Group Communication Essay Example for Free

Group Communication Essay Effective group communications come in forms of verbal and non-verbal techniques. Essential parts of the entire group’s contribution are that the group contains full participating members, the group is diverse, and that the diversity is recognized and respected (Hartley, 1997). In the videos viewed, three were evaluated on the effective and ineffective communication skills of the participants and suggestions made on how they could improve. The videos are titled, â€Å"Planning a Playground†, â€Å"Helping Annie†, and The Politics of Sociology. Planning a Playground For the impact diversity plays on group member’s communication styles, I choose the video titled â€Å"Planning a Playground†. In this video, community residents are meeting for the first time to discuss an issue pertaining to funding of new neighborhood playground. The residents belong to diversified backgrounds in regards to their ages, genders, race, and SEC (Planning a Playground, 2008). The origins of the residents differ as one member is Black; one is Asian, whereas the other three are Caucasian. The residents come from different SEC backgrounds. One member opens the discussion about funding and how much difficulty they are having in raising enough money. Another member chimes in and mentions how she is close friends with a person with a lot of resources who might help with contributions. The group members communication style is totally different because their diversified backgrounds. Some sit facing the other’s and makes constant eye contact. Another sits at the ‘head’ of the table able to view everyone but does not necessary look at everyone. Some members are taking detailed written notes, where another is just sitting there listening to everyone. Physical placement places a huge effect and impact on communication. People facing each other, sitting in close proximity, ensures everyone is heard and gives a feeling of comfort. Other effective communication methods could have made use of for the meeting and benefitted all members. Two of these methods are written materials and telephones (Hartley, 1997). Written material could be repared before the group met and used to make occurrences clearer to members, who have no knowledge of the subject. The other method is telephones, which can assist the members to gain better understanding of each other. In the use of telephones there is the reduce chance of discrimination since the members can not see each other (if they have not met prior- in some incidences here). Annie To address the verbal and nonverbal interaction among the members of a group the video titled â€Å"Annie† best illustrates this. In the video there is clearly both listening and miscommunication going on. The setting of this video is that the title character, Annie is a high school girl, who seems to be suffering from a possible eating disorder as well as depression (Understanding Relationship- Helping Annie, 2008). A nurse from a school has called upon a meeting with a psychiatrist and a social worker to seek out a possible treatment plan for Annie. In â€Å"Annie†, again the physical setting and placement of participants play an important part in the communication style. Two of the members are sitting side-by-side on a couch while the third person sits in her desk chair across from the couch. The person in the chair is not only able to make eye contact with the other two but also is in a physical position to see their verbal and non-verbal communications. The two on the couch are at a disadvantage for reading the non-verbal language and making eye contact with each other. The school nurse, psychiatrist, and social workers are engaged in a verbal conversation. The psychiatrist is talking to the school nurse and is not all concerned or ready to take any sort of arguments from the social worker. He is engaging in various sorts of non- verbal communication with the social workers showing his disinterest. The various non- verbal communications used by the psychiatrist are body language and voice. He continues to cut the social worker off in mid-sentence, not allowing her to speak (Understanding Relationship- Helping Annie, 2008). These non- verbal communications were hindering the process of group communication. The two methods of communications, which could have facilitated the group would have been one-to-one conversation as well as written communication. Each member could have met individually to avoid interruptions and bad sitting placement (Hartley, 1997). Also since each one evaluated Annie separately the could have just submitted their findings and suggestions/recommendations to the social worker and let her develop a plan off of that- and send a copy to the nurse and psychiatrist for editing and review. The Politics of Sociology The third video, The Politics of Sociology†, demonstrates good communication techniques from all members of the group. The various listening techniques, which have been used by the members of this group, are encouraging, paraphrasing, and reflecting feelings. The encouraging technique used, refers to the utilization of a variety of verbal and nonverbal to promote others to go ahead with their talks. Paraphrasing is restating the conversation to give an impression that the person listening has understood the conversation. Reflecting is concerned with showing empathy with the speaker. Listening is an important activity of group communication. To bring out an effective solution or conclusion to the matter discussed, it is important to listen to all the opinions. The participants are all professors at a university but still have different backgrounds (The Politics of Sociology, 2008). There are differences in the ages, races, and subjects they teach. Each person has a different communication style. Some shot ideas out right away where others waited for all to speak then evaluate and give their opinions, while staying respectful and understanding of each other’s point of view. The physical set-up of the room plays a positive part in their effective communication. Each member is facing each other and is able to see the faces of everyone. This positioning helps cut back on misunderstandings or non-verbal cues. Even though the communication techniques used in this video seem to be effective, there are always room for change and improvement. Since the group was composed of multiple people, five or six, a visual display could have been used. Either a blackboard or overhead projector could have been set up and allow each member to put up their pros and cons for change of the curriculum as well as any ideas or suggestions they had. After each member went then one person could be delegated to summarize the lists and come up with final recommendations to be voted on (Hartley, 1997). Another method could have been to break the group up into two smaller groups to work on solutions and then bring them back to the large group for discussion. Conclusion In problem solving, group discussion, or just typical dialogue it is important to have effect communication techniques. Depending on the group or topic of conversation there are several techniques that work better for discussion then others. Taking into consideration time frame or group size written, telephone, or one-on-one techniques can be utilized. Communication styles vary among groups but key essentials are universal; listening, respecting, and appropriate interaction between members.

Whole Life Cycle Costing Application Barriers Construction Essay

Whole Life Cycle Costing Application Barriers Construction Essay Ellingham and Fawcett (2006, p. 18) indicate that the net present value method for evaluating an investment cashflow was first developed about 50 years ago and is widely used in many spheres. In property and construction projects it has acquired a special name: whole-life costing. In fact, whole-life costing is simply the application of net present value analysis to construction projects. Most people will confused about the term of life-cycle costing, whole life costing, and whole life-cycle costing. As stated in Boussabaine and Kirkham study (2004, p. 4), prior to the 1970s, investment decisions made by most clients, developers and professionals was solely on the basis of capital cost. It appear a thought that spending more in capital cost will realize substantial cost savings in long term compared with a cheaper alternative, which we known as terotechnology. This concept was largely ignored because the lack of available data and collection mechanisms, and it shown that investor had no interest in the subsequent operational cost of the building. In the early 1970s, the term cost-in-use appear in the industry. It was recognized the concept of cost in use could apply to building and critical structures as to calculate the expenditure related to the operation of an asset. However, it also failed to consider the necessity for accurate future cost forecasting. It required some kind of technology to facilitate this problem (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 5). Until the mid to late 1970s, life-cycle costing emerged as a solution to this problem. It fostered a wide-ranging approach to cost appraisal, encompassing all perceivable cost from construction through to eventual disposal the whole life. By using a variety of forecasting techniques, the analyst was able to demonstrate how increase capital cost could be offset by long-term cost savings (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 5). As stated by Ashworth (1989), LCC is clearly a technique, which (at least in theory) has a potential for the correct financial evaluation of construction works. In should be noted that the concepts of LCC are not new. The principles are based upon economic theories, which have been used in investment appraisal in many areas of industrial and commercial activity.White and Ostwald (Korpi and Ala-Risku, 2008, p.241) show that LCC was originally designed for procurement purposes in the US Department of Defence and Woodward (Korpi and Ala-Risku, 2008, p.241) indicates that LCC is used most commonly in the military sector as well as in the construction industry. Towards the late 1990s, the concept of whole life costing and whole life-cycle costing emerged. The terms whole life costing and whole life-cycle costing are interchangeable (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 6). Whole life-cycle costing is a relatively new concept to the construction industry. It is essence an evolution of life-cycle costing techniques that are commonly used in many areas of procurement (Boussabaine and Kirkham, 2004, p. 3). Theoretically speaking, there is no different between LCC, WLC and WLCC. Schade (2007, p. 2), in reporting Flanagan and Jewell study, emphasizes that it is just a change of term form cost in use to life cycle costing and further to whole life cycle costing. Problem Statement According to Boussabaine and Kirkham (2004, p. xi), the construction industry has recently experienced a paradigmatic shift in its approach to product deliver and the achievement of customer satisfaction. Where previously the design and construction teams placed a heavy emphasis on delivering buildings at the lowest capital cost, a greater awareness and desire to consider cost over the whole life of the building have prevailed. Clients now want buildings that demonstrate value for money over the long term, and are not interested simply in the design solution which is the least expensive. These changes have lead to and highlighted the important of whole life-cycle costing approaches to the design, construction and operation of buildings. Schade (2007) claims that, production cost is the main cost factor in construction and is often set to the minimum in commonly, which does not necessarily improve the lifetime performance of buildings. Therefore, it is important to show the construction client in the early design phase the relationship between design choices and the resulting lifetime cost. Boussabaine and Kirkham (2004, p. ix) also note that the award of public construction contracts based on simply the lowest capital cost bid is no longer recognized as good practice; best value must be taken into account and thereby WLCC should be fully appraised as part of the decision making process. The research of Swaffield and McDonald (2007, p. 132) identify that contractors quantity surveyors generally did consider LCC when procuring new products/elements for Private Finance Initiative projects, but in certain circumstances, such as during exceptionally busy times or when working within tight construction budgets, LCC were not considered and procurement decisions for some product/elements were made on the basis of lowest capital cost. As Byron A. Ellis (2007, p.1) said, Designers, engineers and constructors are under pressure from owners to minimize total project cost. Unfortunately, many owners do not understand the concept of total project cost. As a result, they seek to minimize acquisition (first) cost. Economists Alchian and Allen (Byron, 2007, p.1) argue that the term cost should never be used by itself; they noted that it should always be identified with total, average, or marginal. According to Fischer et al (Tah and Aouad, 2007), although the significance of LCC has been recognized as early as 1980s, the current implementation has not been very satisfied due to two major barriers: first barrier is the historical data of building operation and maintenance. Second barrier is the complexity of the procedures and algorithms of calculating the LCC. For example, a building concern thousands of elements and construction method and maintenance activities. A simple change in the building material might take long hours of recalculations, it is therefore difficult to assist users to manipulate the large design and LCC analysis. However, even the idea of WLCC analysis is to help the owner to examine a economically alternative, there will always have the possibility of misleading the decision making by the error result of WLCC due to lack of data or unpredictable changes. There have no such as 100% accuracy for WLCC analysis because the limitation of forecast ability of human being are impossible to forecast everything that could be happen in future. This paper addresses the problems above by providing a detail discussion of WLCC for assisting and simplifying the application of the technique based on the WLCC in construction industry. At the same time reveal the popularity of application of WLCC in Malaysian construction industry. Aim To identified the barriers of applying whole life-cycle costing and investigate the popularity of implementation of whole life-cycle costing in Malaysian construction industry Objectives To review the important of usage of whole life-cycle costing in construction industry. To identify the barriers of application of whole-life cycle costing in construction industry. To analyse the factors affecting the accuracy of whole-life cycle costing. To investigate the popularity of application of whole-life cycle costing in Malaysian construction industry. Scope of Study The concept of Whole life-cycle costing (WLCC) can be use as many sector, to narrow the scope of study, the study will only be focus on the construction industries. Besides that, case study would not conduct to the project for the calculation of WLCC because it will be extremely difficult to obtain the large quantity of information across the long term of a building life cycle and data such as the project operation and maintenance cost, replacement cost, disposal cost could be confidential to its owners. Thus, to manually collect this data has to be very costly and time consuming and the missing of any result above will cause inaccurate of result. This study will focus on reviewing the important of application of WLCC into construction industry. The first issue to be study in deep is the discussion on the principles, advantages and purposes of WLCC analysis. The second issue is to identify the error and the difficulties of applying WLCC due to lack of necessary information and unpred ictable changes. The third issue is to do a research on the understanding of WLCC among owners and their frequency of applying WLCC. Research Methodology The methodology should be targeted at a consistent whole life-cycle costing (WLCC) approach and calculations and should not be aimed at reducing costs but at making more informed and consistent economic, financial and environmental decisions. The study was conducting in four stages. The first phase is the literature review. Second phase will be interview pilot study to the issue. Third phase will be constructing questionnaires. The last phase is to writing the research report. First stage: The literature review started with the important of application of WLCC and required data for a WLCC analysis. Searching of article about WLCC and the searching key words would be whole life-cycle costing, whole cycle costing and life-cycle costing. And the information of search will be limited into construction industry to filtered unnecessary information. The main sources for the literature research were databases, such as Emerald, web of science, Google and library of college Tunku Abdul Rahman. Second stage: Data collection will take form of a structured postal questionnaire. However an initial pilot study may be conducted to test the validity of the questionnaire through interviews with relevant parties. Third stage: Questionnaires will be conduct and send to respondent. The main ideas of the questionnaires are to test the owners of understanding about WLCC, and also research on the preferable of low initial cost or low WLCC when owner make decision of choosing alternatives. The questionnaire should be highlighted more prominently, to make it easier for respondents to participate in the final questionnaire survey. Last stage: This stage involves writing up the content of the dissertation and should cover the chapters proposed in the following section. The result of interview and questionnaires will be analysis and conclude. Example of WLCC analysis will provide by searching through media resources and calculate by myself with simple and reality assumption based on the WLCC principles.

Deep River Shusaku Endo English Literature Essay

Deep River Shusaku Endo English Literature Essay Shusaku Endo has had a long career in literary works. He has written some very compelling novels that dive deep down into the journey of spiritual learning. He has fixated most of his writings on two main crossing issues such as eastern and western cultures specifically between Japanese culture and Christianity. His novels have sited a wide range of issues of cultural and spiritual identity, alienation, and personal pledge to faith. The story he wrote Deep River is a fascinating journey of revelation for the characters involved, especially the relationship between Mitsuko has with Otsu. Otsu and Mitsuko first meet in college, Otsu is an awkward religious student and Mitsuko is a woman who has no real passion for life. She decides she wants to steal Otsu away from the god he believes in. She invites Otsu to a party to ask him about his beliefs, to my surprise he comes clean saying he is unsure of what he believes in. Mitsuko forces Otsu to drink and wont stop forcing him until he forsakes god, but he drinks till he throws up, never giving up on god. No it sounds like these two would never see each other again after something like that. To your dismay Mitsuko cant leave Otsu be, she says he must falsify his belief in god. She then gives him the opportunity to be her boyfriend if he gives up his faith. I honestly cant believe anyone would force that upon someone. To my dismay they end up having sex and dating for several months until she breaks his heart. Otsu now depressed, leaves and doesnt return, although they do of course, meet again. Mitsuko has a problem because she feels no passion in life; she goes through her life and this story with a horrible feeling of emptiness in herself On Mitsukos Honeymoon instead of spending time with her new husband she hears Otsu is in France and searches him out. They meet up and come up with a new word for god onion because to Mitsuko the term god means nothing. Otsu is on the complete opposite page, saying god is everything everywhere. The French actually say he is a heretic for his beliefs that other religions are also true and that god uses both sin and suffering for the greater good. Otsu is opposed by his teachers because of this statement he gives evil lurks within good, and good thingsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦good things can lie within evil as well (65). I believe what Endo is trying to express be that god has the power to convert every sin into some kind of good. Later in the story another quote comes up, god has many faces. I dont think god exists exclusively in the churches and chapels of Europe. I think he is also among the Jews and the Buddhists and the Hindus (121). Otsu wants to live a life of selfless sacrifice for all p eople, which at the time Mitsuko finds to be a waste of time. I believe the reason she seeks out Otsu so many times in the story even though she doesnt really know what it she is searching for she is searching for god which in the end brings love. Otsu signifies a belief in unity of all. He believes in combining all faiths and caring for all mankind, generating an enormous social assembly of love. Even with being called a heretic, Otsu never revokes his beliefs and maintains a strong faith and trust in Jesus. While talking to Mitsuko he decides to tell her he has dedicated his existence to chasing only one thing: the love of that onion, Love is all the onion has imparted to us. The thing we are most lacking in our modern world is love; love is the thing no one believes in anymore; love is what everyone mockingly laughs at, and that is why someone like me wants to follow my onion with dumb sincerity (119). Otsu follows his beliefs to India at the river Ganges. This is a place that is very sacred to the Hindus, they travel here when they are dying with the hope to have their bodies cremated and their ashes spread into the holy river. Otsu goes here to sacrifice himself so he can help these people make the dying journey. He literally carries the people to the river who can barely walk. Sacrifice is the focus of Otsus faith. Jesus is the number one symbol of sacrifice. He gave up his life for mankinds sins. Jesus symbolically lugs all of the anguishes of mankind on his shoulders when he is made to carry his own cross to death. Otsu imitates the carrying of suffering by plainly transporting the deceased and dying on his back to the River Ganges. Otsu sees more than just the task he is doing, he feels something pure and necessary in putting the suffering of others on his shoulders, by sacrificing himself. Mitsuko sees what Otsu is doing as a waste of his own life, because he is getting nothing out of it in her eyes. Otsu knows he will not change the world or cure suffering, he is doing this act of sacrifice for the good of the people, if there is a benefit that comes from it then Otsu knows the act will not be the true good act of sacrifice. By the end of the story you start to get the feeling that Mitsuko finally understands the belief of sacrifice and love for others. She decides to bathe in the holy river joining the Hindus with her own prayer, which she still believes is a lie, she still has that emptiness until she sees the ultimate sacrifice. Sacrifice is to give and receive nothing in return except for happiness in you. To love is to sacrifice; Otsu makes sacrifices for people trying to turn their sorrow into love. The end of the story brings the biggest sacrifice, when Otsu becomes mortally wounded, while saving Sanjo, who is a person who most wouldnt sacrifice for because of his cultural insensitiveness. But because Otsu and his beliefs he saves the man and in the end giving his life. This act makes his sacrifice even greater, he is not sacrificing for a loved one or a family member but for a stranger who does not know or appreciate what Otsu does for him. Otsu has Christ-like, selfless love that rises above all cultural, racial, and religious prejudices to embrace all of humanity, just like the river Ganges, which he saw as a deep and flowing river of love accepting all, rejecting neither the ugliest of men nor the filthiest (185). This is when we finally understand what lies at the heart of Christianity; Love and sa crifice for others. Otsus sacrifice is one of pure love for mankind, deaf, blind and dumb to how pointless it may be.

U.S. Virgin Islands as a Vacation Spot Essay -- essays research papers

US Virgin Islands has a lot to offer whatever it is you are looking for. I am sure you can find it there. The US Virgin Islands are my favorite place outside of Philadelphia because of it stunning landscaping, unlimited duty free shopping and outstanding weather. In US Virgin Islands you can enjoys all activities anything from water sports around the island to a short boat trip to St. John?s and St. Croix. You can take advantage of the duty free shopping or enjoy yourself on the beautiful sandy beaches. Charlotte Amalie is the capital of the United States Virgin Islands and one of the most popular cruise ports in the Caribbean. Charlotte Amalie is where the cruise ships dock and the white and pastel houses are heavily sprinkled against a background of emerald hills. Colorful sloops dock along the waterfront, and a few steps back, down alleyways lined with Old Danish warehouse buildings, is a world-famous shopping center. The landscaping in US Virgin Islands is amazing. The US Virgin islands are made up of three islands located in the Caribbean Sea just south east of Puerto Rico...

The Philip Morris Anti Smoking Campaign Essay -- Essays Papers

The Philip Morris Anti Smoking Campaign Traditionally, many advertisements released by cigarette brands under the Philip Morris label have depicted happy people joined together in friendship (supposedly due to their common habit). Other advertisements attempted to associate cigarettes with sleek mystical figures, sometimes even sexually desirable ones. All this has changed, however, due to recent legal developments in which the cigarette giant was pressured to offer anti-smoking ads, in addition to the usual fictional ones depicting happy mannequins. In no way were they to advertise cigarettes, and they were mandated to help stop youth smoking. These requirements placed Philip Morris in a difficult situation. They needed to satisfy the courts, but at the same time also make their advertisements as unsuccessful as possible. To the joy of Philip Morris, Ogilvy explains that "the consumer perceives that the product is inferior and never buys it again" (103). The product is of course not a cigarette, in this case, but rather the message of the advertisement, "don't smoke". Through the use of dull visual features and two reversed advertising tactics, Philip Morris has successfully designed a campaign certain to reach no one. The side benefit of positive PR for the company, of course, was guaranteed regardless of the ad content. The first goal of this article is to attract as little attention as possible. At first glance, the eye finds no special focus point. We see two silhouettes seated at the far opposite ends of a small fishing boat out on a motionless river. It looks more like a mournful life insurance advertisement than anything else. The reader almost expects it to ask "Who will take care of your children?". There are no ... ...hat this awkward conversation was in fact their responsibility. The viewer is left feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and unhappy. What better solution than to turn the page and gaze instead at a graceful Dorothy Hamill figure skater telling them to purchase a wonderful mysterious product named Vioxx? * Gramatically incorrect sentences used for style Works Cited Fowles, Jib. "Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals." Common Culture, 3rd Edition. Ed. Petracca, Michael, and Sorapure, Madeleine. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. 60-77. Ogilvy, David. "What's Wrong with Advertising?" Common Culture, 3rd Edition. Ed. Petracca, Michael, and Sorapure, Madeleine. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. 95-104. Solomon, Jack. "Masters of Desire." Common Culture, 3rd Edition. Ed. Petracca, Michael, and Sorapure, Madeleine. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. 46-59. The Philip Morris Anti Smoking Campaign Essay -- Essays Papers The Philip Morris Anti Smoking Campaign Traditionally, many advertisements released by cigarette brands under the Philip Morris label have depicted happy people joined together in friendship (supposedly due to their common habit). Other advertisements attempted to associate cigarettes with sleek mystical figures, sometimes even sexually desirable ones. All this has changed, however, due to recent legal developments in which the cigarette giant was pressured to offer anti-smoking ads, in addition to the usual fictional ones depicting happy mannequins. In no way were they to advertise cigarettes, and they were mandated to help stop youth smoking. These requirements placed Philip Morris in a difficult situation. They needed to satisfy the courts, but at the same time also make their advertisements as unsuccessful as possible. To the joy of Philip Morris, Ogilvy explains that "the consumer perceives that the product is inferior and never buys it again" (103). The product is of course not a cigarette, in this case, but rather the message of the advertisement, "don't smoke". Through the use of dull visual features and two reversed advertising tactics, Philip Morris has successfully designed a campaign certain to reach no one. The side benefit of positive PR for the company, of course, was guaranteed regardless of the ad content. The first goal of this article is to attract as little attention as possible. At first glance, the eye finds no special focus point. We see two silhouettes seated at the far opposite ends of a small fishing boat out on a motionless river. It looks more like a mournful life insurance advertisement than anything else. The reader almost expects it to ask "Who will take care of your children?". There are no ... ...hat this awkward conversation was in fact their responsibility. The viewer is left feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, and unhappy. What better solution than to turn the page and gaze instead at a graceful Dorothy Hamill figure skater telling them to purchase a wonderful mysterious product named Vioxx? * Gramatically incorrect sentences used for style Works Cited Fowles, Jib. "Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals." Common Culture, 3rd Edition. Ed. Petracca, Michael, and Sorapure, Madeleine. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. 60-77. Ogilvy, David. "What's Wrong with Advertising?" Common Culture, 3rd Edition. Ed. Petracca, Michael, and Sorapure, Madeleine. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. 95-104. Solomon, Jack. "Masters of Desire." Common Culture, 3rd Edition. Ed. Petracca, Michael, and Sorapure, Madeleine. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. 46-59.

E-Commerce :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

E-Commerce E-commerce is rapidly becoming an excellent way to do business. It incorporates elements which are similar to those of regular commerce. The hype surrounding this new way of doing business is constantly increasing for many reasons. There are some barriers to e-commerce, but the benefits seem to far outweigh the risks. There are many elements necessary to e-commerce. First of all, you must have a product. It is also necessary to have a place. The web sit displays the product and acts as the place. There must be a way to get people to view your web site. You can market your site both on and off the web. There should also be a method of accepting orders such as and on-line form. A secure ordering page and a connection to a bank are necessary for accepting payment. It is also necessary to have a fulfillment facility to ship products to customers. However, if you are just selling software or information, fulfillment can occur with a file download mechanism. It is also important to be able to accept returns and handle warrantee claims if necessary. There should also be a method of offering customer service through e-mail, on-line forms, on-line knowledge bases, or any other on-line mechanism. Many of these elements are necessary to perform commerce, but the specifications around e-commerce are noteworthy. There is a lot of hype surrounding e-commerce. "On the retail side alone, Forrester projects $17 billion in sales to consumers over the Internet by the year 2001." According to O'Reilly and Associates, "Worldwide business access to the Web is expected to grow at an even faster rate than the US market from 1.3 million in 1996 to 8 billion by 2001." It is also documented that, "Dell currently sells about $14 million in equipment everyday, 25% of which is over the Web." The hype concerning e-commerce is justified by many of its aspects. There are many reasons why e-commerce continues to grow at an exceeding rate. E-commerce has lower transaction costs by using automating processes. It is also documented that consumers participating in e-commerce have larger purchases per transaction. A web site that is well-integrated into the business cycle can offer customers more information than previously available. A company can build a catalog on the web exceeding what would be impractical for ordinary mail order businesses.

Idiophones Essay

Idiophones have a long-standing tradition in African music, and that tradition is an interesting one. Trumpets, flutes and other wind instruments provide an intriguing case study because of their existence in a host of sub-Saharan African cultures. They have always been a part of not only music in those areas, but also the culture of those areas. This history dates back hundreds of years, and the instruments have seen some changes over the centuries. As the book indicates, the different variations of idiophones are inherently African in nature, and the cultures that brought them about have given these wind instruments their characteristic sound that is now commonplace in many different societies. As African Musicology indicates, instruments like the trumpet and the flute are a part of a characteristic musical phenomenon arising in sub-Saharan nations dating back to the fifteenth century. Instead of having individual performers and instruments take entire parts of various works, the musical tradition during that time saw individual performers play their own notes, each of which was combined to create the musical production in whatever social setting might have taken place. The book reads, â€Å"Musical ensembles of this kind or of a similar structure, in which the players may produce two to three notes on their flutes or trumpets, can be found in many African cultures south of the Sahara. The interlocking playing technique of this ensembles is characteristically African: the single parts individually cannot stand alone; their composition, however, is ingenious. It is the group, not the individual, that counts† (Nketia, 183). In this way, it is easy to see that idiophones were considered for what they produced as a whole, rather than what they produced individually. This is important to note as one studies the development of such instruments, since it is likely that any new implementations were designed to work alongside some other new or established instrument. When taken out of that context, new implementations might have been viewed differently from their intention. When musical styles are being discussed, it is common to compare one culture with another for the purpose of finding any commonalities or discussing differences. The book goes to great lengths to discuss the distinctiveness of African music, and points out the fact that much of traditional African music was designed to stand alone and retain its strong cultural ties. Particularly of interest is the â€Å"hocket† technique, which is discussed at length in chapter six. In the International Folk Music Journal, J. H. Kwabena Nketia discusses this technique and how it relates to music in places such as Ghana. She writes, â€Å"Closely allied to these procedures it the hockey-technique – the technique whereby constituent notes of a tune, a rhythm, or a tone pattern, or the constituent notes of a supporting ground-accompaniment, are played at the exactly appropriate point in time by those particular instruments that include them within their compass, or by those particular instruments that provide the required contrasts. This technique, discussed subsequently with particular reference to examples recorded in Ghana, shows itself in its clearest form in the music of flute ensembles, and trumpet (or ‘horn’) ensembles† (Nkeita, 1962). The book takes this to another level, noting how the music played in some African cultures is distinctive in its own right, and though it shares some similarities in name to the European style of â€Å"hoquetus†, the two styles were not born of each other. The book reads, â€Å"It becomes clear that the so-called ‘hocket’ technique in African music is not equivalent to the ‘hoquetus’ in European medieval music. Further, within these composition techniques, there is no complete uniformity to be found in South, Central, West, and East Africa† (184). From this, one can see that the wind instruments across Africa were used structurally in very different ways, with each particular culture coming up with its own rhythms based upon preference, equipment, and cultural needs. One of the issues facing musical research of wind instrument styles in Africa is that not enough solid research has been published to document the different styles. A lot of the analysis consists of speculation, since the large number of cultures across Africa made it difficult to compile information on techniques, pitch, instrument variations, and style. To this effect, the book reads, â€Å"Ethnomusicological research in this area has to be characterized as merely marginal, and little research on this topic has been published to date† (188). For that reason, it is difficult to know exactly how the Berta, Ingessana, and Gumuz people interacted from a musical standpoint. One work on the history of African music even suggests that such a study would be impractical. According to a book by Samuel A. Floyd, the fact that African nations have such diverse and vibrant religious traditions and cultural preferences, studying African music as a whole lends very little information that can be used. Instead, it must be studied individually, to be understand how these cultures developed their own uses for certain instruments, including idiophones. In The Power of Black Music, he writes, â€Å"Since African cultures are many and diverse, there is no single concept in African religion, and thus a study of them all would not be productive† (Floyd, 14). One of the things that has long characterized idiophones in African music has been the creativity of certain cultures. Many cultures have not been afraid to look beyond the traditional construct of music to find great instrument ideas and also ideas on how to most effectively play those instruments. From that, the world has been given some of its favorite types of music. An example of this type of resourcefulness can be seen in a study done by Dumisani Maraire. He writes, â€Å"Stamped sticks and stamped tubes also form another category of idiophones (in this case concussion idiophones). These sticks and tubes are held in the player’s hand and performed by being held at an angle and striking the ground or a slab of stone at an angle. On occasion three tubes are played at the same time each of which is playing a different rhythm† (Maraire). This is an important part of the African tradition that cannot be ignored if one seeks to truly understand the role of various instruments. The chapter itself did a nice job of explaining some of the important historical details about the pitch, tone, and rhythm of some of the most traditional of the African instruments. It did an especially good job of explaining the development of these musical traditions in African culture. Since so many cultures existed, musical traditions often developed individually, with each culture becoming very resourceful in the development and implementation of different styles. The isolated nature of African also comes into play, and that was explained well in the chapter. Much of the music and the musical techniques that were born in Africa over time as completely their own, since many of these areas had little contact with outsiders. This helped to increase diversity in music for all.