Social Media Marketing Strategy

The effective management of social media within the context of small businesses remains only a rare subject of research, despite the converse plethora of literature regarding social media and larger organizational contexts. This study examines the role of social media within the context of an integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign for a small real estate agency. In applying an exploratory-descriptive case study approach, the core data sources will be semi-structured interviews of participants representing various stakeholder groups, including agents, assistants, buyers, and sellers, and document analysis of relevant corporate documents reflecting marketing goals and outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine the implications of a social media strategy as part of an IMC campaign for a small business, with the following research questions serving to guide the study: RQ1: How does the emergence of social media affect traditional IMC? RQ2: What challenges and opportunities to social media present to small businesses, specifically? RQ3: What are the best practices in blending social media into an IMC campaign for small businesses? Overall, this study seeks to yield generalizable conclusions regarding optimal strategies for small businesses' social media's usage for marketing purposes.

Relation to Previous Research

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) have emerged prominently since the advent of the twenty-first century as a means of binding various marketing channels together in order to both support and convey a core message from businesses to their consumers. The promotional mix to which digital space is now integral often includes advertising and other online communications, with social media recently becoming primary in IMC campaigns for firms of various sizes. Despite apparent trends in scholarly discourse that frame social media as paramount to contemporary IMC, few studies have examined the ways in which social media and IMC exist within the contexts of small businesses; this has generated an unfortunate gap between IMC theory and practice. This study will bridge the theory-practice gap visible in the current body of evidence by applying a case study approach to a small real estate agency aiming to use social media as its central channel for IMC.

Social media has transformed the nature of communications between businesses and their customers, with the latter group of stakeholders generally and unprecedentedly afforded more power as both consumers and producers of information (Mangold and Faulds). Businesses are then both challenged as well as afforded opportunities by social media, as consumers now wield more control over the ways in which information is disseminated.

Kaplan and Haenlein posit that social media is a dynamic concept that precludes a stable and static approach to IMC, as it is constantly affected by technological innovation and other forces of globalization. Social media includes blogs, mini-blogs such as Twitter, social networking forums such as Facebook and MySpace, business-specific community forums, and file-sharing sites such as YouTube, with all types of social media potentially providing advantage or disadvantage to organizations depending on how effectively they are managed. Social media is changeable and far-reaching, with organizations forced to adopt a consistent and proactive approach to social media management.

Mangold and Faulds highlight that social media is integral to IMC for three, core reasons; these are that it provides a channel for firms to communicate with consumers, consumers to communicate with one another, and consumers to communicate with businesses. Firms then make use of social media, ideally, to monitor brand reputation, promote brand loyalty, and generally assess the opinions and perspectives of consumers. As part of an IMC strategy, social media marketing is an organizational initiative that communicates with target markets in order to develop or support a unified, customer-focused message and achieve various marketing objectives.

Lacho and Marinello posit that small business owners, in particular, lag behind larger firms in their use of social media, still relying on traditional and mass media communications; this is despite the evidence highlighting that social media is a cost-effective means of reaching a wide audience. The authors highlight that small businesses resist social media for a wide spectrum of reasons, including a perceived lack of interpersonal connection between firm and consumer, but are charged to integrate social media into their marketing initiatives if they are to remain viable in the global economy.

There is a dearth of scholarly literature regarding the variables of IMC, social media, and real estate agencies' use of social media in marketing initiatives. This study will examine these interrelated concepts using a case study approach that will be generalizable to small businesses operating in various industries.

Proposed Methods

The purpose of this study is to examine the implications of a social media strategy within the context of IMC for a small, real estate agency to which this researcher has access. In applying an exploratory-descriptive case study approach, the study's conclusions will be generalizable to small businesses, including but not limited to other real estate agencies. Three research questions will guide this study:

- RQ1: How does the emergence of social media affect traditional IMC?

- RQ2: What challenges and opportunities to social media present to small businesses, specifically?

- RQ3: What are the best practices in blending social media into an IMC campaign for small businesses?

The methods employed in answering the research questions are qualitative in nature, grounded in data collection from two, key sources; these are document analysis and semi-structured interviews.

The role of the researcher in a qualitative context diverges considerably from that in a quantitative research context, as s/he is the primary instrument of the study rather than an objective observer. Qualitative methods are conducive to this study as the researcher has access to the real estate agency in which this study will take place, and this methodology will allow him the flexibility of inductive reasoning. While quantitative research allows conclusions to be deduced from data and hypotheses to be proven, qualitative research embodies the benefits of yielding comprehensive results not limited by predetermined expectations.

The case study methodology allows for the study to serve as a microcosm for broader sets of phenomena. Yin posits that case studies investigate relevant and contemporary issues within real-life contexts, with questions regarding how a phenomenon occurs, in contrast to how often or how much, more conducive to case study design. Case studies are internationally applicable despite their comparatively limited research context, as results can be extended to a wide spectrum of organizational domains if the research design is effective.

Yin posits that the sample size does not impact the generalizability of research findings, as they allow for more in-depth and detailed study of a particular phenomenon. Furthermore, case studies can be framed as exploratory, explanatory, or descriptive in nature, with most case studies embodying at least two of these categorical definitions. Multiple sources of data add to the strength of the case study and allow for a more optimal understanding of cultural forces affecting or being influenced by the particular phenomenon being studied and boost the internal validity of the methodology. Yin asserts that semi-structured interviews and document analysis are two, central means of data collection during a case study.

Semi-structured interviews will be conducted in order to represent multiple stakeholder groups. In total, approximately eight to twelve interviews will take place of real estate agents, assistants, buyers, and sellers. Semi-structured interviews are ideal in case studies as they allow for desired themes to be examined without rigid limitations based on entirely predetermined questions. Document analysis in case studies can be articles, agendas, letters, memoranda, and corporate documents. The documents examined within this study will be marketing plans, inter and intra-agency communications, and promotional materials. The interviews will be digitally recorded and transcribed, with dominant themes in both sources of data sought during the analysis stage.

Reflections

A central limitation of this study is the potential for researcher bias, as the researcher has held a professional role in the real estate field for several years, has working relationships with some of the participants, and will inevitably be affected by predetermined prejudices regarding real estate marketing. In order to overcome this limitation, reflective practice will be consistently applied. Specifically, the researcher will engage in active journaling throughout the study and at all stages of the research process, aiming to identify ways in which researcher bias may emerge.

A salient advantage of the researcher's professional role within the context of the study, however, is that few practical obstacles are anticipated. Professional connections exist between the researcher and the participants, with key decision-makers in the firm providing permission to examine the documents required for the case study. Additionally, few theoretical or conceptual difficulties are anticipated as significant research exists regarding IMC theory and social media. The only potential weakness of the study's theoretical framework is the lack of previous literature regarding IMC, social media, and real estate agencies as co-existing variables. However, the scholarly literature that does exist regarding these variables separately or in dual combinations is strong enough that conclusions can be generalized.

The core, ethical issues regarding this study exist with respect to the participants; it is critical that the participants understand the purposes and procedures of the study, are aware that their confidentiality is protected, will be supplied a copy of the research results, and are cognizant regarding the researcher's commitment to protecting their anonymity.

Overall, however, the position of the researcher in the political field, specifically within the same cultural context in which many of the participants exist, has weighted implications for the study. The researcher aims to remain as objective as possible throughout the study, but the qualitative nature of the methodology renders the researcher's cultural context not only an inevitable factor in the study but also an integral one. The researcher's cultural lens will be viewed as a resource rather than an obstacle, with constant reflective practice providing a mechanism for countering the impact of inadvertent prejudices and opinions.

Conclusion

This study will fill a gap in the existing literature by establishing optimal practices for small businesses' usage of social media as part of IMC. Following proposal approval, the next steps will be to begin journaling as part of reflective practice in order to establish the researcher's cultural perspective and circumvent limitations presented by researcher bias. Additionally, the researcher will begin a thorough review of the existing literature regarding the research variables of IMC, social media, and small businesses, additionally exploring any implications of literature sourced from the real estate profession specifically. In particular, attention will be afforded to relationships between various stakeholder groups, social media, and marketing goals.

The literature will then be synthesized in order to provide a firm foundation for construction of interview protocol and document analysis. Participants will be selected based on identified stakeholder groups but will likely include agents, assistants, buyers, and sellers existing within the operating environment of a single agency to which this researcher has access. An overview of the study as well as an ethical agreement that establishes respect for participants' anonymity and confidentiality will be prepared in accordance with university guidelines, and the research process will proceed from that point toward data collection and analysis. No major obstacles or limitations are foreseen with respect to this study's design.

References

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Grinnell, Jr., YvonneA.Unrau (7th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Kaplan, A., Haenlein, M. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of SocialMedia. Business Horizons 53(1): 59-68.

Lacho, Kenneth J., and Craig Marinello. "How Small Business Owners Can Use Social Networkingto Promote Their Business." Entrepreneurial Executive 15: 127-145.

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Yin, Robert. Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publishing.

Research on The Rule of Law

A major debate exists among legal scholars, politicians, and others as to whether international law constitutes binding, "real" law, particularly in light of the absence of a strong, centralized court or mechanisms for enforcement of the law against those nations or individuals that fail to comply with its mandates. Moreover, even if an international criminal court with strong enforcement authority were created, it could plausibly be argued that subjecting individuals to such a court violates principles of legality and the rule of law. The purpose of this paper is to examine the debates surrounding these two issues in international law. It concludes that international law is "real" law, because a strong central system of adjudication and enforcement are not necessarily defining characteristics of law. So long as some mechanisms exist sufficient to cause countries to comply with international law in most instances, this is sufficient to define international law as real law, even if those mechanisms of compliance enforcement do not exactly mirror methods of obtaining compliance in the domestic law context. In addition, this paper argues that it is possible for an international criminal court to be created and subject individuals to punishment without violating the rule of law, provided that the acts being punished were forseeably subject to punishment from the position of the person before the international criminal court at the time the acts were committed, and the punishment for the offense is not enhanced beyond the permissible punishment at the time the act was committed.

Is International Law "Real" Law

For many years, certain scholars have suggested that international law is something less than binding, real law because of an "enforcement problem." While these scholars have occupied different theoretical camps, for ease of reference this papers adopts the term "realists" to refer to these scholars from Canestaro, because they all share a common criticism of international law as suffering from an enforcement problem, thus making it something other (and less) than real, binding law. The "enforcement problem" consists of two related criticisms of the international legal system. First, realists assert that there is no central enforcement mechanism in the international community that can force compliance with international law or punish violators of international law, particularly against powerful nations. Realists view such an enforcement power and the ability to punish violations as essential to the nature of law, and because it does not exist in the international context, international law is not binding law, and it essentially politics by other means. A second, related, criticism of the realists stems from the lack of a neutral interpreter (like a judiciary) capable of rendering a definitive interpretation of the meaning of international law. The realists argue that because international law is often vague, countries are able to interpret international obligations in any way they see fit because of the lack of an authoritative interpreter, and thus the country interprets the law in a way to coincide with their own self interest.

As discussed, the first major realist objection to international law as real, binding law concerns the lack of a central enforcement mechanism to punish violations. Realists assert that true law, and true legal systems have such mechanisms as an essential component. Moreover, they argue that the lack of such an enforcement mechanism allows countries to violate international law when it is in their own natural interest to do so, often without any punishment whatsoever. They also point out that powerful nations are particularly capable of flouting international law when it conflicts with their national interest. Based on this, some even argue that nations do not feel bound by international law at all, and only comply with international because the requirements of the so-called law coincidentally coincide with the national interest of the nation.

Those who argue that international law constitutes real, binding law, who, again borrowing from Canestaro this paper will refer to collectively as "transnationalists", do not deny that international law lacks a strong, central enforcement mechanism. Rather, they persuasively attack the premise that the lack of a central enforcement mechanism is critical for international law to be considered real, binding law. First, they argue by analogy that the unenforceability of international law is not any different than certain types of domestic law that no one would seriously dispute is both real and binding. For example, when a United States citizen wins a civil case against the United States government, as a practical matter, the prevailing party has no real way to enforce the judgment other than the willingness of the government to acquiesce in it. Similarly, in criminal cases even where a defendant is acquitted there is nothing in terms of power, only self-restraint that prevents the government from flouting the acquittal and punishing the citizen anyway. While it could be argued that this is far fetched because the United States government routinely acquiesces to adverse legal decisions, the transnationalist can reply that nations routinely acquiesce to international laws as well. Thus, if we concede that domestic criminal law is real law, logically we can also conclude that international law is as well.

Moreover, transnationalists dismiss the absence of a central compliance enforcement mechanism in international law because other mechanisms exist which are capable of securing compliance with its mandates. The most obvious (if most troubling) of these mechanisms is a unilateral or multilateral use of force against nations as punishment for violations of international law. This is the most obvious punishment for a violation of international law because it is the most severe. It is problematic, however, because use of force can be used for reasons other than to sanction violations of international law. Moreover, it is quite possible that the country that has violated international law may be too powerful for use of force to be an effective sanction. Finally, the use of force raises the risk of committing international law violations by the very countries seeking to enforce international law against the offender.

Perhaps the most common mechanism for enforcing the provisions of international law comes from what D'Amato refers to as the deprivation of reciprocal entitlements. This theory posits that by choosing to exist as a country, nations accept a series of "entitlements" from the international community, and also agree to respect the equal entitlements of other nations. When a nation violates international law with respect to another nation, this can be viewed as a deprivation of an entitlement to the offended nation. In response to this deprivation, the offended nation, and other nations in the international community, then may choose to deprive the offending nation of the same entitlement, or of a different entitlement, in an attempt to bring the offending nation in line with international law. For example, if a nation A offended the notion of diplomatic immunity by arresting all of the diplomats of nation B that were present within their borders, under the theory of deprivation of reciprocal entitlements, nation B would have two options. First, it could deprive nation A of the same entitlement by arresting all the diplomats of nation A in its country. This is problematic however, because it seeks to punish a violation of international law by a commission of the same violation. Moreover, it arguably implicitly approves the violation by sending the signal that diplomats are, indeed, "fair game." The second, better option, available to nation B would be to deprive nation A of some other entitlement. This could be done for example, by the use of economic or trade sanctions against the offending country until it comes into compliance with international laws regarding diplomatic immunity. Moreover, the nation B could attempt to persuade other countries to join it in refusing to trade or provide economic support to nation A, thereby further coercing compliance. These types of entitlement deprivations are frequently used in international law.

A third mechanism, which is not directly an enforcement mechanism, but does cause countries to comply with international law, comes from a fear of losing respect and reputation in the international community. New technologies and a global economy have made nations of the world more interdependent than ever, and a loss of reputation in the global community can be particularly disastrous in such an environment. Thus, in order to avoid reputational harms countries are more likely to comply with international law because fear of protests by individuals, as well as pressure from non-governmental organizations, charities, and other countries, highlighting international law violations, because such activities can undermine the place of the nation in the global community. Some even argue that while countries at first begrudgingly accept international law to avoid these consequences, they soon become habituated to follow its mandates, and the eventually begin to view international law as something to be followed because it is right and just.

Realists have countered by arguing that despite the existence of these enforcement mechanisms, international law is still not real, binding law, because the mechanisms are not sufficient to ensure compliance in that countries still violate international law on some occasions. This argument is unpersuasive, however, which can be demonstrated by analogy. Most countries have a domestic law prohibiting murder that no one would dispute is a "real" law, which is backed up by the threat of a traditional central punishment enforcement mechanism. Despite this, individuals routinely commit murder, and while some are punished some are never solved and no punishment occurs. The fact that compliance with the prohibition against murder is not always perfect, and even the fact that some murders occur that go unpunished, does not undermine the binding nature of the law against murder itself. In the same way, the fact that international law is not always followed, and punishment is not always complete or perfect does not undermine the binding nature of international law. There will always be a gap between what people actually do and what they are legally required to do, is human nature itself, not a criticism of the laws they fail to follow.

There is considerable evidence that nations, even superpowers in times of national crisis, view international law as binding, and seek to conform their behavior to, and justify their behavior in light of it. Moreover, there are available mechanisms for enforcement of international law, as discussed above, that can be used to coerce compliance even though they don't mirror the mechanisms available for domestic law enforcement. Given that international law clearly shapes behavior, and its violations can be punished, international law can meaningfully be called real, binding law.

The second realist argument that international law is not real, binding law is that there is no central, neutral interpreter to render authoritative judgments on the meanings of its vague provisions. They argue that this leaves countries to interpret the law for itself, and they can do so in such a way that it allows them to take any action that it deems to be within their own national interest. This argument is more easily dealt with than the enforcement mechanism argument discussed above, however, because while it is true that there is no central interpretative body that provides definitive answers on the meaning of international law, there are, in fact, significant restraints on countries' individual interpretations of what the law means.

Transnationalists would agree with the proposition that international laws are often vague, and that there is now body that gives definitive interpretations of what that law really means. However, they deny that such a body is in fact necessary for international law to constitute real law because interpretations are in fact meaningfully constrained. In addition, they note that the lack of a definitive interpretation about meaning does not undermine the status of international law as real law. Again, they draw an analogy to domestic law in this context. Like domestic law (particularly with respect to broad laws, such as constitutional provisions), international law is vague enough that reasonable minds can differ as to its precise meaning. Thus, the fact that a law is subject to differing reasonable interpretations does not undermine international law's status, any more than it undermines the status of a vague provision of law in the domestic context.

Many transnationalists would assert that despite the ambiguities of international law, its provisions contain core meanings the understanding of which is shared by the countries of the world. But even if not persuaded by this claim, there exists constraints on interpretation that keep interpretations by individual countries within the bounds of reasonableness. First, while the laws may be subject to multiple interpretations as to meanings, only interpretations which are considered reasonable within the relevant "interpretive community" are reasonable. Thus, individual interpretations are restrained in the sense by what is considered a reasonable interpretation by the international community. While all countries may not agree on any one "true" interpretation, it is much more likely that they can all agree when an interpretation is entirely unreasonable. In the event that a country adopts an unreasonable interpretation leading to a violation of the law being interpreted, the international community has available to it the methods of obtaining compliance previously discussed above.

Second, even within the realm of reasonable interpretations, individual interpretations of international law are constrained by the interpreting country's considerations of both short-term and long-term interests, because of the "tit for tat" nature of international law. That is, when a potential reasonable interpretation may be in the best short-term interest of the individual country, it does not necessarily benefit that country to adopt that interpretation in the long run. That is because in the domain of international law the interpretation given to a law by a country in a given situation often comes to serve as precedent for other countries interpreting the same law in the future. What is a helpful interpretation for a country one day may be disastrous in the future as another nation uses that interpretation against them.

In sum, international law does not differ significantly from domestic law in that both are often vague enough to be subject do differing reasonable interpretations. Despite the lack of a central binding interpretive authority to state the meaning of a law, international law has constraints in place to limit available interpretations. These constraints are significant enough that international law may properly be called real law.

International Criminal Court and the Rule of Law

A second question in international law concerns whether, if an international criminal court were established, a defendant could successfully argue that being charged before such a court would subject him to new law in violation of the principle of legality, given that the rules of such a court would not precisely match the rules of his own country. The answer to this question could very well be yes, but the answer ultimately depends on the rules and procedures followed by the international court. Accordingly, it is necessary to understand the principle of legality in international law, the values underlying the principle, and what procedures such a court would have to follow to prevent it from running afoul of the principle of legality.

The principle of legality has been called the fundamental principle of law. It is recognized in almost every country in the world, though some nations have a stronger version than others. Several concepts have been recognized in various countries as comprising a part of the principle of legality. First, the principle includes the nearly universal idea that no act may be punished criminally if it was not a crime pursuant to a law binding on the actor at the time of the act. Second, no act can be punished if there wasn't law providing sufficiently clear notice that an act was criminal, at the time of the act. Third, the punishment imposed for the commission of a crime may not be greater than the punishment applicable to the actor at the time of the act. These three principles constitute the nearly universally recognized core of the principle of legality. Some countries have gone further, however, and have stricter rules considered a part of the principle. These include the idea that a person may not be punished by a court whose jurisdiction was not established at the time of the act, and the idea that a person may not be punished on lesser or different evidence than was allowable at the time of the act.

It is thus critical that any new court only hear crimes that were previously established crimes, binding on the defendant at the time of the act. So long as the crimes were crimes (whether under international or domestic law) binding on the defendant at the time of the act, and the defendant is not subjected to a more harsh penalty than was available under binding law at the time of the act, prosecution in an international court does not run afoul of the principle of legality. Some may argue that it violates the principle of legality to try offenses that occurred before the international court's jurisdiction was established in that court, even if the offense itself was already criminal. But this strict principle of legality that a person may not be punished by a court whose jurisdiction was not established at the time of the act is not followed as a part of the principle of legality in most countries, and has not become a part of customary international law. Moreover, there is a tradition of creating special international tribunals to hear acts after they occur, so it is reasonably foreseeable to a defendant at the time of his act that such a court may be created. This satisfies the core concern of the principle of legality to put the defendant on notice.

A second potential argument is that the international court could subject the defendant to punishment based on new or different evidence than was possible at the time of the act. This doctrine has not become a part of customary international law either, however. But related doctrines respecting the "procedural" rights of defendants has become a part of international law both by treaty and through customary international law. These due process rights include: the right to a speedy, impartial and public trial before an impartial tribunal that decides the case based only on the evidence, the right to be informed of the charges in a reasonably specific way through a written indictment, the right to counsel, the right to present a defense, the right to compel witnesses to testify, the right to confront the witnesses against the accused, a privilege against self-incrimination, and a ban on double jeopardy. In addition, the accused is entitled to a right to appeal and a right not to be punished in an inhumane or unreasonable manner. Provided these procedural human rights are recognized, and the accused is afforded due process and a fair trial, slight differences in the rules between the accused domestic courts and a new international court would not be enough to raise a successful argument that the accused has been subject to new law.

In sum, the principle of legality prevents an accused from being punished for an act that was not criminal under a law (whether domestic or international) that was binding on the actor at the time of the act. Moreover, the accused cannot be punished beyond the maximum punishment provided for the offense at the time it was committed. Thus, a new international court must follow these principles to satisfy the principle of legality. The principle of legality would not prohibit the new court from asserting jurisdiction over cases occurring before its creation, so long as the court has procedural rules designed to respect and recognize the procedural human rights designed to give the defendant a fair trial, as discussed above.

REFERENCES

Bolton, J.R.. Is there really "law" in international affairs? Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 10, 1-48.

Canestaro, N.A.. Realism and transnationalism: Competing visions for international security. Boston University International Law Journal, 25, 113-162.

D'Amato, A.. Is international law really "law"? Northwestern Law Review, 79, 1293-1310.

Fish, S.. Is there a text in this class?: The authority of interpretive communities. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Gallant, K.S.. The principle of legality in international and comparative law. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Goldsmith, J.L. & Posner, E.A.. The Limits of International Law. New York: Oxford University Press.

Koh, H.H.. Why do nations obey international law? Yale Law Journal, 106, 2599-2659.

Lubin, D.. Fairness to Rightness: Jurisdiction, legality, and the legitimacy of international criminal law (working paper).

Polish Forums - International Student Laws in Poland. Online. https://polishforums.com/law/poland-international-student-wants-stay-74394/

Scharf, M.P.. International law in crisis: A qualitative empirical contribution to the compliance debate. Cardozo Law Review, 31, 45-97.

US Education Recession

INTRODUCTION

Recession in any country, is a period of time when the economy declines as reflected by the reduction in the GDP for at least two consecutive quarterly reports. When this takes place, there will be rise in the rate of unemployment, food prices, failures in the housing market, reduction in the education budget, as well as changes in people's attitude towards educating themselves among other factors.

Reductions in the federal education budget, will negatively impact several levels of the schooling system, even to the extent of causing people to stay in school longer than they originally intended, to get more qualified, so that they can enhance their employment prospects.

An alternate response may emanate, whereby some students will drop out of school because of a lack of financing, due to the impact of unemployment within the family, or the company that was financing their education went into bankruptcy or have terminated their services.

A third aspect of how a recessionary period can negatively affect education, is the response of students who were initially planning to attend colleges or universities. They may look at the state of the economy, the high costs of their education, as well as their parent's financial limitations, and draw long term conclusions that things are not going to change, so they might as well abort future education plans.

EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION

The United States Educational Department had an excellent boost to its program, when (a) the Morrill Acts of 1860, (b) The GI Bill of Rights in 1944, following the end of 2nd World War (c) The National Defense Education Act of 1957, after the Russian landed the Sputnik in space, were passed.

The Morrill Act of 1862, allowed states to acquire 30, 000 acres of land for the establishment of colleges and other training institutions, majoring in Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, according to Britannica Encyclopedia Inc.. States were able, based on the number of districts they had, to sell portions of their lands and establish these institutions, or contribute the money towards their overall education budget (Britannica Encyclopedia Inc.).

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Americans in general, made relatively good use of these opportunities for educational advancements, with high school graduation rate reaching 30%. This no doubt would have increased, but then came the great Depression of 1932, causing massive job losses everywhere. Poverty permeated the entire country and destroyed the economic and educational prospects of many promising students, as well as companies that would have offered employment to these future graduates.

According to Total Bankruptcy, it changed the way Americans viewed education. Many students, who could afford to stay in school, extended their studies to ensure that they will be able to living at higher standards.

Education was seen as the only viable option to lift the country out of the horrible recession it was facing, and soon the high school graduation rates began to climb and reached 40%.

The New York Times saw the irony of the situation, and remarked that it had to take an economic disaster in the form of a recession, for many Americans to form better long term attitudes towards education (Total Bankruptcy).

ECONOMIC BENEFITS

The economic benefits for the nation from this change in attitude, was that the high levels of graduates began entering the job markets , and provided the technological, innovative, business, and other skills necessary for America to become the greatest economic force in the 20th century. Great companies like IBM, USA Steel, General Motors, and RCA prospered tremendously from these educational outputs.

However, as the nation prospered and the demands for jobs were greater than supplies, the 2nd World War arrived to shift the equilibrium considerable to the left, back to the recessionary period the country had climbed out of, using mass education springboard strategy.

THE GI BILL OF RIGHTS

The US Government at the end of the war in1944, seemed to have realized that the large vacuum created by the loss of millions of human resources on the battlefield, had to be filled rapidly; if the nation was going to survive, when it introduced the GI Bill of Rights.

The GI Bill Act, according to The Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, was one of the greatest participatory educational act the federal government has ever been involved.

This GI Bill was also called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, and was designed to provide greater opportunities to returning war veterans of the 2nd World War. Needs in areas such as hospitalization expenses, purchasing of homes, business, lands, and in particular educational advancement were made available.

Educationally, the package included provisions for tuition, books, supplies, equipment, and counseling services both at the high school as well as college levels.

CHANGE

Over a seven year period, America began to experience change, according to The Ontario Institute of Studies in Education. Approximately 8 million American war veterans took up the offer made by the government, and received benefits. Nearly 2.3 million of these attended colleges and universities, while 3.5million received on the job training in different skills at an overall cost of $1.85b to the government (The Ontario Institute of Studies in Education).

ECONOMIC FOUNDATION

Education was therefore given a big boost, as enrollment increased increase significantly across college and university campuses. Higher graduation rates in the future would ensure that businesses were adequately empowered to increase productivity, employ more people, raise the national GDP, and generate millions of dollars in profits at home and abroad.

The economy was flourishing again with education being the main engine of growth, as well as a safety valve for the psychologically damaged veterans returning home. This as an outlet to release the years of trauma and stress that had been built up.

Engineers, analyst and technicians who were militaristically aligned in the past, were retrained and released into the economy, to make significant contributions, which no doubt served to satisfy and motivate them, compare to the destruction experienced on the battlefields of Normandy and elsewhere.

STRATEGIC INVOLVEMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT

The government and educational leaders across the country seemed to have been well organized strategically, in that they increase the age of admittance to these higher educational institutions beyond the 18-23 range, to cater for the influx of several thousand students.

Training were also provided perhaps for the first time in mining, fisheries, agriculture, and caused the myth that education of the highest level was only for the privileged few, to begin to disappearing.

ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION ACT

It was in this kind of atmosphere that President Lyndon Johnson, on April 11, signed The Elementary and Secondary School Education Act in Stonewall Texas; the place where he attended school as a young boy.

His presence no doubt was politically as well as motivationally inspiring to educators and children across the nation, especially when he remarked that he believed that no other piece of legislation he would sign in the future , would be as important as that one he had just inked.

However, he might not have been cognizant of what lies ahead within the next two decades.

ECONOMIC RECESSION OF THE 1980'S

Nearly two decades after the speech, an economic recession hit the country like it has never experienced since The Great Depression, and caused Education to take center stage once more, with many calling for reforms to more adequately cope with the national and global trends that were emerging, and negatively impacting on the country.

There were avalanches of reports from educational commissions, task forces, individual scholars, study groups and conference gatherings, sincerely urging the government to make adjustments in the educational methodologies, in order to halt the economic recession and rescue the nation from the brink of collapse.

The recessions of the past were bad, but the one prevailing in the 1980's seems more than the government could manage, in that technological development externally and internally left more Americans out of work, than at any other time in the history of the country, since The Great Depression.

The high level of the recession caused many who were educated and unemployed, to begin to wonder what was the value of their education, and how they were going to pay for the mountain of student debt that was accumulating before them on a monthly basis?

The reformers were finding it hard to be silent, when they were witnessing qualified students working for very low wages at places like McDonalds and Burger King, in addition to others who were either dropping out of schools or staying longer to more effectively qualify themselves for the job market.

Either way, the government's lack of action was sustaining the recession, because the reductions in those graduating were affected by of the high levels of those staying in school, and this meant less human resource skills were being released for the job market.

The trend was reminiscent of the past and should have necessitated immediate attention.

BRAIN DRAIN

Snyder puts it well, when he said that the recession was causing a brain drain on the economy (Snyder. M.E.).

Americans were also fast becoming noncompetitive on the global market as a result of the recession, because countries like China, India and Japan to a lesser extent, had their educational priorities more appropriately established, and were rapidly climbing the technological and productivity ladder at rates that may eventually displace the once mighty economic giant of the 1960's.

Ironically, as the number of Americans that are graduating during this period were diminishing, despite having one of the highest enrollment rate in the world, students from countries like China, India, Brazil, Israel, and other countries were entering American institutions, and were graduating, and returning to their individual countries to aid in economic developments, that may impede the development and growth of American export market.

NAFTA AND WARS

The recession can also be traced to the legislative Act in 1995 that made NAFTA a reality for The USA, Canada and Mexico. Allowing free trade across all three countries, meant US companies can transfer their operations to Mexico, where the labor rates are highly inferior. This resulted in over 3 million American jobs being lost, a budget deficit of approximately $74b , and a fast rising unemployment rate.

These jobs, because of their low cost to the American manufacturers, were not coming back, and thousands of students graduating from high schools, colleges, and universities, would eventually find it difficult to gain meaningful employment.

The engagement of the government in two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) at the same time, has forced the diversion of much needed educational development funds, like what was available at the end of the 2nd World War, to fight these battles. As a result, education budget cuts have become the norm rather than the exception, as the economy plunged into deeper recession.

The Department of Homeland Security for example, had its budget by 7% over; the Defense Department $515.4b budget was 7.5% higher than the previous year, while the Education Department had only a meager $69.4 b in financing during the same period, to help lift the nation out of recession .

Children entering the K-14 grade in California found it difficult to have the benefits the veterans returning from the 2nd World War had, because Governor Scharwneggar was forced to cut his budget by a whopping $4.8b.

CONCLUSIONS

Recession and education therefore, are symbiotically linked throughout the history of the United States, and the lack of this appreciation by the leadership of the country, will always lead to the prevention of the vital human resource assets of the country to be nurtured continually at institution like high schools, colleges and universities, so that they can provide the kinds of leadership the country will need to successfully compete on the global market.

During economic prosperity, the educational skills that have been ingrained within employees over years of training in various institutions will bear fruit, and cause the nation and its industries to prosper concurrently. However, whenever the situation is reversed, due to untenable events, the investment in education and training should not be removed, as this will only exacerbate the recessionary situation.

References

Britannica Encyclopedia Online. The Morrill Act of 1862.

College Tuition Cost and Rewards. Web. freestudenthelp.com/college-degree

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. The University of Toronto History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century.

Snyder, M.E. Recession Leading USA to Education Decline.

Total Bankruptcy (ND) Recession and its impact on education in America.

"The traveler returning to the United States from a vacation trip in Africa, Europe, or [Asia] is often heard to comment that nearly everyone he met seemed to be able to speak some English. To such impressionist accounts of the ubiquity of English as the world language, one might also add the clearly partisan evaluations of its importance as a lingua franca offered by the promoters of English." (Fishman, Cooper and Conrad).

English Language Transformation

In a world wherein English is and has always been the global language (for the younger generations at least), the idea that people once doubted its probability seems daft. Nevertheless, few people recognised the significance of English in the modern world. Fishman et al were some of the few observers who predicted the eventual dominance of English as a global language. Many of the early professionals teaching English as a second language had expected the demand for learning the language to be limited to the specific elite of a particular country. Fishman's study in 1977, however, revealed the extent of English's reach: it was already the first language of more than 300 million people, and the second language of many more.

English became not just a global language - it became a necessary language. By the 1970s, "English was already the language of diplomacy (95 of the 126 members of the United Nations received working documents in English), the language of 70 percent of the world's mail, used by pilots to communicate with air controllers" (Spolsky). English was not only ubiquitous; it was practical. It was not simply a matter of former colonies stuck in a colonial mindset, using the language of the former masters in order to cultivate a sense of superiority. Learning English was no longer an option but a requirement. Soon enough, it would become the main means of communication in an increasingly wired world.

But what exactly brought the English language to its present position, and what does the future hold? This study aims to uncover the transformation of the English language. What are the causes and consequences of English's dominance, and will it remain a dominant language in the near future? These are some of the questions that this paper seeks to answer. This paper posits that colonialism, supported by auxiliary events such as the United States post-Cold War hegemony, planted the seeds that developed English as a global language. This has resulted in the development of many versions of English, rendering English a dynamic and universal rather than national "property". Unfortunately, its development as a global language has also resulted in problematic consequences such as language death.

To prove so, this paper shall begin with a brief discussion of the history of English, with particular attention to its spread. This shall serve as the platform through which the paper may discuss the development of the language into a universal tongue. The study shall then devote a larger part of the discussion to the causes that brought English to its present position as an international language. Finally, the study shall look at the consequences of this development, particularly the effects on other languages. Also, the study may include a brief look at the future of English. Can it be overtaken by other languages, i.e. Mandarin, given the present shifts in global politics? The paper shall seek to provide holistic answers to fulfil the reader's understanding of English's development and future as a universal language.

Background - A Brief History of English Language

English was brought to Britain by Germanic hordes, a combination of Anglo and Old-Saxon dialects. Prior to the arrival of the Germanic settlers, the natives of what is now part of the United Kingdom spoke a combination of Latin and Celtic dialects, a holdover from the Roman occupation. English as a language developed with nomadic invasions, particularly seeing changes in pronunciation or the addition of new words. This is a dynamic feature of the English language - its ability to adapt and absorb when put in contact with other languages - that is particularly significant in its later development as an international language.

The "modern" form of English that serves as the basis for the contemporary form of the language began only in 1550. Shakespeare, therefore, may seem difficult to understand for contemporary readers, and yet his English is already the most familiar yet historical form of the language available. The spread of English, in a nutshell, begins with the development of British colonialism. By the time the American colonies gained independence from the Crown, English was no longer a monopoly of the British. It was, by far, a language used, adapted and embraced by millions worldwide.

Romaine writes of an error made by the remarkable Winston Churchill, who entitled his tome, "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples". His book was on a history of the English (or the British, in general) people and was published in 1956. The problem, however, is that by the time he wrote the book, "English-speaking peoples" could refer to people completely separate and different from the British/English. "The demographic shift in the English-speaking population had already moved away from Britain, and the unity of the language whose history had once centred on an island was forever broken."

By the time British colonialism ended, the language had made its way to all corners of the world. "English explorers and colonists had spread the language to the farthest reaches of the Empire on which the sun was alleged never to set." Their presence and policies had made enough of an impact to catapult the English language into its global position. Colonialism was not, of course, the end point of English's development into an international (if not "the" international) language. It was, however, a particularly significant starting point.

Causes

Continuing from the earlier discussion, it cannot be denied that British colonialism was undoubtedly one of the primary causes behind the transformation of English into a global language. Ferguson argues that, "the spread and decline of languages is causally linked to the power and the fortunes of their speakers rather than to any properties of the language code." It is not that English is particularly pleasant to the ears, or easier to study. Its spread can be chalked up to the power that was and still remains in the hands of its primary speakers: the British colonial masters and the present day American behemoth.

When the British established a settlement in the "New World", there were approximately five to seven million speakers who had English as their mother tongue. Between that period and the years following the 2nd World War, however, the number had swelled to about 150 million, four-fifths of whom are not living in Great Britain. The period in between - the height and eventual decline of the British Empire and colonialism in general - was particularly crucial to the spreading of the English language from the isles to millions of speakers abroad.

The idea that British colonialism was the catalyst behind the spread of English cannot be incorrect. However, it is wise to point out that it is by far not the first (or potentially the last) language to be spread to other cultures by virtue of conquest. The Romans brought Latin to the ancient world, influencing the choice of language of the local elites for centuries. Aramaic, Arabian, Spanish, Mayan and French are but a few examples of military conquests resulting in the spread of the dominant party's lingua franca. That English lasted more than the other languages of conquerors can be viewed as largely tied to the fact that the United States remains the world's greatest superpower to this day.

There are two primary ways by which the British Empire contributed to English's development as a world language: "firstly, through the export of speakers to territories in Australasia and North America, where they established permanent settlements and subjugated indigenous populations, forming in due course new communities of native speakers; and secondly, through the colonisation of territories in Asia, Africa and Oceania, where indigenous populations - or at least an elite sector of them - learnt English not so much because they were compelled but mainly because they perceived its acquisition as socially and economically advantageous."

The lengthy quote above simply notes that the English language travelled primarily through the export of native speakers overseas, as in the case of settlers and overseers brought to new colonies. Second, English became a necessity and a symbol of social status within native circles in colonies. The native elite learned to align themselves with the colonial masters, and learning the language is therefore a significant tool to get ahead. Given these two reasons, British colonialism truly planted the seeds that made English a global language. Without the power of the Crown and the arrival of settlers in nearly every corner of the world, the distribution and evolution of English into an international language would not have been possible.

Kachru describes this spread of English using the "Three Circle" model. He explains that there are three concentric circles: the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle - circles that represent "the type of spread, the patterns of acquisition and the functional domains in which English is used across cultures and languages." Essentially, the countries that have English as the primary native language are in the Inner Circle, while those in the Outer Circle are countries that have colonial histories with the British and the Americans. English is not necessarily the only language here; the natives are often bilingual though English remains significant and used in majority of literature, culture and professional fields. Lastly, the Expanding Circle refers to the significance of English as a language for international communication, knowledge and technology.

Speaking of science and technology, here is another cause behind the spread of English and its development as an international language. Whether or not the United States and Great Britain lose their "power" and "prestige" on the global stage in the coming years, it is true that English will remain a significant and important language. This is due to the fact that it is currently already the language of choice for science and technology, and anyone who wishes to understand and utilise this knowledge will have to know English. Sano calls it the lingua franca of science, as the last decade has seen as increase in the use of English as the language used in journal papers, reports, theses, etc.

But English does not end with simply its presence across continents. It has not remained static; rather English all over the world has developed into several different "versions". Mesthrie and Bhatt noted that these are now known as "New Englishes", with particular reference to the use of the plural term for "English". This is to show that though the base may be English, these hybrid forms possess each of their own distinct characteristics that make them different. They may all have English in common, but linguistic and cultural factors affect the adaptability of the language and often result in borrowed words and different pronunciation.

Specifically, these "new Englishes" refer to in non-traditional English-speaking areas such as the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Asian Englishes are particularly known, i.e. Hong Kong English, Singapore English, Philippine English, etc. These former colonies (the Philippines was colonised by Americans) received English instruction, and have been inevitably marked with the necessity of the language. Crystal notes, however, that, "We must expect to find an evolving linguistic distinctiveness in China, Egypt, Sweden and the other 120 or so countries where English has status only as a 'foreign language'". This simply means that English's dynamism has enabled it to exist in countries beyond the original circles, due perhaps to necessity or interest, and that in each country it is able to find distinctiveness as the natives mix the language with its own tongue and culture. This is the reason why "world/new Englishes" exist at all.

Most important of all, globalisation played a particularly significant role in solidifying the status of English as a global language. The Internet, in particular, has been very important in the development of English as a world tongue. Despite recent changes in the profile of the ordinary Internet user (i.e. no longer concentrated in European and North American countries), English remains one of the primary online languages, as nearly every site offers an English language equivalent in order to cater to a larger market. The opening of the world to new avenues of communication has further solidified English's status as a global language.

Consequences

Having discussed the role of British colonialism, necessity and globalisation in the development of English as a global language, it is now time to discuss the consequences of such a status. There is, of course, the positive outcome of such a status; English has become near universal and it has helped bridged many different nations with varying backgrounds and native languages. Unfortunately, English's status as a global language also has negative and potentially dangerous consequences. There are considerable risks and actual existing problems that have resulted from English's status as a global language.

One particular consequence is the dichotomy of languages according to the social gap. As the colonial era has left the local elite more inclined to study English, it may result in a purely monolingual elite class that looks down on the local language. The Philippines, for example, has a local elite that would prefer to speak English than the national language, Filipino. Many, in fact, are sent to preparatory schools that focus on "English only" campaigns that train the tongue towards a more "American" accent. English becomes a social symbol, and the local language is left in the dust. People who cannot speak English (or speak only Philippine English) are made fun of and viewed as lesser in social status.

Another serious consequence is language death, which Crystal emphasises. "A person needs only one language to talk to someone else." This saying points out the reality that although bilingual (or even multilingual) countries exist, eventually, speakers will favour one language over another, resulting in the eventual demise of the language. Granted, this is a more sinister and overt possibility during the earlier colonial times, when the forced instruction of English left children in colonies unable to use their native tongue to learn.

Conclusion

English's status as a global language is a product of several factors. It was spread throughout the globe by British expansionism during the colonial period. The "fortune" of its native speakers determines its longevity, and as the United States remains a global superpower, English remains a significant language, particularly in international diplomacy, science and technology, education, etc. More importantly, globalisation and the development of the Internet have also contributed to English's present status. With English as a "common ground" for many people regardless of nationality, it becomes the unifying language online that nearly ever Internet user can understand. Consequences of too much "English" can be dire, but only if the natives agree to sacrifice their own tongue for a global one.

References

Bolton, K. "World Englishes," The Handbook of Applied Linguistics, A. Davies and C. Elder, eds., West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.367-396.

Bruthiaux, P. "Squaring the Circles: Issues in Modelling English Worldwide," International Journal of Applied Linguistics, vol.13 no.2, pp.159-178.

Crystal, D. English as a Global Language. Massachusetts, USA: Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. "Into the Twenty-First Century," The Oxford History of English. L. Mugglestone, ed. New York, USA: Oxford University Press, pp.394-413.

Evans, S. "The Introduction of English-language Education in Early Colonial Hong Kong," History of Education, vol.37 no.3, pp.383-408.

Evans, S. "The Medium of Instruction in Hong Kong Revisited: Policy and Practice in the Reformed Chinese and English Streams," Research Papers in Education, pp.1-22.

Evans, S. "Business as Usual: The Use of English in the Professional World in Hong Kong," English for Specific Purposes, pp.1-15.

Fennell, B. A History of English: A Socio-linguistic Approach. MA, USA: Blackwell Publishing.

Ferguson, G. Language Planning and Education. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

Free Writing Help. Seven Secrets of Perfect Academic Writing and School Research. Online: https://freewritinghelp.com/secrets-school-writing

Graddol, D. English Next. UK: British Council.

Mesthrie, R. and R. Bhatt. World Englishes: The Study of New Linguistic Varieties. Massachusetts, USA: Cambridge University Press.

Rajadurai, J. "Revisiting the Concentric Circles: Conceptual and Socio-linguistic Considerations," Asian EFL Journal, vol. 7 issue 4, pp.111-130.

Romaine, S. "Global English: From Island Tongue to World Language," The Handbook of the History of English. Ans van Kemenade and Bettelou Los, eds. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sano, H. "The World's Lingua Franca of Science," English Today, 72 vol. 18 no. 4, pp. 45-49.

Spolsky, B. Language Policy. Massachusetts, USA: Cambridge University Press.

Explain the concepts of 1) indexing, 2) abstracting, 3) classification in terms of reducing search time and search space to aid in real-world information seeking activities. Support your answers with appropriate literature and academic references.

Searching: indexing, abstracting, and classification

INTRODUCTION

In academic terms, success often means besting others or, failing that perhaps, the appearance of besting others. This microcosm of a larger culture that often mistakes contention for elucidation means it can become easy to spend most of our time arguing over small details and becoming entrenched in minutiae. That is not to say that contentions are not important! Small details can have sweeping effects! Though many outsiders tend to believe that the stakes in librarianship are small, those on the inside know better. However, librarians are people too, to embrace the cliché, and can be distracted from important foundational issues as much as any other people passionate about their work.

In the worlds of indexing, abstracting, and classification, a current distraction is the glittering surface of whether or not librarians are obsolete in these arenas. Though Salisbury and others dispense with the idea, it is a "contention" often used in headlines (including Salisbury's) and lay articles that leaves many with the impression that the question is asked and answered. Many "techies" believe that librarians are obsolete, or virtually so, and many laypeople casually agree. After all, there are no ends to the software that instantly catalog an entire electronic work, then you just search for the words you want and you are home free! The same layperson will then find themselves spitting nails having searched for their problem seven times, only to find that Facebook's and Tumblr's "help" pages lead to more dead links and unhelpful (and unrelated) suggestions than a listing of MySpace pages from 2001. If that layperson calls tech services, they may well reach someone who wonders what sort of person is unable to fix something so simple.

What is missing in these interactions are the smoothing qualities of librarianship, particularly indexing, abstracting, and classification, though I suspect that many people who would be credulous at the idea of abstracting major Web sites would be delighted to have those sites professionally abstracted with something other than sales blurbs praising the company. Perhaps most people get what they are looking for most of the time, with the aid of friends and forums alike. As much as one might enjoy the feeling of having done it oneself, how much more would one enjoy the feeling of having done it oneself the first time? This is a key element of indexing, abstracting, and classification, especially with electronic information, when they are done and done well, they are virtually invisible to average end user, who often assumes their own skills got them there. The increased emphasis on electronic sources works best when it is understood that the methods are changing, but the goals remain the same.

But what are indexing, abstracting, and classification, and how to they make searching easier, i.e. more efficient?

INDEXING

Of the three concepts, it is probably the case that people in the United States become aware of indexing second, after classification. It is discussed early in grade school, and children are taught to use indexes as a means of doing research on a specific topic. Later, students learn that a good quality index, like a quality contents page, can give someone a good idea of what a book will contain and guide readers toward making choices between texts or prioritizing their research. But not even academic researchers seem to give much thought to how those indexes came to be, even as they move through the library stacks, flipping books open to the back and considering the book's value to their own work based entirely on the index, using mere seconds or minutes to choose the best texts to inform their work or teach their students, instead of the hours that would have to be invested if they needed to read each text to ascertain its contents and relevance.

Indexing, when done manually, is the process by which an informed reader iterates through a work and determines the key concepts of the text, represents them through an alphabetized system that refers back to their location in the text. The informed reader is informed by an awareness of the subject itself, thus indexers often specialize in legal, medical, humanities, engineering, and other fields. They are also made informed by their knowledge of the indexing process, and finally, they are informed by their understanding of the future readers of the text itself. A good index reflects all of this information, and performs this work for the end users, much as the power train in a car starts it when the driver merely turns a key. Software synthesizes the work of the living indexer with varying degrees of quality, depending on the software.

The indexer's awareness of a subject area means that they will know a variety of the terms used to refer to a given subject, as well as related concepts. This can be applied to indexing in either unique entries and in "see" and "see also" entries. A potential reader or researcher can determine at a glance whether a text has 1) enough of 2) the right information. Whether flipping through the back of a book in one's hands or using an electronic search engine, indexers can also help a researcher define their terms to either narrow or expand the search as appropriate. "See" and "see also" entries, often have an "a ha!" effect, wherein a researcher suddenly "realizes" that there are more fruitful search options available. The indexer is usually invisible in this process, as is evidenced by the rarity of hearing a researcher say, "Then the indexer showed me that I had been using the wrong terms."

ABSTRACTING

Abstracting is the process of synthesizing the contents of an article in pre-set number of words. Abstracts can be any number of lengths, but most fall between forty and two hundred words. Abstracts are used in different ways. In some cases, they are the only portion of a text that is indexed for online searches. In other cases, they are being manually perused for indications of their value to a potential researcher.

Because abstracts are sometimes the only indexed portion of an article, and because many researchers will limit their electronic searches to terms in the abstract, a quality abstract will include as many of the keyword terms from the text as possible. To give an unlikely example, if an article on dogs only calls them "puppies", the wise abstractor will be sure to include the term "puppies", even though it is nonstandard, along with subject area appropriate terms. A quality abstract can spare researches the wasted time of reviewing works wherein an author might include several anecdotes about dog breeding in a work that is actually about teaching multiplication. A keyword search on "dogs" might show that dogs were mentioned seven times in such an article, making it appear relevant to a researcher and moving other works further down the results list. However, an abstract search would exclude this result, as it is not actually a work about dogs.

Whether reducing the number of unrelated search results, improving the overall quality of returns, or providing a brief synopsis of a larger work, quality abstracting saves researchers time and effort, and like indexing, can provide guideposts for how to limit or expand future searches. A quality abstract not only reduces search time for the present search, it can teach and train users for more efficient future searching.

CLASSIFICATION

Library classification is the first ordering system with which most users become acquainted. The relationship with classification has changed, but the claim that classification has been "almost forgotten by contemporary librarians" is untrue. Even casual readers will learn quickly where their favorite books are, even if they do actively realize that the rest of the books in the library are organized as carefully. Classification can help the researcher but it is particularly useful to the browser. By placing material about similar subject, by the same author, or in a similar format in close physical proximity, the end user is able to review a large number of related texts more quickly. Classification, in the physical plane, allows both the researcher and the browser the delight of a "find". Again, the cataloger like the indexer and abstracter is invisible. Readers feel the joy of discovery, never realizing that the entire library has been mapped and that they traverse on the carefully groomed trails made by catalogers with their best interests in mind.

Classification saves time whether one is browsing or researching, whether those are occurring in the stacks or electronically. Classification allows someone who is searching to exclude or identify at a glance that some of the returns for a search on dogs are in the fiction or poetry sections, and will therefore not provide information about breed specific illnesses or methods of grooming standard poodles. Classification allows a browser to go the section where poetry is shelved, and find new poets to read in mere moments, whereas books placed on the shelves randomly, or even alphabetically by author irrespective of contents, would make that a far more laborious task.

CONCLUSION

That these are electronic processes first often feels "obvious" to academics or researchers. However, most readers, whatever their use of electronic searches and results, still also browse stacks, prioritize the physical interaction with texts, and even exclusively electronic users benefit from the extant systems that were born out of the physical world and the culture that shaped it. Further, both in the US and globally, electronic sources are less ubiquitous than many who enjoy them realize. Thanuskodi found that most of the researchers at one university in the sciences (70%) and social sciences (85%) had not used the Internet before joining the university. Further, even within the U.S. the reception that electronic sources receive is heavily dependent on a variety of factors, many of which are still unknown. A positive reception, even among different groups of college students, is not guaranteed.

Abstracting, classification, and indexing, are all culturally embedded systems of organization that are physical manifestations of our cultural, social, and personal relationships to ideas. For the end user, these systems and the people behind them are usually invisible, even more so when they function well. These systems form maps upon which texts are laid, and with which people can choose a variety of routes through which to travel. Road maps reveal routes to their users which may be the fastest, the most scenic, the least expensive, or whatever other expectations a traveler might have. Abstracting, classification, and indexing, whether in the stacks or in the search engine, allow a researcher or browser to make their searching more efficient, in terms of both speed and accuracy, by deprioritizing the extraneous and highlighting the necessary. In fact, it could be said that whatever their processes, these efficiencies are their only goals.

References

Bland, R.N. and Stoffan, M.A. Returning classification to the catalog. Information Technology and Libraries, 27(3), 55-60.

Essay Forum. The Importance of Public Libraries to Students and Society. Online: https://essayforum.com/writing/public-libraries-function-humans-redundant-67598/

Machovec, G. and Strauch, K.. In the company of librarians. Searcher, 20(1), 28-33.

Mullvihill, A.. NFAIS: Studying academic user behavior. Information Today, 28(6).

Salisbury, L.. Is there a future for the traditional abstracting and indexing services? Agricultural Information Worldwide 3(2).

Thanuskodi, S.. Internet use by researchers: A study of Annamalai University. Library Philosophy and Practice, April.

Ethical Company

PART 1 COMPANY PLAN

Company Name

The proposed company name is "Andrey and Writing Team Computing Services." This name is ethical because it directly references the participants in the company (including the owner and the workers), and because the name is not being used by any other company, preventing any potential trademark violations. This is consistent with the ACM Code of Practice Principle 1.6 (respect for intellectual property).

Company Logo

The company logo will be a stylized star logo, representing a star network configuration. A graphic designer will create the logo, and the contract will specify intellectual property ownership. It will also be designed to ensure that the logo does not overlap with any existing logos. This is consistent with the ACM Code of Practice Principle 1.6 (respect for intellectual property).

Company Mission

The company mission will be:

Andrey and Writing Team Computing Services provides quality networking, hardware, and software services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals at a fair price, supports employees and local business, and practices responsible sourcing practices.

This company mission is ethical because it takes into account multiple stakeholder groups (employees, customers, suppliers, and the firm itself), balancing as far as possible within the realm of influence of a small business for the needs of each group.

Services Provided

The services provided will be targeted to individuals and small and medium sized businesses. Services will include hardware assembly and repair; network design, installation and maintenance; and custom computing services. Employees will have formal certifications (such as A+, Network+, MCSE, and other appropriate certifications to the areas where they work). These services are ethical because they focus on providing for customer needs for the specific market at the highest possible level while retaining cost-effective service. These services are also consistent with the ACM Code of Practice Principles 2.1 and 2.2.

An additional service level that will be provided will be a Computer Clinic. This program will operate one day per week (with employees working no more than one extra day per month). It will pair local high school students interested in computer services as a career with technicians who will provide hands-on training and mentorship. During this time, the company will provide free or low-cost computer repair and upgrade services to local non-profit agencies and low-income people. This is an ethical service because it provides support at multiple levels for the local community as stakeholders, including support for youth development and other community needs. Employees will be paid for this service in order to avoid inappropriately taking advantage of them. This program is consistent with the first principle of the ACM Code of Ethics.

Code of Ethics

Andrey and Writing Team will operate under the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Practice in its entirety. This code of ethics was chosen because it is comprehensive in terms of its ethical requirements, but is also consistent with the ethical goals and capabilities of the small business. There will be no changes made to the ACM code of ethics for application within the company, and all company employees will be required to comply with the code.

Ethics Training Program

The firm's ethics training program will focus on the areas identified in the ACM Code of Practice, such as general ethical requirements, requirements of practice (including training, knowledge, and competence; duties to customers; and duties to the community in general). This training program will be completed on a semi-annual schedule, including comprehensive training for new employees (if any) and refresher training for all existing employees. This training will include the owner of the firm. An outside firm will be contracted for the training in order to avoid conflicts of interest.

Employer/Employee Grievance Policy

There will be two levels of employer/employee grievance policy. The first level will be an open-door policy maintained by all managers in the firm, which will allow employees to address issues directly at any level of the firm. The second level of grievance policy will involve an outside agency (a contracted Employee Assistance Program) to handle multiple types of employee issues, such as grievances as well as finding other types of assistance where required.

PART 2 OTHER ETHICAL POLICIES

One of the major ethical policies (the CSR policy of the computer clinic) has been outlined. Another ethical policy that will be put into place is a responsible sourcing policy, which will as far as possible enforce that the firm buys hardware from companies with strong manufacturing oversight and that use employee responsibility requirements and auditing for overseas factories, and that have strong environmental control practices. This is intended to reduce the negative effects of the firm's operation on global populations and on the environment.

PART 3 SCENARIO ANALYSIS

The scenario posited is that a high-ranking employee has left for a job at a competitor, and on inspection of file records it is found that the former employee has taken a copy of the grievance policy, mission document, list of company clients, documentation of sales and accounting business processes, and an internal memo detailing next year's sales goals. The question is what should be done about this and how it can be handled. First, it is unlikely that the firm has any significant basis for legal action, nor would pursuing such a legal action be in the best interests of the firm or its customers. Instead, the action to be taken must focus on changing and adapting internal practice in order to perform damage control and prevent recurrence.

The consequentialist ethical approach will be used to address this issue, due to the need to consider the consequences of the employee's actions rather than an absolute moral position. In this case, the accidental release of the grievance policy, mission document, and documentation of sales and accounting processes are unlikely to pose significant harm to the firm. In particular, these policies are not likely to be highly different than the firm's competitor's policies. However, the release of sales figures and list of company clients is potentially harmful, given that this is a major factor in the firm's strategy and its current business practices.

The first remediation that should be taken is to ask the company lawyer to write a letter formally requesting the return of the information assets from the ex-employee. This is likely to resolve the problem with a minimum of legal involvement and difficulty for all concerned while minimizing harm. The second remediation that should be taken is that the firm's information control policies should be adjusted. In particular, process and procedural documents should be controlled only to those that require them, and detailed sales figures should not be released to the entire company. Instead, information should be released in a way that both provides information appropriate to the firm employee's requirements and that protects the firm's interests. A final remediation is that high-ranking employees should be placed on leave if they offer their notice without providing other reasons, or if these reasons are likely to place the company at risk. This will protect the firm without negatively affecting employees with good intentions. These actions are the most ethical approach to remediating the damage from the current issue and preventing a recurrence.

References

ACM. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. From Association for Computing Machinery.

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J.. Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. Mason, OH: Cengage.

Cyber-Abuse and Online Social Media Communication

The advent of Web 2.0 and the consequent emergence of social media have irrevocably transformed the nature of human communication, creating social networks which are unprecedentedly broad and divergent from normative, interpersonal relationships in numerous ways. While social media is heralded for affording voice to previously vulnerable populations throughout the global community, it has also been condemned by those who target the media as potentially detrimental to human society, creating conditions through which human relationships are characterized by quantity over quality. More saliently, research on social media has highlighted the ways in which criminal behavior is influenced by online communities, with the ability to create an online identity relatively easily, seek out information on individuals using only very limited information, and facilitate relationships with individuals through social media generating a new and thus dangerous form of criminal stalking behavior. This review of literature focuses on the most popular type of social media in the Western World, namely the famed social networking site Facebook, and a narrow type of cyber-abuse known as cyberstalking. In reviewing the recent and relevant literature on these issues, this inquiry seeks to answer the following research questions using literature review as the methodology:

- What is the changing nature of social media in the twenty-first century?

- How can Facebook be contextualized within the broader social media landscape?

- To what extent is cyberstalking an issue on Facebook, and what populations have been most harmed by this particular type of criminal behavior?

- What recommendations can be made regarding privacy and security issues on Facebook in order to reduce or prevent incidences of cyberstalking on Facebook specifically and on other social media sites more broadly?

- What predictions can be made regarding the future of social media and the implications for cyberstalking behavior in the global community?

Given the relatively recent advent of social media in general and the exponential increase of Facebook's popularity, the research regarding cyberstalking on the social networking site is relatively minimal, which renders this study particularly pertinent to professionals working within the sociological, psychological, and criminological fields.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Prior to examination of the literature focusing upon the aforementioned issues, it is crucial to accurately define cyberstalking, as a recently developed behavior which was birthed in parallel with the World Wide Web. There is a wide range of cyber-abusive behaviors, with cyber-bulling receiving the most attention in empirical research due to its impact on younger, vulnerable populations. Piotrowski and Lathrop describe cyberstalking as follows:

Cyberstalking has emerged as a new form of stalking. Cyberstalking is largely viewed as inappropriate, unwanted social exchange behaviors initiated by a perpetrator via online or wireless communication technology and devices. The proliferation of Smart phones and social networking has exacerbated the incidence of cyberstalking, and related cyber-abuse behaviors, over the past 5 years.

The authors cite that the limited research highlighting the nature of cyberstalking has profiled the typical cyberstalker; s/he is educated, tending to perform well academically, over the age of sixteen, and prone to internet addiction. The most typical cyberstalker and cyberstalking victim is a college student, according to Piotrowski and Lathrop, with the researchers highlighting that evidence from nations external to United States borders regarding this type of criminal behavior is very limited. While cyberstalking emerged prior to social media, the role of social media in facilitating cyberstalking is notable. The following section provides a broad overview of social networking sites, affording particular attention to accurately contextualizing Facebook within the broader dimension of social networks.

Understanding Social Networking Sites

While all social networking sites fall under the categorical umbrella of social media, not all forms of social media are social networking sites; these terms are often used inaccurately as interchangeable. Social media can be framed as file-sharing sites such as YouTube or Instagram, micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, community gaming sites such as World of Warcraft, and social networking sites such as MySpace or the far more popular Facebook. Lin et al. cites that Facebook is the most exponentially growing social networking site in the world, with global membership mounting to 500 million from 350 million in less than seven months in 2010. Founded less than one decade ago, Facebook has become a genuine force in human social communication, with behavioral patterns of particular interest to researchers in a wide range of fields.

In conceiving of social networking's impact on the global community, it is critical to highlight the ways in which communication is affected by these networks. Lin et al. cites that Web 2.0 technology permits the creation and fluid exchange of information. User-generated content then allows for communications to be multi-directional in the online space. Lin et al. cites that "because of the intrinsic nature of humans, users are not likely to exhibit a single or simple behavior. Thus, the understanding of features of individual users' behavioral patterns in social media is of immense importance...". Facebook's most important functions are the user's wall, status update, news feed, and notifications, all of which facilitate actions between those who are "friends" on the site.

Lafferman cites that social media cannot be framed as similar to other web-content, as it creates communications which are entirely divergent from those which characterized the internet prior to Web 2.0 technology. Social media is unique, with internal privacy mechanisms one of the key traits of social networking sites such as Facebook; this renders examination of criminal behaviors on these sites particularly pertinent if the sites are simultaneously boasting privacy settings as a key feature and yet facilitating cyberstalking behavior. Lafferman describes these privacy mechanisms in relation to other distinguishing features of social media as follows:

One distinguishing feature is that social media has internal privacy mechanisms. These mechanisms give the user a range of privacy options, from making all of their information publicly available to restricting access to an exclusive group of predetermined users. The ability to limit access on social media differs from the generally open nature of the Internet. While private blogs and web pages may offer this opportunity to users, these forums do not offer another distinguishing social media characteristic: the sheer number of people participating in a structured online community with each user possessing identical web capabilities. The third difference between social media and other Internet platforms is the public expectations of these forums. Many see social media platforms as an extension of their social life in the material world. These three dissimilarities create a unique challenge for applying the public figure doctrine in the social media context.

The evolution of social networking sites has been fueled largely by these distinguishing features, with the exponential growth of Facebook membership during recent years highlighting how Facebook, additionally, diverges from other social networking sites. The following section explores the progression of social networking sites toward their current role in the twenty-first century.

The Progression of Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites have shifted considerably since their inception, marked generally by progression toward significantly greater user membership; this, in turn, has allowed social networks to become integral to political campaigns, large-scale social and political movements in the developed and developing world alike, and the creation of a global community concerned with human rights and sustainability issues. Cocheo asserts that social media's current role in the economic dimension is paramount, with organizations forced to engage regularly in social media in order to sustain competitive advantage. Stuart highlights that while social networking technology has not advanced substantially since the advent of social media in general, it has been the exponentially increasing popularity that has fueled the changing impact had by the media on society; the same author suggests that as millions of users engage in social media, criminal behavior on these sites will continue to increase.

Riedel cites that the conditions which drive internet safety have not evolved at the same rate as social networking's popularity; this has allowed for cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and other incidences of cyber abuse to continue to increase. Like stalking, bullying is a longstanding behavior that has affected human society historically, but the nature of social networks has transformed the ease with which these behaviors are carried out (Riedel). The evidence suggests that twenty-five percent of high school students between 2006 and 2007 knew someone who had been cyber-bullied, with thirty-two percent of the same population admitting to communicating something hurtful on social networks.

Agosto, Forte, and Magee cite that while the evidence regarding the danger of social media for vulnerable populations may be slightly exaggerated, it remains that these environments do require a new form of defensive behavior: "As a whole, research is converging to suggest that although there are indeed privacy and security risks associated with social media use, they are not markedly higher than the risks of most everyday activities in the offline world." The same authors characterize cyberstalking as a falling under the categorical umbrella of cyber-bulling, as do harassment, denigration of character, impersonation, and exclusion. The authors cite that the same protections had by social networking sites such as Facebook against one of these behaviors will impact all of them, with similar social forces behind the behavior itself. Overall, the progression of social networking toward the support of broad, social networks and mounting worldwide membership has created changes in access for criminals to victims. The following section explores the dominant security and privacy concerns relative to Facebook, specifically, affording particular attention to attempts to counter privacy issues.

Facebook Security and Privacy Concerns

Concerns regarding Facebook's security and privacy issues are not new; they surfaced generally in parallel with the advent of the site. Facebook emerged as an effort to promote exclusivity within social networks via Web 2.0 media; this was unique in that other sites such as MySpace allowed broad access to user profiles and very minimal privacy protections. Mathiyalakan, Heilman, and White cite the following as rationale for their examination of privacy issues on Facebook:

Research shows that Facebook profile data tends to mirror the user's actual traits rather than an idealized version of the self. Such usage of Facebook can lead to unwanted information disclosure that can be harmful to the user if proper privacy settings are not used. In effect, a user could share private information such as name, address, contact information, gender, birthdate, views and affiliations with everyone without intending to so.

Facebook's privacy settings permit users to control access to their information, with a common criticism of the site being that default options permit too-open access to user profiles and promote vulnerability for those who do not know how to control their privacy settings.

Ardito cites that privacy settings on Facebook are informed significantly by economic motives, as user preferences, or "likes" are publically available information. Marketing revenue is a substantial profit stream for the site, and the default privacy settings may well be linked to marketing motives. Ardito highlights that several cases of cyber-abuse on Facebook have been linked to information brokers, or those who seek out information regarding people, businesses, and other entities in order to sell the information or data for profit. The following section explores specific cases of cyber-stalking that have been linked to privacy issues on Facebook during recent years.

Cyberstalking Incidences on Facebook

The Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) emerged in 1989, grounding their principles in a code of ethics stipulating that honesty and confidentiality are paramount and no projects should be accepted that compromise the integrity of the profession (Ardito). Prior to the advent of Facebook, the most publicized case of cyberstalking was related to information brokerage, with Remburg v. Docusearch, with the latter party successfully sued after Amy Boyer was cyberstalked by her former high school classmate through Docusearch, an information brokerage company, and shot and killed by her stalker in 1999. O'Brien and Torres cite that Facebook made its most recent changes to privacy settings in 2010 in order to combat the ability of criminals to garner information about users, but these changes have not been particularly effective in combating cyberstalking according to East Carolina University. Hane cites that the recent changes to Facebook's security settings were fueled by a European movement targeting the site's provision of information to businesses for marketing purposes.

ECU cites that Facebook permits cyberstalking through several features despite privacy settings; these include the ability to trace the user easily through status updates. ECU cites that recent cases of cyberstalking have included the posting of sexually offensive images, attaching spyware to emails, and generally tracking victims by becoming "friends" with the victim and using posted information to trace him/her. ECU cites that recent cases include an incidence within which a fifty year-old man was rejected by a young woman, with him retaliating by posting her information garnered through social networks all over the internet. Additionally, a Federal agent was charged with cyberstalking when he made use of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) database to track the activities of an ex-girlfriend. Finally, a case of cyberstalking on Facebook occurred through which an ex-boyfriend solely used the social network to track his ex-girlfriend and send her continuously threatening messages before posting nude photographs of her.

The National White Collar Crime Center cites that typical cyberstalkers are similar to traditional stalkers in that most are male with mood disorders and histories of substance abuse. Victims are very typically female, with most victims having a history of face-to-face contact with their stalkers. In 2009, Shawn Memarian plead guilty to stalking a woman he had dated for just over one month, with the stalking lasting over two years; during this time, the stalker posted the victim's personal information routinely, citing that she performed sexual favors. In 2012, James Allen used Facebook to demand communication from multiple young women, asserting that if they did not send him nude photos of themselves, he would target their family members maliciously. In most of these instances, Facebook's privacy settings did little to protect the victims, as "messaging" is still allowed from new users and those outside of the "friends" network.

Facebook Features, Security Risks, and Key Recommendations

Posing the greatest security risk are the default privacy settings on Facebook and the ability of "friends" to not actually be members of the individual's social network; the typical user on Facebook has hundreds of friends and very often only knows most of them casually. The cases of cyberstalking have highlighted, additionally, that the messaging capability that is permitted to any Facebook user who does not specifically change his/her privacy settings allows for negative communications to be sent. Mensch and Wilkie cite that security risks on social networking sites will persist, as human advancement in criminal behavior tends to occur more rapidly than security protections against the behavior.

Hane argues that increased regulations must be instilled external to Facebook itself, as the internal mechanisms for accountability and security protections are insufficient. In making recommendations for how to address the most dominant security risks on Facebook and other social media, the same author suggests that it is information access which must be addressed, with significant data on Facebook publically available and thus potentially publically owned.

CONCLUSIONS

In returning to the research questions, the changing nature of social media in the twenty-first century has warranted that security protections be enhanced in order to combat new forms of criminal behavior such as cyberstalking. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world, with cyberstalking a growing issue on Facebook, with women and younger populations more frequent victims than other populations. The future of social media depends critically on combating cyberstalking through external and internal regulations, with the default settings on Facebook a particularly salient concern. Underage users should have divergent, mandatory privacy settings from adult users, with readily available information for new users regarding how to report and block unwanted communication.

Bibliography

Agosto, D. E., Forte, A., & Magee, R. Cyberbullying and Teens: What YA Librarians Can Do to Help. Young Adult Library Services, 10(2), 38+.

Ardito, S. C. Information Brokers and Cyberstalking. Information Today, 20(5), 17-23.

Bajrektarevic, A. H. Is There Life after Facebook? - Addendum the Cyber Gulag Revisited & Debate Reloaded. Review of Contemporary Philosophy, 11, 125-134.

Banerjee, N., & Dey, A. K. Identifying the Factors Influencing Users' Adoption of Social Networking Websites-A Study on Facebook. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 5(6), 109-127.

Cocheo, S. Shred Your Marketing Beliefs at the Door: As Community Banks Explore Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin, Fresh Thinking Helps. Social Media Marketing Is Different. ABA Banking Journal, 101(6), 12-19.

ECU. Cyberstalking. Facebook in the Spotlight. Information Today, 29(7), 8. 5.

Lafferman, M. Do Facebook and Twitter Make You a Public Figure? How to Apply the Gertz Public Figure Doctrine to Social Media. Santa Clara Computer & High Technology Law Journal, 29(1), 199-202.

Lin, J. Y., Le, A. N., Khalil, S., & Cheng, J. M. Social Media Usage and Work Values: The Example of Facebook in Taiwan. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 40(2), 195-202.

Mathiyalakan, S., Heilman, G., & White, S. Gender Differences in Student Attitude toward Privacy in Facebook. Communications of the IIMA, 13(4), 35-44.

Mensch, S., & Wilkie, L. Information Security Activities of College Students: An Exploratory Study. Academy of Information and Management Sciences Journal, 14(2), 91-110.

Moo, K. Face2face: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Tools to Create Great Customer Connections. Journal of Library Innovation, 4(1), 71-89.
National White Collar Crime Center. Cyberstalking. 1-8.

O'Brien, D., & Torres, A. M. Social Networking and Online Privacy: Facebook Users' Perceptions. Irish Journal of Management, 31(2), 63-76.

Piotrowski, C., & Lathrop, P. J. Cyberstalking and College-Age Students: A Bibliometric Analysis across Scholarly Databases. College Student Journal, 46(3), 533-544.

Riedel, C. The Fight against Cyberbullying: As Tales of Online Cruelty Mount, Districts Are Trying a Mix of Prevention and Punishment, Incorporating Internet Safety into Curriculum and Tightening Student Conduct Codes. T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 35(5), 20-34.

Stuart, R. Science of Social Media: The Prevalence and Ever-Changing Nature of Social Media Is Both a Benefit to and Problem for Students and Universities. Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 31(6), 18-23.

Williams, J., Feild, C., & James, K. The Effects of a Social Media Policy on Pharmacy Students' Facebook Security Settings. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 75(9)

Improving standards in American education requires stakeholders to consider the lessons available in the study of historical reform efforts, the question of what the purpose of education should be, and the pros and cons of using the standards based reform associated with the No Child Left Behind Act. In this paper, such questions are addressed with reference to the insights of several scholars whose work demonstrates the many mechanisms that are at work to influence student outcomes. After analyzing the various factors, a plan will be outlined, and that plan can be summarized in the following way: 1.) Standards need to be raised without destroying teacher morale, and 2.) Because of the complexity of the challenge at hand, the scope of education should be limited such that it is protected from ambiguity and corruption.

Review of Pertinent Literature

WHY ALL THE PANACEAS? (HUNT)

The title of this section comes from a question posed by Thomas Hunt, who asks why we keep trying to find quick-fix "panaceas" when history shows that they do not work. He observes that the history of American education is full of what we thought to be cure-alls that would immediately correct all problems, pointing out that even the establishment of the common school, itself, was expected to be a reform that would eradicate crime and ensure prosperity for the nation. He concludes, "A more modest expectation of what schools can accomplish would seem to be in order. Human beings, not movements or devices, guarantee progress" (87). Orlich similarly objects to the notion that increased funding, the raising of standards, and strengthened resolve would produce improved student outcomes. Developmental limits are at work to thwart such efforts, he writes.

Likewise, Evan Keliher predicted that a philanthropist's donation of $500 million to American education would not produce any significant results, and she cites evidence to prove that she was right! Keliher asserts, "There has never been an innovation or reform that has helped children learn any better, faster or easier than they did prior to the 20th century" (1). Her idea is to return to simplicity, demanding hard work just as Euclid famously demanded hard work of the Pharaoh whom he tutored in geometry. Keliher calls for "a teacher in front of a chalkboard and a roomful of willing students" (2), and she recommends a model called "direct instruction," which promotes scripted interaction between teacher and students.

If simple hard work, rather than innovations that make students into "lab rats" (Keliher 2), is necessary, the hard work must take place not only in the classroom where teachers teach students but also in the classrooms where teachers are taught their professions. Many Americans agree that education is the institution that is foundational to everything else - eradicating war, conserving natural resources, sustainable development, and so forth - yet the standards (and salaries) for teachers still remain low. This is demonstrated by the fact that even Keliher, a veteran teacher, writes a run-on sentence in the middle of her Newsweek article about education reform: "What baffles me is not that educators implement new policies intended to help kids perform better, it's that they don't learn from others' mistakes" (1).

WHAT SHOULD BE THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION?

Another important consideration is that there is more to education than just the "reading, writing, and arithmetic" emphasized by Keliher. Education is the basis for all social improvement and problem solving. Hooks, a theorist of the feminist tradition, describes theory as a method of healing. She calls for academics to "formulate theory from experience" (82) and reach out to touch the hearts of students and "address their pain" (82). Though her discussion is given in the context of feminism, its truth is applicable to all learning situations - particularly in the field of social science. Thus, one answer to the question of what the purpose of education should be is that it should go beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic and tackle issues associated with the lived experience of students.

Another answer to that question can represent the opposite view; Stanley Fish, former Dean of Education at Florida International University, argues that academics need to stop allowing the lines between academia and activism to blur. He advises teachers to do their jobs, not allow anyone else to do their jobs, and not try to do anyone else's job. He explains that what he means by this is that teachers should not allow themselves to be swayed by politicians, parents, donors of money, or any other stakeholders. Furthermore, teachers need to refrain from trying to change the world while they work; their job is to interpret and make sense of things. This job, he asserts, is big enough for any person or institution. Thus, some scholars believe that the role of education should be limited to interpretation and explanation of subject matter.

This view is supported by the observation that many stakeholders would take advantage of ambiguity in the purpose of education; it is important to keep reform efforts in check to make sure they emerge from good intentions and sound reasoning. Batt writes, "Because education reform debates are highly divisive, complex, and intertwined with deeply rooted cultural, moral, and political issues, they evoke a need for a critical framework capable of addressing moral and political difference at an experiential and descriptive level" (iii). Though a full description of the method he proposes is beyond the scope of this paper, it suffices to describe his approach as one that aims criticism at those who argue about education reform, scrutinizing them to determine what motivating factors are influencing their arguments. He makes an important point when he calls attention to the many motives and deceptions that may be at work, keeping education dysfunctional while stakeholders pursue their own ends.

IS IT SAFE TO RAISE STANDARDS?

McDermott conducted a 2001 study involving review of state documents, more than 60 interviews with state officials and education professionals, and three surveys of Massachusetts educators. Massachusetts was the setting for some of the first efforts to use standards based reform. The extensive study shows that standards based reform, which McDermott explains as being of the same nature as standards based evaluation used in businesses of the private sector, has improved student outcomes in notable ways. Yet, raising standards is a practice that tends to be unpopular with teachers and students alike, who feel that they are being treated unfairly.

Raising standards has inherent benefits and drawbacks - namely, improving outcomes in undeniable ways while also lowering the morale of teachers and students and causing teachers to have to "teach to the test" rather than striving for real learning. Yet, the raising of standards is an unsophisticated measure, like using a hacksaw in place of a scalpel. For example, lifelong educator Kenneth Kastle criticizes both President Obama and Senator John McCain for their failure to consider the socioeconomic factors that interfere with the achievement of improved student outcomes. Socioeconomic factors, cultural bias, and other subtle mechanisms interfere and make an uneven playing field for all involved.

With regard to the tension that is experienced by teachers when change occurs, including the raising of standards, Margolis and Nagel conducted a study to explore their lived experience and understand their perceptions of change. Three major findings are presented:

There is a complex interactive relationship between structures in schools designed to yield certain changes and the lived experiences of teachers within those structures.

Teacher vitality is an important dimension of teacher lived experience and the viability of school reforms.

Teacher role embodiment-the perceived compatibility between a teacher's sense of self and the roles they take on within a school-impacts teacher satisfaction and feelings of self-worth and the viability of school reforms. (147)

Margolis and Nagel conclude, "Investments made in professional development for teachers and administrators that is geared toward increasing awareness and acknowledgement of teacher lived experience will be cost-effective in the long-run. Even the most well-funded and well-researched reform effort will not succeed without teacher buy-in" (148).

So, we have a paradox to cope with as we try to reach higher standards without discouraging teachers. Teachers, like other professionals, can be expected to perform best when they have inspiration, but inspiration is thwarted when teachers are treated in ways that they perceive to be unfair. How can standards be raised without discouraging teachers and students? In the next section, a possible solution to this and other problems will be provided.

A PLAN FOR IMPROVING AMERICAN EDUCATION

Three questions are posed in this paper. One refers to the notion that innovations can provide a quick and sure road to improved student outcomes, and this question is answered by multiple scholars who observe that history has shown that panaceas do not work. Another question refers to the purpose of education, and some scholars wish to see education create real change in the personal lives of students (i.e. Hooks) while others, like Stanley Fish and Shawn Batt, feel that the scope of education should be limited to explanation and interpretation - lest it be corrupted by stakeholders with divergent or unscrupulous motives. The third question refers to the efficacy of using standards based reform, such as that attempted first in Massachusetts and then in the rest of the nation with the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act; while standards based reform has indeed been shown to make a significant difference it also has been shown to lower the spirits of teachers and force them to "teach to the test" rather than accommodating individual student needs. Based on these three areas of inquiry, a plan can be outlined. The plan involves raising standards while taking steps to ensure teacher inspiration:

Standards based reform has proven to be effective, but it also lowers the morale of teachers. Therefore, teachers should be given circumstances that encourage them by positive means rather than negative ones. If teachers could have bonuses when they achieve improved outcomes, rather than just scrutiny and the threat of reduced funding if Adequate Yearly Progress is not met, it might be possible to gain that "teacher buy in" (Margolis and Nagel).

The purpose of education is determined by ongoing legislation as state standards are established and enhanced. Scholars cited in this report, including Stanley Fish and Shawn Batt, make excellent cases for the need to keep stakeholders in check by limiting the scope of education. In fact, the need to limit the scope of education is intertwined with the need to raise standards: by challenging teachers with realistic goals and simultaneously raising standards of achievement, it is possible to refine our focus and produce results that are both measurable and improvable.

Works Cited

Batt, Shawn. "Keeping Company in Controversy: Education Reform, Spheres of Argument, and Ethical Criticism." Argumentation and Advocacy 40.2: iii+.

Fish. "Why We Built the Ivory Tower." New York Times. New York, N.Y.

Hooks. "Out of the Academy and into the Streets." Out of the academy and into the streets. Research Library Core. 80.

Hunt, Thomas C. "Education Reforms: Lessons from History Just as There Is a Widely Held Belief That Our Schools Can Solve Our Society's Problems, Many Education Policy Makers Believe That the Right Reform Strategy Can Solve All of Our Schools' Problems. Mr. Hunt Argues That a Look at the History of Education Reform Might Slow the Rush to Embrace the Next Reform Panacea." Phi Delta Kappan 87.1: 84.

Kastle, Kenneth D. "Educators Must Rally for Reform: Politicians Don't Have the Answers That Schools Need, Mr. Kastle Writes. It's Time for Educators to Stop Indulging in Self-Blame and to Lead in Education Reform." Phi Delta Kappan 90.1: 38+.

Keliher. "Forget the Fads--The Old Way Works Best: What will Fix Public Education? A Teacher, a Chalkboard and a Roomful of Willing Students." Newsweek.

Margolis, Jason, and Liza Nagel. "Education Reform and the Role of Administrators in Mediating Teacher Stress." Teacher Education Quarterly 33.4: 143.

Mcdermott, Kathryn A. "Incentives, Capacity, and Implementation: Evidence from Massachusetts Education Reform." Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 16.1: 45+.

Orlich, Donald. "Education Reform and Limits to Student Achievement." Phi Delta Kappan 81.6: 468.

Summary: Dietz v. Perez is a complex case of contract law where the situation escalated because Perez wanted to change the contract to include construction work done for free. Dietz had the option to reject this change of contract and walked away from the work situation. Perez sued Dietz for failing to complete the construction work and locked Dietz out of the property. Perez also went to the Internet and created reviews of the Dietz Construction Company that reflected negative content that Dietz attests to being untrue. As a result Dietz has sued Perez for slander. What this case law truly represents is how quickly agreements written or verbal can change toward the negative. Perez's expectation was that Dietz would agree to do work for free. This voided the previous contract. However, one will argue that even if she is wrong, she still has the First Amendment right to voice her displeasure with the Dietz Construction Company and how she goes about it is entirely up to her. Slander is difficult to prove because of First Amendment rights. This is a court case with the potential for years of litigation that can be costly and ineffective.

Resolving an Online Dispute

Perez uses free tools to create word of mouth about her experience with Dietz. This proves to be the best course of action in terms of exposure and affordability. E-commerce and online social platforms has opened up the world and the consumer to new implications for behavior and possible legal repercussions. What are the alternatives to traditional litigation and what dispute resolution mechanism can be put into place to resolve this matter without further court costs? The virtual world has extended into streamlining to provide legal services over the internet and this includes a form of court or online dispute resolution (OSR). Innovative has created the need for some but also supplied the solution for many. Betancourt and Zlatanska surmise such systems have provided for better access to justice than traditional methods. It remains streamlined and more cost effective but it also opens a myriad of implications where consumers or dispute holders may file claims against a party for little recourse. Filings can take place across borders and international lines of commerce allowing people who have never met to sue each other. Online dispute systems also come under fire once extraneous filings take place or possibly it just mirrors the current legal system of overzealousness? Betancourt and Zlatanska believe it saves time and money but allows recourse where needed.

Online dispute resolution platforms offers an alternative to traditional forms of litigation and possibly saves time and money for the parties involved. Dietz v. Perez remains a complex case of proving who agreed to what stipulations and who broke the contract first. What makes this case more complex and perfect for online resolution is the fact that wrongful actions on the sides of both parties extend beyond the moment of the broken contract but move toward slander and damages for lost business. What it truly reflects is how easily neglect becomes an issue for both virtual and physical worlds. How words and actions become powerful beyond the actual situation that started the relationship but also how it remains truly fixed upon finding the evidence of she said, he said. An online resolution would facilitate a more streamlined court case. It would allow for due diligence but for the parties to remain separated as to not cause more conflict. The issue of neglect, of misinformation remains significant because each party has a different view on events. Pinpointing who is truly at fault for ending the contract will also decide who is neglectful in the actions following. Dietz's separate court filing may make the point moot but the issue here is really how well the online dispute will work for these parties.

Part of the reason why online dispute resolution serves as a good alternative mechanism to traditional court is that the complexity of the dispute means more court costs and time for each party. A means of resolving the issues could take place quickly with this resolution but even then, there are still complexities that need attention. Lumineau and Malhota suggest that court cases with complexity may benefit from online dispute resolution because of the attention to detail needed to decide the facets of contract law. The more complex, the longer this takes but in an online environment such analysis could be shorter. Lumineau and Malhota also contend that with online dispute resolution, everything stays in context, all details stay relative to the frameworks of the case but this also seeks to control the amount of time and money used in these cases. So each party is better off and can move forward. The amount of effort put in is returned with a resolution that works for all parties.

One could argue the increase in telecommunications has made online dispute resolution a necessary fact of modern life. To settle disputes in a traditional way may not work for all cases but as Stipanowich surmises, the amount of cases todays facilitates the need for fast, decisive and effective decisions. To keep overburdening the traditional system when a more effective means of arbitrating exist online means there will be future movement toward this tool especially for complex cases like Dietz v. Perez. While some report it is the wave of the future, others may be distrusting but many will see a light at the end of the tunnel where justice can prevail.

References

Betancourt, J. C. & Zlatanska, E. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR): What Is It, and Is It the Way Forward? Arbitration, 3, 256-264.

Dietz v. Perez, 16249.

Lumineau, F., & Malhotra, D. Shadow of the contract: How contract structure shapes inter firm dispute resolution. Strategic Management Journal, 32(5), 532-555.

Monty Ahalt, A. M. What You Should Know About Online Dispute Resolution. The Practical Litigator, 20-23.

Professor Notes. Introduction to Contract Law.

Stipanowich, T. The Third Arbitration Trilogy: Stolt-Nielsen, Rent-A-Center, Concepcion and the Future of American Arbitration. American Review of International Arbitration.

Cyber Ethics

The internet has changed the world. It has changed the way in which human beings communicate, it has changed the way in which we transfer information and it has in essence, changed the way we conduct our daily lives. The internet spans geographic locations and it figuratively has made the world a smaller place. Despite these major paradigm shifts, the internet is still in its infancy. As a relatively new innovation, there are still few laws and restrictions on its usage. More so than other aspects of society, ethical usage and self policing of how the innovation is utilized is of the utmost importance. The internet is a valuable tool for communication, entertainment and getting information. However, like any innovation, it has a potential to be used improperly. Improper use of the internet can result in criminal activity, corruption, bullying, social isolation and other negative constructs. With the internet being a mainstay in modern society and a central element in the lives of young people, it is necessary to teach cyber ethics in a comprehensive manner to mitigate some of the problems associated with internet usage. To demonstrate the need for a greater attention to cyber ethics in general curriculum for young people and new internet users, this work will frame the cyber ethic phenomenon in the following components: changing definitions of ethics, changing notions of commodities and changing modalities of communication. Within each of these contexts, there is the potential for internet related abuse that necessitates the consideration of cyber ethics.

Ethics in general is a complicated subject with much relativity present specific to the beholder of a certain matter. Further complicating the general subject of ethics is the new and vastly uncharted waters of the virtual world. Ethics requires that "the virtues we need to achieve both personal and common moral goods recognize networks of dependence based upon bodily vulnerability and disability" (Frohman). All human systems are contingent on inter-connectivity between variables related to other human systems. The internet has created a virtual world that has vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Privacy, for example, can be completely violated in an unprecedented manner with little threat to the person imposing on another individual. In some cases, this can be criminal and in other cases, it simply can be an unwanted invasion that would not have been so easy if there was not an innovation pertaining to getting virtual information. Beyond privacy, there is the free flow of information and user generated content that is available on the Internet. Whereas virtually all other forms of media have some type of content provisions to check for accuracy, the Internet has no such safeguards. Individuals are free to publish whatever information they choose. This information can even be false. While false information on a cursory glance may appear relatively benign, more people are getting their information from the internet and if they do not have the ability to judge information both for reliability and ethics, a serious problem manifests. According to Smith, in a study of adolescents for a popular peer reviewed journal, most students admit learning about human sexual relations and reproductions from the internet (1). Though serving a central role in what they know about sex, there is no guarantee that what they have learned is either valid or reliable.

Even if the information being digested online is true, there are potentially harmful elements of information that are being read and disseminated. For example, an internet user can find information on revenge, making bombs or other hateful activity. It is both an issue of cyber ethics on the publishing end of that information and what is done with that information on the receiving end. Literally, how the Internet is used and how the information is used that can be gained from the internet is all a subject of ethics that was not present only a generation prior. As a result, the way in which the internet and ethics interact is new and therefore necessitates attention. While there is clearly a paradigm shift that has taken place in ethics as a result of the internet, there is also a changing ethical domain of intellectual property and media ownership. Who owns what material and how that material is valued as a commodity has been forever changed by the internet.

Music, which was once traded as a commodity in some physical form, like a CD or a record, is now primarily disseminated as digital files. This has changed the entire music industry as it is now easy for individuals to connect via the internet and share files illegally with one another. The value of the product has diminished because users can now get it for free with little effort. The same problems are now happening for e-books and other forms of media. Physical copies of media are now going digital and how to make those items profitable still is difficult. Lack of ethical behavior has changed this. The same people that feel it would be unethical to walk into a store and steal a CD do not see it as being the same to steal a song digitally from the internet without paying. Though they are both illegal, the perception is different. Kruger explains that stopping online piracy can only be accomplished through teaching cyber ethics and digital property rights to students (188). Laws are important, however, people have to truly believe their behavior is unethical if they are going to stop in a sufficiently robust manner to stop the negative conditions surrounding digital value.

"Plagiarism is a complex issue in need of reexamination" (Evering & Moorman 35). While this is true within the context of the internet, what constitutes plagiarism is often difficult to access. For students, it has long been known that any form of academic dishonesty is a major breech of ethics (35). In some institutions of higher learning, it is grounds for immediate expulsion. With the internet, however, there is now far more varying degrees of plagiarism. In the most serious of forms, it would include taking someone else's work in significant portions and passing it off as one's own. In less serious constructs, it can be unintentional lack of citations from sources gained from using the internet. The internet is now a common research tool used by most students in secondary and post secondary education (40). There is likely to be some degree of confusion or plagiarism due to the nature of the information age. Cyber ethics, however, can help students decrease their propensity for unethical behavior in regards to plagiarism and it can establish foundations for establishing the serious nature of such an offense. According to Evering and Moorman, "Knowing students will utilize technology for writing and research, instruction should aim at demystifying the concept of plagiarism while at the same time improving students' research and writing skills" (35). Unknowing students, in this context, would be those unfamiliar with cyber ethics. Beyond the intellectual property issue stands a much more basic notion regarding the need for cyber ethics, this is a changing pattern of human communication and interaction in virtual communities.

In both personal and professional worlds, people are now communicating more using the internet. This includes social media usage and it also includes email, video chatting, instant messaging and other connected forms of interaction. Wilxzenski and Coomey demonstrated how this changed the notion of school counseling as a discipline. According to the authors, the internet has changed: curriculum delivery, supervision, professional development and it has changed interactions among counselors, school personnel, parents, educators and field supervisors (327). Literally, every aspect of the position has changed. Who sees what information and what information is shared necessitates both professional discretion and legal discretion. The dominant aspects of social relationships have been changed from a hierarchical model into a more flattened modality of communication (Gertz 1). The health care industry in particular has truly changed in terms of communication with patient health files now being stored and shared in a virtual capacity. The age of the file in a cabinet at a singular location under a locked key is no longer relevant.

With internet based communications, the fact that is is both used for private, entertainment and work use means that different approaches to communication norms have to be followed. Much in the same way a person would not address their boss in the same manner they would address their friend, there are problems related to informal speech and communications being used by young people when a computer is involved. Regardless of a the communication medium, the person receiving the communication needs to be given the proper respect they would be in person. The lack of physical contact and proximity to an individual has made it somewhat easier for people to "speak their mind" or say things they would generally not say to a person "in the flesh." Cyber ethics is mindful of the anonymity of the internet and its potential to directly attack an individual. For young people, the issue of cyber bulling has manifested from these confines. Bullying is no longer simply stealing lunch money or pushing someone down, it can be sharing hateful information or media regarding a person to large networks at a click of a button.

The new form of communication ushered in by the internet has created virtual communities. These communities have been successful for distance learning, distance business conduct and also for finding people who have the same interests. People retreating into the virtual world has the propensity to hamper their development in the real world. For example, the already strained relationship between parent and adolescent communication has been reported by Appel et al. as being further confounded by the internet (1641). In this equation, the more time a young person spends on line, the more difficulty the researchers found they have communicating with their parents (1641). For people who lack social skills, however, it has also created an environment where they can feel safe and find other like minded individuals. While this can be empowering, it can also be the virtual equivalent of "hanging out with the wrong crowd." In a study conducted by Adler and Adler, it was found that self injurers and other deviants are using the internet to form sub cultures (35). Finding subcultures on the internet is not a benign activity as it is common knowledge that internet communication has been a tool used for criminal activity recruitment, political action and terrorist activity. According to Adler and Adler, "Va the Web, they have become cyber 'colleagues,' simultaneously enacting two deviant organizational forms and challenging the idea that deviant loners can exist in a cyber society" (35). With attention to cyber ethics, individuals using the internet to connect with other people will have the knowledge at their disposal to first judge the validity of ideology presented by those groups and they will be better able to know when the virtual world should not manifest into mainstream society. While ethics stands as a discipline unto itself, its basic premises have to be expanded into the cyber world in order for it to have relevance in one of the most revolutionary innovations of the modern world.

"The internet is an integral tool for information, communication and entertainment among adolescents. As adolescents devote increasing amounts of time to utilizing the internet, the risk for adopting excessive and pathological internet use is inherent" (Tsistikia, Critseils et al. 655). When the changes that the internet has made to definitions of ethics, commodity value and communication are considered, it becomes clear that it is necessary to teach cyber ethics in a comprehensive manner to mitigate some of the problems associated with internet usage. While this is necessary, agreeing on how this should be done and what is the most efficacious manner to do so is not an agreed upon element. Ethics, in general, has a relative designation and not everyone sees cyber ethics the same. When there is not an agreed upon context for cyber ethics, this means that teaching the principles of it will be very difficult. This is not unique to the internet, however. In society, laws are made to protect the general good of the population based on certain ethical principles. Though not all individuals share these same ethics, there is enough uniformity to make a relevant code of conduct. The internet is no exception to this rule.

Most of the more overt context of cyber ethical violations can be expressed in terms of legality and illegality. Focusing on what is illegal would be a good start for establishing a cyber ethics curriculum. For example, it is illegal to use the internet to reproduce intellectual property without the proper rights, to plagiarize, to steal copyright protected media and to harass other individuals. In addition, it is illegal to use information from the internet to commit crimes in the real world. To establish such norms is the foundation for cyber ethics. While this is a start, it is only a beginning, it is also necessary for those gray eras to be self judged and monitored by informed individuals. If people are aware of the implications of their actions and how those relate to the general well being of society, it is possible that they will be in a better position to make ethical decisions. Just like people are called upon to make ethical decisions regarding conduct each day in their lives, the cyber world needs to have the same focus. At the present time, there is a division in the public's perspective regarding ethics and cyber ethics. There should be no division in terms of their importance. Unethical behavior is unethical regardless of the medium in which it is using. Rather than the "do not" approach to cyber ethics currently used by schools and organizations, it is better to use a proactive approach to help facilitate decision making regarding cyber ethics. The internet is still in its infancy and at the present time, cyber ethics needs to catch up and then grow proportionately to the evolution of the innovation.

Works Cited

Adler, Patrica & Peter Adler. "The Cyber Worlds of Self Injurers: Deviant Communities, Relationships and Self." Symbolic Interaction. 31.1 35-56.

Appel, Maruks, Peter Holtz, Barbara Stiglbauer and Bernad Batinic. "Parents as a Resource: Communication Affects the Relationship Between Adolescents' Internet Use and Loneliness." Journal of Adolescence. 35.6, 1641.

Evering, Lea & Gary Moorman (2012). "Rethinking Plagiarism in the Digital Age." Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 56.1 (2012), 35-44.

Frohmann, Bernd. "Cyber Ethics: Bodies or Bytes." The International Review and Library Review. 32.3-4, 423-435. Gertz, Robert R. "Moral code: The design and social values of the Internet" Temple University, 1 - 45.

Hirabayashi, Shota & Toshiki Matsuda. "Constructing Design Principles for Developing Gaming Instructional Materials for Making Cyber Ethics Education Authentic." Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corproate Government. 2.1 1280-1288.

Kruger, Robert. "Discussing Cyber Ethics With Students is Critical." The Social Studies 94.4, 188-189. Smith, Marshall David. "Adolescents Learning About Sex- Broadband Internet Access, Sexual Education, Moral Panic and Youth Citizenship." University of Colorado. (2004), 1-55. Tsitsika, Artemis, Elena Critseils et al.

"Internet Use and Misue: A Multivariate Regression Analysis of the Predictive Factors of Internet use Among Greek Adolescents." European Journal of Pediatrics. 168, 655-665.

Wilxzenski, Felicia & Susan M. Coomey. "Cyber Communication: Finding its Place in School Counseling Practice." Professional School Counseling 9.4, 327-331.

WORKING OUTLINE WORKSHEET

Pattern of Development: Persuasion

Thesis statement: With the internet being a mainstay in modern society and a central element in the lives of young people, it is necessary to teach cyber ethics in a comprehensive manner to mitigate some of the problems associated with internet usage.

Introduction

Attention material: The Internet has changed the world. It has changed the way in which human beings communicate, it has changed the way in which we transfer information and it has in essence, changed the way we conduct our daily lives. The Internet spans geographic locations and it literally has made the world a smaller place. Despite these major paradigm shifts, the Internet is still in its infancy. As a relatively new innovation, there is still few laws and restrictions on its usage. More so than other aspects of society, ethical usage and self policing of how the innovation is utilized is of the utmost importance. The internet is a valuable tool for communication, entertainment and getting information. However, like any innovation, it has a potential to be used improperly. Improper use of the internet can result in criminal activity, corruption, bullying, social isolation and other negative constructs. With the internet being a mainstay in modern society and a central element in the lives of young people, it is necessary to teach cyber ethics in a comprehensive manner to mitigate some of the problems associated with internet usage.

Preview: To demonstrate the need for a greater attention to cyber ethics in general curriculum for young people and new internet users, this work will frame the cyber ethic phenomenon in the following components: changing definitions of ethics, changing notions of commodities and changing modalities of communication. Within each of these contexts, there is the potential for internet related abuse that necessitates the consideration of cyber ethics.

Transition to Body and Main Point I:

Ethics in general is a complicated subject with much relativity present specific to the beholder of a certain matter. Further complicating the general subject of ethics is the new and vastly uncharted waters of the virtual world.

Main Point I: Ethics requires that "the virtues we need to achieve both personal and common moral goods recognize networks of dependence based upon bodily vulnerability and disability" (Frohman 423).

Supporting Point A: All human systems are contingent on interconnectivity between variables related to other human systems. The internet has created a virtual world that has vulnerabilities that can be exploited

Subpoint a.: In some cases this can be criminal in nature.

Subpoint b.: In other cases this can simply be an unwanted invasion that would not have been so easy if there was not an innovation pertaining to getting virtual information.

Supporting Point B: Beyond privacy, there is the free flow of information and user generated content that is available on the Internet. Whereas virtually all other forms of media have some type of content provisions to check for accuracy, the Internet has no such safeguards. Individuals are free to publish whatever information they choose.

Subpoint a.: There are no safeguards to check for accuracy. Individuals are free to publish what they want and this information can be false.

Subpoint b.: Even in those cases where the information may be true, there is potentially harmful information that can be harvested from the internet. or example, an internet user can find information on revenge, making bombs or other hateful activity. It is both an issue of cyber ethics on the publishing end of that information and what is done with that information on the receiving end.

Transition to Main Point II: While there is clearly a paradigm shift that has taken place in ethics as a result of the internet, there is also a changing ethical domain of intellectual property and media ownership.

Main Point II:: Who owns what material and how that material is valued as a commodity has been forever changed by the internet.

Supporting Point A: Music, which was once traded as a commodity in some physical form, like a CD or a record, is now primarily disseminated as digital files.

Subpoint a.: This has changed the entire music industry as it is now easy for individuals to connect via the internet and share files illegally with one another.

Subpoint b.: Physical copies of media are now going digital and how to make those items profitable still is difficult. Lack of ethical behavior has changed this. The same people that feel it would be unethical to walk into a store and steal a CD do not see it as being the same to steal a song digitally from the internet without paying. Though they are both illegal, the perception is different.

Supporting Point B: "Plagiarism is a complex issue in need of reexamination" (Evering & Moorman 35). While this is true within the context of the internet, what constitutes plagiarism is often difficult to access.

Subpoint a.: In some institutions of higher learning, it is grounds for immediate expulsion. With the internet, however, there is now far more varying degrees of plagiarism. In the most serious of forms, it would include taking someone else's work in significant portions and passing it off as one's own. In less serious constructs, it can be unintentional lack of citations from sources gained from using the internet.

Subpoint b.: he internet is now a common research tool used by most students in secondary and post secondary education (40). There is likely to be some degree of confusion or plagiarism due to the nature of the information age. Cyber ethics, however, can help students decrease their propensity for unethical behavior in regards to plagiarism and it can establish foundations for establishing the serious nature of such an offense

Transition to Main Point III:

Beyond the intellectual property issue stands a much more basic notion regarding the need for cyber ethics, this is a changing pattern of human communication and interaction in virtual communities.

Main Point III:: In both personal and professional worlds, people are now communicating more using the internet. This includes social media usage and it also includes email, video chatting, instant messaging and other connected forms of interaction.

Supporting Point A: Wilxzenski and Coomey demonstrated how this changed the notion of school counseling as a discipline. According to the authors, the internet has changed: curriculum delivery, supervision, professional development and it has changed interactions among counselors, school personnel, parents, educators and field supervisors (327). Literally, every aspect of the position has changed.

Subpoint a.: Who sees what information and what information is shared necessitates both professional discretion and legal discretion. The dominant aspects of social relationships have been changed from a hierarchical model into a more flattened modality of communication (Gertz 1).

Subpoint b.: With internet based communications, the fact that is is both used for private, entertainment and work use means that different approaches to communication norms have to be followed. Much in the same way a person would not address their boss in the same manner they would address their friend, there are problems related to informal speech and communications being used by young people when a computer is involved.

Supporting Point B: The new form of communication ushered in by the internet has created virtual communities. These communities have been successful for distance learning, distance business conduct and also for finding people who have the same interests.

Subpoint a.: People retreating into the virtual world has the propensity to hamper their development in the real world. For example, the already strained relationship between parent and adolescent communication has been reported by Appel et al. as being further confounded by the internet (1641). In this equation, the more time a young person spends on line, the more difficulty the researchers found they have communicating with their parents (1641).

Subpoint b.: For people who lack social skills, however, it has also created an environment where they can feel safe and find other like minded individuals. While this can be empowering, it can also be the virtual equivalent of "hanging out with the wrong crowd." In a study conducted by Adler and Adler, it was found that self injurers and other deviants are using the internet to form sub cultures (35). Finding subcultures on the internet is not a benign activity as it is common knowledge that internet communication has been a tool used for criminal activity recruitment, political action and terrorist activity.

Transition to the Conclusion:

While ethics stands as a discipline unto itself, its basic premises have to be expanded into the cyber world in order for it to have relevance in one of the most revolutionary innovations of the modern world.

Conclusion

SUMMARY

"The internet is an integral tool for information, communication and entertainment among adolescents. As adolescents devote increasing amounts of time to utilizing the internet, the risk for adopting excessive and pathological internet use is inherent" (Tsistikia, Critseils et al.). When the changes that the internet has made to definitions of ethics, commodity value and communication are considered, it becomes clear that it is necessary to teach cyber ethics in a comprehensive manner to mitigate some of the problems associated with internet usage. While this is necessary, agreeing on how this should be done and what is the most efficacious manner to do so is not an agreed upon element. Ethics, in general, has a relative designation and not everyone sees cyber ethics the same. When there is not an agreed upon context for cyber ethics, this means that teaching the principles of it will be very difficult. This is not unique to the internet, however. In society, laws are made to protect the general good of the population based on certain ethical principles. Though not all individuals share these same ethics, there is enough uniformity to make a relevant code of conduct. The internet is no exception to this rule.

Most of the more overt context of cyber ethical violations can be expressed in terms of legality and illegality. Focusing on what is illegal would be a good start for establishing a cyber ethics curriculum. For example, it is illegal to use the internet to reproduce intellectual property without the proper rights, to plagiarize, to steal copyright protected media and to harass other individuals. In addition, it is illegal to use information from the internet to commit crimes in the real world. To establish such norms is the foundation for cyber ethics. While this is a start, it is only a beginning, it is also necessary for those gray eras to be self judged and monitored by informed individuals. If people are aware of the implications of their actions and how those relate to the general well being of society, it is possible that they will be in a better position to make ethical decisions. Just like people are called upon to make ethical decisions regarding conduct each day in their lives, the cyber world needs to have the same focus. At the present time, there is a division in the public's perspective regarding ethics and cyber ethics. There should be no division in terms of their importance. Unethical behavior is unethical regardless of the medium in which it is using. Rather than the "do not" approach to cyber ethics currently used by schools and organizations, it is better to use a proactive approach to help facilitate decision making regarding cyber ethics. The internet is still in its infancy and at the present time, cyber ethics needs to catch up and then grow proportionately to the evolution of the innovation.

Introduction

The prevalent usage of IT at commercial companies and universities has led firms to advance their various aspects of operations, production, and quality assurance system. Nowadays, advancement in technology is a crucial matter for firms and lack of it can put one to a severe disadvantage. It may even be claimed that information technology is a key aspect of firm operations that can enable the firm to compete globally and gain competitive advantage. Several aspects of the firm's operations are already made on the domain of IT such as accounting, auditing, human resources, production, quality control, and the like. Indeed, today's extraordinary complexity of global operations is being managed by information technology. This paper shall look into the IT commoditisation and how this commoditisation affects the content, purpose, and value of IT strategy.

E-business has witnessed the emergence of IT processes that needed to be built and performed by people within the organisation, which can be either done well or badly. These activities were kept in-house since the firm had not enough knowledge to determine how well an external business might perform. IT commoditisation is seen in firms' pursuit to purchase their information technologies as services provided over the internet or as an outsourced service provided by an outsourcing firm rather than owning and maintaining all their own hardware and software.

The IT strategy has gone through several stages out of the firm's pursuit to enhance its IT delivery systems. The most recent is the IT commoditisation, more profoundly expressed in outsourcing, which began to gain currency as a means to gain more rapid benefits and limit costs. Outsourcing refers to the process in which an organisation makes an arrangement or a set of arrangements with an external source to provide itself with goods and/or services to replace or supplement internal efforts. This IT commoditisation can be claimed to have started with the example set by Kodak and DuPont which were the first to outsource their information technology management, followed by BT and AT&T which began outsourcing their information technology alongside other HR administration processes such as recruiting, payroll, information services, and benefits management among others. The bottomline in this commoditisation is outsourcing only the peripheral activities of the organisation such as information systems and retaining its core strengths.

IT Strategy

IT strategy refers to an organisation's pursuit to generate overall obejectives, principles, and tactics in relation to the technologies it utilises. Strategy per se is a plan of action that the organisation designs to achieve a particular goal.

An assessment of strategic trajectories can enable derivation of IT strategies. There is an invariably fixed scope and fixed time horizon for both organisational and IT strategies, outlining the initiatives to be carried out in such time frame.

The core purpose of the firm to develop an IT strategy is to ensure that its overall strategies, goals, and objectives are strongly and clearly supported by IT investment decisions. The importance of developing a sound IT strategy rests on the fact that incorrect - or partially correct - IT agenda can lead to misdirected significant organisational resources. It is from the organisation's strategy that IT strategy is derived. For example, an IT strategy of adopting computerised practitioner order entry may be adopted by an organisation that is interested in patient safety. If the organisation intends to focus on patient service, IT strategy can focus on service applications such as creating patient portanls and scheduling systems. These examples show the interconnectedness between IT strategy and organisational goals.

It is important to note that relentless focus on improving core operational processes is a concern of IT strategy, alongside addressing critical needs for information management (Glaser, n.d.). Determining the IT strategy can be done by examining the role of new information technologies. This would mean finding out whether the organisation, through new IT capabilties, can enable itself to consider new aproaches to its strategies. It would then hence ask itself whether it can advance its strategies or its core processes through a particular application of technology (Glaser, n.d.).

The Impact of IT Commoditisation on the Content of IT Strategy

The content of IT strategy is impacted by IT commoditisation through changes in major IT participants from mere dot-coms which in the past partook largely in the e-commerce hype, to the big providers of computer software, harware, and services, whose object of promotions became a whole new approach to corporate information systems. The impact of commoditisation of IT on the content of IT strategy is seen in the fact that CIOs became relationship managers who coordinate the efforts of various firms as these firms start to outsource their IT services and activities from external sources. In this IT commoditisation, CIOs have become negotiators whose leadership styles have been likewise transformed from command-and-control to persuade-and-influence. From merely focusing on the internal information technology systems of the firm to ensure functionality of the overall organisational systems, IT departments start taking the lead in shaping the standards required to operate effectively within business and industry communities.

Moreover, the content of IT strategy is impacted by IT commoditisation through changes in business process standards that go with such commoditisation. According to Davenport, a business process pertains to the manner that a firm does its work, including the activities adopted to accomplish a specific objective for a particular customer. The standardisation of processes stemmed from various reasons such as facilitating communication within the business, performance benchmarking, and more efficient handoffs. The essential feature of information systems being supportive of processes paves way to a kind of standardisation that enables the occurrence of uniform information systems within the organisation as well as standard systems interface among various firms. Process standards for software development are being created and installed within various organisations, public and business alike. The Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institue for example, intends to provide the basis for measuring progress in software engineering as well as comparing processes of different software providers.

The impact of IT commoditisation on the content of IT strategy is seen in the fundamentally different nature of this commoditisation, i.e. IT outsourcing, which is pervasive throughout the organisation. The commoditisation of software development processes has paved way to the growth of offshore providers such as those of China and India, making these software development processes more transparent to buyers. The non-homogenous function of IT outsourcing as well as the interrelated character with practically all activities within the firm is contributory to the corresponding changes in the adoption of IT strategy, which in the past used to deal with massively complex enterprise-resource-planning systems that are restricted within the firm's internal operations alone.

The Impact of IT Commoditisation on the Purpose of IT Strategy

The purpose of IT strategy is impacted by IT commoditisation through changes influenced by new architecture prevailing amongst firms. This new architecture is structured according to the needs of the firm which in the past was addressed by merely relying on piecemeal technology purchases and which at present has changed to investing in massively complex enterprise-resource-planning (ERP) systems that offer interlinked applications drawing on unified databases. This IT strategy has certainly adopted the ERP system, albeit it may be described as being relatively inflexible and tends to confine the firm into rigid business processes. This has caused firms to leave the ERP application and install more integrated but nonetheless restructive enterprise unit silos. Other than adopting such integrated but restructive enterprise unit silos is taking on the web services architecture which is an open architecture as opposed to being a proprietary one; enabling firms to rent the functionality they need - an essence of IT commoditisation - rather than building and maintaining unique internal systems. Indeed, it may be posited that this transformation from relying solely or mostly on internal infrastrucure systems to renting or purchasing the needed functionality is an impact of IT commoditisation on the purpose of IT strategy. Apparently, IT strategy initially purported to provide architecture infrastructure to the firm to enable it to manage its own information systems thereby enabling itself to operate conveniently and viably. This reliance on internal capacities, which can hereto be claimed as a purpose of IT strategy, is modified to suit the overall intent of the firm towards competing in the larger global market and gaining competitive advantage. In this regard, not only has its IT infrastructure transformed from being an end to itself (a system where all other functionalities rely on, i.e. accounting systems, audit, etc.) into being a means to an end (usage of purchased or rented processing power, data storage, or specific applications). In this commoditisation, IT functionality is purchased from external service providers whereby the firm no longer bothers itself to allot much energy and resources on advanced IS inventions that can potentially give way to the much-sought-after competitive advantage. Rather, it only needs to commoditise its IT services through outsourcing or off-shoring techniques from firms offering such activities.

Moreover, the organisational IT needs which is met through outsourcing as a commoditsation thereof is now a globally growing practice.This form of commoditisation only began as a cost-reduction tool and later a vital component of the overall business strategy, including the IT process.

The prevalence of IT commoditisation is partnered with outsourcing management that contains two sides - the hard side (contract) and the soft side (trust), which are both key to success and can be used separately. An IT outsourcing operation characterising greater contractual hazards allows the preference for the soft side over the hard side.

The Impact of IT Commoditisation on the Value of IT Strategy

The commoditisation of IT affects the value of IT strategy in such manner as technology providers dwelling on massive investments help create the necessary infrastructure to enable the new IT approach work. As mentioned, steady stream of new internet-based services emerged as well as off-shoring and outsourcing IT services, providing the firm significant cost savings over traditional, internal systems and offering new opportunities for collaboration. These benefits on cost-savings and resource maximisation are aspects of the value of IT strategy that have been modified through IT commoditisation, i.e. offshoring IT facilities and processes.

The value of IT strategy is greatly impacted by IT commoditisation through increased reliance on the integration of external resources, which require deeper skills in managing and structuring collaborative relationships. This integration of external resources was missing in the former adoption of massively complex enterprise-resource-planning (ERP) systems. Moreover, there are more important advantages offered by the Web services architecture over its predecessor, such as a more efficient IT management system. The value of IT strategy is also changed by allowing firms to purchase only the functionality they need at the time they need it, leading to substantial reduction of investments in IT assets. Another is reducing the need to hire numerous IT specialists by shifting responsibility to maintain systems to external providers. The risk of using obsolete technologies that are often difficult to dispose as well as cost-inefficient is also being avoided by using Web services rather than facilitating these services in-house. It may hence be posited that the value of IT strategy is increased through IT commoditisation as being illustrated in a relevant and concrete example of sparing the firm from being stuck with outdated and mediocre applications and hardware. The current architecture thus complements with the commoditised IT through the standardised, plug-and-play feature that allows the firm to pursue easier outsourcing activities and processes. It may be inferred that the transformation of IT strategy from merely adopting inflexible systems that confine the firm into rigid business processes towards pursuing Web services architecture has enabled the firm to adopt more flexible collaboration within its own units and business partners.

The pursuit for IT commoditisation has changed the value of IT strategy for firms adopting it through reduced costs and leaner balance sheets whilst achieving greater flexibility and access to specialised expertise that people within their domains might not possess. The possession of this specialised expertise by external outsourcing firms is certain since these external firms are more able to specialise on one specific focus of expertise as a featured service, unlike the firms which can either perform well or bad on IT processes.

Gaining competitive advantage is an utmost goal of the firm for all its internal and external efforts, including its manner of adopting information and process technology. How it successfully arrives at this objective is facilitated by how it does its work in all aspects of the business, including but not limited to, human resources, accounting, auditing, and information technology. Commoditisation of firm services has in fact been existing prior to that of IT commoditisation, but recent realisations along the lines of cost-efficiency, capacity enhancement, resource maximisation, and core strength focus have paved way for information technology to be commoditised as well.

The outcomes of globalisation as both an economic and social order has led firms to find ways and solutions to persist in the competition of a globally expanding market. This has meant commoditising even its information technology processes through such means as outsourcing whereby the firm bestows the management and facilitation of these processes to an external source.

Conclusion

This paper discusses the impact of IT commoditisation on the content, purpose, and value of IT strategy. It sets the context of such commoditisation, which is globalisation, as an enabling factor for the occurrence of the concept. The firm is continuously engaged in the facilitation of business processes, consolidating its resources towards effective functionality. Commoditisation of information technology, i.e. offshoring, is only a part of its pursuit for such functionality.

Moreover, it may be posited that the commoditisation of IT is enabled by a business environment whose geographic and regional borders are now removed as an offshoot of globalisation. IT commoditisation complements the firm's pursuit for competitive advantage in this regard, alongside providing the firm ease and convenience with its business processes and implementation.

The purpose is thus to enable the IT strategy to keep pace with the needed modifications posed by the business environment alongside the purposes of cost-saving, process enhancement, and resource maximisation. These are seen to enable the firm to improve its functionality and operations rather than merely adopting in-house IT technologies that can become obsolete in due time and make internal people resource manage the IT domain.

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