Lyme Bay and Tort Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Lyme Bay and Tort Law - Essay Example The instance of young person passings of kayaking in the Lyme Bay in March 1993 ought to be considered with regards to tort law. There are various parts of the case, which ought not have happened by any means. The kayaking action ought to have been rethought under stricter guidelines. St. Alban's Center needed of a legitimate management of paddling movement. Accordingly, the person from the organization was blamed for four teenagers’ passings. The contribution and shared participation of parental, instructive, wellbeing and social associations brought about legitimate guidelines changes in the field of outside organizations. On March 22nd 1993 the kayaking party was sorted out by educators and students and they were under management of two teachers from the St Alban's Center. They were proposed to reach Lyme Regis by noon. The pontoon was far away from educators and understudies and they were ensured by life coats. Just at 18:40 the remainder of gathering individuals were save d by helicopter . Therefore, this case is an intrigue for the exposure to all the more likely manage wellbeing of open air exercises for students. The coastguard was blamed for oversight of their salvage exercises and there was a need to all the more likely create salvage procedure on the coast. The primary accentuation is made on open air training, which has been given by the beneficent associations and specialists. Tort law suggestions as far as tort law there are various possibilities on this examination. From one perspective, members of Lyme Bay mishap were under ensured. Then again, their deeds and activities were ignored by the workers, who were not educated on schedule. Consequently, so as to give a fair-minded assessment of the circumstance, it is pertinent to concentrate on security measures of amusement guidelines of 90s. The ACAC Code of Practice is one of the most fundamental strides in the zone of recreational circle insurance. Both the ramifications of legal guidelines and self-guidelines were much concerned2. There was a requirement for a powerful exploration and overview in the field of wellbeing and security insurance in the territory of diversion exercises. The job of open was fundamental, since individuals got an opportunity to have an entrance to required data about the significant investigations. Lyme Bay mishap was a beginning stage for contemplations taken by the Department s for Education (DFE) about wellbeing and assurance of educators and students at schools3. Unequivocal guidelines at the legislative level taken by the legislature are likewise viewed as security and insurance laws determinants for additional usage at the neighborhood level. In addition, it was discovered that it is applicable to place Education Authorities the nation over in a harmful and illogical position and there is a requirement for presence of checking associations recording genuine infringement of action centers4. In any case the open worries of guardians would be questionable as for pupils’ wellbeing at school. The job of open concern and its explanation in the tort law prompted positive changes in

Pleasure of Reading free essay sample

Perusing a book is maybe the best wellspring of delight to a refined individual. Perusing widens his viewpoint, drives away his limited preferences and helps up his brain with truth and information. Books are our closest companions. They never delude or desert us in our hour of need like such huge numbers of our human companions, and the points of interest once got from the perusing of books stay with us for the duration of our lives. It is an extraordinary joy for us to guess the books of the ace thoughts of the past that have lit up the ages with the quality and excellence of their vision. As we read their books, we appear to see them show up before us. We appear to converse with them and they likewise appear to educate us thanks to their books. Perusing the extraordinary verse of the past we appear to be diverted to a realm of happiness and distraction, a realm where there is no consideration, no concern, no nervousness. We will compose a custom article test on Joy of Reading or then again any comparative point explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page We come to be familiar with the geniuses of the world like Valmiki, Kalidas, Tagore, Shakespeare, Milton and Shelley, Shaw, Yeats and Owen and numerous others thanks to their artistic creations and feel roused by their magnificence, elegance and vision. Perusing books is likewise one method of breathing easy. An individual susceptible to the perusing of books can never discover time hanging vigorously on him. At the point when you have time and no work to do take a book from the rack and time will pass enjoyably. Perusing likewise diminishes us of our psychological misery. At the point when one is hit down with distress he may, with a book in his grasp, overlook all his difficulty in the solace of his room or under the shade of a tree. Perusing not just gives us joy, it likewise enhances our brain. Through books we can harvest the favorable position from the experience of respectable personalities. Through it we come to have a quicker knowledge into life and its issues, and an enduring enthusiasm for our neighbors and environmental factors. Life doesn't have a dull and tedious viewpoint any more however in each page we go over new ponders and riddles hanging tight for us. We have, in any case, to be cautious in our choice of books to peruse. In the realm of today, we find innumerable authors composing extremely huge quantities of booksâ€good, terrible and in-various. Before the innovation of the print machine it was hard for a man to get hold of the original copy of a decent book however now because of the incredible number of books accessible for perusing it has gotten exceptionally hard for us to pick what books to peruse and what to dismiss. The determination of appropriate books has now gotten a matter of extraordinary enthusiasm, just as need to the peruser. Fortunately we are called up to choose our perusing just when we have completed our instructive profession. During the years spent in the school and school, the understudy gets almost no time for particular perusing as he needs to focus his consideration towards the course books recommended in the schools and universities. Genuine instruction possibly starts when our instructive profession closes. A youthful alumni throughout his discussion with his old educator, gladly commented, I have quite recently completed my training.

How to Become a Happy Person

How to Become a Happy Person Happiness Print How to Become a Happy Person By Elizabeth Scott, MS twitter Elizabeth Scott, MS, is a wellness coach specializing in stress management and quality of life, and the author of 8 Keys to Stress Management. Learn about our editorial policy Elizabeth Scott, MS Updated on April 23, 2019 Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images More in Self-Improvement Happiness Meditation Stress Management Spirituality Holistic Health Inspiration Brain Health Technology Relationships View All Happiness is an age-old and sometimes elusive goal. Virtually all people want to be happy people, which is good, because happy people are better off, for reasons both obvious and subtle. Obviously, it feels good to be happy. But, looking deeper, happy people tend to enjoy benefits that unhappy people don’t, and, thanks to research from the field of positive psychology, we know more about some of these subtle differences. For one thing, they tend to enjoy more successes in life. You may be thinking that happiness and success go hand-in-hand because success causes happiness, not the other way around. Researchers Julia Boehm and Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California in Riverside thought about this, too. Seeing that happy people tended to earn more money, display a superior performance, and help others more often,  they set out to test the hypotheses that happiness causes success, and found happiness is indeed associated with (and precedes) several successful outcomes including higher earnings and greater performance, as well as behaviors that go along with success, like helping others. Their research found that the relationship goes both ways: Success brings happiness, but happiness actually does bring success, too. Another benefit that happy people share is good health. Studies have found that happy people experience lower levels of cortisol in their saliva, lower blood pressure, lower ambulatory heart rate in men, and reduced neuroendocrine, inflammatory, and cardiovascular activity. All this leads to greater health, which is definitely something to be happy about. What Happy People Have in Common So, what makes happy people, well, happy people? It seems that happy people tend to have a few things in common. Very happy people are found to be very social  and have stronger romantic and social relationships with others than less-happy people. Research has also found happy people to be energetic, decisive, creative, social, trusting, loving, and responsive. Rather than being strongly linked to external characteristics like socioeconomic status, gender or age, happiness is more positively associated with having a philosophical view of life, using laughter and humor, being able to relate to others, having problem-solving skills, engaging in meaningful pursuits and leisure activities, living in a positive environment, and maintaining a well-balanced lifestyle. Positive psychology research also illuminates specific activities that can bring feelings of happiness. Performed regularly, these activities can lead people with a lower happiness setpoint to increase their regular levels of positive affect (good mood) and happiness in general.  These activities include pleasures, gratifications, and flows. Secrets to Being Happy There are several routes to happiness. Some are quick and bring immediate positive feelings, and others take more time and bring lasting and repeated feelings of happiness. The following resources bring several strategies from both categories, which can help you become and stay one of the world’s happy people. Happiness Shortcuts:  Here are some quick strategies that can help you feel an instant burst of happiness right now.How to Be Happy:  Here are some more long-term strategies for attaining happiness in your life.Does Your Lifestyle Make You Happy?  Just because youre doing everything right, doesnt mean its making you happy. Take this quiz to find out if how youre living is actually working against your efforts to be happy.

The Economic Health Of The World Is Not Dependent On Just One

The economic health of the world is not dependent on just one â€Å"thing†. There is no single variable that can be narrowed down that is responsible for the ups and downs that we as a global economy experience in any given day, month, or year. Instead, the health of the global economy is heavily reliant on the amount of effort that is put into keeping and maintaining it. How is this done? By making sure that we are all on the same page and working toward a similar goal. One of the bigger problems that the world is facing right now, however, is that each individual country’s goals might not necessarily line up the way others might want them to. What would be a good and successful plan for the United States might not necessarily be beneficial†¦show more content†¦However, in terms of the country composition for the slowed growth rate, the revisions are largely accounted for by the Middle East, the United States, and Brazil: the Middle East, where prospects are h urt by lower oil prices; the United States, where growth momentum is now expected to hold steady rather than gather further steam; and Brazil, where the recession caused by political uncertainty amongst continued fallout from the Petrobras investigation is proving to be deeper and more extensive than previously expected. All these events pave the way down one of two roads – the first being down a road of global economic prosperity, the second being down a road of global economic loss. So how exactly do the events happening in Brazil have such huge impacts on global economic welfare? Brazil’s economy has been suffering for quite some time now. The country, part of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) grouping, was supposed to bring in a new wave of economic prosperity through abounding growth rates through the coming years. It was successful for a while when it experienced impressive growth rates on its commodities and energy exports; however, once China’s economy started to slow down, Brazil’s slowly

Earning Your Online Masters Degree in Education to Secure Your Future 2019

If you are currently working in the education field and feel ready for salary advancement, improved effectiveness in the classroom or an administrative appointment, you need to consider the possibility of a Masters Degree in Education. There are probably so many reasons why you feel you cannot pursue that goal, namely your current job, your family, and the fact that you dont want to move. But there is an answer for you the online Masters Degree in Education. Knowledge is everything, and you can realize your earning potential with this degree. A graduate program in Education will prepare you for leadership success in tomorrows educational realm. But how do you get started? It is really simple, thanks to the wonderful invention of the Internet. There are several options, starting with clicking on the College-Pages.com website and looking at the number of universities that offer a Masters Degree in Education. Those include University of Phoenix Online, Kaplan University, AIU Online, Capella University, and Florida Metropolitan University. The website for each school will show the requirements for its course work. .ubd55e81fc300ff029ca805cacc861e67 { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#eaeaea; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #34495E!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .ubd55e81fc300ff029ca805cacc861e67:active, .ubd55e81fc300ff029ca805cacc861e67:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .ubd55e81fc300ff029ca805cacc861e67 { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .ubd55e81fc300ff029ca805cacc861e67 .ctaText { font-weight:bold; color:inherit; text-decoration:none; font-size: 16px; } .ubd55e81fc300ff029ca805cacc861e67 .post Title { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline!important; font-size: 16px; } .ubd55e81fc300ff029ca805cacc861e67:hover .postTitle { text-decoration: underline!important; } READ General Engineering Degree The Profession of Engineering Attracts Clever, Practical DesignersThe University of Scranton offers a masters program in education designed with the working teacher in mind. U.S. News and World Report ranked the University of Scranton as one of the 10 finest masters university in the North for the past 12 years. There are two degree programs offered: Master of Science in Education, Curriculum and Instruction Master of Science in Education: Educational Administration The curriculum and instruction program augments your knowledge with advanced research methods and instructional techniques. This program is geared toward certified teachers. The Masters with the emphasis in educational administration is designed for educators seeking career advantages in school administration. As an online student you have the flexibility to attend class whenever you want, anytime, anywhere 24/7. The same professors teach online as on campus, and you earn the same advanced degree. Canyon College in Caldwell, Idaho offers an online Master of Education Degree in three areas: .u16c7ef14b5d855fc3101866be4f69c9f { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#eaeaea; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #34495E!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .u16c7ef14b5d855fc3101866be4f69c9f:active, .u16c7ef14b5d855fc3101866be4f69c9f:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .u16c7ef14b5d855fc3101866be4f69c9f { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .u16c7ef14b5d855fc3101866be4f69c9f .ctaText { font-weight:bold; color:inherit; text-decoration:none; font-size: 16px; } .u16c7ef14b5d855fc3101866be4f69c9f .post Title { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline!important; font-size: 16px; } .u16c7ef14b5d855fc3101866be4f69c9f:hover .postTitle { text-decoration: underline!important; } READ Online RN to BSN Does Education Make a Better NurseMaster of Science, with distance education technology and curriculum design Master of Arts in Education Leadership for Elementary and Secondary School Administration Master of Arts in Cross Cultural Education. There is an online Master of Education in Special Education Program at the University of Dearborn in Detroit. It includes three program options for teachers, administrators, social workers and educators who wish to learn how to better serve students with disabilities. Courses are offered with the working professional in mind, and can be taken in the evening, summer and, of course, online. The University of Missouri in Columbia offers online education masters programs with specialty tracks in gifted education, literacy and social studies. This is a small sampling of programs available to you online. Once you have obtained your Master of Education Degree, the possibilities for your next employment will be diverse. So dont wait get online and get going. A more financially secure and challenging future awaits you and your family. .u2cb921c0f0649d1b5c301ed1aa35692d { padding:0px; margin: 0; padding-top:1em!important; padding-bottom:1em!important; width:100%; display: block; font-weight:bold; background-color:#eaeaea; border:0!important; border-left:4px solid #34495E!important; box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -o-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); -webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.17); text-decoration:none; } .u2cb921c0f0649d1b5c301ed1aa35692d:active, .u2cb921c0f0649d1b5c301ed1aa35692d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; text-decoration:none; } .u2cb921c0f0649d1b5c301ed1aa35692d { transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; } .u2cb921c0f0649d1b5c301ed1aa35692d .ctaText { font-weight:bold; color:inherit; text-decoration:none; font-size: 16px; } .u2cb921c0f0649d1b5c301ed1aa35692d .post Title { color:#000000; text-decoration: underline!important; font-size: 16px; } .u2cb921c0f0649d1b5c301ed1aa35692d:hover .postTitle { text-decoration: underline!important; } READ Find Art and Humanities Online Degree ProgramsRelated ArticlesYour Home Business and AccountingOnline Degree Programs 5 Most Rewarding CareersThe Doctorate in Education Educational LeadershipFind General Online Degree ProgramsMaster of Science in Counseling Psychology Current Job Forecast for Professionals with a Master of Science in Counseling PsychologyUse the Internet to Attain a Masters Degree in Teaching

Vampire Academy Chapter 4 Free Essays

FOUR WE DIDN’T HAVE THE ENTIRE commons’ attention this time, thank God, but a few passing people had stopped to stare. â€Å"What the hell do you think you’re doing?† asked Doll Girl, blue eyes wide and sparkling with fury. Up close now, I was able to get a better look at her. We will write a custom essay sample on Vampire Academy Chapter 4 or any similar topic only for you Order Now She had the same slim build as most Moroi but not the usual height, which was partly what made her look so young. The tiny purple dress she wore was gorgeous – reminding me that I was indeed dressed in thrift-shop wear – but closer inspection led me to think it was a designer knockoff. I crossed my arms across my chest. â€Å"Are you lost, little girl? The elementary school’s over on west campus.† A pink flush spread over her cheeks. â€Å"Don’t you ever touch me again. You screw with me, and I’ll screw you right back.† Oh man, what an opening that was. Only a head shake from Lissa stopped me from unleashing any number of hilarious comebacks. Instead, I opted for simple brute force, so to speak. â€Å"And if you mess with either of us again, I’ll break you in half. If you don’t believe me, go ask Dawn Yarrow about what I did to her arm in ninth grade. You were probably at nap time when it happened.† The incident with Dawn hadn’t been one of my finer moments. I honestly hadn’t expected to break any bones when I shoved her into a tree. Still, the incident had given me a dangerous reputation, in addition to my smartass one. The story had gained legendary status, and I liked to imagine that it was still being told around campfires late at night. Judging from the look on this girl’s face, it was. One of the patrolling staff members strolled by right then, casting suspicious eyes at our little meeting. Doll Girl backed off, taking Aaron’s arm. â€Å"Come on,† she said. â€Å"Hey, Aaron,† I said cheerfully, remembering he was there. â€Å"Nice to see you again.† He gave me a quick nod and an uneasy smile, just as the girl dragged him off. Same old Aaron. He might be nice and cute, but aggressive he was not. I turned to Lissa. â€Å"You okay?† She nodded. â€Å"Any idea who I just threatened to beat up?† â€Å"Not a clue.† I started to lead her toward the lunch line, but she shook her head at me. â€Å"Gotta go see the feeders.† A funny feeling settled over me. I’d gotten so used to being her primary blood source that the thought of returning to the Moroi’s normal routine seemed strange. In fact, it almost bothered me. It shouldn’t have. Daily feedings were part of a Moroi’s life, something I hadn’t been able to offer her while living on our own. It had been an inconvenient situation, one that left me weak on feeding days and her weak on the days in between. I should have been happy she would get some normality. I forced a smile. â€Å"Sure.† We walked into the feeding room, which sat adjacent to the cafeteria. It was set up with small cubicles, dividing the room’s space in an effort to offer privacy. A dark-haired Moroi woman greeted us at the entrance and glanced down at her clipboard, flipping through the pages. Finding what she needed, she made a few notes and then gestured for Lissa to follow. Me she gave a puzzled look, but she didn’t stop me from entering. She led us to one of the cubicles where a plump, middle-aged woman sat leafing through a magazine. She looked up at our approach and smiled. In her eyes, I could see the dreamy, glazed-over look most feeders had. She’d probably neared her quota for the day, judging from how high she appeared to be. Recognizing Lissa, her smile grew. â€Å"Welcome back, Princess.† The greeter left us, and Lissa sat down in the chair beside the woman. I sensed a feeling of discomfort in her, a little different from my own. This was weird for her too; it had been a long time. The feeder, however, had no such reservations. An eager look crossed her face – the look of a junkie about to get her next fix. Disgust poured into me. It was an old instinct, one that had been drilled in over the years. Feeders were essential to Moroi life. They were humans who willingly volunteered to be a regular blood source, humans from the fringes of society who gave their lives over to the secret world of the Moroi. They were well cared for and given all the comforts they could need. But at the heart of it, they were drug users, addicts to Moroi saliva and the rush it offered with each bite. The Moroi – and guardians – looked down on this dependency, even though the Moroi couldn’t have survived otherwise unless they took victims by force. Hypocrisy at its finest. The feeder tilted her head, giving Lissa full access to her neck. Her skin there was marked with scars from years of daily bites. The infrequent feedings Lissa and I had done had kept my neck clear; my bite marks never lasted more than a day or so. Lissa leaned forward, fangs biting into the feeder’s yielding flesh. The woman closed her eyes, making a soft sound of pleasure. I swallowed, watching Lissa drink. I couldn’t see any blood, but I could imagine it. A surge of emotion grew in my chest: longing. Jealousy. I averted my eyes, staring at the floor. Mentally, I scolded myself. What’s wrong with you? Why should you miss it? You only did it once every day. You aren’t addicted, not like this. And you don’t want to be. But I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t help the way I felt as I recalled the bliss and rush of a vampire’s bite. Lissa finished and we returned to the commons, moving toward the lunch line. It was short, since we only had fifteen minutes left, and I strolled up and began to load my plate with french fries and some rounded, bite-size objects that looked vaguely like chicken nuggets. Lissa only grabbed a yogurt. Moroi needed food, as dhampirs and humans did, but rarely had an appetite after drinking blood. â€Å"So how’d classes go?† I asked. She shrugged. Her face was bright with color and life now. â€Å"Okay. Lots of stares. A lot of stares. Lots of questions about where we were. Whispering.† â€Å"Same here,† I said. The attendant checked us out, and we walked toward the tables. I gave Lissa a sidelong glance. â€Å"You okay with that? They aren’t bothering you, are they?† â€Å"No – it’s fine.† The emotions coming through the bond contradicted her words. Knowing I could feel that, she tried to change the subject by handing me her class schedule. I looked it over. 1st Period Russian 2 2nd Period American Colonial Literature 3rd Period Basics of Elemental Control 4th Period Ancient Poetry -Lunch – 5th Period Animal Behavior and Physiology 6th Period Advanced Calculus 7th Period Moroi Culture 4 8th Period Slavic Art â€Å"Nerd,† I said. â€Å"If you were in Stupid Math like me, we’d have the same afternoon schedule.† I stopped walking. â€Å"Why are you in elemental basics? That’s a sophomore class.† She eyed me. â€Å"Because seniors take specialized classes.† We fell silent at that. All Moroi wielded elemental magic. It was one of the things that differentiated living vampires from Strigoi, the dead vampires. Moroi viewed magic as a gift. It was part of their souls and connected them to the world. A long time ago, they had used their magic openly – averting natural disasters and helping with things like food and water production. They didn’t need to do that as much anymore, but the magic was still in their blood. It burned in them and made them want to reach out to the earth and wield their power. Academies like this existed to help Moroi control the magic and learn how to do increasingly complex things with it. Students also had to learn the rules that surrounded magic, rules that had been in place for centuries and were strictly enforced. All Moroi had a small ability in each element. When they got to be around our age, students â€Å"specialized† when one element grew stronger than the others: earth, water, fire, or air. Not specializing was like not going through puberty. And Lissa? ­well, Lissa hadn’t specialized yet. â€Å"Is Ms. Carmack still teaching that? What she’d say?† â€Å"She says she’s not worried. She thinks it’ll come.† â€Å"Did you – did you tell her about – â€Å" Lissa shook her head. â€Å"No. Of course not.† We let the subject drop. It was one we thought about a lot but rarely spoke of. We started moving again, scanning the tables as we decided where to sit. A few pairs of eyes looked up at us with blatant curiosity. â€Å"Lissa!† came a nearby voice. Glancing over, we saw Natalie waving at us. Lissa and I exchanged looks. Natalie was sort of Lissa’s cousin in the way Victor was sort of her uncle, but we’d never hung out with her all that much. Lissa shrugged and headed in that direction. â€Å"Why not?† I followed reluctantly. Natalie was nice but also one of the most uninteresting people I knew. Most royals at the school enjoyed a kind of celebrity status, but Natalie had never fit in with that crowd. She was too plain, too uninterested in the politics of the Academy, and too clueless to really navigate them anyway. Natalie’s friends eyed us with a quiet curiosity, but she didn’t hold back. She threw her arms around us. Like Lissa, she had jade-green eyes, but her hair was jet black, like Victor’s had been before his disease grayed it. â€Å"You’re back! I knew you would be! Everyone said you were gone forever, but I never believed that. I knew you couldn’t stay away. Why’d you go? There are so many stories about why you left!† Lissa and I exchanged glances as Natalie prattled on. â€Å"Camille said one of you got pregnant and went off to have an abortion, but I knew that couldn’t be true. Someone else said you went off to hang out with Rose’s mom, but I figured Ms. Kirova and Daddy wouldn’t have been so upset if you’d turned up there. Did you know we might get to be roommates? I was talking to? ­Ã¢â‚¬  On and on she chatted, flashing her fangs as she spoke. I smiled politely, letting Lissa deal with the onslaught until Natalie asked a dangerous question. â€Å"What’d you do for blood, Lissa?† The table regarded us questioningly. Lissa froze, but I immediately jumped in, the lie coming effortlessly to my lips. â€Å"Oh, it’s easy. There are a lot of humans who want to do it.† â€Å"Really?† asked one of Natalie’s friends, wide-eyed. â€Å"Yup. You find ? ®em at parties and stuff. They’re all looking for a fix from something, and they don’t really get that a vampire’s doing it: most are already so wasted they don’t remember anyway.† My already vague details dried up, so I simply shrugged in as cool and confident a way as I could manage. It wasn’t like any of them knew any better. â€Å"Like I said, it’s easy. Almost easier than with our own feeders.† Natalie accepted this and than launched into some other topic. Lissa shot me a grateful look. Ignoring the conversation again, I took in the old faces, trying to figure out who was hanging out with whom and how power had shifted within the school. Mason, sitting with a group of novices, caught my eye, and I smiled. Near him, a group of Moroi royals sat, laughing over something. Aaron and the blond girl sat there too. â€Å"Hey, Natalie,† I said, turning around and cutting her off. She didn’t seem to notice or mind. â€Å"Who’s Aaron’s new girlfriend?† â€Å"Huh? Oh. Mia Rinaldi.† Seeing my blank look, she asked, â€Å"Don’t you remember her?† â€Å"Should I? Was she here when we left?† â€Å"She’s always been here,† said Natalie. â€Å"She’s only a year younger than us.† I shot a questioning look at Lissa, who only shrugged. â€Å"Why is she so pissed off at us?† I asked. â€Å"Neither of us know her.† â€Å"I don’t know,† answered Natalie. â€Å"Maybe she’s jealous about Aaron. She wasn’t much of anybody when you guys left. She got really popular really fast. She isn’t royal or anything, but once she started dating Aaron, she – â€Å" â€Å"Okay, thanks,† I interrupted. â€Å"It doesn’t really – â€Å" My eyes lifted up from Natalie’s face to Jesse Zeklos’s, just as he passed by our table. Ah, Jesse. I’d forgotten about him. I liked flirting with Mason and some of the other novices, but Jesse was in an entirely different category. You flirted with the other guys simply for the sake of flirting. You flirted with Jesse in the hopes of getting semi-naked with him. He was a royal Moroi, and he was so hot, he should have worn a warning: flammable sign. He met my eyes and grinned. â€Å"Hey Rose, welcome back. You still breaking hearts?† â€Å"Are you volunteering?† His grin widened. â€Å"Let’s hang out sometime and find out. If you ever get parole.† He kept walking, and I watched him admiringly. Natalie and her friends stared at me in awe. I might not be a god in the Dimitri sense, but with this group, Lissa and I were gods – or at least former gods – of another nature. â€Å"Oh my gawd,† exclaimed one girl. I didn’t remember her name. â€Å"That was Jesse.† â€Å"Yes,† I said, smiling. â€Å"It certainly was.† â€Å"I wish I looked like you,† she added with a sigh. Their eyes fell on me. Technically, I was half-Moroi, but my looks were human. I’d blended in well with humans during our time away, so much so that I’d barely thought about my appearance at all. Here, among the slim and small-chested Moroi girls, certain features – meaning my larger breasts and more defined hips – stood out. I knew I was pretty, but to Moroi boys, my body was more than just pretty: it was sexy in a risqu? ¦ way. Dhampirs were an exotic conquest, a novelty all Moroi guys wanted to â€Å"try.† It was ironic that dhampirs had such an allure here, because slender Moroi girls looked very much like the super-skinny runway models so popular in the human world. Most humans could never reach that â€Å"ideal† skinniness, just as Moroi girls could never look like me. Everyone wanted what she couldn’t have. Lissa and I got to sit together in our shared afternoon classes but didn’t do much talking. The stares she’d mentioned certainly did follow us, but I found that the more I talked to people, the more they warmed up. Slowly, gradually, they seemed to remember who we were, and the novelty – though not the intrigue – of our crazy stunt wore off. Or maybe I should say, they remembered who I was. Because I was the only one talking. Lissa stared straight ahead, listening but neither acknowledging nor participating in my attempts at conversation. I could feel anxiety and sadness pouring out of her. â€Å"All right,† I told her when classes finally ended. We stood outside the school, and I was fully aware that in doing so, I was already breaking the terms of my agreement with Kirova. â€Å"We’re not staying here,† I told her, looking around the campus uneasily. â€Å"I’m going to find a way to get us out.† â€Å"You think we could really do it a second time?† Lissa asked quietly. â€Å"Absolutely.† I spoke with certainty, again relieved she couldn’t read my feelings. Escaping the first time had been tricky enough. Doing it again would be a real bitch, not that I couldn’t still find a way. â€Å"You really would, wouldn’t you?† She smiled, more to herself than to me, like she’d thought of something funny. â€Å"Of course you would. It’s just, well? ­Ã¢â‚¬  She sighed. â€Å"I don’t know if we should go. Maybe – maybe we should stay.† I blinked in astonishment. â€Å"What?† Not one of my more eloquent answers, but the best I could manage. I’d never expected this from her. â€Å"I saw you, Rose. I saw you talking to the other novices during class, talking about practice. You miss that.† â€Å"It’s not worth it,† I argued. â€Å"Not if? ­not if you? ­Ã¢â‚¬  I couldn’t finish, but she was right. She’d read me. I had missed the other novices. Even some of the Moroi. But there was more to it than just that. The weight of my inexperience, how much I’d fallen behind, had been growing all day. â€Å"It might be better,† she countered. â€Å"I haven’t had as many? ­you know, things happening in a while. I haven’t felt like anyone was following or watching us.† I didn’t say anything to that. Before we’d left the Academy, she’d always felt like someone was following her, like she was being hunted. I’d never seen evidence to support that, but I had once heard one of our teachers go on and on about the same sort of thing. Ms. Karp. She’d been a pretty Moroi, with deep auburn air and high cheekbones. And I was pretty sure she’d been crazy. â€Å"You never know who’s watching,† she used to say, walking briskly around the classroom as she shut all the blinds. â€Å"Or who’s following you. Best to be safe. Best to always be safe.† We’d snickered amongst ourselves because that’s what students do around eccentric and paranoid teachers. The thought of Lissa acting like her bothered me. â€Å"What’s wrong?† Lissa asked, noticing that I was lost in thought. â€Å"Huh? Nothing. Just thinking.† I sighed, trying to balance my own wants with what was best for her. â€Å"Liss, we can stay, I guess? ­but there are a few conditions.† This made her laugh. â€Å"A Rose ultimatum, huh?† â€Å"I’m serious.† Words I didn’t say very much. â€Å"I want you to stay away from the royals. Not like Natalie or anything but you know, the others. The power players. Camille. Carly. That group.† Her amusement turned to astonishment. â€Å"Are you serious?† â€Å"Sure. You never liked them anyway.† â€Å"You did.† â€Å"No. Not really. I liked what they could offer. All the parties and stuff.† â€Å"And you can go without that now?† She looked skeptical. â€Å"Sure. We did in Portland.† â€Å"Yeah, but that was different.† Her eyes stared off, not really focused on any one thing. â€Å"Here? ­here I’ve got to be a part of that. I can’t avoid it.† â€Å"The hell you do. Natalie stays out of that stuff.† â€Å"Natalie isn’t going to inherit her family’s title,† she retorted. â€Å"I’ve already got it. I’ve got to be involved, start making connections. Andre – â€Å" â€Å"Liss,† I groaned. â€Å"You aren’t Andre.† I couldn’t believe she was still comparing herself to her brother. â€Å"He was always involved in all that stuff.† â€Å"Yeah, well,† I snapped back, â€Å"he’s dead now.† Her face hardened. â€Å"You know, sometimes you aren’t very nice.† â€Å"You don’t keep me around to be nice. You want nice, there are a dozen sheep in there who would rip each other’s throats to get in good with the Dragomir princess. You keep me around to tell you the truth, and here it is: Andre’s dead. You’re the heir now, and you’re going to deal with it however you can. But for now, that means staying away from the other royals. We’ll just lie low. Coast through the middle. Get involved in that stuff again, Liss, and you’ll drive yourself? ­Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Crazy?† she supplied when I didn’t finish. Now I looked away. â€Å"I didn’t mean? ­Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"It’s okay.† she said, after a moment. She sighed and touched my arm. â€Å"Fine. We’ll stay and we’ll keep out of all that stuff. We’ll ? ®coast through the middle’ like you want. Hang out with Natalie, I guess.† To be perfectly honest, I didn’t want any of that. I wanted to go to all the royal parties and wild drunken festivities like we’d done before. We’d kept out of that life for years until Lissa’s parents and brother died. Andre should have been the one to inherit her family’s title, and he’d certainly acted like it. Handsome and outgoing, he’d charmed everyone he knew and had been a leader in all the royal cliques and clubs that existed on campus. After his death, Lissa had felt it was her family duty to take his place. I’d gotten to join that world with her. It was easy for me, because I didn’t really have to deal with the politics of it. I was a pretty dhampir, one who didn’t mind getting into trouble and pulling crazy stunts. I became a novelty; they liked having me around for the fun of it. Lissa had to deal with other matters. The Dragomirs were one of the twelve ruling families. She’d have a very powerful place in Moroi society, and the other young royals wanted to get in good with her. Fake friends tried to schmooze her and get her to team up against other people. The royals could bribe and backstab in the same breath – and that was just with each other. To dhampirs and non-royals, they were completely unpredictable. That cruel culture had eventually taken its toll on Lissa. She had an open, kind nature, one that I loved, and I hated to see her upset and stressed by royal games. She’d grown fragile since the accident, and all the parties in the world weren’t worth seeing her hurt. â€Å"All right then,† I said finally. â€Å"We’ll see how this goes. If anything goes wrong – anything at all – we leave. No arguments.† She nodded. â€Å"Rose?† We both looked up at Dimitri’s looming form. I hoped he hadn’t heard the part about us leaving. â€Å"You’re late for practice,† he said evenly. Seeing Lissa, he gave a polite nod. â€Å"Princess.† As he and I walked away, I worried about Lissa and wondered if staying here was the right thing to do. I felt nothing alarming through the bond, but her emotions spiked all over the place. Confusion. Nostalgia. Fear. Anticipation. Strong and powerful, they flooded into me. I felt the pull just before it happened. It was exactly like what had happened on the plane: her emotions grew so strong that they â€Å"sucked† me into her head before I could stop them. I could now see and feel what she did. She walked slowly around the commons, toward the small Russian Orthodox chapel that served most of the school’s religious needs. Lissa had always attended mass regularly. Not me. I had a standing arrangement with God: I’d agree to believe in him – barely – so long as he let me sleep in on Sundays. But as she went inside, I could feel that she wasn’t there to pray. She had another purpose, one I didn’t know about. Glancing around, she verified that neither the priest nor any worshippers were close by. The place was empty. Slipping through a doorway in the back of the chapel, she climbed a narrow set of creaky stairs up into the attic. Here it was dark and dusty. The only light came through a large stained-glass window that fractured the faint glow of sunrise into tiny, multicolored gems across the floor. I hadn’t known until that moment that this room was a regular retreat for Lissa. But now I could feel it, feel her memories of how she used to escape here to be alone and to think. The anxiety in her ebbed away ever so slightly as she took in the familiar surroundings. She climbed up into the window seat and leaned her head back against its side, momentarily entranced by the silence and the light. Moroi could stand some sunlight, unlike the Strigoi, but they had to limit their exposure. Sitting here, she could almost pretend she was in the sun, protected by the glass’s dilution of the rays. Breathe, just breathe, she told herself. It’ll be okay. Rose will take care of everything. She believed that passionately, like always, and relaxed further. Then a low voice spoke from the darkness. â€Å"You can have the Academy but not the window seat.† She sprang up, heart pounding. I shared her anxiety, and my own pulse quickened. â€Å"Who’s there?† A moment later, a shape rose from behind a stack of crates, just outside her field of vision. The figure stepped forward, and in the poor lighting, familiar features materialized. Messy black hair. Pale blue eyes. A perpetually sardonic smirk. Christian Ozera. â€Å"Don’t worry,† he said. â€Å"I won’t bite. Well, at least not in the way you’re afraid of.† He chuckled at his own joke. She didn’t find it funny. She had completely forgotten about Christian. So had I. No matter what happened in our world, a few basic truths about vampires remained the same. Moroi were alive; Strigoi were undead. Moroi were mortal; Strigoi were immortal. Moroi were born; Strigoi were made. And there were two ways to make a Strigoi. Strigoi could forcibly turn humans, dhampirs, or Moroi with a single bite. Moroi tempted by the promise of immortality could become Strigoi by choice if they purposely killed another person while feeding. Doing that was considered dark and twisted, the greatest of all sins, both against the Moroi way of life and nature itself. Moroi who chose this dark path lost their ability to connect with elemental magic and other powers of the world. That was why they could no longer go into the sun. This is what had happened to Christian’s parents. They were Strigoi. How to cite Vampire Academy Chapter 4, Essay examples

Kimberly Clark Case Study Essay Example For Students

Kimberly Clark Case Study Essay Executive Summary This report states all the main issues Kimberly Clark faced and benefits they got from the merger with Scott Company. An analysis has been performed about the importance of this merger in consumer care product line and recommendations on how to improve on its decision making process and efficient planning are mentioned A detail analysis was performed on the external factors which affected this merger. Legal/political, technological and economical factors are a few to mention. These factors played a crucial role in the strategic changes and decision process brought about by Kimberly Clark. This report also highlights internal environment including reduction of staff, closing down of underperforming production unit, restructuring of product classification which affected the company. The internal and external environment in turn affects the performance of the company and plays an integral part in the organisation strategy and decision making process. Advantages such as increased supply chain, brand equity, expanded production units, assumptions and wrong organisation models implied by Kimberly Clark are also mentioned in the report. Measures taken to improve the performance of the company, strategic approaches, and limitations of the company are mentioned about in this report Finally, this report gives an overall conclusion of factors leading to the merger of Kimberly Clark along with their assumptions and strategic decision, which hindered the company to gain competitive advantage after its merger with Scott. Recommendation ? Kimberly Clark should give high consideration of external factors for efficient planning. External environment demonstrate crucial understanding of factors to develop a competitive edge. It helps in developing right strategic planning process considering new entrants, existing competitors maintaining position in the market from quality and price and also new technologies. ? Kimberly Clark should evaluate internal environment before having an integration process, as it shows company readiness to adapt with change. Lack of internal environment evaluation led to the loss of most of the senior executives from Scott. Integration of the two companies from different regions and culture requires stable support from the management to prevent any negative responses. Kimberly Clark should have decision making practices which matches the company’s strategic objectives. This will avoid the company from constant restructuring, as constant restructuring develops a negative impact on shareholders. Study of external and internal environment, considering all possible factors will make it easier to implement Global Business Policy and avoid its failure. ? Kimberly Clark should m aximize their knowledge from experienced Scott managers as this will help in understanding the local market. It also allows the company to understand the organisation work culture and vivid methods of operation from Scott. Kimberly Clark did not have proper knowledge of Scott inventory and the impact of extreme downsizing of the organisation. This hindered them to solve the emerging problem quickly. History Kimberly Clark and company was founded in Neenah, Wisconsin in 1872, in a partnership between John A. Kimberly, Charles B. Clark, Frank . C. Shattuck and Havilah Babcock. The company was initially launched their business as paper mills. Further through various mergers, acquisition and innovation they have become one of the leading brands in paper based products, all over the world (Thomson Corporation, 1997). The company has established its position by the development of new marketing programmes and technological advances (Glowacki, 1995). They have worked through, to become one of the 100 best companies in USA by focussing on health, hygiene and well being of the consumer introducing popular brands like Kleenex, Scott, huggies, pull ups and kotex (Kimberly clark , 2003). Global Expansion In order to incorporate the Global Expansion Strategy, Kimberly Clark decided to have a merger with Europe’s leading brand company Scott Corporation. This merger had a positive impact on Kimberly Clark as it lead the company to increase its market share in the consumer market, as well as it gave the company a great product mix (ProQuest Information and Learning Company, 1995). This merger allowed expense reduction, along with operational synergies in the company and brought high end products as well as low end alternatives eliminating mid range segment. It strengthened Kimberly Clark Corporation’s position in the European market, by holding almost 58% of the Market share in Europe (Collins, 1995). Organisation Environments External Environment Political and Legal The merger between Kimberly Clark and Scott became a major legal and political issue in the market as Kimberly Clark had a control of 58% of the market share. This emerged as a domestic antitrust problem in the consumer mind in Europe (Collins, 1995). The direct target competition among them was bringing the consumers a lower price and also benefits from frequent promotions, couponing and other marketing strategies (United States District Court Northern District of Texas Dallas Division, 1995). Due to the reasons mentioned above, there was increased political pressure on Kimberly Clark which lead them to sell SCA (Kleenex plant in Britan). This plant used to help thier tissue brand Kleenex to be more improved and advanced. Later, SCA began competing with Kimberly Clark leading to a fall in the share of Kimberly Clark by about 3% and gain in the share of SCA by 6% (Forest Dawley, 1998). Economical The merger between Scott and Kimberly Clark brought Kimberly Clark a major restructuring cost falling in between $675 million and $775 million. Exploring The Chemistry Of Adhesives Chemistry EssayThey then decided to have a different research and development team to do continuous research on all three product categories for new innovations and also to capture the new market segment, saving Kimberly Clark from its market saturation of products (Kimberly-Clark Corporation, 2005). They followed the division structure model to categorise the product offering of Kimberly Clark into three broad categories. This inhibits cross division coordination leading to difficulties between division objectives and corporate objectives (Organizational Structure and Design). Global Business Policy Kimberly Clark divided their market geographically into Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. They appointed different business executives to look after each region and they also carried a global business team. This team was doing research and development for the products of Kimberly Clark globally. This organisational strategy inhibited coordination and communication among the divided market which in turn limited their productivity on a global scale. The business leaders of the company work independently in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe with their own team. This leads to the duplication of functional resources across regions (Organizational Structure and Design). Independent business leaders may create competitive behaviour among regions which will affect the customers who have operations across the nation like hotel industry (Organizational Structure and Design). Kimberly Clark has applied a centralisation strategy for speeding up the organisational processes. This is difficult to follow in a multinational organisation. Decentralisation brings more flexibility for the organisation to know their strength, weakness, opportunities and threats in their different geographical divisions. Decentralisation also brings knowledge gain and opinion from the old employees of Scott working in the organisation from their local knowledge (Organizational Structure and Design). Conclusion Kimberly Clark merged with Scott as a part of their Global Business Policy to build a strong position in the market. However, the merger did not show any rapid growth in the performance of the company as expected from the policy. Kimberly Clark faced several challenges such as improper organisation structure and poor planning which led to their fall in market share. This also led to the loss of trust from the share holders in the company. Improper evaluation of capital involvement in the merger and strategies to reduce the operational cost of the company reflects on the poor performance of the company. Centralisation policy implied by Kimberly Clark to make decision making process quicker through giving responsibility to one individual neglected the knowledge gain from the local staff. A multinational organisation should be flexible to meet the changes in demands and condition of different nations. It helps them to perform smoothly on a global scale. References ? Decision News Media SAS. (2005, July 25). Stiff competition leads to restructuring for Kimberly-Clark. Retrieved August 21, 2010, from cosmetics design europe: http://www. cosmeticsdesign-europe. com/Financial/Stiff-competition-leads-to-restructuring-for-Kimberly-Clark ? The Gale Group, Inc. (2006). Scott Paper Company. Retrieved August 21, 2010, from Answers: http://www. answers. com/topic/scott-paper-company ? VertMarkets Incorporation. (1998, December 10). Kimberly-Clark Installs New Global Structure. Retrieved August 23, 2010, from pulpandpaperonline : http://www. ulpandpaperonline. com/article. mvc/Kimberly-Clark-Installs-New-Global-Structure-0001? VNETCOOKIE=NO ? Collins, G. (1995, June 24). Scott Paper and Kimberly-Clark Discuss Merger. Retrieved August 21, 2010, from The New york times: http://www. nytimes. com/1995/06/24/business/scott-paper-and-kimberly-clark-discuss-merger. html ? Forest, S. A. , Dawley, H. (1998, February 12). PULP FICTION AT KIMBERLY-CLARK. Retrieved August 21, 2010, from Businessweek: http://www. businessweek. com/1998/08/b3566115. htm ? Glowacki, J. J. (1995). Kimber-Clark Corp. : Accelerates global expansion with Scott merger. Business Publications , 1. ? Hitt, M. , Black, J. , Porter, L. (2009). Management. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ? Hoovers Incorporation. (2010). Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from Answers. com: http://www. answers. com/topic/kimberly-clark-corporation ? Kimberly clark . (2003, July 1). George Everbach, Kimberly-Clark Senior Vice President of Law and Government Affairs, To Retire August 2003. Retrieved August 20, 2010, from Kimberly Clark: http://investor. kimberly-clark. com/releasedetail. cfm? releaseid=110885 ? Kimberly Clark corporation. 2004). Kimberly Clark Investor Letter. Retrieved August 22, 2010, from Kimberly Clark: http://www. kimberly-clark. com/investors/newsletter/print. aspx? s=webarticle=2Q2004prnfrn=true ? Kimberly-Clark Corporation. (2005). kimberly clark Sustainable report. Retrieved August 23, 2010, from Kimberly clark: http://www. kimberly-clark. com/pdfs/2005ExecutiveSummaryReport. pdf ? Organizational Structure and Design. (n. d. ). Retrieved August 22, 2010, from usheproduction: http://www. usheproduction. com/design/8020/downloads/16. pdf ? Pitman, S. (2006, February 1). Kimberly-Clarks struggles in the face of restructuring. Retrieved August 21, 2010, from cosmetics design europe: http://www. cosmeticsdesign-europe. com/Financial/Kimberly-Clarks-struggles-in-the-face-of-restructuring ? ProQuest Information and Learning Company. (1995, july 31). Kimberly-Clark is set to acquire Scott Paper for stock. Retrieved august 20, 2010, from CBS MoneyWatch: http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_qa3653/is_199507/ai_n8717403/ ? Thomson Corporation Company. (1995, December 13). Kimberly-Clark unveils plan to integrate K-C and Scott Operations Worldwide; Plan to yield

lee night Essays - Holocaust Literature, Elie Wiesel,

Elie?s main purpose of writing the novel Night is to describe to the reader the horrifying scenes and feelings he suffered through as a Jewish boy during the holocaust. The Book Night was the autobiography of Eliezer Wiesel. This was a horrible and sobering tale of his life story. The story takes place in Sighet, Transylvania. It's the year 1941 and World War II is occurring. Elie was 12 at this time and wasn't aware of what was occurring In the world concerning the Jewish people. He had a friend who went by the Name Moshe the Beadle. Moshe tried warning Elie and others that the holocaust was coming but no one wanted to believe him. There are many themes in the novel Night; some of these include loss of faith, father-son relationships, and loss of hope. One of the themes that show the effect of the holocaust is the theme of Elie?s change in faith. In the book of Night, Elie says ?what kind of God would allow these things to happen (Qtd, in Winters par.8). In that quote Elie is referring to the horrific acts of discrimination that the Nazis use on the Jews. Elie was not only struggling with just faith in God but also faith in humanity, in himself, and in language. By the end of the book of Night, Elie struggled in every aspect of faith because of all the daily discrimination and corruption in the concentration camp. Elie begins to question himself asking why he lives, breathes, or prays. Another theme in the effect of the holocaust is Elie?s relationship with his father. Elie?s relationship with his father begins to strengthen more and more throughout the book. Elie begins to realize that his father and he are starting to build a stronger relationship, which you will find in his quote ?I ran off to look for my father. And at the same time I was afraid of having to wish him a Happy New Year when I no longer believed it. He was standing near the wall, bowed down, his shoulders sagging as though beneath a heavy burden. I went up to him, took his hand and kissed it. A tear fell upon it. Whose was that tear? Mine? His? I said nothing. Nor did he. We had never understood each other so clearly.? (Qtd in Dougherty par. 10 and 11). This theme can be seen throughout the novel with many fathers and sons. Elie has a very strong relationship with his father. His main reason for not giving up in the camps is so his father is not alone. Some relationships are not like Elie?s and hi s father?s. One son purposely loses his father so that he does not annoy him and another son beats his own father to death just for food. The final theme of the novel Night is the theme of hope. As Elie starts to lose faith in God he loses faith in hope as well. He finds a loss in hope from the sight of all the despair, destruction, and disorder that he has to see every day in the camp. Elie begins to feel the scarcity in the thoughts and feelings of hopelessness and loneliness. Elie spends his days and nights in place full of sorrow, no compassion, and disobedience which pulls him farther and farther away from belief in religion and belief in hope.

Thomas Alva Edison essays

Thomas Alva Edison essays Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. His father was a shingle maker and his mother was a school teacher. When Edison was seven, he moved to Port Huron, Michigan. Edison attended school there. He tended to ask many questions and this would bother his teachers. The teachers told his mother that he was mentally retarded and could never learn. He would not stay focused and was too active to learn. He only attended three months of formal education and the rest of the time his mother educated him at home. Edison loved to read. His favorite books were science books that involved chemistry information. Since he was young, he liked to do chemistry experiments. When he was 14, Edison became a newsboy on the Grand Trunk railroad. While he worked there, an accident caused Edison to lose most of his hearing which only got worse through his lifetime. At 15, Edison learned how to be a telegraph operator. He learned the Morse code and became skilled in sending and taking messages. One of Edison's first inventions was a telegraph repeater which automatically relayed a message to a second line. This device was the basis from which he developed some of his later important inventions. In 1869 Edison went to Boston and patented his vote counter he had invented earlier. From this Edison developed the stock ticker. He was paid $40,000.00 for this invention. He invested the money to open a laboratory and factory in Menlo, New Jersey to work full time on inventing. Most of his inventions had to do with various kinds of multiplex systems of telegraphy. He soon became famous as "the wizard of Menlo Park." In 1882 alone, Edison applied for 141 patents and was granted 75 of them. Some of his major inventions were the incandescent electric light bulb, the phonograph, the motion- picture projector, automatic and multiplex telegraph, the carbon telephone transmitter, a stock ticker, and the alkaline stora...

The Epic Of Gilgamesh Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Epic Of Gilgamesh - Essay Example Right from his birth, his adventures under the influence of Enkidu to his last days the readers find that there is always a divine connection in his actions and speeches. The relationship between Gilgamesh and gods can be compared with the relationship of Abraham and God in the Book of Genesis. In both the stories God has a sinifcant role to play in the development of the character. Epic of Gilgamesh goes on to prove that desire of God and destiny of man often comes in conflict. The clash between mortality and desired immortality heightens the tragedy of the epic poem. The prologue of the epic â€Å"Whoever you may be, governor, prince or anyone else, whom the gods may choose to exercise kingship† (George, xxxvi) comments that god has impartial view of mankind. In the poem Gilgamesh is portrayed with lot of glamor. The lines which denote his lordly appearnce and stature are: â€Å"Supreme over the kings, lordly in appearance/ he is the hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild bull†. (Kovacs, Tablet I) His appreciation is evident when it is said â€Å"Gilgamesh is awesome to perfection† His bravery and courage is reflected in the following lines: His physical greatness is complemented by his leadership abilities and his camaraderie with his fellow subjects; â€Å"He walks out in the front, the leader/ And walks at the rear, trusted by his companions/ Mighty net, protector of his people†. (Kovacs, Tablet I) The story of Epic of Gilgamesh is clasified into epsiodes namely a) the meeting of Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu, b) encouter with fickle and voluptuos goddess Shamhat, c) journey through the Cedar forest, d) death of Enkidu and e) search for immortality. The journey through the Cedar forest has high importance because Gilgamesh and Enkidu duo kills the monster Humbaba and also defeat the Bull of Heaven. Ishtar, the goddess of sex and warfare supervises their combats. Companion’s death urges him towards quest for life of eternity. Utnapishtim offers him a chance to

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 152

Assignment Example Executives should also not walk away empty handed following the collapse of a company since they are not directly involved in the company’s failure. Collapse of major companies during the last economic crunch was caused mainly by external business forces. Such forces are beyond the control of the management staff. A hefty severance packages can also be viewed as a tool for attracting top talent to a company. An ideal business environment operates under the laws of demand and supply, which necessitates competition (Hirschey, 2009). In business, competition not only applies to the market, but also in recruitment and retaining of top talents. In addition, business decisions such as hiring top CEO’s is a form of risk taking, which businesses are compelled to take. The level of risk that a company can accommodate, determines its income margins. Thus, top CEO’s are not responsible for the misfortunes of a company. In any of such occurrences, responsibility should be extended to all top-level managers and supervisors. This is because they are also involved in the company’s decisions making

Importance of Innovation and Change Within an Organization

Importance of Innovation and Change Within an Organization In todays constantly changing world, change and innovation play an extremely important role within any organization. New technologies like faster software and hardware and improved manufacturing systems are increasing production and changing the way we do business across the globe. Newly advancing markets such as China and India are becoming more and more capitalistic, opening the door for corporations to come and do business. There are multiple elements when dealing with innovation and change within an organization. The first element is how an organization can change successfully which consists of the steps that are needed and the process that makes change happen. The next element is technological change, which is how organizations adapt and implement new technology. From new technology, organizations come up with our next element, new products and services. As these organizations become larger and larger there is the need for strategy and structure change as well as cultural change s. These two elements often go hand in hand and can be some of the most difficult to change. There are five key factors when looking at what is necessary for successful change. The first is ideas. In order to bring about change you need to have a new idea or thought. Creativity, innovation and outside-the-box thinking play a huge role here. Often times some of the best ideas can come from the least likely places. A study conducted by Daniel Tzabbar and his team, found that high levels of collaboration promotes innovation, as it encourages a free flow of ideas among people who must work together to discover new solutions to problems. (Tzabbar 17) With this being said, many new ideas come from the collaborations of groups and individuals within an organization. The second factor is need. There must be a perceived need for change. Constantly changing structures, strategies, or culture can actually be a bad thing if overused. If a specific change is going to take place, there needs to be an identifiable reason in order to make that specific change necessary. On the other hand, an organization that fails to realize the need for change is doomed for failure. It is the responsibility of upper management to be responsive and aware of when change is needed but not so sensitive that change becomes excessive. An article entitled Change for Changes Sake offers and interesting view on the topic of knowing when to change. According to the article, an organization periodically needs to shake itself up regardless of the external environment. The authors argue that a few things happen when an organization does not change enough. First, companies that are organized around a single criterion such as function, product, or market, tend to only communicate with themselves and not with the other units thus making them slow to adapt to changes in the environment. Next organizations are likely to get entrenched in a routine way of thinking, failing to realize new opportunities and the possibility of threats. Finally, organizations become extremely inefficient at allocating resources. In order to combat these factors, organizations should change structures every so often to keep itself ready to react quickly to its environment. (Vermeulen et. al. 70-76) The third factor is adoption. After the new ideas have been thought of on how to change and there is a perceived need for that change, a new idea is chosen. Now that an idea has been chosen it is time to put that idea into practice. This brings us to our next factor, implementation. According to Scott Sonenshein of Rice University Implementing strategic change is one of the most important undertakings of an organization. Successful implementation of strategic change can reinvigorate a business, but failure can lead to catastrophic consequences. (Sonenshein 477). Management must have a rock solid plan on how they want to implement change. A project management approach is the most successful approach when implementing such change, with the definition of clear success measures being important. (Oakland, Tanner 2) The final factor is resources. Through human energy and activity the idea is implemented and kept alive. People are the most important resource and the essential contributors to successful change, without them, change cannot happen. It is important that your employees are thoroughly trained and understand what is being changed and why. Empowering them with this knowledge will only enhance and increase the possibility of successful implementation of the changes set forth. Within an organization there is always the need for developing, acquiring, and adopting new technology. New technologies are always coming about and have a tremendous impact on organizations. The main approach to technological change is the ambidextrous approach. This combines both the organic and mechanistic structures. Under the ambidextrous approach there are numerous options of how to bring about new technology. Switching structures brings people from different areas of an organization together to share ideas and technology with each other. Creative departments consist of a research and development department. The sole duty of this department is to come up with new technology and test new technologies to ensure they will be useful for the organization. Another popular option is the use of venture teams. Venture teams are essentially their own organization within an organization. They often have their own separate location and structure in order to develop new technologies. In addition to RD and venture teams, another way to increase technological knowledge and bring about technology change is to acquire technology from external sources. Procter Gamble provides an excellent example of interorganizational technology transfer. Roughly half of new product development projects involve key ideas from external sources. Procter Gamble also uses an active licensing strategy of their own technological advances to generate millions in annual licensing revenue. Pharmaceuticals are notorious for using this type of strategy to bring about technological change within their organizations. (Lichtenthaler 2) Despite the great amount of success achieved by these firms, most organizations are still timid about sharing their own technological advances. They fear that by doing so, it will allow their competitors access to their own competitive advantage. While this may be true in some instances, it appears that interorganizational technology transfer can actually benefit organizations and ultimately consumers. While there are certain exceptions, new products and services are usually the direct result of new technology and coming up with new products and services is vital for success in todays markets. As markets evolve so should your products or services. The question of how to create and present new products now arises. Michelle Karas offers 11 steps that help organizations answer this complex and challenging question. Step one is to analyze the situation. Evaluate your environment and current product position and then identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The next step is to explore and research product needs. Brainstorm ideas, have an open mind and write down all ideas. Figure out what your customers needs are and your competitors limitations. Step three is to determine usage and identify what market you want to target with your product. Step four calls for developing a prototype. This entails converting an idea into an actual product and determining the produc ts specifications, features and benefits. Step five is to determine the price based on your objectives. Testing the product or service is the next step and is absolutely crucial to its success. It is also important to ensure that all operations within your business can fully support the product. (Karas 32-34) After the product has been thoroughly tested, it is time to establish sales goals. Identify target sales goals, and whether or not these goals are realistic and obtainable. The next step involves developing a marketing plan for both internal and external markets that achieves the goals set forth earlier. Step nine is training and educatin employees. Ensure employees/salespeople understand all aspects of the product. Characteristics like price, description, how the product works, and sales goals should all be thoroughly understood. The final two steps involve actually introducing the product to the market and evaluating the results. Record how the product performs and how the customers respond. (Karas 32-34) While these steps are quite simplified, these are the basics concepts that organizations utilize, regardless of size. A great example of products that have just recently been introduced is Sonys Move and Microsofts Kinect gaming systems. Both of these systems allow users to make use of their own bodies to become more active and involved in the gaming experience, very similar to the Wii. When the Nintendo Wii debuted, it was the first gamming system of its kind to offer an interactive gaming experience. It was a tremendous success and both Sony and Microsoft realized the opportunity to have their piece of the pie too. Rather than come up with a completely new gamming system, through the use of new technology, Sony and Microsoft designed a device that would simply be used in conjunction with users Playstation 3 and X-Box consoles. As time goes by it will be interesting to see what effects theses systems have on Wii sales and whether or not they are profitable for both Sony and Microsoft. Going along with the video game theme, Sega, which offered very popular gaming consoles in the 90s failed to innovate and offer a product strong enough to compete with Sonys Playstation and Nintendos N64. The result was Sega removing itself entirely from the hardware side of gaming and focusing solely on video game software. While Sega failed in one area, they were able to make a successful change and become profitable selling software. These two examples offer evidence to the power that new products and services hold within an organization. Once again failing to change and innovate successfully will most likely spell disaster for an organization. As an organization becomes larger the need for strategy and structure change becomes apparent. Strategic change involves altering employees construction of meanings by using a discourse that sets a new direction for a firm. (Sonenshein 505). All organizations need to make changes in their strategies, structures, management processes and administrative procedures. Many organizations go about this change using a dual core approach, which is a balance between the technical side and the management side of an organization. The technical side refers to the employees who actually produce the product or service that the company offers while the management side ensures that the day to day operations of the company are being fulfilled and the performance objectives are being met. While the two sides may have very different ideas of what changes need to take place, it is imperative that both sides be on the same page and working toward the same goal. In addition to becoming larger, there are also some other reasons why organizations must change their strategies. The first reason is the persistent pressure from shareholders for greater profitability. This requires business leaders to continually update their strategy. Theses updates are necessary to remain aligned with customers changing needs and priorities, while generating the necessary profits. This demands that strategies must be executed successfully within increasingly shorter time-periods. (Franken 49-73) The second reason relates to the increased complexity of organizations. In many organizations the activities performed to create products and services cross multiple functional, organizational, and geographical boundaries. Consequently, any strategic change program is likely to affect the people, processes, structures, technologies, suppliers, and business partners that work both within and across these boundaries. Hence, strategic change programs are becoming highly complex, resulting in increased risk of failure due to oversight. (Franken 49-73) The third reason is the difficult challenge faced by managers to balance the demands of successfully executing complex change programs with the demands of managing todays business performance. In situations where management is strongly tied to reward schemes based on todays performance, it is challenging to achieve active participation for the creation of tomorrows organization. However, as a result of the relentless pressure from stakeholders for repeated performance, managers cannot afford to dedicate their time, effort and resources to one set of demands exclusively. This balance is particularly challenging during the high-risk period when a business transitions to a new strategy. (Franken 49-73) The fourth reason is the low levels of involvement of a large number of managers across all functions at an early stage of strategy execution. The mechanics of involving large numbers of people in complex discussions leads organizations to restrict involvement in the quest for urgency. Often managers see these early stages as bureaucratic, unnecessary, and delaying real action. However, such involvement is required to obtain commitment to change and for the development of effective implementation plans. The fifth reason is the difficulty of securing the required resources to execute the strategy. Often, as a result of the large number of concurrent change programs, many of the organizations resources will already be allocated. Furthermore, as such resources are limited, managers will compete for them, and, once within their control, will endeavor to own them to secure their own goals.14 (Franken 49-73) According to Paul Sabbah, president of Stamford International, new strategies should focus on innovation, productivity and risk management. Productivity can be as easy as having employees working longer hours, implementing new technologies in order to speed up product development, or simply reducing inventory and using effective communication. Firms also need to look to international expansion as another potential strategy. By doing so, they open themselves up to new markets and new customers while being exposed to new ways of doing business and new retail concepts. Business is also all about managing risk. In difficult times, effectively managing risks like political instability, currency fluctuations, transportation costs, and rising energy costs has a direct effect on an organizations ability to survive in a struggling economy. (Sabbah) The final element and the most difficult to change is a change in organizational culture. This is often the most difficult to change because you are affecting people core values and daily routines. Eric Van Der Steen has shown that organizations have a tendency, over time, to develop the same set of beliefs and values. This happens through two mechanisms. People who share the same beliefs would rather work with those who share their beliefs than someone that does not. People also share experiences, which in turn leads to a set of shared beliefs. These shared beliefs and values directly impact the core culture of an organization. (Van Der Steen 26) To help explain the difficulties of culture change, think of a factory worker who has been assembling ball bearings a specific way over the past 20 years. This worker comes in every day, goes to their station and performs their duty over and over again for the duration of their shift. They have their routine down and never deviate from the steps they take. Now imagine someone coming up to them and telling them that the routine they have done over the years is inefficient and they have a better, more efficient way of performing their duty. In addition to this, there will be new policies and procedures to follow to ensure that the changes take place. That worker is obviously going to be skeptical and very resistant to changing. They may even feel that this person has no right to come and tell them how to do their job which they have been doing for so long. This is what must be overcome when dealing with cultural change. There are a few different ways to implement cultural change and each process has its own unique advantages and disadvantages. One way is by large group intervention. This entails having everyone in the organization go through a seminar, explaining to them what changes are going to be made. While this allows everyone to hear and hopefully understand the message, there may be some specific questions about the change that go unanswered. For instance a specialized department may wonder how certain changes will be affecting their culture. It is imperative that cultural change is led from upper management. Managers need to set the standard and lead by example especially when it comes to cultural change. In support of this, Lance Ewing states that companies without cultural leadership are always going the wrong way. (Ewing 88) Changing culture within an organization is never an easy task yet it is necessary and critical to change a culture when leadership transforms. Starting cultural change is like cooking in a Crock-Pot. Adding the right ingredients and turning the heat up with the right measure of enthusiasm for positive consumer change makes everyone want what is in the cultural pot. (Ewing 88) When dealing with change in any area, there will always be barriers to overcome. Resistance to change is now seen as a natural, acceptable incident. When it occurs, resistance may cause problems within the organization. However, depending on the nature of the change, the surrounding atmosphere and how the change takes place, resistance is not always a bad thing (Dent and Galloway Goldberg 27). According to Bauer, resistance to change, like pain, can be an alarm signal and serve as a warning that something is failing in the change process. (Bauer) Klein argues that resistance is a needed factor of flourishing change and if properly managed, can provide a beneficial response to the changes taking place. (Klein) Resistance is also a resource. It can provide valuable feedback to managers if they are willing to listen. Considering resistance as failure will overlook opportunities to strengthen operational outcomes. By paying attention to this feedback, managers can see a different perspective to the change they plan on initiating. Sometimes employees resist change for no reason, but often times, the employees most resistant to change are the ones who care enough to make sure the plan succeeds. People are also very aware of the past, and thoughts of changes that have utterly failed will constantly be running through their heads. In order to convince these people it is necessary to explain to them why and how you plan to implement change. Giving them the chance to voice their own questions and concerns will only enhance your plan to change. (Ford 100-103) In conclusion, the world is constantly changing and change and innovation play an extremely important role within any organization. As an organization if you fail to change and adapt to the rest of the world and your environment the world will pass you by. There are many elements for successful change, but your people will always be the most important in order for that change to take place. New technologies are always being introduced and it is important to stay up to date and take advantage of technology that will greatly benefit your organization. As an organization it is imperative that new technology is used to constantly come up with new and innovative products and services. While this is a major undertaking for any organization it is necessary for sustainability. As new products and services are being offered and an organization grows the strategy and structure used must also change. This gives way to cultural change where there is almost always some kind of resistance. Using t hat resistance as a tool to overcoming problems is a key step in successfully implementing change. Ultimately, the whole purpose of change is to increase profitability by making changes to the strategy, structure, technology and culture of an organization. While there will always be problems and other bumps along the road it is imperative that these obstacles are overcome in order to increase the odds for success.

Social Media and Business

Business Horizons (2010) 53, 59—68 www. elsevier. com/locate/bushor Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media Andreas M. Kaplan *, Michael Haenlein ? ESCP Europe, 79 Avenue de la Republique, F-75011 Paris, France KEYWORDS Social Media; User Generated Content; Web 2. 0; Social networking sites; Virtual worlds Abstract The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which ? rms can make pro? able use of applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, and Twitter. Yet despite this interest, there seems to be very limited understanding of what the term ‘‘Social Media’’ exactly means; this article intends to provide some clari? cation. We begin by describing the concept of Social Media, and discuss how it differs from related concepts such as Web 2. 0 and User Generated Content. Based on this de? nition, we then provide a classi? cation of Social Media which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more speci? categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Finally, we present 10 pieces of advice for companies which decide to utilize Social Media. # 2009 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved. 1. The specter of Social Media As of January 2009, the online social networking application Facebook registered more than 175 million active users. To put that number in perspective, this is only slightly less than the population of Brazil (190 million) and over twice the population of Germany (80 million)!At the same time, every minute, 10 hours of content were uploaded to the video sharing platform YouTube. And, the image hosting site Flickr provided access to over 3 billion photographs, making the world-famous Louvre * Correspondi ng author. E-mail addresses: [email  protected] eu (A. M. Kaplan), [email  protected] eu (M. Haenlein). Museum’s collection of 300,000 objects seem tiny in comparison. According to Forrester Research, 75% of Internet surfers used ‘‘Social Media’’ in the second quarter of 2008 by joining social networks, reading blogs, or contributing reviews to shopping sites; this represents a signi? ant rise from 56% in 2007. The growth is not limited to teenagers, either; members of Generation X, now 35—44 years old, increasingly populate the ranks of joiners, spectators, and critics. It is therefore reasonable to say that Social Media represent a revolutionary new trend that should be of interest to companies operating in online space–—or any space, for that matter. Yet, not overly many ? rms seem to act comfortably in a world where consumers can speak so freely 0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2009 Kelley School of Business, India na University.All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. bushor. 2009. 09. 003 60 with each other and businesses have increasingly less control over the information available about them in cyberspace. Today, if an Internet user types the name of any leading brand into the Google search, what comes up among the top ? ve results typically includes not only the corporate webpage, but also the corresponding entry in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Here, for example, customers can read that the 2007 model of Hasbro’s Easy-Bake Oven may lead to serious burns on children’s hands and ? gers due to a poorly-designed oven door, and that the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company has been accused of using child labor in its Liberian rubber factory. Historically, companies were able to control the information available about them through strategically placed press announcements and good public relations managers. Today, however, ? rms have been increasingly relegated to the sidelines as m ere observers, having neither the knowledge nor the chance–—or, sometimes, even the right–—to alter publicly posted comments provided by their customers. Wikipedia, for example, expressly forbids the participation of ? ms in its online community. Such an evolution may not be surprising. After all, the Internet started out as nothing more than a giant Bulletin Board System (BBS) that allowed users to exchange software, data, messages, and news with each other. The late 1990s saw a popularity surge in homepages, whereby the Average Joe could share information about his private life; today’s equivalent would be the weblog, or blog. The era of corporate web pages and e-commerce started relatively recently with the launch of Amazon and eBay in 1995, and got a right ticking-off only 6 years later when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.The current trend toward Social Media can therefore be seen as an evolution back to the Internet’s roots, since it retransforms the World Wide Web to what it was initially created for: a platform to facilitate information exchange between users. But does that mean that Social Media is just old wine in new bottles? Probably not! As we will delve into further, the technical advances that have been made over the past 20 years now enable a form of virtual content sharing that is fundamentally different from, and more powerful than, the BBS of the late 1970s.This article discusses the challenges and opportunities that emerge from this evolution for ? rms, and provides structure to better understand the rapidly evolving ? eld of Social Media. We begin by providing a de? nition and classi? cation of Social Media by looking at their historical roots, technical speci? cities, and differences from other entities such as Web 2. 0 and User Generated Content. We then focus on six types of Social Media–—collaborative projects, blogs, A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein content communities, social networki ng sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds–—and present ways in which companies can ef? iently make use of these applications. Based on this analysis, we then derive a set of 10 recommendations companies should follow when thinking about developing their own Social Media strategy, be it with respect to these aforementioned types or other applications which might emerge in the future. 2. What is Social Media–—And what is it not? As highlighted, the idea behind Social Media is far from groundbreaking. Nevertheless, there seems to be confusion among managers and academic researchers alike as to what exactly should be included under this term, and how Social Media differ from the seemingly-interchangeable related concepts of Web 2. and User Generated Content. It therefore makes sense to take a step back and provide insight regarding where Social Media come from and what they include. By 1979, Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis from Duke University had c reated the Usenet, a worldwide discussion system that allowed Internet users to post public messages. Yet, the era of Social Media as we understand it today probably started about 20 years earlier, when Bruce and Susan Abelson founded ‘‘Open Diary,’’ an early social networking site that brought together online diary writers into one community. The term ‘‘weblog’’ was ? st used at the same time, and truncated as ‘‘blog’’ a year later when one blogger jokingly transformed the noun ‘‘weblog’’ into the sentence ‘‘we blog. ’’ The growing availability of high-speed Internet access further added to the popularity of the concept, leading to the creation of social networking sites such as MySpace (in 2003) and Facebook (in 2004). This, in turn, coined the term ‘‘Social Media,’’ and contributed to the prominence it has today. The most rece nt addition to this glamorous grouping has been so-called ‘‘virtual worlds’’: computerbased simulated environments inhabited by threedimensional avatars.Perhaps the best known virtual world is that of Linden Lab’s Second Life (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009c). Although the list of the aforementioned applications may give some idea about what is meant by Social Media, a formal de? nition of the term ? rst requires drawing a line to two related concepts that are frequently named in conjunction with it: Web 2. 0 and User Generated Content. Web 2. 0 is a term that was ? rst used in 2004 to describe a new way in which software developers and end-users started to Users of the world, unite!The challenges and opportunities of Social Media utilize the World Wide Web; that is, as a platform whereby content and applications are no longer created and published by individuals, but instead are continuously modi? ed by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashio n. While applications such as personal web pages, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, and the idea of content publishing belong to the era of Web 1. 0, they are replaced by blogs, wikis, and collaborative projects in Web 2. 0. Although Web 2. 0 does not refer to any speci? technical update of the World Wide Web, there is a set of basic functionalities that are necessary for its functioning. Among them are Adobe Flash (a popular method for adding animation, interactivity, and audio/video streams to web pages), RSS (Really Simple Syndication, a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content, such as blog entries or news headlines, in a standardized format), and AJAX (Asynchronous Java Script, a technique to retrieve data from web servers asynchronously, allowing the update of web content without interfering with the display and behavior of the whole page).For the purpose of our article, we consider Web 2. 0 as the platform for the evolution of Social Media. When Web 2. 0 represents the ideological and technological foundation, User Generated Content (UGC) can be seen as the sum of all ways in which people make use of Social Media. The term, which achieved broad popularity in 2005, is usually applied to describe the various forms of media content that are publicly available and created by end-users. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007), UGC needs to ful? l three basic requirements in order to be considered as such: ? rst, it needs to be published either on a publicly accessible website or on a social networking site accessible to a selected group of people; second, it needs to show a certain amount of creative effort; and ? nally, it needs to have been created outside of professional routines and practices. The ? rst condition excludes content exchanged in e-mails or instant messages; the second, mere replications of already existing content (e. g. , posting a copy of an existing newspaper article on a personal blog without any modi? ations or commenting); and the third, all content that has been created with a commercial market context in mind. While UGC has already been available prior to Web 2. 0, as discussed above, the combination of technological drivers (e. g. , increased broadband availability and hardware capacity), economic drivers (e. g. , increased availability of tools for the creation of UGC), and social drivers (e. g. , rise of a generation of ‘‘digital natives’’ and ‘‘screenagers’’: younger age groups with substantial technical knowledge and 1 willingness to engage online) make UGC nowadays fundamentally different from what was observed in the early 1980s. Based on these clari? cations of Web 2. 0 and UGC, it is now straightforward to give a more detailed de? nition of what we mean by Social Media. In our view–—and as used herein–—Social Media is a group of Internet-based applicati ons that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2. 0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content. Within this general de? ition, there are various types of Social Media that need to be distinguished further. However, although most people would probably agree that Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and Second Life are all part of this large group, there is no systematic way in which different Social Media applications can be categorized. Also, new sites appear in cyberspace every day, so it is important that any classi? cation scheme takes into account applications which may be forthcoming. To create such a classi? cation scheme, and to do so in a systematic manner, we rely on a set of theories in the ? ld of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-presentation, self-disclosure), the two key elements of Social Media. Regarding the media-related component of Social Media, social presence theory (Short, Willi ams, & Christie, 1976) states that media differ in the degree of ‘‘social presence’’–—de? ned as the acoustic, visual, and physical contact that can be achieved–—they allow to emerge between two communication partners. Social presence is in? uenced by the intimacy (interpersonal vs. mediated) and immediacy (asynchronous vs. ynchronous) of the medium, and can be expected to be lower for mediated (e. g. , telephone conversation) than interpersonal (e. g. , face-to-face discussion) and for asynchronous (e. g. , e-mail) than synchronous (e. g. , live chat) communications. The higher the social presence, the larger the social in? uence that the communication partners have on each other’s behavior. Closely related to the idea of social presence is the concept of media richness. Media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986) is based on the assumption that the goal of any communication is the resolution of ambiguity and the reductio n of uncertainty.It states that media differ in the degree of richness they possess–—that is, the amount of information they allow to be transmitted in a given time interval–—and that therefore some media are more effective than others in resolving ambiguity and uncertainty. Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a ? rst classi? cation can be made based on the richness of the medium and the degree of social presence it allows. With respect to the social dimension of Social Media, the concept of self-presentation states that 2 in any type of social interaction people have the desire to control the impressions other people form of them (Goffman, 1959). On the one hand, this is done with the objective of in? uencing others to gain rewards (e. g. , make a positive impression on your future in-laws); on the other hand, it is driven by a wish to create an image that is consistent with one’s personal identity (e. g. , wearing a fashionable out? t in order to be perceived as young and trendy). The key reason why people decide to create a personal webpage is, for example, the wish to present themselves in cyberspace (Schau & Gilly, 2003).Usually, such a presentation is done through self-disclosure; that is, the conscious or unconscious revelation of personal information (e. g. , thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes) that is consistent with the image one would like to give. Self-disclosure is a critical step in the development of close relationships (e. g. , during dating) but can also occur between complete strangers; for example, when speaking about personal problems with the person seated next to you on an airplane. Applied to the context of Social Media, we assume that a second classi? ation can be made based on the degree of self-disclosure it requires and the type of self-presentation it allows. Combining both dimensions leads to a classi? cation of Social Media which we have visualized in Table 1. With respect to social presence and media richness, applications such as collaborative projects (e. g. , Wikipedia) and blogs score lowest, as they are often text-based and hence only allow for a relatively simple exchange. On the next level are content communities (e. g. , YouTube) and social networking sites (e. g. Facebook) which, in addition to text-based communication, enable the sharing of pictures, videos, and other forms of media. On the highest level are virtual game and social worlds (e. g. , World of Warcraft, Second Life), which try to replicate all dimensions of face-to-face interactions in a virtual environment. Regarding self-presentation and self-disclosure, blogs usually score higher than collaborative projects, as the latter tend to be focused on speci? c content domains. Table 1. A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein In a similar spirit, social networking sites allow for more self-disclosure than content communities.Finally, virtual social worlds require a higher level of self-disclosure tha n virtual game worlds, as the latter are ruled by strict guidelines that force users to behave in a certain way (e. g. , as warriors in an imaginary fantasy land). We will now provide more detail on each of these six different types of Social Media, and discuss the challenges and opportunities they offer companies. 3. The challenges and opportunities of Social Media 3. 1. Collaborative projects Collaborative projects enable the joint and simultaneous creation of content by many end-users and are, in this sense, probably the most democratic manifestation of UGC.Within collaborative projects, one differentiates between wikis–—that is, websites which allow users to add, remove, and change text-based content–—and social bookmarking applications–—which enable the group-based collection and rating of Internet links or media content. Exemplary applications within this category include the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, a wiki currently available in more than 230 different languages, and the social bookmarking web service Delicious, which allows the storage and sharing of web bookmarks.The main idea underlying collaborative projects is that the joint effort of many actors leads to a better outcome than any actor could achieve individually; this is similar to the ef? cient-market hypothesis in behavioral ? nance (Fama, 1970). From a corporate perspective, ? rms must be aware that collaborative projects are trending toward becoming the main source of information for many consumers. As such, although not everything written on Wikipedia may actually be true, it is believed to be true by more and more Internet users. This may be particularly crucial as regards corporate crises. For example, Classi? ation of Social Media by social presence/media richness and self-presentation/self-disclosure Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media when online book retailer Amazon started to test the idea of dynami c pricing, comments declaring such a practice as unfair showed up instantaneously under the Wikipedia entry on ‘‘time-based pricing. ’’ Yet, collaborative projects also provide some unique opportunities for ? rms. Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia, for instance, uses internal wikis to update employees on project status and to trade ideas, which are used by about 20% of its 68,000 staff members.Likewise, American computer software company Adobe Systems maintains a list of bookmarks to company-related websites and conversations on Delicious. 63 3. 3. Content communities The main objective of content communities is the sharing of media content between users. Content communities exist for a wide range of different media types, including text (e. g. , BookCrossing, via which 750,000+ people from over 130 countries share books), photos (e. g. , Flickr), videos (e. g. , YouTube), and PowerPoint presentations (e. g. , Slideshare). Users on content communities are not required to create a personal pro? e page; if they do, these pages usually only contain basic information, such as the date they joined the community and the number of videos shared. From a corporate viewpoint, content communities carry the risk of being used as platforms for the sharing of copyright-protected materials. While major content communities have rules in place to ban and remove such illegal content, it is dif? cult to avoid popular videos–—such as recent episodes of comedy dramas–—being uploaded to YouTube only hours after they have been aired on television.On the positive side, the high popularity of content communities makes them a very attractive contact channel for many ? rms; this is easy to believe when one considers that YouTube serves over 100 million videos per day. In 2007, Procter & Gamble organized a contest for its over-the-counter drug Pepto-Bismol, whereby users were encouraged to upload to YouTube 1-minute videos of themsel ves singing about the ailments Pepto-Bismol counteracts, including heartburn and nausea. In a similar spirit, kitchen appliances manufacturer Blendtec became popular for its bevy of inexpensive ‘‘Will it blend? ’ videos, which have been watched by millions of people. Other ? rms, such as Cisco and Google, rely on content communities to share recruiting videos, as well as keynote speeches and press announcements, with their employees and investors. 3. 2. Blogs Blogs, which represent the earliest form of Social Media, are special types of websites that usually display date-stamped entries in reverse chronological order (OECD, 2007). They are the Social Media equivalent of personal web pages and can come in a multitude of different variations, from personal diaries describing the author’s life to summaries of all relevant information in one speci? content area. Blogs are usually managed by one person only, but provide the possibility of interaction with others through the addition of comments. Due to their historical roots, text-based blogs are still by far the most common. Nevertheless, blogs have also begun to take different media formats. For example, San Francisco-based Justin. tv allows users to create personalized television channels via which they can broadcast images from their webcam in real time to other users. Many companies are already using blogs to update employees, customers, and shareholders on developments they consider to be important.Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, maintains a personal blog to improve the transparency of his company; so does automotive giant General Motors. Yet, as is the case with collaborative projects, blogs do not come without risks. These generally present in two fashions. First, customers who–—for one reason or another–—turn out to be dissatis? ed with or disappointed by the company’s offerings may decide to engage in virtual complaints in the form o f protest websites or blogs (Ward & Ostrom, 2006), which results in the availability of potentially damaging information in online space.Second, once ? rms encourage employees to be active on blogs, they may need to live with the consequences of staff members writing negatively about the ? rm. Microsoft’s former ‘‘technical evangelist’’ Robert Scoble, for example, had a tendency to ? ercely criticize the products of his employer–— before he decided to leave the Redmond-based software company in 2006. 3. 4. Social networking sites Social networking sites are applications that enable users to connect by creating personal information pro? les, inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those pro? es, and sending e-mails and instant messages between each other. These personal pro? les can include any type of information, including photos, video, audio ? les, and blogs. According to Wikipedia, the largest social networking sites are U . S. -based Facebook (initially founded by Mark Zuckerberg to stay in touch with his fellow students from Harvard University) and MySpace (with 1,500 employees and more than 250 million registered users). Social networking sites are of such high popularity, speci? cally among younger Internet 4 users, that the term ‘‘Facebook addict’’ has been included in the Urban Dictionary, a collaborative project focused on developing a slang dictionary for the English language. Several companies are already using social networking sites to support the creation of brand communities (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001) or for marketing research in the context of netnography (Kozinets, 2002). To promote the movie ‘‘Fred Claus,’’ a 2007 Christmas comedy ? lm, Warner Brothers created a Facebook pro? le via which visitors could watch trailers, download graphics, and play games.Likewise, the Adidas custom soccer community on MySpace allows visitors to asso ciate themselves with one of two brands of elite soccer cleats produced by the German sports apparel manufacturer, and to access product reviews and information on professional soccer players who play using ‘‘their’’ shoes. Some ? rms even go one step further and use Facebook as a distribution channel. Consider U. S. -based ? orist 1-800-Flowers. com, which offers a widget on Facebook called ‘‘Gimme Love’’ whereby users can send ‘‘virtual bouquets’’ to friends or, with a click of the mouse, be directly transferred to the company’s website to send real ? wers. A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein hunter–—starts to more and more closely resemble their real life personality. Besides their use for ingame advertising (similar in idea to product placement in blockbuster movies), the high popularity of virtual game worlds can also be leveraged in more traditional communication campaigns. Japanese automo tive giant Toyota, for example, used pictures and mechanics from the World of Warcraft application in its latest Tundra commercial to reach the 2. 5 million players in the U. S. lone. 3. 6. Virtual social worlds The second group of virtual worlds, often referred to as virtual social worlds, allows inhabitants to choose their behavior more freely and essentially live a virtual life similar to their real life. As in virtual game worlds, virtual social world users appear in the form of avatars and interact in a three-dimensional virtual environment; however, in this realm, there are no rules restricting the range of possible interactions, except for basic physical laws such as gravity.This allows for an unlimited range of self presentation strategies, and it has been shown that with increasing usage intensity and consumption experience, users of virtual social worlds–—or ‘‘residents,’’ as they prefer to be called–—show behavior that more and more closely mirrors the one observed in real life settings (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2009; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009a, 2009b). Arguably, the most prominent example of virtual social worlds is the Second Life application, founded and managed by the San Francisco-based company Linden Research Inc.Besides doing everything that is possible in real life (e. g. , speaking to other avatars, taking a walk, enjoying the virtual sunshine), Second Life also allows users to create content (e. g. , to design virtual clothing or furniture items) and to sell this content to others in exchange for Linden Dollars, a virtual currency traded against the U. S. Dollar on the Second Life Exchange. Some residents are so successful in this task that the virtual money earned that way complements their real life income.Virtual social worlds offer a multitude of opportunities for companies in marketing (advertising/communication, virtual product sales/v-Commerce, marketing research), and human resource and internal process management; for a more detailed discussion, see Kaplan and Haenlein (2009c). 3. 5. Virtual game worlds Virtual worlds are platforms that replicate a threedimensional environment in which users can appear in the form of personalized avatars and interact with each other as they would in real life.In this sense, virtual worlds are probably the ultimate manifestation of Social Media, as they provide the highest level of social presence and media richness of all applications discussed thus far. Virtual worlds come in two forms. The ? rst, virtual game worlds, require their users to behave according to strict rules in the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). These applications have gained popularity in recent years, as standard game consoles–—such as Microsoft’s X-Box and Sony’s PlayStation–—now allow simultaneous play among a multitude of users around the globe.Examples of virtual game worlds inc lude the cod-medieval ‘‘World of Warcraft,’’ which counts around 8. 5 million subscribers who explore the virtual planet of Azeroth in the form of humans, dwarves, orcs, or night elves, to ? ght monsters or to search for treasure; and Sony’s EverQuest, in which 16 different races of players (e. g. , wizards, clerics) travel the fantasy world of Norrath. The rules of such games usually limit the degree of self-presentation and self-disclosure possible, although some users spend so much time with these applications that their character–—be it a warrior, a wizard, or a dragon . Ten pieces of advice for companies deciding to use Social Media Social Media is a very active and fast-moving domain. What may be up-to-date today could have Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media disappeared from the virtual landscape tomorrow. It is therefore crucial for ? rms to have a set of guidelines that can be applied to any form of Social Media, whether they are part of the aforementioned list or not. Next, we provide such a set of recommendations. Given that Social Media have both a social- and a media-component, we split our advice into two sections: ? e points about using media and ? ve points about being social. 65 4. 1. Five points about using media 4. 1. 1. Choose carefully There are dozens–—if not hundreds–—of Social Media applications, and new ones are appearing on the horizon every day. If you still need time to run your core business, you simply cannot participate in them all, especially since ‘‘being active’’ is one key requirement of success (see below). Choosing the right medium for any given purpose depends on the target group to be reached and the message to be communicated.On the one hand, each Social Media application usually attracts a certain group of people and ? rms should be active wherever their customers are present. For example, if your main target audience is book lovers, a content community via which users share self-written novels or poems is likely better suited to your purpose than a virtual world which centers on ? ghting dragons and ? nding treasures. On the other hand, there may be situations whereby certain features are necessary to ensure effective communication, and these features are only offered by one speci? c application. For example, when the U. S.Army undertook an initiative in 2007 to reach the Hispanic community, it decided to utilize the social networking site Univision rather than the more popular Facebook. This choice was driven in part by the fact that Univision–—a Spanish-language television network in the U. S. and Puerto Rico–—is the social networking application with the largest Latin American audience, due to an extensive range of telenovelas and Mexican programs produced by Grupo Televisa. However, another reason Univision was chosen is becau se it offers a moderating service which checks comments from users for appropriateness before posting them on the site.In contrast, other applications, including Facebook, allow users to post messages without supervision. 4. 1. 2. Pick the application, or make your own Once you know which game you’re playing, the next decision involves whether to make or buy. In some cases, it might just be best to join an existing Social Media application and bene? t from its popularity and user base. After all, there is no need to reinvent the wheel if somebody has already done it, especially given that Social Media show positive network externalities in the sense that they get more attractive to join the more participants they already have.But in some cases, the right application might just not be available yet. Japan’s Fuji? lm, for example, recently launched its own social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts. In a similar spirit, U. S. -based department store ? rm Se ars collaborated with MTV music television to create a social network around back-to-school shopping. Yet, whatever the ultimate decision–—to buy, make, or both–— it is vital that there is an understanding of the basic idea behind Social Media. It’s all about participation, sharing, and collaboration, rather than straightforward advertising and selling. 4. 1. 3.Ensure activity alignment Sometimes you may decide to rely on various Social Media, or a set of different applications within the same group, in order to have the largest possible reach. In this case, it is crucial to ensure that your Social Media activities are all aligned with each other. A prime example in this context is computer manufacturer Dell and its ‘‘Digital Nomads’’ campaign. Dell uses a combination of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn), blogs, and content communities (YouTube videos) to show how its range of laptop computers enable individuals to become a nomadic mobile workforce.In a similar spirit, Chrysler’s Jeep brand connects with its customers by combining photos shared on the content community Flickr, with groups on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Using different contact channels can be a worthwhile and pro? table strategy. But remember: one goal of communication is the resolution of ambiguity and reduction of uncertainty, and nothing is more confusing than contradicting messages across different channels. 4. 1. 4. Media plan integration What is true for different types of Social Media also holds for the relationship between Social Media and traditional media: Integration is key!While you may consider these two arenas to be completely different, in customers’ eyes they are both part of the same: your corporate image. Consider the actions of soft drink giant Coca-Cola. In June 2006, a pair of performance artists shot a video featuring a series of geysers they created by dropping Mentos brand mints into 2-liter bottles of Coke; the clip became a major hit on YouTube. Realizing customers’ enthusiasm for this performance, Coca-Cola fostered the sensation by airing the video on late-night television and ensuring broad digital distribution across different content communities.Besides the advantage of 66 high impact/low cost media coverage, the campaign also resulted in a measurable sales uplift. 4. 1. 5. Access for all Although this might sound elementary, once the ? rm has decided to utilize Social Media applications, it is worth checking that all employees may actually access them. Commonly, ? rms block Facebook, YouTube, and Second Life on corporate PCs for fear that staff might spend too much time networking instead of working. While this is certainly a consideration, it cannot imply that employees must have special permission to be able to access the company blog.At the same time, there is a need to curtail the possibility of the entire organization spending all its time producing funny videos and uploading them to YouTube. One possible approach involves de? ning groups of employees whose primary objective is the management of corporate Social Media; all other staff members are treated as occasional participants. Under this scenario, the ? rst group is given administrator rights–—which allows the opening of new discussion threads and deletion of inappropriate posts–—while the second group is not.Also, at some point, it will be necessary to develop certain guidelines for Social Media usage; as done, for instance, by ‘‘Big Blue’’ IBM, which has a corporate charta for appropriate behavior within Second Life. For example, it is important to highlight that every employee needs to identify himself or herself as such when posting a comment on the corporate blog. Otherwise, end-consumers could get the impression that anonymous accounts are used to enable employees to post fake messa ges and overly-positive feedback, which could severely damage the credibility of your whole Social Media campaign. A. M. Kaplan, M.Haenlein else’s than it is about engaging others in open and active conversation. Participants on Social Media applications have the desire to actively engage and to become both producers and consumers of information, so-called ‘‘prosumers’’ (Tof? er, 1980). Be considerate of this need and act accordingly. 4. 2. 2. Be interesting Let’s face it: nobody is interested in speaking to a boring person. As such, if you would like your customers to engage with you, you need to give them a reason for doing so–—one which extends beyond saying you are the best airline in town, or manufacture the most robust kitchen blender. The ? st step is to listen to your customers. Find out what they would like to hear; what they would like to talk about; what they might ? nd interesting, enjoyable, and valuable. Then, devel op and post content that ? ts those expectations. Coffee powerhouse Starbucks, for example, created the ‘‘My Starbucks Idea’’ platform, via which customers can submit new ideas for the company. These ideas are subsequently voted on by other users, with the winners being considered for implementation by Starbucks top management. As stated by Oscar Wilde in his novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey: The one sin for which there is no forgiveness is ennui. . 2. 3. Be humble Never forget that Social Media existed before you decided to engage in them; indeed, in many cases, even before you knew about their existence. In this light, do not expect that you know better how to use them than others who have spent countless hours on Facebook or Second Life, for example. Before you enter any application, ? rst take some time to discover it and to learn about its history and basic rules. Only once you have gained the necessary understanding, start to participate. When aerosp ace and defense ? rm Boeing decided to launch its ? st corporate blog, the site was designed such that users were not allowed to comment on what they saw. Yet, interaction and feedback are critical elements of all Social Media, blogs included. Hence, many readers perceived the Boeing blog as a fake, and simply corporate advertising in disguise. If there is one certain path to failure, it involves thinking that Social Media is just about posting existing TV spots on YouTube or putting prefabricated press announcements on corporate blogs. 4. 2. 4. Be unprofessional Have you ever noticed that in Hollywood blockbuster ? ms, it’s not usually the handsome guy who ends up with the girl, but rather the clumsy, charming one? The same goes for Social Media, and ? rms 4. 2. Five points about being social 4. 2. 1. Be active If you want to develop a relationship with someone, it is always advisable to take the lead and to be active. Social Media are all about sharing and interaction, so e nsure that your content is always fresh and that you engage in discussions with your customers. Consider the aforementioned blog kept by Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Via this outlet, the ? urehead discusses–—on an ongoing basis–—his corporate strategy, new product development projects, and company values, and replies directly to correspondence received. In considering your Social Media efforts, be aware that ? rm involvement must extend beyond responding to negative comments and defending product offerings. Social Media is less about explaining why your baking mix, detergent, or shampoo is better than anyone Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media would be wise to avoid overly-professional content offerings.There’s no need to spend $100,000 to design the perfect MySpace presence, or hire a professional writer to manage your corporate blog. Instead, try to blend in with other users and don’t be a fraid to make mistakes! Bill Marriott, Chairman and CEO of the Marriott International Hotel chain, uses his blog, for example, to post regular updates and stories from his travels to Marriott properties around the world–—very much in the same way as would a work colleague when describing her last vacation. Social Media users are people like you, who understand that things do not always go smoothly.And, if you’re nice to them, they may even give you free advice on how to do it better the next time. 4. 2. 5. Be honest Last but not least, be honest and respect the rules of the game. Some Social Media–—such as Wikipedia–— may not allow companies to be involved, so do not try to force your way in. Consider Anheuser-Busch, owner of SeaWorld marine mammal parks. Anheuser-Busch tried to ‘‘rectify’’ misleading information on Wikipedia through the use of PR ? rms, and failed miserably at it. Never expect that other par ticipants may not ? d out who stands behind some anonymous user account; after all, you’re dealing with some of the most technologically sophisticated people on the planet. 67 5. Nothing to lose but their chains Today, everything is about Social Media. Some industry gurus claim that if you do not participate in Facebook, YouTube, and Second Life, you are not part of cyberspace anymore. Social Media allow ? rms to engage in timely and direct end-consumer contact at relatively low cost and higher levels of ef? ciency than can be achieved with more traditional communication tools.This makes Social Media not only relevant for large multinational ? rms, but also for small and medium sized companies, and even nonpro? t and governmental agencies. Using Social Media is not an easy task and may require new ways of thinking, but the potential gains are far from being negligible. Dell, for example, states that its use of Twitter–—a micro blogging application that allows se nding out short, text-based posts of 140 characters or less–—has generated $1 million in incremental revenue due to sales alerts. Some ? ms may even be too successful for their own good, as illustrated by Burger King’s ‘‘Whopper Sacri? ce’’ campaign: In December 2008, the fast food giant developed a Facebook application which gave users a free Whopper sandwich for every 10 friends they deleted from their Facebook network. The campaign was adopted by over 20,000 users, resulting in the sacri? cing of 233,906 friends in exchange for free burgers. Only one month later, in January 2009, Facebook shut down Whopper Sacri? ce, citing privacy concerns. Who would have thought that the price of a friendship is less than $2 a dozen?A new trend is on the horizon, though; Watch out for Mobile Social Media! Mobile Web 2. 0 is very similar to Web 2. 0, as discussed earlier. In contrast to its predecessor Mobile Web 1. 0, which relied on proprietary pr otocols (e. g. , WAP) and use-based pricing, Mobile Web 2. 0 is characterized by open standards (e. g. , a transition to the TCP/IP protocol, the technical foundation of the World Wide Web) and ? at-rate systems. Even the manual entry of web addresses using small and dif? cult-to-handle keyboards is becoming history.Soon, all items around you will be equipped with Radio Frequency Identi? cation (RFID) tags that will be able to automatically connect to your mobile phone and send URLs to them, similar to today’s text messages. This technical evolution is laying the groundwork for moving Social Media applications away from desktop PCs and laptops, toward mobile devices. Why log into Facebook if you can easily update all your friends using Twitter? Why wait until you return home to watch the new YouTube video if you can do so conveniently on your iPhone? According to Jupiter Research, the market for Mobile Web 2. evolutions will grow from a mere $5. 5 billion today to an impressi ve $22. 4 billion by 2013. Mobile Social Media applications are expected to be the main driver of this evolution, soon accounting for over 50% of the market. In one way, this surge toward Mobile Social Media can even be seen as another step toward Internet democratization and closing the digital divide between developed and emerging countries. In India, for example, mobile phones outnumber PCs by 10 to 1. In Thailand, only 13% of the population owns a computer, versus 82% who have access to a mobile phone.It is therefore not surprising that the Pew Research Center–—a Washington-based think tank–—estimates that by 2020, a mobile device will be the primary Internet connection tool for most people in the world. Making Social Media applications mobile is likely to tap a currently unexploited base of new users. Even if percapita spending in these countries may still be low, vast population numbers make them relevant for virtually any ? rm. Obviously, Mobile So cial Media does not come without a price. Some would argue that while it enables the detailed following of friends half-way across the world, it can foster a society where we don’t now the names of our own next-door neighbors. Be that as it may, and independent of 68 whether or not one approves of such an evolution, it seems undisputable that (Mobile) Social Media will be the locomotive via which the World Wide Web evolves. Businesses, take note–—and don’t miss this train! A. M. Kaplan, M. Haenlein Kaplan, A. M. , & Haenlein, M. (2009b). Consumers, companies, and virtual social worlds: A qualitative analysis of Second Life. Advances in Consumer Research, 36(1), 873—874. Kaplan, A. M. , & Haenlein, M. (2009c). The fairyland of Second Life: About virtual social worlds and how to use them.Business Horizons, 52(6), 563—572. Kozinets, R. V. 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