US Imperialism in the Post-9/11 International Order

The history of the world is hitherto marked by the antagonisms in the economic aspects of the society. Since the existence of hierarchical orders in societal relations in political and economic relations were conceptualized, the contradictions between and among the decisive forces in the production process have long been made brutal and more explosive than any other points in human history. Hence, the development of the capitalist mode of production and its dominance as the world's economic system gave way for the advancement of nation-states into imperialist powers of the modern world.Contradictions among the classes in the society, between the industrialized countries and industrialized versus the colonies and semi-colonies, only intensified the differences and irreconcilable economic interests of the nations. These contradictions gave way for most of the world's major catastrophic events like the First World War and the Second World War, being, in reality, war between imperialist and industrialized powers secure their insatiable interests for the control of the market.Such nature of class antagonisms reflected the exploitation and oppression that the motive forces experienced in the light of these economic restrictions in the present economic condition (Lenin 1916: IX). This essay would settle on the issues raised by the presence of the United States' vast economic, political, and social sphere of influence on most regions of the world. As the world's only remaining superpower, the United States of America, maintains its structure in presenting and directing the course of global diplomatic, military and economic affairs.US imperialist expansion would be studied in order to come up with the particular nature of the hegemony and provide necessary clarifications on the nature of imperialism, super-imperialism and inter-imperialism and if ever these terms are applicable and politically relevant in today's discussion of global relations. After the terror attacks become the focus of regional diplomatic and military roadmaps, United States role in overseas affairs became even more directed towards armed resolution of conflict as essential appendage of its imperialist hegemony (Stivachtis, 2007).Marxist analysis of the society in general and political economy in particular could mainly present the foundations of this discourse by which we would draw the explanation for such concepts of imperialism and monopoly capitalist hegemony in the economic, political, cultural and other societal structures that are essentially intertwined with this. To Marxists, â€Å"imperialism† is not simply the â€Å"trend towards expansion† or the â€Å"conquest of foreign lands,† as it is defined by most political scientists and sociologists.The word is used in a much more precise sense to describe the general changes which occurred in the political, economic and social activity of the big bourgeoisie of the advanced capitalist countries, begin ning in the last quarter of the 19th century. These changes were closely related to alterations in the basic structure of this bourgeoisie (Germain 1955). With this definition, there are still varied interpretations of imperialism even among Marxists.Vladimir Lenin's theoretical exposition on this subject has long been accepted widely after the Soviet Union molded a formidable economic and military superpower and directly/indirectly influenced the outcomes of revolutions in third world countries. The first and second world wars were the major eruption of these antagonisms and the world experienced an imperialist war over territories for the acquisition of raw materials for the industries and market for the surplus products of the capitalist western powers. A polarized global atmosphere boiled into wars that in reality, wars of expansion.The United States benefitted greatly from the war. It made the nation accumulate more neo-colonies after the defeat of the Axis powers in Europe and Asia. Hence, a conclusion can be derived from these events: the United States, after its economy faced a major crisis in the 1930's, needed war in order to boost its military industrial complex, obtain new territories as sources of industrial needs and market for overproduced goods, propel its strategic military positions overseas and contain the Soviet union's growing power and influence.Kautsky and Luxemburg, famous Marxists in Europe, clarified imperialism and presented yet another perspective on imperialist stage of the bourgeois capitalist system. Kautsky stated that imperialism is an absolute terminology to be applied to the interests of an industrial nation to expand its commercial realm by arguing that precisely an industrialized nation cannot sell all its products within industrialized nations so it has to look for nations with backward economies that do not have the technology and capacity to produce similar goods or products (Germain 1955).Cox stipulated the mechanics of how the United States was able to control foreign markets and flooded with surplus goods. He argued that the ‘Empire' dominated these backward or lagging economies through intimidation by use of the military, alliance with the local elite thus assuring an elite's government friendly, if not servile, to United States' imperialist interests (Cox 2004: 309). The reality of the economic basis of imperialist hegemony has not really subsided at the turn of the 21st century and even after the Socialist block has collapsed in the 1990's.In fact, the same contradictions n the political economy of the world, however, significant alterations have pervaded since and the resulting events are what the current United States' ruling class faces. Robert Cox noted the events which shaped the present international order as end products of centuries of societal evolutionary and revolutionary processes. First, he refreshed what French diplomacy baptized as ‘hyper-power' of the United States of America due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of a bipolar world.Second, environmental concerns have taken the center stage of international affairs because of unstable conditions in the biosphere, biotechnology and genetically modified organisms. Along with these, there is the economic dilemma which suggests that capitalism continues to contain a tendency of widening the gap between the rich and the poor; ethnic, national, religious and other reason for polarization have been reaffirmed and; the emergence of ‘irregular' activities pertained to as terrorism and other organized crime.Hence, in the light of the authority's inaction regarding these concerns, the public developed skepticism towards established institutions (Cox 2004: 318). Further delving on this particular reasons for the establishment of a new international order, Cox asserted that with all these, there must be a ‘power' holding all these things completely so that this ‘p ower' could set forth the destruction or the genesis of an established reason.This ‘power' poses a dilemma as to what nature does this power hold that even Cox tried to provide an acceptable definition. Power†¦ [Is] in a very general sense to mean whatever force can intentionally bring about change in the behavior of any of the diversity of agents in world political economy. States are obviously to be included among the agents. Military strength and the capacity for economic coercion are obviously to be included among the relevant forces.The problem is to infer from observation of what has happened what the key forces are and what agents are capable of wielding those forces (Cox 2004: 308). Current international scene is dominated by the United States but the economic and diplomatic influences are fast rescinding because of US hegemony in many aspects of world affairs. The US led war on terror and its coalition of the willing is a manifestation of an inherent crisis in a monopoly capitalist system.Military power now assumes the greatest role in preserving the existing order while its continued intervention in domestic and regional conflicts only isolates US hegemony from the collective of nations. This fragile condition of artificial harmony in a US controlled international scene radiated greater conflicts and majority of the nations initiated their independence from the economic influence of the US through the formation of a regional economic and political cooperation.The euro for example, attempted to present an alternative to the US dollar. Even if this attempt did not gain head on with the US dollar, its presence already showed that economic regionalism was developing into more stable formations and poses formidable challenge to US unilateralism (Cox 2004:314). The war on terror has unveiled the nature of US imperialism that it is an ‘Empire' that sought to expand its influence and domination wherever necessary and possible.Conflicts in th e Middle East and the terror attacks in the US re-opened the debating floors to the concerns of terrorism and the ‘dialectic' relation of ‘terrorism' and ‘war on terror'. As Robert Cox puts it: †¦terrorism is a violent reaction to ‘Empire'; and for dominant power the response to ‘terrorism' is an expansion of ‘Empire'. The two are joined in dialectic without end since the two contestants are not of the same order†¦ The physical elimination of ‘terrorists' by police and military action does not eliminate ‘terrorism'.It encourages more people to take up the role of terrorist. The only way this quagmire dialectic could end would be by transcending the conflict in a reestablished legitimacy (Cox 2004: 318). Accumulating the economic, political, cultural and ideological crisis of the United States' monopoly capitalist empire, various thinkers attempted to explain the nature of this ‘Empire'. The most common of these terminol ogies used to refer to US imperial structure are ‘super-imperialism', ‘ultra-imperialism' and ‘inter-imperialism'.Super-imperialism is more concerned with the mechanics of the economy and that evolution from classical imperialism to super-imperialism was caused by a reverse in the international scene where US surpassed its preeminent creditor status to a debtor status, hence, the worsening crisis of finance capital under the capitalist system. Ultra Imperialism is a term coined by Karl Kautsky as a theoretical conception of imperialism in the September 1914 issue of Die Neue Zeit. Kautsky articulated that capitalist could exist without wars and these industrialized nations need not to divide territories and markets rather form a cartel.Lenin quickly repudiated this assertion and stressed that ultra-imperialism understates the class antagonisms in an imperialist system and the contradictions were disregarded. Inter-imperialism on the other hand does not really offer a new conception of imperialism but only an earlier term used by Hobson to what Kautsky referred to as ultra-imperialism. In broadest sense, US imperialism maintains the exploitative conditions at present, the contradiction between and among industrial nations and between industrial nations and third world.

Marketing Strategy for Samsung Essay

A marketing strategy is a company’s hope to achieve strong and profitable customer relationships by targeting certain customers, using a marketing mix, and implementation. In an ideal world, strategies at all levels of the organization should be well spoken and understood. Interpretations of the strategies then result in realistic, well-defined marketing plans and programs which can be created and acted upon. Organizations can have a greater chance of being successful if they develop deep understanding of markets and the customers within those markets. The marketing strategy is a dynamic document which focuses on bringing plans to life. It is a road map for carrying out marketing activities and implementing marketing plans. Every marketing strategy should be measured by its ability to directly impact and improve upon each factor that the strategy contains. With â€Å"selling† as the vital goal, marketing strategies are influenced by two core factors: first, getting hold of of customers; second, maintenance of the obtained customers. So every other strategy that is laid out will focus on the above two. A Company has to work closely towards achieving these two to attain the desired cutting edge over its competitors. There are also a few other objectives like creating awareness (informational and educational) about the product, brand-building and accelerating sales. Traditional Marketing: With the world changing at every second, marketing is also taking a rapid change. New methods of marketing like e-marketing and online marketing have been growing. Yet traditional marketing still holds influence with many corporate companies. One of the main implications of traditional marketing is the infamous model of the four P’s, formulated by Jerome McCarthy. The ‘Four Ps’ or the ‘marketing mix’ is an essential with every marketer. The ‘Four Ps’ refers to the four factors that a marketer has to think about before introducing a product or offering a service. The marketing mix comprises of Product, Price, Promotion and Placement. In McCarthy’s opinion, the first and foremost comes the Product-its production and management; second, the process of determining and affordable price; third, the promotion of the product which involves advertising, branding etc and  finally fourth, the placement or distribution of the product, its retailing and the process by which it reaches the consumer. All these four essentials have to be decided, determined and well planned before pursuing any product launch. The company that will be looked at is Samsung Electronics. The debate whether the traditional method of developing marketing strategies are still used and maintained will be looked at. Firstly an overview on the Samsung mobile phone market and how it relates to marketing strategies will be looked at. Ansoff Growth Matrix which suggests that there are four main ways in which growth can be achieved through a product strategy:(1) Market penetration – Increase sales of an existing product in an existing market(2) Product development – Improve present products and/or develop new products for the current market(3) Market development – Sell existing products into new markets (e.g. developing export sales)(4) Diversification – Develop new products for new marketsOne thing should be pointed out is how a product appears in relation to other products in the market, or how importance the brand of a product is. Brand is a mixture of tangible and intangible attributes symbolized in a trademark, which, if properly managed, permits a business to differentiate its products and services from those of its competitors, add extra value for consumers who value the brand and improve profitability. As previously mentioned, the global handset market has experienced rapid growth over the past few years. Undeniably this is a tremendous growth, and this growth has created a fierce competition among handset manufacturers. The next parts of this analysis describe how Samsung’s marketing strategy drive the company’s actions in response to such competition to be recognized as one of the leading global player in the handset industry. Samsung began sponsoring the Olympics with the 1998 winter games in Nagano. It has signed a contract with the International Olympic Committee to continue through the Beijing games in 2008, and will likely continue afterwards. The marketing strategy using this Olympic sponsorship plays a  very vital role in raising our brand awareness throughout the world. Samsung over the years had vastly increased the sales of their mobile phone handsets online. The World Wide Web is a rapidly growing industry and is an alternative way to traditional marketing strategy according to various people. Internet marketing has not completely taken over the concept of Marketing, but has incorporated it and expanded the opportunities available to marketers. Internet Marketing still uses the traditional concepts of the marketing mix (4 P’s), but the logic of them has changed. Consider ‘Promotion’, with traditional marketing businesses used a one too many process, by using mass media to transmit their advertisement to their customers. This involved no interaction with the customer. Internet Marketing changes this by using a many to many communication process, enabling customers to interact with the medium, with each other and also provide content to the medium. Thus, marketers must reconstruct advertising models for the interactive, many to many medium underlying the web. This is perhaps one of the major changes from the traditional methods of marketing. One of the most obvious advantages that Internet marketing provides is the removal of barriers in regards to location. Samsung can now reach a much wider audience; customers that were considered unreachable can now be targeted with new products (Diversification). Also Samsung do not need operate from a physical location (shop front) any more, they are able to provide all the information that a customer needs on their web site e.g. using catalogues, pictures, video clips etc. This has an effect on the ‘Price’ of their products and services as overheads may be reduced (such as rent). A disadvantage of this is that Samsung must be aware of what customers want, as the marketplace is now much wider. This is where effective marketing strategies have to be developed. In the twentieth century we have gone from a situation of scarcity of product to today having an abundance of choice. With many choices available to buyers, having a competitive advantage is vital to the company that wants to thrive. Knowing the competition is one part of understanding competitive advantage and this relies on information. Consider the corner grocery store; they need only to approximate what their customers really want because the convenience factor brings in their business. But when Samsung eliminate this advantage, as customers can use the WWW to go anywhere to get what they want, Samsung need to know exactly what they are looking for. Samsung also need to ensure that your website has good design and is able to firstly attract customers to your site and also to encourage them to revisit. Samsung have many versions of their website in dozens of languages dedicated to customers from countries all over the world. The websites gives us product and service information on all their products and on some versions of the websites gives people the option to buy online directly through them. Samsung says the lower fourth-quarter sales were part of a strategy to grab share in the first quarter, a ploy that’s worked the last two years. A spokesman for the company told The Wall Street Journal that Samsung believes holiday shoppers are extremely price-sensitive, and won’t be attracted to its pricey models. So it clears out existing inventory in the fourth quarter, and then boosts shipments in the first so as to maintain a high average selling price. Samsung says it can avoid having to slash first-quarter prices on unsold inventory this way — even though its margins were squeezed in the fourth quarter by price cuts to follow those enacted by Nokia. However, there are still criticisms of the traditional tools and approaches used in marketing strategy by. A main criticism argued by Fodness â€Å"†¦marketing strategy is all-to-frequently stereotyped as the outcome of mechanical application of traditional analytic frameworks and techniques (SWOT, Ansoff Diagram, portfolio models, etc.). problems arise when data so easily generated by these formulaic efforts are misinterpreted as simple answers to complex questions.† Comment Fodness also suggests that â€Å"†¦the exploration of strategy from new directions is now coming together in the concept of what is being called strategic thinking. (Fodness 2005) Strategic thinking is the way in which people in an organization think about, assess, view, and create the future for themselves and their associates. It is more  than responding to day-to-day as well as long-term problems, opportunities, and new realities; it is creating tomorrow. It is not reactive, but proactive. Strategic thinking focuses on how to create a better future by being proactive and adding value to society. This is more than just looking at traditional techniques such as Swot and Ansoff etc in the sense that businesses need to be more proactive (they should start changes if necessary rather than react to events). Strategic thinking focuses on finding and developing unique opportunities to create value by enabling a provocative and creative dialogue among people who can affect a company’s direction. It is the input to strategic planning-good strategic thinking uncovers potential opportunities for creating value and challenges assumptions about a company’s value proposition, so that when the plan is created, it targets these opportunities. Strategic thinking is a way of understanding the basic drivers of a business and thoroughly (and playfully) challenging predictable thinking about them, in conversation with others. Strategic thinking must take into account:Competencies and Skills: Samsung’s main strength is innovation. This can create a competitive advantage as they can offer next generation product. Samsung have a lesser reputation than Sony for reliability and quality, this can alter customer perception, however this perception can be change over time. As important as the content of strategic thinking is the process by which it takesplace. Processes are needed to ensure that strategies are: †¢Aligned: Samsungs strategies must fit with its mission, vision, competitive situation and operating strengths. †¢Goal-oriented: Strategies are the means by which a company sets out to achieve its goals. Effective strategies, then, set clear expected outcomes and make explicit links between these outcomes and the company’s goals. †¢Fact-based: The best strategies are based on and supported by real data. While strategic thinking by its very nature requires assumptions about the future, these assumptions must be educated guesses, based on facts-for example, actual performance data or results of some kind of pilot test or experiment. †¢The logic behind the strategy must be clear. Effective strategies tell believable stories. †¢Based on Broad Thinking: Companies that are strategically nimble are able to consider multiple alternatives at once and to consider a range of scenarios in making strategic choices. †¢Focused: No company can do everything or be all things to all people. Strategy setting involves making choices about what a company will do and-as important-what it will not do. Strategies provide clear guidance about how a company’s activities will be prioritized, and how its limited resources will be deployed. †¢Agreed upon: Especially in large, complex organizations, successful strategies must gain the support of multiple stakeholders. This often requires a process of developing strategies that is interactive in gathering multiple points of view and in sharing the thinking behind the strategy as it evolves. †¢Engaging: Strategies that will need to mobilize broad resources must be easily articulated so that they can capture the attention of the people who will be asked to carry them out. †¢Adaptable: Strategies need to be able to be adjusted to build on learning from experimentation, errors and new information. At the same time, there needs to be some thoughtfulness in these adjustments so that they are responsive without being overly reactive. †¢Implementable: Because effective strategies draw on the particular strengths  and skills of an organization, they include explicit considerations of how they will be implemented. Implementable strategies provide clear guidance for decision making in order to shape behaviour throughout the company. Today’s electronics marketplace is changing at a rapid pace with new technologies, economy change, and increased competition. To face these challenges, companies rely on top management to plan and formulate methods to overcome these obstacles. The primary task of top management is implementing a strategic plan. Strategic planning is the process of identifying the business of the firm today and the business it wants for the future, and the course of action or strategy it will pursue. To be effective and successful, managers must possess skills in strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is a process in which a manager can make the business vision a reality. This is accomplished by developing abilities in teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking. Strategic thinking should also be a tool to help confront change, plan for and make transitions, and envision new possibilities and opportunities. Strategic thinking should be implemented in marketing strategies adopted by corporate firms. This is because organisations in the 21st century are more like â€Å"organisms† than â€Å"machines†. Strategic thinking is not a straight forward technique like a SWOT analysis but a more in depth approach and more interactive with the workforce. It may positively affect the marketing plan they may adopt for future products. Before drawing up any marketing plan, certain things have to be clear:McDonald (1989) stated that there are ten barriers to Marketing planning these barriers were identified by McDonald, M. they are as follows:1.Confusion between marketing strategy and tactics. 2.Isolation of marketing function from business operations. 3.Confusion between marketing function and marketing concept. 4.Prevailing organisational structures along functional lines. 5.Lack of skills in in-depth analysis. 6.Confusion between process and output. 7.Lack of core marketing management knowledge and skills. 8.Lack of a disciplined, systematic approach to marketing planning. 9.Need to prioritise objectives. 10.Need for a more appropriate marketing culture.’With the right marketing team that involves key marketing analysts, Samsung should be able to overcome these barriers. However, it is easy to have some kind of conflict in their marketing plan e.g. parts in the plan which are deemed to be part of the strategy may not be a strategy but a tactic. These little hiccups can affect the marketing performance of Samsung. As the Samsung top management develops a strategic plan for their organization, there are five different factors that must be focused on. These five factors will help define the ideal outcome. In addition, it will help set up and develop the steps necessary to make the business vision a reality. The first factor that top management must consider is Samsung Electronics itself. The organization of the business involves the delegates, the organizational structure of the business, and the resources necessary to make it all work. For Samsung to have top management they will have to establish what the organization will look like and decide what type of structure will support the business vision. Any top management must also combine people, resources, and structure together to achieve an ideal outcome. Observation is the second factor. When looking down at the world from an airplane, a person can see much more than when on the ground. By increasing observation skills, top management will become more aware of what motivates people, solve problems more effectively, and be able to distinguish between alternatives. The third factor is views. Views are simply different ways of thinking about  something. Views can be used as tools to help think about outcomes, identify important elements, and amend actions to achieve the best position. The fourth factor is driving forces. What are the driving forces for Samsung that will make the wanted outcome a reality? Driving forces usually place the foundation for what top management wants people to focus on in business. Examples of driving forces might include commitment, action, effectiveness, productivity, and value. Other driving forces might include: individual and organizational motivation, empowerment and promotion Factors such as a clear vision, values, and goals, productive factors like a mission or function, and quantitative factors such as results or experience may also be driving forces. After working through the first four phases of the strategic thinking process, top management should be able to define their ideal position. The ideal position outline should include:The conditions that have been found to be necessary if Samsung is to be productiveThe niche in the marketplace that Samsung will fillAny opportunities that may exist either currently or in the future for SamsungThe core competencies or skills required in SamsungThe strategies and tactics that will be used to pull it all together. By working through these five areas, the Samsung management team will get a clearer picture of exactly how the company vision can be accomplished. As the vision becomes more focused, ideas will appear stronger and more convincing. Not only will it be easier for management to convince others that the idea is a good one, but it will also be easier to maintain their certainty and motivation when reaching upon any drawbacks or obstacles in their path. Overall, anybody can apply strategic thinking skills to any area of his/her life. But by making a concentrated effort to apply them specifically to the business project, Samsung Electronics will have a much better chance of facing challenges in the marketplace if they adopted strategic thinking. Michael Porter who came up with the Five Forces has proposed three common strategies that provide a good starting point for strategic thinking for  Samsung and any other firm: overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Overall cost leadership – Samsung works hard to achieve the lowest production, administration and distribution costs so that it can price lower than its competitors and win a large market share. Differentiation – Samsung may concentrate on achieving superior performance in an important customer benefit area valued by a large part of the market. The firm cultivates those strengths that will contribute to the intended differentiation. Therefore, the firm seeking quality leadership. Focus – Samsung focuses on one or more market segments. The firm gets to know these segments intimately and pursues either cost leadership or differentiation within the target segment. According to Porter (1986), â€Å"Competitive advantage is a function of either providing comparable buyer value more efficiently than competitors (low cost), or performing activities at comparable cost but in unique ways that create more buyer value than competitors and, hence, command a premium price.† These factors can be adopted by companies such as Samsung Electronics. They can use tactics and marketing measures to gain a competitive advantage and added-value over Sony and other major rivals. It is a reality in business today that strategic thinking is one of the most difficult tasks for business leaders. Although it is easier to be tactical or task oriented, the business leader must be strategic or risk becoming very short-sighted. Therefore a clear understanding of the value and the benefits of strategic thinking are very important. Here is a list of thoughts on the value of strategic thinking for Samsung:1. staying at the front or leading edge of change and innovation2. Optimizing the ability to shape and leverage change to the company’s advantage, electronics are changing everyday3. eliminating anxiety4. Creating a sense of cohesion and unity for the company staff5. Providing proactive  leadership7. Thinking systemically with a whole systems approach8. Becoming a life-long learning organization9. Providing an effective system to solve major problems and setbacks10. Improving and understanding of the business environmentAnd now a list of my thoughts on the benefits of strategic thinking. 1. improved guidance on actions to achieve the company vision and mission2. an early detection system to warn of changes3. creation of a proactive leadership culture4. identification of competitors and opponents5. identification of business allies6. long term survival of the business7. elimination of reactive decision-making8. a competitive advantage9. agility and capacity to respond positivelyFrom looking at traditional marketing strategy techniques used by Samsung and other firms, we can see how certain tools can help the scope of a business strategy. We have also learnt that new marketing strategies are shaping up firms more over the past years, though traditional marketing (e.g., 4 P’s and SWOT) are still at the forefront of every marketing strategy. We have learnt that there is more to marketing strategy than simply systematic tools and techniques. Strategic thinking, which has been discussed by theorists and professionals such as Michael Porter, plays a new vital role in marketing and strategy development. We have learnt that Strategic thinking looks at different areas of in detail that helps us develop new ways of achieving a competitive advantage. A certain amount of the analysis involved in strategic thinking may be qualitative, which also may be time consuming and expensive. We can see that the point that Fodness made in 2005 about tools in marketing strategy being stereotyped as simple answers to complex questions as mechanical application. New directions of exploring strategy are coming together to form the concept of strategic thinking. We have learnt from Fodness and Porter that strategic thinking can boost and assist existing marketing strategy tools which can answer complex questions. We have learnt that not all methods and techniques in marketing strategy are straightforward and are simply mechanical applications. There are several ways for Samsung to adopt new and existing marketing  strategies and to implement them. The main point is that strategic thinking could benefit Samsung and help them improve their performance in mobile phone market. Strategic thinking could strip off the firm’s ideologies that falsely stereotypes marketing strategies. And seek new ways of gaining a competitive advantage, being innovative and always being in touch with consumer’s tastes, needs and changing trends. References: http://www.interbrand.com (accessed on 12/12/2008)http://www.businessweek.com (accessed on 12/12/2008)http://www.Mobile-review.com (accessed on 12/12/2008)http://www.samsunggroup.com (accessed on 12/12/2008)http://www.quickmba.com/MarketingStrat.shtml (accessed on 28/12/2008)http://tutor2u.net/business/strategy/strategy_marketing.htm (accessed on 28/12/2008)http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/ourbusinesses/researchdevelopment.html (accessed on 28/12/2008)http://www.samsung.com/za/aboutsamsung/companyprofile/researchanddevelopment/CompanyProfile_Overview.html (accessed on 28/12/2008)http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1648156/Michael-Porter-What-is-Strategy.html (accessed on 28/12/2008)Grant, R.M. (2005), â€Å"Contemporary Strategy Analysis†, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford (U.K.)Hunger, J. David & Wheelen, Thomas L. (2003) â€Å"Essentials of Strategic Management†. Pearson Education Inc, New Jersey:De Mooij, M. (1998), Global Marketing and Advertising: Underst anding Cultural Paradoxes, Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA. Ansoff (1995), Advertising Management (5th ed.), Prentice Hall, NJ: Upper Saddle River. Kotler, P. Adam, S. Brown, L. Armstrong, G. 2001, Principles of Marketing, Prentice Hall, NSWMcCarthy, E.J., Perreault, W.D., Quester, P.G., Wilkinson, J.W., Lee, K.Y., 1994, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach, Irwin, AustraliaPorter, M. E. â€Å"The State of Strategic Thinking.† The Economist (May 23, 1987).

Barriers to Critical Thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Barriers to Critical Thinking - Essay Example Meaning, it deprives individuals of an opportunity of making their own independent decisions. Instead, it compels them to conform to certain behaviors and standards accepted by the family. Unfortunately, this happens even if not the best approach to adopt is. For example, a family might require all its members to abide by certain traditions and practices that do not necessarily suit all its members (Elder & Richard, 2006). In this situation, everyone would have to behave and think in a certain manner regardless of its relevance, and objectivity thus ending up making decisions without critically thinking about them. So, family can be a great obstacle to critical thinking because it does not allow everyone to make their individual decisions based on their reflection, reason and understanding. As the saying goes, â€Å"When everyone thinks alike, no one thinks very much† (Cederblom & Paulsen, 2006). Group-centered thinking is not objective as it is promptly don e without creating enough time to think and deliberate over the issue of concern. To prevent such a problem, I would have to be autonomous in my thoughts and decisions. On the other hand, critical thinking can be harmed by emotions. Once a person is overwhelmed by emotional distress, one can not make a rational decision because it does not provide a conducive environment to do so. Emotional feelings such as stress can result into prejudice, stereotypes, arrogance and intolerance. All these can prevent a person from making a critical and objective decision as this needs to be done when one is in a sober and relaxed condition (Hendricks, 2005). For example, when a person is seriously distressed, he can not get an ample opportunity to sit down, reason, reflect and make proper decisions. Instead, they will be acting under pressure to hurriedly make a decision without thinking about it. Personally, when faced with such a situation, I

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflection - Essay Example The responses of management of the organization were significant in its scope for understanding knowledge management and how organizational leadership can become the anchor for a motivated workforce. Reflecting on the work of various workers within the bank where I had gone as a customer hugely helped me to identify organizational issues that are detrimental to efficient delivery of organizational goals and objectives. The scenario was analysed and three interpretations with two evaluations for each interpretations came up which were further reflected on for improving the performance of the organization. 2.1 Reflection on first interpretation In the first interpretation, manager was lauded for positive and strong decision when she transferred the erring executive to another branch. It was deduced that due to available information, the managerial leadership was able to make quick decision which also served as example for others to be efficient. On deeper reflection, I believe that the managerial decision was too hasty that not only creates insecurity amongst the workers but also adversely reflects on the style of leadership of the manager. As a leader, manager has the responsibility of creating a cohesive and high performance team that thrives on constant learning and new challenges. She lacked effective leadership qualities like effective communication, lack of vision, empathy and most important, an inability to exploit information judiciously (Forster, 2005). She had used just latest information to transfer and not tried to analyse past information and feedback that could have been exploited for improving George’s performance. George was a new recruit who should have been adequately trained for the role. Two months is relatively short time for new workers to become part of organizational culture and understand the importance and duties of his position. Moreover, effective communication is intrinsic part of good leadership traits that I believe, the mana ger was lacking. Had there been constant communication and feedback of workers’ performance, George’s inability to grasp the working mechanism would have been identified and addressed early. He was struggling with his work and his transfer on his first mistake sends a wrong message through the workforce. He was not given a chance to improve and improvise. Learning environment and effective communication empowers workers for higher productivity which was not given to George. 2.2 Reflection on second interpretation The interpretation is correct because leaders have responsibility towards their followers and must lead by example. This is one of the most critical characteristics of exemplary leaders which fosters trust and strong relationship that motivates for higher efficient delivery of goals and objectives. High performance work practices are beneficial for workforce and the management because they are mutually complementary (Armstrong & Baron, 2005). When management i nculcates strong team performance through in-house training, effective communication and incentives, it helps create a strong team of workers that thrive on hard work for improved performance. Moreover, effective communication promotes mutual respect and understanding for building workplace relationships that rely on sharing of knowledge. Manager had failed on both these accounts. Kolb (1984) asserts that team performs better when each member learns from each other’

Elderly people should be required to take road tests before having Essay - 1

Elderly people should be required to take road tests before having their driving licences renewed. or The legal age for drinking ought to be lower in the United States as it is in many European countries - Essay Example The older that a person gets, the more their sight and hearing suffer. Their vision becomes bad and many can become blind or develop cataracts. While many wear glasses or contacts when they are driving, there are still those that are in denial about having problems with their eyesight and insist on driving with their eye troubles. The same thing can be said for their hearing; many elderly people resort to hearing aids, but others do not. When these elderly people are on the road without help for their eyesight or hearing, they become less aware of what is taking place around them (Dugan 127). They have to strain to see what is around them, being unaware of merging cars or changing traffic signals, and they may not hear emergency vehicles or cars honking at them to avoid a potential accident. Similarly, their reaction times and reflexes are not as quick as when they were younger. Not only are many of them unaware of their surroundings, but when they are aware they are not as quick to react. If a car is merging into their lane, elderly people are slower to get out of the way, often causing a collision (Schaie & Pietrucha 96). They sometimes merge into another lane without noticing another vehicle; if the other vehicle were to honk, the elderly driver might not hear it, and if they do, they might not be able to merge back over in time. Many car accidents are caused by the elderly because of their inability to react quick enough to avoid an accident, such as accidents in which they mistake the gas pedal for the brake and are unable to correct their mistake in time. With old age comes many health issues, and with these health issues comes medications with horrible side effects. Elderly people can experience heart attacks while they are driving, which can cause accidents; many of them are also driving while experiencing certain disorders, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. While these

Concert reviwe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Concert reviwe - Essay Example On my side was a sexagenarian man and on my front, an eight year boy was dancing. They started a special jive in the middle of the flashing cameras. The performers made funny gestures in the spotlight. Jackson’s strange hair cut was quite noticeable. He wore boots which could be seen in the Tweet. Despite their kiddish appearance, their performance could by no means, be underestimated. The set of songs included Poison Oak, Orson Brawl, Ugly Girl, Reaper, Koldpix, Sleeping Giants, .38 Special, Wings on Fire and Thank You. The sequence might be different from the order in which the songs have been mentioned here. The morale of singers was praiseworthy. It takes a lot of guts to sing even a solo song live on the stage whereas this group sung a whole list of songs and the quality was only better than what it had been in the cassettes. The singers did improvisation on stage to include the colors of theatre and comedy in it. It takes a lot of bravado to do the improvisation in front of millions of people in the audience and yet make sure that the product comes out nice and appealing. Their switcheroos was the specialty of those monkeys. They kept exchanging the musical instruments throughout the show, yet they managed to make a wonderful show. The improvisation shortened the songs. With the Thank You song, the show was brought to a decent end.

Golden Age of Hollywood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Golden Age of Hollywood - Essay Example Katharine Hepburn was born in May 12, 1907, growing up in Hartford environs, Connecticut in a loving family, she attended her primary education at the Kingswood-Oxford School located in Hartford and later she attended college at Bryn Mawr. She in history and philosophy in the year and it is here she knew and later married Ludlow Ogden Smith, Katharine’s acting interest developed from college by participating in plays. Immediately after graduating, the next day she travelled to Baltimore where she met a producer, Eddie Knopf who cast her to play in various local routine productions. This marked as her start in professional acting and by 1928; she began to be known in Broadway in the plays like â€Å"These Days.† During this period, Katharine appeared in several plays but she developed a reputation of arguing with directors and was therefore, dismissed from several productions (Edwards 125).  Ã‚  Katharine’s success in the studio system came in 1932 when she play ed Amazon princess in a lead role in the play â€Å"The Warrior’s Husband.† George Cukor a director from Radio-Keith-Orpheum pictures was excited on how she played this role and decided to give her first role in a movie. She accepted to work with him and demanded a high salary in the film â€Å"A Bill of Divorcement† where Katharine’s performance was highly praised. She worked with Cukor in many other movies and therefore, raising to stardom. In 1933, Katharine won her first Oscar.... That same year she had an astounding performance as Jo in the successful screen adaptation of â€Å"Little Women.† Further, she had her second Oscar nomination in 1935 after appearing in the film â€Å"Alice Adams† and she became a rising star (Edwards 177). However, after her success, Katharine had a series of box-office failures threatening her career. The films â€Å"Spitfire,† and â€Å"Break of Hearts† in 1934 failed in box office while in 1935 â€Å"Sylvia Scarlett† did not do well. Further, â€Å"Mary of Scotland† in 1936 and â€Å"Quality Street† made in 1937 failed to succeed. It is was disappointing that even the film â€Å"Bringing Up Baby† created in 1938 that paired Katharine with the star Cary Grant as a comedy was not appreciated by the public although today it is honored as a comedy classic. In 1938, Katharine failures continued as she was voted â€Å"Box Office Poison† in 1938, which was largely because o f her reputation of failing to follow the behavior expected of super stars. She often refused to put on makeup, she wore trousers at the time when they were not fashionable for women, she did not want to give autographs or pose for photographs, and refused to talk to reporters (Edwards 224). Katharine fought to bring back her career success and she left Hollywood to find a stage project. She accepted an offer to star in Philip Barry’s play â€Å"The Philadelphia Story† that highlighted a character incorporating humor, aggression, nervousness, and vulnerability. She financed part of the play together with Howard Hughes and bought the film rights that were used in its creation. The play came out in 1940, it was an immediate success going for two fruitful tours, and Katharine

How have they changed us socially Annotated Bibliography

How have they changed us socially - Annotated Bibliography Example The use of the cell phone enables individuals to manage time properly and more efficiently (Cimino 54). This is done through the use of the phones to arrange and cancel previously arranged meetings. The cell phone also promotes confidentiality on the issues an individual is involved in. For example, the cell phone is currently being used to make monetary transfers between individuals. This is done between individuals living in faraway places without any information being divulged to any third parties. An individual’s safety is also guaranteed when he uses a cell phone to carry out these financial transactions (Matthews 58). Mobile funds have enabled many individuals in planning their activities better. This is because they enable the fast flow of information between communicating parties. This is done without divulging information to individuals outside their conversation. This further enhances the security of the individuals in the communication (Knox and Schacht 179). The us e of the cell phones also enables an individual to be freed from the slavery of having to wait for his turn to use make phone calls. This was the case in the past when individuals had to queue outside public booths each waiting for his turn to communicate. This in turn helps in time saving and creating competence in the communications sector (Forma 73). The use of the cell phones has also enabled individuals to respond quickly to emergencies. This is because this type of communication is fast. Mobile phones assist an individual in exhibiting confidence, individuality and status in his character. This is because some cell phones sell at very high prices and are associated with a certain class of people in society. Cell phones have lastly, but not limited to the above, enabled many individuals to get jobs through the advertisements posted by the phone companies (Wyllie 141). However, the use of the cell phone has brought many other

Real estate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Real estate - Essay Example types of estates are basically determined from the type of language used in the ownership documents such as the deeds, wills, grants of land, lease and bills of sale, by which the real estate was acquired (Abts, 2002). Estates are usually distinguished by the different property rights vested in each type of real estate. Property may be transferred for various reasons, among them purchase, inheritance, gifts, and legal reasons (Abts, 2002). One can purchase real estate from another on the basis of willing buyer willing seller. This will involve transferring documents of ownership to indicate that the rights of ownership now belong to the buyer. Property can also be transferred in form of inheritance. An heir to the property will have to transfer the ownership documents to reflect his ownership. Property can also be given to another person as a reward or a gift. Property can also be transferred from one person to the other for various legal reasons, for instance, as part of a divorce case, if it was acquired illegally and has to be returned to the real owner. In all these circumstances, transfer of property has to be done carefully and often with the help of a legal advisor. In order to fully understand whatever type of property is being transferred, it is important to understand the various interests held by the two parties involved (Abts, 2002). Deeds can also affect the type of ownership being transferred. The various types of deeds involved in transfer of property include the general Warranty deed; this gives the new owner all the rights of ownership of the property without any limitations. A general warranty deed is good if property is being transferred to the buyer (Abts, 2002). A Special Warranty Deed on the other hand involves the grantor limiting the title warranty given to the grantee to anyone claiming from the grantor. The other important deed is the Quit Claim Deed, which conveys a grantor’s full interest in the property, but does not warrant that

Organizing Function Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizing Function - Essay Example In this the firm has to handle five areas namely, division of labour, departmentalization, establishing span of control and delegation, (Boone 2005). Within division of labour else called work specialization, the manager tries to match the work demands with the skills, knowledge and experience of the employee. Division of labour is more effective when the most qualified employer by means of skill level and experience is assigned a given task. The more compatible a worker is to the work process requirements, the greater the extent of possible specialization. In departmentalization, the manager seeks to group employees or jobs into manageable entities. This can be done in five ways, (Plunkett et al (2005). Functional departmentalization is done according to the nature of activities in the department. Product departmentalization brings together all the functions necessary for successful production and distribution of a particular product. Process departmentalization is based on the cycles that a product goes through. The cycles determine the department. Geographical departmentalization uses zones to create a department e.g. ... Customer departmentalization is defined by possession of a shared set of characteristics like the mental hospitals as a source of clients for an establishment working with mentally retarded persons. Span or control means the manager defines the extent to which the chains of command run and the limit in number of employees within one line of production or level of command. One employee ought to be accountable to only one supervisor, in what is called the unity of command. In the scalar principle, the line of authority should be clearly outlined for each worker. The manager is also concerned about delegation, which is the transferring of tasks and responsibilities and the issuing of authority commensurate to the tasks assigned to subordinates. This improves the flexibility of operations meaning the organization is better able to address the needs of its clients, (Boone 2005) In organizing, the manager is also concerned with knowledge management, which is the ability to organize and control gathered information within an organization. A manager gathers information from various sources. He empowers his team to be able to use the available information to better the organization that way the team can be said to have for knowledge (the capacity of people or groups or organizations to act on information). Opportunities, threats strengths and weaknesses of an organization can best be addressed only in the event that the organization is able to use information available. The process involves a conscious effort to use the information. For the information to be useful to the organization however, it has to be accurate, reliable and up to date. This can be said to an organization's intellectual

Childcare Essay Example for Free

Childcare Essay Birth-12 months- Babies will begin to smile at adults especially at their careers. Will gaze at faces and will copy facial movements. They respond to faces and voices of familiar people around them, they are still shy around strangers but enjoy affection from their careers. They enjoy being held, cuddled and tickled by adults. They will start to talk using babble noises. â€Å"Temper tantrums† may have started. They start to become more demanding and assertive and can express rage at being told ‘no’, they have no idea of sharing and a strong sense of ‘mine’. 1-2years- Are becoming aware of others around them, they may begin to start to display attachment and anxiety separation from carers and adults they are close to. They will begin to start exploring their environment knowing there is a familiar adult nearby for reassurance. As they develop they can start showing signs of emotions e. g. when another child cries they may start crying as well, when another child smiles at them they will smile back. Are very possessive of toys they may have and find it hard to share. Play becomes more fun with other children, and they will mostly be cooperative. They may start to display temper tantrums. 2-3 years-Children will begin to learn about relationships and will start to seek others to share in their experiences and for reassurance. They tend to find it hard to control their feelings especially when they are excited and frustrated. They tend to still look for adults for comfort if they are upset. They are starting to become more independent in things they do. 3-4years- children will begin to social with in a group of children and began to play cooper actively some of the time. They began to take control of their toilet needs and become more independent in the in self-help. They are starting to develop own feelings and start to show empathy towards others. Most children will have started school at the age 4 and will be enjoying their independence. 5-7years-Children will become independent by dressing and undressing themselves. Begin to choose own friends. They start to understand rules and boundaries and like to have structure and routines. They will seek out adults for approval and praise. They have good sense of when other children are upset or sad. Their social skills will be growing as play becomes more cooperative with other children as they enjoy turn taking. They will have a developed a good sense of self-awareness both positive and negative. They now know the difference between right and wrong. Progression towards teenage years- They are a lot more independent in what they do and become less reliant on others. They begin to form good relationships with others and are more aware of their gender. They begin to understand what behaviour is acceptable and what is unacceptable and have a strong sense of what is right and wrong. They are beginning to what their own privacy. They become more concerned of what other people think of them and can often become unsure about new changes. 13-19 years- Become more self-motivated within themselves. Need a lot more reassurance as they start to approach adolescence/puberty, do not appreciate that parent’s get involved in how independent they become as they get older. Mood swings and confrontation become more apparent. Will start to engage in new friendships especially as they progress to further education in a new environment. Becomes more self-conscious about their appearance and social status. Will begin to engage in more adventures activities but may be aware of the forth coming actions due to their involvement. Will begin to think things through before undertaking the action and are more independent in their decisions and intellectual interests. They begin to set goals for their future in education/employment but still worry about failure. Language Birth-12 months-Will communicate with others in different ways such as crying, babbling and squealing and will use their vocal voice and enjoy vocal play alongside adults , will use gestures such as putting arms up to be picked up, when talked to from a familiar person will make own sounds in response. 1-2 years- Speech is starting to develop as they start to respond and understand more words. They are starting to acquire new words on a regularly basis. May start to use one-two word questions and is able to put two words together. 2 years-3years- Will start to become more able to express what they want to adults and start to understand a little more of what adults are saying to them through words and gestures. They will start to extend their vocabulary rapidly up to about 70 words between 1-2 years old; will tend to have conversations with themselves about what they are doing and uses personal words which as they begin to develop their vocabulary and is able to follow one instruction when given by an adult. 3-4 years- Children begin to develop their language skills further by beginning able to say their own name and how they old they are. They begin to have a vocabulary of between 250 words to 500 words and starting to use more complex sentences. Can begin to describe things they are doing and explain why things are happening. 5-7years-Children are becoming to have good communication skills as their conversations and questions they ask become more complex. They are beginning understand the meaning of text and are starting to recognise letters, sounds and words as well as their own written name. They start to understand that one word can mean two things for example orange for fruit and orange as a colour. They are still building on their language in spoken and written form. Progression towards teenage years- They will still be developing their language skills but in a more complex way. Are starting to talk problems through to be able to solve them as their ability to think logically begins to mature. 13-19years- Their language skills are still developing but in a more complex way. Physical Birth-12months- A baby will grow rapidly during their first year of development within weeks a child will begin smiling and will turn the head to respond to different sounds in their environment. They will begin to have a pattern in their own routine for example feeding time and sleep time. On the approach to six months they will begin to roll over from their front to their back and start grasping objects which they will tend to put in their mouth. By 8 months they begin to crawl and by 9 months they begin to start walking. 1-2 years- Most babies will be crawling or possibly still shuffling; they start to pull themselves up on furniture to the standing position to support them to move along from one end to the other. They may start to take a few steps independently or with adult support, they start to become curious about different objects passing toys from one hand to the other , hand eye coordination is developing as they start holding an object in each hand and bringing them together in the middle. They will start to attempt to self-feed themselves with their hands or a spoon and use a cup with two hands. Fine motor skills are developing as they begin to use crayons/pencils in the palmer grasp when mark making. 2-3years- Begins to climb on equipment with confidence, and is able to walk up and down stairs holding onto the rail using two feet at a time. Fine motor skills when mark marking is developing from palmer grasp to tripod grasp as they begin to scribble/draw lines. They have developed the skills to kick a ball and throw a ball, increasingly able to manipulate small objects with hands. They become more independent in their feeding skills as they begin to easily use a spoon and possibly a fork. Potty training will start being introduced as a child begins to control their bowel movements. Bricks will be built into larger towers than before usually with six or seven bricks. 3-4 years- Children are becoming more independent in their choices. Gross motor skills are developing quickly as they begin to run, jump, climb up climbing frames and start to try and ride a tricycles, when mark making will hold pencil between thumb and finger and begins to draw lines and circles and may start to copy some letters from their name. Independence in dressing and undressing has developed and toilet training is more independent. Has more confidence in Self-feeding using a knife and fork. 5-7 years- Children begin to have rapid muscle growth in these years. Pencil control is developing as they start to draw circles, peoples and copying words. Preference for dominant hand is starting to show. Is able to care for own toilet needs independently. Begin to have preferences for likes and dislikes. Dressing becomes more independent as they start to learn how to do buttons laces etc. 7-12 years- They have well established hand eye coordination as mark making skills develop in drawing and printing. They are very active as they start to enjoy team games with other children/adults e. g. hitting balls and chasing each other. Boys begin to engage in a lot of rough and tumble games. The development of girl’s physical development is developing quicker than the boys. 13-19years- These years are classed as the transition from child hood to adult hood (adolescence) as they will start to experience changes in their bodies. The physical development in each child is different at this age as some may just start to mature physically and some may have fully physically matured. Intellectual Birth-12months- babies start to learn through their senses especially by putting things in and out of their mouths. 1-2years- They are still learning through their senses. They start to be curious about things and like to explore objects by using their fingers especially poking their fingers into things and taking things apart. They will start to say the names of familiar objects, people and familiar body parts. Start to use one word sentences â€Å"no† â€Å"bye bye† and starts to enjoy simple songs and rhymes. 2-3years-Are still learning through all their senses, they are still very curious about things in their environment. They are starting to use three to four word senses and start singing simple songs and rhymes. 3-4years- At this age they are still learning through using their senses. Are beginning to use their imagination in play using one object to represent another object and are starting to enjoy role play situations. Begin to start to become more curious and inquisitive about their environment. Has large vocabulary, 1500 to 2000 words as they start to approach the age of 5. 5-7years- children will start to follow instructions by adults and will accept help, although they are still unsure about trying new things if they are unfamiliar with them. Some children may begin to stutter when they get excited to tell someone something or if they are nervous. Colour and number recognition is apparent and may start to write a few letters they recognise. At this age most children are learning to read and write. 7-12years- Children start to have a good attention span and are able to solve more complex problems. Enjoys working hard to complete tasks they are set and enjoys challenging experiences. Are curious about how things work and why things happen. Reasoning and thinking becomes more abstract. They may start to enjoy reading, writing and using books. 13-19years- They start to begin to think logically about concepts. They become more argue mental with others Moral. Birth-12months- Babies do not have moral development at this age. 1-2 years- Are sensitive to adult approval/disapproval, despite tantrums and bursts of anger. No understanding of right from wrong, but starting to understand yes or no. 2-3 years- appears to be independent and self-reliant and wants to be good, but is not yet mature enough to be able to carry out most promises. They are starting to understand the word â€Å"no†, they still do not understand right from wrong. 3-4 years- Is starting to understand right from wrong. They are becoming more self-controlled and less aggressive, and may use extreme verbally threats such as â€Å"I will kill you† without realising the full consciousness. 5-7 years- Is becoming aware of right and wrong; is wanting to be good and please adults but may tell lies to blame others for own wrongdoing because of intense desire to please and do right . 7-12 years- Is very concerned with personal behaviour, particularly as it affects family and friends; May experience guilt and shame. Has difficulty in admitting to mistakes but are becoming more capable of accepting failure and mistakes and are aware of consequences of their behaviour. Is aware of right and wrong; wants to do right. 13-19 years- Understands right from wrong and consciences of their actions. They try to weigh alternatives and arrive at a decision of their own. They are very unlikely to lie and are concerned about how other people are treated. They will experience numerous feelings of anger, sorrow and frustration. They may even be interested in sex as response to physical-emotional urges. 1. 2 Analyse the difference between sequences of development and rate of development and why the distinction is important. Identifying the difference between the sequence of rate and the rate of development of children is important as it helps to identify a child’s ability and helps to meet the needs of individual children. It also enables you to be able to identify any special educational needs and helps you to plan effectively to make sure they are getting the help and support they may need in areas they may have gaps in. Sequencing- means a pattern of development in children but this can vary in each child. The sequence is a definite order of developmental milestones that children meet and accomplish over time as they need to finish one area of development before moving to another developmental stage. e. g. rolling over and sitting up occur before learning to walk, a toddler being able to walk before they can run Rate- Is the speed of which children develop but this may vary greatly in each individual child e. g. a child’s will start to babble before they begin to use words. 1. 3 Analyse the reasons why children and young people’s development may not follow the pattern normally expected There are many factors which contribute to a child not following the pattern of development disability either physical or mental will make them find it harder to learn the same as another child the same age, resources, facilities, possibly restrictions due to a disability, environment (poverty) due to lack of essential resources needed, emotional problems may cause a child to have lack of concentration or interacting skills, culture how people bring up their children. There are reasons why development may not follow expected patterns they are: †¢ Disability can affect development because if children can’t use certain parts of their body for example they may not be able to use their legs they won’t be able use a climbing frame their physical development won’t be able to develop in the expected way. The nursery or school they attend may not have the equipment needed for the child to achieve their desire to use the climbing frame. †¢ Emotional difficulties can affect expected patterns of development because a child who is not settled into a nursery and does not have solid relationships with the adults in their life are more likely to have low self-esteem and are less likely to try new activities that would help their development. †¢ Environmental factors such as poverty and family could affect a child’s development because if they do not have much money some opportunities such as nursery will not be available. Family could also affect a child because single parents may not have the time and energy to engage and challenge their child to try new things that would help their development. Food may not be as nourishing and nutritious. †¢ Cultural reasons for example girls in many cultures are not given the same opportunities as boys this will limit their development because they are not expected to go to school. †¢ Social factors such as transport could result in development not following expected patterns because parents who don’t drive may have difficulties in getting their children to school regularly which could result in poor attendance so the child could miss out on key factors of their education. Home schooling could also affect children’s social development as they won’t have had many opportunities for social interaction with children their own age which could result in a social delay. †¢ Particular learning needs may affect development because a child having difficulties with reading and writing and they are not receiving the extra help they need is likely to fall behind in school work. †¢ Communication difficulties could result in development not happening in the expected way because children who have a hearing impairment can cause a delay as we learn to speak by listening this could lead on to a speech impairment which may result in children only expressing what they can and not what they really mean. Parents who don’t talk or read to their children will also affect the child’s development. 2. 1 Analyse how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of personal factors Family Environment- Family life has the most important impact on children‘s development due to the various family structures and stability each individual child has. Cramped Housing May share a room with several other children, this can lead to cramped spaces for children, not enough room to play, no personal space. Single parents where children may have lack of male/female role models which may cause social stigma. Parents divorcing/separating- This is very stressful on everyone involved, children can become emotionally withdrawn, suffer lack of confidence and can create lack of self-esteem. Working Parents- When parents have to work all week this will leave little room for direct social, emotional and intellectual support. Step families- When children become part of a new step family it may cause friction, hatred and jealousy between the children from each family and children towards their new step parent. This could lead to the child/teenager to become socially and emotionally withdrawn. Health Problems – health problems can be a genetic problem or due to the poor living environment they grow up in. If a child is raised in poor quality housing this may lead to health problems e. g. damp can trigger asthma and other breathing problems, if a child is not getting a good variety of healthy food/nutrition this could lead to health problems. Children who suffer from health problems may miss out on a lot of their education, which could be departmental in the future learning. Learning difficulties – A child with learning difficulties will need extra support in certain areas of development and may develop a low self-esteem because they get annoyed with themselves for not being able to do something, such as a simple numeracy problem, or read a book. A child with language/communication difficulties may find it hard to socialise with other people/children. Disability A child in a wheelchair or with a serious physical impairment would find it hard to do many activities, particularly those that are physically demanding. Gross motor skills would be at a less developed rate than peers and fine motor skills may be affected if the child had little or no control over their limbs. Genetic A baby’s genes are determined at conception. If something is faulty at this stage, this can have a huge impact on the child’s development. This may be physical or intellectual. If a mother takes drugs, drinks alcohol or smokes when pregnant, there is an increased chance of delivering an underweight baby at birth. It can also lead to cognitive problems for the child as they get older . Visual impairment Children who have visual impairment usually have some vision; this can vary from each child. Some children may be able to see outlines of objects while others may only be able to tell the difference between light and dark. If a child has vision problems this nearly always initially delays their physical development. Their gross and fine motor skills would be affected because they would be unable to be as adventurous as children with good vision. Fine motor skills may not be in line with other children as the child would find it hard to do tasks that require precision such as threading beads or colouring. Hearing impairment Hearing is a very important part of learning language and being able to communicate effectively with others. Children will need to learn to speak and listen. Their language and cognitive development would almost certainly be affected, but their social development might be hindered as well. They may speak in a monotone voice and not respond when spoken to. People may start to treat them differently and this might make them feel isolated and secluded from daily experiences 2. 2 Analyse how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of external factors Education- Children deserve the best start in life in education as it will help them become very academic and achieve their full potential. If they are unable to access the resources they need for their education e. g. books, stationary and internet this will hinder their learning and they may not develop as well as those who have the opportunities. Poverty- Poverty effects children’s development in various ways; if they have a poor diet it may cause them to be unfit, lack of energy to be able to concentrate which will affect their progression of development. Children who come from low income families may have fewer opportunities to participate in out of school activities, and have limited access to equipment they may need for their education which will cause lack of motivation. Poor hygiene will lead to low self-esteem in a child as they become paranoid about their appearance and in some cases can lead to bullying. Foster Care- can cause long term effects on children due to lack of stability in their life. They have fewer opportunities to make positive relationships with others. They may be confused about why they are in foster care due to un answered questions. They are more venerable, as they have already had experience of the negative experience of being separated from family. Their self-esteem will be low which will make it harder for them to relate and socialise with others and to form attachments Personal choices- As children begin to develop they start to make personal choices for themselves, the choices they make can have a major effect on their development e. g. starting to smoke, using drugs, drinking, food choices, exercise choices. †¢ Family environment and background. In some homes education is not at the front of their things to do list. We can often see this where the parents/ carers are of a lower educational development. This could also show that there is no support at home as the parents do not understand the required educational elements needed to complete the work. †¢ Personal choices. If a child or young person as decided for what ever reason they do not want to be educated or leave school before they finish their education, this is their choice and we cannot always show them alternative choices for staying at school. †¢ Looked after/ care status. This again could have a huge influence as a lot of looked after children are moved around regularly. This will affect their education enormously. Separation and attachment issues are quite often the cause of many reasons not to want to be in school. This is constantly worked on by schools to find the best way to include these children in school and to be able to give them a good standard of education. †¢ Education. If for example a child has not attended a nursery or play group in their early years this can often set them back from what development stage they should be at when attending school. This could be the lack of nursery places, not good enough teachers to the child having a learning disability that has not been identified yet. †¢ Boyfriends/girlfriends. This is more apparent in young people more than children, but starting and finishing a relationship can be a huge influence on learning. Distracted and even heartbroken pupils will not learn to the same degree as others who are not at that stage. 2. 3 Explain how theories of development and frameworks to support development influence current practice Maslow- Believes everyone has fundamental needs that must be met in order for people to reach their full potential. The needs include warmth, food and shelter, love, security and self-esteem. His hierarchy needs has five stages which was expanded to include cognitive aesthetic needs. In our setting we ensure the children are well cared for, environment is clean and tidy, and temperature of nursery is at a comfortable level, we provide a healthy balanced diet. Children are allocated a key worker on entry in nursery key worker is responsible for ensuring each child’s needs are meet under the EYFP. Maslows theories of development include Humanist. Bandura – Created a theory that children learn by observing others, they do not need to be taught directly as they will imitate and observe what those around them are doing. This is a natural process and does not require the force of an adult. This learning is known as observational learning. In our setting we have a calm approach to all situations modelling good behaviour. We create an environment where observational learning can take place on a daily basis. Banduras theories including Social Learning. Skinner – Believes that children learn language through principles of conditioning and that they learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions and events. They also learn words by imitating other people. We support this in our setting by having a language rich environment, asking open ended questions, lots of interaction. Skinners theories including Operant Conditioning, Behaviourist and Attachment. Bowlby – Believes that attachment behaviours are instinctive and that early relationships and early experiences with care givers have a major role on development and behaviour and influence how children will react to social interactions with other people. Early attachment were children are secure to main carer will allow the child to have high self-esteem and will enjoy intimate relationships; they will start to have the ability to share their feeling and seek out others for support. We support this in my setting for new starters by introducing them gradually into the setting through visits which will start off with main carer staying with them and then progressing to the child having visits on their own to ensure they feel comfortable in their new environment. Lev Vygotsky- His theory is that children’s development depends on interaction with people and the tools that the culture provides. . He had three different ways cultural tools could be passed from one individual to another. Imitative learning where one person tries to imitate or copy another e. g. when a parent sings an action song and the child tries to copy, Instructed learning which involves remembering the instruction of an adult and then using these instructions, collaborative learning involves a group of peers who strive to understand each other and work together. He believes every new interaction is a learning experience to for children that they must be guided through until they know how to react properly. In our setting staff support this by supporting children who are having difficulty in managing certain tasks. We encourage turn taking and sharing, and provide plenty of opportunities for social interaction with adults and children. Piaget- Believes that children’s cognitive development moves through four different stages of mental development: Sensorimotor birth-2 years were a child recognises self as agent of actions and begins to act intentionally, preoperational 2-7years were they learn to use language and represent objects by images and words. , concrete operational 7-11 years were children can begin to think logically about objects and events and classify objects according to several features, Formal operational 11-adult hood were they can think logically about abstract propositions. He believed all children pass through these phases to advance to the next level of cognitive development. In our setting we encourage a more hands on approach and more relevant tasks for age/stage of development of child. We emphasise strongly on â€Å"child- Imitated† activities and observations to be able to plan for children’s needs. Freud- Believed that our personalities are made up with three parts; the â€Å"id†-is the instinctive part of our personality, the â€Å"ego†- is the planning part of our personality, and the â€Å"superego†- develops later in childhood it is known as the control part of our personality ,which are not all present at birth but will develop as the child develops. Freud theories of develop include Psychoanalytic. 3. 1 Analyse the importance of early identification of development delay Early identification and intervention is the best thing for a child’s long term benefits. Early intervention has a dual effect it helps children develop skills that are expected at their age but it also prevents the child from developing negative behaviours. Being able to identify signs of delay in a child’s development allows practitioner to make swift assessments and to involve outside agencies to make their own observations of the child. It is an important role for a practitioner to know and understand children’s learning and development in order for them to able to identify any early signs. 3. 2 Explain the potential risks of late recognition of development delay Late recognition of development, can lead to problems later on in life for young person understanding or a child being able to express their own feelings, leaving them feeling angry or frustrated and causing them to act out and maybe develop behaviour problems. It can also affect their confidence and self-esteem causing problems building relationships with peers and becoming. 3. 3 Evaluate how multi agency teams work together to support all aspects of development in children and young people Professionals from multi agency bring together all practitioners from different sectors that may need to be involved in working to support children, young people and families. Working with multi agency is a way of ensuring that children and young people who need additional support have exactly the right professionals supporting them. When a child needs additional support the SENCO of a setting will fill in a CAF form with relevant information and concerns about a child which will then be referred to relevant sector to enable team members to share information and support one another so the child’s needs are addressed efficiently and effectively. Regularly meetings are set to discuss the needs of the child or young people to plan for child’s development for example action plans. IEPs and to discuss child’s progress. The involvement of multi-agencies will vary as the needs of children and young people will be very different. What is important is that each person brings with them their own specialist skills, expertise and insight so that the child or young person gets the best support possible. Multi-agency working is a varied number l of services that have the collective aim to provide the best for children and their carers who are in need. The people involved to support a child’s needs could be a social worker, play specialist, early year’s practitioners, educational psychologists, health workers and any person with the ability to step in and help a child when their development is being hindered. Early years settings are more of an integrated working because they offer a cocktail of services within the setting, rather than external services which is multi-agency. England’s government framework, Every Child Matters, lists five outcomes that reinforce the importance of working together to achieve the best outcomes for children. The Early Years Framework also states that when professionals work together the results are better essentially, if all the people involved in a child’s life are aware of what that child needs, then development c

Discovering The Gender Pay Gap

Discovering The Gender Pay Gap The problem of gender differences in salary raises a lot of concerns as to its factors, processes and measurement among social scientists and policy makers all over the world. Gender-based inequality is a phenomenon that affects the majority of the worlds cultures, religions, nations and income groups [5]. When scientists speak of the gender gap these days, they are usually referring to systematic differences in the outcomes that men and women achieve in the labor market. These differences are seen in the percentages of men and women in the labor force, the types of occupations they choose, and their relative incomes or hourly wages [4]. There have been significant increases in the labor supply of women in the last decades both in developed and developing countries. For instance, in the United States female participation in the paid labor force changed drastically in the course of the 20th century: in 1880 only 17% of all American women at working ages participated in the labor market, by 2000 this number had risen to more than 60% [3]. Nevertheless, the Global Gender Gap Index 2007 showing that no country in the world has yet reached equality between women and men the highest ranking country has closed a little over 80% of its gender gap while the lowest ranking country has closed only a little over 45% of its gender gap. Factors that describe the gender pay gap Among various factors that describe the gender pay gap the most important ones are historical, cultural and economic. Describing historical factors of the gender pay gap, we have to mention that after industrialization women became secondary workers in the labor market; they entered the labor market in smaller numbers and for shorter periods than did men. Moreover, occupations and industries were highly segregated by sex, partly because employers developed explicit policies to segregate the workplace and bar married women from employment [4]. Hence the wage structure changes over time but the historical evolution of well-defined systems of jobs and firms has created relatively stable segmentation by occupation. As for cultural factors, they are closely connected to the historical events. The development of modern family patterns during the past decades has been accompanied by substantial changes in social norms, values and gender relations all over the world. In most of modern societies women with higher returns to human capital and fewer children, increase their investments in education and their attachment to the market. The economic factors are also very important. Because women are very likely to interrupt their career for children bearing period, and employers avoiding workers with high quit rates (for economic reasons), therefore, women comparing to men are less likely to receive stable well-paid jobs. Micro-level processes that cause the gender pay gap As wage differences among workers can be explained by processes that match individuals to jobs, we should research how individual women and men are sorted into different positions and thereby obtain different levels of reward. Margaret Mooney Marini and Pi-Ling Fan have conducted a research The gender gap in earnings at career entry in which the micro-level mechanisms of the gender wage gap were investigated. Those are gender differences in job-related skills and credentials, adult family roles, work and family aspirations, the availability and use of information and influence via social networks; gender discrimination in hiring and job placement by employers. The results of the research showed that explanatory mechanisms focusing on the characteristics of workers explained only 30 % of the gender difference in wages. But the gender differences in aspirations and in job-related skills and credentials were the most important in accounting for the gender pay gap. The allocation of women and men to different jobs by employers, and informal processes of social contact and social interaction via networks play an important role in wage determination at career entry. Moreover, gender differences in family structure had no significant direct effect when the effect of worker qualifications and aspirations were considered [6]. How to measure the gender gap One of the instruments to measure the gender gap is the Global Gender Gap Index introduced by the World Economic Forum. This index is a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender disparities. It aims to be a tool for benchÂÂ ­marking and tracking global gender-based inequalities on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria [5]. The structure of this index is in the Appendix. In this paper we are interested only in the economic participation and opportunity analyzed by the Index. This area is captured through three concepts: the participaÂÂ ­tion gap, the remuneration gap and the advancement gap. The participation gap is captured through the difference in labor force participation rates. The remuneration gap is captured through a hard data indicator (ratio of estimated female-to-male earned income) and a qualitative variable calculated through the World Economic Forums ExecuÂÂ ­tive Opinion Survey (wage equality wages for similar work). Finally, the gap between the advancement of women and men is captured through two hard data statistics (the ratio of women to men among legislators, senior officials and managers, and the ratio of women to men among technical and professional workers). Conclusion The gender gap is a difference in outcomes that men and women achieve in the labor market. Because labor market rewards derive from labor market positions, it is important to understand why women receive less rewarding positions and what the mechanism of the gender pay gap is. There are historical, cultural and economic factors that influence gender pay gap. Historically occupations are segregated by sex, but women return to human capital more often than in the past and decrease their quit rates during childbearing period. Among micro-level processes that cause gender pay gap, the most important are gender differences in aspirations, job-related skills and definite social networks inclusion. In order to measure gender gap scientists use the Global Gender Gap Index which examines the gap between men and women in four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, health and survival. Appendix. Structure of the Global Gender Gap Index

Forensic Analysis of Personal Data Leakage on Android Phone

Forensic Analysis of Personal Data Leakage on Android Phone Sheriff Drammeh  Ã‚   RESEARCH STATEMENT The proposed research will explore personal data leakage on the android mobile application platform through forensic analysis of volatile and non-volatile memory. PROPOSAL SUMMARY The proposed research will employ both volatile memory forensic techniques and traditional disk forensic techniques to the android platform in order to identify privacy breaches primarily in android mobile applications [1]. The proposed research also aims to demonstrate that forensic artifacts can be found both in the disk drive (non-volatile) and memory (volatile). AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH 1. Acquire non-volatile data from an android device using the traditional forensic approach and the memory dump, analyse the acquired data for any forensic artifacts and make a comparative analysis of both approaches. This will be achieve by conducting an experimental simulation of both approaches. 2. Develop an effective methodology to improve the detection of personal data leakages and sensitive information from android mobile applications. RESOURCES The major part of this proposed research will be conducting an experiment, hence few equipments are essential to be in place in order to carry out the experiment. The proposed research is mainly memory dumping and disk drive imaging for forensic analysis. Some open source tools will be highly utilize during the course of this proposed research, such as android studio SDK, Odin, ADB and mem. Additionally, books on android forensics, mobile forensics, journals and YouTube video tutorials will also be utilize. As the research progresses more resources might be needed. The following is a non-exhaustive list of resources currently available for use: à ¢-  Window 10 OS with processor Intel (R) Core(TM)i7, install memory of 16.0GB is the host operating system and forensic workstation for disk image analysis à ¢-  Linux Ubuntu 15.10 x32 with kernel v2.6 is our forensic workstation for memory analysis à ¢-  VMware Virtual Machine v11.1.2: Will be used to install guest operating system à ¢-  Physical android phone Samsung galaxy S3: Is the subject of the experiment à ¢-  Android SDK developer tool for Linux x32: Is a software development tool used for application development and analysis. à ¢-  mem is an open source tool for dumping running process on android phone à ¢-  Odin3.-v3.10 is open source tool that enable us to rooted android phone à ¢-  Samsung usb drive for mobile phone used to enable debugging bridge between android phone and forensic workstation à ¢-  CF-Auto-Root-2dcan-2dvl-sghi747m is used to update firmware during rooting process. à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · AccessData Forensic tool kit version 3.4.2 ( Download FTK Imager 3.4.2) is forensic software tool used to analysis disk image file 3 | P a g e CONNECTION TO THE COURSES OF MISSM PROGRAM This proposed research is closely related to Digital forensic course (ISSM536), which is one of the course we had covered in our Information Systems and Security Management program. The proposed research used the techniques learned from this class and applied them in the android environment to reveal several types of personal information such as username, password, date of birth, postal addresses contact, photos, account number, messages etc. The comparative analysis method used covers the principles of digital evidence collection learned in Information Technology Security Laws and Ethics course (ISSM561). The proposed research has a beginning and ending, as a result it need to be managed in order to deliver the end result. Therefore, the knowledge learned from (ISSM545) System Development and Project Management. REVIEW OF RELATED RESEARCHS Fuchs, et al., [2] presented the first analysis tool for android called SCanDroid, a framework for Android to perform information flow analysis on applications in order to understand the flow of information from one component to another component. Consider a case where an application request permission to access multiple data stores i.e., public data store and private data store. The application requires permission for reading the data from the private store and writing data to the public store. SCanDriod analyzes the information flow of the application and reports whether the application will transfer the information in the private store to the public store or not. However, SCanDroid also suffers from the same limitation of security policy expressibility. In order to consider some information flow to be dangerous, the policy writers must define certain constraints prior to executing the policy. Similarly, if an information flow is not explicitly added to the set of constraints the f ramework will consider it to be safe. In 2012, C. Gibler, et al., presented AndroidLeaks, a static analysis framework for automatically finding potential leaks of sensitive information in Android applications on a massive scale[4]. It informed the user if applications are leaking their personal information. AndroidLeaks drastically reduces the number of applications and the number of traces that a security auditor has to verify manually. To secure privacy information, they set up a mappings between Android API methods and the required permissions as the sources and sinks of private data for data flow analysis. However, AndroidLeaks does not yet analyze Android-specific control and data flows. This includes Intents, which are used for communication between Android and application components, and content providers, which provide access to database-like structures managed by other components. Sasa Mrdovic et al., [3] proposed a combination of static and live analysis for memory image, which is obtained by hibernation mode (power management feature that exists in most portable computers). After they obtained the physical memory image, they used it to boot the investigated system in the virtual machine (live view) to resume the system to the same state before it went into hibernation mode. Their proposal of using hibernating feature was to obtain the memory contents without violating the evidence integrity, but during their analysis they found out that they lost all the information about network connections because hibernation mode terminates the network connections before it starts in Windows environment. As one of best well-known analysis approaches, Taint Droid detects privacy leaks using dynamic taint tracking [5]. Enck et al. built a modified Android operating system to add taint tracking information to data from privacy-sensitive sources. They track private data as it propagates through applications during execution. If private data is leaked from the phone, the taint tracker records the event in a log which can be audited by the user. In 2015,Young ho Kim et al., proposed a methodology and an architecture for measuring user awareness of sensitive data leakage, which features runtime application analysis over timing distance between the user input event and actual privacy data leak[6]. 4 | P a g e Nai-Wei Lo, Kuo-Hui Yeh, and Chuan-Yen Fan present a user privacy analysis framework called LRPdroid[7]. LRPdroid has been proposed for an Android platform to offer a user privacy management model. In the LRPdroid framework, they defined required models to achieve user privacy management: App execution data flow, user perception, leakage awareness, information leakage detection, privacy disclosure evaluation, and privacy risk assessment. To support the proposed privacy analysis model, two information capture modules for LRPdroid were designed to acquire incoming data inputted by a mobile user and outgoing data transmitted from a targeted App. A system prototype based on the LRPdroid framework was developed to evaluate the feasibility and practicability of LRPdroid. Two general App usage scenarios were adopted during the usage of Line App to evaluate the effectiveness of LRPdroid on user privacy disclosure by social engineering attack, user information leakage from normal operations o f a running App, and privacy risk assessment of targeted running App. In 2015[10], Pasquale Stirparo, Igor Nai Fovino, and Ioannis Kounelis developed a novel methodology called MobiLeak, for analysis of security and privacy level of mobile applications, which focuses more on user data instead of application code and its architecture. Their research work addressed and solved the problems related to the following three research questions for mobile environment and applications: (1)what are data and where can such data exist? (2) How is personal data handled? (3)How can one properly assess the security and privacy of mobile applications? They start their research work with a fundamental prerequisite in order to be able to properly treat them, which is studying and identifying every possibility state at which data can exist. After this step, they analyzed how real life mobile applications and operating systems handle users personal data for each of the states previously identified. Based on these steps they developed MobiLeak, which also combined concepts and principles from the digital forensics discipline. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED RESEARCH THE FOCUS OF THE RESEARCH The aim of this proposed research is to examine user data storage mechanism on a mobile application in a context of android platform. Analyzing mobile application for personal data leakage require extensive analysis and in-depth understanding of both the OS and application architecture. The analysis is expected to be conduct to data at rest and data in motion. The result of this proposed research will help to create awareness to both application developers and the android community that users personal data information such as username, password and other sensitive information are at risk both in volatile and non-volatile memory. Finding user sensitive data on android smart phone could be in three (3) locations: disk drive, memory and app server. Our research is limited to two out of the three application data store which is disk drive and memory, both storage areas could prove strategic locations for finding vital information for android smart phone users. The motive of this research is to examine whether applications encrypt user sensitive information both in the memory and the disk drive. This pose the following questions: 1. Does user credentials are encrypted on a memory ? 2. Among the two method which one is more forensically sound? 3. What information could be found in disk drive and not in memory? During the experimental phase of the proposed research certain applications will be examining, such as VOIP applications, social media applications, financial applications and telecom applications. I chose this samples of android application from various categories. Because these applications are fairly popular and are used by millions of people around the globe. For each application I will look at how user sensitive data, such as user name, password, date of birth and account number are store both in the disk drive and the memory. 5 | P a g e The rest of the proposed research section is divided into 4 parts: First I am going talk about my methodology, next I will present the series of preliminary result both in the memory analysis and disk analysis, third I give the highlight of the expected result and finally, I will discuss about certain obstacles that may arise. METHODOLOGY The method used in carrying out the experiment of the proposed research consist of four phases. Phase One: Gather the require tool both in term of hardware and software As the proposed research required memory dump and disk drive imaging analysis a physical android phone is needed to conduct our experiment. 1. Window Host OS and Ubuntu Guest OS as our forensic workstation 2. Android phone Samsung Galaxy S3 3. Installing Odin3.-v3 which will allow us to root our android phone 4. Install android SDK tool for using ADB(Android Debug Bridge) to get shell access on our android Phone 5. Mem application software loaded into our android phone through ADB which allow us to dump the running process from the Phone Phase Two: Installation and configuration of experimental environment At this phase all the required tools, such as the hardware and software are installed and configured. Pre-experiment of memory dump and disk imaging is performed, and tools are verified. Phase Three: Acquisition of disk image and memory dump At this phase the disk image drive is acquired using dd command tool from the internal memory to internal SDcard of the phone and ADB pull is utilize to pull/copy the disk partitions to our forensic work station. Mem program software is utilize, this allow us to dump the running process. We used ADB to install mem application into our phone in order to dump the desired running application process. Phase Four: Preservation and analysis of acquired data The purpose of this phase is to examine acquired application data both in the memory and disk drive. For example, we will check if the application is encrypting users credential both data at rest and data in transit? MEMORY DUMPING ANALYSIS This section provide detail steps taken to analysis the dumped memory of certain applications selected for this proposed research. The result shows that users credential are not properly handle by the application, which can result in personal data leakage. A program called mem was used to facilities the process dump, ABD was also used to install mem program into our android phone. List the running process and dump them into the internal SDcard and finally pull it to our forensic workstation for further analysis. Strings and sqlite3 command were utilized to look for ASCII text format from the dumped memory to understand the output result. Interestingly, the result showed that users credential are not encrypted at all. The applications analyse in this proposed research are as follows: A) Africallshop App Africallshop is a VOIP application which allows customers to buy credit online to make national and international calls and send text message worldwide to friends and family at a cheap rate. The application is 6 | P a g e rated about 4.4 in the android play store and was downloaded by five thousand (5000) customers during the time of this proposed research. The prominent outcome of this application are as follow: The username, password, caller id and user account balance are not encrypted. We ran the sqlite3 and string command on the dumped memory, which produce the result below: sip.africallshop.com XXXXXXX 0017802986780 CANADA 12590 xxxxxxxxx yes CAD proxy.africallshop.com:443 574b690276bc5 [emailprotected] 0,434 B) EHarmony App EHarmony is an online dating site for singles. Those using this app can communicate freely, share picture, video and text. During the time of this proposed research the application was downloaded by five million people and rated 3.1 in the app store. The prominent outcome of this application analysis are as follow: The user credential, such as username, password and device information are all in plaintext. The result below: POST /singles/servlet/login/mobile HTTP/1.1 j_username=sdramme1%40student.concordia.ab.caj_password=123qazplatform=androidj0r1D7fg4ArJ2uSVPgSti5zcEnltO919mHUV88E%2FKUWcan9NEMgT820MygiKsWf0Sg1147vdZbXIo tLS HTTP/1.1 User-Agent: eHarmony-Android/3.1 (SGH-I747M; Android OS 4.4.2; en_CA; id f9d8a2acfec7b901) X-eharmony-device-id: f9d8a2acfec7b901 X-eharmony-device-os: Android X-eharmony-device-os-version: 19 X-eharmony-device-type: 1 X-eharmony-client: eHarmony X-eharmony-client-version: 3.1 Accept: application/json lBxp c_te j_username=sdramme1%40student.concordia.ab.caj_password=123qazplatform=android 8KTB stevedocwra on 7 | P a g e C) Virgin Mobile My account App Virgin mobile is GSM mobile application that allow user to manage their account features and usage. Users can make payment and add a buddy to their list. This application was downloaded by five hundred thousand (500,000) people during the time of this proposed research and was rated 3.4 in the app store. The prominent outcome of this application are as follow: Sim sequence number, cell phone number, UMTS number, activation date, user data of birth, subscribe date, user e-mail address, initial password, pin unlock code and account number. all this information are not encrypted. [emailprotected]:~/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools$ strings virginmobile | grep [emailprotected] We run the ps and string command on the dumped memory, which produced the result below: imeioriginal:null,simsequenceNumber:174392323,esnequipmentType:null,imeiequipmentType:{value:LTEDevice,code:T},simequipmentType:{value:USimVal,code:U}},telephoneNumber:7802356780,networkType:{value:UMTS,code:85},language:{value:EN,code:E},isBillSixty:false,isTab:false,commitmentStartDate:null,commitmentEndDate:null,commitmentTerm:0,contractType:{value:OFF_COMMITMENT,code:O},paccPinStatus:{value:NOT_ENROLLED,code:78},padPinStatus:{value:NOT_ENROLLED,code:78},initialActivationDate:1463112000000,accountCommPref:{value:BILL_INSERTS,code:66},isAccountSMSPerm:true,birthDate:512197200000,lastUpdateDate:1464062400000,lastUpdateStamp:9863,lastHardwareUpgradeDate:null,daysSinceLastHWUpgrade:null,subscriberEstablishDate:1463112000000,daysSinceActivation:16,nextTopupDate:1465704000000,cancelledSubStatusDate:1463371200000,initialPassword:5069,isCallDisplayAllowed:false,pricePlan:VHV226,portInidicator:null,primeMateInidicator:{value:UNKNOWN,code:R},primeSubNumber:null,subMarket:{value:UAC,code:UAC },telcoId:MOBL,pinUnlockKey:[36761817,63094923],manitobaIndicator:O,thunderBayIndicator:O,portabilityIndicator:O,serviceArea:N,hasOrderInProgress:false,isWCoCSubscriber:true,hasDomesticDataServices:false,hasRoamingDataServices:false,domesticDSBlockedUntil:null,roamingDSBlockedUntil:null,isAccessible:false,promotionGroupCode:null,emailAddress:[emailprotected],wcoCDate:1463112000000}]},emailAddress:[emailprotected],arbalance:{name:{http://bside.int.bell.ca/customer/profile/types}ARBalance,declaredType:java.lang.Double,scope:ca.bell._int.bside.customer.profile.types.MobilityAccountType,value:0,nil:false,globalScope:false,typeSubstituted:false},ebillInfo:{isEBillEnrolled:true,isEBillNotifyEnabled:true,ebillStartDate:1463112000000,ebillEndDate:null},siowner:{value:BELL_MOBILITY,code:MOBL},arpuamount:19.13}]},wirelineAccounts:null,internetAccounts:null,tvaccounts:null},activeHouseholdOrders:null,emailAddress:[emailprotected]},username:7802986780,guid:SCP9O0ELLDDUN2J,profileType:BUP,savedT imeStamp:2016-05-29T01:30:38.458-04:00,profilebanNumbers:[{accountType:Legacy,ban:527566075,profileSaveTime:1463945744000}],accountType:,paymentData:[[{paymentInfoList:{billAvailable:true,lastPaymentAmount:40.18,totalAmountDue:40.18,lastPaymentDate:2016-05-22T00:00:00.000-04:00,paymentDueDate:2016-06-06T00:00:00.000-04:00,billEnddate:2016-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:00,balanceForward:0,bankAccountNumber:null,creditCardNum:null,customerId:null,ban:527566075,mdn:52756607UAV580,eligibilityInd:Y}}]]}` DISK IMAGING ANALYSIS This section provided detail steps taken to conduct traditional forensic technique for non-volatile memory acquisition and analysis. During this phase the acquired memory will be examine and the primary concern will be user data stored, in particular share_pref folder. Share_pref folder is a storage location for key-value in side application database. Android application store user data within /dev/block[8]. With the use of common forensic command, such as dd, will be utilize to image disk drive partition. For this proposed research the following partitions are imaged for analysis: System file Cache file 8 | P a g e User data Persist But our proposed research experiment will be focus on user data folder, as it is consider to be the storage location for application data. To image disk drive, shell access is need through android SDK, we then look for mount file on the disk drive before executing dd commands to copy the partition from the internal memory to internal SDcard and finally pulling it to our forensic work station using adb pull command. 1. Checking the mounted file on the disk drive mount /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist 2. Copying the user date partition and pull it to forensic work station dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata of=/mnt/sdcard/test1 17399538+0 records in 17399537+0 records out 8908562944 bytes transferred in 1934.464 secs (4605184 bytes/sec) adb pull /mnt/sdcard/test1 3. Imaging the cache partition to internal SDcard dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache of=/mnt/sdcard/cachefile1.img 1720320+0 records in 1720320+0 records out 880803840 bytes transferred in 118.669 secs (7422358 bytes/sec) 4. Copying the system partition dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system of=/mnt/sdcard/systemfile.img 3072000+0 records in 3072000+0 records out 1572864000 bytes transferred in 255.874 secs (6147025 bytes/sec) [emailprotected]:/ # 5. Copying the persist partition dd if=/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist of=/mnt/sdcard/persist.img 16384+0 records in 16384+0 records out 8388608 bytes transferred in 0.865 secs (9697812 bytes/sec) The above command will image each partition of the mounted file of dev/block with the default block size of 512 byte during bit-by-bit copy of the file and direct the output file to internal SDcard. Finally, copy it to our forensic workstation, Which can be analysis using forensic tool called AccessData FTK imager version 3.4.2. FTK is recommended forensic tool for disk image analysis by both forensic and legal community for its powerful carving capability, stability and ease of use. AccessData FTK ANALYSIS 1. PayPal App PayPal is an online payment system that allows its member to transfer funds locally and globally. Members can receive, send money and buy or pay for goods and services online. The application was downloaded by 10 million people at the time of this research and rated as a good app in the app store. We added evidence item to 9 | P a g e FTK navigate to data and com.paypal.android.p2pmobile then share_pref folder. The folder share_pref/PresentationAccount.RememberedUsersta../ reveal user data information such as user first and last name, cell phone number, and email address. 2. AfricallShop App Africallshop is a VOIP application that allow the users to make cheap international call worldwide, user can purchase credit online to communicate with peer by text message and voice call. After adding user data partition to FTK imager, navigate to com.v2.africallshop folder, expand the folder view share_pref folder. In sher_pref folder an xml file called com.v2.africallshop-prefrences.xml was view and contain user sensitive data such as app domain name, caller ID, country, ID, user password, username and account balance all in plain text. 10 | P a g e 3. Keku App Keku is a VOIP application which facilitate call or text through Wi-Fi or mobile data. User buy credit online to make local and internationally calls. The package of the application contain probative information about the user. App database store was reveal through FTK analysis and the share_pref folder contain sensitive information about the user. In share_pref folder a file called Org.keku_preferences.xml, this file contain users sensitive data and device information such as, password, username, device-mac address and user phone number. 11 | P a g e EXPECTED RESULTS During the experimental phase of the proposed research, aim and objective of the experiment is to demonstrate or show that users personnel data information are at risk during application data process in transit and at rest. The research has observe the dumped process and disk drive imaged to reveal personal data leakage and has successfully uncover vital information about App users, such as username, password, date of birth etc. OBSTACLE The obstacles encountered during the experimental phase of the proposed research as follow: 1) Lack of enough material regarding android forensic as the field is immature 2) Unable to image the whole memory of the actual phone, as the system configuration file is missing and couldnt be found to compile it with LiMe in order to acquire the whole memory. 3) Lack of enough analysis tool to cross examine or evaluate both the dumped and disk drive memory, Ubuntu Linux tool was used to do our analysis. CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE The proposed research show that application developers are far less careful with user sensitive data when it being stored both in the disk drive and memory in running applications. Using very simple forensic investigation techniques running strings and sqlite3 on dumped memory and disk drive imaging analysis on FTK show quite a lot of private information. OUTLINE OF FINAL RESEARCH PAPER ISSM 580/581 The final research document will be structure as follows [9]: Section 1, will be the abstract then the Introduction to the paper. Section 2, will discuss memory analysis technique. Section 3, will discuss disk imaging analysis 12 | P a g e technique. Section 4, will discusses the forensic artifacts unveil during the analysis . Section 5, related work. Section 6, the result summary. Section 7; conclusion and future work. . RESEARCH DELIVERABLES This research will be conduct in Fall Semester 2016, from September 2016 to December 2016. Nevertheless, some major preliminary steps have already being taken. Most of the required tools both hardware and software for the proposed research have already being obtained and implemented. Spring 2016 April Researching the Topic of Interest Week 1 2 Finalize the Topic with Primary Advisor Week 3 4 Read the Area/Topic of Interest May Week 1 2 Read relevant Journal or Article related to the topic of interest Week 3 4 Gathering and installation of test Environment, Conducting and Experiment. June Week 1 Writing First Draft proposal and submit Week 2 -3 Edit and Improve proposal based on advisor guidance, Further Experiment and literature review read. Week 4 Final Proposal and Submit.