labonte: It is now argued by some economists that the financial crisis was, at least in part, due to Federal Reserve policy to ensure that the then-ongoing expansion continued. In particular, critics now claim that the low short-term rates were kept too low for too long after the 2001 recession had ended, and this caused an increased demand for housing that resulted in a price bubble (Labonte and Makinen 9). The economy was more and more susceptible to changes in short-term interest rates largely due to the move to floating interest rate mortgages from fixed interest rate financing for housing. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Benjamin Bernanke stated that the low home mortgage rates were largely caused by a glut in global savings. Bernanke went on the say that the Federal Reserve had little control over these savings due to constraints in the regulatory framework. The Federal Reserves later policy of tightening monetary policy was to burst the housing bubble, claim critics. The critics further suggest that lax lending standards, which were regulated by the Federal Reserve, also contributed to the crisis. The subsequent increase in bank leverage ratios meant that they could borrow more overnight and create collateralized debt obligation (subprime loans) in the securitization chain. When the housing bubble burst, it led to a

Home Networking Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Home Networking - Article Example dependent of one another either by resulting to emerging internet architect and protocols or by painting new UI ahead of technologies that are existing (Edwards et al., 2011). Challenges facing home networking are what make it a bit inconveniencing to users (Edwards et al., 2011). These are the reason for the slowdown in home networking but there are solutions to them. Once the problems are solved then, home networking can be more convenient to the users (Edwards et al., 2011). The article perspective is that of user (Edwards et al., 2011). This is because he has identified various problems experienced in home networking. Additionally, has stated the possible solutions that can be of use to try to solve the problems facing home networking (Edwards et al., 2011). Adoption of networking in homes has become rampant over the years. For instance, in 2009, 63% of homes in the U.S had broadband connectivity and more than 50% had a home network (Edwards et al., 2011). The home network is multiple computers using a shared connection (broadband) through wireless or wireless (Edwards et al., 2011). In late 1999 as ell as inception of 2000, this knowhow has greatly though showed gigantic growth problems. This problem, which experience is beyond inconvenience, as it poses threats to their privacy. Addressing these problems will first require research from the industry, system, and the networking. The advantage is that it bears implications, which are positive especially meant for sustainability as well as public accessibility. This is a commendable breakthrough based on its boosting to commercial, education as well as communication services (Edwards et al., 2011). Home network has problems more so on end users who find difficulties in securing and managing their networks because this development is for managed environment. The privacy of an individual is not a guarantee and it does not have the chance to install applications of new-generation (Edwards et al.,

Business Structure Of Blizzard Entertainment

Business Structure Of Blizzard Entertainment This report is a in-depth look at Blizzard Entertainment the company, to find out why Blizzard entertainment is so successful in the gaming industry. We will look at the reasons on how it could come out with best selling games over and over again and how they manage to sell 2.4 million copies of one game within the first 24 hours. Furthermore, we will understand how Blizzard entertainment runs such a big company to such efficiency using the business model SWOT and PEST in the analysis of its success. A look at the current developments and what future developments it might have or where it can go from here will be discussed as well. Well, Blizzard Entertainment was not always as we had known it, originally founded in 1991 February as Silicon Synapse by Chairman Allen Adham, president Michael Morhaime and vice president Frank Pearce All Graduates from UCLA. In the days of Silicon Synapse it was more on focused on making game ports for other Gaming studios. Until the Breakthrough Game The Lost Vikings, it was hailed as one of the forefathers of that Game Genre . A year after that they released Rock Roll Racing another Cult Hit that paved the way for its predecessors in the Racer Shooter Genre. In 1994 It was only then its name was reestablished as Blizzard Entertainment. The first big scale game it released by Blizzard Entertainment, was Warcraft: Orcs HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__HumansHYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__Humans Humans and it was a hit with the gamers. Ever since they have made a benchmark in the game, the gaming world was at their fingertips now. After such success with Blizzard Entertainments original Warcraft game, Warcraft: Orcs HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__HumansHYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft:_Orcs__Humans Humans , was touted as one of the best strategy games of 1994, and the games epic sequel, 1995s Warcraft II : Tides Of Darkness, won numerous awards, including the companys first Game of the Year award. Warcraft III :Reign Of Chao ss, released in July 2002, has likewise won several accolades , just like Starcraft another hit Game Series released by Blizzard Entertainment, It has become a staple of professional tournament gaming, along with its expansion, the award-winning Warcraft III : The Frozen Throne, which was released in July 2003. II. Current Projects and a look at the rise of WOW ( World Of Warcraft) Well Blizzard has many notable achievements in its released games, None of it comes close To World Of Warcraft, more widely known as WOW. World of Warcraft stands as the greatest game in the popular Warcraft series. World of Warcraft has been an extraordinary success since its launch in November 2004. It has impressed game critics and has captivated millions of players, who adore the virtual world created by this game. It is no longer just a game but is now a genuine phenomenon, and one that shows no signs of abating. It is one of the key games of recent times, and stands as a landmark title for online gaming. World of Warcraft is the forth title in the series of Warcraft games, which has been entertaining people for over a decade To understand more about the appeal of World of Warcraft, let us recall the time when WOW was released. It was not merely some massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It created a truly engaging online world set in the heart of Azeroth, a fantastic land that is filled with heroes and monsters and many other creatures. The games strength is that it functions as an experience, as a world that exists on its own terms that you may visit and explore as you please. The game sold more than 240,000 copies in its first 24 hours on the market, more than any other PC game in history. Since then it released two other expansion sets which was a greater success then the one before. Blizzard is also making attempt to diversify beyond their original aim of just making games. Blizzard Entertainment is currently working with Legendary Pictures in making a live action Warcraft movie. III. tso The 8 Core Values are namely : Gameplay First, Blizzard Entertainments success can be attributed to the gaming experiences they provide the consumer or player. The goal of each discipline within the company regardless of job post be it art, programming or customer support, is to create games as fun as possible for as many people as possible. In order to achieve this aim, it is in Blizzard Entertainments prime belief that its workers also enjoy the process of game making. Commitment to Quality, This is the most well known core value of Blizzard Entertainment, which is not only applied in creating the best gaming experience for the consumers, but also practiced in every aspect of their job. They approach each task carefully and seriously, and seek honest feedback and use it to improve the quality of their work. Afterall, games are remembered for their high quality, and not how late they are released into the public. Play nice, Play Fair, In their business first impressions are important but lasting impressions are the ones that matter. Blizzard Entertainment strives to maintain a high level of respect and integrity in all interactions with us, players, colleagues, and business partners. The conduct of each Blizzard Entertainment employee, be it online or offline, can reflect on the entire company. Embrace your inner Geek, The employees at Blizzard are encouraged to show their geek side . Cutting-edge technology, comic books, science fiction, top-end video cards, action figures with the kung-fu gripà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Whatever it is theyre passionate about, it matters that each employee embraces it! Their unique enthusiasm helps to shape the fun, creative culture of Blizzard Entertainment. Happy and truly passionate workers make better workers, and what Blizzard Entertainment is all about today. Every voice matters, Great ideas can come from anywhere. Blizzard Entertainment is what it is today because of the voices of our players and of each member of the company. Every employee is encouraged to speak up, listen, be respectful of other opinions, and embrace criticism as just another avenue for great ideas. All because Blizzard values its employees and listens to the different ideas. Think globally, Blizzard Entertainment is a global company and everywhere on the planet there are people who play Blizzard Entertainment games. While respecting the cultural diversity that makes people unique, we strive to grow and support our global gaming community. We also seek the most passionate, talented people in the world to enrich our company and help us forge the future vision of Blizzard Entertainment. No country is too big or too small for Blizzard to take on or think about. Lead responsibility, Blizzard Entertainment believes its products and practices can affect not only our employees and players but the industry at large. As one of the worlds leading game companies, they are committed to making ethical decisions, always keeping the players in mind, and setting a strong example of professionalism and excellence at all times and for other game companies to exemplify. Learn and Grow The games industry is ever-changing. Technology improves, techniques change, and design philosophies become outdated. Since the founding of Blizzard Entertainment, it has worked to improve through experience, teaching one another and cultivating the desire to be the best at what they do. They see this as an individual responsibility as well as the companys. Employees can count on their peers, managers, and the company itself to be supportive and help them gain the knowledge and training they need. IV. A in-depth SWOT Analysis This Analysis will help us better understand of Blizzard Entertainments Success and its weaknesses. Using The SWOT Analysis model we can see the opportunities and revaluate the strategies to cope with its weaknesses. Strengths Good market position globally One of the very best pc game developers and held in high esteem by its customers. Very large age group from its larger customer base. Takes Feedback from its players and customers quickly and seriously. Developed World Of Warcraft to huge success and acclaim. Weaknesses May lack some competitive edge in some market segments over rival companies Relies on its current game titles more than it should. Very slow to release its games, often over the stipulated release date. Opportunities Business can be further diversified into other industries, example, making a film which it is trying to do now. Acquire more gaming sectors. More varied games. Look at a brand new type of pc game to boomz everyone away. Opening up of other global markets, getting more customers worldwide further. Working together with another pc gaming company to have a co-project. Threats Other big pc game producing companies, might pose some competition with maybe more attractive graphics or different game genres, Example, FPS. The time it takes to release a game might turn some gamers off, or they might just stop waiting all together. Limited experience in other industries it might want to diversify into Piracy 3rdparty clients such as Garena, lancraft blueserver and many others. Strengths Blizzard Entertainment has a good market position globally, meaning in the games market it has a huge cut of the customers and transactions that happen in it. Blizzard Is very well respected by the gamers, customers and other companies alike for their awesome games which are well designed and enjoyable for a very wide age group. When Blizzard comes out with a new game other companies will always try to better it learning from its strengths. From kids to adults, blizzard games have players every age range, making it well welcomed by all. Blizzard Entertainment leaves no gamer from the casual gamer to hardcore, professional gamer satisfied. The games Are simple enough and fast for the casual gamer to play, but also well balanced with good competitive potential. Intact, World Cyber Games (WCG) the worlds largest scale gaming competition has 2 Blizzard Entertainment games to compete in, Namely Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3 and Dota, which is a custom map made from Warcraft 3. Blizzard Entertainments World Of Warcraft easily overshadows all of its accomplishments with 12 million subscribers and increasing. Making it the most played online MMORPG, no small feat without its dedicated team of staff. If a bug is reported or game defect , blizzard will take it seriously and respond quickly to look into the problem and solve the issue. Weaknesses While Blizzard Entertainment is certainly a very successful company but it is not perfect or infallible. One of its Weaknesses is its most of its games revolve around the same genre of the real time strategy (RTS) or Role Playing Games (RPG). Some game diversity would be a fresh change and might get into a bigger cut of the market and different gamer groups. On top of that Blizzards Entertainments game graphics might be less visual compared to other games therefore might have less competitive edge in some market segments over rival companies example sports gaming or fps. Though Blizzard Entertainment has very good games it keeps expanding on the already expanded game stories, example Warcraft which has great gameplay and good storyline, however it Blizzard keep concentrating on the same story and how to make a better installment people might get bored to keep playing the same story thats over extended or stretched. While Blizzard Entertainment are showing great signs of market diversification by trying to make a movie, their experience is very little in that field and almost non-existent. Might hit many glitches and problems along the way it might hard to solve with little experience. Which Blizzard Entertainment is attempting to avoid by working with a experience movie company, Legendary Films. Everyone agrees that Blizzard Entertainment makes great games, but another thing they agree is they take a really long to do that often over the stipulated release date. An impatient customer is never a happy customer. Game Quality should never be compromised but still the releases could be faster. Opportunities No doubt Blizzard Entertainment is very successful in its games and products, it can further diversify into other game genres it might not have touched, example sports gaming or FPS. Warcraft has a very rich storyline and might be good as a comic or book, gaining more exposure for Blizzard Entertainment as well in the process. Gameplay improvements and Graphical improvements to its current games with patches or when a new game comes out because the gaming industry is always improving, and gamers demand more every time. Look at a brand new game Genre with a totally new gaming engine of which the likes were never seen before and Blizzard Entertainment is on its way to another great selling game. Working with another experienced gaming company will help expand its horizons and its pool of talent, with more ideas and more funding, Blizzard Entertainment has a great global market share and good global coverage, but there are still countries that have not even heard of it, with the expanding global market and opening of markets, it would be a great time to reach even more countries. Blizzard Entertainment is currently working with Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films such as Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, in making of a live-action Warcraft movie. Threats Blizzard Entertainment faces serious competition from other companies that have some game genres that other gamers find more fun, example FPS. On top of that though Warcraft 3 has great cinematics, its in game graphics cant be compared. So many other games out there with much better graphics. EA games has Tiberiam Wars with much better graphics but of the same RTS genre , how about Relic Gamings Company of Heros. The Time it takes for Blizzard Entertainment to release its games is a great internal threat, for it may lose many loyal customers that got sick of waiting for the usually delayed games. Customers hate to wait unnecessarily and may buy other games instead. Blizzard Entertainment move into diversifying its market by moving into the movie industry which it has little experience, and requires a lot of funding. By going into other Game Genres its not familiar with also can be a risky move that might spell disaster by spreading itself too thin. Piracy is without a doubt one of the greatest threats to Blizzard Entertainment, infact to any industry that relies on the IP law. File Sharing is now everywhere and very easily accessible, one can even get the game without going out of his home and without spending a single cent for the game. Piracy costs Blizzard Entertainment millions of dollars every year. Why would people pay if they can get it free? Along with Piracy is 3rd party clients that make it possible for the games to be played online for free without the need for a original cd-key. In the past without these programs playing online with a pirated game would be impossible, and that would be one of the reasons why original games where still popular for the fact it had a cd-key that allows it to be played online. With these programs it bypasses all these security measures and there is no longer the need to pay for the game. V. Final SWOT Evaluation It is clear enough from this evaluation that Blizzard Entertainment has a very successful business model, but at the same time has so much more that it could improve on and diversify into. The very rich storyline of Warcraft has so much potential from movies to books to comics to Television series. The move that Blizzard Entertainment decided to make by working on a Warcraft movie was a good market decision to capture the growing movie industry and movie fans. Its lack in experience in the industry is offset by doing the movie with a more experienced movie company Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films such as Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, with a proven track record. But it should be warned that yes Blizzard Entertainment can go into other industries, but it must not neglect its main market share the gamers, and some hardcore fans might be turned off by the change Blizzard Entertainment. The Strengths are many and can be further worked upon by looking at the same game with different angles. Continuing to make games based on the gamers demand would be the best bet, for that means their games will always be in demand. The threats and weaknesses are numerous as well, however with the right well thought strategies they can be avoided and countered to keep Blizzard Entertainment ahead in the gaming world. However the greatest threat is Piracy and 3rd party clients, which in the case the saying if you cant beat them , join em doing business with the 3rd party clients might help Blizzard Entertainment gain back its lost profits from the programs and piracy. VI. Conclusion Blizzard Entertainment is a great game developer, and to continue in a increasing volatile market it has to keep changing to meet the demands of the new world. But if it continues to deliver its mission statement Dedicated to creating the most epic entertainment experiencesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.ever following its 8 core values. I dont doubt and not for a second that Blizzard Entertainment will continue deliver gaming experiences that redefine gaming.

The Withch-hunt In Modern Europe :: essays research papers

THE WITCH-HUNT IN MODERN EUROPE By: Brian Levack The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between 1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task, but judicial authorities performed most. The cause of most of these hunts is the multi-causal approach, which sees the emergence of new ideas about the witches and changes in the criminal law statutes. Both point to major religious changes and a lot of social tension among society. The intellectual foundations of the hunts were attributed to the witch’s face-to-face pact with the devil and the periodic meetings of witches to engage in practices considered to be barbaric and heinous. The cumulative concept of witchcraft pointed immediately to the devil, the source of the magic and the one most witches adored. There was strong belief then that witches made pacts with the devil. Some would barter their soul to the devil in exchange for a gift or a taste of well being. Many believed that these witches observed a nocturnal Sabbath where they worshipped the devil and paid their homage to him. They were also accused of being an organization known for its cannibalistic practices of infanticide incest. Another component of this cumulative concept was the belief of the flight of witches. The belief for this was contributed to by the assumption that witches took flight from their homes to goto nocturnal meetings without their absence from home being detected. The belief in â€Å"flying night witches† was shared by many cultures in the modern world. These women were referred to as strigae, which was one of the many Latin terms for witches. As the reader first opens the legal foundations of witch-hunting, one finds that historically it was a judicial process from discovery to elimination. Levack states that before the thirteenth century European courts used a system of criminal procedure that made all crimes difficult to prosecute.

Gas Chromatography

GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY EXPERIMENT The purpose of this experiment is for the student: 1)to learn the general theoretical aspects of gas chromatography as a separation method, 2)to learn how to operate gas chromatographs specific to COD, 3)to become familiar with using the gas chromatograph (GC) to qualitatively identify components of mixtures, 4)to be introduced to and to interpret the quantitative data available via gas chromatography, 5)to gain insight into how the GC technique is used in the chemical industry both as a qualitative and quantitative tool.As a means of accomplishing these objectives, we will attempt to identify the three major organic components of two different kinds of nail polish remover. PRELAB ASSIGNMENT Read Technique 22 in Pavia, 4th ed. Be sure that you understand the components of a gas chromatograph and the factors affecting separation. Pay particular attention to the definitions of retention time and resolution and how the GC can be used for qualitative analysi s.  ·Fill out a gold sheet for all compounds present in the purple nail polish remover as listed below. Write a procedural flow chart for the experiment. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Each student will be required to make at least one injection into the GC. Each student will also be a member of a group and will share information and chromatograms with other group members and between groups. All GC injections will be one micro-liter â€Å"sandwiched injections†. The procedure for preparing the syringe is described below.  ·Place your sample in a small test-tube.  ·Rinse the syringe three times with your sample.  ·Draw approximately 1 micro-liter of air into the syringe. Draw 2 or 3 micro-liters of your sample into the syringe with the air.  ·Turn the syringe so that the tip of the needle is pointing up and expel liquid from the syringe until only 1 micro-liter of liquid remains in the syringe.  ·Pull the plunger back and draw in approximately 1 micro-liter of air. You now have a 1 micro-liter sample â€Å"sandwiched† between two air bubbles. Your group will be assigned either regular (purple) Revlon nail polish remover or acetone-free (blue) Revlon nail polish remover. The contents are listed below.Your group must gather enough information to be able to identify the three major peaks in the gas chromatogram for your assigned nail polish remover. Acetone, ethyl acetate, and isopropyl alcohol in addition to the two nail polish removers will be available as samples for injection. You may use these chemicals to make mixtures that you will inject into the GC. You may not inject any of these neat liquids (pure chemical samples) because the column may become overloaded and the peaks will show a lot of trailing.When analyzing the data and planning your mixtures, keep in mind that our GC's have flame ionization detectors that do not detect non-flammable substances such as water. Someone in the group will need to inject the assigned nail polish remover into a GC and wait for the instrument to record the chromatogram. While the GC is cooling down, label the chromatogram with your name, the name of your sample, and the number of the GC which was used. Have the instructor initial the original chromatogram.When the â€Å"ready† indicator light turns green on the GC, another member of the group should make an injection into the same GC in order to have the same experimental conditions for comparisons of results. The chemical make up of this second and subsequent injections should be determined after consultation within the group. You must get the approval of the instructor before making any mixtures for injection into the GC. Each person must submit at least one original initialed chromatogram attached to the cover sheet.All other chromatograms will be obtained from your partners and by exchanging data within a group. The second type of nail polish will be analyzed using class data that will be provided by your instructor. The labels on the two nail polish removers list the contents of each in the following order: PURPLE Nail Polish|BLUE Nail Polish| acetone|ethyl acetate| water|isopropyl alcohol| ethyl acetate|water| isopropyl alcohol|jojoba oil| benzophenone-1|butyl alcohol| dyes|butyl acetate| |toluene| |dyes|

Ramifications of Participation Contracts Essay

Providers must review participation contracts very carefully before signing and agreeing to one to avoid any consequences or negative effects for themselves. These participation contracts are put in place to allow the providers to have an overview of a plan to make decisions of participation. Providers can either gain financially or lose revenue when they participate in these contracts so it is best they go over them cautiously. Participation contracts can either be a gain or a fail for the provider. There have been cases where the provider loses revenue because the contract offers or pays less than the physicians set fees but can also increase patient numbers at the same time. With discounted fee-for-service, physicians are paid for every service and test provided based on a fee schedule or pre-determined discount from the usual fee charged by the physician. Physicians are only at risk if the cost of their care is greater than the payment the health plan will give them. This is typically why physicians will only test what is absolutely necessary. There are positive and negative ramifications of discounted fee-for-service arrangements. Positive ramifications of discounted fee-for-service arrangements are mainly geared towards the patient. When a patient is insured by a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and uses a physician within their network, their co-pays tend to be lower and they only pay an annual premium. Using an out-of-network provider would result in higher out-of-pocket costs for the patients. The most significant negative ramifications of discounted fee-for-service arrangements is that preventative care is not covered. This really affects the patient more so than the physician because any unnecessary tests or exams would be an out-of-pocket cost for the patient. There are benefits and disadvantages for not only the physician but also the patient when it comes to discounted fee-for-service and participation contracts. It is very  critical that the physician look closely at the participation contracts and choose what is best for their practice or facility. References: Valerius, J., Bayes, N., Newby, C., & Blochowiak, J. (2014). Medical insurance: An integrated claims process approach (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

What Is a Pell Grant

What Is a Pell Grant SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You might have heard about the federal Pell Grant and have some idea that it helps you pay for college. But you might not know the details, like how much you can get, whether you qualify, and how to apply. If you're looking for information financial aid, you should definitely learn about the Pell Grant. This annual award is given by the federal government to students who need help paying for college - if you meet all eligibility criteria, you're guaranteed to receive the money. Sounds like a great deal! In this guide,we'll cover the basic info about what a Pell Grant is, including: The history of the Pell Grant Award amounts What you can use Pell Grant money for Eligibility requirements Calculating your estimated award amount How to apply for a Pell Grant We'll explain each of these in more detail in separate guides that we'll link to, but this will give you a great overview of how Pell Grants work. History of the Pell Grant It wasn't always possible to get federal financial aid;there weren't many options for students who needed help paying for school outside of scholarships and private loans. This didn't present much of a problem for students who came from wealthier families, but the cost of higher education tended to prevent low- and middle-income students from attending college. During Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency, Congress passed the Higher Education Act of 1965, or the HEA. The HEA program provided federally-funded financial aid, in the form of grants and loans, to students who needed help paying for college or vocational school. Politicians reasoned that oneway to ensure better educational opportunities forcitizens was to mitigate financial burdens; why should motivated students be prevented from pursuing an education, if the only thing holding them back was cost? In 1972, Senator Claiborne Pell worked to expand and reform the HEA.Eligibility requirements for federal grants (formerly called Basic Educational Opportunity grants) were made more inclusive in 1978, and were renamed in honor of Senator Pell. Pell Grants have become an important financial aid foundation for many students across the US. The first year that grants were awarded, there were 176,000 recipients; for the 2013-2014 academic year, over 8.5 million students received almost 23 BILLIONdollars in Pell Grant money, with an average award amount of about $3,600! You could be one of those 8.5 million, and the Pell Grant amount will surely help you pay for college. Claiborne Pell, federal aid champion Pell Grant Award Amounts The amount of grant money students receive is based on a few different factors (which we'll touch on in a minute). For the 2015-2016 academic year, the maximum Pell Grant award is $5,775; the amount you'll receive if you're eligible will depend on financial need, and may be less than that. You can learn more about Pell Grant minimum/maximum awards here. What Does the Pell Grant Pay For? Because the Pell Grant is meant specifically to help students pay for school, it can only be used for school-related expenses (this does not come as a surprise, I'm sure). These expenses can include tuition, room, board, and school fees, but they can also include textbooks, supplies, transportation, and even food. Yes, the federal government could potentially fund late-night study fuel in the form of greasy pizza and/or energy drinks. Video games, not so much. You may not have to worry about managing your Pell Grant money, though. Oftentimes, it will go directly to your school, and will be applied to appropriate charges - most likely the big ones like tuition, room, and board expenses. You can get more information about Pell Grant limits here. As exciting as it may be to pay for your own textbooks, wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to? Eligibility Requirements Because the Pell Grant is a form of federal aid, you need to meet all federal requirements in order to be eligible to receive the grant. Basically, you need to have a high school diploma or GED, be a citizen or US national, and be enrolled (or accepted) in an eligible school. You can read more about the specifics of Pell eligibility requirements here. The Pell Grant is meant primarilyfor low-income students who don't already have a post-secondary degree (so, a bachelor's or vocational degree). Financial need is calculated by generating something called an Expected Family Contribution, or EFC; to receive the Pell for the 2015-2016 academic year, your EFC needs to be at or below $5081.Don't know what an EFC is? Don't worry - it's all explained in the next section. How to Calculate Your Estimated Award Amount It's possible to calculate how much Pell Grant money you're likely to receive before you even apply for federal aid. All you need is your family's financial information - you can get this from recent tax returns - in addition to information about your household size, family assets, and number of other family members in college. Go to this link, click onFAFSA4caster, and follow the prompts. The output will include Pell Grant estimates, in addition to other federal aid program estimates. Get more information about calculating your award by checking out our Pell Grant Calculator guide. Analyzing family finances can seem overwhelming, but I promise that calculating financial aid eligibility isn't this complicated. How to Apply for a Pell Grant There's no specific or dedicated application for the Pell Grant; you're automatically considered when you submit your Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.The FAFSA is totally free to submit (as you may have guessed). Even if you don't think you'll receive Pell Grant money, you have nothing to lose by submitting a FAFSA. You can submit a FAFSA online here, or you can get a paper application from your school's guidance office. The application shouldn't take more than a few hours, but preparing to fill out the application (for example, gathering all the necessary paperwork and setting a timeline) can be confusing without a game plan. Get step-by-step instructions for submitting your FAFSA here What's Next? There are other opportunities to get help paying for school outside of federal financial aid. Did you know that you can receive scholarships based on your SAT scores? Learn more about getting top test scores here. Merit-based scholarships can also close the gap between what you owe and what you need. Doing well in school can get you access to those scholarships. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

A Citizens Right To be Equal (american History X) essays

A Citizen's Right To be Equal (american History X) essays America is known to many as a free country. It was founded on the belief that all citizens would have the opportunity to thrive. This notion has not always been true. In the early years of our country, racism was a large setback. Slavery ruined the idea of a free country, the idea that was supposed to be the most important of all. Over the years slavery was abolished and racism has been largely eliminated. There is, however, some racism still present in that only holds our country back. These racist people cannot be called citizens because of their actions. The definition of a citizen is A person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation (American Heritage Dictionary). Part of being loyal and protecting the state is to obey the rules and ideals that the state has set. One of those ideals is to work with our peers toward something that would better society, no matter what race or religion they may be. We can see examples of this in the movie American History X. The movie begins with a gang of black guys trying to rob a car from one of the main characters, Derek. Derek, a racist, kills two of the three gang members, one of them very brutally by making him bite the curb and stomping on his head. He is sent to jail for three years for murder, and it would have been life if his brother had testified in the trial. As they explain later in the movie, Dereks racism started off because of his father. He told Derek not to listen to his black teacher saying, read the book, ace the guys test. Just dont swallow everything he feeds you whole just because you see it on the evening news. The father goes on to talk about affirmative black-tion and how the stuff his teacher tells him is nigger bullshit. Dereks racism only got worse when his dad, a fireman, was killed in a black neighborhood on the job in a black neighborhood...

Cathode Definition and Identification Tips

Cathode Definition and Identification Tips The cathode is the electrode from which electrical current departs. The other electrode is named the anode. Keep in mind, the conventional definition of current describes the direction a positive electric charge moves, while most of the time electrons are true current carries. This can be confusing, so the mnenomic CCD for cathode current departs may help reinforce the definition. Usually, current departs in the direction opposite electron movement. The word cathode was coined in 1834 by William Whewell. It comes from the Greek word kathodos, which means way down or descent and refers to the setting sun. Michael Faraday had consulted Whewell for name ideas for a paper he was writing on electrolysis. Faraday explains electric current in an electrolytic cell moves through the electrolyte from East to West, or, which will strengthen to help the memory, that in which the sun appears to move. In an electrolytic cell, the current leaves the electrolyte on the west side (moving outward). Prior to this, Faraday had proposed the term exode, discarding dysiode, westode, and occiode. In Faradays time, the electron had not been discovered. In the modern era, one way to associate the name with current is to think of a cathode as the way down for electrons into a cell. Is the Cathode Positive or Negative? The polarity of the cathode with respect to the anode may be positive or negative. In an electrochemical cell, the  cathode is the electrode at which reduction occurs. Cations are attracted to the cathode. Generally, the cathode is the negative electrode in an electrolytic cell undergoing electrolysis or in a recharging battery. In a discharging battery or a galvanic cell, the cathode is the positive terminal. In this situation, positive ions move from the electrolyte toward the positive cathode, while electrons move inward toward the cathode. The movement of electrons towards the cathode (which carry a negative charge) means current departs from the cathode (positive charge). So, for the Daniell galvanic cell, the copper electrode is the cathode and the positive terminal. If current is reversed in a Daniell cell, an electrolytic cell is produced, and the copper electrode remains the positive terminal, yet becomes the anode. In a vacuum tube or cathode ray tube, the cathode is the negative terminal. This is where electrons enter the device and continue into the tube. A positive current flows out from the device. In a diode, the cathode is indicated by the pointed end of an arrow symbol. It is the negative terminal from which current flows. Even though current may flow in both directions through a diode, naming is always based on the direction in which current flows most easily. Mnemonics  to Remember the Cathode in Chemistry In addition to the CCD mnemonic, there are other mnemonics to help identify the cathode in chemistry: AnOx Red Cat stands for oxidation at the anode and reduction at the cathode.The words cathode and reduction both contain the letter c. Reduction occurs at the cathode.It may help to associate the cat in cation as acceptor and an in anion as donor. Related Terms In electrochemistry, the cathodic current describes the flow of electron from the cathode into solution. The anodic current is the flow of electrons from solution into the anode.

Influence of Ethics on Decision Making & Impact of Technology on Essay

Influence of Ethics on Decision Making & Impact of Technology on Work-Related Stress - Essay Example Technology is another factor that affects the workplace and forces managers to make decision regarding the integration of new technological business solution. This paper analyzes the effects of ethics in decision making and the impact of technology on work related stress. The actions and decisions that companies make can have a lasting impact in the reputation of an enterprise. The rising cost of doing business place managers in situations in which they have to make tough decisions about different business actions. Environmental regulation is one of these areas in which companies at times try to cheat the system. The environmental regulations oversees are much lower than in the United States. Companies know that certain industrial processes hurt the environment, but if the country allows them a firm may be persuaded to lower their standard to reduce cost despite knowing that this is morally wrong Twenty four years a ago there a tragic case of an immoral decision concerning safety protocols in Bhopal India that lead to a gas leak explosion. The accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant caused the death of over 8,000 people and injured over 50,000 due to corporate negligence and irrefutable immoral behavior (Primeseeeds, 1999). The utilitarian view of ethics considers ethical behavior to be that which delivers the greatest good to the greatest number of people (Shermerhorn, et al.). Let’s consider the case of immigrant works in the agricultural field. Currently the United States laws forbid the employment of illegal immigrant workers. There is a shortage of supply of labor to work in the agricultural field and a need for the food production for the community. The illegal coming into America have the necessity to obtain they are willing to work hard for low wages. Based the facts many farming companies are willing hire illegal immigrants despite the risk of facing large fines if the government finds out. To the

Assignment taxation law Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Taxation law - Assignment Example Applying taxation law in the case of Concrete and Transport Ltd, analysis of the implications of the company decision on its activities is necessary. In deciding on whether to carry out repairs, the company needs to consider taxation on the materials required for carrying out the work. In the second option of building new production plant, more capital is necessary to cater for direct taxation, that is, to cater for new premises, and taxation on the materials needed in the construction (Jonathan & Bowen, 2008). Taxation law differs with operations in business. According to Erdős (2011), for a company to venture into railway transport services, it must be a corporation. For corporations, there is double taxation on all the profits including money for company expenses such as expansion. The management of corporations is a different lawful body and not the owners. Therefore, expanding the railway line means increased taxation to the company. In mechanization, taxation law differs with countries. In developed countries, for example, there is no over taxation. In developing countries, there is over taxation of the equipment used to encourage the creation of more job opportunities (Jonathan & Bowen, 2008). According to Schanz (2011), taxes have a significant factor in decision-making. This is because investment decisions are prone to distortion by taxation. In any business, the owners of the business they do undergo taxation or sail through without taxation. Therefore, it is necessary for the Concrete and Transport management to do analysis of their proposed company expansion to determine the after tax returns on the capital expected in the new idea. Expanded business does not guarantee increased returns due to taxes levied. As the business grows, there is a high chance of increased taxes, and in some cases, double taxation occurs, for example, in corporations (Schanz, 2011). Tax research is

Setting up a business in China Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Setting up a business in China - Essay Example This research will begin with the Chinese business culture. Chinese people perform a different form of business and culture as compared to the rest of the world especially the West. However, with the uniqueness of the Chinese history and background, China always has a special culture of business and etiquette. A simple business culture can mess a working relationship that was doing well. Conflict of culture between Chinese and another culture may cut short a working business relationship. Chinese businesses are usually based on being referred by another business associate; could be in the same business or in another business field. However, a strong recommendation from such an associate is required to win favour of clients and get good deals.Chinese business starts on a social plate and continues along the same line unless something happens that may break relationship between parties involved leading to business termination. Unlike Western culture where business is profession based, Chinese business is more of a social affair than a professional one. This is essential to help attract more clients and win hearts of many people in business. It helps maintain one’s clients in business socially rather than professionally and this increases business returns. The more one goes social in business in China, the higher the returns. Getting personal in business and sharing one’s personal life acts as an incentive to business partners. Business partners usually take this as getting close to them and this may be their interest even before they do their business with the party involved. It is therefore imperative to get personal and avoid too much of being professional as this will guarantee high returns within a short period of business. Spending time in sharing personal life in business attracts business associates from China. Personal life may include political views, hobbies, and family life among others. Protocol and priority are vital in business in Chin a. Protocol and priority comes in when dealing with people of different ranks. Recognition is of essence to show these individuals that one recognizes their rank. Address people with their correct designation, for example, Director, Doctor, Professor, and Chairman. This will make the parties see that their rank in whatever field they are in is highly recognized even in business. Giving business cards during business meetings indicates that one is serious in doing business. A business card should face the recipient. Such a card should have one side translated to make it easy for the Chinese party to understand what one is selling to them or buying from them. It is important to mention one’s company and the rank one holds before business gets underway. Business in China pays much attention to respect. Parties are supposed to display respect to each other according to rank. It may not be easy to excel in business in China without understanding that respect is tantamount to busin ess success. It is necessary to establish contact with a client one is dealing with so as to get as much referrals as possible from that client as business progresses. One should act as an interpreter to himself to make it easy to identify with Chinese as they like business where they understand what they are dealing in. It is vital to explain legal aspects of the business one is handling to be sure of the legal implications when doing any kind of

The chassis of a typical motorcycle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The chassis of a typical motorcycle - Essay Example dy components are made from cast-able aluminum, we will discuss here, the characteristics for aluminum casting with reference to its various grades, as this is the best non-ferrous casting alloy and Accordingly, the proper aluminum grade is to be selected, depending on the type of casting. In most of the cases, â€Å"Twin Spar† type aluminum is used for the manufacture of a motorbike frame. The further techniques and processes for the manufacture of this chassis involve welding, tube manipulation and profiling, sheet metal work and Jigging, tooling. These are described here in brief This process is involved when the product turnover is huge .As indicated above, the sand casting or die-casting techniques are used for the manufacture of a motorbike chassis. However die-casting is the technique mostly used for the aluminum chassis manufacture. The process can be either hot chamber or cold chamber die casting methods. The molds involved are required to be quality tested frequently due to their high ware and tear. Various casting processes have their respective advantages and limitations. Some of them are detailed below Apart from the nonferrous metals like aluminum, which are used for die-casting to manufacture the motorbike chassis, other non-metal materials are used currently. These include high resistance and strong polymer based compounds that may need a different casting procedure. The road-going version of Norton featherbed frame was manufactured using electric arc welding process only. However, the technology has advance a lot since then and it is now found that electric arc welding may not be suitable for the chassis building as the requirement of the tubing wall thickness here is more than 2mm, which makes the material expensive. This is also called CO2 gas welding. The weld material is in the form aof a wire or electrode and the gas fed as a shroud is the mixture of carbon dioxide and argon. While, the process is used mostly for steel tubing and other

Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 29

Leadership - Essay Example In turn, the followers are able to connect effectively with their leader without fear of any punitive measures against them. In this leadership model, a leader should be able to enhance positive change among his followers. It focuses on the personality of the leader instead of the actions of the same leader. To effect change and impart it among individuals requires a lot of assertiveness which is a must trait that a leader should posses if not learn. The film depicts Coach Carter as having idealized influence over his followers, which is simply the trust people have in him. Transformational leadership as seen in the film builds and maintains mutual trust between follower and the leader. Further, Carter has given his followers more autonomy and voice in making decision concerning them. This makes them feel important since they know that their leader cares about them. This builds a harmonious relationship between employees and top management (Bass 36-38). In order to create an atmosphere of trust, the leader can give workers more autonomy, interact with them and create a situation of idealized influence eliminate misconceptions about their relationship with the management. Transformational leadership facilitates and redefines people’s vision and mission. It also renews people’s commitment and restructures their systems to accomplish a certain goal. Thus, a mutual relationship stimulates and elevates follower to become leaders. In addition, it may also convert leaders to become moral agents. Transformational leadership should therefore be grounded on moral foundations. As seen in the film Coach Carter posses this qualities since he advocates for things that would lead to attainment of the people’s mission and vision. Transformational leadership has been renowned for fostering capacity development to bring higher personal level of commitment among

Intoduction Development Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Intoduction Development Economics - Essay Example Moreover, the document will discuss the prevalence of the inequality in the years. Assessment of the poverty evolution in the country in the last two decades and the factors that led to the performance will be elaborated in the document. The population growth of the country will be part of the subject of the paper since the year 1980. Lastly, the paper will tackle the poverty levels in the country in the nation given its poverty levels in the last two decades. Ecuador is one of the poor countries in the Latin America and the level of inequality of the country’s resources keeps bloating in the developing years. The country’s inequality is a trending feature that gives the country bad reputation on the priorities the government has put in place to counter the inequality in the country. As the countries natives suffer the economic devastations, some parts of the country enjoy the fruits of tourism and high end bars. This land termed as ‘gringolandas’ are known for the rich culture of using American luxury products and the few elite enjoy the resources generated from the tourist revenue in the country. Marginalization of the Afro-Ecuadorians in the nation has contributed to the inequality in the country as the communities have the notion that they are the lazy and criminals. A few miles into the Atacames a touristy beach town could benefit the Esmeralda residents but the mindset in the country give the vicious cycle of poverty a chance in the country by fueling the stereotypes on the Afro-Ecuadorians. Racism in the country is a big issue in the country ingrained from the Spanish colonial eras is still evident in the country aggravating the population’s marginalization. Inequality in the recent years is partly fueled by the environmental devastation in the country. The deforestation and oil spills in the countryside where many indigenous Ecuadorians live become more prominent because the legislature is very corrupt and lacks protect ive measures to control the companies given the contracts. This degradation of the environment brings the country to depravation of morals and defined greed in the system that governs the country. The constant westernization of the urban Ecuador is very instrumental in the promotion of inequality. The supermaketization of the urban areas gives convenience to the wealthy but puts the local farmers out of business creating further inequality in the country. In comparison to other countries that have the same income levels, Ecuador has a lower prevalence of the poverty levels compared to the Dominican Republic. However, the level of poverty in Costa Rica is reduced and low in comparison to both countries. Inequality in the countries has declined in the recent years but not in all countries. The level of inequality in Costa Rica has seen a stagnation trend as compared to the other countries. The evolution of the inequality has evolved in the country citing the new discoveries of natural resources that attract companies that mine without the care for the environment and the natives. Furthermore, the country has had a lot to do with racism, which is a good aggravator of inequality. These changes are occurring because the government and the appropriate bodies are doing little to protect the common person in the country and instead enjoy the luxury that comes with the resources the country contains. The presence of deeply rooted corruption gives the common person a hard

Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 29

Leadership - Essay Example In turn, the followers are able to connect effectively with their leader without fear of any punitive measures against them. In this leadership model, a leader should be able to enhance positive change among his followers. It focuses on the personality of the leader instead of the actions of the same leader. To effect change and impart it among individuals requires a lot of assertiveness which is a must trait that a leader should posses if not learn. The film depicts Coach Carter as having idealized influence over his followers, which is simply the trust people have in him. Transformational leadership as seen in the film builds and maintains mutual trust between follower and the leader. Further, Carter has given his followers more autonomy and voice in making decision concerning them. This makes them feel important since they know that their leader cares about them. This builds a harmonious relationship between employees and top management (Bass 36-38). In order to create an atmosphere of trust, the leader can give workers more autonomy, interact with them and create a situation of idealized influence eliminate misconceptions about their relationship with the management. Transformational leadership facilitates and redefines people’s vision and mission. It also renews people’s commitment and restructures their systems to accomplish a certain goal. Thus, a mutual relationship stimulates and elevates follower to become leaders. In addition, it may also convert leaders to become moral agents. Transformational leadership should therefore be grounded on moral foundations. As seen in the film Coach Carter posses this qualities since he advocates for things that would lead to attainment of the people’s mission and vision. Transformational leadership has been renowned for fostering capacity development to bring higher personal level of commitment among

Violent Sports should be Banned Essay Example for Free

Violent Sports should be Banned Essay To start with, Sports is basically an activity done for pleasure, which needs physical effort and skill. Some people, who dedicate themselves to this activity, consider it as a passion to compete against others in their skill, ability and spirit. Sports also help in inculcating a certain discipline as well as the spirit of brotherhood or the ‘team spirit’ in the sports persons. Sports ideally are not meant to do anything with violence. Sports for some is a mode of attaining fame, for some it is their job. Some do it as their hunger to compete and win, while the others take it as an enjoyment to watch. But, in today’s scenario, the sports that include aggressive activities are gaining more popularity, as they present much a way of entertainment to the spectators. Since the youth are more volatile by nature they enjoy these ‘violent sports’ such as boxing, kick boxing, wrestling etc. Today’s Young generation does not make an effort to know the grave dangers that these sports put. The dangers that these sports cause are susceptibility to major accidents that may even prove to be even worse than fatal. The injuries which may be for lifetime may be a cause of greater torture and helplessness than death itself. Certain instances in the past, such as the accident of Fred Guirrero and ‘Umaga’ because of accidents during the match have resulted in their death in the arena themselves. Also, these violent sports are responsible for major injuries to the sportspersons, such as rupture of the spine, brain haemorrhage, excessive blood loss, irregular clotting etc. Not only the sportspersons are affected by these kinds of sports, but also, the viewers get an indirect impact on them. Young children as well as adults, try to imitate the actions that take place in these sports. Statistics say that almost 15000 deaths take place annually in the USA because of people imitating the sportspersons of boxing, wrestling, sword fighting etc. Repeated watching of such sports unconsciously affects the very psyche of the young which ultimately reflect in their behaviour in their social environment. One of the major causes of ‘road rage’, shooting spree by teenagers in their own schools and colleges, acts of suicide, involvement in murders, loots etc, are the consequences of being in constant influence these ‘violent sports’ and other such activities. What is the logic behind sportspersons indulging themselves in such inhuman activities and the viewers watching blood smeared sportsmen in  the ring with broken limbs? It seems greed of money is prompting certain people to participate in such type of violent activity. Also, it is very contradictory to the spirit of sports that they spread violence and suffering instead of providing pleasure and joy. So in my opinion I strongly refute the proposition of those who argue in support of the continuation of such ‘violent sports’. They should be allowed neither to continue on human as well as moral grounds.

Impact of Social Networking Sites on Children

Impact of Social Networking Sites on Children Social networking sites offer people new and varied ways to communicate via the internet,  whether through their PC or their mobile phone. Examples include MySpace, Facebook and  Bebo. They allow people to easily and simply create their own online page or profile and to  construct and display an online network of contacts, often called friends. Users of these  sites can communicate via their profile both with their friends and with people outside their list of contacts. The rapid growth of social networking sites in recent years indicates that they are now a mainstream communications technology for many people. Social networking sites are most popular with teenagers and young adults Research shows that just over one fifth (22%) of adult internet users aged 16+ and  almost half (49%) of children aged 8-17 who use the internet have set up their own profile on a social networking site.4 For adults, the likelihood of setting up a profile is highest among 16-24 year olds (54%) and decreases with age. Some under-13s are by-passing the age restrictions on social networking sites Despite the fact that the minimum age for most major social networking sites is usually 13  (14 on MySpace), 27% of 8-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites say that  they have a profile on a site. While some of these younger users are on sites intended for  younger children, the presence of underage users on social networking sites intended for  those aged 13 or over was also confirmed by qualitative research . The average adult social networker has profiles on 1.6 sites, and most users check their profile at least every other day. Adult social networkers use a variety of sites, with the main ones being Bebo, Facebook and  MySpace. It is common for adults to have a profile on more than one site on average each  adult with a social networking page or profile has profiles on 1.6 sites, and 39% of adults  have profiles on two or more sites. Half of all current adult social networkers say that they  access their profiles at least every other day. The site people choose to use varies depending on the user. Children are more likely to use Bebo (63% of those who have a social networking site profile), and the most popular site for adults is Facebook (62% of those who have a social networking profile). Two-thirds of parents claim to set rules on their childs use of social  networking sites, although only 53% of children said that their parents set  such rules For many children, the rules and restrictions that their parents set on social networking site  usage are an important influencing factor in the childs use of social networking sites. Two thirds of parents whose children have a social networking page say they set rules on their  childs use of these sites. Most commonly these concerned meeting new people online and  giving out personal details. However, significantly fewer children (53% of those with social  networking profiles) say that their parents set rules on their use of these sites. Attitudes and behaviours towards social networking sites Social networkers fall into distinct groups Social networkers differ in their attitudes to social networking sites and in their behaviour  while using them. Qualitative research indicates that site users tend to fall into five  distinct groups based on their behaviours and attitudes. These are as follows: Alpha Socialisers (a minority) people who used sites in intense short bursts to flirt,  meet new people, and be entertained. Attention Seekers (some) people who craved attention and comments from others,  often by posting photos and customising their profiles. Followers (many) people who joined sites to keep up with what their peers were  doing. Faithfuls (many) people who typically used social networking sites to rekindle old  friendships, often from school or university. Functionals (a minority) people who tended to be single-minded in using sites for a  particular purpose. Non-users of social networking sites also fall into distinct groups Non-users also appear to fall into distinct groups; these groups are based on their reasons  for not using social networking sites: Concerned about safety people concerned about safety online, in particular making  personal details available online. Technically inexperienced people who lack confidence in using the internet and  computers. Intellectual rejecters people who have no interest in social networking sites and see  them as a waste of time. Introduction INDUSTRY OVERVIEW Social Networking sites- Overview A  social network service  focuses on building and reflecting of  social networks  or  social relations  among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are  web based  and provide means for users to interact over the  internet, such as  e-mail  and  instant messaging. Although  online community  services are sometimes considered as a social network service in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-catered service whereas  online community  services are group-centred. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with  Facebook,  Bebo  and  Twitter  widely used worldwide;  MySpace  and  LinkedIn  being the most widely used in North America;[1]HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NexopiaNexopia  (mostly in Canada);[2]  Bebo,[3]  Hi5,  Hyves  (mostly in The Netherlands),  StudiVZ  (mostly in Germany),  iWiW  (mostly in Hungary),Tuenti  (mostly in Spain),  Decayenne,  Tagged,  XING;[4],  BadooHYPERLINK #cite_note-4[5]  and  Skyrock  in parts of Europe;[6]  Orkut  and  Hi5  in  South America  andCentral America;[7]  and  Friendster,  Mixi,  Multiply,  Orkut,  Wretch,  renren  and  Cyworld  in Asia and the Pacific Islands and  Orku t  and  Facebookin India. There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the  FOAFstandard and the  Open Source Initiative ), but this has led to some concerns about privacy. Although some of the largest social networks were founded on the notion of digitizing real world connections, many other networks as seen in the  List of social networking websites  focus on categories from books and music to non-profit business to motherhood as ways to provide both services and community to individuals with shared interests. Typical structure In general, social networking services allow users to create a profile for themselves, and can be broken down into two broad categories: internal social networking (ISN) and external social networking (ESN) sites such  as  MySpace,  Facebook,  Twitter  and  Bebo. Both types can increase the feeling of community among people. An ISN is a closed/private community that consists of a group of people within a company, association, society, education provider and organization or even an invite only group created by a user in an ESN. An ESN is open/public and available to all web users to communicate and are designed to attract advertisers. ESNs can be smaller specialized communities (i.e. linked by a single common interest e.g. TheSocialGolfer, ACountryLife.Com, Great Cooks Community) or they can be large generic social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, Facebook etc). However, whether specialized or generic there is commonality across the general approach of social networking sites. Users can upload a picture of themselves, create their profile and can often be friends with other users. In most social networking services, both users must confirm that they are friends before they are linked. For example, if  Alice  lists Bob as a friend, then Bob would have to approve Alices friend request before they are listed as friends. Some social networking sites have a favorites feature that does not need approval from the other user. Social networks usually have privacy controls that allows the user to choose who can view their profile or contact them, etc. Social networking sites typically have a section dedicated to comments by friends. On Friendster, this section is called Testimonials. On Facebook, this section is called The Wall. In the beginning, this was a feature that encouraged people to write messages about the person in the profile. But over time, people started writing creative testimonials back, creating a form of conversation.[32] Some social networking sites are created for the benefits of others, such as parents social networking site Gurgle. This website is for parents to talk about pregnancy, birth and bringing up children. .com. This social network allows professionals to exchange information, opportunities, and ideas. Professionals are able to stay informed with new knowledge about their field  Some social networks have additional features, such as the ability to create  groups  that share common interests or affiliations, upload or stream live videos, and hold discussions in forums.  Geo social networking co-opts internet mapping services to organize user participation around geographic features and their attributes. There is also a trend for more  interoperability between social networks  led by technologies such as  OpenID  and  Open Social. Lately, mobile social networking has become popular. In most mobile communities, mobile phone users can now create their own profiles, make friends, participate in chat rooms, create chat rooms, hold private conversations, share photos and videos, and share blogs by using their mobile phone. Mobile phone users are basically open to every option that someone sitting on the computer has. Some companies provide wireless services which allow their customers to build their own mobile community and brand it, but one of the most popular wireless services for social networking in North America is Facebook Mobile. Other companies provide new innovative features which extend the social networking experience into the real world. Another social networking feature in a professional aspect is LinkedIn. Emerging trends in social networks As the increase in popularity of social networking is on a constant rise, new uses for the technology are constantly being observed. At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the concept of real time and location based. Real time allows users to contribute content, which is then broadcasted as it is being uploaded the concept is similar to live television broadcasts.   Twitter  set the trend for real time services, where users can broadcast to the world what they are doing, or what is on their minds within a 140 character limit.  Facebook  followed suit with their Live Feed where users activities are streamed as soon as it happens. While Twitter focuses on words,  Clixtr, another real time service, focuses on group photo sharing where users can update their photo streams with photos while at an event. Friends and nearby users can contribute their own photos and comments to that event stream, thus contributing to the real time aspect of broadcasting photos and comments as it is being uploaded. In the location based social networking space,  Foursquare  gained popularity as it allowed for users to check-in to places that they are frequenting at that moment.  Gowalla  is another such service which functions in much the same way that Foursquare does, leveraging the  GPS  in phones to create a location based user experience. Clixtr, though in the real time space, is also a location based social networking site since events created by users are automatically geotagged, and users can view events occurring nearby through the Clixtr  iPhone  app. Recently,Yelp  announced its entrance into the location based social networking space through check-ins with their mobile app; whether or not this becomes detrimental to Foursquare or Gowalla is yet to be seen as it is still considered a new space in the internet technology industry.[35] One popular use for this new technology is social networking between businesses. Companies have found that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build their brand image. According to Jody Nimetz, author of Marketing Jive[36], there are five major uses for businesses and social media: to create brand awareness, as an online reputation management tool, for recruiting, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead gen tool to intercept potential prospects.[36]. These companies are able to drive traffic to their own online sites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have discussions on how to improve or change products or services. One other use that is being discussed is the use of Social Networks in the Science communities. Julia Porter Liebeskind et al. have published a study on how New Biotechnology Firms are using social networking sites to share exchanges in scientific knowledge.  They state in their study that by sharing information and knowledge with one another, they are able to increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization. Social networking is allowing scientific groups to expand their knowledge base and share ideas, and without these new means of communicating their theories might become isolated and irrelevant. Social networks are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool. Because many students are already using a wide-range of social networking sites, teachers have begun to familiarize themselves with this trend and are now using it to their advantage. Teachers and professors are doing everything from creating chat-room forums and groups to extend classroom discussion to posting assignments, tests and quizzes, to assisting with homework outside of the classroom setting. Social networks are also being used to foster teacher-parent communication. These sites make it possible and more convenient for parents to ask questions and voice concerns without having to meet face-to-face. Social networks are being used by activists as a means of low-cost grassroots organizing. Extensive use of an array of social networking sites enabled organizers of the 2009  National Equality March  to mobilize an estimated 200,000 participants to march on Washington with a cost savings of up to 85% per participant over previous methods.[38] The  use of online social networks by libraries  is also an increasingly prevelant and growing tool that is being used to communicate with more potential library users, as well as extending the services provided by individual libraries Issues Privacy On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users giving out too much personal information and the threat of  sexual predators. Users of these services also need to be aware of  data theft  or  viruses. However, large services, such as  MySpace  and  Netlog, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents.[citation needed] In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an individuals behaviour on which decisions, detrimental to an individual, may be taken. Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of dataâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ information that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to 3rd parties. This danger was highlighted when the controversial social networking site  Quechup  harvested e-mail addresses from users e-mail accounts for use in a  spamming  operation.[43] In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviors is normally strictly scrutinized by  institutional review boards, for example, to ensure that adolescents and their parents have  informed consent. It is not clear whether the same rules apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain a great deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data are public, republishing it in a research paper might be considered  invasion of privacy.[44] Privacy on Facebook is undermined by three principal factors: users disclose too much, Facebook does not take adequate steps to protect user privacy, and third parties are actively seeking out end-user information using Facebook. Every day teens go on social networking sites and reveal their most inner thoughts for the whole world to see. Information such as street address, phone number, Instant Messaging name are disclosed to an unknown population in cyberspace. Whats more, the creation of a Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. account is a fairly easy process to do and no identification is required, which can lead to identity theft or impersonation. For the Net generation, social networking sites have become the preferred forum for social interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off. However, because such forums are relatively easy to access, posted content can be reviewed by anyone with an interest in the users personal information. There has been a trend for social networking sites to send out only positive notifications to users. For example sites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace will not send notifications to users when they are removed from a persons friends list. Similarly Bebo will send out a notification if a user is moved to the top of another users friends list but no notification is sent if they are moved down the list. This allows users to purge undesirables from their list extremely easily and often without confrontation since a user will rarely notice if one person disappears from their friends list. It also enforces the general positive atmosphere of the website without drawing attention to unpleasant happenings such as friends falling out, rejection and failed relationships. Many social networking services, such as Facebook, provide the user with a choice of who can view their profile. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from accessing their information.[49]Parents have become a big problem to teens who want to avoid their parents to access their MySpace or Facebook accounts. By choosing to make their profile private, teens are able to select who can see their page and this prevents unwanted parents from lurking. This will also mean that only people who are added as friends will be able to view the profile. Teens are constantly trying to create a structural barrier between their private life and their parent A common misuse of social networking sites such as Facebook is that it is occasionally used to emotionally abuse individuals. Such actions are often referred to as trolling. It is not rare for confrontations in the real world to be translated online. Online bullying (aka Cyber-bullying) is a relatively common occurrence and it can often result in emotional trauma for the victim. Depending on the networking outlet, up to 39% of users admit to being â‚ ¬Ã…“cyber-bulliedâ‚ ¬?.[54]  danah boyd, a researcher of social networks quotes a teenager in her article, Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites. The teenager expresses frustration towards networking sites like MySpace because it causes drama and too much emotional stress.[55]  There are not many limitations as to what individuals can post when online. Inherently individuals are given the power to post offensive remarks or pictures that could potentially cause a great amount of emotional pain for another individual. Interpersonal communication Interpersonal communication has been a growing issue as more and more people have turned to social networking as a means of communication.Benniger (1987) describes how mass media has gradually replaced interpersonal communication as a socializing force. Further, social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to explore themselves, relationships, and share cultural artefacts. Many teens and social networking users may be harming their interpersonal communication by using sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Stated by Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University Neuroscientist, â‚ ¬Ã…“My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment It is not unusual if you often hear your siblings or your friends talk about the people they have met and made friends with through the Internet as social networking is one of the phenomena that have taken the world of Internet by storm. Almost every Web surfer has an account in at least one of the  social networking sites, for these sites are the more enjoyable places to hang around in. Pros: Social networking sites  have paved the way for easier communication to your friends, family, or colleagues. One example is that instead of meeting in a certain place, you and your classmates could discuss a school activity by having a conference in a certain site that you are all members of, thus saving you time and effort. Virtual communities are also formed, which are composed of people connected together by common interests, purpose, and goal. People of different races also get to mingle with each other in just a few clicks. The idea of socializing with millions of people of different backgrounds excites the Web surfers. This is one thing that you can hardly do outside the virtual world. Communication with distant family and friends. Meet new people, be creative, and be yourself It entertains you when youre bored Social networking  websites  are a great way of keeping in touch with family and  friends. You can post blogs, share photos, use instant messaging (Myspace has its own instant messaging service), make comments and add people to your friends list. Social  networkingHYPERLINK http://www.blurtit.com/q430795.html  HYPERLINK http://www.blurtit.com/q430795.htmlsites  allow you to create a profile, where you can share your interests with other users and also, you can make new friends. These type of sites, Myspace in particular, are also used people such as bands or authors to build up friends in order to generate interest in their music and books Cons: Social networking sites require or give you the option to provide personal information such as your name, location, and email address. Unfortunately some people can take this as an opportunity for identity theft. They can copy your information and pretend to be you when engaging in illegal activities. Bad news! So be cautious with what you enter into an online networking site. You could fall into the trap of someone who pretends to be somebody else. For example, they might offer you a job or want to meet up with you just to get your money. This can lead to cyberstalking, where the stalker uses electronic media such as the Internet to pursue or harass you. there is also the chance of peoples profiles being hacked or identities being stolen   Another downside is that sites such as Myspace, which allow users to add their own background, are often very slow due to backgrounds taking up a lot of memory. This has led to users  computers  crashing every time they got onto a profile which uses up a lot of memory. Also, because these types of sites have millions of users, errors can often occur. It hampers the students the most. Students waste a lot of time on the social networking sites. This disturbs their education. It distracts you from your work that is needed to be done. Social Networking-Stats and figures The way we communicate online has gone through a sea-change over last few years. In fact, majority of net users spend most of their time on social Media / Networking sites. Even though  India Software companies are lagging behind  in adoption of social media, others are flocking them in large numbers. Twitter has been a rage over past 1 year, Facebook has become one of the most visited sites on the web, Professionals are flocking Linkedin and keep their profiles updated. Facebook  claims  that 50% of active users log into the site each day. This would mean  at least 175m users every 24 hours. Twitter  now has  75m user accounts, but only around 15m are active users on a regular basis. LinkedIn  has over  50m members worldwide.. Facebook currently has in excess of  350 million active users on global basis.Six months ago, this was 250mÃÆ' ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦This means over 40% growth in less than 6 months. Flickr now hosts more than  4 billion images. More than 35m Facebook users update their status each day.   Wikipedia  currently  has in excess of  14m articles, meaning that itÃÆ' ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s 85,000 contributors have written nearly a million new posts in six months. Photo uploads to Facebook have  increased by more than 100%.  Currently, there are around  2.5bn  uploads to the site each month. Back in 2009, the average user had 120 friends within Facebook. This is now around 130. Mobile is even bigger than before for Facebook, with  more than  65m users accessing the site through mobile-based devices.  In six months, this is over 100% increase. There are more than  3.5bn pieces of content  (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook. There are now  11m LinkedIn users across Europe. Towards the  end of last year, the average number of tweets per day was over27.3 million. The average number of tweets per hour was around  1.3m. 15% of bloggers spend  10 or more  hours each week blogging, according to Technoratis new  State of the Blogosphere. At the current rate, Twitter will process almost  10 billion  tweets in a single year. About 70% of Facebook users are outside the USA. India is currently the fastest-growing country to use LinkedIn, with around 3m total users. More than 250 Facebook applications have over a  million  combined users each month. 70%  of bloggers are organically talking about brands on their blog. 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews. More than  80,000  websites have implemented Facebook Connect since December 2008 and more than  60m  Facebook users engage with it across these external sites Top Social Networking sites in India 2010 Orkut.com Facebook.com Twitter Bharatstudent.com hi5.com ibibo.Com MySpace Sites LinkedIn.com PerfSpot.com BIGADDA.com Fropper.com friendster Literature Review Literature review Social Networking in Education BY Geetha Krishnana Overall, an astonishing 96 percent of students with online access report that they ever used any social networking technologies, such as chatting, text messaging, blogging and visiting online communitiesâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦Staggering as the 96 percent statistic is, it is intriguing to wonder what the other 4 percent is doing. Just e-mail and web surfing?Further, students report that one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education. Almost 60 percent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork.Tempting as this statistic might sound to champions of the social-networking-for-education cause, it may be worth considering that most of the discussions that people have on education could be to do with help on homework and troublesome topics, classical problems that would otherwise get discussed in the college canteen perhaps.  It may not mean a new avenue for learning something new it is just a new medium to get problems shared and solved. That is not to say it is not a good thing, but it may not be much more than that.Nonconformistsâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ students who step outside of online safety and behavior rulesâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ are on the cutting edge of social networking, with online behaviors and skills that indicate leadership among their peers. The report offers some recommendations for school board members as well. Explore social networking sites.  This is an important recommendation because most often we tend to condemn something without really understanding it. Consider social networking for staff communication and professional development.  This could well help achieve the previous point as well. It will also serve to integrate students and staff in the networking space. Find ways of harnessing the educational value of social networking.  This is a seemingly motherhood statement, but it could be worthwhile for teachers to consciously think of projects and assignments to be executed through networking approaches. Ensure equitable access.  An obvious point, strengthen the access mechanisms for students to technology. Pay attention to nonconformists.  This has already been touched on earlier in this post. Re examine social networking policies.  Another obvious point, come at social networking as an integral component of the education process, not as a diversion. Facebook Impact on Student Grades Raises New Questions for Business BY Lawrence Walsh An Ohio State University study links Facebook use to lower grades. The study comes as businesses worry about the impact of social networking tools on worker productivity, integrity of their intellectual property and data security. Security vendors such as Websense, Fortinet and Trend Micro release new tools to combat embedded threats in social networks.As enterprises grapple with whether social networking creates security risks and productivity losses, a new study from the Ohio State University suggests there is a link between the use of Facebook and lower grades among college students.According to the survey of 219 students, those who said they use Facebook have grade point averages between 3.0 and 3.5 and study 1 to 5 hours per week. Conversely, non-Facebook users have GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0, and study 11 hours or more per week.The study found that 79 percent of Facebook users believe that it has no impact on their academic performance. Research methodology Research methodology Problem Definition In todays era, education is seriously getting hampered through these social networking sites. In the name of connectivity, students and teens are actually wasting a huge amount of time in facebooking and orkuting. The sufferer is none other than them, and the worst part is that they do not even realise it. 80% of the teens and students in India have atleast one active account in either facebook or orkut. So the need of the hour is to find out whether these social networking sites are useful or is it a mere waste of time. Hence, the research objective is to find the factors that motivates the students to open an account in the social networking sites and thus wasting time. Research Objectives 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To find out whether Social networking sites are a threat or a helping hand for education 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To find out the reasons that compel the students to join the networking chain   3) To find out ways by  which the social media can be used constructively in the field of education Research Methodology The research design that will be used would be exploratory research Impact of Social Networking Sites on Children Impact of Social Networking Sites on Children Social networking sites offer people new and varied ways to communicate via the internet,  whether through their PC or their mobile phone. Examples include MySpace, Facebook and  Bebo. They allow people to easily and simply create their own online page or profile and to  construct and display an online network of contacts, often called friends. Users of these  sites can communicate via their profile both with their friends and with people outside their list of contacts. The rapid growth of social networking sites in recent years indicates that they are now a mainstream communications technology for many people. Social networking sites are most popular with teenagers and young adults Research shows that just over one fifth (22%) of adult internet users aged 16+ and  almost half (49%) of children aged 8-17 who use the internet have set up their own profile on a social networking site.4 For adults, the likelihood of setting up a profile is highest among 16-24 year olds (54%) and decreases with age. Some under-13s are by-passing the age restrictions on social networking sites Despite the fact that the minimum age for most major social networking sites is usually 13  (14 on MySpace), 27% of 8-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites say that  they have a profile on a site. While some of these younger users are on sites intended for  younger children, the presence of underage users on social networking sites intended for  those aged 13 or over was also confirmed by qualitative research . The average adult social networker has profiles on 1.6 sites, and most users check their profile at least every other day. Adult social networkers use a variety of sites, with the main ones being Bebo, Facebook and  MySpace. It is common for adults to have a profile on more than one site on average each  adult with a social networking page or profile has profiles on 1.6 sites, and 39% of adults  have profiles on two or more sites. Half of all current adult social networkers say that they  access their profiles at least every other day. The site people choose to use varies depending on the user. Children are more likely to use Bebo (63% of those who have a social networking site profile), and the most popular site for adults is Facebook (62% of those who have a social networking profile). Two-thirds of parents claim to set rules on their childs use of social  networking sites, although only 53% of children said that their parents set  such rules For many children, the rules and restrictions that their parents set on social networking site  usage are an important influencing factor in the childs use of social networking sites. Two thirds of parents whose children have a social networking page say they set rules on their  childs use of these sites. Most commonly these concerned meeting new people online and  giving out personal details. However, significantly fewer children (53% of those with social  networking profiles) say that their parents set rules on their use of these sites. Attitudes and behaviours towards social networking sites Social networkers fall into distinct groups Social networkers differ in their attitudes to social networking sites and in their behaviour  while using them. Qualitative research indicates that site users tend to fall into five  distinct groups based on their behaviours and attitudes. These are as follows: Alpha Socialisers (a minority) people who used sites in intense short bursts to flirt,  meet new people, and be entertained. Attention Seekers (some) people who craved attention and comments from others,  often by posting photos and customising their profiles. Followers (many) people who joined sites to keep up with what their peers were  doing. Faithfuls (many) people who typically used social networking sites to rekindle old  friendships, often from school or university. Functionals (a minority) people who tended to be single-minded in using sites for a  particular purpose. Non-users of social networking sites also fall into distinct groups Non-users also appear to fall into distinct groups; these groups are based on their reasons  for not using social networking sites: Concerned about safety people concerned about safety online, in particular making  personal details available online. Technically inexperienced people who lack confidence in using the internet and  computers. Intellectual rejecters people who have no interest in social networking sites and see  them as a waste of time. Introduction INDUSTRY OVERVIEW Social Networking sites- Overview A  social network service  focuses on building and reflecting of  social networks  or  social relations  among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are  web based  and provide means for users to interact over the  internet, such as  e-mail  and  instant messaging. Although  online community  services are sometimes considered as a social network service in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-catered service whereas  online community  services are group-centred. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with  Facebook,  Bebo  and  Twitter  widely used worldwide;  MySpace  and  LinkedIn  being the most widely used in North America;[1]HYPERLINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NexopiaNexopia  (mostly in Canada);[2]  Bebo,[3]  Hi5,  Hyves  (mostly in The Netherlands),  StudiVZ  (mostly in Germany),  iWiW  (mostly in Hungary),Tuenti  (mostly in Spain),  Decayenne,  Tagged,  XING;[4],  BadooHYPERLINK #cite_note-4[5]  and  Skyrock  in parts of Europe;[6]  Orkut  and  Hi5  in  South America  andCentral America;[7]  and  Friendster,  Mixi,  Multiply,  Orkut,  Wretch,  renren  and  Cyworld  in Asia and the Pacific Islands and  Orku t  and  Facebookin India. There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the  FOAFstandard and the  Open Source Initiative ), but this has led to some concerns about privacy. Although some of the largest social networks were founded on the notion of digitizing real world connections, many other networks as seen in the  List of social networking websites  focus on categories from books and music to non-profit business to motherhood as ways to provide both services and community to individuals with shared interests. Typical structure In general, social networking services allow users to create a profile for themselves, and can be broken down into two broad categories: internal social networking (ISN) and external social networking (ESN) sites such  as  MySpace,  Facebook,  Twitter  and  Bebo. Both types can increase the feeling of community among people. An ISN is a closed/private community that consists of a group of people within a company, association, society, education provider and organization or even an invite only group created by a user in an ESN. An ESN is open/public and available to all web users to communicate and are designed to attract advertisers. ESNs can be smaller specialized communities (i.e. linked by a single common interest e.g. TheSocialGolfer, ACountryLife.Com, Great Cooks Community) or they can be large generic social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, Facebook etc). However, whether specialized or generic there is commonality across the general approach of social networking sites. Users can upload a picture of themselves, create their profile and can often be friends with other users. In most social networking services, both users must confirm that they are friends before they are linked. For example, if  Alice  lists Bob as a friend, then Bob would have to approve Alices friend request before they are listed as friends. Some social networking sites have a favorites feature that does not need approval from the other user. Social networks usually have privacy controls that allows the user to choose who can view their profile or contact them, etc. Social networking sites typically have a section dedicated to comments by friends. On Friendster, this section is called Testimonials. On Facebook, this section is called The Wall. In the beginning, this was a feature that encouraged people to write messages about the person in the profile. But over time, people started writing creative testimonials back, creating a form of conversation.[32] Some social networking sites are created for the benefits of others, such as parents social networking site Gurgle. This website is for parents to talk about pregnancy, birth and bringing up children. .com. This social network allows professionals to exchange information, opportunities, and ideas. Professionals are able to stay informed with new knowledge about their field  Some social networks have additional features, such as the ability to create  groups  that share common interests or affiliations, upload or stream live videos, and hold discussions in forums.  Geo social networking co-opts internet mapping services to organize user participation around geographic features and their attributes. There is also a trend for more  interoperability between social networks  led by technologies such as  OpenID  and  Open Social. Lately, mobile social networking has become popular. In most mobile communities, mobile phone users can now create their own profiles, make friends, participate in chat rooms, create chat rooms, hold private conversations, share photos and videos, and share blogs by using their mobile phone. Mobile phone users are basically open to every option that someone sitting on the computer has. Some companies provide wireless services which allow their customers to build their own mobile community and brand it, but one of the most popular wireless services for social networking in North America is Facebook Mobile. Other companies provide new innovative features which extend the social networking experience into the real world. Another social networking feature in a professional aspect is LinkedIn. Emerging trends in social networks As the increase in popularity of social networking is on a constant rise, new uses for the technology are constantly being observed. At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the concept of real time and location based. Real time allows users to contribute content, which is then broadcasted as it is being uploaded the concept is similar to live television broadcasts.   Twitter  set the trend for real time services, where users can broadcast to the world what they are doing, or what is on their minds within a 140 character limit.  Facebook  followed suit with their Live Feed where users activities are streamed as soon as it happens. While Twitter focuses on words,  Clixtr, another real time service, focuses on group photo sharing where users can update their photo streams with photos while at an event. Friends and nearby users can contribute their own photos and comments to that event stream, thus contributing to the real time aspect of broadcasting photos and comments as it is being uploaded. In the location based social networking space,  Foursquare  gained popularity as it allowed for users to check-in to places that they are frequenting at that moment.  Gowalla  is another such service which functions in much the same way that Foursquare does, leveraging the  GPS  in phones to create a location based user experience. Clixtr, though in the real time space, is also a location based social networking site since events created by users are automatically geotagged, and users can view events occurring nearby through the Clixtr  iPhone  app. Recently,Yelp  announced its entrance into the location based social networking space through check-ins with their mobile app; whether or not this becomes detrimental to Foursquare or Gowalla is yet to be seen as it is still considered a new space in the internet technology industry.[35] One popular use for this new technology is social networking between businesses. Companies have found that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build their brand image. According to Jody Nimetz, author of Marketing Jive[36], there are five major uses for businesses and social media: to create brand awareness, as an online reputation management tool, for recruiting, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead gen tool to intercept potential prospects.[36]. These companies are able to drive traffic to their own online sites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have discussions on how to improve or change products or services. One other use that is being discussed is the use of Social Networks in the Science communities. Julia Porter Liebeskind et al. have published a study on how New Biotechnology Firms are using social networking sites to share exchanges in scientific knowledge.  They state in their study that by sharing information and knowledge with one another, they are able to increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization. Social networking is allowing scientific groups to expand their knowledge base and share ideas, and without these new means of communicating their theories might become isolated and irrelevant. Social networks are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool. Because many students are already using a wide-range of social networking sites, teachers have begun to familiarize themselves with this trend and are now using it to their advantage. Teachers and professors are doing everything from creating chat-room forums and groups to extend classroom discussion to posting assignments, tests and quizzes, to assisting with homework outside of the classroom setting. Social networks are also being used to foster teacher-parent communication. These sites make it possible and more convenient for parents to ask questions and voice concerns without having to meet face-to-face. Social networks are being used by activists as a means of low-cost grassroots organizing. Extensive use of an array of social networking sites enabled organizers of the 2009  National Equality March  to mobilize an estimated 200,000 participants to march on Washington with a cost savings of up to 85% per participant over previous methods.[38] The  use of online social networks by libraries  is also an increasingly prevelant and growing tool that is being used to communicate with more potential library users, as well as extending the services provided by individual libraries Issues Privacy On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users giving out too much personal information and the threat of  sexual predators. Users of these services also need to be aware of  data theft  or  viruses. However, large services, such as  MySpace  and  Netlog, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents.[citation needed] In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an individuals behaviour on which decisions, detrimental to an individual, may be taken. Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of dataâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ information that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to 3rd parties. This danger was highlighted when the controversial social networking site  Quechup  harvested e-mail addresses from users e-mail accounts for use in a  spamming  operation.[43] In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviors is normally strictly scrutinized by  institutional review boards, for example, to ensure that adolescents and their parents have  informed consent. It is not clear whether the same rules apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain a great deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data are public, republishing it in a research paper might be considered  invasion of privacy.[44] Privacy on Facebook is undermined by three principal factors: users disclose too much, Facebook does not take adequate steps to protect user privacy, and third parties are actively seeking out end-user information using Facebook. Every day teens go on social networking sites and reveal their most inner thoughts for the whole world to see. Information such as street address, phone number, Instant Messaging name are disclosed to an unknown population in cyberspace. Whats more, the creation of a Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. account is a fairly easy process to do and no identification is required, which can lead to identity theft or impersonation. For the Net generation, social networking sites have become the preferred forum for social interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off. However, because such forums are relatively easy to access, posted content can be reviewed by anyone with an interest in the users personal information. There has been a trend for social networking sites to send out only positive notifications to users. For example sites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace will not send notifications to users when they are removed from a persons friends list. Similarly Bebo will send out a notification if a user is moved to the top of another users friends list but no notification is sent if they are moved down the list. This allows users to purge undesirables from their list extremely easily and often without confrontation since a user will rarely notice if one person disappears from their friends list. It also enforces the general positive atmosphere of the website without drawing attention to unpleasant happenings such as friends falling out, rejection and failed relationships. Many social networking services, such as Facebook, provide the user with a choice of who can view their profile. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from accessing their information.[49]Parents have become a big problem to teens who want to avoid their parents to access their MySpace or Facebook accounts. By choosing to make their profile private, teens are able to select who can see their page and this prevents unwanted parents from lurking. This will also mean that only people who are added as friends will be able to view the profile. Teens are constantly trying to create a structural barrier between their private life and their parent A common misuse of social networking sites such as Facebook is that it is occasionally used to emotionally abuse individuals. Such actions are often referred to as trolling. It is not rare for confrontations in the real world to be translated online. Online bullying (aka Cyber-bullying) is a relatively common occurrence and it can often result in emotional trauma for the victim. Depending on the networking outlet, up to 39% of users admit to being â‚ ¬Ã…“cyber-bulliedâ‚ ¬?.[54]  danah boyd, a researcher of social networks quotes a teenager in her article, Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites. The teenager expresses frustration towards networking sites like MySpace because it causes drama and too much emotional stress.[55]  There are not many limitations as to what individuals can post when online. Inherently individuals are given the power to post offensive remarks or pictures that could potentially cause a great amount of emotional pain for another individual. Interpersonal communication Interpersonal communication has been a growing issue as more and more people have turned to social networking as a means of communication.Benniger (1987) describes how mass media has gradually replaced interpersonal communication as a socializing force. Further, social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to explore themselves, relationships, and share cultural artefacts. Many teens and social networking users may be harming their interpersonal communication by using sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Stated by Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University Neuroscientist, â‚ ¬Ã…“My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment It is not unusual if you often hear your siblings or your friends talk about the people they have met and made friends with through the Internet as social networking is one of the phenomena that have taken the world of Internet by storm. Almost every Web surfer has an account in at least one of the  social networking sites, for these sites are the more enjoyable places to hang around in. Pros: Social networking sites  have paved the way for easier communication to your friends, family, or colleagues. One example is that instead of meeting in a certain place, you and your classmates could discuss a school activity by having a conference in a certain site that you are all members of, thus saving you time and effort. Virtual communities are also formed, which are composed of people connected together by common interests, purpose, and goal. People of different races also get to mingle with each other in just a few clicks. The idea of socializing with millions of people of different backgrounds excites the Web surfers. This is one thing that you can hardly do outside the virtual world. Communication with distant family and friends. Meet new people, be creative, and be yourself It entertains you when youre bored Social networking  websites  are a great way of keeping in touch with family and  friends. You can post blogs, share photos, use instant messaging (Myspace has its own instant messaging service), make comments and add people to your friends list. Social  networkingHYPERLINK http://www.blurtit.com/q430795.html  HYPERLINK http://www.blurtit.com/q430795.htmlsites  allow you to create a profile, where you can share your interests with other users and also, you can make new friends. These type of sites, Myspace in particular, are also used people such as bands or authors to build up friends in order to generate interest in their music and books Cons: Social networking sites require or give you the option to provide personal information such as your name, location, and email address. Unfortunately some people can take this as an opportunity for identity theft. They can copy your information and pretend to be you when engaging in illegal activities. Bad news! So be cautious with what you enter into an online networking site. You could fall into the trap of someone who pretends to be somebody else. For example, they might offer you a job or want to meet up with you just to get your money. This can lead to cyberstalking, where the stalker uses electronic media such as the Internet to pursue or harass you. there is also the chance of peoples profiles being hacked or identities being stolen   Another downside is that sites such as Myspace, which allow users to add their own background, are often very slow due to backgrounds taking up a lot of memory. This has led to users  computers  crashing every time they got onto a profile which uses up a lot of memory. Also, because these types of sites have millions of users, errors can often occur. It hampers the students the most. Students waste a lot of time on the social networking sites. This disturbs their education. It distracts you from your work that is needed to be done. Social Networking-Stats and figures The way we communicate online has gone through a sea-change over last few years. In fact, majority of net users spend most of their time on social Media / Networking sites. Even though  India Software companies are lagging behind  in adoption of social media, others are flocking them in large numbers. Twitter has been a rage over past 1 year, Facebook has become one of the most visited sites on the web, Professionals are flocking Linkedin and keep their profiles updated. Facebook  claims  that 50% of active users log into the site each day. This would mean  at least 175m users every 24 hours. Twitter  now has  75m user accounts, but only around 15m are active users on a regular basis. LinkedIn  has over  50m members worldwide.. Facebook currently has in excess of  350 million active users on global basis.Six months ago, this was 250mÃÆ' ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦This means over 40% growth in less than 6 months. Flickr now hosts more than  4 billion images. More than 35m Facebook users update their status each day.   Wikipedia  currently  has in excess of  14m articles, meaning that itÃÆ' ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s 85,000 contributors have written nearly a million new posts in six months. Photo uploads to Facebook have  increased by more than 100%.  Currently, there are around  2.5bn  uploads to the site each month. Back in 2009, the average user had 120 friends within Facebook. This is now around 130. Mobile is even bigger than before for Facebook, with  more than  65m users accessing the site through mobile-based devices.  In six months, this is over 100% increase. There are more than  3.5bn pieces of content  (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook. There are now  11m LinkedIn users across Europe. Towards the  end of last year, the average number of tweets per day was over27.3 million. The average number of tweets per hour was around  1.3m. 15% of bloggers spend  10 or more  hours each week blogging, according to Technoratis new  State of the Blogosphere. At the current rate, Twitter will process almost  10 billion  tweets in a single year. About 70% of Facebook users are outside the USA. India is currently the fastest-growing country to use LinkedIn, with around 3m total users. More than 250 Facebook applications have over a  million  combined users each month. 70%  of bloggers are organically talking about brands on their blog. 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews. More than  80,000  websites have implemented Facebook Connect since December 2008 and more than  60m  Facebook users engage with it across these external sites Top Social Networking sites in India 2010 Orkut.com Facebook.com Twitter Bharatstudent.com hi5.com ibibo.Com MySpace Sites LinkedIn.com PerfSpot.com BIGADDA.com Fropper.com friendster Literature Review Literature review Social Networking in Education BY Geetha Krishnana Overall, an astonishing 96 percent of students with online access report that they ever used any social networking technologies, such as chatting, text messaging, blogging and visiting online communitiesâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦Staggering as the 96 percent statistic is, it is intriguing to wonder what the other 4 percent is doing. Just e-mail and web surfing?Further, students report that one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education. Almost 60 percent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork.Tempting as this statistic might sound to champions of the social-networking-for-education cause, it may be worth considering that most of the discussions that people have on education could be to do with help on homework and troublesome topics, classical problems that would otherwise get discussed in the college canteen perhaps.  It may not mean a new avenue for learning something new it is just a new medium to get problems shared and solved. That is not to say it is not a good thing, but it may not be much more than that.Nonconformistsâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ students who step outside of online safety and behavior rulesâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ are on the cutting edge of social networking, with online behaviors and skills that indicate leadership among their peers. The report offers some recommendations for school board members as well. Explore social networking sites.  This is an important recommendation because most often we tend to condemn something without really understanding it. Consider social networking for staff communication and professional development.  This could well help achieve the previous point as well. It will also serve to integrate students and staff in the networking space. Find ways of harnessing the educational value of social networking.  This is a seemingly motherhood statement, but it could be worthwhile for teachers to consciously think of projects and assignments to be executed through networking approaches. Ensure equitable access.  An obvious point, strengthen the access mechanisms for students to technology. Pay attention to nonconformists.  This has already been touched on earlier in this post. Re examine social networking policies.  Another obvious point, come at social networking as an integral component of the education process, not as a diversion. Facebook Impact on Student Grades Raises New Questions for Business BY Lawrence Walsh An Ohio State University study links Facebook use to lower grades. The study comes as businesses worry about the impact of social networking tools on worker productivity, integrity of their intellectual property and data security. Security vendors such as Websense, Fortinet and Trend Micro release new tools to combat embedded threats in social networks.As enterprises grapple with whether social networking creates security risks and productivity losses, a new study from the Ohio State University suggests there is a link between the use of Facebook and lower grades among college students.According to the survey of 219 students, those who said they use Facebook have grade point averages between 3.0 and 3.5 and study 1 to 5 hours per week. Conversely, non-Facebook users have GPAs between 3.5 and 4.0, and study 11 hours or more per week.The study found that 79 percent of Facebook users believe that it has no impact on their academic performance. Research methodology Research methodology Problem Definition In todays era, education is seriously getting hampered through these social networking sites. In the name of connectivity, students and teens are actually wasting a huge amount of time in facebooking and orkuting. The sufferer is none other than them, and the worst part is that they do not even realise it. 80% of the teens and students in India have atleast one active account in either facebook or orkut. So the need of the hour is to find out whether these social networking sites are useful or is it a mere waste of time. Hence, the research objective is to find the factors that motivates the students to open an account in the social networking sites and thus wasting time. Research Objectives 1)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To find out whether Social networking sites are a threat or a helping hand for education 2)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To find out the reasons that compel the students to join the networking chain   3) To find out ways by  which the social media can be used constructively in the field of education Research Methodology The research design that will be used would be exploratory research