Research Korner: I. T. Papers

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: COMMERCIALIZATION OF INTERNET

1.  What were the main forces that led to commercialization of internet?   The concept of internet begins with the vision set by          of MIT in 1962 about his "       Network" concept.   (a packet-switching network), was introduced in 1969 whose aims was the process of information sharing among researchers but the impact of the project benefited a bigger scale and its functions and applicability has also increased.  In 1983,          came up with TCP/IP and were then hook-up to the connected machines.  The commercialization of internet flourish as some of the companies incorporated internet technology with the development of their products.  It was in 1988 the first Interop trade show was born that proved the interoperability of the use of internet link into business.     2.  Describe in two paragraphs the origin of HTML. Explain how mark-up tags work in HTML, and describe the role of at least one person involved with HTML’s development.   HTML is used to indicate how documents should be formatted, a coding system where it contains a text file containing tags that is used by web browsers to format a document, display multimedia objects and creates hyperlinks.  Further, according to  (1995), HTML uses special characters or sequences of characters to indicate structure, formatting or other often hidden aspects of a text.  One of the people involved in the development of HTML is        , who envision an independent computer platform to have a common language for easier communication to be scattered world-wide (“”, 1996)   Mark-up tags works in HTML as it defines what format to apply or what action to make.  There are 3 basic types of tags in any mark-up language: structural markup, stylistic markup and the descriptive markup.  All of which are to be used to specify the structure of document, specifically alter appearance of some elements and the description of the nature of the content of an HTML document.     3.  In about 400 words, describe the similarities and differences between XML and HTML.  Provide examples of at least two situations in which you would use XML and two situations in which you would use HTML.   A preview of HTML has already been given; let us now describe the nature of XML.  XML is a way of making markup languages that simply describes a text.  Founded in 1998, it was developed as a subset of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and was created to provide management of information on the web and databases, publishing documents and the usage of business-to-business (B-to-B) dealings.                XML and HTML languages may have had similarities but they differ in many respects. Among the differences between XML and HTML is that in regards to the case sensitivity, in HTML is it not very particular in terms of the case wherein in XML it very particular and the type of case typed would matter.  There are also differences in the use of the tags wherein in HTML not all tags need both an opening and a closing tag but in XML all tags must have an opening and closing tag and would complain if not properly closed.  In HTML there is no need for a outermost tag whereas in XML one outermost tag will be required to enclose all the others.  There is no need for formal nesting in HTML; however, in XML there is a need for all tags to be nested properly.  In short, HTML is a forgiving language although due to its forgiving nature, it may at times cause confusions to web browsers such that there is not much specifications in the tags and XML, on the other hand is generally strict since is does not negotiate any missing or mismatched tags. The use of HTML may be more recommendable in some situations and in some situations, XML may be more recommendable to use.  An example in the use of XML would be, in the use of open applications group that includes the leading business software companies wherein they would be required to develop document type definitions to make business transactions application reliable.  XML can also be used in financial institutions such as banks in the creation of knowledge systems and third-party service providers. Meanwhile, an example of HTML use would be, it is very useful for distance learning students as a means of learning communications method in which they can have access to the web sites essential for their learning and as a means that they can keep track with course.  Another example, closely related to the first example is that it can be used as a research material and updated information essential to keep up with the latest developments especially in the field of science and technology.     4.  In two paragraphs, explain why a customer-centric Web site design is so important, yet is so difficult to accomplish.               A customer-centric web site is a web solely intended to put emphasis and great importance to customers.  With this approach, it is aimed to build customer relationship that may generate customer retention and customer loyalty in the long run.  That is why, it is very important for companies and firms to establish this kind of website since good customer relationship with customers entails profitability.  Beforehand, the need to satisfy the customer is the primary aim of customer-centric web site.               Customer-centric website is difficult to establish because there is a need to cater to different people with diverse taste and preferences. Other than that, the company must have all the resources and basically come up with the right ingredients to make the web site compelling enough to motivate and draw people to the said customer-centric website for it to be effective.  The ingredients may really vary as to what market they want to venture and as to what motivating tactics they will employ to convince customers with the whole package they will be offering to the customers.  Constant improvisation in restructuring is essential so that the web site can meet up the customer’s standards of product and services satisfaction.     5.  Select a retail store with which you are familiar that has a Web site on which it sells products or services similar to those it sells in its physical retail stores. Explore the Web site and examine it carefully for features that indicate the level of service it provides. Using your experience in the physical store and your review of the Web site, write a 200-word evaluation of the company’s touchpoint consistency.               Marks and Spencer is an interesting retail store that practices a great deal of customer relationship strategies, where it only not caters people from the United Kingdom but on some other parts of the world as well.  Having gone through the web site, the level of consistency it shows is remarkable because it does not only make you feel you are being taken care of but Marks and Spencer provides a great deal of offers to different people and they provide terms that would really suit the customer’s budget.  Their website provides basically everything you need which is also available in the physical retail store.  All the things the customer’s need to know is has been made readily available to customers in a very convenient accessibility.  Browsing Marks and Spencer website is interesting and customers would really have reasons to engage business with them and that they really employ big efforts to pursue and get every customer’s touch points especially in the products and services they have been offering.  Providing the customers with personalized services in the aim of satisfying every customer they have.  Overall, they have shown commitment in their continuing efforts to build a lasting customer relationship with customers.     6.  In about 400 words, describe what a search engine inclusion and placement broker does and explain why an advertiser might use such a broker rather than working directly with a search engine site. Search-engine inclusion is a form of advertising wherein advertisers seek that their ads can be included in a search engine such as Yahoo or Google where they pay a huge amount of fee.  The placement broker on the other hand, pertains to people who do the job for the advertisers.  Brokers specialize in searching the best search engine as to where to place the advertiser’s ads that enable the advertisers to reach their target audience.   An advertiser prefers to choose a placement broker because they knew and are more knowledgeable than them when it comes to search-based advertising.  It saves them not only money but brokers can place the ads in a very strategic place in the search engine ranking results, thus, to the advantage of the advertisers.  Advertisers who consult directly to a search engine site for inclusion may not be a wise decision such that the advertisers cannot be sure if they can reach their target audience through that certain search engine site.  Advertisers may not get their money’s worth if they will directly go for search engine inclusion.     References:

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: COMMERCIALIZATION OF INTERNET

1. What were the main forces that led to commercialization of internet? The concept of internet begins with the vision set by ...

Yahoo : A Company Background Analysis

YAHOO: COMPANY BACKGROUND             Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Masters candidates for Electrical Engineering David Filo and Jerry Yang. It began as an idea, turned into a hobby and later evolved into a full-time passion (Company Overview 2006). The two founders of the company started with a guide in April 1994 as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. They later observed that their home-brewed lists were becoming too long and unwieldy and they have gradually invested more time on the task. During the same year, Filo and Yang converted Yahoo! into a customized database designed to serve the needs of the thousands of users that began to use the service through the closely bound Internet community. They developed a customized software that helped them efficiently locate, identify and edit material stored on the Internet. The name Yahoo!  was supposed to stand for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle" but Filo and Yang insisted and they selected the name because they considered themselves “yahoos”. Yahoo! itself first resided on Yang's student workstation, "akebono" while the search engine was lodged on Filo's computer, "konishiki."                          Today, Yahoo! contains organized information on tens of thousands of computers linked to the Web and has evolved into a global brand that has changed the way people communicate with each other, conduct transactions and access, share, and create information. An executive team that includes Chairman and CEO Terry Semel, Chief Operating Officer Dan Rosensweig, Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker, Chief Technology Officer Farzad Nazem, and Co-Founders/Chief Yahoos Jerry Yang and David Filo lead the world's largest global online network of integrated services. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices around the globe. The company offers a broad and deep array of products and services that provide users with the power to connect, communicate, create, access, and share information online (Company Overview 2006; Company History 2000). THE EXTERNAL FACTORS IN THE GROWTH OF YAHOO AS AN ORGANIZATION             The success story of Yahoo began with Filo and Yang’s purpose to establish an efficient and elegant way to find things and information on an obscure part of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and therefore assist their fellow students at Stanford.  They decided to collect all the sites they have visited and categorize them.  Then, they took the dozens of categories and reorganized them into larger classifications.  Their customized database and software was made available through the service of the local Internet community (Success Stories 2003).  As the number of users accessing the database and the number of websites that it contained increased, Filo and Yang saw problems with Stanford’s limited hardware capacity. The University could not afford more servers so Yang and Filo were advised to find another host (Angel 2002, p. 13). In early 1995 Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications in Mountain View, California invited Filo and Yang to move their files over to larger computers housed at Netscape (Company History 2000).  After solving the server problem, the two Stanford geniuses were faced with financing issues regarding their creation. They teamed up with classmates Larry Augustin, the founder of VA Linux computers, and Tim Brady, a sophomore M.B.A student at Harvard, to come up with a business plan.  In March 1995, Yang and Filo, with the help of Tim Brady, had their business plan, and they asked Gil Margalit, a Stanford M.B.A., to critique it. The business plan set forth Yahoo’s ambition to become the “TV Guide” of the Internet. The plan clearly called for an advertising-based model that, in some ways, was remarkably similar to Yahoo as it exists today. To attract advertisers and build market share, Yahoo would add content such as “news feeds” and create a sense of community through bulletin boards and chat groups. Personalization, as it would later appear in My Yahoo, was already part of the package, and one of the company’s founders was considering a potential source of subscription revenue. The business plan further listed Filo as president and CEO while Yang appeared as chairman and chief financial officer (CFO). On March 5, Yahoo was incorporated, and in April, it landed $1 million in venture funding from Sequoia Capital, in its first investment in a dot-com (Angel 2002, pp. 15-17).  Yang realized that Yahoo! could be much more than a stopping point on the way to millions of other sites so he pursued meetings with media companies like Reuters and Ziff-Davis, and began referring to Yahoo as a full-fledged media brand, akin to any major magazine or TV network (Success Stories 2003).             Yahoo is a leader in clever business practices, such as targeted advertising: as users searched for their personal interests, the company displays advertisements based on those interests. As a result, Yahoo is able to charge high advertisement rates and is one of the first Net companies to show a profit (Success Stories 2003).  The company aims to provide a comprehensive set of Internet marketing solutions for advertisers.  There is a continuous growth in the advertising market and an increasing shift in advertisers’ use of online media as consumers and audiences seek more convenience from the Internet than the traditional media.  Yahoo is committed on capitalizing  the online advertising trend through creation and execution of Internet marketing solutions that both engage users to interact with advertisers’ brands as well as provide valuable insights into the customer base (cited in Yahoo Company’s Annual Report 2005, pp.4-5). The company is also committed in empowering its users and employees through programs, products, and services that inspire people to make a positive impact on their communities. The mission of Yahoo! for Good, the company’s community relations program, is to connect people with causes through its products and services, as well as through partnerships with nonprofit organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the American Red Cross, and VolunteerMatch (Company Overview 2006). THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT, VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS AND VIRTUAL TEAMS IN THE OVERALL SUCCESS OF YAHOO             The Internet was more or less virgin territory in 1994 when Jerry Yang and David Filo hatched an idea for a directory service to help people navigate the Web (Elkin 2000, p.1). As years passed, the Internet has undergone complete metamorphosis. The first wave was the standard HTML browser. Now, blogs are burning with speculation, many connecting the dots to the concept of the web as a computing platform. All that guesswork underlines another fundamental shift in the web: the move away from static web pages to a more interactive; real-time environment.  The second wave was mobile devices like phones and PDAs that can access online content.  The Third Wave will be literally thousands of different devices and designs that show information for the people to care about in forms that are embedded in things like watches or umbrella handles, increasing the utility of everyday objects. Another sign of the changing web environment is AJAX- Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, a web development technique for building interactive web applications so they behave more like regular software that resides on the user’s personal computer. Some examples of AJAX in use include Google Maps and photo-sharing site Flickr (Kooser 2006, p.1). Today, the Internet has dramatically changed the way in which individuals exchange information and the amount and types of information that are readily available. To most, the Internet provides a relatively seamless conduit across computer platforms, remote locations, and time zones. The best Internet minds and organizations continue to tackle the challenges of enhancing this Internet seamlessness, making the Internet faster, more robust, more versatile, more effective and more convenient for sharing research efforts with and among students and professionals across the globe (Research 2006).             Kooser (2006) reported that there is a need for an enormous and extensive amount of innovation to try to keep up with the increasing popularity of the Internet. Right now, most entrepreneurs are spending their intellect and efforts on keeping their websites updated, improving search engine rankings and investigating online marketing opportunities. Richard Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Small Business, is keeping an eye on the future of growing businesses and the web. He also sees more businesses adopting blogs as a way to communicate frequently with customers (p. 2).  Presently, Yahoo not only evolved into an all-important interactive portal and gateway for advertisers to reach potential consumers and investors; it also became an actual destination and a strong Web community. The Yahoo founders indeed made a big contribution to the evolution of the web. With its many electronic commerce initiatives, Yahoo! is now perfectly positioned to take home the $20 billion online consumer sales projected this year by Gartner Group. Yahoo rules the Net and has filled the need for an effective surfing tool to drill through the Web's seemingly complex environment. Yahoo is conceived by Jerry Yang as a destination where Web surfers could get whatever they wanted from the site's personalized content, electronic commerce offerings, special promotions and other interactive data (Elkin 2000, p.1). YAHOO UNDER DAVID FILO AND JERRY YANG             Jerry Yang, a Taiwanese native raised in San Jose, California, co-created the Yahoo! Internet navigational guide in April 1994 with David Filo and co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in April 1995. Yang, a leading force in the media industry, has been instrumental in building Yahoo into the world's most highly trafficked Web site and one of the Internet's most recognized brands. A member of Yahoo's board of directors, Yang works closely with the company's chief executive officer and executive team to develop corporate business strategies and guide the future direction of the company (Management Team 2006).                           A Stanford professor named John Hennessey said that one of Yang's strengths is his ability to apply what he learns in daily life. He can channel his everyday experiences well (Angel 2002, p. 15). Yang disclosed that on the outside, Yahoo is a fun and irreverent place, but on the inside they are extremely competitive. Yahoo is a pretty recognizable brand name. He said that Yahoo is continuously concentrating on what it has always done, which is to create the best possible online directory, adding content and other features along the way when it makes sense (Business Quotes 2006). Yahoo has grown powerful, in part, due to Yang's insistence, prescience and determination on cutting deals with hundreds of partners rather than making exclusive agreements with just a few. As a result, the company’s market power has attracted some of the world's top marketers, including Pepsi-Cola Co., Procter & Gamble Co. and Ford Motor Co. Yang has also put Yahoo in the forefront of broadband content delivery. With the acquisitions of Geocities and Broadcast.com, he is clearly ready to play in a multi-channel universe with multiple content delivery systems. Yahoo! Everywhere, the company's wireless initiative, enables users with wireless data phones to access Yahoo! from wherever they are. Yang is committed to continue to make Yahoo a bigger part of its users' lives and to work for the ultimate goal of building the Yahoo brand to be something that makes users feel empowered on the Internet and, ultimately, form a long-lasting relationship that the users trust (Elkin 200, p.1).             David Filo, a native of Moss Bluff, Louisiana, is Jerry Yang’s partner in conceptualizing the search engine in 1994 and co-founder of Yahoo! Inc. Filo serves as a key technologist, directing the technical operations behind the company's global network of Web properties (Management Team 2006).  He believes that the basic function of Yahoo corporation is to take all the new websites and online information that thousands of people are producing everyday and organize them to make them useful.  He sees their effort since the beginning as a work of passion and not geared towards fast money. Yahoo is regarded by Filo as working to be a significant part of the Internet industry. Filo declares that generally, the Internet is not that reliable, so the company’s blips in service do not cause major problems. However, they are certainly working on improving the company’s own reliability as well as those sites that it depends on (Business Quotes 2006). THE CHALLENGES AHEAD AND RECOMMENDATIONS                          Yang (2004) stated that ten years ago, he and Filo were concerned on a simple yet vast problem: finding better ways to aggregate and organize information so people can find it. Today, the challenge for the two founders of Yahoo is different. There is a lot more information to aggregate and it is not just more in terms of quantity; there is a larger variety of content as well -- from products and images to news and business information. In addition, Yahoo is pulling content from more sources than ever before. Meanwhile, the users’ expectations have also changed.  Provision of simple structures for users to find what they want and need on the Web no longer suffice. Today, people expect to find precisely what they are looking for exactly as it relates to them. People want to define what is relevant to them in their own personal way. They also want to tap into the source of their information at will and they want to manage it all personally that will best suit their needs.             The challenges that will keep Yahoo busy for at least another ten years are the issues on what else they can do to take online search to the next level.  It has to address the growing need to make search even more useful and accessible to the users.  Yahoo’s job is to stay ahead of consumer needs and expectations and, based on the responses of the users, it is doing a good job so far.  But the road is still a long way off and the company is young. The challenges that lay ahead are the reasons for the excitement and drive of the Yahoo employees, especially the two Founders. They are anticipating the possible future real solutions to people's problems and thus, make a difference. The Yahoo people firmly believe that the technology they are building today makes the future of the Web even more useful, informative, and entertaining. As long as there is a way to help people find more precise and more relevant information on the Web, Yahoo will be in the midst of things searching for it (Yang 2004).             Another powerful weapon for the company is  its spirit since the start which has to be maintained. The Web site is still one of the most powerful forces in the Internet revolution that is transforming the global media. The big shift is that Yahoo is no longer trying to create the revolution in opposition to the establishment. It is fomenting revolution from within. Wenda Harris Millard, the company’s chief sales officer, has a mission to promote the Web as the future of advertising. Yahoo's front page draws about 25 million visitors a day, and it has become a powerful tool for launching new product lines, such as Coke's C2 and Ford's F-150.  Buying all the advertisement space on the front page for 24 hours now costs an estimated $650,000 to $1 million, and the advertisement will be seen by more consumers than the typical daily audience of the Today show. Yahoo has to make a good impression to advertisers as they are less impressed than the audience and the public (Deutschman 2005).              Moreover, the company has to rethink its centralized management structure to accommodate a changed competitive landscape. Yahoo had accumulated 44 operating units, each headed by a general manager, few of whom had budget responsibilities and the authority to make sweeping changes. Major deals and shifts in strategy were still dictated by upper management, slowing the pace of progress and leaving the real power concentrated at the top. Yahoo’s continuous need is a seasoned executive to run a business with 3,000 employees and about 200 million monthly users that had no real prototype (Angel 2002, p. 231).

Yahoo : A Company Background Analysis

YAHOO: COMPANY BACKGROUND Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Masters candidates for Electrical Engineering Da...

The evolution of the Internet and the Impact

Introduction   Internet one of the fastest growing fields in the world, making life simple when exchanging communication and information, it has become a way of life for most of us, by saving time and money and still growing.   However there are still many hesitant users who are afraid to shop online because of the threat they believe in, this is an immense concern for online businesses as they can be achieving higher targets of sales than they are without the non-online/minimal shoppers.   An online-business can be devastated by impact of Internet security as most of their transactions are carried out online, e-businesses are highly venerable from internet security because they can be impacted by different means such as: <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%">Internet hackers </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%">Viruses spreading via online means</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%">  Professional criminal gangs.</li> </ul>Professional criminals gangs are a new concerns for online retailers these criminals are carrying out denial-of-service (Ddos) attacks. These criminals are able to blackmail e-businesses such as worldpay a well-known card transaction handler company on behalf of other business, theses gangs will use Ddos on companies such as worldpay to obtain cash transferred into the criminals account. However if the company refuses to pay the amount they website will attacked with Ddos and customers will not be able to carry out any transactions. The Ddos attack will flood the website computer generated requests and will halt the system to crash/stop.            The objective of this study is to examine the current security issues for online shoppers, and how this impacts online retailers. The execution of the impact may vary depending on who the target is, however is the technology ahead of the attackers so there is always a block to their way. The question is to find out about the future of Internet security, it’s about the future of online-retailing, its about how Internet have evolved and where it leads to.     As internet is a fast growing field it brings with it fast growing attacks and attackers, form small scale to devastating immense scale meaning security measures must be stepped up. The speed of new technology growing so rapidly it’s hard to stay with the flow and can be quite expensive.      Nevertheless the speed of Internet security is also growing with immense rate, according to a study at (www.bccresearch.com/press) the number of e-software developed have increased by almost 400% in 5 years   Worldwide E-security Revenue, through 2006 ($ Millions)   2001 2006 AAGR % 2001-2006 E-security software 3,525 11,458 26.6 Hardware 532 1,100 15.6 Services 785 2,122 22.0 Total 4,842 14,680 24.8 Source: BCC, Inc.      Abstract     Internet and the security issue concerns not just individual’s enthusiast of online shoppers but the whole Internet users worldwide including browsers, online retailers.         The evolution of the Internet and the Impact of internet security on E-business and the future    Computers, and the Internet by extension, are powerful tools of communication and information. Some have abused these gizmos, while others seek to impose control in one-way or another.   In the beginning, there was no Internet. There were no networks. There was no e-mail, and people relied on postal mail or the telephone to communicate. The very busy sent telegrams. Few people used ugly names to refer to others whom they had never met. Of course, the Internet has changed all this. The Internet, which started as a small, almost closed, community. It was a place, to borrow a line from the theme to Cheers, "where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came." 1   However, before divulging into the concept of Internet Security and E-commerce, let’s shed some light on how it came to be. By definition, Internet is the idea of a computer network intended to allow general communication between users of various computers has developed through a large number of stages. The melting pot of developments brought together the network of networks.2   If we trace back the steps, it all started with the launch of Sputnik by USSR, the first artificial earth satellite, in 1957. US formed the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in response, within the Department of Defence in the following year, to establish US lead in science and technology applicable to the military. 3a   A fundamental pioneer in the call for a global network, J.C.R. Licklider, grasped the need for a global network in his January 1960 paper, “Man-Computer Symbiosis” said: "A network of such [computers], connected to one another by wide-band communication lines" which provided "the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval and [other] symbiotic functions." 4   In October 1962, Licklider was appointed head of DARPA (new name for APRA) information processing office, and started to form an informal group within the United States Department of Defense's DARPA to further computer research. As part of the information processing offices role, three network terminals had been installed. One for System Development Corporation in Santa Monica, one for Project Genie at the University of California, Berkeley and one for the Multics project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Licklider's need for inter-networking would be made evident by the problems this caused.   Robert W. Taylor, co-writer with Licklider of "The Computer as a Communications Device", in an interview with the New York Times said: "For each of these three terminals, I had three different sets of user commands. So if I was talking online with someone at S.D.C. and I wanted to talk to someone I knew at Berkeley or M.I.T. about this, I had to get up from the S.D.C. terminal, go over and log into the other terminal and get in touch with them.   I said, oh, man, it's obvious what to do: If you have these three terminals, there ought to be one terminal that goes anywhere you want to go where you have interactive computing. That idea is the ARPAnet." 5   Promoted to the head of the information processing office at ARPA, Robert Taylor followed Licklider's ideas for an interconnected networking system. Bringing in Larry Roberts from M.I.T, he initiated a project to start such a network. The first ARPANET link was established on 21 November 1969, between the University of California, Los Angeles and The Stanford Research Institute. 6 One of the original goals of the project was to create a network that would continue to function even if major sections of the network failed or were attacked. The ARPANET was designed to reroute network traffic automatically around problems in connecting systems or in passing along the necessary information to keep the network functioning. Thus, from the beginning, the Internet was designed to be robust against denial-of-service attacks, which are described in a section below on denial of service.   The ARPANET protocols (the rules of syntax that enable computers to communicate on a network) were originally designed for openness and flexibility, not for security. The ARPA researchers needed to share information easily, so everyone needed to be an unrestricted "insider" on the network. Although the approach was appropriate at the time, it is not one that lends itself to today's commercial and government use. As more locations with computers (known as sites in Internet parlance) joined the ARPANET, the usefulness of the network grew. The ARPANET consisted primarily of university and government computers, and the applications supported on this network were simple: electronic mail (E-mail), electronic news groups, and remote connection to other computers. By 1971, the Internet linked about two dozen research and government sites, and researchers had begun to use it to exchange information not directly related to the ARPANET itself. The network was becoming an important tool for collaborative research. 7   During these years, researchers also played "practical jokes" on each other using the ARPANET. These jokes usually involved joke messages, annoying messages, and other minor security violations. Some of these are described in Steven Levy's Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. 8 It was rare that a connection from a remote system was considered an attack, however, because ARPANET users comprised a small group of people who generally knew and trusted each other.   In 1986, the first well-publicised international security incident was identified by Cliff Stoll, then of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in northern California. A simple accounting error in the computer records of systems connected to the ARPANET led Stoll to uncover an international effort, using the network, to connect to computers in the United States and copy information from them. These U.S. computers were not only at universities, but also at military and government sites all over the country. When Stoll published his experience in a 1989 book, The Cuckoo's Egg, 9 he raised awareness that the ARPANET could be used for destructive purposes. In 1988, the ARPANET had its first automated network security incident, usually referred to as "the Morris worm." 10 A student at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Robert T. Morris, wrote a program that would connect to another computer, find and use one of several vulnerabilities to copy itself to that second computer, and begin to run the copy of itself at the new location. Both the original code and the copy would then repeat these actions in an infinite loop to other computers on the ARPANET. This "self-replicating automated network attack tool" caused a geometric explosion of copies to be started at computers all around the ARPANET. The worm used so many system resources that the attacked computers could no longer function. As a result, 10% of the U.S. computers connected to the ARPANET effectively stopped at about the same time.   By that time, the ARPANET had grown to more than 88,000 computers and was the primary means of communication among network security experts. With the ARPANET effectively down, it was difficult to coordinate a response to the worm. Many sites removed themselves from the ARPANET altogether, further hampering communication and the transmission of the solution that would stop the worm.   The Morris worm prompted the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to fund a computer emergency response team, now the CERT® Coordination Center, to give experts a central point for coordinating responses to network emergencies. Other teams quickly sprang up to address computer security incidents in specific organizations or geographic regions. Within a year of their formation, these incident response teams created an informal organization now known as the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). These teams and the FIRST organization exist to coordinate responses to computer security incidents, assist sites in handling attacks, and educate network users about computer security threats and preventive practices.   In 1989, the ARPANET officially became the Internet and moved from a government research project to an operational network; by then it had grown to more than 100,000 computers. Security problems continued, with both aggressive and defensive technologies becoming more sophisticated. Among the major security incidents 11 were the 1989 WANK/OILZ worm, an automated attack on VMS systems attached to the Internet, and exploitation of vulnerabilities in widely distributed programs such as the sendmail program, a complicated program commonly found on UNIX-based systems for sending and receiving electronic mail. In 1994, intruder tools were created to "sniff" packets from the network easily, resulting in the widespread disclosure of user names and password information. In 1995, the method that Internet computers use to name and authenticate each other was exploited by a new set of attack tools that allowed widespread Internet attacks on computers that have trust relationships with any other computer, even one in the same room.   Although the Internet was originally conceived of and designed as a research and education network, usage patterns radically changed with time. It slowly became a home for private and commercial communication, and at this writing it is still expanding into important areas of commerce, medicine, and public service. Increased dependence on the Internet is expected over the next five years, along with increased attention to its security.   The rise of commercial Internet services and applications helped to fuel a rapid commercialisation of the Internet. This phenomenon was the result of several other factors as well. One important factor was the introduction of the personal computer and the workstation in the early 1980s—a development that in turn was fuelled by unprecedented progress in integrated circuit technology and an attendant rapid decline in computer prices. Another factor, which took on increasing importance, was the emergence of Ethernet and other “local area networks” to link personal computers. But other forces were at work too. Following the restructuring of AT&T in 1984, NSF took advantage of various new options for national-level digital backbone services for the NSFNET. In 1988 the Corporation for National Research Initiatives received approval to conduct an experiment linking a commercial e-mail service (MCI Mail) to the Internet. This application was the first Internet connection to a commercial provider that was not also part of the research community. Approval quickly followed to allow other e-mail providers access, and the Internet began its first explosion in traffic. 12 In 1993 federal legislation allowed NSF to open the NSFNET backbone to commercial users. Prior to that time, use of the backbone was subject to an “acceptable use” policy, established and administered by NSF, under which commercial use was limited to those applications which served the research community. NSF recognized that commercially supplied network services, now that they were available, would ultimately be far less expensive than continued funding of special-purpose network services.   Also in 1993 the University of Illinois made widely available Mosaic, a new type of computer program, known as a browser that ran on most types of computers and, through its “point-and-click” interface, simplified access, retrieval, and display of files through the Internet. Mosaic incorporated a set of access protocols and display standards originally developed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) by Tim Berners-Lee for a new Internet application called the World Wide Web (WWW). In 1994 Netscape Communications Corporation (originally called Mosaic Communications Corporation) was formed to further develop the Mosaic browser and server software for commercial use. Shortly thereafter the software giant Microsoft Corporation became interested in supporting Internet applications on personal computers (PCs) and developed its Internet Explorer Web browser (based initially on Mosaic) and other programs. These new commercial capabilities accelerated the growth of the Internet, which as early as 1988 had already been growing at the rate of 100 percent per year. 13   By the late 1990s there were approximately 10,000 Internet service providers (ISPs) around the world, more than half located in the United States. However, most of these ISPs provided only local service and relied on access to regional and national ISPs for wider connectivity. Consolidation began at the end of the decade with many small to medium-size providers merging or being acquired by larger ISPs. Among these larger providers were groups such as America Online, Inc. (AOL), which started as a dial-up information service with no Internet connectivity but made a transition in the late 1990s to become the leading provider of Internet services in the world—with more than 25 million subscribers by 2000 and with branches in Australia, Europe, South America, and Asia. Widely used Internet “portals” such as AOL, Yahoo!, Excite, and others were able to command advertising fees owing to the number of “eyeballs” that visited their sites. Indeed, during the late 1990s advertising revenue became the main quest of many Internet sites, some of which began to speculate by offering free or low-cost services of various kinds that were visually augmented with advertisements. By 2001 this speculative bubble had burst. 14 This era is very precisely summarized by Nicholas Allard, Latham & Watkins in "Frontier Justice": The relatively unfettered frontier of cyberspace is showing the strains of a commercial gold rush. It often resembles Wild West boomtowns, populated with earnest PC pioneers and homestead users, Internet preachers, copyright rustlers, perverts, scam artists, and plain old crooks.    During the last decade, our society has become based on the sole ability to move large amounts of information across great distances quickly. Computerization has influenced everyone's life in numerous ways. The natural evolution of computer technology and this need for ultra-fast communications has caused a global network of interconnected computers to develop, which has escalated into a boom of e-commerce.15   Electronic commerce, e-commerce or ecommerce consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The meaning of the term "electronic commerce" has changed over time. Originally, "electronic commerce" meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI, introduced in the late 1970s) to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically.   Later it came to include activities more precisely termed "Web commerce," the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web via secure servers (note HTTPS, a special server protocol which encrypts confidential ordering data for customer protection) with e-shopping carts and with electronic pay services, like credit card payment authorizations. When the Web first became well-known among the general public in 1994, many journalists and pundits forecast that e-commerce would soon become a major economic sector. However, it took about four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficiently developed and widely deployed (during the browser wars of this period). Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in the United States and Western Europe developed rudimentary Web sites.   Although a large number of "pure e-commerce" companies disappeared during the dot-com collapse in 2000 and 2001, many "brick-and-mortar" retailers recognised that such companies had identified valuable niche markets and began to add e-commerce capabilities to their Web sites. For example, after the collapse of online grocer Webvan, two traditional supermarket chains, Albertsons US based and Safeway’s (UK), both started e-commerce subsidiaries through which consumers could order groceries online.   As of 2005, e-commerce has become well-established in major cities across much of North America, Western Europe, and certain East Asian countries like South Korea. However, e-commerce is still emerging slowly in some industrialized countries, and is practically nonexistent in many Third World countries. Electronic commerce has unlimited potential for both developed and developing nations, offering lucrative profits in a highly unregulated environment. 16  3b From the above figure, it’s quite evident that the World Wide Web growth is at its all time high. It has on-line "shops", even electronic "shopping malls". Customers, browsing at their computers, can view products, read descriptions, and sometimes even try samples. What they lack is the means to buy from their keyboard, on impulse. They could pay by credit card, transmitting the necessary data by modem; but intercepting messages on the Internet is trivially easy for a smart hacker, so sending a credit-card number in an unscrambled message is inviting trouble. It would be relatively safe to send a credit card number encrypted with a hard-to-break code. That would require either a general adoption across the internet of standard encoding protocols, or the making of prior arrangements between buyers and sellers. Both consumers and merchants could see a windfall if these problems are solved. For merchants, a secure and easily divisible supply of electronic money will motivate more Internet surfers to become on-line shoppers. Electronic money will also make it easier for smaller businesses to achieve a level of automation already enjoyed by many large corporations whose Electronic Data Interchange heritage means streams of electronic bits now flow instead of cash in back-end financial processes. 17           Where next? As the size of internet gets greater the more vulnerable it will be from the attackers trying to seek information form machines across the network, small information at time could build up to enough information for the attackers to achieve their objectives.     It is clear that communications connectivity will be an important function of a future Internet as more machines and devices are interconnected, giving rise to the online buying and more convenience for the consumers using the Internet. In 1998, after four years of study, the Internet Engineering Task Force published a new 128-bit IP address standard intended to replace the conventional 32-bit standard. By allowing a vast increase in the number of available addresses (2128, as opposed to 232), this standard will make it possible to assign unique addresses to almost every electronic device imaginable. Thus the expressions “wired” office, home, and car may all take on new meanings, even if the access is really wireless.   Backbone data rates of 10 billion bits (10 gigabits) per second are readily available today, but data rates of 1 trillion bits (1 terabit) per second or higher will eventually become commercially feasible. If the development of computer hardware, software, applications, and local access keeps pace, it may be possible for users to access networks at speeds of 100 gigabits per second. Now, we can quite truly say that everything is on our fingertips.      Research Methodology                 Reference List   1. Barry M. Leiner, Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Larry G. Roberts, Stephen Wolff, 2003, A Brief History of the Internet. [Internet] Vviewed 1st December 2005. <http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml>   2. Hauben, Ronda, 2004, The Internet: On its International Origins and Collaborative Vision. [Internet] Vviewed 10  December 2005. <http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn12-2.a03.txt>   3. Zakon, Robert H. 1993-2005. Hobbes' Internet Timeline v8.1. [Internet] Vviewed 1 January 2006. <http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/>   4. Licklider, J. C. R. (1960). Man-Computer Symbiosis. [Internet] Vviewed 4 January 2006. <http://groups.csail.mit.edu/medg/people/psz/Licklider.html>   5. An Internet Pioneer Ponders the Next Revolution. An Internet Pioneer Ponders the Next Revolution. [Internet] Viewed 15  Janurary2006. http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/122099outlook-bobb.html?Partner=Snap   6. Hauben, Ronda. (2001). From the ARPANET to the Internet. [Internet] Viewed 19 January 2006. http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/tcpdigest_paper.txt   7. The First Network Email. The First Network Email. [Internet] Viewed 1 February 2006. http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html   8. Levy, S., (1984) Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, NY.   9. Stoll, C., (1989) The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, Doubleday, New York.   10. Denning, P. J., (1990) Computers Under Attack: Intruders, Worms, and Viruses, ACM Press, Addison-Wesley, New York.   11. CERT Coordination Center, CERT* advisories and other security information. [Internet] Viewed 1 February 2006. <http://www.cert.org/>   12. The History of Electronic Mail. The History of Electronic Mail. [Internet] Viewed 4 February 2006. <http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mail-history.html>   13. Amor, Daniel, (2002) The E-Business (R)Evolution. 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, New York.   14. Chaudhury, Abijit & Jean-Pierre Kuilboer (2002), e-Business and e-Commerce Infrastructure, McGraw-Hill.   15. Government Intervention on the Internet. Academic Library. [Internet] Viewed 8 February 2006. <http://www.academiclibrary.com/view/Technology/746.HTM>   16. Electronic Commerce. Academic Library. [Internet] Viewed 13 February 2006. <http://www.academiclibrary.com/view/Technology/736.HTM>   17. Electronic Commerce. Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. [Internet] Viewed 17 February 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_commerce> Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The evolution of the Internet and the Impact

Introduction Internet one of the fastest growing fields in the world, making life simple when exchanging communication and information...

IT Project Implementarion

Project management methodology involves three phases, the concept, the planning and the implementation.  In the concept phase, the need for corporate business decision is needed before you can actually begin an information technology project.  It primarily involves a presentation of overview as to what the information technology project will be all about and will be subject to scrutiny before getting approved.  Planning phase will be the systematic organization as to how the flow of process of the project will go.  In the last phase, which is the implementation phase, it seeks to track and monitor as to how effective the information system project.  The implementation phase is crucial such that it will serve to be the measure of the whole information system project.   In this essay, the selected information project is one of the products of Bangalore Software Services, a software development and consulting company that provides services, solutions and products to enterprises, the name of the product is Spark Business solutions.  Spark project is aimed to provide the power of information technology to new heights such that it has been designed as a flexible business solution that combines all the facets of business functions. Powered by Microsoft using three-tier Client server architecture with an open ended framework for web enablement, Spark implementation process has developed a delivery model incorporating the best industry practices.  The implementation process covers the following phases: Pre-Implementation Scoping covers the set of tasks, from selection and system design, to installation and maintenance.  The process mapping includes the mapping processes of the software and the fit level assessment of the solution based of the system requirement.  By the end of this phase it would be able to identify as to whether there is a suitable solution and as to how to implement that solution, if the solution is available.  Gap analysis is the third phase in the implementation process, is deals with the quantification of the gap between organizational needs and the actual product and the completion of Standard Product Implementation based on the strategic requirement of customers.  Further implementation ensures the project applicability.  The training phase provides the dissemination of knowledge; evolve a consensus on core issues by promoting a deep understanding of the situation.  And last phase which is the post-implementation services that includes basic trouble-shooting, fine tuning of configuration and programs, ongoing user education and training, enhancement and rollout and the routine maintenance. The process of implementation of Spark business solution software is well-structured.  With the secondary implementation phase in the implementation process may ensure that the whole package is effective in its functioning.  They also provide a pre- and post-implementation services that examines as how capable Spark in delivering business solutions when needed.  The need for improvement would be in the training phase, it is their obligation to see to it that the dissemination of knowledge is well-disseminated to all and not only to chosen few. They may provide personnel to monitor the training as to whether there is progress and ensure that its application provides users convenience and should be a reliable and dependent ally in feeding appropriate business solution to the enterprise industry.  Bangalore software services should continue to seek improvement in the project and must be up-to-date with the latest problems so that they also can deliver up-to-date solutions.  The software can perhaps contain an update button, like the one found in the anti-virus software, to feed the latest business solutions. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

IT Project Implementarion

Project management methodology involves three phases, the concept, the planning and the implementation. In the concept phase, the need f...

Strategic Information System

Introduction             For a long time, relationship between information system functions and corporate strategy was not of much interest to Top Management of firms.  Information Systems were thought to be synonymous with corporate data processing and treated as some back-room operation in support of day-to-day ordinary tasks.  However, in the past 2 decades, there has been a growing realization of the need to make information systems of strategic importance to an organization.  Types of Information System             For most businesses, there are a variety of requirements for information.  Senior managers need information to help with their business planning.  Middle management needs more detailed information to help them monitor and control business activities.  Employees with operational roles need information to help them carry out their duties.  As a result, businesses tend to have several “information systems” operating at the same time.  This revision note highlights the main categories of information system and provides some examples to help you distinguish between them. Executive Support System – An Executive Support System (ESS) is designed to help senior management strategic decisions.  It gathers, analyses, and summarizes the key internal and external information used in the business.  A good way to think about an ESS is to imagine the senior management team in an aircraft cockpit – with the instrument panel showing them the status of all the key business activities.  ESS typically involve lots of data analysis and modeling tools such as “what if” analysis to help strategic decision-making. Management Information Systems – A management information system (MIS) is mainly concerned with internal sources of information.  MIS usually take data from the transaction processing systems and summarize it into a series of management reports.  MIS reports tend to used by middle management and operational supervisors. Decision-support Systems – Decision-support systems (DSS) are specifically designed to help management make decisions in situations where there is uncertainty about the possible outcomes of those decisions.  DSS comprise tools and techniques to help gather relevant information and analyze the options and alternatives.  DSS often involves use of complex spreadsheet and databases to create “what if” models. Knowledge Management Systems – Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) exist to help business create and share information.  These are typically used in a business where employees create new knowledge and expertise – which can then be shared by other people in the organization to create further commercial opportunities.  Good examples include firms of lawyers, accountants and management consultants.  KMS are built around systems which allow efficient categorization and distribution of knowledge.  For example, the knowledge itself might be contained in word processing documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, internet pages or whatever.  To share the knowledge, a KMS would use group collaboration systems such as intranet. Transaction Processing Systems – As the name implies, Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) are designed to process routine transactions efficiently and accurately.  A business will have several TPS; for example: Billing systems to send invoices to customers; Systems to calculate the weekly and monthly payroll and tax payments; Production and purchasing systems to calculate raw material requirements; Stock control systems to process all movements into, within and out of the business. Office Automation Systems – Office Automation Systems are systems that try to improve the productivity of employees who need to process data and information.  Perhaps the best example is the wide range of software systems that exist to improve the productivity of employees working in an office (e.g. Microsoft Office XP) or systems that allow employees to work from home or whilst on the move. Levels of Information System When decisions have to be made, the time taken to make a decision depends very much on the level at which is made.  There are three main levels: <ul type="disc" style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0in"><li class="MsoNormal" style="COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Operational Level – day-to-day decisions such as ordering new stock.  These can be made by junior managers and can be done almost instantly, although there will be a procedure for getting the payments cleared by the accounts department.  They tend not to like it when unexpected invoices arrive without an order number! </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Tactical level – should we promote a particular product and in which stores?  Tactical information needs to be made available to middle managers, and several may be needed to agree on the decision. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Strategic decisions are made by senior managers, possibly at board level.   These need time and care, especially if the decision will require major investment, for example setting up a new plant.  Detailed forecasts are made and different computer models are applied to show what might happen. </li></ul> The Politics of Strategic Information Systems and Development in Organizations Management theorists since the 1950s have linked Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to power shifts in organizations, such as the growing influence of individuals with expertise in ICTs. More generally, the adoption and implementation of ICTs have become bound up not only with how an organization accomplishes its tasks, but also with the nature of the products and services it provides. Technological innovation is inseparable from organizational change and, therefore, from the political interplay among actors within an organization. To deny or neglect the role of organizational politics in the adoption, implementation, and routinization of ICTs is to court failure and possible disaster. Explore this political conception of ICTs in this chapter.  In discussing a growing awareness of the close-knit relationships between the technology and organizational strategy and structure, they focus on techniques for “re-engineering” organizations which have been widely adopted in the 1990s. However, they emphasize that this has not always been accompanied by an adequate appreciation of the role of organizational politics as a vital factor in the successful development of ICT applications in different organizational contexts. The role of ICTs in organizational change can be observed in terms of three main levels--artifacts, practices, and understandings. ICT has become embedded in organizations through the development of specific artifacts, such as personal computers, software packages, telecommunications networks, and information systems. These have necessarily been accompanied by changes in a variety of practices, some directly related to ICT--such as the financial treatment of investments in ICT systems and the development of new roles and responsibilities for ICT personnel and end-users. Others are related to broader factors, such as the political maneuvering within organizations and the shift from hierarchical bureaucracies to 'flatter' networked organizations and business processes. Organizational Politics and ICT Developments As IT policies migrated towards the core strategic agenda of more organizations, the inadequacies of linear models of systems developments and other prevailing Technical framework approaches became more visible and significant. The responsibility for solving the problems that arise from these inadequacies has often been the subject of argument and attribution of blame for perceived failures. However, there has been a growing realization that IT will be hotly contested and intrinsically political as it becomes more intertwined with strategic organizational decision making, which seldom follows a linear model. Strategic decision processes are better represented in the way that a novelist describes the ebb and flow of fortunes and ideas, unexpected accidents, interference of events from other spheres, and strongly held personal beliefs. This may seem to be a more difficult form of description than the simpler 'truths' of formal decision making models. Yet it provides a more realistic, and therefore more effective, approach to decision making because it does not sanitize and obscure key practical issues arising from organizational politics. IT and organizational strategy have become so intertwined that it is not surprising that vehement disputes about 'best practice' have taken place. These disputes have been heightened by the difficulties involved in trying to align organizational change with the increasingly complex options for new information and communication systems created by rapid technological innovation. It is therefore important for the development of ICT-based systems to be conducted in ways that recognize and accept the political character of organizations. If common sense tells us that organizations are political, it is necessary to explore and explain that insight seriously--not to work around it with schemes which try to ignore or squeeze out the politics. Conclusion Senior business managers as well as IT professionals need to take serious account of the fine details and unpredictable nature of organizational politics at all of these levels. Particular attention should be given to new understandings of how IT developments--including those embedded within BPR efforts-- will affect the politics of organizations and, therefore, be contested. Wide structural changes in the economy need to be understood and key business pressures within organizations have to be identified and translated into effective business processes and organizational practices. This is not just a technical problem of redesigning ICTs to support new business processes. It is also a political problem of understanding how to intro- duce and implement change in what the organization does as well as how those activities are carried out. Interesting News Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Strategic Information System

Introduction For a long time, relationship between information system functions and corporate strategy was not of muc...