Building Trust and Security in Web Services :: Technology Computers Internet Essays

Building Trust and Security in Web Services The yearning to componentize software development, where software is "assembled" like an automobile, where each component interacts with the other components in an unambiguous and streamlined fashion is very old and deep rooted. For, the most significant challenges in software development are maintaining and changing software pieces which perform redundant functions and integrating such components with one another. As the industry started to mature, significant research has taken place to find ways of architecting software components as building blocks that are seamlessly integrated, irrespective of where those components reside or how they are implemented. CORBA and COM arrived on the scene addressing these issues and providing a sound architecture for distributed computing. While these very interesting developments were going on, the Internet revolution took place simultaneously as more and more businesses started to register their presence on the web. E-business and e-commerce have seen tremendous growth in the past 7 years where major business functions are taking place through the medium of internet and some businesses are run entirely on the Internet. As a result more and more business software processes had to interact with their business counterparts over the Internet. The eventual convergence of these two paradigm shifts in the software development resulted in the birth of Web Servic es. Web Services are fundamental building blocks of software that are deployed in heterogeneous software and hardware platforms, that describe and publish their behavior to potential consumers (UDDI), based on a software contract (WSDL) interact with consumers by receiving and sending (XML) messages through a common protocol (SOAP). The scenario where a software component can dynamically detect, contract and utilize services provides a strong semantic connection to the web and may truly revolutionize the web. But the prospect of unprecedented inter-connectivity comes with huge challenges of security and raises serious questions on ethics and legalities. Some of the challenges are Security: How to prevent unauthorized access to critical information, code or a business process? Moreover the pertinent question is how to prevent misuse of critical information, code or a business process, gained by authorized access. Trust and Verification: What should be the parameters that enables establishing trust between a potential consumer and a provider? Even if 'trust' is established how can the consumer 'verify' the trust? Ownership and Responsibility: How to enforce ownership rights and accountability? When there is a software failure who owns up for it ?

Dove: evolution of a brand Essay

The aim of this case study, written by John Deighton, is to highlight and explain the revolutionary brand evolution strategy at the basis of the extraordinary Unilever’s Dove results, achieved in 2007. Overview: Masterbrands as part of the â€Å"Path to Grow† strategy Unilever is a leading multinational company active in the food, home and personal care sectors. It has been developing globally during the years, creating several of the most successful brands of the world. Its expansion allowed a geographical diversification but also brought some problems of controls; especially the brand portfolio had grown in an unstructured way and required a change of course. Indeed, in February 2000 Unilever began the so called â€Å"Path to Growth†, a five-year strategic activity which included the reshaping and the reorganization of the brand portfolio. More precisely, the company planned to reduce its more than 1,600 brands to 400 and, among them, select a small number of â€Å"Masterbrands† responsible for creating a clear and global identity to be shared with the range of products, included under each Masterbrand name. In this broad strategy it is situated the outstanding evolution of one of the survived brands, Dove, which was selected to become the â€Å"Masterbrand† for Unilever personal care products, beyond the beauty bar category and including hair care products, deodorants, body lotions etc. Dove Masterbrand strategy development Dove, until February 2000, had always been orienting to meet its costumers’ needs, providing them products, with a scientifically proven functional superiority. As a logical consequence, its advertisements had always been centered in promoting the cited higher functionality, preferring natural-looking women rather than fashion model icon in order to communicate honesty and authenticity. But a marketing strategy to build a unique Masterbrand identity could no longer be based on functional superiority, as explained by Deighton; it should create a meaning for Dove, as a â€Å"Masterbrand†, to be applied to all its products. Pursuing the best way to develop the proper image, the management had to slightly change the approach to the promotion. Elements such as â€Å"client need†, â€Å"scientific research†, â€Å"the employment of natural-looking women† and â€Å"honesty and authenticity† survived as central aspects, but they were reassembled and combined differently to accomplish the mentioned goal. The scientific research was no longer used to prove product functionality; but, it was the starting point of the new strategy: a worldwide investigation led by the global brand director for Dove, Silvia Lagnado, and interpreted with the help of two experts, revealed that women generally perceived aesthetic canons, typically illustrated in the advertisements, as very distant and unreachable. It was found out that most of the women didn’t mirror themselves in the advertised concept of beauty and a further survey showed that only the 2% of the interviewed described themselves as beautiful. Dove experts recognized a cultural issue; the beauty-related belief of average women and the advertised beauty weren’t matching. The misalignment generated frustration in women and, as a relevant consequence for Dove, negatively affected the sales of health and care products. So, aware of women dissatisfaction, of their personality, of their need to feel beautiful and keeping in mind Dove internal goals, the management gave life to the revolutionary strategy and decided that Dove should have stood for a point of view. The management decided that natural-looking women would have had a key role in the campaign, but with a different responsibility: instead of promoting Dove’s products they would have promoted their â€Å"average† beauty, with honesty and authenticity. The campaign for Real Beauty was setup and ready to be implemented. The Aim(s) of the campaign Born from the simply idea of creating a common and clear image to be shared with the Dove Masterbrand products, â€Å"The campaign for Real Beauty† has been then developed and changed as it went forward, pursuing further goals and, at the end, revealing itself somewhat different. As a matter of fact and as declared by Kathy O’Brien, Dove marketing director for U.S, the company wanted to â€Å"change the way society views beauty† and â€Å"provoke discussion and debate about real beauty†. This aim was reflected in the Dove’s mission statement, elaborated for the campaign, and it was enhanced with a relevant aspect: the expected repayment for the company, which was keenly expressed. The statement said: â€Å"Dove’s mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by broadening the narrow definition of beauty and inspiring them to take great care of themselves†. And here the real purpose of the whole initiative became clearer. With the declared aim to develop the common values for the Masterbrand and to overcome the beauty-related mismatch, emerged from the scientific research, Dove started the campaign. Then, inducing the community to a proactive involvement and to debate on such meaning, the company began in a certain sense the democratization process of the beauty. So, being recognized as the entity responsible of the birth of such a thorny process and as a provider of a clear and rule-breaker point of view, Dove started to be on everyone’s lips. It remarkably increased its popularity and most important, allowed it to captivate a huge number of potential clients: those women to be helped in perceiving themselves â€Å"beautiful every day by broadening the definition of beauty†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and to be inspired â€Å"to take great care of themselves†. Paraphrasing the meaning of the period â€Å"to inspire to take great care of themselves†, the commercial aim of Dove’s campaign for real beauty becomes apparent. What made the campaign effective? The combination of different elements made the design and the implementation of the campaign so successful. As a first element, the campaign has its roots in the setting of a clear brand’s mission, shared on a global level. The structure of the organization introduced by the Path to Growth strategy, which split the responsibility for each brand between two groups, the Brand Development, centralized and global in scope, and Brand Building, decentralized according to the regions in which Unilever was involved and responsible to bring the brand to life in each marketplace, substantially helped in defining a global mission. Once developed, the brand’s mission worked as a benchmark for each initiative; a cornerstone around which, the whole campaign moved and evolved. Furthermore, the settlement of a well-defined mission was crucial to maintain the control over the campaign, once it had been shared with the community and on purpose exposed to its assessment, starting what I called â€Å"the democratization process of the beauty concept†. And exactly this process is the feature that I consider the sharpest and the most effective of the whole strategy. Indeed Dove, proposing and supporting its unconventional point of view, with the aim to provoke discussion and debate, really made people feel part of revolution and, at the same time, outstandingly got the company closer to its potential clients. In order to increase women’s engagement, Dove, at a certain point of the campaign, directly asked them to film â€Å"their own daughters discussing their self-esteem challenges† and later on, â€Å"to create their own ads for Dove Cream Oil Body Wash† and to participate at the contest â€Å"the Real Ads by Real Women†. It extremely helped in creating a strong social interconnection between Dove’s supporters and the company; they were joint forces against stereotypes of beauty. Moreover, the involvement of the community, thought in a more general sense and which spontaneously commented and also criticized the campaign, was crucial to increasing Dove’s initiative range and for its goals fulfillment. This aspect was part of a further successful feature of the strategy, the so-called Media planning, which was revolutionary and tailored as well. Responsible of the strategy and the investments for the campaign diffusion, the Media planning unit, as said, relied on the engagement of the community and of Internet too and so, it centered the investments in creating and expanding the community of the â€Å"real beauty seekers†. It included the purchase of a Superbowl advertising space. Thanks to such investments and to Youtube, which played a key role in the divulgation of the ads, the phenomenon reached an extraordinary dimension and, as a consequence, the debate started to spread all over, acquiring more and more media hype, insomuch as 16 minutes of Today Show were dedicated to one of the campaign initiatives; even Oprah devoted a full show to self-esteem, built around a Dove’s advertisement. Critics, discussions and parodies rose in sequence, did nothing but increased the relevance of the campaign and amplified its range, exactly as planned by Dove. These are the reasons that made the revolutionary and unprecedented Dove’s campaign so successful and helpful for the company in becoming â€Å"one of 10 brands with the greatest percentage gain in brand health and business value in the past three years† and in its $1.2 billion of grow. References: John Deighton, (Rev: March 25, 2008), Dove: Evolution of a brand, 9-508-047 Harvard Business school

Marketing Across Culture Success or Dilemma Essay

Marketing across culture is one of the biggest issues which multinational companies have been confronting nowadays. Since marketing is an important factor for the propagation of a particular product or company, marketing plan should also be effective simultaneously. Every organization has to pay attention towards all the aspects which can make a marketing plan successful and ethical aspect is one of them. Since global marketing is a complex process, ethical issues like cultural diversity is one of the major reasons that can cause failure of marketing plan. Marketing across culture is basically defined as product or service promulgation beyond the borders. Since beyond borders, culture, lifestyle and audience get changed, the attitude of the people also gets changed simultaneously. (Hutterer 2006) So, it can be regarded an ethical dilemma to market the products on international level and for dealing with such situation, company needs to scrutinize interests, traditions and culture of the indigenous people. However, different organizations have developed dissimilar strategies in order to cope with such ethical issues. Reasons of this dilemma Cultural diversity is generated by dissimilarity between native culture and the culture beyond the borders. Since every society has its own culture, its audience also possesses dissimilar concerns, ideologies, concepts, principles and keeping all these dynamics under consideration, a marketing plan is developed so that it can come up with the requirements of that respective culture. (Hall & Hall, 1990) If the organizations neglect this aspect without considering the emotions and affiliations of its audience important, the result appears in the form of negative consequences. Since the main reason of this dilemma is dynamic nature of traditions, the organizations usually employ strategic plan keeping the regional aspects under consideration. However, in such cases, the organizations which assume theory of relativism are considered successful because it enables them to come up with regional cultural requirements. Since there are no absolute criteria for universal morality in this regard, this ethical dilemma has been solved using the utilitarian approach and the example can be taken from IKEA Inc. In Saudi Arabia, they have kept ethical and moral concerns in limelight while marketing their services and their apology for using female images in marketing transmedia can be taken as evidence in this regard. (Quinn 2012) Another reason why this thing is considered a dilemma is that marketing across culture makes it complex for the organizations to comply with the needs of customers since not only traditions, culture and thoughts of the audience change with the boundaries, but their taste and priorities also change simultaneously. For instance, McDonalds in India markets its products keeping the vegetarian audience under consideration while in other regions like USA, UK and Canada, they market their products through promulgating other additional factors. Hence, through this way, McDonalds not only keeps the cultural but also religious needs of its audience under consideration and this ethical aspect of its marketing plan makes it outstanding in one way or other. However, with the expansion of the business on global level and with the advancement in technology, marketing has become rather a technical yet interesting task and the reason behind this fact is the propagation of social media and similar other sources. These sources have made it ample easy to approach targeted audience yet the cross-culture issue is still persistent since these sources do not give any remarkable evidence regarding the cultural diversity and marketing plan. Comparatively, there are different other organizations like Air Asia which have been struggling with the ethical issue of marketing across culture. Though it has assumed different ethical approaches like absolutism, egoism etc in order to deal with its audience yet there is no remarkable progress in making its service a world popular one. However, there can be several strategic options available to deal with this issue of marketing across culture. Proposed solution: Different solutions for dealing with the issue of marketing across culture are as followed: Pluralism: The first solution in this regard can be given in the form of pluralism since it enables the organization to have an in-between path of utilitarianism and absolutism. (Hinman 2011) Some organizations use absolute ethics for marketing its products and some consider utilitarianism as the best source of marketing across culture but both of them might cause failure since no absolute policy or theory works when the regions are diverse and discriminate from each other. So, only an organization, who assumes theory of pluralism in order to deal with this global dilemma, can get successful position in global market. For this purpose, the organization can also do cultural analysis before marketing its product. Cultural analysis before marketing: This solution can be regarded one of the most significant steps in order to deal with the dilemma of marketing across culture. The reason behind this claim is that understanding the culture of the native people would not harm their feelings in any way. Suppose, if McDonalds never does cultural analysis in India and launches its products without differentiating vegetarian and non-vegetarian food, the result would appear in the form of violation of ethical code of that country. In such case, this organization would face severe opposition and there would be no profitability as well. So, another best solution to deal with this issue would be cultural analysis of the organization and before marketing a specific product or service in any region of the world, it is mandatory for it to analyze the potential market from cultural perspective. Change management strategy: Apart from assuming above given both solutions, the organization would also need to have caliber to adopt change management strategy since marketing across culture would need a severe change in the core marketing plan of the company. In such case, the company would have to deal with the internal issues as well and it can deal with this global ethical dilemma only if it would be able to deal with the internal issues of the organization. Through assuming all these three solutions, all the organizations aiming at expanding its services beyond borders can deal with the ethical dilemma of marketing across culture. Hence, only through dealing with ethical issues, the organizations can get successful marketing promotions throughout then world. References: Hall, E. T. & Hall, M. R., (1990) Understanding cultural differences. Yarmouth, Me.: Intercultural Press. Hinman, L. M. (2011) Ethics: A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Pub. Hutterer, R. (2006) Marketing Across Cultures – Qoo an International Success Story? NY: GRIN Verlag Quinn, Ben. â€Å"Ikea Apologises over Removal of Women from Saudi Arabia Catalogue.† The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 01 Oct. 2012. Web. 05 Jan. 2013. .

Bus 117 Introduction to Organizational Dynamics Week 5 Final Paper Essay

In this paper I will discuss how a team leader assesses how big the team is needed in order to accomplish the task assigned to them. This paper will also discuss the how conflicts can arise while trying to meet their goals. Such as which person works better in certain areas. I will also talk about how a team leader resolves their problems that may accure. In addition I will also discuss if team work will take longer to complete task along with some of its advantages. I will also point out some of the resistors to team work like not have the proper tools or supplies. I will also discuss how to be proactive so that you don’t run into this situation. Last but least I will give my own personal opinion on what I think when it comes to team work and how efficient it can be for the whole department. After speaking to one of my old supervisors and asking him how he went about making the determination of the size of the crew needed for the job. First explained that he would see how big the job was what equipment was going to be needed for the job. Next he would determine which of the guys would be needed to do the job. Now the size of the team was determined by how experienced the workers are in what the job calls for. The main thing he looked for in his workers skills were technical expertise, problem-solving and decision-making skills and interpersonal skills. He explain that he could have a hundred works but not have the experience to get the job done in the time frame given. So that’s why his people are carefully chosen so that it can go according to plan and making this operation very cost efficient and correct. He said usually smaller teams are the best and it reduces the risk of communication breakdown. As an example he said that if they had to ship out twenty windshields he would need all packing materials to be ready and make sure that he had seven people for the job to be done in a timely manner. Two of the seven would prep the shipping boxes the other two would properly pack the windshield so that it would get to the proper destination without damage. The other two would put all warning stickers and make sure that they were put at the right loading docks so that they could be sure. See more: how to start an essay The last person would inspect that right part was being shipped to the proper location on the order forms from the customers (dealers) and making the final calls that parts were on their way. When I asked him if he came across any conflict of any type his response was no, the reason he said no was because he cross trained everyone in the department and put his strongest workers in the position that they exceed in. also he built up a relation between them as far as work was concerned. Another he had weekly meetings and would listen to all concerns and let them talk it out amongst themselves and then in the end after listing to everyone he would answer all concerns that were in his control. The concerns that were beyond his pay grade he would bring it up to his supervisors and the following week he would inform his employees with the best answer that was given to him by his supervisor. His most common conflict wasn’t so his employees as he explain it was having the right part in stock or the part being in the right location. As went along with the interview I asked if he felt that team work might take longer than it would a single person. Surprising he said it all depends the on the task at hand and how well it’s prepared and if all supplies are in stock. Like the large load of windshields being shipped out would require a large team where a single person may not even close to finishing a third of the shipment due to the fact he would have to stop and look for some else with time on their hands or pull a busy person from his job to be able to lift the windshield to be able to finish packing it. By doing this it slows the entire shipping department and causing a little confusion that may cause some conflict. By better planning of larger jobs makes it a lot easier and more efficient to get the job done in a shorter time. I believe that having the right team and all the proper materials that team work would not take longer to do the job. I must also ke ep in mind that in a team work environment communication becomes the key fact due to the fact if communication breaks down it can lead to disaster. You must always be on top of making sure that the right orders were sent out by communicating frequently. There are many different types of resistors when it comes to team work and the one I found in our job environment was not having the right part to ship ran out of packing material due to back orders or not having the address to ship to. This affects the team greatly causing work to pile up while waiting for back orders to be filled pushing current work back to fill the back orders coming in making them a priority to get the old out and then work with the current. Even then with careful planning and watch due dates for back orders to arrive can help better plan how to organize your personnel. I’m a firm believer that being proactive in any situation and staying ahead of the game even when behind can only lead to positive outcomes in the end. I believe team work is more efficient when it calls for it. A good team starts with a great leader as well as a great team makes a great leader meaning that as long that there is a respect boundary between the leader and workers are there e fficiency is already there. The best way to make sure that your team is working in a efficient manner its best to prioritize your day in advance make sure everything you need for the next day is there and list your task by priority. Next set deadlines corresponding to what you have prioritized the night before in the order you put them last but least make sure your work space is organized and paper work is order to be able to start a fresh day. In doing this helps ensure that your team is running efficient and to their max potential. Leaving no room for conflicts or miscommunication for course of the day. In this paper you have read how a team leader determines what size the team should be and how they make their determination. You have also read on what kind of conflicts may occur in a team environment and how they can be resolved. I have also explained on how resistors can affect the team and they are not always within the team its self. You have also read how teams can be more ef ficient when properly organized.

Under Manhattan Sky (Lisa) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Under Manhattan Sky (Lisa) - Essay Example To begin with, she is frank in that she is able to state bluntly that she is a prostitute to whoever wishes to know, including Tim. Consequently, Tim will be able to understand her feelings and experiences, and this will drive the plot into revealing that Tim and she are brother and sister. This corresponds with my character because I am also frank. She also faces rejection; thus, moving from one foster home to another. Finally, finds her brother, who is very rich and she settles down to normal life. For the character of Lisa to have a powerful impact on the audience, she will have a hoarse sexy voice to depict the fact that she is a prostitute. She would also be dressed skimpily, have high heels and move with slow deliberate steps that accentuate the swinging of her hips. She should overdo her make-up, especially lipstick and eye-shadow. This would be in keeping with her role as a whore in the play. Her physical qualities will also reflect her troubled childhood and the harsh life she has lived before becoming a prostitute. However, despite the hard exterior, Lisa has a soft underbelly. Too much bitterness has accumulated in her heart, owing to the difficult childhood she has undergone. Consequently, she can easily break down emotionally. Lisa character would not be complete without some improvisations. In improvisation, things deviate from the normal (Goldstein, 2009). In this film, Lisa has to claim that she knows Tim from somewhere though it is apparent that they have never met. This helps create the tension between she and Tim and leads to the discovery that they are brother and

Functioning part of society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Functioning part of society - Essay Example They have also not been to promote encouraging environment for improved post prison behavior to become acceptable part of mainstream society. It is estimated that ‘two-thirds of prisoners were rearrested for a new offense within three years of leaving prison. In Colorado, 63.7 percent of inmates released from the Department of Corrections in Fiscal Year 2002 were rearrested within 3 years’ (Colorado Commission, 2008, p11). The punishments are broadly conceptualized as a means to make the criminal realize his or her acts of misdemeanor and provide him with a chance to reform so they are not caught into the vicious cycle of criminal activities. But as the data show, the authorities and punishment has failed to prevent the recurrence of acts of crimes or effectively reform the criminals. Another very serious paradigm of contemporary prison environment is that of perpetuated violence and hidden dynamics of segregated crimes within the walls of prison. Michel Santos (2004) in his biographical book, ‘About Prison’ has asserted that American prisons’ cultural paradigms greatly foster an environment of racism and violence.

Contemporary issues in conflict and security Essay

Contemporary issues in conflict and security - Essay Example Terrorism has severe social, economic, and psychological impacts on the targeted people. Analysis proves that terrorism often has a genuine grievance to fight for. Also, the strategies they adopt are not considerably crueler than the strategies adopted by many superpowers. Thirdly, it has become evident that terrorism is considerably more unethical because it often targets innocent third parties as the victims. The solution does not lie in armed suppression, but in adopting peaceful ways. Attention should be given to the reasons behind grievances and they should be removed. Also, free communication and liberty should be encouraged in every nation. Lastly, instead of revenge and martyrdom, values like peace and cooperation should be instilled in people. Introduction Terrorism has become one of the most complex and oft-changing phenomena in the international sphere. As a result, it has gained an important position in the agenda of most nations. The surprising fact is that terrorism is present in various forms and various structures, and they have various motivating factors behind them. The root causes of terrorism One can find innumerous reasons behind terrorism when one looks into the works of various scholars who already studied the various aspects of terrorism. As a result, as Crenshaw (1981) opines in the article ‘The causes of terrorism’, it is difficult to find general explanations for terrorism. However, the scholar manages to divide the causes into two categories; the preconditions which are known as root causes and the precipitants which are known as trigger causes. It is possible to further the root causes into enabling factors which mean the factors which offer an opportunity for terrorism to come up, and situations which are direct motivations for terrorist campaigns (ibid). According to Ross (1996), the causes can be divided into three categories, namely structural causes, psychological causes, and rational choice. Following this, Gupta (2004, p. 19) introduced the argument based on ethnicity, religion, and nationalism. According to his opinion, terrorism takes birth when a leading figure manages to give a proper direction to the frustration faced by a number of people and manage to formulate a feeling of collective identity; and also the feeling of ‘we’ versus ‘them’ is successfully developed along with this (ibid). The work by O’Brien (1996) looked into the reasons behind terrorism. According to the scholar, there is a link between the foreign policy of superpowers during the times of international crisis and international terrorism. In order to substantiate his view, the scholar provides the example of the United States and Iraq. Through the work, the scholar proves that the possibility of terrorism increases when one party feels victimized by the superpower (ibid). Another study by Krueger and Malenkov (2003) named ‘Education, poverty and terrorism: is there a casual conne ction?† looks into the impact of lack of education and poverty on people’s tendency to become terrorists. However, after a thorough study of the situation in Israel and Palestine, the scholars reach the conclusion that there is no direct link between education, poverty and terrorism (ibid). In fact, the study observed that the terrorists from those areas were generally better educated that others. Also, the study reveals that the